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dmoonfire
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« on: October 23, 2008, 08:38:34 AM »

At the point, this isn't quite using one of the Commonplace ideas, though it probably will at the end. But, when I first heard about the contest, I came up with this idea and I really want to try implementing it. I'll see how far I can go with this, I keep dialing back my expectations and hopes with each contest entry; hopefully I'll figure out what I can do in the timeframe and not get burned out by trying too hard.

The game is going to be called Baby Squid God, named after one of my friend's favorite t-shirts of a baby cthulhu in diapers. The entire idea of the game is to drive people insane, because that is what elder gods do, but you don't have the awesome power of driving people insane by your very sight. Instead, as you start, you have to scare them from the shadows. There will be power-ups scattered around which will make it easier to hide in shadows, be more terrifying, or even change how you drive people insane. Some of the power-ups require you do to specific types of insanity to get people to do specific things.

There is a part two, if I can pull off the first one. A lot of that depends on the procedural world development (because I love that bit) and getting the time travel bits working.


I'm going to try using my web comic style again and see if I can use the code I started with for a game called Ponies Among Us to use the graphics. It won't be pixels (sorry), but I have a decent library of SVG graphics which I'm hoping to use. I've been working on the graphic style for the game, mainly the characters.



This is my current version of the baby squid god. I learned that Firefox 3 can do APNGs, so I animated them using that. It probably won't show up on IE properly (well, the first image should), but the animation is just a sketch version.


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Hideous
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« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2008, 08:40:11 AM »

It looks like Chrome can't do APNGs either Sad
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dmoonfire
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« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2008, 08:53:38 AM »

I knew there was a chance that 97% of the browsers wouldn't be able to see it, but I don't play with Chrome until it shows up on Linux. (Though, last night, I could seriously have used it when my Firefox hit 1.8 GB of RAM used because of a measly 112 tabs open).

On the other hand, Chrome will probably support web fonts a hell of a lot sooner than Firefox.

EDIT: But the first PNG frame shows up, right?
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« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2008, 09:16:12 AM »

Yes it does, and it looks awfully cool. And why the fuck would you have 112 fucking tabs? That is a LOT Shocked
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dmoonfire
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« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2008, 09:32:08 AM »

Obsessive need for learning things. I have a tendency to middle-click on any link that seems interesting and Wikipedia isn't your friend. Plus, I have a few tutorials for doing SVG graphics, some stuff for my homework (working on my masters), some essays that I wanted to write about, BoingBoing, web comics I haven't quite read, some programming lookups for OpenGL, Tao, C#, and MSDN (language and libraries I'm using for this game), and the general cruft you pick up. Oh, and the pixel tutorials since I tried pixel squids first.

I think I was okay until I hit the image board looking for squid examples.
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mildmojo
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« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2008, 10:43:05 AM »

Yes it does, and it looks awfully cool. And why the fuck would you have 112 fucking tabs? That is a LOT Shocked

That is a lot.  I typically have 20+ tabs open, but I tend to use persistent sessions full of tabs instead of bookmarks.  Same thing, middle-click anything interesting.
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« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2008, 11:37:55 AM »

Oh, and I actually highly dislike the thing-thing style, but the squid-thing looks really cool.
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dmoonfire
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« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2008, 12:11:50 PM »

I suspect that is one reason why my web comic didn't do so well. That and the writing, I still need to work on "humor" when it comes to comics. But, the Thing Thing style is fairly abstract. For some, it really looks wrong, but it appeals to me in its simplicity. Now, I hate Thing Thing 4's graphic style with the hands--those things scare me. I also know there are some things I struggle to do (like snakes and tentacles and mouths).

If I had a bit more time to really iron it out, I would consider doing something similar to Keychain of Creation or Order of the Stick, or even find a new graphical style. But, at this point in time, I know this style better. And, given my tragedy with Lethe's Yarn, I think I need to stick with something I'm familiar with instead of teaching myself how to do new graphics AND program the damn thing. Smiley You know, instead of learning an entirely new skill set every TIG contest. Once I actually *finish* one... Cry

I also already have bits of code for assembling and animating this style. I also know how to do the paperdoll for these, which is related to the later parts. And the color changing, which is also going to be used to represent the various forms of insanity (I'm considering making most of the game grayscale except for the insanity bits).
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dmoonfire
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« Reply #8 on: October 28, 2008, 07:06:22 AM »

Stage Ideas:

I'm going with seven stages right now. For the first part, they really won't change around that much, but if I continue this, there is a bit of time travel going on that lets you mess around with the stages.

1. Cavemen
2. Harvest Festival/Agricultural
3. Middle Ages city
4. Renaissance city
5. Industrial age factory city
6. Modern day city
7. Cthulhu convention (probably the same city)

The entire point of the first stage is to drive enough people insane. Everyone will have a sanity meter (well, a fraction). As a baby squid god, you drive people insane by your very looks, but its slow. You can also scare them which gets more of an impact. Your score for a stage is equal to the sum of all the insanity you inflict. If you do it fast enough (< 1 second), you get a bonus. If you do more than one at a time, you also get a bonus.

You'll be able to go back and forth between the stages. Some of it will be a "gather the power spheres" quest where you need certain powers to get more powers. In specific, BSG's don't climb very well, but later they'll get the ability to teleport on top of items. There will also be things for lasting longer in a stage, hiding in shadows (for the surprise bonus), and even later decreasing the impact of the insanity on sight. Naturally, there will also be things for increasing the rate of insanity inflicted (on sight or from the boost). The eventual goal is that the player can run around safely and manipulate the people into doing things (part 2).

