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Editorial - April 2014
It's April the first, and the annual tradition of fooling friends and family with our little pranks and jokes is here again. Don't go looking for the April fool in this newsletter, there isn't one. There, I've told you before anyone else. Yesterday evening dozens of sources told me about the Google tricks before April had even begun and before I had chance to enjoy them first hand.
Joking aside (pun intended), one of the downsides of social media and instant communication with millions of people you've never met, is that everyone wants to tell you the news first. There is a belief that being first with news endows the teller with kudos. Unfortunately it can often be quite the opposite. It's an inherent behaviour of human beings that we want to work things out for ourselves, and having them presented to us effortlessly is more often irritating.
Nobody buys games to follow somebody else's instructions on how to traverse through it. Sites dedicated to walkthroughs exist, but the majority of gamers visit them reluctantly when all else fails, and rarely admit to using them. The human race is an inquisitive one, and it's something we should all keep in mind when creating games: nobody wants an easy ride. Challenge people and they will come back for more. Give them one puzzle in a game and they'll stay logged on for the next.
In keeping with the forum tradition of sharing puzzles, here's one for you. Post your success on the forum here. But remember, tell us if you've worked it out, but don't spoil it for everyone else, they want to work it out for themselves!
Each of the statements below can be made correct by applying the relevant mathematical symbols. Each statement will be equal to six when completed, you cannot use "Not equal to" in your answers. Some are easier than others, so don't try to solve them in numerical order. One has been completed for you to get started. Good luck!
1 1 1 = 6 2 2 2 = 6 3 3 3 = 6 4 4 4 = 6 5 5 5 = 6 | 6 + 6 - 6 = 6 7 7 7 = 6 8 8 8 = 6 9 9 9 = 6 0 0 0 = 6 |
Until next time,
contents
(1) FPSC News (2) FPSCR Gallery (3) AGK Alpha 3 (4) FPSC-2-AGK (5) GDC (6) Competition (8) Online High Scores (9) Refender (10) 2D Graphoics (11) TGC Channel (12) Social Feeds
FPSC Reloaded Blog
By Lee Bamber
Each month we'll update you on the progress of FPS Creator Reloaded. You will find a running commentary on the development through the FPSC-R Blog, but right here you will find some of the selected highlights that deserve your utmost attention. You can also follow the development on the official Facebook page. Within the R&D offices here at TGC, Reloaded is our main focus and we aim to constantly develop it to make it into a world class game creation tool. With great support from people who have made pledges to the project we are able to evolve and build our best game maker ever!
Lee Bamber, FPS Creator Reloaded Developer summarises the March achievements for himself and the FPSCR development team.
Lee BamberI think I am on the coat tails of a serious performance improvement and if I can get the visuals comparable to the expensive per pixel fragment shader version, we'll be laughing.
March was another short development month, but a great month in terms of knowledge gathering from GDC, along with feedback and gathering new ideas about current and future technologies. You can read about the GDC adventures later on in the newsletter, but for this section let's focus on the FPSC-R developments.
Shadow Rendering
Shadows are a big thing in games. They seemingly go unnoticed by players, but are actually one of the most important components of realism and immersion. Take the shadows away and the game becomes immediately flat. Implement them badly, and the suspension of disbelief is shattered. Rather than try to put into a narrative how shadows are being carefully crafted, here is Lee explaining it all in under 60 seconds.
Vegetation and Foliage Improvements
Alongside shadows, vegetation is another important factor in creating realism. It can also be very resource-hungry, and so Simon was tasked with optimising it as much as possible. The result is a 10% improvement in performance and the addition of specular variable settings alongside. All is explained in this short video.
Reloaded V1.006 Coming Very Soon
The Reloaded Team are working very hard and smart to bring all Reloaded pledgers the next major build of the project. Performance optimisation and improved rendering speeds have been a major focus. We can report that this work has gone really well and we'll be releasing the build in the coming weeks once it's tested fully.
Reloaded Discount Deal
TGC Newsletter readers can gain a 20% discount on the price of Reloaded. To take advantage of this offer, enter the code TGCDEAL when you're checking out during the order process. Save today, ORDER HERE.
