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[skyy]

Working on the game, the last week has been a bit slow since I was at assembly 09 for the last week. Aaanyway, back to work with the game and I did few optimisations with the actual tiles and starting to realise that tiles of size 16x16 might be TOO small...

Currently working on optimising the running through ALL the layers of tiles and checking are they in the "view frustum". Already done loads of work on it and been thinking of working on some sort of tile occlusion algorithm because there is just an INSANE amount of tiles even in the test map with the tiles being 16x16 and there being OVER 9000 layers(or atleast pretty close lol) of them.

Nothing too serious, things are starting to look good. Working on the actual movement of the character and "how high he should jump" etc. stuff. Moving on.

[Loren Schmidt]

Best wishes, it looks like this project has a good head of steam going.

[Rock D]

Currently working on optimising the running through ALL the layers of tiles and checking are they in the "view frustum". Already done loads of work on it and been thinking of working on some sort of tile occlusion algorithm because there is just an INSANE amount of tiles even in the test map with the tiles being 16x16 and there being OVER 9000 layers(or atleast pretty close lol) of them.

This might be obvious advice, but can't you collapse all static tiles on the same depth together into big images, say half a screen wide? I can't imagine needing so many independently scrolling layers that occlusion testing becomes worthwhile in a 2d platformer. Drawing routines usually work much better drawing large images once rather than drawing many small images many times.
I'm no expert on creating platforming engines though, maybe someone else could give some advice on collating layers together in a tile engine to counter overdraw?

[JamesGecko]

Currently working on optimising the running through ALL the layers of tiles and checking are they in the "view frustum". Already done loads of work on it and been thinking of working on some sort of tile occlusion algorithm because there is just an INSANE amount of tiles even in the test map with the tiles being 16x16 and there being OVER 9000 layers(or atleast pretty close lol) of them.

This might be obvious advice, but can't you collapse all static tiles on the same depth together into big images, say half a screen wide? I can't imagine needing so many independently scrolling layers that occlusion testing becomes worthwhile in a 2d platformer. Drawing routines usually work much better drawing large images once rather than drawing many small images many times.
I'm no expert on creating platforming engines though, maybe someone else could give some advice on collating layers together in a tile engine to counter overdraw?

Sonic the Hedgehog did something like that; the programmers prerendered groups of smaller tiles to make much several larger tiles (something like 3x3 or 4x4 of the smaller tiles) which were then used all over the place.

[Joseph]

Would you mind divulging some info about the gameplay? Its a shooter/platformer right? Is it anything like megaman or metroid or gunstar heroes?

[george]

the visuals here are beautiful, just beautiful. Can't wait to see it in action! The concept is very sweet as well. 

[JamesGecko]

The first post was giving off a "Vertical Megaman Zero" type vibe. Which is cool. The only vertical platformers I can think of off the top of my head are Super Mario Bros 2/USA and Vectorman. Also Icy Tower, but that sort of lacks fleshed out level design and enemies.

[Joseph]

ah vectorman, one of my favorites of all time!

[kinnas]

yeah vertical megaman zero is a pretty accurate description actually. so much that it might risk a clone moniker 
but I call it inspired

anyways. I had a horrible horrible downtime with school duties (art camp, what the hell) and moving but I'm sort of back on track now!

Here's a couple of wip animations for the soldiers.

funky knees on that idle, gotta tone that down a little. Something's bothering me with the run as well but I can't quite pintpoint it. Any crits?
Not sure about the red either. Gotta break out ye olde hue sliders and try out some variations.

[JaJitsu]

I don't see anything wrong with the idle. And the red armor for that matter.

The run seems a bit stiff though. Try more bounce.

[JamesGecko]

Yeah, on the run I'm just seeing the straight leg and the 90 degree angle of the knee. Usually both at the same time.

[Eclipse]

yeah vertical megaman zero is a pretty accurate description actually. so much that it might risk a clone moniker 
but I call it inspired

anyways. I had a horrible horrible downtime with school duties (art camp, what the hell) and moving but I'm sort of back on track now!

Here's a couple of wip animations for the soldiers.

funky knees on that idle, gotta tone that down a little. Something's bothering me with the run as well but I can't quite pintpoint it. Any crits?
Not sure about the red either. Gotta break out ye olde hue sliders and try out some variations.

try to move a bit the head on the idle, he looks like he's pinned from the head for me, and to differentiate the legs on the run, as it looks like a 2 frames animation even if it has more. The shooting one is quite good but again, the head is pinned

[Joseph]

I agree Eclipse. Head movement and some slight up and down movement on the run. Maybe have his head whip back when he shoots?

[andy wolff]

I'm watching this because it looks amazing so far

[skyy]

At the start of next week I should have the animations running and looking really sexy in the game based on the sprite sheets I'm provided by kinnas

Had to do a super crappy pre-alpha quick hack together release for kinnas because I was in middle of insane modifications and I completely forgot that kinnas needs something to test the maps with to see does the map design work ... silly me 
So no kinnas has a release that is just a pile of hacks to tests the maps.. oooh boy lol.

Hopefully he can get the maps tested with that, I really hope so, lol.

But anyway, next on the list: working animations for player (might show you guys a small video of these then, or something, basically just running right and left and showing the animations yahoo~~) and then.... hmm... nailing down the "movement"/"physics" because currently it's totally poo.

Fun times! 
Also might have to look into creating the bigger tiles from the small ones. Purr... but I'm off and will work again on monday so ... hopefully at the end of monday or on tuesday morning something new is happening


EDIT #1:
My unix shell blew up, which means I'm not on IRC anymore... I will not IRC without my irssi LOL. So... that's my explanation to guys who are wondering where I am. (there probably are none). :D

EDIT #2:
Yup, done most of the animations into the game now. i is now animated officially but all of the animations are not in place just yet. Stuff like slashing, dashing and shootting are no there yet. Just for the simple fact that I haven't implemented them and most timing in frames (jumping example) is a bit off since haven't decided on stuff like what is the jump velocity and stuff in the end but heyh... we'll get there Oh.. and video? Oh wow, will produce one in a bit. Probably will try pushing it out tomorrow.

[kinnas]

right! thanks for all the suggestions! I gave the run some bounce and generally livened up the movements. Also did the walk but I think it might just be a tad too pimp for a soldier : / And I think the hands kinda swing back and forth with no momentum. Gotta fix that up.

the new helmet is most likely gonna be temporary. Too much of a cyclops thing going on right now.

and a new enemy!

[siiseli]

It's so.. pretty..

[Nate Kling]

Kinnas, Im amazed at the level of detail and how much character you pack into your designs even with such a small resolution like the chopper-bot.  Looks beautiful.  A thought just popped into my head but I wonder if it might look cool with the red light diffusing on to the rest of the robot when it lights up.  Just a thought.  Great work anyways, love the concepts and the game sounds like its going to be great!

[skyy]

There we go, first test with the double-pixel-ratio-thingie-what-ever-you-want-to-call-it.
Had many bumps on the road but got there. Oh yeah, don't worry guys, I'm still running a test map with a quick draft of the spritesheets so things might look a bit out of place or just generally wacky 

Next on the list are... Adding velocity and stuff for the camera so that it actually follows the player(or given entity) in a believable manner, dashing, shooting and slashing. After that back to work with the animations and different frame looping structures.

 

[Massena]

Everything looks just great, but I should remind you that because your character is holding his gun in his right hand you need to animate everything he does in both directions, so the gun doesn't switch hands.

  Keep up the outstanding work!