splatty's not here

Life Design: Being a happy failure!

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:55:15 GMT

This is the first in a projected series of blogposts leading up to the reveal of my current project. However, they are not meant to hype or detail that project in any way, but rather detail and discuss some topics I have and am still learning along the way which might be of general interest to others.

The most important lesson of all is believe in what you do. Now, this sounds rather obvious, but lets talk about my own previous gaming projects in a very open and honest way.

I have failed at making games. Now, I know that I have the talent and creativity to make games, and to a certain extent, I have a certain amount of programming skills in a wide variety of languages. Anything I can't do, I can easily research and implement quick enough. However, there is something missing in me. Something intangible that some might deem to call "ambition", or maybe possibly "passion".

Why did I make games? Did I really want people to play them? No, I don't think so. For the most part, I made games to prove to myself that I could do them. And that is the crux of the problem - whenever I progressed far enough into a project that I could honestly say to myself: I understand now how this works, I can make it - then I had no real interest in continuing.

As soon as I learned platformer physics and made a demo, I was satisfied. As soon as I made a Zelda-clone in textmode, I was satisfied. As soon as I made a random generated dungeon with ore streams, I was satisfied. As soon as I made a dynamically configurable MUD codebase, I was satisfied. And as soon as I made a custom scriptable game engine with an advanced syntax all on my own, well, you can see that I haven't been working on SEx:Engine for a while.

In making games, I am a failure. I am a success in posing challenges to myself and achieving them, however. My hard drive is full of rather nice unreleased tech demos of board games, a 4k zombie killing co-op game, solar system generators, and the like. However, I have no interest in completing them.

So - what can we learn out of this? Look at what you are doing and think about what you are really getting out of it. Am I disappointed at all of the time I "wasted" with game programming? Of course not! I had hundreds of hours of left-brain fun, I have met interesting people, and I wrote articles on game design which were well-recieved, which is rather ironic, but I do admittedly have more talent in designing that actually implementing.

However, that is not what I want to be remembered for when I die... although I wouldn't mind people playing a game of splattertag in my honor - actually, it would be a fun thought to add an easter egg with a splattycorpse in it if a certain admin code was entered... to beannounceed in my last will and testament.

So, what do I want to be remembered by? And how does this "passion" or "ambition" work, how can you awaken it, and how can you build it up in everyday life?

Stay tuned for the next blog entry, where I talk about how to choose the one idea which can change your life forever.

Whatever happened to splatty?

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:24:42 GMT

That strange unusual tentacled beast who has created such BYOND superhits such as... well, possibly splattertag, and if you consider "a game that some people may have tested and then gave up when they couldn't complete the block puzzle" to be equivalent to superhit, then minigame, too.

So, whatever happened to that guy?

Well, he is currently stationed in the US, and he is preparing something. Something big. Something innovative. And something... not computer related.

Well, that was a bit disappointing, no?

Never forget!

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 15:22:28 GMT

I have discovered a rare screenshot from back in The Golden Days of BYOND - I hope you enjoy it. Its a picture from Chatters, where I reformed a channel in text-mode to look like a crossword puzzle, and everybody joined in to fill out certain letters. :-)

SEx is no longer a solitary thing

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:04:40 GMT

I have today started development on the drone (NPC) class for SEx:Engine. As of now, its very early and rough, as one can assume after such a short development time, but you can already script a drone to go on a scripted looped route between ingame objects. In other words - the player is no longer the only person inhabiting the game.

It is still very rough - I already have the trigometric functions all ready and plotted out to be implemented to allow them to go all 360� to their destination, which will be slightly more beautiful than my current version. And then I have to add the ability for them to visit scripted coordinates rather than just targetted objects...

And after that? Freeroaming drones and intelligent drones of all types. There was some motion and movement in SEx:Engine before, with orbiting planets and the like, but now I am happy to see my test scripts create a world full of motion and (albeitedly scripted) movement.

This was just a little random update to keep people informed that I am indeed still working hard on this little project of mine. :-) I might update at a later point in time when development has progressed closer to alpha testing state sometime this century.

Gughunter is awesome!

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:06:42 GMT

(He has saved me from passing out drunk in the BYOND gutter... figuratively speaking)

SEx:script in a new outfit

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 21:23:04 GMT

Since several people complained about the appearance of the example I gave last time of SEx:script, I took the effort on me to revamp my interpreting parser for the compiler and made it more... "python-like". However, the old version is not only still available, its also full functional (and the version I`ll use in my demos and whatnot). One thing of note: the example below is not complete and would not even be functional as is, since I simplified it for demonstration purposes.

