Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone :)

and because I will be offline from 28 Dec to 3 Jan, I also wish you a happy new year!

Sigmore Mines 2 ready for tests!

Okay, I think I have something what can be called release candidate 1 :). No I'm waiting for testers and in the meantime I will prepare official website :). So again, I need 2-3 people with Midp 2.0 and CLDC 1.1 phones with ability to load jars from computer to phone (because I will be emailing you the game). What I expect :

• feedback about gameplay issues like game to easy/hard
• feedback about bugs
• other tips (although I may or may not use them)

If interested, please write me an email or use the contact form - both can be found on my website.

Save is working,

I think that save game is working now (although I haven't tested it all). Touch screen support is done in about 80%. I'm working now on the sprites for buttons to represent main menu, spell casting, etc. Too bad I really suck at graphics..

Almost finished?

I must admit "It's been a long road, getting from there to here" , but my todo list is shrinking rapidly and I am near release. I have replaced all gameplay pauses made by showing the messages screen with embedded text (see previous post's video). I have two more tasks on my list : 1. make save, 2. touch screen support. Also after I make save game support I will start looking for beta testers, not much, just two or three people (Uthar I'm counting on you).

Sigmore Mines 2 - Animated Messages

I think it is time for some new information about my recent work on SM2. I worked on it a bit in the past few days and now I think I have all monsters implemented, some of them use ranged attacks, some use magic, some are poisonous and some can set you on fire. I also finished two main quests. First quest is a final boss monster in the first dungeon, he represents the ending of demo version, second main quest is.. final boss monster in the second dungeon.. (on level 50). I don't remember if I have written about this but second dungeon is generated with different way from first one and it contains hidden rooms. Today I started working on the replacement of this ugly message screen displayed after every action. I think that by making this information messages more "embedded" in game will make SM2 more appealing, I hope you agree.

Here is a new video, these are results of my todays work:

A new baby ;)

I have become a proud owner of Toshiba Portege G810 :) and it means that, I will probably also focus a bit on the touch screen support for Sigmore Mines 2.

What can I say about the device? It's niffty little thing, 400MHz CPU, 128MB Ram, Windows Mobile 6.1, GPS and GSM Telephone, WIFI, FM Radio. I'm still playing with it (or on it.. look for "pocket ufo" in google :) ). I can't wait to finish SM2 and start developing for Windows Mobile platform :). Upgraded with Opera and TCPMP (video player with ability to play DivX and Xvid movies) it becames trully multimedia gadged :).

Cool comics

I'm regularly reading a few online comics which I really enjoy, and because recently I have stumbled upon new one which I think is really great, I have decided to share it with you my dear readers.

My newest finding is called "Looking For Group". Its dialogs are great, graphics is great and everything is great ;-). I bet Richard will be your favorite character, after all who doesn't like undead warlocks.

Other comic is "The Order of the Stick". Adventure in the D&D climates.

I advise you to start reading them from the beginning (look at the archives), because otherwise you will miss introduction to the characters and story plot.

And yes, I'm still working from time to time on Sigmore Mines.

Hidden rooms.

Still working on the SM 2 so don't worry ;). Just today I have added "hidden rooms". Actually hidden rooms are just rooms with doors looking like normal ordinary wall. This rooms contains usually some chests and no monsters. If a character with high enough ingenuity is within the visibility range of such hidden door, then the icon will appear notifying the player that such doors are nearby. Such doors are normal doors with just different graphics so even if character doesn't have enough ingenuity he still could find (and open) such doors by accident, by stepping into a wall :).

Dungeon generaition algorithm

I forced myself to work a bit on SM2 :). I've added new algorithm for level generation. With this algorithm cyclic connections of the rooms are possible (A->B->C->A). Actually I think that I'm not that far from the final version :) just a few thinks and I'm done. :)

Things what happen around me

So, I'm in Wien :). On Friday I'm going to my interview, keep your fingers crossed for me folks ;). In the meantime I'm making small projects, website here, application there.. generally nothing interesting. Oh, that company I want to work in is called VrVis, you can look at their website if you like:). They have some interesting projects in VR field I think:).

