Slick Forums

Theme: android are not always friends of mine
Entry: Little Android
Tecnology: Slick with MarteEngine


I've lost too much time thinking about it, so it's time to write something

1) platform: jump, run and explore
2) minimal graphics: I don't want to waste time on make graphics animations and so on and I want to follow PRIOR example. Player as a square, with a little eye
3) in-game editor: make levels could be a pain if you have to edit in tiled and then import/play and so on.. so my idea is to have an in-game-editor to make levels
4) code: I'll use as much I can from MarteEngine
5) metroidvania style? Dependes.. need more time to design great levels

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Blog | Last game Gravity Duck tribute | In progress Gravity Duck tribute

Day one:

Done:
- setup of new project,
- basic movement, jump, gravity (tnx to MarteEntine),
- player sprite (right/left)
- editor:
- place block and player
- layer change
- transition between editor and game world done
- save/load method using xml with Xstream: bad.. slow and I don't need to save everything of an entity.. just (x,y,type) is enough!

To Do:
- find an efficient way to save entities information.. for now on a xml.. there is a simple way to store some information (x,y,class) without go mad ?

next day for it

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Blog | Last game Gravity Duck tribute | In progress Gravity Duck tribute

Maybe solution is to have a simple way to store my information: CSV (simple, elegant, fast, easy to parse). Every line is an entity.. and because everything in MarteEngine are entities.. I'm in

1) add a method public String toCsv() to Entity, this method write down in csv format base information (x,y,name,type), for example

284,480,"block","SOLID"

2) call this method for every entity defined into editor
3) save level.csv file
4) load level.csv when editor starts

todo: need some sort of EntityFactory ?

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Blog | Last game Gravity Duck tribute | In progress Gravity Duck tribute

Day two:

This is good day:

Done:
- working load/save using csv, defined a "bigger" level with 465 entites and only 10k of sizes!!
- editor now works better with quick erase all key, arrows for movements, grid relative to screen and not position
- added spikes so player can lose

To Do:
- set main loop: dead/restarting/ find end of levels,
- think a GUI
- add door/keys

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Blog | Last game Gravity Duck tribute | In progress Gravity Duck tribute

I would love to have a look at your editor

Right now I'm loading levels from ascii files, pretty similar to StarCleaner.
An ingame editor or at least some graphical editor would be cool...

Did you create some EntityFactory or is it part of your level loading code?

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Right Angle Games | Marte Engine
Back to the past | Star Cleaner | SpiderTrap

for now the onlye thing visually that change from gameWorld is grid




Next thing in my todo list is to have a little GUI for both Editor and Game World.. but I don't want to waste too much time on it.. it's a game, not an editor
To create entities for now I don't have a factory, but just methods for it, addPlayerToWorld, addBlockToWorld and so on

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Blog | Last game Gravity Duck tribute | In progress Gravity Duck tribute

But don't you need a way to select the entity you want to place into the world? And some way to erase entities? How about the depth of an entity?
Saving and loading of designed levels?

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Right Angle Games | Marte Engine
Back to the past | Star Cleaner | SpiderTrap

- select entities using mouse wheels (it's a list, designed to work with little numbers)
- erase using right click,
- depth of an entity into code
- save and load using keyboard

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Blog | Last game Gravity Duck tribute | In progress Gravity Duck tribute

Okay, I'll buy it

Seems like a very simple approach but also very good solution to get a map editor very quickly done! Map scrolling via cursor keys?

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Right Angle Games | Marte Engine
Back to the past | Star Cleaner | SpiderTrap

Of course map scrolling using cursor keys

TODO:
- find a way to center map on player position when editor starts,
- how to place backgrounds?
-

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Blog | Last game Gravity Duck tribute | In progress Gravity Duck tribute

Day three:

Time to get motivation back here two screenshots:



In game we can see brave hero against destiny

and..



level editor: place tiles, (block, player, spikes) and have fun with it.

Bonus feature: wink animation when player stand still for some times

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Blog | Last game Gravity Duck tribute | In progress Gravity Duck tribute

Thanks! That motivated me

Keep the art style, I think you're on the right track there!

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Right Angle Games | Marte Engine
Back to the past | Star Cleaner | SpiderTrap

thanks, for now is just a not-game, but I'll work on that

_________________
Blog | Last game Gravity Duck tribute | In progress Gravity Duck tribute

Todo:
- find a nice music,
- add doors with keys,
- add power up to jump higher,

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Blog | Last game Gravity Duck tribute | In progress Gravity Duck tribute

Not an update, but a declaration of no time for this game

no contest this time

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Blog | Last game Gravity Duck tribute | In progress Gravity Duck tribute