Wolf Timeplan

- 2 mins read

This post is migrated here from my 2011 blog

Wolf gets 48 more hours of work now, so I need to concentrate on the basics of the game
I'm hoping to get to something playable at the end..
Processing.............................. .. . .
 
                    \\\
I have a full plan dO_Ob !!
                    |_|
 
Description
 
Day 1:
        Optimize rendering area                                                         0.5
        up-down variation while walking                                                 1
        much faster motion and rotation                                                 0.5
        Custom billboard class                                                          2
        Enemy test, class/sprite/in level                                               2
        Player vs Enemy collision detection                                             1.5
        Player-fire var Enemy collision detection                                       3
        Enemy can fire                                                                  0.5
        Player vs Enemy-fire collision detection                                        1
       
        TOTAL                                                                           12 hours
       
Day 2:
        Test trigger wall                                                               1
        Player actions collision                                                        3
        Triggering works correctly with id                                              1
        Windows                                                                         2
        Shotgun class/sprite/in level                                                   2
        Random enemy motion, Pistol/shotgun working                                     2
        HUD showing health                                                              1
       
        TOTAL                                                                           12 hours
       
In case Day 1 and 2 are successful,..
Day 3: 
        Add doors                                                                       1
        Doors openable with triggers                                                    1
        Doors motion while opening                                                      2
        Design 3 enemies                                                                1
        Add 3 enemies to test level                                                     1
        enemy behavior                                                                  3
        Main menu, prepare for multiple levels                                          2
        HUD notification text "You found a mighty pistol!" etc                          1
       
        TOTAL                                                                           12 hours
       
This is getting rediculous
Day 4:
        HUD weapons                                                                     2
        HUD ammo                                                                        2
        Design level pack class                                                         2
        Create a bunch of levels                                                        3
        Design 2 monsters                                                               3
       
        TOTAL                                                                           12 hours
       
... okay this is the last day
Day 5:
        Add 2 monsters class/sprite/in levels                                           2
        Monster 1 AI                                                                    2
        Monster 2 AI                                                                    2
        Custom cube geometry with hidden surface removal                                3
        Create more levels                                                              3
       
        TOTAL                                                                           12 hours
 
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Day 6:
        Fog experimentation, performance adjustment                                     4
        More levels, adjust for fun                                                     5
        Throw in some music                                                             3
       
        TOTAL                                                                           12 hours
       
Day 7:
        Release, then fucking die of exaustion                                          12
       
        TOTAL                                                                           12 hours
...
and to think I wanted to add spells and magic to it...

Wolf: Follow Up

- 3 mins read

This post is migrated here from my 2011 blog

I couldn’t sleep yesterday, I slept this morning around 10 am (being nearly 25 hours awake.. typical) only to be awaken by the gas company wanting to install the new gas line in my kitchen around 2 pm, that’s 4 hours of sleep… but all is well :)

I was kinda harsh on Away3D, that’s probably because I come from a native performance background, when I draw a polygon and watch the framerate drop 0.01 frames I freakout and start running and cursing. In addition to that doing this rapid gamedev thing kinda twists how I judge stuff, I want to get things done as fast as possible (within minutes ideally) and if a solution doesn’t act the way I think it should at the time, it costs me preciousss minutesesss, and then I start cursing more.. yep, there is a lot of cursing involved in gamedev :D

Wolf: Post Mortem

- 5 mins read

This post is migrated here from my 2011 blog

Well I said I will stick to simple ideas, then completely went over that by trying to make a retro fps shotter with support for multiplayer in 72 hours max hehe

Read the experiment details here, for reference.

This is my first try, I called the whole thing “Wolf” not the game but the whole project. And of course, I didn’t quite make it, but I made something from scratch and by all means it’s an impressive result for 3 days of normal work, it isn’t a full game though, only a good base for one.

