Tommy tries to code some games...

Tommy tries to code some games... http://www.haaks.net Contains information about Tommy Haaks. Deals with game programming in general and PlayBasic and Java/LWJGL/Slick specifically. Offers downloads of my games and a blog. Lauyan TOWeb en Fri, 1 Aug 2008 21:19:22 GMT [Game Dev] Loading, loading... Friday, August 01, 2008, 11:14 PM Right now I'm still coding routines to load a level from an UFF file (which is written manually with a standard text editor). The progress is not very fast - struggling with UFF bugs (it messes up if indentation is done using blanks instead of tabs <img src="../_frame/icon_doubt.gif" border="0">) and my constant lack of time... After vacation I'll have to dedicate much more time to finish the game... Later, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000022 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000022 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Website] Friday, August 01, 2008, 11:12 PM Just spent a few minutes to revamp the game development area. Now I have a Game Dev menu with submenu entries for tutorials, source code and tools. It helps me to add new stuff more easily. Now I only need more time to add some more content <img src="../_frame/icon_lol.gif" border="0"> http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000021 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000021 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] There's a blue screen Monday, July 21, 2008, 9:48 PM ...but no blue screen of death but just the one I draw in the main loop of my platformer. I finally continued with the game itself and now have game states and a basic main game loop running. After thinking back and forth about the levels and how to design them, draw them and check for collisions I made a decision. The levels will be stored in UFF files. Due to the fact that the platform images and the vertical elements all have different widths and heights it's too complicated to try to fit it into a tile sized PlayBasic map structure. So I will take the simple sprite approach and use sprite drawing and collision mechanisms for the levels. Should work as good as the map stuff although not that comfortable. We'll see <img src="../_frame/icon_wink.gif" border="0"> But now back to the game - vacation is nearing and I fear it will be a hot september while finishing the game for the competition... http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000020 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000020 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] Tool time Tuesday, July 15, 2008, 9:12 PM I wrote a little tool to have a look at the graphics and animations I got from BlinkOk for the competition entry. It allows you to specify frames with width and height, start position and offsets to "rip" the single images for the animations. The tool can dump some XML like description and reload it again. I will write a loading routine to use those description files in my compo entry to load all the animations. See the piccy on the right or download it <a target="_blank" href="http://Game development">here</a>. But now it's time to continue with the game itself! Later, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000019 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000019 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] It's competition time! Thursday, June 12, 2008, 10:58 PM The nice guys over at <a target="_blank" href="http://underwaredesign.com">Underware Design</a> are doing their annual game making competition. This time it's all about heroes, treasures, princesses and adventure! Create a platformer game with <a target="_blank" href="http://www.playbasic.com">PlayBasic</a> and win one of the many prizes! There are more than 1400 US$ in the prize pool! All the details are available <a target="_blank" href="http://HeroesQuestCompetition.UnderwareDesign.com">here</a>! I couldn't resist and decided to join the fun - so it's <a target="_blank" href="http://www.playbasic.com">PlayBasic</a> coding for a while <img src="../_frame/icon_lol.gif" border="0"> Should you decide to join the competition you could have a look at my <a target="_blank" href="http://Game development">Game development</a> pages and at my <a href="../spaceinvaders1/index.html">Space Invaders tutorial part 1</a> to learn more about <a target="_blank" href="http://www.playbasic.com">PlayBasic</a> and its nice game creation features! Great performance, easy sprite and effects handling, support for many sound and music formats and tons(!) of demo and sample codes! There's a free Learning Edition available to get you started and if you're fast you could even be a "CleverCoder" (this is a hint!) and get a 25% discount of the bargain price of 24,95$. What are you waiting for? Come on and beat me in the competition <img src="../_frame/icon_lol.gif" border="0"> http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000018 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000018 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Real life] Envy me! Tuesday, May 27, 2008, 9:25 PM Yup, it finally happened - I bought a new PC and it's up and running (many, many thanks to Jürgen who helped me assemble it!) - yeeeehaaaa! It's an AMD dual core (2.3 GHz) with 2 GB RAM, a 500 GB hard disk, DVD burner, a Geforce 8600GT graphics card and a marvelous 22' widescreen TFT! Compared to my old trusty Celeron this machine is faster than light <img src="../_frame/icon_lol.gif" border="0"> And it's all black: a black Sharkoon midi tower, a black Logitech keyboard and mouse. That's the way I like it, aha, aha! And of course I'm still running Windows XP and not Vista but I left 40 GB on my hard disk unformatted to install some Linux (Ubuntu?) on it. My brother's website is finished, my daughter's PC (my old Celeron) is also up and running, now I just need to prepare the last PC for my son and then it's coding time again! Later, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000017 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000017 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] Things. Happen. Slowly. Sunday, May 11, 2008, 9:59 PM So the nice guys at <a target="_blank" href="http://lwjgl.org">lwjgl.org</a> finished a first beta of LWJGL 2.0 with improved applet support. And Kev immediately added it to <a target="_blank" href="http://slick.cokeandcode.com">Slick</a>. Cool stuff! My code fragments I slapped together in those 5 minute sessions over the last few months finally fit together so that I have a piece of software that starts