A Community game to be ready for launch! VOLUNTEERS NEEDED.


Not out yet, but was available for a short time on live at the time of GDC08.

I have played it and was very impressed, as a result leaves me a little confused as microsoft seem to have gone silent about XNA and are only focussing on the big software houses EPIC, CAPCOM, BUNGIE etc.
 
Ok, i downloaded code:: blocks, sdl, the gcc stuff for windows, and the gp32x package. Going off to play now :)

how a device gets ppl into programming again, i'm turning back to the nerd i used to be and loving every step of it :wink:
 
Amnesiasoft said:
On the engine side, it should be relatively easy to get Löve, based on SDL and OpenGL, working on the Pandora. And the way Lua is used in the engine should make it very easy to hand control over to a minigame (Possibly even giving you the ability to make the minigames easily extensible).

This is pretty cool. It might be a bit of work getting it to run though since it uses OpenGL (not ES). Very nice looking package though (maybe the slick website is winning me over though ; ) )
 
What types of games do we want?
Single or Multiplayer?
How much you can do in a small time, how long can you survive, how long does it take you to do something, pointless stuff, etc?
 
zacaj said:
What types of games do we want?
Single or Multiplayer?
How much you can do in a small time, how long can you survive, how long does it take you to do something, pointless stuff, etc?

Any, preferably based around the Pandora/homebrew gaming/emulators/linux in some way.

Mainly single player, but if you want to add multiplayer by all means go ahead!

As much as you want! These are your minigames. Let's say a max of 15 seconds for simple minigames, and unlimited time for boss minigames.

You'll have 4 lives, like on Wario Ware.

It's great to see there are lots of volunteers, and Pandora Panic WILL be the final name.
 
I'm about to start, still getting this "mingw32-g++.exe: C:\Program Files\CodeBlocks\MinGW\lib\lib3ds-1_3.lib: No such file or directory" error figured out. anyway, will it be anything beyond minigames, will there be scores? is it just PASS or SUCCEED a minigame, or can you get higher scores? will there be prizes? will there be unlockable games, or characters with different sets of games? how will multiplayer and boss minigames work? all stuff to think about.
 
My brother can provide sprites and pixel art, and I can do miscellaneous other graphics.

And I might write a minigame sometime. :p
 
well, i got it to work. still struggling on getting any semblance of a minigame running :D
if some other, experienced people take a look at this and agree that it would be good, could you release it in a new format without all the excessive stuff?
 
Well I intend to get a mini game launcher and a simple minigame done on the train when I'm travelling tomorrow...
I released "all the extra stuff" as an example of how to use the Penjin class framework.
 
How am I supposed to draw circles? Are there any built in primitive drawing functions, because i cant find any, and and sdl_gfx isnt working even though im linking it
 
zacaj said:
How am I supposed to draw circles? Are there any built in primitive drawing functions, because i cant find any, and and sdl_gfx isnt working even though im linking it

The engine has had features written when I have needed... unfortunately I haven't needed anything other than Sprites/AnimatedSprites. I do believe SDL_gfx provides primitive drawing... an alternative would be to use a circular Sprite image...
And what do you mean by SDL_gfx not working?

Unfortunately I really should sleep, I'm travelling on several trains tomorrow but I should have net access on the other end.
 
Sprite wont work because I need to change the radius a lot... I guess Ill just write one myself...
 
This is a repost from the original forums (which are back up right at the moment, but could still be a bit flaky).
Original thread.
Posts are here and here.

LONG POST FOLLOWS:

There are several minigame-games around, like Mario Party and WarioWare, but my favourite is Bishi Bashi.
You could say it's the "purest" example, in that it consists entirely of minigames (no world map or boardgame getting in the way), so that's where I'm drawing my inspiration.

  • The main program provides the overall game engine, menus, and a scripting environment. (lua, fenix, python, whatever -- lua's my personal preference.)
    I'd use a compact scripting language over native binaries for the minigames -- for ease of development and maybe portability, but mostly so you can sandbox the environment the games run in. If you're offering downloadable executables during the game, a bit of security is worth having. It should also help keep the minigames nice and small.

  • I'd also encourage a standard format for all the games -- ie, each game must provide a logo/icon, display instructions, return a score within a known range (eg. 0-10 points) for aggregate scoring, respect a given time limit, etc. So instead of completely handing over control to the minigame, maybe the main game calls the help() or game() function for each frame of the loop, and controls the other factors externally.

  • At the main menu, you can pick Single Player or Multiplayer; Multiplayer options are Take Turns, Join Net Game or Start Net Game.
    Game types are Pick a Game (single player only), Play [N] Games (where N is a selectable #), Marathon (play every game) or Tournament (Multiplayer only, #games determined by #players).

