Here's the log during the development of Alexander, a multi-level tile based platform game and I'm doing all of it.
Coding, graphics, sound, building levels, ideas and testing. The good thing with this is that I am involved
in every moment of the game creation, that's given me experience already. The downside with it
is mainly time and quality. With a family my spare time is limited, and since I am a coder my
sound and graphics skills could be better. But I hope they will be at the end of this project :-) My intention
with this page is to write about the projects progress. Sadly I did not take notes from the very beginning
so some of the game creation struggles are forever lost in the wind. What the heck, let's get started!
May 3, 2011
Today I released over 700 graphics elements for public domain. Most of them are 64 * 64 tiles.
See the download section for download and preview of some of the graphics.
April 21, 2011
The game is now released! Download it from the download section. I am planning to release
graphics from the game (and some which never was used in it) in the near future for public domain.
Over 650 graphics elements (most of them tiles and animated tiles) will be released. I hope you will
find them useful.
April 20, 2011
Getting close to release now! I have received reports that two different antivirus programs detect
false positives on the game binaries. An antivirus program named Jiangmin version 13.0.900 with
definitions from 2011-04-18 detects Trojan/PSW.QQSender.av or Worm/Autorun.xpx. The other
antivirus program is Ikarus T3.1.1.103.0 with definitions from 2011-04-20 which detect something
called Backdoor.Win32.hostil.
I want to point out that both these detections are false positives and luckily the other 39 antivirus programs
that scanned my game considered it clean.
April 14, 2011
Passed alpha release testing without any showstoppers.
April 11, 2011
An internal alpha release has been built and testing has started.
April 8, 2011
Most of the dead code is cleaned up and the static code analysis has been rerun without any
issues. Some dead code is kept for possible future improvements that I really wanted in the first
release, but the performance impact shouldn't be too high.
April 6, 2011
The game is now finished from a feature point of view. Next step is to clean up some dead
code and rerun the static code analysis.
April 3, 2011
Added code to handle lost devices correctly. I have been working on this game for a couple of years
now and have decided that it is time to finish it up so I can start working with other projects. As a
consequence the fifth level will be removed and some minor glitches will probably exist in the final release.
The plan is to have a first alpha release ready in a couple of weeks. All finished tiles for the fifth level will
be included in the public domain release after the game is released.
March 13, 2011
Tested the current source code with a static source code analysis tool called CppCheck version 1.47.
The current source code passed without any remarks, I never belived that it would pass right away!
March 8, 2011
Released the source code for public domain for the DXDemo I made back in 2005. It's not rocket
science and it was my first DirectX application, but it can still be useful for newbies that want to
see how it can be done. It shows a background picture with some sprites flying around with a vu
meter and some music as well. Check it out in the download section!
March 1, 2011
The light in the animated tile set still needs to be improved, aargh...
February 20, 2011
Remade the animated tile set I started working on, the lightning wasn't good enough. It looks
more promising this time...
February 4, 2011
I'm still working on the animated tile set, and I've made some progress with it. If I have time to work with it
as planned the tile set will be finished within a week. I don't want to publish too many of the tiles before the
final release of the game, because I want to be the first one that uses them :) But don't worry, they are planned
for release for public domain after the game is released!
January 30, 2011
Continued working on the animated tile set.
January 22, 2011
Started working on some animated tiles for the fifth level.
January 3, 2011
Squashed more bugs and improved some logic.
January 1, 2011
Continued with some more corrections after the rewitten gravity code.
December 31, 2010
More corrections was made due to the rewritten gravity code. Happy new year all of you!
December 29, 2010
Corrected a few bugs that was introduced with the rewritten gravity code. There are still a
bunch of glitches to fix due to the changed gravity code, but overall it feels more stable then before.
December 26, 2010
Merry X-mas everybody! As stated earlier I have been occupied with other stuff lately, but the
plan is to continue with the development in the next few days.....At least I've made several major
updates to the development environkment.
November 13, 2010
I have been involved in other projects lately, but will continue where I left in the next
two or three weeks.
October 16, 2010
Made a few changes to improve the menu system.
October 11, 2010
The level music for the fifth level has been completed.
October 2, 2010
Started working on the music for the fifth and last level.
September 22, 2010
On September 13 1985, Super Mario Bros was released in Japan. It's 25 years ago!
Happy birthday!
September 11, 2010
All the levels are now reviewed and corrected after the gravitation change, but I may still have to
fine-tune some details to improve the result. The splash-screen code is also updated, it now
works as expected on x64.
