Astuka Makes a Stencyl Game - Part 2

Updating today because, as of Friday, a group is already out of the running. Two sophomore girls decided to quit their game because apparently their dads computer could not run game maker. Immediately one took the panic and began to ask the other groups what there project was, to no avail. Eventually they remembered one of the beginning suggestions that was actually put in by me -- a single lets play episode, meant as sarcasm. Unfortunately neither of these girls knew it was (the main one didn't even know what a lets play was) and proceeded to get extremely excited over the proposition. Oh dear.

Anyway, time for the progress on my game.

For the basic layout (as well as the first level) I decided to just take the run 'n gun example. I mean, its an elective class, so it's not like I have to TRY. The second level however, is a wonderland made entirely by me. And by that I mean I stole a couple of extra assets and added it into the game.

Magnificent, isn't it?

I used the platforming aspect to my advantage, focusing less on the shooting as the instruction level showed but instead a more jumping and running centered game. I also tried to make it hard, but that's pretty difficult to do considering its a stencyl game.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I'll add one more post around when the project is due, but if not I'll see you in the not-so-distant future. Toodles.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Astuka makes a Stencyl Game - Part 1

I'd like to preface this by saying even though I'm bringing this back, this will still be the main website I will be focusing on. That being said, don't expect regular posts -- besides, I write better when I take my time.

Anyway, there's a new school project that I'm working on. Basically we could choose anything that was related to technology, and I naturally chose making a game -- but I didn't want to focus TOO much on working, so I decided to make it the copy and paste engine that is known as Stencyl.

Many other people decided to do games too, but unfortunately they decided to be in groups. Ah, I can smell it now -- the anger and frustration, the broken hearts and broken friendships, and the mass amount of different personalities, none likable. Classic game industry. If there happens to be any drama, I'll update you on that too.

I know I can't draw, so I'll be taking my drawing time and cutting it out by taking stuff out of the StencylForge. It's not like I'll be releasing it, anyway.

I will be making all of the logic for the game however, since its as easy as scratch and for the most part even an 8 year old could do it.

Anyway, I'll update you on my progress in a few days. Don't expect specific time for release dates, as I'm having a hard enough time releasing my main blog posts on time. That being said, I'll probably never update this ever again. Oh well.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimatsu Legend 10/25/13 -- Broken Record

Continuing off of last post, it appears that contrary to popular belief you can't run jack shit when it comes to javascript. According to one guy off yahoo answers however, what you can do is place that .js file into a html file and play it through there. So, is it true?

I don't know, does this look like a fucking game to you?

Of course, it doesn't. It was then however that I remembered I had downloaded some coding app for google that I was pretty sure couldn't run the script either. To be fair though at this point I was pretty desperate, so I tried it anyway.

to be continued

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Geimastu Legend 10/24/13 -- The First Project!

Programming

PROJECT ONE

Idea: Simple text-adventure

Programming: Javascript in Notepad

Art: N/A

Music: N/A

As I started thinking when I was walking home this morning, with my current knowledge of JS it would actually be pretty easy to make a simple, 30 minute-or so long text adventure game using only JS. Since this is the first project though, combined with the fact that I have a lot of work to do this may be the only thing I end up doing today.

Once the game is finished, I'll probably just put it up as freeware on a separate page on this blog, assuming it even works.

So, as most games start I decided to add a basic "set-up" that showed who the game was by, what it was called, etc. Then right after I saved I realized something: I had no fucking idea how to run it.

I'd figure it was probably the console, but actually running it on the console confused me. I decided just to open up the code and see if I could open it with the console. After being distracted by all the different strange folders in the "My Documents" library, I opened up the right folder to see that it was already recognized as a javascript file.

Huh.

HUH.

Oh, fucking fantastic. Looks like whatever windows was trying to run doesn't even know what console.log is. Here's hoping codeacademy is telling the actual truth.

I'd figure my next best bet was to run the command prompt, which instead of doing something useful just closed instantly. I figure that my last hope was to run the program through the console, or to use the alternate return function. Surely that's got to do SOMETHING.

