At last, I'm done commenting all the code I've written... I'm only missing a last part regarding the battle system, but that is because it's roughly incomplete and probably due to changes soon, so I'll avoid commenting/explaining that since it will change soon.
Today I, also, was busy with installing and trying out the new Beta 2 for Visual Studio 2010. Too bad it doesn't support XNA GS yet, so I cannot make use of it for Harmonia Warders... well, VS 2008 is awesome already, so no loss.
Now it's time to tackle again on the battle system, I have to get this done, it's dragging me down so fast that I almost have no energies for anything else...
and still need artists. I hope someone *looks up* sends me an angel to help and draw all my images, but that won't work I bet, don't know just why though...
27/10/2009
26/10/2009
Organizing the style, boring...
Hello everyone,
Today felt the urge to just re-read the whole code I've written so far and... I have to say I'm impressed with the amount of work I've pulled out and I still have to do, it's really huge. Some parts of codes to me seemed obscure and not really clear, even though I was the one that wrote them... and that is understandable since I had not touched them for a couple of months, especially the ones around the TileEngine (which, as I said, I took from Nick and slightly modified).
That is the main reason why I realized I do have to keep my code clean and well commented, to save troubles later on, when I have to come back to what I've already written and change/polish/optimize it, it really bothers me when something is unclear and entangled, spaghetti code is a bad thing and generally leads to bug and glitches, which I'd rather not have in the final product.
Exploiting the awesome feature of Visual Studio 2008, I've just started adding comments and a small documentation on my code, for every line of code, member, method, class, whatever... It is a very boring task but, in the end, it is very rewarding because the end-product seems really professional and it is easier to be modified and re-used for later projects as well... and who knows, I may also leak it around the intertubes for people to use it on their own projects... as long as it appears good, working and clean enough.
So far I'm not even at a quarter of the way done, so I'll keep on going and commenting everything I have to, while sipping a nice cup of fruity tea and watching my awesome Opeth DVD on the Xbox360 in the background. It's very mellow and relaxing, the perfect mood to get a nice job done.
Everything will probably be done tonight or tomorrow night at most, then I'm back to coding... That battle engine won't get completed on its own (yet... hehe)!
Cheers! ~Morgy
Today felt the urge to just re-read the whole code I've written so far and... I have to say I'm impressed with the amount of work I've pulled out and I still have to do, it's really huge. Some parts of codes to me seemed obscure and not really clear, even though I was the one that wrote them... and that is understandable since I had not touched them for a couple of months, especially the ones around the TileEngine (which, as I said, I took from Nick and slightly modified).
That is the main reason why I realized I do have to keep my code clean and well commented, to save troubles later on, when I have to come back to what I've already written and change/polish/optimize it, it really bothers me when something is unclear and entangled, spaghetti code is a bad thing and generally leads to bug and glitches, which I'd rather not have in the final product.
Exploiting the awesome feature of Visual Studio 2008, I've just started adding comments and a small documentation on my code, for every line of code, member, method, class, whatever... It is a very boring task but, in the end, it is very rewarding because the end-product seems really professional and it is easier to be modified and re-used for later projects as well... and who knows, I may also leak it around the intertubes for people to use it on their own projects... as long as it appears good, working and clean enough.
So far I'm not even at a quarter of the way done, so I'll keep on going and commenting everything I have to, while sipping a nice cup of fruity tea and watching my awesome Opeth DVD on the Xbox360 in the background. It's very mellow and relaxing, the perfect mood to get a nice job done.
Everything will probably be done tonight or tomorrow night at most, then I'm back to coding... That battle engine won't get completed on its own (yet... hehe)!
Cheers! ~Morgy
18/10/2009
New rush kicking in
Welcome back Morgy!
Thanks Morgy, I'm back!
