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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/24/2015 in all areas

  1. Jimbob

    Let's Make a Game

    Firstly, thank you for your comments McJobless, I will definitely take those into account should we take this game to the next step. I can't believe, for example, that I didn't think of using hit boxes on the enemies! I guess I was just too caught up in using object hit testing with the environment. However, you've done exactly what I was afraid some members here would do. I tried so hard to explain how primitive I expected this game to be, so hard that it made my head hurt, but it seems it still wasn't enough to convey the message across completely. As Xiron pointed out, I redefined "game" for the purposes of this project. And in doing so, I think we far exceeded what I expected us to produce. I have to say that I'm a little disheartened. I've always looked up to you as a brilliant, intelligent man, and an inspirational game designer - and of course that hasn't changed - but I suppose I was expecting your support on this project; that you'd see it as the baby's first steps that it is. I stand by the way I approached it. I felt that if I put such standards as you seem to have on this game, people would be put off producing it. And if we did get people on board, it wouldn't have the enthusiasm that we've had over the past 10 days. By setting the standards of the game so low, it ensures that people are proud of the outcome regardless of how it compares to AAA and/or Indie games out there. I'm sure you of all people know how much community projects on RRU can flunk if they are made too big, so I decided to make this as small as it could feasibly be and still be technically regarded as a "game". This game was made deliberately small, as a prototype, in part so that I could evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of those who took part. I can now say that: Ben24x7 has the ability to produce multiple drawings in a short space of time, with consistency. His art style is something I've always admired and one that I think is quite unique to the games industry. I don't think his animations were too bad either, in fact I was impressed. That said, I did have to do a bit of editing on his images to properly import them into the game. For example, they had to be resized and cleaned up around the edges. Drill Master put together a wonderful piece of music. To be blunt, I think your comments on it were harsh. It fit the criteria I gave DM very well as it was cheerful, and as an added bonus it fit the environment's visuals very well too. DM was also able to take on board my criticism and change the music, and being able to respond positively to someone else's opinions is always a great boon. MaelstromIslander showed a lot of enthusiasm toward the project (not that others didn't), producing much more than I had asked for. It's always great to have a wide range of concepts to choose from, and Mael's plethora of coin designs did just that. His characters, while perhaps taking my request for one of Mario's Goombas a bit too literally, were very much his own creation and had a lot of life in them. The only prominent downside I can come up with is that his drawings were a little pixellated in comparison to the other artists here. rioforce's drawings were bright and very easy on the programming, as they were already set up such that minimal effort was needed to add them into the game. He provided me with a nice array of elements that competently fit the bill I requested, and clearly put a lot of effort in, so I am pleased to have him as one of our artists too. And I don't think that my programming was too bad, considering I wrote it from scratch myself. There was a glaring problem with the enemy hit testing, but aside from that I think the game performed its functions adequately enough. Plus we have more people signed on who I have yet to assign roles too! I'm a firm believer in supporting people by building them up, not pointing out their issues. Of course people won't learn from the mistakes if said mistakes aren't pointed out in the first place, but science proves that if people are happy they work far harder. Pixar has a mentality built around its employees, it's always easy to see the love and care put into their productions and this shines out from the heart of the company being in its people. They care about every one of their employees and through this they have managed to establish themselves as a film company loved worldwide and known for the quality of its movies. With this in mind, I wanted to let people produce what they were comfortable with for this first prototype. By giving each member involved the freedom to produce whatever they were comfortable with, while we may have ended up with a somewhat unrelated set of assets, I was able to see the best of the people involved and can now work with that. The next step of this "Let's Make a Game" project was to take it up a notch, to produce a proper first level. I had already planned it out a couple of days after we started. If people wanted to continue, I was going to establish a hierarchy, as you suggested, and ask for two new roles - a Level Designer and a Theme Designer, who would design the levels and create a set story/theme respectively. With the Theme Designer passing down their idea for the game, the Art, Music and Sound people would have direction in what they should produce, and the project would be much more unified. Then it would just be a case of layering the art, music and sfx over the Level Designer's framework, adding in any new programming that may be necessary, so that we'd finally have a proper first level. And that's a key point, I still planned to create just the one complete level, so that it was more than achievable. But to do this I wanted to ensure I had the enthusiasm of the people on the project first, and I wanted to prove to them that we could do it. That's what this prototype was all about. Here's a video to explain my inspiration behind this project. Compare what we've produced to that, and hopefully people should see it in a better light.
    5 points
  2. Sluicer

    Bvb Files (Collision Meshes?)