FPS Creator Reloaded Gallery
Here are some more of our favourite screenshots from the FPSC Relaoded Beta.
t minus 10 by Shivers
Hellbound 2 by Rolfy
Shipwreck by Rolfy
Spooky Gargoyles by HarryWever
City Look by HarryWever
AGK reaches Alpha 3
As work progresses on AGK version 2, the third Alpha has been released to the pledgers. This version includes:
- All features from Alpha 2 ported
- - to Android
- - to iOS and Mac except for sound balance
- - to Blackberry (except unsupported commands like music, video & SetScreenResolution)
- New command InAppPurchaseSetKeys to set public keys unique to each app
- New random number commands Random2() that have a longer period before repetition and greater range
The following bugs from the previous Alpha have been resolved:
- Fixed crash when deleting an image assigned to a currently active frame buffer
- Fixed crash when a shader fails to compile with a lot of errors
- Fixed a bug where text greater than depth 0 would not display
- Fixed LoadSkeleton2DFromSpineFile scale parameter not working
- Fixed sprites not appearing on screen if any sprites were drawn with SetRenderToImage active
You'll also find the AGK V2 blog on the forums, giving an insight into what is currently being developed. Some of the highlights from March which will make their way into the next Alpha release have included:
- Building the command list into a better format so we can avoid crashes with incompatible compiler and interpreter versions.
- Compiler work
- Fixed a crash when deleting the most recently created sprite or text object
- Work on the APK builder and improving Ouya support.
- Updating the online APK builder so it can now build Alpha 2 APKs for Android and Ouya devices!
- Completing the Ouya In App Purchase system and tested with both consumable and entitlement products
AGK Pascal 1.088
Registered users of App Game Kit can find AGK Pascal (for AGK v1.088) under their products page ready for download. As with the previous version you need the 32bit version of Lazarus Free Pascal.
You can post any questions and feedback on the forums here.
Accelerate your 3D AGK Development
The fastest way to create 3D environments for your AGK games is to harness the power of FPS Creator Classic. You can build levels with the ease of the FPSC toolset - including static lights and their lightmaps - and import them into your AGK development. Not only that, but the code needed to set up your beautiful new world will be generated too.
Key Features:
- Convert FPSC levels to OBJ, X & DBO Formats
- Export textures to JPG, PNG, DDS & BMP
- Exports Shaders for Light mapping
- Adjust export quality for better performance on mobile devices
- Generates AGK Code and project files
- Help file with detailed advice
Gamer Developer Conference Round-up
You may already be aware that The Game Creators headed stateside to be part of the Game Developer Conference 2014. Firstly, here's the Intel interview of Rick Vanner and the main reasons for being at this important industry conference.
Lee Bamber has his report of the many of the things he experienced over the week:
We landed Monday night, straight to sleep, and back up Tuesday for a full day of presentations, meetings, setting up demos and then off to the pub for a swift half. Wednesday through Friday included booth appearances, two speaker presentations, meetings and of course a quick tour of the EXPO floor to see what's hot in 2014.
I think this picture sums up my GDC week very well. On the face of it, it looks like Lee checking out the latest VR experience, a wires-free peripheral vision virtual reality running Android OS with full calibration-free head tracking all the way from London (amazingly I had to fly half way around the world to check out tech from my own backyard).
On closer inspection though, you will see that Lee is drinking a virtual beer. The combination of cool future tech and the perfect beer is very much the take-away from GDC 2014, and I was greatly honored to be part of it.
I made the most of my social feeding on Twitter which meant my blog was pretty silent for the week I was away. Naturally no development was made, but plenty of testing was done on several Ultrabooks plus a snazzy new device which was the size of a box of teabags and contained a full PC with Intel Iris-Pro graphics. This little brick ran my Reloaded demo at super fast speed, even though it was an integrated graphics device, and I was quick to learn that Intel are now dedicating about 75% of their available silicon on the latest processors to graphics! For Reloaded this means we are really hitting the mark when it comes to performance, and being best friends with integrated graphics means we are also best friends with low-end graphics cards too!
As much as I enjoyed my time talking shop during the event, I also enjoyed my occasional stroll around the EXPO floor looking at the amazing tech and learning of the incredible announcements. Had a chance to meet some of the guys and gals at PrioVR and try out their body suit, which in my humble opinion is a game changer you can only appreciate by using it. The announcements from CryTek and Epic are set to once again transform the ecology of game making solutions, and probably giving Unity developers something to think about too.
New hardware devices are coming thick and fast, and I managed to check out three new VR headsets as well. I wanted to try the Sony headset but the queue was a mile long, but by all accounts is as good as the new Rift DK2. I put my order in for DK2 as soon as I got back, and will be watching and waiting for what the Sony VR device does.
My personal impression was that GDC represented some of the best stuff happening in the games industry right now and it's cool to be part of it.
