[Game] Archmage Gray

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SpeedMaster
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by SpeedMaster » 28 Mar 2019, 14:48

Gio wrote:
26 Mar 2019, 09:56
Now that you mention it, changing it to a space theme should indeed be doable...
Hacked... :mrgreen:
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Gio
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by Gio » 28 Mar 2019, 15:00

SpeedMaster wrote:
28 Mar 2019, 14:48
Hacked... :mrgreen:
Awesome :bravo:
Helgef
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by Helgef » 02 Jun 2019, 03:04

:salute: awesome, such a great job! :bravo:

Cheers, and thank you very much sharing.
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Gio
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by Gio » 05 Jun 2019, 11:39

Thanks for the feedback Helgef :D

I really wanted to see more games like this one in these forums. We have a lot of unexplored potential for game development in AutoHotkey :thumbup:
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Gio
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by Gio » 26 Jul 2019, 22:40

:arrow: New Version (1.01) made available this date (26/07/2019).
Bugfixes:
-> Enemies no longer flicker directions when they reach the players Y position.
-> Lexiko Scroll 4 (Freeze enemies) no longer causes inactive enemies to seemingly pop out of nowhere if you move up quickly while it is in effect.
Improvements:
-> The tree drawing routine was made a lot smarter: Less awkward "tree over tree" drawings should occur (tree groups will remain, only the drawing order of the trees is now better).
-> Intro (main theme) has received a quality update (less cripling sounds, more audio quality). Credits and thanks to DRocks.
-> Player progress is now visually displayed: The game window frame will change and become progressively ornamented as the player moves up (starting at a certain point).


Thanks to all who commented thus far :thumbup:
DRocks
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by DRocks » 30 Jul 2019, 08:22

Cool! Nice update :D
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Gio
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by Gio » 26 Dec 2020, 21:14

Hello there :wave:

I decided to give Archmage Gray some additional programmer worktime this holiday. This post is to announce the newest version 1.02 update.

The biggest changes: the game now runs ~60FPS (as opposed to ~20FPS from v1.01) and there is a score tracker routine :dance:

For those curious, this FPS increase was achieved by separating the games main looping routines into drawing and moving routines. Previously, if FPS were increased, actor movement (enemies, attacks, player, etc) would move faster, so although possible, it wasnt very confotable to run the game 60 loops/sec. Right now you can adjust the delays of either actor movement routines OR drawing routines, which means the game can draw on the screen 60x/sec with the actors moving only 20x/sec (or less).

For anyone trying to program a game form scratch in the future: Actions in a game must NOT be anchored to the FPS loop if the FPS is supposed to be able to change without affecting the GamePlay itself. This is not hard to achieve, but the programmer must keep it in mind at all times when planning the code.

:arrow: there is also a new score system. This was a requested feature and i am glad it's finally here. The game is a short run if you don't die (~20 minutes), but it does seem fit to know how far you went if you actually end up dieing along the way. Best Scores will be saved in a file and displayed for comparisson in the beggining of a run and at the end of it. Current scores for the run will also be displayed during gameplay. In the future i may add an infinite run mode for those willing to achieve the highest possible score of all.


Here are the full descriptions of the improvements and bugfixes for the new version 1.02+ :beer:

Version 1.02 Improvements (made available 26/12/2020):
Spoiler
laozhhaiJohn
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by laozhhaiJohn » 23 Mar 2021, 17:50

这个游戏是非常令人赞叹的。我作为autohotkey的初学者,编写一个简单功能的脚本已经很费力气了。您竟然用ahk编写了一个有趣的游戏,可以想象您付出多么大的精力和时间啊。致敬。


[Mod edit: Added DeepL transation:]
This game is very awesome. As a beginner in autohotkey, it was hard enough for me to write a script with simple functions. You have written an interesting game in ahk, imagine how much effort and time you put into it. I salute you.
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Gio
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by Gio » 24 Mar 2021, 10:35

Glad to hear you enjoyed the game LaozhhaiJohn.

I haven't really clocked how many hours this project took, but i have a figure in my mind of around ~100 hours. Besides the actual programming, there is a lot of work involved in drawing the sprites, specially regarding planning how they will work out in the animations. Not all assets even end up in the release version. I am not what you would call a seasoned sprite artist (i only had some basic paint.net skills), so i had no idea on things like "how to draw a tree sprite" etc. These requirements were (somewhat) met by watching youtube tutorials though (although artistic style is somewhat personal, you can actually "absorb" some ideas and incorporate them into your own unique style, so watching tutorial vids is a good idea indeed).

:arrow: there is just SO MUCH to talk about this subject (game making). I am quite upset not many people are asking questions and trading ideas about making games in our forums. If only 20% of those interested in the subject of automating games with AutoHotkey were also interested in the subject of making games with AutoHotkey, we would probably be seeing a lot of titles and rich discussions in these subforums.


On another note: although version 1.02 runs at ~60 FPS, animations are NOT YET being smoothed through the frames. I have already achieved this result on the background movement though (which greatly aids visual quality) and am planning another update soon.
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SpeedMaster
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by SpeedMaster » 25 Mar 2021, 08:36

Gio wrote:
24 Mar 2021, 10:35
there is a lot of work involved in drawing the sprites, specially regarding planning how they will work out in the animations
so i had no idea on things like "how to draw a tree sprite" etc...
I have made some games but I know that a simple mistake in the architecture can cost you a lot of time.
The games I have programmed are made in a very bad way (lack of knowledge :? ).
Making a game requires secret knowledge that you only learn in some books or in school.
laozhhaiJohn wrote:
23 Mar 2021, 17:50
there is just SO MUCH to talk about this subject (game making). I am quite upset not many people are asking questions and trading ideas about making games in our forums.

