/agdg/ - Amateur Game Development General

>>22691

Use whatever you want, but I'm personally trying to learn GameMaker.

I'm not really a newbie, but I want to try doing something with just C/SDL and flappy bird seems simple enough.

After this ends, maybe we could collect all the source code and put it all on a single github project and link it on the sticky so other newbies can learn.

Hopefully I can muster out enough motivation to give it a shot. I use javascript and HTML5, if I manage to do something, I'll release the code fully "open source" (un-obfuscated with full comments and everything) in case anyone wants to learn from it or tell me how shit I am at programming.

>>22703

Added some poorly drawn Thwomps and side to side movement. Art is hard.

100% newbie here.

>>22703

How do you make obstacles randomized?

Also, your BG is moving?

>>22757

Place using scripting/procedure, not via room editor.

So, simplest form... increment a variable in Step event. When var is greater than some number, it's time to make a new obstacle. Obstacles should be sized to go offscreen vertically to allow any size you want. Then just make a new obstacle at a random y position, slightly offscreen in terms of x. Then keep scrolling room left.

When obstacle is off left side of screen, destroy it.

>>22757

Assuming you're using game maker, I did it by placing an invisible object that uses two alarms. When Alarm 0 counts down, it places a pipe with an x value of just off screen and a y value of random_range(-400,-100), which is how varying heights work. Then alarm is reset. When alarm 1 counts down, there's a 1 in 3 chance of making a Thwomp.

And the background scrolls at half the speed of the foreground. Use the Hor. Speed box under the Background tab in the room editor to set that.

Should we collect some ideas for the next game we make and strawpoll it?

>>22906

roguelike

>>22906

Maybe some sort of board game with AI?

>>22909

Seconding this, the bare necessities of turn-based, procedural generation and hunger system are not super hard to do, but there's still a lot of room for individual improvement.

What we make next:

http://strawpoll.me/5719756

>>22906

We should do this shit weekly. Little projects to keep us fresh, probably Sunday to Sunday, with a fresh strawpoll for the next game going up with each game, so we can start immediately at the end of the previous jam.

Beyond Flappy Bird, ideas that come immediately to mind for cloning:

* Simple platformer, like Mario.

* Marble maze game.

* Running stages from Lawnmower Man for the ballsy.

* Robot Unicorn attack (or generally any infinite runner)

>>22953

Oh, Breakout as well.

So make game like roguelike game make? Just like make roguelike?

So we're starting this weekend then?

>>23063

Yes, let's start exactly the same time as OP posted to avoid timezone confusions. When that time hits we start making whatever's the top of the list and make a new strawpoll for the next week.

Also since this isn't a competition should we welcome any late contributions and questions about previous games?

It's not like we have too much traffic and someone might still have questions to those who made their entries, especially since entries are often posted at the end of the week.

Don't you guys think roguelike is both a little broad in terms of what it could be, and in terms of scope? Pretty ambitious.

Should maybe go with rogue/nethack style (classic Roguelike, text-based or tile-based) and with a very simple goal.

Keep in mind that procedurally generating rooms is not a simple problem, and not an easy one to cut your teeth on. Would recommend jamming on a few more games before approaching this one.

Unless you're talking about very very simple combat and no procedural generation. But yeah, this seems way outside the scope of 1 week to even get something worth showing.

>>23078

It's maybe broad but it's not overly ambitious.. it's just kind of like a framework you put over a genre.

Like, a roguelike platformer means Mario with 1 life and then maybe a few other things like upgrades, some procedural generation, etc.

I think Roguelike is a fine theme.

And you don't have to have all the staples, you don't NEED procedural generation. some people might say this doesn't count, but who cares, make the game for fun

I think I am going to make a 3D space combat roguelike since I already have much of that for my space game

>>23075

Saturday, noonish.

I'm on board.

>>23075

And not a strawpoll. Use a dynamic poll so people can add options as well.

Something akin to: http://www.rkursem.com/poll/view.php?id=13bb21fa5214fdafc

>>23091

neat

>>23078

>Procedurally generating rooms is not a simple problem

There are a lot of resources out there to help though, and just reading about how some people implemented theirs is a good way to get started. I like the example here https://github.com/mizipzor/roguelike-dungeon-generator which isn't difficult to do if you make a grid based dungeon and even if you don't follow the code in the git you can read the logic.

>>23089

>it's just kind of like a framework you put over a genre.

