Level editor update!

Had a nice few hours to work on updating the level editor some more.  It now works similar to the GUI Editor, however I haven't quite gotten it to load up the images and such for the level.  It's taking a bit longer to get that done, but the information is all present and accounted for.  Apparently I somehow messed up and don't have an origin for my scene objects...I guess I assumed upper left hand corner works.  We shall see...

Anyway, it's coming along really well.  I got LOTS done today, along with a few major updates to the level editor.  Despite being major updates, the format hasn't changed, which is great.  But I finally found a way to get an ordered pair together from xml, and it was one of those *facepalm* moments, when it's like "that would work much better than this..."  I kind of set it up like the saving of ordered pairs...which yes, it's obvious that's the best thing to do, but originally I was dealing with individual ordered pairs, rather than vectors.  Now, since I'm working directly with a vector class (which has an x and a y for those of you who don't know) I basically just return a vector once I hit the base case, which is the end element for the given value, like Position, or Scale...

This little move saved me about 100+ lines of code, which is great, but it also allowed for reusable code which is awesome for oop languages.  :-D

Also, I pulled another trick out of my sleeve by extending the parsers to save, as well as load.  I know that's not too different, but this helped me out, because I could override other functions to make them more efficient without directly changing the parser library.  Once I found a good build that works, I just copy pasta back into the library, build it, then move the dll.  ^_^  Worked wonders.

Good news, today I'm beginning work on the level editor.  The GUI Editor is pretty much complete, and the operations and objects function properly in the program.  I'll be working on creating sliders, and value bars as well, eventually.  It should be interesting to see how this turns out after a while.

I'm also doing my sleep study on monday...quite nervous about that, especially since it's from 9 pm to 6 am, and for most people that know me, that's about...5 hours after i wake up.  So right now I'm going to try and work on my sleep schedule.  Today I'm going to wait until 4 pm or so before I go sleep, and then the next day 9 pm, and hopefully after that I'll sleep around 9.  We shall see...No promises right now.

Arguing with myself, but not Jeff Dunham...

Updated my "Song of the day" list to have my spotify playlist that I'm listening to.  Right now it's LIES GREED MISERY by Linkin Park in their latest album.  It's definitely not my favorite album, but still good song.  That song sounds a bit like something AWOLNATION would do...

Anyway, the program's been slightly updated...I'm working on documentation right now, trying not to go too crazy.  I ended up changing a lot from my visio file, but it's still pretty similar.  I'm not sure if I can post the visio file on here...if I can I will, otherwise, I'll probably it into a PDF/.png file and post it.  It's quite complicated right now, however there's SO much more I need to do...I need to find a way to make the player information, and the sprite, and a few other things...I need to find a way to separate the sprite from the player information class, but still keep them connected.  It's a fucking mess.  Hell, I might as well make the player sprite something completely different.  But then there's the problem of collisions, and how objects react to the player, stuff like that.

I'm thinking one possible idea would be to completely separate the player, enemies, and the scene...that might work.  I already have the scene manager, which can contain all the scene objects.  Then the player manager, then an enemy manager.  That would probably work really well.  Gotta figure out if it's going to be threaded with the game, or if it's going to be separate though, like the Scene Manager...I'm thinking separate, because of my camera class, which is used to translate objects to the right place based on where the camera is.

I was also thinking about making a nifty background, probably something automated like Mario.  Make it basically a cutscene that acts like a game.

Speaking of cutscenes, I also need to figure out how to do the cutscenes as well.  I'm thinking something like a bit of code that executes commands after specific times or events, such as hitting enter, escape etc.  Then I could just make some xml that dictates different events...something like moveTo with the x, y  position, object id, speed, and a few other things...Then that would need another tool.  -_-  Eventually I'll have an entire game as a tool.  *le sigh*  But that provides an interesting twist at least.  The program will be editable from a player stand point, which allows for very limited modding.

Also, been watching Battlestar Galactica, the newer version, and it's VERY good so far...I'm really hoping to get into the old BSG once I'm done watching the new one.  ^_^  I'm just starting to really get into sci fi's so wish me luck.

Herpa Derp! I have no title for now...

After almost 6 days now, I've come back to say...I'm playing Terraria, leave me alones!  :-O  I've been playing a lot lately, unfortunately it's about as much fun as minecraft, if not more, because of the large amount of content in the game.  I've also been looking at different ways to make a GUI for the program through Terraria, because my idea for the game is similar...not the same at all, but similar to Terraria, gameplay wise, and a few other things...but it's definitely not another world builder type game.  I'm not quite talented enough for that yet.

Also, I will be creating a wordpress blog eventually to ummm...well...make life a little lazier I suppose.  My nook has a wordpress app, so I can make a wordpress blog, and blog from my nook, which would be awesome.

