astrofra's daily experimentations.
Programming
Preparing a trailer for Astlan
063 days
Today, as we have planned a walk to the Aerotrain’s test site, I decided to bring my iPhone and a tripod.
The Aerotrain railway makes a perfect landscape to create a fun & intriguing trailer for my (almost finished) game ‘Astlan’.
For the record, the Aerotrain prototype was designed during the 70′s as an high-speed alternative to the regular railways. A test site running on 25km, made of a concrete rail was built in order to test this prototype (max speed recorded was around 400km/h).
Nowadays, only the concrete rail remains, making a perfect place for urban exploration.
Here are a few mockups I made of the kind of framing I want to shoot once on the site. We’ll see if the final result is close enough. Or not 
Astlan, sunday late update.
0117 days
by astrofra
in Programming
Both Saturday and Sunday were profitable days. I managed to stick on AstroLander and work a dozen of details, such as :
- Normalize the audio tracks
- Improve the touch/click reactivity of the main GUI
- Write a few common function to create UI buttons and ultimately refactor the existing UI code
- Implement a “Pause Menu” when in-game. Works perfectly and stops the game completely (display, stopwatch, physics, particles and whatnot)
- Fix an inconsistent design in the score calculations
- Renamed a dozen of scene files and their respective classes
Not bad, for a Sunday
Ideas for my next project
0133 days
While it is too early to expose here the idea I have regarding my next game project, I can say it will involve robots…animated robots.
The challenge here will be to animate the robots using a procedural technique as I want them to be able to place their hands randomly.
For this purpose I will probably use two things :
1. This robot I modeled years ago (here in a shameless photoshopping)
2. The physic engine of GameStart, and especially joints, to assemble a sort of ragdoll, so that I shall only need to animate the hands if I want to move the arms
Stay tuned.
I need to finish and release Astlan first, anyway!
Update on CosmicLander
2142 days
by astrofra
in Programming
Here I a quick summary of the most recents update I made to my latest game project:
- The name was finally changed to Astlan, as in Astro Lander. I hope it will avoid any possible copyright issue.
- 20 levels out of 24 are now completed, with different kinds of traps, such as doors, rotating barriers or lasers.
- The game UI is slowly taking shape, thanks to the help of an amazing local artist who made the intro screen, displayed somewhere in this page. So far, the main title, settings screen and level selection menu are functional.
- I recently manage to throttle my physics routines when the game happens to slow down too much. This was a matter of concern to me, especially regarding the Android version.
- Yup, you read it right. There’s an Android version around
I will post a playable version including the updates listed here before January 2012 so that people will be able to test, and hopefully make feedbacks
Cosmic Lander, a new minigame project
2262 days
by astrofra
in Programming
I recently started to work on a new indie game on my spare time.
The initial goal was to develop a series of really small games within very short development cycles, in order to address a largest spectrum possible with my favorite game engine to date: GameStart
It turns out that it rapidly evolved into something a bit more ambitious, even I’ve been able to prioritize the tasks, and especially to work on a gameplay before starting the real artworks.
From a basic “Lunar Lander” it ought to be, it moved to a gameplay with a series of closed levels (caves ?) in which the player must seek for a list of items, while struggling against the gravity.
The graphics are basic so far, as mentioned above, mainly because I want to focus on what I’m not confident with : the level design. The visual aspect of the caves might eventually get painted or textured, but the real challenge here is to create funny & challenging levels.
So far, the game features 4 levels, no score, the basic win/die gameloop, a minimap and a few bonus & traps. The physics engine plays an important part in the gameplay.
I’m currently wondering to what extent it could be relevant to create a level editor inside the game, in order to have people create their own levels… Want to share your opinion?
Mr Cleaner, Adventures in Time (alpha).
1346 days
by astrofra
in Programming
Here’s a short alpha release & status update of a project I’ve been involved into during the past 3 months.
Background :
In a laboratory located in the future, a Scientist is conducting experiments on time travel. Unfortunately, during the experiment, a large amount of radioactive cores are spread through time, all around the ages.
In order to save mankind from a massive radioactivity poisoning, he sends a Robot to clean all this mess, and bring back the cores to his lab.
Todo list :
- Tutorial, gameplay details
- Joypad controls
- Add the music tracks
- Tweak the sfx (that are quite annoying atm)
- Visually pimp the few latest levels
Download Link :
Here’s is a Win32 playable version of the game. Please keep in mind it’s an alpha version (some of the levels might be unplayable, some are not completely re-skinned, and the sfx might sound really annoying atm). Any feedback is welcome…
MrCleaner Win32 Version 0.7 download link.
Controls :
Rotate CCW, CW : Left, Right arrow keys
More forward : Up arrown key
Validate/Trigger Bomb : Space bar
Back to main menu : Esc
Minimum hardware requirement :
NVidia GEForce series 8000 or ATI Radeon series 3000 graphics card
Intel graphic chips are more than likely to make the game crash.
About the project :
This game was entirely written and level-designed by Andy, who decided to implement a Sokoban-like game with GameStart3D in order to test the engine.
It turned out the game was completely functional in 2 weeks of time, with a set of 50 levels partially designed. He made the initial placeholder graphics with Blender3D, wrote the game in Squirrel, and then entered in contact with me.
As the game was fully playable, Andy asked me to refine the visual side of the game, which I was glad to accept. I hope you will enjoy the result
Read the full story & the weekly-updated devlog on the TigSource.com’s forum !