    No I rotated it. The render from the previous quote is mirrored. I am sorry for the confusion. I was wrong. Connected to the triangles of the node we have once again a plane that divides the track (here the colliding infos) into to sections. If the car is on the one side go to the left node otherwise go to the right node. If you reeach a -1 there is no colliding of you reach a -2 there is an error. It is the same in the checkpoint files. But there you will have to be very carefull. As far as I can tell now the planes have to be defined so that they will not cut one of the remaining checkpoints! Is there still someone who would like to crate a custom race track? Yes because of the tree. Here is a screenshot of the first version of a CUSTOM TEST TRACK! It is only a plane where you cannot fall of. I just replaced the main file of the test track, so that you can still see the environment of the original track.
    4 points
  3. Fush

    Let's Make a Game

    4 points
  4. le717

    LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin Announced

    Am I the only one who wishes this game would have made it to the PC?
    3 points
  5. McJobless

    Let's Make a Game

    This project gives me many mixed feelings. I can't come here with the opinion of a real critic, since this isn't a real game project, but.... I appreciate that everybody put effort into this, but I simply can't find anything to be glowing about except for the fact that it was a team effort. At first I had a bit of a chuckle at the initial posts and the inexperience of the team, but as things progressed I started to see and feel a lot of things, since I was being reminded of how a younger me thought game development went, and I got really depressed about this. A few key issues I've found: I don't think this can be called a game. It's an experiment. It's a team effort. It was a collaborative project. It is not, however, a game. There is no clear goal, there is no reward/feedback for completing the one goal of the game, there is only one obstacle and the boundaries of the game are not clearly defined. A good game lets you know exactly what your goal is (also remember, Show Don't Tell), rewards you for completing the goal, throws challenges towards you to prevent you completing the goal, and clearly defined the area of play. There is no way to respawn after death except with a hard reset. This is a cardinal sin of game design and something that is strictly forbidden in most TRCs (it's considered an "A Class Bug", which means that it prevents the player from continuing the game, and therefore the developer is not allowed to ship the game until it is resolved). If your player dies, reset them at the start of the stage and/or refresh the game. At the start, you added about half a screen worth of "junk space". Junk Space is area that is within game-bounds, but players cannot traverse it because they are blocked by either an invisible wall or props. Junk Space is frustrating, and players get confused about what is on the other side of the screen that you won't let them traverse. Always start your player to the left-most of the screen. The one enemy's collision only allows you to kill him by hitting the top of his antenna (I did multiple tests on this). This is an example of unfair gameplay. In Fruit Ninja, because people's fingers usually become very large when they press them against the screen, they increase the collision radius of the fruit, and decrease the collision radius of the bombs. It makes the experience better for the players. You should consider making the experience fun, instead of just making an enemy with "realistic" collision. The coins are essentially meaningless. Their placement is sporadic and confusing. Economy is usually used for two gameplay concepts; "leading" and "challenge". Coins that are placed for "leading" tell the player where to go. The first line of coins were correctly leading, but there were too many of them and they were too close together, so they felt very forced and silly. Coins that are placed for "challenge" are supposed to give the player a mini-goal of reaching those coins, leading to deeper gameplay. You lacked this challenge except in one instance which I will talk about in the next point. The House presented a massive issue. There is a gold 100-coin on the roof of the house. Collecting it requires you to jump to it first before you jump to the ground or through the hole in the house. Challenge doesn't work when your player cannot have multiple attempts at a puzzle. It becomes "frustrating", and a frustrated player soon becomes "bored" and quits. You need to add an alternate way of getting the gold coin in the event that the player falls down the hole. It's unfair to have items which can only be acquired if the player magically anticipates the answer to the question they haven't been asked yet. To elaborate; every element of gameplay is a question. Players have the responsibility of giving answers to those questions. We are basically making very fun school tests, but ones that players/students can attempt over and over again until they get it right and feel proud of themselves for it. The music was unfortunately slightly annoying, and made me want to shut my speakers off after 3 loops of it. If that was yours, Drill Master, I need you to contact me ASAP so I can discuss a few things with you privately. While I am satisfied that you added feedback for the enemy's death (the squash animation), it was slightly ridiculous, and more important it made no sense. You don't have platforms like Mario. The enemy can't fall off the ground. Ben24x7's animations were lackluster at best. Again, I appreciate you put effort into them, but they were not properly keyed and were very choppy (at least to me who has done an animation course). Furthermore, the character looks like he is taking a furious dump every time you make him jump. I don't want to perform game actions if it feels like I'm hurting the player character. There was more I was disappointed with, and I could go into numerous tirades about the way you guys approached this game from a project management perspective, but I will not since this was just a bit of fun for all involved. The point is, keep practicing, but please start to test your games more, and actually appreciate the importance of game theories and why games work and are fun. You guys have a very long way to go, and currently this project is on about the same level as those 3D LEGO fan games I regularly rip apart. EDIT: Oops! Forgot to point out three glaring bugs I found: I died by falling onto the enemy on my first go, and on the second run through of the game, the enemy disappeared completely. He came back every other time, but for some reason he didn't appear at all on my second go. When you die, you die in the exact spot you were hit. That means you can hover in mid-air. Move the player to the ground plane. I'm getting the same problem as BobaFett2; on a monitor with 1920x1080p resolution, there is a s***-ton of black space. The game should be full-screened, which should be easy in Flash. EDIT 2: I have to mention this. Going through the game code, I came across this little gem: //If player is touching enemy and above it if(world.player.y <= (EnemyObj.y - (EnemyObj.height / 2) - (world.player.height / 2)) + 10) { //Kill enemy EnemyObj.scaleY = 0.5; var enemyTwn:Tween = new Tween(EnemyObj, "y", Strong.easeOut, EnemyObj.y, (EnemyObj.y + 500), 80, false); enemyTwn.addEventListener(TweenEvent.MOTION_FINISH, onFinish); function onFinish(e:TweenEvent):void { enemyTwn.removeEventListener(TweenEvent.MOTION_FINISH, onFinish); EnemyObj.parent.removeChild(EnemyObj); } //Play sound enemyFootDeath.play(40); //And update score updateScore(50); } So instead of making a very simple to do collision sphere/cube, you went with a rather badly designed alternative that detects if the player is 10 units above or something to that affect? You can't do that my man.
    3 points
  6. Ben24x7

