A merry apocalypse and happy new year.

Reaver speaking here, I've got a little something for you.

As I was toying around yesterday I figured I'd make a little start on some very basic A.I. For that purpose I created a little enemy with the use of the standard placeholdersprite... The result was that an unpassable giant ball of placeholder-of-doom was slowly rolling towards you with Nicholas Cage's face on it.

Quite terrifying indeed.

...In fact, I'll post it soon... ish.

Also, I suppose I should actually introduce myself, since this is my first post on the blog and all:

Reaver's the name, I've got no claim to fame, only quite a few ideas and head full of chaos that occasionally spills out into reality.

...Ah yes and I'm lazy.

...Though you'll get that video.

I promise.

In time.

~ Reaver

Teamwork

Hey there, gamers! Making a game isn’t just all programming. There are lots of other things that are important when you make a game, like marketing for instance. And of course the social aspect of programming with a group: there’s always a bunch of other programmers, artists, organisational staff etc. with whom you all need to get along. Luckily at Rolling Barrel Studios we have an awesome, fun, crazy team of multitalented people. In todays blog I wanted to give you a little insight into our own version of teamwork...

On a peaceful monday afternoon, Sam and Maguell are happily discussing how to do a certain bit of coding when Peter Paul and me hijack the discussion.

Sam: I think we should use per pixel collision checking, or at least consider it for the playerobject.

Maguell: Maybe but we should consider how processer intensive that is, we wouldn't want fps drops.

Hasse: I agree with Maguell, it should be playable for the player.

Peter Paul: Actually, Sam has a point, we’re all about physics so it should look
realistic. Plus, its not going to be that processor intensive if we do it right.

Hasse: I disagree, we are going to have a lot of objects in our game and...

Five hours of PP and me bickering later

Corné: Damn!

Everyone else looks up in surprise...

Corné: I killed my code again. :(

..and goes back to bickering about the collision checking

Hasse: No, you’re wrong!

Peter Paul: I just think...

Luckily Sam and Maguell come to the rescue

Sam: Actually, if we just do a combination of per pixel and hitbox collision checking it might not be that much of a problem, I think.

Maguell: How about we just try it.

Hasse: Fine, just dont forget to document it. Oh and you guys still haven’t filled in the form I sent you like five whole minutes ago!

Suddenly I realise that Mandy hasnt said anything the whole time yet

Hasse: Mandy, do you agree to just try both collision systems?

Mandy: Hmmhmm.

And Mandy dissapears into her own universe again of sprites, soundtracks and creativity explosions

Peter Paul: I think we should add ponies to our game.

Hasse: No, too random, things have to make sense.

Peter Paul: Llama’s?

And to finish this blogpost of a spoiler of what we have done so far, to give you guys a laugh about how clunky, boring and buggy it still is:

Maligna for Rolling Barrel Studios

For the Fans

For the fans!

In the last couple of weeks RBS managed to work out a couple of things.
For one, Mandy managed to create some awesome looking sprites which u can take a look at in her post, I especially like "Spacedude".

Secondly we talked about some extra features. Different barrel contents, liquids on the ground, gravity fields and some more stuff. Its all so much fun! We do have some other ideas we are not sure about yet. Secret levels, chainsaw shooting guns, massive alien invasions, MMO aspects, massive bosses to defeat and gigantic armies, but we might be a bit to enthusiastic about it.

Besides the awesome start-up menu page that we developed for test purposes, one of our programmers, Sam, managed to allow the rest of the team to have an easy time adding new characters in the game through some optimising in our class structure. We are hoping that this will help us make Spacedude even cooler.

Furthermore, Mandy has been working on some soundtracks for the game which, I hope, we will be able to let you hear soon.

While Maguell is working on the playable character, I have started working on our very first level. With the awesome sprites from Mandy and a couple of place holders I have managed to create a very basic version of a level with barrels, a couple of bars going in on the level and a freaking awesome physics engine (yes, it works). It's really awesome to see something work after four weeks of work on it.

Last but not least, a sneakpeak into an awesome intro text:

"In the year 2037 humans have decided to venture beyond the moon! A small spaceship under the command of Captain Obvious has begun their mission; Be the first humans to set foot on Mars. But something went terribly wrong..."

This intro can mean alot of things, and thats the way it should be at the start of a game. Although the title should explain some stuff together with the intro, the game itself should drive you towards finding out what is going on. So we try to make you wonder about what happened and some more questions like: How is the captain gonna save his life? Is his wife in danger? What happened to their cargo? Why are there barrels rolling everywhere?

The intro gives us alot of questions and the only way to find out what the answers are will be to play the game. We might give some more spoilers in the upcoming blogposts, just like we did here, you didn't miss the spoiler did you?

I hope you all liked today's blogpost and that it, together with Mandy's blogpost, gave you some insight in what we are up to at the moment.