September 5, 2010
I noticed that the gravitation code change affected some other stuff, so I have to go through all finished
levels and make minor changes where needed. These changes are planned as soon as possible. Digital
signatures are also planned for the download area, coming soon!
August 29, 2010
Switched hosting for the site. I had some problems with the old host and the change is now
completed. I hope this will be better.
August 23, 2010
The gravition code is now rewritten and optimized, and it works better and faster then before. There are
still some tuning to be done but several bugs were fixed with the rewritten code.
August 21, 2010
Most of the gravitation code is now rewritten but it was more complex then I first thought,
so the old glitches are now fixed but I have created a couple of new ones :-) It still feels a bit
flat as well but I haven't really fine-tuned the gravity yet so that was expected.
I'll try to look into it in a couple of days or so...
August 17, 2010
Fixed a bug that caused some glitches for the player. I started to rewrite most of the
gravitation and object-to-tilemap collision code that was a bit inefficient and caused some
annoying glitches. I hope I won't regret this, since it affects major parts of the "feeling" of the game
and stability.
August 10, 2010
The fourth level is completed from an object point of view. I've seen an intermittent bug in this level
for some of the objects. I hope this bug won't be a pain in the ass to squash.
August 8, 2010
Added some objects to the fourth level. Also created some new tile graphics.
August 5, 2010
Added some new functionality and logic. All that is left now is some polishing on this level and I'll
consider it done. Fixed a bug that affected another level. The number of known bugs are now down
to four, so it is getting better as well.
August 2, 2010
Finished another animated tile for the current level. I have to add some new functionality and logic
to finish the level.
July 26, 2010
Continued working on the fourth level and added objects to it. I just have to finish a few more tiles
and add some logic to it and wrap it all up...
July 23, 2010
Added some new objects to the fourth level that turned out pretty good, it just needs a little polishing
first. I did also have time to create some more sound effects and correct some of the game logic.
July 20, 2010
Continued working on the fourth level, I've created some new tiles I want to try out as well.
July 19, 2010
After quite some time I have now started working on the fourth level again. The plan is to have it finished
within a few weeks or so...
July 12, 2010
The splash screen code now performs better on x64 environment, it's not perfect but it work...
July 9, 2010
The joystick/joypad support has been removed and is planned for a later project. For the
moment I am trying to improve the splash screen code in MCI for Win7 x64, it looks a
bit odd on that platform.
July 6, 2010
The USB ports are changed and the computer works as expected, so I am starting
the development again. It seems like I have to remove the joystick code in raw input and save
it to later since it takes too much time to do it now. Sad, but I have to finish this project.
June 28, 2010
You may have noticed that things are not moving forward as before. It has a reason of course.
One of my sons have smashed one of the USB front ports on the dev computer! This made the
USB overcurrent protection active and turns the computer off, so the development has stopped
completely for a few days. I'm waiting for new ports from Antec in the snail-mail within a week
or so.....I hope the new ports will make the developer computer a bit happier.
June 21, 2010
Started working on the fifth and last level. I have got a basic idea of how the level should look,
but it isn't written in stone yet, I am still evaluating different ideas...
June 8, 2010
Haven't really had the time to do much at all lately. But I plan to start things up again within a
week or so...
May 23, 2010
I'm still having problems with the Directshow filters and raw input that I am working on,
still reading up on both and trying to fix the problems I am having. Created a couple of tiles
that will be needed in the future. Oh, Pac-Man recently celebrated 30 years since it's release!
Happy birthday! The creator Toru Iwatani has shared some of the original concept sketches
for the game here. And they still look fresh!
May 15, 2010
Adding the filter code to the existing code wasn't as easy as I first thought. But I hope I'll have
it fixed soon.
May 14, 2010
Started experimenting with Directshow filters as I want to replace my current implementation
that uses MMIO. I'll let you know if I get it running...
May 9, 2010
I am still trying out how each device sends its data, this was more complicated
then I first thought.
May 2, 2010
Enumerated the joystick data and it wasn't all that similar to the gamepad data that I had hoped
for. Read through a bunch of documents here but I didn't really find a solution there either. The
data received seems to be different even within gamepads and joysticks, so I need a way to find
out how the actual data is sent for each device. Gah!
April 29, 2010
Tested the gamepad and joystick support code on a joystick but they don't seem to use
the same bit fields for buttons and stuff as the gamepad. Why am I really surprised by this?
I should have learned by now that some kind of standard in this area would be too easy!
