Topics

1

Chit-Chat / Is computing University a good idea?

« on: October 21, 2020, 06:09:48 pm »

Hey. I was thinking recently about joining university to learn more about It, including programming, databases, and other aspects. I found 3 courses which I am interested in: creative computing, computer science, computer games technology:

1. Creative computing:
Year One
• Computer Architecture
• Mathematics for Computing
• Programming
• Developing a Digital Identity
• Information Systems and Databases
• User Experience Design.
Year Two
• Games Design
• Games, Simulations
and Virtual Worlds
• Artificial Intelligence
• Mobile Web Application Development
• Computer Graphics
• Group Research Project.
Year Three
• Responsible Computing
• Machine Learning
• Project.
Plus, choose from:
• IT Consultancy
• Cyber Security
• Databases and Analytics
• Games Product Management.

2.Computer Science:
Year One
• Programming
• Computer Architecture
• Mathematics for Computing
• Data Communications
• Information Systems and Databases
• Algorithms and Data Types.
Year Two
• Mobile Web App Development
• Artificial Intelligence
• Theory of Computation
• Functional Programming
• Human-Centred Computing
• Group Research Project.
Year Three
• Applied Software Engineering
• Machine Learning
• Project.
Plus two options from:
• Cyber Security
• Distributed Systems
• Databases and Analytics
• IT Consultancy

3. Computer Games technology:
Year One
• Information Systems and Databases
• Programming
• Introduction to Programming for Games
• Developing a Digital Identity
• Mathematics for Computing
• Computer Architecture.
Year Two
• Game Design
• Games Business
• Artificial Intelligence
• Group Research Project
• Games, Simulations and Virtual Worlds
• Computer Graphics.
Year Three
• Applied Software Engineering
• Machine Learning
• Game Product Management
• Project.
Optional modules:
• Cyber Security
• Databases and Analytics.

And here's my question. I don't know what to choose. I want to focus on programming, but also other things may  be helpful. As a job I'd like to get software programmer, developer or something related. My first choice was creative computing, but after some research I learnt that it's very popular and google is almost silent when searching for it, it's like it's a fake course with teching nothing in particular. Which course is best to choose and you guys, did you get a degree in computing etc?

2

Ask a Question / Which version is grammatically correct?

« on: June 21, 2020, 11:46:14 am »

Hey. I want to add text to game to choose level and how to say it grammatically correct in English?

level select or select level. or should I use word "stage" or "map" or what?

3

Ask a Question / Mouse pressed on actor but not its shape

« on: June 06, 2020, 01:42:03 pm »

Hey.
I got an event when mouse pressed on an actor. But this actor actually has weird shaped actor shape. Like a control in circle shape with circle shape shape, but this event registers mouse clicks like on a rectangle. Is it possible to add to stencyl an option that event when mouse pressed on actor would take its shape into account while registering the mouse pressed?
For now I can just create an actor 1x1 pixel in the middle of mouse touch and then detect whether this 1px actor collides with that shale of a control.

4

Chit-Chat / How do you store backup of your files/system etc?

« on: June 02, 2020, 06:11:07 pm »

Hey
For a long time I've been storing my backup in external HDD. Every time I wanted to make a backup I simply take it from the drawer, plug in with two way USB (i store this HDD in external case for protection) and start backup. But I thought of idea of doing back up to a micro SD card. I got a HDD with 250 GB and 2 micro SD with 128 GB each. Is it better to use micro SD cards or HDD for back up? Cards are smaller thus easier to store, but at the same time, easier to lose or break. With HDD they are safe to store and relatively cheap, but micro SD cards are cheap too. I can even hide one under my phone case for safety.

How do you store your backup files and which way do you think is better and safer?

5

Ask a Question / What have you realised after publishing your game on Android?

« on: May 24, 2020, 12:16:26 pm »

How to prepare my app for Android? What have you realised after publishing to Android that you should've known before but no one had told you that? I know that I need to add ads, I don't know how but I will google that. Plus you need dev account on google play store or something, I don't know. What else should I take into account when preparing my app for Google store?

How can I test my game in iPhone system if I don't have an Apple device? Can I publish my game to Apple store if I don't own Apple product?

6

Ask a Question / Is this actually optimising code at all?

« on: May 20, 2020, 07:15:47 am »

Event always is being executed 100 times per one frame. That's a lot, and it gives good precision if you want to do something very quickly, but sometimes it may be heavy for a program and you don't need that good precision at all. Is it good to use block [do every 0.1 sec] instead of Always. Always is executed 100 per second, however if do every in this case only 10 times a second. Is this optimising code at all or running timer (I mean, every 0.1 is like a timer that runs infinitely) is more efficient?

