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[Snakey]

Unfortunately, screenshots always, always hide the number of hours put into implementation. This is a software rendering engine, so it doesn't do a lot of fancy effects. But that's just fine, it's really pretty speedy and produces the good ol' retro feeling without having to deal with the 'messiness' of hardware acceleration. Thus, it'll work on just about anything with a screen.

At the moment, I haven't implemented any cool methods to speed up the software rendering, simply because it's not required at this point. A common method that I applied in the past (after inspiration from Doom) is to have a file format which didn't encode the mask using a texture, but rather embedded in the image itself. For example, you would encode a pixel as 32 bits and a jump as 24 bits.

Pixel data would be encoded as an unsigned char to determine if it is a pixel or not (0 for pixel), then unsigned chars for red, green and blue.

Skip data would be encoded as an unsigned char to determine if it is a skip or not (1 for skip) and then an unsigned short for a jump. (An unsigned short should handle most image sizes as the theoritical max is 65k or so).

I haven't really implemented this mainly because it makes it harder to develop the game. Since this format isn't particularly friendly for editing, it's generally a one step process. This isn't to say that there wouldn't be any speed improvements doing this, but rather it'd slow down development too much at this point. Perhaps when the game is done, it would be worth looking at implementing speed methods to the renderer.

Otherwise, this little game engine features a little UI that can respond to mouse actions, font rendering system, image pool system and the nine by nine by nine universe described earlier.

Should have more cool updates a week from today.

[Loren Schmidt]

Thanks, guys! Snakey is coding, so it's looking good.

Yes!  After seeing what Snakey did with BQEd, I think he's the right man for the job.  Good luck, you guys!

Seconded.

Wow, in reading this thread I was quite impressed with the world building, art and game idea. I was hoping you'd end up with someone solid doing code... then when I saw Snakey volunteer my eyes lit up. Best wishes, you two! Keep your goals reasonable and always keep your eye on the prize, and we'll have a wonderful game on our hands.

I hereby volunteer my services as a cheerleeder, playtester, and alchemy consultant.

I love the little mineral icons, by the way, those are incredible.

Edit:

These are from a board game I liked a lot as a child. They reminded me of your icons (though they're more fanciful, and less based on real alchemy).

[Kingel]

Thanks, everyone.

I hereby volunteer my services as a cheerleeder, playtester, and alchemy consultant.

Nice, I'm sure I can use all three.

I love the little mineral icons, by the way, those are incredible.

Edit:

These are from a board game I liked a lot as a child. They reminded me of your icons (though they're more fanciful, and less based on real alchemy).

Very nice. There's something I really like about tiny icons. Maybe it's the hoarder in me.

Gameplay part 4

In recipe stage 1, Alden will teach Winter recipes taught by the alchemists' guild. He'll send her to fetch books, herbs and minerals for his own experiments, but won't tell her much about them at this stage.

I don't want the transition between the two stages to be too sudden, so I think I'll need to make it clear that Alden is teaching her something he disapproves of, and that he's working on something more interesting. Some of the early recipes will come in handy later, while others will be erased from the recipe list. I'm not sure which recipes the first stage will include yet, so the ones below are mostly just examples.

Oil of vitriol
Recipe: Green vitriol, Water
Tile: Laboratory

Aqua fortis
Recipe: Oil of vitriol, Saltpeter, Water
Tile: Laboratory

Spirit of salt
Recipe: Oil of vitriol, Common salt, Empty vial

Mercury
Recipe: Cinnabar, Empty vial
Tile: Furnace

Sulfur
Recipe: Sulfur crystals, Mortar and pestle, Empty vial

Recipe stage 2 is the one I find most challenging. Once Alden trusts Winter, he'll start teaching her modern terms and recipes. It's been a while since my last chemistry class, so I'm merely looking at descriptions of reactions and processes to extract the basic ingredients. I've tried to choose simplicity over efficiency, but I've been struggling with consistency. Alden values purity, which adds complexity.

The list below contains most of the recipes I want to include. I still need to come up with resulting items (for instance, some recipes will leave empty vials), concentration requirements and reagent ratios. I want to decide which recipes to use before that. I've added some byproducts and the items needed to gather them (optional) in italics. I have a lot more recipes, but I'll have to find a worthwhile use for them before I add them to the list, while making sure I don't end up with too many.

