Watching my videogame reviewed on Youtube

Posted on May 22, 2013 by dommillar

The Game

So you may have noticed I entered the 7drl (7 day roguelike comp) this year – a comp to write a game in 7 days. It’s actually not a lot of time to write a game and given work and home commitments – its really really not very long. Anyway I wrote a crazy game called Rogue Coder using JS, HTML5 and MVC4. The end product is here www.domssite.com/roguecoder

The Review

So uberhunter is reviewing all games in the 7drl on youtube and he just reviewed roguecoder. It’s a fair stressful experience watching your game (warts and all) get a review from such a guy.

here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEaPH34DxxE

Lessons Learned

The value of a review like this is priceless. Its a great way to look at your game through the eyes of an independent and experienced player. It’s hard to watch at times because I keep thinking “I really wish I had fixed that bug”. It’s also hard to watch a review like this because you are not there to guide and advise, and you are not there to explain the things that you have in your head but never quite got the time to either fix or document . I think I have taken some a few important lessons:

1. Ensure core game play works (the bugs with the compiler actually stop the game from being playable).

2. Watch the way someone else plays the game and look at their actions and strategies to determine ways to make the game more playable, robust and enjoyable.

Whats next

V2 of course stay stay tuned here in the next few weeks. Of course a big thank you to uberhunter for the review

Review site for this years 7drl

Posted on April 26, 2013 by dommillar

I started doing some reviews for this years 7drl but ran out of time and ended up realising that someone is doing a much better job than me on this front so I gave up – but the fruits of this guys work is just brilliant. The cool thing about the review is this includes a walkthrough of the game – Ok so he hasn’t reviewed RogueCoder yet but thats all cool – I’ll let you know (good or bad)!!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheUberHunter/videos

just look at any recent ones titled 7drl 2013

First player to reach level 4

Posted on March 25, 2013 by dommillar

6.58 aedt (Australian eastern daylight savings time) this morning someone reached level 4 of rogue coder … They may have finished the game but in any case it is significant and whoever you are well done … level 4 has been breached for the first time!!!

It’s only taken a week – I am excited!!!

Another tip for roguecoder

Posted on March 23, 2013 by dommillar

So here’s a special tip for roguecoder – when you turn the lights out you can still move but the guards don’t – a good way to avoid getting seen – you just need to organise how you will move i.e.. 10 moves south, 3 moves east for example

Post mortem 7dl 2013

Posted on March 22, 2013 by dommillar

First happy to finish. Very tough week with work, family and 7drl. A week is not very long to build a game !!!!

Am happy with end product but it’s clear I am way way off the qty of so many other 7drlers… Have only had a look at about 6 but the gameplay and graphics are miles above mine. At least it gives me a good idea of where I need to head for next year.

Ok soon honor of Lee Van Cleef let’s break it down

The good

Deployment – learnt a lot from last year. HTML 5/js and asp .mvc was so easy to deploy with visual studio, last year I mucked around with windows installers.

Script engine – ok a bit rough but I decided to try to build a scripting engine (Dominicscript) in a week… and despite its rough edges it sort of works and I’ll expand it in v2.0.

Scott Hanselman – big thanks for him agreeing to be in the game!!!!

The Bad

Graphics -yuk!!!!

Speed – still too slow

The Ugly

Code – The rush to finish led to lots of rubbish code particularly on the last day.

Conclusion

So there it is my 7day experience this year, check out the game (any modern browser is all you need)
domssite.com/roguecoder

Another code snippett for roguecoder

Posted on March 22, 2013 by dommillar

Great for unlocking elevator locks on level 2….

connect ElevatorLock 123;
execute ElevatorLock on;

It’s a bit counter intuitive , try to fix that for 2.0

Current bugs roguecoder

Posted on March 21, 2013 by dommillar

These are the current bugs with the 7DRL game roguecoder

After defeating guard some paths are blocked where the guards stood – workaround just move around
When guards collide damage is done to player
Refresh restarts the game

Should fix these for RogueCoder2 soon, let me know if you find more

Code snippett for my new game

Posted on March 21, 2013 by dommillar

OK so this is a bit bizarre my new game contains its own scripting language – its too hard to explain so have a look if you are keen domssite.com/roguecoder

In terms of a code snippett here’s a useful snippett to turn a light out on level 1

--Sample switch light off;
connect light 123;
execute light off;

My 7DRL have a go and let me know what you think

Posted on March 21, 2013 by dommillar

Ok this is a fairly crazy game – I built in 7 days (actually would end up to be about 20 -30 hours) with a lack of sleep – if you have a chance to have a play – let me know your thoughts – big thanks to Scott Hanselman for letting me use him as a main character. I’ll publish the code soon

domssite.com/roguecoder

It’s written in asp.net mvc4, html5, Javascript

Competing in the 7drl comp again

Posted on March 16, 2013 by dommillar

OK so this is the second year I have entered the 7drl and although i have just over 24 hours left i think the experience of last year (failing) has served me well this year – I am pretty sure I’ll finish – expect some more articles here in the next 24 hours related to the comp. As always doco comes at the end… My game for this year is roguecoder – built using js,C#(ASP.NET MVC4) ,details soon

http://7drl.roguetemple.com

Dom

Doms Code

A place to learn about all the fun bits about Software Engineering

Category Archives: roguecoder

Watching my videogame reviewed on Youtube

Review site for this years 7drl

First player to reach level 4

Another tip for roguecoder

Post mortem 7dl 2013

Another code snippett for roguecoder

Current bugs roguecoder

Code snippett for my new game

My 7DRL have a go and let me know what you think

Competing in the 7drl comp again