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General Discussion => Technology and Development => Computer Projects and Ideas => Topic started by: 123outerme on August 18, 2017, 06:08:21 pm

Title: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on August 18, 2017, 06:08:21 pm
I'm learning C; primarily for computer usage, although I would love to figure out CE development. I figured that a good way to progress my skills, as always with hobbyist programmers, is to make a game. However, I love Sorcery's sprites too much (especially @LDStudios ' great main character sprite that I have yet to give a name), so I can't just make a new game in a new genre. I have to stick to my roots and create a port! I plan to make this version another fully-fledged port of the CSE original.

It's built in C using SDL (https://www.libsdl.org/). SDL can also combine with OpenGL for all of you OpenGL beasts, although I'm not gonna be using that for this project. Here's the Github repo if you want it (https://github.com/123outerme/Sorcery-of-SDL/). Here's the list of stuff I have to get done for me to call the engine complete, and then the stuff for me to call the game complete:
Spoiler For Engine Checklist - DONE!:
* Turn rendering from individual PNGs to spritesheet rendering
* Reading from a different line for a different map
* Collision detection
* Make user movement locked during text box stuff
* Menu screen
* Help menu
* Save file
* Random battles
* Map transitions
Spoiler For Game Checklist - DONE!:
* Make all maps
* Add all enemies
* Add all attacks
* Add all boss quips and NPC text
* Add menus
* Add item pickups
* Add overworld HUD
Spoiler For Video:

(Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zefgDFBwr)
(go here for all screenshots) (http://imgur.com/a/90eEZ)
In this new screenshot, I show off the general flow of the game, the intro text, etc., and provide a full-res, full-speed glimpse into Sorcery!

I've released SoU in Release Candidate form now. You can download it below this text. If you wish to build it, download SorceryOfUvtutuPCbin.zip and run a_makeWindows.bat in the build subfolder. Linux currently compiles as well, but you'll have to run the commands by following the instructions in a_makeLinux.txt, which I explain why in there. Note that the Linux version (at least for me on my Linux VM) currently doesn't work; specifically, it segfaults trying to draw the map. If you can get it to run without crashing, let me know. If you are on Windows and you want to download the .exe without having to build it (especially if you don't have GCC), then download SorceryOfUvutuPC.zip. It'll have all the tools you need to run a pre-built version of Sorcery.

Download the newest release of Sorcery of Uvutu PC here:
https://github.com/123outerme/Sorcery-of-SDL/releases
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: TIfanx1999 on August 18, 2017, 06:18:51 pm
That's awesome, good luck on this, and thanks for crossposting! :D
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on August 18, 2017, 06:57:58 pm
Quote from: Art_of_camelot on August 18, 2017, 06:18:51 pm
That's awesome, good luck on this, and thanks for crossposting! :D
Thanks! I'm pretty confident I can complete this project now, since all the maps are already made!
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on August 23, 2017, 02:38:31 pm
I've done a lot more work on Sorcery PC, including doing the overworld menu and Stats sub-menu, so here that is:

(http://i.imgur.com/rKBWtgm.gif)
(go here for all screenshots) (http://imgur.com/a/90eEZ)
I also show off loading a save file, and the new font I'm using to avoid legal issues with TI. This font is a very slightly modified version of one found here (https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/). It's a very retro font, and the closest one I could find to the TI-84+'s font without doing too much research.
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on August 23, 2017, 08:30:44 pm
I've done a lot more work and it's looking really good so far, if I do say so myself. It's taken me quite a while, but I have a lot of the engine code already done! Just random battles need to be implemented, and the game engine will be done, pretty much. Here's a new screenshot:
(http://i.imgur.com/Ym1vaTt.gif)
I finally show you guys the collision I did. I also showed off the custom text input routine, basic items menu, and a little more. I also implemented NPCs in houses this build, but totally forgot to show it off.
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on August 25, 2017, 06:48:13 pm
No updates on custom keymapping, which is still in the conceptual phase, or being able to run my game without Code::Blocks, which is still in the I-don't-even-know-where-to-begin phase but I do have battles to show off ;)

(http://i.imgur.com/udOitXV.gif)
Here, I also show off NPCs in houses (which I added last update, but forgot to show off), my new take on the name entry screen, and more! I'm really excited to almost be entirely done with the whole engine! Except you can't use upgrade points yet, fight bosses, or acquire items yet, but that'll be easy to do.

