Kit Run

2010-11-18T21:27:00.001-08:00

I've added a t rex skeleton and have been working on adding a health bar so you can get hit three times before dying. So far it isnt functional in anything other than soaking up hours of time and adding inches of body fat to my love handles.

2010-11-10T21:02:00.000-08:00

gravity in level 2 now inexplicably works. I swear, the actionscript looks exactly the same, but by god it works now. Save for the moving platforms, I knew they would be touchy. I've started a Kirupa thread for it here.

..and, since that doesnt seem to be going well, I also posted in on Yahoo. Someone out there knows about this

2010-11-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

getting very nervous about capstone paper. I have on my plate: two group projects involving class presentations ad individual research papers, two different print making editions, selling all myfurniture, getting documents from HMSA (my hawaiian health insurance) and getting them faxed to the embassy in San Fran, getting a plane ticket to Hawaii and another to France because suddenly i need one to get my visa, finding homes for my cats and fish, finding a new home in france, learning two arias for voice lessons, a flash based video game and capstone paper, and of course daily homework.

okay so.

kit run gravity still not happening. level two now has music and more moving platforms.

2010-11-01T22:50:00.001-07:00

I changed the dirt tiles so this level looks more different than level 1. too bad I cant test the moving platforms but GRAVITY DOESNT WORK FUUUCK

2010-10-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

slow going. Cant get gravity to work in level two. necessary for progress. IOW AKA FUUUUUUUUUUUCK

just look at those terrifying cliff faces!!

stuff i wanna do: fix grav cuz if no can, no can test level = no can make more level

make a little image of a chicken leg to replace the hexegon in the score calc. cute counts.

FIX GRAVITY DAMNIT

2010-10-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

designing level two- dragging and dropping obscene amounts of movie clips and actionscript from level 2. This level is a cliff level! with moving platforms and such. looks the same as level one in the beginning only because the den is there. Its going to be at the beginning of each level.

2010-10-20T19:53:00.000-07:00

confusing myself to the nth degree trying to figure out how to add a "level 1 pt 2"

2010-10-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

it is with one auspicious and with one drooping eye that I say this is the first excuse I've ever had to make on this blog.

Where I should be posting near daily, I am posting near weekly. Alas. I am so busy this term I think I'll cry for a moment. Okay so thats happening. Through tears I will continue with a promise to Kit Run: "I shall not fail you!"

Play Robot Unicorn Attack on facebook. I'm not going to link it. No way no how. Just DO IT

2010-10-14T18:13:00.000-07:00

The sun sets now. The sky gradually changes color and everything. It's crazy super cool.

Also the "Try Again" button works after you die and the death whale shows up when hes supposed to. He's still harmless though, unfortunately

2010-10-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

okay so I've made the decision that KitRun is crossing the line with me. Now I'm Running CS3! still outdated, but def an overdue update from MX. Dang.

Today I discovered that the victory song doesnt stutter when it's called if I don't tell the level 1 background music to stop. They play perfectly and happily on top of eachother, but its painful to the ears indeed.

A one sentence of my capstone: A completely functional level 1 and level two of my pixel based side scrolling game, Kit-Run.

A one paragraph description of my capstone: By completely functional level 1 and level 2, I mean that you can open the game from the title screen and play through to the end of level two without noticing that it's unfinished. This means a functional title screen, time limit, score add up, ghost whale, and screen scrolling. dang!

More: I realize this goes against our constant advice from Miles to go for quantity over quality. Maybe I should just push blindly ahead and take Kit Run as far as it will go without stopping to hash out the minor details. Everyone is after all prob very sick of seeing level 1. I'm ignoring all this good sense however.

within the next two weeks I want: a functional level complete event, the beginnings of a health bar so fox can be hurt more than once before dying, a sketch of the level 2 course.

within the next month I want: a functional health bar, some fish, and a full out attack on the screen scrolling

in the time that follows: graphic construction of level 2, completed pond in level 1, and navigation between two levels.

capstone

2010-09-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

it's capstone time. And the question is, will I take Kit Run to the finish line with me? Or shall i toss it on the dusty shelf of experience and start anew? I dunno. I'm gonna play kit run a few times and see if it plucks my heart strings and/or gets me excited. If not, I'll use what I've learned here and start a new game, and a new blog, that shall define my digital media experience at SOU. ya'll better be on the edge of your seats

2010-06-02T23:37:00.000-07:00

Now there's a mouse in the hole. 5 points.

