Dorthu Games Development Blog

Motionwerks

2011-10-03T13:46:00.000-04:00

Back when I was at the GDC, I saw a demo of a PC motion controller by Sixense in Left 4 Dead 2, and playing around with it, it was awesome; it was way better than other motion controls on the market, including the just-announced PS Move (which was on display there as well). Well, I saw it on Steam, and that was all I needed to pick up the consumer model, the Hydra by Razer. Key to my decision: the SDK available for it.

It's very nice, from what I've read of it. Don't have the hardware yet, but I've been thinking..what environment should I start playing with this in? The SDK comes as a couple of dlls, which is really nice, and what's nicer is documentation, geared at C++ development. And what engine is better for C++ development than Leadwerks?

So, I'm using the Leadwerks demo right now, coding up a simple environment to use the Sixense controller in. I have a few ideas of what to make, but nothing specific yet..although my friend Leo expressed some interest in working with me on something more formal (more on that later?), so this might go somewhere. Either way, I may be posting more about it.

As for Android development, I haven't forgotten about it. I have a live wallpaper which mostly works, but I want to tweak some things before releasing it (here or on the market) and I'd like to improve the performance of it a bit, too (right now it uses more RAM than I'd like...but I think most of that is because of the extra buffer I have, which is saving a lot of CPU). I do have a solid idea for a mobile game, and I think it could really catch on. More on that later.

Gone Mobile

2011-09-16T10:34:00.000-04:00

I've finally upgraded myself to the 21st Century of Telephony with a Droid 3, my pick as the most desirable android-based phone/pocket-sized computer-from-five-years-ago. As it happens, I'm going to be doing some mobile work now, again. I guess I've done a lot of mobile work so far, and honestly I've enjoyed it, so why not?

I'm thinking the first project will bring Dorthu Beats up to speed on a mobile device; the site simply does not work on there as-is. The mobile version will have smaller (and likely different) images to save bandwidth, will suggest not streaming content, and will allow touch-based gestures if possible. Also, different views for different orientations. I'll probably also tweak the way audio is delivered to make it less data-heavy than the normal version (the normal version begins preloading audio before you start it to improve performance, but this is less-than-desirable if you're paying for the data transfer..especially because it will often load songs that you end up not playing at all, and relies on client-side caching to ensure duplicate requests aren't being made).

I'm trying to decide what kind of app I should write for the platform first..I have a lot of ideas, but nothing that's very useful. I'm thinking of trying a custom unlock screen that shows the strings of a bass and unlocks when you fret the right sequence of notes, but that seems impractical...I'd like to do some sort of a gesture-based game, but I don't have much of an idea past that....part of me wants a compiler on my phone, but that's just silly. I donno. We'll see where it goes.

Db

2011-07-13T23:22:00.004-04:00

Introducing Dorthu Beats, or Db, my newest, and probably best, website. Check it out here: http://beats.dorthugames.com

The site is made to host music I record, but I'm also very happy with the way it turned out. It's a very different take on web design than the other sites I've made, but I feel it accomplishes all of its goals far better than if it conformed to a more conventional design.

Features to come: Facebook integration (ability to Like and share current tracks), "Setlist" style navigation to individual tracks.

Professional!

2010-12-26T09:11:00.002-05:00

I have been offered, and accepted, a job from Accenture Federal Services, a subsidiary of the global company Accenture. Accenture Federal Services primarily does consulting work for the government, and that's likely what I'll be doing. I'm starting training on Jan 10th in Reston, VA, and once the program's over I'll find a project and be doing something code-related for someone in the DC Area (because of the nature of Accenture's project setup, which I would like to mention is really cool, I don't know in any greater detail what I'll be doing just yet). The training course I'm going through is the Java program, so I'll probably be coding in Java.

My job title is Associate Software Engineer. In six months, it'll be Software Engineer. Pretty sweet, right? I'm excited.

