FreeGameDev

Hello all,

It's been a while since there was any update, so let's get to it again.
Here's a small list of things that still need to be done:

* Make use of a config file
* Create an options menu
* Add a theme manager
* Add a death animation (see this thread)
* Create levels/level packs
* Create themes.
* Make a new release and package it.

BTW, I've got a nice idea for a theme, what about using Supertux artwork and make a Supertux theme?

If anyone wants to add/change a point feel free to comment!

Hi,

Edward_Lii {l Wrote}:* Make use of a config file
* Create an options menu

This is not hard, but unfortunately I don;t have time at this moment

* Add a theme manager

I think this is not so easy because we need to manage animations (animation type, picture, etc.) and different states of some tile...

* Add a death animation (see this thread)

Leave for artists.

* Create levels/level packs

I have a crazy idea: set up a level server on project page, and write some code in game which allows everyone to upload or download levels on the server. Is it possible to set up a PHP server on SourceForge? (or google app engine?)

* Create themes.

Leave for artists, too.

* Make a new release and package it.

If we have made any progress...

BTW, I've got a nice idea for a theme, what about using Supertux artwork and make a Supertux theme?

Good idea

I have a crazy idea: set up a level server on project page, and write some code in game which allows everyone to upload or download levels on the server. Is it possible to set up a PHP server on SourceForge? (or google app engine?)

Just look at addons manager which is integrated into Supetuxkart

Hi,

I have added a theme manager (experimental) please check out ...

Well, to be honest I can't press 'sound' and 'fullscreen' checkboxes in options screen and I don't know how to change a theme

Hello all,

Sorry for the late response, been very busy the last few days.

acme_pjz {l Wrote}:I have added a theme manager (experimental) please check out ...

Great, looks good!

KroArtem {l Wrote}:Well, to be honest I can't press 'sound' and 'fullscreen' checkboxes in options screen and I don't know how to change a theme

Sorry for the inconvenient, currently the options menu and the theme manager are two complete different things.
The theme manager isn't accessible through the menu and the options menu is very WIP.
I hope to fix the options menu in the near future and add an option to select a theme.

Please check the latest SVN which supports custom theme in level file ... And there is a test level and screen shot ...

Hello acme_pjz,

acme_pjz {l Wrote}:Please check the latest SVN which supports custom theme in level file ... And there is a test level and screen shot ...

Whoa, it's great!

But why are the files for the default theme in the data folder and the images + test theme in the user folder?
Wouldn't it be better if the theme should be installed in the data folder, or add support for both the data and user folder?

Second of all, shouldn't the theme be configured by the user and not defined in the level files?
I thought it would be that the user could chose the theme (s)he wants to play the levels.
If we're going for such an approach it would be best to add an option in the options menu.

Finally, there seems to be a draw problem in the level editor when no theme is selected.

Hi,

Edward_Lii {l Wrote}:...

But why are the files for the default theme in the data folder and the images + test theme in the user folder?
Wouldn't it be better if the theme should be installed in the data folder, or add support for both the data and user folder?

The default theme should always in data folder because it's default ... and the custom theme is in user folder (of course they can be in data folder) allows user to modify it freely ...

Second of all, shouldn't the theme be configured by the user and not defined in the level files?
I thought it would be that the user could chose the theme (s)he wants to play the levels.
If we're going for such an approach it would be best to add an option in the options menu.

Currently it's just unimplemented ...

Finally, there seems to be a draw problem in the level editor when no theme is selected.

The theme manager has a fall-back mechanism so it will load the default theme if no theme is selected ... But maybe there are some bugs inside the code

Hello acme_pjz,

acme_pjz {l Wrote}:The theme manager has a fall-back mechanism so it will load the default theme if no theme is selected ... But maybe there are some bugs inside the code

It occures when you enter the level editor without loading any levels.
Here's a picture of the problem:

It seems that it draws over the same surface over and over again.

I see ... and fixed it in latest SVN. This bug also occurs when you press Ctrl+N in map editor ...

Hello acme_pjz,

I've made some changes to the GUI which I think is better.
Whenever a GUI element shows the background gets dimmed, also when a second GUI will open the first GUI won't be in the background.

One thing I'd like to change about the GUI is that when a second GUI goes back to the first it will still be visible in the background.
This can be seen in the LevelEditor when you select "Load Level" and press Cancel.

