People are still looking at this? Oh boy.
Er, I haven't just been replaced by Sam Beckett there, although that would have been a tremendous excuse. Seven PhDs, he claims to have, but I bet none of them involve ridiculously ambitious football games. Just physics and stuff. Anyone can do that.
Anyway, I got an email because someone posted a comment on the last post wondering what happened. It's been over four years since I posted anything here, which is frightening because it means I'm four years older than I was without having made any real progress. Oh well, I've got an excuse now. Even better, I've got a reason...
The reason is... I kinda gave up. More specifically, I lost confidence that I could actually pull it off, given what I knew at the time. I'd been battering up against a brick wall for ages and although the underlying competition stuff was working, I was no closer to having a decent game of football. I'd managed to get people half-heartedly running around a pitch, a spaghetti codebase littered with bugs, and sometimes you could kick the ball out of play and never see it again.
Which is quite realistic, if my regular Friday games are anything to go by.
So I shelved it, and decided that if I actually wanted to make any games, they had to be smaller, more sensible, and hopefully more doable. My well of infinite wisdom having not yet run dry, I decided to make a platform game. Because sure, that's not complicated.
The curious thing is, I finished it. And released it, as both an Xbox Live Indie title, and an even better PC version. It's called Rasternauts and it's got lots of running, jumping and shooting in it, with glowing vectors and the very best pixel art that I've ever been able to do. I set up a little website, also named Mostly Fictional, and from there you can head off to Desura and both try and (if I'm lucky) buy it. It's pretty good, but I'm biased as hell.
Since finishing that up, I've been preoccupied with studying and things like that, but I still like the idea of a football game, and it's one of the things I'm toying with at the minute while I decide what to do next. What I do know is that if I opt to return to that world, it'll be pared down from the behemoth it used to be, focusing on the core gameplay and forgetting everything about cramming in this amazingly expansive world around it.
For now at least. If the experience of making Rasternauts and a burgeoning addiction to clichés have taught me anything, there's not much point in trying to run before you can walk. Any game is worthless if it's not fun and it took a long time for Rasternauts to get anywhere near there. I do still believe it would be rather an amazing game, and I do still have an inordinate amount of love for the genre and its inner workings. The passion is still there, I've just got older and and wiser.
I'll be posting stuff every now and then to that new site, so it'll be the best place to find out if I do start to make real progress. For now though, I'm gonna just enjoy the World Cup, fiddle about with some AI, and try not to commit to anything too drastic.
Cheers for the interest, Anonymous Person, I hope your own projects bear fruit, and I hope one day I can deliver something you'll enjoy.
If you don't like Rasternauts, that is... :P
Friday, May 30, 2014
Friday, April 02, 2010
A Lack of Control
The past month has been spent building up the moveset of players, and then tearing the whole thing down again. That was intentional though, I swear.
Having earlier given players a physical presence, the next task was to get them to interact with the ball. I stuck with a sticky ball system, as it's easiest to get up and running in game-form, so when a player is in possession the ball is pretty much locked to his feet until he releases it, or he's tackled. Passes were added, with some nifty code that allowed a player to weight a pass just perfectly, and then I topped it off with shots capable of breaking the net.
Well, ignoring the net. One of the things I had yet to do with the collision detection system is deal with objects that move faster in one frame than their own size, allowing them to easily pass through thin objects like goal nets. Oh well, that was fairly easy to solve, simply splitting the motion in a single frame into several smaller chunks to ensure everything's caught.
That left first-touch football as the only thing that still needed doing, and thanks to the aforementioned tearing down, that's still largely the case.
The game deals with everything using an Action system. Everything a player can do is ultimately an action. Some are continuous, like running, where as along as the action is set the player will run in the given direction. Others are timed, and an example of that might be a volley - it takes time to swing your leg, with only the point where the swing connects with the ball being of any concern.
Naturally, because of this the game needs to work out exactly where and when you should start swinging, which depends on the ball's trajectory, your position, and so on. Unfortunately, what I've managed so far is first to have the player move to position then stand like a goober because he can't work out the timing, presumably because of the archaic intercept timing system I have which wasn't designed for this purpose. I've also managed to tweak a few values and have a player run to the ball and then encircle it forever, which I think might be a good model for some footballers, but doesn't exactly lead to a fun game.
Looks to me like I'll have to tackle the interception system. Which sounds obvious, and that's probably because it is and I didn't think of it until now.
I tell you, this blog's like a Mac. Pays for itself.
