Downfall - diary of a game...

[Graham Humphrey]

Yes - as I promised, after ruthlessly forcing ideas out of everybody a few weeks ago, here's the very start of a thread tracking my progress developing a new game for the Amiga.

As you may know (or you will if you have seen the above thread), I opted to code an Amiga version of Downfall. Downfall is a homebrew title for the Atari Jaguar, which itself was inspired by an Atari 2600 game called Man Goes Down.

As you will have gathered, it's a very simple platform affair but one based on falling, rather than jumping. As the platforms scroll up, your task is to stay on the screen without getting squished at the top, or falling to your doom at the bottom. Although a basic concept (one livened up slightly with the addition of bonuses) it's a surprisingly tricky and compulsive idea that had me coming back for 'one more go' on an alarming number of occasions.

There is no reason a bog-standard Amiga can't handle something like this, so I've got to work on a version in Blitz Basic. Despite the current title, it's not a port but being programmed totally from scratch (I might change its name to avoid confusion) so it will have its own levels and ideas, such as a saveable high score table and (hopefully) a two-player mode.

The most immediate task that had to be attended to was the scrolling, and the way the level data would be read by the game. It embarrassingly took me two whole weeks to nail the scrolling but it's now as solid as a rock, and the levels are read through data statements in the code as opposed to separate map files. As it's so simple it's actually probably quicker just banging in some numbers rather than go to the trouble of using map editors and the like. The only other thing I've added is a small score panel at the bottom but at the moment the text there is only a placeholder.

I've attached an archive of what I've done so far. Be warned the only graphics are a few brown platforms and all the program does is scroll a small level on a continual loop until you press escape. Of more interest to some will be the source code which I've included in both Blitz Basic and standard text format. I've commented it too, possibly not brilliantly but if anybody's got any queries I could always improve it at a later date.

I am aware there are a few people keen on learning the language to write their own games, so I hope the code here, and as the game progresses in the future, will provide some inspiration for those just starting out, and as I'm no expert myself, maybe some of the more clever people will give me suggestions as to how I can improve.

I appreciate this is a very modest effort so far and lots of work is still to be done. However, at least it's a start and it gives me something to build on and if I'm making my progress as public as this it will give me a big incentive to continue.

My next goal is to get the player's sprite on the screen and moving correctly. The actual mechanics of the game shouldn't be too tricky but the key is in the movement and responsiveness of the controls. That'll take some time to fine-tune.

Stay tuned for further instalments... no guarantees when but as soon as I have something worth showing it'll be here

(Incidentally, if anyone would like my Blitz installation (which includes the Blitz Support Suite) to have a play with, give me a shout and I'll upload it.)

[Dreedo]

Will try this out when it gets further along in development, as I get annoyed using non-adf files.

But I'm really glad there's more Amiga games popping up here, if I was able to program for Amiga I'd just do it all day. Port tonnes of my favourite PC games over.

Hope you have fun making this, and don't give up!

[Graham Humphrey]

Thanks, well, just posting this here will give me more incentive on its own as if I stop I'll look a bit silly

You're not missing out anyway, literally all it is some brown platforms scrolling up a screen. I will be providing the game on a self-booting ADF too when it gets to a late stage in development.

However the main reason I have posted my current work is that I think it could be interesting following how a game develops from its embryonic stages to the finished product, and so some of the would-be programmers can hopefully gain their own inspirations and ideas from the source code. So I will be posting updated versions on a regular basis, when there are tangible differences between each version

[Dreedo]

Yep, perhaps this will get more people interested in Amiga development. I am interested, but just not in the mood to develop for PC and Amiga simultaneously, maybe at a later date.

[s2325]

Thank you, how about some music? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9YRlEE1r3U

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

I've attached an archive of what I've done so far. Be warned the only graphics are a few brown platforms and all the program does is scroll a small level on a continual loop until you press escape. Of more interest to some will be the source code which I've included in both Blitz Basic and standard text format. I've commented it too, possibly not brilliantly but if anybody's got any queries I could always improve it at a later date.

I appreciate this is a very modest effort so far and lots of work is still to be done. However, at least it's a start and it gives me something to build on and if I'm making my progress as public as this it will give me a big incentive to continue.

