Hi,

I've hadn't had so much fun like last day. There was a lot of minor things that i addressed yesterday like toggling between fullscreen/windowed mode (Press Alt-Enter). Also the main loop was rearranged to allow for faster processing. A game state base class was added.

I've added slippery ice tiles, which make Dr Dobbs slide along. They're only present in the first level yet though.

Actually this is a mighty fine game which just needs polishing and a handful of new elements.

Here's a link to the current WIP: http://www.georg-rottensteiner.de/webmisc/DrDobbs_WIP1.zip

Visual Studio 2008 works quite nicely, i'm using the Express edition though and dearly miss my "find friend file" macro.

Very nice job with the windowed mode. I was going to work on that next, actually. Having it in the corner with no frame is pretty annoying...

DirectX 9 is a tad pickier with the window as DX8 was. Took me a while to get it to do what i wanted

Anyway, i uploaded a newer version. Since i plan to add an editor inside the game i first made the stage number dynamic. For this i removed the stage selector buttons and put a list there.

Most time went into refactoring the code to my liking (everybody's got his favourite style i reckon). Since i need to go through every file this helps me understand the inner workings very nicely -> therefore recommended over automatic reformatting.

The link stayed the same: http://www.georg-rottensteiner.de/webmisc/DrDobbs_WIP1.zip

Here's a new version.

A whole lot has changed underneath and the editor is in (press E in the main menu). You can edit all levels and also create new ones (just flip through the created levels).

The editor works with mouse and keys:

Press +/- to flip throught the available elements, left mouse button to set an element, right button to pick the tile under the cursor.
Press D to change a creatures start direction.
Press N to change a levels name.
Press Shift +/- to flip through the levels.
F2 to save the current level.
Escape to go back to the main menu.

Still more code needs changing, and then i can start to add more diversity to the game itself.

http://www.georg-rottensteiner.de/webmisc/DrDobbs_WIP1.zip

Used the long weekend to add more stuff to the game itself.

Levels can now be bigger than the default and scroll.
The editor has been enhanced to allow for that. Press W and H to increase width/height, Shift-W and Shift-H to decrease both again.
There's new elements, impassable steel tiles, keys and doors.

The link is the same as before:

http://www.georg-rottensteiner.de/webmisc/DrDobbs_WIP1.zip

Awesome updates man! I was trying to figure out how to make it scroll, and now that you've done it I know I'm going to have to

Thanks

Here's a new update. Not so much new stages, but a bit more overall polishing.

Configuration is now possible and saved (no key mapping yet though), the shoe finally does something and a new spike element added.

Added as well is a "get ready" delay before the level starts off. On bigger levels the delay the player can really move is too big and it adds to the play time which was somewhat unfair.

Link is the same as before: http://www.georg-rottensteiner.de/webmisc/DrDobbs_WIP1.zip

This time less on the feature updates, but now there's 40 stages to play.

I display the background toned down a bit, it's easier on the eyes (or maybe it's just too dark outside). Right now the collision code is a mess. I've started to add a different method but some parts still rely on the old one. Glad you can't see it yet

Anyway, have fun!

The link is the same as usual, so i refrain from posting it again.

This is looking really good, Georg - nice progress!

Simon.
[Dobbs product manager.]

Thanks

Small progress report:

I started to change the texture section code to one i've been using through my games; also a bit of new stuff and levels.

Oops, forgot: Use SPACE to toggle the switches.

Since i'm going on vacation for three weeks i'll turn the current version in, but here's the playable game:

Link as usual: http://www.georg-rottensteiner.de/webmisc/DrDobbs_WIP1.zip

Have fun everyone!

Finally taking it up again

A lot of nice mods have appeared, are there more lurking?

Since i'm now on a bigger rewrite there won't be a playable version in the short future. I'm going for an all around remodelling of the game but since i can't draw for my life the characters will probably stay around.

I get the impression there are a few more lurkers out there on the mod side of things, yeah. Looking forward to seeing more as the deadline approaches, though a lot of people are keeping things secret until the last minute. Keep on truckin' with yours, Georg!

Regards,
Simon.
[Dobbs publisher.]

I've been rebuilding the level system so the tiles/terrain do not need classes. Also the collision system is now revamped. Both now use the system i've usually been using for my own games; makes me feel more comfortable with it

As some weird by effect now the scrolling is way smoother than it was before. I must've accidentally fixed something else

Good work, Georg Rottensteiner!

It has been astonishingly quiet on these forums. However, it's probably time that I gave an update.

I've been working away on Badly Drawn Robots - 20 minutes one day, 30 minutes the next, a couple of hours on a good day, with extra bursts of activity on Saturday nights. It is good fun and has captured my enthusiasm, despite the fact that I'm up to my eyeballs in some very absorbing projects at work. A friend is now supplying the graphics, so we've gone beyond my badly drawn programmer art to something that looks a lot better. Despite that, we're keeping the "Badly Drawn" name.

I wrote a program (Python with PIL/aggdraw) to pack the graphics into larger textures and to generate an index, which is then read by a modified texture loader. That has reduced the size of my distributable by a couple of megs and has greatly improved loading times.

--- Rod

Indeed, it has been a bit quiet. We're tending to find that we have about ten times as many silent workers than we do forum commenters, though, which bodes well for the final challenge entries.

In any case, interested to see (Not So) Badly Drawn Robots, too. Oops, I just typoed that as 'Baldly Drawn Robots'. That would be cool too!

Some more progress:

The game is going to be different from the 1 month version. It's still mainly a jump'n'run though.

Things are advancing nicely now, having the editor in helps a lot. Some things are getting hard coded now. Usually i don't like to hardcode game code too much, but with the limited time there's not that much choice. Although using Lua would be nice

The end is drawing near so i really gotta hurry up to get some decent gameplay going.
I replaced the ID3DXSprite with a selfmade sprite batcher (i was surprised how easy that's to build) so i can draw non rectangular texture sections.

I also replaced the static sounds map with an application member app. The same happened to entities (and text).
While a static list of all existing members can be convinient for some things it works not so fine if some of them are not to be processed with the common code.

I'm planning more story than simple stage playing. On the downside this means a lot of careful design so things match up

Thanks for all your updates Georg,

They're really interesting!

I'm very much looking forward to playing your finished version.

Mathew Kumar
Community Manager

Still progressing

I allow for more than one layer and a few more tidbits are in. I've worked mostly on the basic gui stuff now since that tends to be the most tedious stuff.

The time left will then be put to good use in more levels (i hope).

There is now a quasi linear progressing through the levels, but i hope to have enough time left to design a bit more all around