Having earlier given players a physical presence, the next task was to get them to interact with the ball. I stuck with a sticky ball system, as it's easiest to get up and running in game-form, so when a player is in possession the ball is pretty much locked to his feet until he releases it, or he's tackled. Passes were added, with some nifty code that allowed a player to weight a pass just perfectly, and then I topped it off with shots capable of breaking the net.
Well, ignoring the net. One of the things I had yet to do with the collision detection system is deal with objects that move faster in one frame than their own size, allowing them to easily pass through thin objects like goal nets. Oh well, that was fairly easy to solve, simply splitting the motion in a single frame into several smaller chunks to ensure everything's caught.
That left first-touch football as the only thing that still needed doing, and thanks to the aforementioned tearing down, that's still largely the case.
The game deals with everything using an Action system. Everything a player can do is ultimately an action. Some are continuous, like running, where as along as the action is set the player will run in the given direction. Others are timed, and an example of that might be a volley - it takes time to swing your leg, with only the point where the swing connects with the ball being of any concern.
Naturally, because of this the game needs to work out exactly where and when you should start swinging, which depends on the ball's trajectory, your position, and so on. Unfortunately, what I've managed so far is first to have the player move to position then stand like a goober because he can't work out the timing, presumably because of the archaic intercept timing system I have which wasn't designed for this purpose. I've also managed to tweak a few values and have a player run to the ball and then encircle it forever, which I think might be a good model for some footballers, but doesn't exactly lead to a fun game.
Looks to me like I'll have to tackle the interception system. Which sounds obvious, and that's probably because it is and I didn't think of it until now.
I tell you, this blog's like a Mac. Pays for itself.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Year 2010 of development
Oh, how I do love my big long gaps between posts.
Picking up where I left off, I expanded the match engine to include some rudimentary set pieces, then trotted off to work on FryGUI2 for some time, even though I said I wouldn't. Eventually though I was lured back to the match engine.
My next task was to inject a bit of physical presence. Players were ghosts at this point, freely floating through one another in their pursuit of the ball. Of course, some existing games work like that, even the mighty Sensi, but there's a lack of satisfaction when you can't use your ample frame to block an opponent's attempts to dispossess you, and the likes of NSS3 show it can even be done in the classic top-down viewpoint.
Added to that, I wanted some momentum. I had players reaching top speed instantly, and equally quickly they'd grind to a halt when the stick was released - good enough to get things moving, but again it just wasn't satisfying. Players need to feel weighty.
After some experimentation, I quickly decided in that familar way of mine to start writing another engine, this time featuring the basic physics and collision detection along with the graphics display. Using the old graphics engine as a base, I added some bounding volumes for collision detection, got immensely frustrated a number of times that possibly entered three figures, got drunk a lot, and eventually landed with a working system. Again, it was one of those things that was quite pleasing to finally have working, and again it was one of those things that didn't really bring me any closer to having an actual game.
No matter! Back to the match engine, rebuilt now using the newly named FryWorld, back to largely working order but with the added bonus of collision detection. It only took about six months. I'm so proud.
In the coming weeks I'll be building up the move set and expanding on the basic AI, hopefully getting myself a playable match for the first time ever.
Then, I think, I might just get drunk.
Picking up where I left off, I expanded the match engine to include some rudimentary set pieces, then trotted off to work on FryGUI2 for some time, even though I said I wouldn't. Eventually though I was lured back to the match engine.
My next task was to inject a bit of physical presence. Players were ghosts at this point, freely floating through one another in their pursuit of the ball. Of course, some existing games work like that, even the mighty Sensi, but there's a lack of satisfaction when you can't use your ample frame to block an opponent's attempts to dispossess you, and the likes of NSS3 show it can even be done in the classic top-down viewpoint.
Added to that, I wanted some momentum. I had players reaching top speed instantly, and equally quickly they'd grind to a halt when the stick was released - good enough to get things moving, but again it just wasn't satisfying. Players need to feel weighty.
After some experimentation, I quickly decided in that familar way of mine to start writing another engine, this time featuring the basic physics and collision detection along with the graphics display. Using the old graphics engine as a base, I added some bounding volumes for collision detection, got immensely frustrated a number of times that possibly entered three figures, got drunk a lot, and eventually landed with a working system. Again, it was one of those things that was quite pleasing to finally have working, and again it was one of those things that didn't really bring me any closer to having an actual game.
No matter! Back to the match engine, rebuilt now using the newly named FryWorld, back to largely working order but with the added bonus of collision detection. It only took about six months. I'm so proud.
In the coming weeks I'll be building up the move set and expanding on the basic AI, hopefully getting myself a playable match for the first time ever.
