So whats everyone been up to?

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Originally Posted by .hooligan

Ow really, I've only seen him in interviews. I can see why people may think his a bit cocky. I think his just miss understood and is excited about the work his doing. Did you get to see a live demo of the tech?

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yeah =)
(not much else to say on that really until they unveil their next steps =) )

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Originally Posted by .hooligan

How was GDC Europe? Were you there promoting something or just as a visitor?

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Was there just as visitor, also at gamescom which was right afterwards.
Maybe i´ll do a writeup on em if i get to it before the topic is way outdated (busy as usual right now).
In short it was a great experience, met lots of nice people, saw some interesting stuff, was at some fun parties, too and even was co-presenter at one of the unity sessions (cause the guy who should have originally held it wasn´t there and i knew well about the topic and hang out with the UT fellas a lot so we decided to do it together).
On the downside also all a bit exhausting after several days but felt like it was well worth it =)

Bruce Dell had two options:

1. Create unlimited detail.
2. Become a butler who only says "Another champagne Charles?"

@Pazil 640x480 mate, why ?

I've not worked on it for a couple of weeks now, first Orbs and some old project I just can't kill off and then I've been working on a BeyBlade game too.
I'm panting to get back to it, hopefully Monday ( Although I'm sure I've been saying that for 3 weeks now, and I've got to do a GDD for a possible reboot of the Phantom Mansion franchise, from way back, by Friday ).

Squize.

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Originally Posted by Squize

@Pazil 640x480 mate, why ?

I've not worked on it for a couple of weeks now, first Orbs and some old project I just can't kill off and then I've been working on a BeyBlade game too.
I'm panting to get back to it, hopefully Monday ( Although I'm sure I've been saying that for 3 weeks now, and I've got to do a GDD for a possible reboot of the Phantom Mansion franchise, from way back, by Friday ).

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I have a few features that would benefit from a smaller screen size when it comes to performance, so now I'm thinking I'll cut down from 600x600 to somewhere around 500x500 or so... :)

And right now I'm getting raped by 2 client jobs. With one, everything works fine, except that the clients server htaccess does funny stuff, screwing my app up. Second one is just some PHP/Javascript gruntwork :(

I've decided I'll finish up Neon Snakey afterwards, and then rehaul my zombie game, using NAPE, since it's probably more optimized and simply better than my current collision engine. I hope I don't seem like a copy cat, because other than using NAPE, I'll try not to do anything even close to your game ;)

P.

"I hope I don't seem like a copy cat, because other than using NAPE"

Ha, hell no. This forum is about sharing ideas so we all make better games. Nape is excellent and should be AS3 coders first choice.

If it's any help, for laying out the Nape walls I just created rectangles in the IDE ( In a mc ), then when creating the level at run time I just loop through those rectangles and use the coords to create the Nape rectangles. Nice and simple and makes editing a lot less painful.

Squize.

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Originally Posted by Squize

If it's any help, for laying out the Nape walls I just created rectangles in the IDE ( In a mc ), then when creating the level at run time I just loop through those rectangles and use the coords to create the Nape rectangles. Nice and simple and makes editing a lot less painful.

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Hell, up until now I've always tried making my own map editors, which are functional in the end, but by no means the most comfortable way to go.
How are you integrating graphics into that?

What I was thinking was dynamically generating graphics, pretty much just having a handful of textures embedded, then texturing polygons that I draw in my map editor, and then afterwards I draw in collision lines.

But you probably have a better alternative? ;)

P.

I just use the IDE, have for years now. It's got more features than any map editor ever.

I think I did a blog post about this ( Done so many they blur into one ), but for Outpost I have every level in it's own mc.
From there I have a background MC, which is the floor, a walls mc, an objects mc ( Baddie start positions as well as things like chairs / tables etc. ), a vector mc ( Which is just the rectangles for Nape ) and a shadow mc.

When it comes to plotting I create lots of 600x600 bitmaps ( Megatiles ). I then split the mc's up and burn them into the bitmaps, so both the walls and background are in the same bitmap ( Shadows are separate as we overlay them on top ).
I did a similar thing in Knights Quest, it means even though you snap to grid so it's like tile based, it's much more art based. For example we can use a font and write text on the floor, put a filter on it, rotate, whatever and it doesn't cost us anything in cpu time as it's just a bitmap when we display it.

When plotting the walls I keep a record of them, and setPixel into a small bitmap ( So each 32x32 wall tile is 1px in this bitmap ). I then use that for path finding etc. ( Like the usual 2D array, but just in bitmap form, does the same thing ).

It's a case of using the strength of tiles, ie simple collisions and path finding, but trying to vary the graphics as much as possible so it looks a lot more art based.

Squize.