and renders something on screen. This was definitely the motivation kick I needed to get along with it. The last few weeks I was torn and thought about giving up on <a href="../theycome/index.html">They Come</a> but now that's over! Expect some screenshots starting in the next few weeks. Cheers, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000016 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000016 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Real life] Stress is nearly gone... Sunday, May 11, 2008, 9:39 PM So I built my Cajon (see a picture of the half finished state on the right) and it was a lot of fun. Two days carpenter work and a cajon drum crash course! And the course ended with a 10 minute open air concert we gave in some nice park in the center of Hamburg <img src="../_frame/icon_cool.gif" border="0"> And I also did the kajak trip on the Elbe with my middle son which was also absolutely great! We had perfect weather, sunshine and no wind, nice people to join us and no one fell into the water! Finally we had a nice birthday party for my little boy with picnic in the garden, a lot of children party games and some amazing magic tricks at the end <img src="../_frame/icon_wink.gif" border="0"> My new PC is nearly bought <img src="../_frame/icon_wink.gif" border="0"> Tuesday I'm trying to get all the required parts and if they have everything in store the machine will be assembled on the same evening! Yay! My friend Jürgen is going to help me - will be the first time that I don't buy a "standard" PC but just all the components <img src="../_frame/icon_eek.gif" border="0"> Life is getting better again! http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000015 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000015 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Real life] Bzzzzzz... Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 12:36 AM I am busy. Busy, busy, busy. No game dev at all <img src="../_frame/icon_sad.gif" border="0"> Work is pretty time consuming and tiring at the moment. And so is real life with family and house. Aaaand I'm currently redoing the website of my brother. Completely redoing it. I already spent five evenings with it over the last two and a half weeks! But the end is near <img src="../_frame/icon_cool.gif" border="0"> I mean the end of me hacking all this stuff in. Then it's review time with my brother. And then it's hacking again. More stuff. More pictures. More slideshows. And then review again. And I must not forget my little son's birthday. Of course I need to do some little magic show at the end of his party to amaze all his little guests <img src="../_frame/icon_eek.gif" border="0"> But of course this needs some preparation and exercises. Kids are cruel if you fumble and ruin a magic trick... Anyway, there are some more nice things I'm looking forward to: <ul><li> I will buy a new PC in the next few weeks (I guess after my son's birthday),</li><li> I will build a Cajon (some kind of drum kit in a box) this coming weekend,</li><li> I will enjoy some kajaking the weekend after with my middle son and finally</li><li> it's our twentieth anniversary and my wife and me are taking a weekend off! YES!</li></ul> Later, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000014 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000014 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] Pixel ships! Tuesday, March 25, 2008, 9:05 PM Finally an update! It's been pretty busy lately (as usual...) and I got only minor things done. But the pixel ship generation is nearly finished. I can pass String based templates into the random generation class to generate anything from space ships to asteroids or satellites. The generator code just needs to know if the generated object is mirrored or not. With the strings I can define which cells are always solid, maybe solid, always empty or an always solid cockpit part (for different coloring). I just need to add some nice coloring but that's all "done in my brain already(tm)" since I found the algorithms to generate some smooth 256 color palettes to use for drawing nice ships <img src="../_frame/icon_cool.gif" border="0"> Next thing on my work list is to get a basic random scenario generated so that I can start a dummy game and add functionality and game logic. XML based scenarios and campaigns will come later - currently coding that is too boring and doesn't show enough progress. Next graphical challenge will be generation of planet graphics. I want to base my stuff on some code from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.imitationpickles.org/galcon/index.html">Phil Hassey</a> again. We'll see. If anyone has an idea how to procedurally generate faces of humans and aliens for the ingame advisors you can hire please tell me <img src="../_frame/icon_lol.gif" border="0"> http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000013 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000013 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] They Come - but when? Monday, March 03, 2008, 9:42 PM Long time no update! What have I done? I looked at some nice pixel generation routines for <a target="_blank" href="http://www.davebollinger.com/works/pixelrobots/">robots</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.davebollinger.com/works/pixelspaceships/">space ships</a>. I am so fascinated by this stuff that I want to create my game graphics based on these ideas. Let's see where this leads to <img src="../_frame/icon_wink.gif" border="0"> So while I'm still coding the XML parsing stuff for the configuration files I'll also start with the pixel generation routines. I'm back to Java and <a target="_blank" href="http://slick.cokeandcode.com">Slick</a>, just in case anyone is wondering <img src="../_frame/icon_lol.gif" border="0"> The update of the <a href="../spaceinvaders1/index.html">Space Invaders tutorial with PlayBasic</a> was fun but still Java feels (and is!) a lot more comfy! Kevin, mastermind behind <a target="_blank" href="http://slick.cokeandcode.com">Slick</a> also uses some new kind of tiny Webstart like mechanism for his new game <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cokeandcode.com/demos/mootox/web/">Mootox</a> which is pretty cool. It allows to create downloadable versions of your game which are able to update themselves over the web! Of course he coded it (his motto: If you need something have a look around at the web. If you don't find it, code it!). I bet he did it in one or two nights! I sometimes feel so slow <img src="../_frame/icon_sad.gif" border="0"> So