All I can say about it is the following...
June 6, 2012
March 2, 2012
Game Maker: Walking Up/Down Slopes
As an avid Game Maker user for 1.5 years now, I've run into quite a few problems that are rarely if ever addressed by tutorials or documentation. This post will hopefully be the first of many to address some of the problems I've come across and how I've solved them. If you're using Game Maker to craft your own game, or even if you are using another engine, I hope you find this helpful. Now, on to today's problem...
Problem:
I want my character to walk up and down angled slopes, but my character just collides with things and then stops, even if it's only a 1 degree incline! Help!
This problem can be handled in many ways, but the easiest I've found is to use what I've dubbed an "angle sweep". In simple terms, your character will, every step, check a number of points at various angles in front of it to determine where it can walk.
How do we do that? Luckily for you, I've written a script to take care of it! I've included two versions. One has a ton of comments to explain exactly what the script is doing, and the other doesn't.
I've written out the script below so you can see what you're getting yourself into before you download, and I've included a video so you can see the script in action. Have fun!
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Script: Walking up/down slopes.
// Written by Seth Coster of Stoz Studios (www.stozstudios.com)
// Paste this into a script named something like "scr_Walk".
// Call this script in the key presses of your character which are for movement.
// When calling the script, use scr_Walk("left") to move left, and scr_Walk("right") to move right.
// Note: This script assumes the character has a variable called "movespeed" which determines how many pixels the character moves at a time. Use 10 as your base movespeed and tweak it from there.
// First we check which direction to walk.
if argument0 = "left" {
dir = -1
}
else if argument0 = "right" {
dir = 1
}
// Now that we have the direction, it's time to do the angle sweep. Since this will occur in a loop, it sweeps over a crapload of angles every step.
anglesweep = -90+40*dir; // This is the starting point of the sweep, in degrees.
anglerem = 100; // We're going to use a 100-degree sweep.
pathclear = 0; // "pathclear" is a toggle switch. If we find a path to walk, it gets set to "1" and we break the loop.
while (anglerem >= 0 && pathclear = 0){
anglesweep += 5*dir; // We're doing 5-degree jumps in our sweep.
anglerem -= 5; // Decrease "anglerem" by the degrees in each angle interval.
// Using the lengthdir function, we grab the x,y coordinates of the target location found for the current angle.
groundspotx = x+lengthdir_x(movespeed,anglesweep)
groundspoty = y+lengthdir_y(movespeed,anglesweep)
// Then, we check if the spot is free and if there's ground beneath it.
if place_free(groundspotx,groundspoty) && !place_free(groundspotx,groundspoty+5)
pathclear = 1 // If so, HOORAY! The path is clear for walking. If not, "pathclear" will stay at 0 and the loop will end after checking its 100 degree sweep.
}
// The loop is now finished. Time to check if we have clear ground to walk on, and if we are already on the ground.
if (pathclear == 1 && !place_free(x,y+1)){
// First, change the character's X and Y coordinates to the destination.
x+=lengthdir_x(movespeed,anglesweep)
y+=lengthdir_y(movespeed,anglesweep)
move_contact_solid(270,15) // This will drop the character to contact with the ground if he ended up a few pixels above it.
vspeed = 0 // Not required, but useful at times.
hspeed = 0 // Not required , but useful at times.
}
// If we failed the "path clear" test, we check to see if we're airborne. If so, we just move right/left in midair.
else if place_free(x+lengthdir_x(movespeed, 90-90*dir), y)
x += dir*max(movespeed-abs(hspeed), 0)
// Last if we aren't airborne and have no clear path to walk, we'll just move to contact the closest solid obstacle.
else{
move_contact_solid(90-90*dir, max(movespeed-abs(hspeed), 0))
movingleft = 0
movingright = 0
}
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// COMMENT-FREE VERSION
// Script: Walking up/down slopes.
// Written by Seth Coster of Stoz Studios (www.stozstudios.com)
// Paste this into a script named something like "scr_Walk".
// Call this script in the key presses of your character which are for movement.
// When calling the script, use scr_Walk("left") to move left, and scr_Walk("right") to move right.
// Note: This script assumes the character has a variable called "movespeed" which determines how many pixels the character moves at a time. Use 10 as your base movespeed and tweak it from there.
if argument0 = "left" {
dir = -1
}
else if argument0 = "right" {
dir = 1
}
anglesweep = -90+40*dir;
anglerem = 100;
pathclear = 0;
while (anglerem >= 0 && pathclear = 0){
anglesweep += 5*dir;
anglerem -= 5;
groundspotx = x+lengthdir_x(movespeed,anglesweep)
groundspoty = y+lengthdir_y(movespeed,anglesweep)
if place_free(groundspotx,groundspoty) && !place_free(groundspotx,groundspoty+5)
pathclear = 1
}
if (pathclear == 1 && !place_free(x,y+1)){
x+=lengthdir_x(movespeed,anglesweep)
y+=lengthdir_y(movespeed,anglesweep)
move_contact_solid(270,15)
vspeed = 0
hspeed = 0
}
else if place_free(x+lengthdir_x(movespeed, 90-90*dir), y)
x += dir*max(movespeed-abs(hspeed), 0)
else{
move_contact_solid(90-90*dir, max(movespeed-abs(hspeed), 0))
movingleft = 0
movingright = 0
}
January 29, 2012
Towel Fight of the Gods
- rkj1337 (Youtube)
"This is why game designers should get free drugs."
