#amprogramming

[cel-studies-stuff]

some C and C# coding was done today

and I wanted to hit my head against a wall.

I have weekly coding assignments and this C one worth 2% I attempted for overall 4 hours today and still haven’t got right. So that’s a bit disheartening but hey at least I got the other 2% right. we’ve only had one lecture to be fair so hopefully with the next ones I’ll be able to figure out how they wanted this to be done. Definitely preferring C# at the moment.

[yueqqi-main]

Gotta love that feeling of success when you are successfully programming a pretty decent looking website.

[cave-v]

Pyramid Gospel - Devlog #1

Progress!! As of now, we finished POUGHOU, Croqueta’s Revenge, and we dashed to a new adventure! Pyramid Gospel, that’s it’s code name.

This is all placeholder art for now, just showing the light work :P

Pyramid Gospel is about a Pharaoh who just died, buried in his pyramid with all his six wives. One of them, however, is not about to die down there. She bravely takes her torch and a couple and stones, and heads outside.

The game is meant to be played in complete darkness. Players will only see as far as their torches show. The second gif shows the stencil shader, which enables what will be rendered.

Collision and movement is all custom, the traps are programmed using a State programming pattern, which leaves us with only design to do, and enemies, which will come next!

Also, it was meant to have a retro kind of feel, so I added a couple camera effects to distort the image.

I’m very excited with this project!

[f0restpunk]

quite excited, getting started with #Python for #DataAnalysis! Stoked to be getting more into #programming and #developing! Expect to be hearing more about this! #KnightCenter #analysis #dataanalysis #datascience #dataanalyst #datajournalism #datajournalist #datadrivenjournalism #BigData #Cygwin #commandline #commandandconquer #amprogramming #amcoding #code #amdeveloping #programmers #programmerslife #developers #developerslife #pythondeveloper #openculture #contentcreator #socialthermometer #socialtemperature #moraltemperature (at Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism)

[kittykaraoke]

If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.

- Edsger Dijkstra

[yueqqi-main]

Nothing can quite define my love for PHP.

[cave-v]

Pyramid Gospel - Devlog #2

A year and a month have passed since I last wrote about this game. A lot has happened since then, and I never gave up on this game. We used to be a three person team; an artist, a design/programmer and a PR/Audio. Life got in the way for all of us, which tends to happen with such big projects, and it’s been mostly me since we begun. 

Because of that, I slowed down, analyzed how I wanted the game to look like, to feel like, and a lot has changed.

Now, the game art is 3D. It has traps, enemies, hidden passage ways, and a lot more! The whole first level is complete (sans art), the game can be saved and loaded... it’s like a little demo!

Story

Our protagonist is one of the wives of the pharaoh, that has recently died. As they bury the body inside a labyrinthic pyramid, she decides she is not going to die here or serve him in the Field of Reeds for eternity. And so, she decides to take a torch and a couple stones, and venture back through the treacherous halls of the labyrinthic pyramid.

This hasn’t changed one bit.

Art

The game was going to be a 2D topdown game, inspired by old school games and Spider Queen of Mars, mainly for their art simplicity, since I am the one doing the work in all departments.

Let’s just say... it’s gotten out of hands. He.

Remember this?

Now it looks like this:

Turns out a 3D approach was easier to do for me. I know how to model and texturize, and this way I can take advantage of Unity’s light engine.

I’m still not quite sure about how she is going to look like, but the pyramid is taking shape. Which leads me to...

Level Design

This has been a huge topic for me, and a huge opportunity for learning. 

At first, we thought a labyrinthic shape for all levels would be an ok design. Our audio woman is a huge fan of making labyrinths, and so she did the first level layout, which is what you see up there (left).

Soon, it became clear to me aht it wasn’t enough.  The game needed a more complex, thought-out layout, that would combine the mechanics and buttons and enemies in a smart way, so it would be attractive for players and felt like a natural curve as they progress through the obstacles. 

Players need a challenge, need mechanics, need something to be intrigued by. They need to get lost in this pyramid, to see its layout change as they push buttons and step on plates. And we have to design this, hand-make it so the pyramid presents a challenge and a story. 

So I came to the second layout (right), the first level of Pyramid.

Other pics

Future

So I intent on writing this devlog more frequently (I won’t take another year, I promise, hehe). I will probably write about the enemies AI and the SaveManager, which are the two most interesting pieces of code I have for this game, if you want? Plus, I’ll probably have to expand on the AI a lot, since a lot of new enemies are coming!

Let me know what you want!