Blog for Peter Simard at GarageGames.com

To build a programming language

Peter Simard — 2008-07-07T01:19:04+00:00

This is not a typical game development blog. I recently took the past few days to try to design a programming language from scratch. Why would I do this? Mostly to see if I could.

How a language actually works has always fascinated me. Going from symbols and words, into computer logic is a somewhat magical step. I wanted to see if I could create a programming language from scratch with nothing but intuition to guide me.

After about 3 days of tinkering, I have a working prototype aptly named "SimardBasic". It is written in C#. This is not a compiled language, but an interpreted language. C# is used to parse the raw code, and generate the necessary structures to run a program. It is also used for low level arithmitic and user interface.

Parsing the code
In order to get the code into a usable format, the code is broken down into individual statements. An example statement might be:

$var = 10;

or

print "The var is " @ $var;

By placing all the statements into an array, they can be iterated though as the program runs.

Statements are then parsed into their individual syntax components. Using a hierarchy of objects to represent the types of syntax. All syntax derive from the base Syntax class. Some example derived syntax classes:

Syntax_String - Contains a string of chars encapsulated by double quotes.
Syntax_Variable - A variable. Each Syntax_Variable shares the same memory space for the value of the variable.
Syntax_Symbol - Operaters such as ==, >, @, +
Syntax_ControlBrace - Left and right brackets { }. Controls code depth
Syntax_Parenthesis - Used for grouping syntax

Once you have the entire program parsed into statements (which are in turn parsed into individual syntax) it is a matter of looping though them and applying the proper operation to them.

RegEx
Regular Expressions are an extremely powerful tool. Without them, parsing the raw code would be factors more difficult. Take for example this expression:

"(\d+.\d+|\d+(?!\.)|true|false)(?!\w)"

This is used to parse the code for any numerical digits. Without using regular expressions, you would be forced to examine each character to ensure it is valid. You will also notice there are true/false strings inside of there. Internally true and false are converted into 1 and 0 respectively. The ending (?!\w) will allow numbers to end in a symbol or space, but not a letter (for example, 100+ works, but 100q will fail).

For more information on regular expressions, I highly recommend picking up Mastering Regular Expressions

Syntax evaluation
This was one of the trickier components to write. Statements consist of a keyword (or variable), followed by some syntax that must be evaluated. The syntax can come in any form, and in the end, must end up with a single value. For example:

$foo = ($bar + (2 * 8)) @ "widgits\n";

The evaluator must take ($var + (2 * 8)) @ "widgits\n" and perform the necessary operations, in the correct order to obtain a single value, which can be used by the statement parser (in this case, to be assigned to a variable).

Internal Functions
Adding internal functions is easy using the C# Invoke() function. Here is an example internal function:

        // WHILE statement
        public void spWHILE(Statement statement)
        {
            // Evaluate the syntax inside the while parenthesis
            string evalResult = statement.evalRemainingSyntax();

            if (!isTrue(evalResult))
            {
                // Eval was false, ignore the next statement (usually a control brace)
                ignoreNextStatement = true;
            }
            else
            {
                // Eval was true, tell the interpreter where to return to
                loopReturnStatement[currentControlDepth] = statement;
            }
        }

Missing Functionality
This is very much a bare bones language at the moment. Some core functionality that is missing:
- Arrays
- For() statement
- User created functions
- Automatic order of operations (have to use parenthesis right now)
- Only basic stdin/out

Because this was a learning project, I am releasing the full source code. I don't know how useful any of it will be, but feel free to use it any way you wish.

My next side project will be doing some research on the "proper" way to construct a language. I suspect there are several core assumptions that are incorrect.

Source
www.crownsofpower.com/SimardBasic.zip

Now back to game design!

CoP - Stress Test Results

Peter Simard — 2008-06-23T18:23:37+00:00

On Friday, we held a stress test for Crowns of Power. It was a very important test to determine whether our current hardware setup will be able to take the load of our live game. Overall the test was successful. Here are the stats:

Max players online: 48
Crash count: 0
Lag spikes: 6
Duration: 3 hours

There were no crashes, but there were several lag spikes. The exact cause of these spikes is currently unknown. We would have liked to have seen more players online, but we had enough to run a good test.

We held several events during the test. Here are some screenshots with a description of the events:

The first event we ran was a simple boss fight. We spawned a large mob for the players to fight.

