A Horrible End

Tragedy strikes on this day, for I have lost the room in which I was working. The many hours of constructing the map, the views, the buildings and infastructure are all now reduced to nothing. A strange error occured in the process of testing my game today, and when I reloaded the program to try and fix it, the room resulted with a label of <undefined>. Or in mathematical terms, It was divided by zero. What makes this worse is that I do not have a backup of the game, which means I cannot retrieve the progress that I made.

However, have learned alot in the process of creating this game; I have increased my skills in sprite creation and animations, making better quality sprites and other pictures. Attention to detail was increased, which helped in making the game with a smoother look. I have been able to apply some basic knowledge learned in this semester's math course into my game, which really helped in the process. Without it, I may not have been able to do make some code.

The most important thing that I have learned from all of this? BACKUP YOUR WORK.
That is a mistake I will (hopefully) never make again.

I went from the beginning of the semester with little to no knowledge of coding to a more increased knowledge. While still basic however, I am proud of my accomplishments in that area. I hope to expand my horizons in the future in terms of learning more advanced coding like javascript or C#, or something like that.

The sad truth is that there is not enough time for me to regain what has been lost, as there are only 3 days of class left after today. I'd need to lay out all of the buildings again, the roads, the enemies, set the dimensions of the room, create a new view for the game, etc. And although it may not seem like too much work, it actually took me alot longer to complete these tasks than you might think. I spent half of the class today laying out about 3&1/2 buildings before losing progress.

It's sad, but I think I'm done with GameMaker for the year. I've really enjoyed using this program and learning how to construct a game with it, it has been one of the most fun and interesting projects I have ever done in school, because it's something that I really enjoy doing. In the future, hopefully next year, I'll come back to making a new game, even better than this one.

Construction!

Apparently the tiles work vertically too. Thats good, because I don't feel like making new ones. All I have to do s make a new window/roof texture thing for this building, then I'm done. Time to make some health variables and stuff.

Roof Done... Almost

Here is a screenshot of the (almost) finished roof texture. All that is left for me to do now is smooth out some of the textures, and fix a couple small alignment issues. Then, hopefully next day i can begin work on the health variables, which will allow the game to actually work.

A roof over our heads

The roof is complete; Now all I have to do is smooth out the textures and make another variant of it, just so it's not as boring. Then, I can move on to bigger things.

Tiles

From roof tiles, to tileable textures, I have been busy today. I have begun working on the remaining textures for the houses in my game, which I feel should be done some time tomorrow.

Robocraft Final

        Robocraft; a game where you can design, build and battle your own robots against other players who do the same. The goal during gameplay is to blow up the enemy base, while defending your own base against your enemies.

        I am currently at tier 4 in this game, out of 10 tiers in total, and I don't want to stop playing this game. Within the 5 days that we have played this as a class, this has become my new favourite game. When I first got the game I honestly didnt know what to expect out of the gameplay, but it's honestly really nice. And how you play it is up to you, there are many different ways to approach this game.

       To play this game, all you need is a somewhat decent computer; the requirements as for computer specs are not high at all, which is quite surprising, because the gameplay is so smooth and quite detailed. Once you're in, just build your robot and get into the fight. it might take a game or two to get the hang of things, but once you've got the idea, you're gold.

       Some things i have learned along the way are things such as keeping your wheels covered, testing out what kind of weaponry you like, and just having some fun with the game. Rather than playing it seriously, just try to have some fun with it. The game is quite enjoyable.

        I can see this game going a long way, and if this game even becomes paid in the future, I'd definitely be willing to invest in it. Below are a few links to the robocraft community, including Website link, Forum Link, and download link in case you want to get the game for yourself.

Website:
http://robocraftgame.com/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=t.co
Forums:
http://robocraftgame.com/forums/
Download:
http://robocraftgame.com/download/

Here are some more screenshots of gameplay, and my final tier 4 hovercraft that  have managed to acquire in playing this game.

Shooting at the enemy base.

Getting half blown up amidst battle

Blowing up the enemy base.

When in doubt, add more guns.

Shooting stuff.

Flying around.

Give this game a try for yourself; it truly is great, and I will not cease playing this game, even though we are done in IT. Come find me in battle, maybe we can platoon some time. 

Robocraft: Day 5

I have created a beast of a robot... at least it would be considered that if it was still in tier 3. I have accidentally moved up to tier 4 in adding a third rail gun to my robot, and it's not too bad of a jump. The battles are somewhat the same, just a little bit stronger enemies to shoot at. I advise that you watch your levels. If you arent ready to take on the world of  higher tiers, make sure to cap yourself off at a certain tier that you are comfortable in.

Robocraft: Day 4

Today was a huge day of learning; I tried out armouring my aircraft, using new weapons and new strategies. I tried out the plasma launcher, which with alot of them can be quite powerful, but very inaccurate, and found the rail gun is an excellent choice, long range, accurate and powerful. 

Advice: find the things that fit your playstyle, and make the best of them. 

Robocraft: Day 3

An upgraded version of my old robot. it has such much better armour, and even a couple of the tier 3 smgs. One thing I noticed with this design is that it's really nice to have the wheels covered. When the get destroyed quickly, it becomes hard to stay alive.

I decided to try my hand at building an aircraft, now that I have unlocked the hover things.

The last design liked to flip and spin out of control, so I decided to redo it, and this is what I came up with.

It flies nicely, and has some good firepower. It hasn't been played in any games yet, but net class I will try it out for sure. 

Advice: Keep your wheels covered. It helps. ALOT. Also alot of guns are really helpful too. More firepower, more success.

Robocraft: Day 2

I recreated my robot based similarly on a design I had seen on the previous day. I well rounded, thick and armour robot with powerful weaponry mounted on the top. The designs I saw had a plasma launcher rather than the regular t1 and t2 guns that I have, but this one works really well. I managed to pick up multiple kills in the first game that I played in this robot, and I also managed to level up about 2 or 3 times. Its seems like this is a good design plan, just a little more armour would be nice for the internal parts of the bot.

Advice for a noob; Don't get shot. If you do plan on getting shot and moving into battle, make sure that you have a robot like this with alot of armour on it so that you can manage to take a few hits before it really affects you.

Robocraft: Day 1

Yes, my game will be finished eventually, I'm just going to have a little more fun gaming first. Robocraft; a shooter game in which the player creates their own vehicle / weapon, in order to kill other players and their own created vehicles. Shown above is the first vehicle that I decided to create. 

Show here is the matchup of my first game.

And here is my vehicle mid-game, at a point where I was half destroyed with no more steering. 

I was pretty proud, as my little vehicle had helped me to earn a pretty sweet victory right off the bat.

I then upgraded my vehicle with the earnings from that game, and now I have a more armoured version of the old one, now with thrusters and enemy radars. 

I learned the importance of armour, which I will apply next day, as I have been torn to pieces man ya time by my enemies, and I have found a few strategies in game to help me out. 

Advice to newbies; Try to find the playstyle that suits you. Do you want a heavy hitter? Something with armour? Pr something that can dart around the map at high speeds? Its really all just a matter of preference in my mind; play the game how you see fit.