  • Games can support a minimum and maximum number of players. Most games should support a minimum of 1 player, but may require 2 or more for versus-style games if the developer doesn't include AI players. Likewise, most games should support multiple players (perhaps via splitscreen for solo-style games). If the current number of players isn't supported by the game, it isn't listed for selection.
    (Take Turns requires 1 player support, as only one person plays at a time.)

  • You're then presented with the game selection grid. Pick a Game launches that game immediately, and returns to this screen again afterwards; other modes let you select as many games as are needed (or select Random Play and let the program pick them for you), and plays through until finished.

  • If you've joined a net game, and you don't have all the minigames, you are asked if you want to download them. If Yes, they are added to your game library, otherwise you are disconnected from the server.

  • If you're playing Take Turns, each player is asked to enter their name (and optionally select an avatar, if supported). For all other game modes, this info can be stored in the game settings.

  • Now the minigames are played in random order. First the instructions are displayed, the game is played, then the aggregate score table for that round is shown. (In Take Turns, each player sees the instructions and plays, and the scores are shown once everyone's played that round.)

  • Finally you get the pretty end-game graphics and final player scores, and you're returned to the main menu.

----

There should be a core set of assets available to all the games, not only to make development easier but also to help tie the games together a bit. If you've played Bishi Bashi, you notice recurring themes and familiar sounds & visuals throughout. They're all completely bizarre, but it all makes a strange sort of sense when put together.

Player avatars, for example, should be defined outside the minigames, and available to all of them. (Perhaps just a character head that can be placed on other sprites.) It could be a defined sprite format; with front, side & back views, as well as different expressions (default, pain, win, lose etc). Ideally it should also support palette swapping so each player gets a different colour, or if you limit the number of players (eg. up to 4) then each sprite could have a colour-mapped version.

We'd want the game to be expandable too, so there needs to be a way of adding to those core assets in the future. I don't see why art packs couldn't be shared in the same way as the minigames.

A side note: for required resources like avatars, I wouldn't allow incompatible alternatives (such as 3D versions). If someone adds an extra avatar sprite, it can be easily shared... but if a game wants to use 3D avatars, it would need an extra art pack -- which might not contain a version for every avatar, and then you're left with a missing resource that needs to be filled.

Let's say the games are packaged as a zip file, with a manifest (like a Java JAR file), and some standard filenames (for the main code, game icon, etc).
The manifest might look something like this:
Code:
name: Mini Rally
players: 1-4
requires: dirtpack, cars, kagato_pack1
If a minigame is downloaded and you don't have the required art packs, it downloads those too.
(Note that I'm thinking the packs are downloaded from the hosting player, not from an internet server; that way games can be shared even without a net connection. Downloading new minigames would be done separately, say from the Options menu.)
 
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Amnesiasoft said:
On the engine side, it should be relatively easy to get Löve, based on SDL and OpenGL, working on the Pandora. And the way Lua is used in the engine should make it very easy to hand control over to a minigame (Possibly even giving you the ability to make the minigames easily extensible).

That looks really nice! somebody port to Open GL ES please :)
 
hmm, interesting, maybe i could write some music for it.
however, i have not played any of the wario ware games, so i really dont know what style of music this would need...
after reading the wikipedia article, it looks like the micro games are really short. does the song continue through them? or do they have 'micro songs' also?
it also mentions that the games speed up, if the song(s) keeps time with the games, we should do module/tracker music that would allow this (would save size too).
i MIGHT be able to do some 3d renderings too... (im guessing this will be completely a 2d engine, but we can use pre-rendered stuff). im not great, but i like playing around with blender and if given some ideas ill see what i can come up with.
 
Snu said:
hmm, interesting, maybe i could write some music for it.
however, i have not played any of the wario ware games, so i really dont know what style of music this would need...
after reading the wikipedia article, it looks like the micro games are really short. does the song continue through them? or do they have 'micro songs' also?
The Warioware games all have very short minigames (~5 seconds usually), and as far as I know are all single-player. Most of the challenge is figuring out what the heck you're supposed to do before the time runs out.
Warioware games video

I think Bishi bashi is a better model, because each minigame is more like 30 seconds to a minute, and a proper little game in its own right. They also support multiple players.
Bishi Bashi games video

Some minigames might want music, but the main game will need menu music etc too. It wouldn't hurt to have a small library of standard music the games could choose from, though they could of course include their own.
 
I like Kagato a lot, for simple avatars we could just draw colored blobs, and they could be draw isometricaly too, and could have cool squishing graphics when they hopped around...
 
OK.

Do you want to make a Wario Ware type game or a Bashi Bashi type game? I'm not bothered.

Or shall we follow the original plan from the Gp32x forums?

It's your choice. :)
 
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