That's a bitch way out and you know it, for consistancy's sake I think we should avoid that kind of thing since it's not easy to compare results and help other anons out when we're programming apples and oranges

>>23099

Also the reason I personally was pushing for roguelike is because it is complex enough to merit a weekly jam. Stuff like breakout or snake are more of an afternoon-ly jam even if you're challenging yourself by avoiding gamemaker/unity

I agree. A crude roguelike isn't hard to throw together in 5 or so hours. The simplest roguelike is:

* a simple dungeon generator with scaling difficulty and size (roguelike dungeons typically get bigger and harder as you descend), which is a few hours of work at the very most

* some simple RPG logic, which is mostly fine-tuning, setting up data handling and script-handling, again, only a few hours

* Some renderer and movement logic

Everything else is fluff. Audio, items, equippables, skills, anything beyond basic text output, magic system, real graphics, bosses, ending conditions (besides death), hunger, save games, etc.

It's all nice, but unnecessary for getting something basic up, and it can all be tacked on later when the game is functioning.

These jams are about learning and exploration, not about showing off or strutting and making shit you already know will be trivial.

If you're not going to challenge yourself and push yourself out of your comfort zone, why even do it?

And I don't think it's "too broad". I don't see a problem with some challenges being cloning games and others being making a simple game in a genre. I'm fine with one week being "make a platformer" and the next being "make a simple clone of the Game Boy Kirby's Dream Land with just one stage" or something. Copying existing techniques and exploring to develop your own are both valid ways to learn new skills and practice techniques.

Besides, a voting system (especially a dynamic one) helps ensure we won't be wasting time doing something retarded, because it ensures that the jam is something a majority of the people wanted to do.

Lemme check what time it is...

>>23140

It's way past time, nigga. go go go

>>23146

I know, right? Just wanted to post a friendly reminder that week two has started and we're making a roguelike

If anyone feels lost, roguebasin has a nice collections of articles on roguelikes. It's also a good place to check for simple solutions of common problems you might face.

>>23147

Just no respect for the poll >>23091

>>23149

That's the poll for next week's jam.

It's got the dates in the title.

What's the start/end date and time?

>>23151

Sat 10/17 14:35 8chan time - Sat 10/24 14:35 8chan time

>>23152

Okay, so Saturdays at 2:00pm-ish

>>23152

Suggest that we switch it to Noon (or even midnight between Saturday and Sunday) to make things less arbitrary and more evened out.

>>23154

>>23153

>>23154

8chan uses your system timezone, no? 2pm is 2am here for me

>>23159

yes it does, just finish up at the time of the week you see in OP's post

>>23154

No reason I think. Any time is arbitrary.

>>23159

Then we choose a timezone. UTC or Eeastern US time would probably be best.

>>23160

Just seems silly for me to be starting at 13:35 mountain time.

>tfw when I already made one in game maker some time ago

Here, have at it: http://fwinest-jedithug.github.io/flappyjon/

>>23190

We're onto the roguelike now, bud

>>23075

>>23216

I think you should allow late entries. As anon said, not a competition, and the entire point of the jam is to get people motivated to do a game

>>23249

What do "entries" matter unless we're voting on these?

MAKE A NEW THREAD WHEN A NEW ONE STARTS, FAGS

>>23264

Nah, agdg's too slow so we'd just be flooding the board with 10 post threads/

>>23259

I'm still working on my level generator. It kinda works, but the rooms it generates are boring so I'm trying to get it to convert some square rooms into winding hallways, but keep ending up in an infinite loop for some reason.

>>23264

Just to corroborate the other anon, the oldest thread here's latest post is 5 months old. That's enough time for 22 of these jam threads. The board would just be filled with these and nothing else.

>>23264

no

I would even suggest making this one cyclic

Is this week still the rougelike jam?

>>23272

Yes, until Saturday at noonish (not really a hard deadline)

>>23273

The deadline is Saturday at whenever o-clock.

>>23275

I have. I'm adapting an old rendering engine into a new one right now so this can be done in OpenGL before I start on the game engine, so I have little to actually show, but I'm probably going to start on the game proper tonight.

>>23276

>>23277

post code so we can bulli

>>23278

https://gitgud.io/Taywee/openca

This is the project I'm adapting (downloadable at http://www.axfive.net/games.html).

https://gitgud.io/Taywee/roguejam is the current codebase.

