googoobachoo

Time flies..

2011-10-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

Man, Christopher is almost a year old...It is all going much too fast.
Time flies by too quickly.

Aaaaaanyway.

I started on sth. new again. My last thing was a Zelda/Gauntlet kind of dungeon crawler, a "zeldauntletlike":

But I would need far too many models to make this work and look nice. I couldn't even get some torches in there, just the lights :/

And I prefer working my own pace without being dependent on an artist.

So I will show my new project in a post soon(ish).

2011-04-29T05:47:00.000-07:00

Seems like there is no Softimage Mod Tool support for XNA 4.0.
That means the Rolling World tutorial I wrote is pretty much obsolete as you cannot try it in xna 4.0.

Sucks. I really liked mod tool :(

I started on sth. new which I kinda hoped to enter into Dream.Build.Play, but now I can forget my whole content pipeline based on Mod tool.

I dont know what to do with Zombirds. I will let it rest for a while.

Christopher

2011-01-25T04:07:00.000-08:00

Woo! My Tutorial won!

2010-10-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

Results for the Absolutely Fine XNA Tutorial Contest

I got licences for Toom Boom Studio (a 2D animation software), the SunBurn Engine for XNA and a 12-Months XNA Creator's Club subscription. I would love to use those for a project.

I haven't done much on Zombirds since I've started my new job. The commute is a bit long and the evenings kinda short. Plus we have a kid on the way :)

Woo! Tutorial is entered :)

2010-09-10T14:18:00.000-07:00

The nice people at Sgt. Conker have processed my entry for their tutorial contest and you can read the freshly edited piece of supreme education on their website:
Article: Rolling World Tutorial

Go have a look at the other contestants' tutorials and leave a comment :) Much obliged :)

Trying to get back in the mood...

2010-08-19T00:49:00.000-07:00

uh oh:

I'm starting an exciting new job in September :)

Via Boing Boing.

Rolling World Tutorial

2010-08-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I've finished my tutorial for The Sgt. Conker 'Absolutely fine' XNA Tutorial Contest!

The tutorial gives step-to-step instructions on how to implement a rolling world effect the likes of which you can see in Animal Crossing Wii and the XBLA game DeathSpank.

You can view the tutorial here or download the complete package with pdf, assets and projects here.

I won't submit the tutorial for another two weeks, so if you like the tutorial and/or have constructive feedback or found a mistake I would be deeply grateful if you left a comment on this page.

Regards :)

Diagrams and pseudocode

2010-08-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

Basically, we need some kind of function that changes the height of a vertex depending on its distance to a reference point, in our case the hero. If we just subtract the distance to the hero we get something like this:

Code:
dist = hero - vertex.z;
vertex.y -= dist;

Not quite what we are looking for. The horizon is at the same point as our hero. In the real world a person looking at the horizon can only see the world in front of the horizon not behind. What we need to do is add an offset to the hero's position. This way the horizon is where it should be and it moves along with the hero. Our effect would now look like this:

Code:
dist = hero + offset - vertex.z;
vertex.y -= dist;

The linear decline in front of and behind the horizon is not very smooth and it's not lifelike. So we deduct the square of the distance instead and attenuate the decline a bit. The effect now looks like this:

Code:
dist = hero + offset - vertex.z;
vertex.y -= dist * dist * attenuate;

That's how the effect (at least, my version of it) works.

GamerBytes: Ron Gilbert On The Synthesis Of DeathSpank

2010-07-30T03:09:00.000-07:00

There is a very interesting interview with Ron Gilbert on DeathSpank over at GamerBytes.
Among other things he talks about the rolling world effect.

Assets

2010-07-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

I am trying to use free software for the tutorial so everybody can make it. Uunfortunately, most free tools have one or more drawbacks.
For instance, we are going to create a couple of textures using Paint.Net (trying the Gimp was terrible, the horrible interface, the numerous crashes..).
But Paint.Net doesn't have a polygonal lasso tool which makes creating the kind of trees I had imagined difficult.
This is what I came up with:

The left is a tree. The right is the ground texture. Programmer art, but it will do for the purpose of the tutorial.

For the models I use the SoftImage Mod Tool. This is how far I've gotten with the models:

As you can see I haven't figured out a good way of putting the trees on the ground without having to move every tree separately. Telling people that the only way to do something is by tedious repetition is bad tutorial style (at least I think so, because what do I know, it's my first tutorial).
I scripted a bit to distribute the trees randomly. You also get better results by doing it manually but it's also tedious.
It would be nice if you could "paint" the trees with some kind of brush.

And that's the hero (Better stop calling him DeathSpank..).
If there's time he gets textured and animated (crudely) too.

I am making a tutorial

2010-07-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

I've been playing DeathSpank and it's great.
I also found this tutorial contest: The Sgt. Conker's 'Absolutely Fine' XNA Tutorial Contest
So I thought I might write a tutorial on how to recreate Deathspank's neat world scrolling effect in XNA:

This is how far I have gotten:

Looks quite good, I think.
Some things are a bit complicated, especially due to modelling software and export. I plan to cover the asset creation in the tutorial as well.
I will give the SoftImage Mod Tool a go, since the 3d-assets are not very complex. Maybe this will simplify things.
Apart from that I will clean up the code a lot and then start writing. If the tutorial is not long enough or challenging enough, I might also add some sort of sky (clouds) and crude character animations.

