Tiling completed

Tiling is now fully available in the level editor. Programming didn't advance pretty much this week. This is mainly because I am preparing a music show with my band right now.

Sam posted new arts which are getting good, Kory is leading arts and I will start helping them with environment arts as of tomorrow (easter is familly time here :))

This will permit us to built some basic test level to adjust engin game physics.

Happy easter everyone.

Level Editor

Tiling is fully integrated in the new version of the level editor. Tiles can be of any square size with nice zoom-in zoom-out functionnality. Next step is to create a video tutorial on how to use tiling within the level editor.

Sorry I don't post as often these last days, but my daily job is keeping so busy that when I come home I just want to sit and watch TV. I should get back into it during the next week.

Cheers all.

Tiling

I added the supports of tiles in the level editor which looks really nice. Tilling is available on all layer independantly. Tile format right now is square only based on 256 x 256 pixel put with a yummy auto-dectect spritesheet frame based on a left to right, top to bottom system. So this permits the user to create tiles 256x 256 pixel but he may put has many frame on the spritesheet that he wants and the system will automaticaly navigate in the pgn file est extract the frame within the spritesheet.

I also added the "Zoom" functionnality to zoom-in and out on the level the user is creating. I added this because even myselft when creating level wanted a more global view of the level (zoom out) and some times I really wanted to get close in for detail checkup.

Slow weekend

Thing have not move during the weekend. I polished a little bit some code but not real enhancement done for the project. I will start producing environment art asset to put together a real test level with the beach theme.

This will permit to test out the new features added for the project and also to fine tune the engin.

Art style

Well in the last 2 days we concentrated more on arts, the style to used, color palette and art guide lines for the game. As a programmer I have little to say on this topics since it is not my level of expertise. Kory has been doing most (in fact all) the job regarding arts.

Good news is that things are taken shape. Hopefully during the weekend I will be able to work on rain and fog particules.

Emitters

Hi all,

The emitters system is now fully functional in the level editor. Simply click and drag your emitter, select the type of particule to generate, the color, the size and the life span and it is applied. The level editor also show the animated particule system using the user's parameter.

Other than that I have been mostly doing project management these days to bring back the team together.
Some confusion arose within the team due to communication problems.

Hopefully thing should get back on track really soon as this is my main focus right now.

It's been a while

Sorry for not updating my blog for a while.

Let say that my daily job drained me this week, I felt like a zombie when I came home and this each nights.

I advanced a little bit the game design document. Kory has created artwork which looks awesome so art is taken shape.

On my side, I returned to coding and my main goal these days is the emitter system which will permit to place particule emitters on the map and displpay to beautifull particules. Right now I have done smoke and fire and next one is the rain particules that Kory that will be added.

This new emitter system will be fairly expandable permitting to change size, color, activation, scripting and trigerring of particules throughout the map.

I should be done on particule during the week and next target is the trigger system and after that yummy shaders. Once all this is accomplish, I will integrated all this in the game engin and we will finally be able to go on with creating the game UI, AI etc...

Game Design and tools

I worked on the game design document most of the week (when I had spare time, job is draining me these days). So this to let you know things have more more slowly this week. I was able to produce also a new Animation editor tutorial.

During the week I'll get back to coding a little bit, I want to finish the particule system and also add stuff in the game design document.

Our forum has been down most of the week due to provider issues. So we decided to try out Google Wave for communication. Google wave seems like a nice tool for file sharing, communication MSN - forum style.

Hope this will simplify are communication (which is the teams biggest challenge as of now).

Have a good weekend all.

Game design

Latetly I've been working on the game design.

Things are going pretty well and the game design is taking shape. Levels themes have been defined, monsters, our hero actions, Saving and load system are defined. Main story of the game is written.

This week I will continue to work on the design of the game and also on tutorials so the artists can understand the toolset better.

Ho we also have a new artist on board, welcome to JnXc.

Game design

These last days I worked mostly on the game design and scenario, defined all the moves that Geck will have, the mobs he will encounter and the story behind the game. We needed this information before we went on because All basic stuff was defined but not the main goal line of the game.

This week I will continue to work on the game design and maybee I will have some time for some more coding goodies.

Cheers all!

Triggers and Particules

I have finally figured out the architecture to use for the triggers which will be related to the particule system. This will permit to setup trigger to launch particles in the game engin.

I am also looking into level scripting for rain, fog , cinder (for the volcano level), Clouds, Sun rays and Water with refraction.

All this is still at an early level, thus only 70% of the classes have been done and all implementation in the level editor is to be done.

Hopefully during the weekend , I will be able to more code in there so the level editor support these new particule emitters and triggers.

Design and Architecture

Well scripting is completed (probably new command will be required on the fly but those will be easy to implement).

Right now though, I am in reflexion regarding the architecture and design for "Triggers" in the game engin. I want these triggers to be flexible and dynamic without hard-coding if possible. I know that triggers can be launched for various reason and generate various actions.

I want a trigger system that can be applied in the animation editor to tell the engin to generate a particule of some sort, to be able to attach a trigger to map object from which specific condition would launch a script to execute based on the condition.

So I am still trying to figure out the architecture to use to make the triggerring system correspond to my needs.

So no coding accomplish in the last few days.

Sorry :(

Weekend activities

No major coding done this weekend except for some small bugs corrected in the level editor.