    LRR Pictionary

    Players; Pereki, someswedish, Ben24x7 "The next major Ninjago Villain and Theme" Pereki left at this point, from then on he never re-appeared for the rest of this session. "Emperor Pepper, Ruler of China" "Rock Raiders attempt 'Yo Mama' jokes" "Rock Raiders Puppet Show" "Rock Raiders clear up Rubble in a new fashion" "Where does the rubble go when you clear it?" "Irish Spiders"
    2 points
  7. emily

    LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin Announced

    The game launched today, and with it came this gameplay trailer.
    2 points
  8. Sluicer

    Bvb Files (Collision Meshes?)

    In another thread there was a discussion about the bvb files (I do not know why). Since I did a little more research on them I think the content should be referenced here: I had a first look at the .BVB files. I looked into two COLLIDE files. There are vertices without additional information and triangles with additional information. I was able to create the following images with the data from the 34 and the 2d sections: The test track The 8e section fills the rest of the file. It looks like the Binary Editor could not handle dynamic (unknown) structures. I am not able to interprete the content of the 8e section yet. There are always a variable number of integers followed by 4 shorts (except the last group of integers). Here is an extract from the TESTCOLLIDE.BVB Please remember: 0x04 is an integer 0x17 is a struct that was defined in this file 0x14 is an array with 0x__ 0x__ entries of type 0x__ [...] I had a closer look at the k_8e section. And the data in that section also seems to describe a tree (I have no idea why!). 7 numbers per node: pointer to left child (when -1 no left child) pointer to right child (when -2 no right child) x y z offset triangles number of triangles x, y and z are mostly really big numbers (between 0x40000000 and 0xC0000000 (=-0x40000000)). When you divide them by 0x40000000 you will get a normalized 3d vector. I think it is something like a normal or here a colliding direction(?). I changed the values to RGB and got the following image for the test track: I already have a working replacemant (a simple box). I am not falling through the ground but I am falling over the edge :-(. Maybe it is because of the tree!?!
    2 points
  9. k-g

    LEGO Stunt Rally development artwork

    Hello, As a thank-you to the community here for helping me get the game running again on a modern PC, I'll be posting some images from the development of the game. I'll start at the very beginning: the pitch! The following images were created as we were pitching the game to LEGO Media. The original concept was pretty clear from the beginning: it was LOCO meets Micro Machines. We iterated on these images as you'll see below. The original name and logo we whipped up for the pitch. The game kept the name for much of the development period. Probably the very first mockup. Here we are just exploring the view angle, car size on screen, what kind of information to show on screen, that sort of thing. UI Mockups Some vehicle ideas. The original pitch included quite a bit of customization to the car - the player would be able to tweak springs, rubber bands, tyres, etc. for optimum car performance. Character profiles - we all loved the punk guy from LOCO. Early ideas demonstrating the in-car camera view. First sketch for the workshop. More to come!
    1 point
  10. mumboking