I decided to go with a grayscale game, except when insanity or otherworldly stuff is shown. That will be in color which should make it nice and contrasting. Everything is also going to be in fractions, so your health will start off as 31/31 but you'll take damage in 1/37 increments.
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brog
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« Reply #9 on: October 28, 2008, 07:23:05 AM »

Everything is also going to be in fractions, so your health will start off as 31/31 but you'll take damage in 1/37 increments.

So health goes 31/31, 36/37, 35/37, 34/37, ..., 1/37, 0?
I don't get what this adds to the game apart from possibly misleading players into thinking they're slightly weaker than they are when at full health.
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Gainsworthy
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« Reply #10 on: October 28, 2008, 08:01:39 PM »

Sounds like it could be an interesting puzzler. And the Baby Squid God is seriously cute! I would turn into an insane and irredeemable follower out of charm.  Evil

On the other hand (hope I don't come out sounding like a bastard here) that human character really needs some improvement, across the board. Perhaps it's just me, but it looks like an early and unfortunate Flash character. Sorry.
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« Reply #11 on: October 29, 2008, 04:47:41 PM »

This looks like a really good game. i guessing it's like that haunting game, only people can see you, it takes place of seven stages, not 4, and you are outside. Maybe you can scare people in windows and they can maybe activate something to help you!
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dmoonfire
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« Reply #12 on: November 11, 2008, 11:26:02 AM »

Been slowly working on this, but lots of things have gotten in the way. *sigh* Mainly that entire "work" thing since I work on time critical projects (tax software is one of those fields that cannot be late), so I haven't had much time to work on this. But, I've been slowly working on the first sector of the first stage, the cavemen area. It has a basic interaction layer done in SVG, which is then parsed by the computer so I can use Inkscape for everything.



Most of the stage is going to be grayscale, except for things directly related to the other realms. So, the magenta things are going to be power ups for the stage. The BSG can't climb up things (until much later, so that big ladder is actually an advanced thing), but he'll get teleports that let him go through doors and pop to the top of larger cliffs. He can climb up single square heights (slowly) until he gets the teleport, then he'll just appear at the top.

The door in the lower left is another advanced thing. He won't be able to open that until he can figure out how to actually open doors instead of teleporting through them. I thought it was an interesting approach and (just as hopefully) will point out, he really isn't from reality.

As for actual programming. SVG loads into OpenGL very nicely, automatically scales as you change resolution (F12 to full screen, F11 to cycle through the resolutions clear up to 1680x1050). Having a little bit of trouble with the animation for the figures. Mainly because while I can do one, I have a bit of trouble figuring out the coordinates of all the pieces without an editor. So, I'm making a quick pose editor to help me get the BSG at least moving.
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mildmojo
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« Reply #13 on: November 11, 2008, 06:34:40 PM »

As for actual programming. SVG loads into OpenGL very nicely

Got any tips?  Are you using a helper library (or several)?
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« Reply #14 on: November 11, 2008, 07:08:43 PM »

Well, right now I'm using it with a bitmap in between it. Mainly because ShivaVG isn't really up to playing with C# as far as I know. So, I do SVG -> Bitmap -> OpenGL Texture.

For the SVG rendering, I found a really nice C# SVG library (http://codeplex.com/svg). That gets me a System.Drawing.Bitmap object which is pretty trivial to throw into an OpenGL texture.

If I was working with C/C++, I would use rsvg + gdk to get the data and throw that into a texture. Now, it has a few flaws, I still can't rotate the sprites very well, but for this entry's purpose, it will do. Plus, I abstracted it enough that I could drop in a better one if I happen to find it.
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Reecer6
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« Reply #15 on: December 06, 2008, 04:11:25 PM »

NOOOO!!! You didn't make it! I was REALLY looking forward to this one!
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« Reply #16 on: December 06, 2008, 05:17:26 PM »

Hope you'll continue working on it  Well, hello there!.

(Though, last night, I could seriously have used it when my Firefox hit 1.8 GB of RAM used because of a measly 112 tabs open).
Meh. Chrome uses as much RAM is Firefox. And is slower.
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dmoonfire
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« Reply #17 on: December 07, 2008, 09:24:51 AM »

Won't even consider it until Chrome runs on Linux. Except for these contests (and DarkStar One last month), I don't do much on the Windows side of things. But, it teaches me to stop opening so many damn windows. Smiley

While I didn't get this done for the contest (okay, I had a lot of crap going on in November), I'm going to finish this. Its just too damn cute not to finish it. I also decide I'm going to steadfastly NOT try to participate in any contest until middle of next year and maybe finish CuteGod or this one instead. :D
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« Reply #18 on: December 07, 2008, 11:19:36 AM »

Won't even consider it until Chrome runs on Linux. Except for these contests (and DarkStar One last month), I don't do much on the Windows side of things. But, it teaches me to stop opening so many damn windows. Smiley

While I didn't get this done for the contest (okay, I had a lot of crap going on in November), I'm going to finish this. Its just too damn cute not to finish it. I also decide I'm going to steadfastly NOT try to participate in any contest until middle of next year and maybe finish CuteGod or this one instead. :D

Really glad to hear you're motivated to continue this, the concept and teaser images are really promising, as is the concept. Would love to play this game, deadline or no  Smiley
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