We are done...

DR0ID on 2020/09/27 09:42 of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

... for this pyweek. Uploaded what we have. I won't complain that it could be much better or more gameplay. But hey, I learned a few things on the way:

  • tiles: there are many and they hurt render performance. I learned two useful workarounds: if the background tiles are all the same then only a single surface the size of the screen + one tile row/column is enough to get scrolling working. The other is composition into bigger surfaces (as long those tiles are static and do not change). We used the second approach.
  • using Tiled is great, but parsing the data out was a bit of a pain and cost us some time. Its probably the way we did it. Will have to study it further to know how to do it better

I hope you enjoy the (short) game.


If you run into any trouble running it, don't hesitate to contact us. Make sure to read the readme.txt first thought.

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Comments

Tee on 2020/09/27 15:18:

Did you write your own tmx parser? I've been using pytmx to parse Tiled maps and it's been a smooth experience.

DR0ID on 2020/09/27 15:26:

yes, ruling my own, as old as pytmx... this was not the problem I think, it was more translating the information into actual entities, sprites and animations

DR0ID on 2020/09/27 15:27:

rolling ... not ruling I guess ;)

gummbum on 2020/09/27 22:00:

I'll post here since I can't create my own comment.


I'm fairly impressed with DR0ID's hierarchical finite state machine. We've used primitive FSMs in past competitions, and they can grow larger than you might expect. The worm's AI in this game is next-level, he is very complex. I'm surprised we didn't have more problems with it. Kudos to DR0ID.

My personal challenge is always finding enthusiasm, inspiration, and grinding off the rust. I don't code enough in between Pyweeks these days, as the staleness of my libs attest. Around Wed I start getting into my groove. This must drive DR0ID nuts, so kudos to him again for not browbeating me.

Tue-Wed I spent reinventing the wheel: a metered text emitter; which is a poor substitute for voice acting, but we try to make it as nice as we can. This time I think I finally have one I can reuse with ease, and has just the right features. Future Pyweeks, look out. I dunno what I'll do with all that extra time. :)

So when Thu rolls around, our running private joke kicks in: are we gonna have a game by Sat. Not haha-funny, but it amuses me. Historically we've had 3 or 4 Pyweeks in a row where we bit off way more than we could chew. By Thu we had nuts and bolts strewn around, but no game, and no clear concept for assembling them. IIRC that first one DR0ID wanted to throw in the towel, but I didn't. But we finished, and I remember saying five minutes before deadline, "DR0ID." "I can't believe it." "We have a game." That became the precedent for several arduous repetitions, until we finally had enough and determined we would keep it simple.

Well, this game is about as simple as it gets. It was still challenging, and fun. No question, fun precisely because of the challenge. We would have liked to do more: clever intro and outro, maybe a couple more features for variety and challenge, and more story content. The framework for more story is there, we simply didn't have time to make the maps and write the plot. That's just Pyweek. :)

Thanks to everyone for your participation in another good exercise. Looking forward to playing some of these games. Wishing you all the best in the judging period of this game sprint.

gummbum on 2020/09/27 22:08:

I was wrong. I can make a diary entry. That's okay, it's good in my estimation for everyone to pile on one post. :)