Did I mention I have to idea what the fuck I'm doing?

UPDATE 1:

I've tried a few other things and googled some, but it looks like no matter what I try the code still isn't running. I'm going to leave for now to finish that other work and try again later.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimastu Legend 10/21/13 -- The First Day

Well, the one thing about this project is that, so far, I haven't actually told the rest of my team that I'm doing it. Well, the part that remains. Neither of course do I have any intention on it since, if this project fails, might as well have some auxiliary. Right? Right!?

Programming:
THESE GOD DAMN FUNCTIONS

So the current area that I'm learning in Javascript is functions. For HTML/CSS/JQuery I pretty much brushed by with little to know problems, but this is the first time I've had to actually read things and do them over and over again. Like real coding.

Something tells me I'm going to HATE real coding. Oh well.

I feel kind of cheated in the way that I feel like I've learned practically nothing from using functions. They sure seem useful, but the whole idea seems like some convoluted mess to me, probably mostly because I'm both tired and frustrated.

Also, what the fuck does return even DO? I've been going through this section of it today and have no idea why it even has any importance. Then again that's probably just because I don't read. From my great analysis skills though, it looks like it does the same exact thing as console.log only just in functions.

Ingenuity, ladies and gentlemen.

Art:

For art, I decided just to "assess" what I already know before I proceeded to find some tutorials. To do this, I recreated myself in full glory.

Holy. Shit.

Okay, TO BE FAIR to my artist self, this is probably the best drawing I've made in YEARS. This, this is a high point.

Utilizing the incredible skillful techniques of line-drawing and correct oval eyes, I was able to make this master piece. Looks like Ringo Starr has some competition.

But seriously I REALLY need to get on some tutorials.

Game Design:

Well, like I said in my starting post, this is pretty much the only thing I'm good at, so....

Music:

My obvious initial first step for music was to find something that was actually able to create music. The only problem is, I don't know any. Why, is that, you ask? Oh yeah, I'm MUSICALLY INCOMPETENT.

But then, like a lightning bolt to my chest (how about you add that shit to writing/game design), I found the answer swiftly and incredibly painfully.

FUCK YEAH

It was perfect, and made to be 8-bit. I couldn't start on Synthesia or whatever the fuck its called because I don't know piano, and I couldn't do Garageband because I actually have a good computer, thank you very much.

So with a flick of the finger I clicked the virus/spyware software and started composing the mario way.

What came out was the most masterful first attempt at making music ever witnessed by no one, mostly because there's no way to actually upload your work. I might find it later, but for now I've got shit to do.

Toodaloo, bitches.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimastu Legend -- The Beginning of a Great Journey

"Can a single man develop a game all by himself?"




It is a question I have asked myself many a night. And by that, I mean this night whilst I was probably wanking off in the shower.

I have tried for what seems like a thousand times to make a little mini game studio of my own, but no matter how hard I try people get pissy and leave. What, they want rights? Bah! Let them eat cake, I say!

Then it hit me. If no one else has the same dream that I have, why don't I just do it myself and not get other people to do the work for me?

Sure, it would be hard. Hard as in probably the "DANTE MUST DIE" mode of life. But why would we do that in video games? To be challenged? So why don't we just challenge ourselves in real life?

Well, this is a challenge I will gladly accept. And there is no challenge I do not complete.

The goal of this mission is to make my own game where almost all aspects of it are made by me. In order to complete this, I will have to learn the following arts:

THE ART OF PROGRAMMISTU
Ah, yes. The simple foundation of all vidya -- the code. It is the most diverse and likely most frustrating of all of these tasks, but thankfully just like real life, once you learn one programming language it's pretty easy to learn the rest.

Fortunately, I already have HTML, CSS, and JQuery under my belt. Unfortunately, all of those languages can't make games for shit, or make really shitty games. My final goal in this art is to learn and master C++ and Java, though I intend to learn many others on the way.

THE ART OF ARTSU

Probably the most difficult art for me personally, I will sadly need to learn how to actually make digital art and 3D modeling. The question is, will I be able to? The answer is, probably not.