In other news, Merry Christmas! My brother and I both got Zunes this year (from different parents though, weird how that is), and that's enough to prompt me to develop something for the Zune. It doesn't appear to be too different from the other mobile platforms I've developed for (iPhone, Android), and it uses XNA Game Studio (which is to say, C# .NET). I'm thinking I need to tackle the whole "No AIM for the Zune" issue, because that simply won't do for me. After some research, I've decided to use Fluent.TOC, which is a C# .NET implementation of the Talk to OsCar protocol (TOC), seeing as I won't need all the features of the full OSCAR protocol anyway. Keep an eye out for it!

Totally Serious

2010-11-15T16:07:00.003-05:00

Introducing the totally professional version of DorthuGames.com! Just wrote it up today since I've been talking to some more businessy companies, as opposed to the video game companies I'd previously been speaking to, and I figured it would be good to have if it better suits their interests.

So, where is it? Same place. I got it all done in a different style sheet and controlled by a cookie, so all you need to do is hit the button in the top right of the page. Or, for convince, mostly to link to it, I added DorthuGames.com/changeTheme.php?theme=2, which will set the cookie for the current session only. Of course, you can always click the button on the top-right of professional page to switch back to the cooler, let's call it "indie" page.

Facebook

2010-10-28T09:03:00.003-04:00

I've been working with VG Ware Tech again, this time hired on as a contractor part-time, and we've been experimenting with Facebook support in our apps. Facebook's APIs are set up pretty nicely, and the OpenGraph protocol is too. In fact, I liked OpenGraph enough to add it to my site; If you visit any project's page on here, you'll find a "Like" button at the bottom, and because of the included meta-data, the page will appear on Facebook as something you can be a fan of.

I'm considering applying a similar concept to the Warhammer Army Organizer. I can easily make it Facebook-enabled, and I can also use their Javascript API to let you post and share lists through Facebook, which could be useful since most hobby shops I know of now use Facebook to announce events and the like. In addition, I'm considering altering my concept for a profile system to make the entire application on the web.

Warhammer Army Organizer 2.0

2010-07-20T22:51:00.003-04:00

I've decided to remake my old Warhammer Army Organized program, originally written in Java back in 2005. The old program ran exclusively in the command prompt, and only worked on Windows. The new version will have a full user interface as well as the ability to run on OS X.

For those of you not familiar with Warhammer, it's a tabletop war game produced by Games Workshop, and one of my very fond hobbies.

Right now the project is in the design phase, and the biggest challenge I expect to be the UI. I'll keep you posted, and screenshots as they become available.

WordDisc Features Detail

2010-05-06T00:54:00.006-04:00

The WordDisc is coming along very well, with some of the more dynamic features appearing now that I have the base logic down. I may have mentioned a customizable color scheme last time - I've taken it a step further. Now, you can import textures and give them to the WordDisc to use as the background. You will also be able to use partially transparent textures for a see-through HUD feel. I may have also mentioned the several different character sets it would support - right now CS_All (all the characters on a keyboard) and CS_Letters have full support, while CS_Numbers is only supported graphically. The last thing I will tackle is CS_Custom, which will allow you to specify your own character set.

These are textures I found on Google images. You can pass it anything you can import in XNA.

The text, highlight, and line colors can be specified. The size of the disc can be specified. The texture, of course. The character set. Basically everything. All in the constructor. I'm aiming for maximum user-friendlyness here, and as much flexibility as possible. If you have any feature suggestions, let me know with a comment here or an email.

WordDisc Progress

2010-04-28T15:00:00.005-04:00

Despite being busy the past several weeks with family affairs and work around the house, I have been continuing on the WordDisc, which is nearing completion. I originally intended the project to be small, in fact not much more than what it was in my last post, but my brother convinced me to expand it to a fully-functional and dynamic tool instead of simply a prototype to pitch an idea with. So, without further adieu, here is the new incarnation of the WordDisc:

Don't worry, the color scheme's customizable too.

The new graphics are generated by an algorithm upon creation, and as such I can both get a perfect circle every time and create as many divisions to as many rings as I want. I intend to have four character layouts: All, which includes all characters found in the original WordDisc and on a standard qwerty keyboard; Numbers, which will be one right of the characters 0 through 9; Letters, which is for any just a-z text; and Custom, which can be defined by the user.

