So while it's fresh I'm writing up LD34, a successful failure. First time ever the theme's were tied so we ending up doing both growing and two button. Which are both great themes.My idea quickly came once I dismissed anything based on plant growing for reasons I shan 't discuss here. So I quickly settled on the idea of a ball bouncing away from an explosion shedding mass, grabbing other bits of shrapnel and trying to keep gaining mass to stay alive and ahead of the explosion.
Quick update on some side projects I’ve been working on. KBot: Twitch IRC bot written in go with some future plumbing plans. Alley Cat a GBA demake. GoDriveTracker a word tracker for Google Drive. GoCam involves Web Cameras & Cats combined with Google Drive and finally Block Project I'm not going to talk about much.
Staring at the impossible, the empty space of potentiality you fill it up with clipped syntax and hit compile. Only to see, after several failures, the magic of dreams alive on the small screen or the tiny led bleeping. This is the joy I discovered on my C64 with basic and pursued through the years… until I lost it.
In a world of frameworks, simple to use engines and added layers of abstraction we are in danger of leaky abstraction, both in design and programming. While t...
Going to take a break from my Useless Designer series to talk about a personal project which has me very excited. While judging Dare I came across a good idea which could be brilliant: using a m...
A designer does not need to be a programmer but understanding programming is key. One of the most valuable but more expensive skills for a designer to acquire is programming...
Getting it out There. In my relatively short time in the industry I seem to have attracted a few fixer-uppers, reboots, ports and all round oh do you mind just finishing it off jobs. Some of the
This LudumDare I was hit by a blaze of inspiration. I was soooo excited by this project!!! Then the truck of problems ran me over, several times. Build a 3D Spatial Puzzle based on a secret phrase...
When in doubt go Retro. I can point to countless notebooks some of which date back to some of my first programming experiments in my pre-teen years. One problem which I've never felt happy about...
So the big milestone for the Data Driven Dialogue project is in and frankly it needs some time to sit on the shelf while I gather my thoughts for a fresh assault. So I set about learning Unity, s...
Working on my Cave Generator. Trace Wall Outlines, Smooth Lines, Generate 3D Geometry...
I pull in Nick Lewis and Neil Richardson to discuss balancing art and code needs. We talk about how to get the best out of both. How programmers and artists can get the most out of each other. Communication between teams, and how to manage it. We also divert onto terminology, UV scrolling, cell shading, palletisation, and Futurama.
Yes folks 100 posts in the blog! Pity it couldn't be more significant. I know this screen doesn't look like much but well it is. The sequence of events is as follows...
We are back guys, the new site is launched and the first podcast is up. I grab Tim Kelsey & Neil Richardson to discuss cross platform development. In a world with iPhones, PS3, Wii and PC how do we write code across all these systems. That question is put on the table and we hear two different approaches.
So some graph confusion between arrays and groups. It's very clear on the graph but the query starts looking strange. Really tired and not making progress. So going home, grabbing some food and hopefully I can clean up the mess in my head.
Shadows are EVIL! Okay above you see rough and blurred. The rough pass uses a single sample against the depth buffer. Those bloody pixels are a result of the resolution of the shadow map. The...
To Debug it, Draw it. Many people will tell you this but whenever you have a problem try to visualise it. This can be applied to almost everything (except cases where visualisation is a con...
Wooot! Progress, the shadow is low quality due to PC card limits. I need to add some bias to avoid flicker, and smooth off the edges to get soft shadows.
So climbing into bed last night I got a great idea. Debug the Light ViewProjection matrix by using a camera with the same matrix. Well you know how I managed to knock together that skybox so quickl...
Full Screen shadows almost done. Had to run. Just caught last bus home. Some weird filming on the lot. More tomorrow.
Shadows and Reworks. So after a lot of thought and planning yesterday I set about implementing soft shadows using shaders tonight. Sadly this meant I needed to re-haul the entire scene manage...
Lights, Camera, Action. Well lighting and shadows are a complex bag of trickery and maths. Basic Lighting is simple.Take a book outside into the sun now rotate the bugger around and throw...
Day and Night Cycle. Woot! Not only did I get a pretty awesome Sky-Sphere in place but I also managed to knock up a day/night cycle. I also cleaned up the shaders and have global lighting in...
Ye gods captain, PROGRESS.After the dismal run around the pointlessness I have actually made some progress last night and today. Coupling Issue solved with Interface. Island has day/night...
So no progress yesterday as it took me forever to vote, and then I got lost in endless election cover and got no sleep, zombied through work today. Anyway got back and looking mostly at setting up...
Staying late at work to do university work is REALLY awesome, and so works. My work setup is just so much better for coding. Pro vs Express. Two Screens desktop vs Laptop...
It might not look like much but that little but of text output proves the hacked type system works. It’s horrible, sadly I’ve wasted a weekend trying to do things the correct way and failing. If I have time I want to investigate alternatives...
Hitting a massive break trying to get Model-View-Controller to work with Data Driven model. I've found out some nice stuff about C #activator but it gets messy. Ultimately I think...
