PAWN_Block

I guess it’s my turn to write about the technologies I’ll use for this month’s theme.

When I first stepped into the world of game programming, the very first tool I used was Dark Basic Professional which taught me allot of the skills that I know use. Soon after, I switched to DarkGDK, a powerful, yet simple, SDK that focuses on Game Development, in order to learn C++. With the AID of DarkGDK I developed allot of games and prototypes through out the years. Heck, thanks to it I was able to prototype an FPS game which got me my current job, so I think I owe it to “TheGameCreators” to use their Tool for this months theme.

My current goals for this challenge are simple: Keep it clean, keep it simple, make it shiny in the end. I plan on writing clean, and heavily documented, code which can latter be used by anyone in their projects. Since DarkGDK mostly wraps “complex” DirectX functions and handles most of the messy stuff, I find it to be a perfect tool for prototyping, allowing me to focus more on the Design aspect of the challenge. Another bonus is that it’s functions are pleasant to the eye and can be easily followed by anyone, so my source code will be accessible to all.

My IDE of choice is Visual Studio, a good friend in need and a perfect “lover” for when I’m developing on the Windows Platform. Besides the IDE, I will also use Paint.NET, a free and Open Source, image editing software in order to edit, or create, the sprites and tiles that I need (maybe create, since I’m kinda planning on using the tile set provided by LostGarden [dot] com for their Cute God challenge).

As @Radu said in the previous post, I too plan on releasing another Work-in-progress post, maybe near the end of the week, with screen shoots and previews of the game. Till then, I’ll leave you all with a, first, screen shoot of what has been done today, just to be one-step-ahead of him. Enjoy.

 

 

Peons

The theme for this month is: Peons. Both of us have to design a game revolving around moving a peon (one per player) on a board. Further details, and rules, bellow:

Settings:

The game takes place on a 8×8 board.

Between any 2 tiles there is a groove.

On the board there are 2 peons.

On the side there are 14 walls.

Rules:

There are 2 players, each controlling one peon.

Each player starts out with 7 walls.

The players take turns during which they can:

            o Move the peon

            o Put a wall in a groove

Each player must make a move during their turn

A peon can move one tile each turn.

The peon can only move in 4 directions (up, down, left, right, no diagonals)

The peon can only move on a tile if there is no wall between his current tile and the one he wants to move on.

Each wall blocks 2 tiles at once.

Walls are not allowed to block peons completely (players must still be able to reach the other side after putting down a wall).

The first player to get on the opponent’s side wins.

All contestants are free to add other gameplay elements in order to spice the game up with further challenges, but the basic set of rules must be applied. Both me and Radu will write a follow up post containing details about the set of tools we will be using. All that’s left to say is: “Challenge Accepted“!

And here’s a quick mockup concept:

The mock up concept is using tile graphics from the CuteGod prototype challenge.