Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

Summary:

Game inspired by the classic '80s C64 game.

page 1 of 212next »

Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 01 Jun 2016 05:05

Sprint 0

Game Summary
Boulder Dash-ish will be a 2D semi-clone of the classic '80s game, Boulder Dash, published on the C64.
The goal is to create the game on Unity3D 5 and publish builds for Windows and possibly Android.

Sprint 0
Weekend got away from me, but, I got a chance to gather my art assets, create some preliminary walking animations.
Here is a quick and dirty build that shows the art that will be used in the game:

[http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLePVP4pYNm33SJA4uzGh5xGX8kzaCc3YY]

Goals for Sprint 1
Goals for sprint 1 are modest:

• Player grid-based movement with animation
• Tile manager that can layout the level (no collision)
• Camera that follows the player movement

Thank You,
Javier DeJesus

---

—Javier DeJesus

Last edited on 10 Jun 2016 22:01 by mdjdejesus Show more

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

Brett208 02 Jun 2016 01:33

Javier,

Great idea to roll all your development clips into a single You Tube playlist.

Boulder Dash looks like a fun game to clone. For being a C64 game, it actually looks pretty complex. I haven't played it much, but it looks like a game I would enjoy a lot.

Looking forward to seeing the progress you make!

-Brett

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

Ninjaboi8175 02 Jun 2016 00:50

Never played Boulder Dash since I've never owned a C64, but it looks cool and I wish you luck on your project!

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 06 Jun 2016 15:40

Sprint 1

Firstly, thank you for all the encouraging words.

Sprint 1
Had sometime to work on the game and managed to accomplish all the goals for this sprint 1. Almost everything could use some refinement and tweaking, but, they got done….
Player movement, camera tracking, and tile management.

Here is a link to the demo playlist: Boulder Dash-ish (YouTube playlist)

Goals for Sprint 2
I have a few other things I’d like to do; but, must resist the feature creep.If I have extra time I’ll use it to refine last weeks items.

For now I have these things:

• Collision, collision, and more collision detection
• Physics for boulders
  • they should fall if unsupported
  • player should be able to push them

Thank You,
Javier

---

—Javier DeJesus

Last edited on 10 Jun 2016 22:00 by mdjdejesus Show more

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

Marcus42 06 Jun 2016 18:07

Nice job! Oftentimes it seems like a lot of work can go into making a flexible tile system without being visually impressive on its own, but doing so is really important and the layout you made looks like a lot of fun to play. Looking forward to seeing more progress!

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

Brett208 06 Jun 2016 20:42

Javier,

What are you using to lay out your levels? A text document, hard-coded, or some sort of 3rd party tile map editor?

I hear you on the feature creep. Keeping a game from getting out of hand is a difficult task!

I found making a nice tile map that interacts real time with the player is actually fairly tough. There are a lot of collision edge cases, odd bugs, unrealistic physics to fix, etc. But maybe it is just my bad design of them that is the problem. :)

You should be able to start posting links once you have enough karma. I believe 1 green bar next to your name is the minimum needed. After about a dozen posts or so, it will let you. I think RB can make them into links for you as well if you ask.

Last edited on 06 Jun 2016 20:45 by Brett208 Show more

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 06 Jun 2016 21:20

Brett,

I used "Tiled" to layout the level. Not using any of the fancy features, just using it to draw the level and export it to a comma separated text file. Then I just read the file in.

So far, I have not had any bugs related to Physics or Collision….maybe cause I haven't coded that yet. =)
Whatever I run into, hopefully it's something someone has seen before.

---

—Javier DeJesus

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

Brett208 09 Jun 2016 07:31

Javier,

I've used Tiled in a couple of projects in the past and been really impressed with its ease of use, good documentation, and quality features. Hopefully it works well for you. I've always used the TMX map export (basically XML). Some other versions like comma might be simpler to work with, but there are a couple of already written import libraries to bring the TMX files into XNA/MonoGame content pipelines.

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 09 Jun 2016 16:43

Thanks Brett.

I did see that there was a utility to import Tiled maps into Unity (I think the name is Tiled2Unity.)
I watched a couple of videos and it seemed like the workflow to get a usable map in my game was kinda complex. I think I'm gonna babystep for this game; and then I'll try to use the more advanced features of Tiled on my next project.

---

—Javier DeJesus

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 13 Jun 2016 16:43

sprint 2 (short update)

I've had some difficulties with the collision handling which turned out to be harder that I expected.
I was able to work though most of the tile interactions, but; there are still some outstanding issues. These will need to get rolled into the next sprint. I'll be posting a video tonight with my progress.

I'm wondering if my difficulties are mostly due to how I designed the collision handling. Basically, the tiles are doing their own collision handling. Now I'm wondering if I should implement a something more global; like make the collision handling part of my "TileManager". Currently my tile manager just reads reads in the map and places the tiles on the board. This would require some refactoring and I could not easily take advantage of Unity's physics. Any opinions on this?

