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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogs/\/\/\/~~SCRIPT KIDDIES~~\/\/\/\ (DEAD)
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NinthPower
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« Reply #20 on: June 24, 2014, 09:21:14 PM »

workin on some ideas for speech bubbles for Story Mode:



Linux Jokes Central...
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NinthPower
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« Reply #21 on: June 29, 2014, 10:36:50 PM »

I've been swamped with school this week but was able to figure out a workable speech bubble:




Works great with optional arguments for a speaker's name, and an advance message sprite (not shown). Credit goes to @thegame on the Gamemaker forums for putting together the textbox example my script is based off of. I would really like to flesh out and comment my version so other people can use it. I'll probably do a YouTube walkthrough on how to do it because @thegame's example is the only one I could find that was simple and useful. He does a really good job managing the queue data structure which meant it was minimal work for me to change how the sprite was drawn to give a bubble instead of a camera-wide speech prompt.

It's not as perfect as the ELIZA example above, but at least it works. I'd like to add in functionality for dynamic text size and even some text shake kinda like the text here in paper mario.

Anywho, things are slowly going forward!

-Austin
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NinthPower
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« Reply #22 on: July 15, 2014, 08:53:38 AM »

Hey e'rbody, I got some feedback about the controls not working. Anybody have issues playing the game? I'd love to hear what's screwy about playing it on your set up.
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NinthPower
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« Reply #23 on: August 07, 2014, 08:45:25 PM »

UPDATE: last week I took the game down to the Utah Indie Games Night and had a blast. It was great to meet-up with other developers, get feedback, and learn what was good about the game and what was really frustrating to people. Most people who played the game really enjoyed it and everyone had great feedback on how to better balance things. Overall super fun!

Other than prepping for showing at that event I haven't done a respectable bit of programming in nearly a month, as I have decided to work on a Kickastarter campaign. Since June I've been researching and prepping things for the campaign and totally booty-shakin' video. Things are going well and I am nearly done recording all of the footage I need.

I really want to show part of the story on the Kickstarter video so I have been hard at work creating scenes and producing more art than, honestly, I thought I was capable of. Below are some images of rooms/scenes I've been working on:

The Twin's room (Main)


GIF of building Twin's Room (side-view)

It was hard to think of things to put in the room. Unfortunately, I didn't set a large enough Undo-buffer in GIMP so you don't get to see the whole room, but it gives a good glimpse at how I create things. Obviously the arcade machine was disgusting haha. That space where the shelf with the figurines on it and the poster is was hard to figure out. (Anyone who can guess what game the two figurines are from will get every game I make free for life haha.)

Blueberry Pi Programming School



Thanks for looking at my crappy art!
-Austin
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NinthPower
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« Reply #24 on: August 14, 2014, 05:13:47 PM »





yup, it just got real...
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NinthPower
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« Reply #25 on: August 26, 2014, 04:54:36 PM »

I've been sending out a new alpha demo to press and friends so I figured I'd share it here as well. Again, only multiplayer is available at the moment, so you'll need a friend and two (2) XBOX 360 controllers.

WINDOWS ALPHA DEMO: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11153837/SK_Devlog/SK_WIN_Press_ALPHA_Demo.exe?dl=1

I've added Kevin's Pop-Up special, added a 'WIN/LOSE' animation that plays when a script is won, and then expanded the pre-game tutorial which covers more about the scoreboard at the bottom of the screen and what happens when players are scripting on the same floor. One of the complaints I've been getting from playtesters is that they didn't realize they were fighting for the same virus as the other player if they were on the same floor so they got super frustrated. Hopefully the WIN?LOSE animations and the tutorial help!

There is a quick in-game tutorial that should cover the basics, but it wouldn't hurt to take a look at the 'HELP' PDF that's included in the game files. ENJOY!



   -Austin
« Last Edit: August 26, 2014, 05:54:11 PM by NinthPower » Logged

NinthPower
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« Reply #26 on: September 08, 2014, 12:44:58 PM »

I did a Let's Play for the Kickstarter backers and figured I'd post that here for you guys. The game is really coming along well.