Aside from all the gameplay work, I was thinking about maybe redoing all of the "story" in Sorcery (across all platforms) to something that actually fits the title. As I was thinking, I realized that the title had not a whole lot to do with the game. Sure, you can be a sorcerer if you use magic attacks, but it's not something that's forced. Sure, you can say that the World 8 Boss kinda uses a magic attack (if he uses the attack I remember thinking about giving him), but there's nothing about Sorcery in Sorcery of Uvutu. I wanted to get a little feedback from the community, since this would be a really great opportunity to solidify the narrative and stop joking to myself "Sorcery has a plot?" So, in essence, I wanted to know who thinks I should rewrite/redo/actually write the story, since it's been on my mind.
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: TIfanx1999 on August 25, 2017, 09:58:25 pm
Looking good! :D
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on September 05, 2017, 01:27:29 pm
Yet again, I haven't worked on configurable key bindings, or world-sized maps. However, I've added chest and boss display (only chest shown off here). As well, bosses properly trigger battles.

(https://i.imgur.com/30DrIDM.gif)
I also show off the innkeeper, who actually does heal, and another battle.
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on September 05, 2017, 09:56:48 pm
I'm going back to school tomorrow, so I figured I'd do more work on this project, seeing as I'll probably be working less on Sorcery PC. I figured I'd knock out some features that were looming over my head for quite a while. I got (almost) full item functionality programmed in! Seeing as I'll be more busy, I figured I would make another screenshot to show off these things before I either forgot about what changed or lost steam entirely. All that's left to do now is a few tweaks, adding in the teleport stone drops and functionality, and then NPC and boss text!

(https://i.imgur.com/c0Xb5Zl.gif)
Yes, I know the dialog box that pops up here doesn't specify the item. That will be fixed whenever I get around to it, but it's getting later and later and I don't want to oversleep on the first day.
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on September 11, 2017, 10:37:34 pm
Update: No screenshot update yet, as most things left don't impact anything visual. I have, however, reworked some code to allow the move upgrader to finally work, and have also finally allowed custom keymapping! The keymapping will be saved in the savefile, but if anyone thinks I should make a config file I'll definitely do that and add some nice other options as well! The default is the layout I've been using, WASD, Space to act as 2nd (aka an Interact button), and Esc to act as Mode (aka the Menu button). However, once I'm done, you'll be able to go to a config menu to change the keymapping to anything you like! Have fun with different keymappings and tune your layout to your desires! Or, at least you better, or I'm gonna ask for some money in exchange for the couple of hours I pondered and worked on it ;)
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: Jonson26 on September 12, 2017, 03:19:08 pm
Inception-like idea:
Maybe we could port the pc port to the nspire? :D
Spoiler For Spoiler:
And then port that port of a port somewhere else.
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on September 12, 2017, 06:10:56 pm
Quote from: Jonson26 on September 12, 2017, 03:19:08 pm
Inception-like idea:
Maybe we could port the pc port to the nspire? :D
Spoiler For Spoiler:
And then port that port of a port somewhere else.
I like the idea! My original plan was to port the CSE original to the Nspire, but as I focused more and more on the monochrome version, it fell through. I really like that idea, though! If in any way you can point me in the right direction (other than the Nspire C stuff, I already know about that) or help, that'd be awesome!
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: TIfanx1999 on September 12, 2017, 06:53:13 pm
Before you know it, Sorcery of Uvutu will be available on all platforms. :P
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on September 16, 2017, 06:00:43 pm
And strangely, I find myself nearing the end of development for this game sooner than I anticipated. I've added many things that so far it has lacked, including all NPC text, boss quips before your battle, move upgrading, and more. With the completion of the code that makes your teleport Stone, an essential item for game progress, function correctly, it appears it can be played fully, just like the CSE original. However, I could test every single possible interaction to confirm this, or I could do it the more fun way, both for you and for I, and release it into public beta!
Public beta will come soon; just as soon as I confirm that the game builds and runs perfectly fine on machines other than my own. If you'd like to do that (and I'll put a :P right here when I've found my person -> :P), please PM me or highlight me on IRC. All you need, as far as I know, is my distributed package, and a computer. I have custom build scripts for both Windows and Linux (and Mac too, pretty sure the Linux script will work on Mac).

And now, for a screenshot! However, this is different than a normal screenshot, because it's a video, not a gif! Every tool I've used to convert mp4s to gifs either reduce the quality pretty bad, or lower the framerate to ~10 FPS. I decided that neither were acceptable to showing off a soon-to-be-finished product, so I just uploaded the mp4 straight to Youtube!
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on September 18, 2017, 03:29:24 pm
Thanks to my testers, I've confirmed that SoU can successfully build and run on Windows 10, Windows 7, and Linux (Ubuntu at least). Let me know if your version works or doesn't work. So far, I know that when I was testing it on my Linux VM, I got a segfault after creating a new game, after passing the intro text. I've figured out it was something about drawing tiles, but it looked to be a fault of the SDL library on Linux, not of my own fault. Let me know if you can help me with debugging and getting around this issue. If you want to see the full synopsis of this problem, you can find it as a question I asked on StackOverflow here (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46286106/why-does-this-rendercopyex-throw-a-segfault). Otherwise, the game should totally work. However, I've limited your progression to just the first world; all 8 worlds will come with the official v1.0 release!

