Still Desperately Seeking.

Discuss the development of other free/open-source games, as well as other games in general.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Midnight_Carnival
Posts: 836
Joined: September 6th, 2008, 11:08 am
Location: On the beach at sunset, gathering coral

Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Midnight_Carnival »

Just testing the waters so to speak, I'll post more with attachments later, but not if nobody cares.


Do you remember that Pencil and Paper Rpg I developed (...well I posted it about 1000 times...)? I am working on turning it into a computer version written in Python (as I have told you before). I know I seem like the kind of guy who gets wildly enthusiastic about something and then starts the project without finishing it, but you'd be surprised at how many "unfinished projects" I am still working on.

...because of the above-mentioned factor, I am asking for help.

Are you a beginner pixel-artist who finds making Wesnoth sprites that people like too difficult? Do you suffer from a chronic lack of talent, and possibly a partial lack of imagination at times? Well then I'm desperately seeking YOU! :mrgreen:

I've started on the graphics, I want them to look "hand-made" that is to say, I never intended the game to have obscenely good graphics, but I have really bitchy OCD criteria, some of which have valid reasons -like I want the hands to be in exactly the same positions for each size-class of characters (because I'm overlaying weapons = shield images)- and some don't -like I want 1 "mistake" in the images for each character, eg: the Elvish Warrior (male) has a single pixel in his hair left transparent ('coz that's how I roll). Also, colours... again, I'm being bitchy. Pixel art traditionally works on a limited pallet - I think, problem is, I like colours! want a lot of colours, but not more than 10 different colours in the same image if you can help it.

-I could go on all day, but I think I'll just post an example of sort of how one of the characters might appear:
this is Sara of Axecrushing, a female unarmoured Dwarvish Rover. As you can see, despite my scary sounding criteria it's not that scary.
axecrush.png
axecrush.png (1.07 KiB) Viewed 5644 times
I've mostly done the good-guy characters myself, but variation is never bad (well sometimes it is), there is still alot of work to be done, including images for Orcs, Trolls and other sundry bad-guys, trees, rocks and bushes, mad-cows, wolves and other beasites (creep images) decoration (which has to look crap, but still good), tiles and that kind of thing.

I'd also like -since the game was first and foremost intended to be a simple and versatile Pencil and Paper Rpg- skilled artists (more skilled than I am, which isn't saying much) to draw images for the special cards, even though you can play it with normal playing cards, I thought a special Magic the Gathering style deck would be cool. -here you would have to be creative, for example, one card which could be found is "Hinderace": characters traveling in the wilderness must miss a turn or barge through the obstacle, suffering 1D damage, I a setting no criteria for what you do here, surprise me!

...and of course I'm still looking for someone to help out with the Python coding (still haven't mastered that language [or any language for that matter]) but I have learnt that asking people to do your coding for you is never a wise move!

I don't really have a name for the project, but I was working on "Zaubermacht" becasue it sounded hardcore. I know a lot of Germans will flame me for my spelling and grammar and say that it is a stupid name, etc... so I thought I'd ask you guys for suggestions. I'm trying to avoid English-sounding names, especially "The... of the..." type names. I'm prepared to post a fat tgz of all the work I've done which I think is good enough to be included in my own project :), as well as the pdf of the game rules + conventions if anybody shows interest.
-thanks
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
User avatar
Unnheulu
Posts: 738
Joined: November 25th, 2007, 4:50 pm
Location: Cymru
Contact:

Re: Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Unnheulu »

...You don't know an awful lot of python, yet your trying to make an rpg in it...Sound fun! :P

On a somewhat more serious note, d'ya mind if I take a look at your code, always fun to see other peoples code/how they structured it.
For the art are you using pygame, pyglet, pyopengl, or one of the more obscure libraries? Out of personal preference, I'd recommend pygame, although its been a few years since I tried pyglet now. (crashed too much for me before).

If you don't want hardcoded values, and don't want to squirm around with xml, then let me recommend pyyaml (yaml ain't markup language). Iirc, then its two lines to read a file, and one to close. It returns everything as a dictionary. Could also be used as a preferences file.

Best of luck with your project
~
Unnheulu
Blarumyrran
Art Contributor
Posts: 1700
Joined: December 7th, 2006, 8:08 pm

Re: Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Blarumyrran »

It looks like a teletubbie
User avatar
Midnight_Carnival
Posts: 836
Joined: September 6th, 2008, 11:08 am
Location: On the beach at sunset, gathering coral

Re: Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Midnight_Carnival »

A what?
that's some kind of hideous and scary monster right?

-never mind:

I forgot to mention that I am releasing the whole mess as public domain.

So not only can you look at my alleged code, you can have it if you like (I accept no responsibility for damage to property, injury, loss of sanity or life resulting from or related to exposure to the code). There's not much there and what is there probably doesn't work, it's in the tgz, in the "zuabercode" folder.

