Topics

1

Chit-Chat / A Very Interesting Game "Developer"

« on: April 04, 2014, 11:38:50 am »

There is a company that sells the most interesting games that I've seen.  Especially the PS2 games.  I'll also say that although I haven't played any of these games (it might not be a good idea to support these people), it's a priceless experience just to browse their site.

Although April Fool's Day was a few days ago, I first found their site a month or so ago...

Visit them here.

2

Ask a Question / Reading from .txt Files

« on: March 26, 2014, 05:48:22 am »

I know for a fact that many languages can read the contents of .txt files, such as C++ (I've done it before with this).  I also know how to use "splitters", which are less confusing than trying to interpret new line escape sequence things (or whatever they are).  I'd like to know how to open a file viewer, find a .txt file, and read its data.

I think that this would let me do two things: increase productivity (is there any way that I can store data in a .txt with Stencyl...I see that there are other games that do that, although it might compromise security) and allow user-created content (although they would have to write things in a very specific manner).

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Chit-Chat / Recent Game Ads on TV...

« on: March 10, 2014, 08:16:43 am »

I've notice a trend of advertising for the last few ads I've seen on TV.  They've all been the shooter type, like Assassin's Creed and maybe Titanfall, but that's only half the story.  What bothers me is the upbeat music that's playing in the background, like it's some sort of party.  I don't generally notice music in commercials, but it's loud, drowning out whatever sound carnage makes.  I'm not sure if it's supposed to appeal to a slightly more casual audience (although the casual value for such games are low due to the complexity)...Or what.  I'm just disturbed because it's been more than one advertisement.  I've always justified the "greater value" of shooters (most of which are war themed) with the power of war and death to invoke emotions.  There are many games that seem to do this well, where you become attached to characters and such.  I've ALWAYS said that video games don't make people violent but the violence (meaning somewhat realistic maiming of or killing people, not some nit picky definition) in video games seems to sometimes lead to romanticized views.  The portrayal of war certainly isn't helping towards conflict resolution through peace.  What would people do if the draft happened?  How many people want to fight in a war just because of their video games?

I'm not trying to prohibit violent video games by any means, but the ridiculousness of stomping a Goomba (and such) doesn't seem to apply to these games.  Throwing grenades are undoubtedly less fun when you're the one catching it.

I want to hear what everyone thinks...

4

Old Bugs (3.x) / Error on which line?

« on: March 04, 2014, 09:04:25 am »

I've noticed that Stencyl gives you nonsensical numbers when it reports an error in the code.  While this might be be due to the innards of Stencyl and stuff, sometimes it lies to me and doesn't open up or highlight the problem behaviors, so I have no clue where some of these errors might be.

I think that it would be very useful to know the REAL code line of an error (where I can use the binocular icon to view the code).  I think that this could even be helpful to people who don't code, since it's sometimes obvious what code does, anyways.

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Ask a Question / Using ".setFPS()" ?

« on: February 25, 2014, 10:12:56 am »

I want to reduce the max FPS from 60 to 30, so I discovered this ".setFPS()", which returns void but takes the target FPS.  I want to reduce the strain created by excessive drawing events, since on "low" (*gasp* Vectors!) I'm currently getting a FPS of just under 30.

I have enough experience to know that this should be on some class, like "class.setFPS(30);"

Can somebody tell me what to put this on (and where I should do it from)?

6

Resolved Questions / Plain Code...

« on: February 11, 2014, 10:00:43 am »

I'd like to be able to write plain code in Stencyl without using "code mode" (which actually just wants to give you a class or whatever) like this (which Alexin showed me):

Code: [Select]

}
PLAIN CODE;
void pretendFunction(){

I think the equivalent of this in a textual language would be typing code after your #include stuff, and before the main.  Alexin said that you shouldn't edit the auto-generated files.


It seems so easy to implement, especially compared with Stencyl's other features.  It could even be slightly fancy, and have an interface like a behavior (just imagine this behavior is only composed of straight code "events"), where you can can have a sidebar and "name" the code (it's all just added together, like you can see in behaviors, by viewing the textual translation).

7

Ask a Question / Scenes Rendering Images?

« on: January 31, 2014, 05:24:33 am »

I was wondering if there was a way to render an image from the scene, (especially when drawing).  If I was able to do that, I wouldn't have to have an actor, which takes up memory and doesn't always meet my needs.  Although I'm not certain how to reference the image (maybe I could put it in the same folder where all the images go), it would be simple to just have something that can draw image.png at (x,y)...Maybe with some features to change rotation or scale...

