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7DRL entry - Hitmen For Destiny: the game

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Timofei Shatrov

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Mar 6, 2010, 6:46:52 AM3/6/10
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'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) |______________|

Timofei Shatrov

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Mar 7, 2010, 5:24:32 AM3/7/10
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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.

,------.
;========\
================"
;,-. ,-. ;
;( . )( . ) ;
; `-; `-' ; .--------.
n `. | 3 ;==========\
/U: :| ;u\ ================="
| : |/ ; \ i./ ,-. ,-. :,i
/ : .---. ; | | | ( . ) ( . ) j
| | `_\_/ ; | | `-: `-',--.`-' :"_
| | "._P | | / : _(. .) _ ; \
| | | | | | `.( vvvvvvv ); |
| | | | | | | \`nnnnnnn"/ | |
| | | | | |__| `-------" |__|
| | | | | | | | |

This is how it looks in console: http://grue.imgur.com/destiny_rogues/sm6Gg

I really need to pick up the pace if I want to finish this on time.

win

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Mar 7, 2010, 1:33:11 PM3/7/10
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I LOVE that comic, great choice of material you aren't likely to run
out of interesting creatures.

Timofei Shatrov

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Mar 8, 2010, 6:50:20 AM3/8/10
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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.

Timofei Shatrov

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Mar 9, 2010, 6:35:12 AM3/9/10
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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:

http://grue.imgur.com/destiny_rogues/tU5vC

(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.

George Oliver

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Mar 9, 2010, 10:14:50 AM3/9/10
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On 3/9/2010 3:35 AM, Timofei Shatrov wrote:
> 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.


Timofei Shatrov

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Mar 10, 2010, 10:31:03 AM3/10/10
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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.

Timofei Shatrov

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Mar 11, 2010, 5:57:02 AM3/11/10
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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.

[1]: http://tinyurl.com/y9arn49

Timofei Shatrov

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Mar 12, 2010, 8:03:09 AM3/12/10
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OK, I finally finished with the throwing and started working on companions.
Here's a screenshot:

http://grue.imgur.com/destiny_rogues/DWrlI

(poor Lostclock *sniff*)

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.

Timofei Shatrov

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Mar 13, 2010, 6:46:24 AM3/13/10
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The final post is here:

4b9b7758....@news.eternal-september.org

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