Whale Game

[richardhp]

we've finally given up on the UN game although you may not have heard the last of it we shall be doing some work on it over the summer.

the UN team is now working on the WhaleGame project so i thought I'd start a thread here to discuss how it is going and what needs doing. I am currently trying to modify the game engine to make it more flexible and hopefully I will have finished doing that by Saturday when we will meet and try to implement the new game play features Andrew will be working on.

Nick is doing some art at the moment, mostly trying to animate existing sprites to make them look better and perhaps doing some new ones which we can add in.

[salo]

I have now done a new ship which looks cool but is slightly longer than the original whaler. I have also animated the shark and made a new sea bed. I plan on improving the depth charge explosion, adding a sunset background and making more seaweed...

Is there anything else in particular you think is still needed? Please list (in order or importance).

[AndrewC]

I have improved the parallax part of the game, so that scrolling can go in both directions.
It should be easily implementable to the engine as well.

I have also fixed the gun on the players ship. It now doesn't 'jump' when the player changes direction. [Although now that there is a new model i may have just wasted my time ].

I don't want to do to much on the game until i have Richards modified engine. Is it up on the SVN [and if so can someone explain how to use it].




Can i make a request for someone to draw the following:
a crate [that we can have floating on the water surface as a means of resupplying the player]
an old world war 2 style sea mine [I doubt this will get implemented at the weekend, but i was thinking that it could be used as a threat to the player and to the whales]

Also a lot of the artwork was lost from the 'final' build [i think it was the moon,rocks, a fish,starfish, etc], but i'm sure it still exists on Nicks and Steves laptops. If we can get that arkwork back into the game i can add it to the parallaxing.

I think the priorities art-wise are:
the sunset background
blowhole animation for the whales
ammo crate

other things would be nice as well such as new/more seaweed and explosions. the more we get the more varied the terrain will be.

I can't wait to see the animated shark.

Sorry this is a long post. I got a bit carried away.

[Brodders]

If you're new to SVN, Bryan posted this video about using SVN basics with Tortoise SVN. If you need any help, just post in that thread.

[salo]

I still have the moon, fish and starfish but not the rocks. I have made a sunset but have no idea how it will look in the game, if you want it before Saturday just let me know and I will send it by email or something (if we don't get SVN). Blowhole animation is difficult but I have made a start... I will do the crate and mine tomorrow.

*edit*
I see we now have svn and trac I will put it there in the gfx folder.

[richardhp]

yeah i haven't put anything on SVN yet, two reasons i have it on linux but haven't set up tortoise svn. also i want to do a bit more before i put it up. unfortunately I haven't made as much progress this week as i'd hoped, a few things still need ironing out before i can but the game back together again. hopefully it'll be worth the wait.

meeting on Saturday the 23rd in Learning Grid at 2pm if you want to come and contribute. Andrew we need your laptop cos it's the only one with XNA on it

See everyone then

[SteveM]

I have rocks. And some fish. And some shells. None are particularly impressive (except the clown fish, which is on the title screen anyway), but they should add a bit of colour and variation.

I'll try and remember to bring my laptop along tomorrow so I can give you what I've got.

[AndrewC]

I'll definately bring my laptop at 2pm 2morrow. Its a pity we can't get C# on the uni Pcs (Although I can understand the uni not putting it on).

Hopefully we can implement what i've done into the new engine. And then start working on getting all the artwork in the game.

I'll probably be in the learning grid on the sunday, as well, polishing it off.

I don't really get the svn thing [i have managed to download the criminal capers file before thou], so i'll get someone to show me in person this weekend.

[richardhp]

yeah, i haven't got to grips with SVN entirely either. i am a bit disappointed with the progress i have made so far on the game. i seem to be struggling with alot of bugs that make no sense whatsoever but hopefully we can iron out all the problems this afternoon.

[richardhp]

is there any chance you can send me the code you've done either on SVN or just email them to me at blackdog4433@hotmail.com - add me on msn which should help for writing code over the summer.

i reckon ill be able to get some work done on tuesday so the game should be more playable on weds fingers crossed.

[AndrewC]

Sorry on just got this message will email the .cs files asap. I don't trust SVN.

I'm still puzzled as to why the time suddenly isn't doing what it should do.

[AndrewC]

I've emailed you the files.

I've started cleaning up the code as well. I don't like having variables called time,time2,time3,etc when just a simple time and intialTime will do.

Also i've just realised i've accidently created a projectile class . If you us another texture when creating the bullets [when ctrl is pressed] it will work with that. The harpoons look really good.
It needs a little more work [ie rotating the object so it faces the way it is traveling]

[richardhp]

cool. if i dont fall asleep ill be coding all night should get the game in tip top shape for tomorrow. inspired by the recent shaders talk i will of course be putting in realistic lighting on all the water and game objects.

[AndrewC]

Lighting would be really nice. I really wanted to go to the rendering talk but went out to a meal instead.

I'm probably going to be coding all night to. [although a trip to tesco and cooking is my first priority].

Just so we don't get our wires crossed what are you going to modify in the game?

Firstly, i'm going to write a new sub-class of sprites called projectiles basing it on what i have for the bullets at the moment. This will be handy for creating bullets,harpoons and depth charges.

I'm also going to write the whale class (Since there a big part of the game). could you send me any AI you have done for them, if any.

Then i'll work on the clouds and random objects.


I presume you are doing/have done the lighting,sharks and animations.

Do you want to meet before the meeting to integrate our code or do you just want to do it during the showcase?

Actually I might try using SVN later.

[richardhp]

arg, this code is confusing me. i can't get what you've done to work with my code. it's becoming really hard to manage the code without svn. dont think ill be able to get this finished, still haven't written any levels.