07 June 2016, 02:25 | #1 |
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Blocky Skies - My first Amiga game
I am getting close to finishing my first Amiga game and I thought I would post some details here for other newbies thinking of doing something similar.
TLDR - download demo from blockyskies.com. Full game/tools source code https://github.com/alpine9000/blockyskies. @nobody came up with the idea for doing this game and he did all of the artwork. @saimon69 is the musician. The game is 100% assembler/hardware. It is cross compiled on a mac using vasm/vlink and a handful of tools that I wrote in C to convert the graphics assets into Amiga format data. In order to actually get something finished in a reasonable timeframe, I banned refactoring unless the frame rate fell below 50fps or the code compromised the game. This rule has resulted in some quite hard to understand routines but I did get something finished. In around 8 weeks of working a handful of hours a week a basic game was ready. It uses quite a lot of the Amiga hardware features including:
The build creates both a trackloaded ADF and a Workbench launch-able executable. At the moment the trackloaded version runs with 512kb of ram and the Workbench version requires about 650kb of free chip ram. I used FS-UAE and WINUAE extensively to debug the game. This saved me a lot of time. Learning the full power of the UAE debugger would be my #1 recommendation for anyone thinking of developing a trackloaded hardware game. My hacked version of FS-UAE makes this even easier by giving me debug symbols and command line history/completion. The other slightly different thing I did was to use a vlink linker script to keep track of ram usage, making it very easy to know when I had blown the 512kb chip ram limit. I found coding asm on Amiga hardware to be super fun and surprisingly painless, so I can't wait to get started on the next game. |
07 June 2016, 10:17 | #2 |
ex. demoscener "Bigmama"
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Good effort and nice write-up :-)
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07 June 2016, 11:28 | #3 |
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Thanks, I probably should have mentioned that I am close to releasing a test of the workbench launch-able version.
If that tests out OK (and we have finished the levels/music) then I will put out the final version and it will be time to start on the next game |
07 June 2016, 13:41 | #4 |
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Good effort all! Great to see more software coming along.
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07 June 2016, 13:46 | #5 |
Zone Friend
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Nice to see a new Amiga game, and with the source code congrats!
Kamelito |
07 June 2016, 13:49 | #6 |
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Very good work indeed alpine9000 (and nobody + saimon69)
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07 June 2016, 15:41 | #7 |
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This looks interesting!
I have to ask though: what is the main sprite supposed to be? I can't figure it out :/ Great job! |
07 June 2016, 17:00 | #8 | |
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Quote:
The sprite in the video on the site (kaboom level) is a tank, and for the demo version it's a flying pig |
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07 June 2016, 17:30 | #9 |
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Nicely done!
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07 June 2016, 17:49 | #10 |
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07 June 2016, 18:35 | #11 |
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Looks interesting, I'll try it for sure.
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07 June 2016, 20:31 | #12 |
Glastonbridge Software
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oh! looks nice! i love the idea... a memory game
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07 June 2016, 21:34 | #13 |
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Hi Alpine9000!
Excelent! Thank you for the source code and the game!!! |
08 June 2016, 08:30 | #14 | |
Natteravn
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Quote:
I see you used the free portable Tiled editor for the maps. I also plan to do that for my next game. |
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08 June 2016, 08:35 | #15 |
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Yes Tiled is cool. I didn't really use many features and ended up using hard coded tile addresses to determine tile properties which I might not do again if I had my time over again.
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08 June 2016, 09:16 | #16 |
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I uploaded a test release of a hard drive installable version to the website. It requires about 600kb of free chip ram.
I tested it as thoroughly as I could in UAE, but my workbench knowledge is 20 years old and only extended to 2.0.... So if anyone is brave enough to try it on real hardware I would be very grateful |
08 June 2016, 11:13 | #17 |
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Great little game mate well done!
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08 June 2016, 11:20 | #18 |
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08 June 2016, 11:49 | #19 |
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08 June 2016, 11:57 | #20 |
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