Ah, you're doing some of the same things I did when I learned SDL from LazyFoo back in the day.

First off, you ought to consider switching to floats.  That'll make your sticks of dynamite, and everything else for that matter, go where they're supposed to without extra work.  I actually programmed this whole game (my first in SDL) without floating point math, which in retrospect seems like poor judgment.

Second, you're going to need to move from adding new game elements to your World class to having a game object management system in order to allow future expansion without massive code bloat.  The basic approach usually involves making a base class for all ingame objects, with virtual methods for things like updating each frame and drawing, and storing pointers to all of them in a data structure (I always used std::set) which you iterate through to run the game.

From there, you'll need to figure out systems for things like collision.  The most basic approach is "straining" through the whole list of game objects for the desired type (EG. by attempted dynamic_casts to SolidTile) and check against them.  Someone might call me on how this is horrendously inefficient, but it's a great approach for a novice game programmer and took me a fair bit of the way with Lapratan.

After you master that design, I advise you move on to modularized game objects.  But that's later.

Oh gee golly goodness I can't wait

If your goal is to develop commercial independent games, get basic legal support from somewhere (if it's from a family member that works fantastically) and make sure you have enough money to keep yourself fed.  A little accounting can apparently do wonders, too.

I'm also friends with the Intuition guys and see them frequently, and as I understand the way Mikengreg have recently gone full-time indie was by doing a mix of their own projects and contract work for a long time until they had a game successful enough to support them for a period of several months.  (Solipskier)

If your goal is to get into the industry, develop your portfolio more and go for the low-hanging fruit.  I'll admit I'm not nearly as knowledgeable about this route but there are a lot of resources (gamecareerguide?) available.

If your goal is simply to make the best games possible on your own, it might be best to find other employment and continue to work on your projects in your own free time.  Making a living from your games will inevitably impose large restrictions on your design--lots of game ideas which show potential will be commercially inviable or highly risky.


20 here.  (We've met, at the Des Moines jam if you don't recall.)  Trying to decide whether I should finish out my college degree or get with the game-makin'.   The success of an upcoming commercial project will be a big factor for me.

I've been playing around with Skylands.

I'm not sure how well your algorithm would jive with this, but a (rare?) floating island biome, with endless pit below, would be an absolute joy.  I think players ought to have to travel to find them, too.  At that point "I built a castle in the sky islands" would be a matter of street cred.

It might also help the fact that Minecraft doesn't provide much in the way of long-term goals aside from acquiring a little of each resource.  Of course, undiggable superfortresses would lay the matter to rest entirely. 

[here is a video of a cartoon gimp in galoshes shooting fireballs out of his crotch to the tune of "Popcorn"!]

Excuses aside and to celebrate this great occasion, here is a video of a cartoon gimp in galoshes shooting fireballs out of his crotch to the tune of "Popcorn"!

Brilliant!  I approve.

Find a nice artist, buy a house and make sweet games together.

For me, a lot of it is because I know I roll my eyes at bad games being heavily promoted. My desire to avoid being annoying in exactly that way makes me reluctant to engage in all-out marketing.

Something like this.  I feel like a jackass when I say anything along the lines of "I think my game is good" or "you should play my game".  Not because it's shawdy and incomplete--which it is--but because I remind myself of all the bastard marketers and tripe-peddlers of the world.  I'd like for people to hear about my project because it's different, interesting and well-implemented.  (Though, again, incomplete.)  It's actually gotten the vast majority of its attention--perhaps ten thousand visitors--from random forums, mentions and articles rather than my own pittance of 'marketing'.

I feel guilty about promotion even though my game's noncommercial, with running costs.  (It's online.)  I feel like an ass even though I make no monetary gain from it.  I'd still like as much attention as I can get, especially from game developers here who'll give me good feedback.  But... ergh...

Hey, Renton.  There's one spot left.  Why don't you write?  It isn't like the other comicompos where you'd be on uneven ground with everyone else--everyone sees all the previous work.

My friend Ted (savethedinosaurs) had me introduce him to this game last night.  That night and most of today have since been lost to minecrafting for both of us.

Curse you and your delicious electric candy!   

I agree that the artists shouldn't all be simultaneous.

But then, everyone in turn could take a long while.

Possibly we could have the writers stay two or three pages ahead of the artists, if that's enough context?


Also, a bit of pre-discussion about premise among the writers could be nice but then it's not really necessary.

I have an SDL application compiling on mac.

Um.

I added the framework into my app package, added the special piece of objective-C code SDL apps need to work on Mac, and everything worked dandily.

I didn't use any precompiled header (pch) files, so get rid of those if you can..?

Thernz has joined; the dialogue is going to be EPIC.

Jellyf15h has spoken.

[writing]

Signing up for writing!

Glad I (barely) didn't miss this.

EDIT:  Though it's a shame we have so few slots.  Given how fast the signups were eaten, we might be able to pull off two parallel comics or something.

Mmm.  I'm not sure what to say here.  A bad joke, to be sure, about what amounts to another bad joke.

That sounds like a pretty raw deal for you, Mahdi.

[zlib.h -- interface of the 'zlib' general purpose compression library version 1.2.2, October 3rd, 2004 Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software. Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions: 1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be appreciated but is not required. 2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original software. 3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution. Jean-loup Gailly [email protected] Mark Adler [email protected]]

zlib's license is used quite a lot.  It's very simple and short, but has held up legally for quite some time.  Essentially it's "Do whatever you want with this, but don't sue me if it blows up in your face somehow."

I'm interested in open-sourcing a project of my own in the future, but a little nervous about managing contributions.  It's a game and the engine it's running on, which I use for many other projects of mine.


The zlib license, for reference:

  zlib.h -- interface of the 'zlib' general purpose compression library
  version 1.2.2, October 3rd, 2004

  Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler

  This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
  warranty.  In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
  arising from the use of this software.

  Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
  including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it
  freely, subject to the following restrictions:

  1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not
     claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software
     in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be
     appreciated but is not required.
  2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
     misrepresented as being the original software.
  3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.

  Jean-loup Gailly [email protected]
  Mark Adler [email protected]

I had a wonderful experience with my own Kickstarter.  There's a lot of support out there for good interactive projects, and with some luck you can even get featured by the Kickstarter team!  Without a mention in their weekly newsletter I might not have made my goal, much less doubled it.

I managed to skate by with a terrible video, though I think that's actually not uncommon; Gameful did it too, among lots of other successful projects.  I think people can respect not having the resources to make a high-end video when you're begging for your development funds.


In Zarf's case, I think he had quite a following to begin with (the IF community) hence his especially wild success.

[EDIT:]

I don't see anything wrong with give-it-a-shot.  Getting nominated would ensure the completion of just about any project that might not otherwise be stuck with.

EDIT: I appear to have forgotten the word 'wrong'.  I did so in error.  Good day.

[EDIT:]

Back on a previous point, what if there was a three-time submission limit for the IGF?  I think that'd solve matters tidily, though it'd also plant the idea that everyone should submit three times.  Still, it seems like a good solve to me.


On second thought, this might be a bit unfair to long-development games like Overgrowth or Cortex Command.

EDIT: Also, Fez, Owlboy, and Duke Nukem Forever.

Product placement?  Really?

Adventure in an unconventional post-apocalyptic world.
(No mutants.)

Ooh, damn, I like this one.

Go watch The Road, people.  Then play 1213.  You'll warm up to it.