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Current Projects: Americana Engine (Game Engine Development)

Friday, February 15, 2013

Americana Dawn: Week 4


Challenge of February: Screen Space and Understanding how this DirectX stuff works. (Photo credit: The Lone CS Major)

Ironically, I would be the one resembling the lone CS major, not him.

Four weeks have gone by since I started the project, and plenty of stuff has gone on during that time. I recruited another developer to help with the project (from CKI, it's the connections btw), and over fifteen whiteboards were filled with game data, skillsets, overall game planning, etc. Work now begins on both the game engine and the editor in question. The game engine, as well as memory management (to ensure the game fits under 200MB, if possible) will make it a real challenge (see note below).

Less than two months to go before that demo rolls out. (The game won't be completed by end of April - though the engine might be completed, the assets for a large scale game probably might not be.)

CS and DirectX: DirectX was never taught in any basic or upper level Comp Sci course that I have taken - at most MFC was introduced in one project and practically everything else was command prompt.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Heartwood: Board of Broken Balls... and broken hearts


That board's not going to help with the latter. (You can, however, take a Pink Frog for use in future boards.)

Yep, it's Valentine's day, it's like past years - but now with a broken heart. Even though I may have a project or two to finish, and two people to talk things through, eventually there won't be a way for me to not think about this for a long time. Of course, there's a few other options.

Two people in CKI remain that I have interest in who are not taken, and I'm currently not friends with either. I'll either have to look elsewhere, or be more active in events to get a chance of getting them up to at least a friend. What will it be...

Board Strategy: Enough with the dating stuff - it's kinda typical anyways that gamers and CS students are less likely to get that gf.

Get a Spirit Turtle with Curvy Fries/Fruit/Inferno Frog/Timelord, the gaps might be tough to score well but you can curve clear in two hot frog shots. If you're not fast, then a Spirit Eagle with Chocolate Loves will work to a certain extent (up to around 13M). I'm not breaking any balls today... The Spirit Turtle did that yesterday with its 20M scores.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Chinese New Year at Thunder Valley


I've decided to head to another location for Chinese New Year, this happens to be Thunder Valley. I don't think I've been anywhere specifically to see a Chinese lion dance in another city (other than San Jose, and that was by coincidence). Two things: One, is louder than I originally expected, and two, it was different than what I've normally seen. Especially the 'lion goes through the casino' part, where lots of people are trying to get a picture of the dragon as it goes by.

Two dragons and two lions was a bit much in that small space, it's hard to see all of them at the same time... given how close you are to them (around 10 feet).

I got my calendar and some red envelopes from that event. (In reality, it doesn't take too long to get to 50 points when you're at the table for some time. Pulled in around 500 points in two hours of play, and didn't lose any money in the process. I'm still 14k short to next tier though, but I don't think it'll happen anytime soon with my current income level.)

Footnote Regarding DLSSP:

Note that there was DLSSP (CKI-wise) that day in Stockton, but I already long retired from that club mainly since I've finished undergrad and such (it would also be pointless to attend since the chances of procuring additional friends would be much lower than before). There were reports that tons of Davis students were there working on the fields - I guess they were farming service hours.

(I wanted to put that in the above post but I didn't think it would be related)

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Americana Dawn: Programming Standpoint


First Challenge of the month: Making sure the music from the composer can be played in the game.

The general game flow is mentioned in this post in Bit Bonton.

It was 18 months ago that I made a mention to Americana Dawn, and maybe longer that I was aware of it. In recent weeks, I was asked to help out with the project, which I accepted.

The demo was originally set for July 4 2012, but this was pushed back. Twice. The Kickstarter for the game was successful, but the game went way over budget.

