TI-Farm

[Opry99er]

This is rapidly becoming much more than a funny little game idea... I'm actually excited to see what happens. . I'll post a little sample music here in a bit. . If you guys like it, I'll expand on it and do up the whole soundtrack. If you don't like it, I can do another couple pieces and we can figure out what we want. I figure one piece for farming, one piece for zombie attacks? I'll leave one channel of music open for sound FX and the noise channel open too so we have plenty of room to play with...

Edited February 19, 2010 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

I think the "farm" should be a "map" of sorts... It'll look just like a farm, but the user can select a plot of land or a herd of animals and then the screen would "zoom" in to a particular plot of land and you would have "corn" or whatever take up the entire screen for real work... That would be the best way to make this playable/enjoyable in my opinion. That way the general farm screen wouldn't be the main area of work, it would just show what's going on an allow the user to specify what he/she wants to do. If the user clicks on the "zombie-infested" plot of land, we go into battle! . What ya say?

[InfernalKeith]

I like the idea of separating out crops and herds. My worry was, if each square can be in too many "states" (farmland, water, overrun by zombies, etc) we'd rapidly run out of graphic characters in different color sets to use. A lot will probably depend on making several states be in the same color, but distinguishable to the user's eye -- unplowed land vs. plowed, for example.

 

One possible solution: require the barns and silos to take up 2x2 squares, and make them sprites. Make it a requirement that they're placed on cleared land, and perhaps set some kind of limit on how many of each (to get around the four sprites-per-line jazz). We want them to take up a proper amount of real estate, to force the player to plan properly, but their only function in actual game mechanics will be to increase the variable that allows for maximum stored amount of crops/cattle.

 

I gotta go get some real-life work done, but I'll do some puzzling out on paper of formulas and mechanics today, and come back to this later tonight.

[InfernalKeith]

I think the "farm" should be a "map" of sorts... It'll look just like a farm, but the user can select a plot of land or a herd of animals and then the screen would "zoom" in to a particular plot of land and you would have "corn" or whatever take up the entire screen for real work... That would be the best way to make this playable/enjoyable in my opinion. That way the general farm screen wouldn't be the main area of work, it would just show what's going on an allow the user to specify what he/she wants to do. If the user clicks on the "zombie-infested" plot of land, we go into battle! . What ya say?

 

The 'zoom in' is kinda what I had in mind for the zombie attack portion, but it'd actually be loading a new program in which tackled the arcade portion of the game. The same principle could apply to the farming portion of the game too. I hadn't really thought of it that way. What would the player do when they clicked on a square of pasture or cropland?

 

Another idea that just cropped up: if you click on an overrun square and battle zombies there, it's just your people, zombies, and whatever background stuff (tree stumps, old cars, etc) we wanted to add in. But on the occasions where the zombies attack your already-cleared land, there could be animal sprites roaming around getting in the way, and it could count against you somehow if the zombies manage to kill your livestock, even if you ultimately win the battle for that square.

[Opry99er]

Watch for some graphics here in an hour or so... I'll get a bunch of stuff done. . Just some ideas. I'll draw a rough farmhouse, zombie, silo, etc. . I'll try to put it on a sort of farm-type screen--- nothing official, just some mockups for reference

[Opry99er]

Just got started, but wanted to show you what I've got so far. =) This is just an idea for the screen and a farmhouse, but is in no way official. =)

 

 

 

 

GO TO TOWN!!!!! Here's the code, take it and run! This will be a "turn based" development project. Now it's someone else's turn to have a go at it. =) Take it, add or change a few lines, and pass it along!

 

