Ye Olde Blah

Project Specific Discussion => General Project Discussion => Topic started by: Ty on January 15, 2010, 04:22:58 pm



Title: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated June 9th, 2020]
Post by: Ty on January 15, 2010, 04:22:58 pm
Updates:
  • March 26th -- Timelapse Stuff (http://www.shiningsource.org/forum/index.php?topic=1041.msg9128#msg9128)
  • April 14th-- Walkabout Stuff (http://www.shiningsource.org/forum/index.php?topic=1041.msg9148#msg9148)
  • July 29th, 2010 -- Menu Stuf (http://www.shiningsource.org/forum/index.php?topic=1041.msg9229#msg9229)
  • August 6th, 2014 - Team screen (http://www.shiningsource.org/forum/index.php?topic=1041.msg9744#msg9744)
  • August 28th, 2012-- Dev Console / Engine Info (http://www.shiningsource.org/forum/index.php?topic=1041.msg9504#msg9504)
  • September 10th, 2014-- Scripted textbox (http://www.shiningsource.org/forum/index.php?topic=1041.msg9771#msg9771)
  • February 23rd, 2016-- First battle screenshot (http://www.shiningsource.org/forum/index.php?topic=1041.msg9837#msg9837)
  • November 24th, 2017 -- Character magic screen (http://www.shiningsource.org/forum/index.php?topic=1041.msg9919#msg9919)
  • January 28th, 2019 -- Battle range indicator (http://www.shiningsource.org/forum/index.php?topic=1041.msg9959#msg9959)
  • June 9th, 2020 -- Attack range indicator (https://www.shiningsource.org/forum/index.php?topic=1041.msg9967#msg9967)

---

I figured I'd post these in the forum instead of my worklog, as they're really not that interesting. Anyway, they're two screens from the front end of the game. The idea is that you'll be able to drop new stories into the game directory and they'll appear here, ready to play. It works, sort of ;)

To be honest, I'm not that happy with how it looks at the moment. To keep with the retro theme, (almost) everything is scaled, but I'm not sure that it really fits. It could be just me being a perfectionist, or if could be genuinely ugly. I'm not sure if mixing resolutions is such a good idea, but it would allow more on screen.

Anyway, criticisms are welcome


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: Elvenfyre on January 15, 2010, 09:43:40 pm
How about critical acclaim?  :D :D :D :D :D :D

MORE MORE MORE MORE


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: Ty on January 15, 2010, 10:13:23 pm
Ok then ;) Here's a very (very) rough shot of the overworld map I've been working on. I'm quite pleased with how it's shaping up, although drawing all of the transitions is a bit of a pain.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: Elvenfyre on January 18, 2010, 09:15:20 am
Ooo I love the transition tiles you have there.  Juicy stuff :D


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: Devlyn on January 18, 2010, 01:11:54 pm
The mixed resolution thing looks completely fine to me, I don't think it's an issue at all ;).

As for transition tiles, they tend to be a big time-sink, so don't waste too much time on them. Even the developers of Shining Force 1 and 2 never got them consistently everywhere ;).

Besides, the benefit of transition tiles to the overall game experience is very limited. It may be better to focus on other parts while you are dedicating precious time to your precious baby ;).


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: Ty on January 19, 2010, 01:30:10 am
Yeah, I'll probably stick with rough transitions for now and then clean them up in the future if I get time, otherwise I'll be drawing tiles forever :(

And yes, this little baby is getting lots of love right now. No doubt in a week I'll forget all about it for another 6 months ;)


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: Newts on January 31, 2010, 12:13:17 am
For some reason I can't see these shots on either Chrome or I.E. :\


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: Ty on February 01, 2010, 01:41:42 pm
Hmm, works on both from here. I've updated the forum so guests can see attachments, so that might help. You can see some of them in the latest worklog entry (http://www.shiningsource.net/2010/01/project-update-january-29th-2010/) too :P


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: Devlyn on February 01, 2010, 10:48:17 pm
Holy crap! You still remember....  8)
I'm looking forward to your next demo endeavour. Do you have any ideas for a plot? ;)


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: Ty on February 01, 2010, 11:11:15 pm
Yep, I've got plenty of ideas ;) It won't be much bigger than the last one, but there's a few features I definitely want working this time (like no deadly crashes ;)). I'm pretty organised this time around, although we'll have to see if that actually makes a difference.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: Maestro on February 04, 2010, 01:03:59 pm
Good to see! XD Keep it going!