After choosing to commit, two things were realized: One, I can no longer do a review for this game - after all, I am part of the team that makes the game, so I could essentially add features that I would otherwise say in a review as 'not present in the game', and work my way towards an ideal highly rated RPG. Two, this occupies the timeframe of a standard 3 or 4 unit class (has regular meetings, building the game, etc), and the term project for this one is... the completed game (by Apr 28) so I'm in for something new. Like an intern position for an game company, except that pay is based on how much people donate*.

The last time I remember programing something of this depth was three years ago, where my entire class worked on an airplane simulator, and it became the class term project. (It ultimately didn't reach completed status). It's like this now - only it's just me and whatever reference manuals I can find on the internet.

My experience with programming the game will be described in several posts over the next eight months or so, and will fall under the Americana Dawn category.

The App Planning Stages

The requirements for the app were the following (updated as I go along):

  • 16-bit style RPG
  • Keyboard controlled (I may add mouse support of people ask for it)
  • Linear gameplay (although it will be open world to some degree and may have sidequests)
  • Dynamic music - ability to change out music on the fly based on location and on-screen events.
  • Be able to handle various environmental effects as well as support large map sizes
  • Complex Large Scale Battle system (sometimes handling hundreds of units in a single battle at once)
  • Deep storyline and character / gear progression system, and ensuring there isn't any excessive grinding.

The program was originally generated using RPGMaker using multiple scripts to handle custom features like pixel (instead of grid) movement and battle systems, but the engine was not geared towards many of the heavy modifications this game would otherwise require, especially the sound and larger character sprites. So I'll have to build a custom engine for this one.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

The 50 State Quarter Set


After hunting around for that last Alaska state quarter for years, I finally managed to find the last quarter I need to complete my 50 State Quarter Set. Unfortunately, the display is so old that other territories are not included.

Time to start searching around for those American Territories / National Parks quarters, they're going to go on for another eight years.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The "Turtle Gets the Gold" Board


Strategic placement of two Hot Frog Shots to a curve clear, with a half a second of leeway. Red and Cyan highlights mark individual curves.

This board is notable since the curves are not linear as they seem (though the tunnels are still two balls in length), and it is possible to score at least 20 million here with a Spirit Turtle, and a proper turtle tank strat relying on Curve Clears and Fruit for points. It may have been possible to do it on the Gold Mine Board but Spirit Turtle didn't arrive yet, and it's a shorter length before the balls reach cover (12 balls compared to 18) and was more suitable for double gapping.

I'm actually running out of coins (under 5 million) so my 10M replays might not last much longer.

Strategy: Spirit Turtle, collect fruit, and clear curves. I have tried Spirit Beetle and Eagle to lesser degrees of success, reaching a max score of 15 and 11 million, respectively, and the gap / double gap is less effective than the curve clears in the long run. (There are no skulls on this board, but that doesn't mean you don't lose when the balls reach the end of the track.)

Tunnels can destroy this strat by denying curve clears, but combos can typically push balls back out of the tunnels (stalling balls at the same time), and this should not be a real problem with quick planning. Otherwise you'd have to rely on luck in hoping the right color ball is at the end for balls in the tunnel to roll back.

Recommended Powers: Inferno Frog, Epic Fruit, Timelord, Curly Fries, Spirit Turtle. Inferno Frog allows clearing 2-3 curves in most cases (adding time as well) and Epic Fruit, allows for getting more hot frogs. Bacon is also a viable strat for slower players, but you have to rely on sheer luck for lots of time balls, and you may spend more coins than you might feel comfortable in a week to get the RNG to be on your side.

Turtle Tank: Name is a combination of a Spirit Turtle and the Tank role in games. This strat relies on using Curly Fries, Hot Frog, Epic Fruit, Timelord, and enough curve clears (used for points and extra time) to get loads of extra time in to survive the timer for as long as possible (this is usually around 5-6 minutes), depending on fruit and curve clears for points.

Typically in the last minute of play a single curve clear can exceed the score from a gap shot by several factors and offers more points than a fruit. Note that a curve clear can be triggered only once per second, any sooner than that and it won't count.