Messages

1

Programming / Re: RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 14, 2012, 07:40:08 PM »

I would like some input if possible.

Maybe consider having a full design document done BEFORE you start coding.
It's all too easy (especially nowadays) to jump into actually doing work on a(ny) project, but 99.9999% of the time if you don't have your design decided from start to finish beforehand you're going to give up.

I guess it all depends on the person and what goals you have with the project. As this is a project I maintain on my free-time I like to get stuff done before I get bored with a project. Because what usually happens with me is that I get bored after trying to make a complete UML design. Just that part can takes hours and hours of work. That is why I decided to just go with the flow on this one and actually get something done and playable. I don't have that much time on this project as I would like to have but I got to make the most of it. And doing actually coding I find the most fun. This is my project and if I make something playable or not is yet to see. Also you never finish a program only stop working on it.

That's awfully naive. A GDD and a UML are vastly different things. You at least have an idea as to what you want to accomplish and perhaps a reason why the implementation would be fun.

You posted this in a public forum inviting others to help if they wanted to. Saying that you don't seem to care about the game's design is a bit of a contradiction.

You indicated previously that you have a 'basic structure' in mind- what is that structure? Even if it's not very concrete and flexible, that's your GDD. So- what is your game? What is this basic structure? It's more or less impossible to help another person code something if you don't know what they're trying to accomplish.

I come up with ideas while I'm coding and write them down in a simple document. I done this in many other projects with other people. Working in the Agile iterative working environment. Before each iteration we discuss the features and ideas that come up during the previous iteration. If they should or should not be implemented. This way of working had good results for minor projects in the past in my experience. If you disagree that's your problem. But this is how I like to work. If anyone would like to help in some way. We would discuss the current status, features to implement and how I currently would like the project to progress. Working Agile is good because you can get the feel of the game and change it quick if you notice a negative user experience.

Latest update: Got send/receive and accept invites working. Accepting an invite will start a new game with that user. Everything is based on facebookIds so no need to register accounts and such.

2

Programming / Re: RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 14, 2012, 09:16:57 AM »

I would like some input if possible.

Maybe consider having a full design document done BEFORE you start coding.
It's all too easy (especially nowadays) to jump into actually doing work on a(ny) project, but 99.9999% of the time if you don't have your design decided from start to finish beforehand you're going to give up.

I guess it all depends on the person and what goals you have with the project. As this is a project I maintain on my free-time I like to get stuff done before I get bored with a project. Because what usually happens with me is that I get bored after trying to make a complete UML design. Just that part can takes hours and hours of work. That is why I decided to just go with the flow on this one and actually get something done and playable. I don't have that much time on this project as I would like to have but I got to make the most of it. And doing actually coding I find the most fun. This is my project and if I make something playable or not is yet to see. Also you never finish a program only stop working on it.

3

Programming / Re: RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 13, 2012, 03:53:17 PM »

Now the server side save the data into a MySQL database.

The client <> server communication looks like this:

4

Programming / Re: RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 13, 2012, 07:01:17 AM »

You're going to need to outline clear production goals if you expect any serious help. I still have no idea how you plan on making it interesting.

I just put it out there if there is anyone feeling that they could contribute with something that they are most welcome.

It would be difficult to imagine if a game would be interesting or not (without actually trying out how the basic idea would go). That's why I want the basic structure so I can try out and tweak the game-play.

5

Programming / Re: RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 13, 2012, 06:52:01 AM »

Another milestone reached. Now the Javascript application downloads the map from server. When downloaded the map it can display it on a canvas. Perhaps the dungeon generation is ugly but it was just something I put together in some minutes to have something to work with for starters.

At least you got the map to download! I'm interested in seeing where this goes.

Yeah, I'm taking tiny steps forward. Else all stuff might get over my head. Next objective is to figure out a good structure for the classes. I always find it difficult to be satisfied with a design.


