tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72830017457730570172011-10-16T21:03:26.968+01:00Making software simplerAnimatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.comBlogger1051100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-30033592453480473312010-08-03T23:51:00.004+01:002010-08-03T21:30:11.121+01:00

So, it's past the end of the month, and is PyIgnition ready for the 1.0 release? Well, actually, the code is. All the new features are already implemented and theoretically bugless. However, the documentation (which is fairly important seeing as the only purpose of the project is to be used by others) lags significantly behind the numerous ruthless (read: careless and ill-planned) changes I've

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-8692184367155161372010-07-27T13:02:00.010+01:002010-07-27T13:58:12.668+01:00

And where are we? Well, this time it hasn't been so much a case of laziness or time-wastery that's led to such a huge gap between posts: I'm pleased to announce that PyIgnition is still faring very well. The 1.0 release is still going very much to plan, and will most likely be finished by the end of this month. To share news on all that has been added since the last update here would take far too

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-83731219145510642262010-06-30T13:13:00.014+01:002010-07-01T21:12:38.401+01:00

Behold, the promised post! It promises promising developments, developments which seek to fulfil the promise of a promising new keyframe system. There we go, now the word 'promise' looks strange to me. If it doesn't to you, try re-reading the last two sentences again. It's a pretty silly word, isn't it? But I digress.You may recall from the last post that I've been working on a brand new

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-91825193332904250662010-06-25T18:20:00.006+01:002010-06-30T13:16:50.264+01:00

Yes, I know - two posts in as many days! Utter madness! The post frequency meter is indeed frazzled. But this is merely a swift news-deposit before I head off to undertake the elaborate job of implementing the new keyframing system in PyIgnition for the Alpha 4 ('controlled eruption') release. Incidentally, on that topic, I've just this morning sorted out completely how I'm going to implement the

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-29881867171483017592010-06-24T00:50:00.000+01:002010-06-30T16:11:26.752+01:00

You asked me once, what was in Post 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Post 101 is... well, pretty cool. All cultural references aside, the content of this amusingly-numbered post is in fact rather spiffy, and comes in the manifestation of an update on PyIgnition's progress. To summarise, it's been going rather spiffily. So spiffiliy indeed

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-81623453525722671832010-06-12T16:27:00.007+01:002010-06-12T20:05:37.912+01:00

Good day to you all again, my few-and-far-between readers! Welcome, one and all, to what you may already have ascertained is in fact the hundredth discrete outpouring of textual miscellany to grace the monitors of its unfortunate readers. Those of you who have already managed to stumble upon this site before and are (amazingly) visiting again may have noticed that I've decided to mark this

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-31446384359715307852010-05-30T18:16:00.003+01:002010-05-30T18:32:26.950+01:00

Yep, that's right. No more high school exams, ever. Physics made its magnificent way onto the 'done' pile on Friday (in a most successful fashion), leaving me free to faff about whilst I wait for the results to come out.Soo, I'll probably have to code something at some stage. On that front, I've been wandering around my 'code' folder to see what's what, and it appears that all that remains to be

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-16057711779609533872010-05-26T20:00:00.003+01:002010-05-26T20:13:22.330+01:00

Because I'm far too lazy to write anything of length at the moment. Why, you ask? Aah, well that is to be explained in this very post. Well, this paragraph-post. Yes, that's right - I intend to do it all in one paragraph. Mwaha! Brevity is at the soul of my wit, certainly. And tediousness adorns its limbs and outward flourishes. But let that go. To reach pertinently for the point of the

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-35193091922694456392010-05-18T20:47:00.012+01:002010-05-18T22:06:46.742+01:00

Hello all, we meet again! But today, things are different - today I come to you battle-scarred and wounded, limping, with the blood of a thousand technological foes dripping from my sword: today, I come to you glorious and victorious. The foe? None other than my ISP,good ol' TalkTalk. The battle? Well, allow me to expound...I'd like to think that by this stage everyone on the 'net would have

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-44998325228842884102010-05-15T23:45:00.020+01:002010-05-16T15:56:13.449+01:00

Just thought I'd drop in with a surprise update. Yep, I still remember this blog! Even after all these months of separation, myself and blogging remain as firm a couple as, well, myself and laziness. The latter pairing being the reason for the colossal temporal disparity between the then and now; the there and here; the last delivered update from myself, and this current literary phlegm.

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-51997601637262649172010-02-13T14:23:00.010Z2010-02-13T14:56:38.452Z

Salutations to all! Apologies for breaking my vow of voluminous posting with such haste and dexterity, I had four exams and two horrible deadlines to contend with. Gloriously, all that now stands in the past, leaving the way clear for consistent blogging! Hopefully.Now, with the traditional excuses out of the way, I shall share with you the primary purpose of this posting:It's the Mac OSX Dock,

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-18344607481280737612010-01-10T12:45:00.002Z2010-01-10T12:47:24.135Z

And, indeed, happy new decade. You'll have to excuse the slight (nine-day) lateness of this post; I was busy forgetting to post. Or something to that effect. The point is... well, non-existent, actually.However, those of you fearing for the safety of this post as it rapidly descends into pointless blabbering may freely clamber out from behind the sofa, because I have news! News most auspicious in