AAAARGH!!!! Really slow progress, here are some of the hurdles I've been hitting. Baking Shadow Maps in 3D Studio Max while maintaining the UV(a bad tangent). Confusion between Active...
I really wish I had a pretty picture but I dont. Sadly its a problem with grunt coding tasks is there is very little pretty to show for it. In fact most of my work today has been in the...
Updated the document from my notes, and a few use cases. The main break throughs and choices are below. All the prop data will be created from an XML file a...
Cooking Calamity Use cases, defining more stuff. Well I suggest following the link for loads of stuff but the biggest thing is cooking. I knew some simple things were core to the game...
So after the coupling issue Ive been looking at Object Factories and inventories. Now something I learn to love more and more is Data-Driven development. I cannot express my love for it hig...
Coupling and Forethought. So last night I started looking at setting up the game elements and save data. The moment I started I saw coupling issues rise up like the ugly beast. Thankfully I&.
More notes on Game-Play. So Ive been at Uni and running around town so most of my work was in my note - book but it gave me some time to form some thoughts, and define some gameplay. Also...
Stupid Artist!! Oh no wait… thats me. <br /> As far back as Wednesday last week when I was working my way through this problem I joked about the artist being stupid.This was a sort
Right Ive moved over most the nice LD code into the Frank project, cleaned up a few things here and there. Made it play nice with the World Manager system. First thing I did after getting...
Aaargh Maths! After a whole load of confusion between expanded polar coordinates and spherical coordinates which took the better part of the day Ive managed to generate the map.<br />On
Theme is Islands. Okay time to make a game in a weekend.At first I wasnt going to do LD17 but then I realised I could use the engine Im building for university work. This synergy m
Brick wall. Importing really simple models with a low bone count with no issue.The hand has been glitching all day.Still no closer to solver the problem. Unfortunately Im working with
The last roadblock I hit was tagging animations for export. Well after talking to the artists at work no-one knows how to do it in 3ds Max 2009 (or any version of Maya So after some digging I fou...
Small Progress but still progress. Okay so doesnt look very different.<br /><br /> Multiple Animators<br /> World and Object Management<br /> Instanced Objects and Animations<br /><br /> The World and Obj
Todays Goals. < br / > Build World Manager<br /> Make base Hand and Frank<br /> Get Hand to Pick up Frank<br /><br /> So currently Im doing one of the things I like least.Building low - level systems and
Crunch goes the night. Or at least it has for over the last month. There have been brief respites over the last six weeks or so but mostly it's been early mornings, late nights and weekends. I've b...
Hi all, Claire again. I meant to do another podcast no this topic but sadly my audio setup is picking up way too much noise and I shan't have time to fix it. So I've uploaded a pdf version for pe...
Download Test Version. Download the test version and give it a play and let me know what you think.<br />To play a level load run the file "swingcar.exe mytrack.trk"if you want to edit then "swingca
The editor as you can see has grown. not only can the editor do much more funky stuff with polys and adjust all their varibles. Elasticity is the bottom left, static is bottom middle, and weight is r...
So after a bit of pain and tears the editor has everything it needs. The rest is just trimming. You can do the following.... Draw Segments (and polys) Add Points. Remove Points. Move Poi...
I've been very very busy. Having fixed this bug. Then this one. I'm now working on the editor. Once this is done I'll work on Loading and Saving then the grappling hook.
It Wooooooooorks!!!!! After a day and a half of fighting with conflicting libraries my fuzzy memory nd just plain down stupidity I have all the required drawing and physics functions operating su...
Yes folks 100 posts in the blog! Pity it couldn't be more significant. I know this screen doesn't look like much but well it is. The sequence of events is as follows. Get PTK and Chipmunk s...
Wooot I have a job offer for a games industry job. Went out with my Mum for Sushi last night and we caught up on gossip. Also really ill at the moment but still plowing on with the code. Getting...
Okay I think I have an idea. SWING CAR. The idea is quite simple you have a car with a grappling hook and a track you cant navigate without grappling across gaps, and swing all around.
So my work load is nicley split at the moment between three projects. Gamecube Project : Basically we need to make a game for the gamecube that demonstrates its functionality and shows we know h...
Hi everyone. I presented a lecture to the first years on PTK my favourite lightweight 2D engine. Full details can be found in Code - Reference section along with downloads. . I'll be postin...
The weekend is done and the coffee is finished. Download Entries. Please leave and Read the feedback. I'm sure all the entrants will appreciate it. Comments...
So get ready for a great weekend of code. The code weekend page will be uploaded at 1800 on Friday. So we don't expect a huge weekend but we are all ready go go. A huge thanks to all the people...
The Handins are well in. Thanks to everyone who entered. I cannot say how great it is you took the time to code together a game in no time at all. Your efforts rock as do you all Claire. The...
The theme is announced as Magnets / Gravity. For more details please click here .
Progress. Added Menu System. Added Time line. Time line Processing. Add movement Markers. Revamped Mouse Map and Sprites to avoid rebuilding map. Report Back. So its moving along slo...
