I would upload a demo, but there are no graphics or sound yet (just some stars and bullets, with blue squares for enemies). Once I get an acceptable level done, I'll upload something. ^_^
It takes awhile, mainly because I can't seem to keep up the intensity for more than a month at a time. Maybe 18 months ago I started, but the initial project kind of sucked on the programming end, it was a labyrinth of C. Last year I took a compiler class and it really opened my eyes (I still regret not taking the project compiler class last spring, since apparently it is not offered this year). But then I didn't do anything till last summer. Last summer I restarted and coded it up in C++, and put in the XML scripting. Then over this past Christmas break I fixed up the code considerably (finally got around to using STL instead of my own container classes). So in terms of the engine it is pretty much functional. I still need to maybe switch to OpenGL/SDL and put in sound/music handling, but hopefully that won't take too long.
Well, hopefully once I get one game done, the rest should be a little less daunting. The big part is just programming and learning from mistakes. The redoing of code may seem like a waste, but you are really learning from it all. Despite what all the software engineering textbooks tell you about software system design, UML models, and the like, when you actually start trying to code the game, you don't really know what you need to do, haha. ^_^ So, you are going to make mistakes, and the first pass is not going to be a beautifully abstracted OO model, but you learn from it, and improve it.
Now, I just need to think up cool play mechanics, haha.
Making your own shmups.........programs
-
Stormwatch
- Posts: 2327
- Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2005 1:04 am
- Location: Brazil
- Contact:
New to the forum!! (been lurking for months, now I got a reason to post)
You can actually do quite a few tricks with seuck; I have here as an example my old shootemup I did with it back in '89; though you wont find my nick from the credits (I got my old scenename in the credits)
But anyway, with some trickery I managed to emulate debris in explosions (define debris as enemy sprites but harmless; can do only with predefined setting), R-type styled animated background (change level to another with slightly different scene tiles)..all that stuff consumed lot of memory, though, so the game only has 3 levels..
but please see for yourself, you can download it directly from here, but make sure you also have a c64 emulator.
Or, you can just check the page where the screenshot is, there is a link to earlier version of the game, as well (I changed difficulty and some graphics, plus added one new enemy in the end.. if my memory serves well..)
You might notice that the game has an intro and trainer.. that's another story, I gave it for my friend who knew some coders and asked if they could add some music.and they just added an intro and trainer (hey thanks 'mates'..) Just hit space when you see the intro and ignore the text.
In case someone wondered, yes I've been making other games too.. but sadly this is the only shmup I've ever done
I do not have the original seuck file anymore, I wish I had because that would have been much more helpful to you, but the truth is I dont have any of my original disks from the 80's anymore.. I was in fact floored to find my game from c64 database after..what, 15 years??
There is also another interesting item in c64 database: The original R-type conversion from electric dreams (you will probably find it more enjoyable than my game..)
You can actually do quite a few tricks with seuck; I have here as an example my old shootemup I did with it back in '89; though you wont find my nick from the credits (I got my old scenename in the credits)
But anyway, with some trickery I managed to emulate debris in explosions (define debris as enemy sprites but harmless; can do only with predefined setting), R-type styled animated background (change level to another with slightly different scene tiles)..all that stuff consumed lot of memory, though, so the game only has 3 levels..
but please see for yourself, you can download it directly from here, but make sure you also have a c64 emulator.
Or, you can just check the page where the screenshot is, there is a link to earlier version of the game, as well (I changed difficulty and some graphics, plus added one new enemy in the end.. if my memory serves well..)
You might notice that the game has an intro and trainer.. that's another story, I gave it for my friend who knew some coders and asked if they could add some music.and they just added an intro and trainer (hey thanks 'mates'..) Just hit space when you see the intro and ignore the text.
In case someone wondered, yes I've been making other games too.. but sadly this is the only shmup I've ever done
I do not have the original seuck file anymore, I wish I had because that would have been much more helpful to you, but the truth is I dont have any of my original disks from the 80's anymore.. I was in fact floored to find my game from c64 database after..what, 15 years??
There is also another interesting item in c64 database: The original R-type conversion from electric dreams (you will probably find it more enjoyable than my game..)
1. gamedev has a lot of good info for beginners. but they also have a lot of trolls hanging around. I'm saying read the articles, don't try to communicate meaningfully in most of the forums/irc channels.
2. SDL + OpenGL + FMOD and you're halfway home already. When your game is written you can use NSIS, unrarlib to make it elegant. I myself use MS Visual C 6, Photoshop, 3DS Max, Microangelo, and GCC running on Mandrake (for linux development).