At least left and right works in the same way, but I am jumping with the throttle control for the moment
and that wasn't really what I had in mind. I have to do something about this so I'll make a new enumeration
with the joystick and see what I'll find within a couple of weeks. I have still some work to do
before the current level is finished.
April 28, 2010
Fine-tuned the gamepad support so it works a bit better.
April 24, 2010
Fixed some minor things in the gamepad support as well as another bug. I'll test the
joystick support as soon as it arrives.
April 22, 2010
The gamepad support is implemented and seems to work as expected, the are some minor things
left but it is working. I'll buy a joystick and implement support for that as well.
April 17, 2010
Most of the coding for the joystick/gamepad support is written, but the information I have found
for the data reurned for the devices seems to be incorrect so I have to investigate all the data devices
return. The plan from the beginning was to use the USB HID usage tables found here but they are
incorrect or at least insufficient. This means I have to buy a USB joystick as well since I only own a
gamepad because I think the data returned from the devices may be different.
April 15, 2010
Started working on the support for joystick and gamepad, this is going to be fun! I haven't found
very much documentation for it from Microsoft so this is a bit exiting!
April 7, 2010
Fixed yet another sporadic bug that affected the player..
March 29, 2010
Corrected a sporadic bug that affected the player under certain conditions.
March 21, 2010
Finished a couple of tiles and continued populating the fourth level.
March 16, 2010
Started working with some tiles for the next level, which is planned to be the last one.
March 6, 2010
I have finished the animated tile set and tested it, and it works as expected. Created another tile set
as well. I have some new ideas on another upcoming bonus level but I'm not sure if I'm going to
realize this yet.
February 21, 2010
I have created a preliminary animated tile set that have to be tested in the current level. It may work
but will probably require some changes. It wasn't easy to use Eadweards photosets but they showed
what I wanted to know.
February 16, 2010
I have studied the walk cycle on a horse to try to get it right for this new tile set, it is actually going to
be exiting to see if this animation work!
February 7, 2010
I am starting up with a new animated tile set that is quite complex (at least for me) so I am
currently studying some photosets from Eadweard Muybridge and will hopwfully get this animated set
finished in the next two weeks, at least that's the plan right now. The tile set is an animal with four legs and
it's not that easy with the body/leg movement! Oh boy, what have I got into...
February 6, 2010
The level music for the fourth level is completed.
January 16, 2010
Population of the fourth level continues...
January 9, 2010
Continued populating the fourth level and working on the level music.
January 5, 2010
Created a number of tiles for an upcoming level and continued populating the fourth level.
January 1, 2010
I wish everyone a happy new 2010!
December 30, 2009
As I started to work with this project again in my new development environment I noticed that the
Visual Studio Express editions have the resource editor missing. Sure, it isn't the best, it's not even
good, but at least I don't have to fiddle directly in the .h and .rc files and corrupt the project. And I
bet that the .rc and resource.h files are locked since they are included in the project which forces me
to exit the IDE every time I need to add a resource. Really annoying, as I won't work quicker this way.
December 29, 2009
Started working on the music for the fourth level. I will continue to populate the level in parallell.
December 27, 2009
Working on some tiles for an upcoming level.
December 24, 2009
Merry Xmas everybody!
December 22, 2009
Well, the codec wasn't the only thing that didn't work as expected on Windows 7 x64. I have noticed
that my code that presents the splash screen doesn't work as before either. I have been recoding level
data to better fit the Visual Studio 2008 compiler and linker, so now I'll have a look at the splash screen
code which uses MCI. Microsoft also have a excellent page here to make it easier to choose the correct
SDK to install, I updated that as well to be able to target Windows 7.
December 21, 2009
Created some new tiles.
December 19, 2009
I think I'm back on the right track with the video codec again. Some final tests remains, but I think it will
work now. And it would be really nice to start the development again as I haven't touched the code since
mid-october.
December 13, 2009
It is now compiled and linked on the new evironment. One thing I noticed is that the video codec I chose
to use (the Indeo version included in XP) isn't included in Windows 7 anymore. It wasn't chosen because it
was the best, it was simply included in the operating system versions I intended to support. This means that I
have to revise my decisions and possibly include a codec, I'm not sure yet. This is something that have to be
investigated further...
December 6, 2009
Most of the development environment is finished by now. Since free video editing software doesn't grow on trees
on the Windows platform I decided to set up dual-boot with Windows 7 x64 and Ubuntu 9.10 x64.
I installed Windows 7 first and Ubuntu 9.10 afterwords on a separate disk without any problem, it works
like a charm! Microsoft has been talking about faster booting on Windows 7 but I can't really notice it.
