Hello everyone!

It's time for a new update on my game making progress after 5 weeks of no new blog updates!
It's going to be a very big blog but I'll try to make it easy to read for the dear readers and / or followers

I didn't have much time to work on the project as I'd like to and planned. Spent about 80 hours a week on work and every spare time I spent it on programming the game because there has been extra work.
My motivation is still as high as ever though. I enjoy programming every part of it

Previous blogs about game making
(From newest to oldest)
- Game making progress -part 10-2012-02-18
- Game making progress -part 9- 2012-02-13
- Game making progress, almost done 2012-02-07
- Game making progress 2012-02-04
- Game making progress, school 2012-02-02
- School & game making progress 2012-01-31
- Math genius needed for game making 2012-01-11
- Making a game, progress 2012-01-06
- What makes a game interesting? 2012-01-03
- A new beginning 2011-12-31

Contents of blog:
- Data storage
- Level structure & Text alerts
- Player controls
- Battle music and sound effects
- Upcoming implementations
- Gallery

Data storage
In my previous blog (game making part 10 see above for link) I said that I'd use property lists (Definition: A property list is a structured data representation used by Cocoa and Core Foundation as a convenient way to store, organize, and access standard types of data. Link).
I've managed to load data into battles / save the game and more using these property lists.

I've also implemented new functions that makes use of the property lists (more of this later).

Level structure & Text alerts
I've made a test level which you can see below in the screenshots.
I've implemented a customized joystick which the user can control the player (red dot/character in later screenshots) on screen and also implemented a way so that you get to see text from talking to NPC, opening treasures or other text alerts.

Here are some screenshots of the level which was for testing purposes.

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First level with some basic tiles and a customized joystick.

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The same level as above except this is with a text box. After clicking the screen.

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This one shows text after touching the blue textbox.

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This is a new level with treasures and items/gold and even a surprise battle in them! Also used standard joystick.

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Used a random startup screen with text fading in and out on screen.
Might use some animation on the startup screen in the future but for now I've only implemented a background I found on the internet.

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After touching the mainscreen buttons will appear.
For now I haven't put any text in the buttons.
For some clarification, the 1st button is the button for new game and the second button is to go back to the mainscreen without buttons (see previous image).

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The new level with treasures and an action button! You need to press this button in order to talk/open treasures and activate events etc.

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Look! After going to the first treasure and clicked the action button you get to see what is in the treasure

Player controls
As you have already noticed in the above screenshots, I've implemented a joystick and an action button. Right now I've only implemented 2 buttons but more buttons could be implemented (although I don't know why I would for this game).

The player controls animates the character on the screen and moves the player across the map.
It's movement is a bit like blocky and I'll be refining the movements later on.

Battles, music and sound effects
That's right! What's a battle without any music and sound effects

I've managed to implement music and sound effects.
The music will be played according to the data that is stored on the property list files (see data storage section). I can set up as many songs I like for a specific battle and/or a random battle.

The only sound effect I have right now is that of touching the buttons.
Future sound effects will be for casting spells / opening treasures / game over / winning a battle / level up / outside battles etc.

Also implemented the text alert for in battles. See below image.

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Battle screen with text! Info on the screen speaks for itself I think

Furthermore I've now also made it possible to have random battles when you step into a certain type of area (in the screenshots it's the grass but it could be anything). Also battles can be spawned from opening treasures / talking to NPCs.

Upcoming implementations
What will I be focussing in the upcoming weeks:

- Story
- Cutscenes
- Randomizing text chat from NPC's
- Item shops
- Class trainers with skills
- Puzzles for in and outside dungeons
- Implementing puzzles to select a player class (a player will not choose his own class rather the class will be determined by the way the player *solves* the puzzles he gets thrown at him in game).
- Refining player movement and formulas.
- Coming up with spells / items / NPC's
- Coming up with beta test

So far I think I've got the biggest hurdles behind me now.
My first game is slowly becoming a reality

Judging from the progress so far I can release the game in the summer which was originally planned

Gallery
Here's the gallery of all the above screenshots if you wish to see them again (Link).

If you have any feedback, please don't hesitate to leave them here or PM me if you'd like

Praetorial

United States4241 Posts

March 28 2012 20:50 GMT

Was this created in Gamemaker? Because I am developing a project in this as well!

I've only been working on mine for a short while, though, and yours is just infinitely better.

shannn

Netherlands2891 Posts

March 28 2012 21:00 GMT

On March 29 2012 05:50 Praetorial wrote:
Was this created in Gamemaker? Because I am developing a project in this as well!

I've only been working on mine for a short while, though, and yours is just infinitely better.

Nope, this is done in Xcode for iOS with the Cocos2D engine.
Not sure what language Gamemaker uses but I'm doing it in Objective C.
Some placeholders are from Gamemaker though (won't use it at release, just for placeholders).

Bobbias

Canada1373 Posts

March 29 2012 06:45 GMT

On March 29 2012 06:00 shannn wrote:

Show nested quote +

Programmer art: What happens when a programmer does art when that is quite obviously not their major skill

Good on you for keeping with this thing. I feel like the worst part of moving from Java to Objective C is the bizarre (to me) conventions for objects and methods... Conceptually it's pretty similar to java but with vastly different syntax things feel weird (especially if you're not used to learning other programming languages).

I haven't really worked with Objective C though, I prefer C# (like java meets C++!) but it doesn't work for iPhone development.

Also, why are your images so blurry?

shannn

Netherlands2891 Posts

March 29 2012 11:57 GMT

On March 29 2012 15:45 Bobbias wrote:

Show nested quote +

Programmer art: What happens when a programmer does art when that is quite obviously not their major skill

I know what you mean

I've only been taught Java at college so I know what you mean with feeling weird learning new languages.

The images are so blurry at times because of the phone itself. Some are retina and some are non-retina :p
Programming in 2 resolutions is quite the task

Bobbias

Canada1373 Posts

March 29 2012 19:40 GMT

Ahh.

I've been programming for fun for years (I did take some programming lasses in highschool that taught Java though) and through the years I've learned plenty of new languages (none all that well, but I can seamlessly move between different syntax now) so I no longer feel weird when learning to write in a new syntax, but I remember the first few times I learned another language and it felt really awkward to be using the same idealized approach to solve something, but having to write it differently based on how the syntax of the new language worked.

After learning a few new languages that feeling went away though. In highschool for fun I joined a programming contest, but instead of using Java or VB (the languages that were covered in the highschool classes) or C++ (the first language I learned) I attempted them in Turing (a language meant primarily for teaching that used to be covered before they switched to Java for the advanced programming classes)... I never programmed in Turing before, but because I'd gotten used to learning languages (I'd also experimented with PHP by that point), so all I needed to do was quickly learn the syntax about 10 minutes before starting, and keep the help file open in case I needed to look up a function I didn't know,

So if you continue to learn new languages throughout your career, you'll hit a point where programming in a new language really isn't a big deal at all. This is great because then you can stop worrying about the syntax and worry about the programming approach independent of which language you're using.

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