I forget who said it, but I was listening to an interview from BigSushi.fm where they said, "You need to show your game at events so that you can figure out what your game is about." This is absolutely true! When I was first making Script Kiddies I would describe it to people as "a sort of platforming sequence-based hacking game." But after I've shown the game to my friends and at the Utah Indie Games Night, I realized that description is really terrible and is the totally wrong approach to the game. I have really come to realize that Script Kiddies is a strategy game. I think my description has evolved into "competitive 'Simon Says'-tower defense." Yes it has platforming and 'hacking', but that isn't really what the game is! I hope to get that point across about strategy the more I develop and promote the game.

Anyways, the first video is an intro for anyone who hasn't seen it in action (going over basic rules), and the second is a Let's Play of me and my friend Drew playing the alpha demo multiplayer:



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NinthPower
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« Reply #27 on: September 20, 2014, 03:37:15 PM »

"How I'm doing speech bubbles in Script Kiddies" Video Devlog:
Crap, I just made a long entry that the universe just deleted cuz I accidentally left this page  Mock Anger

Anyways, a few weeks ago I was asked by a TigSource user to do a tutorial/devlog on how I'm handling speech bubbles and text in the game. I was going to make a tutorial, but I figured since this is a devlog I'd rather go deep and talk about the nitty-gritty of data structures and how I'm using queues to do magic. Half the scripts I'm using are based off of Flying Penguin's 'Easy Text Box Example' on the GameMaker forums which you can find here: http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=519406. Flying Penguin has some really clean code that I simply added more functionality and customizability to Smiley

The video is long! It's 37 min, but I think it's interesting enough.

VIDEO



GameMaker Project used in the video: Speech Bubble System in Script Kiddies

ENJOY!  Gomez
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NinthPower
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« Reply #28 on: September 25, 2014, 11:15:45 AM »

So as it turns out there is one problem with the text box code. I thought the code I had put in to take care of 'important' fonts was right, but I think it's wrong. I was trying out different sentence structure with different fonts and there seems to be an issue still.

The first issue was that the script was still counting the font/color change flags as part of the text_wrap_adjust(). You want these flags to stay in there so the draw function can use them, but you don't want to count them as part of the sentence width, otherwise it will be like the word that is important or changing colors has extra letters and even when the word can fit properly without a newline, the script will put one in there.

For example, if I have a word like |%bBlueberry|%k. I want to set the font to 'important' ("|") then change the color to blue ("%b"), write the word, change the font back to normal ("|") and the color back to black ("%k"). The way the script works now it would measure the width of the word including the special characters, and insert a newline character. But when the text is rendered, it is actually 6 characters shorter than what it was measured to be, and you will have a big gap that it's obvious the word Blueberry could fit in, but not |%bBlueberry|%k.

I think the way I'll solve this is by writing a new text_wrap_adjust(). Right now the script would totally work if it wasn't worried about these flags. But to get it to work right I think what I'll do is something like this pseudocode:

Code:
// initialize draw font
draw_set_font(normal_font)

// string_width in pixels
string_width = 0

// index position of the last " " (Note: GameMaker counts string indices starting at 1, not 0)
last_space = 1

for (i=0; i<(length of the string); i++):
  if the character@i is a " ":
    last_space = that position

  else if the character@i is the important font flag ("|"):
    set draw font to important
   
  else if the character@i is the color change flag ("%"):
    // skip past the next character which defines the color change
    i+=1      // can you increment the counter of a for loop mid-loop?

  else if the character@i is just a plain ol' letter:
    string_width += the width of that letter (in the current font) in pixels

  // if the width from the last newline character (or beginning of the string) is too wide, insert newline.
  if string_width > speech_bubble_width:
    swap the last_space with a newline character (#)
    reset string_width to 0


Does that look right? We're only going to add the width of real characters and skip over the flags. Any critiques?
   
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NinthPower
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« Reply #29 on: September 27, 2014, 10:06:57 AM »

text_wrap_adjust_new() Devlog!

Hey everyone, as described in the previous post, there was an issue with the text wrapping for the Script Kiddies speech bubble system. Essentially, the automatic text wrapping wouldn't account for special 'flag' characters or when you change the font mid-sentence.

So I fixed it Smiley

Original (wrong) text wrapping that counts the flags in "|%bBlueberry Pi|%k" as part of the sentence width:


The text is rendered without those flag characters, so the actual word-length is shorter. Just looking at it, you can tell the word "Blueberry" could totally fit in the big gap at the end of the first line. What wouldn't fit in that gap is the word "|%bBlueberry", which is what the text_wrapping script thinks the word is.


