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More Server Progress

Richard Phipps — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:23:40 -0400

Got some more work done tonight. I am on a roll!

I have a good portion of the back-end of the server done. It now creates a socket for each game session and connects to the engine it just spawned. It also passes any messages it gets to the player who created the game and vice versa!

Next up though is I believe the engine wants a separate socket per player; I'd like to have it so I only need one socket per game but maybe this isn't that big of a deal. Either I need to associate a socket with a player instead of a game engine or need to make the game engine accept everyone's commands from a single socket.

Either way, I'm happy for tonight!

Master Server Progress

Richard Phipps — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:24:40 -0400

Was inspired tonight -- and unlazy enough to take advantage of said inspiration! I was able to get the master server working so it now listens for connections from the client and at the client's request will spawn a new game engine session.

There's still work to be done in the for the master server - game engine communication but the front end part is 90% there!

An Obvious Thought

Richard Phipps — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:51:51 -0400

Trying how my network protocol works. If only there was a way to write these things down...

RPC FTW

Richard Phipps — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 01:23:12 -0400

Playing around with Unity's networking and finally tried out their Remote Procedure Call interface. Very cool!

Client: @RPC function WriteChat(text: String) { chatText += text; }

Server: function OnGUI () { if(GUI.Button(Rect(10,10,200,100), "Write")) { networkView.RPC("WriteChat", RPCMode.Others, "Hello world!"); } } @RPC function WriteChat(text : String) { Debug.Log("WriteChat: " + text); }

... and whoala! Hit a button on the server GUI and "Hello world" appears on all the client's screens!

Way of the Browser

Richard Phipps — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:02:07 -0400

When I started this project, I decided to split up the back end from the front end mainly to help me keep my focus on the game logic programming. For a turn-based game this meshed quite well as I made the game talk over a simple socket interface using human readable commands. My goals were met. I made the base game without writing a single line of client code. I was able to play with my friends over good old Telnet pretending to be back in the early 90s

Fusion Fall

Richard Phipps — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:12:17 -0400

In doing more research for my game projects, I decided to check out Cartoon Network's free-to-play MMO, Fusion Fall, for the main reason that it was made using the same game engine that I am using for my projects. I won't write too much about it but if you're looking for a free and light-hearted (it is targeted at younger players) game, it's pretty good and it's definitely nice to see what the Unity engine can do, especially via a web browser!

Game Engine: Purchased

Richard Phipps — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:31:18 -0500

I just purchased the front-end engine I'll be using for the game: Unity! It's fully activated and running on my computer. That means I can start work on the 'real' engine. The reality is I'll probably spend the next couple of days trying to remember how my game works ;)

Break in the clouds

Richard Phipps — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:30:25 -0500

Just wanted to post an updated that the skies are clearing and I'll be dusting off the development computer again. Programming games can be difficult when it's so much fun to play already made games! I'm going to purchase the game engine I'll be using for the client -- Unity -- this weekend.

I'll be back soon with more updates as I get more work done (of course, I've had plenty of design time with way too many ideas to implement).

Lighter Reading: Colored Combat Log

Richard Phipps — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:52:43 -0400

Tech Talk: Conditions

Richard Phipps — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:28:12 -0400

Conditions is a system I am implementing for the game that is similar to a keyword system used in card games and some RPGs. Conditions are a set of predefined words which alter the rules system. For those that have played Magic: The Gathering, a common keyword is "Haste" which allows a summoned creature to attack immediately, bypassing the normal rule of waiting a round before attacking.

Conditions are related but independent of effects. Effects are buffs or debuffs attached to a unit. Continuing the M:tG card game analogy, an effect would be an Enchantment card that describes any alterations made to the unit being enchanted, while the conditions are keywords that are printed on the Enchantment card that are applied to the enchanted unit.

I admit this distinction can be a little hard to nail down. The good news is for players this is mostly behind the scenes things. Of course, how behind the scenes and how visible these are may change while play testing. Let me go ahead and give a couple theoretical examples to show how effects and conditions play out.

This is what I used to test my implementation. The story goes:

A Quick Shout Out

Richard Phipps — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:15:51 -0400

A quick update tonight:

Added support for AOE action types!
Implemented the Mighty Roar action for the Panda to test this out
Floating text is now in the game for damage and updates
Interface support for game phases is now in

And now for some sleep!

Learning icons

Richard Phipps — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 23:33:55 -0400

I have been working on learning some photoshop skills. A friend in WoW showed me some of her work and it inspired me to get cracking on my abilities. While I still have a ways to go for the art I saw, I have been practicing on making some skill buttons for the action bars.

March of the Abilities

Richard Phipps — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:05:05 -0400

Three more abilities down! The Templar learned two actions tonight: Holy Strike and Prayer of Relief, while the Panda learned how to pounce and rip someone's tendon.

Alpha Abilities

Richard Phipps — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:56:01 -0400

With the front end at a (barely) passable state, I turned my attention to getting some of the alpha test abilities implemented. I got two done today, Ice Block and Great Ball of Fire!

These first few will be slow going as the whole point of them is they require new features to be implemented in the engine.

Ice Block is fully implemented as described! I had to add the ...

Goal In-Progress: ALPHA

Richard Phipps — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:37:04 -0400

Work continues nice and steady. The game is 80% playable via the GUI now. However, to get that last percent will take a little more work. The main reason is I now need to solidify the client-engine messaging protocol so all the events like health changes, status updates, etc all get to the client when needed.

This means it's time to ... REFACTOR! Currently the messaging system is pretty ad-hoc. Instead of continuing to add add-hoc messages, the time is right to nail the format down a bit better. I'll be working on this tonight.

Action Tooltips

Richard Phipps — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:18:33 -0400

Wanted: User Interface

Richard Phipps — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:54:57 -0400

I have come to the conclusion that UI programming is not fun in any way.

User Interface Headaches

Richard Phipps — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:43:40 -0400

I actually took a rest this weekend since I'll have a long weekend in a few days to get some work done. But what time I did spend, I worked on a user interface. My heart goes out to those who do this for a living! I posted a thread in the forum asking for people's opinions and examples of great or horrible user interfaces to help me with some ideas and concepts.

Alpha Information

Richard Phipps — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:23:38 -0400

So now that the game is getting close to being playable at an alpha level, I decided to spend some time adding some information to the website.

Mousing the Grid

Richard Phipps — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:45:19 -0400