Machine Guns, Health, Auto Shoot, and a Video too!

So sorry for the long wait!  No posts in a while, so sad, I know :(  But I'll try to make it up to you; here, look at this video!

Erm.  Well, now Blogger is giving me an error, but hopefully this one works (from youtube).

To summarize though, the particles fire like a machine gun!  Or maybe more like a Pew Pew Gun!  Hmm.  Must give that name more thought.

Also, muting with the M key, 3 dots stand for healthy, and you can just hold down left to shoot!  Yes, the title says it all.  But holding to left click has really made the default shooting more interesting, as you can now essentially move the particles around like with the right click, except now they deal damage too!  Hooray!

FLYING!

So it turns out that if you don't limit the number of double jumps your character can make, then they can fly.  Yes.  I guess that makes this more of a bug than a feature, but... it is quite fun.

In other news, we almost have shortcut to double jumps, enemies take 1 hit instead of 2, and you lose particles when you get hit by enemies.  More quite possibly coming soon!

Summer Post 2

Ah... that new level smell.  So crisp and delightful, just asking to be played and tested and loved.  Here's a snapshot:

And the really exciting part: it was made using a LEV3L ED1T0R!!!!!  wo0t!  Thanks be to GLEE2D and the wonderful people who made it!  

Summer Post 1

Hey all you faithful readers!  It's a new season here at our studio place thing: that wonderful and thermogenic one known as summer!  Suddenly released from the burdens of exams and such mundane school activities, we are free to work much more!  But another trouble brews, lurking in dark clouded rooms, distracting us from our responsibility... That is to say video games!  Don't worry though; we keep to our word: we'll finish developing this and release it sometime, in the future. 

Week 10 update

This is the final update for the demo of our game. All new demos will be in a world where we are not under a strict 10 week deadline. So, what is new since the week 9 update? Check it. The schedule posted last week has been completed. That is right, the demo level is complete, the background and platforms all look significantly better, and music has even been included for the title menu, game over screen, and even the demo level.
It was a wild and crazy 10 weeks, but in the end we managed to put together a cool demo to show off the true potential of our game. If you so desire to witness the amazing demo level, with all the music, better graphics, more fun, and even commentary by the developers, check out the developer diary in the previous post, or in the video and screenshots page.
Stay tuned for future developments as we expand upon the demo and work towards a complete game.

Dev Diary 1

The very first, world premier Dev Diary of Particle Paradox.

Mid-Week 9 update

So, here we are. We have come so far and accomplished so much, yet there is still more to do. Incredibly enough, the game now has a title and game over screens. Yes, that means that you can now finally, truly, die in Particle Paradox. Yes, that is the name, and we are sticking with it.  Speaking of being able to die, we now have a new enemy designed to kill you. That's right! A blue triangle exists now that can fly and impede your path above while rolling triangles impede your progress on the ground. Fun!
In addition to the title screen, game over screen, and new enemy type, Toby Giant (the player character) now has new animations for being hit, and pushing particles on the ground and in the air. Hoo-ah!
With that done, we still have a few more things to do before the end of the week to prepare for our demo and presentation. Ideally, we would like to have our demo level built, a better background, music, and better looking platforms.
So, you want a schedule you say? Well, here:

Demo level (top priority) : Thursday

Better background/platforms: Friday

Music: Friday (but it may go into the weekend)

As you can see, we want to focus on the demo level for the presentation. Depending on how much time we have between making the final report and preparing the presentation, we may make it so that the flying triangle can shoot lasers.  We could potentially also improve the background and platforms further. Either way, that is the mid-week 9 update. Brace yourself for the end (of the demo) for we are coming in hot and will likely need firefighters and paramedics standing by when we land.