In the meantime I have moved a bit Sigmore Mines 2 project foreward. Nothing fancy was added but still it's counted as a progress right? ;)

Little progress of SM2

I want to thank for your comments, here and via my web page :). I can't promise that I will use all of your suggestions, but for sure some of them have made this "yes this is it!" feel in my mind:).

I already have mentioned it in one of my replies to the comments, but let me say it officially :) I have graduated from my University :), now I'm holding the title of Master of Computer Science :). Now, paths of my life are leading me to the Vienna in Austria, hmm anyone form there? ;).

As for Simore Mines 2:

1. I have implemented quests mechanics, thay can vary from killing a monster, or finding an item.
2. Potions temporary boosting player's stats.
   
3. Traps on chests.
4. Boss monsters mechanics.

Now I'm planning to make more areas, like forest and final village.

The big day tomorrow

Sorry for not posting lately. I didn't have much time to code or write anything. Tomorrow I'm defending my master thesis so wish me luck :).

Sigmore Mines 2 - Magical effects video

Hi, I think it's time for some video of SM2 :). To show you various effects like fireball, frozenball, poison, and generic magic effect used when you cast spells on yourself, I have lowered the mana requirements of spells, so keep that in mind because not all of those spell are available from the begging in game.

New spells

I'm still working on spells for my game. Right now I have eight of them :

1. Fireball - makes fire damage on a single target
2. Frozenball - makes cold damage on a single target, also stuns target for a few turns
3. Poison spell - for a few turns target is receiving poison damage
4. Kindling spell - for a few turns target is receiving fire damage ( I don't know if this name is okay.. I just don't feel that "sets on fire spell" sounds good)
5. Probe spell - gives information about the target
6. Attack rating boost spell - for a few turns caster is receiving attack rating bonus
7. Defense rating boost spell - for a few turns caster is receiving defense rating bonus
8. Healing spell - heals the caster. I'm a bit concerned about this spell, I remember someone said that SM1 was hard before introduction healing spell and too easy with it.. Maybe I should remove this spell or allow it only with easy difficulty setting.

From comments on my blog I try to implement also :

1. Spell converting healing potions to mana potions
2. Spell which reveal the map
3. Townportal - it's already implemented as a scroll, I have a concerns that making it a spell which is available for the player at any time will make game to easy (the same as with healing spell)

Spells from my ideas but I don't know if I will add them soon - they need friendly AI.. :

1. Charm monster
   
2. Summon monster
3. Identification spell
   

Also some ideas from the readers are already in the game (Benoît's mostly).

SM2 progress..

You know what? I should hire someone to create titles for my posts...


Right now I have healing spell and fireball spell which means that I have a working code capable of handling spells casted on self and spells which require targets. In addition to that, now I can display a graphical effect of casted spell, like fireball explosion on target or magic "mist" while casting healing.

What concerns me is the complexity of the code. I mean, the game is not even near completion, but still at the current state it is a "big cow".. I think I need to start documenting my code :D.

First magic spell implemented!

I finally implemented first magic spell in my game.. It took me some time, because I didn't neither have time nor the idea how to implement it properly (and I still don't know if I did it right..). But anyway here I am with my healing spell. When user presses 3, spell menu shows up with spells divided into such categories as: attack spells, defense spells, other spells. From this menu the player can cast a spell, view it's description or bind a spell to the speed cast key (9).

There are some minor differences compared to Sigmore Mines 1:

• Now spells have something like rest time needed after use -> if you will have to wait 4 turns after casting healing spell you will rather not be using it in battles do you?.
• Spells have levels, but you will be not able to level up a spell just by using it. Instead you can buy(or find) spell books to learn a spell on the desired level. That way I have more control over magic balance.

