The TGB Platformer Behavior Pack (a.k.a. I effing love behaviors!)
by Sam M · 05/12/2007 (11:03 am) · 9 comments
Hello again GarageGames! I'm hardly as frequent with my blog posts as I'd like to be, but I guess sometimes is better than never.
So right now I'm finishing up my final weeks of High School and next fall I'm going to New York University. I'm very excited about that. I was working on a game for Microsoft's Dream Build Play contest, but about two weeks ago my desktop died for the second time. I had made it myself for my last birthday, but the motherboard keeps on getting fried. So now I'm planning on getting a Mac Pro and running Windows on it. The reason why I don't run XNA and TorqueX on my laptop is because it doesn't support Pixel Shaders of any kind. But I'm fairly certain the Intel Macs and the Mac Pros have at least 2.0. I'm just wondering, has anybody else been able to run XNA on a Mac Pro through boot camp?
Anyway, onto my main topic. Ever since the TGB 1.5 Beta came out I've been messing around with behaviors, and so far I absolutely love them. The first weekend it came out I made a game made entirely out of Behaviors in about 8 hours. Even the menu system was created using behaviors. The game is called Rock Dodger and is available for free on my website www.roguebotstudios.com under games. It's kind of a mix between asteroids and that Avalanche flash game. Below is a screen shot of Rock Dodger.
So since a Platformer Starter Kit is going to be released soon for TGBX and not TGB, I started thinking it would be cool to have a a bunch of behaviors for different objects in a Platformer Game. So I started to work on Platformer Game Behaviors. So far I just have a basic player, enemy, trap and moving platform behaviors.
But I'm also going to add pickups, more enemies, bosses and 3 different ways of attacking enemies (jumping on top of them like Mario, hitting them with a sword or other weapon and using guns like Metal Slug). When it's all done, the code is cleaned up and I've written documentation I plan on releasing all of the behaviors and some artwork as a Code Pack. I don't know yet whether I'll release it for free or not, but if I do charge for it don't worry, it will be very very inexpensive.
So that's it for now, I have Prom, a final paper, the Halo 3 Beta, Graduation and all kinds of other things coming up over the next couple of weeks. But when a large part of all of that is out of the way I'll continue working on this pack and keep all of you updated. So, hopefully I'll see you soon.
P.S. On a completely unrelated note, I've posted several of my short films on my YouTube account (www.youtube.com/RoguebotStudios). So if you're interested check them out, they're all pretty funny if I do say so myself. Thanks.
So right now I'm finishing up my final weeks of High School and next fall I'm going to New York University. I'm very excited about that. I was working on a game for Microsoft's Dream Build Play contest, but about two weeks ago my desktop died for the second time. I had made it myself for my last birthday, but the motherboard keeps on getting fried. So now I'm planning on getting a Mac Pro and running Windows on it. The reason why I don't run XNA and TorqueX on my laptop is because it doesn't support Pixel Shaders of any kind. But I'm fairly certain the Intel Macs and the Mac Pros have at least 2.0. I'm just wondering, has anybody else been able to run XNA on a Mac Pro through boot camp?
Anyway, onto my main topic. Ever since the TGB 1.5 Beta came out I've been messing around with behaviors, and so far I absolutely love them. The first weekend it came out I made a game made entirely out of Behaviors in about 8 hours. Even the menu system was created using behaviors. The game is called Rock Dodger and is available for free on my website www.roguebotstudios.com under games. It's kind of a mix between asteroids and that Avalanche flash game. Below is a screen shot of Rock Dodger.
So since a Platformer Starter Kit is going to be released soon for TGBX and not TGB, I started thinking it would be cool to have a a bunch of behaviors for different objects in a Platformer Game. So I started to work on Platformer Game Behaviors. So far I just have a basic player, enemy, trap and moving platform behaviors.
But I'm also going to add pickups, more enemies, bosses and 3 different ways of attacking enemies (jumping on top of them like Mario, hitting them with a sword or other weapon and using guns like Metal Slug). When it's all done, the code is cleaned up and I've written documentation I plan on releasing all of the behaviors and some artwork as a Code Pack. I don't know yet whether I'll release it for free or not, but if I do charge for it don't worry, it will be very very inexpensive.
So that's it for now, I have Prom, a final paper, the Halo 3 Beta, Graduation and all kinds of other things coming up over the next couple of weeks. But when a large part of all of that is out of the way I'll continue working on this pack and keep all of you updated. So, hopefully I'll see you soon.
P.S. On a completely unrelated note, I've posted several of my short films on my YouTube account (www.youtube.com/RoguebotStudios). So if you're interested check them out, they're all pretty funny if I do say so myself. Thanks.
#2
05/12/2007 (6:11 pm)
Wheee - behaviors and Halo 3 Beta - two things I love ;) 
#3
I think a Platformer Behaviour set would be great ... I wouldn't expect to make too much money off it though, as I'm sure someone else will quickly release a free code base ... the Platformer Tutorial on TDN should be all anyone needs to get the basics ... it's just wrapping them around behaviours at that point ... but if you do release it for a few bucks ... I'll be sure to pick it up ;)
05/13/2007 (4:17 am)
Can I ask how you created your little platform characters ... they look simple ... but the screenshots make them appear to be animated ... so I'm curious about your process there ... tools used, etc ... I think a Platformer Behaviour set would be great ... I wouldn't expect to make too much money off it though, as I'm sure someone else will quickly release a free code base ... the Platformer Tutorial on TDN should be all anyone needs to get the basics ... it's just wrapping them around behaviours at that point ... but if you do release it for a few bucks ... I'll be sure to pick it up ;)
#4
Kinda funny 'cause I have been working on some behaviors for doing a match-3 puzzle game. They are coming along pretty good.
I can't wait for these to be done ... I would buy them.
05/13/2007 (4:30 am)
Behaviors are sweeeeeet!!Kinda funny 'cause I have been working on some behaviors for doing a match-3 puzzle game. They are coming along pretty good.
I can't wait for these to be done ... I would buy them.
#5
05/13/2007 (6:51 am)
The animations were done with a program called Anime Studio. I strongly recommend it for 2D animation. It's got all kinds of neat features that allow you to do a lot of different animations. Once I make a timeline with all of my character animations I batch export it and use a program like glue-it to put it all together.
#6
Great work, Sam. You've beaten me...I was going to start making the same thing later this week.
05/13/2007 (11:51 pm)
I have to agree on a couple of counts. I'm another big cheerleader for the new behavior system, and I also do most of my character work using Anime Studio. Good to see I'm not the only person enamored with these tools.Great work, Sam. You've beaten me...I was going to start making the same thing later this week.
#7
05/14/2007 (4:59 pm)
I look forward to this behaviour pack. As a side note: I too use Anime Studio for much of my work.
#8
08/24/2007 (11:40 pm)
I'm a 13 and trying to learn how to do basic game design your pack will save my life!!
Torque Owner Joe Rossi
Indri Games