Dead of Night / Mall of the Dead

[KrisLewis]

Hello! I recently stumbled upon EGE and all I can say is amazing!
Immediately the wheels began spinning on how to implement this engine
with Print n Play games like Dead of Night and Mall of the Dead. (I'm
a zombie fan) I found another user had created Zombie Plague, and
started using that as a backbone for my little endeavor.

My question is about tabs. I saw in the update that tabs are able to
be moved... but I need an example of syntax for it. I would like some
tabs to be next to each other, and some tabs on another side... would
anyone be able to point me in a good direction for reference?

So far I have the board created, and all the images ready for the
cards and items (I think), but I need to work out counters, dice, and
such. Any example of those would be great as well.

And one final question... I had read a little on another post about
moving items/cards from a tab to another tab... with multiple players
how would this work? Possibly have all their "hands" or character
sheets together on one tab?

Thanks for any help or direction there!
-Kris

[Eggy EveryGame]

Hi Kris,

For tabs, you should check out Castle Capers.  It positions the the tabs all next to each other on the side of the screen like you're suggesting.  The xml file is big and scary, but all of the tab data is at the top.

There are a few different approaches to counters and dice.  You might try looking at "7 Inch Dash".  It's a very simple xml file, and should get you started there.

I'll leave the floor open on your last question.  What I've normally done is to create one tab per player.  You can drag pieces between expanded tabs if you can see the source and destination.  Or drop the piece off in some intermediate location (like the main board) if you can't.  Finally, you could use actions to move the piece.  Taps could work, but a location_in_action would be even better.  Then you could create a location that acts like a portal -- when you drop a piece onto it, the piece will be warped to it's new destination automatically.

-Nathaniel

[Snoozefest]

I am fascinated by the app, but haven't  bought it yet -- can a user with no knowledge of XML (me) use this to create games?

Sent from my iPhone

[Adam Jeppson]

Snoozefest: Yes.  XML isn't a programming language like Java or HTML.  It is more of a standard.  It does have some syntax (like opening and closing tags in the proper order and attributes, etc.), but it is minimal.

Kris:  I implemented the portal method Nathaniel mentioned in one of my games, and it works pretty well.  With four players and a location on the main board needing a portal, I have four portals on each tab for the other players and the main board (e.g. Player 1 would have Player 2, Player 3, Player 4, and Main Board portals that he can drop pieces into.  I have a location_out_action defined on each one to move the piece to a receiving location on the destination tab.  If you'd like example code, I can provide that.

Adam

[Rob3d]

@KrisLwis

I hope you share you modules when your done. I'm a big fan of zombie
games myself.

@Snoozfest

If you ever messed with any kind of programming I would say yes. I
never used xml before and I'm almost done with creating a Dungeon of D
module for eggy. I have played around with other languages so I am
aware of syntax and the like.
Its not really that hard you can basically copy and paste lines from
the included games and just modify them to suit your needs

On Apr 26, 1:02 pm, Snoozefest <snoozefesti...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am fascinated by the app, but haven't  bought it yet -- can a user with no knowledge of XML (me) use this to create games?
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>

> On Apr 26, 2011, at 12:41 PM, Eggy EveryGame <eggy.everyg...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Hi Kris,
>
> > For tabs, you should check out Castle Capers.  It positions the the tabs all next to each other on the side of the screen like you're suggesting.  The xml file is big and scary, but all of the tab data is at the top.
>
> > There are a few different approaches to counters and dice.  You might try looking at "7 Inch Dash".  It's a very simple xml file, and should get you started there.
>
> > I'll leave the floor open on your last question.  What I've normally done is to create one tab per player.  You can drag pieces between expanded tabs if you can see the source and destination.  Or drop the piece off in some intermediate location (like the main board) if you can't.  Finally, you could use actions to move the piece.  Taps could work, but a location_in_action would be even better.  Then you could create a location that acts like a portal -- when you drop a piece onto it, the piece will be warped to it's new destination automatically.
>
> > -Nathaniel
>

[KrisLewis]

Ok new question :)

If you have ever played Dead of Night, there are two decks of cards.
Act 1 and Act 2. There are two special case cards that end each act.
In the paper game, you take the Act 1 cards removing that end act 1
card, shuffle, and place it near the bottom of the deck (last few
cards). Do the same with the Act 2 cards.

