H8

In C++, (-3 % 5) returns -3, not 2. That is to say, for x < 0, x % y == -((-x) % y).

I wasn't aware of that. Good catch.

This is all assuming you're working in 2D, but here goes:

Read up on modular arithmetic/clock arithmetic, although a lot of articles on it are much heavier going than necessary.

When ever you calculate the position of something, instead of (x, y) use (x mod world_width, y mod world_height). This should solve most of the tricky issues at the boundaries. You can also just write the results from calculations on (x mod world_width, y mod world height) back to (x, y) without breaking anything, which is really convenient.

For example, if your world width is 5 then the numbers -3, 2, 7, 12, 17 and so on are all equivalent because taken mod 5 they all equal 2.  This gives you the ability to deal with wrapping quite cleanly. If you move an object at x = 4 one step to the right, x = 5 then it has wrapped around and is equivalent to it being at x = 0 because 5 mod 5 = 0. Move it another step to x = 6 and it's equivalent to x = 1, 6 mod 5 = 1. Repeat that for the other dimension and you should be sorted.

You might still need to render everything twice if the boundary of the map is onscreen, or four times if both boundaries are onscreen.

The easiest way would be to play on a sphere I guess, but you probably mean pure 2D.

It might be easier to play on a torus, gets rid of the nasty pinching you get at the poles of the sphere. That's definitely the more complex way to do this though.

ZX Spectrum 48k, then later various PCs.

I always wanted one of the Acorns we used at school though! I remember playing PrimeSolv on them and thinking it was amazing, though it seems really hard to track down now.

I spend 40 hours a week in my day job as a games programmer.

Outside of that I've taken to working on my own stuff on the train to work and back (2 half hour sessions). It's interesting fitting useful work into that short timespan but it seems to work quite well for me. I'll usually break down tasks into meaningful chunks and aim to fit one such task into each journey. In addition to that I'll also usually spend 2 to 5 hours working on my own games at home at least a few days a week, usually more.

A 'sokoban with extras' game which has turned into a demake of Blast Corps. Right now I'm procrastinating by porting the engine to the iPhone instead of designing more levels.



There's a missile carrier which moves across the map (at a slow speed locked to the player's moves) and generally gets in the way. Annoyingly it seems to be better for gameplay if it doesn't explode on contact with stuff.

There are also piles of rubble that block pushed blocks but can be crushed by the player's bulldozer and a few other ideas.

This is pretty nifty. :D

Works fine for me in Chrome 6.0.472.63 on OS X Snow Leopard.

Level 8 had me a bit confused. Reading people describing it as make a shape that matches a block magnified 2x made it a bit clearer, I also spent far too long trying to form quadrilaterals which threw me off a bit.

Just about got my entry done on time. It's my first attempt at Ludum Dare and it was great fun if a bit hectic. The short timespan made me feel like there was not enough time to think through problems, even though they probably would have been solved faster by stopping to think than by brute forcing it. Might feel less like that next time though, this time I ended up spending most of the first day writing a quite nice and general purpose sprite based game engine.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-18/?action=rate&uid=2573

It's not amazingly polished but I had quite a busy weekend so only managed to spend about 14 hours on the game spread out  between various interruptions.

Tough choice, but my nominations:

Under the Garden - Farmergnome
Tales of Unspoken World - Santa Ragione
∞ bit - Vince Twelve

Nice one. :D

I'm seeding now and should be able to just leave it going.

<td style="width: 350px; vertical-align: top">
    <strong>Meeting: Psychic Cat Herd Adventure</strong><br/>
    <em>by moop</em><br/>
    <b><a href="http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=13878.0">TIGSource Thread</a></b>
    <a href="http://moop.org.uk/~moop/agbic/final/meeting_win32.zip">Windows</a>
    <a href="http://moop.org.uk/~moop/agbic/final/meeting_macosx.zip">Mac OS X</a>
    <a href="http://moop.org.uk/~moop/agbic/final/meeting_linux.tar.gz">Linux</a>
</td>

I'm going to call this the final version. I won't have any more time to work on it before the deadline. I've added sound (which can be muted with 'M' since I'm not evil enough to force anyone to listen to the yowling maelstrom for too long) and a hard mode which is closer to the original intention.

Hopefully it's still enjoyable in the current state. I've learnt a bunch through making it at least so it's not a wasted effort. Thanks everyone who gave feedback.

Windows. Mac OS. Linux.

I just put a new version up. The jumping animations are in but a bit rough and there is now a Linux build.

Windows. Mac OS. Linux.

I've uploaded a playable version I would have used had the competition ended today. It's fairly complete but missing some animation and there is no sound. See the links in the first post or below.

Windows
Mac OS

As it stands I'm going to spend the extra time improving the gameplay, adding animations for jumping cats and adding sound and music. Also I need to fix the graphic showing the original cartridge, which doesn't work on Windows currently.

I could do with an extension, mainly for polishing and maybe adding a nice intro.

I'm away on the current deadline which will make for some nasty VNC based fiddling to get a Windows version built.

It is a game full of cat butt. It's hard to have them walking into the screen without it.

I've done nearly everything except getting any gameplay in so far, but the internal behind the scenes stuff to support it is in there finally. Fingers crossed I'll get started on turning it into a game rather than a cat wandering simulator tomorrow.

I also fixed the proportions of the world and made the outside environment a bit nicer to look at.

There is a downloadable Windows version here: http://moop.org.uk/~moop/agbic/demos/meeting_win32_280710.zip
And a Mac OS (Leopard and up) version here: http://moop.org.uk/~moop/agbic/demos/meeting_macosx_280710.zip

For now you basically just get to watch the cats wander, but any feedback on how it runs on various systems would be appreciated.

It's probably about time I posted an update. I've mostly been battling to get everything working on Windows as well as OS X and faffing around to get a bunch of engine stuff working.

Here's a work in progress screenshot:


So far the cats walk around, fall asleep, walk on and scratch at the furniture. I should have time to get some actual gameplay in before the deadline. If I'm lucky there will be enough time to fix up my programmer art too.

Hi there. I'm moop, although I sometimes answer to Steve. I was tempted in here by the Game By Its Cover competition, although no doubt I would have been along at some point anyway, but that gave me the kick required to dive in and join the forum.

I work as a games programmer in the UK, though on my home projects I dabble with whatever art, music and design needs to be done.

I've been writing code since I discovered the ZX Spectrum in the attic many a year ago. Nowadays I generally use C++ and OpenGL for my own stuff. I have a habit of getting caught up in the tech side of things leaving a trail of half finished games behind, but in the process I've ended up with a reasonably decent engine of my own.

Hopefully that's enough of a life story for now.

[Meeting: Psychic Cat Herd Adventure]

Meeting: Psychic Cat Herd Adventure

Description A brief introduction to the troubles of a psychic animal control officer. A congregation of cats has gathered and must be dispersed. Thanks to a rare gift you can mind control the cats, generally this makes your job easy. Today is an exception, there is a swarm of cats and they are sneaky. Determining which mind you are in at any time is the key. The intention is that this will become a puzzle game of sorts.

Inspired by

Download
Mac OS. Windows. Linux.

How to play
There's an in game tutorial but the jist of it is WSAD cluster, space bar, escape to quit.

You mind control a random cat, try and work out which one it is and guide it out of the house. Rinse and repeat.