Gateway to Legend pc

[123outerme]

I have successfully implemented my own home-grown (yet not really unique) pathfinding algorithm! Enemies 1 and 3, or the bird and the stone giant. The 2nd enemy, the specter, can walk through collision. They (mostly) take the shortest path to the player from their starting position, and do it pretty fast too! With 2 enemies utilizing the routine, and a 3rd one moving without it, I get an uncapped FPS of about 450, which I find very impressive.The algorithm I used was just a flash-fill that takes data from the eventmap and plots a path through without colliding with walls, although I may extend that to not collide with other things such as portals, spikes, etc.

I'm really proud of it, as in 8 hours I went from not knowing anything about pathfinding to implementing my own into my game. I'm glad I could get it to work and the euphoria after realizing it worked was gold.

[123outerme]

Here I've implemented sound effects! No music yet, that's coming real soon, though! I bitcrushed royalty-free sound effects and did other wacky things to give them the feel I wanted. I have sound effects for doors, gateways, sword swings, selecting menu options, walking, with more coming soon! Finally, no more silent-treatment from my PC games. Let me know which sound effects you like and dislike, and I'll do my best to make them better.

[123outerme]

So right now, I'm reworking the main tilesheet to be 48x48, instead of 8x8 (upscaled x6). I figured I might as well show off everything the engine can do, including the resolution it can play at. I haven't made every tile yet, but I have done a few. I updated the spike tile in the upper left, the heart icon, the portal sprite (although I may not be done with that one), the sword, and the grass. I still have most of the tileset to do, but I figured I'd show off this progress. Here's some of my work so far:




I intend to keep this cartoony style for the most part. It's not only easier for someone who isn't really an artist, not only the way my 8x8 tiles looked, but I think it fits pretty well. I would like to hear any criticisms or suggestions you have to offer! Any praise is welcome, as well

As for work on the engine, nothing crazy has been added or removed, yet. I have big plans for features, such as fully-customizable boss behaviors, implementing new events and puzzle mechanics, adding dialogue, and more. The maps featured right now in the Main Adventure map pack are mostly test maps. The work on the real Main Adventure will come in time, mostly once I'm finished a lot of the big features.

RPG mechanics will most likely be present. I'm thinking pretty much just money and Exp as the two point systems in place, but probably nothing more, if just that. I don't exactly know if I even want Exp in the first place, and I'll have to see how it will play out. The money will for certain be in, and will most likely be used to buy techniques, items, and other goodies I haven't yet decided on.

[123outerme]

I finally finished my work on my tileset after a weekend of working on it, so here it is! I took what little art talent I have and upscaled the graphics. I previously used 8x8-sized tiles for the "main" map-pack, but figured I could do better. After all, if the game can display up to 48x48 tiles, why limit myself? I agree that some things may need work, and I will continue to look at and improve the tileset. Another point of potential ugliness is the maps I'm using right now; the maps will soon be remade and will look better than they do now!

Here's a list of things that are coming up in the somewhat short-term, in no particular order:

* Redoing the menu palette
* Script editor; "scripts" are lines of data that dictate where and when certain things like warping, etc. happen, so a easy-to-use editor for myself and other map-pack creators is coming!
* More sound effects
* Music
* Currency and the currency store, as well as potentially Exp
* Actual options to change the FPS, volume, etc.
* Bosses and customizable boss behavior
* Local saves holding more data so that some sort of permanent state is kept between rooms
* More types of events such as dialogue, scene scripting (!), etc.
* More engine work
* Probably redoing some of my 48x48 tiles


As well, here's my goals for the long term, in the same unordered fashion:

* Release a beta version with a complete toolchain to give everyone a head-start on making maps
* Finish the main map-pack
* Release the finished version alongside a few more map-packs (secret projects!)

[xlibman]

This is progressing very nicely 123.

[123outerme]

This is progressing very nicely 123.

Thanks xlibman! I have taken a long break and got pretty sidetracked. I recently fully implemented dialogue boxes, and now there are two types: infinitely available, and one-time-read boxes. One-time-read boxes reset when you save & quit out of the map-pack, but I probably won't leave it like that. All you have to do to see the dialogue is stand inside the script's bounding box and press Interact (default Space) and you get a nice text box!

However, I have been working on something a little better. I'm making a webpage for my game! So far it's extremely basic and a little bit void of interesting things. I'm adding screenshots, information, my personally-authored map-packs, and more. If you want to see what it looks like so far, I've got it right here: https://123outerme.github.io/Gateway-to-Legend/

[123outerme]

Gateway to Legend gains an important feature today: Programmable bosses! Bosses have now been implemented, which exist as script objects. They can be virtually any size (although largest I recommend is 4x4 or maybe 5x5), use any tiles from your tileset, and move in any pattern!
Boss movement is programmable, so you can define any way that the boss moves! An easy one would be back and forth, which is: [(6,0) for 20 frames / (-6,0) for 20 frames]. Although in the script it would look like this: (6|0|20|-6|0|20)
For this video I defined a 2x2 boss that moves in a square. Bosses don't have to be square too, they can be any rectangular shape.



