img src="/images/news_content/debug_window.gif" align="left" vspace="5" hspace="5">I decided to finally just get the debug window thing out of my way once and for all. It works perfectly, and will only show the certain portions of the debug information for whichever mode is selected. Here's a little shot of the bland window.

The -1 shows that the option is turned on, and the 0 shows that the option is off. I decided I really didn't need to make it super nice and pretty since the players won't be able to access it anyways. Only I will be using it, so as long as I understand it, I think everything is ok. They are just the number representations for TRUE and FALSE.

Enemies are now working (for the most part). I only have one enemy type as of right now, which is the spore.

It will hang on the cieling until you kill it; or if you walk to close to it it will release the spawn which is contained inside. Once released, the spawn will chase you. Since it is so small it's very hard to hit. Best to kill the spores before they release the spawn.

Right now that's all that works. If you kill the enemy you will gain experience points. Ah yes. That's another thing that I added, and experience system. I also added another meter to keep track of it all. The enemy cannot hurt the player yet. I still need to code that in. I also need to code in some kind of interface for the editor. That will be done shortly enough.

Here is an additional screenshot to the "current screenshot" (It's linked to the larger full screenshot, so go ahead and click it!)

I plan on adding in damage stuff for the spawn enemy, and then going ahead and putting it into the editor. I need to figure out exactly how that's going to work, for one. After that's done, I'll try and think up of some nifty scheme to easily add enemies to the editor.

After getting the basis down, I'll probably either make a new enemy, or start working on some more tiles. Better yet, I may even get started on the debugging window. That will get done, sometime.

Hm. I re-added in the enemy code, and added some more code to check for bullet hits. Everything is working pretty good right now. I need to make some more basic enemy types and then integrate them into the editor, so that you can place them anywhere on a map. I still have to think out how the whole structure is going to work for doing this. I don't know what the limit of total enemies per map will be, or what the limit of the same type of enemy on one map would be. I was thinking somewhere around 30. 30 total enemies. You could have 30 of the same enemy, too.

I don't know if I will want to change this in the future though. I'll see what happens and how I want it to be once I get stuff to start working.

I also have to get started on that debugging window thingie I was talking about. I still haven't gotten to that.

Lack of updates again. Bleck. I have nothing to post about the engine. Starting a new job which tires me out completely so much that I sleep through the rest of the day is not helping. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do some major work on the game on my days off. It's really tough to get anything done on any other days--but then again that's all depending on how much work there actually is to do at work.

I've thought up of some cool ideas though. :)

img src="/images/news_content/health_&_ammo_bars.gif" align="left" vspace="5" hspace="5">Well, it seems as though I just don't want to stop updating. I just added a nice little feature and figured I would show it to everyone.

These are simple bars to meter how much ammo and health you've got. They decrement by percentage like any bar

I added some new things to the editor: mainly a selector between which "layer" to show. Before this post it would only show all of the layers on top of eachother. This was a pain because you couldn't tell what layer was being used if the tiles don't have any transparency. I fixed this problem by allowing to show only one layer at a time if the user wishes so. This proves to be very useful, and I was already having fun playing around with it.

I think I have finally finished converting over my code to the new types. It took a while, and there wasn't too much to do, but I think the hassle is finally over. I just converted over the screenshot taking function, and re-included the current enemy code that I was working on.

I'm pretty sure I have everthing converted that needs be, and all the other files that weren't are included into the project. I'm sure I may stumble upon something I forgot, but I'm just not seeing it yet.

Let's just hope if it happens that it happens soon.

It seems to me that the more I sit around and just play my game, the more bugs I find in it. Apparantly my map changing functions within the actual editor have been messed up this whole time. They've been saving double the y-offset values for a map instead of one x and one y-value.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon this error when I was simply just playing around in the game. I think I should test everything a lot more often. I try to as much as I can. I'm surprised everything was actually working with the way the map-saving was all broken.

The bug is completely fixed now. No problems whatsoever. It didn't take that long to fix it, and now I have a little more information displayed to the screen when debug mode is turned on. Like I said before, I need to make some sort of console-like thing so I can turn on only certain aspects of debugging. For instance, say I want to only view the bounding boxes, and not enemy health or the current map's name. I would like to create a little box where you can select whichever option you want to show by simply pressing a button. I'm going to have to add a bunch of exceptions because each separate set of debugging information will have to have different variables determining whether to show itself or not.

It will take a while to make all the bitmaps for the buttons and such, but - that's okay. Once I have a debugging window my life will be so much easier seeing as how I won't have to comment out certain lines which show debugging infos.

That's about all the time I had to work on the game today, just enough to fix an annoying little map-loading bug. I also added in a few extra exception handlers in the code for loading/saving maps and map charts.

Ah yes, and I almost forgot to mention some "thank you's". A big thanks goes out to all the readers and everyone who has taken an interest in my games/tutorials, or just the site. Thanks for the 5000 hits. I racked up 1k in so little time, it seems. Glad you're all liking the progress, the game, or whatever else it is that seems to keep you coming back! Let me know, because I want to keep doing it! Always feel free to send me a line, I'm sure you know the address. (but just in case: jay(at)loomsoft(dot)net)

Finally, a chance to get some work done!

I branched off and started something new today. It's almost fully complete. I added "ramps", or just plain old slanted tiles. Now you no longer have to jump everywhere just to get around. You can walk right up the ramp. It doesn't have to be straight diagonal, either. It can have all sorts of weird bumps and lumps in it, and you'll still walk right over it. I really like how it worked out. I still need to iron out a few things such as the fact that you cannot increase run speed while on a ramp. There aren't any problems with actual "running" across a ramp, though. You'll still progress and move at whatever speed you were moving at, it just won't increase if you start the running process while on a ramp. It's eluding me right now, but I will eventually get it.

I'm so happy that I have ramps working now. Levels can be a lot more intuitive with ramps. I can make more organic-looking and less machine-like levels that will just be able to set the overall mood (if needed).

On another note, I really need to start the hardcore dev process on my game. I need to figure out a lot of the story, and other things. I'm at the point where my engine is functional enough that I need to figure out just how the enemies will move, and what they will look like, etc. I need to start getting together some more tiles for the game. I'll have to think up exactly how the world will work, and what types of things are going to take place.

At this point in time I will be doing a lot more with the actual game mechanics; exactly how the world will interact with the player, etc. There's lots of things to think about. It's going to be a while....

Meh. Long time and no update. I've been playing some WarcraftIII and starting out at a new job (full time). A lot of my time was chomped away. Between work and having fun with wc3, I didn't want to do anything else but just sit around and do nothing. It's tiring work, what I'm doing.

Anyways, I have two days off in a row coming up. I'm sure I'll get some work done on the engine with that. I still need to go and update more of the code. It's not completely finished yet. I need to put the title screen and introduction screens back in, since they aren't existing right now.

Whew. Busy busy busy.