Then, I think, I might just get drunk.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Playing in a box
Well, two weeks later and that's what I've got. 22 poorly drawn and animated men running around playing something approaching football in a big enclosed space. There are no set pieces (not even kick off), the defenders don't do anything and every player is exceedingly single minded when he finally gets on the ball, but at least it's all a start.
There's no kick off - the ball just floats in from the sideline and all 22 men start right on the centre spot, inhabiting each others bodies in ways that I didn't intend. There are no goals to be scored, not just because there are no goalposts but because there's an invisible forcefield surrounding the entire pitch that's deflecting the ball should it dare venture in that direction. Even if there were goals, there's no ref to allow them.
So there's still a lot to be done on this basic version before I can start building upon things. I'd have liked at this point to say "well, I've got a start, let's go tackle the GUI" but that's the sort of lazy thinking that got me here in the first place - several years on without a football match.
There's no kick off - the ball just floats in from the sideline and all 22 men start right on the centre spot, inhabiting each others bodies in ways that I didn't intend. There are no goals to be scored, not just because there are no goalposts but because there's an invisible forcefield surrounding the entire pitch that's deflecting the ball should it dare venture in that direction. Even if there were goals, there's no ref to allow them.
So there's still a lot to be done on this basic version before I can start building upon things. I'd have liked at this point to say "well, I've got a start, let's go tackle the GUI" but that's the sort of lazy thinking that got me here in the first place - several years on without a football match.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Football, football, football.
About two years ago I posted about my frustrations with creating a good match engine. I got severely pissed off about it all and went off to do other parts of the game. Those done, I recently went back to the match and am feeling no different, unfortunately.
I spent a short while mucking about with 3D engines and in the end decided that it would probably be too much effort right now fretting about that. I created a 2D engine based on the same principles as Blitz3D's system (a world full of entities, basically) as a kind of stepping stone, and also so it's easy enough to update and draw each frame. That's working brilliantly, so as you can guess, it isn't the problem.
Getting the perspective right is the issue. I'm wondering if it's worth pushing on until I've got it sorted. Now, the right attitude should be to press on - I'm using placeholder art anyway - and then correct things when the basic game is up and running and tweaks can be made. The match engine's inner workings are separate from the graphics, so it should be pretty simple to do so. I'll just have to ignore some graphical quirks - currently the actual pitch is being viewed from directly overhead, whilst the players are from an angle, lending the whole thing a rather odd feel.
Still, pushing ahead I did manage to create a control abstraction system. This lets me poll what I call a virtual joypad for input. The actual input could come from key, joypad or even the mouse, but as far as the game's concerned it all comes from this one joypad. It works quite well, though it still needs a few things tidied up.
I'm going to make a big push over the next few weeks to get somewhere with the match engine and see if I can have it play an utterly terrible, but thankfully complete game of football. From there, I can start tweaking the perspective, improving the AI and expanding the controls and options.
I spent a short while mucking about with 3D engines and in the end decided that it would probably be too much effort right now fretting about that. I created a 2D engine based on the same principles as Blitz3D's system (a world full of entities, basically) as a kind of stepping stone, and also so it's easy enough to update and draw each frame. That's working brilliantly, so as you can guess, it isn't the problem.
Getting the perspective right is the issue. I'm wondering if it's worth pushing on until I've got it sorted. Now, the right attitude should be to press on - I'm using placeholder art anyway - and then correct things when the basic game is up and running and tweaks can be made. The match engine's inner workings are separate from the graphics, so it should be pretty simple to do so. I'll just have to ignore some graphical quirks - currently the actual pitch is being viewed from directly overhead, whilst the players are from an angle, lending the whole thing a rather odd feel.
Still, pushing ahead I did manage to create a control abstraction system. This lets me poll what I call a virtual joypad for input. The actual input could come from key, joypad or even the mouse, but as far as the game's concerned it all comes from this one joypad. It works quite well, though it still needs a few things tidied up.
I'm going to make a big push over the next few weeks to get somewhere with the match engine and see if I can have it play an utterly terrible, but thankfully complete game of football. From there, I can start tweaking the perspective, improving the AI and expanding the controls and options.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Platini said my game rocks. Allegedly.
Today, I started work on a new GUI system. As much as I like the original FryGUI, there are a few features that I'd like to support that, whilst possible to implement in the existing code, would require enough rewrites and redesigns that I'd be as well starting afresh.
