September 2010
9 posts
3 tags
The Virtual World
In 4kg, the Virtual World (vee-dub) is a game mechanic I invented to keep gameplay throughout the game feeling fresh. 4kg has 15 total levels, and within every one is a platform that sends you to a short gameplay segment inside the Virtual World.
The Virtual World platform.
These Virtual World areas can be thought of like Super Mario Bros 2. (USA)’s “Sub-Space” areas, although...
2 tags
50 New IPs Before I Die
This isn’t really related specifically to 4kg’s game development, but I felt it would be best to make my intentions here.
My goal is to create fifty (or more) new intellectual properties (“IPs”) before I die (or retire, but I think I’ll be in this for life.)
That number seems small at first, until you realize most “traditional” games take around two...
3 tags
4kg Dev - Night 8
Sometimes I wonder, “do I post too much?” I do give that question some thought. But, for now, I’ll keep up the rate of posting, simply because it’s better than no updates at all. Usually.
No screenies tonight since I haven’t accomplished anything visually groundbreaking (as far as my game goes, at least.) But here’s what I have done:
Set the window captions...
3 tags
4kg Dev - Night 7
Tonight’s goals that were accomplished:
Using SDL_SetColorKey to induce transparency around my bitmap sprites. (I may transition to PNG alphas later, but for now, it works really well.)
Repositioning the player robot so it at least gives the illusion of what the final game will look like. Roughly.
Incorporating basic keyboard event handling.
Vertical jumping tied to those keyboard...
6 tags
4kg Dev - Night 6
For the next dev nightly, I promise to at least have some sprites on the screen. Count on it! -Me on the last dev nightly
So? Can I hold my head high?
Yes! Take that, universe! (Screenshot is not representative of the final game.)
I was indeed able to render a sprite on-screen. While SDL requires some more fiddling than some of the other tools I’ve used (lots of blitting and...
2 tags
4kg Dev - Night 5
Five days since my last dev nightly, and what have I accomplished?
Well, honestly, empirically not very much. I’m still only at the point of displaying a 1280x720 standard SDL surface. So to make myself feel better about that, I’m posting a screenshot of it:
Boo yeah!
However, I have re-arranged and re-factored the underlying source for this several times, and I now believe I have...
5 tags
4kg Dev - Night 4
Ah, here it is, the first dev nightly. Much of tonight was spent (wasted) trying to get SDL 1.3 to play nice with Visual Studio 2010. I know I brought it on myself by using the bleeding edge versions of both (SDL 1.3 isn’t even final yet!), but I had to give it a shot.
I ended up settling on SDL 1.2, which should be fine for my needs (especially since many of the tutorials and code snippets...
3 tags
Sprite Your Heart Out
I haven’t been keeping up on the dev nightlies lately (partly because I’ve been distracted by this super-cool website idea I have), but that doesn’t mean I’ve completely forgotten about the game.
Oddly enough, I’ve been spriting lately. This is odd because I’m a coder by nature, and spritework has probably been the biggest block in the way of completing my many...
1 tag
A Week (or Two) Apart
It’s been about two weeks since my last update, and even longer since my programming nightlies. A lot has happened since then and I’m sorry I haven’t kept this blog on top of it all.
So I’ll present all my updates in list form!
The game is now for PC, not Android anymore. It is being built with XNA SDL.
It will of course be free instead of $1.99.
I am taking over...