tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55046492024-03-13T07:43:17.289+00:00GodpatternsAbout Game Development with particular focus on C#, Lua and procedural content generation.balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.comBlogger474125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-19114851046355166952017-03-10T18:37:00.000+00:002017-03-10T18:37:06.992+00:00Tiled doesn't export Lua anymore!Hello,
The How to Make an RPG book uses Tiled to make the maps. But if you use the latest version of Tiled, you'll find when you export the map it doesn't export Lua code!
I've have few mails about it such as:
The most recent version of Tiled (0.18.0)
outputs the lua data differently than what is stated in the book, using
more a format of “adnf3r8fdnADFadnafdiufadn” to show tile locations balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-1627666443511026152016-10-04T07:53:00.001+00:002016-10-04T07:53:52.261+00:00A Lua Memory ViewerIf you're new to Lua you might not know about "_G". "_G" is the global table: the table containing all objects currently in global memory. All the Lua libraries are in there, any function or variable you define is there.
When writing a large program, it can be useful to have a look inside this "_G" table to find memory leaks or monitor variable values. To this end, I've written a simple visual balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-5398318797139601432016-05-11T11:59:00.002+00:002016-07-16T09:28:29.892+00:00Making an RPG Book Update
The book is now out!
See the release post on How to Make an RPG.
(I'll add a release post here too when I get chance!)
For the last two years (ok maybe a little longer! :o) I've been steadily working away at my How to Make an RPG project. This is a digital book, collection of art assets, step-by-step projects and game engine that helps the reader make their own Japanese balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-66269557451287793552016-01-01T12:02:00.000+00:002016-01-01T23:43:37.222+00:00December Book UpdateMerry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hope you had a great 2015 and are looking forward to 2016.
I'm writing a book about how to program your own computer role-playing game. Not just a book but also a vast array of example projects and useful assets.
The book goes from drawing sprites to the screen to a fully featured
Final Fantasy 6 style JRPG. Interested? More details here and you can sign balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-81702492946983486842015-12-09T06:17:00.001+00:002015-12-09T06:17:22.241+00:00PlayStation Experience 2015
People playing the game at PlayStation Experience
Headed to San Francisco over the weekend to show the game I'm currently working on. This my second exhibtion and I think I've got most of it. It's fun showing the game and interacting with the game players. Personally one of things I really enjoy it's chatting with the other developers. It was nice to have that opportunity. balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-55815863388915899482015-10-18T02:03:00.001+00:002015-10-25T10:37:00.920+00:00How to Make an RPG: October UpdateHello, I'm writing a book (and a assembling a package of source code, assets and other goodies) about how to write your own RPG computer game. The book goes from drawing images to the screen to a fully featured Final Fantasy 6 style JRPG. Sound interesting? There are more details here and you can sign up for the email list to be notified when it's released!
Inside the arena battling monsters
balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-57880659359788758842015-08-31T13:11:00.000+00:002015-08-31T13:11:30.785+00:00September Writing ChallengeWant a trove of stories to use in your own projects? Accept the September writing challange.
Click here for details on the rpg site.balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-17409412718939642202015-07-01T09:58:00.001+00:002015-07-10T13:12:35.889+00:00How to Make an RPG : June UpdateHello, I'm writing a book called How to Make an RPG. You can check out the details here. It takes the reader from rendering a sprite to the screen, to a fully featured Final Fantasy 6 style RPG with combat, quests, inventory, levelling stats and everything else you'd want.
The Arena minigame at the end of section 2. Final Art.
The mailing list for the book is now a few sign-ups shy of 2.2k balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-65470075096405388122015-03-01T07:34:00.001+00:002015-03-01T07:34:11.880+00:00Bitmap Font RenderingWhen dealing with small resolutions or tiny fonts, a well implemented bitmap font is nearly always going to be clearer than other types of text rendering.
DancingSquid, my little engine, includes ttf font rendering. The test program shows the font rendering below.
Non-Bitmap Font Rendering
When the font gets quite small there's a little blurring. This occurs because the font is a mesh and balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-57175011102428332052015-02-28T02:54:00.000+00:002015-02-28T02:55:42.454+00:00How to Make an RPG: Questing SectionHello, I'm writing a book about making 2d pixel art RPG games like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger or Phantasy star. Check it out and sign up to be notified when it's released here: How to Make an RPG the book.
Adding triggers to the town map in the quest section. Art not finalised!
It's about time for another progress update. I've starting recieving some of the art back for the combat balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-21605384399959059532015-01-20T12:17:00.000+00:002015-01-20T12:32:02.814+00:00How to Make an RPG Book : UpdateI'm writing a book called "How to Make an RPG", it tells you how to make a retro Final Fantasy style game from scratch. It's a big project! To hear when it's out please sign-up on the official How to Make an RPG page here.
New Year's Eve 2013 I moved to Hong Kong.
2014 has been a pretty crazy year personally, last year on New Years Eve I arrived in Hong Kong for a new job. Moving country balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-15235019560061449692014-12-03T10:28:00.000+00:002014-12-03T10:28:11.017+00:00Brief book updateWork continues on the How to Make an RPG book.
I'm somewhere near the end of the combat section. Nearly everything is finished, there are spells, counter-attacks, item use, special moves (steal and an omin-slash), fleeing and the basic melee attack.