EDIT: Fixed the issue in revision 77.

I've been thinking about the ThemeManager and I think it should work as following:
- The user configures a theme he wants to have as default.
- The user can configure if he wants a level to be able to choose a theme.
- When a level loads without a theme defined it will use the configured theme.
- When a level loads with a theme defined but the user disabled custom themes for levels, it will use the configured theme.
- When a level loads with a theme defined and the user enabled custom themes for levels, it will use the theme defined in the level file.
There's only one thing I'm not sure about:
- When a level loads with a theme defined and the user enabled custom themes for levels, it will use the theme defined in the level file.
   If an image is missing, it will load the image from the configured theme - OR - from the default meandmyshadow theme?

I think the latter is better since we can be kind of sure that the meandmyshadow theme is complete and working.

What do you think?

BTW, I won't be able to work on meandmyshadow for a while, I'm quite busy.

Hi,

Edward_Lii {l Wrote}:I've made some changes to the GUI which I think is better.
Whenever a GUI element shows the background gets dimmed, also when a second GUI will open the first GUI won't be in the background.

One thing I'd like to change about the GUI is that when a second GUI goes back to the first it will still be visible in the background.
This can be seen in the LevelEditor when you select "Load Level" and press Cancel.

EDIT: Fixed the issue in revision 77.

Great

Edward_Lii {l Wrote}:...

There's only one thing I'm not sure about:
- When a level loads with a theme defined and the user enabled custom themes for levels, it will use the theme defined in the level file.
If an image is missing, it will load the image from the configured theme - OR - from the default meandmyshadow theme?

I think the latter is better since we can be kind of sure that the meandmyshadow theme is complete and working.

What do you think?

I think the former is better, and I was already set up some theme fall-back mechanism in previous source code ...

So the theme stack is:

<default theme> <user configured theme> [<level theme> (if it exists and user enabled it)]

Edward_Lii {l Wrote}:BTW, I won't be able to work on meandmyshadow for a while, I'm quite busy.

Me too maybe next week or so ...

Sorry I still don't have spare time ... Recently I'm working on my TurningPolyhedron ...

Hello acme_pjz,

Finally found some time to work on MnMS.
The theme stack is implemented, it's now possible to set a theme in the options menu.
I've also changed some images of the default theme adding transparency.

The changes can be found in revision 81.

I'm wondering should themes perhaps contain more than blocks.
Maybe we can add the player/shadow images or even the GUI/menu?

It depends if you see theme as themes or "worlds".
If the player choose the theme for all the game and don't change it, it should contain player images and GUI
If the theme depends on the level we're playing, it should only contain level art.

Hello MCMic,

MCMic {l Wrote}:It depends if you see theme as themes or "worlds".
If the player choose the theme for all the game and don't change it, it should contain player images and GUI
If the theme depends on the level we're playing, it should only contain level art.

That's the problem, the player configures a theme and enables/disables level themes.
So the player images should come from the configured theme, but when loading a level that has a theme defined it mustn't use the player images of that theme.

We could split it up into different themes, one for the player/shadow, one for the blocks and one for the GUI/menu.
Somehow I think it would be best to keep the GUI/menu the same, and do the same for the player/shadow -OR- make player/shadow themes.

Hi,

Edward_Lii {l Wrote}:I'm wondering should themes perhaps contain more than blocks.
Maybe we can add the player/shadow images or even the GUI/menu?

It's possible, and I think maybe we cam implements this by add only 10-20 lines of code... But IMHO the priority is not very high, after all we need artist's work...

Hello acme_pjz,

I think we should clean up the code a lot.
We should choose a standard naming convention currently we have upperCamelCase, lowerCamelCase and Hungarian notation for both methods and members.
I prefer lowerCamelCase for methods/variables and upperCamelCase for class names, but for C/C++ it's more common to use all lowercase names and underscores for word separation.

The code could also use some comments.

And one more thing I'm thinking about is adding more structure to the user and data folders.
Levels, levelpacks and themes should go into their own folder, I think it is of no use to put the levels that belong to a levelpack into the levels folder.
The levels folder should only be for independent (difficult) levels.

Sample structure:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

~/.meandmyshadow/
       - meandmyshadow.cfg
       - levels/
                - LevelOne.map
                - LevelTwo.map
                - etc...
       - levelpacks/
                - LvlPack1/
                         - MapOne.map
                         - etc...
                - etc.../
       - themes/
                - Green/
                         - Green.mnmstheme
                         - bg.png
                         - etc...
                - etc.../


What do you think?