Currently, it just is a menu. The main rendering engine is off in a unit test at the moment, and hasn't been merged in yet (because it's not actually functioning).

pls bulli constructively

>>23280

It's still valuable to publicly publish bad code.

You should get into a habit of putting all the code you possibly can public, and you'll improve much more quickly. Worst case scenario, nothing happens. Best case scenario, you can get some pointers and improve as a developer.

>>23281

On the subject of posting bad code, I just finished my level generator in python (it's missing stairs/enemies/items), if anyone wants to take a peek http://pastebin.com/zExPsYxf

>>23280

Nobody will know it's you anyhow.

Also,

>You should get into a habit of putting all the code you possibly can public, and you'll improve much more quickly.

Definitely true. Also, by posting it publicly, you'll feel like you're doing more overall, and will focus your identity of yourself more as a programmer, while contributing to global understanding/development. Can't fucking go wrong.

Making a rogue-like seems interesting, to bad I've only seen this thread now.

I'll try to make something until Saturday.

>tfw been working on a shmup

>realize it would be pretty simple to adapt into a roguelike

i might just enter after all

>>23302

I think these jams should end sometime late on Sundays. That way, people who find out too late or are busy during the week can still devote their entire weekends to the jam, while not impacting the people that do have the time to work on their project all week.

not that I will probably contribute anyway. I got sidetracked by another project.

>>23310

yeah i think people with actual jobs would like to do most of the work in the weekend

>>23310

>>23311

How does it matter? It's still the same week, you either work one day at the beginning, one at the end, or two days at the end or something.

>>23312

people work harder when the deadline is closing in?

>>23312

Because people with jobs spend the week brainstorming and getting boilerplate out of the way, so that they can give it their all on the weekend.

If you get a new project on sunday, you aren't going to have any time to think about it and will probably just do something else that day, when you could have made good use of that time polishing a game that's close to completion.

>>23343

yeah i pretty much got the same thing

enemies will spawn with random buffs and will sometimes drop these on death

you can pick them up by getting close and they will stack on your character

other than that no random map just the one screen

and no difficulty scaling

souce code + executable http://puu.sh/kWRyg/0e773a66fa.zip

wanted to attach mp4 but it won't work

When is the next theme going to get posted?

so what's the idea of this gamejam

is anyone actually gonna play the games posted

do you just post everything in the thread or somewhere else

is anyone even here?

>>23358

I have no idea, it seems like we're about to fuck it up again. I'd suggest to come up with a theme before 22:00 UTC or something. I'd say fuck strawpoll because like 5 people did vote for a roguelike and seems like only one of them (openGL guy) actually tried to make one. I personally didn't vote for RL and I'm not sure about shmup guy so eh.

If we're going to do the next jam, I'd go for a snake or tetris game, it should be easy enough to make but leave enough room for improvisation.

Hard to make it a full-blown contest since there's not enough people and diversity of tools is pretty high. Maybe some sort of scoring system on projects finished? People don't namefag here it's hard to make it work either. Play each other's games? They're too short/simple. It seems like the idea of /agdg/ jam isn't going too well but I'm not really ready to give up yet. And ideas on how we could make it more fun?

>>23361

>>23363

what's the point if no one is even gonna look at any of the games

>>23364

First of all it's done as an exercise. Personally I think it's kind of hard to tell what's the point of looking at each other's games at this stage.

>>23363

>>23364

The point of a game jam is to have fun and learn about making a game, it doesn't really have to be a competitive thing. Shilling on /v/ for more feedback on games or for more participants might help.

>>23365

>>23364

Criticism.

We should be criticizing each other's work.

>>23350

I can't play more than 20 seconds without it crashing.

It's also pretty tough to get to the powerups before they despawn.

>>23370

yeah it keeps crashing randomly and i can't figure out why

i should probably fix that bug before i continue adding features

also the powerups weren't despawning they are being destroyed by projectiles or picked up by enemies, either way i fixed

>>23375

>picked up by enemies

That's pretty cool.

>>23376

yeah unfortunately i didn't really work out gameplay wise so i removed it

now only you pick them up by getting close enough

though when you die you take control of one of the enemies and then you can pick up powerups

updated version here if anyone cares http://puu.sh/kYoth/a66a0793ff.zip

you can teleport now with right click if you have the powerup

which doesn't have a sprite yet so you don't know if you get it

>>23379

im going to be performing heart surgery on my program so here is latest version http://puu.sh/kZIsj/3e19bce47c.zip

the game is semi functional now

every time you change screen the difficulty goes up

which increases the amount of enemies and the level of the enemies

So we just still doing the roguelike?

