#game implementation

[kawaoneechan]

Okay so in a game like Animal Crossing, there's a bunch of things all happening at once. You can have a screen full of villagers walking around doing their thing, balloons flying, bugs bugging, a system in the background to handle hourly background music with chimes in between, all that good stuff, while you're doing your own things.

When you talk to a villager, you and the villager both stop on the spot, and a script takes over. That script then makes the villager turn to the player and a dialogue window appears. There may be a multiple choice thing now — "talk", "gift", or "leave" — and the script won't stop, releasing control to both, until what you've selected plays out.

So you have a villager with an attached script. The villager waits for the script to finish before continuing on their merry way, while the script waits for the villager to finish turning to the player. Once that's done, it picks something to say and eventually ends up opening the dialogue window. The script now has to wait for the message to finish writing, and the very next command is an "if" involving the result of a multiple choice question, so now the script has to wait for that to return.

I was thinking for Project Special K I might implement all that as several Tickable objects. Not unlike in SCI, you'd have a big list of things in the game that all implement a Tick method. In SCI, that'd be the cast, and its members have doit methods. It's the same deal, but Tick also gets a delta-time argument. So the dialogue box gets to be its own thing that implements Tickable, the multiple choice box is as well. Inventory window? Yes.

Also the script interpreter.

But all that wouldn't let the villager wait for the script interpreter, which waits for the dialogue box, right? Script execution should be halted until the dialogue box is dismissed. That one villager's AI should be halted until the interpreter finishes, only moving (or rather, emoting) because of embedded commands in the dialogue box's text stream.

So I figured, what if I gave them something like a mutex variable? The villager would have a bool waiting or whatever, and passes a pointer to that bool to the script interpreter they spawn when the player interacts with them. The interpreter is added to the cast list and starts running the code it was given. When it's done, it not only removes itself from the cast but sets the bool pointer so the villager can tell it's over and done with.

Now every time through the loop, the villager's Tick is called and they can tell "oh, I'm waiting for a script to finish" because their bool isn't set yet. The script interpreter likewise can spawn a dialogue box into the cast and have its own "waiting for that darn dialogue box" bool, in exactly the same way the villager can wait for the script interpreter.

Next trick, the dialogue box should remain on screen even when things are done, so multiple choice answers can have the question remain visible. It should only close when a different style of box is called for, or when the script ends. My idea is to always have a dialogue box object in the cast, idling until called for. When the villager realizes the script has ended, they can simply poke the dialogue box and have it close, if nothing else already did.

[outismael]

mr chief prosecutor taking his dog on a walk

for my favourite character i sure don't draw him a whole lot .... i have to change that.

[lilybug-02]

Eimmet High...temmiE high. OMG!

Part 28 || First || Previous || Next

--Full Series--

Next update may take...much longer! I have finals and an internship and not to mention I have to draw- A LOT :')

[childofthestone]

"the elves needed a win so we made them a monolith by erasing city elves from the narrative so that only the dalish matter & also had them embrace the Ultimate Truth of their deities being evil mages so that none of them are swayed because certainly nobody would want to follow an evil person" is not the good idea these execs thought it was

[cabbagege]

I’ve played Expedition 33 this 🤏 much, but I rl love the flowers concept now (everyone who’s wearing them are going to kinda… have ‘I don’t feel good. I don’t want to go’ experience)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

A fierce duel commences!

[elbiotipo]

Perhaps the worst game design choice in Skyrim is when you are told to go kill nameless bandits who you can't talk to and just exist as random enemies, and then when you're fighting one they yell "I yield" and you're okay, that's fair, I'm just here to get some random sword I don't actually want to kill you and after all, the game tips say that if they yell "I yield" you can sheathe your sword and they'll stop fighting

Then you find out that's COMPLETELY FALSE, the game does NOT allow you to do that, the nameless bandits like all enemies in the game are programmed to fight to the death, and that's what you do, you fight them to death, because they have no names no lives or anything, they are there to keep attacking you and fight to the death for a chest with 124 gold and boots with a bonus to enchantment.

Or what's worse, the game makes them yell "PLEASE NO MORE" or "I YIELD" JUST as you deliver the killing blow. It would be an interesting comment on violence in videogames if it wasn't just a fakeout because the nameless bandits aren't actually coded to do anything but to fight you to death.

Okay, that's a bunch of poor game design choices, not just one.