Windows 7 x64 boots up on 50 seconds on my system (clocked from the GRUB bootloader to the desktop)
while Ubuntu handles the same thing on 25 seconds, and I even put Ubuntu on a slower disk then Windows 7!
Four of the applications I ran on Windows XP doesn't work on Windows 7 but I think I'll manage anyway.
The video editing software I am testing on Ubuntu now is Cinelerra-cv, Kdenlive and LiVES. All of them seems
to be very powerful and capable.
November 19, 2009
I am kind of half way with all installed applications by now and two of them doesn't seem to
work as expected.
November 16, 2009
The new computer is now up and running, but I still have quite a few applications to install and
set up. One application isn't working as expected in Windows 7 for the moment.
I hope the rest of them will be fully functional.
November 10, 2009
Things aren't relly going my way for the moment. I have to make some adjustments in orders for the
hardware and some changes so everything fit in the new ATX case. But I guess I have it sorted out in
a couple of days.
November 6, 2009
At last the hardware has arrived and I have started to build the new system.
October 31, 2009
Well, I'm still waiting for the hardware to arrive. My guess is that it is arriving sometime next week,
at least I hope so (drool, drool!).
October 23, 2009
I have been having so much problems with my current development computer so I have decided
to order a new one today. Not all components were in stock so mounting the hardware and building
a new development platform may take a couple of weeks. I'm also moving to Windows 7 x64 and
will upgrade to Visual Studio 2008 as well. I know, it has been around for a while. This will be a
major improvement since my current hardware has been in service for almost 10 years.
October 18, 2009
Corrected a minor bug and made some changes to the tile map and tile graphics. I'm having problems with my
second Spinpoint F1 on the development computer, not good at all. It seems like I have to switch to another
brand as soon as possible. The system is backed up but I will keep the development to a minimum for a
couple of days until this is solved...
October 12, 2009
Finished the tile map and added tile data. Began adding objects to the level. Fixed a bug which caused
some Z buffer fighting among objects.
October 2, 2009
Got a rough plan for the tile map and have started to create level 4.
September 21, 2009
Started planning the level map for the fourth level and created some additional tiles I was missing.
September 19, 2009
Finished the last animated graphics for the third level! Well, just have to tie a couple of things together on the
third level and it should be completed, at last. Even though the third level was easy to create and did not add
much new logic to speak about it took more time then I estimated from the beginning.
I guess I blame the hard disk problem and memory leak for that :-)
September 5, 2009
Created new graphics for an upcoming level.
August 30, 2009
Fixed a couple of minor bugs.
August 22, 2009
Completed miscellaneous graphics for current and future levels. Successfully compiled and linked the
code in Visual Studio 2008 as well. I am using the 2005 version today but will upgrade to a more recent
version after this project.
August 10, 2009
Fine tuned a couple of things so it look better. The collision code is also fixed so I am now setting
focus on the fourth level, adding some effects and joystick support for the second time...
August 4, 2009
The hard disk problems were solved pretty quick since I had a another drive available. It was worse that
I found a number of memory leaks in the application and was really puzzled by the symptoms for almost two
weeks before I found the cause. All memory leaks are gone and a couple of other things were improved as
well, so it was an useful exercise.
July 22, 2209
I'm currently having some hard disk problems, one of my sons turned off all computer systems and it does
not look too good, but I'm trying to resolve it as quickly as possible. This may be the cause of the bugs
I've seen lately but I'm not sure...
July 17, 2009
Made a few functional changes and some code cleaning.
July 15, 2009
A new bug appeared that affects some of the collision code, I'm working on a resolution for it but I can't
really put the finger on it just yet. As a bonus my two year old son added some source code of his own
but I think I have that sorted out...
July 7, 2009
Fixed a few bugs that annoyed me.
July 3, 2009
Finished working on the music for the third level and also finished the second and third level so they are
fully playable now. There's only some polishing left and after that I'll start working on the fourth level. Other
things in the pipeline are fun stuff like joystick support and adding a couple of effects.
June 15, 2009
Started working on the music for the third level, this song is going on your nerves!
June 13, 2009
Created some new tiles and posted a new screenshot from the game.
June 8, 2009
Created some tile for an upcoming level. Also began working on the level music for the third level.
May 31, 2009
The third level is just about finished from graphics and map point of view. I will start working on the level music
within the next couple of days. Then I have to polish the second level a bit more as well.
May 24, 2009
Started working on graphics and map for the third level.
May 18, 2009
Created additional graphics for an upcoming level.