2010-05-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

So amidst all of my efforts to straighten out the ghost whale and the screen scrolling, I solved a problem I abandoned way back in the times of yore when I first began to write the script for Fox's movement. Now the main sprite idles facing left instead of always wanting to turn around and face right. The small victories are happy ones.

2010-05-19T15:48:00.001-07:00

Just tightening and polishing. I'm going to go through all the hitTests and try and make them more accurate using scripts from said file: pixel perfect collision detection

Also my frankenstein screen scrolling attempts have lead to fox being able to fly. flawlessly. Like a speeding bullet. Effortlessly he leaps tall trees in a single bound. naturally this is unacceptable, so I'm bringing it to the table Thursday.

2010-05-14T23:01:00.001-07:00

Kit Run has a title scene now. It's much cooler than the screen shot would suggest. In actuality, there is super catchy music, and all the menu items bounce in ever so snes -y. It's very Snake Rattle n' Roll. Oh, and it's not finished. It will have clouds moving swiftly upwards in the background eventually.

2010-05-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

my continued efforts have at last rendered the screen scrolling partially functional. Heres what I be tote'n:

if (this._y>208.8 & this._y<363.8)>

_root.groundlevel1._y = -30.0;

trace("stop");

}

else if (this._y>400.0 & this._y<450.0)>

_root.groundlevel1._y -= 10.0;

trace("down");

}

else if (this._y<120.0>75.0) {

_root.groundlevel1._y += 10.0;

trace("up");

}

else if (this._y>550.0){

_root.dead = true;

}

It's pretty good except for two problems: Predominantly, if the ground is in the process of scrolling, hitTests are disabled. So if the ground is moving up to keep up with the fox falling in a hole or something, and the ground hasnt finished scrolling when the fox lands, the fox will just fall right though the ground. hittests dont work when the mc is in motion.

Secondly, and not nearly as important but none the less, the above code tells the screen to scroll up or down ten respectively, but the default position is set. Thus is just reloads to its default position instead of scrolling pleasently, which makes it pretty choppy.

la!

2010-05-01T18:45:00.000-07:00

ALAS! I did some exciting scripting today; when you run out of time the ghost whale from bubble bobble load and effectively chases the fox. THE PROBLEM! The fox only actually moves when it's jumping, on the y-axis. When it's running left or right, the ground scrolls in the opposite direction and the fox runs in place. !! This complicates my follow code to the n'th degree. To follow this epic drama, check the kirupa thread here

2010-04-29T23:54:00.000-07:00

Just been working on some nit picky things the last few days. I messed with the score bar a bit so it fits better in the border, hunted down and deleted some extra/duplicate MCs and scripts, and tried, trrrriiiiiiiieeed to tackle the primary, seemingly insolvable remaining problems: why does the level complete mc only gotoAndStop when it is supposed to gotoAndPlay? Why does the movie not gotoAndPlay the death scene when I tell it to? Even when it traces the code? and last but not least, WHY can't I get the background to scroll up and down at the appropriate time?

These and other problems will be addressed in the coming week.

2010-04-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

The chicken has it's very own groove! Music makes all the difference- I wish I could share but it stays in secret till the game is complete. But let me tell you- it is oooo so 8-bit danceable. Just ask this bouncin chicken!

2010-04-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

our friend the blue jay now has his own groove. He hops to right, and hops to left. woo! And pecks too!

2010-04-15T17:50:00.001-07:00

So I'm at a real stale mate with Kit Run. I like to only post progress so when nothing is being accomplished I have little to report. When fox returns to its kits with 100% food points, the victory sound plays and all is well, but only the first frame of the level complete symbol plays. It's on the stage all the time, just stopped at frame one which is blank. Then when levelComplete = true, it gotoAndPlay(2), which is the score add up sequence and all that usual shinanagins. Alas, it only plays frame 2 and stops. why? whhhhyyyyy??? I dunno. And so I move on to animating some of the food sprites in the mean time.

2010-04-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

haven given up yet again on the scrolling, I moved on to what glorious events shall unfold shouldst thou beat the level. Its a little point adder upper!

The hard art however is getting the program to know when you actually have beaten the level. Lots o nitty gritty action scripts.

(photo included to prove my effort)

2010-04-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

ANGUISH. I'm rolling along the check list of this weeks goals fine until I tackle the ever present scrolling problem. I have been trying to get to this to work for, seriously, 8 months. Fuck!

