Monday, August 25, 2008

A little Introduction...

Joining me on this development blog is Jonathan Ong, the guy who taught me C++ and has worked on several projects, including ToriBash. Together, we're called Ignite(ka-Boom!).

Jon is currently leading the development of FreeRunning and will blog about his vision and the progress of the project here, until our main Ignite blog is set up. Or perhaps even then he'll still be blogging here. (I sure hope so!)

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Collision Detection with terrain

Collision detection and reaction has got to be one of the most problematic aspects of programming a game, especially when uneven terrains are concerned. In order to properly tackle this issue, I have to first figure out the kind of collision detection I want for the game.

In the case of White Angel, I figured using lines to define the terrain would be a much better choice than to say, use a tile-based collision system, since the former would be much more flexible, and level creation would also be a lot faster.

The collision detection algorithm in used is based on the following article:
Simple Intersection Tests for Games

The first step is to create a "Plane" class (or to be more accurate, "Line" class). A MovieClip symbol was then derived from this class. This MovieClip, which I shall call the CollisionPlane, is defined by 2 other MovieClips within that represents the 2 points of the plane. Upon EnterFrame, the global positions of the 2 points will be calculated, along with other variables like gradient, normal etc. These variables will not only be useful for collision detection, but also the collision reaction and perhaps the game logic as well.

The above is just a very rough outline of what I did. Perhaps an image or two will help clarify the doubts. (Note: The following images shows a work-in-progress and are in no way representing what the final product would be.)















Notice it's a circle-to-line collision. The "terrain" is defined by the 3 CollisionPlanes.














Hide the collision shapes!

White Angel

I have started work on yet another project, tentatively titled "White Angel". I intend this project to have a strong emphasis on story and style, bringing about a sense of "dreaminess" in the game. The following is a (very)rough sketch of the main character:


Development of the game is progressing steadily; with the underlining framework more than half-done, content creation isn't too far off.

The genre of White Angel should fall within the side-scrolling, platforming category. Of course, I will try my best to implement some unique gameplay features to enhance the gameplay and set it apart from the other side-scrollers out there.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

FreeRunning


Project FreeRunning is underway. FreeRunning is a collaboration between Jon and me. Jon is responsible for the direction the game is heading, in other words, the director for the game. He will also be working on coding of course. As for me, I will be working on the graphics and, (of course) coding as well. Being the better programmer(he taught me everything I know about C++, nevermind the lecturer), he will be working on the grittier aspects of the game logics XD.

What is Project FreeRunning? It's basically, a parkour game... with a story =D. Jon has plenty of ideas for it. I can only hope I will survive making all that load of animations.

More on that in the future.

Hello World

Hello World! Hi, I'm chinykian, this blog is dedicated to news of games currently in development by Ignite, or just me. In other words, a development blog =D.

Stay tune.