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-20049640661357280732009-12-24T20:18:00.008Z2009-12-24T20:33:21.495Z

Just dropping in for the customary exchange of greetings. Except in this case is isn't really an exchange as such, being as it is a blog whose very nature dictates that all communication can only traverse the distance between our computers in one single direction (with that being from myself to you). Unless of course one takes into account the possibility that you, the user, make use of the post

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-11947406710391460672009-12-11T20:25:00.007Z2009-12-12T09:52:59.776Z

So, here's how they went.First up was the subject-specific interview. This one had moments of awesome and moments of shoddy, but was generally okay. Once again I was surprised by the complete lack of personal statement questions - they began by reading through the main points ("so you've done C++ and python, made a few programs...") and then indirectly asked why I wasn't taking computing. It was

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-78982287378989599362009-12-10T23:12:00.004Z2009-12-12T09:53:28.307Z

I got an offer! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, etc. I'm rather surprised actually, as I've spent the last week or so gradually lowering my estimation of how well I did and by the time I opened the letter (which, ominously, was small and white) I was already certain of being rejected. 'Twas a pleasant surprise indeed.Unfortunately, it's rather harsh:A band 1 in Maths (Advanced Higher)A in Physics (Advanced

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-1099148547403747112009-12-09T09:39:00.003Z2009-12-09T09:42:06.791Z

Today I leave for Cambridge, to be interviewed and multiple-choice-tested tomorrow. Oh dear.I shall tell of the horrors I faced upon my Thursday return, unless of course I'm too scarred by it all and can't post again until Friday. Either way, watch this space!

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-9810422533455242882009-11-29T22:14:00.012Z2009-11-29T22:49:32.629Z

*annoying popping sound*MCAFEE WARNINGThe program 'McAfee updater' is trying to access the Internet!!! OMGWTFLOL!!*pause**annoying popping sound*MCAFEE WARNINGMcAfee is out of date! Oh noezzz what shall we do?!?!?I shit thee not. Well, perhaps it wasn't worded quite like that, but that's how I choose to read it. Yes, McAfee SecurityCenter (bloody American spellings) has finally caught up and

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-56864440284369923012009-11-19T00:30:00.006Z2009-11-19T20:00:44.906Z

Straight from the gargantuan sprawling mass of over-urbanisation that is London, I return! Now, allow me to spin for ye a tale of terror, adventure and outright ravery.To begin with, I was ludicrously early - once again Google Maps has presumed me to be a lethargic snail made of concrete, and the journey from the underground station to Imperial College which it estimated as taking around twenty

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-58541938025678982592009-11-17T16:17:00.002Z2009-11-17T16:20:06.921Z

Eep. Fear and pre-emptive terror shall ensue.Well, I'll be sure to post here afterwards to say how badly it went. And then maybe I can get on with ExeSketch!

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-71579540943057071922009-11-14T13:10:00.005Z2009-12-12T09:52:40.773Z

Hoorah!Quite surprisingly I've got a massive amount of notice for this one - apparently they don't normally tell you until the week before, thus forcing you to spend vast quantities of cash on train tickets. It's not until the 10th of December, a full four weeks after the one at Imperial (which is rapidly closing in!). Now, by D00ve's Law (given a particular timeframe T, the time spent

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-59644804790397798372009-11-08T14:01:00.004Z2009-11-08T14:23:49.247Z

It's time for...anotherUPDATESo, what's new this time?Well, to start off with, here's the UCAS application situation:Cambridge - Acknowledged, and allocated to Jesus collegeImperial College London - newly-added choice; invited for interviewEdinburgh - AcknowledgedGlasgow - Unconditional offer!St Andrews - AcknowledgedSo even if all four of my other choices reject me, I can at least go to Glasgow!

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-48129240278612282172009-10-16T19:14:00.014+01:002009-10-16T20:15:03.492+01:00

This post, in essence, is a being of two halves. Two halves not unrelated, but mutually hateful of one other and perpetually at war. And as such, I think it best to keep them discrete lest they destroy each other in a fiery rain of textual combat. So, here we go:The ExeSketch halfBéziers are finally implemented! Well, if I'm honest, they've been implemented for about a week now. But, as you will

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-66497700041079242092009-09-27T15:16:00.004+01:002009-10-04T18:19:14.662+01:00

As you may know if you follow ExeSketch's launchpad page, I recently decided to use freeglut instead of GLUT for the project. As luck would have it, the process of switching over only really involved replacing a few '#include's - although I had to rename several of my constants as they apparently conflicted with freeglut ones.This means I can now process events like turning the scrollwheel on the

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-32084989844625584102009-09-18T21:14:00.005+01:002009-09-18T21:23:21.317+01:00

Last post I mentioned that this week would probably be a quiet one. Well, fate felt tempted and assailed me with a week so copiously endowed with commitments that it ended up being the least productive week ExeSketch has seen so far. So I'm going to have to apologise again. However, all of the open days are now done and the personal statement for university is getting there, so I might be able to

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-52533870367397706952009-09-12T23:54:00.003+01:002009-09-13T00:17:48.011+01:00