Okay we have a plan no really we do. The following maths assignment needs to be done. The aim of the assignment is to carry out an analysis of the motion of two cars moving downhill and develop a...
So the finest quality of a programmer is the ability to experience apathy. No really this is true, a lot of people call themselves programmers when they are really just capable of hacking out a few...
16 hours, 15 minutes, and 45 seconds. For me however there is no time remaining. As I need to go to sleep and then get to work. I achieved everything I aimed for. Flags, holes, even got the isom...
THERE ARE 1 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, and 59 seconds left! Considering I'll be at work for 6 of those hours, call it 6 hours sleep..... hmm that leave me with 12 HOURS!!! What have I done so...
There are only 1 days, 18 hours, 10 minutes, and 40 seconds remaining. I am the Queen of all I CODE! Okay I've thrown the old FLAT render back in cause its relible and its a safe fall back all...
1 days, 21 hours, 6 minutes, and 47 seconds. So it took me all of 1 hour or so to add, a map editor with loading and saving. Not to mention collision detection and smooth out the kinks in the grav...
There are only 2 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes, and 47 seconds remaining. Just woke up. The prototype is working nice and fine. It wasn't a dream from the early ours of the morning :) Next Goal i...
There are only 2 days, 15 hours, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds remaining. Okay well the Theme is MAGNETS ! Which I'm really happy for. I teamed up with Edge he is going to be my artist. I got the th...
Timer Needs fixing. Okay so I knuckled down and played the demo a bunch of times. Focusing once again on the combat. I kept forcing myself to envision this or that but in the end it just didn't fe...
Approx 3 hours. Still need to fix my VB timer. More importantly I need to Kill Phil, and no I dont have time to go learn the five point palm trick. The huggable bastard gave me a dvd of fun stuf...
Approx 5 hours. Slow day, progress is like wading through Jello. Anyway what I have achieved. Oh my VB Timer got broken, hence approx time. Whats been Done. Mouse Picking. Type Generation...
Good days and bad days. I got back on Saturday night and started coding, however my brain was slush and my fingers slow. I managed to code the transversal but then I realized I needed to...
So Another frightful morning has dawned. Okay well as you can see the Matrix mode of the game is coming along. I spent a lot of time on basic structure stuff with trees and such. Most o...
Oh well sleep is optional according to my body at the moment. So let me move into the next phase. I have a scattering of papers around me on the floor, two notepads filled with doodles o...
Yes it is compleeeeeeeted! Okay its not completed what has been done is I have succesfully completed the combat class and one ice class. I still need to toss in the graphic effects (th...
TWEEK Version. Last night spent a few minutes changing controls and adding a speed setting because some people were confused by the control system. Apparently my reflex's are Ninja-like, bleh...
You never collapse the day after a true crunch, a feeble attempt you crash the day after but a proper grin you run on adrenaline and string for a while longer then after you get a proper sleep, zom...
CLICK HERE FOR FINAL SUBMISSION. Notice there wil be a later polished version by the weekend. Oh well midnight rolled around. It was 4 hours from the deadline but it was the deadline I set myse...
31 Hours. http://ludumdare.com/files/183_31Hour.rar. It seems rest has helped. A lot of time on sprites and a determination of a blind dominatrix in latex. I will complete this game and it will b...
28 Hours in. http://ludumdare.com/files/164_28Hour.rar. With under twenty hours left on the clock I need to start rushing. To took 5 hours out, 4 for sleep and 1 for bath and to just freshen up.
19 Hours. Insanity is not merely a state of mind is a state of the Cthulian Empire. To answer your questions the code has once more blurred into nothingness. I'm going to have something to eat and...
14 Hours. Basic collision detection setup. Still a bit to buggy. Might need to put some kind of turning curve on the worms. Also looking at stopping them flocking but move in the same direction sl...
7 Hours In. Okay I've been up since early this morning coding Dune Worms. The attack is taking FOREVER to code. I've been hitting lots of glitches and stupid mistakes on my part. Currently I'm...
Okay I didn't update yesterday. Bad Claire, no chocolate, none not a piece. Okay back in the world of the sane I have recently raised the Cthulu alert to orange today. Sometime, somwhere insanity i...
Magical C++, oh the insanity I have signed up for a weekend of code. Ludum Dare 48 Hour comp . Basically you get given a brief and you have 48 hours to make a game that works. Basically you depri...
Okay not much coding time, HOWEVER bare in mind that timer does not include all the time spent with a piece of paper and pen, along with dusty linear algebra memories. All the time chatt...
I've been coding collision and matrix math. I'm pulling my hair out and DESPERATELY trying not to be tempted into signing up for WOW again. I'm horrible. Self Control. Its horri...
I haven't been coding as much as I would like but I've got a bit done. I've also submitted a request to be moved to the early shift so I can get more coding done. Here is what's been add...
No this is not a second code post. The code is going slow. I wanted to talk about ICE. Intruder Counter-Measure Electronics. The term was first popularized by William Gibson in his novel Neuromance...
Okay well my current coding project is named Phantom for the moment. I wont go into detail at this time about the project. I wanted to talk about a timer I've started using. Since cuttin...