Birds are creepy ... and magnificent

2010-07-11T23:40:00.000-07:00

Animated Birds with Unity

2010-07-10T04:51:00.001-07:00

I downloaded the test version of Unity and clicked together a quick prototype to import and test animated birds. Looks good.
However, they are not instanced.
Instanced animated objects are a huge piece of the puzzle I have yet to implement in XNA.

Paipa Post Mortem

2010-07-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

I wrote a post portem about my first xbox live indie game. It's called Paipa and it's a steampunk puzzle game. You can download a demo to your Xbox or even buy it here.

What went right

1. Game looks beautiful
I was lucky to get great models from a friendly co-worker. Everything I could come up with looked like shit.

2. No bugs after release
I haven't heard anything about bugs or performance issues, so I boldly assume all is well. Using Instancing on the pipes really payed off.

3. High level of polish
I've tried and succeeded in putting a lot of time into polishing the game without loosing sight of a release date.

4. Broke even
Since I didn't spend a lot of money on the game and worked in the evenings and weekends I broke even pretty early on after release. Earnings are fine, too.

What went wrong

1. Singleplayer VS Multiplayer
Should have focused on singleplayer and singleplayer variations instead of wasting time on multiplayer-mode.
The whole time I made the game I dragged a multiplayer mode along which was no fun but required a lot of programming. Finally I just had give it the boot it. The time wasted on it could have been used to make the singleplayer mode more diverse or add a variation of singleplayer gameplay.

2. Should have included music
I've looked. I have listened to a lot of music but couldn't find anything good. But I also shyed away from actually hiring somebody to write music because I didn't want to commit financially.

3. Difficulty
I've really struggled with this one. I've noticed, of course, that testers had problems with performing combos. But on the other hand, I wanted sth. in the game only absolute puzzle pros could do. In my mind puzzle games cannot be too easy. At least not, if you want to be at the top of the highscore list. I tried to follow this theorem:

All the best games are easy to learn and difficult to master. They should reward the first quarter and the hundredth.
-Nolan Bushnell

Maybe this is not the right approach for Xbox live indie games. Players are looking for the quick thrill not longstanding developing relationship with a game. Which is probably why...

4. Puzzle Games don't do very well on the xbox indie games channel

I got the impression that puzzle games are not very popular on the Xbox indie games channel. Quick action-oriented games that put the player under pressure for a couple of minutes seem to perform better. Especially if it's something with Zombies in it. Hence Zombirds :)

Story: First Draft

2010-07-08T14:48:00.000-07:00

This is a first draft of the story.

It seemed like a normal vacation when a young couple goes camping at a remote bird sanctuary.
But then the birds go batshit crazy.
The girl's upset, says "This wouldn't have happened on Hawaii."
They find a jeep in a garage and nailguns in an abandoned hardware store.
Between fighting birds and driving they continue bickering.
At an abandoned bird research station they find an ancient manuscript that contains instructions to build a device that makes bird brains explode.
The girl thinks she can reproduce the device's signal using her mad programming skillz.
They drive into the city towards the radio control center to send signal, bounce it off satellites and cellular radio towers and kill all birds.
While the girl reprogrammes radio transmission control for the signal, the guy has to defend the radio tower against incoming bird swarms. The Birds seem to know what the couple is up to.
As the swarms close in for the kill, the girl hits the transmit button and the signal goes out. She hurries to the top of the building. The signal worked.
However, it's to late for the guy as the birds got him. He lies on the roof with bird corpses sticking out of his torso.
As he dies in the arms of the girls he sees the sun rise on the horizon as thousands of birds are falling from the skies.
THE END.

Now I'll have to work on how best to tell the story.
Something that is immersive, looks good and cost-effective to implement.
I'll have to revise the story depending on what is possible to do.

Spotlights & New Swarm Behaviour

2010-07-06T16:20:00.000-07:00

I added spotlights to the shader for the jeep's head- and tail-lights.
Also new, but in a rudimentary state, is the joining/separating of swarms. It still needs work to look more organic.

New Stuff: Repair Mode and Blör

2010-07-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

Between levels you can repair your jeep.
Gameplay will be similar to the treatments between rounds in the Fight Night games or the tools in my game Paipa.
You can decide which broken parts to repair. If your repair movements are especially accurate you can gain boni for the next level such as increased damage, health boost, shorter reload time, etc.

Added a couple of rotations to the chassis so it looks more lifelike.
And testing motion blur.
Also particle effect. May need to use soft particles for nicer and more realistic look.

ZOMBIRDS

2010-06-26T02:24:00.000-07:00

Really simple title screen but I love it. Imagine with fade in of "Zombirds" and intro sound clip from LOST :)
Will try to create flash mockup to that end.

First ever concepts of Ornithological Shock / Zombirds

2010-06-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

I made these concepts years ago...years ago!!!...jeesch

Zombirds Prototype Trailer

2010-06-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

Hello,

to start off this hopefully ongoing blog -unless I grow tired of it, which I do easily- here is a trailer of the XBLIG game I am currently working on: ZOMBIRDS.