Why, you may cry, are the posts so elusive? Well here's an excuse, hopefully not too obtrusive:School again. Well, this time it's not so much school as the preparation for leaving it: I've been spending a lot of time messing around at university open days (descending on unexpectant cities and causing trouble) and attempting to write a personal statement for applications (playing Tetris and

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-78241657650910672742009-09-10T23:41:00.003+01:002009-09-10T23:46:35.277+01:00

Wh00t said I as I finished this little Logo/Icon for ExeSketch. The only thing that made me pause was the lack of any polished surfaces, but then I realised that shiny does not require polished surfaces, a nice matte finish can be just as shiny. So Here I present to you the first Logo of ExeSketch. I have a feeling that the logo might get an update at the first big release, but only time can tell

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15626581535003247722noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-65385418123845068292009-09-05T23:20:00.010+01:002009-09-06T12:06:56.629+01:00

Greetings once more! Apologies for the prolonged absence, other commitments got in the way of updating this blog (they also stole my lunch money). Today I arrive with a video in tow; yes, it's the new ExeSketch demo video:ExeSketch Demo 3 from Animatinator on Vimeo.So, what's new? Well, I've mastered the Sony Vegas 'Light Rays' effect. And I've still not had to illegaly use a piece of commercial

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-71826763558174213222009-09-03T17:57:00.003+01:002009-09-03T17:59:28.293+01:00

Today I am proud to announce that the first release of ExeSketch is now complete! You can download it here. A demo video should be done shortly, at which time I shall post it here also (hopefully it'll make up for the rushed brevity of this post).

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-56767651803543678192009-08-31T21:48:00.004+01:002009-08-31T21:57:20.889+01:00

Maybe... I don't know but what I do know is that all my favourite software has good design. So why not have some nice sleek design in our own software? I have been working on icons (and a logo...) for ExeSketch.This was an idea for radial menus but David is leaving them for the future as they could be a 'mare to code. So we will be having a linear menu along the top or side of the canvas with the

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15626581535003247722noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-31109682737965574322009-08-29T17:48:00.006+01:002009-08-29T18:15:07.496+01:00

For some reason I completely forgot to post updates here this week. As a result, they've stacked like a pile of bills, and the mountain is about to collapse - in blog post form! I suppose the best way of introducing the huge volume of updates is by way of another demo video:ExeSketch Demo 2 from Animatinator on Vimeo.So, as you may have ascertained from the video, the most obvious change is that

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-79574493198233873662009-08-24T22:07:00.003+01:002009-08-24T22:32:51.668+01:00

Today saw a rather large amount of code being added to the Polygon class; it has now reached the point where such objects can be added to the drawing and taken in and out of edit mode. However, you can't actually edit them yet. And the function for testing to see if the mouse is within the polygon isn't done yet either. However, the fact that it draws without crashing the program is a miracle in

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-76009523813719909862009-08-23T21:12:00.005+01:002009-08-23T21:52:59.328+01:00

Which would you like first: the good news or the bad news?Well, I'm afraid you're bound by my ordering. I'm not psychic, you know.Every post needs to open with some kind of positivity (it's an unwritten blogging axiom (probably)), so to begin with, I'd like to point out that you can now delete objects in ExeSketch. The code is far from beautiful, but it works, and that's all that really matters -

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-37296413819410393572009-08-22T19:20:00.013+01:002009-08-22T22:06:32.977+01:00

As of today, ExeSketch now has a Launchpad project page for hosting its code and managing updates and changes - you can find it at launchpad.net/exesketch. Thanks go to James for setting it up, and providing assistance for those of us who don't have a clue about how to use that sort of thing (i.e. myself).From now, the Launchpad page will be used to store the source code, as well as to manage

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-41542380006456967102009-08-19T19:50:00.012+01:002009-08-19T21:06:03.701+01:00

Welcome to the second instalment in The ExeSoft ExeSketch Explanation Series of Presently Undefined Length. This particular informational outpouring concerns the item of code positioned directly adjacent to the EventHandler in the chronological stream of linear storytelling. That is to say, it was the next thing I wrote. (I'm endeavouring to eschew bombastic grandiloquence. Aagh, dammit.)This is

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-86218315115562666472009-08-18T22:20:00.004+01:002009-08-18T22:25:40.519+01:00

As I haven't had much time for continuing the explanation of ExeSketch over the past two days (or, indeed, to code anything for it), I've done a quick video of what exists at the moment to fill the update-gap. It demonstrates the creation of a rather spiffing smiley face (with a fetching rectangle for a mouth to compensate for its lack of a nose) using the Rect primitive (because it's still the

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-47126431532387067272009-08-16T14:57:00.017+01:002009-08-16T16:37:14.961+01:00

Welcome to the first in a series of posts intended to explain the ExeSketch code I've written up to this point. As lining up the beginning of a retelling with the corresponding point in temporal space seems logical, I'll begin with the EventHandler and Event classes, which (odd though it may seem) were the first things I coded.In truth, the event system in place wasn't made specifically for

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-7292820853632154112009-08-15T17:45:00.014+01:002009-08-15T18:33:36.943+01:00