3. Let's be clear on something. If you've never written a game from start to finish before then "small" is an atari 2600 game. maybe a C64 game.
4. All programming improves your skill and, IMHO, the majority of people who disagree are inexperienced elitists. "Oh, I got the mad skills, that job is beneath me. ...and that's why I've never finished anything - I'm always working on huge projects beyond my means."
5. On the subject of small again, the single biggest trap that all programmers must watch out for is feature creep. I suffer this all the time - something works but it could work *better*. Before you know it your game has become a game with an engine. Put another way, you are maintaining an engine for a game that doesn't really exist and that engine is collapsing under the weight of all your "improvements". Just yesterday I started to add TinyXML to SSBB and then remembered I didn't *need* it, the scripting I had was fine. Saved myself many hours of work and avoided any bugs that might exist in TinyXML. I'm not bashing TinyXML. It's a good product. I know I will use it. ...but I don't need it yet.
6. Don't work a project more than 8 hours a day. Don't work a project more than 5 days a week. Take at least 2 days a week to get out of the house. Take a walk every day in the sun. If you don't you'll probably burn out and find it really difficult to look at the code any more. By the same token, be aware of that moment when you stop coding and you start surfing the web or playing somebody else's game. It's time for a break.
7. If you don't like your game the way it is then nobody else will, either. Every time I play SSBB I wish I had written more already. To me that's a good sign.
karasuman - you're on the right track. get it all working in squares and you can pop in 3d meshes later. to hell with beautiful OO. Often it's more structure than you need. SSBB was written in almost pure C and, believe me, there were a lot of ways C++ could have simplified some things.
RedKnight - You're doing great. I'd love to see some volume controls in the options.
nullpointer - good trick with the css & that gif background behind the download link. Your game really reminds me of GRIDRUNNER++. I really like it! beautiful design. Where did you get your sound effects?
nullpointer is right. The average development time on a commercial game is about 18 to 24 months. That's two years of playing a broken game. so pay for your video games - if you can't stand it for more than 20 hours, the guy who spent 4000 working on it should get your $60. Pompom makes great shmups. http://www.nurium.com has made a kick-ass breakout clone I'm trying to compete with. Gish is a great game, too, I forget who makes it. Alien Hominid is another.
2. SDL + OpenGL + FMOD and you're halfway home already. When your game is written you can use NSIS, unrarlib to make it elegant. I myself use MS Visual C 6, Photoshop, 3DS Max, Microangelo, and GCC running on Mandrake (for linux development).
3. Let's be clear on something. If you've never written a game from start to finish before then "small" is an atari 2600 game. maybe a C64 game.
4. All programming improves your skill and, IMHO, the majority of people who disagree are inexperienced elitists. "Oh, I got the mad skills, that job is beneath me. ...and that's why I've never finished anything - I'm always working on huge projects beyond my means."
5. On the subject of small again, the single biggest trap that all programmers must watch out for is feature creep. I suffer this all the time - something works but it could work *better*. Before you know it your game has become a game with an engine. Put another way, you are maintaining an engine for a game that doesn't really exist and that engine is collapsing under the weight of all your "improvements". Just yesterday I started to add TinyXML to SSBB and then remembered I didn't *need* it, the scripting I had was fine. Saved myself many hours of work and avoided any bugs that might exist in TinyXML. I'm not bashing TinyXML. It's a good product. I know I will use it. ...but I don't need it yet.
6. Don't work a project more than 8 hours a day. Don't work a project more than 5 days a week. Take at least 2 days a week to get out of the house. Take a walk every day in the sun. If you don't you'll probably burn out and find it really difficult to look at the code any more. By the same token, be aware of that moment when you stop coding and you start surfing the web or playing somebody else's game. It's time for a break.
7. If you don't like your game the way it is then nobody else will, either. Every time I play SSBB I wish I had written more already. To me that's a good sign.
karasuman - you're on the right track. get it all working in squares and you can pop in 3d meshes later. to hell with beautiful OO. Often it's more structure than you need. SSBB was written in almost pure C and, believe me, there were a lot of ways C++ could have simplified some things.
RedKnight - You're doing great. I'd love to see some volume controls in the options.
nullpointer - good trick with the css & that gif background behind the download link. Your game really reminds me of GRIDRUNNER++. I really like it! beautiful design. Where did you get your sound effects?
nullpointer is right. The average development time on a commercial game is about 18 to 24 months. That's two years of playing a broken game. so pay for your video games - if you can't stand it for more than 20 hours, the guy who spent 4000 working on it should get your $60. Pompom makes great shmups. http://www.nurium.com has made a kick-ass breakout clone I'm trying to compete with. Gish is a great game, too, I forget who makes it. Alien Hominid is another.
