Particle Experimentation

I’ve been tinkering with my particles again. I thought I’d see what they would look like changing size, it looks good but it also means that some particles will be hard to collect I think when I get some more of the game elements in place.

Particles To Music

I’ve been experimenting again with the particle code and believe I have something close to what I want, but will probably keep tweaking over the next few months. At the moment it is shooting the particles up according to the amplitude of the music, and works with any mp3 file. This is my first real foray into working with classes, and is very complicated for me. When I learn something new in code it seems to leave me straight away a few hours later.

Movement

Thought I’d leave the particle system code alone for a bit and look into movement from my character. There are a few options I can take, but for the time being I’ve rested on the character going where ever the mouse is. It’s very quick and will react well to user inputs reactions.

I Want Never Gets

At the moment I am hoping to have a scoreboard so that players can compete with each other for high scores on each level; a level been the song as it will set the rate, height, amplitude everything but the size of the particles. Having other interactive elements and a progressive levelling system is the hard part now I think about deciding what to do. Scoreboard will have to be something to look into in terms of feasibility. I would also like if possible to incorporate the ability to add your own music and or play music located on line, again feasibility will be the issue, a) if it is even possible to do it and b) if I’ll have the technical knowledge to achieve it.

When it works...

I have been looking at marrying the music raw data to spark off the particles. I’ve been looking all over and there are not many examples, nearly all using graphics API to draw lines and abstract shapes so it’s hard to find inspiration code wise for this. This is especially difficult as I am not proficient in code at all. I’ve been particularly stressed about some code for the client brief for which Chris has taken over to fix, to which I’m relieved about, all this does not help my love of AS3. I’ve found that I love it when it works and is very powerful but when it doesn’t, it’s very stressful. At least with designing an unreal map you have some visual feedback all the time, if a certain aspect doesn’t work you can change it but if certain code doesn’t work, the whole thing doesn’t work.

Particle Systems

I Have been experimenting with particle systems. I had a quick go over the summer using my book but in true Johnson style other stuff has pushed that knowledge out so I’m tinkering again. It’s hard to see here because it just looks like circles drawn but there is in fact movement to these circles. There’s a lot you can do with particle systems and I’ve just signed up to Lynda.com; a pay per view tutorial website that guides you through basic skills. I hope to build up sufficient goals to accomplish my FMP.

Change of Idea!

After some thought about the platform game I have realised that the game I would create would not be exactly what I was after, I could have either; spread the spectrum from an mp3 to make an undulating map, in which case it would end up like Mario or I could have an intense terrain which is what I had in my mind all along, this like I mentioned in a previous post would have been too hard for the player and isn’t working brilliantly code wise.
After talking with James I decided to have a go at slightly different game type, this would be more like a scrolling platform game, in which music will make object appear and you have to avoid them whilst collecting the music particles that appear on screen.

Hitest, hit test my face on the desk...

One Problem I’ve been running into is hit testing, hit testing was relatively easy in AS2 in my opinion, it’s quite easy in AS3 but different. I’ve found that I think things might be going a bit fast for the hit test I have. You can hit test a bounding box or you can hit test point, which will hit test much more accurately, this very good for curves which I have a lot of. This is kind of knocking nails into my platform idea.

Movement

I’ve been having a go at some movement for the platform aspect of the game; it’s quite simple and not too dissimilar to AS2. I need to create a really smooth control system, something that’s bouncy and arcade fun. At the moment it’s a bit basic, some easing should help it a long which I’ll look into. I believe Chris is using a tween engine in our group project which I will study.

Platform Not Sure...

Experimenting with the amplitude meter, to create my platform game. Starting to wonder if a platform game is the way to go. The idea I had in my head was to create a really off the wall crazy game that would bounce and change to the music but I think this is going to be too hard for the player; I’ll persevere for the time being anyway.

Experimentation

I’ve been experimenting with using the mp3 streaming and getting a visual representation using a different method. I made a simple amplitude meter, screen shots I think aren’t really going to show my progress well, as I could change code that significantly change the way something works but the end result in a screenshot will look very similar, but I’ll stick them up anyway!