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: fin7710 on February 20, 2010, 09:59:32 pm
Wow, didn't realize this project was still alive.  Looks great, keep up the good work! 


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: Newts on March 13, 2010, 11:43:06 am
Shining Online will NEVER DIE.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [updated Jan 15th]
Post by: Ty on March 26, 2010, 07:31:18 pm
I tried recording my progress for 30 minutes to see how it turned out. This is only a rough (and not very interesting) video. It does show the engine going from black to a scrollable map though :) Let me know thoughts on framerate / image quality etc. I may do a longer one as part of the summer/winter challenge ;)

(A little timelapse experiment. (http://sonline.sodaware.net/dev-diary/a-little-timelapse-test/))


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated March 26th]
Post by: Ty on April 14, 2010, 05:17:04 pm
Now I've got a little guy running around a map, along with collisions and transparent tiles :D


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Elvenfyre on April 14, 2010, 08:52:46 pm
looks pretty tweet :D


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Ty on July 24, 2010, 03:41:46 pm
The last few months have been busy moving house and whatever. I've been working on the entity system. So far it's working pretty good, but there's still a way to go. It's made adding new items much, much easier. For example, the Wooden Sword entry looks like this (for now):

Code:
/**
 * A simple wooden sword.
 */
[t:template,n:weapon_wooden_sword] {

doc = "Wooden Sword";
specializes = base_weapon;

equipment:attack = 3

[item]
{
display_name = "Wooden Sword";
icon = "demo_5.icons.weapons.wooden_sword";
description = "The most basic kind of sword.";
base_price = 75;
}


}

I expect it to change again before release, but for now it's actually working. Shocking :D


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Elvenfyre on July 26, 2010, 06:48:47 am
I like it :)

I don't really understand "doc" competing with item.display_name ?
also specializes?

It will be really handy when you want to add that one weapon quality like.. "silver", for killing werewolves ;)


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Ty on July 26, 2010, 01:30:26 pm
"doc" is an internal field that all templates have, and it only shows up for debugging and editing tools. "specializes" specifies a parent template. Here's the base_weapon template:

Code:
[t:template,n:base_weapon]
{
specializes = base_item;
doc = "Base template for weapons";

item:rarity = rarity_common;
item:can_equip = true;
item:equip_slot = slot_weapon;
}

It just means you can set default values further up the template tree. It's still changing a lot at the moment, but it's made creating test data much easier.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Ty on July 29, 2010, 07:21:34 pm
Just a few more pictures, nothing major. The first is the updated "story select" screen. I'm still not happy about how it looks, but it does the trick for now. I think it's the font that bugs me, but that can be fixed.

The second shot should need no introduction ;) There's animation when the menu appears, but no sound yet (sound usually comes last as I get sick of hearing it).

Development wise things are going slowly but surely. I really wanted to have animated sprites running around, but that will probably come much later. I think the next step is to get player stats working and then some better map interaction. Lots to do :(


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Elvenfyre on July 29, 2010, 09:51:56 pm
mmm yum, updates!

Looks good and can't wait to see more :)

So have you figured out whether it's all going to be "built" with the game creation tools you're building to help out, or whether there's still portions of the game that will be hardcoded in?


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Ty on February 15, 2011, 03:10:56 pm
So have you figured out whether it's all going to be "built" with the game creation tools you're building to help out, or whether there's still portions of the game that will be hardcoded in?

There's still a lot of stuff hardcoded, but I'm removing it as I go along. The end goal is to have the "game" be more of a wrapper, and to make things like fonts and windows totally customisable. The priority is to actually get something playable first though ;)

Last night I added some basic animation to the main player sprite, so it's starting to look a little more like a game now. Next on the agenda is an NPC, and then on to map events. Lucky me :D


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Elvenfyre on February 16, 2011, 05:30:55 am
great!  Yeah animation is something else isn't it.  I was looking at that project on the front page, the 3d remake.  They seem to have too many artists and not enough coders.
Entirely the opposite of around here ;)


