[PROTOTYPE FOR DOWNLOAD!] Why is the princess inside of a magic forest?!

[cridia]

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Because of a class of school, I have decided to do a little side-project alongside of my Pirates Adventure game. This game being a whole lot less complex in execution (well, that is the plan at the very least).

Anyway, the goal of the game is simple; you have an avatar which you have to get to the end of a level by placing items to guide it. As the player you place items on a grid and then start the "solution", where the avatar will start to move automatically. In the meantime, everything in the world tries to eat you, kill you, experiment on you or do otherwise naughty things to your avatar! I am not planning to take this game too seriously, so expect stuff like wizard experiments, angry grass and blackholes in the middle of the forest!

Anyway, so far I have got a very basic prototype going, in which the following things work;

• Avatar turns left when hitting the border or a rock
• Avatar turns into a certain direction when hitting the arrow (the direction of the arrow is not yet indicative of the direction the avatar will go)
• Basic interface (the Blaat was put there to see whether the interface was loaded correctly) plus working custom mouse
• In the background the game creates a grid of the level based on a certain "grid volume"

Anyway, the first video!

[cridia]

AAAND a new video! This time I got the mouse functionality pretty much almost down. Now the mouse location gets deprojected correctly, and a decal is placed on the grid accordingly. The snapping bit is a small function that calculates the position based on which "gridsegment" the deprojected mouselocation is in. If the location is out of bounds, the decal is turned off until the mouse comes into bounds again.

This update is more significant than just the mouse though. Since I can now determine basic grid location, I can also start implementing functionality that makes the Pawn only behave when it has reached the center of a grid segment. This is gonna make implementing new functionality in the game much more easy. Anyhoo, the video:

[cridia]

And the third video already!

This time it was time to get the grid mostly up and functional. Now all the player effects and movement are determined through the grid. Because I can activate all the effects based on where the player is within any gridspace, the effects now activate the moment the player reaches the middle of a gridsegment, as they should. Collision detection is now also handled by the grid.

Another thing I implemented was basic items. Well, item to be honest. Not much too it, apart from a very crude implementation (the player sets an item based on the mousedecal location, when pressing the left mouse). In the actual version, there is going to need to be distinction between areas that cannot have items, replacing an item with another and obviously, just placing the item.

So with this, I am one step closer to an actual playable version with a makeshift level editor as well (since everything can be easily placed using the UDK; the game itself detects all the effects)! Soon I can probably also start making it look fancy!

[sbetween]

Videos are unavailable due to privacy settings. Just a heads up. Its better if you use Youtube or Vimeo.

Edit: Here's the error that the above videos display.

[cridia]

Heh? That's weird, I could have sworn I set the videos to public. Kinda annoying; I can't put them on a different source until next week Saturday. Ah well, as soon as I have access to the PC again, I will put them in Vimeo instead.

<edit>Hmm, I DID have them set to public. No idea why you cannot watch them...

[Graylord]

I can see them, seems to be sbetween's settings.

[Private Tux]

Great project mate () but the thing is the embedded videos from Facebook kinda sucked to me (maybe the old browsers are not compatible for watching videos).

[cridia]

You mean that the quality of the videos are low or that they don't buffer all that well?

I have also posted the videos on my Deviantart account, though I do not know whether you have to be a member or not to be able to view them.

[RNG]

I also can't see the videos, but I don't have a facebook account so maybe thats the issue?

[cridia]

Okay, I will post the videos to a different site as well then. It has to wait though; I won't be back to the PC with the videos for another week (it's holiday in Japan right now).

[Obsidiaguy]

Very cool stuff cridia! I hope you finish this, as it would be fun to play I'm sure!

[cridia]

No worries about that. I am making this game specifically for the reason of being able to create a playable within a short amount of time as possible Unlike the Pirates Adventure project, this one being is made in such a way that creating new content should be a breeze. Well apart from testing of course

[cridia]

And a new video has been created!

This time the new features are as follows;
1. The grid calculation system is now where I want it. At first it was only able to calculate objects with a 1x1 range, but now the system can also cope with sizes bigger than that.
2. Basic enemies have been added, where I can customize the effect radius as well. A small addition is all that is needed to create separate effects based on where objects enter the enemy range (right now it only distinguishes between "kill it" and "don't kill it").
3. Items that can be placed can also be destroyed, but will wait with being destroyed until the player starts the "solution".

The things that I want to add to the enemies is basic pathing. But considering all the functionality already present, that is not gonna be a big hurdle. I am guessing that with the current progress and the amount of stuff I still need to do, it should take no longer than 2 weeks before I can start doing the leveldesign. Obviously, with WIP graphics

Anyhoo, as for the video;


I have also uploaded all the videos (including this one) to my Youtube account for all the people who couldn't watch them before! From now on I will post the video to both Facebook and Youtube

Gametest 01: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzVawc8IU6Y
Gametest 02: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHRc1qJQiCA
Gametest 03: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6daAU3rZ-84
Gametest 04 (this one): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL6v2ijBKBw

[Private Tux]

Thanks for posting these on YouTube.

[cridia]

And now for the logo of the game! Title is in Japanese because the game is being made for a Japanese class. There are probably some errors in it though :P

Anyway, the title is intentionally that large. Since the entire game is going to be a weird mishmash of randomness (suicidal wizards, explosive sheep, stuff like that), I figured "why have the title abide by established conventions". So there you have it; long title is loooong

[cridia]

Sorry guys, it has been quite a while. Anyway, I have actually got a prototype for you guys to download and play!

Keep in mind, this is still a very early WIP. I prepared this particular version originally to present at the final presentation for the class I made this game for, so it was made with the knowledge that I know how to operate the game and how the levels are constructed. So there are still quite a few things missing, such as graphics for certain hazards (right now a lot of hazards share the same model, so it is probably quite unclear as to what is what), a more indepth interface and help messages on how to play the game. Also keep in mind that this is not for playtesting; a playtest version will be put out later, when I have at least the things mentioned above in it.

Anyhoo, as for the installer, find it here: http://www.filebox.com/rk23ptzc2g6c

The game controls as follows;

1 = switch to GO UP item
2 = switch to GO RIGHT item
3 = switch to GO DOWN item
4 = switch to GO LEFT item
5 = switch to ROCK item (makes the avatar go left upon touching it, like a wall)
6 = switch to WARP item (makes the avatar warp three spaces ahead, if there is room to do so)
PageUp = kill avatar
PageDown = quit game
ENTER = start solution
Right Mouse = place item

The goal of the game is to make the avatar reach the red box (the goal). You can do this by first placing items so that the avatar can reach the end while avoiding any hazards. After you think you have placed all the items you need, you press enter to make the character start moving. During this "solution" phase, you cannot place any items anymore (only when the avatar is killed, or you proceed to the next level). For the moment, the items are set to 9 each; obviously for the final version this is gonna differ a whole lot.