Bear with me as I affectedly ignore the fact that two posts on consecutive days constitutes a supernal feat not reached by this blog in almost a year.Today's coding progress mainly comprises alterations to the ObjectManager class, which is responsible for holding a group of objects and sending them redraw commands and events, and returning to its parent such information as whether or not the

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-10709656798814263152009-08-14T11:46:00.026+01:002009-08-15T19:41:23.048+01:00

In an intermission to the vapid vacuousness of a presumably perpetual hiatus, I write this posting to once again acknowledge my own failure to maintain any sort of consistency in update frequency, and simultaneously to reveal to you a new project which serves as a sort of culmination of the long period I have spent attempting to gain some basic understanding of the syntactical intricacies and

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-87918032942110540992009-01-07T18:44:00.014Z2009-01-07T19:15:44.299Z

Today, I set foot where no Exesoft member has gone before, to a dimension so complex that few dare even to speak its name. Indeed, it has been rumoured that if you were to enter its abstruse domain, you would surely be smashed apart by the mass of gigantic matrices.Of course, it is impossible for us mere mortals to ascertain whether or not it would pan out that way, but one thing is certain: to

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-78766572228002510242008-12-28T16:53:00.004Z2008-12-28T17:08:20.421Z

Recently I have been attempting to learn the maths required for 3D graphics, and am currently learning matrices. As a way of testing my knowledge, I wrote a quick pygame program which transforms a funky collection of lines with a matrix. It's only two-dimensional at the moment, but the same principles demonstrated here apply in 3D as well. The only difficulty is projecting 3D points onto the

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-70729951893627510122008-12-12T17:15:00.007Z2008-12-14T18:16:13.603Z

You may have noticed a cycle of sorts developing here recently. Like a sunny day in Scotland, or perhaps like the Blue Screen of Death (depends on your point of view), I have once again returned from out of nowhere.But this time, I'm not going to optimistically promise to increase the frequency of my postings - funky though a stuck record may be, I'd prefer not to sound like one myself and so I'm

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-29847634750237837582008-11-01T12:07:00.006Z2008-11-01T12:34:00.951Z

Please excuse the absence - I was on holiday, and then was flooded with exams immediately afterwards. And then afterwards I forgot to post. For a week.So, here I am again, this time bringing you news of another mini-project of mine. Some of you may remember my python ball physics test; well, I've been working at re-creating it in C++ (using SDL for graphics of course). To date, I have created a

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-36348447448487238792008-10-12T18:48:00.006+01:002009-07-23T13:10:58.983+01:00

With the Game of Life simulation mostly finished, I today started a new mini-project: making a Tic Tac Toe game in SDL. This will be a player-versus-computer affair when it's completed, and has a spiffy hand-drawn look to it:So far I've finished the GUI (as you may have noticed) and most of the logic. The turns system is implemented, the player and computer can both insert their respective

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-66328635937825141012008-10-11T11:20:00.007+01:002008-10-11T12:03:41.016+01:00

You might have been wondering why there have been no updates recently - and it's very likely that you've assumed that the cause of this is a lack of progress. Well, actually progress has been incredibly good recently; however, I have been having problems getting recent videos of the Game of Life simulation onto Vimeo. As it's been a full week since my last update, I decided that I'll just post

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-62398507274258780432008-10-04T17:39:00.007+01:002008-10-04T17:56:20.967+01:00

So, as has been tradition for a while now, the updates here have gone all sparse again - although the last post was but two days ago, the one before is weeks old. So once again, I'm aiming to change that, the only way I know how...A progress update!Now, the last time I posted, I mentioned that I was learning SDL. This has been continuing, but now there is a goal - I'm trying to create a C++

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-19340822328309735572008-10-02T21:58:00.007+01:002008-10-02T22:24:17.224+01:00

Well, no-one really knows what it stands for. But it is in fact the main reason I came here today with a view to posting.SDL, or Stupid Digital Lollipop, is essentially Pygame for C++. Well, in truth, Pygame is Slimy Duck Lice for Python; Someone's Dung-Ledge is the original module. And now that I've gained some sort of coding ability in C++, I decided now would be the time to learn Scary

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-35729218156422279232008-09-22T21:24:00.002+01:002008-09-22T21:36:35.273+01:00

I was messing around in physics this morning getting bored while copying out some stuff in fiberoptics and I wrote a little crystal ball program in python (in my book). The moment I got home I wrote it up and decided to bundle it with the random story generator and a Work in Progress, AutoRap. The crystal ball is a really simple console application like the story generator and auto rap.

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15626581535003247722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-15462960771145944032008-09-21T16:19:00.005+01:002008-09-21T20:03:19.831+01:00

After many tiresome hours of bugfixing, we at ExeSoft finally come bearing The Shiniest Image Viewer In The Known Universe, ExeSoft ShinyPic version 1.0Download links can be found at exesoft.co.nr/shinypic. Enjoy!