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Ty on February 16, 2011, 04:08:02 pm
I think it's because seeing the art is far more exciting than wading through Yet Another Database System. I did manage to get some walking animations running last night, so if I get time I want an NPC or two walking around by the end of the weekend. Maybe even a text box if I feel brave :o


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Ty on February 19, 2011, 05:29:59 pm
Scripting is now up and running, and as things stand the app can run a script when the level starts and ends. The next task is to add scripts to an entity and make something interactive. Seems the approach of little and often is helping. There's still lots to do, but even these little bits of progress are helping to keep me motivated.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Elvenfyre on February 20, 2011, 07:40:23 pm
Nice :)

I did a double take on "get some walking animations running" lol.

woop woop with scripting :)

Hey here's a question for you:
I know with devlyns programming we said a level could be walkabout or battle.  Is that the same with you or are you treating levels differently?


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Ty on February 21, 2011, 12:24:34 am
Yep, that's pretty much how I'll be handling levels. The game engine is basically a stack of screen objects that handle specialist logic. This makes it easier to have things like pop up menus and battle animations.

At the moment there's a screen for the title, one for the credits, and then there's a BattleScreen and TownScreen class. All of these handle their own input, updates and rendering. So far it's working pretty well.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Elvenfyre on March 10, 2011, 09:20:03 pm
Sweet, so you got any more screenshots for my saliva glands?


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Elvenfyre on April 29, 2011, 10:21:45 pm
Going to start a revolt if I don't see more screenies :)


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Ty on May 02, 2011, 10:46:56 am
I will post some screenshots sometime this week, lest I be smeared with the butter of a thousand peanuts.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Devlyn on May 02, 2011, 11:18:38 am
Oh, does that mean you don't want to be smeared when you do release the screenshots?  :'(


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Ty on May 07, 2011, 02:44:21 am
Yeah, I'm kind of cheating today. Haven't had chance to work on SO this week because of some heavy deadlines :( So here's Shining Online running on Linux :)

And Devlyn, should Shining Online ever get released, I'll cover my entire body with peanut butter (extra crunchy :P)


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated April 14th]
Post by: Ty on August 28, 2012, 06:30:47 pm
Got a nice warning...

Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.

Even the forum hates me ;)

Here's a picture with the debug console running. Still rough, but makes it easy to query things. When combined with how the engine is laid out, it's actually pretty powerful. In theory, you could write commands to allow you to replace parts of the engine (graphics renderer, sound management) in real time. My aim is to be able to reload assets on the fly, and then have it hooked up to a directory watcher so it will load sprites/tilesets as I edit them.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on September 01, 2012, 04:01:23 pm
Did a quick test to see if it was possible to reload assets from the debug console. It worked first time, which worries me slightly ;) Next stop: doing it automagically!


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Devlyn on September 02, 2012, 08:50:10 pm
Ah... sounds like this will make your debugging life a lot easier? :)


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on September 02, 2012, 09:11:46 pm
That's the plan :)

The aim is to have the game running whilst I'm editing, and then have the changes show up straight away. That way I can edit maps and sprites, and then I can check if they look ok without having to run everything again. I've tried to make as much editable as possible (like stats, animations, interface layouts, scripted events etc) so tweaking things should be easier.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Devlyn on October 02, 2012, 10:55:16 am
Perhaps you should rename your game to Shining God? :P


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on October 02, 2012, 07:12:35 pm
More like Shining Never given how long things have taken :-[


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Devlyn on October 03, 2012, 12:46:19 am
...says the man who has been running the only serious Shining fangaming site for over 10 years now...

So you contributed slowly, erratically, and not always with the greatest conviction ever. Add that all up over the years though and it still adds up to a fucking impressive amount, way beyond many many others in the scene.

But perhaps 13.5 years after starting all this crap we should try to go to the next stage and make that game.

And with that game I mean games like OpenTTD which made Transport Tycoon a forgettable thing of the distant past. I truly think we now have the potential to make a game like that.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on September 25, 2013, 01:54:28 pm
:D ANIMATION IS WORKING :D


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on August 06, 2014, 07:16:29 pm
Finally made some time to work on things again and have made some good progress. I'm not totally happy with how it looks, but the status screen is now up and running.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on August 26, 2014, 04:00:01 pm
Another tiny update. I've been working on the scripting system for the last two weeks, and it's slowly starting to come together. At the moment it supports most of the features I want, and extra functionality can either be added from the main application or via user libraries loaded at runtime. Performance is acceptable, but it's something I want to work on once it's all finished.

