#fullmetalpixel

[pixelmetalgames]

Updates coming soon!

In the meantime, check out this cool collaborative mobile game project.

[pixelmetalgames]

More reference - yay for NYC packrats, these are from the 1940's and 50's.

Also: Demo date announced very, very soon. We're gonna release a playable demo with our Kickstarter campaign. Yeah!

[pixelmetalgames]

Putting together the teaser video...only a few more weeks until launch.

[pixelmetalgames]

Saving Game Data Creatively

For those of you that don't know me, my name is Jacob Williams (http://www.cheapdevotion.com) and I'm the lead programmer for Full Metal Pixel. Throughout the course of development, I will chime in every once in a while to give you an idea of what goes on in the background, and what it takes for us to bring you an awesome game.

Today, I are going to talk about FMP's save system. Traditionally, game save systems are pretty boring. You take some data (usually letters or numbers), and encrypt it so that it cannot be messed with. Then, you save it to a file that can be read by your game, and used to figure out where you were when you saved. Over time, these types of systems have become more complex to prevent players from cheating, but in the process, it has made sharing or backing up your saved game almost impossible.

For our save system, we wanted to do something a little more fun. We are going to use a method called Steganography to save the data. Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient, suspects the existence of the message, a form of security through obscurity. 

In simple terms, I am going to save your game data inside the image of your saved game. In more complex terms, I convert a string to bits, and adjust the alpha channel of a few image pixels slightly to represent the bits. Because I know how the pixels are adjusted, I look for those pixels. The first 32 pixels of the image tell me how long my string of saved data is, so I don't have to scan the entire image to find what I am looking for.

Because we store the data this way, it's almost impossible to tamper with your data. If you open the image in an editing program, and adjust just one of the pixels incorrectly, the saved data is no longer readable. However, we are not going to hide these images from you. It's your saved game, and you can do what you want with it. Email it to a friend, embed it into your website, or just back it up for safe keeping. None of these things will affect your saved game, and will allow others to load it quickly and easily.

As you can see, we are working very hard to make every aspect of this game as cool as it can be. If you are more technically inclined, or just want to see what this type of code looks like, the Steganography code is open sourced and can be found here (https://github.com/CheapDevotion/Steganography). Feel free to ask questions using the button on the left.

[pixelmetalgames]

Wow! Lots of new followers yesterday. That probably deserves another Kickstarter reward poster preview. Welcome new followers! Be sure to check out our Facebook page and official website for more updates.

[pixelmetalgames]

Visit Original Link

Thanks for the Follow Friday today, it8bit! In celebration, enjoy some more bloopy, bleepy & twangy FMP Soundtrack goodness.

[pixelmetalgames]

More is coming