One month and eight days, that’s how long it has been since I last updated my “blog”.
In the past eight months, I’ve bought some things to aid with my development abilities.
- In late January, I bought a wireless router to use my netbook around the house. I am no longer tied down by an ethernet cable.
- In April, I bought an 8 GB iPod Touch. I can now use my computer running OS X to make iOS games.
- In April, I bought the developer’s license for the ipod. With it, I can run the iOS games I create on an actual device.
- A week or two ago, my brothers and I bought an Xbox 360 Arcade and GTA IV.
- Today, I got one year free of the Xbox developer’s license. I can now make XBLIG games.
iPhone Development
Objective-C was a pain in the captain’s quarters at first. It might be called “Objective-C” but the Java’s syntax is closer to C than Objective-C. After I learned I could use C++ code by changing the file extension to .mm, iPhone dev got easier. I was all ready to do some serious coding, but then I hit a roadblock. My computer. I would need a really good computer to run the simulator at normal speed.
A Solution
Game Maker, a development program which I used for 5 years, may be the solution to the expensive iPhone dev problem. Its runner may be getting ported to the iPhone OS, allowing me to do iPhone dev on whatever platforms the Maker part runs on (currently Windows only).
A Summary of the “Commercialized” Game Maker history
Game Maker became the property of a company called YoYo Games in late 2006. Its CEO, Sandy Duncan, is the former head of the XBox division of Microsoft in Europe. For some people, this meant that Game Maker was in good hands. In my opinion, it is. Though development of Game Maker has progressed slowly in those past four years, having someone like Mr. Duncan as the company’s head does have its perks. Game Maker did have a Mac port in the works, but the hired developer stopped working on the project, leaving it in limbo. When YoYoGames’ fifth competition was announced, Mr. Duncan released a photo of the Game Maker runner being used on a PSP. YoYoGames also plans on porting the runner to the iPhone and Android platforms. Just recently, however, Mr. Duncan’s LinkedIn profile stated “In 2010 we will begin an aggressive strategy to become the World’s most prolific publisher of Mobile Games, focusing on PSP, iPhone and Android based devices.”
Other than the programmer of the multiplayer game Your World, I am the only one who knows that I am the programmer of the C++ server. I started porting the old server to C++ a few months ago, but I encountered some roadblocks. The first of these roadblocks was school. Soon after I got the task of porting the server, the semester got hectic. Huge essays and final projects were due, and then I had exams. That left me with no free time to program at all. Then the holidays came, and passed. Now that I’ve got the free time, I still can’t continue.
The game programmer wanted the data to be saved in a MySQL database. I tried, and the MySQL libraries didn’t like Code::Blocks, so I switched to VS (blah). It was then that I found out that Connector C++ doesn’t even work. It’s a problem built into either Connector C++ or MySQL. So, after contacting the game programmer, I’m going to use the text based format that was used before.
One last problem, which I hope the game programmer sees here: It is very difficult to make the client access my server at 127.0.0.1, please fix this.
Now all I have left to do is add text input to the server so the overlord can ban/do what they wish to other players. That won’t be hard though.
I’ve been doing some programming recently using SFML as a windowing system and OpenGL to draw.
2D
Using SFML and OpenGL, I made a stupid little platforming game complete with level editor! (Well, not really. Just edit the text file.) Download
3D
My video-camera code worked well.
Download
GLuint ScreenImage()
{
// Capture data from SFML screen buffer
sf::Image img;
img.CopyScreen(App,sf::IntRect(0,0,512,256));
const sf::Uint8* ptr = img.GetPixelsPtr();
// Generate a new OGL texture and paste the SFML capture
GLuint tex;
glGenTextures(1, &tex);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, tex);
glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D,0,GL_RGBA,512,256,0,GL_RGBA,GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE,ptr);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D,GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER,GL_LINEAR);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D,GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER,GL_LINEAR);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0);
return tex;
}
Today I found a way to turn on TCP_NODELAY in SDL_net, so now I can continue working on a cross platform version of 39DLL. Once I finish that, I’ll be able to make multiplayer games in C++ that will work on Linux, Windows, and OSX while still having the same functions as 39DLL. With the news of Game Maker 7 for Mac possibly working on Linux, I may not have to do any of that. If all of the versions can still connect to each other, then I won’t have to continue learning how to do cross-platform things in C++. C++ would still be a better choice of a language to develop applications/games in, but with Game Maker it’s easier to get something up and running. That’s why I still use it.
After thursday I’ll have enough money to buy an external 1 TB hard drive. Then a computer could just have operating system(s) installed on it and all of the programs and everything else could be on the external drive.
On a side note, at the time of writing this there were four computers connected to the same 768kbps DSL internet connection. Yay for slowness, at least it is faster than dialup.
A week or two ago, PokemonSilverCrystal from the Game Maker Community (GMC) asked for the source code of my game Space Online. As much as I would have liked to see someone continue my game, I declined and told PSC that I couldn’t give away the source code because the game is intertwined with my site. If they wanted to do any changes with game saving or the server lists, I would have to do it and I did not want that responsibility. So, I decided to continue working on Space Online.
Space Online was meant to be a MMO, but due to the slow internet connection I have and other reasons, it cannot. So, people sometimes host a game which can appear in a server list. Playing with/against other people is fun, but what if there are no servers available? Then you have to play single player. Currently, the only thing to do in single player is fight NPC ships with AI that is “follow and shoot”, play a scrolling shooter, or go on missions to find crystals. So, I’m making the solo play mode more fun. The game will now seem more like a space RPG because there will be an inventory and there will be NPCs that can talk to you and give you valuable information. Basically, I’m “vastly” improving the game.
During Java II, I made a small multi-player game where you can move and jump around. It is made in Java, and it will allow me to make cross-platform multi-player games in Java (though I would prefer to make one in Flash). The game is available for download at http://cccc.wademcgillis.com/multiplayer.jar
If the game downloads as a zip file, rename it to jar and double click it.
Game Controls:
Left – Move Left
Up – Jump
Right – Move Right
When it starts, have one player type in S for server, and then wait.
Another play will then start the game, type in C, and then type in the IP address of the other game.
If you are doing this outside of a LAN, you must forward TCP port 1492.
A few weeks ago I found out about MTASC. Motion Twin ActionScript Compiler. Combined with the FlashDevelop IDE, I am now able to develop flash games without having to pay hundreds of dollars for Adobe Flash. Because of Flash’s wide compatability among computers (over 95% of computers can run flash games), I am now going to be making Flash games. This will come as good news for the people I know that do not use Windows, and it comes as bad news for those who were expecting certain games to be finished.
Sorry.