there are a lot of areas to play around - that should keep me busy and happy for a while! Oh, and Niels/Juggler, whenever I mention again that I'm thinking about changing dev tools - just give me a friendly slap, okay? <img src="../_frame/icon_lol.gif" border="0"> http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000012 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000012 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] Space Invaders Tutorial is done - again?! Monday, February 18, 2008, 11:42 PM I reworked the tutorial once more, based on great input from Kevin Picone, the mastermind of PlayBasic. As I said in the previous post here: Have a nice read, I'll go to bed now <img src="../_frame/icon_wink.gif" border="0"> <a href="../spaceinvaders1/index.html">Space Invaders tutorial part 1</a> http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000008 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000008 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] Tutorial is done! Monday, February 11, 2008, 12:10 AM Just finished my <a href="../spaceinvaders1/index.html">Space Invaders tutorial part 1</a>! You can have a read, I'll go to bed now! Cheers, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000007 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000007 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] Still ongoing tutorial update Sunday, February 10, 2008, 10:09 PM Sigh, a week's gone by and I am still not done with the tutorial update. Real life and real job leave only few minutes for game coding time... Anyway, if you can't resist, jump over to the <a href="../spaceinvaders1/index.html">Space Invaders tutorial part 1</a> and have a little read. Collision is not in, although all preparation is done. Maybe I finish it tonight, but maybe not... http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000006 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000006 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Website] Sunday, February 03, 2008, 11:05 PM I just switched from my hoster's visitor counter to some free one. Advantages: Instead of tracking unique visitors only I can now track all visitors of my site, also frequent visitors. But this new counter does not just count page impressions (so hitting "Refresh" on your browser won't increase the counter). Instead every visitor who comes back after 3 hours will be counted again. I think that's an "okay" timeframe to give me a better impression how many people get lost in the internet and land here. Just to let you know... Cheers, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000005 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000005 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] Tutorial update time Sunday, February 03, 2008, 10:56 PM Recently I've been revisiting the Underware Design forums, creators of <a target="_blank" href="http://underwaredesign.com/prod_detail.php?id=42">PlayBasic</a>. I detected four things: <ul><li> my version of PlayBasic was totally outdated,</li><li> my <a href="../spaceinvaders1/index.html">Space Invaders tutorial part 1</a> was also totally outdated and doesn't even compile with the current version of PlayBasic,</li><li> the new features of PlayBasic like pixel perfect collisions, native linked list support and a new virtual machine with hardware acceleration made an update of my tutorial not only necessary but promising <img src="../_frame/icon_lol.gif" border="0"></li><li> a quick look at my website statistics showed that still around 100 visitors each month read the tutorial!</li></ul> That were enough reasons for me to justify an update of the <a href="../spaceinvaders1/index.html">Space Invaders tutorial part 1</a>. It's currently a work in progress but it's a lot of fun and the new features simplify coding life a lot! http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000004 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000004 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] Wednesday, January 23, 2008, 11:05 PM Some more tiny bits of coding done but still the progress is slow...but hey, I'm just a bedroom coder (indeed I'm a living room coder) and I don't get paid for it <img src="../_frame/icon_wink.gif" border="0"> Maybe I should add a Paypal donate button and see if anyone wants me to hurry up... Recently I played Frozzd, the winning game of the <a target="_blank" href="http://glog.yoyogames.com/?p=51">Yoyogames winter competition</a> and I like the game play and the graphics style a lot. I would guess most of the graphics were made with some vector drawing tool... Anyway, the game is a wonderful example of what can be achieved with Game Maker. Have fun, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000003 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000003 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] Any progress? Friday, January 18, 2008, 10:45 PM I coded a bit more. And I played around with stuff. The last two evenings I played around with <a target="_blank" href="http://www.expressanimator.com">Express Animator</a> which is a tool to create SWF animations or 2D animations in general. Currently it misses some functionality to be useful in game development but it's just version 1.0. Let's see how that tool progresses... And today my friend Niels borrowed me his Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet over the weekend - that is fun! Inkscape worked immediately with it and drawing with such a tablet is cool! I scribbled along and enjoyed it very much - now I need to get 70 Euros to buy my own one <img src="../_frame/icon_lol.gif" border="0"> http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000036 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000036 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Game Dev] Return of the code? Sunday, January 06, 2008, 10:55 PM Don't be too optimistic - progress on game development can still be considered "on hold". I coded two or three hours the last week - and that was a vacation week! Coding took place with Game Maker - I am jumping back and forth again <img src="../_frame/icon_eek.gif" border="0"> At least to be fair I have to cancel some statement regarding Game Maker I made end of October... Of course you can create persistent objects which are existing as long as you need them. So data containers or stateful objects are no problem for Game Maker... I don't know how long this Game Maker period will last so I'll just keep my mouth shut. I will let you know as soon as some positive result can be presented - either in Java or