sidescrolling game engine
iuri
This user hasn't shared any biographical information
Homepage: https://rockbot.upperland.net/
Posts by iuri
loading…
Dec 14th
Last week I found that SDL was ported to Nintendo DS, so I tought that it would be a great thing to port Rockbot to it – I would love to recreate Rockman 9 and 10 to play on my DS once Capcom do not port it. Actually, the first reason I decided to create the whole Rockbot project was because I was angry Capcom did not wanted to port a game that is NES like to old platforms such as Playstation 2 and I do not have money, nor desire, to buy a new generation console.
But well, once settled the idea, I had to build all the DS SDK and SDL libraries, that showed to be a chalenge, because the SDL port was to an old version of the devkit and I had to fix some bugs before having an working dev enviroenment to build some tests. Once it was done, phase two started, I have to diminish memory usage from 46 MB to less than 4MB, that is Nintendo DS limit.
Now comes the fun part, most programmers today are just lazy to optimize code and take as much memory as he can get, and often people find that the good games are the ones that need a complete upgrade on your system, so you can have and ultra modded PC with internal lazer lights, water cooling and other pimp foolishes. Gladly videogames are not plagued by this upgrade-often fashionism. So, first thing is to use smaller variables, as I’m dealing with values under 64k, all integers were converted to short. Next step is to limit color usage to 256 colors, using web-safe palette, that is nice because looks more like old NES 8 bits style. Finally, we can’t load the whole stage in memory, because it is the thing that uses more space, as the program core footset by itself is very small. So, I’ve lowered the size of the map, and now the game uses only just around 5.1 MB in RAM!
But we need more, so I plan to use the same tricks old NES games used: breacking the stage in parts. Remember how slow was the scrolling when you changed screens on a starircase? Always wondered why some games had a middle-boss room? This is why, in that moment, you just freed one map, and loaded a new one. So, I believe soon, we’ll be able to reduce the memory usage to 3MB.
Next step is learn how to edit the makefiles from SDL+DS examples to compile Rockbot to Nintendo DS and test. But as holidays are near, for now I’ve work on intro and graphics.
In other news:
– you can skip intro by pressing enter
– started to work on a tileset to build a scenary
– made a build to test PS2, works OK but still have bugs with delay/waiters
– PS2 needs adjustments to load necessary drivers according to the unity is is running from, also, set the FILEPATH with it.
– needs to re-work the animation frame delay – for some reason I’ve lost part of code
– must implement staircase and map “teleport” to another map
– implement sound using SDL_mixer and doomsdl_mixer (PS2)
Editor Update
Dec 10th
Iniciei o trabalho na ferramenta de edição de NPC. Ela será mais complexa no futuro, já que o usuário terá que adicionar cada frame gráfico, mas atualmente é bastante fácil pois não possui suporte a animação de NPCs.
Started to work on the NPC editing tool. It will be kind of complex in the future, as the user will have to add each frame, but currently it is fair simple as it does not support animation for NPCs.
[editing a NPC]
Editando
Dec 7th
Durante o fim de semana, foram feitos os últimos retoques no editor básico, que já conta com boa parte das funcionalidades do editor antigo e no motor do jogo para suportar o novo formato de mapas.
Uma desvantagem do novo formato, é ao contrário de idéia inicial de termos um arquivo por mapa, que decidimos por ter um número fixo de estágios e tamanho de mapas unificado em um único arquivo, para simplificar a programação do sistema. O problema reside exatamente no tamanho, um arquivo de jogo possui 34 Mega bytes, o que não é exatamente um problema hoje em dia, mas ainda desejamos diminuir, se possível, este valor, usando compressão via zlib ou outras alternativas.
O que está faltando são ferramentas como desenhar uma linha ou fazer preenchimento com um tile, para o usuário não cansar de clicar o botão do mouse. Além disso temos que começar a organizar e implementar suporte a objetos mais complexos como NPCs, objetos móveis (implementando um segundo nível de tiles) e outras características para poder finalmente produzir um pequeno jogo na versão 1.0.
Editing
Dec 7th
During the last weekend, some retouchs were made into the basic editor tool, that already have a good part of the functionalities from the old editor, and in the game engine to support the new maps format.
One disavantage of the new format is that, contrary to the initial idea of have one file for each map, that we decided to have a fixed number of stages and unified map size in just one file, to make the system programming simpler. The problem is that the size of the file containing the game is now 32 mega bytes, that is not a big problem nowadays, but we still want to lower this value, if possible, using compression with zlib or by using some other alternative.
What is missing are tools like drawing a line or filling with a tile, so the user does not get tired of clicking the mouse button. Besides that, we have to start to organize and implement support to more complex objects like NPCs, movable objects (implementing a second tile level) and other characteristics in order to be able to, at last, create a small game on version 1.0.
Editor
Dec 3rd
I finally learned what I needed to use Qt Creator + Qt Developer to create the editor UI in a easy way, so the plan to drop the Qt editor in favor of the SDL one is no-more. This weekend I plan to have an editor with the same functionalities of the SDL one, and then start improving until it is simular to the one in RPG Maker XP.
Eu finalmente aprendi o que precisava para usar o Qt Creator com o Qt Developer para criar a UI do editor de forma fácil, então o plano de abandonar o editor em Qt em favor do em SDL deixou de existir. Este fim de semana, espero deixar o editor em Qt par a par com o atual, em SDL, e daí em diante incrementá-lo até ficar semelhante ao existente no RPG Maker XP.