Entity (Stuff that appears on map.)
->Unit
->Item
->Object (furniture, barrels, ...)

Inventory (Each unit has a inventory, when killed the inventory is accessible by other Units.)

Item (Stuff that exist on inventory and characters can/or have equip/ed.)
->Helmet
->Armor
->Pants
->Weapon
-->Melee
-->Ranged
->Shield


I would like some input if possible.

6

Programming / Re: RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 12, 2012, 07:04:18 PM »

If anyone is interested to help with this little project message me. I put it on github ( https://github.com/Holloweye/RogueLike/blob/master ), then can add you so you have full access.

7

Programming / Re: RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 11, 2012, 07:02:24 PM »

Another milestone reached. Now the Javascript application downloads the map from server. When downloaded the map it can display it on a canvas. Perhaps the dungeon generation is ugly but it was just something I put together in some minutes to have something to work with for starters.

8

Programming / Re: RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 10, 2012, 07:56:58 PM »

Looks like your dungeon has suffered an earthquake

Ye, font and dungeon fixed.

9

Programming / Re: RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 10, 2012, 06:10:12 AM »

For now I will go with a basic canvas for drawing. If I in the future to decide to add lightning effects I could change to graphical library for this. As for now only the basics is important to get the project started.

So I decided to run PHP on the server side because it will be simple for the Javascript to access the server. It could be done with just a http request from the client. So now I have all my technical issues resolved.
Though this means I have to convert all game logic code to PHP but it should not be a big deal. Only problem is to keep the both versions up-to-date.

Next objective on my to-do list is to start with the designing of the data structure. Also the basic algorithms on the server side for the dungeon generation. But I have a pretty good idea of how I want my dungeons to looks like. Basically many tiny rooms that is connected with each other. That would be a simple recursive function to make so I could start with the actual in-game logic such as movement.

Something like this:

##########################
#         #    #    #    #
#    #    #         #    #
#    #    #    #         #
###  ############## ### ##
#    #    #    #         #
# <       #    #         #
#    #         #    #    #
#  #####  #############  #
#    #    #    #    #    #
#         #    #         #
#    #         #    #    #
###  ################## ##
#    #    #    #    #    #
#                        #
#    #    #    #    #  > #
##########################

10

Programming / Re: [Idea] RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 08, 2012, 07:07:28 PM »

In most cases the most "difficult" part is getting started with a new environment. That's why I thought I would come a long way just by creating a facebook app and make a simple javascript to be able to login to authenticate to facebook. Well that being said that's what I did. Now I'm able to authenticate to facebook. This is needed to save the progress of the user.

Second step is to find a good way to render my graphics in Javascript. I herd about the power of WebGL but not sure about the pros/cons. If anyone knows a good graphical engine for JS I would like to hear it.

If I were to find time, I would use this : http://demo.greweb.fr/illuminated.js

T.

Looks pretty cool but a bit slow on my pc though. I tried just to use a simple canvas and it works pretty great. So far I have been able to create a facebook application which can do the following:
1) Render a circle on a canvas.
2) Move around it with the keyboard arrow keys on the "screen".
3) Login to facebook by pressing the enter key.
4) When you're authenticated with facebook the background turns green and it will display the facebook id of the user.

Now I solved 2 technical issues out of 3. The last one in my opinion is the communication with the server side. This what I will have to figure out next.

11

Programming / Re: [Idea] RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 08, 2012, 05:52:34 PM »

In most cases the most "difficult" part is getting started with a new environment. That's why I thought I would come a long way just by creating a facebook app and make a simple javascript to be able to login to authenticate to facebook. Well that being said that's what I did. Now I'm able to authenticate to facebook. This is needed to save the progress of the user.

Second step is to find a good way to render my graphics in Javascript. I herd about the power of WebGL but not sure about the pros/cons. If anyone knows a good graphical engine for JS I would like to hear it.

12

Programming / Re: [Idea] RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 07, 2012, 08:18:35 PM »

The basic idea what the server/client parts would contain.

