Neko Apprentice (Dev Thread - Status: Rewriting alpha)

[Habhome]

This game will be re-worked in an attempt to salvage it, my original plans (which are preserved in gray below) failed. I will take what I can from that code and use to create a bit different kind of game than initially planned, still with the same main theme though.

Thanks to all who has supported this so far, I hope that I some time can release something play-worthy.

Want to motivate me?

It might do the trick :P

Old post:
So, I haven't released anything new for a long time, and this is part of the reason why. I am planning to create a pretty large RPG game. The game engine is in the making and I'm adding functions to it as I reach stages where I need to be able to test it. But before I am able to program it fully I need to plan ahead, that's where you people come in.
I would be very grateful if you could help me with some questions about graphics and gameplay. As it is now barely anything is set in stone, I only have some basic graphics done.

Want to contribute?
Then here is what I need help with:
Graphics:
Suggestions on UI improvements
Ideas what kind of objects are needed (Trees, rocks, walls, etc)
Enemy sprites!
Attack sprites!

Gameplay:
Suggestions for riddles/missions needed to carry out before a certain boss area can be unlocked.
Suggestions for balancing, enemy suggestions

Other:
Create a stand-alone software for map editing. It's too much to do manually. Anyone could help me with that? I can do it myself but it'd take extra time, lots of it.

If you want to help out with creating the graphics then send me a PM and we can discuss it further. Otherwise if you just have some ideas post them here.

What is done:
Main game engine base (Map drawing, movement, collision checks)
Some graphics (See below, everything is made by me from scratch)
-- Changelog:
-- 12/06-10, V 0.0.1: Objects and map drawing
-- 03/08-10, V 0.0.2: Walking Animation
-- 05/08-10, V 0.0.3: Swimming animation and switches between it and walking
-- 13/08-10, V 0.0.4: Dialog function by Brett_val added with some optimization code-wise
-- 18/08-10, V 0.0.5: Tile ID recognition for actions or viewing
-- 04/09-10, V 0.0.6: Random enemy encounters (Changed in V 0.0.7 to a creature cave)
-- 11/10-10, V 0.0.7: Fighting and Training/Healing system (not final, need more enemies and graphics), Inventory
-- ??/??-11, V 0.0.8: Basic mission system (in progress)


Things to do:
Graphics:
Water (In progress, I thought I was done and then realized I need more pieces to make different shaped water areas. Right now they can only be like in the preview)
Player sprites in explore (only need a few more swimming sprites)
Sprites for fighting screen (brother is on that)
Object sprites for needed objects, contact me if you're good at graphics
Treasure chest (object for above)
Enemies!
Attack animation & sprites!

Gameplay/Code:
Hold to keep moving
Object manipulation (half done)
Complete gamesave with map rewriting to match changes made during gameplay. (Perhaps will skip map saving to save time)
Signposts and NPC's for clues
A function for marking and checking waypoints in the game, eg. if you have been to certain coordinates or if you press "Action" while facing an object it will perform an action if there is any associated with the object. (In progress)
Attack damage calculation
Damage/defence balancing
Skill training and balancing

----------
Playtest video:

Neko Apprentice (Pre-alpha 0.0.7)

Neko Apprentice (Pre-alpha 0.0.7)

[CrowdAds]

[ThievingSix]

I could do the "other" if you want pretty readily. Let me know the details regarding map design, how its translated into scripts, etc

[jbob182]

looks very good so far i hope you can finish soon. I would help but i am in a few projects right now

[lsquish]

It looks like a gameboy, that brings back memories.
Anyway im not very artisitic so i cant help you with design but maybe you could add a pause button

[Habhome]

Originally Posted by ThievingSix

I could do the "other" if you want pretty readily. Let me know the details regarding map design, how its translated into scripts, etc

That's cool. I could make it myself too but I only know JAVA to do it in and I'm pretty rusty. If you don't mind doing it it'd be nice to get that part off of my mind at least. One question is whether or not the software should be used to place the event points too, or if those are easier to add manually into the grid. I think that comes down to what kind of events are needed, aka what the game is going to be about. So before this can be made I need to have the map graphics done of course, and decide on what the main mission will be. Thanks a lot for offering to do that part, it'd take me quite some time to be able to do it myself.