My next goal is to get the player's sprite on the screen and moving correctly. The actual mechanics of the game shouldn't be too tricky but the key is in the movement and responsiveness of the controls. That'll take some time to fine-tune.

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

However the main reason I have posted my current work is that I think it could be interesting following how a game develops from its embryonic stages to the finished product, and so some of the would-be programmers can hopefully gain their own inspirations and ideas from the source code. So I will be posting updated versions on a regular basis, when there are tangible differences between each version

Thanks for getting this started, Graham. I'm even going to try following your progress myself - see if it can broaden my horizons a bit.

Don't worry about the modest start. I'm a complete n00b at this stuff, so that'll make it all the more easy for me to get my head round it.

Downloading your first archive now...

[fishyfish]

I used to love reading the game development diaries in magazines in the c64 and amiga days, and also enjoy reading the interviews floating around the net with programmers of classic amiga games, so I look forward to reading this as you progress.

If you find the time though, perhaps you could even post some of your struggles along the way, and how you solved them. This can be quite useful for people trying to learn to code thier own games. Not just that but you may learn some new things along the way yourself if people reading have a "better/quicker/whatever" way of doing something

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by s2325

Thank you, how about some music? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9YRlEE1r3U

Wow, I didn't expect it to appear on YouTube! That was surreal. Don't worry - music and all the rest of it will come in due course (incidentally, if anybody out there wants to help provide graphics and music do drop me a line.)

Originally Posted by prowler

Thanks for getting this started, Graham. I'm even going to try following your progress myself - see if it can broaden my horizons a bit.

Don't worry about the modest start. I'm a complete n00b at this stuff, so that'll make it all the more easy for me to get my head round it.

Downloading your first archive now...

Thanks prowler That's great to hear - the more people who take an interest the better!

Originally Posted by fishyfish

I used to love reading the game development diaries in magazines in the c64 and amiga days, and also enjoy reading the interviews floating around the net with programmers of classic amiga games, so I look forward to reading this as you progress.

If you find the time though, perhaps you could even post some of your struggles along the way, and how you solved them. This can be quite useful for people trying to learn to code thier own games. Not just that but you may learn some new things along the way yourself if people reading have a "better/quicker/whatever" way of doing something

Yes, that's a good idea. I do plan to go into more detail when it comes to implementing game features. I anticipate encountering a few problems when it comes to player movement so that could make for an interesting read for some people. And of course, the more I can learn and the more feedback I get, it can only be a good thing.

[Boo Boo]

[Raislin77it]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

(Incidentally, if anyone would like my Blitz installation (which includes the Blitz Support Suite) to have a play with, give me a shout and I'll upload it.)

yes put me on the "request" list

[Graham Humphrey]

Check the Zone

Back to the game... I had a bit of a play around last night. I drew a rubbish player sprite that's not even animated yet (this is why I need an artist to do these things y'see). You can move left and right but that's it, there's no falling, he's just suspended in mid-air at the moment. But hey, it's a start.

Updates might now be slower than intended due to doing something careless like getting myself a job... but I'll try and put aside some time each evening for it and see how it goes.

[pubzombie]

Hi GH,
This is really kewl. I have got loads of students who study games design who will be really interested in this log. We have been getting them to create logs of the games design concepts and how they overcome problems that they encounter. I am in the process of getting them to do research on retro and homebrew design ethos and methods. Most of them want to be indie devs and find the constraints of old systems meant that games had to be more about game than about graphics.
Its going to be really interesting watching your ideas and design progress and develop. Good luck bro,
Keep up the hard work.
PZ
PS i don't know anything about coding, my interests lie totally in the theory and processes of getting a game from concept to market and what constitutes a good game.

[Graham Humphrey]

Thanks

Not done any work on this tonight (just trying to adapt to the whole 'new job' thing and so on), but will definitely do some work over the weekend. It's a real incentive to know so many people are watching this with some sort of interest.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Not done any work on this tonight (just trying to adapt to the whole 'new job' thing and so on), but will definitely do some work over the weekend. It's a real incentive to know so many people are watching this with some sort of interest.

Congrats on landing the new job, Graham!

I've just downloaded your Blitz2 archive and I'll be giving this a go tomorrow.

[Peter]

+1 watching with much interest, well done for making the time Graham!

