|
I've made a couple different posts about game programming, though everyone that read them seemed to not really know how to piece everything together to finally get off the ground writing their own game within the Windows Console.
I've been creating a series of posts back at my blog about creating a Window's console game from scratch in C. This post will act as a culmination of many different posts throughout my blog in the form of an open source game engine called AsciiEngine.
AsciiEngine is a free open source game engine for Windows XP, Vista, and Win7 that allows the user to easily create and display images within a Windows console. The engine also automates the tedious task of customizing aspects of the console, such as a font or palette color. By using AsciiEngine, users can easily construct interactive programs (games!) without the overhead of setting up all of the various system components required to run a game within the Windows console.
AsciiEngine actually runs within the Windows console. No GDI or anything, just displaying colored text within the console! This makes for a very interesting way to create games. I feel coding a game in the Windows console is a wonderful way for beginning programmers to take off in creating something very cool without using black box libraries; if you make a game in the console on your own you really should understand everything that's going on in your program. AsciiEngine intends to provide a good reference point for anyone trying to make something from scratch on their own, as well as a jumping off point for others who don't want to necessarily learn all of what's going on to get things up and running in the Console.
![[image loading]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CKKNc1zQm_M/T_NNVfiniaI/AAAAAAAAAGY/rg2qHOuovUc/s400/AsciiEngine_Demo.PNG) Screenshot of the AsciiEngine demo. Pressing enter pastes
sun images onto random locations.
Features include:
- Game loop integrated into Game State Manager via function pointers
- Game State Manager
- Simple framerate controller
- Various console related functions for easy customization of the console window
- Complete graphics function set for drawing 2D images
- Input template complete for simple keystroke detection
- Simple image format that allows for variable size
- Integrated hash table for storing images
- Extremely simple creation/deletion of images
- Implementation of my simple 2D collision library
- Implementation of my simple 2D vector library
- Highly organised object manager using the factory pattern
- Allows for easy creation/handling/deletion of game objects
- Incredibly simple to create new object types
I can recall a time in the past when I first started programming. A lot of my troubles stemmed from figuring out how all the basic programming tools (loops, functions, etc.) could fit together to construct an actual game. Hopefully my efforts here can help anyone else in the same position. I know there's a lot of people that would love to know how to code their own games, but feel like it's hard to learn in a practical way.
I really loved making my own Ascii game, and would be really excited to see anything anyone makes 
Here's some screenshots of a game I made when I didn't know hardly anything about programming. This game was made my first semester of college, it's called TerraNisi. It wasn't actually made with AsciiEngine, but it'd be incredibly simple to make it within AsciiEngine:
![[image loading]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eemuLbe2eow/T_NMVENNJfI/AAAAAAAAAGA/_Bbvbs40Xk8/s320/TerraNisi_2.PNG) Intro picture!![[image loading]](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KUSWyBu36h8/T_NMVmJUdqI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/iSWqcN54O14/s320/TerraNisi_4.PNG) Screenshot of some gameplay  ![[image loading]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1-watNzNBN4/T_NMVaJ7ArI/AAAAAAAAAGI/WD-a_hYeiEY/s320/TerraNisi_3.PNG) Only the most cutest and funny villain evar.
Link to TerraNisi: LINK
Link to AsciiEngine Info: LINK
Link to AsciiEngine: LINK
Feel free to email me at: r.gaul@digipen.edu if you have any questions about making a game. For some reason getting other people interested in game programming is just so fun, so don't be shy in asking for help with programming or anything else! I'm also completely open to any criticism/suggestions on the project.
  
|
This is beautiful. I'll check it out for sure, sounds loads of fun :D
|
So, you wrote this? Nice work! How many colors does it support? And what is the max resolution? Also, does it support text input, like if you wanted to have a picture, and the user can also enter text at a prompt for commands?
|
On July 04 2012 07:50 fabiano wrote:
This is beautiful. I'll check it out for sure, sounds loads of fun :D
Hey sweet! Do post back here to show off what you've done
On July 04 2012 07:54 Mossen wrote:
So, you wrote this? Nice work! How many colors does it support? And what is the max resolution? Also, does it support text input, like if you wanted to have a picture, and the user can also enter text at a prompt for commands?
Yes I did write this. It supports quite a few colors by default, though you can only have 16 colors active in your palette. Luckily I've figured out (with help from programmers unkown on the internet) how to set a custom color palette.
There's no functionality within AsciiEngine for command line input currently, but it'd be very easy to create. I wrote a post on creating a custom scripting language, you can pretty easily write your own parser for input commands. The functionality to show what the user is writing on the screen would also be really easy to make as well -- I put something like this into TerraNisi, but it only supported one character at a time for simplicity.
Edit: Any resolution.
|
You should try reverse-engineering Dwarf Fortress. 
|
It certainly is a unique way to develop games. The issue I have is that although you can create some pretty fun games this way, there isn't really a market for sharing or selling them. I don't know why but that gets to me when I'm making a game; unless I know it could potentially go somewhere I find it hard to invest the time.
I've been finding that Android is actually a really nice platform for creating beginner games at the moment. The only tricky bit is setting up your development environment but there is a full tutorial online on how to set up Eclipse IDE for Android development: http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/installing-adt.html
The game engine I've been using is called AndEngine and is designed for 2D graphics only: http://www.andengine.org/
And if you're into 3D graphics there's a nice free engine called JPCT-AE: http://www.jpct.net/jpct-ae/
At the end of the day you need to understand programming and how to structure a program in order to make games from scratch. It's a fallacy that anyone can download some tools and make a game... it just doesn't work that way.