Robbing the bank: The 3 admins transformed into bank robbers and tried to make their escape out of town. Unfortunately for us, the players caught us and took us down rather quickly. One thing we learned from this event was to make sure you have about 10x the health you would expect. We will be creating several admin only rings/amulets with massive +hit points.

Good vs. Evil: Two of the admin transformed into evil guys, while one of the admins turned into Andelion and worked with the players. Andelion lead the mass of players into an epic battle with the two evil admins. At the end of the day, good triumphed over evil. We set a large loot table on the evil mobs, so all players were able to gain some good gear from the event.

PvP Duels: To end the day we held several tournaments (2v2, 3v3). Here you can see one group of valiant warriors preparing for battle. Since we had no built in tournament system, we had to manually teleport players in/out of the battle ground. This is one area we would like to significantly improve in the future.

(not pictured). We also held a scavenger hunt. Throughout the zone, we placed hidden monsters. Players had to gain 14 unique items from the various mobs. The first 3 who turned in the set received some special items.

I want to thank anyone who participated in the event. We are one step closer to an official release.

Crowns of Power - Stess Test

Peter Simard — 2008-06-18T19:43:15+00:00

Greeting all!

On Friday June 20th, we will be holding a stress test of our TGE MMORPG (that's a lot of letters) Crowns of Power. We would like to see at least 100 players on during the test, and with your help, we can achieve that.

If you haven't downloaded the client yet, you can get it free at www.crownsofpower.com. Events start at 6pm EST. Prizes will be awarded!

Some beta screenshots:

Crowns of Power - Beta update

Peter Simard — 2008-04-07T19:39:31+00:00

Beta has been going relatively smooth so far. We would still like to see more players on though during peak hours to stress the servers. We are hitting about 20 online players but would like to see around 50.

If you haven't tried it yet, head over to the download page.

Here are the patch notes for the latest patch:

General
-Your chatbox will now fade out when not in use.
-Cursor now defaults to username box if empty.
-Added the ability to change the view distance to options.
-Some shield stats were too powerful and some weren't powerful enough, they have been fixed.
-New icons added for some quest items.
-Pet stats have been tweaked more.
-More sounds have been added to the game.
-Some weapons have had their damage and delay updated.
-There is now a view distance modifier in options so you can tweak your performance.
-Reduction in memory overhead by a couple hundred megs.

Spells
-More red spell runes have been added to the vendor in Tulorn.

Helmstead
-Missing trees have been included.
-Gravity now applies to the log floating near the lich king.
-Fixed the texture on green hem legs.
-Fixed texture on white cotton pants.

Tulorn
-Vaxian assasins will no long despawn instantly.
-Escorting Proximo will complete the quest now.
-Lord Moniker is no longer scared of the last wave of monsters in his path.
-Eidolon and Despair got blood transfusions.
-Rune drop rate has been significantly increased.

Blackspawn
-Armor from this zone has been increased in strength to match the level of difficulty in getting it.

Diamond City
-Diamond city will now load without errors.

Styzzy Wastes
-The lost hunter is no longer stuck pathing.
-All the weapons from this zone have damage and delay set on them now.
-Bubbles have been added to the bottom of the lake in Styzzy Wastes that you can Breathe from.
-Living Moss Spaulders now have EXP/HR and DEF.

Sanctum Mire
-Fixed textures on armor from this zone.
-Fixed blank items being awarded from quests.
-You no longer fall out of the tunnel system in the water.

Here are some screenshots for the current test:

Crowns of Power - Open Beta Download

Peter Simard — 2008-03-31T15:51:48+00:00

All of us at Rampid Interactive are very happy to be able to release this public test of our game. There is only one question.. who will be the first person from the GarageGames community to hit level 50?

Direct:
www.crownsofpower.com/Downloads/CoP_Beta_0.8.01.exe

Torrent:
www.mybtfile.com/torrent/817662/

Mirror:
files.filefront.com/CoP+Beta+0801exe/;9926642;/fileinfo.html

See you in game!

Crowns of Power - Open Beta Monday!

Peter Simard — 2008-03-28T20:18:22+00:00

After years of development, Crowns of Power is finally ready to be released to the public. This Monday we will be releasing our client to be downloaded by gamers around the world.

The download link will be available on www.crownsofpower.com, and will also be posted on another blog here.

Obligatory screenshot:

TGE Server Admin Software

Peter Simard — 2008-02-21T01:59:51+00:00

Hello again. Here are the results of the past few days work on a server admin in C#. Previously we were launching servers via batch file after remote desktoping in. As things got more complex, this approaches limitations became obvious. Using this software, a single webpage can be loaded to quickly view server status, as well as update and restart the servers.

