2011…Complete.

Hello 2012!

2011 was my busiest year. I’m 25, I’ve held a job since I was 12, and I’ve been in school since I was 3, but nothing compared to 2011. This year, I developed a game remotely (and went to events related to the game), developed a small working HTML5 engine, worked a 28 hour web development job while in college, graduated and went full time employee, got married, went to 2 game conventions, and many other things.

The past 2 or so months, I’ve basically been dragging my butt on game development. So tonight, all that’s changing.

First off, I’ve redid my site.

Second off, I’ve picked up the 3D engine. Now, It’s not going to be perfect. I’m going ahead with implementing singletons. Right now, I’m trying to learn what I can from the books and everything else through trial and error. The lessons from the latter will probably be a weekly (if not daily) feature here.

Third off, RESTINCT is picking back up. We’re looking into selling the thing and making it available for multiple platforms. I’m looking forward to working on it.

Well, that’s enough for tonight. G’Night!

New Trophy: Game Engine Complete!

Hello archival readers (My traffic is currently 1 person a week…)

Let me explain my current progress as a great programmer.

I. I’ve created an HTML5 engine. This would have been great to write blog entries about & I regret not doing it. I’ve learned a heck of a lot doing it. Little tips such as embracing JavaScript’s quirks to design object based parameters for easy to manage code & low cost; Tricks such as the ol’ (# | 0) for flooring numbers; and lessons such as not implementing a callback based update system.

One of the decisions I made early on was to use event listener systems for everything. I overrode the onclick event for various purposes (I wanted to take advantage of any efficiencies in browser pipelines). However, this proved problematic when timing was off.

I ended up reading a tutorial on javascript game loops that showed how to create a better loop. I didn’t implement all the ideas but it did get me a fast solution for my gameloop.
Link: http://nokarma.org/2011/02/02/javascript-game-development-the-game-loop/index.html

Tonight, I was finally able to get a megaman character to slide across the screen using my framework. All that’s left is to get some art & start programing my gamestates & I’m in business!

II. RESTINCT
The Chicago Unity3d Game project has been coming along pretty darn well! We had a exhibition where viewers could enter and play our various minigames. Once they finished, they would write feedback for said games & we would update them by a few days time. This exhibition lasted a month & a half. I actually drove down and viewed the exhibition while meeting the rest of the team. It was a great experience as everyone I met on the team was great!

I’ve been learning a lot of lessons while looking at the old code (especially for mary’s game). The biggest dumb decision came down to how to handle offsets of the blocks (ie: positional data from center to bottom left). I won’t go into details, but a lot the code I wrote (while clever) could have been much simpler. It’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way & something I’m going to be more aware of in the future.

III. Pong 3D
While the original idea was to create a better 3D DirectX 10 engine and use it for pong, I’m focusing on what’s important in the now first. I also would really like to finish “Effective C++ (Scott Meyers)” before I finish the engine (I don’t want another Singleton fiasco of Summer 2011).

IV. GDC Online – Austin, TX
I went to GDC online. I’m going to be honest here. The sessions weren’t the best. The HTML5 stuff was either way over my head (I know nothing of webworkers {although I need to change that}) or irrelevant (sorry, but I’m not aiming for ie7 compatibility).

The best parts was the following:
A. The Networking. That’s of course the #2 reason why I wanted to go. I met a lot of really nice people. I hope I get to meet them again. I wonder what you are supposed to do with your business cards now that you have them.
B. Austin. Man, I love a big city. Austin is my current #2 favorite (San Fran takes top spot). Everyone there is super friendly & down to earth. I also had the best tacos ever (yes…ever.. *drools* 8p….).

So that’s the current happenings with regards to video game stuff.

Personally, I’ve got the Wedding. Looking forward to that! (theladyandthegamer.wordpress.com)

I’ve also got graduation! Looking forward to that!

I’ve also got…no…that’s it. Nice talking to you, one guy!

Matthew Farmer

End of 30 Day Challenge [for now]

I know I seem like a quitter for this, but I am ending the 30 day challenge. Here’s why.

I was getting into the tutorial series when it finally dawned on me that it wasn’t built for engine development. Not that I was just copying it line for line, but I wasn’t putting forward my best object oriented approach. So I re-wrote a lot of it several times. Once, I used a singleton that would contain all the main engine classes I wanted. However, I later read the limitations of the singleton when it comes to multi-threading.

I did this several times, not putting forward my best code. And that’s what it’s all about right? Quality code?

I decided that I’m instead going to hit the books. I’m going to do my XNA project first, then read the following books:

1. Effective C++
2. C++ for Game Programmers
3. Advanced 3D Game Programming with DirectX 10.0
4. 3D Game Engine Design, Second Edition

I’m not particularly looking forward to the sheer amount of verbiage I am about to consume since it has to be done in a short amount of time. I need to read a lot & I need it to stick.

Anyways, I’m not quitting. I’m just holding off for now.

Side Note: I’m going to be attending the IGDA Austin picnic Saturday. I hope it’s amazing.

576 Hours (Sound, Text, and Input)

I had to work on RESTINCT alot this weekend, but I was able to dedicate some to the 30 day challenge. I’m still quite behind though.

I was able to implement a text system that allows you to set the placement, color, and value of a sentence. Another thing that I implemented was an Input System that gives you the KeyDown & Mouse (movement & position) values. Finally, I was able to implement sound finally!

The one thing that I didn’t learn how to do was sound. The tutorial that I browsed assumed that you knew DirectSound. That being said, it didn’t seem to hard to manipulate. I’m just very ignorant on file type verification. I wouldn’t know the first thing about implementing an MP3 System.

One issue that’s coming up is that I want to be able to use this for an implementation of a game. However, most implementations of the things I’m learning online are mostly set up for education purposes. This means that I’m coming up with the architecture.

This is fine, but I don’t have any background, so I’m pulling it out of my butt for what I think will work. Hopefully, putting Input, Graphics, & Sound into a master class, then having the master class be passed into your logic class for use elsewhere isn’t Taboo.

One last thing I’d like to mention. I’m considering creating a tutorial series for some of the work I’m doing on RESTINCT. Everything I’ve seen online about persistent objects & inventory systems are lacking. I think I might be able to contribute to the community for the next guy, so if I do, I’ll write about it here.

Good night.
I

672 Hours (Day of GUI)

So I’m behind.

It sucks because it’s only day three and I’m a full implementation behind and that’s not boding well for stress levels. (Oh finals..) Good news is the weekend is pretty free, so I’m going to implement the most important things by then.

Anyways, I did fix a specular bug and I implemented a bitmap class, as well as some orthographic projection. While I do have a “GUI” graphic appearing on screen, It’s implementation will be different as intended.

Eventually (probably next week) I’m going to start changing the base files into something a bit more abstract and take all the logic out and put it into a Pong Class. I can easily pass the Graphics Object & the Input Object, which is a much better system than the inverted system I had last time. Bottom up is a lot easier to work with.