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-70699243769143434342008-09-20T10:58:00.003+01:002008-09-20T11:02:27.017+01:00

We're now getting incredibly close to the final release of ShinyPic. All the features have been implemented, and all that remains is to polish a few of them up and hunt for bugs. The first few test compiles have been very successful, and I've managed to make a nifty little icon for the program in GIMP.If all goes to plan, installer files and source code should be going up by the end of the

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-8880934542054376992008-09-19T21:07:00.004+01:002008-09-19T21:34:21.866+01:00

David and I got together earlier on today and did a little small collaboration on a program. It is a fun little thing that generates random sentences and paragraphs from a set of words. I will try and create a little program that will allow you to add your own sentence structures and add your own words. We may make a simple GUI for it but at the moment it is a console based thing that allows

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15626581535003247722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-64582129923608705582008-09-17T22:31:00.002+01:002008-09-17T22:43:05.232+01:00

A sneak peak at one of my wallpaper designs for ShinyPic. I hope David manages to find a nice way of getting a nice customisable interface :P. I am after all obsessed with graphics and the visual element of things. I may post a few more designs closer to the first release or I may just let you discover them if they are included.This wallpaper was made in Blender (http://www.blender.org), I made

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15626581535003247722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-44229084593351356132008-09-16T17:50:00.005+01:002008-09-16T17:57:24.255+01:00

This turned out to be incredibly easy to code, and so only really took me about 30 minutes. It's displayed every time you select a different directory to view images from, and gives a much better visual representation of the loading process than the old system did (where it printed the name of the image being loaded to the separate command-line window). At the moment, it moves up by the same

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-16327334922216290312008-09-15T23:20:00.004+01:002008-09-15T23:31:42.695+01:00

Having almost completed the full-size viewer, I decided now would be a good time to start work on the directory picker (for selecting a directory to load images from). So far, I've made pretty good progress - you can browse directories by clicking to open a folder, or clicking "Move up" to move up a directory. Right-clicking on a folder selects it, and makes the program close the browser and load

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-32649790674800110362008-09-14T23:32:00.005+01:002008-09-14T23:49:32.906+01:00

So there I was, hacking away at the keyboard, trying to make magic happen on-screen. Every approach I tried for panning gave incredibly strange results, often causing the image to fly off-screen as soon as I moved the mouse. My Slipslide 2 menu / ShinyPic grid view formula simply didn't want to work in this particular situation.Irritated, I decided to slam out a quick death-or-glory mess to see

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-91620931240442995602008-09-14T12:12:00.004+01:002008-09-14T12:30:19.930+01:00

The first release of ShinyPic is drawing ever nearer; all that remains is to add panning to the full-size viewer and add a way of letting the user choose a folder to load images from.However, the former is turning into a major challenge as my standard mouse-scroll-system, which I used not only on the tile view but on the Slipslide 2 main menu, is causing strange glitches such as the image being

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-60302174725251941852008-09-11T22:13:00.003+01:002008-09-11T22:21:24.774+01:00

Today's piece of new, shiny and awesomeful news is that the full-size image viewer is beginning to work! Now when you click on an image, it scales it up to fill the screen (this is animated, of course) and then enters a neat little redraw loop so you can view the image. Sadly there is no screenshot, as it's a bit difficult to take a screenshot of an animation. I'll post screenies of the

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-44052330254038226502008-09-10T20:51:00.006+01:002008-09-10T21:17:22.536+01:00

And then there was awesome!I know I've been forgetting to post updates here for a while, but I hope that this image will make up for it. As you can see, not only are images implemented but there is also alpha - so the images further from your mouse cursor will appear semi-transparent! Also, the text you see in the bottom right changes sides depending on where your mouse is so that it never

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-65584151277739174332008-09-07T20:27:00.006+01:002008-09-07T20:41:21.320+01:00

I've developed the SSSSSS (Sepcialised System for Super-Shiny Square Scaling) algorithm further, and it can now handle scrolling! To celebrate, I implemented scrolling in the original demo. So now, with the mouse on the far right of the screen you'll see the images on that side, and as you move the mouse left the grid will scroll to reveal those on the left!As promised, the equation thingy has

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-18559241708466793262008-09-07T12:45:00.010+01:002008-09-07T14:04:54.063+01:00

Today, I present to you the result of much mathematical fiddling and error-induced pain. I have been working on the image gallery program I fell short of properly describing in the last post, and have created a system that displays a grid of images (white squares at the moment) which scale up as your mouse approaches. In the final program, the grid of images will also scroll with your mouse

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-80789307311340840142008-09-06T20:00:00.009+01:002008-09-07T20:50:06.712+01:00

Try not to jump in fright at this, but this is a new post.Yes. Really.It's been a while, hasn't it? Well, allow me to explain the post-nuclear-blast-esque silence. You may remember that I was being constantly attacked from all sides by the dreaded exams as I wrote my last post. Well, they got worse, and I was soon spending a steadily increasing proportion of my time revising every day. Ultimately

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-12434521602133600762008-05-02T13:44:00.008+01:002008-05-02T14:18:32.902+01:00

I only just noticed how old the last post here actually is; the update-rate seems to have decreased exponentially now that exams have taken over. However, for now at least, all that is going to change. After an epic silence, I have finally returned from the Pit of Procrastination bearing news!First, Slipslide 2. In the last post you may have noticed that it had reached a brick wall of sorts, in