Originally Posted by lsquish

It looks like a gameboy, that brings back memories.
Anyway im not very artisitic so i cant help you with design but maybe you could add a pause button

It was intended to look like a GB =P And a pause button might not really be needed, that depends on the kind of game it becomes.

What you can do though is to think about items you might encounter outside which should be on the map. And then what the game should be about.
I discussed the gameplay in length with my brother and he suggested a Pandora's Box kind of game. A history is told about how some monsters or whatever have escaped and you need to defeat/catch them all and put them back in their cage/box. You fight by yourself using skills that you learn by exploring the world and train your body and soul. Any further ideas or suggestions are very welcome. Even completely new ideas are welcome.

[Habhome]

I need help to figure out a way to make a function repeat until a certain area of the screen stops being pressed. Anyone got an idea how to accomplish this? I've tried a few variations but the closest I've got make it stick in a loop if I only briefly click the screen, but if I do hold it a bit and let go it works.

Also I can tell that the UI will be slightly different from what is shown now. It is not entirely done so I can't post how it is yet.

[ThievingSix]

Can't, when you check for a touch hold, go into a loop that keeps checking for a touch hold with a sleep?

[Habhome]

Originally Posted by ThievingSix

Can't, when you check for a touch hold, go into a loop that keeps checking for a touch hold with a sleep?

I tried something similar but since it needs to pause a while before registering a hold it's jerky and you'd move faster by tapping. At least with the version I did which I think is what you're suggesting.

[ThievingSix]

Ah, so you want the player to hold in the direction they want to travel?

[Habhome]

Originally Posted by ThievingSix

Ah, so you want the player to hold in the direction they want to travel?

Yes, exactly. Right now you have to tap to move, I want to be able to both tap once and to hold.

[ThievingSix]

Hmm, what do you mean it has to pause while registering a HOLD?

What about a touch down check, and go into a loop to wait for a touch up?

[Habhome]

Originally Posted by ThievingSix

Hmm, what do you mean it has to pause while registering a HOLD?

What about a touch down check, and go into a loop to wait for a touch up?

Hold basically means the screen has gotten a down but not an up after a certain time. That time has to pass before it is registered as a hold, and it is a noticeable delay since it has to be so long.

I tried the down and up, but since there is a move animation which takes a little while to execute the up is lost if you tap in a click and it gets stuck in the loop until you press again so it gets an up command.

[ThievingSix]

So when you just tap it gets stuck in the loop?

Can't you check to make sure that the touch is still down in the loop? Won't touch.down() == 0 when nothing is down (Make sure to do a read first)

[Habhome]

Originally Posted by ThievingSix

So when you just tap it gets stuck in the loop?

Can't you check to make sure that the touch is still down in the loop? Won't touch.down() == 0 when nothing is down (Make sure to do a read first)

Yes, a tap made it stick in the loop.
And I don't know if you can check it like that. I think the down is only registered as the downwards motion of the press, not that it is pressed down. I think it registers it like this:

If you tap the screen:
1. touch.down() == 1, touch.up() == 0, touch.click() == 0, touch.hold() == 0
2. *screen is released quickly*
3. touch.down() == 0, touch.up() == 1, touch.click == 1, touch.hold() == 0

So this que would probably look something like:
down
up
click

If you hold the screen:
1. touch.down() == 1, touch.up() == 0, touch.click() == 0, touch.hold() == 0
2. *screen is kept down*
3. touch.down() == 0, touch.up() == 0, touch.click == 0, touch.hold() == 1
4. *screen is released*
5. touch.down() == 0, touch.up() == 1, touch.click == 0, touch.hold() == 0

Que:
down
hold
up

I hope that was an understandable explanation of how I think it registers the commands.

