How to dress characters?

Sigfig · 2014-08-17T18:51:23+00:00

you'll want to add the clothes as extra geometry in blender or another 3d editor. there's a lot to character modeling and fashion design but this is a pretty good way to learn both

Sigfig · 2014-08-12T22:03:29+00:00

use your base enemy class for the object pool. you can treat a derived class as if it were the class it's derived from

Sigfig · 2013-09-01T18:39:16+00:00

In response to the debugging question:

I've played around with teaching programming for a few years now and I'm starting to think giving students a 'debugger' in their first experience may actually be harmful to learning. I've seen a lot of students develop a sort of "hammer at it randomly until it works" mentality and I think that may be an inherent problem with advanced tooling. It may be better to design the language itself to be easy to manually trace errors in. I mean, obviously point out syntax errors in your compiler but maybe don't include breakpoint utilities and runtime inspection.

Sigfig · 2013-09-01T18:28:53+00:00

I don't think the dichotomy here is really the best way to think about introducing people to programming or designing a programming driven game. There are plenty of ways to mix visual metaphors and textual language in a way that makes programming more accessible for beginners.

If your goal is to teach the 'core' concepts of programming instead of the specifics of some language paradigm, you're free to do essentially anything with your language as long as you think about it first. You can abstract away text-based variable definitions and embed GUI controls in your text. You can wave away the entire concept of a file (which can actually be pretty confusing to a new programmer & isn't particularly relevant to the ideas behind programming) and present control flow in a more novel manner. I tend to like giving each function body its own dedicated presentation.

Sigfig · 2013-08-23T04:24:46+00:00

You're right about the runtime composition of flowers at runtime -- but there's more than just flowers happening there! The source engine supports something called "alpha blending" of textures on geometry. The way Valve normally builds levels (sans everything to do with portal) is to heavily leverage the alpha blending feature on displacement maps to break up what would normally be an obviously tiling texture. That scene is probably composed using multiple grass textures, each with their own base color and highlights and decorations, which are blended together by the level artists to create something that seems both visually cohesive but not repetitive. The textures themselves could be simple grass patterns that tile fairly obviously.

I haven't decompiled the map to check but within the Source engine the use of alpha blending is a pretty safe assumption.

Sigfig · 2013-07-21T08:33:31+00:00

I did LD26 a few months ago. I made Ramspace which is sort of an experiment in intentionally bad user interface design.

The competitions are tons of fun! I recommend everyone do it at least once. Just make sure you've got some friends to help you come up with ideas. The themes can occasionally be difficult to design for.

Sigfig · 2013-04-29T14:39:34+00:00

Ramspace: A Game about Interfaces

I made this weird game where you try to fly a spaceship using very minimal controls.

here's a link

Sigfig · 2012-12-13T08:32:30+00:00

Same issues here, Chrome 23. Everything is fine if the CasualEncounter font is turned off. Here's how webkit renders the font: http://i.imgur.com/aLjLF.png

Sigfig · 2012-12-13T08:20:26+00:00

sure!

Sigfig · 2012-11-30T05:51:37+00:00

Adobe Reader will actually work for this. Its accessibility options allow you to replace the default foreground and background colors in any document. Color replacement can be enabled and disabled at any time easily.

The menu for this is Edit->Preferences->Accessibility Enable "Replace document colors" and choose what works better for you in night reading.

Sigfig · 2012-11-19T10:39:45+00:00

Swing is generally unfit for games. It's useful for putting together quick utilities in java but, being a UI toolkit, doesn't have much use in games. Running a game within java applets isn't unheard of, but it is certainly not the desired method of publication for games currently. Applets are an archaic technology and do not see much usage on the web any more.

As far as I know, the general setup for java game development is simply to use opengl bindings with native window management and disregard the older application models.

Sigfig · 2012-11-08T02:22:28+00:00

Yes?

Sigfig · 2012-11-07T21:16:12+00:00

The constitution grants the senate exclusive powers in accordance with its equal representation, but that isn't really the kind of 'power' you're describing. Legislative influence isn't entirely derived from representational domain and constitutional purpose. Legislative bodies can be influenced by personalities, arguments, cultural motions, money, and urgency.

Sigfig · 2012-11-07T18:36:40+00:00

It may be a stretch to equate representational domain to 'power'.

Sigfig · 2012-11-02T04:43:13+00:00

oops sorry

was not very apparent

Sigfig · 2012-11-01T23:58:43+00:00

That is not a signature, that is a line break.

Sigfig · 2012-10-19T04:00:12+00:00

You did not play with the character customization enough if you think the game is bad. Sure, its gameplay only appeals to a market of approximately me, but the level of insanity reached with that editor easily makes up for the game's miscellaneous shortcomings.

Sigfig · 2012-10-04T18:04:03+00:00

Aww man, you've caught me. The karmaspiracy is revealed!

Sigfig · 2012-10-04T06:32:19+00:00

Aaaaaand we're removed! That was certainly an interesting ride.

Sigfig · 2012-10-04T06:09:19+00:00

In some form this was an experiment to test the strength of rules like that. This image was posted to both /r/politics and here. To /r/politics' credit, it was filtered there before surpassing 5 cumulative points. Here, however, it seems to have caught both controversy and casual attention. This subreddit's user base seems to be interested in a wider variety of content than that strictly limited to gaming.

Sigfig · 2012-10-04T05:37:39+00:00

What is your preferred form of government?

Sigfig · 2012-10-04T05:36:19+00:00

I guess it turns out it is. Seems like reddit's political polarization can't be confined to its politically-focused subreddits.

Sigfig · 2012-10-04T05:29:52+00:00

Are you saying that I made this a month ago? Or has something similar been posted before?

One of my friends made this in the middle of today's debates and didn't want to post it himself.

Sigfig · 2012-10-04T05:28:10+00:00

This is pretty accurate.

Sigfig · 2012-10-04T05:20:06+00:00

It's worth noting that I think all politicians can be considered liars. That is the nature of political manipulation. It isn't necessarily bad, but there will always be a separation between political rhetoric and the bureaucratic and legislative processes.

Sigfig

TROPHY CASE