Game Artwork: City Tileset
After Forte I dreamt up another game -- a RTS based in a city. Anyway, I'm still toying with the idea, but as things start to get busier I worry that I will never end up using the tileset I created for the game. That's why I thought I'd share the tileset now in case someone else can use it. Each tile is 48x48 pixels. Each tile is some building or relevant piece of scenery. Also, each building contains a score -- this can easily be modified via Photoshop or your favorite editor. Anyway, enough blather here's the tileset:...
Read moreFinding the Right 2D Game Engine
At the start of the summer I set out to program a few games. I was totally new to game programming so I wanted to find a framework to take care of some of the complicated (to me!) stuff related to timing, input, and drawing to a canvas. My search finally ended when I found the Slick framework, but along the way I managed to learn a fair deal about competing frameworks and that there is a paucity of information comparing them all. So, to help fill that void I'm going to chronicle some of my thoughts and comments on ...
Read morePhysical Queries for the Math Challenged: Collision Detection and Response
Following developing Forte I thought I would share some of the challenges I encountered and more importantly how I overcame them. I am what you might call a design nut more than a number wonk, so some aspects of game programming are more challenging for me. Specifically, I ran into trouble when I needed to implement collision detection and ray casting for my tile based game. If you find yourself needing a collision detection scheme to fit your game or just want a way to easily support ray casting then you've come to the right spot. In this post I'm ...
Read moreTank Warfare: Forte
The summer is almost over and conveniently I just wrapped up my third and final game of the summer. This game is called Forte and its a tank vs tank game in the vein of Wii Play's tank game. The basic idea is pretty simple: blast your way through fifteen tank filled levels. The twist is that the bullets each tank fires can bounce once. This leads to a lot of chaotic battles between you and the opponent tanks as you weave through bullets aiming for that last bounce shot. Anyway, I hope you enjoy Forte and the last dregs ...
Read moreGame Artwork: Complex Tileset
I've been spending a lot of time making artwork for games lately. Since I'm a developer I understand that sometimes it's very difficult to find artwork for games which is immediately usable. Personally, I was frequently frustrated when I found free tilesets which didn't come with any instructions attached. As a total beginner I wasn't able to use these assets right away and wasted lots of time getting things going. So, without further ado I'd like to share a tileset I've created. This tileset is meant to reflect the inside of an industrial complex. Each image is 25x25 pixels set ...
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