Stray Dog Strut

Just a short update before I skip off to visit Falling for the weekend.

I haven’t made much progress with my game(s) this week owing to a creeping feeling of fatigue and some rather unpleasant and frequent headaches..however I did fix the bug where my characters were ‘moonwalking’ whenever they changed direction and sometimes disappearing altogether for a few seconds.

It seems that having the left/right/up/down walk cycles seperated in Director’s cast library caused the last image to appear (hence the moonwalking) and the space between the walk cycles was the reason for the disappearance. So I put the images sequentially together with no spaces and it seems to work. Now they don’t vanish except when moving diagonally (technically moving up/down and right/left to chase the player) but it’s a minor glitch that I may not fix.

Now the reason for this post: Mucking around with my new PSP (pictures soon) I found a tutorial on puting flash games on your PSP. In my case it didn’t work because the USB lead I got is knackered, however the tutorial pointed me in the direction of a great little flash game: Bowman 2.

As the above image (and game title) suggests, it’s a little bow and arrow game where the objective is to shoot the opposing player (computer or human). You click and drag to set the power and angle and then release to let fly your pixelated arrow of death. The animations are simple but quite humorous (getting an arrow sticking out of your head is especially smirk-worthy) and there’s also bird shooting and target practice modes. It’s all purely abstract fun – little stick men – and it just adds to the charm.

Leading on from that game, I discovered a nice little sniping game by the name of Tactical Assassin 2. Again, those evil stick men must be stopped and the simple style works well.

It’s a little too easy – I only got stuck when I shot the wrong ‘object’ – but there are nice little touches like the movement of the crosshairs due to your breathing/nerves. I was really impressed with the whole shop section where you can buy new weapons (although simply using the starting rifle has no problems) and the sound effects and music are really good. Overall it’s a nice little shooter and it’s given me a few ideas for a similar Director incarnation. Watch this space.

The brief: write a sonnet (14 lines) using your own words and lines from other texts. It doesn’t have to rhyme or use iambic pentameter. (The following is in Shakespearian style – abab cdcd efef gg – but without iambic pentameter)

John

‘Mince and tatties’ and mushy peas
Crossed words by the green baize
Old pictures that I’ll always see
Memories of you on summer days
Winter night sing songs by fire’s side
Your rich baritone held fast a crowd
A creeping suffering you did bravely hide
There’s nobody singing to me now
Cold hospital bed, at each side family lined
Heaven only seems a step away
To preserve your memory, I stubbornly declined
In the Giant’s garden we no longer play
Summers since, never the same
Heaven’s glad you came

Lines:

“Old pictures that I’ll always see” – ‘Yesterdays’ by Guns N’ Roses
“There’s nobody singing to me now” – ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ by The Verve
“Heaven only seems a step away” – ‘You Give Me Something’ by Jamiroquai
“Heaven’s glad you came” – ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” by Michael Jackson

Where do I begin? Today has seen my complete and utter failure as a supposed games designer. Today was deadline day for the 2D game we were tasked to create. I missed the deadline.

I started so well all those weeks/months ago, slowly accumulating knowledge of Director MX 2004 piece by piece. I was working on a tile based strategy game (which later morphed into more of an arcade game). After long hours of study I got a map to tile based on the data in a text member. I got collision working and, my greatest challenge, mouse click movement. It wasn’t perfect but damn I put a lot of hours in.

I implemented a squad selection system via the tab and number keys. I added enemy patrols and aggression towards the player (again, the result of many all-nighters). I got the character sprites to cycle through cast members when moving to give the illusion of life. I made my characters using Poser for a a semi-realistic look. I got the player to start shooting bullets at a predetermined range. I made weapon pickups and I implemented a nice inventory system that let you cycle through items (again, only after some very frustrating experiments!).

That was as far as I got..I simply ran out of time. I managed to add start, briefing and game over screens but I didn’t get a chance to include any sound. It was all for nothing anyway, I scribbled together the report and even then still missed the deadline. In the end I overcomplicated things and overestimated far too much what I could realistically achieve in the time frame. I also had CD problems, printing problems, you name it, but in the end it all came down to one thing: bad time management on my part.

Needless to say I’m feeling quite low today. I get to resit the coursework over the summer but my mark will be capped at 40% and I’m really just frustrated with myself for missing the deadline after so much work. Last night I was at the stage where my hands were shaking from sleep deprivation and I found myself blacking out every so often, only to jerk suddenly awake again and fix whatever garbage I had typed.

It’s not the end of the world but it feels like it.