'sup guys, does anybody remember me? This will be my first attempt at programming in a long while. Fortunately, I've got a lot of code to reuse. Unfortunately, I don't remember writing any of it.
Anyway, this new project is based on the webcomic "Hitmen For Destiny" by Oyvind Thorsby (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/thorsby/destiny/toc.php). The game would feature the characters and monsters you know and love (or not, depending on whether you read that particular webcomic). In fact, because it's likely that none of you have heard about this comic before, I'll probably add some cutscenes to explain what's going on.
There will be several characters (whether you control all of them or just one is yet to be determined). The game will be plot driven and any deviation from the plot will be punished. There will be wacky monsters with unique abilities. Other features are to be determined.
I haven't decided on the title either. I can't just call it "Hitmen For Destiny", because that will cause confusion, especially since I'm not affiliated with the guy who makes the comic in any way. And I can't use the ubiquitous "RL" suffix, because it is just super lame and a total cop-out.
I'll try to post daily updates.
Peace, out.
-- |Don't believe this - you're not worthless ,gr---------.ru |It's us against millions and we can't take them all... | ue il | |But we can take them on! | @ma | | (A Wilhelm Scream - The Rip) |______________|
Well, the first day wasn't very eventful. I copied the code from The Sewer Massacre and wrote a function to display cutscenes. I made this ASCII piece of the Hitmen. It looks pretty gnarly in console mode. It is actually colored and it took me quite a lot of time to make it.
I really need to pick up the pace if I want to finish this on time. -- |Don't believe this - you're not worthless ,gr---------.ru |It's us against millions and we can't take them all... | ue il | |But we can take them on! | @ma | | (A Wilhelm Scream - The Rip) |______________|
> 'sup guys, does anybody remember me? This will be my first attempt at > programming in a long while. Fortunately, I've got a lot of code to reuse. > Unfortunately, I don't remember writing any of it.
> Anyway, this new project is based on the webcomic "Hitmen For Destiny" by Oyvind > Thorsby (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/thorsby/destiny/toc.php). The game would > feature the characters and monsters you know and love (or not, depending on > whether you read that particular webcomic). In fact, because it's likely that > none of you have heard about this comic before, I'll probably add some cutscenes > to explain what's going on.
> There will be several characters (whether you control all of them or just one is > yet to be determined). The game will be plot driven and any deviation from the > plot will be punished. There will be wacky monsters with unique abilities. Other > features are to be determined.
> I haven't decided on the title either. I can't just call it "Hitmen For > Destiny", because that will cause confusion, especially since I'm not affiliated > with the guy who makes the comic in any way. And I can't use the ubiquitous "RL" > suffix, because it is just super lame and a total cop-out.
> I'll try to post daily updates.
> Peace, out.
> -- > |Don't believe this - you're not worthless ,gr---------.ru > |It's us against millions and we can't take them all... | ue il | > |But we can take them on! | @ma | > | (A Wilhelm Scream - The Rip) |______________|
I LOVE that comic, great choice of material you aren't likely to run out of interesting creatures.
Second day wasn't very eventful either. I decided to go with several monsters per tile paradigm (because otherwise all these companions will get annoying). So, changing that property of TSM engine required some work. I also needed a way to show that a tile has several monsters, so I had to implement background color highlighting, which is something I never did before. Apparently in Curses I need to define each foreground/background color pair separately. I could in principle define the grand total of 64 combinations, but I think the choice of black/gray background will do for now.
Today I'm implementing the cavernous level algorithm, so that the game looks less like The Sewer Massacre mod. Clearly the new level generator is the best way to accomplish that.
-- |Don't believe this - you're not worthless ,gr---------.ru |It's us against millions and we can't take them all... | ue il | |But we can take them on! | @ma | | (A Wilhelm Scream - The Rip) |______________|
So, yesterday I was tinkering with the dungeon generator. I used pretty standard algorithm to generate the caverns, but I also ensured that it fills the whole map instead of just a part of it. Here's an example of a generated level:
(note: the items are from The Sewer Massacre and will be changed. I'm not really sure to what, since Hitmen For Destiny is not heavy on pickable items.)
Today's gonna be busy, so I'm not sure how much time I will have to code anything. I still need to code the companion AI, and the variety of monsters, and the whole plot thing. And the kicker is that, with 70+ games being developed, the chances that anyone will play my game are pretty slim! It's not like anybody played my other games either. So, in a way it doesn't matter if I succeed or fail.
-- |Don't believe this - you're not worthless ,gr---------.ru |It's us against millions and we can't take them all... | ue il | |But we can take them on! | @ma | | (A Wilhelm Scream - The Rip) |______________|
> So, yesterday I was tinkering with the dungeon generator. I used pretty standard > algorithm to generate the caverns, but I also ensured that it fills the whole > map instead of just a part of it. Here's an example of a generated level:
Looks good!
>And the kicker is that, with 70+ games being > developed, the chances that anyone will play my game are pretty slim! It's not > like anybody played my other games either. So, in a way it doesn't matter if I > succeed or fail.
Yes, this is an interesting question. I definitely didn't play all the 2009 7DRLs. However I did play all of the ones that looked interesting. I think if you have at least one element that stands out beyond the standard RL, there's a much better chance people will try it.
Forgot to post the update on time, so if you are wondering if I'm still developing this, I do. So, yesterday I was mostly working on making throwing work. In the comic Anette throws her sword a lot, so that's something that has to be in the game. Apparently implementation of throwing items is non-trivial. I have to account for things standing in the way, and other stuff. I still have a bunch to do in that department. Today I made melee attack work again, because with multiple monsters per tile the interface has to change a bit. Now you need to press 'a' to attack somebody, which is decoupled from moving around. Then you may need to select direction where you want to attack and then select a specific monster you want to attack. Which probably makes combat super annoying. Hopefully that won't be too much of an issue.
-- |Don't believe this - you're not worthless ,gr---------.ru |It's us against millions and we can't take them all... | ue il | |But we can take them on! | @ma | | (A Wilhelm Scream - The Rip) |______________|
Wow, I'm running out of time pretty quick, huh? Looking back at Urban Warfare logs [1], apparently last time I did a 7drl, I only got the character running around on the 5th day. But it seems I was a much better programmer back then, and I was less distracted by other stuff. I simply cannot concentrate on coding anymore. I don't even remember what I did yesterday. Probably still doing the melee/throwing attacks. If I end up releasing something, it probably won't have much of a story, which is sad.
-- |Don't believe this - you're not worthless ,gr---------.ru |It's us against millions and we can't take them all... | ue il | |But we can take them on! | @ma | | (A Wilhelm Scream - The Rip) |______________|
I hope I can end up with at least a tech demo come Saturday. I'm clearly unable to implement many things I wanted in the remaining time I have.
-- |Don't believe this - you're not worthless ,gr---------.ru |It's us against millions and we can't take them all... | ue il | |But we can take them on! | @ma | | (A Wilhelm Scream - The Rip) |______________|
-- |Don't believe this - you're not worthless ,gr---------.ru |It's us against millions and we can't take them all... | ue il | |But we can take them on! | @ma | | (A Wilhelm Scream - The Rip) |______________|
