hi guys

I have been working on the movable blocks, I was trying for ages to get this to work and just couldnt work it out, But eventually got it working and it was easier than what i thought it would be. I was trying all sorts of things to get this to work and it took me most of the day.

I can now make a bit more complicated levels with some sort of puzzle element as you will have to push blocks to certain places in order to get to out of reach platforms and collectibles.
The blocks can  be moved left and right for now, I want to be able to make them fall from platforms when pushed off, but i`ll leave that for another day. :-)

Hey guys

I am still working on the editor and my new platform game which i`m calling Sarah 2 for now.

Improvements:

• The editor now lets me rotate tiles, so that i can add more variation to the level layouts.
• changed the level data  structure to take into account the rotation of  tiles.
• added the new level data structure to game so that it can place rotated tiles.
• Added a tile properties menu to the editor from which i can currently just rotate tiles, but i will eventually add more functionality to this to change lots of properties for the tiles, like set to background, set to foreground and various physics settings etc.
• have tweaked the game play in  Sarah 2.
• tweaked the collision detection in game
• adjusted the positioning of the spikes in game.

have to test game and placement editor to make sure that the new changes work well.

I also want to add moveable objects to the game, so that you can push some blocks to better positions to achieve jumps to get to otherwise unreachable platforms. 1ll see how i get on with this task, might be a while before i can work out how to do it. having to think how to work this out as if you push a block too close to a wall you might not be able to get in behind it to push it back, so would i have a reset switch to move the blocks back to original positions, which might seem unnatural or would i allow Sarah to pull block as well. what if you push block off a level it is meant to be on and  falls? not sure how to tackle this,  but for now i think i might just settle for being able to push an object to where it is needed.

Hi guys

I have been working on the placement editor, tidying up some code, trying to make things work better and faster.

Improvements made.

• Editor now starts up faster.
• Deleted a lot of print statements that i was using to debug.
• Re-organising code to make it easier to follow and change.
• Adding some error trapping code to the editor, (i know  what to do and what not to do to stop editor crashing , but much more efficient if i can catch errors if i mistakenly do things the code doesnt like, and also much more user friendly so other people can use it eventually)
• Added a message box. so editor can display messages to help you and display error messages.
• All messages now display in message box.
• added current cursor position to the stats window.
• tidied up the moving platform menu, it was placing messages over the world display, now moved to message window.
• message window now a function so quicker to display messages.it automatically works out where to place text depending on text length and whether or not there are one or two lines to display. Original  function asked for co-ordinates and i had to work out manually, which took a bit of trial and error to get the positions right. you can also add rgb values for the text colour.

hey guys,

Adding some improvements to Sarah in Candyland.

Improvements:

• All stars now rotate, adds a bit more movement to the levels.
• Adverts now only appear every 3 levels , instead of after every level, which seemed far too much.
• monsters are now animated.

This has now been released to the google play store with the new features.

I am working on the game engine a bit more as i want to be able to do a lot more in the platform games.

Improvements to game engine i want to add.

• Add inventory so you can collect objects.
• to open doors
• to trade with npc's
• to work machinery
• add npc's to talk to, to get information/help
• add weapons
• add armor
• randomly spawn enemies
• enemies fire weapons.
• disintegrating platforms
• shops to buy items.

there are lot of other things that i want to add, but these are the main ones at the moment. dont know if all these will make it into the next game, depends on what i can manage to do, because i would like to release a game every 6-8 months.

I am also going to have to work with the placement editor so that i can add all the new improvements to it to use in the game.

I also want to start coding another game which will be a space combat/exploration game, where you can choose a ship and get missions to complete to earn money to upgrade your ship/ buy new ship.

Just mucking about with this to see where i will go with this at the moment.

Hey guys,

Not been doing much for the past month, but back to coding now. I can now delete multiple tiles in the placement editor by holding down the right mouse key and moving the mouse over tiles. This along with being able to place multiple tiles by holding down the left mouse button will allow me to build levels a lot faster than before.

Next i want to be able to adjust level sizes that i said i was going to do in my last post,but  didnt get round to.

I dont know whether to pick the level size when i create a new level or just start designing levels and let the editor adjust size as i add tiles. It might be easier to pick level size on creation, as that is the way the code works at the moment, to allow it to expand as i go will be a bit more difficult as i will have to work out sprite numbers as i go along,and will disrupt the way the levels are created. I will have a think about it and see what i can come up with, although making editor adjust size would be much more flexible and less restrictive.

Hey guys,

I have been working on the placement editor, the baddies now appear on a separate layer, so i can turn the baddies on and off. Previously i could not place any tiles or objects under the baddies, this has now been changed and i can add things to the same tile the baddies appear, and get rid of them when working on the level layout.

next i want to add the ability to change the size of the levels, currently all levels have a fixed width(40) and height(23), No idea why i picked this size of level, might have been some thought behind it that i cant remember now though, but whatever the reason this size is very limiting for more complicated and bigger levels.

Hey guys,

The long wait is over, game is finally released and is available here


Its been a long while getting to this point.
its not the best game ever but its the most complicated thing i have ever attempted and i am happy with it in its current state.
I could have added lots more to it as i have loads of ideas, but thought this project had to come to an end eventually, maybe a sequel to add some of those other ideas i had...;-)