I must admit I am impressed with C#. In utility applications like this, where speed isn't a factor, the ease of development is a huge benefit. I was able to implement complex systems like XML and sockets in only a few hours. Perhapse it's time to look into XNA.

Features:
-XML based server list
-Automatically detects logical CPUs and starts each zone on it's own CPU
-Socket support to interface with PHP or other software
-SVN integration
-Auto crash recovery
-Redirects console output from each TGE process
-Option to auto start all servers on load

Graphical UI:

PHP interface:

I plan on releasing this as soon as it is in a more polished state. The biggest issue right now is TGE doesn't seem to want to respond to stdin commands. Without this functioning, you can't send commands to your processes.

Once I get stdin working, I will be adding support for realm wide messages (such as a server reboot notification). If anyone has C# experience or TGE stdin experience, please check out this post.

Crowns of Power nearing completion! (pics)

Peter Simard — 2007-11-24T01:50:45+00:00

Well, it has been a crazy few years, but our MMORPG is nearing finalization. When people say the last 20% of the work takes 80% of the time, they are not lying. Here are some of the things that have been taking up my recent time:

-Tutorial help system: Dynamic display of tutorial help based on player actions. Although most of the game will be intuitive for those coming from previous MMO games, there is a lot of unique functionality that must be explained.

-Admin panel: Supports admin levels: Guide, Moderator, Seinor Moderator, and Admininistrator. This will allow us to hire new support volunteers without having to worry about then exploiting admin commands. Admins can teleport anywhere in the world, teleport to/from players, award any item in the game, change players names, view logs, go invisible, one shot any person/creature, etc.

-Logging: This is one of those coding projects most coders dead doing, but unfortunatly must be done. Effective and efficent logging is a must in any large scale online game. Item logs can be viewed in game, and will give a breakdown of the items history, from the time it was first created in the game, to its removal.

-Custom mob AI: Keeping encouters exciting requires mobs to behave and interact differently from each other. Some of examples are mobs that heal each other, buff each other, root/dots players, etc. We also have custom scripted events with epic raid AI that will require groups of players to create effective strategies to defeat them.

-Custom quests: Sometimes killing x mobs, and collecting x items just isn't enough to keep a player excited. Torquescript has been very important to being able to quickly script in completely unique quests. Some examples are Defend a bridge and its NPC guards from wave after wave of hostile mobs; using a magic item on werewolves to turn them back into humans; Luring spiders out of caves with a special mixture; and many others.

-Server architecture: Smoothing out our backend servers has been an ongoing and evolving process. The current setup consists of 4 dedicated servers: One login server, one realm server, two zone servers. The two zone servers will be where the player actually plays. All zones connect to the realm server. The realm server handles all cross-realm communication. The realm servers then connect to the login server which handles character creation and of course logins. Zone servers are extemely powerful machines (dual quad core Xeons, 8GB RAM). This allows us to run up to 8 zones on a single server.

Some things that remain:

-GUI design still has a ways to go
-Creating an effective game distribution/patching system
-Game itemization
-Monster loot tables
-Hiring game mods/guides
-Removing dev code (i.e., batten down the hatches)
-Performance optimizations
-Internal testing

Screenshots:

Red Spell: Fireball

Casting a heal

Casting a green buff

Main menu background

Loading background

Quest available

Spiked Helm

Vampire Helm

Skull Helm

View more screenshots and info at www.crownsofpower.com

Crowns of Power - Open PvP Beta! Join the fun

Peter Simard — 2007-09-06T17:55:45+00:00

Rampid Interactive is proud to announce the first open test of our MMORPG "Crowns of Power". For this phase of testing, we will be balancing the five spell colors (red, blue, green, white, and black) in a capture the flag environment. Download the client now, and join in on the fun!

www.crownsofpower.com/downloads.php

A free Rampid Gaming account is required to play:
www.rampidgaming.com/signup.php

And of course the obligatory image:

More Crowns of Power model shots

Peter Simard — 2006-11-08T19:25:12+00:00

We've been hard at work here trying to get all the current bugs worked out of the system in anticipation of our next beta test. Content has been steadily added and you can now level up to 15 completely doing quests. Our hope is to allow leveling all the way up to the max level via questing. Here are some shots of our new player model with the different armor options:

Platemail:

Robe:

Leather:

Villager leather:

Spikey Hair:

Long Hair: