#gamdedev

[mightofmerchants]

That's how I did it. :-) I create a random amount of birds at a random point, randomize their attributes each time and let them fly to an opposite position.

[questline-rpg]

When attacked, Questline characters will make a defensive roll with one of four results:

🩹Fail the roll and take the hit

🪓Block!

💨Dodge!

🪞Counter attack!

Here's Raven demonstrating why a bow and arrow is just as dangerous close up

[mightofmerchants]

The resulting direction of movement is determined from the self-rotation and the global wind direction.

[leahvitan]

Bullet Patterns (#2)

Just a short post. I’ve been mostly working on learning OpenGL, which has left me a little bit frustrated at times. (Though I think I’m making good progress!)

In the regular breaks I’ve had to take, I’ve been playing Touhou 8, and I’ve noticed a particular problem with its bullet patterns, as illustrated below, that I’ve been thinking a lot about.

This is one of Reisen’s spell cards, and as you can see, the perfect circular symmetry is broken by the fact that there are bullets on top of others. Of course, these bullets are simply drawn last, so they have to go on top. But it’s still sort of ugly, and there may be a way around it.

Studying OpenGL has made me think about depth in a different way, even for 2D games. Because while you can render an orthographic projection which makes everything 2D, there is still that seemingly useless depth component to the equation.

Of course, just moving bullets forward or backward won’t do anything useful, but something that’s easily overlooked is that these bullets can also be rotated in 3D space. If we tilt every bullet on its side just slightly, it means that one side will be lower than the other, and thus one side will always get rendered on top. There will not be a “top” bullet any longer, because the bullets are laid out in 3D space in a turbine formation. Thus, any pattern similar to the one above will be rendered with perfect circular symmetry.

I will definitely be implementing this technique once I get a little further into development, and perhaps this is a useful insight for anyone reading my blog as well.

[smithmanc]

Hey y'all! Have a look at what puzzle solving looks like in my new game, Stealth Squad!

[yokaimaskgame]

Testing in progress: movements and combo chains

[spinebook]

New character skin will be added to the Spine/Unity Starter Kit after it goes live. All future updates will be free. The kit goes live on 9/1/2015.

https://gumroad.com/take10animation

[kings-conflict]

Juju Cards will Morph Reality

A long-promised addition to King's Conflict is now nearly ready for release with v0.257 - cards that change the map. Regions are no longer static. This will change the game forever.

  Jujus

The map-changing commands are called Jujus - a nod to the classic boardgame Kings and Things. They have many uses:

- Killing units (by changing the terrain to something they can't survive in), Jujus can be thought of as cheap but unreliable assassination cards (see below). In some cases though they will give you a guaranteed kill.

- Blocking choke points (turn the bridge in 'The Crossing' to river to force the enemy to find another way to cross - or block up the passes in 'Mountain Passes'

- Removing choke points (turn the whole river to plains if you like!)

- Expanding regions to increase income (by turning forests to plains, for instance, you can create huge regions on some maps)

- Altering regions to remove enemy income or food (merge two regions so you have control of them, or so their food supply drops)

- Trapping units (especially kings - convert large expanses to water and the enemy king may not be able to go anywhere!)

There's probably more you can do too - experimentation is encouraged!

The new cards:

First we have the Juju Master

The master doesn't do any map-changing work himself, but every turn he draws you a "Small Juju" card (which does). If you are lucky, he will be really on his game and have a "Big Juju" for you!

He's also a (weak) fire mage, so not completely useless in combat.

Then there are the two Juju commands themselves...

  Small Juju (common card - you can have up to three in your deck, or let the Juju Master generate them for you instead)

A "Small Juju" changes the terrain type of a single map tile to the adjacent type (so if you play it on a forest tile which has plains next to it, the forest tile becomes plains).

You can't play it on a king, and you can't convert tiles to road. Apart from that you can play it in any tile which has a different terrain type next to it.

If there is more than one type of terrain adjacent - well you'll have to figure out the rules used (it's not random - some terrain types are always picked over others).

If, after a juju, a unit finds itself in terrain it can't be placed in (e.g. a Firemage in forest, most servants in water or mountains), then it either dies (50% chance) or tries to move to an adjacent tile if it can (50% chance). If it can't move for whatever reason then it dies anyway. This is why you aren't allowed to Juju kings!

  Big Juju (epic card - you can only have one in your deck)

A "Big Juju" changes the terrain type of an entire region.

It works in the same way as the Small Juju - select a tile with adjacent terrain of a different type to choose what you want to change the region to. But this time the whole region gets Jujued.

Used at the right time and in the right way, a Big Juju can wipe out an army... or trap a king.

Fear the Big Juju!