---

—Javier DeJesus

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

Brett208 13 Jun 2016 23:21

Without looking at some code, it is difficult to help with specifics. At this point I would probably consider the Single Responsibility principle and review the responsibilities of current classes dealing with the map. Maybe consider renaming what you are describing as a TileManager as TileImporter or something. This way you have a class solely responsible for initializing the TileMap. Then your TileManager or another class can handle the state of the map during gameplay without worrying about initialization. You might want to farm out collision detection to a completely separate class from the rest of the code dealing with TileManagement? Sorry, sort of vague and maybe not helpful…

I don't know much about Unity Physics, so I can't answer on its capabilities or limitations. But if you are pretty sure that Unity Physics will not naturally do what you are looking for, it is probably better in the long run not to use it.

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 14 Jun 2016 03:55

Thank You Brett. I think that you are correct; my classes are becoming bloated. Hasn't become extremely painful yet, but it might be soon. Might as well bite the bullet now and create some classes that will help me coordinate the levels.

---

—Javier DeJesus

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 14 Jun 2016 04:13

Sprint 2

Took a few dead ends and this Sprint was harder than I anticipated.

Sprint 2
Got all the collision detection done and most of the handling as well.
Some of the interactions between tiles are not 100% as I would have hoped, so; I'll have to push these to the next sprint.

Here is a link to the demo playlist: Boulder Dash-ish (YouTube playlist)

Or here's the Sprint 2 video:

Goals for Sprint 3
The things that I would like to accomplish for next sprint:

• Refactor the existing collision handling to a single class that handles this for all collision pairs.
• fix player/boulder collision handling:
  • If boulder is directly (one tile) above player, it should not kill player. He should be able to hold it up.
  • Player should not be able to push 2 or more boulders, and only horizontally.
  • Falling boulder should fall straight down and not roll. It should roll to the side only if it hits another boulder or gem.
• Implement digging and tile destruction animations.

---

—Javier DeJesus

Last edited on 15 Jun 2016 21:02 by mdjdejesus Show more

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

Brett208 15 Jun 2016 19:27

I watched the new YouTube video. It looks like a lot of progress. Being able to collect gems, move boulders, dig, and transition between levels.

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 15 Jun 2016 20:38

Thanks Brett.
Probably, most of the progress for next week will be behind the scenes and invisible =)

---

—Javier DeJesus

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 16 Jun 2016 16:34

Just on a whim, I shot a quick video of my first game that I created in XNA. I thought I would share with you guys.
It's kinda buggy and I lost track of where I got some of the art assets.
It's two players; so I had to swap back and forth for the demo. That's why there's not a lot of action.

BTW…yes, that is a meat cursor.

If I finish my current game and there's still time in the competition; I might consider re-working this in Unity and legitimizing the Art assets of course.

---

—Javier DeJesus

Last edited on 16 Jun 2016 16:34 by mdjdejesus Show more

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

Brett208 18 Jun 2016 02:28

Spicy Meatball has an interesting theme. I've never seen a game where the goal is to get a meatball to land in your neighbor's spaghetti before! If you finish it up, I would definitely download and give it a try.

Curious, but why do you want to re-work the game to Unity as opposed to using XNA or maybe porting to MonoGame?

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 18 Jun 2016 03:50

The theme is a bit out there. Originally I was going for a straight up air hockey game.
It's playable as is, just a bit buggy.

The reason I want to go for Unity is take advantage of the colliders and physics. It took me a while to get the physics right with circular objects of different radius, mass, and travelling in different directions and speed. Also, the goal posts have spoon shaped colliders (I did not want to cheat and make them rectangles.) I fond that difficult to do with XNA, and bought in the Farseer library. Spent so much time with that stuff, and didn't get to implement some cool stuff I had in mind. Wanted to have some picnic type stuff like ants that block, condiments stains that would change the friction, etc…

---

—Javier DeJesus

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 18 Jun 2016 04:24

Made my repo public and zip'ed the binaries here: Spicy Meatball

Controls are either 2 XBox controllers.

or Keyboard:

Player 1: A,W,S,D, left [Ctrl], left [Alt]

Player 2: <arrow keys>, right [Ctrl], right [Alt]

---

—Javier DeJesus

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

Brett208 19 Jun 2016 23:56

Javier,

I downloaded and played Spicy Meatball with my wife. We enjoyed playing it and thought the idea was really novel.

A couple of things to think about:

• The meatballs get stuck on the side of the screen and there is no way to get them away from the wall.
• You are using HiDef graphics profile within XNA. It doesn't look like you are using any effects that would require HiDef profile, so you could probably drop it to the Reach graphic profile. This would make the game more compatible with older computers. I had to tell the game to use my dedicated graphics card since it was HiDef, but if you mark it as reach, it wouldn't have needed the graphics card. (Of course my dev computer is getting old and perhaps a newer computer wouldn't need a dedicated graphics card to play).
• We thought the goal was to get the meatballs onto to other player's plate, not your own. So we had a surprise ending when the other player won.

I think Spicy Meatball is worth revisiting sometime down the road.

Last edited on 20 Jun 2016 00:07 by Brett208 Show more

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 20 Jun 2016 13:39

Brett,
Thank you for the feedback. I think, now that I have a little more experience, I will revisit this eventually.

