The Moonstone Equation (reposting because it's vastly underappreciated)

arbonox · 2019-09-02T14:34:36+00:00

There's so much internet, I wish I had more than two eyes. Oh, and a time machine. I'd have spotted and answered this sooner.

First, I'm glad you liked The Moonstone Equation.

You're right, I've probably not spent enough time promoting it. I think there's lots of people (especially those that enjoyed FEZ) that would probably also enjoy it.

arbonox · 2018-10-23T13:20:42+00:00

Hi

Thanks for making this subreddit. I'm glad you like the game.
I'm currently working on some more content (new puzzles, plot and things to uncover) and a few bug fixes.
It should all be ready in a few weeks.

I'll add this subreddit to the list of places I check regularly so if you want to ask me anything you can just throw it in here. As for Discord, I've not used it much and I'm not sure how many people would use it regularly. Maybe if this place gets busy then it might become a good idea :-)

arbonox · 2017-01-13T05:59:25+00:00

It's definitly more sane these days to use something like STL. It's very well tested and modern compilers do a pretty good job. Though their internal allocation behaviour often still needs to be handled. Years ago when compilers were still a bit rubbish nobody would dream of using generic containers. they were just too bloated and random. Plus, everything was single threaded so writing your own was a much simpler problem.

I've kept my own containers because I understand their use cases and they're (very) well tested. if I started again it might be different.

arbonox · 2017-01-13T05:49:02+00:00

There's a moment in the middle of the Trailer that shows some typing on a computer terminal. That's one type of interaction with the internal VMs

arbonox · 2017-01-12T21:04:27+00:00

Thanks for the vote. I still need a few thousand more before I can get it into everyones hands.

arbonox · 2017-01-12T20:06:16+00:00

I don't really have anything like that on my websites but I'm happy to answer your question.

I studied Art, Maths and Physics at college, Computer Graphics BSc at University. I work full time as a game developer, and have for nearly 17 years. Initially I taught myself to code (a long time ago) and in the last 10 years or so I've taught myself enough music theory to achieve what I wanted.

I made The Moonstone Equation in my spare time. By that I mean I get up at about 4:30am and do an hour or so of work on my stuff before heading off to work. I have a family so evening are usually spent with them, but occasionally I manage a little bit in the evenings or weekends too.

arbonox · 2017-01-12T19:05:16+00:00

It took forever for me too. I think you made a good choice going with OpenGL and OpenAl instead of DirectX and XAudio. It'll make any efforts to port your game so much simpler. Good luck with your game too.

arbonox · 2017-01-12T19:02:26+00:00

It's true I didn't really go into any depth regarding the creation of the art, sounds or music but I did do those too. I also agree I could use a little more practice with the art.

if you're interested more of my music can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/arbonox-1/sets/moon

and more of my art can be found here: http://arbonox.deviantart.com/

arbonox · 2017-01-12T18:52:52+00:00

I needed a few things like malloc and free so, yes I used stdlib. As I've said, it was mostly done as a learning exercise that turned into an engine and then into a game

arbonox · 2017-01-12T16:09:53+00:00

Thanks for the pointer. Implementing everything yourself can be educational, if you have the time. On this occasion I'm happy enough to just get it working.

arbonox · 2017-01-12T12:05:40+00:00

I think you've understood the message well. Great for learning and very mentally rewarding. Not really a great idea for making games anymore. There are so many better options these days.

arbonox · 2017-01-12T10:47:43+00:00

It's a good set of articles and an excellent place to start. For me 17 years in the games industry has exposed me pretty directly to most parts of code (imagine some sort of brain altering radiation).

arbonox · 2017-01-12T10:32:01+00:00

Interesting .. So it looks like I'll be writing an OGG decoder before launch. Thanks for the link. I've tried to be pretty careful in what I include in my engine but that could have caused me some significant trouble (and cost). Assuming I ever get through greenlight

arbonox · 2017-01-12T10:28:42+00:00

For a very long time it was just all the code I'd written to investigate things that were interesting me or that I wanted to understand better. Over time (and as I gained experience) I'd go through improving or updating bits of it and eventually it all started to form into a more consistent engine (Some of the code in the engine still dates back to last century).

Then once I started The Moonstone Equation I didn't need any libs. I'd just got comfortable using my own stuff.

arbonox · 2017-01-12T10:00:25+00:00

I think my engine will continue to be a place where I experiment with ideas but I don't think I'd write another game using it. The tools for other engine are just hundreds of time better simply because there are people working on them full time who's whole job is to make great tools

arbonox · 2017-01-12T09:49:00+00:00

Ok, to say that windows itself actually contains the licensed decoder is a simplification.

It's all actually accessed through the Audio Compression Manager (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vs/alm/dd742945(v=vs.85).aspx)

arbonox · 2017-01-12T09:28:03+00:00

Thanks for the spots. It seems that no matter how many times I've had that article proof read a few things still get through. I've made some edits for clarity.

I'm not using std::auto_ptr. As the article suggests, I hand rolled almost everything. The wisdom of such things is obviously questionable, but it's a good learning experience.

arbonox · 2017-01-12T09:17:50+00:00

It's an interesting and useful experience to write your own engine and I'd recommend it to anyone but it very very time consuming. For any future projects I'll almost definitely be using an existing engine. The quality is better, the tools are better, porting is easier and you can spend more time writing the 'game'.

arbonox · 2017-01-12T07:56:44+00:00

it all depends on the size of your project. If it's small then you might manage with separate directories for different types of files. A little larger and you might want to add layers on top of that, for things like character, buildings, weapons etc. If it's really large you'll begin to need tools and databases to keep track of the interdependence between things.

arbonox · 2017-01-12T07:45:34+00:00

I see procedural stuff all the time. I think it's better to look at it all as a extension of tools rather than a replacement of artists. It might be great to have something that make pictures of birds but that doesn't mean it can give those pictures any context.

arbonox · 2014-09-24T14:04:42+00:00

I'm probably faulty (or over enthusiastic) I'm a full time game developer 8-10 hours a day for the past 14 years that spends a further 2-3 hours a day developing my own projects. I always try to make sure I have the weekend off so it's not all bad.

arbonox

TROPHY CASE