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[JonathanO]

So here is a new game I am starting. I was inspired by the game Dungeon Dashers. I am not planning on selling this for money as of now but this is where I am at so far.

See Dungeon Dashers at - http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=1127234f9039e3498ebcf384db3ad934&topic=24783.0

Also: http://jigxor.org/

Day 1:

I am here to write a blog about my life as a young programmer in hopes that I will follow through with it. I am a game developer and I do lots of boring coding as well.

Please ask me questions and I will try to help you. In the meantime, I am going to try to show and post the things I find and learn for my own enjoyment!

Happy Coding

-Jonathan O

Day 2:

I was able to develop a lot last night and made the levels as a binary 2D array. The current game I am working on is a 2D space invaders clone and I will post all of the code here soon. Last night I was working on storing all enemies in an array and trying to move rows of enemies at a time.

A really cool thing happened last night though where I got to talk to Austrailian game developer JIGXOR about his new game Dungeon Dashers. I will post the interview tomorrow.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get this small game completed and post it here. Then move on to a small dungeon crawler for fun!

Happy Coding

-Jonathan O

Day 3:

So another day has been completed and my space invaders clone is complete…

Time to move on to an overhead 2d version of the game I want to make.

Day 4:

So here I am woke up at 7:00 with games on the mind. Hopefully this holiday break I have a lot of time to build this game out. I am hoping to have a new dungeon crawler much like Dungeon Dasher the original form JIGXOR. I have found a great idea for my final game and have started drawing out what it will look like.

The current game will be a basic overhead dungeon crawler to learn some new aspects. Im not going 3D yet with it but I would like to go 3D in the future. As of now I am just trying to learn.

Day 5:

So here is what I have working so far. A camera and map. The map is a 2D array of 40×40 and the screen is 20×20. Each time the screen is drawn there is a 20×20 2D array that gets populated. The hero also can move with the arrow keys and collide with the walls. Next up is to work out a couple small bugs with the collision and then add some art. I have a list of 20 things to do and the next ones involve drawing art and animation on this. Before that I may try to make the game engine  a bit better so I can reuse it for other games.

If you want a copy of this engine just let me know. When its done...



Day 6:

Well here is my Christmas eve post! I was even skating in my driveway tonight! Today I worked on the camera movement and next I plan to go to a level editor and drawing from a sprite library. The game has been a lot of fun so far and it is the first game I have spent more than 50 hours on. Hopefully it turns into a game that people enjoy.

I am trying to get the map to move under the hero and have the hero move when he is close to the edge of the map. This is not an easy task. I also got a welcome screen going and a button. working to restart the game when the hero dies. I need to extract the screen drawing into its own class and I need to make a screen class for the shop interface and the welcome and death screens. I also need to make a class called button.

I have been following these tutorials:

http://lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials/lesson02/index.php

http://aaroncox.net/tutorials/2dtutorials/sdlkeyboard.html

http://thenewboston.org/list.php?cat=16

I have also been using game development on stack overflow as JonathanO and have used the reddit gamedev channel:

http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev

I am also reading through a book called An Introduction to C++.

I really like the C++ language and I feel that it does the job well.

Merry Christmas! See you tomorrow.

[JonathanO]

Another week is complete on this project and I am much closer to my goals. I now have a level loaded form memory with walls and a hero moving with a dynamic camera. So far looking good.

Check out my blog: http://0to60gamedevelopment.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @OdonnellCarl

Next up is keys and doors!

[Bandreus]

Hi Jonathan! Good luck with gamedevving, hopefully you'll have a great time here and also be able to get lots of help from this awesome community

[JonathanO]

Thanks. I am working very hard on this game so far and Will continue it in the future. I am also trying to work on the reedit one game a month for the year and maybe some mini Ludamdare. There is so much work to be done by one person. I am trying to manage a blog for wordpress, a twitter account, this account and work. It is a crazy life! But I really enjoy what I am doing and I really believe in this game.

Thanks for the support so far! 