in Game Maker... http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000035 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000035 What's happening in Tommy's little world? [Real life] Happy new year! Sunday, January 06, 2008, 10:44 PM Okay, okay, it's already nearly a week gone but anyway - a happy new year to all of you! This new year's eve was pretty nice - I wasn't sick! And although I missed by new year's single malt at 4 am it was a good step into 2008. Let's see what this year has got in store for us <img src="../_frame/icon_wink.gif" border="0"> Cheers, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000034 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000034 What's happening in Tommy's little world? Quick shortcuts <ul><li> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.haaks.net/javawebstart/SpiderTrap.jnlp">SpiderTrap webstart</a></li><li> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.haaks.net/javawebstart/SpiderTrapPHP.jnlp">SpiderTrap webstart for Macs</a></li><li><a href="../spidertrap1/index.html">SpiderTrap</a>, my first finished Slick game</li><li> <a href="../spidertrap/index.html">SpiderTrapDevBlog</a>, it's dev blog </li><li> <a target="_blank" href="http://slick.cokeandcode.com">Slick</a>, the cool and powerful Java game lib I use to develop my games</li><li> <a href="../spaceinvaders1/index.html">Space Invaders tutorial part 1</a>, a nice tutorial for PlayBasic</li></ul> http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000055 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000055 What's happening in Tommy's little world? Blog Archives <a href="../blog2007/index.html">Blog Archive 2007</a> <a href="../blog2006/index.html">Blog Archive 2006</a> http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000001 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000001 What's happening in Tommy's little world? Pimp Kevin! Kevin Glass is not only the creator of <a target="_blank" href="http://slick.cokeandcode.com">Slick</a>! He also codes great little games which you need to play! I show a little collection here, visit his <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cokeandcode.com">homepage</a> for more! http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000009 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000009 What's happening in Tommy's little world? About my blog If you want to talk to me about any subjects I have discussed in this page, email me by clicking the button below http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000002 http://www.haaks.net/blog/index.html#bv000002 What's happening in Tommy's little world? Next version in the making - but slow Monday, July 30, 2007, 11:08 PM If you read the blog you know that I spent most of my time with real life. So SpiderTrap 1.2 must wait a bit longer. I started extending the game options screen and added another muffin class to load and save the game options. Now I need to activate the game option settings on startup. And I also want to add saving and resuming a game, so that will become another muffin class. You don't know muffins? It's like cookies of a webpage - just for webstart applications. Usually Java webstart applications are not allowed to access your hard disk except to read from the downloaded jars. The only thing allowed is to write muffins. Those files stay in the webstart directory tree and can do no harm to your computer. They are similar to ini files and can be used to save high scores, settings and such. And of course Slick does support them. Okay, nuff said, bedtime for Tommy. Later... http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000040 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000040 SpiderTrap Development blog Done again! Sunday, July 15, 2007, 9:22 PM Due to the feedback I received I created a version 1.1 of SpiderTrap <img src="../_frame/icon_wink.gif" border="0"> What has changed? <ul><li> I added 4 tutorial levels with explaining messages what to do,</li><li> now it is configurable for each laboratory if spiders can drop eggs and if active spiders can wake up stunned spiders,</li><li> the time until a spider drops an egg is increased (random between 30-40 seconds),</li><li> some levels were simplified,</li><li> a special Webstart file for certain MacOS configurations was added,</li><li> adding the icon on your desktop was fixed.</li></ul> You might need to refresh your webstart cache to get the newest version ("javaws -uninstall SpiderTrap" or "javaws -uninstall"). http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000039 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000039 SpiderTrap Development blog Done! Finally done! Wednesday, July 11, 2007, 10:05 PM Woohoo! Nearly ten months in the making and my baby is done (I even finished it without the help of a woman!). That was a long time and now I definitely need a break from this game. It was fun to make but fixing bug after bug, listening to the sounds and music over and over, playing the levels again and again to do play testing - that can surely reduce one's motivation <img src="../_frame/icon_lol.gif" border="0"> I hope you all enjoy the game a little bit! Have fun with it until my next game is done! Party time %SMILIE_TWO_DRINKERS% Later, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000038 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000038 SpiderTrap Development blog Sound and Music volume issues Friday, July 06, 2007, 10:38 PM I added an Options screen to control SFX and music volume. Unfortunately it doesn't yet work properly in Slick. I'm currently trying to fix the Slick code. So it'll take a bit longer. Sorry. Maybe I will use the time to add some more levels <img src="../_frame/icon_wink.gif" border="0"> But I add another screenshot to please you a little bit - look right... http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000037 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000037 SpiderTrap Development blog Still some bugs and improvements left... Friday, June 29, 2007, 9:50 PM Still not done fixing Cinfa's bug and improvement list - too many parties the last few days %SMILIE_TWO_DRINKERS% But you can already wet your appetite with the new ingame screenshot showing the final graphics! Just a little bit of time! Excited, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000036 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000036 SpiderTrap Development blog Bug crunching... Saturday, June 23, 2007, 8:40 PM Cinfa played the new version with the enhanced graphics tonight and sent me a nice long list with bugs/forgotten things/improvements. As they all make sense I'm going to fix/add/improve them. So you will have to wait a few more days...but it will be worth it! http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000035 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000035 SpiderTrap Development blog Improvements ahead! Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 9:15 PM Okay, I was pretty quiet the last two weeks. There was a good reason for that: I was constantly chatting with some nice italian guy nicknamed Cinfa who volunteered to create new graphics for SpiderTrap. Now I have a complete set of amazing new graphics and I guess I owe Cinfa more than one beer <img src="../_frame/icon_eek.gif" border="0"> To the right you can see a WIP screenshot with only some new graphics - the final release will blow you away <img src="../_frame/icon_lol.gif" border="0"> I'll keep you posted but now I need to get back to modify the game code to use the new graphics! http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000034 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000034 SpiderTrap Development blog Beta is out! Tuesday, June 05, 2007, 11:01 PM Nobody did believe it, right? Come on, stand up and admit it! But here it is: a webstartable version of SpiderTrap! Just click on this link: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.haaks.net/javawebstart/SpiderTrap.jnlp">SpiderTrap webstart</a> Mini instructions: Use keys '1' to '8' to create robots at the start portal or switch active robot. Use cursor keys to guide active robot. 'P' pauses the game, 'F2' toggles window/fullscreen mode, 'Esc' returns you to the main menu and/or exits the game. Trap the spider(s) so they can't move anymore and get stunned. Trap all spiders to win the level. After two minutes the computer shields go down. If a spider touches a computer all computers will explode and the game is over. If the shields are down for two minutes the level is lost. Take care of all the other enemies/obstacles. Use time and energy boni to help you on your task. If anyone wants to improve the graphics PLEASE contact me asap! Later, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000033 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000033 SpiderTrap Development blog I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... Tuesday, May 22, 2007, 10:46 PM The bonus objects are in and working. They appear for 5 seconds at some random position and disappear again if you don't manage to get them. If you catch the bonus object you can either get a few seconds time bonus or a energy bonus. In the later phases of the game you will surely need them. I also added a smooth camera movement when you switch between active robots. Looks fine. And finally for this update the levels got a title which is displayed at level start. So what's left you ask? Credits and Instructions are missing (under construction right now, Eclipse is open and the GameState classes are already created) and then a bit of level creation and fine tuning is left. Finally I need to get the packaging and webstart stuff done. Exciting! I hope you can download the game real soon! Cheers, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000032 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000032 SpiderTrap Development blog Lot of stuff done! Sunday, May 13, 2007, 11:11 PM Okay, I got the egg splash particles in - looks fine. Then I added some sounds but I'm not completely finished yet. I also added the energy suckers (see them below this topic). They are drawn with some transparency and they rotate really nicely. The energy sucking already works as expected. Of course you will loose the game if energy gets below zero %SMILIE_DEVIL% And finally I already created the 3D objects for the time bonus (a clock) and the energy bonus (a battery). Two more levels were added to test the energy suckers so I have 7 levels now. That was a pretty productive weekend! Later, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000031 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000031 SpiderTrap Development blog Effects are getting there! Monday, May 07, 2007, 9:39 PM Okay, I added a sparkle effect when a bullet hits a guardian or a wall. I also added a small explosion effect and some teleport effect when a robot enters a level. Some screenshot to the right! What's left? Some splatter when an egg is destroyed would be nice. I have not yet decided if I add bonus objects (energy and time bonus) before I finish it up. Oh and some sound effects are still missing (I already have them, they are just not loaded and played yet). Right now I have five levels and an endless game play - you restart at level one if you managed the last one. Except it's getting harder (one more spider and less time to finish the level)! http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000030 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000030 SpiderTrap Development blog Guards guard... Tuesday, May 01, 2007, 12:10 AM So the guardians are in now. Again the sprites were created using CB Model Pro (look <a href="../cosmicblobs/index.html">here</a> for links and big piccies) and SpriteForge. The guardians are also rotating nicely and there are two types of them: those that always turn right and those that always turn left. Of course guardians kill robots and they also do kill spiders. They even kill bullets. Just to be even more annoying they completely ignore spider eggs. Nobody said this game would be easy %SMILIE_BIG_GRIN% Game wise I think I will add some more particle effects (explosions and some glow effects) and then add some more levels and create a webstartable and finish this baby. It looks like this game needs to be finished soon - feels like I need to start something new. Any ideas on what to try next? http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000029 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000029 SpiderTrap Development blog Guardians! Monday, April 23, 2007, 11:41 PM The bullets are in now and working perfectly, even collision stuff is working as expected. Next are guardians. They are robots wandering around the maze killing spiders and your robots on contact. Ouch. A screenshot will be shown as soon as they are coded completely. Shouldn't take much longer now... http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000028 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000028 SpiderTrap Development blog Bullets! Thursday, March 22, 2007, 11:30 PM Bullets are in! Done with Slick's particle stuff. I am working on their collisions with