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Blog Details for "Videogame Biscuit"
Videogame BiscuitVideogame BiscuitI'm an amateur game developer. I publish the progress of the games I'm working on, finished games, reviews of tools and books and anything game development related Articles
Wasabi Defense update 10-11
2007-10-11 14:34:00 Finally, here’s a new screenshot of Wasabi Defense ! It took a while because there were quite a few difficulties that took some time to solve. Anyway, here it is: First of all, I got started on the status bar. This was a real pain in the ass, because the text objects had to adjust to different ... More About: Update , Sabi
What makes games fun?
2007-10-06 15:24:00 Interesting article on Game Producer about seven things that make games fun. So, what is it that makes games fun to play? 1. Collecting stuff Definitely! This is what made the Diablo games so great. The graphics weren’t too spectacular, the gameplay repetitive as hell, but the ability to collect and trade all sorts of kick ass ... More About: Games , Game Design
Wasabi Defense progress 10-05
2007-10-05 12:32:00 I’m more or less done with the code for setting the display options. The trickiest part was adjusting the aspect ratio for widescreen displays. I struggled with it for quite a while, only to find out it was actually very easy to solve. You can play the game in fullscreen or windowed mode. In windowed ... More About: Defense , Progress , Wasabi , Sabi
A short update?
2007-10-01 19:01:00 Okay, I realize there hasn’t been a real update in more than a week, but there’s a good excuse… I mean, explanation! First of all, part of the work I’m doing on this version is behind-the-scene stuff. I need to figure out how to read and write configuration files - something that wasn’t included in ... More About: Update , Short
Wasabi Defense background story
2007-09-24 17:00:00 A story in a videogame is like a story in a porn movie. There should be one, but nobody really cares about it. I have come up with a cool background story for my current project, Wasabi Defense , and here it is. In the last decade of the 21st century, scientists develop the tachyon pulsar, a ... More About: Story , Background , Tory
Update on design document templates
2007-09-22 13:40:00 I have added two more templates to my design document template package. I have created a layer organiser and a new version of the source code tracker. In the first version (wich is still included, of course) there was a section for dependencies (files that are imported in the current source file). The new version ... More About: Design , Tools , Templates , Update , Document
Wasabi Defense progress 09-18
2007-09-18 19:47:00 Visually there isn’t that much progress. Still the background image, the lander and the rocket flame. New are the landing platform (wich might be replaced later, since I’m not too excited about it) and the hud (heads up display). This display is essential for guiding the lander to the landing platform, since it displays the ... More About: Defense , Progress , Wasabi , Sabi
Wasabi Defense background, part 4
2007-09-17 18:37:00 Okay, here’s the final part of the tutorial on the background image. I will explain how I created the bright star and the planet, both quite easy effects. But let’s begin with the star. This consists of three layers: the star core, the four rays of light and the halo. We’ll start with the core. ... More About: Defense , Part , Background , Wasabi , Sabi
Wasabi Defense background, part 3
2007-09-14 17:54:00 In this article, I will explain how I created the hills. For this I used POV-Ray and Moray; basic knowledge of these tools is assumed for this tutorial. The key element in this tutorial is the so-called heightfield. This element takes a bitmap image and turns it into a 3D object using the brightness of ... More About: Defense , Part , Background , Part 3 , Wasabi
Wasabi Defense background, part 2
2007-09-12 17:00:00 In the previous article, I explained how I created the sky for the Wasabi Defense background. Let’s move on to the ground! This is a pretty easy one. Let’s start by creating a new empty layer named “Ground”. In this layer, I created a texture pattern for the ground, like this: Apply the solid noise clouds ... More About: Part , Background , Sabi
Wasabi Defense background, part 1
2007-09-10 17:00:00 Creating the background image was quite a bit of work, so I’ll split the tutorial up in several parts. I’m gonna start with instructions on the sky. The background started as a 1680×1050 (the typical resolution of a 22″ widescreen display) image with a black background. The sky occupies the upper 4/5 part of the ... More About: Defense , Part , Background , Wasabi , Sabi
Introducing Wasabi Defense
2007-09-08 17:00:00 For the past two weeks I have been working on my new game, and now I’m finally introducing it: Wasabi Defense ! Your mission is to build an outpost on the planet Omega Wasabi 4 and defend it from attackers. You have to manoever spacecraft that carry equipment to a landing platform, after wich additional structures ... More About: Sabi
Changing the application icon
2007-09-02 21:33:00 When you have made a game with Torque Game Builder and have built the package, you’ll notice that the executable file has the same icon as Torque Game Builder itself. If you want to change this, you will need the source code, wich comes with the professional version. Of course, it’s kinda silly to spend ... More About: Icon , Changing , Application , Chang , Chan
Blender 3D
2007-08-29 22:31:00 Even though I make sprite based games, I still need a 3D modelling tool. A very common way to create great looking sprites is pre-rendering them. Instead of using a 3D model, you render a bitmap of it and use that as a sprite. A while ago I already reviewed POV-Ray and Moray. While these ... More About: Tools , Blender , Lend
Creating a splash screen
2007-08-27 22:55:00 This is the first article in a series of tutorials about Torque Game Builder. For these tutorials, basic knowledge of Torque is assumed. I am not going to write complete beginner courses, but specific howto’s. And I’m gonna start with a tutorial on how to make a splash screen. If you have bought the indie ... More About: Screen , Creating , Splash , Cree
Gridblaster is finished!
