SuperTux MD

[Archer]

not a good idea because you may never know how long it would take to get anything anywhere... I announced my upcoming MD game once... its been like 3 or 4 years now, and things are not anywhere worth mentioning (though there's more to it).

I see your point, but i have always wanted to write a game. I just never had a good change, until i learned about the details of the megadrive hardware. I don't mind if this becomes a 5 year project, as long as i get some results.

For SuperTux MD i don't have to do everything from scratch, because all of the graphics already exist. Converting them will ofcourse take time but not as much as desining and drawing all sprites myself.

I do expect to have at least a "proof of concept" demo within a few months. It may not have sound or a moving background, but i expect to see tux running around the screen and have some enemies walking on screen to.

[Archer]

I have modified my helloworld_demo and replaced the background with ice-blue colors, and the purple "creatures" are replaced by big-tux and small-tux. And i disabled the annoying sounds. I think that demo looks a lot more interesting now.

[N.Saibot]

Looks promising, please keep posting when you make some progress!

[Archer]

Looks promising, please keep posting when you make some progress!

Thanks, i will be working on Gentile for a few days to make the conversion of the graphics easier. Details on that can be followed in the "Tile and Sprite editor" thread, it would be too much off topic to discuss here.

It might take a few days before i have something new on SuperTux

[Sik]

You may want to start working on the structure to hold the player data and render that sprite? (and get rid of all the hello world stuff... no need to have all that in the background)

Some stuff you may want to store for now:

• Horizontal coordinate
• Vertical coordinate
• Horizontal speed
• Vertical speed
• Direction (facing left or right)
• Flag to mark you're stepping on solid ground

What you could try right now:

• Acceleration when walking
• Friction when not walking
• Which direction you're facing
• Some simple animation code

What you can do once you have a test map:

• Collision against map
• Gravity (vertical acceleration)

By the way, you can determine which animation to use based on the variables of the player. Some simple example:

if (!player.onground)
   sprite = SPRITE_JUMP;
else if (player.speed)
   sprite = SPRITE_RUN + (animtimer >> 2 & 7);
else
   sprite = SPRITE_IDLE;

(the >> 2 is to avoid that animation from going too fast, tweak stuff as you see fit, the above is just an example)

I guess you get the idea.

[Archer]

I only used the code of hello world because it was easier to just replace the sprites, but you are right and in the next version it will be gone. I need to get some images converted before i start on the game itself. I want all small-tux sprites, the "iceworld" map sprites, and the bonus block converted. Then i can build a test map with a few bonus blocks and a gap to jump over, it will be the "sandbox" to develop the movements, collusions and animations.

Thanks for your suggestions, i will use them when i continue.

[Archer]

I could not wait for the actual graphics so made some "stand-in" tiles, and made a simple playfield. In this demo Tux slides over the "snow covered ice" and on the right there is a gap to jump over. there is no gravity yet so if you don't jump nothing happens. I think the jump speed is wrong, but it's my first attempt. The "HelloWorld" code is now removed, and replaced by a virtual wireframe of 16x16 blocks to give an idea of the scale.

So, try it out

[Chilly Willy]

Not bad for a start. One issue is you can still control his direction after jumping... so it's more like flying.

[N.Saibot]

But that's not an issue, it is a feature. One thing that always annoys me in platformers
is, when you CAN'T control the direction after you jump.

The jump animation looks, like you are hitting some border with your head. Would be
nice if the animation could be slown down at the highest point of the jump, so the
change from going up to going down doesn't come so abruptly.

[Sik]

To be fair it looks like he didn't even implement the proper physics yet... There is no acceleration at all (horizontal or vertical).

Also why jumping only with A? D: I'd use A and C for jumping and B for dash/shoot.

[TmEE]

A must remain jump, otherwise I need to use my controller with A and C swapped :P

[Sik]

Technically the right thing would be to provide configurable controls... As long as he doesn't do something stupid with that it should be fine =P

[chessage]

... and if possible the music...

Which sound utilities will you be using?

[Archer]

..you can still control his direction after jumping..

I just tried this in the original, and you are right. While jumping the direction should not be changed, but forward motion can be slowed down. In Project MD you can change the direction during the jump. I think it's very usefull if you make a jump but want to correct an error, but i will look at a few other games and see how they handle it.

But that's not an issue, it is a feature. One thing that always annoys me in platformers
is, when you CAN'T control the direction after you jump.

The jump animation looks, like you are hitting some border with your head. Would be
nice if the animation could be slown down at the highest point of the jump, so the
change from going up to going down doesn't come so abruptly

You are right about the border at the top, i noticed in the orignal that Tux seems to float a little while and i tried to do the same. The code right now is very inefficent, i just wanted too have tux make a jump, float a short period and then go down again.

To be fair it looks like he didn't even implement the proper physics yet... There is no acceleration at all (horizontal or vertical).

Also why jumping only with A? D: I'd use A and C for jumping and B for dash/shoot.

...
Technically the right thing would be to provide configurable controls... As long as he doesn't do something stupid with that it should be fine =P

Physics are not implemented yet, i will have to look into that. I just made a quick new demo and wanted it to be more like a game, instead just a moving sprite. I know it's not perfect yet but i have to start somewhere.

As for the controls i will keep configurable controls in mind when cleaning up the current code.

Which sound utilities will you be using?

I really don't know that yet. Graphics are "easy" too me, so i made a tile editor to do the dirty work. But for sound i would not know where to start. I have read documentation on the POKEY audio chip in the ATARI 800XL, and barley understood how it works. I would like a good genesis specific audio utility but i don't understand it enough to make one myself.

The audio files of SuperTux 2 are in ogg format, which i believe is much like MP3 and WAV audio samples. SuperTux 1 uses MOD files and i could open and play them in Milky Tracker.

Thats the reason i said "... if possible the music ...". Getting the music in will be great, i just have to learn how to do that first. I want to have the first level completely working before i start thinking about putting the music in.

[Sik]

You are right about the border at the top, i noticed in the orignal that Tux seems to float a little while and i tried to do the same. The code right now is very inefficent, i just wanted too have tux make a jump, float a short period and then go down again.

Just implement gravity (vertical acceleration). Jumping would then basically changing the vertical acceleration to make Tux go upwards.