I have a vacation for next two weeks. During my vacation I plan to finish Teemu v1.1 and release it with the source code. I don't know if it's a realistic plan, but I'm going to try.
The summer is already turning to autumn, because this is arctic region after all. In Finland we usually have a week or two something that can be called summer and then it's over. Flowers die and it starts to rain and become cold. Maybe I should model seasons in Kaduria. Sometimes it would be autumn and lots of berries and mushroom growing everywhere. Or cold winter with only monsters that can survive in winter.
Friday, 10 July 2009
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Refactoring Abura Tan
I got an idea of taking some abandoned roguelike project to continue the development. Abura Tan was one of candidates and I just started to refactor it. I don't know if this is a good idea, but I wanted to do something at work.
Currently I'm throwing out curses and DOS screen functions and replacing them with SDL. There are some problems like direct get() from console screen that must be replaced with something else. There is also a cheesy Buffer class inside Screen which I suppose is a buffer with scrolling, but I don't yet know what it is used for. I hope it's nothing important so it can be removed.
The source code is a mix of old school C (even had assembly for DOS screen routines) and modern C++ with templates. I think the project was abandoned years ago. I don't know why, maybe the author (Michael Blackney) got a job or wife, something like that.
Currently I'm throwing out curses and DOS screen functions and replacing them with SDL. There are some problems like direct get() from console screen that must be replaced with something else. There is also a cheesy Buffer class inside Screen which I suppose is a buffer with scrolling, but I don't yet know what it is used for. I hope it's nothing important so it can be removed.
The source code is a mix of old school C (even had assembly for DOS screen routines) and modern C++ with templates. I think the project was abandoned years ago. I don't know why, maybe the author (Michael Blackney) got a job or wife, something like that.
Monday, 29 June 2009
Triumphant return of Agduria
The homepage of Agduria is gone for a while, but I shall continue posting development news here with screenshots. After creating corridors with closest room -style and connecting room groups something was still missing. That something was extra corridors that would create loops and make levels easier to navigate and use loops as escape route. But how to make them? If you select two rooms randomly you can generate a corridor which is "destroying" several rooms along with its path, unless pathfinding is used.
What I invented was a simple but effective solution. First the current corridor tiles are searched and stored in a list. Then pieces of straight corridors are searched randomly and then a special search routine will find out if there is something straight ahead: another corridor or a room wall without doors (to avoid double corridors). I think it's a clever way to break the closest room -algorithm, but still maintain a kind of logical level structure which is better than just randomly connecting everything.
In screenshots corridors are green to show where connections are made.
There is a "bug" that stops corridor when it hits another green corridor, which is not a part of original corridor/room search, but that can be fixed. It doesn't mess the level though.
I really like versatile results of the generator that sometimes have large empty areas and/or tightly arranged room groups.
What I invented was a simple but effective solution. First the current corridor tiles are searched and stored in a list. Then pieces of straight corridors are searched randomly and then a special search routine will find out if there is something straight ahead: another corridor or a room wall without doors (to avoid double corridors). I think it's a clever way to break the closest room -algorithm, but still maintain a kind of logical level structure which is better than just randomly connecting everything.
In screenshots corridors are green to show where connections are made.
There is a "bug" that stops corridor when it hits another green corridor, which is not a part of original corridor/room search, but that can be fixed. It doesn't mess the level though.
I really like versatile results of the generator that sometimes have large empty areas and/or tightly arranged room groups.
Monday, 22 June 2009
Releasing source code
Since there was serious lack of respect for Agduria's source code I closed the source. I don't know what to say. Maybe it was a mistake to release early, when there was nothing that interesting to show. But I'm pretty sure that when Agduria starts to form some people will be sorry of their comments.
I think there are times when opening the source code is good. I guess Dungeon Crawl is one of these stories that had a happy ending. What I can recall Crawl was in pretty bad shape in terms of source code and gameplay. Linley had long since abandoned the project and died, or even worse, got a real life. It was good that the source code was available and other guys continued the project.
Then there are games that just died, because the author didn't want to share the source code after he abandoned the project.
Some games like ADOM are between life and death. If TB decides to continue the development of ADOM there is no need to release the source code. It would be even a wrong move considering what happened to Angband. Besides I think ADOM is too good to be given for mundane game developers. They don't know what to do with it.
I think there are times when opening the source code is good. I guess Dungeon Crawl is one of these stories that had a happy ending. What I can recall Crawl was in pretty bad shape in terms of source code and gameplay. Linley had long since abandoned the project and died, or even worse, got a real life. It was good that the source code was available and other guys continued the project.
Then there are games that just died, because the author didn't want to share the source code after he abandoned the project.
Some games like ADOM are between life and death. If TB decides to continue the development of ADOM there is no need to release the source code. It would be even a wrong move considering what happened to Angband. Besides I think ADOM is too good to be given for mundane game developers. They don't know what to do with it.
Monday, 15 June 2009
Language talk
The discussion about language support at r.g.r.d. gave me an idea: what if I had a finnish language support in Agduria? It's a funny idea, because finnish language is funny and it's well known fact that translating fantasy books in finnish makes them funny. It's hard to explain why to those who don't know finnish, but that's how it is.
Anyway, I have already run into trouble with word werewolf. Or actually "were". I don't know what it means actually, but finnish version is "ihmissusi" (ihmis=man, susi=wolf) aka man-wolf. The problem is that we don't have a word for wererat, or any other than werewolf. There is no translation to "were" afaik. But then you could use "man-" with other creatures as well, like man-rat (ihmisrotta).
Anyway, I have already run into trouble with word werewolf. Or actually "were". I don't know what it means actually, but finnish version is "ihmissusi" (ihmis=man, susi=wolf) aka man-wolf. The problem is that we don't have a word for wererat, or any other than werewolf. There is no translation to "were" afaik. But then you could use "man-" with other creatures as well, like man-rat (ihmisrotta).
Friday, 12 June 2009
Germany wants to ban violent games
This time they really are losing their minds. German politicians believe that there is a direct connection between violent behaviour and violent computer games, but this hasn't been proven. This however doesn't stop conservative people. Reality never stopped them from doing what they thought was right thing to do. It was conservatism that caused the rise of nazi party. We really should look at what the hell is going on in the development of neo-conservatism in the world today. It's frightening and seems like nothing can stop it.
Friday, 22 May 2009
Trouble with Teemu
After 1.0 release I really haven't been that interested to code Teemu. I'm busy with Agduria (and Kaduria) and it may well be possible that Agduria will be playable game sooner than Teemu 1.1. Maybe I added too many features in Teemu 1.1 and going through the to do list isn't fun. Also I feel that I said what I wanted to say with Teemu: that I'm capable of programming a complete game, no matter how simple it is. Not that it's really that important, but I began to get annoyed about jokes related to Kaduria.
Besides it was true what many people said about a smaller side project. It's a great way to improve programming and game design skills and also create solutions that can be used in other projects. As games "7DRL" or small roguelikes can't compete with major ones, that is certain, but they provide good practice for programmers, if there was no previous experience of that kind of stuff.
Besides it was true what many people said about a smaller side project. It's a great way to improve programming and game design skills and also create solutions that can be used in other projects. As games "7DRL" or small roguelikes can't compete with major ones, that is certain, but they provide good practice for programmers, if there was no previous experience of that kind of stuff.
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