Now when Teemu 1.21 is released I can take a look at my sprite editor Stile. I changed the name to Brick Atelier which I think is better, since there already is sTile and Stile is a boring name. I had to redo some stuff since I lost the original Brick Atelier version, but nothing major (I hope) was lost. Just the Brick Atelier logo for info screen.
There are some stuff I want in next version (0.83), mainly some kind of contrast/brightness (maybe even color) adjusting for selected tiles and tile import from another .wst file. Those I guess are the main features.
I think SDL could be a wrong library for this kind of software, because it has been quite hard to do GUI stuff from scratch and I still don't have a portable file browser (using Windows browser inside SDL which is some kind of hack). I just don't know if the current features could be done with some external GUI (and maintain the speed).
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Friday, 24 September 2010
TEROS
After failed searching free and simple role-playing system for Teemu I started to plan one myself. It's called Teemu Roleplaying System (TEROS) and it's based on seven basic attributes with initials APEWASH. Plus alcohol as regaining health and stamina. The basic idea is make both attacking and parrying attacks consume stamina which then affects to overall performance. The way armour works is also a bit different than usual. I wish the initial system actually works, but if not it's always possible to tweak something to gain more balanced system.
TEROS will most probably be in the next major version (1.3) with more items and monsters.
TEROS will most probably be in the next major version (1.3) with more items and monsters.
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Playtesting Teemu v1.21 day 2
After fixes I still found one bug, but it's not fatal. You can enter the border exit with > by standing on it.
I think there is no need for more food now when the spawning is actually working. The cellar seems to be little crowded sometimes, maybe less monsters there.
When developing a roguelike there are going to be balancing issues. For instance how to determine the amount of total food items and how to distribute them in levels so that the food clock doesn't become too difficult or too easy? A scientific way could be count how many turns a level takes to solve and calculate the food consumption per level, then planning food distribution based on that data. Or you could just playtest the game to see what happens.
However it's difficult to determine the amount of turns per level, because the number of enemies is changing etc. Even the random placement of objects gives different results. When you design a static (non-random) world balancing is much easier, because you can make detailed plans how to distribute items and monsters.
One way to solve this is look at the player's food situation and create more food items when entering a new level, but it could then become too easy if the player realizes that it's going to happen.
I think there is no need for more food now when the spawning is actually working. The cellar seems to be little crowded sometimes, maybe less monsters there.
When developing a roguelike there are going to be balancing issues. For instance how to determine the amount of total food items and how to distribute them in levels so that the food clock doesn't become too difficult or too easy? A scientific way could be count how many turns a level takes to solve and calculate the food consumption per level, then planning food distribution based on that data. Or you could just playtest the game to see what happens.
However it's difficult to determine the amount of turns per level, because the number of enemies is changing etc. Even the random placement of objects gives different results. When you design a static (non-random) world balancing is much easier, because you can make detailed plans how to distribute items and monsters.
One way to solve this is look at the player's food situation and create more food items when entering a new level, but it could then become too easy if the player realizes that it's going to happen.
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Playtesting Teemu v1.21
New data-driven stairs connection system is mostly working. There is one problem area I need to fix and then it's ready. I was wondering if I could put at least some new content in 1.21. Maybe a low nutrition food item that's easy to find, because I find myself drinking rum to stay alive. Now when there are changing number of cave levels the treasure chest creation must be refactored, but that should be easy. Creating the stairs system was a bit hard, but the great thing is that now I can use it in Kaduria too.
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Teemu v1.2 released
Download the game from Teemu homepage link at the bottom of this page. This version is mainly an engine update with some extra items. Chests are different now, they can be opened and closed, and also moved around. There is also movable object type, but none of them are present in this version. I wanted to release this version now, because I really needed a break from Teemu. I'm quite happy that I was able to rewrite the game object system and also some other parts of the source code. It's now more data-driven and better ready for things like npc actions similar to player's.
Playtesting day 4
Almost all feature fixes are done, but there is one new bug. It appeared when I compiled the game with VC++. It was first complaining missing header for std::sort which is 'algorithm'. GCC didn't notice that, but it's older version that came with DevC++. It's impossible for humans to update GCC manually so I have to work with that older version. The actual bug is somehow related to std::sort which in VC++ seems to include a null pointer in the list, which should be impossible (only existing objects are added into the vector). Maybe the bug is in GCC too, but it doesn't catch it (wouldn't be a surprise..). I don't think the bug is actually in std::sort implementation of VC++, I guess they would have found out that.
There is a manual way to check this out. It's of course displaying the contents of the vector before and after the sort. That should.. sort it out.
Searching interweb revealed that the bug was caused by something called Strict Weak Ordering. I have no idea what it is, but changing if (o<=co) return true; to if (o<co) return true; in the comparator functor seemed to fix it. Oh well, yet again one of those cryptic programming finesses that escape my limited intelligence.
There is a manual way to check this out. It's of course displaying the contents of the vector before and after the sort. That should.. sort it out.
Searching interweb revealed that the bug was caused by something called Strict Weak Ordering. I have no idea what it is, but changing if (o<=co) return true; to if (o<co) return true; in the comparator functor seemed to fix it. Oh well, yet again one of those cryptic programming finesses that escape my limited intelligence.
Saturday, 28 August 2010
Playtesting day 3
I'm in halfway of the adventure. After surviving food clock it's actually quite nice to play. New items are useful as I expected. What I really miss is a good game system with sensible hit points and damage modelling. The current game system in Teemu is just so braindead. Kicking is probably the most effective way for close combat and throwing bones and coconuts seem to be the way to kill everything fast.
I was thinking of adding some kind of armour class system, but with simple items like a shield for main protection and deflecting attacks. Somehow it's starting to look like Teemu is going to be amazingly similar to Zelda when you think of it. I don't want to "clone" Zelda in any form to avoid being sued by Nintendo, but I'm going to keep it as simple as you can in roguelike way.
That and many other new ideas are however not going to be included in v1.2 which is going to be just an engine update with some new items. I'm very careful not to repeat the mistake I made with Kaduria, of course. It's wise to think before planning or adding new features. Soon you will be overpowered by the demands of features and unable to release a working version of the game, because there is always something unfinished.
I was thinking of adding some kind of armour class system, but with simple items like a shield for main protection and deflecting attacks. Somehow it's starting to look like Teemu is going to be amazingly similar to Zelda when you think of it. I don't want to "clone" Zelda in any form to avoid being sued by Nintendo, but I'm going to keep it as simple as you can in roguelike way.
That and many other new ideas are however not going to be included in v1.2 which is going to be just an engine update with some new items. I'm very careful not to repeat the mistake I made with Kaduria, of course. It's wise to think before planning or adding new features. Soon you will be overpowered by the demands of features and unable to release a working version of the game, because there is always something unfinished.
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