I see how shuffling works, but what about placing the card near the
bottom of the deck? Hmm...

Here is the current code I'm borrowing:
<quad_tap action="shuffle_location" args="">
<initial_side value="0">
<initial_location name="draw_pile">
<single_tap action="send_to_back" args="">
<sides
paths="ZombiePlague_card_back.png,ZombiePlague_acard_01.png"><piece>a01</
piece></sides>
...etc.


4 tap = shuffle
1 tap = bury the card...

what if the end of act card was on top before shuffle, you remove
it... shuffle... put it back on top, and bury a few cards?
But that is depending on the user to understand that setup... hmmm any
ideas?

[Rob3d]

Actually if you define 2 quad_tap actions you can do it in one shot


<quad_tap action="shuffle_location" args="">
<quad_tap action="send_to_back" args="a01">

<initial_side value="0">
<initial_location name="draw_pile">

<sides
paths="ZombiePlague_card_back.png,ZombiePlague_acard_01.png"><piece>a01</
piece>
</sides>
...

4 tap = shuffle + bury the card

anytime you quad tap it will shuffle then send the specified piece to
the bottom

[Eggy]

That seems like a good approach to me. When working like this, sometimes it's also useful to create a third location off to the side (you could give it crazy coordinates like 10,000 10,000 to hide it), that is used as a staging area. Like if you wanted you Act Ender to be within the last 5 cards, you could move it and four other cards into the staging location, shuffle there, and then move them back.

Also, for really fancy setups, if you find you can't get everything onto a quad tap (or don't want to require people to even do that much), you can use the "game name_init.xml" to list out actions that are performed whenever a new game is started. The xml format is a bit different for this file (since it's essentially a saved game file), but it lets you list actions as though you were interacting with the iPad directly (ie "tap here", "move from here to here", etc).

-Nathaniel

Sent from my iPad

[KrisLewis]

So as I learn more about the possibilities of EGE I have to start over
LOL. So far I have started over 3 times. Changing the main board 5
or 6 times already. Now I found that you actually don't have to keep
the board only 1024 x 768 but you actually can make it bigger. I
read on BGG eggy posted that it works best if scaled from those
dimensions like 2x or 1.5x but it works. That makes a few things more
possible for me. Which means start all over LOL!

The game (for those that are unfamiliar) allows characters to move
from the ground to the rooms (parts of the house/building) and search
for items to stay off the zombie horde till you progress through the
two acts of cards and either die or make it to safety. You role a die
for what you find on a search action, and those items can either be
placed in your hands (on your character sheet), or stays on the floor
in that room. My problem initially was in the print n play game the
items are the size of the actual squares you walk on (cells) and have
some text on them describing certain uses. But with a small board you
can't read those tiles even when zooming in it gets all pixely. So I
resorted to not allowing the piece to be dropped on the ground, which
changes the game dramatically. And using tabs for character sheets
and items could be larger and you could read them.... blah blah blah

SO! Instead back to plan A with a twist. Make the board twice as
big! That way when you zoom in, you can read the items text, and yet
still be able to zoom out to view the whole board and see where the
Zed-Heads are coming from.

Has anyone toyed with larger than native resolution images for the
main board?

[Rob3d]

I did this with the dungeon of d module I'm working on. The game board
is 2765x2074 and the cards are 221x309. This makes the tiny text
legible and the cards are nice and big for the secondary board for the
players hand. I was thinking the files sizes would be huge but right
now it has all the necessary graphics in place and its under 13 megs.
The only thing I notice with this method is if you load the game 5
times in a row there will be a graphical glitch. But if you exit out
of the app and swipe to spotlight then run it again there's no issue.
This would be a rare circumstance once your done editing the game. I
think the only reason I saw this in the first place is that I have my
ipad mounted with Phonedisk and I can edit the xml really quickly. I
make tiny changes and constantly restart the game, while playing you
would never restart it 5 times.

