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