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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsGuppy v29 - win / mac / linux / android
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Author Topic: Guppy v29 - win / mac / linux / android  (Read 34926 times)
Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #20 on: August 10, 2009, 01:10:59 PM »

Soon is now.

I've done some more iterating on this.



http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v03.zip

So I worked on the big fish movement some to make it more natural in pattern and frequency of moves and I took a stab at building some search behaviour, making him an actual threat worth hiding from.

For testing purposes I at one point did a version with the camera locked to the predator so I could more easily tune the movement, but found it was actually kind of fun trying to swim along with mom (or dad?) fish, "Finding Nemo"-style... so I decided to keep this as a separate mode (which can be toggled with SPACE).

I'm thinking both might be worth exploring in different ways.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 01:55:50 AM by Ninja Dodo » Logged

Kegluneq
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« Reply #21 on: August 10, 2009, 01:21:51 PM »

Whoo, new Guppy!

In follow mode, big fish tends to like going in tight circles. A lot. It ends up with him just staying in one small area, making it not a very following experience.
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Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #22 on: August 10, 2009, 01:27:54 PM »

Yeah, I actually implemented a "boredom" trigger to break the cycle if he keeps going in circles for too long, but I could probably tweak the numbers on that some more.
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tim_the_tam
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« Reply #23 on: August 12, 2009, 12:12:58 AM »

its got a neat moving mechanic and i see greats thing to come..

a thing that bothers me is AI on the big fish. its suppose to chase you right? if so then its not really chasing me that well. a times it just goes off and do his thing.

fix that add more depth to gameplay and youll have a hit
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Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #24 on: October 10, 2009, 02:35:57 AM »

Another gupdate:



http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v04.zip

I've completely retooled the search behaviour to make the predator fish actually chase the player consistently. Also I've added a new pickup: flies, which attract attention when taken.

Follow-mode is unchanged except for a lowered attention-span on the AI to avoid excessive circling.

Next I'm going to add a second player and see what that does...
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 01:56:18 AM by Ninja Dodo » Logged

Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #25 on: October 11, 2009, 10:59:58 AM »

http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v04_1.zip

I was getting a little bored of the same old test level so I decided to randomize the lily and big fish placement. Makes it a little more fun to play around with.

No fancy procedural business, mind (at least for now), just basic avoiding of overlap and starting the predator too close to the player...

Any feedback on how well the new chase behaviour or object placement is working would be very welcome. I'm very much making this up as I go along (and learn Game Maker) so I'm open to all suggestions.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 01:56:53 AM by Ninja Dodo » Logged

Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #26 on: October 17, 2009, 12:26:31 PM »



http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v05_1.zip

Bunch of changes in this version. You can now add a second player at any time by pressing ENTER. Player 2 is controlled with A and D. The camera will zoom out to keep both players in view.





There is also a new mode "Figures" or "Bubbles, my bubbles". Press SPACE (twice) to toggle.

[edit: Also you can now die in Follow-mode by staying off-screen (short excursions are still safe)]

Any feedback on the chase AI, camera or bubbles mode, or anything else, would be much appreciated.


I'm considering implementing some kind of scoring mechanic. Generally I could care less about high-scores and 'achievements' as I find them a rather artificial means of enjoyment, but some manner of competition could help replayability and with a bit of restraint it should be possible to keep it from becoming obnoxious.

Thoughts?
« Last Edit: October 30, 2017, 03:27:12 AM by Ninja Dodo » Logged

Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #27 on: November 01, 2009, 08:03:58 AM »



http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v06.zip

New in this version:

- obstacles (rocks, which can serve as both help and hindrance)

- limited zoom out to 1024

Between work and play I'm doing a bit of research here and there (looking at adding flocking behaviour for friendly NPCs among other things) and pondering different ways of making this less toy and more game. Also considering some different visual styles.

So I'm trying out a maximum zoom range of 1024. Assuming multiplayer would be co-op rather than versus this should encourage sticking together and prevents you from seeing the entire level at once just by separating.

If I did do a versus mode, split-screen would probably be the smarter choice.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 01:58:00 AM by Ninja Dodo » Logged

Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #28 on: December 21, 2009, 11:35:17 PM »

And it's back!



http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v07.zip

New in this version:

- reorganized objects into classes

- removed delay on death upon contact

- added scoring: total shown upon death + on every pickup in multiplayer

- added escalating difficulty (multiple predators)

Now as you pick up flies the ripples will attract additional predators, and the game will display how many flies you managed to eat before being eaten yourself. I'll probably add hi-scores later, and a 3rd player.

I'm trying out removing the delay on death that was there to make predators a little more forgiving... Leaning towards keeping it this way. Lends some sense of danger to the open spaces.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 01:58:17 AM by Ninja Dodo » Logged

Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #29 on: December 24, 2009, 03:20:02 PM »

One more 2009 update before I get all festive and whatnot:

http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v07_1.zip

Still playing around with the AI. I've added avoidance of other predators which makes the group movement a bit more suitable and I've worked on the spawning positions some.

Limited the number of naturally occurring predators to three because anything beyond that gets a bit hard to keep track of, but I may adjust this, especially if I change the level size.