- Wurminfektion (Youtube)
"I want banana arms."
- bigp3rm (Reddit)
You've been warped from your shower into the arena of the gods. Your arms are bananas. Fight for the favor of Pete or Quetzal and tip the scales of fate in your favor.
Platform/System: Windows
Brief Play Description:
WASD: Move
1234: Choose Weapons
Mouse: Aim
Left-Click: Fire
You are caught in a war between Pete, the god of the sea, and Quetzalcoatl, the god of the land. Your arms have been replaced with bananas. Choose a side, and use your animal cannon to blast cyborg chainsaw geese and jet sharks INTO OBLIVION!
Note: Towelfight of the Gods is also great for teaching children about animals.
"What does the whale say?"
"EEWWOOOOOORREEROOOOOOOWOOOOOORRRR!"
"EEWWOOOOOORREEROOOOOOOWOOOOOORRRR!"
January 25, 2012
January 19, 2012
Project 87 Wallpaper
HEY! We got a fancy-pantsy new Project 87 wallpaper ready for the snagging. Or maybe snogging.
Click the image to enlarge! The image, I mean. Not yourself. Or perhaps both... I won't judge.
Haven't picked up your copy of P87 yet? Hit up the demo!
December 24, 2011
Humerus?
Aloha, gangsters and gangstresses!
My apologies for the sparse posts of current. I have been residing in India for the past month and will be here for another month more, and for many resulting reasons my game development time has been a bit more constricted than usual. Also, I have grown addicted to Reddit, which is apparently a black hole for my brain.
HOWEVER, I have been hard at work hashing out new game ideas as well as finishing old ones. Buried Alive has undergone some major overhauls. First and foremost, I got frankly SICK AND TIRED of writing boring dialogue. Despite the fact that the game is about a man trapped in an underground cave who wants nothing in life but to rescue his wife, which I admit is a serious topic, I had for some reason made a conscious effort to suppress my urge to write goofy dialogue. Well, NO MORE.
I went back and rewrote every single sentence of dialogue, and I am happy to say that the result is... interesting. Now, interesting can mean "great" or it can mean "horrible." I'm not concerned with matters of preference; what's important here is that the dialogue is not boring.
I want to ensure that this beast is as shiny and slick as possible with the right amount of polish and gusto, so I am holding off on announcing any kind of release date. Like a wizard, Buried Alive will arrive precisely when it means to.
My apologies for the sparse posts of current. I have been residing in India for the past month and will be here for another month more, and for many resulting reasons my game development time has been a bit more constricted than usual. Also, I have grown addicted to Reddit, which is apparently a black hole for my brain.
HOWEVER, I have been hard at work hashing out new game ideas as well as finishing old ones. Buried Alive has undergone some major overhauls. First and foremost, I got frankly SICK AND TIRED of writing boring dialogue. Despite the fact that the game is about a man trapped in an underground cave who wants nothing in life but to rescue his wife, which I admit is a serious topic, I had for some reason made a conscious effort to suppress my urge to write goofy dialogue. Well, NO MORE.
Note: Yes, this scene depicts a wife trying to get her husband back instead of the other way around. I'm not concerned with such technicalities.
I went back and rewrote every single sentence of dialogue, and I am happy to say that the result is... interesting. Now, interesting can mean "great" or it can mean "horrible." I'm not concerned with matters of preference; what's important here is that the dialogue is not boring.
I want to ensure that this beast is as shiny and slick as possible with the right amount of polish and gusto, so I am holding off on announcing any kind of release date. Like a wizard, Buried Alive will arrive precisely when it means to.
November 23, 2011
To India!
Hello, readers!
I've got a few announcements. First and foremost, development on Buried Alive is going to slow down a tad, as I'm about to board a plane to visit family in India within a few days. Add that to the typical Thanksgiving holiday shenanigans, and it's definitely bound to be a fairly busy time. But I do plan on charging full steam ahead with the intent of finishing Buried Alive and getting it ready for testing within about 5-6 weeks.
In other news, Project 87 is slated for release in Japan through Japanese Indie distributor Playism. We're still working through the translation process (which has proved to be somewhat tedious), but it's coming along great. They have a very efficient and hard-working crew who have been really helpful so far.
I'll keep posting updates pretty regularly from India, so stay tuned for more Buried Alive!
I've got a few announcements. First and foremost, development on Buried Alive is going to slow down a tad, as I'm about to board a plane to visit family in India within a few days. Add that to the typical Thanksgiving holiday shenanigans, and it's definitely bound to be a fairly busy time. But I do plan on charging full steam ahead with the intent of finishing Buried Alive and getting it ready for testing within about 5-6 weeks.
In other news, Project 87 is slated for release in Japan through Japanese Indie distributor Playism. We're still working through the translation process (which has proved to be somewhat tedious), but it's coming along great. They have a very efficient and hard-working crew who have been really helpful so far.
I'll keep posting updates pretty regularly from India, so stay tuned for more Buried Alive!
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