Your game is too complex for me. :crazy: Splitting and sharing very basic tutorials would be a good thing. :thumbup:
how you make the main character move in an empty room ? = "hello world" in game making
how you make the main character move in an infinite space room + scrolling background ?
how you make the main character move and stop at an obstacle ?

I notice that you don't use any sprite sheet =WRONG WAY!!
Unfortunately, there are no tutorials in AHK about interacting with a tilset file. :cry:

I find ascii games more interesting from a programming point of view.
there are a lot of free ascii tilesets. a 8x8 or 16x16 ascii png would be enough to start a tutorial in AHK. Making a 2d game is only manipulating and interacting with a png tileset file.
The artistic creation of the game is the business of the graphic designer and not the programmer.
I find that making a game by yourself is still fun. :D
Last edited by SpeedMaster on 23 Oct 2021, 05:02, edited 1 time in total.
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Gio
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by Gio » 25 Mar 2021, 10:26

Thanks for the input SpeedMaster :beer:

SpeedMaster wrote:
25 Mar 2021, 08:36
Your game is too complex for me. :crazy:

Sorry about that :roll:

I actually (somewhat) tried to make the code easier to read by separating everything into labels and functions, but i was mostly learning and experimenting all the way through this project, so i ended up with a lot of unnecessary complexity in the code.

This unnecessary complexity is something i could probably lessen (a lot) in a second project i think.

Splitting and sharing very basic tutorials would be a good thing. :thumbup:
how you make the main character move in an empty room ? = "hello world" in game making
how you make the main character move in an infinite space room + scrolling background ?
how you make the main character move and stop at an obstacle ?

This can be a good idea. I don't consider myself to be a pro game maker at this point, but given that i now have a completed project, maybe i could share some of the novice knowledge i acquired through it.

I notice that you don't use any sprite sheet = WRONG WAY!!
Unfortunately, there are no tutorials in AHK about interacting with a tilset file. :cry:

You are right. The decision to make all those .png files immediately and individualy available in a subfolder was a councious one though. I could have even hidden all sprites in a DLL OR some obscure file type OR even as MCode in the script, but i actually expected someone to open up one of those files in paint at some point and figure out they could easily mod the game (in fact, you actually did it youself when you changed the game into a space asteroid style shooter game :) ).

Do you still have that image btw? (it was lost on a forum DB update i think).

The artistic creation of the game is the business of the graphic designer and not the programmer.
I find that making a game by yourself is still fun. :D

I persoanly feel that games are over 90% artistic content really. The programmings role is to provide a means for all that art to fit together in an organized way. I am not great with art really, but i kinda forced myself to draw those sprites because i felt that it was a very important part of the game.

That being said, artistic assets are actually quite easy to obtain for non-artists these days. Sprite Artists can be hired for cheap in sites like Fiverr (Example: https://www.fiverr.com/search/gigs?query=sprite), but even if the project is not funded at all, other sites will even provide some free sprite sheets (Example: https://www.gameart2d.com/freebies.html) and others will provide free audio effects/music (Example: https://freesound.org/search/?q=laser) - just remember to always check licenses for all assets you intend to use.

I have drawn almost everything in Archmage Gray, but the audio effects/music were simply edited from existing CC0 ("free-for-comercial-use") assets. The reason i didn't use premade free sprites is because i felt that artistic styles had to match (in example: characters and trees/background had to have a similar drawing style) and i didn't want to look too much for a choice of assets that fit together well for my taste. Also, i had that feeling that if you are not going to draw anything in your game, it may feel as though you didn't make it at all).

On a second project i would probably opt for a balance between drawn and bought/received sprites so as to not lose as many hours drawing sprites as i did before (and also because i consider myself a noob artist :lol: ). If it was some game i was planning to sell though, assets would probably mostly be bought (for better quality and because nowadays players expect there be A LOT of content in a game).
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SpeedMaster
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by SpeedMaster » 25 Mar 2021, 12:01

Gio wrote:
25 Mar 2021, 10:26
I persoanly feel that games are over 90% artistic content really.
Of course a good graphic design makes the game more attractive for the user. But that doesn't mean that the script itself has any interest. Look at my mahjong game it has a good look at the output but the input (the script itself is very ugly).
If you want to discuss how to program a game and show new stuff, I think a simple ascii tileset is by far enough. :roll:
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SpeedMaster
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by SpeedMaster » 25 Mar 2021, 12:34

Gio wrote:
25 Mar 2021, 10:26
maybe i could share some of the novice knowledge i acquired through it.
Please, do it. It would be nice to learn new basic tricks. 8-)
Gio wrote:
25 Mar 2021, 10:26
The decision to make all those .png files immediately and individualy available in a subfolder was a councious one though.
unfortunately this is what spoils the appeal of the script because modern 2d games uses sprite sheet files and it is also taught in gaming schools.
Have a look at my game (AHKBAN). I used separate files only because I didn't know how to make the game otherwise. ( Once again a lack of knowledge ) ;)
Gio wrote:
25 Mar 2021, 10:26
Do you still have that image btw? (it was lost on a forum DB update i think).
I couldn't find it. I think I must have archived it somewhere.
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SpeedMaster
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Re: [Game] Archmage Gray

Post by SpeedMaster » 25 Mar 2021, 12:51

Here is a game that uses a spritesheet (the fisherman by ton80) The game is just an old AHK demo (before GDIP) never finished but it is nice to see how it is structured.
The_Fisherman_(Demo).zip
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