Graphics Programming - Sierpinski Gasket's

One of my modules at university this trimester is introduction to graphics programming where we are working on building up a graphics rendering framework using GLFW.

After each section of practicals we have been given a challenge to create a sierpinski gasket.
(Wikipedia link for those interested - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle)

My first challenge was to create a point based sierpinski gasket.

Point based sierpinski gasket

This wasn't too tricky to do it mostly it was just a case of converting the following algorithm into code.

After learning how to create vertex arrays to draw triangles, the next challenge was to create a sierpinski gasket using triangle sub divisions.

2D sierpinski gasket

Once i figured out what midpoints and vertices i had to pass back into my divide triangle method this was fairly simple to get working.

Currently i am working on creating a 3d sierpinski gasket using tetrahedrons. This is proving to be a lot more tricky than i thought it would have been and i cant quite get the maths correct in my code.

Broken 3d sierpinski gasket

I am going to keep working on it and hopefully i can get it fixed in the next day or two and i will post an update when i can.

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C#/XNA - Brick

It has been a while since i have had a chance to sit down and program or write a blog post. Life has been kind of getting in the way the last couple weeks but hopefully that is past now and i can get time to finish these c# tutorials I'm working through.

I was attempting to work through the tutorial for creating a tile engine but for some reason that doesn't seem to be going too well as my code is super buggy and doesn't actually run, So i searched google for some other XNA tutorials and i came across this one http://xnagpa.net/xna4beginner.php by Jamie McMahon for making the game brick.

It was a Really good beginner tutorial to sit and work through, it was super easy to understand and the code was well explained. If you are looking to start working with XNA i would recommend working through this tutorial as it gives you a basic game that you can easily expand and add to as you start to learn more and become more confident with XNA.

Next post will hopefully be about the working tile engine if i can figure out what i am doing wrong but until then Thanks for reading and be sure to share with friends if you enjoyed this post.

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C#/XNA - Space Invaders

Tutorial 2 of the series that i have been working through was making space invaders. The majority of this was very similar to what we done with the c++ tutorial although there were a few differences that i noticed but i think this could be down to xna or c# but I'm still not 100% sure hopefully working through the next few tutorials i will be able to figure it out.

The biggest difference though is just how the game actually looks compared to the c++ version. I'm sure the c++ version would look better if i had better meshes but i struggled to find suitable meshes when i was working through the c++ the first time.

The xna version was also a lot more simple to code there wasn't really anything that was difficult to understand but I'm not sure if this is because i learnt a lot from already having done it in c++ or if it is just cause c# is simpler.

i have also added a few extra features to the xna version that weren't in the tutorial and that i didn't have in the c++ version. I added the ability for the invaders to move down the screen to the player, displaying the number of invaders left for the player to kill and a winning and loosing state to the game.

One of the next tutorials i have is for creating a messaging system for the game engine and remaking space invaders to work with this system. Once i have done this the game will include a "boss" invader, the invaders shooting back at the player and i will also try and add in some sound and possibly even cover for the player along with a few other things. 

Anyway time to start properly building the tile engine!

Email: 10004794@napier.ac.uk - Please put blog in the subject.
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C#/XNA - Pong

After a couple days off from doing any real work and just sitting playing Mass Effect 3 i decided that it is time to start working through all these c#/XNA tutorials i have and start building up a tile engine.

The first tutorial was just making pong and going over the basics of creating an xna game. This was all pretty straight forward and mostly the same as how we done in it in c++ and irrlicht except this was actually easier as it gives you all the initialise, load content and update methods that you need and already has support for the keyboard where as we had to do all that manually in c++ when we started to create our engine.

XNA left and irrlicht on the right

The main thing i have noticed is just how much nicer and more "polished" the xna version looks compared to the version we done in irrlicht. The xna version actually looks like pong compared to the irrlicht version that we made a few months ago.

Anyway time to go make space invaders now! this should be fun. I will post another blog post when I'm finished and I'll compare it to the irrlicht version which gave me a massive amount of trouble to try and get working when we started.