I will need to focus some more on The Secret World as well, because apparently I'm now officially a douche nugget according to K, which is really sad, so I need to focus on that as well.  Terraria, TSW, Dead Island, Plants Vs. Zombies, Assassins Creed 2, Ratchet and Clank All 4 One, Vessel, Borderlands, and Diablo 3...Those are all the games I need to play...@_@  Vessel is rather meh...I think the concept was cool, but the execution is rather boring.  Borderlands is just fun as hell.  Ratchet and clank I've had for like...6 months, and have yet to beat, AC2 I need to return to Summer.  PVZ I still need to get achieves, and complete the second playthrough...Diablo 3...well...hard to say right now, but I still play it sometimes.  Dead Island I just got from Jossi, thanks dood!!!  And Terraria is fucking amazing.  TSW is good, very well made for a just starting MMORPG, I'm just not in the heavy story mood I suppose.

Anyway, I'm going to try and make a list of things that need to be completed in my program, try to organize it, and break it down into smaller sections, then even smaller if I need to.  Then start working on the tasks...cause there's still lots to do...I'm also going to go for something that looks a bit (not as low detail) like Terraria.  Something with like...36x36 being small sprites, and 128x128 being large sprites.  Going by powers of 2 is rather convenient imho.  But I need to make most of the images as well, so that's going to be a pain.  I'll be bugging Eric too...*rubs hands together and laughs evilly*

Large ideas for my project...I need to get the Objects system running, and a Level Editor of sorts.  I have the list of all the objects I want to make, however, something I learned with the GUI is that I essentially have to do double the work if I want to have a level editor.  At the same time, I also need the level editor...period.  There's just too much information I would put into the XML files without breaking my finger tips.

More excellent news!

I just got the game system set up to have an options menu!  ^_^  First successfully created options menu that actually changes important stuff!  I had to change a few things in order to get it to work, so I'll have to add those to my Visio file and word file now.  @_@  It's nice keeping notes, but my god, having pages and pages of notes is so difficult to read through, and change things, add things, remove things etc...It's just a pain in the ass...despite being very important to my system of organization.

Speaking of my system of organization, I like to have Visio, Word, and 2 applications open in Visual Studio 2010 when I'm working on my program...along with chrome, msn messenger, skype, google talk, steam, and Spotify.  (Wish I could get that damn spotify button thingy, so I can add music to my blogger automatically...If anyone knows how to do that tell me!  I must know NAO!)  o.o  Anyway, aside from that, things are going well on the program.

Oh, and one little tidbit to my readers...Did you guys know that Terraria was built with XNA 4.0?  And same with Bastion.  It's apparently a very powerful tool to learn.  ^_^

Also...Eric was on a CBS video.  ^______^  Was pretty awesome.

Editor Update!

Alright, so I've gotten my GUI editor working mostly.  Unfortunately the last couple of days have been devoted to other subjects, like cleaning the house, and homework, however I'm glad to say that the GUI Editor now saves all the data, adds new objects to a specific GUI, can create new GUI's, and can change the name of the GUI!  So kudos for me, but there's still much more to be done on it.

Also, I now have the code in for a checkbox.  Still working on getting it right, but for now it works like a charm.  The checkbox will be used for things like vertical sync, full screen, or other things...really simple on/off stuff that I'll add to the game.  I just need to get the GUI's made, which should now be MUCH easier.

One little thing I've run into though that I need to fix...I need to run multiple GUI's at the same time.  If I do this, I think I can just have a gui.add() function that adds another GUI on top of the one I already have, as a list, or stack...stack would probably be more efficient, because then I can just pop the last one, and it goes back to the original GUI.  The problem that may come in though is the layering...cause most of these objects work on a very limited amount of layers.  i.e. 0.8-1.0...where 1 is the very front, and 0 is the very back.

Anyway, so that means I'll probably have a few more methods in the GUI Manager, and remove the LoadGUI method, prolly just use gui.Push, gui.Pop, and gui.Clear methods.  Would make things a bit easier, and if I need to I can do some coding behind that.  This might also imply I have a stack of lists of GUI Objects...o.o  which is going to get confusing.  The update method will look something like this...

foreach(List<GUIObject> glst in guis){
foreach(GUIObject gobj in glst){
glst.update();
}
}

Where guis is the stack of lists.  Doesn't seem like it'll be much of a pain at least...I'm glad that C# containers, including arrays, allow foreach loops...makes things far easier to work with than having to use a regular loop.

Anyway, enjoy the music of the day, it's from one of my many favorite video games, Borderlands.  ^_^

Another excellent update.  I have the system set up to now temporarily save data and dynamically (by use of a button atm...) update the GUI!  So I can basically set the data I want, and it will actually update to the GUI editor!!  ^__^  It makes me very happy.  Once I can permanently save the GUI files, I'll have my very first game tool.  It's not very versatile, because it needs to have the folders and files hard coded into it, but it's not bad for my first one.  I'm hoping tomorrow will be my first day with the tool finished, but no promises there.  School's going to be a bitch this session, so I have to focus on that (whether I like it or not.  -_-)

Allan! Why hast thou forsaken gaming?!

I blame Eric for this...But, the beauty of it is, it's a testament to my skills with programming.  ^_^  I now have a working system for displaying my GUI, and showing all the information about it.  Now I need to work on saving new, edited, and old information all in one.