Catch you all later!

By Rolling Barrel Studios Corné Thoes.

Improving the graphics

On a very artsy Thursday we decided to create all of our sprites ourselves, even though none of us had quite that much experience with drawing. Lots of ideas have been shared and many drawing tools were considered, each one more sophisticated than the last. So which programs did we think were able to capture our imagination vividly enough? Why, Paint and PowerPoint, of course! Making use of PowerPoint's many shapes, textures and special effects, we were able to create some decent sprites relatively easily. Next to those programs we also used GIMP, but then again, we merely used that to convert the lot to .PNG files. Very artsy indeed, is it not?



We started off with the main character. Due to the lack of a proper name, the little guy is currently called Spacedude. It goes without saying that every semi-professional Spacedude needs an awesome uniform; he cannot be all space-y in a birthday suit. We were kind enough to get him a spacesuit and a somewhat fancy one at that. You see, it has a shiny helmet and two colored buttons, of which we have no clue as to what their function is. That is what makes it so fancy. Not to mention, the jetpack on his back. Because everything is better when it has a jetpack attached to it. The boost of the jetpack is currently represented by a blue triangle. The plan is to depict it using particles.

 

Spacedude Idle

Spacedude Reaching

As for the background, it exists of steel plates and pins to give it a futuristic feel. The eventual background of the game will be composed of small sprites that can be repeated smoothly, combined with windows that have starry views and mysterious doors that no one dare ever open. Sprites of the latter are still in the making. Stay tuned!

Let the blogging commence!

Greetings, hello and welcome!

This is the blog of Rolling Barrel Studios. Here we will inform you of our activities. Our team consists of six individuals, each with their own set of skills and ideas. Read more about us here.

 

Time to start the show! Rolling Barrel Studio is going to bring you information of our first project: remaking the old Donkey Kong.

 

Our plans:

We want to modernize the concept of Donkey Kong. We plan to do this by expanding the gameplay with a complex physics-simulator and (secondary) by adding characters with improved A.I. Other improvements we might make are improving the graphics, adding particle effects and supporting randomly generated levels. We are planning however to abandon the old story of Donkey Kong, because the original story is incompatible with our ideas and neither the story or the characters are free to use.

First an analysis of the old Donkey Kong:

(re-released multiple times, but this is about the original arcade version)

The story:

“In Donkey Kong Pauline is kidnapped by the big gorilla Donkey Kong. Mario (Jumpman) is the designated person to rescue her and take out Donkey Kong”

The gameplay:

The game takes place upon a field where beams, ladders, the score, Mario, Donkey Kong, Pauline and several barrels are drawn.

 

The player (Mario) begins at the bottom of the screen on the bottom beam. At the beginning of the game Donkey Kong throws a burning barrel downwards that lands at Mario’s starting location. The burning barrel spawns a flame which patrols on the bottom beam. Afterwards Donkey Kong begins throwing barrels that roll down the beams, falling off the edge, or falling down a ladder. At the start Donkey Kong also throws barrels straight down.

 

It is up to Mario to climb the structure, by climbing the ladders, while dodging the rolling barrels either by jumping or climbing, until he reaches Donkey Kong and Pauline.

 

Upon arrival, Donkey Kong grabs Pauline and climbs upward, where the next level will start.

In the original Donkey Kong there are three different levels which repeat themselves after the third level has been achieved, although these levels will increase in difficulty after the repeat(s).

What we will try to do:

The gameplay:

In our game, the player will start at the bottom of the level, just like in Donkey Kong. The goal will be at the upper part of the level. The player can walk, jump and interact with several objects. For example, the player can push smaller objects (and possibly pull them). The player can die if he is touched by a certain force and touching objects with a certain force may break them (provided they don't kill the player). The player can also manipulate gravity and use objects in a limited amount of situations. Think of picking up a portal-gun, using a jetpack or aiming a laser beam by moving a crystal.

 

While the player attempts to reach the top of the level, barrels will roll and bounce down. These should move at a significant speed and have a high durability, so they won't break simply by moving through the level. It should still be breakable by other means.

The levels consist of various floors, through which the player must find his way up, evading various obstacles. Ladders are rarely found between levels, but with the ability to manipulate gravity and use various objects to ascend. Ladders will not be the only way to get higher up in the level.

 

The game can work with specific premade levels, semi-randomly generated levels or a mix of both. Thinks of a few random levels and then a specific level.

The story:

 

You'll find yourself in a spacestation, which falls apart around you. Therefore, you must make your way forward and, more importantly, up. The spaceship is already damaged, so the normal transportation systems are non-functional. However, the damage to the station creates new roads to safety. All is allowed when despair strikes... Luckily you have your artificial-gravity remote with you. You just have to watch the battery life...

 

This will be all for now. We hope you enjoyed reading our first post. Fear not, there will be many more to come.

 

See you next week!