Virtually everything can be customized, including the number of rings, the number of divisions per ring, and the characters displayed in each ring. The input will match the rings perfectly, regardless of the size of the WordDisc, and text input can be captured and returned to the program from the WordDisc before it is destroyed.

In all, I expect the WordDisc to be fully-functional and ready to be plugged into XNA games as soon as the end of the week. I intend to release it as an open-source download with an executable to demonstrate its functions and a sample project including its source code and a simple rig to get it up and running. I'll probably release it under a GPL, I'll have to look into those.

Alternative Text-Entry System for Joystick-Based Input Schemes

2010-04-02T11:39:00.005-04:00

Or, as I prefer to call it, the WordDisc. I don't know that this hasn't been done before, but either way I'm writing a circular text input interface intended to be used with joysticks instead of the apparently standard on-screen keyboard setup (which is awful and has gone on for long enough). I suspect the only reason a system like this hasn't been full-on implemented in the consoles and console games (Wii excluded) is because of the tiny learning curve which would accompany it, and as I test it I realize more and more that the input system feels very natural and very easy. If one standardized layout could exist, I am sure people would pick up on it very quickly.

This, of course, needs a graphical upgrade.

Anyway, I was going to code it in C++ with SDL, my usual, but I was convinced that, since it's intended to be run on consoles, I should use XNA so I can actually port it onto a console. In addition, it serves as a nice introduction to XNA for me, which I've thus far found to be a pleasure. I'm thinking my next project will be in XNA, and will involve something I've been wanting to try for a couple years - 2D rendering. I might do a demo before I start on the game, I might not. Anyway, I'm off to finish this WordDisc so I can get to work on the next project!

GDC 2010

2010-03-16T12:43:00.006-04:00

As I may have mentioned before, I was present at the Game Developer's Conference this past week, from Thursday to Saturday in the conference and in San Fransisco from Wednesday to Monday. The trip was completely worthwhile, giving me dozens of leads on where to start my career as well as introducing me to a slew of interesting people, and, as an added bonus, it was a great time!

I was there with Team Playground as well as James Xu and a few other people from DeVry. I met with more companies than I can count, and also had a very exciting interview with Dov Jacobson of Games That Work, who I'm excited to hear back from. I'm also looking to apply to Naughty Dog, Sony, Bally's, Gazillion, High Voltage, Intel, and a bunch of other places. As a team we met with Majesco about publishing ShadowCast, as well as with Randy from the FBI about an upcoming contract for a field agent training simulator. Also, ShadowCast was on display at DeVry's booth the entire time, and it was really nice to see our work at the conference.

In between the expos and the interviews I spent some time enjoying the company of friends and the local night life. San Fransisco has a very exciting night life, with a lot to do and see, assuming you're of age, and we had a blast. We also attended a couple parties and did some networking there. I have a lot of follow-up emails to write, and if you're reading this and haven't heard from me, please contact me.

I'll keep updating with my progress towards a career, and as for GDC11 - expect me to be there.

ShadowCast :: Complete

2010-02-27T22:46:00.003-05:00

We've finished ShadowCast for our senior project. The following trailer is going to be displayed at the GDC in San Fransisco in two weeks at DeVry's booth.

We've also gotten a lot of attention because of this project and what we were able to accomplish. This coming week I will post a link to the executable and redesign Team Playground's website. I intend to write some posts in the near future about how certain elements of the game were accomplished in a technical respect.

ShadowCast Reload

2010-01-28T21:31:00.003-05:00

Here's an update on ShadowCast. Can't write much, more coding to do!

Oh, and we're entering this into a contest to get a free trip to GDC. It's all through DeVry. Deadline's Monday. Busy busy busy.

Senior Project

2009-12-11T09:33:00.003-05:00

The time is finally upon us - senior project! Well, actually, it's been that time for a while now, but I've been so busy with the project and the other classes I have that I haven't had time to update about it. Senior project has been coming along nicely, and, as expected, I'm working with Team Playground on it. That is, I'm working with Gabe Sifre, Ernest Caravalho and Tom Jordan. We're using UDK, Epic's awesome free Unreal Engine standalone setup, and are presently halfway through the project. Here's the run down:

Ernest - Project Lead, Audio, Mapper
Gabe - 3D Modeler
Tom - Mapper
Dorthu - Programmer

And you might be asking what project we're working on. It's none other than ShadowCast. Remeber ShadowCast? The project we abandoned because of problems with the Leadwerks, among other things. Well this time we're doing it in Unreal, and it's showing a lot more promise. The Unreal Engine is, in my opinion, the best commercial engine on the market, with an unmatched editor and unparalleled documentation. I've taken to using gVim for coding for its simplicity and syntax highlighting (I was surprised to see that it worked with UnrealScript without any modifications at all) .

