Ninja

[Liazon]

hey welcome back! n will be pretty awesome!

[axcho]

Thanks, I hope it will be!

Just out of curiosity, have there been any notable TI-BASIC games released in the last year or two that I should take a look at? I'm thinking I could probably turn this game into a fairly big production - maybe not quite Contra 83, but something along those lines.

[Liazon]

oh, i forgot to mention that Kerm began to work on an ASM version. linky

[axcho]

Thanks for the link, Liazon. If you happen to have an account on that forum, you might point KermMartian to the metanet tutorials on how the collisions work in N, in case he hasn't come across them yet.

And tell him to make the head sweep back on that N sprite, instead of jutting forward. Just as a suggestion for something to try, you know. :P

Anyway, progress: I got enemies working in the form of mines, that sit in place and activate every so often, killing you if you are within sensor range. No explosion effect yet, though I'm thinking it might be cool to turn your ninja into two particles that bounce around like the N ragdoll after you hit a mine.

And fortunately I've managed to get gold and mines there without increasing the number of If-blocks, which is nice. In case you're curious how that works, I just used Repeat L for the loop, and did something like L + (golddetectcode -> L so I could push the gold and mine handling outside the main engine loop. So it's still pretty fast.

Also got rid of the infinite jump bug. There's still a weird bug where you can go through walls if you're free falling right next to one, though. Not sure if I'll end up doing anything about that.

Next step is probably adding the timer logic and display. I'm thinking I could do level structure the same way N does, with the timer over sets of five levels, and access to all unlocked sets across different difficulty levels. Except instead of unlocking doors, you'd have to get all the gold pieces to finish the level. The gold would still boost your timer though.

[Liazon]

I'm guessing that everything is still the size of a pixel?

[axcho]

Well, not exactly...

Ninja is two pixels (one pixel and a trail)

Gold is a 3x3 diamond, created by a Pt-On(x,x,3 with the center pixel turned off

Mine is a 3x3 cross, just the plain Pt-On(x,x,3
(activated mine looks like gold, though only for one frame)

Door is a 3x3 box, from Pt-On(x,x,2

So the graphics are of similar resolution and detail to this snake game I made:


It will probably look a bit more fancy in the end.

[axcho]

I added the timer, which gets increased whenever you grab a piece of gold.

If anyone is interested in making levels for the game, let me know. I'd be glad to have the help.

[CDI]

if I make images that would help a little right? cause I can just do a bunch of png images. How would you be loading the levels? cause I'm sure somewhere I have a level loader for N with some levels already made up for you >.>

[Flameviper]

I've found that one of the best-looking explosion sequences is this (where X and Y are the player coordinates, Z is a utility variable you're not using for anything else and T is the elapsed time):

[SonicBoom95]

Heh, I ended up using that once. Tack on a randInt(0,1) onto the end and you've got something that's a little more...how you say...explosive? I dunno. I think it looks better on a screen with a decent amount of shaded stuph.

[SonicBoom95]

EDIT: This used to be me whining about a glitch. Problem resolved. Sorry.

Also, I would be interested in making levels.

[axcho]

Cool, glad to get some interest in level-making. And thanks for the explosion routine - I'll try it out.

I'm attaching the 83+ program files for the latest version of the engine (from late August), so you all can try it out.

NEDIT is the level editor, which you should run first. Use the arrow keys to move the cursor around. Press ALPHA to begin a line, a wall or floor segment. Then use an arrow key to extend the line, and press ALPHA again to end the line. Press 2nd to place a gold piece at the cursor. The first gold piece you place is where the Ninja starts out (I think), and the last piece is the level exit that is activated once all gold pieces are collected. The gold pieces in between appear in the order they are created. Then the APPS key places a mine at the cursor. All mines are present at all times during play, but the order in which they are created determines the order in which they are activated. Press DEL (or CLEAR, maybe?) to quit.

All level data from NEDIT is stored in the three lists LLINE, LGOLD, and LMINE, one object per list element.

NLOAD is the level renderer and initializer. It extracts data from the three lists and stores it in temporary lists for use by the engine. Just run this once after you create your level, as well as when the graph screen gets messed up.

NGINE is the game engine. It is a work in progress. Press the left and right arrow keys to move, 2nd to jump, and DEL to quit. Get the gold, avoid getting within sensor radius of the mines when they are activated (when they look like gold, basically). There's a timer now, also. It takes up several extra pixels at the top of the screen, so plan your levels accordingly. I haven't adjusted the level editor to take into account the timer yet.

No fanfare or explosions or anything when you win or lose, it just quits. I haven't coded the stuff around the engine yet (like lives or level progression or menus or anything). For some reason I just like programming game engines a lot more. But I'm hoping that once I have a decent selection of levels to work with (and a better way of storing and accessing them) I'll be more motivated to flesh out the outer game as well. I'm kind of stuck for level ideas at the moment, so I'm also hoping that you will be able to explore some possibilities for me.

Anyway, please try it out, enjoy, make some levels, tell me what you think. Thanks! ;)

[EDIT]
Updated attachment to match latest (working) version.

[SonicBoom95]

With respect, your level editor is entirely unusable, and I would appreciate a cursor that didn't fall. Otherwise, good on you. Great job.

Also, fleshing out the game: that would be me. I'm totally willing.

[axcho]

I'm pretty sure its usable, as I've used it plenty of times myself.

Perhaps I have uploaded the wrong file, or commented out an important Goto statement? You are using NEDIT for the editor, right?

There is no gravity in the level editor (NEDIT), so I'd suspect that you are using the game engine (NGINE) instead, which has no editing capability but does have gravity, and thus would cause the cursor (ninja) to fall...

Can anyone else verify this issue?

[SonicBoom95]

Oh. Well, there we go. I Sourcecoder'd the entire thing, so a few pages must have gotten mixed up and I ended up with engine code...oh, wait. That's on the same page as the editor stuff. I dunno. 1 sec.

EDIT: This is what I got for your edit code, NEDIT.

[axcho]

Thanks for doing that. I think the problem is that the initial Goto E should be Goto 0 (zero), in order to initialize everything correctly. Other than that, I don't see any obvious mistakes...

Try changing the first line to Goto 0 and let me know if that fixes it.

[EDIT]
Updated ninja.zip above to include this change.

[Liazon]

nice! looks like this project is basically done.

[SonicBoom95]

You must construct additional levels.
Sorry about the delay, I don't have any way of getting to the files so I have to mooch off my friends. The levels will come.

EDIT: Do you even need a Goto 0 in NLOAD?

[SonicBoom95]

This deserves a bump. The editor won't Sourcecoder.

EDIT: *facepalm* The code is right above your head, you idiot. Anyway, it won't work with Sourcecoder, and I don't know who made the blunder, but at least I still have the source.

[SonicBoom95]

Omglolyai. I finally got this stuff typed in, and while I had to change .6(K=26 and... to .8(K=26 and... (it just didn't feel right) now I can start on the levels. However, I thought I might point out that your level editor doesn't allow for easy one-pixel movement, so I modified it a little to better suit my level style.

Levels soon.