One more thing. There is a slight chance that I have found a person who could help me on graphics:). I told her to try her skills at drawing effects for the casted spells. I'm curious what will come up from this. Time will show. See you till next post.

Delighted with my own creation

You know what? Sometimes I play the current version of Simore Mines 2 and I really like it :). You know? I'm enjoying playing my unfinished game and with my eyes of imagination I see how superb it could be when finished :).

Information

Sorry for the lack of posts.. not everything went as I planed, including how I will spend my summer holidays... anyway I read all your comments in my previous posts and I consider them all. As for changing the mechanics of the game, I have come to the conclusion that I will made standard one (like in SM1) and then I will make an option to change rules. In other words I will implement them both.

But.. with great probability I will not touch Sigmore Mines 2 code before August.. I need to finish my master thesis soon.

As for the idea that this blog could have more author then me.. hm I'm not convinced that this is a good idea, but if someone want to write an article, he could email it to me and I will post it here.

Again, sorry for not writing new posts.. I just don't have any progress with SM2 so automatically I don't have what to write about..

New game mechanics

I the next few lines I will try to explain what is on my mind lately, so.. please bear with me :)

Sigmore Mines 1 had standard Diablo like game mechanics. You were warrior or whatever and your class was unchangeable during the whole game. Also all your stats could be increased while you level up.

In Sigmore Mines 2 I was thinking of changing this a bit.. What if your character class is defined by your actions? Let suppose that you have 3 attributes which you can't change directly by assigning level up point's to them, but rather by you actions in game. These attributes are (I need a good names) : melle attack proficiency, magic power, distance attack proficiency and they are from 1 to 100. Now, every time you use a close combat weapon, your melle attack proficiency increases while other two decreases at the same time. At this point if you add to weapons and spells statistics a minimum proficiency value, we will got a system which automaticaly balances itself. If you only will use magic you will be great magican but poor warior, if you use magic and weapns you will be medicore warrior and medicore magican.. I would like to have also a few stats which can be increased on level up and a set of skills which player can have and upgrade.

Magic in Sigmore Mines 2

This post is the one from the "if you have an idea, it's good time to share it with me" series. I was thinking about magic system for Sigmore Mines 2, I have came up with this ideas:

Attack spells:

• Fire ball
• Ball of frost
• Spell what sets monster on fire (for a few turns)
  

Defense spells

• Temporary increase of stats
• Shield spell

Other spells

• Identification
• Healing
• Summoning a friendly monster
• Seize a monster

Any other ideas? :)

My first web game

I have finished making my web game : Zuzu Balls. It was my attempt to create a web game, to know and "feel" the technology involved. Maybe someday I will make a web version of Sigmore Mines :). Anyway tell me what you think about this game, as I'm giving it to you for free :).

Unidentified items in Sigmore Mines 2

As you already know from the title, I have implemented unidentified items. You can find them in dungeon (although you need some luck to do it) or just buy them at the blacksmith. Right now they just give you some bonuses to your stats, but later when I will implement magic, I will allow them to have some elemental damage/resistance also :).

Just a screen

Hi all.. I'm sorry, I'm very lazy lately.. I mean very very very lazy... I haven't touched Sigmore Mines 2 nor my master thesis (although I'm on schedule with it). I'm giving you promised screen of town portal :) :




I was also playing a bit with applet technology. I have written a simple game in which you match 4 or more balls of the same color. Hmm ok looks like I wasn't that lazy after all :). Anyway this game lacks of "game over" screen and sending high-scores to the server. I'm treating this game as a test of my webgames writing skill.

What I have found on web

I was curious and typed Sigmore Mines in google. And you know what? Looks like I don't need to make Sigmore Mines 2 because it's already made :D link

And someone made a review :) too bad it's not in English so I don't understand it.. anyway here is link to the Sigmore Mines review :)

A bit unrelated to SM but still..

I was thinking a bit recently (yeah it happens to me sometimes;) ) , what would you my dear readers said about Sigmore Mines 2 also ported to PC? As a web applet more strictly speaking. You could play from web browser on any operating system, and maybe from time to time click on the google add ;). Well, I don't know how much Sigmore Mines would be cool as a web game, but still I'm a bit tempted to try it someday..