I really need to stop playing stupid old PS2 games and at least try and do something with Blitz or Amos before I get too old!

[prowler]

Yay, I got it running!

Decompressed the archive onto my A1200 hard drive, navigated to the directory containing the executable and ran it.

There was a scary moment when I copied the executable to a floppy and wondered why nothing happened when I ran it on my A500.

Ah, but then I realized it wasn't standalone and copied all the rest of it over too.

I must admit, it's quite impressive - even at this stage. My gaming experience has never really advanced much beyond the Atari VCS, and getting this fired up has got me thinking just how addictive some of those games were...

Well enough about that. It occured to me after I'd had it running a while that I didn't get a screenshot. So, in the best EAB Competition tradition, here it is!

00000

PS. I'll have a look at the code tomorrow to see how it was done...

[Graham Humphrey]

Nice work prowler

Thanks for taking the time and the interest to have a look, that's great!

As you will have seen, if the game can't find all the files it needs to run it will just silently quit out at the moment. At the end I might add some sort of error message or something if there's a file missing.

Also it's really good you're taking a look at the code too... hopefully you'll manage to figure out the way it works... this is where we find out if my notes are up to scratch

I made some fairly swift progress last night - the player can now move left and right, and I've also added falling now too (a crucial part of the game). The collision detection is very simple - we check one pixel below the player's feet and detect the colour of that pixel. If it's zero (i.e. black) then the player will fall until he either (a) hits a platform or (b) falls off the screen and therefore dies. (Oh yeah, if you go off the top or bottom of the screen it's game over too.)

It's still all a bit crude - there's no inertia or an increase in speed on the player so it moves at a constant speed. It's probably a bit too easy and boring as a result. Also the player graphics are extremely basic with no animation - he just faces left and right which is the limit of my graphical ability. But it all seems to work so far so there's a good base to build on.

Regardless of what progress I make over the weekend, I will definitely upload a new version of the game tomorrow night for you all to have a look at

[pubzombie]

Hi all,
Just thought U guys may be interested its global games jam this weekend.
http://globalgamejam.org/
We can watch the development cycle of a game crammed into 48 hours. Some of last years were really good, and I get the added bonus of seeing folks I know survive on redbull and pizza for the weekend. :-D

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Nice work prowler

Thanks for taking the time and the interest to have a look, that's great!

As you will have seen, if the game can't find all the files it needs to run it will just silently quit out at the moment. At the end I might add some sort of error message or something if there's a file missing.

Also it's really good you're taking a look at the code too... hopefully you'll manage to figure out the way it works... this is where we find out if my notes are up to scratch

I'm going to be a bit busy this weekend on the Compute Games disk, but next thing I do will be picking it up again here.

This will probably be the only chance I get for a practical introduction to programming the Amiga, and I don't intend to miss out, so expect some searching questions.

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

I made some fairly swift progress last night - the player can now move left and right, and I've also added falling now too (a crucial part of the game). The collision detection is very simple - we check one pixel below the player's feet and detect the colour of that pixel. If it's zero (i.e. black) then the player will fall until he either (a) hits a platform or (b) falls off the screen and therefore dies. (Oh yeah, if you go off the top or bottom of the screen it's game over too.)

It's still all a bit crude - there's no inertia or an increase in speed on the player so it moves at a constant speed. It's probably a bit too easy and boring as a result. Also the player graphics are extremely basic with no animation - he just faces left and right which is the limit of my graphical ability. But it all seems to work so far so there's a good base to build on.

Regardless of what progress I make over the weekend, I will definitely upload a new version of the game tomorrow night for you all to have a look at

Keep the faith. It sounds to me like you're making a fine start.

[Graham Humphrey]

As promised, here's the sum total of my work so far (that's vaguely presentable, at least). I apologise for the rubbish sprite and lack of animation but then I've never been an artist.

Doubtless you will see the odd little quirk here and there - occasionally the game will crash if you fall off the bottom of the screen; this is because the sprite is actually too tall and if you're at the bottom of the bitmap its Y coordinates will fall outside it (there's 16 extra pixels at the top and bottom of the bitmap to allow objects to scroll smoothly on and off screen but the player is 20 pixels high which is a bit silly).