    Clogged-Up Screen Glitch

    Seems he's using Direct3D HAL... Try using RAMP or RGB Emulation. Sure, it won't look as nice, but at least it might fix the problems.
    1 point
  11. ProfessorBrickkeeper

    LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin Announced

    I already watched all the gameplay that had been posted earlier this afternoon, and I have to agree with what others have said earlier. The writing is generally better than that for the TV show (although credit where credit is due, the brothers Hageman did do a good job for their part on The LEGO Movie, with a wit I hope to see reappear on the Ninjago movie.) The writing and gags reminded me of that of LCU, which I suppose is no coincidence, and it is as ever refreshing to see TT games creating their own completely new stories. The voice acting has room for improvement, but I guess I have grown accustomed to the voice actors from TV show, and some of the characters have decent enough voice matches. As a whole, this game actually bucks the trend of TT developing games I don't want, and I could only wish to see it become more widely available. It is definitely an improvement from TT's rather stagnant pool of licensed games, just as LCU was when it came out. I suppose it is a testiment to TT game's ability to storytelling (though not necessarily QA testing.) *End of rant* EDIT: To le717 and others, it would theoretically be possible to play the game as it currently is on a PC by using a Playstation Vita emulator coupled with the ROM and BIOS accompanying the PS Vita version of the game, if legally scraped from the cartridge and converted to something comprehensible by standard computer file systems.
    1 point
  12. MaelstromIslander

    Pepper Slanteronni

    I was trying to change his colors while he was talking. This was the result.
    1 point
  13. emily

    BIONICLE RETURNING 2015

    LEGO's YouTube channel just cannot get its act together. Episode 8 in English, with Korean subtitles.
    1 point
  14. McJobless

    Let's Make a Game

    Actually, when I was taught it was drilled into us that copy/paste were tools of the devil, and that a good animator is able to carefully reconstruct what they did over and over again. We were allowed to use the onion skin, however. You should draw line-guides for yourself, to keep the head, body and limb scales correct. And as I said, learn about key-framing. You want to time your animations so you have the most important keys (there's like 3 or 5 specific poses that are extremely important (aka 'key') to a walk cycle), and then add inbetweens which make the image softer/smoother. Obviously, not too many inbetweens so-as to make the animation slow, but enough to make the motion seem a bit more blurred and natural. I think even you have to admit his facial expression looks really odd Stop. I'm not. What I said was that I wanted to clearly define what a "game" is for the future. I'm not raging that people are mistaking the definition. I'm just giving a bit of guidance for designers who are interested in what makes a fun game vs. a boring one. Not to bore you with the details of my life, but if you want to know what's going on; That's not the reason I won't join, however. I can't be a part of a team like this. I need a very specific structure/hierarchy, I need deadlines and I'm a bit of a control freak, which is against the nature of this kind of project you guys are doing. I also don't like making 2D games, I dislike using Flash/ActionScript and I right now am trying to focus on learning to program over practicing design skills, because I want to have both. I'm unsuited to this project.
    1 point
  15. McJobless

    A simple mistake in creating game levels

    Ben...what do you think half of game testing is? The whole point of testing is to make sure that the game is stable and reacts to any player input appropriately, and that the player can continue to play the game at any time without having to hard reset the game. I mean, this is confusing because it's EXTREMELY obvious. I don't think there's a game designer alive who doesn't know this. It's the same reason we get players to do very weird tests, such as jump in a single spot 5000 times or make bets on whp can break the level's physics and use a tree to jump out of the level bounds. Furthermore, those solutions...those are not "designer" solutions, they're "player solutions". That's how we would try and justify to the player that the story ingame works, but in terms of the physical gameplay elements, we have special tools such as kill volumes, blocking volumes (invisible walls) or teleports. It's simply impossible to test the game to get every bug out. A lot of players out there are simply playing to break the game. Others will play the game in ways the designers really didn't intend, and those developers may believe it's the players fault for causing such issues. I personally don't agree with them, but the point is that a lot of game testing is about this one issue. It's not some big secret. It's what we do normally.
    1 point
  16. k-g