Pixels
Dec 2nd
I am no good ate creating pixel art, but slowly we get there:
Eu não sou muito bom em criar arte em pixels, mas devagar chego lá:
[Ape Bot and Seahorse Bot]
In other news, I’m rethinking the editor plans. Ideally it should be written in C++ with Qt to be like a normal Desktop app, but more and more I’m kind of thunking the task ahead is too big to fit our needs. So I’m back to think about developing the editor also using SDL as it is simpler and keeps the dependencies low for the whole project. We lose some ease of use, but gain in not loosing time with something that is not the focus of the first release.
Em outro tópico, eu estou repensando os planos para o editor. Idealmente ele deveria ser escrito em C++ com Qt para parecer um programa desktop normal, mas estou pensando cada vez mais que a tarefa pela frente é muito grande para caber em nossas necessidades. Então, volto a pensar em desenvolver também o editor em SDL, já que é mais simples e mantém as dependências do projeto como um todo, baixas. Perderemos alguma facilidade de uso, mas ganhamos em não perder tempo com algo que não é o foco do primeiro lançamento.
Primeiro build, história e gráficos
Nov 30th
Um pouco após enviar o código, nós fizemos o upload de uma build para windows do motor do jogo. É bem básica, contém alguns bugs e é apenas uma prova de conceito, mas nós gostaríamos de ter retorno sobre seu funcionamento, então peguem uma cópia e comentem aqui 🙂
Enquanto o Betabot já é bem diferente dos gráficos originals, o Rockbot ainda parece.. uma simples modificação dos gráficos do Megaman. E é isso que ele é, por enquanto. Nós estamos trabalhando duro para criar o design de personagens bem distinto da série Megaman orginal. Primeiro desenhando a mão com lápis, então a Aris cria versões no Corel Draw (em breve postaremos aqui) the modificamos até achar que está bom o suficiente para para ser adaptado para pixels; então vem a última e mais difícil parte para nós e onde precisamos de ajuda, onde tentamos criar arte em pixels baseada nos designs. Mas eu espero ter até o final de semana, uma versão original dos gráficos do Rockbot, ou pelo menos uma versão bem alterada, como o Betabot.
A história é um tipo de animal bem diferente. É uma tarefa bem fácil e que nós já temos boas idéias de coisas que podemos melhorar sobre a série original:
– uma fase inicial antes da tela de seleção dos oito robôs
– diálogos em pontos chave; como na série X ou anniversary collection em que outros personagens explicam algo
– ambientação no mundo fictício de tokyo 20XX AD
– os chefes vão falar, como nos recentes jogos da série X
A história ocorre basicamente, quando Megaman e Protoman protegem a cidade (no jogo eles são chamados de “heróis” porque não vamos usar seus nomes), um jovem cientista chamado Canotus, inspirado pelas criações do benevolente Doutor Light, cria dois robôs de combate chamados Rockbot e Betabot, para ajudar em pequenas tarefas enquanto os “grandões” estão ocupados. Mas um novo ataque de inimigos ocorre e os heróis desapareceram, então Rock e beta terão que tomar a coroa e lutar com os bandidos em seu lugar.
First build, history and graphics
Nov 30th
Some time after submitting the code, we uploaded a windows build of the engine. It is very basic, contains some bugs and is just a proof of concept, but we would like to have feedback about it, so go grab it and comment about 🙂
While Betabot is already very different than original graphics, Rockbot just looks like.. a mod over Megaman graphics. And that is what it is, for now. We are working hard to create character design to be distinct from the original Megaman series. First drafting in paper with pencil, then Aris creates Corel Draw versions (soon to be posted here) that we change until decide it is good enought and simple to adapt to pixels; then in the last part, we try to create pixel art based on the designs, and this is the part we have most difficulties and need help. But I hope by the end of the week, we will have a original version of its graphics, or at least a version moddified enought as betabot is.
History is a different animal. It is very easy task and we already have good ideas of things we can improve over the original megaman series:
– an intro stage like megaman x4 before selecting on of the 8 bosses
– dialogs in key parts. Like in megaman x series or megaman anniversary collection: other characters talk and explanin things
– tokyo 20xx ad enviroenment (based in the same kind of universe)
– bosses will talk, like recent megaman x games
Basically, while Megaman and Protoman protect the city (in the game they are cited as “heroes” because we won’t use the names), a young scientist called Canotus, inspirated by the creations of the benevolent Dr. Light, creates two fighting robots, called Rockbot and Betabot, to help out in small missions while the big-ones are occupied. But a new raid of enemies happen and the heroes are now missing, so Rock and beta have to take the crown and fight the bad guys in their place.
Estamos abertos (o código)!
Nov 28th
Acabei de enviar todo o código do motor do jogo para o projeto no sourceforge.
A partir de agora, código, listas de lançamentos, bugs, tarefas e novas features serão concentradas no sourceforge. As notícias continuarão a ser publicadas aqui.
Nosso endereço no sf.net: https://sourceforge.net/projects/rockman-engine/
We are now open (source)!
Nov 28th
Just dropped the whole game-engine source in sourceforge project.
From now on, source, releases, bug, TODO and features lists will be placed in sourceforge. news will still be placed here.
Our address in sf.net: https://sourceforge.net/projects/rockman-engine/
