Worklog for rsbrowndog

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Another Map Idea(Posted 2005-03-01)
Here's another bit of prototyping, this also changes the view to a more zoomed-out version:





Using Maplet(Posted 2005-02-21)
I have decided to build "proper" levels for Super Blitz Bros, rather than the maze-based levels seen previously. It's still in the early stages of being implemented but I built a very quick (i.e. 5 mins work) map in Maplet (awesome tool) just to test out a few ideas. Here is a pic:



I think this is going to work out quite well! The real levels will be larger than the one shown in the pic (about 4 times the size) and I will also be adding things like trees and other objects to keep the landscape interesting.



Latest Demo Build(Posted 2005-02-02)
Another version of the demo with a few tweaks, bug-fixes and changes can be found here:

http://www.rsbrowndog.f2s.com/SUPERBLITZBROSDEMO3.zip

Quick cut 'n' paste from the readme:

This is the third demo version of my game, this version contains
a number of tweaks and bug-fixes. The most significant changes in
this version are:

- Coins do not all reappear when you die! I could tell that
players were finding this aspect of the gameplay highly
frustrating so now coins are on a timer and will reappear after a
certain time and be deducted from your collection total. This
means that if you take too long, or die too many times you will
have to collect those early coins again!

- Option to turn off moving floors! A number of people told me
that playing my game made them feel dizzy and/or sick. I think
this might be caused by the constantly moving floor beneath the
player so there is now an option in the main menu to toggle this
on and off. Just hit backspace at the menu.

I'm interested to hear thoughts on these latest changes and suggestions for further changes/improvements.



Single Screen Mode?(Posted 2005-01-27)
As I mentioned in the last worklog I was considering a single-screen for multiplayer modes rather than the individual cameras.

Did a quick test on this and this is the result:



I'm not really happy with it. Maybe with a bit of tweaking it would improve, but to me it's just not as visually appealling as the old version.

Never mind...



More tweaks and changes!(Posted 2005-01-27)
Before I begin let me just point out that the download has NOT been updated with these changes!

Firstly, I've changed it so that all the coins do NOT come back when you die! Now they are on a timer so that if you take too long to complete the level (i.e. die too many times or drag your feet!) they will start popping back into existence and you will have to go collect them again. I'm quite pleased with it!

That's the most obvious change at present, but things I am considering are:

- Removing the moving water, apparently it's causing motion sickness in some players...
- Changing the multiplayer mode so instead of 4 small cameras (or 3, or 2...) you got a more "zoomed out" view so you can see the whole level at the same time
- Adding lives in single-player mode

I'll update with progress here...

Cheers,

Ryan



Demo 2 - Keyboard Support!(Posted 2005-01-27)
New demo, a few tweaks and keyboard support added! Grab it here (just under 2mb!):

http://www.rsbrowndog.f2s.com/SUPERBLITZBROSDEMO2.zip



From the readme.txt:


------------------------------------------------------------------

SUPER BLITZ BROS Demo - Ryan Brown - 27/01/05

------------------------------------------------------------------

=SECOND DEMO!!! NOW WITH KEYBOARD SUPPORT!!!=

------------------------------------------------------------------

This demo contains six different levels that showcase each of the
six different "zones" in SUPER BLITZ BROS.

You can play with up to four players, any combination of joypads,
joysticks or keys! Note that only 1 player can use the keyboard!

------------------------------------------------------------------
Credits:


Music Provided by Team Rebellion Software - Musician Duncan Nicol

Michael Wilson - launcher
Zenith - character models
Psionic - textures
Mark Sibly - Blitz3D
GfK - Encouragement and advice

Sound Effects temporarily "borrowed" from Jump Around!

------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTROLS

TITLE SCREEN
============

Left / Right - Select number of players
TAB - Enable/Disable keyboard controls
Space - start
Esc - quit

IN-GAME
=======

Keyboard
--------

Cursor keys - walk
Space - jump

Joypad
------

Up / Down / Left / Right - walk
Button 1 - jump

Misc
----

F12 - take screenshot
P - pause
Esc - quit

------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES

This demo is seriously lacking in polish, I am well aware of that!

However, I decided to release this to start hearing some thoughts
on it! This is the second version of the demo and already there
have been a significant number of tweaks based on feedback!

I hope you enjoy playing and any feedback is appreciated!

Please mail me at: rsb@...





