File dialog trouble

What happened was that Windows file dialog collided with SDL_syswm.h which defines WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN. I think the best solution for now is create another file for file dialog only, but I really need to get rid of windows file dialog. It should not be used in SDL program, but I can't think of any alternative solutions right now. I really hate gui libraries that are gigantic and most of gui libraries are just like that. Besides I like to work with Stile's gui, because it's making everything possible and not making the program too slow.

Fixed name clash with 'pixel' and also made working RGB handles. It required almost total rewriting of Color_Handles class, but I'm glad I did it. The only problem is HSV bug that is fetching the base color value from HSV selector area, when I think it should take it from current tool color.

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The solution for collision was easier than I thought. Just switch the places of windows. h and SDL_syswm.h.

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.

Teemu update

It's too slow to program Teemu @ work so I'm taking it back to home. Besides DevC++ is worse than VC and when the project is getting bigger it's clumsy to browse it with DevC++. Plus you don't always have time to program at work, because some people keep telling you should do some things, you know, work stuff. That's breaking my concentration always when that happens.

I could probably concentrate on Teemu anyway, hack the 1.1 ready, release the source code and let other people take care of possible new versions.

Bug found

I found a bug from Teemu. You can play the game without entering a name, just press enter when name is asked. Funny thing is that it seems to work fine, it doesn't crash the game. I don't even know if it's a bug, but I'm fixing it in v1.1.

With limited inventory of Teemu I created a tool inventory with items you can only (u)se. This new invention will also prevent extra checks with tool items and makes more room in the inventory for new items.

LambdaRogue 1.3

Still don't like the 5 tile height gameview in large tile mode. It's ridiculous. I think Mario should just dump all other modes and make one good graphical view to the game with enough visible tiles both in vertical and horizontal direction.

I don't like the dungeon algorithm either. It's maze-like and boring to explore. When I think of mazes and particulary corridors I think they shouldn't just run here and there. The dungeon should have a clear idea, whether it's just for storage room or place that someone actually lives. No one lives in a maze but minotaurs.

There are more dungeon features like barrels to kick open. It's nice, but if they are all just scattered randomly in a maze it gets boring quite fast. I think that distinct level themes are the proper way to create nice gameplay, which then form the game world with different locations to visit.

Ideas of Teemu

This entry contains some spoilers from Teemu so win it first and read this next. Before the release I was talking about some new (for me) ideas I had while developing Teemu:

1. The strategic situation in spider cave. Spiders don't want to go in water, but there are lots of them and you need to wipe out them in some way or quickly get to the chest and get the item. This kind of strategic situation could be set up in many different ways.

2. Moving platform (the ship). In Teemu it's only a part of the end scene, but could really be used to travel on water. Ships or smaller vehicles are less used in roguelike games.

3. Grab command, something that could be more complex, giving new kind of interactions with the game world.

I think all these will find their way to Kaduria.

Teemu v1.0 released

Here it is. Fixed the "last" bug and it was uninitialized member variable, a counter that determined how long monster is searching with the pathfinding. That uninitialized value was random so monsters sometimes got stuck on walls and didn't respond to anything. I hope it's fixed now. The game is Windows only and should work without M$.NET.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/paulkp/teemu/teemu.htm