In the video, I also show off the new menu "click" sound, the dialogue script, the hurt/healing field script (which was where I got damaged randomly in the ice world), and older features as well.

Here's what my progress list looks like now:

* Redoing the menu palette
* Script editor; "scripts" are lines of data that dictate where and when certain things like warping, etc. happen, so a easy-to-use editor for myself and other map-pack creators is coming! (just needs one more feature to be fully functional)
* More sound effects
* Music
* Currency and the currency store, as well as potentially Exp
* Actual options to change the FPS, volume, etc.
* Bosses and customizable boss behavior
* Local saves holding more data so that some sort of permanent state is kept between rooms
* More types of events such as dialogue, scene scripting (!), etc.
* More engine work
* Probably redoing some of my 48x48 tiles


Here's my goals for the long term:

* Release a beta version with a complete toolchain to give everyone a head-start on making maps
* Finish the main map-pack
* Release the finished version alongside a few more map-packs (secret projects!)

[123outerme]

I've been working on this still, even though I've been rather silent. What's here isn't even a big update, but I've been preparing the engine for several more big things. After those, almost all work on the engine is finished, and then off to map-pack making, which should hopefully be easy after all the work I did on the toolchain program.


I did a lot of "grease" work, aka lots of engine work for things you won't directly see. I've been working to ensure the Linux/GNU version actually runs, reorganizing some code I made before this project, and more stuff. Here, I actually get to show it off. I've added text input, so instead of having to input various data in the command line, you no longer need that. Another thing I did was revamp the Gateway transition slightly and added a boss into transition.

[c4ooo]

hey (mostly) take the shortest path to the player from their starting position, and do it pretty fast too! With 2 enemies utilizing the routine, and a 3rd one moving without it, I get an uncapped FPS of about 450, which I find very impressive

Ideally you should use VBOs and shaders for all rendering and do the enemy AI in a separate thread. Even if not exactly necessary for this project, as you get enough FPS already, learning how to "properly" render with VBOs and shaders will be a big help for more advanced SDL/openGL projects

[123outerme]

I have released the Pre-Release 1 build publicly! This includes the base game, what I have completed of the toolchain, and one map-pack! See it for yourself:



Download here:
https://github.com/123outerme/Gateway-to-Legend/releases/tag/v4.1.18

Edit: The link above sends you to the April Fools' Day demo, which is a fully-functioning demo, but only had an April Fools' teaser map-pack. To get the real demo, download here: https://github.com/123outerme/Gateway-to-Legend/releases/tag/v4.3.18

[_iPhoenix_]

@123outerme is letting me create (some? most? all? arbitrary amounts?) of the soundtrack for GTL!
 
Via WalrIRCord, I posted one of my short experiments with creating ambient music. I offered to help 123outerme with the soundtrack because I am going to have decent amounts of spare time in the coming week(s).

Today I made three tracks that are designed to be loopable, so that they can be cut off easily.

I'm not going to post them yet, because it is entirely up to 123outerme to decide which tracks he will use. All tracks he doesn't use will most likely find a home in a certain music thread of mine.

The tracks I created today were a pair of simple ambient tunes, relatively short. The other one is heavily influenced by Japanese music, but I added a Latin twist to it because why not.

[123outerme]

Thanks to my friend, I have released a new update video for Gateway to Legend! I've added music! The main theme plays upon launching the game. There will be 3 overworld pieces, at least some provided by @_iPhoenix_ . The boss theme plays upon triggering a boss. We also have plans for more tracks than just those!
As well, I added some new graphics, including particle effects, a splash screen, and more. Finally, I merged the former toolchain program into the main executable.

Watch here:



As it turns out, I'm getting scarily close to releasing, without realizing! I've completed most of the main engine work. Music is chugging along nicely, sound effects are nearly complete, the toolchain is almost done, and game design work is almost finished! I have to finish creating some map-packs, and then I should be extremely close to being finished!

[123outerme]

I've added smooth scrolling, after much request for it. After two RPGs that handle only screen-sized maps, I have finally added a much-requested feature!



As well, I have added @_iPhoenix_ 's overworld music, fully integrated the map-pack toolchain, and more!

Music is almost done. I need one more track. The engine is almost done. I need to implement one more type of script, fix any bugs, and a few more things. The toolchain is almost done. I need to implement a few more features and allow two more script types to be fully edited. The only facet of the game I have any substantial amount of work left for is map-packs. Again, I have lagged behind making maps. Not because it's hard, but just because every time I go to make maps, I remember a feature that I wanted to implement before making the map

[xlibman]

I love that sword and logo on the title screen

Also I like the music

Btw, if the engine already supports NPCs and event blocks/variables/switches, then maybe I could try to do a small game xd

[123outerme]

I love that sword and logo on the title screen

Also I like the music

Btw, if the engine already supports NPCs and event blocks/variables/switches, then maybe I could try to do a small game xd

Thanks! I'm happy with the way it's all turning out so far.
As for the engine, NPCs are supported. Events such as cutscenes have yet to be added, but are planned, and variables could be added, but as of now they aren't planned.