walls, spiders and balls right now. Should be done soon. http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000027 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000027 SpiderTrap Development blog Upside down? Revert the reverse? Monday, February 26, 2007, 8:23 PM Yeah, I was fed up with my reverse order of this game blog so I rearranged all the entries. Took me 2 minutes with TOWeb... So from now on the news are at the top where they belong - celebrate it %SMILIE_TWO_DRINKERS% http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000026 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000026 SpiderTrap Development blog Kaboom! Finally! Sunday, February 25, 2007, 11:08 PM Doesn't that look impressive? I finally dived into the depths of Slick's Particle editor Pedigree and ParticleSystems and ConfigurableEmitters. And wasn't it worth it? Look to the right now! Open your mouth! Say: Aaaah! Good. During digging through the code I also found a missing feature in Slick which I will add soon to become part of the next Slick build. How did that sound? I am allowed to work on Slick now, not only with Slick (if my changes make it through the code review of the other Slick developers %SMILIE_WINK% ). Wowzers! Now for the next stuff! Turrets I think. http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000025 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000025 SpiderTrap Development blog Close to KABOOM! Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 10:02 PM I finally added the energy shields to the computers. The energy shields disappear after the time is over. Then the player has another time frame left to trap the remaining spiders. Any object touching the computers while the shields are down will raise a chain reaction destroying all computers and leading to a "Game Over" screen. Seems I have no reason anymore to not dig into Slick's particle stuff... http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000024 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000024 SpiderTrap Development blog It's over! Sunday, February 11, 2007, 11:14 PM No no, I meant the "Game over" screen is done %SMILIE_BIG_GRIN% So everything is working now as expected. A new high score is detected, you can enter your name and afterwards a list of all high scores is shown. After pressing Space you'll get back to the title screen. How do you like the new font? Done with Hiero, Slick's font creation tool. Kev, you're great! I can't wait until your internet connection at home is working %SMILIE_WINK% So now most of the framework stuff is done and I will continue adding more game elements and particle effects! Stay tuned!!! http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000023 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000023 SpiderTrap Development blog More progress Tuesday, February 06, 2007, 10:11 PM As you can see: even more graphic tiles. I also changed the map class to allow blocking objects on the ground layer and the object layer. Improves the level design. The first level is also completely redone (it was too difficult for a first level - you need to be able to trap/stun the spiders easily). And I added a second level. Scoring is working and so is the "in between levels" screen which gives you a chance to relax, watch your current score and then continue. A HighscoreList class is also coded and tested which is based on Slick's SavedState class and works for stand alone applications and Webstart applications. Next thing will be entering your name if you reached a high score on the game over screen. And then it's finally back to new game objects like walkers, energy suckers, swinging electricity cables, shooting turrets and powerups. Later, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000022 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000022 SpiderTrap Development blog Progress Tuesday, February 06, 2007, 10:11 PM As you can see I redid the title screen. I also added quite some new graphic tiles. And more stuff on the next paragraph. http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000021 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000021 SpiderTrap Development blog Minor news Sunday, January 28, 2007, 10:07 PM Okay, finally got the main menu animation in the title screen working. Just wrong order in some calculation... Now the active menu item is growing and shrinking - looks pretty nice. I will surely redo the "title maze" that is used to keep the spiders going. Maybe I can write "Spider Trap" as the walls... After some discussion in the forum I chose a simple way to pass information from game elements (like balls, eggs and spiders) to the surrounding game state. So now I can tell the game state "egg destroyed" or "spider stunned" in some smart generic way and react on those events inside the game state without coding game state related stuff in the game elements. So the last few days were mainly work on the base and infrastructure classes. I still need to code the NextLevelState which transfers the player from one level to the next one and shows score and level information and also gives the player a chance to rest a bit %SMILIE_WINK% Unfortunately progess is slow - real life simply is more important than game coding...kids rule our world in more than one way %SMILIE_BIG_GRIN% http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000020 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000020 SpiderTrap Development blog Scrambled eggs? Not yet... Sunday, January 21, 2007, 10:56 PM Okay, got some more things done. Spiders can hatch eggs now after a while. And you'll get more spiders after 5 seconds. Nasty. Unless one of your balls manages to squish the egg. Bye bye, egg... For the egg splash I will try to reuse Virium's blood splatter code. I don't like my pregenerated images this much. The collision handling stuff is improved too. But the collision manager could need some optimization later. If I add a collision tupel balls-spiders and balls-eggs the collision manager could traverse the balls once and check against spiders and eggs at the same time. Later. http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000019 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000019 SpiderTrap Development blog Plonk! Hey, you plonked me! Friday, January 19, 2007, 10:58 PM Not so much to show you tonight but something to tell: <ul><li> Ingame HUD is done,</li><li> added some generic collision code, mainly a CollisionGroup class and a CollisionManager. This stuff is already working and used for spider-spider collisions to wake up stunned spiders,</li><li> title screen is added, but the main menu is not yet properly displayed.