Project Jumper Part 4: Introducing the opposition

It's getting a bit lonely for helmutguy to be running around in the level all by himself. Let's make him some friends to play with. In the spirit of grabbing random things and throwing them at the project, the part of helmutguy's new "friend" will be played by Skel-Monsta. Helmutguy and Skel-Monsta will have so much fun together.

Project Jumper Part 3: I love what you've done with the place

Just a quick bit of poking around this time, making the level bigger and prettier.

First off, I'm using this tileset, which I got from spicypixel.net. I did trim it up a little for use with DAME and flixel, namely using paint.NET to cut out the magenta background and leave it transparent instead.

Also, there's a lot of unused space in the image. I could have trimmed it out. I probably should have, really. But it's not going to hurt anything, so I left it in.

Project Jumper: Interstice

Let's take a little break here, and put together a wishlist of stuff to work on for this "game." A real game would, of course, have a proper design document. But that would suggest a plan, and a vision of a final project, and any desire to prepare ahead of time.

Instead, I'm just going to list some stuff out in no particular order, and cross it off as I get it done, and add new things as I think of them.

I may not get to all of these, and the list isn't very exhaustive, but it does mean that if I don't have anything better in mind, I can just pick something at random off the list and work on that. Direction is a good thing.

Project Jumper Part 2: The bare minimum

Now that we've got our mise en place set up, it's time to actually start making something that works.

This is pretty typically the stage where I panic and quit, so bear with me here.

Anyway, I want to get something that will at least compile and run as quickly as possible. So, I'm going to aim for a single stage for a player sprite to run around on.

Project Jumper Part 1: Let's get organized

Getting started for real this time. This first part is stuff I've done over and over, so it's going to sound more tutorialish than future installments. Don't worry, I won't know what I'm doing much longer.

Anyway, the first thing to do is to pick a platform.

I'm going to go with Flash/Actionscript, because it's pretty similar to what I'm already familiar with, and because with a little fussing it's free. I'm willing to spend exactly $0.00 on this project. While we're at it, I'm going to snag Flixel, just because it looks like a good fit for what I'm trying to do.

Project Jumper Part 0: No, seriously, what the heck am I doing?

Okay, let's get started by nailing down exactly what I'm trying to do here. See, like every good nerdy man-child, I'd love to make a videogame. The best way to do this is to take some classes, learn computer programming, find more knowledgeable people to work with and learn from, that sort of thing.

Instead, I'm doing this thing.

OK, seriously, I'm not coming at this totally from scratch. I actually have taken those CS classes, years ago. But the last complete program I ever actually wrote was on a TI-85. So while what skills I have are long since out of date and rusty, I'm at least aware of some basic principles, so hopefully this won't be completely idiotic.

This is Project Jumper. It doesn't have a good name, because it's not going to be a good game. I've got good ideas for good games, and I'm not going to waste them on this. Instead, this is going to be an exercise in learning as I go.

As the name might clue you in on, I'm going to make a platforming game. That's my entire design document right there. Proper design documents are for good games. Long term planning is a great idea, and I won't tolerate it here. Instead, I'm going to have a series of short-term plans. Basically, just a list of things I want to implement. As those things get implemented, I'll add new things to implement to the list. When I run out of things I want to figure out how to do, I'll shelve this thing and make something good instead.

I'm going to document this process as completely as I can. If you're reading this and you're the kind of person that actually does know what they're doing, I invite you to let me know what I'm doing wrong. If you're a curious newbie, feel free to ask for more information.