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Originally Posted by mr_malee

Bruce Dell had two options:

1. Create unlimited detail.
2. Become a butler who only says "Another champagne Charles?"

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Both options seem pretty lucrative

tomsamson: Nice, I heard gamescon had a huge turnout. Nice work with the co-presenter gig too.

Yeah, really enjoyed that a one =) Regarding gamescom: Yeah, seems like it got so crowded on the open to public days that they had to in between stop letting people in for a while unless others left. I didn´t experience any of that though since i only attended Gamescom on the for trade visitors and press only day, it still wasn´t exactly empty then but i could go everywhere easily and actually talk with people and understand what they said so that was nice =)
I usually also like open to public conferences but yeah, only to the degree where it doesn`t get that over crowded. I heard stories from the gamescom public days where some people had to wait 8 hours to try a game 30 minutes..
Well, looks like for next year they´ll extend the expo conference area again =)

I had a gdc "All Areas Access pass" which usually costs more than the "main conference" only and other passes but in return it allows one to attend any session, presentation etc at gdc next to vip longe access, included catering, access to downloading older gdc sessions etc, trade visitor tickets for the gdc, too and also access to some industry company´s parties.
If you can spend the money its definately good to get that =)

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Originally Posted by Squize

When it comes to plotting I create lots of 600x600 bitmaps ( Megatiles ). I then split the mc's up and burn them into the bitmaps, so both the walls and background are in the same bitmap ( Shadows are separate as we overlay them on top ).
I did a similar thing in Knights Quest, it means even though you snap to grid so it's like tile based, it's much more art based. For example we can use a font and write text on the floor, put a filter on it, rotate, whatever and it doesn't cost us anything in cpu time as it's just a bitmap when we display it.

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Now that is interesting...I was thinking of the burning into bitmaps part, but more like each object is it's own bitmap, and then I blit the objects on/hall sections etc., since...well, how big are your maps? My initial concern is memory space :/

And where you use the plotting for the AI, I guess I'll create my own editor simply to plot in my AI pathfinding nodes (I'm big on AI, so I want to go all out on it) etc. Ah, nevermind, but thanks a lot for the ideas! I'll definitely do that, since now thinking about it, people have at least 1gb of memory these days that several 600x600 images definitely couldn't hurt. (You bake them during runtime, aye?)

(The more we talk about this, the more I'm drooling to get back on working on the game...and I love the fact that I've decided to go NAPE, instead of ****ing with my own collision engine, which took me about 3 months to set up :/ )

P.

I have been intending on making a 2d side-scrolling online action game.

I intend on making complex destructible scenery using two images. First image being its shape and visible texture. Second being the exact same shape, but having measures done on its actively modifiable RGB tones, used as numerical entities I call durability, attachment, & weight.

Weight being pretty self explanatory, I will move on to durability and attachment. Attachment is basically a break down of zones say... 32-48 being the zone of cement. Attachment within this zone basically depicts how the original one movieclip scenery will be broken down. Say I do it within zones of 4 with the 16 levels of attachment for cement. If there are multiple parts of scenery with the attachment measure of 1-4 that are next to each other they will be bound together into one movieclip.

Durability pretty much being a crumbling away measure, when it hits 0, its going to turn to dust and disappear completely. Durability and attachment lower randomly throughout the scenery, thus chopping the original scenery into a bunch of random shapes.

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Originally Posted by cody112

I have been intending on making a 2d side-scrolling online action game.

I intend on making complex destructible scenery using two images. First image being its shape and visible texture. Second being the exact same shape, but having measures done on its actively modifiable RGB tones, used as numerical entities I call durability, attachment, & weight.

Weight being pretty self explanatory, I will move on to durability and attachment. Attachment is basically a break down of zones say... 32-48 being the zone of cement. Attachment within this zone basically depicts how the original one movieclip scenery will be broken down. Say I do it within zones of 4 with the 16 levels of attachment for cement. If there are multiple parts of scenery with the attachment measure of 1-4 that are next to each other they will be bound together into one movieclip.

Durability pretty much being a crumbling away measure, when it hits 0, its going to turn to dust and disappear completely. Durability and attachment lower randomly throughout the scenery, thus chopping the original scenery into a bunch of random shapes.

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Sounds cool. Have you started fooling around with it?

@Pazil, my world size is 7x6 megatiles, so that's 7*600 x 6*600. I don't think I'll be porting that to mobile without re-working it :)

And yeah they're all baked at the start of each level, I just put up a loading screen whilst it does its thing.

I've really not optimised the game much, and I'm amazed at how well it runs, as3 has come along way in terms of performance.

Squize.

Wow this really sucks. I've been working on an iOS game for almost a year now (I know very slow) titled Jetpack Joyride. I read this in my twitter feed this morning. (Fruit Ninja Dev Sees Repeat Success With Jetpack Joyride http://t.co/aMxcipO).