My major slowdown is revising the code as I go and this means reworking all the previous examples and text. Recently I wasn't happy with balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-62838586286992239292014-12-02T09:40:00.000+00:002014-12-02T09:40:11.006+00:00Reductionist Game DesignReductionist Game Design is a pretty fancy name, here's what I mean:
Look at some games
Break the game down into functional systems
Use these as building blocks to make other games.
This is my default mode when thinking about games. Raph Koster gave a great talk entitled "Practical Creativity - A way to invent new kinds of video games". I shared it on twitter this morning.
Game Systems balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-31533655567625855932014-10-18T07:07:00.000+00:002014-10-18T07:29:00.017+00:00How to Make an RPG: Advanced Combat Update
Time for an update! As you may or may not know I'm writing a book about creating old school RPGs as found on the SNES. Thanks for the continuing patience, for anyone who is actively following this book-writing sojourn.
Basic combat has been working nicely for a while now. You attack enemies - special effects fire-off, numbers bounce ... all that good stuff is working. The game over state balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-59146076588651897982014-08-08T01:53:00.004+00:002014-08-27T07:26:52.808+00:00JRPG Combat
Visiting the Big Buddha
Family visited me in Hong Kong this week. Great to do some touristy stuff but I didn't do my normal morning writing for the How do I make a RPG book. The plan is to crack on this weekend and get the combat to a state were people are hitting each other!balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-79160135010755155042014-07-26T02:56:00.000+00:002014-07-26T06:15:13.569+00:00JRPG CombatI'm finally knee-deep in the combat section of my next book "How to make an RPG". The book takes the reader from nothing to an old school Final Fantasy 6 like game. This is a bigger task than I first anticipated but things are going well!
Adding combat, still struggling to find a good gif solution on mac. Note: All art assets are placeholder.
In the last post I had a Combat Table of balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-58447012074071372202014-05-18T02:46:00.001+00:002014-05-18T02:46:12.667+00:00Another laptop to the laptop-god to adorn his laptop throne.Hey there, I haven't written in a little while but I'm still pushing forward with my next book howtomakeanrpg.com.
My SSD drive died last week, which means a week of far slower work. It's pretty frustrating but I made do as best I could with traditional pen and paper. I've been working out what chapters I'll tackle next and how to present the a simple combat formula.
Trying to keep progress balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-74503338352009070872014-04-07T23:31:00.001+00:002014-04-07T23:31:19.522+00:00How To Make An RPG: Party Members
I'm still plugging away at the How To Make an RPG book and I'm currently doing some of the menus related to combat. Before I get into combat the classes for the combatants need designing and the data for all the party members and monster needs writing. A lot of that's done now, I'm just hooking it into the menus like you see above. The portraits are placeholder at the moment once I've completedbalaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-42465781234448211642014-03-19T00:06:00.004+00:002014-03-19T00:06:58.326+00:00New Ground
How did I set up maps again?
I'm getting into the equipment part of the combat section of my book How to Make an RPG. I'm going to see if I can carve out a chunk of time this weekend to really press on with it, this week has not been great for progress. At the moment I'm setting up a simple map with some chests so the character can find different weapons. I'm also integrating the stats and balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-18649246682938019322014-03-06T23:25:00.001+00:002014-03-06T23:25:32.438+00:00Brief UpdateI'm continuing writing the How to Make an RPG book.
This week I finished off the section about Stats and all the related example code. I'm nearing the end of the levels and levelling section. Then I'll be taking a little time to revisit the in game menus adding a status screen and maybe a battle summary screen. After this I'll move on to equipment, equipment menu screens and soon enough I'll be balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-22756508721885561442014-02-27T23:22:00.003+00:002014-02-27T23:22:42.914+00:00Back in RPG CombatHello!
I've been plugging away at my next book, How To Write an RPG, and I'm currently writing the first part of the combat section; Stats. It's similar to my article on Stats published on this blog, but slimmed down and every step of the way there's accompanying example code.
Since the last update I've checked all the previous examples in the book work on Mac and everything seems good.
balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-39669408364714019022014-02-13T23:44:00.002+00:002014-02-13T23:44:08.758+00:00General UpdateI thought a general update might be in order. I'm living in Hong Kong now and settled enough to continue working on the RPG book regularly. It's freezing here at the moment!
There are currently 1.1k signups to the mailing list, which definitely shows some interest. I'm holding off doing any more explicit promotion until nearer the release (still somewhat hazy at the moment!)
You can learn more balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-79663188062328081702014-02-05T12:01:00.002+00:002015-05-30T07:22:53.020+00:00How to Make an RPG - LevelsI've moved this article over to the mainsite, you can read it here.balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-37049803707331449062013-12-07T14:10:00.000+00:002013-12-07T14:17:32.586+00:00Implementing BattleExecute and IAction questionsRecently I had a twitter question from @TwitchGamez about the JRPG primer I wrote for GameDevTuts+. Here's the message:
Hi, I was wondering if I could ask you a question regarding your JRPG
Primer? Namely, the BattleExecute state. Here's my implementation of it
(along with BattleTick) in C#:
public class BattleTick : FSMState {
private StateMachine battleFSM;
balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5504649.post-64676577643684993282013-09-14T20:57:00.000+00:002015-05-24T13:58:02.192+00:00How To Make An RPG - StatsThis post is now over on the How to Make an RPG main site, click here to check it out!balaamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12534212423013377083noreply@blogger.com0