Demo Available!(Posted 2005-01-23)
I now have a demo that I would appreciate feedback on! Grab it here:

http://www.rsbrowndog.f2s.com/SUPERBLITZBROSDEMO.zip



From the readme.txt:


------------------------------------------------------------------

SUPER BLITZ BROS Demo - Ryan Brown - 23/01/05

------------------------------------------------------------------

This demo contains six different levels that showcase each of the
six different "zones" in SUPER BLITZ BROS.

You can play with up to four players, but all players MUST use
joysticks or joypads, there are NO keyboard control options.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Credits:


Music Provided by Team Rebellion Software - Musician Duncan Nicol

Michael Wilson - launcher
Zenith - character models
Psionic - textures
Mark Sibly - Blitz3D
GfK - Encouragement and advice

Sound Effects temporarily "borrowed" from Jump Around!

------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTROLS

Note: apart from the launcher and PAUSE and QUIT, a joypad or
joystick is used to control players. There is NO keyboard option!

TITLE SCREEN
============

Left / Right - Select number of players
Button 1 - start
Esc - quit

IN-GAME
=======

Up / Down / Left / Right - walk
Button 1 - jump
F12 - take screenshot
P - pause
Esc - quit

------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES

This demo is seriously lacking in polish, I am well aware of that!

However, I decided to release this to start getting some feedback
on it! I hope you enjoy playing!

Any feedback is appreciated!

Please mail me at: rsb@...


Let me know what you think!

Cheers,

Ryan



Latest progress...(Posted 2005-01-17)
Working shifts in my new job has really affected the amount of time I have to spend with my PC, but I finally sat down and made some progress on this!



I've re-written the control system, added the enemy and coded their (VERY) simplistic AI.

Just need to bolt-on a proper front end and make a few levels and a demo should not be far off!

Cheers,

Ryan



Diamonds(Posted 2004-11-26)
Changed the coins to diamonds, much lower poly-count!





Enemies and controls(Posted 2004-11-22)
Been hacking in the enemies that will chase you around the level trying to prevent you collecting all their precious coins!

Also been hacking in the controls for the multi-player mode and am sorely tempted at the moment to have NO keyboard support at all. That's right, joypad (or joystick) only!

Why? Well, having spent many years as a PC gamer I am now increasingly gravitating towards console gaming where, obviously, you use a joypad. So naturally when I play a game like this I expect to use a joypad!

It also means I don't have to worry about things like redefining keys, keyboard lock-ups when too many keys are pressed (that annoying beep thing that you get) and things like stickykeys or other stuff getting upset.

Hmmmm...

Ryan



Cel-shading or not?(Posted 2004-11-20)
Peeps,



Need your thooughts in the thread here:

http://www.blitzbasic.co.nz/Community/posts.php?topic=40477

Cheers,

Ryan



Out of retirement!(Posted 2004-11-16)
Some of you may have noticed that my sig recently changed from RETIRED to (SEMI-)RETIRED as I started to find some time to get back into Blitz. With Par FORE! now a distant memory and in the much more capable hands of GfK, it was time to embark on a new project.

Presenting... SUPER BLITZ BROS!



[Note: Please ignore horrible place-holder sprites, I've only been working on this one night and couldn't be bothered to make a decent one!]

It's a fairly simple 3D platformer where you have to collect the stars on the level, avoiding the monsters as you go. Yes, kind of like Pacman I suppose, but I intend to add a few more bits and pieces to it yet.

But... why the "BROS" bit in the title? Well, that's there for split-screen multiplayer...



You will be able to play with any combination of 1 through 4 players! The control method selection stuff is sure to be a royal pain in the backside, but should be worth it.

And that's all there is to show right now, I'm afraid, I hope you all like it!

Feedback is VERY welcome in the thread here:

http://www.blitzbasic.co.nz/Community/posts.php?topic=40477



In Safe Hands...(Posted 2004-10-29)
See here:

http://www.blitzbasic.co.nz/Community/posts.php?topic=39853

Cheers,

Ryan



Retiring...(Posted 2004-08-13)
Sadly the day has come for me to hang up my blitzing boots and move on to other things.

I have started an absolutely fantastic new job, but unfortunately it is one that requires a LOT of training so I am going to be away from home for long stretches and then will be working shifts when I really get started.

I'm currently negotiating with my publisher for someone to take over development on Par FORE! so hopefully it will be completed someday, although it probably won't bear my name any more.

Never mind, I've sacrificied one ambition to achieve another so I am, on balance, happy with that.

