An Ozzie in Boston

So here's where I do a post after a long hiatus...

"Shuffles in meekly"

Soooooooo, I said I'd update this blog with some stuff I was doing during the last post on April the 25th... Now it's June the 9th.... Riiiiiight.

Oh well, I'm getting back into the swing of blogging again, and this is what I was working on last month! It's the blog for the WPF game I'm currently working on, INhumanE. I've made a draft video of the title page and put it up on YouTube, where it will undoubably be picked apart by angry internet men.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Oh, and since I've built a new PC at my house, I'll probably start taking my small laptop to and from work, which means I can start working on the game and blog posts on the 3 hours I generally spend in commute every single weekday....

Which I'm looking forward to. Probably get more "Relocation to Boston" Posts as well. I'd rather make this blog useful rather than self-indulgent. Make me look like less of a wanker. Argueably.

WPF Game Design - What level measures what?

So one of the things that I'll be doing with the storyline of InHUMANe is linking several actions the character performs to the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) which will then affect the way transitions from levels will play out, and what happens to the screen in what I guess I'll call "freak out" moments. The following table was basically ripped out of Wikipedia here:

So here are the 10 things measured by the MMPI, and where they end up in the game:

Number	Abbrv.	Description	What is Measured	Stage Measured
1	Hs	Hypochondriasis	Concern with bodily symptoms	2, 5.
2	D	Depression	Depressive Symptoms	1, 5
3	Hy	Hysteria	Awareness of problems and vulnerabilities	2,3,4,6,7
4	Pd	Psychopathic Deviate	Conflict, struggle, anger, respect for society's rules	3,6
5	MF	Masculinity/Femininity	Stereotypical masculine or feminine interests/behaviors	1,3,5
6	Pa	Paranoia	Level of trust, suspiciousness, sensitivity	4,5,6,
7	Pt	Psychasthenia	Worry, Anxiety, tension, doubts, obsessiveness	Whole game.
8	Sc	Schizophrenia	Odd thinking and social alienation	5, 6
9	Ma	Hypomania	Level of excitability	Whole Game.
0	Si	Social Introversion	People orientation	Whole Game.

 

It'll actually be interesting to see just how well I can put this into the game, without it coming off as contrieved or "shoehorned" in. The game will have to be fun as well. I mean, it won't be interesting to play a game that makes you feel like you're laying down on a lounge chair for hours. It's more to try and make the game more interesting, and have people replay it to see all the different outcomes for each level. I don't think I've actually put up what the different stages are, but I won't be doing that for some time...

Anyway, this is far too wordy - Here's a picture!

This is what we get up to at work. It was a birthday party. FUN! HAPPI!

Game Design Update : Basic Movement Done!

Ok, I'll put up a picture tonight - So wait till then please.

Stumbled across this post about game design from 2D Boy, which seriously summerizes some parts of my life, apart from game design. But yeah, the more I think about stuff, the more likely I am to stuff it up, so I seriously need to stop thinking. Anyways, back to game stuff. The 2D Boy blog itself is inspirational when it comes to gettting pysched up to make a game, so I recommend anyone thinking about it or interested in indie games in general to check it out. If you don't know 2D Boy made a indie game called World of Goo which is charming and innovative all at the same time. Since it was only made by 2 people (and some contractors, I think) it's amazing what can be done.

So I've now got a basic rectangle person (need to get an art person soonish, when the engine is all done) who can move in 8 directions and will look where ever the mouse is within the window. So there's the basic person movement done. I might try and do shooting and crouching for the person next. And for AI, I'll probably start off with the main character's dog, who will introduce the player to distraction of AI, vision of AI and sound of AI, without the whole getting hunted down thing. The story I posted a couple of weeks ago was the basis for the introductory level, so that explains how I'll tie in teaching game mechanics to the story.

So the plan for the next couple of weeks is:

Week 1: Finalise character movement.

Week 2-3,4 (When ever): Design Dog and AI.

Week X-X+N: Design "Block" class - this will be used to create walls and such in maps.

After all that: Start making some maps.... much easier said then done.

I'll upload the code when I get home. Bear in mind that everything is extremely draft, but hopefully some people may find it useful. 

Game Update - Story Screen and useful books

So I've been plugging away at the game, and I've almost got a person moving on screen. The picture above is a storyline picture. This will appear between stages, as the character has their talk with a doctor. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a fair few Rorschach test images and use them for the transition scenes as well. I'll also replace the big cream background with maybe a 3D scene. I'm not sure though.

When I've got something half decent - like a moving person, key board input and some animation - I'll put a bit of the source code up if people would like to see it and learn from it. I've just received a stack of WPF, C# and XNA books to help out.

The books that are really helpful so far are:

Windows Presentation Foundations Unleashed - This is probably the best book out there for learning how to use WPF - it shows you exactly how to use WPF, and everything is in color, making reading the code much easier.