May 13, 2009
I was a bit too quick, the Z ordering still doesn't work as I want, but almost there. Made some
more tiles and added them to the level.
May 3, 2009
At last I think I have found the reason for an annoying bug when I render objects with a Z buffer.
DirectX should handle the Z buffer for me, but seems to fail with this on certain objects at times.
The solution to the problem was to change the order some objects were rendered. Added some
more sound effects to the level as well.
April 28, 2009
Created a sound for the second level, as well as the reference tones for public use in the
download section.
April 27, 2009
Tweaking some new sounds and graphics as I want them and added some object logic as well.
The core of the second level is finished but it needs some more objects and a bit of polishing.
April 23, 2009
Created some new tiles.
April 11, 2009
Working on different sounds for the second level.
April 4, 2009
Created a bunch of tiles for an upcoming level. At last I think I know how the second level should
look and work, it has been a bit slow lately. The main reasons are lack of time and I had simply not decided
all the details on the level yet. But now almost everything is decided so I hope I can close the second level
soon.
March 24, 2009
Installed a new version of Gimp today which corrected an annoying bug I have had since the previous version.
I know, I have said it before, but these guys and girls involved in the Gimp project really rock! Microsoft released
a new version of the DirectX SDK so it was updated as well. Continued working with new tiles.
March 22, 2009
Creating some new tiles.
March 17, 2009
Planning for upcoming levels and creating some tiles.
February 26, 2009
Rewriting some code used when the player loses a life, it was a bit too simple. Unfortunately it also
affects the level info structure so I have to rebuild them as well. But it is almost completed.
February 18, 2009
Yet another graphics creation day today.
February 12, 2009
Added a simple message bar to the game to make it easier to understand clues. Until now the clues
has relied on voice samples only. So I hope this will make it easier! Continued populating the second level.
February 9, 2009
Created additional sounds and graphics.
February 1, 2009
Still adding stuff to the second level. Created some additional graphics as well.
January 29, 2009
At last I found and squashed a bug I have been investigating for the last couple of days.
Ahh, that felt great!
January 22, 2009
Corrected some logic and created additional sounds.
January 15, 2009
Continued populating the second level, but I don't have everything figured out as I had on the
first one. Working on additional tiles and sounds for a possible future level.
January 13, 2009
Added some new resources and logic to the second level. Also tested a build on the recently
released Windows 7 beta 1 release from Microsoft. They had included DirectX11 but it could not
run my DirectX 9 application so they seem to drop support for it. Also created some sounds that
may become useful later.
December 28, 2008
Created another animated tile set for a future level in the game. I'm also setting up a computer
with Ubuntu 8.10 to have another test with Wine. If I remember correctly they have also released
Direct3D dll:s for Windows which should make it possible to test compatibility within Windows
directly.
December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas!
December 14, 2008
Working with another tile, but it is not finished yet. Also upgraded my development computer with
a Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB disk. So far it is looking good. That should be sufficient for a while.
December 10, 2008
It has been slow lately but with christmas just around the corner my time has been very limited.
Well, at least I had the time to add another tile for use in the game.
December 3, 2008
Created different resources today that may be in some later levels of the game. Also updated and
tested the new version of Gimp. This program really rock!
November 22, 2008
Still examining a crash I have with a commercial sound application I use. After some debugging
the problem seems to be to be a corrupt heap block when I use specific functions in a certain way.
Sent the information and a stack trace to the developers, I hope they fix it this time. Other then that
I've been occupied making some new tiles for an upcoming level.
November 9, 2008
Back from a business trip, but sadly I didn't have any time to spend on this project during these weeks.
Tested a new patch for the sound application but it did not help so I will try to pinpoint the crash with the
information Windows spits out when the application error pops up.
October 21, 2008
Duh, the update for one of the commercial sound applications I use did not help that much, it still crashes after
using it for a while. Trying to work with their support to resolve the issue.
October 18, 2008
Two new animated tile sets are almost finished, just putting the last touches on them. Also
updated the development environment to the latest version of Gimp and Blender. Both have
some new functionality I have to test in the next few days. Also reported a bug fix on a sound
application I use. They have now created a fix I have to test as well.
October 9, 2008
Still working on the new tiles. Two new animated tiled objects are planned to be ready in the
end of next week. There were some interesting presentations at the Gamefest 2008. You can
check out the presentations here.
October 7, 2008
It seems to be a tile creation day today, some additional tiles are needed so I am working on several new
sets for the moment.
October 5, 2008
Started populating the second level at last! Also think I got the Z buffering to work as I wanted.
