Assault Andy Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
Registered 29/07/2002
Points 5686
6th June, 2009 at 06:59:17 -
Hey everyone,
I'm thinking about writing a few articles on various topics, mainly just on some things I have found useful in MMF2. And perhaps some features/extensions/methods of programming that are probably being overlooked.
I was wondering if there are any particular topics that anyone would like me to cover? I'd be happy to consider writing about anything click-related.
What the current archive of articles still lacks is a good piece on how to make a realistic race car movement, dunno if that's your thing but it would be awesome.
I was thinking of writing some articles after my finals are over. After doing the Lua thing. Suppose I should borrow this topic
I'm thinking about writing a continually updated article about basic klik stuff that newbies tend to miss, like timers. Not sure what else, though, lol. Maybe encouraging them to make a flowchart
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
I would have to second the racecar movement thing.
Your just jealous that you're not as awesome as me.
(And my megaman avatar )
Assault Andy Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
Registered 29/07/2002
Points 5686
7th June, 2009 at 00:18:37 -
Hayo - I would write an article about a realistic car engine, however the way I would do it at the moment is to use the beta version of Box 2D. This isn't publicly available so I'll hold off that article until everyone is able to download it. I have made realistic car engines with Chipmunk Phizix, but at high speeds the extension doesn't handle collisions very well (hence box2d is much better). A racing car example comes with Chipmunk Phizix if you are still interested in using that extension.
I think we need a really informative and comprehensive article about running klik games .. I get too often confused about the options available for the application and when people mention things about frame rates affecting games. Like the application properties that are given like machine independant speed and what exactly those options do and how they will affect your game/application. And sound and graphics options. And what you can do to ensure your game runs well on most computers.
Sure, there's bits and pieces scattered over the site about it .. but it'd be nice if someone could just 'bring it all home' and wrap it up for everyone in a nutshell optimising game options and properties. Especially with frame rates and running speeds.
Andy, I'd love to read a reflective article on the development of Faerie Solitaire. You might also find it quite interesting to write, while it's on a wave of success after just being released. I find these articles fascinating especially when the developer talks about decisions that were withdrawn or re-thought. Sort of like a Director's Commentary. Retro Remakes has a Portmortem forum where developers can reflect on released (or not) games, what went right/wrong and what they learned from making it. I don't like to use the word "Postmortem" because doesn't that imply that the game died (i.e. was a faliure)? Anyway, a couple I've found quite interesting, off the top of my head:
Edit: Just a couple of ideas, if you need any in particular:
Mention whether Faerie Solitaire was intended to be a commercial product from the start, or if you guys realised that it was turning out to be professional-quality and made the decision mid-way through development.
Talk about what it was like working in a team; project management, that sort of thing. Was one member a project manager?
Your idea is also a good one. I'd like to read about optimisation. If not Assault Andy, then I think Dr. James knows a fair bit about graphical optimisation and someone like Pixelthief could tell us a lot about code optimisation. Optimisation is a silly word and I'm sick of typing it already. Good luck to whoever writes that article.
it could be pretty damn useful though considering how easily things can get out of hand if you decide to start throwing objects around liberally.
It's a pity Tigerworks' A to Z of click died ages ago (as far as i'm aware) that had some great information on how the runtime works.
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Assault Andy Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
Registered 29/07/2002
Points 5686
14th June, 2009 at 01:15:55 -
A postmortem sounds like a good idea. There's a lot to write about! I did a lot of optimization and there were things that we had to eventually cut from the game. So I'm sure it would be valuable if I explained all of the techniques that I used in creating the game with Brian.
I might also do a series of articles based on things you might not know how to use, or things you might not realise are very useful - like what jthongbai said.
One thing I could never work out years go when I was trying to make an RPG was an inventory displayed as the Item name and Amount of those items, This could then be sorted by amount.
That's also something that would be useful for a leader board in a sports game
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Assault Andy Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
Registered 29/07/2002
Points 5686
15th June, 2009 at 00:52:59 -
AndyUK - Check out the example that I made for [EclektiK] at the top of this frame. It shows scores associated with a player's name and how to order them by number.
Flowcharts! .. LoL! ... I took a college class on flowcharting. It confused the hell out of me, but I was the only one in the class to get an A.
Still don't exactly understand the damn things. What exactly is the point of flowcharting? It seems to confuse more than it actually helps.
You should make an article about Flowcharting! ... omg.
It's pretty bad when you get an A for a class that you never even learned anything in, but that's what happened. I put the right shapes and lines and text together, but if you asked me to flowchart something right now, there's almost no chance that I would be able to.
Blood of the Ancient One, Seen only as Shadow, Faster than Lightning, Fierce as the Greatest Dragon, Nearly Invisible, Floating in a Dream, Entered through the Demon Door, Destroyer of Evil in a Realm with a Red Sky Scarred, Who could I be ?
the old one had a lot of constraints
-pics had to be named numbers from zero to n. 0, 1, 2, 3, ..., n
-script url had to have a ?max=n peramerter so it new how many pictures were in the directory.
-all pictures had to be of the same file extension
the new one removes all those constraints
-pictures can be named anything
-pictures can be any image file type
-script url takes no perameters (it determines itself the number of images)
ill write up a readme/installer soon and include source files. all you have to do is change a single value in the script to get it to work with your own host (the value is the url to the directory the script is in on your host). then link to the php script instead of putting an image url for your avatar. should work with any forum that doesnt require the link to be an image link.
Originally Posted by MBK Flowcharts! .. LoL! ... I took a college class on flowcharting. It confused the hell out of me, but I was the only one in the class to get an A.
Still don't exactly understand the damn things. What exactly is the point of flowcharting? It seems to confuse more than it actually helps.
You should make an article about Flowcharting! ... omg.
It's pretty bad when you get an A for a class that you never even learned anything in, but that's what happened. I put the right shapes and lines and text together, but if you asked me to flowchart something right now, there's almost no chance that I would be able to.
All those other ideas are good too.
I think flowcharting can be useful, it really depends on how complicated your coding is.
Also, remember that it is not common to be using a lot of "IF, THEN, IF NOT, OR" sort of programming in MMF.
I think I remember there was an extension that let you use those commands somehow?
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Edited by [EclektiK]
Just not my thing, makes me want to through something out the window. 
I'm not quite sure what kind of articles I'm looking for, but I'd say an OINC article or two would do me good.