Also I should probably post more often.. Maybe twice a week on certain days like Tuesdays and Fridays? Hm.. And images.. images are nice, I should definitely post more images on my blog. So..next time I will show you how portals look like, but you will have to imagine that they are animated (because they are).

Sigmore Mines 2 - Town portals

In Sigmore Mines 1, you could only travel to the village every three times dungeon depth (3,6,9,12..), because only on this levels objects such as town portals were generated. I've changed this behavior in Sigmore Mines 2. Now you can buy a scroll named town portal and use it anywhere you like :). It will transfer you to the nearest town and you will be able to use it to go back to the exact location you were in the dungeon. In other words, I copied the exact behavior of town portals from the Diable game, oh yeah, and with this I accidentally have introduced scrolls ;) - you can buy one from the elder. The ones who played SM1 probably know that in SM1 you could only save while you were in town, and because of this "portal every third level" issue, player were forced to play all three dungeons before next save. Well, in SM2 you will be able to save any time. Ok this is one thing I haven't decided yet. To allow saving in the dungeon or just in town (but still you can go back to town when you like - just use town portal scroll).

Sigmore Mines 2 - Do you have a key?

It's time to another "what's have been done" post. Well, I have done all the implementation part of my master thesis :), now it awaits for supervisor's approval. Ok, I know this was not something what you were waiting for ;). Okey here is my recent changes in Sigmore Mines 2 :

• Treasure chests - the ones which needs keys and the ones which don't
• Locked doors - all locked doors need keys ;)
• Fixed the way how hitpoints were calculated while adding vitality points
• Listing of prices next to item names in shops
• You are not able to gamble before first level up (else you could gamble and restart until you get a lot of gold)
• Healing in camp should is much cheaper (just balancing issues)
• I've implemented internal level analyst - thanks to it I will at some point implement secret rooms :)

And offtopic - Google is slowly starting to like my website. Hurray ;)

Sigmore Mines 2 - Distance weapons video

Don't you think that it's time to post some video from Sigmore Mines 2? I do. This time I will show you distance weapons in use. I'm especially proud of auto aiming feature. You no longer need to manually point your target, everything is now activated and handled by one click of the button. I'm also curious. Will anyone find what have changed compared to previous Sigmore Mines 2 video (search few posts back for it)? I'm not talking here about changing the looks of the village:).

Typical "what I've added" list :

• Stairs are not placed next to the doors.
• Feature I want you to find from looking on the video ;)
• Holding a direction button allow you to walk continuously in that direction.
• Aiming state
• Distance weapons

And the video :

Sigmore Mines 2 - recent improvements

In my previous post I gave you my roadmap of features to implement. Since then I managed to add:

• Poison on weapons (both player and monsters)
• Cure Poison Potion
• Potion which adds poison bonus to your attacks (not permanent, only for some turns)

My friend asked me if he could play current alpha version of Sigmore Mines 2. I agreed, which resulted in some insight on things I would never think about:). One of new features I'm planing to add later, which comes from our talks is the ability to continuously walking while player holds direction key.


And a bit of off topic talk. Looks like google don't like my new website address. No pages from ktgames.net domain are indexed in google so you can't find my site directly in google search.. This is a bit strange because other search engines like yahoo or MSN Search indexed it properly. It's not a big problem really, because looks like people are clever enough to find my website anyway :) (google analytics tool rules). But still, if you search for Sigmore Mines registration code, search no more because it's here : Sigmore Mines.