100 CALL CLEAR

110 CALL SCREEN(15)

115 GOSUB 6030

120 CALL CHAR(136,"000000040E1F3E7CD8E8FFF0F571311F00000000000080402010F808A88888F8")

130 CALL CHAR(140,"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF") :: CALL COLOR(14,8,1)

140 CALL CHAR(96,"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF") :: CALL COLOR(9,4,1)

150 CALL HCHAR(1,1,140,128)

160 CALL HCHAR(5,1,96,480)

165 DISPLAY AT(21,1):"DAY: 1"; :: DISPLAY AT(22,1):"FUNDS: 500"; :: DISPLAY AT(21,10):"ZOMBIES KILLED: 21";

170 CALL SPRITE(#1,136,9,40,40) :: CALL MAGNIFY(4)

180 GOTO 180

6030 REM CHARACTER DEFINITIONS

6032 CALL CHAR(32,"00000000000000001C1C1C1C001C1C006C6C4800000000000")

6036 CALL CHAR(36,"00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000030301")

6040 CALL CHAR(40,"0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000")

6044 CALL CHAR(44,"00000000003030200000007E7E00000000000000003030000")

6048 CALL CHAR(48,"7CEEEEEEEEEE7C00387838383838FE007CCE1C70E0EEFE00FE1C380E0EEE7C")

6052 CALL CHAR(52,"2060E0EEEEFE0E00FEE0FC0E0EEE7C007CE0FCEEEEEE7C00FEEE0E1C383838")

6056 CALL CHAR(56,"7CEE7CEEEEEE7C007CEEEE7E0E0E1C000000303000303000000030300030302")

6060 CALL CHAR(60,"0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000007C0E0E3C380038")

6064 CALL CHAR(64,"00000000000000007CE6E6E6FEE6E600FCE6FCE6E6E6FC007CE6E0E0E0E67C")

6068 CALL CHAR(68,"FCE6E6E6E6E6FC00FEE0FCE0E0E0FE00FEE0FEE0E0E0E0007CEEE0EEE6E67E")

6072 CALL CHAR(72,"E6E6FEE6E6E6E6007C38383838387C001E0E0E0E0EEE7C00E6ECF8ECE6E6E6")

6076 CALL CHAR(76,"E0E0E0E0E0E0FE00C6EEFEFEAE8E8E00E6F6FEFEBE9E8E007CE6E6E6E6E67C")

6080 CALL CHAR(80,"FCE6E6FCE0E0E0007CE6E6E6FEEE7E00FCE6E6FCEEE6E6007CE07C0E0EEE7C")

6084 CALL CHAR(84,"FE38383838383800E6E6E6E6E6E67C00E6E6E6EE7C381000E2E2EAFEFEEEC6")

6088 CALL CHAR(88,"EE6C386CEEEEEE00EEEE7C3838383800FE1E3C78F0E0FE000")

7000 RETURN

Edited February 19, 2010 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

We should make an option to buy dogs (expensive) which can guard 1 plot of land at a time... With the dog guarding the plot, zombies are prohibited for a certain period of time from taking over that plot of land. . Like maybe 2 days or something. Dogs will have to be super expensive though, to keep the difficulty level up.

[Opry99er]

If you change line 270 to CALL MAGNIFY(3) it "doubles" the play screen size, relative to the barn. . Makes the barn look better too

[Tursi]

The Zombie Farmville title screen is awesome. I immediately wanted it!

 

You guys seem to be taking it in a different direction than I had in mind, though, so I'll watch to see what develops.

[InfernalKeith]

I'm actually gonna bail on this project already... :/ Just had a very cool deal come up for work that's gonna result in a nice chunk of cash, but is gonna require a LOT of work over the next several weeks. If you guys want to move forward with it in my absence, and use any/all/none of the ideas I laid out, please, go for it. I look forward to seeing what develops, and wish I'd have time to be involved... but I'll be lucky if I have time to lurk till this thing is over with.

[Opry99er]

Sorry to hear that Keith. =( But I'm glad you have an opportunity to pad the ol' wallet.

 

I've come up with a different gamescreen (very very different) that I'll post in a little while, when I get back to my computer. I'll be throwing out a bunch of possible gamescreens and graphics to see if any stick. =) Hope we can still move forward with this idea. With a title screen like this one, how can we NOT work on it!!! Thanks, sometimes!!!

[The Codex]

Here's a quick-and-dirty design of some potential terrains, as well as a barn and silo in pseudo-isometric. (Still not happy with the barn yet...)

 

The terrains are, from top to bottom, unbroken ground, plowed furrows, harvestable crops, and pasture for grazing.

 

 

The 8x8 terrain tiles are to the right, while the barn and silo are composited from multiple characters.

 

Let me know what you all think and I might work on a few more assets in the meantime. Though I really should be finishing Yeti first.

[The Codex]

Can't stop tinkering with images. A silhouetted horizon with crescent moon and distant power line towers, plus some zombie-proof fencing along the bottom.

 

 

It's the first game to combine harvesting grains with harvesting braaainsss!

[Opry99er]

LOVE IT!!!! . I have some stuff to

post tomorow morning. Some

terrain differentiation--- not too dissimilar from yours. . Love

the silo by the way!

[Opry99er]

What program did you use to make that graphic, by the way?

