Inverse Game Design
Inverse Game Design
~ A series of projects intended to build out the basic feature set of most game genres, and make them available to everyone. Genres covered in the project will be RPG(Project X), RTS(GURTS), and FlightSim. Yes,there will be a network module for each. No don’t ask me for it now (!).
Remember: The online versions are built from the download files, but do not have all features when running in a web browser. This is the nature of running an application above the interactive layer versus at the OS level.
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Project X (August 2006 version) - The figure/ground relationship in an RPG.Project X (rpg) now has collision detectio and variable addressing for character, ‘monster’ and ‘powerup’ items. You can ‘fight’ a monster until its health reaches zero, or if you expend too much health you can walk over a powerup and retore yourself to 100. This is jumping ahead a little, but I saw a neat and clean way to add this, so there it is. |
You can still paint the landscape with the paint app in the lower right, and drop items (red: ‘power-up’, blue:’monster’)Yes the character is taken directly from the ray-casting demo to save time.Note that the herky-jerkyness is from the bonesplayer. Improvements to the model will happen happened on the train in the spring when it is easier to tablet 3-button, and gamepad. The PS/2 gamepad work is nearly complete, just need to re-work centering. The rest is done, and works great. I will post that version when I repair the camera chase below: I Have temporarily removed camera control, since the chase maths need some clean up.
View the file online: HERE
(If the cursor XTRA fails to load, skip it.)
Designer notes are at the bottom of this page.
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Lingo Character Control& Ray- casting Demo How can I use Lingo to control my character, walk around, or otherwisetake direction from the user? How can I have my character walk around on a surface, and remain above it? What is Ray-casting and how do I use it?Why show a potential employer stills or an animation, when you can put your character in an environment and let the reviewer “play” with it? |
Build your character around this skeleton, and this code will work for you. The bonesplayer within Director will work with your exported .w3d file and all the keyboard commands as well.
View the file : HERE
Download the Maya file: SOON
Download the Source Code: SOON
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Lingo Space Explorer How does Lingo control 3d objects in a 3d world? What is the relationshipin position and orientation?Lingo Space Explorer lets you manipulate an object in a 3d space createedin Macromedia Director.Every line of code is commented, or “translated into English”.You can observe the file running, and go over the code, and see the relationshipbetween the two. |
Take pieces and parts and use it to manipulate your own imports from Maya or other 3d apps. If your buttons are a bit touchy, you may need to update your shockwave
plug-in.
View the file online: HERE
Download the Source Code: HERE
Download the world file: HERE (required)
Project X Remaining Milestones 5/2006
• Gamepad control
• Independent camera control
(that also works with above)
• Level of Detail
• Physics - Havok or Custom
• Chat/Multiplayer
√ Flexible world file
√ Usable character w/skeleton and walking animation
√ Keycode controls to walk, turn
√ Keyframe/Bonesplayer solution
_ World Physics with Havok
√ Raycasting and terrain
√ Camera control
√ perspective
√ orthographic
√ zoom in & out
via Gamepad
_ Level of Detail
√ Interpolated camera motion
√ Painting terrain elevation as per Kai Krause
√ Light colors raises terrain
√ Dark color lower terrain
√ Import DEM files
√ Camera overlays (vignetting)
√ Collision outside of Physics
√ Descriptive rollovers
√ Characters store own data
√ Rollovers trigger display of text overlay
√ Character generated text overlays (toward chat)
1/2 √ Gamepad control comparable to PS/2 Jak3 franchise
_ Parabolic motion and direct intercept, point to point
_ Chat / Multiplayer
Summary
The Gamepad work and translating mouse movement into something the Gamepad could understand took an inordinate amount of time. There are still centering issues, but I cobbled somethign together the other day that should resolve them. It adds another layer between the controller and the game, and compensation will be had by increasing the sample rate. Glad I saved those ticks earlier. The Gamepad work of course broke the camera controls, since I will require the second stick to move the camera like everyone else.
Level of Detail is reliant on modelling a terrain and not generating one in code.The command only works on #file data types. I will resolve this when I make the revisions to the model/skeleton and IK of the figure. It is almost time to revisit Havok integration, we’ll see when I feel up to it. It is second from the bottom only above multiplayer. I’ve been kicking out a lot of chat stuff recently so that is not an issue. Macromedia is in the middle of changing the entire FlashCom structure, so I may not want to continue in that direction for multiplayer work. The dust will settle shortly.
Long live the garage!