Dan "Aggrav8d" Royer, Owner
Marginally Clever Games
Marginally Clever Games
I've just started a few weeks ago with Actioncript and Flash coding , I think it's possible to create simple shooters with Actionscript .
I've coded 2 demos, one with bulletML SWF generator and another one with a n interesting scroll effect....I've coded these 2 little demos in only a few hours
using sample code.
http://www.alotoftroubles.altervista.org/shoot.swf
http://www.alotoftroubles.altervista.org/shoot.htm
I've coded 2 demos, one with bulletML SWF generator and another one with a n interesting scroll effect....I've coded these 2 little demos in only a few hours
using sample code.
http://www.alotoftroubles.altervista.org/shoot.swf
http://www.alotoftroubles.altervista.org/shoot.htm
-
Shatterhand
- Posts: 4044
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 3:01 am
- Location: Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
- Contact:
Well, I do use gamemaker for like 3 years now.
I can do "proper" coding, but to make 2D games, Gamemaker is so easy, fast and confortable... and if you have some experience in coding, it makes it even easier.
The GML language (included with the Game Maker package) is incredibly powerful. If you want to do a shmup and not waste too much time in boring programming, Game Maker can be really useful for you
I can do "proper" coding, but to make 2D games, Gamemaker is so easy, fast and confortable... and if you have some experience in coding, it makes it even easier.
The GML language (included with the Game Maker package) is incredibly powerful. If you want to do a shmup and not waste too much time in boring programming, Game Maker can be really useful for you
I'd recommend Macromedia Director over flash, but flash has a larger install base or whatever they call it.
A long time ago I used klik & play to make simple games, then I moved onto the games factory, and then finally multimedia fusion... since then I've been using director/shockwave, and there is lots that you can do with it...
I find director to be far more easier to understand than flash from a 2d games point of view, and director's lingo scripting is more comfortable for me compared to how flash works...
Blitz Basic 3d was another program I messed with for a while, along with Jamagic (next program after mmf), and also dark basic.
The best thing to do would be learning c++, I've never given it a serious effort though, I do plenty of logic/scripting stuff, but I just don't have a clear understanding of how c++ works, and all the extra stuff which needs to be done to get direct3d up and running just turns me off from it all..
if anyone would like to attempt a director/shockwave shooter (or needs director lingo help) let me know.
A long time ago I used klik & play to make simple games, then I moved onto the games factory, and then finally multimedia fusion... since then I've been using director/shockwave, and there is lots that you can do with it...
I find director to be far more easier to understand than flash from a 2d games point of view, and director's lingo scripting is more comfortable for me compared to how flash works...
Blitz Basic 3d was another program I messed with for a while, along with Jamagic (next program after mmf), and also dark basic.
The best thing to do would be learning c++, I've never given it a serious effort though, I do plenty of logic/scripting stuff, but I just don't have a clear understanding of how c++ works, and all the extra stuff which needs to be done to get direct3d up and running just turns me off from it all..
if anyone would like to attempt a director/shockwave shooter (or needs director lingo help) let me know.
IMHO, steer as far away from DirectX as possible. SDL will make it really really easy to open a window and you can (optionally) add OpenGL on top of that to give you 3D graphics. OpenGL is easier to learn (especially with SDL) and an SDL/OpenGL program can be made to run on windows, linux, and mac OSX without much difficulty. DirectX will *not* run on linux or OSX unless you install a third party program like WINE and that's a whole other set of problems right there (like your emulated program running very slowly).
If you just want to start learning about making games with C/C++ and SDL, you can check out http://nehe.gamedev.net , http://www.flipcode.com , or this page set up by the guy who runs the text mode demo competition.
If you just want to start learning about making games with C/C++ and SDL, you can check out http://nehe.gamedev.net , http://www.flipcode.com , or this page set up by the guy who runs the text mode demo competition.
Dan "Aggrav8d" Royer, Owner
Marginally Clever Games
Marginally Clever Games
Do you know any 2D SDL Tutorial?
I didn't find any in your links.
I only founded a simple 2D tutorial on SDL and shmups here,it seems interesting:
http://cone3d.gamedev.net/cgi-bin/index ... xsdl/index
I didn't find any in your links.
I only founded a simple 2D tutorial on SDL and shmups here,it seems interesting:
http://cone3d.gamedev.net/cgi-bin/index ... xsdl/index
I don't want to disagree with you, landshark. It doesn't hurt to know DirectX. But the only guys who *really* need to know are the ones writing the engine and, even then, it's mostly the ones writing an XBOX engine that need to know it. DX coding doesn't translate to any other console and makes PC development a pain in the ass (see previous post by yours truly for reasons).
