Platformer Plot/Character Motivation

Here's a provisional plot; I relayed it during club, but here it is in written form for reference. Not to deep, and it's vague enough to be able to squeeze in a variety of bosses and abilities. Enjoy!

Character Motivation text file


EDIT: Written on Linux, so it lacks Windows carriage returns. Open it in Wordpad or an internet browser for correct formatting.

Game Development Kits

For the sake of efficiency, we are currently sidelining the development of our own Java-based game engine, and will instead select a game development kit/application for the creation of our platformer. Below is a list of potential kits, and we will be spending the next week or two testing them, and selecting one that best suits our group.

Game Maker 8
001 Game Maker
JumpCraft
Golden T Game Engine
Scrolling Game Development Kit 2
Reality Factory
VERGE 3
Sphere
Lightweight Java Game Library


Comments and grades will be applied as we test the applications.

UML diagram

It's a little shoddy, and was stitched together in GIMP, and my handwriting is atrocious, but here is the pseudo-UML diagram for the Graphics Engine of the platformer.



If you feel like you can implement a class yourself, go for it. Keep in mind, that the inputs and outputs of a method should be consistent across the engine, and we're using Java, with Swing as the base system. If you don't know how to use Swing, go through some of the tutorials on Oracle's web site.

New Semester, New Plan

We lost a lot of members this semester (graduation, etc), so we gotta deal with less until some new members pop up.

Additionally, as a result of getting essentially nowhere last semester, we're going to be changing the game we'll be working on. It's an extension of the plot of the game we were working on last semester, but it's a prequel and a platformer; we already have a basic plot, so most of the bickering can be skipped this time. On top of that, a basic platformer is fairly easy in comparison to the ambitious RPG we were planning last year.

We're going to be splitting development into a variety of stages, starting with a basic, sprite-based 2D graphics engine, and later moving onto a pseudo-physics engine, and a user/AI control system. if we have time, we'll add sound/music and an event system, but for now, we're trying to keep it simple.

Change in Platform: CrystalSpace

Ok, it appears that the development group is displeased with Python, due to unfamiliarity (and a variety of other reasons). Therefore, we will be switching to C++, with CrystalSpace as our graphics/input/audio/etc. manager, instead of Python with PyGame. While few of us are familiar with CrystalSpace, all of us are familiar with at least one language related to C++ (if not C++ itself) and the fundamental concepts of Object Oriented Programming.

The end of the semester is fast approaching, and I honestly don't expect us to finish anything significant. I do expect this project to be carried over into next semester, as it seems many are loath to abandon it.

Update: New Semester

I probably should have posted this during semester break, but I figured, since I didn't, what better time to post it than the first meeting of the new semester.

This is an update to the design document posted earlier (which is probably no longer online).

game concepts.txt

Also, until further notice, club meetings will be held in MCT165 on Fridays at 2-5pm, just like last semester.