Plan for Benjamin Bradley
by Benjamin Bradley · 11/14/2004 (11:09 am) · 15 comments
OK...I know what you're think... what is this marketing guy doing joining in on the GID fun. To tell you the truth, I have no idea. Maybe I thought it would be a good way to get out of the house and avoid cleaning...but then again, my wife and I had already cleaned the house, so I wasn't trying to escape that. What I really wanted to do was get my hands on the beta version of Torque 2D to see if I could even do something. So I'll give a run down of my GID:
1. I grabbed a beta copy of Torque 2D and installed it on my computer.
2. I sat there watching all the fun particle effects taking place and said ahhhhh...where do I start. I began to mess around, just changing different variables, but that got me nowhere.
3. I decided that I needed to have an art concept. And since I'm a horrible artist and one of the only tools I can use that I feel I can make a workable cartoon character is Flash. So I booted up Flash and started animating a snowman looking thing.
4. I started playing around with this character and I found I could make him dance with keystrokes.... (bing...idea pops into head)
5. I start to use scripts to pull together a dancing game.
6. When I got to the point of having a semi-playable dance thing with a character that looked like a 60 year old clown strung out on crack and looking to eat little children, I figure it was time to unveil my mess on the world.
7. By now it was about 1 in the afternoon and I messanged Tom about joining GID late. He said sure...so I buckled down to try and get my mess ready for the masses....
IT WAS THEN THAT IT HAPPENED.... CRASH!!!!
8. Lesson number one for any developer - ALWAYS SAVE... OK, but I have an excuse...I'm not a developer. Anyway, I lost the last four hours of work. And thankfully, I lost the scary clown as well. Which is good, because in remaking my character, I looked for a quicker way to do it. (bing....idea)
9. PAT - I put Pat's head on my little Blue man and was able to watch our very own Yoga boy going into action.
10. I strugle trying to make a difficulty level, so I do the next best thing....I create the score based on accuracy, with multiple variables.
11. Around 10 at night, my mind was finally numbing from either lack of sleep or that stupid soundtrack I had downloaded from some resource site. Argghhhh...I hear it in my sleep...oh wait, I'm not asleep yet.
12. I learned something really cool, when I was getting ready to publish. Flash MX 2004 is able to publish directly to an EXE file.
13. With people testing the game out, I started to pile up a bunch of things to add...but my brain doesn't want to work anymore...so I go to bed.
14. I wake up on Sunday morning and I'm currently working on getting a high scores list, multiple levels, and speeds. Plus, Josh is gonna try and help me get this over to T2D.
15. I can't do any more....I'm so tired....I can't even spell the word exausted right.....BUT, this past day has been a blast. If you use UpLeft, DownRight, UpLeft, DownRight, you can turn Pat into John "Pat" Travolta and Saturday Night Fever. My personal favorite is the levitating Pat.
I spent the past week or so reading up on scripting and tracking a score each night before I went to bed and now it seems to have helped.
And now....the unfinished "80s Night with Pat"
A special thanks goes to a few friends pointed me in some good directions.
1. I grabbed a beta copy of Torque 2D and installed it on my computer.
2. I sat there watching all the fun particle effects taking place and said ahhhhh...where do I start. I began to mess around, just changing different variables, but that got me nowhere.
3. I decided that I needed to have an art concept. And since I'm a horrible artist and one of the only tools I can use that I feel I can make a workable cartoon character is Flash. So I booted up Flash and started animating a snowman looking thing.
4. I started playing around with this character and I found I could make him dance with keystrokes.... (bing...idea pops into head)
5. I start to use scripts to pull together a dancing game.
6. When I got to the point of having a semi-playable dance thing with a character that looked like a 60 year old clown strung out on crack and looking to eat little children, I figure it was time to unveil my mess on the world.
7. By now it was about 1 in the afternoon and I messanged Tom about joining GID late. He said sure...so I buckled down to try and get my mess ready for the masses....
IT WAS THEN THAT IT HAPPENED.... CRASH!!!!