7

Chit-Chat / What inspired you to create games?

« on: May 16, 2020, 12:58:12 pm »

Hey. I'm making this topic so people can share their inspirations and reasons why they decided to become game developers. What games made you see a game as an art. What games you fell in love with for their climate, memories associated with them, music, graphics, younger years? Why you like making games? Is it because you can build a world are rules in it, an engine, a system of the game that works. It's like creating a world of your imagination. You draw characters, you add sound and you add code to make them look like they are alive, like they are real. They can fight, they can die, you can talk with them.

My fav games are:
SNES: Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, Super Bomberman 5 (and all other versions), Super Mario World, Secret of Mana
NES: Kiwi Kraze, most Kunio-Kun games, Bubble Bobble 2, Chip n Dale (1 and 2),  Bonk's Adventure, Kick Master (love the music in this one)
PC: Terraria, Worms 4
i
I just like making games. Even tho I haven't released any, I got few projects and I work on them in my free time. I like drawing nice pixel art, them animate it by drawing animation frames/sprites, and then importing it to a game engine so I can control that character and draw enemies, draw silly enemies, or scary-looking. Add an exploration and progress system to unlock some secrets. I just got so many ideas for games that if I just didn't do anything in that direction I would see this as going to waste.

Share your experience guys

8

Ask a Question / Best way to detect if player is being squeezed?

« on: May 10, 2020, 12:48:41 pm »

I was thinking about detecting whether both top and bottom or left and right sides of an actor are being collided with tile or actor. Do you have better ideas how to achieve that?

And one problem. When the player got squeezed very much that it goes out of bounds it ends up inside a tile before his lives runs out. How to prevent actor from going out of bounds?

9

Ask a Question / What needs to be included in app credits?

« on: May 07, 2020, 12:16:31 pm »

In all apps there is a "help" or "about" button which displays some info like: author, publisher, designer, graphics, music, licenses, copyright, year, email, app version, maybe some terms and conditions etc. etc.

What info do I must/can/should include in credits? Do I have to include software I used for making music/graphics?
Sometimes there is (C) copyright 2020 [author] blah blah. How to put credits properly and legally correct?

10

Game Art / How do you display text in your games?

« on: May 06, 2020, 08:42:57 pm »

I don't use much text in my games. But when I do, I use actor that has drawn text in it. I draw a text on actor sprite, and then display that actor. And I usually copy paste letter i drawn with pixels. And been doing that for most of the time. But recently wanted to create my own font. Googled some font makers, creators etc and it's a nightmare. Literally there is no font maker software that would be easy to use. So I just gave up. I'll probably keep on copying and pasting letter I've drawn if I want to make an actor type. And in case i want to import font to Stencyl, I'll use my own.

How do you cope with that? Are you using your own fonts?

11

Ask a Question / Android - making top and bottom bar always visible?

« on: May 03, 2020, 07:52:55 am »

Hey
When testing a game on Android, it is always in fullscreen mode. Top bar with clock, battery level etc is always hidden. Same with bottom bar with back button and home button. Is it possible to make them stay, and when back button is pressed, it is passed to a game?

12

Ask a Question / Error while building to Android [SOLVED]

« on: April 28, 2020, 08:45:25 pm »

Haven't been using Stencyl for some time, and today decided to revive it, with errors while building to Android

13

Game Art / Any software for 8bit music or sounds effects free to use?

« on: April 28, 2020, 05:37:17 pm »

I tried beepbox.co and even tho it looks much simpler than others, it's still too complex for me. Do you know any so simple that someone who never done anything in audio be able to use it?
Or just a free pack of music free to use without crediting?

14

Ask a Question / [SOLVED] Errors during Android testing

« on: November 18, 2019, 10:25:44 am »

Hey. Recently I reinstalled Windows, reinstalled Stencyl and for the first time I am having errors with compiling to Android.
I downloaded all tools for android, however I can't compile.
I attach logs below

15

Ask a Question / Custom behaviour of killed actor is copied to just created actor

« on: April 28, 2019, 11:14:17 pm »

One of actors has custom behaviour. This actor type is ZOMBIE. In the same scene there is a spawn that creates new ZOMBIE types one per second (with standard behaviour). When the first actor with custom behaviour dies, the very next spawned ZOMBIE actor has the same custom behaviour as the actor that just had died. Is there a way to prevent that from happening?