New Engine. New Blog

We've recently moved over completely to using the Unity game engine for Pod & Rodney. With the use of the new engine I'll be moving over to a new blog to keep you updated on the progress of Pod & Rodney using the Unity. The blog will be Pod & Rodney: Unity Project.

Some New Announcements

So a few things since it's been a bit quiet on the front. I'll be doing a bit of house cleaning over the blog. Updating a few things on the blog.

One of the biggest announcements would be the change of engine and programming language. We'll be moving onto using the Unity engine, and using C# as a scripting language. This will in hopes make the development process as quickly as we had originally intended. With Unity the time line is looking to be at about a four month turn around, once I gain a bit more confidence in using Unity. So hopefully by March we will be looking into a final release.

The Future...

Change is good. I'll be stepping away from Panda 3D for the use of the Pod & Rodney project. I have found a new and far superior replacement for the continuation of this project. Unity.

Unity is a game engine / editor that has recently released a free version for both commercial and educational use, with some restrictions of course. But the great thing is this. The cost of the actual unrestricted license for the iPhone, Wii, and the PC are all well within our budget. Just a little under fifteen hundred dollars each.

The Future...

A situation has arisen where the future of Pod & Rodney may change. By this I mean the current game engine we are using. As of yesterday, Oct 31, I found a game engine similar to that of what some of you might be fimilar with as Gamebyro. Unity.

The biggest advantage with Unity is the removal of a number of the grunt work tasks that I must perform using Panda. Such as creating a model, and attaching 16 different collision objects to it for every different model type.

Too Quiet...

So the blog has remained silent a little too long for my liking without any new updates on the project. To answer the most important question; Yes we are still working on Pod & Rodney.

The problem as Andrew and myself will readily admit is time. Working full time and working on the project can be challenging at times. Especially when it can be a day or two between developments, then notes must be reviewed, and then you must remember where you left off and with what.

As of present, I've been working on two major things. Movement and keyboard input for the user. I'll be keeping you posted (hopefully) about any progress made.

Wednesday: Animations & Rewind!

A bit about the rewind. Last night we were all working on P & R or Vitagen, and the discussion about the rewind came up. About how it worked and how long we could possibly store up to, in other words if somebody left the game running for a week would the rewind crap out. The answer is no.

About a month ago I spent about 3 days trying to get a general setup for the rewind. One of these is the model we'll be using for the actual game rewind. How it works is this; it only records events WHEN THEY HAPPEN! Not the entire time the game is running, although there is a game timer that is compounded each frame to track the time and this is minimal on the system resources too.I actually put it to a bit of a real test today, where as last night we were trying it with times of about a minute and a half, today I tried ten minutes. By that I mean I start the rewind test, let it run for about ten minutes, came back and held down the rewind key for a whole ten minutes. It worked right on the dot! With about a second or two of error, which isn't bad considering it was ten minutes!

A question that Andrew brought to mind about the rewind was what if a player walks over, runs into a wall, and keeps holding down the movement key into the wall. Will it record all that? No. How the collision and movement were setup it wouldn't record this, because the movement handler for any object is ONLY called if there is a legit movement, that and the rewind data is sent throught the movement handler also. Time, direction and and animation going on too. That's right we have to make all the animations in reverse too.

Another thing that we got working was how to properly export animations out of Maya. So very soon we'll have what is the outlines of a decent beta coming very soon.

Wednesday

The Coming Week.

Monday/Tuesday:

At this point everything has been put into place to get everything ready for the hopefully coming of an alpha level by the end of the week.

So begins the epic battle of this week that I call developing as much of P & R as I can get done. This being in hopes of an alpha level by the end of the week (Friday).

So the plan for the blog is this: I plan to do an update at night of the final progress over the cross of the day for P & R. A start to finish explanation, of how everything comes together, since I will be starting from scratch with this build. ( Not literally) I will be using a good majority of the code I've already developed just in different ways.

The hopes for the build Friday is this, lights, animations, collisions, and a basic level built for demonstrations.

I won't be doing a post for what I get done tonight. I'll just lump that in with tomorrows post. Also later in the week ( Wednesday, Thursday) I'll be doing some live broadcasts too.

The Coming Week

Having finally completed my move, I will now be back at it again with Pod & Rodney.

The road to...

..hell is paved with good intentions. Yes we're still alive. I know we boosted posting weekly updates regarding the progress of the game.

Progress on the my end has been moving as steadily as it can. As I have been currently moving over the past month it makes it a bit difficult at times to get time to work on P & R. But don't worry I have been.

Currently I've been working on two things. The first being cleaning up and finalizing my design for the collision detection. Since this is the pin that holds the entire game together, I want it to be as close to finalized in design as possible.

The second thing is something new. Lighting. So no more plan old matted cubes anymore. Now it will be lighted cubes!