[abby-howard]

hello hey, is it fine if I ask why when we meet The Cage in TLQ, she has two different sprites for her two heart dialogues but she is still inside her cage in the open heart varient?

sorry if its a weird question, its just has always bugged me bcz in my head, it would have been totally fine to have just reused the watchful heart sprite but if you guys were already planning to make a new one, why not draw her with the cage opened or just as her head since it better represents what happens in this version of her route and her being the open heart?

I know its not even that big of a deal, Im just genuinely curious if it was an intencional choice and if so, why was the reason behind it? Bcz come on, after all she went through my girl deserves to be uncaged come on free her :( /j (also sorry if this has already been answered and i just missed it)

No worries, it's a totally fair question!

It's because drawing the end variants for each Princess form kicks my ass every time ToT There are a couple other forms missing, namely the ribbon Apotheosis and fused Den, which also would have been very satisfying to include, had it not been for the labor involved.

For each Princess form, there are three poses for the interstitial Mound conversations (covered in hands of course, plus talk variants for each), then the three poses for the Shifting Mound fight (plus talk variants, and these are part of the Princess pile, so there have to be Princesses dripping off of them), plus a four-frame animation for when they emerge. By the time I finished the art for all the main forms, I think I had finally reached the end of my desire to draw hands, a formerly unimaginable feat.

I'm currently at the point where if I ever have to draw the Princess again, I think I will die (<-- currently has more Princesses to draw for a merch thing)

[b0tster]

thinking about roblox obstacle course child again. god what a day lmao

[deadliestpieceontheboard]

can't stop thinking about Kayleigh Day. she moved to Japan for a sports management exchange program and made up a batshit insane sport. her best-friend was yakuza and apparently she had no clue. she was non-monogamous and had lovers all over the world. she had no family. she had kevin. she was fierce enough to spread exy internationally in half a decade. david wymack loved her more than she ever could love him. she became a legend but died before she could ensure women in exy were heard. the team spirit award is named after her. the best player in the world is her son. we know nothing of her but her name.

[chongoblog]

Spent my lunch break fixing up an analysis post of Mario Kart World's Rainbow Road's references, why I believe it is the best Mario Kart track ever made, and why it speaks to me on a very personal level.

I put it on imgur, that way people who have yet to play Rainbow Road and don't want to get spoiled don't have to close their eyes and scroll

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 2

[cherbearsz]

they put those sonic/knuckles/rouge interactions in sonic dream team for MEEEEEE

[relax-and-read-on]

I am a Normal Person I swear. I absolutely didn't spent the last few days/weeks in a Tokimeki Memorial hole vaguely daydreaming about what a dating sim (*not* a visual novel!) Featuring the primarch would be like. So, here is some vaguely insane rambling on "if I was able to make a fan game":

Imagine, you get to play one of the missing primarch (let's place it pre-heresy and not take into account the missing primarch disapearance lol). You were raised on an agriworld and while you ARE a fancy brilliant primarch, you mostly used your knowledge to plow field all by yourself and build barns in one day. Emp look at you, sigh and decide to take you to Terra for training.

You spend 5 years on Terra, raising up your skills and learning new things. When you get there only a few primarch are around, but more and more start to show up. You have to raise the proper skills and do "hang out" with your siblings that you totally don't want to bang. At the end of each year, Emp take you on "compliance", wich is basically your exam to see if you have managed your skills properly. A big aspect is the social web, if you are an ass to one primarch, it might impact your relationship with other primarch.

You can date any of the primarch, with a few secret routes, like: Emp, Valdor, Fulgrim & Ferrus together, and Horus & Sanguinius together. The game would also have a very funny, almost absurd vibe between "dating sim cuteness" and "You and Konrad decided to do arts and craft together by making your own human skin cape, Emp is more mad that you made a mess than killed some serf." The comedy of things being super grimdark and yet also trying to date those huge demi-god. Do yall see my vision??

(For added bonus: it's in a retro pixelart style, with cherry blossom and bullshit kawaii effect. Think Hatoful Boyfriend for the vibe. Just imagine asking freaking Lion on a date to go genocide xenos, and him having a shojo glow around him while he talk about the most horrific war crime possible. The perfect game.)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Dungeon Meshi: The RPG

[bard4paladin]

she would Not keep that fucking baby. #abort that thang late-term style