PrioVR - Suit Up, Game On
At GDC Rick and Lee found time to check out other FPS related technologies. PrioVR is a product that TGC have backed on Kickstarter and was on demo at the show. They had a simple FPS game with Zombies that had to be taken out with guns or melee weapons. The combination of the PrioVR body motion controller and the Oculus Rift headset created a whole new gaming experience. Rick and Lee were blown away by this and can see immense potential for Reloaded support of this amazing device.
Competition - Just...One...More...Month to go
The Prize
A brand new Google Nexus 10! The Nexus 10 is the dynamic ten inch tablet from Google. With a Super High Resolution Screen, all new multi-user features, immersive HD content and the best Google apps - Nexus 10 has something for everyone.
With a dazzling 2560x1600 high-resolution display and powerful graphics processor, Nexus 10 places you right inside the action with picture-perfect performance.
There's just one month left to create your simplest yet most addictive game. Flappy Bird was both of these, but we know you can do much better. Read to the end of this article to find out how to submit your games.
The Theme
This is for all you Flappy Addict wannabes. Create a game that makes you want to have "just one more try". It must have only one level with no end, although it can get progressively more difficult. It can be based on the Flappy Bird concept, although we're looking forward to your original ideas. You're more likely to score high by being more original.
Judging
The Judges will award points for simplicity and addictiveness amongst the usual criteria. We want the entries to be creative so the criteria is minimal. Complicated game rules or controls will not win you the prize!
Extra kudos will be awarded for:
- Implementing the AGK Community Ad system (More details to follow)
- Making your game available as a free download, a desktop version is acceptable in order to meet this criteria
- Sharing progress and ideas with the community
- Adding online high score tables
The judges will be taking into account a number of factors including originality, graphics style and quality, gameplay, performance, replay value and other factors. In other words, you don't have to be really good at anything specific; there are enough facets for entries to show a well rounded game in many areas, or to shine in just a couple of them.
The Prize
A brand new Google Nexus 10! The Nexus 10 is the dynamic ten inch tablet from Google. With a Super High Resolution Screen, all new multi-user features, immersive HD content and the best Google apps - Nexus 10 has something for everyone.
With a dazzling 2560x1600 high-resolution display and powerful graphics processor, Nexus 10 places you right inside the action with picture-perfect performance.
There's just one month left to create your simplest yet most addictive game. Flappy Bird was both of these, but we know you can do much better. Read to the end of this article to find out how to submit your games.
The Theme
This is for all you Flappy Addict wannabes. Create a game that makes you want to have "just one more try". It must have only one level with no end, although it can get progressively more difficult. It can be based on the Flappy Bird concept, although we're looking forward to your original ideas. You're more likely to score high by being more original.
Judging
The Judges will award points for simplicity and addictiveness amongst the usual criteria. We want the entries to be creative so the criteria is minimal. Complicated game rules or controls will not win you the prize!
Extra kudos will be awarded for:
- Implementing the AGK Community Ad system (More details to follow)
- Making your game available as a free download, a desktop version is acceptable in order to meet this criteria
- Sharing progress and ideas with the community
- Adding online high score tables
The judges will be taking into account a number of factors including originality, graphics style and quality, gameplay, performance, replay value, including the Ads network, any WIP thread in the forums and other factors. In other words, you don't have to be really good at anything specific; there are enough facets for entries to show a well rounded game in many areas, or to shine in just a couple of them. To be clear, the judges won't know what they are looking for in the winning game until it arrives on their desktop or mobile device. They are simply looking to be amazed. Remember, nobody envisaged the success of Flappy Bird.
The Deadline
You have until the end of April 2014, giving you 8 weeks to create your entry. Deadlines of how to submit your game will follow. Check the Forums for the latest details and updates.
Works-in-Progress
Many of you have entered into the fuill spirit of the contest and created WIP threads to show us your progress, and encourage others to get involved. Here are just a few, anything featured here (or not) does not indicate the chances of winning.
 Unnamed Runner | Holey Cow! You're a cow, falling down a hole. You steer your cow to avoid crashing into the walls and you tap to collect points/bonuses Q: Haven't you spelt holy wrong? |
Swiped Out A match 3 game like no other, that keeps you on your toes. As the screen fills with abundant goodies, you have to swipe 3 or more of the same object to remove them. We've got jelly beans, nuts, fruit, balloons, vegetables, planets and more. |  |
 Battlezone | Many More Including: Diablo The Prawn |
How to submit your game
As you already know, this is a community competition with a great prize provided by The Game Creators. As such, we don't have a dedicated server waiting to take your games via an elaborate online form. We're keeping it simple, in line with the theme:
- Watch out for the submission thread in the Geek Culture board of the forums. This is where you can post your final entry.
- Post the title, at least one image and a short description of the game.