Download SorceryOfUvutuPCbin.zip (build it yourself): https://www.dropbox.com/s/jrc71i7xhus6miv/SorceryOfUvutuPCbin.zip?dl=0
Download SorceryOfUvutuPC.zip (prebuilt): https://www.dropbox.com/s/vs58md8g4fdj49x/SorceryOfUvutuPC.zip?dl=0
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on September 19, 2017, 10:32:56 pm
I decided I wanted Sorcery PC to be a little less old-school and a straight port of the CSE version, so I added a lot more visual flare! The opening text fades in from black, the character sprite moves around per-pixel (although still in tile-sized chunks), attacking animations now highlight who's attacking with more style, and more! I updated the OP to include the download links, which I'm now hosting off GitHub instead of Dropbox. Here's the screenshot:

I show the same things off as before, but with a lot more visual style, emphasizing the work I did to make everything pop and feel more lively on a more powerful machine! I figured since I had the space and speed for complicated animations and movement, I figured I might as well put it to good use. I can fine-tune the look of all my animations, so give me some feedback on what you (dis)like!
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: Jonson26 on September 20, 2017, 04:10:21 am
Very cool game!  :) I only feel bad about killing the apeman...
Besides, will you expand the story, or is it the final version? (It's a "little" bit short, even for me... :P)
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on September 20, 2017, 03:17:04 pm
Quote from: Jonson26 on September 20, 2017, 04:10:21 am
Very cool game!  :) I only feel bad about killing the apeman...
Besides, will you expand the story, or is it the final version? (It's a "little" bit short, even for me... :P)
Thanks! I'm glad you like it! It's okay about the Apeman, he was in league with all the other bosses...
I plan to at least alter the story somewhat, if not totally rewrite it a la a full DX remake. Due to the hardware limitations, textbox character limits, my own creative inexperience in the realm of storytelling, and various other factors, on the CSE and monochrome versions, the storyline was very short and very basic. If I do a full remake of the story, however, I plan to release it as a seperate title; Sorcery of Uvutu DX. I'm fully aware of the faults of the story in Sorcery of Uvutu CSE and Monochrome (meaning, there are many, and I acknowledge each one), so I plan to at least do a little more to enrich the world I've built.

EDIT: Sorcery of Uvutu v1.1.1rc has been released! I fixed the issue where custom keymapping doesn't save/load, but if anyone's still experiencing this, please let me know. I also added the ability to go back to the main menu when you Save & Quit, instead of just closing the game, and changed the attack text in the Stats menu and the New Move menu from Up/Left/Down/Right to ^/</V/>, for ease of reading and text alignment. Download it from the OP, where the latest releases will always be.
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: Jonson26 on September 21, 2017, 07:54:42 am
Oh. So there's also a monochrome version? 68k?
Also, if you are planning to support language packs, i'm willing to do a translation into German, French and Polish.
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on September 25, 2017, 03:04:43 pm
Quote from: Jonson26 on September 21, 2017, 07:54:42 am
Oh. So there's also a monochrome version? 68k?
Also, if you are planning to support language packs, i'm willing to do a translation into German, French and Polish.
The monochrome version is for the TI-83+ series, and yes, it's out.
I most likely will be able to support language packs. All of my text is in array literals defined by #defines, so I know there's a way to load the text in, if I redo the way the array literals load. I can start giving you the text I need translated, if you want to get working on that! I can assist with the French translation if necessary (I do know enough French to make basic conversation), but if you're more of a capable French speaker than that, I'm fine with letting you do the translating.
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: Jonson26 on September 25, 2017, 03:12:49 pm
Well Polish is my mother language and I lived in Luxembourg for 5 years, so i know German, French and Luxemburgish really well. If you want I can also translate it into the lasty one as well. ;)
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on September 25, 2017, 03:15:17 pm
Quote from: Jonson26 on September 25, 2017, 03:12:49 pm
Well Polish is my mother language and I lived in Luxembourg for 5 years, so i know German, French and Luxemburgish really well. If you want I can also translate it into the lasty one as well. ;)
Awesome, that would be great! Whatever translating work you'd offer up would be fantastic. I'll PM you the text you'll need to translate.
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on October 02, 2017, 08:29:56 pm
Well, I've done it; I've finally released Sorcery of Uvutu PC! It's released under v1.0. I'll give you what did change between the release candidates, and then I'll talk about plans for the future. All download links and promotion material can be found in the original post, and in this one.