[JonathanO]

Got the hero class working now and it makes my code a lot easier. I am sure I will have to refactor it more in the future but so far it looks great. Now I just need to fix collisions and start putting some properties in the hero like health and the ability to shoot.

I will be working on this game for about 15 hours per week starting in the new year and I will trying to make a prototype for the new game called Bob the Blob. It looks fun and a lot of the level design is complete. Now to get it going!

I am also needing to start my own company website and blog there. However, that is a long way off yet. Thanks for the support so far and I will keep you posted on the new events that hapen in the game!

Also, the game design has changed and the new name is Bob the Blob

@odonnellCarl

[JonathanO]

Im taking a quick break for LD New Years Game Jam. This is a simple idea but it has helped me to learn more before jumping into my full game. Ill post a link here to the final game when I am done but I only have one more day to finish it!

So after Day one here is the basic concept of the game. This is just a learning area for me and Bob the Blob will be back up and running very soon. I plan to finish this game and then work on a game for OGAM that is a game for stealing the gems and avoiding guards.

This has been a great learning experience and I intend to post it as a tutorial with full code once it is complete. It really shows how to go from 0-60 when starting a game the object oriented way.

[JonathanO]

So I did not make the LD New Years Game Jam deadline but I will try to submit this or a new version later in the month. I was confused on when the game was due. I am coming very close to finishing the “Invaders of Space” game. This is my clone of space invaders to get my engine all hammered out.

I also now have an artist working a bit and here is his portfolio: http://imgur.com/a/bvX4J

Contact him on twitter at @SeeDiem.

I can’t believe the hours this engine is taking to build but I am very happy with it so far. Now I jsut need to some refactoring and work out the menu system.

Happy Coding!

[JonathanO]

So the Game Invaders of Space is almost done. The music and sound effects are completed and the art is on the way. I am happy with where the programming is now. There are a few things I would like to change about it:

1.The project could be refactored much more.

This will most likely get done soon if the Game Make Studio Pro I bought does not turn out to be super useful. This game does not look like a AAA game now but the engine is built quite well. I am very proud of it. I am just afraid of going to use it on a new project before it gets refactored.

2. I have a delay in my game loop…

So this is my biggest regret so far and would be the first thing I would change. The game appears to run slower when responding to events and it is because of my delay. I intended to use a timer originally but I got lazy nearing end of production and wanted to get the game out.

The game is now being tested and will be released tomorrow or as soon as I get the rest of the art. Here are some pre art screenshots. The game also includes a new menu system and an opening screen for advertising. It also saves your score and lets you restart the game.




I had no idea when I started a game like Bob the Blob in my head that it would be so far away. Its better to bite off a few small games first!

[JonathanO]

Here are some awesome links I have used and I want to help advertise these sites because they are awesome and helped me to make this game.

http://onegameamonth.com/
http://www.mcfunkypants.com/page/2/
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/11/03/the-indies-guide-to-game-making/6/
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/184260 The_10_most_popular_Gamasutra_articles_of_2012.php#.UOWOiaMzvsM



http://www.sdltutorials.com/sdl-tutorial-basics
http://lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials/lesson02/index.php
http://aaroncox.net/tutorials/2dtutorials/sdlkeyboard.html
http://gamedevgeek.com/tutorials/moving-sprites-with-sdl/
http://thenewboston.org/list.php?cat=16
http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/109001-beginning-sdl-part-1/
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92990904

[JonathanO]

So after finishing my Invaders of Space Game, all I need is the art. In the meantime I have started on my January game for OGAM. (One Game a Month)

This game will be called jewel thief and will have a thief steal gold while avoiding security. It will be an overhead view game. I am looking for ward to this and I see it as a very attainable goal.

I bought Game Maker from Steam when it was on sale and am loving it. I got a game going in about 45 minutes that took me 100 hours to make from scratch with c++. The downside is debugging can be a pain and I have yet to find a way to edit the straight code. I am sure there are ways to solve this but I am just learning now.