Text wrapping that doesn't count special flags as part of the sentence width:



The way I did it was actually pretty similar to the pseudocode from the previous post. Here is the code:
Code:
for (i=0; i<string_length(str); i++)
{
   
    // Change the font based on the value of important_font
    if (important_font == 1) draw_set_font(normal_text);
    else if (important_font == -1) draw_set_font(important_text);
   
    // if the character@i is a " "
    if (string_char_at(str, i) == " ")
    {
        last_space = i;                 // set the last_space to the current position (i)
        word_width = 0;                 // reset the word width
    }
   
    // else if the character@i is the important font flag ("|")
    else if (string_char_at(str, i) == "|")
    {
        important_font *= -1;
    }
   
    // else if the character@i is the color change flag ("%")
    else if (string_char_at(str, i) == "%")
    {
        i+=1;
    }
   
    // else if the character@i is just a plain ol' letter
    else
    {
        calculated_width += string_width(string_char_at(str, i));
        word_width += string_width(string_char_at(str, i));
    }
   
    // if the width from the last newline character (or beginning of the string) is too wide, insert newline.
    if (calculated_width > (draw_width))
    {
        // ~ insert a line break
        // delete the space
        str = string_delete(str, last_space, 1);
        // insert the break
        str = string_insert("#", str, last_space);
       
        calculated_width = word_width;
    }     
}

When I just used the format of the pseudocode, I was close, but when I made a newline, I would set the calculated_width (the width of the current chunk of text) to 0. The problem with that is that the current letter position that put the sentence width (in pixels) over the width of the sprite wasn't '0' width. What if we were half-way through a word when we decided to put a newline at the last space? We just lost the width of half a word and the text wrapping thinks a line y wide is now y-(the width of all the letters we skipped by resetting calculated_width to 0).

So to overcome that, I created the variable 'word_width'. This will grow in width equal to the calculated_width for the current word. So if calculated_width is half-way through a word when it is too big for the bubble width, we put in a newline, but instead of setting it back to 0, we set it to equal word_width because word_width will equal the width of all the letters we've encountered so far IN THE CURRENT WORD.

Seems to work!

DOWNLOAD THE NEW TEXT WRAPPING SCRIPT: text_wrapping_adjust_new()
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NinthPower
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« Reply #30 on: October 14, 2014, 10:15:48 PM »

Hey all, things have been slow with SK development because I'm taking some time to work on a side-project. However (!) I did add some new features and bug-fixes for a new alpha demo!  Hand Clap Hand Clap

NEW BUG-FREE ALPHA!: Script Kiddies NEW Windows Alpha

New Features/Bugs Fixed:
- If playing as Kiki or Kevin and you get your special meter filled IT GLOWS!
- Fixed issue with snapping to keyboard in wrong place
- Fixed issue with scoreboard not updating after reboot
- Player can now use analog stick on Main Menu

Enjoy  Gomez
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NinthPower
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« Reply #31 on: January 10, 2015, 01:56:43 PM »

Hey so I guess I'm realizing that D R A G O N S + Friends is getting bigger and bigger in scope and holy crap I just want to finish a game! So I'm back. This is back. More news soon fo sho.

-aUSTIN
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« Reply #32 on: January 10, 2015, 02:49:34 PM »

i like dragons & friends, i like it more than script kiddies
but thats just my opinion
follow your dreams man
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NinthPower
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« Reply #33 on: January 10, 2015, 02:53:33 PM »

Oh well D+F is a ton of fun to develop it's just taking forever to get where it needs to be. Script Kiddies has a lot done on it so I'm just gonna finish it first then go to other stuff Smiley
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NinthPower
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« Reply #34 on: January 31, 2015, 09:08:34 AM »

UT INDIE NIGHT THOUGHTS

As often as I can, I take the 3-4 hour trip down to Salt Lake/Provo Area to meet up with other devs and show off the progress on the game. There are some really awesome games being made by some cool people down there. You may have played a Kingdom of Kelflings, that's made by Ninjabee. A Ninjabee-er or two are usually there giving a talk or checking out games. Some other really cool games made by people in the group are Magnetic By Nature (Team Tripleslash), Together: Amna and Saif (Lyle Cox), and




The peeps playing Script Kiddies. These two had a great match.