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-17012079450876616872008-04-02T17:52:00.005+01:002008-04-02T18:24:04.221+01:00

So I recently upgraded PyGame to the new version 1.8.0 release... GARGANTUAN mistake. As it happens, 1.8.0 is to PyGame as Vista is to Windows. While Slipslide 2 previously ran like a cat wearing a rocket booster, it could now be compared with an arthritic snail wearing chainmail armour. The initial fade-in took a full 10 seconds (compared to less than 1), and the music was so crackly it was like

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-29533614399298600302008-03-25T18:41:00.005Z2008-03-25T19:07:24.436Z

I'll begin with the bad news - due to the massive volume of school exams coming very soon, progress updates here will be sparse(r) over the coming months. I'll post when I can, but there won't be much Slipslide progress to post about.At present, Slipslide has two complete levels, one very-nearly-complete level and one that's about halfway done. A lot of the music is already in progress, with

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-24264119761174659332008-03-08T14:38:00.005Z2008-11-15T07:08:36.152Z

Having written a few tunes, I decided that it was time to start on the rest of the levels. So, I now have a layout for level 3 (which is set in Slipsville, Dan's hometown) and have started the background (digitally painted in the GNU Image Manipulation Program). So far, I have a lone building in a vast field of grey:As you can see I'm going for a fairly cartoony style with this. The building

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-66081097209884865032008-03-02T13:01:00.005Z2008-03-02T13:23:55.203Z

If you visit this blog frequently, you may have noticed a complete lack of anything at all over the last two weeks. Don't worry, the Slipslide 2 project is not dead. But time has been short, even more so than normal, and the exams have been coming thick and fast.I have recently invested in Image Line's FL Studio 7 XXL for producing the game's music, which allows for much better instrument sounds

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-90842486425294063332008-02-17T20:52:00.007Z2008-11-15T07:08:36.419Z

Let's start off with what I did two days ago - level intros! Finally after many weeks of faffing with nonfunctional alpha effects and funky text boxes, I have a properly working level intro display with automatic word-wrapping and everything. You can see it in the screenshot on the right. I've designed this module so that it can be displayed in-game with a mere two lines once it's been imported:

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-85542329834598060472008-02-14T13:23:00.004Z2008-11-15T07:08:36.487Z

After over two months of development, we've finally got to the level-building stage! And as promised, the levels can be made incredibly quickly thanks to Penuine's design. So far this afternoon I have made two levels, one of which you can see in the screenshot. These are both from the "retro" area, which takes place inside an outdated computer. I'm not saying how he gets there though...

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-85768843114561393362008-02-12T17:38:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:36.698Z

This time a class that displays a "Level complete!" message which stays until you press a key. It's called by the levelcontrol class upon completion of a level, and looks very spiffy as you'll see from the screenshot. Pygame's per-pixel alpha capabilities are proving incredibly useful, they make some very nifty effects possible.But that's not all that's been done! As well as this, I've got a new

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-29419087945109185022008-02-11T18:02:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:37.047Z

Yes, we now have a version numbering system!Well, a lot has been done recently. First off, there's a proper character sprite now! You can see it in the screenshot at the top.Also, after A LOT of battling with Python, character animation is fully implemented! The character now slips, slides and even turns whilst you navigate your way around the levels.This was done by making a module which loads a

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-43940084708284825122008-02-08T19:38:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:37.202Z

Although it may seem to be dead from the serious lack of updates recently...So what's been going on to warrant such a lapse in blog activity? Well, not all that much, unfortunately. I've been mainly working on my new music website, freewebs.com/animatinator. Besides that, I've been documenting existing Penuine code with massive amounts of comments to make certain that the code is readable, and

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-75404068096787500442008-02-01T21:36:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:37.208Z

Slipinator's the level editor, in case you were wondering. And it's starting to take shape! almost three hundred lines in, and we have a functional level canvas class that lets you place blocks on the level (with a grid to make it easier), and also drag and drop other objects onto. At the moment only the block editing is implemented, but it works perfectly! Here's a screengrab:Click it to view

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-61002061648021873282008-01-29T22:26:00.000Z2008-01-30T21:57:19.865Z

We've run into a bit of a problem here...Unfortunately, the idea I had for the level intro sections is impossible without use of an extra module and a shizelload of manual pixel-by-pixel fiddling to make it fade in. See, in SDL (the C++ module PyGame uses), there are three types of alpha: colourkey, surface and per-pixel. Colourkey is the 1970's-reminiscent idea of having one colour in an image

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-15959624024272416512008-01-27T11:40:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:37.755Z

I've now finished a working demo of the text box system that will be used in the level intros module. Using a bit of nifty programming, I've created a system that builds a text box from four images; the two top corners, a 1*24 pixel image to tile between them and a 1*2 pixel image to tile across the rest of the area. I also coded a spiffy effect that makes it fade in whilst expanding when the

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-28567377916277920012008-01-26T12:10:00.000Z2008-01-26T14:32:43.404Z

The original fade-in method turned out to be very buggy; firstly, when fading levels in the character appeared on top of the fading level. Also, the fade was incredibly jerky at times, as the algorithm was particularly inaccurate. And on top of this, the scene was completely frozen whilst fading was taking place, which to be honest looked rubbish - for example, this meant that if you moved the