When fox goes up, background must go down, and vice versa. Oh, and when fox decends to mid ground again, the background must return to the default position. One of my main troubles in achieving success is that the background symbol is not where flash says it is. Normally, when you click an object on the stage, properties will give you the x and y coordinates of said object. But! For the background symbol, properties tells me a lie. A value not even conceivable. And when typed into action script, it changes the whole dang dealy. Why the lie? Why? If I type the exact coordinates into the action script as the starting position for the level, the symbol flies off into no mans' land as soon as I test the file. I wasted 3 hours on this this morning and achieved zip. This process has always been predominantly trial and error, but today was entirely the latter. :(

2010-04-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

Behold the enemy: Cactus. Cactus shoots spikes and sways with the groovy music.

2010-04-02T22:55:00.000-07:00

No matter how much you want to, you CANNOT visit your kits. Not until you have enough food.

The den is now an obstacle until the score bar is full; the invisible block movie clip then unloading. It works sort of - the only problem with saying that "if fox is touching den, then speed = 0", is that fox is then stuck to said den like a magnet, with no means of escape. hmmmmmm.

2010-03-31T16:12:00.001-07:00

Kit Run now has a complete soundtrack (I think) with the groovy abandon that any pixelated game should have. Also I've improved the tree of the kits den.

This weeks schedule:

1)Coding obstacles

2)Removing white from chicken

3)Add movement frames to chicken and blue jay

4) Design the enemy (there has to be some element of danger, right?)

Probably next weeks schedule:

1) Screen Scrolling up and down appropriately (ugh)

2) Completing level layout / finishing the big tree

3)Create Title Screen

2010-03-30T23:09:00.000-07:00

Resuscitating Kit Run:

I havent touched this flash file since before christmas, so I'm likely going to have to learn everything all over again- and read through the blog to try and figure out where I was at when I left off.

The next action script troubles to tackle: screen scrolling up and down when necessary, death event actually triggering a scene change (why this is so difficult I have no idea), opening title for the game as well as one for the level, and perhaps the most difficult, figuring out how to get the ghost whale, Von Blubba, to chase the main sprite when you run out of time. whew! If I get all of this worked out by the end of the term I'll be a happy animal.

New Sprites: I need to make an assortment of shrubbery, as well as work out random movement for the edibles.

2009-12-04T22:21:00.000-08:00

the kits in their den

2009-12-02T01:37:00.001-08:00

scenery sprites

2009-11-30T16:49:00.000-08:00

kit run has dirt tiles now. I cant decide if I like them - The grass definitely needs help, but all in good time.

2009-11-22T23:49:00.000-08:00

Kit Run now has a functional timer- and the sun changes colors (yellow -> orange -> red) to show you how much time you have before sunset. When you get down to 30 seconds remaining, the screen says "hurry up!". If you get down to zero, the whale comes for you...

next up, getting the sun to go down as the timer goes down - getting the sky to darken with the time - and getting the screen to scroll up and down as well as left and right

2009-11-20T19:32:00.000-08:00

now when your score bar reaches 100%, the screen displays "return to your kits!" letting you know its time to go back to the den and complete the level.

next up:

time to add in the sun mc, and give it a simple hittest script so that when it goes below to horizon you run of time.. summoning the bubble bobble death whale.

after the sun I will be adding in the den with your kits at the beginning of the level. The den will be blocked off with something that unloads when your score reaches 100%

2009-11-16T12:20:00.000-08:00

the blue jay:

worth 5 points :)

2009-11-10T22:49:00.000-08:00

the most beautiful score bar of all time:

and it works perfectly. The little green pentagon is even animated so that it follows the bar as it progresses. That 20% is the hefty reward for catching a nice fat chicken! rats fish and birds only earn you about 2-5 percent. hurray!

2009-11-08T14:48:00.000-08:00

Pretty clouds, yes? They please me much. But despite this simple pleasure, I am tormented by how much left there is still to do in so little time.

Continued production schedule:

1) need sprites for: birds, mice, fish

2) foreground (plants and trees and stuff that dont effect the sprite)

3) animate said birds sprites and fish

after these things have been accomplished it should be easy piecing the next levels together with the existing symbols. The I can go ahead and make a start screen, and a death animation, featuring the kits turning into skeletons. hurray!