[Opry99er]

Well, certainly not as cool as yours.... but this is what I was working on. Basically just added a few color variations for what land designs could look like. Of course, yours is way cooler. =) But I thought I would post this for posterity anyway.

 

 

 

Your barn looks better than mine... Mine started with a smaller barn... CALL MAGNIFY(3) instead of CALL MAGNIFY(4)... half this size. Anyway, that's all I have for now. =)

[sometimes99er]

karsten's title screen is freaking great.

 

The Zombie Farmville title screen is awesome. I immediately wanted it!

Thanks. It’s just a mockup. Fell free to suggest changes, download and change, downscale, or come up with something similar or completely different. Here’s the original size, no border image ...

 

 

I'm actually gonna bail on this project already... :/ Just had a very cool deal come up for work that's gonna result in a nice chunk of cash, but is gonna require a LOT of work over the next several weeks. If you guys want to move forward with it in my absence, and use any/all/none of the ideas I laid out, please, go for it. I look forward to seeing what develops, and wish I'd have time to be involved... but I'll be lucky if I have time to lurk till this thing is over with.

Good luck to you. I think we all have our TI activity go up and down etc. Yesterday I got one step closer to a cool deal (rather different IT related stuff in a major financial institution), and if it all falls into place, it’s going to be priority numero uno big time. Hopefully I will know in a 2-4 weeks time.

 

[sometimes99er]

Can't stop tinkering with images. A silhouetted horizon with crescent moon and distant power line towers, plus some zombie-proof fencing along the bottom.

Very cool. Silhouetted type graphics are hot these days on the 9918. I love it !

[Opry99er]

Hey, Codex--- what if we added a "bat" SPRITE flying across the skyline? I have a cool design I think I might try to implement. I'll try to make a video of it--- although for some reason (probably user error) I absolutely cannot get Classic99 to take/save .avi files on this new computer. I'll click "start recording video", do whatever, then click "stop recording video" and always the same thing... No video is produced. Ugh.... I suck with a Windows computer--- funny, on my Mac running a virtual machine, it worked perfectly!!!

[+retroclouds]

Can't stop tinkering with images. A silhouetted horizon with crescent moon and distant power line towers, plus some zombie-proof fencing along the bottom.

 

 

It's the first game to combine harvesting grains with harvesting braaainsss!

 

I like the screenshot! Very nice :thumbsup:

[The Codex]

Thanks for all the feedback, I'm glad you like! The image is done in Corel PhotoPaint, a program I've been using for dog years.

 

No problem adding a bat if you want, Owen. Or a vulture, seeing as there's so much dead vittles around.

 

I have to admit that I'm partial to silhouettes as well. I still think that Blade Warrior (on the Amiga) is one of the coolest looking games, and I'm surprised at how few games utilise the effect. (Though there are some puzzly platformer type games these days that do use a similar look with solid figures.)

[Opry99er]

Hey Codex--- is Corel Photopaint a freeware application? I haven't looked it up yet, but it seems to have definable screen parameters and character parameters. This would help me in gathering ideas, developing screenshots, etc.

[The Codex]

Sorry man, it's a commercial app (part of the CorelDraw suite), and a pretty pricey one at that. I can only afford an upgrade version every few years. It's not as popular as it used to be, but I find it much easier to create pixel art in it than in the other photo-editing oriented packages like PhotoShop.

 

If you're looking for a good freeware paint program, get the free version of Ultimate Paint. It's a modern Windows interpretation of the Amiga classic Deluxe Paint. It has a lot of good tools and customisable palettes, plus that great old school feel.

Edited February 21, 2010 by The Codex

[Opry99er]

Perfect!! My life just got easier. . I just spent the last half hour on a dungeon screen for "Beryl Reichardt" and it looks pretty good. It's basically just a typical looking "top-down" view of a dungeon with 4 hallways leading into a room containing a sword. Nothing special, but it gives me some ideas. . I will try later to code it in assembly--- as that's what I'm trying to get in to now. I'll try to get the status bar finished tonight and post a pic to the "Beryl" thread. Also got a bat sprite with two patterns that could move nicely across the screen. I'll post some code for that in the TI Farm/Zombie Farmville thread later too.

[The Codex]

Glad to hear it! Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

 

I'm avoiding working on Yeti by playing around with my mockup. Now I've got zombies harassing the livestock. And you have the right idea about the barn, it looks much better end-on. I redrew mine to have the same perspective as the silo now.