Red Block Demo, updated 20 Jun 2008

GET RED BLOCKS

So I wrote this really great pseudo-3D engine recently. Look familiar?



20 Jun 2008: Red Block Demo SDL Version

Controls:

• Up: start moving / recover from white block
• Left: 90-degree turn
• Right: 90-degree turn
• Space: jump
• Esc: quit

Items:

• Red "?" Block: becomes blue after you touch it. Draw a blue line around one or more red blocks to turn them all into coins.
• Blue "!" Block: game over if you run into one. But in this demo, it only makes you spin out.
• Green "Up" Block: jump ahead five blocks.
• White "*" Block: move backwards until you press Up or hit a second white block.
• Coin: Collect them all for a perfect score. But in this demo, they don't do anything.

Known issues:

• Under very specific circumstances, if Mario turns around, he will warp backwards 1 square.
• If Mario wraps around the map immediately before touching a red block, he will spin out.
• Bad loop condition results in out-of-bounds array write which may cause the game to crash.
• Camera rotation system was glitched, although this only affected the SDL version.
• Numpad arrow keys are not implemented yet. Use dedicated arrow keys.
• Closing the console window while the game window is visible may cause an error.

Since I obviously can't submit this to MFGG with the official S3&K levels, I will require the help of some level designers. Apply today.

This post has been edited by xn--e5x on Jun 20 2008, 08:26 PM

Says glut32.dll is missing.

Same here.

Looks like something from Sonic 3.

Edit: didn't find bugs or gliches.

This post has been edited by ZTHE on Jun 12 2008, 10:11 AM

I've updated the engine test to include glut32.dll.

Next, a bit of bad news: I was originally hoping to use billboarding techniques to produce the spheres. Here's how you would traditionally put a billboard in a 3D scene:


(I couldn't find an actual blue sphere sprite, so I used the green orb from the Carnival Night boss.) You'll notice that the edges of the orb are black. So the obvious thing to do is combine it with an image mask to remove the black area, right? Unfortunately, it turns out that you can't really do that in OpenGL. In order to blend transparent images, you have to turn off hidden surface removal... so you end up with this rather undesirable result:


Now, while I could simply draw every object in the game manually in order from far to near, that's not something I have the patience to work on. So instead of billboarding, I decided to rewrite the spheres in 3D (also added lighting while I was at it). This is about as good as you can get it before my computer slows down:


I spent awhile tweaking the surfaces trying to get it to look better, but in the end I gave up on it and replaced the spheres with blocks. So the new name of this game is Red Block.


Finally, here's a screenshot with blocks that aren't green. I thought it was kind of silly not to have red blocks in a game called Red Block.


This post has been edited by xn--e5x on Jun 12 2008, 03:11 PM

So what'll be the point of this game?

You don´t know Sonic 3???

You have to walk on the "planet", touching the blue sphere to turn them red. If you touch a red sphere, you lose. To win, turn all the blue spheres into red ones.

Here it´d be the opposite.

btw still says glut32.dll is missing.

It's like the special stage from sonic 3&K.

Also I don't have much to say.. Looks pretty neat.

This post has been edited by Victor TH on Jun 13 2008, 12:30 PM

http://www.themysticalforestzone.com/sprit...ecialstage3.png

looking good btw

403 error

Super Texture 64 Bump.


This is the part that generally breaks everyone's systems except mine, so if there are any glitches, now's the time to let me know about them.

EDIT: Forgot to mention -- this is probably the very last time you'll be able to use free movement controls. Future updates will have the grid movement system implemented.

glut32.dll must be either in the same directory as Red Block.exe or in c:\windows\system32. If one doesn't work, try the other.

This post has been edited by xn--e5x on Jun 13 2008, 08:10 PM

First things first -- playable demo for y'all. This is an actual stage from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.



You can't win and you can't lose this demo. It just keeps going until you quit.

I'm still looking for level designers and beta testers. To that effect:

• If you'd like to write a level for the game (translation: do my work for me, haha) then by all means feel free to post a GIF with an image of the level, and I'll give it some consideration. You can get an idea of what Blue Sphere levels should look like at gamefaqs (genesis->sonic&knuckles).
• I've purposefully left a glitch in the demo. It's small, out of the way, and odds are you won't find it just by playing normally. If you think you've found it, send me a PM with information on what went wrong and (if possible) how to duplicate it. I've already fixed the glitch for the next demo, but I want to see if anyone else can find it.

Oh, and you'll notice there's still no sound. Currently the game is implemented in GLUT, which has support for OpenGL (graphics) only. My next task will be to port the game to SDL. Stay tuned.

Ugh...Now I have a headache form hitting blue blocks and then being pushed back in by the push blocks...uurrghh. Seems fun. I liked that minigame in Sonic 3, and it's fun here. What will Mario get at the end of levels? Chaos Emeralds?

I think this is gonna turn out to be pretty cool. Nice game xn.

Why can you only run on the lines now? It was way better before.

1. You fail for never playing Sonic 3.

2. Because that's how it was in Sonic 3.

Major hugely important update today. I just finished rewriting the game to work with SDL instead of GLUT. The SDL window system supports a bunch of stuff that GLUT didn't. I'm also led to believe that it's the industry standard for video games. Huzzah!

Unfortunately, if all goes well then you won't notice a bit of difference.

I've included SDL.dll and SDL_mixer.dll, but there are a few additional files needed that you might have already (like opengl32.dll). So once again, I'm gonna need everybody to download a copy and see if it breaks.

Also implemented:

• Sound effects
• Detect game over, win condition, perfects (but don't do anything)
• Gradually speed up over time

If all goes well, this might just be the final demo before release. Keep your eyes peeled for a level editor though. I still need level designers...

This post has been edited by xn--e5x on Jun 20 2008, 08:44 PM

You need to change the sound effects to more marioish ones. also, there should be more characters because get blue spheres had sonic, tails and knux.

I could probobly help with level design if I had a sort of graph to use.

This post has been edited by cyberkid on Jun 21 2008, 02:23 PM

sorry double post.

This post has been edited by cyberkid on Jun 22 2008, 12:57 PM

I have played this demo, it is nice, but those blue blocks feel me dizzy, because this spin is fast and Mario was spinning too many times.

This post has been edited by Alba Garcia Clerigues on Jun 22 2008, 10:26 AM