Don't forget to fix a segfault while pressing addons button:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

User preferences will be fetched from: '/home/artem/.meandmyshadow/'
Key internet couldn't be found!Error: unable to load the installed_addons file!

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x000000000046f738 in std::vector<Addons::Addon, std::allocator<Addons::Addon> >::size (this=0x58) at /usr/include/c++/4.5/bits/stl_vector.h:534
534         { return size_type(this->_M_impl._M_finish - this->_M_impl._M_start); }
(gdb) bt
#0  0x000000000046f738 in std::vector<Addons::Addon, std::allocator<Addons::Addon> >::size (this=0x58) at /usr/include/c++/4.5/bits/stl_vector.h:534
#1  0x000000000046e40e in Addons::addons_to_list (this=0x773b40, addons=0x58)
    at /home/artem/SVN/meandmyshadow/src/Addons.cpp:203
#2  0x000000000046d358 in Addons::Addons (this=0x773b40)
    at /home/artem/SVN/meandmyshadow/src/Addons.cpp:73
#3  0x000000000043bc7d in change_state ()
    at /home/artem/SVN/meandmyshadow/src/Functions.cpp:331
#4  0x0000000000464b3a in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe278)
    at /home/artem/SVN/meandmyshadow/src/Main.cpp:136
(gdb)


Hi Edward_Lii,

Clean up the code is a good idea

I prefer lowerCamelCase for methods/variables and upperCamelCase for class names, but for C/C++ it's more common to use all lowercase names and underscores for word separation.

I think lowerCamelCase and upperCamelCase are better, and AFAIK all lowercase names and underscores for word separation is not common (except some plain C especially some GNU code) But anyway it's up to you...

Sorry again I don't have spare time to work on MeAndMyShadow Maybe you should look for more developers...

Hello acme_pjz,

acme_pjz {l Wrote}:I think lowerCamelCase and upperCamelCase are better, and AFAIK all lowercase names and underscores for word separation is not common (except some plain C especially some GNU code) But anyway it's up to you...

Then I'll go for lower and upperCamelCase.

acme_pjz {l Wrote}:Sorry again I don't have spare time to work on MeAndMyShadow Maybe you should look for more developers...

Sad to hear, we could use some more programmers, at least one who uses Windows to make sure it runs on both Linux and Windows.

KroArtem {l Wrote}:Don't forget to fix a segfault while pressing addons button:

@KroArtem Oh, sorry, this code is still WIP, the addon-system isn't done yet.
The biggest problem is that we need some place to host the addons.
I think we can use the project web space on sourceforge as long as we meet these requirements:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/sourceforge/wiki/Project%20web#Service-specificrestrictions

sf.net {l Wrote}:

* We encourage all projects to display the SourceForge.net logo we provide for statistics tracking (sflogo) to highlight that the site is hosted on SourceForge.net.
* Content and applications in project web space must be related to the project. For hosting of personal content, please instead use our developer web service.
* We ask that all projects give consideration to resource usage, particularly since our servers are shared among many projects. Our servers may not be used for bandwidth intensive or CPU-intensive (e.g. SETI or brute force cryptography cracking) things. Similarly, project web may not be used to host services, such as MMORPG games or whole-Internet search engines.

I think this addons system won't use a lot of their cpu/would be bandwidth intensive, so it is worth trying

Hello KroArtem,

KroArtem {l Wrote}:I think this addons system won't use a lot of their cpu/would be bandwidth intensive, so it is worth trying

You're right, they're just some plain text files and a few images.
The addon manager is now working (more here).

Edward_Lii {l Wrote}:Then I'll go for lower and upperCamelCase.

I've already cleaned/commented some code, still a lot to go.
Also added a new block: a notification block, nothing special just a message when you touch it.

We should make a new default level pack.
One that uses new blocks and gradually introduces new puzzle elements to the player. (A bit tutorial like)
And we can add those notifications blocks to guide the player .

Let's start with really easy levels; here's a suggestion:
Lvl 1 basic movement.
Lvl 2 moving the shadow character.
Lvl 3 shadow blocks.
Lvl 4 characters working together.
Lvl 5 Spikes.
Lvl 6 moving spikes.
Lvl 7 moving blocks.
and so on...