This weekend I installed the Live Mesh folder so we can all work on a synchronize folder and permits easier sharing. Live Mesh is a Microsoft tool currently in beta but I must say I am pretty impressed with it. Easy to use, really straight forward and the power of the tool to keep document (of any type) synchronize is really good. Also the notes system when files are modified is a must for small development team like ours.

Once the Mesh was done and everyone invited, I installed a small tool (free) to create video tutorial of the level and animation editor. So far I was able to create 3 tutorials in flash format so the guys can better understand the tool.

I will get back to coding this week, but first I need to create a couple of tutorials and fix the test game engin so the guys can try out their new maps.

Later all.

Moving edge completed

I finish the moving edge functionnality so now moving platform have linked moving edge on which the character can reside. This is done by linking a map object with an edge thus when the waypoint are moving the map object, the edge follows with it.

I tested it out in the game engin and it works... Hurray!!
Only thing to twitch now is that the player should move with the platform also, right now the player just sits on the moving platform and the player fall off when the platform isn't underneath him any more.

I also added a UI layout saving functionnality in the level editor so screensize, size on split container are kept upon opening of the level editor and closing of it.

I realize that my Map scripting editor must be updated to support map script command in the intellisense so designer will be able to find out rapidly what methods are available on level object. I will do this tomorrow.

Next big big step, the triggers so all character can affect each other and spawn to nice particles.

Well that it for today, I'll go celebrate my birthday instead of coding :)

Waypoint done.

Wow Waypoints are finally done and they work perfectly in game engin.

The mix of waypoints and scripting will make the level editor powerfull indeed.

My next step is to permit linking of edges with map objects so moveable maps object will have edge (ledge) that follows their movement, all this to permit character to jump unto moving platforms.

After that the trigger system is my next goal so we have trigger to launch all those nice particules and define the hitbox manager.

Basic scripting methods have been created but I am sure that during level editing we will have new needs so probably new scripting methods will be required on the fly.

Night all.

Waypoint in game engin

Ok so I have corrected the layer system in the game engin and everything is now running smootly.

After that I start doing the waypoint handling in the game engin and I am running into small issues that I correct will building the engin code. First of all I had to create map scripting commands so my waypoint system could be test. Once that completed I started to animated object based on the waypoints and I am currently at 50% done.

Waypoint implementation is more complex than expected but I should get through it this week hopefully.

We got some nice drawing beeing done, art work style has also been defined so things shouold get moving a little faster soon but no rush here we all have a real life to attend to also :)

Well that was todays news.

Level Editor Progress

Well I polish some stuff in the level editor but still have some job to do.


Waypoints and scripting in the level editor is now completed. All level object have scripting capabilities :)


Next step I really need now to adjust the game engin to support the new functionnalities and I found some bug in the game engin related to layer scrolling which will definitivly need to be fix.


Probably tonight I will work on hte engin and map artwork will be required soon to do a real test level to run with the game engin.


Cheers!

Waypoints

Waypoints are now available in the level editor and only the load and save level methods need to implements the new waypoints.

Scripting will be next step and in-game testing of the waypoints.

I also wanted to make note that Kory on the team produce a particle manager for Fire- rain and smoke.
The manager is pretty straightfoward and easy to used.

This particule manager is the next step in the level editor to implement.
Now the engin is getting pretty good with nice features.

During the weekend I should have time to advance coding a little bit faster and I will keep you post on sunday.

Cheers all!

Waypoint underway

The restructure beeing finish, I start working on the waypoint system to have moveable map objects.

The waypoint system needed major thinking to make it dynamic and easy to create in the level editor.
I am about at 30% underway in this process.

Also I though about adding map scripting to the waypoint to permit level designer to make things happens once a waypoint is reached. The scripting commands are still to be defined but I think this features will make the level editor a more powerfull tool and make the game more interactive and fun.

Hopefully this features should be finish by the end of the week.

Level editor restructure completed

The level editor code restructure is completed.

I also took the time to add some features like statics objects rotation also animated objects now properly resize to layer scale for the nice paralle effect.

• Next step permit rotation of animated object.
• Editing of waypoint in the level editor.
• Put everything together in the test game engin to make sure everything shows up properly.

The guys are now working hard on art style to use and new idea have come up for the overall story.

Level editor restructure

Well restructure is 90% completed.

Still got some minor bugs regarding selection of statics objects sprite sheet after selecting a animation object.

New features are now more smooth and user friendly. Multiple selection is now possible for mass displacement.

New feature to add is rotation on static and animation map object.

I also want to welcome Kory on our team (artist and programmer)!

Restructure underway

Well , the major restructure I talk about is 70% completed, things went pretty well, even better than I expected. I also had time to integrate the waypoint system in the level editor.

Finally got rid of the spagetti code :). Polish some feature of the level editor which makes it easier to create level now.

I also got an new artist that should join us, hopefully the project  will interess him.

Next step in coding is to encapsulate animated map object and after that onward with putting the pieces together for the test map game engin.

Level editor restructure

Well as I am adding features to the level editor I realized that I have to restructure almost all my classes to avoid coding confusing and better encapsulate my objects. I realized this while adding waypoints features in the editor.

So now a big job comes, redo all classes to simplify future coding.

I also have a small camera placement problem in the test game engin which needs to be checked. This will be done after the restructure though.

Sam also produce a first draft of the hero, Geck the gecko which is amazing :)

Well that`s it for today.

First blog entry

Well, the project is going on fine. The 2 artists have started their work, this will help me out alot for this XNA project.

I finally release the first installer for the Geck project engin toolset.

Next step polish the level editor which is kinda messy right now but it does the job for now.