Plan for Nick Zafiris
by Nick Zafiris · 01/12/2005 (7:54 am) · 2 comments
This is my first plan so bear with me. I'll try to make the intro short.
While I have made a couple of attempts to develop a game since 20 years ago starting in '85 on an Amstrad with 128k, I decided to finally take it seriously about a year ago. Having matured (?) and with more dedication than I ever had, I started researching on game development.
I soon found out about Torque and I gotta say it's by far the best solution for an Indie wanting to make commercial quality games. So after purchasing it in April, I am working on developing various components for a game me and my cousin are planning to make since August.
I do the development and some level editing, while he does modeling and most of the level editing. Both of us are tackling the design.
I actually wanted to wait so that I can make a full-blown announcement including screenshots, video, etc. but I'll do that in a later plan. So I'm not going to go into game details yet, I just wanted to let people know how I'm working on the various major components and listing some of the features implemented for each one of them. I know that there are probably better approaches for implementing some of them but I do what I can.
Save/Load Game Feature
After applying John Vanderbeck's SQLite resource, I got full SQL functionality. Now it's just a mater of selecting which variables are needed to stay persistent along with their values. I have made tests by storing the player's position and later loading it and it works.
I use a separate GUI for saving and loading. Saved games are displayed in a GuiTextListCtrl with a time/date stamp. Also, when a game is saved, a screenshot is taken so that it can be displayed when a save game is highlighted in the list.
There is still a lot of work to be done on this like figuring out how to store more complex objects but the framework is there I think.
In-game Journal
This is what I'm currently working on actually. With some great help from Matthew Langley, I got a functional Journal system. Basically, I'm planning on using it to make entries upon Item pickup, and store all conversations with NPCs there. I'm also working on implementing a Game-Notes functionality where the player can just type whatever they want there for later viewing. Just like a way simple notepad.
Another feature I'm thinking of including is a Task List where major in-game tasks that need to be done are displayed there so that the player knows what to do if he/she hasn't played for a while.
Inventory
This is by far the most time consuming feature and the most prone to bugs. For the inventory, I have implemented Beffy's Drag and Drop resource and have developed my own functions for dealing with items. Basically, I use a global array of ScriptObjects where I store all item variables as suggested by Ben Garney.
Some of the Inventory features include, Use/Equip Item, Drop Item, Add Notes to Item, add Hotkey to Item, Item Description, Item Quantity and weight. Some of these I have done and some will need to be worked out. I just need to figure out how to make these options available in the interface. I do have an idea in mind though.
CommanderMap
I just implemented Ben's resource with no modifications. Not sure if I'll use it though. I need to figure out how I can apply some transparency to the map.
I have not yet started the following:
Scenes
I have learned how scenes work by looking at the Torque demo and I'm planning on using them to create some dynamic in-game cut-scenes.
Melee Combat
No clue yet!
Weapons
I'll save this for much later but it will probably work closely with the inventory.
TSE Migration
At some point I will need to move all this into TSE. Just waiting for milestone 2. I hope I won't have many problems since most of my work is in separate script files.
Wow that was longer than I thought! I'll stop here. Just wanna say that this is probably the best game development community and I'm planning on crediting everyone that has helped on making this game a reality. If you haven't figured out already, it's single player action/RPG in 3rd person.
Nick
While I have made a couple of attempts to develop a game since 20 years ago starting in '85 on an Amstrad with 128k, I decided to finally take it seriously about a year ago. Having matured (?) and with more dedication than I ever had, I started researching on game development.
I soon found out about Torque and I gotta say it's by far the best solution for an Indie wanting to make commercial quality games. So after purchasing it in April, I am working on developing various components for a game me and my cousin are planning to make since August.
I do the development and some level editing, while he does modeling and most of the level editing. Both of us are tackling the design.
I actually wanted to wait so that I can make a full-blown announcement including screenshots, video, etc. but I'll do that in a later plan. So I'm not going to go into game details yet, I just wanted to let people know how I'm working on the various major components and listing some of the features implemented for each one of them. I know that there are probably better approaches for implementing some of them but I do what I can.
Save/Load Game Feature
After applying John Vanderbeck's SQLite resource, I got full SQL functionality. Now it's just a mater of selecting which variables are needed to stay persistent along with their values. I have made tests by storing the player's position and later loading it and it works.
I use a separate GUI for saving and loading. Saved games are displayed in a GuiTextListCtrl with a time/date stamp. Also, when a game is saved, a screenshot is taken so that it can be displayed when a save game is highlighted in the list.
There is still a lot of work to be done on this like figuring out how to store more complex objects but the framework is there I think.
In-game Journal
This is what I'm currently working on actually. With some great help from Matthew Langley, I got a functional Journal system. Basically, I'm planning on using it to make entries upon Item pickup, and store all conversations with NPCs there. I'm also working on implementing a Game-Notes functionality where the player can just type whatever they want there for later viewing. Just like a way simple notepad.
Another feature I'm thinking of including is a Task List where major in-game tasks that need to be done are displayed there so that the player knows what to do if he/she hasn't played for a while.
Inventory
This is by far the most time consuming feature and the most prone to bugs. For the inventory, I have implemented Beffy's Drag and Drop resource and have developed my own functions for dealing with items. Basically, I use a global array of ScriptObjects where I store all item variables as suggested by Ben Garney.
Some of the Inventory features include, Use/Equip Item, Drop Item, Add Notes to Item, add Hotkey to Item, Item Description, Item Quantity and weight. Some of these I have done and some will need to be worked out. I just need to figure out how to make these options available in the interface. I do have an idea in mind though.
CommanderMap
I just implemented Ben's resource with no modifications. Not sure if I'll use it though. I need to figure out how I can apply some transparency to the map.
I have not yet started the following:
Scenes
I have learned how scenes work by looking at the Torque demo and I'm planning on using them to create some dynamic in-game cut-scenes.
Melee Combat
No clue yet!
Weapons
I'll save this for much later but it will probably work closely with the inventory.
TSE Migration
At some point I will need to move all this into TSE. Just waiting for milestone 2. I hope I won't have many problems since most of my work is in separate script files.
Wow that was longer than I thought! I'll stop here. Just wanna say that this is probably the best game development community and I'm planning on crediting everyone that has helped on making this game a reality. If you haven't figured out already, it's single player action/RPG in 3rd person.
Nick
About the author
#2
The way I'm saving the position is just:
SaveData.respawnPoint = %player.getTransform(); // Save the Player's position
And to load it:
%player.setTransform(SaveData.respawnPoint); // Load the Player's position
Hope it helps.
Nick
12/23/2005 (6:01 am)
Bank, I just saw your reply. If it's still any help, here's how I save and load the player's position. My game is single-player so I'm not really messing with client/server.The way I'm saving the position is just:
SaveData.respawnPoint = %player.getTransform(); // Save the Player's position
And to load it:
%player.setTransform(SaveData.respawnPoint); // Load the Player's position
Hope it helps.
Nick
Associate Fyodor -bank- Osokin
Dedicated Logic
I've found a way of doing it by combination of scipting on both sides: client and server.. but can't make it working only by scripting on server-side...
I want a scheduled "auto-save" position e.g. every minute, but can't get player pos without touching client side..
edit: spelling