Lights. Pod. Action!

IGDA Detroit Sept 23rd.

I've been working pretty steadily to get an alpha level ready for showing at the IGDA Detroit. Hence the reason I forgot to put up a post.

Keep your eyes on the site for the next couple of days. I'll have something up soon.

Collision Detection Development Video

Back to the grind stone. I've been out of town trying to move most of my stuff to a new apartment across the state. It's been fun...

Anyway I've compiled the parts of the first collision detection video. Now I just need put them together work on the audio and upload it!

I'm hoping to have this done and be on the

way to the next video in the next couple of days.

Till then this should whet your appetite.

Mini Series: Collision Detection Development

Since I've been revamping the collision detection code of Pod & Rodney, I decided that it might be interesting to do a kind of mini series about the development and the process of implementing it.

These will be anything from explaining some of the basics used in Panda and how they work into Pod & Rodney

First I must acquire a new mic and then get some software installed to get this going. But watch the site for over the next few days I'll be updating with videos.

Ebb And Flow Of Code Design

Code is a sand castle on a beach. Code design is the rising and falling tides. Some times it will reach up and take a bit of the castle, causing you to rebuild part of it. Sometimes it won't even touch it, or it could completely swallow it whole causing you have to start over.

So why the metaphor you might ask? Because no code is ever concrete, not even when a game is released.

This applies to what I'm currently working on. A new type of collision detection system. I won't get into the finer details or than this. It allows for a greater number of different collisions to go on than before. This is useful considering the number of features that we would like to add in later.

How it works is each entity is assigned to a group. Environment, Stationary Intervactive, Movable Interactive, and Characters. Of couse I might add more to add more filtering. For example bricks, ladders and caged ladders are all assigned to the environment group with a bitmask to filter them. Before I was assigning one bitmask to each entity, the problem is that Panda only has 32 bitmasks for filtering.

New Collision Detection Setup

I should give a bit of background info on this before I get into what I'm creating.

How collisions work in Panda is this, a bitmask number is assigned to each collision solid. What this does is filter out collisions that don't match the bitmask number. How I had setup the collisions previously was to assign different bitmask numbers for each different collision.

September Week 1

This is the first post for the month of September! I know that I said that I'd be posting a demo of game and everything, but at the moment with everything like the new tile set coming down the pipes, it might be for this month's media release.

Environment Mapper:

More tiles than a deck of cards. Fifty-six to be exact. I have to create a function that will handle which tile to place and where. I'm trying a number of different methods to get this to function, anything from having it already placed into the map file or doing "on the fly" when the level is loaded.

If I get something function correctly I'll probably post a video demo of it. At the moment It will probably have about nine different tiles each represented by a different color, representing one of eight directions and center.

The Initiative

Greg and I have started an initiative. We like to call it the "Post more content and works in progress" initiative.

Here are some screen captures of an environmental mock up I've been working on:







These screens show how the program will dynamically select a different brick to be rendered for each piece of the environment. Since a majority of the bricks in this scene (save for the ladders and boxes) are basic environmental blocks, they are technically all the same piece as far as collision detection and code decisions are concerned. With this smart render system we can make our environments automatically render an aesthetically pleasing and easily understood environment, without repeating the same brick model over and over. This will be a great feature for the players interested in making their own levels for Pod & Rodney.

Our progress is still steady. There has been a lot of motivation lately to work much harder towards a playable demo; mostly upcoming competitions and potential project exposure. More info will be posted in the next couple of days, and maybe some more screen caps of untextured environmental models.

Weekly Updates And Monthly Media Releases

So we're going to be trying things around here with a new spin. I'll be doing weekly updates on progress with the game, keeping everyone informed of developements.

As for the media releases. These will be either done bi-weekly or once a month. Depending on the amount and content of the release. Also this will allow for me to make video demos of a better quality, not to mention putting together individual videos can be a bit tedious at times. Also I plan on setting up regular broadcasting times so that you can do live chat with Andrew and myself, and get a peek into the development of the game. These will be a sort of supplement between media releases.

I'm going to try and do my weekly posts about Friday or Saturday. So keep an eye out for new posts around that time.

The Enviromental Handler

What the environmental handler is used for is handling events such as cases when a caged ladder needs to be placed

The Coming Weeks.

The boards have been silent for a little while... I haven't been able to get anything completed worthy of a video yet. Mainly the past few weeks have been spent cleaning and organizing code to make my life easier and adding to the game too.

The end of the month is the goal. By then I'm hoping to have something difinetely worth seeing. Till then I'm keeping this all a bit close to the chest.

The biggest challenge is not the coding part of this. It's the time.The next few weeks are going to be a bit... hellish. Between moving and work. But Pod & Rodney shall prevail!

Still Alive!