Global Game Jam Paris 2011
4474 days
Global Game Jam Paris 2011 is now over. It took place at ISART, School of video game, digital art & design. The place is great, the organizers brought a perfect support. The Jammers were amazing.
The GGJ Concept really brings a full cycle of the life of a video game. It’s definitely the best concept of game jam I’ve ever tried (compared to Demoscene events or TigJams, for ex.)
Game list
Borrowed from Olivier Lejade’s twitter :
Tweet Uranus http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/tweet-uranus
Follow the white light http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/follow-white-light
Appetite for Extinction http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/appetite-extinction
Dark Naze http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/dark-naze
Master Beer http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/masterbeer
Kazz.ed http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/kazzed
Decline http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/decline
Extinction des feux http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/extinction-des-feux
GameXtinction http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/gamextinction
Light Extinction http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/light-extinction
Colors Wars http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/colors-war
Don’t win! http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/dont-win
Light Cylinders http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/light-cylinders
VR Escape http://www.globalgamejam.org/2011/vr-escape
GGJ Paris Website :
http://www.mekensleep.com/GGJ-Paris/
Isart Website :
http://www.isartdigital.com/
A few notes for my next jams
(and for any future jammers I guess)
1. Prepare a file-exchange solution :
You never know what kind of network environment you will meet in a Jam. I’ve done jams with an almost un-existant network support (cybercafé with overloaded wifi). Most of the time, you will have some network ports unavailable, especially those for SVN, Remote Admin, Unity Asset Server…
In that case, with such an hostile network support, how are you gonna exchange files rapidly, including multiple revisions, with your team ?
At the GGJParis 2011, we found out that DropBox was a rather good solution.
Preparing a small laptop that will serve as version/asset server can be handy as well, depending how much stuff you can carry with you.
2. Know your effing tool
If you’re going to create a game in such a short timespan, and embark a whole team with you, you’d better know your tool(s), your pipeline and their technical pitfalls.
During the making of a game, each time an idea arises, ask yourself : “have I already done this with my tool/language ? have I already succeeded ?”.
If it turns out that you never really tried to create an AI, code a level logic, setup a GUI, import a full rigged character into your engine, it’s rather unlikely that you’ll be able to do this during a jam, in a timely manner. And even if you do, it might spoil all your precious time, and you won’t have any left to think about/work on your game design.
3. Prepare your computer
Don’t arrive at a Jam with a PC that “just” needs a “quick reinstall”. Reinstalling Windows usually take a few hours, for you will have to hunt for the proper network driver, the right Redist, the latest Nvidia driver, and then make sure your tools work properly. It may only take a 2 or 3 hours, that’s A LOT in a 48h game jam
4. Bullet proof your engine
You wrote your personal 3D engine yourself. You’ve tested every part of it at least once and you know it will work. But have you tested all the features altogether in a single project ?
It sometime happens that using several features of an engine suddenly shows a loads of side effects and … bugs. And a game jam is not exactly the right place do debug your engine, especially a C++ engine
5. Talk pipeline/workflow before
If you are about to choose a team to work with, it might be wise, before embarking everyone on the same boat, to check that your workflow habits, and pipeline knowledge are compatible … unless you want to learn a completely know workflow during the Jam
However, I’ve met some guys who never worked together before, and they managed to bullet proof a common 3D pipeline and finish a proper game within 48h !
My personal hierarchy of coolness
I’ve done a few events during the past years. Among them :
Demoparty
I’ve probably been to half a dozen of demoparties, between 1995 and 2005. Demoparties are cool, but most un-structured. You work on the kind of production you want (non interactive demo, usually), on the theme you’ve chosen, within a totally free timeframe (several years to a few hours).
Too much liberty ends up in something that became way too unstructured for my own amusement. I found out that 64k demos, with far more constraints, can be much beautiful and fun to do and watch.
GameJam
I recently found, a TigJam Berlin 2009, that GameJams can be more interesting than demoparty, for the very reason that if you game is not FUN, you will know it RIGHT AWAY
GlobalGameJam
GGJ might be the ultimate achievement for me, because the whole event is really and wisely structured. The GGJ 2011 was a really intense experience to me, and I learned on many levels (technical, social …) so much more during 48h than all I could remember of my past years of demopartying.
Period.
MediéCross.
0655 days
The project :
Make a game for the AGBIC Contest on www.tigsource.com. Every contestant has one month to make and finish a game. The theme here is to get inspiration for an imaginary Japanese game cartridge.
I choosed this one, for his nice orange clay look :
Preview :
Here’s a small peak of the game, so far :
This level was designed with www.gamestart3d.com , as usual, with the assets below :
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Trying to model an outdoor scene.
2696 days
All these dark level designs I previously started made me feel a bit gloomy… Going outside for a bicycle ride, and visiting the huge city of Berlin, I felt I should imagine something less confined, so I started to doodle this open air design.
I tried to imagine some sort of lost ruin, up in the sky, that the player would reach through a long way made of traps & elevators.
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The screenshots were grabbed directly from the engine, with infinite shadow maps & SSAO, yaye
Into the sewer …
1698 days
Going further with the experiments in GameStart, I started to design a room with a typical “sewer atmosphere” … It was rather promising, then Emman added a water reflection FX on it, and then it looks really awesome.
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