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Work in Progress / Programmable Robot Strategy Game

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Jeku
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Posted: 29th Jan 2004 19:06 Edited at: 29th Jan 2004 19:08
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Hey everyone,

A while ago someone started a 'game idea' thread, and I wrote about a game I wanted to design that teaches kids and adults logical thought. I'm nervous about posting work with this game because it isn't your typical FPS/MMORPG that most of the coders here seem into-- but oh well.

Well, the past two or three days I've been working on both the editor and the game pretty much nonstop (aside from school and fiance breaks). I've decided to go with 2D, as I'm not a good 3D artist, and I have more luck with 2D sprites. Plus, this is a good way to learn 2D programming!

I'll show five screenshots of my work so far, and explain each one.

This screenshot shows a level in the background with the chip board present. You can drag 'n' drop from the seven chips into the 16 slots above. When you press the 'Execute' button, the chip board disappears and the robot executes each chip, one-by-one, in sequence.



The object of this particular level is to lead the robot to place the floppy disk into the terminal. Once the disk is in the terminal, the red door will open, in which the robot will need to exit. You need to do this with 16 chips or less. This particular level can be done with 16 chips.



The robot can't run into walls, and the entire program must consist of the solution for the entire level. Bonus points are awarded on later levels for making the chip code more efficient by using less chips.

The next screenie shows a little of how my 2D engine works. It simulates a 3D camera in that you can move around and zoom in and out.



This next pic shows the solution for level 2.



Also, what thread would be complete without a pic of the editor?



Like I said, the graphics are crude but the playability is getting there. Drag 'n' drop functionality is proving fun to create in DBP! Basically I would have loved this kind of game when I was a kid, and in a way it's an introduction to programming that an adult could feel comfortable letting his kids play around with.

Any thoughts? Thanks

- JeKu

Ancient Chinese proverb: Man who runs behind car gets exhausted.

http://www.automatongames.com/
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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 29th Jan 2004 19:15
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I remember some kind of Turtle stuff years ago, that was like this. It looks very interesting, and could be made into a RTS, or command and conquer type game. Or it could be made into a fighting game. I like the idea!

Pincho.

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Jeku
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Posted: 29th Jan 2004 19:27
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Yeah, I used to play around with Turtle graphics or some name like that back in the day. That was my first formal introduction to logic although I didn't know it then

A friend of mine told me he downloaded the Turtle programming language recently, and it was free. I believe he said it was developed by MIT.

Ancient Chinese proverb: Man who runs behind car gets exhausted.

http://www.automatongames.com/
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APEXnow
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Posted: 29th Jan 2004 19:59 Edited at: 29th Jan 2004 20:01
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Logo?!

Paul.

[EDIT] I used to use the language on CP/M on an old Amastrad CPC464, also when I learnt to use Turbo Pascal LOL. Anyway, point being, it was excellent for doing tree simulationas as well, but probably irrelavent for this thread


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walaber
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Posted: 30th Jan 2004 04:44
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have you ever seen the Sega Dreamcast game called "Marionette Handler" or "Marionette Handler 2"? it wasn't a very popular game, but it was fantastic.

you build robots from different parts, and then program them with simple logic circuits (move, scan, fire, etc) that had simple if/then structure. then you fought with another robot in various arenas.

very cool game... it was based on another earlier PS game that I can't recall right now... your game reminds me of that!

looking forward to the progress on this one!

Go Go Gadget DBPRO!
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Jeku
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Posted: 30th Jan 2004 07:33
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@walaber - Thanks for the ideas I would love to have some kind of combat in my game, but I'm really not sure how to do this. That would be cool to be able to watch how the enemy fights, then custom program your robot's A.I. to counteract the its moves! Hmmm... I was thinking about that the other day--- whether I should have some enemies in the game.

Ancient Chinese proverb: Man who runs behind car gets exhausted.

http://www.automatongames.com/
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walaber
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Posted: 30th Jan 2004 10:38
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yeah, your current system is easy b/c it's linear... letting the user add "if/then" stuff would make the programming much more difficult. I think you should get this game complete, then think about adding to your engine if you want!

nice to see something other than a FPS!!!

Go Go Gadget DBPRO!
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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 30th Jan 2004 10:47
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He he yeah!, I just had another idea. Bomb disposal! That would be good!

Pincho.

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Philip
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Posted: 30th Jan 2004 16:08
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There used to be a very good game called "Omega" produced by Origin for the Amiga. That had this sort of idea. It came with a simple form of the basic language. You used the language to programme a robot tank to attack other robot tanks. It was great.

Philip

What do you mean, bears aren't supposed to wear hats and a tie? P1.3ghz / 384 megs / GeForce MX 5200 128meg / WinXP home
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Chaos
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Posted: 30th Jan 2004 18:32
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Reminds me of something on the ICt GCSE exam. Its all to do with the LOGOS system where you gave a robot commands and it moved around

Chaos


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Jeku
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Posted: 30th Jan 2004 20:32 Edited at: 30th Jan 2004 20:33
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Yeah, I think I will finish with the structure I have and include enemies at a later time.