Good luck to everyone in all their efforts, both blitz and non-blitz related.

Cheers,

Ryan



New Sky(Posted 2004-06-09)
Thanks to Psionic I now have a new skybox for my game!



Also, I'm still considering my options concerning the size of the holes on my courses. If you read the log below you'll see that I originally designed them to be 640x640 and was considering a change to 512x512.

Well now I am considering reducing this further to 320x320. That would make the length of my longest holes a little over 300 metres, but is that long enough?

What to do, what to do...?



Decisions(Posted 2004-06-08)
After playing through all of the 18 holes last night I realised that they were all VERY long. Whilst I had made a conscious effort to try and make some of them shorter they were all coming out as 4/5 shot holes.

I realised that this is all down to the size of my terrain, i.e. 640x640, with 1 unit = 1 metre in my game. For those not following the maths, that means that my terrains are 640 metres x 640 metres, quite large for a golf hole!

After much thinking last night I have decided to cut this back to 512 x 512. It will mean a bit of re-coding in the game (not too much) and re-doing some of the holes, which is a pain but I think the results will be worth it.

I've still got a few other tasks on my "To Do" list so I'll probably try and polish those off first and then get a public demo together, assuming my publisher is happy for it to be released!



First 18 Holes(Posted 2004-06-07)
Whilst waiting patiently for feedback from my publisher I put together another bunch of holes this evening and now have the first 18 holes of the game ready!

Yay!



Demo(Posted 2004-06-02)
Well, after an evening tweaking and adding features I've uploaded a 3-hole demo to my publisher.

Now I just have to sit back and await their comments!

Actually, that's not true as I still have several bits to add in... back to work!



NEW PICTURES!(Posted 2004-05-28)
Decided to upload 4 new pics to illustrate some of the progress I've made. Click the thumbs for nice big versions!

Enjoy!






BUG SQUASHED!(Posted 2004-05-28)
After much hair pulling, wailing and gnashing of teeth I crushed that damn bug! It was more a process of trial and error than anything, finding the magic formula that would banish it forever!

But anyway, it's gone now and I can crack on with a few more holes for the demo version. WAHEY!!

To celebrate I've uploaded my new website, click the pic in my sig to go there, or use the url:

http://www.babybrowngames.co.uk



BUG!(Posted 2004-05-28)
I came this > < close to completing a demo version last night when a horrible bug reared it's ugly head. I'm still trying to sort it out, despite staying up until 1:30AM last night. (And when you bear in mind I have kids and they got me up at 5:30AM you can see how significant that is!)

Did get lots of other bits done though, which makes it all the more annoying! Fingers crossed I'll crack it tonight and either get the demo out or take the opportunity to add even more to it and get it to the testers Monday morning.



More Progress...(Posted 2004-05-27)
Lots of little tweaks and fixes have gone in over the past few days.

For instance, the golfer will now automatically align himself to the pin if he is anywhere except the tee, the putter is automatically selected on the green, putting is vastly improved, etc.

I experimented with making my own skybox but the results were less than impressive! I did some experiments with using some sprites for clouds but this also wasn't brilliant. For now I've turned the skybox off completely, leaving a lovely clear blue sky.

I'm undecided whether they will go back in or not, the advantage of leaving them out completely is that the download size for the final game will be much smaller as each skybox is nearly half a meg.

Also experimented with a particle trail for the ball but wasn't really happy with the result. Will probably give this another whirl at some point, but will write something from scratch that suits my needs, rather than trying to shoe-horn someone else's more general system in!

Tonight I will be making some new holes up and hopefully by the end of the evening I will be able to play a full 9 holes of golf!

There are still a few things on my "TO DO" list, but this will be functional enough for the demo.

Wish me luck!



Putting is IN!(Posted 2004-05-24)
Tonight I finally putted a ball!

Yes, I know I should have coded that part of the game ages ago but for some reason I never got round to it until now. Finally I can play a hole from tee to cup, I'm well chuffed!

Here's a screenshot of the triumphant moment:


(Note: apologies for the size in kb of the png file, I couldn't get PSP to produce a jpg I was happy with and I've received stick in the past for how bad my jpg's look! Any suggestions for good, and more importantly free, software for producing jpg files is appreciated!)

There's been lots of other work done too, minor fixes and tweaks here and there and some significant work behind-the-scenes to ensure the ball bounces according to the type of terrain (i.e. fairway, rough, green, etc.) it has connected with. Still have to do the same for terrain it has rolled over though, but that's a 5 minute job.