Email: 10004794@napier.ac.uk - Please put blog in the subject.
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Games Engineering Project Part 4: ILLDAO!

Okay so This really should have been done months ago but i have had quite a lot of uni work which has just taken over my life the past few months and well here is why.

So if you have have been reading over the other posts you will see that mark and I have been tasked with designing and implementing a game using c++ and Irrlicht and the game we have decided to create is called Illdao.

Illdao logo

Illdao plays as a strategic, team-based tactical shooter. Each player takes turns to both move and shoot whilst negotiating their character within a compact space.

Illdao is set on the mysterious planet ‘Illdao’. Ruled by an evil, oppressive race of space squid called The Damned Squid of Bora Bora. Their primary rivals are The Wandering Buffalo of Mimosa who travel through space, righting wrongs which are the main reason they have come here. 

The core gameplay involves two teams, the Damned Squid of Bora Bora and the Wandering Buffalo of Mimosa. Both teams will compete in a death match style arena where the objective is to kill opponents to score points.

Both teams will take turns to move their characters a certain distance. The characters will be controlled primarily through the mouse with context sensitive instructions. If moving a character they will left click where they wish to move them, if shooting they will left click on the target they wish to shoot.

Illdao is aimed at players who are interested in strategy games that combine tactical squad based gameplay with the action of a shooter, primarily between 16 and 38 and of either gender.

Illdao will be developed for the PC

Screen Mock-up

So that is just a quick idea of what Illdao is and what we are aiming to achieve when it comes time to hand our project in and with a lot of hard work and a bit of luck! we should be able to do this!

Thanks for reading and be sure to pass it along to your friends! Check back soon for part 6 and to see how we are getting on!  

Email: 10004794@napier.ac.uk - Please put blog in the subject.
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Global Game Jam: Day 2 and 3

Day 1 blog - CLICK HERE!

Okay so technically this is the end of day 3 just now as i never had time to finish this last night so i am just going to put both posts into one. it may be a bit long but you are awesome if you read it to the end! if not here is the game!CLICK ME!

Day 2: We got off to a good start on day 2 we started nice and early in the morning feeling refreshed after some well needed sleep. We spent the majority of the morning and afternoon finishing the sprites and adding them into GameMaker and creating the basic objects that we needed for the game to have some sort of playability.

The a-MAZE-ing Caterpillar level design

After this we began to design the levels. We decided on 5 levels each with a different art style and set on a different part of the environment. we decided upon forest, jungle, desert and beach as the settings we would have.

Once we had some food we began creating the maps! this took us late into the evening but we eventually had all of our levels completed with all our enemies, collectable objects and gates placed and a quick test of each one to make sure they were achievable and to test for bugs to be sorted in the morning then onto day 3.

Day 3: Our time limit to finish development was 3pm this gave us a limited amount of time to complete our game. At this point we still needed to make the side scrolling part of our game and find and add in sounds this pretty much took us until 3pm which left us with no time to test the game out properly so since we have put the game live on the global game jam website we have found a lot of bugs. However we plan on working on these over the next week or so and will add the update versions to the global game jam website as well.

So what are you waiting for? follow this link and go download our game! lots of feedback will be welcomed with hugs!

thanks for reading!
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The a-MAZE-ing Caterpillar

Download Game-http://archive.globalgamejam.org/2012/maze-ing-caterpillar (bottom of page)

Feeling lonely, suicidal? I know I am but before you reload the gun and write your last will telling your wife she should never have had that affair, give The a-MAZE-ing Caterpillar a try. You will be puzzled long enough to keep you alive for another 10-15 minutes and you can hunt down your true love; unlike your wife.

You are a lonely caterpillar on the search for a life partner. As you travel across the world in search for her you will encouter great dangers. Avoid the nasty bugs and reach the door to the next world to find your mate and eventually save her from the evil Phoenix! Keep going until you become too tired, everytime you save your love you will create a new life in the form of your son who you must guide on his quest for his life partner!