- You can also post playing instructions if required, and a video link or embedded YouTube video.
- Finally, and most importantly, attach the game as a zip or rar file. The zip should contain the Windows executable, or APK file for Android games. For iOS games you will need to contact Sean Mann (Naphier) who will provide his device ID. This can be added to your distribution certificate for him to install on his device.
Good luck with your entries!
Happy Chick
In an an amendment to last month's article on flappy-based games, the author of Happy chick is actually Funnel7, apologies for the error. This alternative take on the game includes numerous other obstacles such as bees and dangerous terrains. It's also level based, so you can progress through the challenges without having to start from the beginning each time you pick up your device for a quick game. Again, you can download it now from Google Play.
Naphier's Tips and Tricks - Online High Score System
The database
- PID - the primary index for the database and set to auto increment.
- NAME - this is where you'll store the user's name. I'd suggest limiting it to 12 characters or less and making this column a VARCHAR(13) type. The 13 is the maximum string length (12) plus 1.
- SCORE - an integer
- DATE - Type is TIMESTAMP and I like to use the "current date on update" feature so that whenever a new score is entered you know the date of entry.
The PHP Scripts
Did you know that PHP is a recursive name? The acronym stands for PHP Hypertext Preprocessor, containing the acronym within the name itself!
Sending the Data
Retrieving the Scores
Refender - A Classic Remake
Last month we featured Refender, developed by Ray Norrish (nzo) as a remake of the classic retro Defender game. Being very true to the original, it has attracted the attention of Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar, the original writers of the game at Williams Electronics. There are plans afoot to make cabinet versions of the game for collectors and outlets, with this remake as the core of the project. This month Ray gives us an insight into the explosion system used by the game.
The Refender Explosion System
The explosions/teleports in Refender underwent several changes to improve performance. Initially, the explosion particles were made up of 5x5, 3x3 or 3x5 sections of the original sprites, but I noticed that single coloured sprites are much faster, so I modified my generator to use single coloured sprites which are averaged from surrounding pixels. The data for the explosion is stored as an RGB value for each fragment, rather than an actual sprite image. This also means that the new explosion generator doesn’t generate sprites with no colour data, again improving the performance.
To make the actual explosions, I pre-calculate the x and y increments over 64 steps as below, where xoff# and yoff# are the offsets from the centre of the pixel array. This plots a course away from the origin to a point elsewhere (imagine drawing lines from the middle of the individual sprite grid out, to make a star pattern).
xoff#=40/-2
yoff#=40/-2
for x=0 to 63 step _gFragDivisor
x1#=xoff#
y1#=yoff#
z#=sqrt((x1#*x1#)+(y1#*y1#))
// explode model 1 - equal expansion
z1#=z#/8.0
FragmentExplodeOffsets1[x].ExplodeStepX#=(x1#/z1#)*0.055*z1#
FragmentExplodeOffsets1[x].ExplodeStepY#=(y1#/z1#)*0.055*z1#
// explode model 2 - circular expansion
z1#=z#/18.0
FragmentExplodeOffsets2[x].ExplodeStepX#=(x1#/z1#)*0.04
FragmentExplodeOffsets2[x].ExplodeStepY#=(y1#/z1#)*0.04
…
xoff#=xoff#+5.0
if xoff#=20.0
yoff#=yoff#+5.0
xoff#=40/-2
endif
next x
Mixed 2D and 3D system
This was quite interesting to do as it adds an interesting spin to 2D games and unlocks a whole lot of extra capability for this, a 2D scrolling shooter.
In Refender, the play area is 8 screens wide (1024x8)=8192 pixels and then wraps around. To wrap it around, you actually have to repeat screen 1 at screen 9 and screen 8 as screen 0 to allow for wrapping. I found that the AGK viewport options were insufficient for this game, so I made my own system for this. You would need to set all of your sprite positions in their own arrays and use a placement system to place them in the world, as screen 9 and screen 0 are not really screens at all, so you would need to calculate a virtual position vs an actual position on the screen.
To match the 3D world with the 2D world, the camera view needs to track the horizontal position of the scrolling world. Imagine a camera on a dolly which can move left and right, always looking straight ahead at a projector screen if you like, which exactly matches the real screen.