---

—Javier DeJesus

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 21 Jun 2016 03:55

Sprint 3

Day job was crazy this week and did not get a heck of a lot done on the game.

Sprint 3
Got most of the refactoring done and some of the troublesome collisions.
However, was not able to get to the digging animation

Goals for Sprint 4
The things that I would like to accomplish for next sprint:

• fix remaining player/boulder collision handling:
  • fix bug: when player is holding up a boulder he can clip though it if he moves up.
  • fix bug: when player pushes a boulder up against a wall, he can clip though it by not stopping.
  • Player should not be able to push 2 or more boulders, and only horizontally.
  • falling boulder should roll to the side if it lands on another boulder or gem.
• Implement digging and tile destruction animations.

On the Backlog

• Smooth and bound camera movement.
• Death animation.
• Exit animation.
• create different versions of each terrain tile for variety.
• Create game manager.
• HUD to display timer, number of collectibles, score, etc…

---

—Javier DeJesus

Last edited on 23 Jun 2016 17:54 by mdjdejesus Show more

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 28 Jun 2016 03:15

Sprint 4

Day job got the better of me last sprint. But I think I'm back on track.

Here is a link to the demo playlist: Boulder Dash-ish (YouTube playlist)

Or here's the Sprint 4 video:

Sprint 4 Accomplished
I was able to fix the remaining player/boulder collision handling. Lots of bug fixes.
Added some needed physics behaviors such as pilling of falling tiles, being able to hold up boulder, and being able to push a boulder (unless it's blocked.)
Also, added digging player animation (pickaxe) and added some destruction sprites for the destructible tiles.

Goals for Sprint 5
The things that I would like to accomplish for next sprint:

• Smooth and bound camera movement.
• Create game manager.
• HUD to display timer, number of collectibles, score, etc…

On the Backlog

• Death animation.
• Exit animation.
• create different versions of each terrain tile for variety.

---

—Javier DeJesus

Last edited on 28 Jun 2016 03:16 by mdjdejesus Show more

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

Brett208 28 Jun 2016 21:25

Looks like great progress. I really like the digging animation. Have you thought about how quickly the character should be able to move through dirt yet? I am guessing with the animation taking a half-second, the character will have to pause before actually entering each dug tile.

Nice job on the boulder falling/stacking physics.

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 29 Jun 2016 02:25

Thank you for the great feedback.

There are a lot of timings that I need to tweak once I have a complete level and see how everything interacts together. How fast does the player walk, dig, push boulders, and walk though encumbrances etc… Also, how fast do falling objects fall, and how long before they start falling.

For the digging, I want it to take "some" time; that way it's harder to side step falling boulders. But, yes, seems like it's too slow right now.

---

—Javier DeJesus

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 06 Jul 2016 03:47

Sprint 5

Did some coding this sprint, but; not as much as I would have liked due to celebrating the 4th.

Here is a link to the demo playlist: Boulder Dash-ish (YouTube playlist)

Or here's the Sprint 5 video:

Sprint 5 Accomplished
I had time to Smooth the camera movement when following the player. The camera is also now bound, so that we don't see beyond the edge of the game level.

The Game Manager is now in place, but; right now it doesn't do much except load the next level. It also keeps track of the number of collectibles gathered. Unfortunately; I did not get to the HUD, so I'm not displaying the collectible count.

Goals for Sprint 6
The things that I would like to accomplish for next sprint:

• Complete game manager. Add timer, lives, and fade transitions between levels.
• HUD to display timer, number of collectibles, score, etc…

On the Backlog

• Death animation.
• Exit animation.
• create different versions of each terrain tile for variety.

---

—Javier DeJesus

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 21 Jul 2016 05:24

Sprint 6/7

Did not make an update last week so this is a two-fer.

Here is a link to the demo playlist: Boulder Dash-ish (YouTube playlist)

Or here's the Sprint 7 video:

Sprint 6/7 Accomplished

• Pretty much finished the GameManager with all the needed game states.
• Added a HUD display game timer, lives, crystals collected and score.
• Added fade transition between levels.
• After exiting a level there is now a summary screen that tallies up the stats.
• loose life and level starts over if you die.

Goals for Sprint 8
The things that I would like to accomplish for next sprint:

• fix some glitches in the fade transition:
  • don't start timer or allow player to start moving till fade is over.
  • fade the HUD as well.
• start level over if timer runs out.
• Game Over screen if player dies with no more lives.
• Introduce Title Screen.
• make level summary screen skip-able.

On the Backlog

• Death animation.
• Exit animation.
• create different versions of each terrain tile for variety.

---

—Javier DeJesus

Last edited on 21 Jul 2016 15:37 by mdjdejesus Show more

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

Brett208 21 Jul 2016 08:00

Javier,

The HUD looks pretty good. Great progress so far. I thought the time spent on the level screen was kind of long. Maybe make it count the score quicker or make it possible to skip the score count.

Re: Boulder Dash-ish (Javier's Entry)

mdjdejesus 21 Jul 2016 15:35

Thank you Brett.
I agree the score tally is too slow; I'm going to add a 'press any key to continue' type thing to allow player to skip it.

---

—Javier DeJesus

page 1 of 212next »