2007-08-25 15:42:00 Well, here it finally is. Gridblaster is finished! You can download it from the Games page. The file is a self-extracting zip file. Just unzip it and run Gridblaster.exe, no installation is necessary. For a first game, I personally think it turned out quite fine. I struggled a bit with the GUI system, and getting ... More About: Blaster , Finish , Nish , Aster
Happy birthday, John Carmack!
2007-08-20 20:07:00 Today is John Carmack’s 37th birthday! If you are into video games, this name will, without any doubt, sound very familiar. Carmack is one of the people responsible for some of the greatest video games of all time, such as the Commander Keen series, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake. He was the first programmer ... More About: Happy , Birthday , Happy Birthday , Arma
Gridblaster is back on track!
2007-08-18 13:59:00 Okay, things didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped the last couple of days, but everything is back on track. I have figured out how to build a graphical user interface and I’m working on the menu system. The levels have been linked, so the next level is loaded when the current level is cleared. ... More About: Back , Track , Blaster , Trac , Aster
Gridblaster progress 08-15
2007-08-15 21:21:00 The levels are done, and I’m busy putting everything together. First thing I was trying to do was creating splash screen on startup and then a menu. And it’s giving me quite a few headaches! If there’s one thing about Torque Game Builder that I hate it’s the GUI (graphical user interface) Builder. There’s hardly any documentation and it’s loaded with bugs. Right now I’m stuck with an image that I can’t resize. No matter what I try, it always resets itself to fullscreen. Another thing is loading levels. You’d imagine you just use the “loadLevel” function with the filename, right? Wrong! It doesn’t work, and again, very little documentation. Now don’t get me wrong, I still think TGB is a great tool. Right now I’m still using the old version since I can’t import my game in the new version without more or less rewriting everything, but I hope there’s a lot of bugfixes in the new version! Some... More About: Progress , Blaster , Aster
The greatest features in games
2007-08-11 15:45:00 Game Producer has compiled a list of the seven greatest features in games. Let’s take a little look at them! Slow Motion Although this can add a nice touch to a game, I don’t consider it one of the greatest features. Prince Of Persia: Rival Swords for the Wii also had it, but that changed nothing to ... More About: Games , Features , Game Design , Feat , The G
Gridblaster progress 08-11
2007-08-11 15:04:00 I implemented the final features of level 3 yesterday; here’s the final result: I have added the upgrade capsule launcher and two flamethrower traps. The upgrade capsules enable the same features as in the previous levels, plus one extra: invulnerability! So this is the final level. Now it’s time to put them all together, make a title ... More About: Progress , Blaster , Aster
Gridblaster progress 08-06
2007-08-06 19:37:00 My summer vacation ended today, but I managed to get some work done on Gridblaster the last few days. Here’s the latest screenshot. You’ll notice the extra blocks in the maze. Here’s what those blocks do. If you hit them on the right side, they fly all the way through the maze and then back a ... More About: Progress , Blaster , Aster
Explosion tutorial
2007-08-03 16:43:00 I mentioned this a while ago, but here it finally is: a tutorial about explosions in Torque Game Builder. I’m gonna show you how to make a simple explosion with Torque’s particle engine. It will be only a fireball, no ejected fragments, sparks, plasma rings or anything like that. Just a very basic explosion. We’re gonna ... More About: Tutorial , Explosion , Rial
Gridblaster progress 08-01
2007-08-01 23:04:00 Did some more work on Gridblaster; the background tiles and maze blocks for level 3 are finished. Here’s what it looks like: Like I said before, this will be the last level. When this is finished, I’m gonna finish the rest of the game (title screen, menu, level transitions, …) More About: Progress , Blaster , Aster
Design templates
2007-07-30 13:41:00 Planning game projects, even small ones, can be more difficult than you would think. So far, I just wrote stuff down in a notebook, but for my next project I have made a few forms to help me getting my stuff organized. They are basically fill-in forms to plan and track different parts of the ... More About: Design , Tools , Templates , Temp
Inkscape
2007-07-27 13:25:00 Can’t believe I haven’t talked about this application yet, since it’s my main graphic tool. Most of the graphics in Gridblaster have been drawn using Inkscape . Inkscape is a so-called vector drawing program. What does this mean? Drawing programs basically come in two different kinds: pixel based and vector based. In a pixel-based program, when ... More About: Tools , Scape
Project Arcade
2007-07-26 15:06:00 If you are, like me, old enough to remember the ’80s, you may remember the glory days of the arcade. I myself have spent quite some time playing games like Street Fighter, Pacman, Space Invaders, Centipede and all those wonderful, addictive, coin-guzzling games. Those games may be old, but to some people they haven’t lost ... More About: Books , Arcade , Project , Cade , Arca
Gridblaster progress 07-24
2007-07-24 16:09:00 Whew, finally finished level two. I have added a projectile splitter, lightning trap (wich you can see in action in the screenshot) and the upgrade mechanism. The splitter appears at regular intervals at a random intersection. When it gets hit by the player’s projectile, it fires two new ones in the directions perpendicular to the direction ... More About: Progress , Blaster , Aster
Torque Game Builder 1.5
2007-07-19 17:01:00 A few days ago, Garage Game s released version 1.5 of Torque Game Builder . If you already own the previous version of it, you can download the new version for free. So, what are the new features in this version? Quite a lot of bug fixes. I haven’t been using the software for too long, but I ... More About: Tools
Gridblaster progress 07-18
More articles from this author:2007-07-18 21:11:00 Had a minor setback two days ago. My computer didn’t boot up anymore after a failed attempt at installing Windows Service Pack 2 and there was no way I could restore it. I couldn’t get into Windows and system restore from the command line didn’t seem to work. I had no choice but to do ... More About: Progress , Blaster , Aster 1, 2, 3, 4 |