SM2 : Status for 9th May 2008

Don't worry, I'm not dead. Still working on Sigmore Mines 2 in my spare time. Here is the list of changes I've made since my previous post :

• I've completed implementing close combat weapons
  
• I've added shields, helmets and boots
• Added stun ability of club weapons

My next steps are:

1. Poisonous weapons
2. Potions curing poisons
3. Distance weapons
4. Keys to the dungeon doors
5. Treasure chests
6. Chests with traps

As for my master thesis. I've managed to connect with arm device. Position of the tip corresponds to position of my virtual scalpel. I'm fighting now with tip's orientation, all I've have is unit vector showing in which direction the tip is pointing. I need to convert this vector into angle values. After that, there will be only one milestone left until completion of implementation part of my thesis :).

Screens from my master thesis app :)

If some of you were curious how my master thesis app may look like, here are some screens. Both screens represents the same volumetric data from the same patient, but on the first screen all regions with low density were removed. My CT data is 217 frames 512x512 each.

SM2 and 100th blog post :)

Wow, this is my 100th post on my blog, somehow I managed to torture you with my "messing around" for over a year now :D.

Recently I've added two things to Sigmore Mines 2, both of which don't exists in Sigmore Mines 1. One is the ability to go not only down, but also up the stairs to previous level along with remembering which parts of dungeon have been visited and how many monsters were slew. Second one is more important I think. I added something what I call "rest time". For example if you use heavy weapon like battle axe which has rest time equal to 1, after attack with this weapon you will have to wait one turn before you can make action again. Also I can slow down very powerful monsters, so they must rest every move they make.

I need to work on my master thesis now, so I will not touch (must resist..) Sigmore Mines 2 code again for let say few days. I'm just curious. Is anyone waiting there for release of SM2?:)

SM2 : Video from 21 April 2008

What was added :

• Most significant addition of the recent days : Fog of War
• Herbalist shop and potions
• Monsters drop items with different chances for different item types
• New sprites for shop owners
• Stairs to previous dungeon levels

Here is video :

SM2 : Steady progress

Now, when I have overcome problems with balancing items, development progress is rather steady and proportional to the time I'm devoting to the project (I'm switching back and forth between SM2 and my master thesis). Yesterday I have implemented selling items to the blacksmith. My question is : should items you are wearing, be listed also as items for sale?

More about tools : Graph Editor

Few posts earlier I was writing about Cayra - a mind mapping software. Now I have stumbled upon a bit different, but also very useful application. Ladies and gentlemen, meet yEd, a java graph editor. Looks powerful and is for free.

SM2 : The defense from armors

I have decided which approach should I use to handle the defense from armors. But before I will tell how I implement it (yes, it's already done), allow me to bore you a bit with the explanation of the process of how I come to this. My battle mechanics look like this :

calculate if attacked unit was hit ->(if yes)->calculate damage done to target

In the Sigmore Mines 1, armor reduced only the chance to hit attacked unit, but they didn't reduce the damage done to wearer if he was hit. This was easier to balance, because I have put a rule which said that you had always a 5% chance to hit any monster, no matter how great his armor was. At the beginning I have tried to reduce damage directly by the armor factor, but if armor factor was greater then maximum damage you could made, you ended up facing monster to which you can't do any harm (or opposite situation when all monsters on the level are too weak for you).

Even if SM1 solution works, I don't feel that this was "right". In SM2 armor don't affects hit chance. It reduces damage, but not directly. Armor strength is not measured in points or class, but in percentage of how much it reduces damage. So 20% steel plate means that 20% of damage will be taken by armor. I just need to make sure that there won't be any perfect 100% armor.

In addition to this, I also look at how tall the attacker was. If you were attacked, by a rat there is no chance that you will be hit by him in your head. The opposite is also true, boots are no use if you fight with flying creature like for example bat. That also means that armor will not be cumulative. You can have super-duper adamentium plate and get killed by on hit in the unprotected head.