September 30, 2008
The HUD is now fully operational and I have made some minor changes for some other things as well.
I noticed that there are still some issues with the Z buffer sorting when handling multiple semi-transparent
tiles in front of each other so I will check it out and start populating the second level. But it will have to wait
for a couple of weeks, I am off for a trip for a couple of weeks so I'll look into it as soon as I get back.
September 23, 2008
The HUD is almost completed and it looks a bit better. I guess it is time to post a new screenshot when it
has been completed. The upgrade on the development system was successful as well. Posted SHA1 hashes
for all downloads as well.
September 19, 2008
Started working on the HUD graphics and code, it will improve the overall game look a bit. Other
things in the pipeline is to finalize the elevator code and start populating the second level. A major
upgrade of several of the development tools is also planned in the next few days.
September 15, 2008
Haven't been able to update for a while....The elevator logic now seems to work almost as I want it,
just a few glitches still to fix. I have also made a couple of minor improvements to the inventory system and
the scrolling. Time to start populate the second level soon now...
August 24, 2008
The level music is now up and running and I think it turned out pretty well. Continued working on the elevator
logic.
August 11, 2008
Still making the level music for the second level. I think it is turning out as I want it, we'll see...
Also started implementing the logic for elevators in the game. The tile map for the second level
is finished apart from some minor changes.
August 9, 2008
Started creating level music for the second level.
August 7, 2008
Finally got the animated tiles somewhat like I wanted it. Both fire and water is up and running in
the level. I will continue to add objects and logic so it's more alive, and there are still some unfinished
graphics to complete.
August 3, 2008
Fighting to get some tile animations as I like to have them. This will hopefully be sorted out in
the next few days.
August 2, 2008
The tile map for the second level is built, but I made some minor mistakes in it I have
to correct. After that the plans are adding objects and new logic to bring it to life.
Also noticed a few things in the level structure I want to change for easier level building, but
it is still uncertain if it should be implemented. I guess it's things like this that sort the experienced
game programmers out from the novice ones ;-)
July 31, 2008
Started building the second level tile map. The second level map is 50% done, after that I'll
adding objects to the level as well. This level is going to be exiting to test, it has a few new
elements such as water and fire. Also took some time to test the ArtistX bootable DVD but
I didn't like it at all. I am not interested in 30+ audio players. In my opinion it contained a lot
of programs that are useless, at least to me. The excellent applications on the DVD such as
Blender, Audacity and Gimp I already have and use on my computer or on the run on a USB
stick.
July 30, 2008
Yep you guessed it, additional tiles created today as well. The plan is to build the level map in the
next few days, most of the tiles for building a preliminary second level are done. I know, you have
already read about my affection to the Gimp program. But you have to check out Gimp Portable as
well, where you have it on a USB stick and use it wherever you need. It has been a little slow on updates
but now they have the latest 2.4.6 version available at PortableApps. Check it out!
July 29, 2008
Additional tiles for the upcoming level created.
July 26, 2008
Yet another tile creation day. Also got a tip about the ArtistX DVD distribution that are supposed to
contain lots and lots of programs useful for graphics, sound and multimedia. Downloaded it and will give
it a try in the next couple of days.
July 23, 2008
Made some new tiles for the upcoming second level.
July 22, 2008
The rough design of the second level is completed. It is going to be a fun level to complete,
with coding for some new logic and of course a bunch of new tiles.
July 20, 2008
Wrote some code for level complete and game over, it works but have to be polished before release.
Also started the planning and implementation for the second level today.
July 9, 2008
Today is a bug squashing day. Removed a couple of bugs so the list of known bugs is getting smaller
by every day now. If I hold this pace I am going to be free from known bugs in no-time! Also added
time limit functionality to the levels.
July 6, 2008
Wow, that was a long time.....almost a month since I had the time to do anything with this project.
Sat down and squashed a really annoying bug in the ladder code. Yep, I'm having a few rows of
code specific for ladders. It differs a bit with the logic for the player and the NPC objects, but I think
I got it as I want it now. Also made a new tile with Gimp, I just love that program! If you haven't checked
it out you should do it immediately!
It has been hard to keep focus on this project for the last month, but I think it is going forward again from now
on. As written earlier the first level is finished, it's just a bit of polishing left. Maybe changing a few sounds and
adding some more graphics (for player death and such things) It would be really great if I could get the almost
finished effects system up and running as well.
June 10, 2008
Created additional sound effects. I think I have most of them for the first level at least.
June 6, 2008
Added some sound effects, but I still have a few to go before it's finished.