The first eight weeks (thus far) have been focused on gathering assets and fleshing out the concept. The next eight is about coding the game and putting it all together. So, as of now, there isn't a lot to look at on my end. As soon as I have some gameplay to demonstrate, a video will go online. And as soon as Mastering Unreal Technology volume III comes out, I'll have all the coding documentation I need.

Until then.

SpaceFighter3D Released!

2009-08-07T10:08:00.007-04:00

I am proud to announce my first iPhone Game released for VG Ware Tech, SpaceFighter3d (link opens in iTunes).

SpaceFighter3D is made in Unity, and is an arcade-style shooter with addictive gameplay and exciting visuals. Coupled with the catchy original soundtrack, the game is a lot of fun and hard to put down. Some additional features include a highscore table, intuitive name entry for said table, and audio on/off button for convenience. Roll the screenshots:

The Game's Main Menu

Gameplay Screenshot

The game is on iTunes and the App Store for $.99, and I guarantee is at least a dollar's worth of fun. A "Lite" version is coming soon, and will be free but lacking some features. I will provide a link to that when it become available.

First iPhone Game Sent to Apple

2009-07-28T10:02:00.005-04:00

After days and days of a horrible codesigning error, we've finally managed to compile my first game, Space Fighter, and submit it to Apple. There is a review process involved, but hopefully all will go well and it will be on the app store within a week. Upon its official release I will post links to its site and its app store page. This is very exciting for me, and I hope to see the game do well. It will be selling for $.99, and I gaurentee is at least a dollar's worth of fun.

On the subject of submitting content to Apple, it is quite possibly the least intuitive, most frusterating process I've ever had to deal with. I would normally talk about going through a process, but in this case I was definatly dealing with this process, as it was clearly aimed only to frusterate and annoy the developers for no real reason. We ended up having to replace all of the certificates, profiles and keys no less than two times apiece before it finally decided everything was in place. Also, the instructions provided by Apple are often inaccurate and unclear, and in general the entire thing is either a scheme by Apple to make you buy tech support tickets or was designed by Neo-Hitler, who no doubt works for Apple regardless.

As for a next project on the iPhone, let's leave it at that I have an idea. But first, the "lite" version of SpaceFighter, which I will also link to here in case $.99 is too rich for your blood.

In other news, Team Playground has been working on a "Pun-tastic" RPG, which will function as a 2D Tactical RPG. We've got myself on coding (along at the moment, but I'm working on it), Ernest on audio, Tom on story and new addition Adolfo Sanchez as our lead graphical designer. More info on here when there's something to show and on Team Playground's site when I get around to updating it.

Farewell

2009-05-21T18:37:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was Scott's last day with the company. It's a shame he's leaving, but it was unavoidable. He's leaving on good terms though, and will still be in contact, specifically to provide support for the Awe+ Engine he wrote in Objective-C for the company. I'll also be getting a device shortly which I can test programs on. It'll be pretty sweet.

In other news, Team Playground has done absolutely nothing since my last update. And I still haven't finished that Asteroids game. I'm really hoping I'll be able to link to my first application with this company when it's finished (within the next two week, graphics allowing), but I've been asked to keep things quiet still.

Employment

2009-04-28T13:18:00.003-04:00

I have recently come into employment with a small start-up company in the area. I will be programming for them. I have been asked to say no more, or even possibly less, but I put this here to provide an explanation for my apparent inactivity. I assure everyone that I have not lost my programming drive, and that good things are on the horizon.

Team Playground has also been kicking back into gear, if slowly. I will update on this as progress is made.