Still no inertia or anything and the collision detection isn't perfect but you can find that out for yourselves. Also when you die the program keeps scrolling forever - that's something I need to tidy up also. And I've changed the scrolling slightly so that as the top platform scrolls off screen, a new one scrolls on from the bottom (which is how the Jaguar version works), but have neglected to change the source code notes accordingly.

Plenty of work to be done, still. In the meantime, I need some graphics, music and sound effects if anybody is interested in contributing. And if people can offer their own advice/method for sussing the controls and collision detection properly that would be handy too.

[Predseda]

I like it. I think I could participate with some graphics.

[Graham Humphrey]

Great, thanks! Here's a few details about what I'm looking for:

The graphics are in 16 colours (effectively 15 - colour zero isn't used for sprites etc and I'd like to save it for some sort of copper gradient for the background).

Unlike the ones I've drawn, I'd prefer the player sprite to fit into 16x16 pixels, with some animation frames to show him walking and one for falling (check the YouTube link to the Jaguar game for a guide). I'd also need a second player but you could probably just use different colours for that.

The platforms are 8x8 pixels and only use three components - a left edge, a right edge and the 'centre'. It should be pretty simple to come up with some different designs and patterns to inject some variety.

Lastly some bonus fruit pickups (preferably also to fit into 16x16).

Obviously there's also the issue of title/presentation stuff but that can wait for a while I think.

(If anyone's interested in doing music, I'd like a couple of reasonably short-ish tracks in .mod format, one for the title screen and one for the main game. I'd like to load all the data in one go so there'll be no disk access during the game so I don't want large samples etc. And the sound effects shouldn't be too hard, I only really need a sound to indicate an item has been collected and a death sample, maybe one for each player.)

[Predseda]

It will be done, o'master of code

How many anim frames per running?

BTW: is the 16 cols pallette just for trial, could be there be 32 cols used in later versions?

[Graham Humphrey]

Um... that's a good question, actually. I hadn't really given it any thought. Only a few in each direction I guess - the video of the Jaguar version may be a good guide. Maybe just have a play around and see what you think 'feels' the right amount. But I'd guess only about five or six per direction (not including the 'falling' sprite) would be needed.

[Predseda]

Lol, I have found cute typo in your .asc file. You wrote there work begun 8th Jan 2011. Not much progress since

[Graham Humphrey]

Don't see how that's an error... that is, in fact, when I started it

EDIT: Oh, I see... it's 2012 now. Doh...

[Predseda]

I would like to know how do you imagine the 2 players game. They both will be playing simultaneously and if one dies (falls down or get squished on top), he is then respawned, if the other one is still alive? So the game ends when both of them are dead in one moment?

[Graham Humphrey]

I didn't see this post (edited posts don't show up as unread so I missed it). Not too sure yet - there won't be any respawning though. I'll have to think about the best way of implementing it.

Anyway, I came back here to give people a quick update on what's going on. Predseda has very kindly stepped in to do some graphics work and he's come up with some nice, simple graphics that very much fit in with the game I think. He's done animated graphics for both players as well as some platforms and pickups... even a nice title screen. I've already managed to implement the animation for player one so that looks pretty good now.

I will once again post an updated version, probably on Sunday evening like last week, for you all to have a play around with - rest assured it's starting to look a lot better if nothing else

[Predseda]

i think there could be two 2 player modes - one that would end for a player when he gets off the screen (while the other one would continue util his own death) and one that would return the fallen player to the game if the other one is still alive (with some delay) - this could keep the long gameplay for two players and the game would end if both are dead in one moment.

It is only my suggestion. Nothing is more boring than 2 player game, when one is already dead and has to watch the other one, who is progressing well, i think.

[Graham Humphrey]

Yes - that's a trap a game like Base Jumpers falls into - it's really good fun but when there's only one player left, it loses its appeal (and that had enormous potential as a multiplayer game).

My first thought was to go for the game ending when one player dies. This means that although you're playing against each other in terms of your score, you're both dependant on each other staying alive to progress in the game (a bit like Pang in that sense).

[Graham Humphrey]

Attached to this post is the third WIP version of Downfall.