C# 3.0 Design Patterns - This book is good if you want to understand an easy way to set classes in your game up. For instance, the game loop would use a "Command" behavioral patter, and your AI in a game is likely to use the "State" pattern.

Beginning XNA 2.0 Game Programming - The book is very good for good when you want to get into the nitty gritty of XNA programming. It show you how to make game loops, 2D and 3D animations, and much more.

So I'm reading through those at the moment, hopefully I'll learn a thing or two to show off next week.

In terms of other games I'm looking at right now, Braid is finally now on PC, and you can get a demo here. The newSilent Hill coming out on Wii is looking amazing! Kinda jealous that they are using an idea I was thinking of using for my game (The whole doctor in between levels thing) for their game. I better hurry up and get my game out too. Some of the Wii specific stuff they have set up is pretty intense.

WPF Video Game - Draft Title Page for inHUMANe

Oof, after about 3 hours, this is about as far as I've got for a title page. Unfortunately, this picture doesn't show the animation in the buttons, or the time taken to create a logo that a) looked cool (hopefully) and b) carried some of the meaning behind the story.

So from doing this, I've learnt:

- How to use the new canvas controls to ensure animations keep buttons in the same place (Big one.)

- How to create templates to change base controls (Those circles are actually buttons, with their own animations and changes depending on where you put your mouse.)

-How to put images into a WPF Form (It's a bit different to a Windows Form.)

-How several of the new events fired by buttons now work.

-How to make a kinda cool logo. Now I need to animate it, and have a animated background. That'll be good to learn for animation I'll need to be doing in the future.)

The main reason that I'm starting my own game is that a) I've wanted to do it for ages, and b) the Rock, Paper, Shotgun blog has been showing all these cool indie games for ages, that always have really cool ideas. So hopefully this one will be halfway as cool as the game that made me break down and actually want to make one myself after reading about it, the new game by Tale of Tales, The Path. Just tried it out today, as it was released, and it really is an interesting experience.

Programming - Nerd alert! I'm writing a vidja game.

So one of the latest projects that I'll be working with some other people on involves WPF and Silverlight, so in order to learn about it I'm going to start developing a video game using VS2008. The story line is done, and hopefully I'll have a test engine working for it at the end of next month. I'll write a bit about what I find each week. After writing the following storyline, I’m pretty damn excited to get some work done on it tonight!

So far the storyline is this:

You are sitting in a cream painted room. The paint is flaking away, showing the concrete underneath. There is disgusting smelling mould on the paint in the corners of the room. The only things in the room are two chairs and a table, a huge mirror that covers half the west wall, next to what you think could be a door.

You have been strapped to your chair!

Someone in a white coat opens the door to your room.

"How did I get here?" you demand.

The woman says, "You really are a forgetful guy, aren't you hun?" She clicks her fingers, and two guards grab your head.

"HUUUUUUH" you grunt as you shake your head, trying to get them off.

The woman in a white coat pulls out a strange looking silver device and says, "Sir, we've been through this procedure many times before, please just look into this device here and wait."

You shut your eyes, but the guards force them open, and the woman in the white coat shoves the device in front of your eyes. It flashes....

Black....

Nothing but black....

Who am I?

Where am I?

You've just returned from a trip to Alice Springs with your pregnant wife, back to the most isolated city in the world, Perth. You both had a great time, but you had a few arguments here and there, about silly things.

So you get home, unpack,  and play with your dog outside while your wife settles down, tired from the stress of carrying a second person inside her for a plane trip, a holiday and finally a long taxi ride home.

After playing with your dog outside, you go inside to where your wife is watching TV. Everything seems calm, and you settle into your favorite couch, ready to have a well deserved nap after a long trip home. Your eyes begin to flutter when suddenly; you hear a loud ringing noise in your head. Your head begins to sting, as if you've had a spear thrown through it!

You look over at your wife, who is screaming in shock! Startled, you look at her, and see her body start convulsing. You see the normally cream lounge she is sitting on gradually become crimson, starting from where she is sitting down to the floor. She screams "BABY!" and passes out. Not much sooner, the ringing in your ears and the pain in your head causes you to black out.

The last thing you hear is "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIF"

Black again....

Nothingness...

What is the point?

Why bother trying?

Then a FLASH!

….your eyes can’t make out anything distinguishable, as you can’t get the fuzz out of your eyes.

A few seconds later, you realize, you are back in the cream room, in a cold sweat. The woman in the white coat is studying the back of her silver device intently, as if reading. “The first jump back is always the hardest.” She snaps his fingers again, “Guards, take him away.” You can barely keep your eye lids open, and you can’t feel your body. The guards unshackle you, and your body falls limp on the table.

Blackness again envelops your senses.