Controls:
<Arrow keys> Movement (Maze Levels)
<Space Bar> Fly (Side-scroll levels)

Points:
Apples - 10 points
Leaves - 10 points
Diamond - 100 points
Completed Level - 100 points
Heart - 1 Life

Hints:
n-next level
r-restart room

Screen Shots

Global Game Jam 2012: Day 1

Well day one is over and so far all seems to be going well. We have our team, an idea and have made good progress so far with everything we are planning on doing so i am pretty happy.

So what have we done?

well we went to the keynote at 3:30pm today where we got given our theme which was this picture.

That was it no words, no meaning. Nothing. Just a picture. Just that picture...

everyone then had 20 minutes to come with an idea that they had to present to everyone that was at the keynote.

Our team interpreted the picture as meaning the circle of life, from this we came up with the idea of a maze/side scrolling game were you have to complete a puzzle/maze before you are launched to another maze through a small mini game were you have to "fly" and collect power ups and health which will help you on the next island and set of mazes.

There were a lot of good ideas that were produced in the 20min session especially "Ghostronaught" which sounded fantastic and i hope the people making it can produce something good and i wish them the best of luck!

After this we started to flesh out our idea a little more. It has now developed into a game were you play as a caterpillar who is on the hunt for  a mate and your objective is to complete the mazes and chase your mate across them until you catch her and produce a little baby before you both transform into beautiful butterfly's and take off leaving your spawn to complete the same missions and find his/her mate.

So far all is going well, we have chosen to make the game 2d and use GameMaker so we don't have to worry about too much programming and can hopefully have at least a few playable levels at the end of it to show off on Sunday.

At the end of day one we have the majority of our art and animation assets so tomorrow shall be spent sticking them all into GameMaker and coming up with the levels!

also this may be a little cheeky but we could do with someone who can make little animations for our start and end screens so if you are interested email me at 10004794@napier.ac.uk and we will give you all the details. and of course you will be credit for all your work.

so it is now 11:38pm and day one is over time for some sleep and then same again tomorrow!

Edited to add
Day 2 and three - CLICK HERE
The Game! - CLICK HERE

thanks for reading!
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I made some Games

After putting off doing any work the whole of the Christmas holidays i decided that with one week left before i go back to uni i should really do some work and stop playing Skyrim so much. So i decided to make a game...

To make the games i used a wonderful program called GameMaker which is free to download from here.

GameMaker takes away a lot of the work from making games and is great for putting together little prototypes of ideas you may have without having to spend hours programming and debugging to find out that it was a pretty rubbish idea you had in the first place.

This was my first time using GameMaker and the reason i decided to use it is that on the 27th-29th of January it is the Global Game Jam which me and a few friends are taking part in. So for this we need something which is quick and fairly simple to use as we only have 48 hours to make a playable game and with our lack of experience there is just no way we could realistically program something in that amount of time.

So the game! well all i really done was follow the first tutorial and then add my own little touches to it. So this is what i done.

I suck at coming up with names for things so this got called "Catch the Clown And Craig's Face For Bonus Points" well it does explain what it is...

The main aim of the game is to score as many points as you can by clicking on a clowns face which moves across the screen. On its own it is pretty boring so to make things a little more exciting i added in some monsters! These little monsters pop up every 3-8 seconds and if you click on them you lose those points you worked so hard to get! (well not really your just clicking the mouse...) 

Every 10 seconds my face pops up and you have to try and catch it and if you do you will get 100 points! but be quick it only stays around for a few seconds before it disappears! 

After the 60 seconds are up it is time to see how well you done. did you make number one in the leader boards or were you rubbish and couldn't even make the top 10?

For a game that only took about 2 hours to make I'm actually pretty happy with it but in all honestly it does suck. However you can't get better at making games without making a few horribly bad ones at some point so keep watching this space and hopefully the next few i make are better than this.

I will do my best to keep this up to date with all the news from the game jam and i will be posting on twitter as well about how our team is getting on so if you are interested follow the blog or hit me up on twitter or one of the links below. 

thanks for reading!
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