Why Eric...Why did you have to tell me about Allan???

Picture updates ftw!!!

As the title states, there are pictures in order tonight!  I got the GUI Editor set up, it's not displaying the GUI, but it's properly displaying all the information I need it to.  I have 3 GUI files, it displays 3 GUI files...each file has about 3-4 items, and it displays the appropriate amounts!  I'm excited to present to you, my GUI Maker 3000!!!  Kidding, it's still in the super pre-alpha stage.  :-P  But soon my minion--er...readers, soon.

Alright, so pics, as promised...I wonder if it will make them small, or clog up the screen, cause my screenshots are 1080p...>.>  WHO KNOWS!  Let's try this out!

So this one is meant to show the basic startup, which allows you to select the GUI you want to work with, and gives you various buttons and stuff that makes no sense...

This is for showing the objects that load up on the left after selecting your GUI, and how it updates all the appropriate info.

Just showing off font options from the combo menu. 

And lastly texture options from a combo box.  The last two are custom data that's added to the form from the game you see in the background (Giant cyan blue thingy of doom on the right that looks super boring atm).

Anywho, it took me a while to get this up.  The beauty of this is that it uses a combination parser DLL file I made.  I say combination because it holds the level parser, settings parser, and the GUI parser, so I can access any of that through other programs, and just send it the appropriate files needed, and BAM!  It has all the data I need without having to recreate the parsers...It's beautiful.  ^_^  Once I get all the information passed to the Game client, it should be able to display and update dynamically with the data on the form.

Once I start getting more advanced GUI objects, it will be quite a bit more complicated...but for now this works.  Eventually I'd like it to work on dual screens, and have a few extra drop down menus.  Right now the drop down menus just contain a few things...

I won't stop believin'!

I love today's song of the day...it's a good version.  I still absolutely love the original Journey song though...Journey was amazing.  Anyway, I have some organizational road blocks that I've got to figure out.  Fortunately I can wait a bit before actually needing to worry about them.  I'm focusing on getting the GUI to work, along with a series of test states that are changed based on GUI buttons, check boxes, and what have you...

I'm really trying to get this to work, I'd like to get an options menu that changes the preferred width/height of the screen, as well as adjusts full screen.  And then based on whether you cancel or apply/accept, it will change the screen.  :-)  Once I get that down, I'll need to be able to switch to the main game mode and load up the main level.

So, once I get the high level GUI objects working and the state switching, I'll start working on mid level to high level object design.  I already have the diagram of all the scene object classes drawn up, just need to implement them and their methods.  I have some kind of organization to this, which is nice, and I'm sure that once everything's written down, it'll be a bit easier to know what to do, and how to do it.  Anyway, that's it for now, later!

5 Days later...@_@

Alright, so a bit late on the update but, there's really nothing new to say...the program is still in development, and is currently organized better now, and it seems to be fairly efficient.  I'm sure it's got its flaws here and there, but it works for now.

I got the GUI parser working, along with interactive GUI objects.  I need to make their children, like buttons, and various other things...Thinking about making slide bars, should be interesting...using a slide bar for things like volume for instance is rather convenient.  I would also like to make some drop down menus later, but i'm sure that will be a lot more complicated...

Anyway, I'm working on developing the GUI parser some more.  Once I get that working, I can get a start menu made.  Will be awesomely epic.  ^_^  Once I can get the program to switch states, I can set up the player and a few other things as well.  I think if I can get the game to switch states correctly, and display all the images needed, that will give me a good idea if this organization is working, because that requires a lot of inter-code dependencies between several managers and the main.  This will help me understand a bit more of how I could improve the game and expose less in code.

As for parsers, I still have a few more to do...I know I need the level parser, and I want to update that to allow for multiple files, not just one, like the GUI Parser is set up now.  This would help me out by organizing the level info a bit better.  I also (later once the game is all awesomified) need to make a save game/load game parser as well.  That's fairly simple, plenty of resources out there on how to create .sav files in XNA.  I also need to work on a background parser, which gets the info for all the background images, and various other things that are never interacted with.

Good news!

Alright, so the good news is...I finally have a direction with my program!  It's very exciting for me, and looks to be a very unique idea.  A steampunk platformer RPG with custom weapon creation!  :-D  Very very very very distant from the original idea, but I want to use this as my final project, so it will need to be different.  And I think that as Eric noted before, it would probably be best if we lived nearby to actually get a game rolling...we just don't have the right type of communication online for a group project, and we get easily distracted with video games.

Either way, I've been working on the project documents, got a few class diagrams done, and a decent GDD.  If you don't have the link you're SOL, cause I'm not posting it on a very public area.  Thhbbbbbbbt!  Now...as for any updates on the program...It's still alive and mostly kicking.  Currently just sitting there staring at the user and drooling, but alive.  Comatose perhaps, but alive.  I just have to add on some flesh, and perhaps a few organs here and there.  I don't want it to reproduce though, so it will be immediately neutered, boy or girl...Yes this may stunt its growth and give it a fairly high pitched voice, but it'll do the function it's supposed to do dammit!