Yeah, that's it, I'm finally back on this project. Since university kicked in (*ahem*Aion*ahem*) I didn't have much time to program and I felt kept out of my own project. I found it harder and harder to go back to it, but I promised to myself I had to complete this, especially if I want to even try to participate in next year's DreamBuildPlay (if there is one). That (and a lot of boredom today) is why I finally managed to get my head focused on this and read back to pages of code I wrote and now I'm back kicking, programming the game once again.
Today I improved my battle screen management, adding a BattleSkillList screen for the skill selection. I don't like "hard-coding" everything since I want to keep my classes as flexible as I can, however I had reached a real dead end with this BattleScreen stuff. I had to resort to have one screen of each action type (skill, attack, enemy select, item, etc etc) coded slightly different from the others if I wanted to keep going with this. Probably there was a better solution, but as long as I can get this to work and I don't drawn entangled into my own lines of code, it should be ok. In later versions I may try to revisit it all once again and make it better, but so far it seems to be working.
The real problem now is that I can't do any real testing yet, since I need to plan skills, animations and battles and I'm not in the condition for that (need editors, designers and all that stuff, which I'll be looking for when the basic engine is complete). If you feel like helping me out, with any kind of character art, skill art style and stuff, just feel free to mail me , I'll be glad to include them in the game if I find them appropriate. Any help is well-welcomed.
Thanks Morgy, I'm back!
Yeah, that's it, I'm finally back on this project. Since university kicked in (*ahem*Aion*ahem*) I didn't have much time to program and I felt kept out of my own project. I found it harder and harder to go back to it, but I promised to myself I had to complete this, especially if I want to even try to participate in next year's DreamBuildPlay (if there is one). That (and a lot of boredom today) is why I finally managed to get my head focused on this and read back to pages of code I wrote and now I'm back kicking, programming the game once again.
Today I improved my battle screen management, adding a BattleSkillList screen for the skill selection. I don't like "hard-coding" everything since I want to keep my classes as flexible as I can, however I had reached a real dead end with this BattleScreen stuff. I had to resort to have one screen of each action type (skill, attack, enemy select, item, etc etc) coded slightly different from the others if I wanted to keep going with this. Probably there was a better solution, but as long as I can get this to work and I don't drawn entangled into my own lines of code, it should be ok. In later versions I may try to revisit it all once again and make it better, but so far it seems to be working.
The real problem now is that I can't do any real testing yet, since I need to plan skills, animations and battles and I'm not in the condition for that (need editors, designers and all that stuff, which I'll be looking for when the basic engine is complete). If you feel like helping me out, with any kind of character art, skill art style and stuff, just feel free to mail me , I'll be glad to include them in the game if I find them appropriate. Any help is well-welcomed.
28/08/2009
Revisiting time!
Since I started reading Jim Perry's book (follow my previous entries for more details) I realized my skill/action structure in combat is a bit flawed and is not as smooth as I thought. To better say it: I found a way better and easier way to handle the problem so I feel I'll have to actually change both the skill/monster structure, editors and the in game code to handle these cases.
That will leave space to the addition of items, special skills and all the other fancy stuff one may see in a turn based RPG.
Time to get to work then, gotta fix that stuff so I can go on with developing this game... It's still going, slowly, but still kicking!
That will leave space to the addition of items, special skills and all the other fancy stuff one may see in a turn based RPG.
Time to get to work then, gotta fix that stuff so I can go on with developing this game... It's still going, slowly, but still kicking!
24/08/2009
Time to continue the flow.
Finally today the book I was waiting for has arrived. I have to apologize for not going on with this project for a couple of weeks, however I was really stuck and was too afraid of screwing up something if I continued like this, without a guide or a plan to stick to. Now with the book, I'll be able to follow some guidelines for Harmonia Warders that will reveal, hopefully, useful throughout all the stages of development.
In the meanwhile, while I was gone from this blog, I had the time to think up a physics engine (incompleted) and an AI chatterbot that uses mysql database and a neural map interaction(incompleted as well) which will eventually turn out as useful one day for future projects. As of now, time to get going with Harmonia Warders, this project is not dead and will never be. I will see it to the end, I hope so at least.