[Brett_val]

Didn't you already did something similar in Dynablade? The heli kept going up when the screen was pressed.

I thought "up" isn't registered when it's a "click". I learned that from Dynablade .
Just add print(touch.event()) somewhere and you'll see that tapping can be registered as down, click,
but also as:
down, up,
depending on how long you hold the screen. If long enough, it will be:
down,
hold,
up.
Using this difference, you can "add" a new touch event, longer than a click but shorter than a hold. I experimented with this once but I'm not sure whether it will be useful.

Attached is an example of actions performed while holding, I hope it is similar to what you are looking for.

[Habhome]

Originally Posted by Brett_val

Didn't you already did something similar in Dynablade? The heli kept going up when the screen was pressed.

I thought "up" isn't registered when it's a "click". I learned that from Dynablade .
Just add print(touch.event()) somewhere and you'll see that tapping can be registered as down, click,
but also as:
down, up,
depending on how long you hold the screen. If long enough, it will be:
down,
hold,
up.
Using this difference, you can "add" a new touch event, "press": Longer than a click but shorter than a hold. I experimented with this once but I'm not sure whether it will be useful.

Attached is an example of actions performed while holding, I hope it is similar to what you are looking for.

True about the dynablade, I'll look into that. Unfortunately I've been dealing with a severe virus infection since noon and only 10 hours later was my computer safe to use again. I had to manually locate the malicious applications, kill their processes, kill the app and clean the registry, to get rid of it. My anti virus was unable to detect any of them. This must've been some new shit infecting me because I found no information about it on the web whatsoever, but it seems to have opened up my pc for other more known viruses. And I haven't been infected for years with my security system...

Anyhow, work on this will continue first thing tomorrow. I have recruited my brother to help me with graphics and he has come up with a character design and some new graphics I have yet to see. The character features a cat at the moment, the game will be a classic "train, fend off monsters while solving a riddle/mission to reach the bosses" and it will feature both physical and magic combat. (I hope unless I've taken me water over my head (Swedish saying) )

[lloonnee2]

Sweet, I like this idea
I'll try to help in any way I can, my drawings aren't that good, but I think drawing simple graphics (they're called sprites right?) should be fine.
As for the game theme, I'm a sucker for the traditional medivial setting. I played Runescape consistently until I quitted due to school commitments, but I enjoyed the good old weapons such as the sword and bow. I'll try to work on some graphics, but what format should they be in, and how do I post a file here?

[Habhome]

Originally Posted by lloonnee2

Sweet, I like this idea
I'll try to help in any way I can, my drawings aren't that good, but I think drawing simple graphics (they're called sprites right?) should be fine.
As for the game theme, I'm a sucker for the traditional medivial setting. I played Runescape consistently until I quitted due to school commitments, but I enjoyed the good old weapons such as the sword and bow. I'll try to work on some graphics, but what format should they be in, and how do I post a file here?

I'm afraid there won't be any weapons really in the game. The main character is a cat who is a kind of a mage's apprentice and during the course of the game he learn spells. So the fighting is executes with his claws or with the spells he have learned so far. (Or at least it will be once I code the fighting, if I succeed =P)
As for objects on the map the tiles are 20x20 pixels, but if you want to help out you should contact me via PM so we can discuss it further and I can provide you with the templates needed. (We need to have matching grass under objects for example) Also I'm open to any kind of suggestion for the game. I'll either accept it and try it, or decline it because I wouldn't be able to do it =P

[delirius]

I have been working on tile-map engine for a while. You can take a look on my library and maybe use it for rendering. Btw it got pathfinding .
link: TilEd lib

[Habhome]

Hm, well, I've already got rendering of my map done. Sure it's only in this view and all tiles are the same size and stuff, but in this style of game they are anyway so. I'm not sure if using your thing would make anything better really, I think it'd more force me to start over quite a bit and think in a different way. And 'Six is already working on a map editor for my solution, so yeah. But it should be interesting to see what it can do.