Week 8 Update

     So, the game is nearing completion.  According to our schedule, all that's left is music and debugging.  And our game currently has no major bugs.  So we're once again somewhat ahead of schedule, as these things were intended to be finished week nine.  Right now, we're working on a title screen so that we can make the deaths more meaningful (instead of just running around with an empty health bar).  Soon, we'll be hard-coding a demo level into the game so that a proper demonstration can be made.  When combined with the awesome music that we've been assured is public domain, you should all be in for a real treat come week ten.  Speaking of music, have a listen!     < http://feryl.bandcamp.com/track/rainy-summerdays-radix >

(That's a link to one of the tracks we're considering.  Yea, it's not Particle Man,  but it's public domain, so ha!)
So, right now we have "an interesting tech demo ... [that] looks like the very beginnings of a great game."  (Frank Lee)  Our current objective is two-fold: to add more content (such as music and flying enemies) and to create a single solid level for our presentation.  We also have to actually make said presentation, which is somehow due Monday of week ten, but that's besides the point.  So that Acho doesn't think I'm being over confident, I'll also mention that we have to make the particles do more things, like double jumping, in order to make the game more interesting.

     Questions? Comments? Concerns?  As we move into the final stages of our proof of concept development, we appreciate your input.  You can contact us at particlesofchaos@gmail.com, or you can attend the presentation during week 10, which will take place sometime between 3 and 5 on June 8th.  (We'll have Q&A, I promise!)  Until then, happy particling!

                        
                                                                                                                                                       -Anren

P.S. We might have a download of our game in the final update, i.e. next week.  We think it would be really swell, but it's not a guarantee, so don't get your hopes up too much.
     

  

Greetings from the slightly-distant future

Hello, how are ye doin'? I'm good. I think I finally have a reason to justify your existence:

PARTICLE PLATFORMER

You see: A long time ago, a man once said that a post would be made in the not-too-distant slightly-distant future that would enlighten the trillions of followers of this blog. My friends, that time could possibly be now. As of this moment, the brave team of Machan Horenker working on the PARTICLE PLATFORMER project have finally overcome their ignorance and made it so that collisions with enemies are registered. In addition, more content has been poured into the feeding trough called the screenshots/videos page. So consume away and devour our tasty morsels that  we provide for you. You need us. 

Now that we have established who is the boss here, let's get into the big update. Increased particle control is now available to you, the player. That's right, we are empowering you. Can you handle the power come 20XX ? When the world will enjoy the delicious taste of Particle Platformer. 

The camera control is now at DEFCON SWEET, which if you ask me, is pretty freaking sweet. The camera now adeptly follows the player no matter where they go. Fun stuff.

I just want you people to know: This is happening. This is not a dream. This is not a test. This game can be ready. It probably will revolutionize the world, but worst case scenario, it will just blow the minds of all 5.8 trillion Particle Platformer fans and all 0.00000001 haters of the Particle Platformer project. 

New screenshots and videos have been added for the project. View, laugh, love, and wait for the next update.  

A new enemy has appeared! (week 7 update)

Once upon a time, it was foretold that enemies would come to challenge Toby Giant, the particle man. That time is now. The basic Triangle enemy has come to the particle platformer, and he is ready to party! This triangle enemy will roll along on the ground and injure the player if they come into contact with it. You read that right, roll. It is a right triangle also. Something to note: we don't have enemy collisions working quite yet, so currently the triangle will just roll past the player like he is late to his business meeting, and Toby is that one guy waiting at the bus stop in the background while this clearly busy triangle goes somewhere. Until he hits a block. Then the triangle turns around, because we have enemy-block collisions working. end note.

In un-enemy related news, the player can now shoot particles to a desired location, meaning that we basically have the "push" particle ability working. We also have the camera partially working so that it kinda follows the player so that they can move around freely, and don't have to worry about losing the character if they run off the screen.

So, uh, yeah. Stay tuned. I'm sure we will have another post in the not-too-distant future that delivers the goods. The goods in this case being more specific information on our game and the progress we have made. Until then, enjoy reading these words:

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Week 6 Update

This week, we type our update to the tune of a Lady Gaga cover provided by one of the other game groups testing their music during the class meeting time.  It's pretty catchy actually.  The post just below this one is our updated schedule, which we made on Wednesday.  It's got a Gantt chart and everything!  Also, according to the new schedule, we're ahead of schedule!  That's right, AHEAD OF SCHEDULE!!!!!!!! =D  (slightly.) 
     