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-35391634997224781072008-01-25T16:02:00.000Z2008-01-25T16:08:41.832Z

Today I've started writing a new class for Penuine that can be used for fading scenes in and out at an arbitrary speed (and the fadeout end colour is also variable). So far the fade in method is working, and I've implemented it in the main menu scene and the level controller. The difficulty with this new class will be not overusing it to the point of it becoming annoying; it's very hard to resist

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-56153913526228257462008-01-21T16:47:00.001Z2008-11-15T07:08:38.055Z

Finally, the main menu is complete. And I have to say, I'm incredibly proud of how it turned out! Take a look for yourself:Unfortunately, a screenshot can't do it proper justice - that's not just a cloudy background image you see there, it's actually four layers of fully animated clouds moving in real-time with the text in between them. And the options at the bottom aren't static either; move

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-58697035073700375492008-01-19T16:39:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:38.177Z

And now it's complete!It now renders text, and has clickable options for continuing and quitting. Also, it's draggable so you can place it in any part of the screen. This could be useful when you want to look around the level while the game is paused. It also looks incredibly cool, which is the main reason I developed it that way - now Slipslide has a Windows Vista-esque interface! Yaay!But my

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-91193958474141284292008-01-19T11:58:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:38.316Z

After many an epic duel, I've finally got the pause menu to display. Well, the background anyway. The rest will come in time. For now, behold the screenshot!As you can see, the character and level are partially visible through it! That's the incredible power of per-pixel alpha in action there. Thanks go to Pash for the making the amazing image of course.The per-pixel alpha didn't come easily

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-67240053521099686942008-01-17T18:54:00.000Z2008-01-17T19:18:06.528Z

At the moment, development's completely all over the place; we're stuck in the twilight zone between the basic engine being complete and starting work on levels, characters and sounds. There's still no character sprite, there are broken test levels scattered everywhere, and the engine has a lot of holes in it. As well as this, we've had to temporarily stop soundtrack development due to a

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-62456023632719652562008-01-15T19:07:00.000Z2008-01-15T21:52:20.531Z

Hey, well I have been doing some level layouts for the game and I have quite a few different difficulties ranging from hard to.. well, erm hard. I am finding it awkward to design a level easier than what I have already. in my second post I will maybe show you a couple of layouts that I have designed to see whether you can crack them. if you can then I will continue to make more and if you cant...

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15626581535003247722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-34257208287961330042008-01-14T21:02:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:38.514Z

I say this as a strange new bug has cropped up - when the level is restarted, the player simply won't redraw! So now we have a secret, "not actually programmed at all" multiplayer mode appearing every time the level's restarted. Luckily, it can still redraw when the player hits a block (bye bye, second player) but it can be very confusing having two iterations of the character on-screen at

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-47458551612933953022008-01-09T19:24:00.000Z2008-01-09T19:59:15.152Z

It's now been a full month since we first began Project Penuine (that's Slipslide 2). Still no in-game screenshots to show. However, a lot's been happening, despite the fact that the blog activity may suggest otherwise. The story's now in progress, and without giving too much away I can say it's going to be epic. Dan (the main character) has moved house this time, so the next-door neighbor's dogs

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-67980969327036315452008-01-06T11:53:00.000Z2008-01-06T11:57:50.105Z

I suddenly remembered that it's actually bad luck to have decorations up after Twelfth Night yesterday, and with but minutes to spare I leapt into action and took down the Christmas banner. The luck of ExeSoft is saved! So don't worry, Slipslide will probably be released on time!

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-13651297045503573652008-01-02T15:38:00.000Z2008-01-02T16:14:19.031Z

So I started on the level editor today, and it's actually been going quite well. However, it turns out that my method of programmatically adding in a grid of 25*20 toggle buttons to represent the grid squares isn't really going to work apparently - I didn't think the idea through long enough to realise that adding five hundred individually functioning buttons, each with two 16*16 pixel

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-81259208662357892882008-01-01T15:17:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:39.323Z

Once again, it's time to make unreasonable promises to yourself, break them within the hour, drink obscene amounts and set off spectacular explosives all in the name of tradition. 2007 is now last year's thing, long live 2008!For ExeSoft, the last year was an eventful one. For one thing, ExeSoft didn't even exist until just after the halfway mark. So, to celebrate the year's success, here's the

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-68914320984186432952007-12-24T11:08:00.000Z2007-12-24T21:46:27.832Z

You'll probably have noticed we now have a new banner image! And, for once, Blogger.com hasn't completely buggered it up! Whereas the last image I uploaded was cropped ridiculously to fit a required size that seemed to get smaller every time I uploaded it, this one is actually displaying at its original size. It seems their server is finally getting into the festive spirit or something.Anyways,

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-84880739710270522602007-12-22T22:04:00.000Z2007-12-22T22:30:05.536Z

I'm afraid blog posts here will be sufficiently less sufficient for the much-hyped holiday next Tuesday (and the rest of the week), but don't worry as I will still be continuing work on Slipslide 2... well, I'll be planning bits out in my head at times of boredom.The game's release will probably come very soon after New Year; possibly even late January, as development's been going very well. The