</li></ul> Hopefully I have a new screenshot to show next time... http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000018 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000018 SpiderTrap Development blog The spiders are back! Wednesday, January 03, 2007, 10:55 PM Found a few hours tonight and put the spiders back to life. They are walking, changing directions and don't dash their heads to the walls and balls. Fine! I need to fine tune the animation speed a bit and add laying eggs again but that's for the next night. Ingame piccy to the right. If you look closely you'll see that I started coding a HUD (by showing the text "HUD" at the top left - big deal %SMILIE_WINK% ). And did I tell you that debugging Java code is sooo easy? Sometimes I really wonder why I so often waste my time and look at other tools with stupid debuggers (or code fragments that claim to be a debugger...). Sigh. http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000017 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000017 SpiderTrap Development blog I found my balls! Sunday, December 31, 2006, 10:42 PM They were always with me %SMILIE_WINK% Some progress although I only found a few hours to work on the game during christmas days... So I got the balls in, collision is working with walls and computers and other balls and movement is working as expected. Next thing are the spiders and turrets and and and. But all this will happen next year when I feel better than I do now. I am breathing like a train and my head still hurts %SMILIE_FRYING_PAN% http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000016 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000016 SpiderTrap Development blog Where are my balls? Sunday, December 17, 2006, 9:20 PM Right now I'm still struggling with getting my balls on screen (haha, bad joke). The first one already appears if I press '1' but unfortunately all the other 7 images of the other balls appear too... So I must be doing something wrong with the SpriteSheet class. I'll figure this one out first. And then it's for the movement. And then the collision with walls and so on. But as I'm borrowing a few bits and pieces of Kevin's Virium code I should get it to work (maybe during Christmas holidays?) sooner or later. But going the Slick way was a good decision: debugging has become sooo easy - thanks to Java and the great Eclipse IDE! http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000015 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000015 SpiderTrap Development blog First Slick ingame screenshot Saturday, December 02, 2006, 10:18 PM Ok, ok, it's just a first screenshot with just a region of the map, but hey! It's really in game, so the map is already loaded, the center of the area to be displayed is calculated and it's already working so far! Yes! Now let me add some spiders and balls again. Later, Tommy http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000014 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000014 SpiderTrap Development blog A first picture? Saturday, November 25, 2006, 10:01 PM As I told you I "improved" the tileset. Here is a picture of the first test level - exported by the level editor. Each level contains three layers: <ul><li> a ground and wall layer,</li><li> a objects layer and</li><li> a ceiling layer.</li></ul>All pretty simple after I had a little look at the levels of Kevin's demo games you can download at the <a target="_blank" href="http://slick.cokeandcode.com">Slick</a> website. And as Slick is progressing nicely I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to finish this game some day %SMILIE_WINK% http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000013 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000013 SpiderTrap Development blog Back to the future? Wednesday, November 22, 2006, 10:44 PM So I decided to recode the game in Java using <a target="_blank" href="http://slick.cokeandcode.com">Slick</a>. Okay, first let me point you to the current tool chain: <ul><li> Tiles will be created with <a target="_blank" href="http://tilestudio.sourceforge.net/">TileStudio</a>,</li><li> Maps/Levels will be created with <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mapeditor.org/">Tiled</a>, a free Java Tilemap editor,</li><li> Fonts will be created with <a target="_blank" href="http://www.angelcode.com/products/bmfont/">BMFont</a>, one of the best free bitmap font creation tools available,</li><li> Java coding will happen with <a target="_blank" href="http://www.eclipse.org/">Eclipse</a>.</li></ul> Right now I created the Java project and added the first classes. The tiles are updated (I added a few) so that I can start to create a first test level. Then the real coding starts. Sounds like fun! http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000012 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000012 SpiderTrap Development blog It's coming along! Wednesday, November 08, 2006, 11:14 PM What did I add/change? <ul><li> switched to a new font (SF Comic Script),</li><li> redid all the texts (instructions, credits),</li><li> finished laser stuff (destruction of balls and spiders should work fine now),</li><li> added energy bar and game over if energy goes below 0. I still need to add some behavior to "restore" the energy to the proper value if you enter the next level so that you regain your energy for the balls in play,</li><li> added a new enemy: energy suckers. If you collide with them, they drain your energy. Too bad for you %SMILIE_BIG_GRIN% </li></ul> http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000011 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000011 SpiderTrap Development blog Bang! Bang! Wednesday, November 01, 2006, 11:56 PM Haha! Got lasers in and shooting! The bullets are even alpha blended. Looks cool when animated. And I started to add new particle code but that's not finished yet. Although particles are relatively easy in Game Maker it's new to me so I need to fiddle around with particle types, particle systems and particle emitters... http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000010 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000010 SpiderTrap Development blog Progress Sunday, October 29, 2006, 7:50 PM Okay, several things got completed: <ul><li> I got the movement and collision stuff for balls and spiders working (until I detect the next bug %SMILIE_WINK% ),</li><li> I added a text controller object that will be used for displaying the instruction pages, the credits and so on. It smoothly scrolls down from the top of the screen, stays until the player presses a key and scrolls down to leave the screen. The next text controller object is activated automatically or a fallback to the title screen happens,</li><li> I started to model the laser turret in 3D. See the screenshot,</li><li> I also started to model a new 3D spider. The thing missing is animation which means movement of the legs.