Anyways, as always there was some REALLY good feedback and one of the playtesters came up with a solution to one of the biggest issues in the game:


The Virus Selection Screen
When a player accesses the terminal on any given floor, the computer usually just goes right to the button script. But when your special meter is full, the 'Virus Select' screen pops up. Originally, before this screen existed, the idea was that the next virus you sent after getting your special meter full was your special virus. I figured "I'm sure everyone will want to use their special as soon as they get it." Turns out that's not true. As I realize more and more that the 'fun' of the game is outwitting your opponent, most people want to save their special until the most opportune moment.

So I put in this virus select screen.


That solved the problem of letting people choose when the best time to use their special would be, but it created another problem: You see, one of the biggest aspects to Script Kiddies is the wonderful stress that's created by competing on the same floor/same script against your opponent. The reason why people generally walk away having a good time with the game is because it is really stressful to go head-to-head on the scripts and really rewarding to just BARELY beat-out your opponent. However, in these situations, time is everything, so having to go through a random menu screen was really irking a lot of people in neck-and-neck matches.

Having to go through this extra screen has been one of the MAJOR complaints over the development of the game. So I've been trying to think of a solution to this problem for a long time...

Well, a playtester this week had the simple and elegant solution.

The Value of Playtesting
Every time I bring my game to one of these get togethers I get incredibly nervous. Although most people do enjoy the game (I'd say like 90% of the people who play it are pretty happy!), it's always that one person who is a jerk and is basically like, "This game sucks and you suck too." But the reason why I bring it to these meet-ups, beyond making friends, is to get feedback on how the game can be better than it is. A few big problems have been fixed that way, but no one had an answer for the Virus Select issue until this time around.

Two friends were playing the game and complained about the Virus Select problem. When I asked them for any ideas on how to overcome the time-investment issue while still maintaining the needs of player choice, one of the guys turned to me and said, "Why don't you just have them press 'Y' instead 'X'?"

'Oh okay, ya why don't I just have them do this easy thing instead of this complicated thing that's dumb and annoying?! Huh?' -me in my head  Embarrassed

I was just floored with how simple that was. To expand for anyone that is lost, players press the 'X' button to access the terminals on each floor and execute the script. The scripts only use the 'A', 'B', 'L', and 'R' buttons. By using the 'Y' button, players with their special can wait to use it when they want to AND not lose time in high-stress matches where time is everything.

A bit anti-climactic I know, but this has been one of the top issues in the game since the very first build. It just showed to me again, the real awesomeness of playtesting on random gamers. I can't say enough how many great ideas have come from it. It's hard to have your game critiqued. But sometimes the raw honesty of people not connected to you or your project can be the difference between an okay solution and the RIGHT solution.

Before I move on to AI/Story Mode/Etc. in development, I really really really want to make the gameplay as slick and perfect as possible. So it might be a month or two before any kind of AI is started in prep for Story Mode, but I'll have the consolation that the game already plays pretty dang well...

Toodles,
Austin
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Voltz.Supreme
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« Reply #35 on: January 31, 2015, 01:10:07 PM »

Looking really nice! Keep up the good work.
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NinthPower
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« Reply #36 on: January 31, 2015, 03:29:09 PM »

Thanks  Gomez
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« Reply #37 on: March 11, 2015, 11:57:12 AM »

CAP's losing animation:




The losing animations are one of the most important parts of showing off each character's personalities. CAP is a programming instructor for kids. She's kind, but has a little spark to her. I didn't want her crying (like Jack) because that would seem weak. So I went with something that shows two sides of her attitude in losing:

The hand up is like "What?! You got lucky!"

The throwing the hand is her being like "Dang, I was so close..."

Anyways that may seem like too much thought into a 16x16 pixel animation haha. But if anything, the size restriction isn't very forgiving so I really have to think hard about how to get expressions across. That's why I always try to make sure the characters are blinking in their animations, to make them feel as alive as possible...

Toodles.  Gomez
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NinthPower
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« Reply #38 on: March 13, 2015, 08:09:15 PM »

ELIZA losing animation:



Feels alright.
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Mixer
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« Reply #39 on: March 13, 2015, 11:20:48 PM »

The little characters and their animations are awesome Smiley
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My twitter is @5Mixer.
I'm currently making a dungeon game, check it out :D
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=59139.0
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