In the meanwhile, while I was gone from this blog, I had the time to think up a physics engine (incompleted) and an AI chatterbot that uses mysql database and a neural map interaction(incompleted as well) which will eventually turn out as useful one day for future projects. As of now, time to get going with Harmonia Warders, this project is not dead and will never be. I will see it to the end, I hope so at least.
09/08/2009
Still on hold, keep in line..
Today's update is a bit useless.. however I felt like writing down something here for the readers...
As you've read the project is currently on hold for at least 5-6 days till I get the book in my hands and actually feel into going on with the project, however I've been keeping myself ready and trying new stuff in C#.
First, my physics engine is working well as I'm building it, it's a bit simple and actually it's harder than I expected.. but hopefully I'll get it to fully work in some time, the real satisfaction is that I'm actually making it 100% myself without taking stuff from other engines (yet).
Another thing I've started reading into is Socket connections in C# and I have to say I'm stunned at how easy it is. Socket always sounded bad and threatening to me and I never actually dared to approach it, however I can say it was way easier than I'd have expected. I've already made a couple of test applications and they work semi-well (problems with IP connections and stuff due to my router...), I'm satisfied with this as well.
Told ya guys, useless update... Cheers!
As you've read the project is currently on hold for at least 5-6 days till I get the book in my hands and actually feel into going on with the project, however I've been keeping myself ready and trying new stuff in C#.
First, my physics engine is working well as I'm building it, it's a bit simple and actually it's harder than I expected.. but hopefully I'll get it to fully work in some time, the real satisfaction is that I'm actually making it 100% myself without taking stuff from other engines (yet).
Another thing I've started reading into is Socket connections in C# and I have to say I'm stunned at how easy it is. Socket always sounded bad and threatening to me and I never actually dared to approach it, however I can say it was way easier than I'd have expected. I've already made a couple of test applications and they work semi-well (problems with IP connections and stuff due to my router...), I'm satisfied with this as well.
Told ya guys, useless update... Cheers!
07/08/2009
While waiting for reinforcement..
Today I ordered online Jim Perry's RPG programming with XNA book on Amazon to help me build and design Harmonia Warders.
Since I've been programming like an idiot this last week, I noticed a decreasing concentration on the project and I've been making lots of mistakes (for example I totally forgot the "target type" propriety of my skill system and I had to re-make the save-load functions of the skills and the editor). Since I don't want to clog my programming flow with mistakes and bad designing that could slow down my project, I decided I'll make a pause from this project till I get delivered the book.
Until then, I decided to have fun and create some kind of simulator for XNA to build up some skill (Especially toward 3D programming which I know close to nothing). I don't know yet what to make, but I was thinking something around electromagnetic physics, currents and those things. Basically because there's not much around that simulates it in games. Sure, there's the whole gravity physics simulator, but that's been done before by tons of people and I don't really want to copy from others.
I'll just go open my physics books and take some formula and stuff, then have fun in XNA and see what I come up with.
Cheers!
Since I've been programming like an idiot this last week, I noticed a decreasing concentration on the project and I've been making lots of mistakes (for example I totally forgot the "target type" propriety of my skill system and I had to re-make the save-load functions of the skills and the editor). Since I don't want to clog my programming flow with mistakes and bad designing that could slow down my project, I decided I'll make a pause from this project till I get delivered the book.
Until then, I decided to have fun and create some kind of simulator for XNA to build up some skill (Especially toward 3D programming which I know close to nothing). I don't know yet what to make, but I was thinking something around electromagnetic physics, currents and those things. Basically because there's not much around that simulates it in games. Sure, there's the whole gravity physics simulator, but that's been done before by tons of people and I don't really want to copy from others.
I'll just go open my physics books and take some formula and stuff, then have fun in XNA and see what I come up with.
Cheers!
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