Right now, Sorcery of Uvutu is confirmed to work on Windows; both as a prebuilt executable, and as a self-built package. Unfortunately, all of my attempts to test on GNU-based machines have gone awry, so I'm depending on the community to help me on that front. As far as I know, Sorcery of Uvutu PC can't run on Linux, at least not on my Ubuntu VM, and another user confirmed issues. Not if it was compiled by the machine, anyways. I attempted to get Wine to work, but unfortunately it is too large to download to my VM, so I need to increase the space, but long story short I wiped the machine to reset it. I'm not sure how much space it needs, but a lot is already taken up by my stuff on the Windows side of the machine, so I don't know how much I have to spare. Again, the same user who reported issues with the Linux binaries found that the pre-buitl verison worked with Wine, although to what extent remains to be seem. If you can get Sorcery working or understand what the problem is and how to fix it, please, let me know, I'd love to have my project work on as many computers as possible!

Sorcery of Uvutu v1.0, as opposed to the Release Candidate versions, allows players to experience the game past the first world. Of course, this was done to ensure that there were no bugs present in the next worlds, and trust me, there were lots. As for the players who tried the Release Candidate versions, I thank you so much for helping me test and ensuring that various issues were accounted for and fixed accordingly. Unfortunately for the RC testers, if you beat the Plain Plains boss, you will have to create new save files. Why? Because you defeated the first boss, and that makes him go away. In the versions you tested, he never gave you the all-important Teleport Stone to let you progress through the worlds. In essence, you are stuck in World 1. Sorry for this minor inconvenience, but I hope you enjoy the second playthrough of Plain Plains! I'm sure you'll notice this time that the name is not really descriptive of the area; plains don't have lots of trees.

Going forward, I would love to add music. I have a friend who would like to do music, but he's pretty busy right now, so it'll have to come sometime later. On top of that, I'd have to learn the SDL_mixer library, and while that's not as hard as creating a soundtrack, it's nothing to scoff at. As well, I'd love to do a remake version that fixes many of the gameplay and story aspects that a lot said needed work, adds some additional features, and gives new content. Let me know if you're interested in a Director's Cut-esque remake. That being said, I like the original version as it stands, since it's a more accurate representation of the work I did on the CSE and monochrome 84+ versions of the game. This is by far my largest project, in terms of scope of potential player base; of course it should come to represent how much I'm worth as a game creator, but there's a certain aspect of legacy that I like to capture as well. That would be less the focus in a DX remake, but I think it would be all the better for it, giving players different opportunities to experience my vision in a more unrestricted sense. However, despite the insistence I have on keeping Sorcery PC mostly identical to the original TI calculator releases, I hope you find that it's great and unique!

As for other projects, now that Sorcery is complete, I have a couple ideas for new projects. Stay tuned for any announcements if you like my work, but the theme here will likely be remakes. If you're familiar with my work when I first started programming on the calculators, then you will love to hear what I've got brewing. I plan on having something playable (or at least worthy of a screenshot sent around on IRC) decently soon, although at this point I'm probably going to take a little break to get the programmer juice flowing again.


Download here: https://github.com/123outerme/Sorcery-of-SDL/releases
Report issues here: https://github.com/123outerme/Sorcery-of-SDL/issues
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: TIfanx1999 on October 03, 2017, 06:11:57 pm
Hey, congrats on the full release. I'll have to give the finished version a playthrough. :) In regards to a directors cut, maybe it'd be better to do a sequel and incorporated what changes you would have made into that instead.
Title: Re: Sorcery of Uvutu PC Port
Post by: 123outerme on October 10, 2017, 09:11:09 pm
Quote from: Art_of_camelot on October 03, 2017, 06:11:57 pm
Hey, congrats on the full release. I'll have to give the finished version a playthrough. :) In regards to a directors cut, maybe it'd be better to do a sequel and incorporated what changes you would have made into that instead.
Thanks! I'm glad to have finished. I think a sequel would be a wise choice, although it'd mean I'd have to make more maps :P Ah well, I could do that.

My sincerest apologies for not having Linux compatibility in the first place. As @gameblabla helped basically hand-hold me through, I scotch-taped v1.0 together so that it worked on Windows, but consistently crashed on Linux. Thanks to his efforts (no really, he did like 80% of the digging on this), I was able to see how and where I had scotch tape in the engine, and thankfully patched it up with some real compatibility. I've tested it myself, Sorcery of Uvutu is officially not broken for Linux! And by that logic, it's compatible. However, there have been some reports about glitchy graphics, and I've done my best to fix what I know is glitchy, so please report them if you find them. Here's the link if you missed it:

https://github.com/123outerme/Sorcery-of-SDL/releases