Distilled water
Recipe: Empty vial
Tile: Laboratory

Activated charcoal
Recipe: Wood, Sodium hydroxide
Tile: Furnace

Poppy resin
Recipe: Poppy seed pod

Ammonia
Recipe: Ammonium chloride, Calcium hydroxide, Calcium oxide, Empty vial
Tile: Laboratory

Sulfuric acid
Recipe: Sulfur, Potassium nitrate, Sulfuric acid, Distilled water
Tile: Laboratory

Calcium oxide, Carbon dioxide
Recipe: Limestone, Empty vial, Distilled water
Tile: Furnace

Calcium hydroxide
Recipe: Calcium oxide, Distilled water

Calcium carbonate
Recipe: Calcium hydroxide, Carbon dioxide

Sodium bicarbonate, Ammonium chloride
Recipe: Sodium chloride, Distilled water, Ammonia, Calcium carbonate
Tile: Laboratory

Acetic acid
Recipe: Vinegar, Sodium bicarbonate, Sulfuric acid
Tile: Laboratory

Hydrochloric acid
Recipe: Sulfuric acid, Sodium Chloride, Empty vial

Sodium carbonate
Recipe: Sodium bicarbonate
Tile: Laboratory

Acetic anhydride
Recipe: Acetic acid
Tile: Laboratory

Salicylic acid
Recipe: Meadowsweet, Sodium hydroxide, Distilled water
Tile: Laboratory

Acetylsalicylic acid
Recipe: Salicylic acid, Acetic anhydride, Sulfuric acid
Tile: Laboratory

Morphine hydrochloride
Recipe: Poppy resin, Distilled water, Calcium hydroxide, Ammonium chloride, Hydrochloric acid, Activated charcoal
Tile: Laboratory

Diacetylmorphine hydrochloride
Recipe: Morphine hydrochloride, Acetic anhydride, Distilled water, Sodium carbonate, Hydrochloric acid
Tile: Laboratory

[Snakey]

Wow, this is so totally my field since I am a pharmacist (pharmaceutical degree!). So if we have any discrepencies, I'll make sure to correct them.

[Kingel]

Wow, this is so totally my field since I am a pharmacist (pharmaceutical degree!). So if we have any discrepencies, I'll make sure to correct them.

Oh, that's right. Awesome.



I've been working on the graphics a bit. I added another skin color to my palette and touched up Winter's portrait a bit. I'll work some more on the bases and tiles later as well.

Here are my icons of vials of chemicals so far.



Empty vial
Clear liquid (hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, acetic anhydride, etc.)
Mercury
White powder (salicylic acid, calcium hydroxide, acetalsalicylic acid, etc.)
Pale yellow powder (calcium oxide?)
Yellow powder (sulfur)

I think I have a bit of a problem with the chemicals, since I have so many clear liquids and vials of white powder. I thought about making some variations of the same icon, but remembering which is which would still be problematic. Automatically moving everything in a recipe to a tile helps, but I'm wondering if a command for showing item names might also be necessary.

The world part 2

Preferably, each town and village should serve a purpose (food, lumber, minerals, trading hub, etc). Their function should be closely linked to the topography and geology of that area, so I'll place them on the map once I have a clearer image of natural resources and such. My dad's a geologist, so I might consult him at some point. Below is an example of what I'm going for.

Rustfen is a mill village, which lies east of Nottcastle and south of the river Goll. The land is mostly bog, which turns to fen closer to the river. Bog iron is extracted and processed here, along with chalcocite (copper sulfide) from Frostgate, with some silver produced as a byproduct. Initially, the surrounding woodlands provided the mill with lumber. As the demand for metals increased, transports from Nottcastle through the Rustfen portal became the main source of lumber.

Frostgate is a quarry northeast of Rustfen, which provides Rustfen with dolomite and limestone for iron processing. Limestone caves are common here.

Korrim is a mining village east of the Durdale Pass. It's based around the extraction of rock salt from nearby salt domes. Some sulfur is also extracted.

[ChevyRay]

Is it not written phial, or can it be both? Or is that a different thing? I may just be confused.