SM2 : Weapons balancing

I love when things suddenly start to click into place. For many days I was struggling with weapons balancing problem. I just didn't know if my close combat weapons are to powerful compared to distance weapons, or maybe vice versa. Besides of balancing issues I was also thinking about system which would allow me to place weak items in early levels of dungeon and gradually introduce more powerful ones. And just today, during the lunch break, when I was waiting for my meal, I just did it.. I can't say that I invented this, because there wasn't any "invention process". It was like one of those Terry Pratchett's idea neutrino hit my brain :-). Now I feel stupid, because it's so simple, yet I needed about two weeks to come up with this solution. But straight to the point. I've created a formula which calculated a "power" score for each weapon. It take into consideration such things as minimum and maximum damage, attack range of weapon, one or two handed. Thanks to this I can see how much one weapon is stronger from other, thous making balancing process much easier. Also, I can use this score to place items in the dungeon, for example at the beginning I could only generate items with score less then five. Additional and free feature of this is that I can generate prices for items basing on that score. Nice, isn't it?

Mind mapping software

Recently I was in need of a way to visualize my brainstorming ideas. The easiest method to do this - pen and paper - was a "no no" for me. Mostly due to my handwriting style. I write in such a way that after few days I can't read myself.. Besides I want to be able to freely edit my notes while maintaining tidy message, uncluttered by crossings-out. Software such as Word, or basic Notepad is good for making notes, but lacks in the field of visualization. I searched the web and stumbled upon this gem : Cayra. It's free mind mapping software for windows. Just go to Cayra's page and look at the screencasts to see what it can do. Pretty nice software don't you think?


Another thing I wanted to write about is that I have received my first sale confirmation by SoftCartPro system. I did not get any complains from that customer, so it looks like everything is working fine :-). Good.

New payment processor : SoftCartPro

Finally I've decided to change my payment processor to SoftCartPro. For me it means that my customers can pay me via PayPal, Google Checkout or credit card. I pay 4.5% fee per transaction compared to 15% when I used Plimus. And sending of reg codes is automatically handled by SoftCartPro. All I can do now is to wish myself "happy selling" ;)


As for progress of Sigmore Mines2. Today I've implemented level up screen and made a list of what is waiting to be done ;). I know it's a little progress, but still.

PayPal experiment

I've just added a PayPal's "Buy Now" button on my site. I'm curious which method people will prefer : via PayPal or via Plimus (I provide them both now). The difference is that with PayPal I need to manually send registration codes to my buyers, because PayPal just sends sales confirmation to my email. Although I check my email often, still there is a small delay (especially when there is a big difference in timezones).

SM2 : Promised image of first enemy

As I promised in my previous post. On the image you can see rats, they will be the first enemies you will meet in dungeon. There is also a cell with an armor, a sword and a shield. This icon will represent items laying in the dungeon, awaiting to be picked up.



I'm still working on the items. I implemented all basic weapon types I wanted, but they are not balanced yet. I'm still not satisfied with the way how creation of items is managed now... I need to rethink this.

About few videos and SM2's items

I've put two videos on YouTube showing gameplay of my games. One is from Block Logic and other is from Sigmore Mines. They both can be accessed via my page (www.ktgames.net). I'm also thinking about making tutorials or some kind of "how to play" guide for Sigmore Mines. I don't know if this is necessary (never got feedback about this), but it won't hurt if I made the game more accessible for beginners.


Okay, let's back to more important stuff ;). I'm still in the process of adding items to Sigmore Mines 2. Right now I have.. (let me count) ..15 base weapons (and 21 (weapons) more on my list, but I don't know if I will implement them all). Besides of that, there will be dozen of armours (for chest, helmets, boots), potions and other stuff. In other words, variety of items should be satisfying.

SM2 : Item's stuff

I worked a bit on Sigmore Mines 2 again which resulted in addition of ability of picking and dropping items on the ground. This time items' image on the level is much more nicer compared to SM1 pile of yellow dots simulating "something". Also, first and the easiest enemy you will meet in the dungeon is happy, because he gets new -and I think final - image representation. I will post some screens in my next post.

