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TGB Learning Project

Name:	Tom Cassiotis
Date Posted:	Oct 10, 2007
Rating:	4.5 out of 5
Public:	YES
Comments:	YES
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Blog post

I decided to put some time in learning TGB by doing a simple small game that fit well in the type of game TGB is meant/designed to do well out of the box. (I'm working with 1.5)

I chose to do a completely basic match-3 game concentrating on game functionality and not worrying about the quality of the graphics or fun factor or selling (strictly to understand the tools and the language).

What I have:
- Basic start screen
- Game Logic
- Basic Sounds
- Basic Effect
- Basic game piece movement
- User Interaction
- Basic Scoring
- 'Wild' game piece (matches any other game piece)

Left to do:
1) Screen to tell you you do not have matches (I currently know when there are no moves left but I do not inform the player (i have a breakpoint for myself :) )
2) Text Effect for long matches (4+ game piece matches) and string of matches
3) Better scoring. I have seen this in other games and it would be neat to code up; A point multiplier that starts at 1x but as you get big matches it increases in short amounts of times, while pauses decays the bonus.

I am looking for some guidance. I would like to have someone take a look at the code and let me know if they would approach this differently. I am a software developer for a very long time but I have not had the chance on doing game programming and things that may be obvious to some may not be to me.

I'm hoping to incorporate any suggestions and making this available for others to learn from (for free of course).

UPDATE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjkuJmKfTHc

Recent Blog Posts

List:	10/12/07 - TGB Learning Project (Continued) 10/10/07 - TGB Learning Project

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Steven S (Oct 11, 2007 at 00:22 GMT)

That is an EXCELLENT idea. I am doing something similar with my own TGB October Challenge. I am trying to learn at least ONE new thing with TGB each day of October. I am not looking to have any complete game or anything, just looking to learn TGB and get familiar with it all.

Your Match-3 idea sounds like a good way to learn the tool and scripting. Let us know when you decide to make things available.

David Higgins (Oct 11, 2007 at 00:39 GMT)

@Steven, heh, I spent almost an entire year doing nothing but that ... enjoy your month, it's quite entertaining when you learn new things ... just try to make each new experience better then the next and you'll be a TGB Expert in no time :)

@Tom, I'd be willing to take a look at the code and the general idea and give suggestions or alternate solutions.

I'm also curious as to how you pulled off the overall 'match 3' logic itself -- as well as the display of the elements on the screen.

Clint Herron (Oct 11, 2007 at 18:03 GMT)

Hey Tom,

Your game looks good! I might be up for checking out the source.

If you'd like to see how others have done it, a friend and I recently made a Match-3 puzzle game for a speed development contest using TGB 1.5. If you (or anyone else) is interested in checking out the code to see how we did things (such as cutscenes, match-3 logic, piece sliding, etc), you can check it out here: (20 mb, includes source)
Windows
Mac OSX

We only spent 2 weeks on it, so it's a bit rough in spots, but we're still very happy with it, and we learned a ton in the process.

We're still trying to figure out what we're going to do with the game, so I haven't made a showcase entry about it, but we at least know the version that we submitted to the contest is open source (as that was a condition of the contest).

Anyways, hope you find that interesting!

--clint
Edited on Oct 11, 2007 18:09 GMT

Tom Cassiotis (Oct 11, 2007 at 18:18 GMT)

Thanks for the responses. I'll do a little write-up on the major concepts and organization and make the source available upon request of anyone that would like to have a look. (I want to keep control over the bandwidth usage on the server)

@Clint: Getting it now and will take a look, thanks!

Will Zettler (Oct 12, 2007 at 01:58 GMT)

Tom,

Would love to see how you made this. I don't know if I can be much help since I enjoy doing Ambient Audio most above anything. Are you planning on releasing the resource anytime soon? I truly enjoy the looks of the project thus far. Keep up the great work man, looks good.

Thanks,

Will
dlstorminc@yahoo.com

Justin DuJardin (Oct 12, 2007 at 15:35 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Way cool Tom, would be awesome to see this as a TDN article!

Cheers,
-Justin

Mathieu (Jan 06, 2008 at 14:50 GMT)

I would love to take a look at your project!

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