Our Little World

- 1 min read

This post is migrated here from my 2011 blog

Watching the little gamedev twitter world, I find notch working on Minecraft and releasing 1.8, Chevy Ray is enthusiastically developing a new game with a bunch of artists, John Carmack like usual mumbling about weird things related to displays and refresh rates, I think he’s creating an intergalactic space ship out of old CRT monitors or something.. whatever it may be, it can probably reach escape velocity.. IndieCade independent games festival is announcing it’s finalists! http://www.indiecade.com/index.php/2011/Finalists/ then accusing notch of causing their website to go down hehe notch is like a living breathing DoS attack And Terry Cavanagh celebrating because his game “At a distance” is a finalist at indiecrade! And I’m coding my own little thing, I couldn’t help but smile =) I like this little world, and I want to stay in it..

Experiment: Rapid Gamedev

- 6 mins read

This post is migrated here from my 2011 blog

It might be getting old, but I will again mention that participating in Ludum Dare was the best decision I made this year, I urge all game developers interested in the skill of making actual games (rather than just talking about it or making cute main menus -I did both hehe-) to try it and work hard at succeeding, the moment you succeed in finishing fun games within 48 hours,.. the results will surely send shockwaves into your future.. it’s such a pure concentrated experience in gamedev, it’s just beautiful.

Happy Eid

- 3 mins read

This post is migrated here from my 2011 blog

Hi! This is the first day of Ramadan ending holiday, so happy eid!!! :D

After Prison Escapor, I had to come to Alexandria for the holiday submitting to my family’s demands, and at the same time I was interested in visiting a place in Alexandria (Egypt) called IdeasGym which is a wonderful project that concentrates on after-school activities for kids of ages starting from around 6 years up to 18 years.

This post is migrated here from my 2011 blog

If I spend three days every week like I spent the last three days weird things will happen.. I’ve learned so much and I needed those lessons so bad, while I’m at it I finished my first flash game and the first game I design from scratch! and it only took 3 days.. Prison: Escapor.

LD#21 was wonderful, nearly 600 games were submitted, and I felt like I’m competing head-to-head in a race with so many great game developers from all around the world, some just starting, some with 10+ years of experience, some own game companies, and some are considered legends in game development/design.

Timetable draft 3: still going!

- 3 mins read

This post is migrated here from my 2011 blog

I’m exceptionally happy with how the timetable turned out to be much more suitable to me compared to the first one, I have been sleeping from 12-8 for about a week now. I managed to keep the timetable going in Alexandria.

Eventually though I started to get seriously frustrated with how slow working on the netbook was. I mean everytime I built the swf file as debug I’m forced to wait for 5+ minutes while the Netbook nearly hangs with all resources nearing 100% (RAM and two CPU cores!), by the last day I would take a break every single time I wanted to test the swf, that was not cool. But I’m back to my working PC now :)

Timetable Draft 3: Day 2

- 2 mins read

This post is migrated here from my 2011 blog

Fantastic! I managed to keep a timetable this time.. yesterday was mostly spent on the way between Cairo and Alexandria, I met a new friend from south korea on board the train, had fun time with the cultural exchange, and got directions to a few korean restaurants in Maadi which serve Kimchi :)

Second day, today, I worked about 10 hours, I can say I really did work for about 7 hours of them? which is still pretty good, working on my Netbook usually goes well from a performance point of view but this time things were a little extra slow and extra unresponsive, turns out I’m out of ram! even though 1GB should be very sufficient for the apps I’m using, something was not right…

Experiment: Timetable draft 3

- 2 mins read

This post is migrated here from my 2011 blog

Yesterday, I didn’t have internet, I sat down and analyzed what was bad about draft 1 timetable. The things I came up with are as follows:

  • It was too restrictive and quite inflexible. Everything depends on how strict I followed the timetable
  • It didn’t feel like I have a choice for the whole day
  • Some days I have an errand or two which would happen at a random time, sometimes there is an event or a party that I want to go to, either of these would throw the whole timetable off
  • There are so many different things to do every week, it causes a bit of confusion, and takes time from the higher priority things.

The only advantage of draft 1 timetable, is the balance between creativity and work. Which I admit felt really good, work is stressing, creativity is letting go. But I’m gonna try not to do that this time.