We've completed all of the week six objectives, which include the ability to display particles, collision detection, and upgraded character animation.  Basically, we achieved this by lowering our standards.  In the old schedule, we were supposed to have a working game by this point so that we could start making levels, puzzles, and bosses.  So now we're instead going to try and just have working game in time for the demonstration in week ten.  Right now, we basically have the ability to run around and jump on platforms; in addition, we have particles that follow the player and have the ability to disperse via right clicking.  (They also follow the mouse as long as left click is held down.)  Also, I've just been informed that a minor bug with collision detection has just been fixed, so collision detection is now working absolutely perfectly, so that Toby can crash into things like a boss.  Muhahahaha! 

In addition to all that awesome stuff, we're nearly finished with making a vector of walls, which will allow us to have many platforms to crash into instead of just one.  We also have a cool background.  These things aren't supposed to be done until the end of weeks 7 and 8, respectively, hence the excitement about now being slightly ahead of schedule.  Once the aforementioned vector (or, as C# calls it, a list) is completed, we should be able to add camera scrolling fairly easily, so we should have a game that's dramatically good-looking inside of two weeks.  Enemies and the ability to blow them up will then be the only things left to accomplish.  So, yea.  Awesome sauce.

                                                                                                                                                       -Anren

Updated Schedule

Note that each week lists the work that will be completed by the end of that week.  Also, per our instructor's request, we have a Gantt chart this time; it's below the regular schedule.

Week 6 -  Collision Detection, Upgraded Character Animation, Particle Display

Week 7 - Basic Enemy Sprites, Particle Motion,  Enemies, Vector of Objects 

Week 8 -  Particle Interactions, Background, Platform Testing, Camera Scrolling

Week9 - Music (in game), Play-testing, Debugging/Completion

Week10 - Demonstration, Concepts for future development

Week?? - Implementation of extracurricular expansion.  (This will be done over the summer.)

                                                                                                                                     -Anren

Breaking news

I have just been informed that "Particles are kind of working". That is all.

RUN, TOBY RUN!

Hey! Check it. We now have a player character who runs. Runs like no-one has ever run before. He high-steps for the future, he high steps for you and me, he's a high-steppin' hero who can and will save the world. Don't believe me, Check out the pics  VIDEO if you don't believe me.

Isn't that awesome? He can run like a man now, a grown, strong, man. Who will one day control manly particles of pure manliness that will allow him to fight the much less masculine geometrics for the fate of the universe. Did I mention that we are actually writing a story for this game? That's right. The head writer is even me, the guy who just three different derivatives of "manly" in one sentence. Needless to say, this script will be special.
Also, I should point out that the whole point of this post is to alert our many fans that we now know how to do animation somewhat competently, so look out Blizzard. We are coming for you!

--Maker

Week 5 Update

Week 5 Update:

This week, we got kicked out of the learning terrace!  Actually, there was a fire, so the building was evacuated.  Exciting stuff.  So in a study room in Millennium, we managed to dissect pieces of a C# platformer tutorial program.  We have a particle class that's close to working, a map class that should let us piece together levels pretty easily, and we're in the process of animating the character's movement.  We're also on the verge of totally epic collision detection, so we're pretty excited about that.  Meanwhile here's something to chew on: our brand new sprite sheet!!!