The last piece of the puzzle is implementing continuations. That way scripts can be paused whilst stuff is happening on screen, like a textbox appearing or waiting for input, and then resumed. I've been working on it for the last few days without success, but I'm hoping to get it implemented by the end of the week.

Once it's done there should be enough working to show a short video :)


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on August 29, 2014, 03:40:37 am
Scripting is very very close to working properly. There's a fully working stack, user defined functions and even macro support.

This might actually work.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on September 02, 2014, 01:47:13 pm
Script processes can now be paused and resumed, which was a huge sticking point for me. Still a little work required to get it all integrated, and some serious optimization needed, but the plan is to have some interactive stuff working this week.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on September 05, 2014, 05:50:07 pm
Script functions can now be loaded at runtime, and there's a new "Scriptable" component for entities. That allows them to respond to game events.

The final piece is to hookup the event service to the script service, so processes can be spawned and executed. The various separate parts all work, it just needs some work to get it all playing nicely together. I promise the next post here will have a screenshot.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on September 11, 2014, 03:09:12 am
;D IT WORKED ;D

It was a super rough test, but I was able to have an entity do something and pause their script, and then have another entity resume it. There's a lot more to do (as always), but all the various bits and pieces are slowly coming together. The next step is to allow a process to wait for user input, and then I can start adding things like text boxes and interactive scripts.

And I know I promised a screenshot, but there's not much new to show externally. Still, here's a text box :)


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Elvenfyre on September 13, 2014, 04:38:13 am
 ;D ;D

Progress is progress is progress!


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on September 15, 2014, 01:08:27 am
Looking at my logged time, I think I've made more progress this month than the rest of the year. There's still a lot to do, but it's slowly moving towards becoming something playable.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on January 20, 2015, 07:19:31 pm
No screenshot today, but more progress. Updated the textbox to be more script friendly, and added some customization options (size, location, background colour and frame).


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on January 23, 2015, 03:00:54 am
More scripting work today. Updated the script engine so it can now pause processes from within a script. In other words a script can wait for a number of seconds before resuming without pausing the entire game. It's a crude way to do cut-scenes and things, but it works.

I also added an earthquake effect, because it's neat.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Newts on March 01, 2015, 12:29:47 pm
Good point: there are often earthquakes in the Shining Force universe.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on June 07, 2015, 01:10:05 pm
Finally got my PC fixed, so now I can start working on things again. Going to try and get the various menus and team screens designed & coded in the next few weeks. After that I'd like to polish up some of the rough edges of town exploration, and then maybe (finally) move on to battles.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated August 28th]
Post by: Ty on February 23, 2016, 11:43:35 pm
It's still going...

I've been knee-deep in engine guts for what seems like an eternity, so I decided to take some time off and start working on maps. I have a pretty good idea of how the demo is going to flow which makes the process a little easier.

There's still lots to build, and I still suck at any form of art, but at least it's progress. Plus it's nice to finally have some screenshots to show.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated February 23rd, 2016]
Post by: Elvenfyre on February 25, 2016, 06:29:05 am
Ty,
I am here with you.
Ready to play your game.
<3


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated February 23rd, 2016]
Post by: Ty on November 24, 2017, 02:54:41 pm
Magic :D

As you can tell, UI design is not my strongest skill.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated November 24th, 2017]
Post by: Ty on January 28, 2019, 07:40:34 pm
Battle range now works, mostly.

Still need to integrate land effects into the calculation. Movement profiles and land types are in game, and the calculator can use this data, I just need to hook it all up.

Oh, and it needs to flash too.


Title: Re: Shining Online - Screens and updates [Updated June 9th, 2020]
Post by: Ty on June 09, 2020, 04:21:27 pm
Battle ranges are now working properly. Land effects and movement profiles are all taken into account, so it's possible to have character classes that move faster or slower on certain terrains.

Attack ranges are now also working and are calculated using the character's equipment. Standard weapons like swords can axes target just adjacent squares, but there's also support for spears, bows, and other long-range attacks. And it will work for magic, too!