[Cevo70]

I love your focus on lore, and attention to detail.  The game looks very deep.   Alot of the art is really cool too - love the world map.  Looking forward to more updates.

[Xion]

chevy; I've heard both. Thought they were different things but a wikipedia search for phial redirects to vial so guess not.

This is looking groovematic. Reading the thread leaves a tangy fruity taste in my mouth. Delicious.

[Loren Schmidt]

There's a really neat dictionary of alchemical shorthand / symbols here:
http://www.lib.umich.edu/tcp/docs/dox/alchem.html

I don't know if you're planning on using anything like this in your game, but I thought you might find it fun. This site has some neat examples of the symbols in the context of period texts, like this one:

[Snakey]

Ahh good ol' latin. We still use some of that for our prescriptions here in New Zealand.

[Kingel]

There's a really neat dictionary of alchemical shorthand / symbols here:
http://www.lib.umich.edu/tcp/docs/dox/alchem.html

I don't know if you're planning on using anything like this in your game, but I thought you might find it fun. This site has some neat examples of the symbols in the context of period texts, like this one:

Thanks! I haven't figured out how I want to do the journal window yet, but one option is to make it look like an open book, and some alchemical scribbles might fit in the margin if I go with that.



New representation of walls and doors, which makes the grid a bit more obvious. It also makes the house maps feel more separate from the outdoors maps.

[Derek]

I think representing the walls and doors like that looks nicer and is much more intuitive.  Love seeing the front of that door!

Probably a little easier to code, too!

[ChevyRay]

I think representing the walls and doors like that looks nicer and is much more intuitive.  Love seeing the front of that door!

I prefer it this way too. I like that you can't see outside of the house; it will make you feel more contained inside buildings, as real buildings do. Also, I think it's more consistent with the manner in which everything else is displayed.

Probably a little easier to code, too!

This is the first thing that I thought, heh.

[Loren Schmidt]

I confess to having resisted the urge to bump this thread several times . This looks great. How is the engine coming?

I'll second Derek on the walls, they really do look nicer now. I also like the way the inventory boxes don't appear in slots when there's an inventory item present. It looks very clean that way. Here's another symbols reference- I like this one as much for the way it's drawn as the content:



I'm happy to see the game is progressing, you two have my best wishes.

[Snakey]

Ahh, ok. I actually just made the previous door and walls an overlay which we could describe in the xml file, but I suppose this makes more sense to just have impassible floor tiles. Will still keep the code in for the overlay stuff just in case we want to use it later on.

[ChevyRay]

Yeah. It kinda does make the tiny play area a bit claustrophobic, but I still think it'll work better.

Will still keep the code in for the overlay stuff just in case we want to use it later on.

Perhaps it will still work well for things like fences, etc. Or like... if you have a setup like this, where you want the player to be able to go down the stairs, but not from the sides:

[Snakey]

Yes, although as far as I understand you don't actually move around in the world real time (at least this is what I understand thus far). Rather you travel from location to location, and each location is displayed in full within the playfield. Hopefully I'm not wrong with that thought though.

[ChevyRay]

Ohh I see. I don't know if that was written somewhere; if it was, I must have missed it.

[Snakey]

Not 100% sure about that, I suppose Arachne will let us all know if my assumptions were correct or not!



I fixed up some bugs with my font rendering system as it was actually skipping 1 pixel on the right most edge. After that was fixed, the kerning on the font was off by a pixel, so I also fixed the kerning on the font as well.

I finally have some of the interaction systems going now, in that you can click on the characters on the playfield and the user interface will update the portrait widget and the inventory widget. I still haven't actually written the inventory trading system just yet.

[Kingel]

Today was my last day at work for the summer, so I hope I'll have a bit more time to illustrate and clarify now.

I'm putting together a design document without item lists, story-related sections and such, and I'm hoping that'll make it easier for me to focus on gameplay for a while.



Maybe this shows better what I have in mind for movement? I'm not sure if the same tile should stay targeted yet. Having it move ahead of the player will make movement easier (in a straight line, that is) if combined with a keyboard shortcut.



I also made an animation for the crafting system. I'll probably end up using the same icons for both the laboratory and furnace tiles since I couldn't get the icons I drew for the furnace tile to read well (tongs, crucible, skimming ladle), but I might give it another try later.