New address

If you go to my (old now) site, you will see a message (probably you will need to hit refresh button). The message loudly says that I HAVE MOVED :). My new (profesionally looking) address is www.ktgames.net :). Oh boy I'm so happy :) Nice thing is that my new host was fully covered by income from my games. From Sunday till now I was refreshing my PHP skills, so I didn't program neither SM2 nor my master thesis. Helpfully when my new website is up and running, my day schedule should back to normal again.

Small add-on.

What you would say for a bit of gambling? It will probably not affect gameplay much, but from now on you could win a few bucks from the inn-keeper:)

Inventory system

I've implemented some basic inventory system. The same items are counted which means that they will not clutter inventory screen like in Simore Mines. I still haven't decided what to do next. Perhaps some kind of items factory, so I could fill dungeon with items.

SM2 : The latest "what I have" video

Here is what I've got already :

What do you think?

Village is completed...almost.

I have completed the basics of village. My test village have blacksmith, herbalist, elder and inn keeper however right now you can only listen to the inn keeper's gossips.. Blacksmith and herbalist can't trade, because I haven't implemented items yet. I'm in need of sprites (all my NPCs look like mage character). Also, I need grass sprite and furnitures for these shops..

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that implementation of my game world can handle multiple towns and traveling between them. All I need is a content and some kind of reason for the player to travel between towns. I was thinking about something like missions (hm quests?). Maybe escorting NPCs or patrolling the area?

Sigmore Mines 2 - Village as menu or as...village?

As in title of this post. Do you prefer to access village "options" via menu system or you prefer to talk with shopkeepers "manually"?

Sigmore Mines 2 : What I have..again.

I've designed a system which should work (it works on paper right now) :

Player have :

• Strength : affects damage in close combat and carry weight
• Dexterity : affects attack rating (chance to hit monster)
• Swiftness : affects defense rating (chance to dodge monster's attack)
• Ingenuity : affects attack and defense rating in a minor way and increases chance of finding traps, secret passages, etc.
• Vitality : affects hit points
• Magic : affects mana points

As for monsters I'm still pondering if they should have this stats like player have, or just constant attack and defense ratting with regard to the monster class.

Sigmore Mines 2 : What I want and what I have..

What I want :
Units' attributes such us Strength, Agility, Ingenuity, Vitality, Magic and derived from them by some mysterious formula : Dodge skill, Archery accuracy skill, Melee accuracy skill, Archery Power, Melee Power and maybe some more? Also I want that equal units should have 50% "to hit" chance..

What I have:
Nothing.. I just don't know how to "make" this system well balanced and also to allow almost infinite ability to develop player's character..

Btw:
Simon says : "Leave a comment".

Sigmore Mines 2 - Attack behaviours

I've taught monsters how to pursuit a player :-). Behavior trees are great (once you implement them properly) - my monsters can use distance weapons, on close distance they switch automatically to melee weapon. Some monsters will use magic, will heal them selfs. Maybe even I will implement squad behaviors if I would feel strong.

My working enviroment.

If you were curious how my IDE (Integrated Development Environment) in which I create my games looks like, here is a screenshot. Every piece of java code which I have written, comes from the Netbeans IDE. As you can see, I program on the black background and mostly green texts. This is more polite for the eyes. On the screen you can see part of Sigmore Mines 2 "onUpdate" code.

My last exam - PASSED :-)

Yee :-) I've passed with B mark. Now as I have more time, I've decided to learn new programming language. I've chosen to learn groovy as an extension of my java skills.

I have also implemented in Sigmore Mines 2, the blackboard to store AI's knowledge.

My last exam

Today is my last exam. If I pass it, there will be only my master thesis waiting for me :-). After this exam I will have some free time, so you can expect more frequent updates on my blog. Anyway, wish mi luck.

Sigmore Mines 2 - 25 Jan 2008

I've added basic monster AI. Only wandering around behaviour to be more specific, so nothing fancy really. This is irrelevant for the players, but AI in Sigmore Mines 2 is using Behaviour Trees (Sigmore Mines used Finite State Machines). Anyway here is video, mage is my temporary monster ;-).