I looked around when choosing the name and no one was using it. I originally was going to call it Jetpack Jim but stumbled across this game http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/inde...showtopic=6831 and thought not to.

Now I rememer the above Jetpack Joyride game by the fruit ninja guys originally being called Machine Gun Jetpack, then I stumbled across this http://j.mp/pbfWvA. So they just recently changed it.

The name fitted my game like a glove :( now I need to come up with a new one. Once positive (sort of), I do own the domain name www.jetpackjoyride.com :)

I knew I should have finished it earlier.

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Originally Posted by .hooligan

Sounds cool. Have you started fooling around with it?

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Truth be told, no, just an idea thus far. But when I get down to it, well, I typically do pretty well when it comes to building into my own original ideas.

At the moment I'm working on ragdoll physics. I'm definitely not taking a modern or even standard approach for it, but it is almost working.

I'm not trying to make an entertaining implementation of ragdoll physics, I'm mainly just going for getting a working ragdoll from my custom approach.

Hooly that's a sickener mate. That game has had a load of press too, may be an idea to get something on the site if you haven't already, some screenies of your game and an explanation about the name.

Squize.

I know huh, just been trying to think of my options. Do you think I should still continue using the name?

I knew about Machine Gun Jetpack for a while but only found out about their name change when they released the game.

I'll probably do what you've suggested and whip together a proper website for it.

If you release your game under name Jetpack Joyride, everyone will say its copied from that other game. Nobody really cares you had the name first. They are trademarking the name too so in theory they can sue you if you try to release game with similar name:
http://socialmedia.trademarkia.com/j...-85401092.html

Hmm interesting so if I registered the Trademark fastazzi today you wouldn't be able to use it anymore?

I would't release the game under that name now, purely because of it seeming like a copy/being sued.

Yeah, sorry bro, i feel your pain on that one =)
I had similar bummer experiences in the past, it happens to all of us in between i guess, once you´re long enough in this biz and have worked on enough things or pushed enough ideas for other things, well, its likely someone else will do or name or release something similar and then those not knowing yours was first or at least envisioned earlier or independently by you, well, will maybe think you´re the copy cat.

To give one example of things i´ve experienced in that range:
-many years ago i worked on Monster Trucks, a physics based Monster Truck game where one had to reach a goal in given time, smash many cars, win races or do other kinds of challenges.
It wasn´t the first physics based trial parcours game by any means but i think it was one of the first if not the first using monster trucks and i think it also had a good bunch of features which made it unique compared to other games in that genre at the time (like the controls, different challenge types, visual presentation style etc etc).
It wasn´t perfect by any stretch, but yeah, i think it was its own thing and quite popular in its day (still is today =) ).
It was released on Miniclip.
Later on, due to various reasons we made an upgraded trucks game and other games for Candystand and Miniclip released Monster Trucks Nitro together with Red Lynx later on.

Well, now after a bunch of years of working on all sorts of other stuff i´m making a Monster Truck game again with a friend (of which you can see some screenshots on my website ( http://www.stimunation.com/ ) and well, i´ve experienced it a few times now that people knowing Monster Trucks Nitro but not our older trucks games then say things like: oh, so you´re making a game like Monster truck Nitro, ok..

Not a big problem to me since i think ours will still be different and fresh in its own way and its also a side project i´m doing for fun, not something i get ultra enraged about, but yeah, feels a bit weird =)

In general me personally i have the stance that we creative people who create.. stuff, well, we all get inpsired by other stuff and we all build onto other existing older stuff, and we have to, that´s a big part of evolution. So i´m totally cool with anything inspired from stuff i make or derived from it as long as its not just a 1:1 copy where someone changed the name; as long as it has enough own unique touches its cool.

That´s also how i look at it regarding patents, trademark laws etc, you´re in bad spot when you use the same name as another product (so, yeah, in your case i feel your pain but in front of law you´re in bad spot =( ) but yeah, i also see the need for people building upon other concepts and innovating that way and i find things like Apple´s most recent lawsuit against Samsung for creating too similar devices ridiculous.
Sadly, yes, they are in good spot in front of law because the current system allows for such abnormalities where a company can protect the shape and size of a device like a tablet so much that others then may not be able to release devices too much in the same form factor for example..
Also sad: Apple is of course not the only one at all doing such nonsense, many other major players are constantly in lawsuits over similar things..

I much prefer the approach of let´s say Naughty Dog who also innovate a lot but also improve upon exisiting concepts and then in return don´t act like all others would just be their copycats, the contrary, they often share their concepts and ways to implement things =)

Anyway.. =)

To sum it up: best rename your thing to avoid the "you copycat" talk from those not in the know and well, as long as your thing stands out in its own ways it´ll hopefully find its own fan base =)