I'm fine with that. I was going to finish it regardless.

>>23395

yeah i wanted to finish it too

also i think rogeulike is complicated enough to warrant two weeks of development

>>23397

Yeah, I keep finding new TECHNOLOGY to add to it. Currently working or Dijsktra maps.

>>23453

im still working on it too

but im doing some major refactoring and it will be at least another day before i start making actual progress again

>>23453

Any way to implement composite rooms? i.e rooms in L-shapes or the like?

>>23464

Not with the current algorithm, though it's doable.

I'd have to do it by either allowing the room table to include other shapes, allow specific other rooms to overlap in certain situations, or in post-generation by selecting the wall between two rooms that are separated by a wall of width exactly 1 and randomly deciding whether or not to erase it.

I'll probably do the latter of the options.

>>23468

would make more sense to do the first, at least for future-proofing, if you have any intention of doing "room-generation" like most roguelikes, where randomly a predetermined structure gets plopped down onto the map

>>23493

Nah, there's no problem with future proofing. I have the algorithm modularized in a way that tiles are dug in and their type is recorded. Rooms could be any shape and the rest of the script doesn't care about how they were placed or in what way, just which tiles are dug, and which ones are marked as "rooms". I could do it post-hoc without trouble, the only concern is that for the maze-generation to work, rooms have to be odd-number aligned.

Are we ever going to get a new theme?

>>23498

Suggest one, then make a poal.me with the suggestions so we vote.

Suggestion: RPG Battlesystem. Can have teammembers, magic, items, timed attack/defense inputs, whatever you can think of and think you could implement in a week.

>>23500

http://poal.me/7bgfk6

I enabled adding answers

>I wanna finish my roguelike

Then do so, but don't make it the theme of the gamejam again. It's supposed to be a mini-jam so you can focus on a new thing every week, dammit.

So I guess we start on the RPG battlesystem now?

>>23534

The solution is obviously to have a poll on when the poll closes. :^)

Or just pick one of the top two now and work on which you want.

>>22682

any jams going on this week?

>>23614

Looks like it was supposed to be an RPG battle system.

Hate to admit I've been slacking off these weekend, it seemed like more or less a game design thing than actual "implement this and this", I didn't want to go for blatant JRPG combat system so I "took my time" thinking about it instead of implementing something. I guess I'll post something more or less shaped during next week.

So, how everyone else is doing? Is the jam dead yet?

>>23709

It's just poorly organized. You're never going to get much out of this when it's just posting randomly in a random thread.

Like I said a new one should be made every time, so it is organized with the most important info in the OP and there is a fresh start to organize and discuss

I realize there isn't a lot of posting on this board but that doesn't mean this still works as a thread. It doesn't, I specifically don't take part in these because I either never notice, or don't realize there's a new one going, even though I use /agdg/ as my 8ch portal to remind myself to JLMG

So my suggestion is archive the old threads and every time there's a new post, link to the archive of old gamejams. Then delete the old threads and have a new one for the currently started gamejam

>>23712

seems like a pretty good idea

also maybe it's not a bad idea to post the mini-jam threads on /v/ since it would be more active there

also a lot of these mini-jam subjects are good for first/ starting devs

>>23713

To be fair we have yet to finish a minijam with a playable something, I don't understand how /v/ is going to help

>>23712

I disagreed initially, but this seems like a good idea. It's more organized, more focused, less general, and would garner more interest as well. If it floods the board, it only pushes off threads that are months dead anyway.

>>23721

just delete the old thread after the jam is over and the flooding won't be a problem

New thread: >>23731

>>22682

sorry guys the happening was too big this weekend, I couldn't do it ;_;

>>23868

None of us did it, anon.

>>23872

We did something, the theme was utter shit though and we were trying to cram RPG where RPG didn't go.

so the last agdg minijam ended yesterday and i can't find anything about a new one /agdg/ and i kind of want to start another one

i think ill make new thread on /agdg/ and a duplicate on /v/ when we get a new theme

https://poal.me/jz003e i made a new poll for the theme you can add your own answers if you can think of something better

should have probably done this sooner i don't think i should start the thread before we get a good theme

last theme was fucking retarded

>>23893

>3 votes for "just let me work on my rougelike"

Holy shit do you guys even know what a game jam is?