Finished programming KeyBugs (yes, the name’s not original, but you get what they do.) The key system in Moldering will be very different in regards to most other games in that the keys flutter around the player until they’re brought to a lock. In all other matters they’re the same.
Also, programmed the locks and a color coding scheme which designates which keys can be inserted into which locks.
-James
It took me some time, but I finally finished chopping up the art work into a tile-able format for our level editor. I ran into a few minor problems along the way, but nothing a little game magic can’t fix (and/or hide from your unknown eyes, mwa haha)!
I have a very busy next few days with my paying job(s), this will slow things a bit for me, unfortunately. With my previous 4 day holiday over the past weekend, that was suppose to free up some time for me to spend meshing things together, but life always gets in the way!
A map showing off our little orange friend running around his new environment will be up as soon as I have a demo level ready!
-Zach
Hopefully I’ll be getting my hands on the new artwork for our first world, and will be able to pump out some levels and some correlating artwork!
On a more unfortunate note, the small surprise I posted a couple weeks back is in quite a rut, my Photoshop skills need a bit of brushing up before I can show what I’ve in mind. So the release on that is… unsure.
There had been some changes going on lately and one of them is the graphics for our first world. Our artist works in iteration, so I thought I’d show you the process so far!
(Our little friend seems to be quite active)
-Zach
Our page on 8-bit funding has just gone live. For those who don’t know it’s a community for donating money to indie game projects that seem promising. The developers get money to fund their projects, and the contributors can get some kick-ass rewards. Hopefully you think our project is promising and would like to contribute any amount. Please do (we can tell you we love you).
Click now:
So, lately I’ve delved into developing the actual game content of Moldering. This has been really exciting. The first stages of development were spent solely developing the engine and all of the tools necessary to make the game (which took a couple of years with school and all). A while back, however, Bobby Tew and I started drawing out story boards for the game and we wrote a good chunk of it down on (digital) paper. While developing the game from scratch (something I did as a learning project) I’ve had a lot of great ideas, received some great ideas from others, and scrapped some ideas that wouldn’t fit in the final vision. The game has gone through a great deal of iterations since day one.
Some time a few months ago, however, the engine and all of our tools (like the level editor) were finalized enough to begin making the actual game content. Once we got past that point I’ve been developing sounds and music, tweaking all of the gameplay, and designing, as well as coding, the actual levels and objects required for them. It’s great to see that the game has come this far—there’s really no going back.
Specifically, over the last couple of weeks I’ve spent time finalizing the first “area” of the game as well as re-coding bits of code that weren’t perfect. For example, while I was going to bed one night I thought up a really great way to code level transitions for the player and objects that are permitted to move from map to map. I made a mental note of it and began coding the very next day. It’s great to get the game content in, but it’s also exciting on a personal level to know that I can code things better than when I first started this game. The game is extremely solid because of all the time I put in, and the benefits of having a solid engine to build on have been immense… now it’s time for the good stuff! :)
-James
I’ve been doing some level design lately. It’s great to finally start producing actual game content that will be used in the final product. I’ve been working on this game on and off since 2007 after taking just one semester of programming and it has really come a long way. I must admit though, for as strong as my programming skills are my level design skills need to be leveled up.
I find it hard to design levels for a long period of time. Keeping my perspective fresh is the hardest part it seems, but I figure that will come with practice. The best I can do now is work on design here and there and step away from it often. It’s almost a relief when I realize I need to code something for a level since coding is something I can do well, even for extended periods of time.
Either way, be prepared for some new Moldering videos or pictures (or at least details) in the near future.
-James
P.S. Happy Holidays from the Moldering team!
The maps in moldering are stored as plain text files. This has its pros and cons. For one, it’s easy during development to make simple changes without the level editor. However, anyone can edit text files. So, rather than letting any Tom, Dick, and Harry edit the maps at their whim, I implemented some VERY basic map encryption.
Basically I serialized a class that stores all the maps after changing the maps to their hex representation. If anyone was planning to “break the code”, they’d figure it out anyway, but this will still prevent most people from cheating. By removing the temptation by one layer I think I improved the integrity of both the game’s maps, and completing the game; someone who says they beat the game likely did not alter the maps.
Besides, I do plan to release the level editor after some time, and with it the tools to pack and unpack maps. So, people will be able to edit the game and pack their own maps eventually. However, the officially released map packs will be that much more unalterable, and people won’t easily cheat or accidentally break the game.
No new screenshots this time, but rather a short update to let you know what we’ve been working on.
At this point we haven’t publicly announced all the features of Moldering. However, as much as I’m going to say about one of the features is that I’ve been working on a separate movement engine for a small sub-section of the game. I haven’t gotten this movement just right so I’ve been working on a few other things to pass the time. Included are:
I’d show some screen shots but it would give away too much, and besides, who really gets excited about “programmers art?” :P
-James
Ah… the life of a game developer. It has it’s ups and it has it’s downs. I toiled away the good part of the day fixing a very minor bug that most people wouldn’t even notice. Instead of being productive and attending to matters in the real world I spent six hours making the player move the same speed when moving up slopes from the left vs from the right.
Regardless, I got it fixed, so, that’s out of the way. But, I need to spend my time better. Yesterday I spent maybe an hour implementing a brand new feature (hooks the player can grab on to), which was extremely rewarding. It can be very gratifying when implementing something cool goes smoothly. It’s why I develop games. However, a few days like today, here and there, are inevitable.
More about the hooks though. If you’ve played Donkey Kong you probably have a good idea of what I’m talking about. For those of you who don’t know, I added hooks to the game that the player can jump to and from. They act like grapple points for climbing up to higher areas. They work awesome, and are awesome, and I’m really happy with how they came out. More news to follow.
-James
I wasn’t happy with the movement in Moldering, and the keyboard wasn’t cutting it for testing it and tweaking it just right, so, I installed a library for controller input and I added support for gamepads to Moldering. At the moment I’ve only tested it on an XBox 360 controller, but theoretically it should work with any controller. The way I see it, if you’re not using a 360 controller to play your games on your computer, you should be. However, I will do rigorous testing to ensure that any gamepad I can throw at it will work just fine.
Speaking of the movement engine, it’s really starting to feel responsive and immersive. You get a sense that you’re actually controlling our little alien. It took a bit of work, and I had to cut some of his ability to make him less maneuverable (he used to be way too powerful, broken in fact) but it gives a sense that you’re the little guy up against big odds. Entering into a large area with lots of things to climb should give the player a sense of “this looks impossible, but I know I can do it!” That’s the feeling I’m going for, and one of my favorite feelings that exploration-based games can deliver.
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