Asteroids Clone: Near Completion

2009-03-17T16:07:00.002-04:00

Remember that clone of Asteroids I began coding one weekend last May? Well, I picked it up again the other day and added some finishing touches. The biggest problem I had been having was getting SDL extension libraries working, namely TTF and Mixer, but I have them operational now and have implemented a basic in-game display, a high score table, a menu screen with adjustable options, and am in the process of adding sounds. And once sounds are in, this thing will be complete!

I intend to distribute this open-source, so I've done quite a bit of housekeeping, cleaning up the code to make it as understandable as possible. Also to avoid embarassing myself with bad programming practices. It'll be another day or so before it's out, but it is about two feet from done.

Thanks again to Mike Sovey, who did all the graphics including the new splash screen. The game looks great, and plays like Asteroids, so it's fun if you like Asteroids, and if not then it's still written from scratch in C++ with SDL.

iPhone Proposition

2009-03-14T11:44:00.002-04:00

Good friend and esteemed peer Skitch contacted me the other day requesting we meet at DeVry. I seldom get a call from him, so I was quite intrigued. As it happens, he has been working on games for the iPhone with a small local outfit, but he's more than a bit dissatisfied with the job, and he met with me to discuss a business venture into the same feild. Now, I'm not sure just how solid it is yet, but I told him I'm up for it because, in fact, I am.

The idea is to continue in the feild he's been in, developing games for the iPhone, which can apparently be pretty lucrative if it's done right. Just based on the available inputs on the device I'd say there's a lot of potential for entertaining, casual games which are addicitive enough to be worth a couple bucks but easy enough to put down that you can play them on the train.

All iPhone apps are written in Objective C, which is very similar to C from what I understand, and are made with a special, all-inclusive and surprisingly intuitive SDK, which unfortunately can only be run on Mac OS X 10.7 or greater. This would mean that we would both require a form of Mac (a Mac mini is avaiable, with student discount, for $545, the cheapest possible solution) and at least one iPhone between the two of us, as the SDK comes with an emulator.

Scott was talking about getting the business aspects worked out, Trademarking Awe+ Games and such, opening a business bank account and getting a business loan for the hardware, which is all important I guess, as I suppose there isn't much more we need to look into before moving ahead. As I said, I'm not 100% this is going to come through yet, but I'm hoping for it. The innovation possible with the iPhone's controls are quite exciting.

In other, unrelated news, Team Playground will be meeting for the first time since our GSP360 class ended this coming Tuesday, and we'll see how serious we are. I might be working on two indie teams at once, which is more than fine by me.

ShadowCast Holdups

2009-03-09T17:46:00.004-04:00

There hasn't been any progress on ShadowCast, and in fact we've taken at least one step backwards, since my last update. The reason is because the team's taken a 3-week break from production, I assume out of general consent, and the new version of Leadwerks only accepts .GMF and .DDS files, so all of our resources are no longer applicable and our maps are no longer compatible with the engine. Which means that when we get back to work (March 18th), we'll have our work cut out for us.

I've taken this opportunity to look more into hosting a website for Team Playground, along with a private Trac system and SVN. I can get us unlimited storage and transfer for $170/year, plus an extra $10~15 for a domain name. I'm hoping to have it all up and running before the 18th, but I need someone else on the team to front the money (it can't go on my card at the moment).

I've also been looking into testing the draw buffer for shadows, but I haven't had a lot of luck yet. I'm thinking I'll get it before too much longer. It sure would make everything else easier, not to mention it would be more correct.

The final thing I've been doing it looking into post-render effects and GLSL. Not a lot, mind, but a little. They are interesting as well, and I feel they are the key to making the game look polished. Hopefully we can cross the line dividing amateur-looking games and professional-quality games.

ShadowCast Progress

2009-02-24T09:04:00.005-05:00

Our GSP360 class has just about come to a close, and with it will come the "in-class release" of the game. Keep in mind this in no way reflects the finished version of the game, but instead is only the version we're being graded on in this class. Here's a spiffy video demonstrating it, with props to CamStudio again for being awesome.

