Blog for Gregory Stewart at GarageGames.com

TGB Procedural Planets - Part 1

Gregory Stewart — 2008-03-31T04:59:40+00:00

The Goal

The goal is to create procedural planets in TGB that can be used in a space game I want to create. My inspiration comes from Starflight for Sega Genesis. This game used fractal-generated planets but used bitmap tiles to keep the graphics more interesting without having to overload the system with detailed fractals.

Although there are many aspects to creating a planet, I will mainly be concentrating on creating the tilemaps. So, the plan is:

* Create a fractal/noise-based image that can be used for the topographical features of the planet
* Convert this image into a tile map by substituting each pixel with a tile
* Create smooth transitions between tile types using tile transition pieces (great article on this is available on GameDev.net here: www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article934.asp)
* Wrapping planet--If you go long enough in one direction on the planet, you can end back up where you started. Yes, wrapping tilemaps already exist, but I also need objects that appear on the tilemap to wrap as well (useful for enemies, particles, and anything that's not a tile)

Part 1

Why reinvent the wheel? I own a license for TGE as well and remembered that there are some fractal-based terrain features in the terrain editor. And, to top it off, the heightfields created by this code are already tileable! So, with some small modifications, I managed to rip out the noise and heightfield code from TGE and put it into TGB.

After some further modifications to the generation code, I clamped the values into several sections and assigned colors to each elevation range. The result:

Nothing too impressive yet, but it's a start. The next step is to make the planet surface a little more interesting and somehow generate non-square heightmaps so it looks more like a flattened planet. I am not planning on using the fractal generated image from space, only as a guide for creating the planetary surface and some sort of overview map, so it doesn't have to look great, it just has to function well.

See you next time for Part 2.

Where to go from here?

Gregory Stewart — 2007-05-03T23:54:59+00:00

What's new?
Always save your blog text before you hit Submit because you never know what's going to happen. :(

After finishing Marble Tactics (www.garagegames.com/products/150/), I haven't done much game development. Honestly, I'm in a struggle to decide what will be my next game.

Is the price higher or lower?
Is it better to (A) do what everyone says and take the next logical step in regards to developing a game that is only slightly more challenging than your last, (B) make the game you really want to make even though it will take forever, (C) read fellow developer's blogs, (D) go outside more in the summer, or (E) settle for second-best in a job you enjoy, but don't love?

Self-administered psychotherapy
Ruling out options D, E, and sometimes C, that leaves us with two possibilities, A and B. Now, if you take the cross product of vectors A and B, that leaves you with an average, normal game. Let's face it, normal games are neither what you logically should do or what you really want to do. Instead, they are somewhere in between.

Fear is the mind killer
For all of you out there taking option B, what keeps you motivated and on track? I got lucky with Marble Tactics in that it only took 3 months to develop and I never lost steam. Marble Tactics was hardly option B. It was option A. A is A-okay, don't get me wrong. It's an excellent choice when you're starting out. However, with 10+ years of programming behind me, I'm definitely getting the B-itch.

Marble Tactics - A first look

Gregory Stewart — 2006-03-27T23:38:00+00:00

After being a member of the community for over two years, here goes my first blog...

Next month will be my 10 year anniversary of programming in C/C++ as a hobby. And thus, I think that it is finally time to release a commercial game. What's funny is that this has close to nothing to do with C/C++, but rather TorqueScript.

Here is a first look at my game, Marble Tactics. Anyone who has played Arcade Lines will know exactly the type of gameplay I'm aiming for. The object of the game is to make lines of a certain number of marbles. However, each time you move a marble, new ones are introduced at random locations on the board. This means you must make tactical decisions to keep the board from filling up.

The screenshot is using 1.1 Beta 1.1 and is 99% in-game (meaning I added the score, level, and marble numbers in with a paint program.. they're not in the game yet).

What's amazing is the sheer amount of stuff I've been able to get done with Torque 2D Game Builder in a short amount of time. With the help of T2D and Phil Shenk's A*Star code, I've been able to get the basic gameplay done in a couple of weeks. Total work on the game has been about one month and I've been able to get done more in that month than I could have in probably 6-9 months doing this from scratch. T2D is amazing! And, to top it off, I've only had to change about 6 lines of C++ code!

I'm hoping to finish the game within the next couple of months. At that time, I'm going to try to get it published. For my real job, I work for a publisher, so I may try to pitch it to them. Or, if GarageGames is interested.. *hint, hint*

Thank you Melv May and the rest of the gang for making this possible!

Hopefully my next blog will be much sooner than two years from now! :)

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GarageGames: By the way, what is the legal status of using the demo content in commercial games? If you look closely, you can see the background from the T2D Fish demo behind the tiles. Am I ok to use this?
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