    LEGO Stunt Rally development artwork

    @kaitodaimon: 1) Sorry, I don't know how to open those files, if they can even be opened. 2) I don't think the music is synthesized in-game, if that is what you meant. Though I could be wrong. 3) I never saw the original contract, though in nearly all games from a large publisher the publisher will own all the copyrights, including the source code. So it's safe to assume LEGO owns everything. 4) Wow - that's a pretty open question. I like the skylanders concept - I think it would be truly awesome if you could build something with real LEGO, scan it in & then play with it in a large open world on your PC or console. (Note: Sorry, I'll be away for a week, and therefore won't be able to post any art this coming week).
    1 point
  17. Toa_Of_Justice

    Drome Racers in-game-only models in LDD

    Here is the Metallic Green Hornet built in real life!
    1 point
  18. emily

    Another Round for the Simpsons

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVIepHqSe3E
    1 point
  19. Antillies

    RRU Quotes 2: Reckoning

    @MaelstromIslander: Is there an RRU archive where you can view things before 2013? @jamesster: yes, it's called RRU
    1 point
  20. k-g

    LEGO Stunt Rally development artwork

    @Pereki: No, I'd never seen the punk minifig, but you're right, his design was probably inspired by "our" punk. @MaelstromIslander: The name change came from LEGO, and I don't recall the reason they wanted to change it. @Jamesster: Yeah, I don't know why we didn't put Eamon the skeleton (I seem to recall all the skeletons in Loco were called Eamon?) in LSR...
    1 point
  21. Toa_Of_Justice

    Drome Racers in-game-only models in LDD

    @jamesster: I understand now, thank you. And now, here is the final LDD model I have planned for this project--the Tsunami Street! Click any image for a larger version. Color variants (all possible to build in real life): LXF File
    1 point
  22. Arthuriel

    Insane Raiders No. 20

    From the album: Insane Raiders

    You never want to know, what will happen, if someone plays a prank on Chief. Never.
    1 point
  23. Quisoves Potoo

    Cuusoo Gets Back into the Brick Business

    Wonderful command of the English language there. Have they been communing with the ghost of Dickens? This came to mind:
    1 point
  24. Arthuriel

    Insane Raiders No. 19

    From the album: Insane Raiders

    It's back and you will never guess, on what this story is based on .
    1 point
  25. Ouch, it's like Teen Titans Go all over again. They better not touch Samurai Jack or The Magic School Bus...
    1 point
  26. McJobless

    LEGO Minecraft Sets Released

    1 point
  27. lol username

    LEGO Minifigures Series 12 Images

    http://www.playminifigures.com/en/news/series-12-minifigures-revealed Frognado. Rock Raiders, Ice Planet 2002, and Arctic all in one go. Whoever writes these: I like you. Mmmmmaaaaaybe references to final Alpha Team 2004 comics, and mmmmmaaaaybe Dino Attack or something else I'm missing? I love everything about this.
    1 point
  28. Oboe Shoes

    LEGO Minifigures Series 12 Images

    You can find this by clicking through a few pages of the thread Jamesster linked to, but I'll display the full image here for convenience. Overall, I like this series. The Genie Girl, Space Miner, and Spooky Girl are the ones I'll probably go out of my way to get. The rest are overall pretty nice. Pizza Guy has a new pizza print, and the Rock Star looks pretty good, even if he reuses the Rocker Girl hair. The Hun's hat really shouldn't have horns, though.
    1 point
  29. lol username

    Early Draft Of The LEGO Movie?

    http://www.simplyscripts.com/2014/03/15/the-lego-movie-script/ http://www.screenplaydb.com/film/scripts/lego.pdf Whoa. Is this seriously legit? It certainly fits the early descriptions we heard of the movie, with Emmet being a descendant of these ancient Master Builder people (http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/14/lord-miller-talk-lego-movie), and the title being "LEGO: The Piece of Resistance" (http://www.slashfilm.com/phil-lord-chris-miller-offer-title-plot-details-warner-bros-lego-movie/). There's also this: http://writetoreel.com/forum/showthread.php?4895-REQUEST-quot-The-Lego-Movie-quot-(2014)-script&p=18486&viewfull=1#post18486 I've signed up for the forum but my account isn't approved yet so I can't download the file, but it's the same size as the one previously linked to. So unless it's something different that just happens to be the same size, that would date this draft to September 27, 2010 (the movie started development in 2008). Here's an analysis of it: http://www.filmdivider.com/the-lego-movie-we-didnt-see-with-indiana-jones-harry-potter-and-a-love-of-kubrick/ Sources: Simply Scripts
    1 point
  30. lol username

    All Of The LEGO Movie Sets

    Hey guys, I found pictures of all of The LEGO Movie sets on LEGO.com - for the first wave, anyway. They're uploaded to the site, but not completely public yet. Well, they are now - enjoy. Sources: Me
    1 point
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