In saying that your game looks awesome Reminds me of the past. Very quirky idea.
|
Your artwork is impressive. You have a gift.
No console for me though, I'm an OpenGL/GLFW convert XD
|
|
|
Let's make games together cecil. I need someone with ideas and programming knowledge to demand art from me.
|
the last picture looks like a portrait in Mario N64 .
|
Cool and all, but I'm surprised you say that writing console based games is a good start for beginners because they don't have to use black box libraries, yet the point of your post is to talk about your black box library, AsciiEngine. I mean, in the same sense that AsciiEngine sets up a lot of boring stuff for you so you can focus on making the game, so does SDL, difference being that SDL supports "proper graphics". I would think most beginner developers would get more benefit, and have more fun, makind SDL games over Ascii games.
Personally I feel beginner programmers who want to become more advanced should generally not use premade engines but instead learn to make their own since that gives a completely different perspective on what is possible. To a reasonable degree of course, using SDL or your asciiengine is fine since they help with background annoying stuff, while using stuff like Unity is, IMO, abstracting the developer too far away from the groundwork.
|
On July 04 2012 17:29 Tobberoth wrote:
Cool and all, but I'm surprised you say that writing console based games is a good start for beginners because they don't have to use black box libraries, yet the point of your post is to talk about your black box library, AsciiEngine. I mean, in the same sense that AsciiEngine sets up a lot of boring stuff for you so you can focus on making the game, so does SDL, difference being that SDL supports "proper graphics". I would think most beginner developers would get more benefit, and have more fun, makind SDL games over Ascii games.
Going by the same reasoning I'd recommend Pygame over SDL for even more fun (and rapid) development. It's basically an SDL wrapper, but you get the advantage of using Python which is as accessible as programming languages get.
|
On July 04 2012 18:50 Talin wrote:Show nested quote +On July 04 2012 17:29 Tobberoth wrote:
Cool and all, but I'm surprised you say that writing console based games is a good start for beginners because they don't have to use black box libraries, yet the point of your post is to talk about your black box library, AsciiEngine. I mean, in the same sense that AsciiEngine sets up a lot of boring stuff for you so you can focus on making the game, so does SDL, difference being that SDL supports "proper graphics". I would think most beginner developers would get more benefit, and have more fun, makind SDL games over Ascii games. Going by the same reasoning I'd recommend Pygame over SDL for even more fun (and rapid) development. It's basically an SDL wrapper, but you get the advantage of using Python which is as accessible as programming languages get.
Well yeah, that's what I meant. If you're a beginning programmer who want to make games, going to C is probably not a good idea. There are SDL wrappers for all languages imaginable, so it's really easy to get started with.
|
Does this mean Howl's Moving Castle is just a fanfiction of your game?
|
Kyrgyz Republic1462 Posts
On July 04 2012 17:29 Tobberoth wrote:
Cool and all, but I'm surprised you say that writing console based games is a good start for beginners because they don't have to use black box libraries, yet the point of your post is to talk about your black box library, AsciiEngine. I mean, in the same sense that AsciiEngine sets up a lot of boring stuff for you so you can focus on making the game, so does SDL, difference being that SDL supports "proper graphics". I would think most beginner developers would get more benefit, and have more fun, makind SDL games over Ascii games.
Personally I feel beginner programmers who want to become more advanced should generally not use premade engines but instead learn to make their own since that gives a completely different perspective on what is possible. To a reasonable degree of course, using SDL or your asciiengine is fine since they help with background annoying stuff, while using stuff like Unity is, IMO, abstracting the developer too far away from the groundwork.
That is what I was thinking when I first decided that I'd like to make games, and well, I have spent A LOT of time building my own 3D engine, and although that indeed gave me a better understanding of how those things work, that has not helped me to actually make a game and obviously it really sucked compared to OGRE or Unity :-)
I think that as long as you understand what someone's library is doing, not necessarily how, that is sufficient. That is if your goal is to make a working product, and not become a "better programmer" :-)
|
Kyrgyz Republic1462 Posts
I wonder if it is possible to gather a group of enthusiasts here on TL and make a funny little game project...
|
On July 04 2012 23:48 Random() wrote:
I wonder if it is possible to gather a group of enthusiasts here on TL and make a funny little game project...
To gather a group? Probably. To actually get something finished? Much less likely.
But it would be a fun experience nonetheless (I'd be up for it personally!).
|
On July 04 2012 17:29 Tobberoth wrote:
Cool and all, but I'm surprised you say that writing console based games is a good start for beginners because they don't have to use black box libraries, yet the point of your post is to talk about your black box library, AsciiEngine. I mean, in the same sense that AsciiEngine sets up a lot of boring stuff for you so you can focus on making the game, so does SDL, difference being that SDL supports "proper graphics". I would think most beginner developers would get more benefit, and have more fun, makind SDL games over Ascii games.
That does make sense, but since this is open source if someone wanted, they could use it simply as a reference point for starting their own project. That's the point I was trying to make, if that makes any sense.
|
On July 04 2012 12:13 fire_brand wrote:
Let's make games together cecil. I need someone with ideas and programming knowledge to demand art from me.
You may make art for my games :D
|
Nice work. Do you use an in game editor to draw art?
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