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-63204191301208955652007-12-21T18:48:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:39.556Z

About 500 lines into the project, we now have a fully functional engine demo! This can quickly and easily load levels and their music, sounds and images with the programmer only having to specify the name of the folder containing those files. The physics are working perfectly, the music is playing and we even got it to recognise when the player has completed the level and send a message back to

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-81218789715085894682007-12-18T22:29:00.001Z2008-11-15T07:08:39.749Z

"Penuine? What on Earth is that?!?", shout surprised readers (much to the annoyance of people nearby). Well, I decided the new Slipslide game engine needed a name, so I held a brainstorm with the ExeSoft staff. One of the ideas suggested by Oblenob was "Penguin", but he mis-typed it and ended up putting "Penuine". And it managed to stick. I actually think it's quite a good name; it's unique

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-11371162785675697172007-12-17T19:48:00.000Z2007-12-17T20:16:42.368Z

With the pre-alpha done, I'm now going to start on what I believe to be the hardest part in the development process - writing the engine. The main reason this is so hard is because it's impossible to test it until almost the entire structure is complete; so I'm just writing out several individual sections of it just now in the hope that they'll function together when it's finished.Slipslide's

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-78202188400072652872007-12-16T11:54:00.000Z2007-12-16T12:04:41.038Z

I think I can finally call the main theme for Slipslide 2 finished now. If you want to listen to it, here's an mp3. It's basically a remix of the original Slipslide's tune, with far better instrument sounds (because it's no longer done in MIDI) and less repetition as I've added several new melodic ideas into the mix. This piece will be played during the main menu section, and possibly the first

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-81041171039722890942007-12-15T17:04:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:39.776Z

I finally got that level loader I started work on last week to work with the block sprite - now it loads actual functioning blocks from the text files! For example, behold this magical transformation.From this:

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-55055554358826946652007-12-14T21:45:00.000Z2007-12-16T11:52:43.846Z

Everyone seems to think the quality of a game is directly proportional to the power of the engine it was made with these days. Take the Blender Game Engine for example. It's a very good open-source engine that allows people to make 3D games without writing a single line of code, built in to Blender 3D (an open-source 3D application). You can have a simple puzzle game working in under an hour, and

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-315406835146566272007-12-14T10:09:00.000Z2007-12-14T10:40:50.084Z

Yes, you read correctly. The Slipslide 2 physics system is finally functional! But how on Earth did you undertake such a feat and succeed, you ask? Well, I shall elaborate for you.Firstly, I used the method I mentioned in a previous post where it stops you from moving when you hit a block. But, to avoid the problem of the player not being able to move again, I made it set the player's position so

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-54244800924665141572007-12-13T16:16:00.001Z2008-11-15T07:08:39.968Z

Planning a physics engine is very hard without a way of testing it, so I decided that while I put off coming up with an idea I would build the pre-alpha demo level. And it's actually working as far as it goes; there's a background image, area bounds, blocks and proper movement. The player-wall collisions are in place and working perfectly; thanks to a bit of fiddling.However, the block collisions

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-8289884259387266312007-12-12T20:50:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:40.326Z

It seems like the simplest thing in the world when you're playing it. It's for that reason that I attempted to recreate it as my first 3D game; it looked easy. When the player presses an arrow key, move in that direction. When they hit a block or a wall, stop. And yet the physics for such a game are actually ridiculously hard to program; I just can't work it out!You'd assume that all you have to

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-2179656682065158112007-12-12T12:17:00.000Z2008-11-15T07:08:40.753Z

Whilst trying to avoid starting work on the pre-alpha Slipslide demo, I've been messing around with other things like art and music. The main theme to Slipslide 1 was reasonably good, but it was done with MIDI and therefore sounded horrendously fake. So I redid it with better instruments in Psycle (which I recommend you try, it's the best open-source music creator I know of). It's now sounding

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-62653356162402209052007-12-11T12:58:00.000Z2007-12-12T12:41:17.132Z

To make things easier, I decided to make a plan of how Slipslide's logic system is going to work. The first step in doing that is deciding what things will require modules, and how the modules interact with each other. So, to simplify the process, I produced this flowchart. Although it may look a mess at first, it's actually quite simple if you look at it for a few minutes; for a better

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-79971615822036849362007-12-10T18:53:00.000Z2007-12-10T19:31:38.525Z

It's been a week now since I first began learning PyGame, and in that time I've gone through several tutorials. Some have been great; others less so. As there are so many bobbing about on the interweb I thought I'd write a guide to which ones are best. Essentially a guide to beginning with PyGame really.First off, the main source I've been using has been the PyGame documentation. This has links

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7283001745773057017.post-85094176065606310822007-12-09T17:34:00.000Z2007-12-09T19:24:35.159Z

This is definitely the most amazing thing I've seen all week. One single person wrote a fully functional RPG game from scratch in a mere forty hours! They also documented their progress as they made it on this page in case you're interested in reading about the development process. You're probably wondering why anyone would try something so insane; well, to quote the original article:"I did it

Animatinatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15435352401454364800noreply@blogger.com0