I'm fairly certain that tiles can only be draw on the grid, and then they don't move, so they won't work.  And although the "draw image for actor" seems like it might have been something useful, it isn't.  I'd like something that will be drawn at changing coordinates, like I can with shapes or text.

I guess I'm just less OO than everyone else...

8

Old Questions (from 1.x/2.x) / <Missing String> (again)

« on: January 28, 2014, 12:27:33 pm »

I had an issue that was identical to this one before, and centered around similar circumstances.  After downloading and trying to open a .STENCYL in Stencyl, a Stencyl window appears (although I already had a Stencyl window open, the icons do not stack...and I'm on Windows 7 right now).  It DOES NOT open the game, and most of the words (I believe the exceptions are not from the English language pack, such as "Facebook") in the interface have been replaced by <missing string>.  I attached a picture.

EDIT~I forgot that I couldn't open up any of the scenes, or even switch to another view(such as one to see what actors there are, or what sounds, etc.)  It pretends to do stuff and I see the little circle swirl and mouse animation that replaced the hourglass and mouse icon, but nothing visibly happens. 

9

Archives / Invisibly Generating Source Code

« on: January 06, 2014, 05:49:03 am »

One of the things I really liked about Scratch was what I now know is "Invisibly Generated Source Code"(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_code_generation#Source_code_generation).  I realize that this is something that is very hard to implement, but I really liked clicking on some snippet of blocks and seeing what happens in Scratch.  I think it would be nice to have in Stencyl.

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Chit-Chat / Stencyl and Servers and MULTIPLAYER (and revival from hijacking)

« on: January 06, 2014, 04:43:04 am »

Yes, there was a murder.  My last topic (with near identical title) was hijacked and killed (I wasn't on for a while because of holidays...there were 30 or so posts I missed).  And nobody ever asked me about MY 3D Stencyl thing  .

I think the last thing that happened (before things got out of hand) was that I wanted to get a file extension (.ggxl) for Christmas...And I received not one comment telling me that it's impossible or I should go look at some Wikipedia article...Seriously...NOTHING..?

If you want to reference the other topic, it has an almost identical name.  Although I suspect the title was the reason that it got hijacked in the first place .

(It also might be worth mentioning that SadiQ has made a very basic multiplayer thing...Although it's not in the old topic, somewhere on Stencyl there is a link.)

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Chit-Chat / Stencyl and Servers and MULTIPLAYER

« on: December 17, 2013, 11:31:21 am »

I have been thinking about Stencyl and Servers and MULTIPLAYER.  I have a bit of experience with the idea of a server.  The internet is only composed of computer to computer connections, except a server connects with more than one computer, transferring and interpreting data.  I've actually gone through the process of setting up a Minecraft Server, which was a lot more involved than it sounds.  A Minecraft Server does not need to have Minecraft downloaded to work; there is a server thing it uses.  It is up to the client to interpret data sent by the server.  I don't see why you couldn't use Stencyl as the language for your server's program.  That server "game" would be different from the client's game, of course.

The client would send updates about their player, including its velocity, position, and other statuses (when applicable), which you can infer from Stencylpedia.  I think, unless I'm messing with public vs private IP's, that the server can respond to the "site", which just happens to be some client's computer.

It seems so easy to me that I think I'm missing something...But I usually have a pretty good handle on things, even if I'm using the wrong tools...



I also have another idea, which would plausibly work.  Some programs use a text file, usually located inside their file, to save data.  It's like a person is editing them.  But people can use Google Drive to all edit the same file all at the same time.  So, with some adjustments to HOW the file is edited, which would assign each computer a certain line in the file, data can be easily shared.  Of course this creates issues by itself, because of file security and some other stuff.  The thing with this path is that there's very little if any server stuff needed.  Maybe.  I guess you could also have a "server" game that goes to edit the data, which would need to be online for things to work.



But I would like to see what everyone thinks about these ideas, because while I have more sever experience than most people on this site (and I'm really asking the few people with more experience than me), it's not enough for me to be confident executing any of this (I also don't use the proper terminology, either...I might be describing something that already exists or something impossible).

12

Chit-Chat / What I'm Coding (without Stencyl)

« on: November 15, 2013, 06:25:38 am »

Well, I'm working to learn several different coding languages now.  I've learned the basics of many of the console based stuff, which I find easy, however, I'm still focusing on C++.  I'll detail my progress (in a looooong post), and everyone can share their thoughts or whatever.