An idea I'm currently implementing is a way to do a loop. The player places a chip called 'DO', a bunch of instructions, then another chip called 'LOOP X TIMES'. The player would enter an integer in there, say, 3, and the robot would execute everything between the DO and the LOOP 3 times.

This would add an extra layer of complexity, especially because I would design the later levels to require the loops, otherwise the robot wouldn't be able to reach the destination with just 16 chips

How does that sound?


http://www.automatongames.com/
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Chaos
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Posted: 30th Jan 2004 20:37
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cool
chaos


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Mattman
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Posted: 30th Jan 2004 23:26
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thats a GREAT idea Jeku! keep up the great work!

a
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Darksyde
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Posted: 31st Jan 2004 00:07
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This kind of reminds me of the old C64 game Hacker 2. I dont quite know why, but it does... maybe it's the whole robot thing, lol.

http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemon64.com/games/details.php%3FID%3D1133


I.Robot will never kill.
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Wiggett
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Posted: 1st Feb 2004 10:42
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its probably been said but anyone ever heard the board game robo rally?? thsi was exactly teh game, you gotta get to teh points by programming your droid to move in certain ways. but u get dealt program cards etc and parts of the board move you etc. if you make a pc version i know a whole lot of people whom would love you for it.



http://www.angelfire.com/wizard2/unpotkf
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walaber
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Posted: 1st Feb 2004 10:54
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there's also a FLASH game you can play multiplayer online called "robostrike" that's also similar!

http://www.robostrike.com/

looks pretty cool, maybe you could get some ideas from it.

Go Go Gadget DBPRO!

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Jeku
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Posted: 1st Feb 2004 11:24
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Hey thanks for all the ideas, guys, I seriously thought this idea was original! Walaber, thanks for the cool link--- kinda made me sad because that has many ideas that I have put into my game so far.

Here are a few differences, however. In my game, once the program loop is finished executing, and if the player didn't beat the level, the level gets restarted, and the player can modify the existing sequence of instructions. The key is, the player can beat the level with one sequence of 16 or less instructions.

Also, my game doesn't let you turn 90 degrees in both directions. You can turn 90 degrees clockwise, and 180 degrees counter-clockwise. Therefore, if you need to turn 90 degrees counter-clockwise, it will take 2 chips (180 CCW then 90 CW or vice versa). Also, there's a chip to move 1 space forward, one to move 3 spaces forward, and one to move 2 spaces backward.

Then there's the "pickup" and the "use" chips, where you can get your robot to, for example, pick up a disk and use it on the terminal to open the door.

Also, mine will enable loops to let the robot cover more ground using less instructions.


http://www.automatongames.com/
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Jeku
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Posted: 2nd Feb 2004 22:08 Edited at: 2nd Feb 2004 22:09
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Alrighty, I thought I'd add a new update screenshot. The major differences for the past few days is the logic in the game engine--- the behind the scenes stuff that nobody will probably notice

You may notice that on the upper left hand side it shows the current chip that's executing. I've got my little robot successfully clearing levels, now. The level designer doesn't have to add any special flags or anything, the game loads it in and automatically knows the requirements and purpose of the level and what needs to be done to beat it.

This screenshot shows the robot with the disk in his hand, rotating toward the disk terminal on the right hand side:



[href][/href]
http://www.automatongames.com/
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Mattman
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Posted: 2nd Feb 2004 23:18
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COOL! can we d/l a beta please? soon too!!!

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
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Jeku
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Posted: 4th Feb 2004 02:19 Edited at: 4th Feb 2004 02:20
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@Mattman - Thanks for showing your interest! I hope to have a beta available very soon as I'm quite happy with my progress.

Today I have implemented loops which will be represented by left and right parentheses '(' and ')'. It works perfectly, so now I'm able to create better levels.

A large chunk of my time is used creating the levels, as they have to be solvable in 16 or less chips.

Here's a screenshot of the chip board with the new loop chips:



The little number after the right parentheses, in this example, 4, is the amount of times the loop will execute. This is up to the player and can be set anywhere between 2 and 9!

Thanks again for your interest,

- JeKu

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walaber
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Posted: 4th Feb 2004 04:43
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this project seems to be coming along really nicely!!

a DEMO would be nice

once you get the engine complete, you should give some though to updating the graphics to either nice 2D sprites, or perhaps a 3D setup? you could keep the graphics clean and simple, but watching your robot move around in a 3D arena would be pretty cool. as your engine is tile-based, I don't think it would be very difficult to implement.

this is a cool project, I can't wait to try it out!

Go Go Gadget DBPRO!

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Phaelax
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Posted: 4th Feb 2004 05:46
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There was an old game like this a long time ago. I forget what it was called.

"eureka" - Archimedes
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Jeku
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Posted: 4th Feb 2004 10:28
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@walaber - I love coding, but I really do suck at art. I will probably, very soon, put a new Team Request in that forum for someone to make me some sprites.

When I'm done a few more levels, I will release a Beta demo to see how you guys like the playability.

As for moving to 3D, I'd really rather wait for the next full game version, as it would take me too long to convert the engine over. That being said, I made the level files really basic with backwards compatibility in mind. I actually started this game in 3D, so in reality I could reuse some of the old engine's code. :o

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