More important than DX is being able to finish and polish a product. Even a working one level game with a menu, some sounds, and 2d bitmaps would be better than anything I saw when I worked for a studio and was reviewing submissions for new game programmers. To do that you need to know a lot more than just the platform-specific side of things. You need to know about the basic game loop and how to use high-school level physics to make things move. You'll got to show that you're organized enough to get a job done and that means some project management skill and maybe some documentation to demonstrate your written communication skills. Aa basic knowledge of things like photoshop and 3DSMax wouldn't hurt, either.
Now if you really really want to be a graphics programmer then I'd say Yes, absolutely, learn DirectX. And OpenGL. Including shader languages. But trust me when I say if you go down that road graphics is all you're ever going to have time to work on, and even if you are good with those you'll *still* have to put together some kind of demo to get a job.
Druuna - the last link, (this one) is all about 2D games with SDL, starting with the basic concepts of blitting and moving on later to game mechanics and so forth. You can use OpenGL to do the same thing but, IMHO, it really helps to have an understanding of the fundamentals, first.
More important than DX is being able to finish and polish a product. Even a working one level game with a menu, some sounds, and 2d bitmaps would be better than anything I saw when I worked for a studio and was reviewing submissions for new game programmers. To do that you need to know a lot more than just the platform-specific side of things. You need to know about the basic game loop and how to use high-school level physics to make things move. You'll got to show that you're organized enough to get a job done and that means some project management skill and maybe some documentation to demonstrate your written communication skills. Aa basic knowledge of things like photoshop and 3DSMax wouldn't hurt, either.
Now if you really really want to be a graphics programmer then I'd say Yes, absolutely, learn DirectX. And OpenGL. Including shader languages. But trust me when I say if you go down that road graphics is all you're ever going to have time to work on, and even if you are good with those you'll *still* have to put together some kind of demo to get a job.
Druuna - the last link, (this one) is all about 2D games with SDL, starting with the basic concepts of blitting and moving on later to game mechanics and so forth. You can use OpenGL to do the same thing but, IMHO, it really helps to have an understanding of the fundamentals, first.
Dan "Aggrav8d" Royer, Owner
Marginally Clever Games
Marginally Clever Games
-
Shatterhand
- Posts: 4044
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 3:01 am
- Location: Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
- Contact:
Shooting Maker by ASCII never got properly translated, as far as I know.
I toyed with a half translated version of it, and I can confirm, it's nearly IMPOSSIBLE to do anything good with it, unless you can read japanese.
I managed to do some very simple stuff - I could make my ship move on screen, a scroll background, add some enemies (but could mess to much with their behaviour -, and I managed to make my ship teleport, if that's any usefull.. and that's all... anything more complex is too difficult to do.
Medicalat is really amazing stuff, it makes STG-Maker looks incredibly good.
I toyed with a half translated version of it, and I can confirm, it's nearly IMPOSSIBLE to do anything good with it, unless you can read japanese.
I managed to do some very simple stuff - I could make my ship move on screen, a scroll background, add some enemies (but could mess to much with their behaviour -, and I managed to make my ship teleport, if that's any usefull.. and that's all... anything more complex is too difficult to do.
Medicalat is really amazing stuff, it makes STG-Maker looks incredibly good.
-
captain ahar
- Posts: 3182
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:03 pm
- Location: #50 Bitch!
Must have missed reading that thread, Captain Ahar.
I found out about it playing Soil: The true blue
http://page.freett.com/harduserki/soildl.html
which is a great game. It looks similar to the pictures you posted, so the style of game that this program makes seems to be horizontal and reminds me of Axelay.
And after poking around the True Blue site, I found this:
http://www.enterbrain.co.jp/digifami/pr ... index.html
which has some in-program shots.......
I found out about it playing Soil: The true blue
http://page.freett.com/harduserki/soildl.html
which is a great game. It looks similar to the pictures you posted, so the style of game that this program makes seems to be horizontal and reminds me of Axelay.
And after poking around the True Blue site, I found this:
http://www.enterbrain.co.jp/digifami/pr ... index.html
which has some in-program shots.......
Don't just dodge bullets, dance around them.
Shooter Maker 95
Hi all, why not go to http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/ShooterMaker95/ to have lots of fun!! Group includes the main maker download, as well as loads of demo games, and some notes I've made on using the program. Leave messages, leave tips, leave demo games you've made and leave my meat and potatoe pie alone you big fecker!!