May 5, 2008
Today was a sound FX day. This way the first game level will get more life then it currently has.
The only thing needed to close the first level now after the SFX is added is the effects handler.
April 27, 2008
Created some graphics (animated tiles) for an object in the game today. Made a quick check and found
out that I have created over 400 tiles by now! Wow, time goes fast when you have fun! Maybe I will not
use them all, we'll see...But there will be more of them. And the best part is that I plan to release them for
free for anyone to use when the game is released!
April 21, 2008
The effects handler is almost finished for the initial test, still a few things to add. After that I
have to write the shader code as well, but writing a test shader should not be a problem. Started
creating some tiles for the second level that may be useful. Added the article section as well, but
time will tell if I'll change the design...
April 12, 2008
Started working on the effects handler. I have some basic functionality to add to it before I can
start writing the HLSL code for the test effects. This is really going to be exiting! Two more sections
are coming up on the site as well: A book section with book recommendations and an articles
section with.....you guessed it, articles!
April 6, 2008
Still looking into different ways of setting up an effects handler with HLSL code with reasonable
ease and still keep it as dynamic as possible. Some initial design included fixed pipeline code but I
think I'll go for the HLSL solution instead. As of my understanding the effect and shader changes are
the most expensive changes in rendering, if this is true I might have to redesign the render code as well
to keep optimal performance. As things look right now I just set the effects handler up and profile where
possible bottlenecks are. Yes, so be it!
Went for another round of code cleaning to get rid of some old effects handling code using the fixed pipeline
as well. If I get it running as I want it will get some more sparkle.....Mmmmm, sparkle!
March 29, 2008
Fixed two memory leaks so now I don't have any leaks at all. Also started writing code for the
effects handler. It will handle things like fades and stuff like that. This component will increase the
coolness a lot if I get it as I want!
March 26, 2008
I am currently looking into ways to implement HLSL shaders into the game for some simple
effects handling. Other things in the pipeline are some animated tiles for the next level, and rough planning
for a bonus level and second level.
March 17, 2008
Fixed an annoying bug related to object scheduling and added the first sound effects to the first level!
There are still a couple of sounds to create/add to the game and two or three objects as well, but after that
the first level is fully playable and considered finished from a level-design standpoint. So my plan with a fully
playable first level in the first quarter of 2008 is correct.
March 10, 2008
Updated to the new DirectX March SDK, and at last the new Gimp 2.4.5 was released for Windows! The earlier
version had a really annoying bug with the brushes when zooming in. I think I have to try it out at once! The first level
of the game is completed, but there are still some functionality to implement and two bugs to fix first as well.
March 1, 2008
The Z buffer seems to be fixed now, with exception from some cases on the player object itself. It turned out that I
needed to turn on alpha testing as well, and disable Z buffer writes within several layers of semi-transparency
to get it right. So basically you render your opaque objects first, then disable Z buffer writes while still leaving
Z buffer testing enabled. Then render semi-transparent objects (or quads or whatever if you're in 3D). Yet
another lesson learned not mentioned in the Microsoft DirectX SDK...
February 29, 2008
Duh, I'm having problems with my Z buffer. Not all sprite layers are displayed correctly so I'm
trying different solutions now. Besides that I think the inventory system is completed, at least one
small step forward.
February 16, 2008
Started working on sound for different objects, I have a few test sounds completed. The plan is to test
the SFX code for objects as soon as I can, while adding additional sampled sounds to the game as well.
February 12, 2008
Published the first screenshot from the game in development!
February 9, 2008
Tested the current debug version of the game on Wine version 0.9.46 on Ubuntu 7.10. It didn't work out
of the box, but after reading some posts about the problem there may be a manual fix for it. I will not spend
more time on it now but definitely when it is closer to release. The tests and it's results will be posted here.
February 4, 2008
Added some more NPC life to the first level and rewrote the player respawn code, it now works much better.
It feels like I'm half way on the first level now, but have to start with the SFX sampling soon too where I have some
cool ideas to try out.
January 28, 2008
Made some tiles for upcoming functionality and tested my application without wait for vertical sync. The
debug version seems to be quick enough on my development platform. I am also planning a test with my
application on Wine on a Linux distribution as soon as I can. I'll let you know when I have tested it!
January 19, 2008
Created and added some new tiles. The inventory system is not completed yet, just a few additions in the
code left. Working on the tile map for the first level, it's not going to be too difficult.
January 7, 2008
Started building the inventory system for the player object, so the player can pick up things and use them.