I know I haven't posted on here in a couple of days like I used too. But believe me, the project is still going! I'm just re-arranging and rewriting whole sections of the code to make this a better running game! So stay tuned! The milestone is the end of the month!

The Menu

I haven't posted in a few days, I'm still alive and so is the project. It's been alot of work getting everything organized how I want it code wise to make my life easier when it comes to putting all the puzzle pieces together to make this a game in the end.

As the title states. The menu, I'll be working on this for a day or two. Hopefully having a video of what it should start to shape up as. So watch the blog! I'll be back!

The Level Editor

With a tile based game like Pod & Rodney, it would only make sense to add in a level editor for third party levels / campaigns to be added. Although I haven't actually started any work on the actual GUI for the level editor, it is present to an extent. At the moment what I have implement to somewhat easily change the level is simply editing a text document. It just contains three lines total. One for the tile type, each is represented by a letter. Then the X and Y (Z-Axis in code) for each tile. So a level actually looks something like this.

B, B , B
0, 6, 12
0, 0, 0

What this would draw would be three basic bricks all at the same height and starting at zero and moving right. Of course I'll make this system better, then eventually will have an actual file format to use too. This just makes life easier than changing arrays in ten different files.

Indie Game Challenge

I was cleaning out one of my G-mail accounts earlier today. And found this diamond in the rough.


http://www.indiegamechallenge.com/

At first I wasn't quite sure how true it was or how legit till I did a bit of investigating. I'd absolutely love to submit a copy of Pod & Rodney for this. But the October deadline seems a be to fast approaching. And since I'm not totally sure to what point we'll have completed the game either.

These type of expos / contests seem to be popping up for frequently also. This seems to be happening as more of the industry begins to recognize the importance of the Indie games, such as Braid, Everyday Shooter, and Trine.

In my personal opinion I'd rather have a game that we spend six months on and thoroughly test. Than one where we hurry to make a deadline and it doesn't meet the par we want it too.

Maybe next year. Maybe Hydrogen.

Coding Playlist

Just for the heck of it I decided I'm going to post the play list that I made up for when I'm coding.

Worlds Collide - Apocalyptica
Stroke - Apocalyptica
Grace - Apocalyptica
Helden - Apocalyptica
Speed of Sound - Coldpay
Orinoco Flow - Enya
Cities of the Future - Infected Mushroom
Pistolero - Juno Reactor
Freak on a Leash - Korn featuring Amy Lee
Narayan - The Prodigy
Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve
Ode to Joy - Beethoven
Right Here, Right Now - Fatboy Slim

These particular songs are the ones that seem to get me into the mode of coding. That mindset wehere you think you can conquer the world through code.

Best Laid Plan

I'm at the point with the development of this game that it is no longer trying to figure out the best approach to, for example make Pod fall until he hits something. All the basic mechanics have been figured out, tested, and polished.

Now comes to the point where I must go beyond the plan of action I originally created for development and testing. Now comes the real deal. I'll be taking the next day and a half and writing out every entity and function. Coming up with all the necessary functions and variables that tie the whole thing together.

The next video I release will be the first stages of development of the ACTUAL game. The plan for this is to include the rewind, Pod, Rodney, crates, and ladders. All working.

Code Overhaul.

Because of the rewind feature being pretty much figured out. I had to re-write a good chunk of the code to better fit the function. This was pretty much making specialized modules for each game element. Instead of handling all of Pod's and the crates movements in one file I've changed it so that each has their own. Before I had started work on the rewind most of the coding I was doing was a sort of prototypes. Getting the basic concept down and making sure it worked right. This is just one example of whats been done.

How movement is being handled has changed also. Before For a move function to activate a keystroke was required as part of the conditions. All four directions had their own functions, now there are only two functions one for the X and one for the Z. Up, down left and right are now handled using a velocity variable and a multiplier.

The multiplier is under the user input module depending on the direction pushed. For example to move left the multiplier is set to -1, for right it's just the opposite.

This is a bit of the code that is used to control the movement of Pod.

if(self.Falling == False) and (self.Moving == False):
self.var.PodNextX = self.var.Pod.PodModel.getX()+( self.velocityX * self.MultiplierX )

As you can if you change the multiplier you change the direction. To stop the model, a zero is simply dropped in for the multiplier. This is also useful in the condition that Pod or Rodney is on a conveyor belt, which automatically sets the velocity to the appropriate speed. But is the character or object collides with a wall while still on the conveyor, a zero would be applied, canceling the movement.

This is just one small snippet of code that I've changed to make the game not only smoother but also more optimized.

The Backstory

Since it might be a couple of days before I can get anything of value worth putting up on the site, I decided to fill you in a bit on how this whole project actually got started.

Visual Assets

Greg and I have finally overcome a technical obstacle that has held us back for quite some time, and I am now able to contribute visually to the project beyond making our blog look pretty. These are some works in progress, for environmental and character models.





