Game Development, Homebrew

[woolfman]

Hello,

 

has anyone on this forum ever attempted to design a game on his own?

 

How much effort would it be? Is it possible to use some sort of designing software like Adventure Game Studio (http://adventuregamestudio.co.uk/acdload.htm) to make it easier?

 

Any input on that is appreciated - especially from experienced programmers :-)

 

Thanks!

[matashen]

i coded Lynxopoly three years ago (damn what a long time ).

And i Work on several titels.

I also work on an adventure engine, but have some still some onsolved problems

fadest wrote a easy scritping engine for his adventure in Yastuna1, that can be downloaded from fadest.free.fr

 

Regards

 

Matthias

[GroovyBee]

Any input on that is appreciated - especially from experienced programmers :-)

 

What languages can you program in? If its "C" or 6502 you'll be able to make games when you become familiar with the hardware. How long that takes depends on your background and experience. There are plenty of homebrew developers on all the Atari platforms. Have a look in the "Homebrew Discussion" and programming forums on AA to see what is being worked on and games that have been released.

[+karri]

In my opinion the most important thing is to have a good structure. I have seen several attempts where the code is a mess. Cleaning it up later is much more difficult than writing it properly from the start.

 

One pretty good structure is to separate gameplay, the user interface and the display/sound into separate pieces.

 

while (1) {
 update_gameplay();
 check_user_interface();
 if (display_not_busy) {
   update_display();
 }
}

 

The idea is that the gameplay can be updated 50 times per second but you may only be able to draw every fourth or fifth frame.

[woolfman]

Thank you for your answers.

 

What I wanted to know is - my question was probably not that focused on the subject - is it possible to create a game for the lynx with a game designing software?

 

Or does it have to be programmed only? I am interested in knowing more about this; I am not a programmer...my background comes from the conceptual, artist side of work/life. Maybe that´s why I don´t completely understand by what you mean "coding" a game.

 

Do you really write every action of a game by language? Isn´t there any other way that would make the whole process easier, like say a WYSIWYG editor?

[Lynxman]

In my opinion the most important thing is to have a good structure. I have seen several attempts where the code is a mess. Cleaning it up later is much more difficult than writing it properly from the start.

 

100% ACK

[AtariLynx Lover]

i coded Lynxopoly three years ago (damn what a long time ).

And i Work on several titels.

I also work on an adventure engine, but have some still some onsolved problems

fadest wrote a easy scritping engine for his adventure in Yastuna1, that can be downloaded from fadest.free.fr

 

Regards

 

Matthias

 

What are all these titles you work on? A list, if you will?

[matashen]

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/151888-current-atari-lynx-projects/

[AtariLynx Lover]

http://www.atariage....-lynx-projects/

 

when will they all be done?

[matashen]

Release for all games: when its done :D

[woolfman]

Since nobody really answered my last questions in this thread - here they are again:

 

"What I wanted to know is - my question was probably not that focused on the subject - is it possible to create a game for the lynx with a game designing software?

Or does it have to be programmed only? I am interested in knowing more about this; I am not a programmer...my background comes from the conceptual, artist side of work/life. Maybe that´s why I don´t completely understand by what you mean "coding" a game.

Do you really write every action of a game by language? Isn´t there any other way that would make the whole process easier, like say a WYSIWYG editor?"

[matashen]

we talk about an hardware with 64K RAM.

there is no toolchain for click&drop

it must be really hard coded.

And there we can not write an action. we must first build the action with simple instructions.

There is no way to woop out an object.

when we say coding a game - than we mean coding a game. Click on colorful buttons and drag&drop some pics is not what we mean with coding.

 

The tools are

notepad++

compiler

optimizer

linker

Rombuilder

 

all stand alone tools with no IDE or anything you know from modern plattforms.

 

example here in assembler ask the hardware if button A was pressed.

lda $fcb0

beq .keyloop

bit #$01 ; A

_IFNE

lsr cls ; do something like clear screen with color #0, where cls is written in a subprocedure

_ENDIF

 

example the same in c

if (joystick = 0x01)

{

CLS(); where CLS must be written an a sub procedure

}

 

Regards

[woolfman]

Ok, thank you for the explanation. Now I understand what you mean.

Seems like a lot of work...and very complex too.