I'm sticking with the Screens and Panels system which works well, and adding support for things that I think really ought to be there. Chief among these is multiple resolution support. Instead of sticking rigidly to an intial res, the interface will scale appropriately when altered by resizing the panels and gadgets appropriately. Fonts might get bigger, tables might get more info visible on-screen at once, and so forth.
The other major inclusion is joypad control. I'm making a football game, the joypad will be the primary method of control during a match, so it's pretty important that I can navigate screens using it rather than have to reach for the mouse every time I fancy making a substitution. Navigation using Tab or the cursor keys will also be supported.
Other additions include allowing individual screens to reposition panels, more flexibility regarding skins (previously, skin border details etc. were hard coded, I never did get around to making them editable), positioning gadgets using reference points rather than hard coordinates (e.g. BOTTOM_RIGHT for the bottom right of a panel, regardless of size), animated gadgets, improved tables and better text input (with clipboard support, or at least that's the plan).
Meanwhile, Michel Platini was in the stands as Newry City (my home town team) lost to Portadown last weekend. The footballing world is certainly a strange place.
I'm sticking with the Screens and Panels system which works well, and adding support for things that I think really ought to be there. Chief among these is multiple resolution support. Instead of sticking rigidly to an intial res, the interface will scale appropriately when altered by resizing the panels and gadgets appropriately. Fonts might get bigger, tables might get more info visible on-screen at once, and so forth.
The other major inclusion is joypad control. I'm making a football game, the joypad will be the primary method of control during a match, so it's pretty important that I can navigate screens using it rather than have to reach for the mouse every time I fancy making a substitution. Navigation using Tab or the cursor keys will also be supported.
Other additions include allowing individual screens to reposition panels, more flexibility regarding skins (previously, skin border details etc. were hard coded, I never did get around to making them editable), positioning gadgets using reference points rather than hard coordinates (e.g. BOTTOM_RIGHT for the bottom right of a panel, regardless of size), animated gadgets, improved tables and better text input (with clipboard support, or at least that's the plan).
Meanwhile, Michel Platini was in the stands as Newry City (my home town team) lost to Portadown last weekend. The footballing world is certainly a strange place.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Leagues forever
Leagues have taken up a fair bit of my time recently. More specifically, promotions and relegations.
I didn't want to have a simple system where teams go up and down willy nilly, I wanted to match some of the complexity of the various leagues from around the world. There should be restrictions on teams climbing the leagues, ground requirements to be met and limits on the progress of B teams, blocking promotions or even forcibly relegating them to accomodate relegated first squads. It was tough, but I've a working system.
I've had one of my frequent worries recently about whether or not things would hold together. Individual competitions and leagues are working, as are the connections between them, but I've never been able to test it properly over a long period of time, to see how the game copes with the data being thrown around, to make sure little oversights here or there don't conspire to bring things crumbling down ten or twenty seasons later.
That's what I've just been doing today. There's only a small selection of competitions forming a league system and a cup, but it's a good test for now.
Happily, 32 seasons later the game's still blasting away. That's about half of what I really need, as careers can start with the player as young as 14, so we really need to keep him going until he's about 70. 55 seasons at the very least. Looking at the test competitions I've been using, they've been working every season, no crashes, and the league is still structured as expected.
And happily, something that's difficult to fully test for but brilliantly came out anyhow - a team won the second division of the league in 2036, and their B team won the same division in 2037, showing that B teams will still be promoted if their A team is promoted ahead of them. Sweet!
I didn't want to have a simple system where teams go up and down willy nilly, I wanted to match some of the complexity of the various leagues from around the world. There should be restrictions on teams climbing the leagues, ground requirements to be met and limits on the progress of B teams, blocking promotions or even forcibly relegating them to accomodate relegated first squads. It was tough, but I've a working system.
I've had one of my frequent worries recently about whether or not things would hold together. Individual competitions and leagues are working, as are the connections between them, but I've never been able to test it properly over a long period of time, to see how the game copes with the data being thrown around, to make sure little oversights here or there don't conspire to bring things crumbling down ten or twenty seasons later.
That's what I've just been doing today. There's only a small selection of competitions forming a league system and a cup, but it's a good test for now.
Happily, 32 seasons later the game's still blasting away. That's about half of what I really need, as careers can start with the player as young as 14, so we really need to keep him going until he's about 70. 55 seasons at the very least. Looking at the test competitions I've been using, they've been working every season, no crashes, and the league is still structured as expected.
And happily, something that's difficult to fully test for but brilliantly came out anyhow - a team won the second division of the league in 2036, and their B team won the same division in 2037, showing that B teams will still be promoted if their A team is promoted ahead of them. Sweet!
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