</li></ul> http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000009 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000009 SpiderTrap Development blog Promised screenshot Thursday, October 19, 2006, 11:41 PM Okay, the screenshot shows the exploding computers. I don't like it (yellow explosions, yikes!). But at least the functionality is in. Improvements will come later. I am still fiddling around with ball and spider control and it's still not working as expected. That sucks big time! I am now working on some object to show the texts for the instruction screens. Afterwards I will tackle balls and spiders again and start adding new functionality like energy you use up when creating balls, lasers that can destroy your balls and so on. I'll keep you posted as usual %SMILIE_WINK% http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000008 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000008 SpiderTrap Development blog Progress Friday, October 06, 2006, 12:00 AM What did I do? <ul><li> Improved the main menu,</li><li> added background music (thanks to Windapple's <a target="_blank" href="http://windapple.gmxhome.de/Bass_w16a.zip">Bass dll wrapper</a>!), </li><li> added some sounds,</li><li> improved spider and ball movements and collisions,</li><li> worked out some code to deal with levels and difficulties and such,</li><li> added timer code,</li><li> added scoring,</li><li> added computer and computer shield (but not yet very impressive looking),</li><li> wrote down some more ideas for the game.</li></ul> I think that's not that bad. I'll keep you posted and next time you'll get another screenshot. Promised. %SMILIE_WINK% http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000007 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000007 SpiderTrap Development blog And more? Friday, September 22, 2006, 9:41 PM The game itself is also started. The player can activate one to eight balls and guide the active one through the maze. Spiders crawl quickly around and need to get trapped by the walls and balls (thus the name of the game, okay?). If they are completely trapped (n, s, e, w) they get stunned and you can use your balls to capture more spiders. But beware! If an active spider touches a stunned spider it awakes and becomes active again. To annoy you even more spiders drop eggs. And after 15 seconds a new spider hatches. Luckily you can destroy eggs with your balls (sounds strange, doesn't it?). All of this is already working! Did I tell you that you have a time limit? And a computer to protect? And that I plan to add more hazards and bonuses? No, I didn't. So you'll have to come back once in a while to get more details. And a beta version. Later. Hang on. I'll keep you posted. Here. By the way: If any of you is a graphics genius and can't resist to provide me with better graphics please contact me! http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000006 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000006 SpiderTrap Development blog So here we are... Friday, September 22, 2006, 9:36 PM The game is currently in some before alpha state. I got the title screen with main menu working but I already have plans how to improve it. The spiders on the title screen are of course moving and the selected menu item is growing and shrinking nicely. http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000005 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000005 SpiderTrap Development blog An idea was born! I decided to implement a game I started two years ago with Blitz Basic 2D which I never finished. This game is SpiderTrap, a remake of an old horrible Speccy game named "Pfui Spinne". Have a look at it <a target="_blank" href="http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek.cgi?regexp=^Pfui+Spinne$&pub=^unknown$">here</a> if you have a Spectrum Emulator available. It's so bad that World of Spectrum don't even offer a screen shot %SMILIE_BIG_GRIN% But I liked the idea. My Blitz remake was frozen cause Blitz 2D didn't offer the effects I wanted to do (scaling sprites was one issue, some alpha blended particles the other one). Game Maker offers all of that so I decided to give it a try. http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000004 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000004 SpiderTrap Development blog And the sign came... in the form of a book! It was not the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy but it was <a target="_blank" href="http://book.gamemaker.nl/">The Game Maker's Apprentice</a>. I ordered the book after summer vacation and read all of it. In a few days. And again. Then I coded most of the games in the book. http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000003 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000003 SpiderTrap Development blog And then was... the void. I am still waiting for Oddbob to release the next issue of his <a target="_blank" href="http://www.rewindmag.co.uk/">Rewind Magazine</a> where he promised to explain some of the marvellous graphics effects of Vector Infector. Oddbob, do you read this? I AM STILL WAITING!!! %SMILIE_WINK% So I went back to PlayBasic waiting for a sign. http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000001 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000001 SpiderTrap Development blog How it all began... As you might already know from my blog, I am cruising around <a target="_blank" href="http://www.gamemaker.nl/">Game Maker</a> for quite a while now. First I browsed the web site. Then I read in the forums. Then I had a look at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.merseyremakes.co.uk/">Oddbob</a>'s game <a target="_blank" href="http://www.bagfullofwrong.co.uk/games/vector.html">Vector Infector</a> which is done with Game Maker. Playing the demo version convinced me: Game Maker certainly was a tool I wanted to get my hands on! A few days later I registered Game Maker for 15 Euro to get all the features and bells and whistles. http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000002 http://www.haaks.net/spidertrap/index.html#bv000002 SpiderTrap Development blog