Yesterday, I made a C++ console thing that can read and change a text file.  The significance is that most games save data to .txt.  If you've set up a Minecraft (I adore Minecraft and it influences a lot of the choices I've made as far as coding) server (which itself is fairly console based), .txt is how you change settings (I've done this before).  Although my program currently uses user input to decide what to do to the text file, I could change a few things so that the program itself can edit the .txt.  I'd need to develop at a bit more before it gets anything important to add to the file, though.



As for graphical stuff (which is mostly way above my level, since I don't know imports, for one), I've tried to do LWJGL (Light Weight Java Game Library), which is what Minecraft uses, and I've opened up a blank window successfully (you need to CODE the window , so you have to make code telling it what size window and how to close itself; so it's a bigger accomplishment than it sounds).  That's about all I've done with Java and Eclipse.  However, I found out that the C++ software came conveniently with OpenGl, which does graphics (even in 3D), and is part of LWJGL.  I've had more luck with doing things in C++, luckily.

When starting a new OpenGl project, it already contains the code for a spinning triangle (which has gradients).  Which is basically the only reason I've accomplished anything (it's barely anything, though).  I know how to do a few things so far.  I can set the window size, which is fairly basic when you only need to change some numbers.  I can also make polygons (I guess I COULD make quads or stuff, but I'd rather just call every shape a polygon).  I've only made one at a time so far, but I know how to place (the screen is basically 200% wide/tall, going from -1 to 1, so I don't worry about pixel coordinates) and color (with a gradient) endpoints.  I can also make it spin or not, because I recycle the spinning code.

But I'm stuck at that point with graphics, because it's a good polygon (I might have done the endpoints in the wrong order, maybe), but I'm not sure what to do with it because I'm not sure how to detect key presses, or create a text box that works like a mini console or anything.   I need to have interactivity!


But anyways, I think that what OpenGl does with shape transformations is almost identical to what I've already done in my 3D Stencyl project.  Actually, once I do a bit more work, that project could become a (laggy) functional 3D engine thing, with "ray casting" (not really ray casting, but gets the same result), "textures"(again, not really textures, but I choose a color for each square), "shadows"(gradation emanating from a corner), and some other stuff I'm going to misname.

13

Game Art / Hand Drawn Unfinished Artwork

« on: November 05, 2013, 08:20:20 am »

Here is a photo I took (and watermarked...just to be safe) recently of my artwork.  Although it's unfinished, I though it'd be worth sharing because I've spent a lot of time on it.  It's a still life, drawn in pencil.

I'm wondering if anyone thinks that I should try to do this sort of art semiprofessionally (as in for money), and maybe take requests.  Although I'm not sure how that would work...  Would I mail it?  With the amount of time that it takes to make this sort of art, I'd probably ask a high price.

So...  Thoughts?

14

Ask a Question / Stencyl and REAL Code

« on: November 02, 2013, 09:46:48 am »

I've been wondering about the relationship between Stencyl and real code.  I know that Stencyl uses AS3 or Haxe depending upon what version you have, but is it possible to force it to use another language?  I can think of two ways for this to happen, with one being the slight possibility of allowing a different coding library to be used inside AS3 that interprets the certain bit of code to be read in a different language.  The other method, which I suspect explains the Have transition, is to change Stencyl itself to generate code in a separate language instead of AS3 or Haxe, like a more complicated version of ACTUALLY translating Stencyl into something other than English.

I think that either of these methods would have astronomical potential if they are possible.

15

Chit-Chat / Stencyl + Wii = Easily Possible

« on: October 30, 2013, 06:11:43 am »

Recently I have become very interested with console development, and today I was researching the Wii (I don't actually own an xbox or playstation of any sort).  Although you will not be able to use Stencyl to make a Wii Shop or disc game (well, you'll spend $2000 for a Wii Shop Dev License, and $2500 for the ESRB rating), Wii can do Flash games (as long as you can do everything with the mouse), so Wii can do Stencyl (use the internet browser).  In retrospect, I do remember I found a site that specialized in Wii games, and they must have been Flash games.

I'd think the WiiU supports Flash[edit: it might only support HTML5 or whatever, but there's always the possibility of an update], but I don't have one of these either.  I also remember that some of the games might have allowed use of some of the buttons and even the accelerometer, and I think that with some real code, you might be able to incorporate this, but I have no idea how.  I do know that both the Wiimote and the Wii Fit Balance Board use Bluetooth to connect to the Wii, and I wouldn't be surprised if the other peripherals (I'm thinking Guitar Hero) use the same method.

Although I have no clue about how you would try to use Wii peripherals in Flash, I just feel so optimistic about this.  Maybe I can find something that would tell me how to do this stuff, and I can make a behavior or something...