Sound Fun

I’ve been looking at the different ways of using the sound data; one way I’ve completed today (thanks to gotoandlearn.com) is using the bmp in a song. The problem with this is I have to do prep work for the song in other software. The first part is to use adobe audition, and get the beats as numerical values, then using java script import it into flash as an array. This can then be used, in this case I used the graphics api to draw a line to the numerical value, then play the music to match and the two work together to create a visualization, all very good and rather complicated! This good as it is precise, the data as it were is there for flash to use but I will hopefully have it so players can use their own music, which means this method won’t be viable. I’ll need to get the information at runtime no prep work but I can keep this method in mind.

AS3 sad face...

I’ve been getting myself familiarised again with as3 and it’s all looking rather scary! The reason I have chosen Action Script 3 over 2 is the ability to use raw sound data from a streaming MP3, which is perfect for what I want to use otherwise I may have taken the easier option of AS2 because it’s code I’m much more familiar with, code doesn’t come naturally to me but is a necessary evil to accomplish my FMP.

Action Script Ahoy

I have been really getting into action script. It is all very new to me and as such is a very steep learning curve. I had a look at it over the summer and it made much more sense to me then than it does now unfortunately. I began slowly over the summer not worrying too much about classes but I think I have underestimated their importance. I have taught myself some basic code over the summer using a very good book called Learning Action Script 3.0, which was brilliant and can’t recommend enough but it gave you the option at the front to not worry too much about classes just yet, I took that option. I am fast learning that a class are extensively used and is becoming the norm in other coding disciplines. This isn’t putting me off (much) it is simply more to learn, I have read that AS3 is difficult to pick up but once you have it, it is infinitely more versatile than AS2, I shall see!

Week 5

Getting close to finishing my Proposal document. I've completed the abstract, audience section, goals, user experience, critical analysis, project content and project structure. I have sketches and mock ups to go in but I'll carry on creating them as i am really struggling to make on screen what I see in my head. I think I need some more photoshop and illustrator skills before I create the final graphics for my game.

Week 4

I have been concentrating on my proposal, the abstract is done and I have created some work for the audience section. I have a tutorial this week discussing my dissertation so I'll be preparing for that. I have created some drawings for my game but I'm finding it very difficult to articulate artistically on paper and screen what I see in my head. I'll carry on drawing and experimenting with adobe illustrator and photoshop and looking for tutorials that may help me.

Week 3

I have tweaked my idea over the last week, I think for the better. Instead of having two different games in one (guitar hero and platform game) in one I have decided to remove the guitar hero element. I felt that my origional idea wasn't unique enough, it was just a platform game with guitar hero lumped in and nothign special, both have been doen before with greater success individually. I have decided instead to have music have a direct impact on the platform part of the game I have kept. The music will affect the "ground" in this case the nebula the player is running on whilst they have to jump and capture sounds for points. I think this is much more unique and unlike other games. I have changed my abstract to reflect this and will continue to work on my proposal and some designs on paper for the game.

Week 2

Had tutorials today to discuss our ideas and get them approved. My idea seemed to go down well and it was suggested I proceed with trying to create a prototype of my game. One problem is because I'm using Action Script 3 for its use of raw sound data, I will not be able to have much technical support so it will nearly all be self learning which I don't mind as i want to learn. I will edit my proposal draft into something that's worth handing in over the next week and look into concept art for my game.

Week 1

Starting back this week. I have spent the summer thinking about my Final major Project. Below are some of the ideas thought during in the break

• I've decided to work with Flash over workign with Unreal. I've decided this as I enjoyed working with flash more than I did Unreal editor. Flash also suits my stregnths.
• I've decided I want to make a game that ecapsulates the use of music.
• I am thinking of making a platform game that you play throguh but instead of an end boss you have to complete a guitar hero style song.
• Will probably set it in space. You play a robot sent to investigate a nebula that is coming towards Earth. This Nebula has been collecting sounds and music from Earth liek a sponge.
• The platform part will be the player making his her way throguh areas between the nebula, over asteroids and planetary rings etc.
• The guitar hero bit will be the player advancing throguh the Nebula a bit, collecting sounds as you go.