A New Game???

Ok so have you ever heard of minecraft? Neat game.. the worlds made of blocks, you can build with them, make survival things.  SO the author of that game wrote a game for a contest called "minicraft" which he wrote in 48 hours using god knows what language.  I can do that.

so I think I've accomplished with Ascii wilderness what I set out to accomplish.  I'm a better programmer, not the greatest, but i have an idea of what I can do with LUA, and its time to just start over.  I've experimented with this graphic system and that system and line of sight and complex algorithms.. so I know what I can program cleanly and what will end up getting messy.

So I have a new goal. I'm going to program a game.  It's not going to be post apocalyptic, it will be a roguelike wilderness survival game using Native American lore. (read: crafting tepees, longhouses, axes out of stone, flint, obsidian.. hunting game).

Goodybye Ascii Wilderness.  I will always borrow your code.

dont be sad, whats in the future is a game that I can complete in a sane amount of time.

so I think the first thing to do before i program anything.......

is make a design document....

its funny how you pick up the good ideas as you go along... LOL.

and as I design it im going to design the game to be "easily programmable" because i know my own limits and i dont need to throw myself against a wall to make this game engine.

so anyway I'm thinking about a new project and I'm making a plan on how i'm going to succeed and have something at the end that's playable and fun and simple and imaginative and also
conserves CPU.

have a nice day!

where's my pen and paper?
 

1-19-2013

Not working on Ascii Wilderness and Im not sure when I will again.  I'm going to attempt a rewrite one of these days, after all I should have a central AI who controls the minds of all the critters and creatures.. I think a lot about game design these days.  A lot of what drives me crazy in today's games is item management (IE: skyrim), and clunky interface (IE: minecraft)..  I keep thinking back to Half Life (the original) and I remember how much fun you can have with 6-10 guns and no inventory page... 

I think realism has got to take a back seat in Ascii Wilderness.  Realism can lead to clunky issues  (likeovercrowded inventory with strange items, compulsive hoarding)...

We need to return to the arcade game, where playing was maximized and "managing" was minimized.  Whether you are playing a RTS game or a RPG game, "managing" can be fun or hell.  Fallout: New Vegas was one of the worst games for inventory management, while "DOOM 3" was great for inventory management - there wasnt any.. And guess what, it was basically just as good a game if not better for not hauling around a carpet bag of loot to sort through all the time trying to find an item with the right "buff".

In arcade games, playing is maximized and realism is minimized...  That means, fuck it - we don't need to count our arrows and bullets and hoard thousands of them - Just give a gun - and I don't need 30 kinds of ammunition - thanks Dead Island.

We are past the days when Link could find arrows and hearts all over the place.  Players want immersion but realism is not always the answer.  I guess I'm saying we need a return to the heart of the arcade game - fun.  And it's no fun to manage an inventory.

So I guess I'm back in the game design phase and hating modern games which have pretty graphics and crappy mechanics.  I mean dead island - really, the zombies get stronger as I get stronger and I the gun I just found does 1 point of damage more than the last one I found and now I have to discard my gun and power up a new weapon??

I have been playing cataclysm (roguelike) and a 2 dimensional map seems like a good idea (My 3 dimensional map poses all kinds of issues and im not a professional programmer)..

I'm not working on the code these days..  I originally started coding to see what I could do.. It turns out to be a lot but I have my limits.

I know when I get into the programming I have a TON of fun..  I guess I'm working on gaining some better direction before I go and start programming.. No one wants another dwarf fortress (LOL OMG no!)..

I think the virtue of most games is in their simplicity.. Where simplicity is really elegance.

I'd like to program again one day...  Programming is really joyous for me, especially with LUA.  I don't know when I'll start programming again, I guess I need a clearer vision for the game at this point.

busy

Sorry friends, neither the time nor the space for programming.  Someday... Someday...

Developement on hold

Hi everyone.  4500 hits!  Wow, thanks for the community interest!

Developement is currently on hold while I deal with life issues (marriage, family, mental health, finance, cats, etc).

Feel free to hijack the code and work on it yourself - that's why it's open source lua.

PS> someday I will take some programming classes and actually become a better programmer.

It only took me the whole summer of 2011 to devise a way for the deer to herd..  I still remember the golden moment when 7 or so were hearding... then two broke away and followed each other off into a different spot. *tears*.  It was like a father seeing his child's first steps.

Lol.

*playing "Cataclysm" roguelike by Whales..  V. good. Why did i buy oblivion???? I finally donated 10$ to whales.. since this game came out i have 300+ hours into it.

note: now known as "Cataclysm dark days ahead" with a new maintainer

above ground

Project is sidelined for the moment.  Working on sanity and emotional wellbeing instead.

Project is on the back burner.  Working hard at womens studies and social psychology at college presently.