I know I've said this before and been wrong, but I really do think I'll have a short demo version ready by the end of the week!



Par FORE! Update(Posted 2004-05-21)
Well I took longer off from my golf game than I intended, but when REAL LIFE calls, you have to answer.

Spent a lot of time on it this week, fixing little bugs and adding lots of new bits to the code. I also pulled out my meshterrain code and replaced it with blitz terrains. Lots of reasons for this that I won't bore people with now, but it makes my life slightly easier.

I should have a limited demo version by the end of next week but I'm afraid it will only be going to certain pre-selected testers for comments and feedback - it's not ready for the wider audience just yet!!



Par FORE! Non-Update(Posted 2004-03-02)
Hello!

"It's all gone quiet over there, it's all gone quiet over there...!"

Yes it has, because I am very busy with some "real life" issues at the moment that will (dramatic music swells in the background) affect my whole future, so Par FORE! is on temporary hold for the moment.

I'm not going to be around the forums much so if anyone wants to contact me, use the e-mail in my profile.



Par FORE! Update(Posted 2004-02-09)
AshMantle: Why does the water follow the slopes?




Not any more it doesn't!

I took a little time off as I was starting a new job and my wife had a few evenings off work too. Back on the case now and hoping for a limited demo release (sorry folks, designated testers ONLY at the moment!) by the end of the week.



Par FORE! Update(Posted 2004-01-23)


More work, work, work! Added in the trees so the courses are looking a little less bare. Now teeing off from the correct spot (as defined in the editor rather than me guessing at it!) and the flag is also correctly positioned.

Lots of behind-the-scenes fixes and changes too.



Par FORE! Update(Posted 2004-01-16)


Lots of work this week, I've reduced some of the text (in terms of number of words used, not the size of the font!) shown on the HUD and added several new items, including the height of the ball and the difference in height between the ball and the pin.

Also added the mini-map (on the left of the screen) which also tracks the movement of the ball through the air. So that, coupled with the chase cam means you should have no excuse for losing your ball!



Par FORE! Update(Posted 2004-01-08)


Recently I have been implementing the new terrain system. This has been one of the biggest hurdles for me and at one point it was going to be a bunch of squares rather than nice rounded bunkers, lakes, etc. Whilst that wouldn't necessarily have been a bad thing, it didn't really fit with the golfer models. If they had been modelled very angular, made from boxes for example, then it would have been a consistent look and would have worked well. But I digress (sorry!) and I should get back to the point.

The game uses mesh terrains rather than blitz terrains, I'll come to why in a minute. Due to the lack of dynamic LOD I have had to make some sacrifices. For instance I can't use heightmaps that are nice and big, like 512x512 as this would result in a model with 524,288 polygons - waaaaaay too much! So my heightmaps are 64x64, they seem to work nicely in my testing, I tried using 128x128 but got too much slowdown when the ball was in-flight.

So why NOT use blitz terrains? Well, I need to make a hole for the ball to go down and I can't do that using blitz terrains, the terrainmodify command isn't precise enough. To actually make the hole I have to add CSG functions to the game, a bit of an overkill probably, but they seem to work well in my little test program.

By the way, a big advantage of the small heightmaps is the amount of diskspace they take up. I like to use PNG files for graphics, so these figures are based on that, but anyway...

Sample heightmap @ 512x512 = 132 Kb
Sample heightmap @ 64x64 = 6 Kb

If the heightmaps were size 512x512 and there were 90 of them (5 courses x 18 holes) then that would be nearly 12 Mb of data. Whereas the 64x64 heightmaps take up just about half a Mb, perfect for downloading!

The next few tasks on my to-do list are:
* Add CSG functions
* Add holemap and plot balls position
* Changes (improvements) to ball chase camera
* Start churning out holes/courses



Launched my website!(Posted 2003-07-17)
I've got my website up, it can be found at:

http://www.babybrowngames.co.uk

I'd appreciate feedback, please mail it to contact@....

If you browse the site, you'll see that Par FORE! is alive and kicking once more and is set to be published by Idigicon in the new year!



Par FORE! - Worklog Entry #1(Posted 2002-06-26)
Just set up my page on the Blitz Showcase, see it here:

[a http://blitz.guildhallleisure.com/project_detailb.asp?ProjectName=Par%20FORE!]Par FORE! at Blitz Showcase[/a]

It's a 3D Golf game. No demo available yet, but soon...

Cheers,

Ryan