For comparison:

The old version

PLANET *EARTH*



  NAME *Earth*

  MAP *SOLAR SYSTEM*

  PICTURE *earth.jpg*



  ENTER

    TURNFLAGON *earthvisit*

    DISPLAY *Initiating docking procedures...*

    IFFLAG *illicitcargo* *policecheck*

      DISPLAY *Our scans have discovered something...*

      CALL *illegalcargo*

    ELSE IFFLAG

      DISPLAY *Have a nice time at Earth Starport!*

    END IFFLAG

  END ENTER



END PLANET

And the new one...

Planet(EARTH)



  Name(Earth)

  Map(SOLAR SYSTEM)

  Picture(earth.jpg)



  Enter

    TurnFlagOn(earthvisit)

    Display("Initiating docking procedures...")

    IfFlag(illicitcargo,policecheck)

      Display("Our scans have discovered something...")

      Call(illegalcargo)

    ElseIfFlag

      Display("Have a nice time at Earth Starport!")

    EndIfFlag

  EndEnter



EndPlanet

See the difference? Its not the capitalization (which is irrelevent, since the parser is not case-sensitive) nor the commands now written together (which you could beforehand)... but the fact that you can use ( ) for the data is new. One could optionally write Name (Earth) or even Name=(Earth) just as well. This isn`t just a cosmetic difference, though. An example can be seen in the IFFLAG where, in this version, has two arguments seperated by a comma instead of in two * * blocks.

Even more intersting is that I have started implementing the . owner pointer, which shows who calls a certain command. A fictional example: bigplanet.explode(big,3) <- which would have the bigplanet object call the explode command. If no "owner" is defined, it can be considered src or self. Anyone used to datums should understand the concept I am working towards with these. The best part is that one can use variables as parents... perfect for the custom procedures.

Any comments or criticisms on the current incarnation of SEx:script is more than welcome.

splatty

SEx:Engine Progress Report (alpha 0.1.25)

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 14:02:33 GMT

Since several people have been asking, I might as well give a general overview of the current state of SEx:Engine.

After a short self-induced exodus from SEx:Engine (and all computer-related activities) due to personal reasons, I have returned to continue where I have dropped off.

Basically - the game engine (as of now) allows players to define (via scripting) sectors and systems with planets which either "hang in space" or orbit. Graphics are customizable. There are several "triggers" which can call custom procedures - such as collision with planets. The script language allows scriptors to set variables, has if-clauses, and a growing amount of other events. It is also possible to activate custom "DAEMONs", which are timelines of events with its own internal clock. Of course, lots of nice smaller tools and tricks (such as custom decals) round this off.

As of now, my main work is getting TEMPLATEs fully customizable - that will save work on scripting and defining planets. The other main event is to expand the trade engine to allow a GUI trading interface.

So, as you can see - its very basic because most of my work so far has been on adding flexibility and functionality to SEx:script - the scripting language. It has alway been my opinion that it is important to provide the tools to allow people to do their own thing with the script language before concentrating on "hardcoded" engines to simplify things.

So - no NPCs, no enemies, no combat - as of now. At most, one could easily create simple fetch quests and simple pacifist adventure mini-quests. But I am happy with the system as it is so far, and it can only get better from here, now that the foundation is quite solid.

Oh, and to round things off... an extremely simple example of SEx:script:

PLANET *EARTH*



  NAME *Earth*

  MAP *SOLAR SYSTEM*

  PICTURE *earth.jpg*



  ENTER

    TURNFLAGON *earthvisit*

    DISPLAY *Initiating docking procedures...*

    IFFLAG *illicitcargo*

      DISPLAY *Our scans have discovered something...*

      CALL *illegalcargo*

    ELSE IFFLAG

      DISPLAY *Have a nice time at Earth Starport!*

    END IFFLAG

  END ENTER



END PLANET

Disclaimer: Capitalizations are optional, several commands may optionally be written together (ENDPLANET/ELSEIFFLAG). Indentions and empty spaces are optional and may be added for readability. Flags are boolean variables - they do not have to be predefined. CALL calls a custom defined procedure of that name. IF-clauses of any type may be nested indefinately.

splatty

Recommend me a new mission...

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 02:30:00 GMT

I can write a new BYONDscape article.
I can update multitoe with more game modes.
I can expand Escape From Nautilus Station.
I can turn minigame into a tutorial on Zelda-like games.
I can leave BYOND... and never return again!

splatty

... and then the dead arise again.

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 10:23:15 GMT

As hinted in my last blog post, I have finally whipped up something... rotten... for BYOND. Check it out on BYONDscape.

I hope you enjoy it!

splatty

Necrophilia

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 06:48:58 GMT

If all goes right, then something shall return soon.. something... fun... something -dead-...

Stay tuned!

splatty