The trick to match up the 3D drawing area with the screen requires a function similar to this:
function WorldCamera()
mx#=-512.0 // based upon a 2D x-res of 1024
my#=384.0*0.75 // based upon a 2D y-res of 768 multiplied by the aspect ratio
SetCameraPosition(1,gABSWorldOffset#,GetCameraY(1),GetCameraZ(1))
SetLightPointPosition(1,gABSWorldOffset#,GetCameraY(1),_
GetCameraZ(1)+696.0)
for Index=0 to 8-1
if Praxis[Index].SlotUsed=1
SetObjectPosition(Praxis[Index].ObjID,GetCameraX(1),GetCameraY(1),_
GetCameraZ(1))
px#=GetCameraX(1)+mx#+OffsetAdjust(Praxis[Index].xPos#)
SetObjectPosition(Praxis[Index].ObjID,px#,GetCameraY(1)+my#-_
(Praxis[Index].yPos#*0.75),GetCameraZ(1)+696.0)
endif
next Index
for Index=0 to 20-1
if Billboards[Index].SlotUsed=1
SetObjectPosition(Billboards[Index].ObjectID,GetCameraX(1),GetCameraY(1),GetCameraZ(1))
px#=GetCameraX(1)+mx#+OffsetAdjust(Billboards[Index].xPos#)
SetObjectPosition(Billboards[Index].ObjectID,px#,GetCameraY(1)+my#-_
(Billboards[Index].yPos#*0.75),GetCameraZ(1)+696.0)
endif
next Index
endfunction
In the function, gABSWorldOffset# is a calculated value which takes into account the fake screen 0 and screen 9 and returns a real position of between 0 and 8192 (instead of a number between -1024 and 9216) which is 10 screens wide.
The two loops process any active praxis objects (the exploding rings) or billboards (which are 3D plains used simply to hold a texture pointing at the camera). The positioning ensures that the 3D object remains in the 2D space by positioning the object first at the camera itself, then a relative position away from the camera.
The OffsetAdjust function is a global function which positions any object using the same rules as gABSWorldOffset# and the 696.0 is a magic number I settled on for how far on the Z axis I wanted to draw the 3D items.
You are also able to control the drawing depth of 3D in relation to the 2D sprites, although all of the 3D must go into a single layer.
The game also features a number of other unique elements including an advanced sound system which has programmable echo, reverb and phasing. There is also a special queuing system which allows individual sound effects to be stitched together, such as separate words for sentences.
You can find out more about the game and download the latest beta on the game's website. If you want to feedback and keep up to date on the forums, the thread can be found here.
Indie Graphics Builder 2
If you are dedicated to making great looking 2D games in AGK or DarkBASIC Professional, then then Indie Graphics Builder is a good way to shortcut the sprite-building part of the development process. Using thousands of components, you can quickly build unique props and backgrounds. IGB Phase 2 is now on Kickstarter, with just over 2 weeks left to reach the goal. Pledging to this kickstarter at $79 nor more will entitle you to the 9,000 graphics from the first version of IGB, including action, adventure, science fiction, platformer graphics and more.
Check out the Kickstarter and make a pledge if you want one of the biggest libraries of 2D media to be found.
Sprite Pack
When you've got your sprites and 2D images designed and ready to go, you'll need to make sure they are easy to implement and package. This is where Sprite Pack comes in, a tool for creating and editing sprite and tile sheets. With its clean interface and powerful tools, a once time consuming task is now a breeze.
Key Features:
A clean, easy to use interface.- In depth documentation .
- Automatic sprite/tile sheet packing.
- Easy unpacking of sprite/tile sheets.
- An animation preview window.
- Transparency trimming.
- And much more!
A clean, easy to use interface.
Sprite Pack is available to purchase directly from Black Rain Interactive, with full product details on the website.
The TGC YouTube Channel
Have you visited the TGC YouTube Channel yet? You may be surprised:
- Over 120 videos!
- Over 600,000 views!
- Over 2,100 subscribers!
Take a look at our channel now, and make sure you hit the subscribe button to stay up to date with new video uploads. Very often you'll get advanced previews of upcoming news.
Keep up to date with TGC on Facebook & Google+
Join over 6,200 fans on TGC's Facebook page to keep bang up to date on news, user projects from the forums and discussions.
We're keen to hear from all our avid users and we always love to hear what you've been up to with the tools we sell. So if you have something you want to share with the wider TGC audience why not post it into the TGC Facebook page?
FPSC Reloaded
There are now over 1,800 fans discussing Reloaded on our Facebook page right now. Whether you simply want to see the update and progress news as it is released, or get involved in technical discussions about LOD, Light and lots of other topics, sign up to this page today to be part of it.
App Game Kit
You can join in the Facebook discussions in our AGK group page with over 570 members and we have a new AGK Facebook page.
Google+
You can also follow our products on Google+
"There are no traffic jams along the extra mile." -Roger Staubach
This is how the Reloaded team are thinking when it comes to polishing the development!