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CJB
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20
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Joined: 10th Feb 2004
Location: Essex, UK
Posted: 19th Sep 2014 00:10 Edited at: 19th Sep 2014 00:17
So here is the beginnings of my game where you are a caveman riding a bike (with wheels made of stone) over a landscape littered with obstacles that you need to jump over, carefully ride over, smash through etc.etc. (think Kick-Start meets The Croods). I have only built this early version of the level editor at this time:

(Can I add movies to posts like this?)
Level Editor Clip
(you'll probably need to right click and save as)

So far you can draw the landscape for the selected level, drop and place objects onto the landscape, select the foreground, background, landscape textures, and music for the level. You can save the level which creates atlas images and tile maps for the landscape (the white landscape in the editor is only a mask that is analysed to build the textured atlas images), BOX2D collision data for landscape, along with all the position data for the objects that have been dropped. It's all working as I'd like so far, but I have a long way to go.

My art is not good. If anyone would like to contribute some images to the game, I'll gladly give my thanks and credits in the finished version! I need fun cartoon style objects, caveman, bike (with stone wheels!) etc. I'll be posting more as the development... develops![href]null[/href]

29 games
18
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Joined: 23rd Nov 2005
Location: not entirely sure
Posted: 24th Sep 2014 19:59
I had a quick look through the video and liked the landscape sculpting, I thought that was quite clever. I also like the idea of a dirt bike style game, I'm quite a fan of those.

On a slightly separate note, you'd probably get more response if you created a youtube account and embedded your videos and added a screen shot. The easiest way is to added it as a download and then link it as an image to your post.

Lastly, "kick-start"? If you remember that show you must be ancient

CJB
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Joined: 10th Feb 2004
Location: Essex, UK
Posted: 10th Oct 2014 22:33 Edited at: 10th Oct 2014 22:34
Thanks 29 games! Ancient?

So here's my first attempt at posting a Youtube video clip of the level editor:



please let me know if it plays okay.

Thanks!

CJB
Valued Member
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Joined: 10th Feb 2004
Location: Essex, UK
Posted: 5th Nov 2014 10:54
Coding in spare time is hard work with three kids and a full time job, but I am making good progress! My graphics are really bad, so to save time, I have changed the theme of the first version of this game from "cave-man on a bike" to "sci-fi neon glow" (much easier to draw). Elements completed so far:

For The Level Editor:
* Select Level
* Select background image for level
* Select Foreground image for level
* Select Music
* Select landscape texture
* Draw terrain
* Drop and place objects onto terrain
* Build atlas textures for terrain
* Save

For The Actual Game:
* Main Menu (with animated background)
* Pause Menu (activates with back button)
* Options (with volume sliders)
* Transition effects between screens
* Sparkler effects (particles)
* Level Selection screen

One of the main development goals is to make this game very easy to skin so once it is complete I will be able to make a new version within a few weeks with minimal coding effort.

I'll post up some screenshots this evening.

Blendman
10
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Joined: 17th Feb 2014
Location: Arkeos
Posted: 5th Nov 2014 12:11
Hi

It's interesting.
What are the "Transition effects between screens" ? Fadein, fadeout or other effect ?

In your video, how do you do to draw the terrain ?

http://www.dracaena-studio.com
CJB
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Joined: 10th Feb 2004
Location: Essex, UK
Posted: 5th Nov 2014 13:40
The transition effect dims the active screen and slides the new screen into place from the left (with tween overshoot - looks nice! I'll post a vid tonight. I can't right now because I'm in work.).

To draw the terrain, you use the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard to scroll left and right, and left click with the mouse where you want the new terrain to be. It creates a whole load of 32 pixel wide polys and saves all the coordinates for building the box2d collision data. It also knows if you are trying to move an object rather than change the terrain by simply checking if you have clicked on one of those object sprites first. It's working well and saves/loads levels as expected.

I intend tidying up the level editor and give it a bit more functionality, but it does the job for this early stage of development.

CJB
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Joined: 10th Feb 2004
Location: Essex, UK
Posted: 5th Nov 2014 23:47 Edited at: 5th Nov 2014 23:47
Here's a quick clip of the menu functionality:



baxslash
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Joined: 26th Dec 2006
Location: Duffield
Posted: 6th Nov 2014 09:43
Love the menu CJB. I wish I could get as much done, I also have 3 kids and a full time job... don't know how you do it
CJB
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Joined: 10th Feb 2004
Location: Essex, UK
Posted: 7th Nov 2014 01:54 Edited at: 7th Nov 2014 02:15
Thanks baxslash. Just got to burn the midnight oil buddy!

I have got my sparkly volume sliders working now. Here's a vid:



haliop_New
User Banned
Posted: 7th Nov 2014 12:21
looks really good
can you explain how to create such a terrain? is it 2D or 3D ?
CJB
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Joined: 10th Feb 2004
Location: Essex, UK
Posted: 7th Nov 2014 12:49
Thanks haliop_New!

It is all 2d (so far!). For the landscape, I created an array to store the coordinates which get updated with the pointer position if the mouse button is held down. Scrolling is handled with setviewoffset using the left and right cursor keys. I use the coordinates in the array to draw filled polygons in white which are later scanned and used as a bit-mask to build atlas textures when the level is saved. The finished terrain, when loaded in the actual game, will be properly textured with the image selected in the editor. It's possible to open up the generated atlas image in a paint program for finishing touches (addition of static elements, plants, grass etc). Plus there will be some nice parallax effects happening with foreground and background images

My goal for the weekend is to get a level loaded into the game. This is the fun bit! Once I have this, I can worry about adding collectable items, bonuses, upgrades etc. So much still to do! Wish I had more time to do it!









haliop_New
User Banned
Posted: 7th Nov 2014 12:58
take your time man..
i wish you could post a code about how to create such a terrain , it is very impressive.

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