[Adam Jeppson]

My Arkham Horror module was originally just the native resolution, and it was impossible to see some detail. I have since done the 2x trick and it is much better!

I feel your pain with redoing things. That arkham module was originally started about 10 months ago, and at around 2000 lines in the XML file, it is a bit of a pain to introduce big changes.

By the way, I'd love to see custom resolutions on the tabs to be able to scale the way the main board does. I need more pixels!

[Eggy]

Scaling tabs are on the list... along with 1000 other things. :0) I think it mint not be too difficult to add though, and assuming so, I think we could get it in for some summer release.

-Nathaniel

Sent from my iPad

[KrisLewis]

Well things are coming along. You could say I'm in alpha stage.

Interesting question. In the game you have a character sheet with two
slots for your hands and 4 for your inventory. Some items are one
handed and some are two. The print and play version makes this easy
to work out because the tiles used for two handers are bigger.
90px x 90px = 1hander
180px x 90px = 2hander

No problem and it works great... mostly

Equip a 2 handed item into a one of the cells created for 90x90px and
instead of spilling over into the next inventory slot or hand, it
centers on that cell LOL. Not what I wanted. I want the two handed
item to "look" like it actually is in both hands. Any ideas of how to
do that without making the character card "free" space?

example codes:

ONE HANDERS
<location_type type="stack">
<size width="90" height="90">
<corner_coord board="3" x= "0" y= "0"><location>item1_1</
location></corner_coord>
....
<initial_location name="item1_1"><sides
paths="DeadOfNight_item_antiquepistol.png"><piece count="4">item1</
piece></sides></initial_location>


TWO HANDERS
<size width="180" height="90">
<corner_coord board="3" x="90" y="360"><location>item2_5</
location></corner_coord>
....
<initial_location name="item4_4"><sides
paths="DeadOfNight_item_bat.png"><piece count="4">item18</piece></
sides></initial_location>

CHARACTER CARD
<location_display type="no_display">
<size width="90" height="90">
<location_type type="cell">
<corner_coord board="5" x= "0" y="90"><location>yellow_left_hand</
location></corner_coord>
<corner_coord board="5" x= "90" y="90"><location>yellow_right_hand</
location></corner_coord>
<corner_coord board="5" x= "0" y="180"><location>yellow_item1</
location></corner_coord>
<corner_coord board="5" x= "90" y="180"><location>yellow_item2</
location></corner_coord>
<corner_coord board="5" x= "0" y="270"><location>yellow_item3</
location></corner_coord>
<corner_coord board="5" x= "90" y="270"><location>yellow_item4</
location></corner_coord>
.....

What ya think?

On Apr 28, 8:46 pm, Eggy <eggy.everyg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Scaling tabs are on the list... along with 1000 other things.  :0)  I think it mint not be too difficult to add though, and assuming so, I think we could get it in for some summer release.
>
> -Nathaniel
>
> Sent from my iPad
>

> On Apr 28, 2011, at 5:32 PM, Adam Jeppson <ajepp...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > My Arkham Horror module was originally just the native resolution, and it was impossible to see some detail. I have since done the 2x trick and it is much better!
>
> > I feel your pain with redoing things. That arkham module was originally started about 10 months ago, and at around 2000 lines in the XML file, it is a bit of a pain to introduce big changes.
>
> > By the way, I'd love to see custom resolutions on the tabs to be able to scale the way the main board does. I need more pixels!
>

[Eggy EveryGame]

Easy! Just make your two handed tile 270 x 90 pixels. Make the 90
pixels on the far left transparent. Then when you drop it in the
location and it centers, it will appear offset to the right (and
therefore hopefully, right in the box).

-Nathaniel

[KrisLewis]

Work on Dead of Night is paused... Summer is when I get really busy,
plus my boss has been out for the last 2 months with a child in the
hospital, so I have been working extra to keep things floating... So
all that are looking for this ege... It is coming, but after these
words from our sponsors...