Adding multiple predators meant changing collision detection, but I've made it so it is once again only the head that kills, making for some nice near-misses of the "OH-CRAP-giant-predator-right-next-to-me!" kind.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 01:58:33 AM by Ninja Dodo » Logged

Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #30 on: January 08, 2010, 12:01:30 PM »

http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v08_1.zip

New in this version:

I realized that the way I had set it up, adding multiple predators didn't duplicate AI vision across instances, making all but one of them entirely blind (only reacting to ripples)... So that's fixed, as well as similar issues with aiming.

Added light inter-player collision for hilarious griefing (nudging your fellow player out from under a lily), plus some tweaks to spawning of rocks and enemies (oh and scoring totals are back).
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 01:58:51 AM by Ninja Dodo » Logged

Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #31 on: January 13, 2010, 02:04:21 PM »

And another one...

http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v08_2.zip

Added for testing:

Left-click to attract predators.

Works like ripples, alerting all predators in the level. Right now, this beacon functionality is pretty much just a handy debug feature, but I could easily adapt it for gameplay purposes...

Possible uses:

- scripted arrivals of predators

- guiding NPCs in a particular direction

- predators patrolling a small area or guarding an object


Also, you can add more predators by pressing NUMPAD + ...


Made a short video highlighting some of the gameplay features I currently have working:



« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 01:59:28 AM by Ninja Dodo » Logged

Goran
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« Reply #32 on: January 18, 2010, 01:31:04 PM »

A wonderful game you're building there. I especially enjoyed the hand-drawn style. The controls are very intuitive and I do get the feeling of getting more skilled at controlling the fish the more I play. Here are my suggestions:

With the style of the game the details aren't that important. This gives you the freedom to experiment with the scale of things. When you're swimming fast I have the feeling the screen is too small. Many games implement scaling to solve this. When you're going faster you could scale things down so more area is visible and vice versa.

Swimming alone seems quite lonely. Adding other (small) fish would liven things up. There's no need to make other fish follow you. I'd be much happier with other fish driven by simple AI (something like http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/). The basic premise is to use simple rules (stay near other fish, run from predators, grab food) and let complex behavior evolve from that. Other fish would add an interesting dimension to the game such as hiding within a school of fish (a predator eating a fellow fish would be full for a while and you'd be safe).

An indication of predator position would be nice. A visible ripple effect of some kind that would indicate a general direction of the predator if it is far away and a more accurate on if it is closer (perhaps a simple line curve near the border of the screen which would cover the whole side when the predator is far and shrink to a point as it got closer).

Keep up the good work!
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Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #33 on: January 19, 2010, 01:13:53 PM »

Thanks! Smiley

There's some zooming out when you add a 2nd player, but I hadn't considered scaling the view to player speed... might try that.


I've been looking into adding neutral ambient NPCs and yeah, hiding in a school of fish came to mind. Certainly it would add to the visuals, but I agree it could expand the gameplay as well. I like the idea of giving the predator AI a hunger attribute that can be temporarily satisfied...


Don't think I'll make the predator location more obvious because a big part of being a small fish in a big pond is the danger of the unknown... a predator could come from anywhere. I think if you give the player too much information, you lose that tension.
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« Reply #34 on: February 06, 2010, 07:35:11 AM »

I'd enjoy to code a native windows version, and, especially, a native Linux version of the game, if I get some free time Wink
I'll try your game as soon as I get back my windows box.
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Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #35 on: February 11, 2010, 01:19:05 PM »

Hey man! Smiley

I'd like to finish it as it is before I think about doing a non-GM version, but that could definitely be interesting later.

New version!



http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v09.zip


I've made some changes to "Figures"-mode and renamed it to the more appropriate "Bubbles!". Now, as you go around collecting a larger bubble forms around you which bursts if not-replenished, or if you hit a rock or something.

I've also improved AI rock avoidance so that the predator is able to better extract himself from rocks once he's buried his nose in them... and you can now pick modes directly with nrs 1-3.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 01:59:55 AM by Ninja Dodo » Logged

AaronG
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« Reply #36 on: February 12, 2010, 06:03:10 AM »

Just wanted to say that I really enjoyed playing around with this.  I'll be keeping an eye on the devlog and am looking forward to whatever it turns into.
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ITS_Mike
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« Reply #37 on: February 12, 2010, 08:08:31 AM »

This is quite an interesting game mechanic.  The fish is difficult to control at first, but you learn tricks for making him go where you want him to.  I held down the arrow key until the fish was facing the direction I wanted to go in, then rapidly pressed left and right alternately.  Not being able to stop was a problem at times (for me, not the game Grin) and I would often find myself zooming at an incredible speed...  Right into a large fish's mouth.
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Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #38 on: April 11, 2010, 01:15:33 PM »

Still working on this. Don't have as much time for it as I would like, but found some this weekend, so I had a go at a few things I've been pondering for a while...



Camera and environments is what I'm tinkering with right now. Might have a new version later this week.
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Ninja Dodo
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« Reply #39 on: April 13, 2010, 10:25:39 PM »

Here's the latest effort (now including semi-procedural rock-formations and better camera):

http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v10.zip

The AI currently isn't really well-suited to enclosed spaces, so I may have to do some tweaking there. Trying to strike a balance between having the predators be stupid enough to bump into rocks when they're chasing you (more fun that way) but smart enough to avoid them when they're just trying to navigate....
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