It is not completed yet, but it feels like a good start. I stumbled into a new challenge, with family and kids around
there's almost never quiet here so the sound samples are not top quality :-) I will give it another shot soon, I promise...
January 5, 2008
Added a kind of game event handling, or to be more precise I rewrote it. It's a kind of delayed event handling
that tells the game logic stuff like: "Blow this bomb when 3.2 seconds have passed". The one I initially wrote was
too simple so it had to be done. The plans for now is to complete more tiles I need for the tile map to extend it and
upload a screenshot of the game as well.
January 1, 2008
Corrected the world-view transform for the objects and added Z-sorting so it now works as
expected, as well as changes in the object depth handling.
December 28, 2007
Started coding the SFX handling for game objects and started the sampling of sounds for different objects.
Created some tiles and improved an existing one. The current plans are to have a fully playable game with the
first level completed in first quarter 2008.
December 23, 2007
Created additional tile graphics.
December 10, 2007
Made some minor code changes and code cleanup for objects.
December 9, 2007
The velocity table code for the NPC:s seems to work after a first rough test, some small changes
are needed before I'm pleased with it.
December 8, 2007
Changed the tile map to include the new tile graphics. Included the first animated NPC and it seems
to work. Started working on the velocity table code for the NPC:s.
December 6, 2007
The jump and gravity code may still need some tweaking, but is getting better. Had to implement
some changes in the tile map with some additional graphics, so it was a "tile graphics creation" day
today.
December 5, 2007
Fixed a tile collision problem with the player object. The player is animated so it has dynamic
collision rectangles depending on the players frame size in the walk cycle. This in turn generated
some possibilities for "tile climbing" when jumping at a tile collision edge, but I think it is fixed now.
December 3, 2007
Updated this developer info section so it is in sync after the new site design.
November 29, 2007
Planned for, created and implemented new web site design. Most things work like expected.
November 27, 2007
Clearing an input buffer at start, some code cleaning and continued tweaking of the jump and gravity
code. May need to change my jump and velocity thinking of the player object, I'm not sure yet. The
gravity looks too mechanic.
November 25, 2007
Further tweaking of the gravity code and added jump code for the player object. Not really there yet.
November 24, 2007
Tweaking of the gravity code.
November 23, 2007
Created a first draft of the gravity code for objects, seems to work. Added code for player
emerge point, loosing a life and game over. Added additional logic for the object animation code.
November 18, 2007
Started working on gravity code for objects (player and NPC:s).
November 17, 2007
More testing and tweaking of the tile map collision. Object to object collision and object to tile
collision now seems to be fixed.
November 16, 2007
Further corrections to tile map collision routines, the collisions start to work roughly, but some
tweaking is still needed to get it as I want it.
November 15, 2007
Corrected some code in the tile map collision routines.
November 12, 2007
Continued rewriting the object to tile map collision routines.
November 10, 2007
Started rewriting object to tile map collision routine, the old didn't work very well. Updated DirectX SDK.
November 5, 2007
Created some new graphics i hope i'll use in the game levels. Had to test some new functionality
in the newly released Gimp 2.4.1. Also attended the Sci-fi fair in Stockholm, Sweden to get some inspiration.
November 1, 2007
Corrected a bug that stopped the player object animation under certain circumstances.
October 30, 2007
Removed raw input for the keyboard, and switched to GetKeyState calls instead. Now the
keyboard works as expected in play mode at last!. Kept raw input for joystick and game pad to
see if it's working.
October 24, 2007
Starts reading up on raw input and starts implementation, while thinking about the new tile map
collision. Should be split into two functions, one for checking horizontal collisions and another for
vertical. Completed raw input and it seems to work, but the same problems remain as with
KEYUP/KEYDOWN messages!
October 23, 2007
Discovered that standard keyboard reading can not be used because of keyboard delay.
Have to implement raw input for keyboard and pads in game mode. Tile map collision detection
does not seem to work as expected, so it has to be rewritten. Player object movement seems to
work as expected.
October 22, 2007
Scrolling of the world seems to work as expected. Object to object collision seem to work as well,
but collision rectangles may need to be smaller.
Before October 22, 2007
I did not start taking notes on the project before October 22, so everything that happened before
that date is coming here. I made up some kind of game idea with simple documents and concept
sketches, picked a set of tools and target environment. After that I started to work with different tools
to create resources for the game and started planning for and writing code for it. During the development
phase I have already had some challenges to get things as I wanted with fonts, sprites, DirectInput
action mapping (which I had to remove because some function calls are deprecated in Vista).
A basic game skeleton is working where I can draw the game world, it's objects and play the level
music.