Server Side (Any language):
- Network communication with clients.
- Actual database (game data).
- Game Logic (to check that all the moves the clients sends to the servers are valid this prevents cheating).
- Facebook integration (Should work with facebook accounts).
- Algorithms to generate the maps.

Client Side (JavaScript/HTML5):
- Network communication to server.
- Media (Images and sounds. But no data about items/monsters/races/classes/nps/.. these are sent through the network from the server).
- Database Structure as classes.
- Game Logic (Decrease the number of requests to the server).
- Facebook integration (Invite friends).
- Rendering
- Event handling

13

Programming / Re: [Idea] RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 07, 2012, 07:16:53 PM »

Anyone played Combat Mission? I think about giving each player 1 minute, 30 action points and simultaneous action. Move 1 tile - 2 points. Use a wand - 15 points. Hit somebody - 20 points etc.  A unused points pass to the next phase (with restriction of not having more than twice the normal). Your action queue is visible to everyone.
When everybody's ready, both players and monsters move in real time for few seconds maybe?

Sonuds like a pretty great concept. What if the players actions interfere with each other. Example: first player wants to move 10 steps north and second player want to make a "magic wall" infront of him. What would happens then?

Also if you queue up a certain amount of actions there could be monsters coming and attacking you without you knowing about it. If you decide to move 10 steps north, there could be a monster just outside the FOV at the north of you that will start attacking you under these 10 steps.

Maybe I understood it wrong?

14

Programming / Re: [Idea] RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 07, 2012, 07:10:06 PM »

Each dungeon have to be generated in such way that the players don't have to experience 10 turns of nothing interesting. The way the dungeons are generated will be have to be tweaked to perfection. So that each dungeon have just the right size, amount of items, debris and monsters to make it interesting.

A game would be more like... if you imagine a newspaper magazine where they have a story of three sentences. And next day there will be three new sentences to continue the story.
You would only play when you have a tiny bit of free-time over to make your moves probably. So your expectations for the X number of moves might not be that high. But resulted X number of actually satisfying moves. If they were not extremely satisfying you can't really complain much that you just wasted 5 minutes of your life on these moves.

The problems I can see is to find a good balance in how a turn would actually work. As there could be problems with making x number of moves in a sequence. Example you go down a stair and hit a monster then go up again without the monster have time to react. This could probably be resolved with making it only possible to go up/down one stair each X number of turns. But there will probably be more similar problems that needs to be considered.

15

Programming / RogueLike in facebook

« on: October 07, 2012, 02:43:20 PM »

Hello Roguelike fans,

I was thinking about the idea of creating a roguelike that is multiplayer. As in multiplayer I mean that you each take turns. For example in a game with two players the first players does 10 turns with his character. When the first player completed his turns he got to wait for the second player to complete his. When the second player competed his turns the creeps moves on the map. And then it starts over to the player one again.

As you might imagine a game would probably take a while before it's over. Because of this you could have multiple games with different friends. And perhaps make all your turn for each game like 2-3 times a day or more if the other player is very active in the game.

This idea would result in some interesting gameplay as you play as a team through the dungeons. To understand what's going on before you start your turn the player can send some messages to the other player. These messages are presented as notifications on the screen. So the player can keep up what the plan is to do next. Also every move you make will be written in a log so the other player can read the moves you have done ex:
<Player 1> killed orc.
<Player 1> gave you meat.
<Player 1> went down stairs.
(as the players is down stairs and you don't see him you will not get any messages for these events)

When I was thinking about which would be the best way to present such a game. I found that there was no RogueLike game on facebook. And this would be a perfect fit on facebook in my opinion. As you already have all your friends there and it would be easy to invite someone for a game.

Problems I have been thinking about would be the storage. As a games grows in size as the players discover more areas. And in the end there would probably massive amount of data for each game.

What are you guys opinion on this idea? Would anyone be interested in helping developing such a game?