The goal for this art is to make art that isn't crap. It will take a very, VERY long time.

THE ART OF GAME DESIGNITO

Well... actually... this is the only one I actually know. So while I may prosper in this art, I will still need to practice to become a true Game Designito master!

THE ART OF MUSGHATI

Alright, I'm going to say it here and I'm going to say it now -- I am completely incompetent when it comes to music. Like, more so than art. And my art looks worse than Ringo Starr's fucking web art. So yeah, I'm fucked.

Thankfully though I know people a many who are actually good at making music, so perhaps I'll just make them do it for me. Maybe.


So here it goes, folks. The start of a real, living legend.

GEIMASTU LEGEND!

BEGINS MONDAY, TOMORROW, 2013

 

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The Basics of HTML [Part 1]

Well, as it turns out, thinking of stuff to put on a blog is a LOT harder than I intended, though that's probably just because I keep throwing it off until it's near midnight and by that point I want to sleep so I just make something short.


For this post, I'm going to actually try and do something that might be effective rather than filler and teach the basics of HTML! oh great

So what is HTML anyways? Well, it is the backbone to any website. When you draw a picture (take in mind this means actually intending to draw it well), you tend to start with a rough, light outline before you start on the details. In the case of web programming, HTML is the sketch and CSS is the details (we'll get into CSS later)

First of all, in order to run HTML code, you'll need to make a HTML file. This is actually really easy to do -- just open up TextEdit or Notepad and save it as a .html (this can be done just by adding a ".html" at the end and saving it as "any file".

Even though most of us with common sense know that if a file with ".html" at the end of it means its a HTML file, computers need a little more help, mostly because computers are fucking stupid (actually, let me rephrase that: computers are like children that start off mind-blowingly stupid,  but can end up knowing a lot as long as they stay away from the streets (...I don't know what the 'streets' would be computerwise...)). Because of this, we need to give them a little more guidance on what the file is, and that's why we start off every HTML code like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html></html>

The "<!DOCTYPE html>" tells the computer "Okay, I know it says '.html' right outside the gate, but this is for SURE a html file." The actual <html> says "Everything inside these two brackets are ALL the code, ignore anything else." Pretty stupid I know, but like I said computers are special.

From there it gets pretty easy. <title> changes the title of the page (Notice how the top tab of this page probably says something like "Astuka's Blog"? Well, that's the "title" of the page.

<h1>, <h2>, and <h3> change normal text into headers. For example, if I put this into my code:

<h1> Titty Sprinkles </h1>

It would come out to be something like:

Titty Sprinkles

Then there's the pretty obvious ones like <b> for bold, <emp> for emphasis, and... uh... honestly I have no idea what the fuck underline is supposed to be.

Anywho, next time in Part 2 (if it happens) I will talk about more advanced HTML commands, such as <div> and <ul>/<ol>. For now, test out what you know! (just remember: just <p> to make a paragraph.)

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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How to make drop down menus using JQuery

A cool little thing I learned today using JQuery (so I guess this kind of doubles as a TIL as well). You know the drag-down boxes located at some websites? Well, it's easy to do using some JS.

First, set up your html:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

    <head>

    <title>[Title]</title>

        <link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.9.1/themes/base/jquery-ui.css'/>

        <script type='text/javascript' src='script.js'></script>

        <script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.9.1/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>

</head>

<body>

        <div id="menu">

            <h3>[h3]</h3>

            <div>

                <p>[p]</p>

            </div>

            <h3>[h3]</h3>

            <div>

                <p>[p]</p>

            </div>

            <h3>[h3]</h3>

            <div>

                <p>[p] </p>

            </div>

        </div>

</body>

</html>

Most of this should seem pretty elementary to you. Well, the "h3" will be what displays as the "name" dropdown (aka the thing you see before dropping it down) while the <p> text is what follows.

Here's the actual JS:

$(document).ready(function() {

    $("#menu").accordion({collapsible: true, active: false});

});

The function is a pre-made feature inside of JQuery. I just thought it was kinda cool.

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