8. Lesson number one for any developer - ALWAYS SAVE... OK, but I have an excuse...I'm not a developer. Anyway, I lost the last four hours of work. And thankfully, I lost the scary clown as well. Which is good, because in remaking my character, I looked for a quicker way to do it. (bing....idea)
9. PAT - I put Pat's head on my little Blue man and was able to watch our very own Yoga boy going into action.
10. I strugle trying to make a difficulty level, so I do the next best thing....I create the score based on accuracy, with multiple variables.
11. Around 10 at night, my mind was finally numbing from either lack of sleep or that stupid soundtrack I had downloaded from some resource site. Argghhhh...I hear it in my sleep...oh wait, I'm not asleep yet.
12. I learned something really cool, when I was getting ready to publish. Flash MX 2004 is able to publish directly to an EXE file.
13. With people testing the game out, I started to pile up a bunch of things to add...but my brain doesn't want to work anymore...so I go to bed.
14. I wake up on Sunday morning and I'm currently working on getting a high scores list, multiple levels, and speeds. Plus, Josh is gonna try and help me get this over to T2D.
15. I can't do any more....I'm so tired....I can't even spell the word exausted right.....BUT, this past day has been a blast. If you use UpLeft, DownRight, UpLeft, DownRight, you can turn Pat into John "Pat" Travolta and Saturday Night Fever. My personal favorite is the levitating Pat.
I spent the past week or so reading up on scripting and tracking a score each night before I went to bed and now it seems to have helped.
And now....the unfinished "80s Night with Pat"
A special thanks goes to a few friends pointed me in some good directions.
About the author
I run WebDesign.com
#2
11/14/2004 (11:18 am)
Super addicting, and it's also fun to forget about the score and play with the arrow keys to get as many funky poses/moves out of "Pat" as possible. 
#4
Floored :)
Even held the hi-score for a while...
Nifty, nifty, nifty : all those old hard core giders beaten by a n00b (8p), who doesn't even see himself as a coder to boot ;)
Congrats Ben for teaching us all a nice lesson in fun :)
GID on !!
11/14/2004 (12:54 pm)
As the person who labelled it "Best GID ever", i have to repeat it (just re-read it instead ;))Floored :)
Even held the hi-score for a while...
Nifty, nifty, nifty : all those old hard core giders beaten by a n00b (8p), who doesn't even see himself as a coder to boot ;)
Congrats Ben for teaching us all a nice lesson in fun :)
GID on !!
#5
11/14/2004 (1:01 pm)
Lol, great GID.
#6
11/14/2004 (1:19 pm)
Awesome GID. I went into the office today and got to see it "in person" :P 
#7
11/14/2004 (4:04 pm)
Another game I need to stay away from, lest it take away from time I need to work on my own stuff ;) Great little game! 
#9
What were the high score? 69 was my best, but judging by the infrequent cash cows I was getting, people must have done a lot better.
I think the music with the "jamming" and "110" feedback really helped make the game (not sure if I got the words right but thats what they sounded like).
For games like this I like a little title/abuse/feedback at the end. Eg, say you score 10-20 you get the title "Pats Grandma moves faster than you!" or something along those lines.
11/15/2004 (2:49 am)
That was real fun :)What were the high score? 69 was my best, but judging by the infrequent cash cows I was getting, people must have done a lot better.
I think the music with the "jamming" and "110" feedback really helped make the game (not sure if I got the words right but thats what they sounded like).
For games like this I like a little title/abuse/feedback at the end. Eg, say you score 10-20 you get the title "Pats Grandma moves faster than you!" or something along those lines.
#10
~ Sang
11/15/2004 (7:29 am)
*EDIT* Well, I think i've definately got the high score now... 12107. Took a screen (cropped it with The GIMP, might I add) for your viewing pleasure - www.pycentric.net/80snight.jpg~ Sang
#11
11/15/2004 (2:38 pm)
Damn, that beats my 11659 :/
#12
11/15/2004 (4:09 pm)
ok, so I figure out you have to do it when the arrows are in the blue ... thats helps now :P 
#13
11/17/2004 (2:42 am)
Just saw this and sent the link to my wife. She loves DDR.
#14
11/18/2004 (2:05 am)
Every time I hear the name "The Gimp" I think of the guy in the leather outfit with the ball in his mouth from Pulp Fiction.
Torque 3D Owner Tom Bampton