2009-11-04T18:49:00.001-08:00

Kit Run now has a background for level one, and I've finally edited out the white from the main sprites' bit map- it lost a lot of color quality in the process though, unfortunately. The game also has its first original song! I'll probably be uploading the next game sample after I've cleaned up the other bit maps as well so yall can hear the music and experience the improved mobility of the fox.

high score

2009-10-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

I've become so baffled with my latest hurdle, the score bar, that I created an account and posted my troubles on Kirupa. click to see thread

updates/improvements

2009-10-29T16:09:00.001-07:00

KitRun now has a chicken symbol that unloads when you catch it and adds numbers to your score. Next I want to program it so it wanders left and right and moves away from you if you get too close.

The main sprite also jumps and stops left as it should, and doesnt jump as high and moves a little faster.

Next step is a breathtaking background, followed by removing the white from the bit maps. Then I'll be animating the chicken and adding other eatable sprites, and then putting level two together. Which should go pretty fast as it will just be dragging and dropping :)

movin right along and feeln fancy free

2009-10-25T22:42:00.001-07:00

kit run has progressed slightly. to witness these wonders, go to the previous post "background troubles", which is now replaced with a new swf. It was an accident, I'm actually sad I replaced the old one- in the the future I'm going to try and show all of the progressive updates to the file.

floating platforms

2009-10-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

complete with animated propeller

2009-10-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

the game design of KitRun has been changing a bit in the hopes that it can progress faster. (you know, for grades and all the not so artistic shit) . The ground is going to be platform based- more like Super Mario as opposed to something like Dino-Run, which has a crazy dynamic ground that I would never be able to figure out gravity for. Because KitRun is going to be about finding items within a time limit, platforms are a better idea anyway. For example! A tree! with platforms instead of branches that you jump from one to the next to get the chicken on the top branch. Theres a terrible but admittedly helpful tutorial for this added to the research box.

My next update will hopefully be a functional terrain in this style. there may even be a chicken so stay vigilant.

chicken

2009-10-17T17:32:00.001-07:00

kit run now has a chicken. Of all the things to catch in the game, the chicken gets you the most points. Hurray!

background troubles

2009-10-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

anyone know how to edit the white out of the bit maps?

Project Goals and updates ART 450

2009-10-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

at the end of the term I would like Kit Run to have an entirely functional action script. Though the game will likely be incomplete as far as length and embellishments are concerned, the goal for now is to have a mobile sprite, functional "prey" sprites (chickens, mice, birds) that slowly fill up a bar on collisions, a variable background with functional gravity, a working time limit, and a functional completion scene when the "prey" bar is full.

current work:

1) I need to rewrite the jump action script

2) create the prey sprites

3) get the main sprite to move left properly

the good the bad and the ugly

2009-09-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

Right and left make the sprite run. sort of. up makes him jump. sort of.

jumping trouble, etc.

2009-09-27T16:15:00.000-07:00

so when my sprite is in the air, it's in standing position, and when it's on the ground, it's is in jumping position. Which sort of emulates a splat effect. I cant figure it out. The action script I'm using for gravity is a hitTest with the ground. if it's false, the sprite moves down the y axis at a set speed until they are touching. This works fine. But when I attach "this.gotoAndStop(4)", "4" being the in the air position, it wacks the whole thing out.

Also I don't know how to input multiple keys into the if(Key.isDown) function. I'd like to be able to have something happen if UP and DOWN are pushed together- if you know how, tell tell tell.

movement

2009-09-25T00:11:00.000-07:00

I'm slowly teaching myself the actionscript necessary for this sort of thing. Currently the main sprite can sit down if left unmoved long enough, and sometimes, if I'm lucky, run, and if not so lucky, slide, to the right or the left. Jumping is tomorrow's endeavor. Once the main sprite is completely mobile I can move on to terrain, which is currently a lovely though infinite plane of grass.

Kabir the wonderful music man is hard at work composing a sound track of old timey lovelyness.

The first sprites

2009-09-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

kits and the main runner

The Conception of Kit Run

2009-09-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

I am planning to make a flash based side scrolling game emulating the old school 8-16 bit style, kinda like the popular Dino Run. Kit Run will feature a fox gathering food to feed it's kits. The sun will set in each level, and if you havent gathered enough food before night comes, something evil and scary like the skeleton whale from Bubble Bobble will come and kill you. There will be a bar on the side of the screen that slowly fills as you gather food, the level ends when you fill it up. Scores will have something to do with how fast and what critters you catch a long the way. Concept art will the next post.