I'm very excited to see these things come together with Greg's work on the game's code. It will be fun to see this all come to life.

Rewind Feature: WIP

I've currently gotten the pushable crates to work with multiples on the screen. Now that the crates are mostly completed, I'm going to work on the rewind feature. This is a key part of the game and something I don't want to add after completing everything else halfway.

This thing is like the monster in the closet, I have to face it off someday. And I'm not going in without a pretty good idea of how I want to approach it either. Wish me luck!

I'll keep posting about progress on this.

7/30/2009- Putting On The Brakes

I've decided to add a cool effect for the rewind feature. (Works in theory at least) When an object is falling, and the rewind key is hit, instead of stopping immediately the crate will fall slower to it's next position. Stop. Then rewind. I'm hoping I can get this to work properly, because it'd be one of those nice touches.

7/30/2009 - Broadcasting Tonight

Instead of bombarding the site with a bunch of videos regarding the progress of the rewind feature. I'm going to be broadcasting testing and development of it from 7pm EST till TBA

Realistic Design

Pod & Rodney was a game that I had in my design portfolio since about 1998. It's gameplay style was something I've always had a small fetish for: grid constrained box pushing puzzles. Later in my life, during my college years, I wanted to take the design more seriously.

Realistic design is a mandatory process when you have little to no budget and a small team. Normally my design portfolio consists of games that are designed with the following process:

1. Gameplay design
2. Story based on gameplay
3. Art direction based on story

Pod & Rodney was designed with a much more rigid process, in order to insure that it could one day be made with minimal cost and minimal team size, a.k.a. Realistic design:

1. Budget constraint calculation
2. Technical constraint calculation based on budget
3. Gameplay based on technical constraint
4. Art direction based on gameplay
5. Story direction based on a factory, aliens, and robots

This may seem like a no brainer, but most amateur design teams (of which we most definitely fall into the category of) will get tripped up by not following this process. It's good and well to think big, and I support it at all opportunities possible, although game design requires quite a bit of unglamorous and time consuming work that a lot of design teams do not anticipate.

So here we are with a realistic project that a two man team can tackle in a realistic amount of time. We hope that it will turn out fun for others, and we are certain it will be fun for us. Greg has been hard at work overcoming some coding hurdles that we foresaw during the design and concept phase. Once we solve the grand pitfall that is 'getting Maya to export a usable file format', we will have a much prettier picture to show.

Pod And Rodney Multiple Crates

That's right multiple crates now can be controlled and present in the level! I know I said I wasn't going to be putting up another video for a couple of days, but hey I was excited when I got this to work.

The next OFFICIAL Demo 4 video will be a working level.

Pod And Rodney: The Site

Creation of the official Pod And Rodney site is underway! We'll be moving the blog to the new site once it's up and running!

Movement In Pod and Rodney

After discussing with Andrew what would possibly make this game appeal to a broader audience. We decided on changing how the movement was going to be handled in the game. Instead of having to wait for all the objects in motion to cease, I'm going to implement a system that makes a judgment as to whether a move would be possible or not.

This is actually taking priority over everything once I complete getting multiple working crates into the game.

Also there are a number of other things we'll be adding into the game to make it even more appealing. Somethings are just better keep a secret. :)

Pod And Rodney Pitfall Level Demo

Not even hours after posting the second demo video did I correctly implement in the pushable crates. This demo shows that off.

The fourth demo video probably won't be out for a bit. At least a couple of days. The plan is to show off the fourth video with both Pod and Rodney, ladders, crates and possibly a working winning condition. Hopefully progress will stay at the rate it's going! Stay tuned!

Edit: I found an actual minor bug when playing around with the demo this morning. In the demo you can see when I push the crate that I only move the one square. Earlier when I tried it and held down the key, Pod actually fell through the level bugging out. That has now been quickly fixed.

A side note about an aspect of the game play. Whenever an object such as a crate or either of the characters is in a form of forced movement. i.e. A fall. All control is temporarly locked out. But if you remain holding the key during that time, as soon as the object is finished you will continue to move.

Crate Pitfall Demo

This is the second demo video that I've made. I actually got my microphone working, so I actually did a bit of narrative to the video to explain better what is going on.

Edit: So it looks like the crate demo will either be up late tonight or sometime tomorrow. Keep your eyes on the site!

P.S.S There might be even a new comer to the demo with a little luck!

Pod Step Demo Vid

This is a demo of the basic movement and gravity for the game. It's short, but it shows some of the progress made.

Official Blog Launched!

This will be the official blog for the development of Pod and Rodney, the video game! I'll be posting updates regarding development of the game, video demos, and times I'll be doing live broadcasts of the game!

For an idea of what Pod and Rodney is all about, check out this video!

Video Demo