Sigmore Mines 2 : Video for 23 Jan

This is latest video of Sigmore Mines 2. As you can see, walls are one pixel thick. They are a border of a title, not a separate title , thus on the same area space you have much more to explore:). Also movement (and attacks in future) of units between cells are animated. What do you think? This was inspired by this screenshot.

About old project, about new project and about Windows Vista

I really have problems with inventing meaningful titles for my posts... anyway I want to tell you about few things.

First one may looks like advertisement and believe me, I also never imagined that I could say it, but... I really like Windows Vista. It came preinstalled on my new laptop. At first I was a bit worried because producer don't provide drivers for Windows XP and I was prejudiced that Vista is a big, slow, buggy cow.. Now it's almost a month since I'm working with Vista and to be honest, I don't feel like going back to XP again. Of course first thing I did was restoring classic start menu and disabling Aero and sidebar (not that Aero and sidebar killed performance, but I read somewhere that battery life is longer without them). As for performance, the fact is that start up time of Netbeans and also compiling times are much faster compared to my previous hardware, thus making me a happier man;). Also things such as a new way to navigate around folders makes me more productive:). I should also mention that first service pack is almost knocking at our doors (release candidate is ready for download now). This service pack should enhance stability and performance as MS says. Future will show :-)

Second and most important thing which may make happy some of my readers (are there any?). After getting another mail from fan of Sigmore Mines game I decided to "again" start working on Sigmore Mines 2. Yeah I see you people rejoice ;-). Keep in mind that I'm not forgetting my Dwarfs King game. I plan to work on them both in parallel. I mean, an hour a day devoted to developing each game is not impossible for me. I'm more concerned that I woudn't stop after this one hour... Anyway... I want to officially announce that Sigmore Mines 2 is being developed. Also I want to officially ask fans of Sigmore Mines for your motivating support (hint hint -> start commenting my posts;-) ).

Dwarfs Kingdom 18.01.2008

This is a video from the latest version of my game. Google reduced video resolution, but I hope you can still see something. There is one builder unit (blue dot), this unit is autonomic and constantly looks for work. Gui framework supports buttons, panels, push buttons, tool tips (displayed by the label at the bottom of the screen). Text near the builder represents current "thought" of the unit (later I will change it to icon representation).

Title highlighting implemented

I've just looked at my blog's archive and it looks like my blog has birthday with me:). I mean, my first posts on blogger are dated January 2007. I started to bore people with my stuff a year ago and I'm planning to write the same old boring stuff another year ;-).

As you can see from the topic of this post, I have implemented title highlighting which basically means that when player will want to build a structure, titles under mouse pointer will be green if structure can be build at this place or they will be red if place is inappropriate for building structures. In my next post I will give you some screenshots or maybe video (xvid) of my game - but don't expect release state graphics.

One more thing. I don't think that I have many readers (maybe 2 or 3 persons), but if you haven't noticed yet, I have created rss feed link and email subscription link. You can be notified to your email if new post on my blog shows up.

Happy birthday to me ;-)

I'm getting old:P From now on I'm officially 24 years old...

I've got a little slowdown in Dwarf's King development... I don't know how to implement resources system. I want something like in settlers game, where there are economic connection like wood->boards->buildings. My problem is that in my game player's environment is inside a mountain which means for example practically no wood..

Also during development of my game I think I have created pretty good 2D engine. I don't know if java community need another 2D engine, but if there will be some interest in it, I could make it open-source.

Happy new year!

Happy new year! I'm not very good at composing wishes, so this is all you will get from me:P.

Anyway during this few free days between Christmas and New Years Eve I have managed to rewrite my gui system. Now it's easier to create new controls, frame borders are implemented using decorator pattern and controls inside a panel can be laid with help of layout managers (right now I only implemented GridLayoutManager). But most significant new feature is layout auto scaling. All controls look the same regardless of screen resolution, also their position on the screen is calculated taking current screen resolution into account :).

Furthermore I have tested my engine on windows vista and it works flawlessly on it.