The most striking difference is the graphics. As I said earlier, Predseda has been doing great work with drawing graphics for the game and I've spent a bit of time implementing them. In the archive is the entire sprite set he's drawn (I assume he's okay with this) although I haven't included the title screen on the grounds that I haven't coded it into the game yet. So far, only the first player and one set of tiles are actually loaded into shape files but of course they will all be used eventually.

In terms of the actual code, I've added some code to animate the player shape, and also when you die the scrolling stops and you have to press escape or fire to quit. Of course, in the finished game you'll be taken to the high score table (if applicable) and then the title screen so it won't always be as crude as this.

As a nice bonus, I've added ten new 'rows' of platforms to navigate before it loops around to the start again. I'll create some new levels for the game proper; this is just to test things out really.

Also, I have been toying with the character's movement. I've been attempting to add inertia, adapting some code Anakirob wrote for me for use in Annihilation several years ago. The big problem I can't solve is the player flying off the screen and flagging an error, despite my attempts to catch it if the player's x coordinates will take him off the screen and adjust it accordingly. I've included the new code in the archive, but of course the new movement code is currently commented out - feel free to have a play around and see what you can do though...

In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away and aside from this problem, I also plan to add pickups soon, the scoring system and also a nice new panel and font for the bottom of the screen.

I'm still looking for music and sound effects if anybody would be interested in contributing. I would really appreciate it.

[prowler]

Sorry about my lack of progress reports here. The Compute Games disk is both more difficult and interesting than I thought it would be.

I've actually had the WIP2 version running in emulation. I rather like the little character; he reminds me of Lester Chaykin (Another World), but I couldn't find a joystick to use with my PC, and then I didn't have time to write it to floppy to use in my A500.

I'm still following this thread with much interest, so keep up the good work!

[Predseda]

Looks nice. There is a problem with y position of the sprite though, it should be one pixel higher (or hot spot one pixel lower), coz now feet are buried in the platforms.

[Predseda]

BTW: Only Amiga makes it possible!

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by prowler

Sorry about my lack of progress reports here. The Compute Games disk is both more difficult and interesting than I thought it would be.

I've actually had the WIP2 version running in emulation. I rather like the little character; he reminds me of Lester Chaykin (Another World), but I couldn't find a joystick to use with my PC, and then I didn't have time to write it to floppy to use in my A500.

I'm still following this thread with much interest, so keep up the good work!

Thanks prowler! Certainly no need to apologise. I'm glad you liked my little character, I didn't though Predseda has done a great job with the graphics and it's really taken on its own style now which is great. I'm pleased with how it looks now and it now means I don't have to worry about anything to do with graphics, which means more time for coding the actual game.

Originally Posted by Predseda

Looks nice. There is a problem with y position of the sprite though, it should be one pixel higher (or hot spot one pixel lower), coz now feet are buried in the platforms.

Yes, I have noticed this. I don't think it really affects the game but it doesn't look brilliant. I can't move the hot spot lower as it's already as low as it can be I should be able to fix it without too much bother though.

[Djay]

BTW: Only Amiga makes it possible!

True that

[fishyfish]

Just thought Id mention you can use a different set of 16 colors (well, 15+transparent) for hardware sprites even using 16 color screens (sprites get thier colors from registers 16-31) . Not sure if you realised this, but it sounded as though you was using a universal 16 colors (ergo perhaps some sort of bobs/software sprites?).

[Graham Humphrey]

Yes, I know I've just not really bothered to use them here. Predseda's done really well with getting everything into sixteen colours anyway

I do intend to use a separate palette for the panel at the bottom though. It looks a bit crude currently. And I really don't want to be using the Topaz font as I think it looks really amateurish in games.

[Predseda]

In fact, in game there is currently only 14 colours used. Title screen will be in 32 cols palette, because of some antialiasing effect.

Of course, we can use separate palettes for sprites and other graphics, but in this case it doesnt matter as there is not other graphics than sprites. Maybe later, when Graham deicides to add some vertical scrolling 5 layers paralax background, we will need separate palettes

Graham, I have read carefully your ASC file, it is very well commented and I can now imagine how the whole game works. It would be great if you would always summarise all the changes since previous version at the beginning of the new file.

[fishyfish]

Cool. It was mostly just because the graphics in your game are 16 pixels wide that made me think of it. Personally Im always trying to squeeze hardware sprites in wherever I can, so it was probably a bit of a reflex action in mentioning it