As you can see, two working levels with the ability to transition between them (unfortunately not polished), Shadow Hopping works, a gun which interacts with physics objects (there is sound too, I just couldn't record it) and full range of character movement. I've got to admit, I'm pretty impressed. The code's been completely rewritten since the last video, making it more structured and workable as well as making it easier on the eyes. In all I wrote this game four times.

The team has been a pleasure to work with all-around, and here's the credits for this video:
Meshes/Textures - Mike Sovey, Gabe
Audio - Ernest
Level Design - Ernest, Rob
Programming - Dorthu
Splash Screen (new and improved) - Rob

I'm more than stoked to continue work with this team and make ShadowCast a full-scale game, to be released commercially (should we be fortunate enough to make it there). Look out for new updates in the future!

ShadowCast Progress

2009-02-05T10:51:00.004-05:00

We have been working at ShadowCast, and I am happy to say I have another demo video to show our progress, again thanks to CamStudio.

All graphics in this video made by Sovey and Gabe, all audio (if it actually recorded it) by Ernest and most of the programming by me. Rob made the splash screen last-minute and we threw it in, it looks a lot nicer than just a blank window. I believe the level was made mostly by Ernest from his own level concept.

This level is supposed to be a warehouse, although given the limited resources we had it is quite repetitive. Props to Ernest for making it looks so good with only the meshes he had. As you can see, we have a biped in-game (unfortunately untextured) and we are working this week on animations and AI. I expect to have a Path Network, similar to that of Unreal Tournament 2004, coded by Sunday. By way of animations I'll need to wait for some exported animations from Sovey. We expect to get a lot accomplished in the next three weeks because this project is also being used for our GSP 360 class, and although I doubt it will be complete when turned in for the class, it will be close. Look for another update video next week when we turn in our "beta" for the class (again, don't expect to see an official ShadowCast beta for some time).

ShadowCast Prototype

2009-01-15T19:51:00.002-05:00

Work has officially begun on ShadowCast, and I am excited to say that in a week's time I was able to produce a working prototype to illustrate some of the main features of the game. And you're probably thinking "well isn't that nice, but can I see it?" You sure can, thanks to CamStudio and their wonderful open-source recording software. Mad props to those guys.

This video shows examples of "shadow-hopping," the aiming system we're going to have (right now it involves holding Q to change the mouse from control player to control aim) and dropping a flashlight (the long rectangle). Eventually dropped flashlights will be able to create shadows which you can hop into, and will be recoverable. All graphics in the video are default for Leadwerks, hence the player being a cube.

Much more work is being done on the game, and already numerous meshes have been produced and an alpha version is being coded. This game is coming along. I intend to update again when notable progress has been made, possibly with another video.

Leadwerks

2008-12-04T10:54:00.003-05:00

Between class and work I've been bogged down with no free time to speak of over the past several weeks, but I haven't been idle. In that time, Gabriel Strife, a classmate of mine, started Team Playground, a small group of programmers, 3D modelers and assorted others to work on potentially-commercial games using the Leadwerks Engine, which we currently have one license for. The team consists of Gabe as the manager, myself as lead programmer with Dom as the only other dedicated programmer, Rob and Ernest on concepts and misc. tasks, Mike Sovey on 3D Modeling, Adam as a 2D/Concept artist and Tom working with the Leadwerks Sandbox and mapping. We have so far been meeting every Tuesday morning, and have made little progress so far beyond setting up the engine and getting the idea for the game down.

The first project we will be taking on will be called Shadowcast. The concept so far involves the main character, Nick Shadow, who was a member of a world-operating secret orginazation who has just recenlty died. To save yourself from some form of horrible damnation, you return as a shadow with the intention of convincing your fellow world-ruling madmen to abandon their evil ways in favor of a more peaceful, less evil world. Gameplay will consist of hiding in shadows (as light will damage you) and taking temporary control of caporial beings to be able to manipulate the physical world. Sounds a lot like Geist, but I believe it will be an interesting game to program, and hopefully fun to play.

In other news, since the new semester our progress on The Advenctures of Ace Detective Guy has grinded to a resounding halt. The engine is almost done, and there isn't really a lot of difficult work after that, but we don't currently have a decent time for all of us to meet, and it's made progress slow. Hopefully after the Christmas break we'll be able to get more done.