Game maker can be downloaded as a free version here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/214850/

There are great tutorials on TIGSource here: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=3142.0

I will post my progress soon and I am also thinking of releasing Invaders of Space for free. (I will do this soon) However, I want to test the kickstarter waters and learn the process. I intend to do a 100 dollar kickstarter to add features to the game and give away exclusive copies etc for the money. It may never bring in a cent but it will be a fun process to test out.

Happy Coding. Feel free to contact me at @OdonnellCarl on twitter

One step closer to the Blob... AND IM ABOUT TO BREAK! jk

[JonathanO]

As Day two of game maker comes to a close, I am able to make the game a little more in depth. You are now able to have three different types of enemies and a boss that you can fight at the end of the level. I am hoping to make this two levels long and to have an end boss battle.

Today I made the ship faster, added enemies with animations and made the level a little more sculpted as far as looks go. I am still learning this process and need to follow some more tutorials. My first read will be : http://code-spot.co.za/2008/09/06/60-ways-to-make-game-maker-projects-more-maintainable/

Then: http://soulred12.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/soulhow-debug/

This has been a lot of fun but I can def see the advantage of making your own engine. However, This may do all I need it to do in order to make the 2D games I want. Jewel Thief is on its way.

Next time I hope to give each enemy a different amount of hp and make them avoid the walls and each other. maybe even get the level 1 boss going. Hard to say

Happy Coding. Follow me on twitter for a DOTA 2 key! @OdonnellCarl

[JonathanO]

Well I gave Unity and C# a try as well and I love it. I really like working in visual studio and like having access to all of my tools. This is a demo that I followed for tonight that was very handy. It basically shoots out cubes at a set of stairs and moves the camera around in 3D. This should be a lot of fun. I can see now how easy it would be to get a game going in there.

I am looking forward to using this and not having to reinvent the wheel. Game maker is nice for sure but the code is not easily maintainable and unity generates a friggin .csproj file for vs. I am very happy with it. I will still learn Game Maker eventually (and I know enough now to get something going) but for now I wan tot focus on this. I believe I can make more impressive games faster.

Here is the tutorial I tried:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEEAEA1E6B11B4DAE

Download Visual studio express for free:

go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9709939

Download unity:

http://unity3d.com/unity/download/

[JonathanO]

Here are some screen shots of a game I just finished prototyping. The game is called Jewel and is a simple puzzle game I am submitting for one game a month.

The game starts and you are the green circle. You move around the room with the arrow keys and collect the coins in the level. Once the coins are all collected, the trap around the diamond vanishes and you need to get the jewel and get back to the elevator. There are eight levels as of now and I am going to show it to a former EA team member tomorrow. Hopefully all goes well.

The game was made in game maker and I simply used the tutorials that I previously mentioned from TIGSOURCE. I also used the game maker forums a lot.

The project took me a total of about 30 hours and I liked how it turned out. There are a few things I do not like about game maker right now but the main one is not having a constructor for the instances of classes that I make. This is something I need to learn how to accomplish if I ever plan to use this for a large project. The other thing I do not like is that the code is not easily maintainable. It is a very drag and droppy way that works like crap. If you plan to use game maker with only drag and drop and not coding, you are in for a surprise. While it can be useful to have some one shot pre-made functions, most are not exactly what you need. Most everything that I did was in code.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. Otherwise I will just keep posting status updates on my next project. I plan to take Jewel Thief to the next level and host it on iPhone etc. We will have to see how it progresses.

Happy Coding. @OdonnellCarl

[JonathanO]

UNity is my new weapon of choice and I am working on getting to know it better. I am trying to make 2dGames in it now. Should I make my own framework or is there a great one on the asset store?

Anyone have experience with :
http://u3d.as/content/unikron-software-ltd/2d-toolkit/1Wi

or:

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/3826

[JonathanO]

This is my last post in this blog. I have found that there is sooo many games that people make just to barf it up on reddit. Ill come back when I have something to report on a project I intend to complete. No one wants to play a game made by noobs. I need to spend more time in the learning dojo. But I will be back with something amazing.