   We're pretty much only missing the jump sprite and and the particle mojo sprites, but we're not too worried about all that just yet.  Also, there's a flip function built into C# so we don't have to make mirror sprites.  Also, there's exciting news from the bland Anren; we're A-OK on music!  (Just as long as we don't distribute the game, which we weren't planning on anyway.)  So as soon as Anren tracks down a copy of Particle Man, we'll be attempting to implement music into the game.  We're not sure what we want as the actual game play music, so the planned title music will be  playing all the bases right now.  Oh, here's a screenshot of the game so far:

He's almost at the apex of his jump in this particular shot; it's a lot smoother when you can see it move.   The green text at the top is for our debugging purposes and won't be in the final game.  It displays things like the coefficient of friction and acceleration due to gravity.  Anren was working on a function that let us change these things in-game, but we're putting it off until we have a game that's worth debugging and are done reconfiguring the player class where all that data is stored.  So yea, things are pretty cool this week. 
                                                                                                                                               -Anren

Week 4 Progress Report:

This week, we managed to make the player move and jump.  We've created several sprites, and have added some concept art to the new concept art page.  (You should totally check it out!)  We're working on collision detection and animation, but the physics are not only smooth, but also tweak-able thanks to our new debugging mode.  This mode allows us to change things like the coefficient of friction while playing the game; it also displays the numbers so that we know what to set them to for normal game play.  While the physics are working decently, they do fall short of initial expectations which used acceleration as well as speed.  Collision detection is really only working in one dimension; due to the way we've structured it, it can only work for colliding with the sides or colliding with the top, but not both.  We're totally working on it though, and we plan to use a tutorial to accelerate the effectiveness.  We're also working on sprite animation.  The bland writing comes courtesy of Anren, by the way. Acho and Maker would never do such things.  Anren, however, would like to let you know that he is only spiritless when attempting to write with clarity and formality. =)  (See, he can make a smiley face!!)

ALERT!!!

Heads up everyone! A concept art page has been created and concept art has been posted on said page. Head on over to get an EXCLUSIVE look at our hero and some of the enemies that will be appearing in the game. The art master is more than happy to have an opportunity to share his work, and undoubtedly he will post "round 2" when he actually has something worth posting.
In un-art (maybe) related news, expect a progress update later today, or tomorrow. However, it will probably be today. When it comes, read it, enjoy it, you deserve it. It is, after all, your special day.

Current Week 3 progress:

As of today, 4-20-2012, we are currently attempting to learn C# through tutorials online and general trial and error. Also, all group members downloaded Visual Studios and have access to the game projects through XNA.
Speaking of XNA, we managed to download the Particles 3d program from Microsoft. This will be invaluable in our learning C# and how to manipulate and control particles. However, at the moment, we have no idea how to actually utilize the particles 3d program, and so we are attempting to learn more about C# before we look closer at the code of Particles 3d.
In other successful news, we have concept art for our main character, the one the player will control, Toby Giant. Stand by. By Wednesday we will most likely have a concept art page so that you, the viewer, can enjoy the lovely art done by the Art Master.
We currently just tried to create a simple sprite using XNA, unfortunately, we failed at the endeavor. We will continue to work on improving our coding abilities until we can successfully put a sprite in our test game-thing.

Progress Made

Rejoice o' beautiful readers for much progress has been made!!!!!

We wrote our names on a sheet of paper and received official approval from the powers that be.  More compelling news coming up next week.

What is Particle Platformer?

Particle Platformer is the hot new game that all your friends, your friends' moms and your friends' moms' moms are all talking about. So what actually is it? Particle Platformer(working title) is a platformer where you control a guy who has power over particles. Currently, we do not have a name, motivation, or even picture of said guy, but rest be assured when we do, we will let you, your friends, your friends' moms, and your friends' moms' moms know.

The voices in my head tell me that this description is not adequate. So, to appease them, I will give you a better description. The player controls particles making them move in waves, fire like a gun, use them to create super jumps,  complete confounding puzzles, and battle unbelievable bosses. The player will be using keys to to perform these particle-based actions, and will even be able to use the mouse in situations to control the particles directly. These particles will allow for the guy to navigate the terrifying world of Particle Platformer (working title).  Enemies are numerous, and platforms are everywhere, and only you and  your particles are capable of overcoming all obstacles.

There we go, the basic idea. I believe the voices are appeased now, so I will quit writing. I will report from time to time, depending on how I feel and how much nagging I experience from the voices. Either way, you will be updated on the progress of Particle Platformer whether you be a friend, a mom, or the friend of a moms' mom.