I'm using pygame (or trying to...) The problem is (as stated earlier) I'm not all that bright when it comes to computer languages (and other things like self-preservation and interacting with people...) My brother started writing the code, then he showed me how to do some stuff myself. The idea was originally to get him to do most of it by "showing me how", but actually, I know this sounds quite geeky, but when I got into it I started to enjoy myself (it's like necromancy, only a little more complex and you can't use words of power). Then my brother got a girlfriend who turned into a wife, and moved out. I forgot most of what he showed me, I can't remember what I wrote with his help, what he wrote, and what I wrote without his help. I think the "wilderness" I wrote alone, since it doesn't even look like a program (I think). If you loose track of what I was trying to do then look at the pdf, the game was supposed to be simple and resemble the Pencil and Paper Rpg as closely as possible.

I have also included a few of the images I've done, these are the ones I wasn't disgusted with, there are more, but they need to be redone. I'm doing images 3 sizes: small (20x20 pixels) medium (50x50) and large (100x100). Small is reserved for random things, "small" characters -eg: Dwarves, Goblins, ect... are done on the 50x50 image. I think the tiles will be around 50x50 or so. The hands of the characters are in funny positions (signified "a" or "e"), this will make more sense when I overlay the weapons images, there will be minimal to no animation, but the images will change with the different items equipped.

In addition to help with the art, and alleged programming, I wouldn't mind suggestions with regard to additional skills + spells, and refinements to the game itself; but please read the Pdf before making any suggestions, the game is a simple but functional and coherent system as is, and I won't consider suggestions which limit it with regards to functionality, simplicity or coherence. But otherwise, if you have a suggestion to make that would work, but I don't like it, I'll (try to) put it in commented out so that if someone else does like it they can make it a feature of the game.

Also, I've included a map which is inadequate, I wouldn't mind if someone could do various town, forest and mountain territory images for maps, or contribute maps or other things like that (maybe one day even fan-art). Cover-screen, options screens, and ingame pictures would be nice too, but are not essential right now.

If there is some programmer who takes pity on me and wants to help out, will you please point out some of the million mistakes I have made in my code, suggestions on how to fix them would also be nice...
And my brother was busy showing me how to implement something which would check positions on the map to work out the distance to the nearest town/forest/mountain/water etc... for the purpose of determining the likelihood of finding the various tiles/obstacles would be there: this was going to be part of the random "board" generator for the battles/encounters. Then he found far more important things to do, how do I do this? (you need not do it for me, just explain it well)
And in my "wilderness" thing, I have a number of different types of tile/obstacle. The different types are identified by numbers (I should change this?) so that one type no land units can pass over, another type, characters have to move up to and can only move onto/into in the next turn, another they can move over, but can't stop on and can't move over if they have to stop on (eg: swamp) etc... Should I put that in as like a function of the movement character's, or should I try to fit it in with the terrain and obstacles?

The way I see it, I will carry on trying to make it (and perhaps posting updates) whether people want to help or not. If you want to take stuff I've done and make your own thing out of it, please do so with my blessing. If you would like to practice your pixel art or are currently between projects and feel sorry for me because I can't program or draw, I'd value any assistance you are prepared to offer and I'll put your name in the credits.

-thanks.
zauber.tar.gz
(1.95 MiB) Downloaded 376 times
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
User avatar
Unnheulu
Posts: 738
Joined: November 25th, 2007, 4:50 pm
Location: Cymru
Contact:

Re: Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Unnheulu »

Your game_entities.py was broken, I've attached a fix with this post...
When I tried running the game.py though, nothing happened. Maybe you should make it clearer that test_game.py is the main file?

The wilderness.py file also seem to be broken, maybe I'll try fixing that.

Am I right in thinking that after creating your class and stuff then I shouldn't just be staring at a blank window?

Ah well, good luck with your project.
Attachments
zauber.tar.gz
(1.95 MiB) Downloaded 427 times
User avatar
Midnight_Carnival
Posts: 836
Joined: September 6th, 2008, 11:08 am
Location: On the beach at sunset, gathering coral

Re: Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Midnight_Carnival »

Wow! thanks.

I probalby should have explicitly warned that the project isn't anywhere near finished.
I really value the help you've given with the code, though I don't expect you to colaborate on this, I'll definately include your name in the credits, I'll have a look at the fix you've given soon.

The purpose of opening this thread was to see if I could get help with the pixel art (although I'm overjoyed at getting help with the coding) since the images are small and simple, and I thought that it wouldn't waste too much of people's time. I'm keeping the graphical side of things as simple as possible for now, later, depending on what's going down, I'll get a huge fan-following and we can consider hardcore professional looking graphics and animations as Wesnoth has :D


@Blarumyrran:
Oh that! :lol2: ha ha! I thought it was spelled "Tellytubby". Yes, I see with the female Dwarf's heavy build and starwars pricness hairstyle + that red lightning bolt thing indicating her mindset...
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
User avatar
Jastiv
Posts: 50
Joined: March 11th, 2005, 3:24 pm
Location: Connecticut
Contact:

Re: Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Jastiv »

I tried to test it out, and it looks like just another version of dependency hunt. As everyone knows there is one game popular game for linux, it is called dependency hunt. You can never get anything installed because of all the dependancies.

[jastiv@localhost zaubercode]$ python game.py
[jastiv@localhost zaubercode]$ python testattack.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "testattack.py", line 1, in <module>
from Tkinter import *
ImportError: No module named Tkinter
[jastiv@localhost zaubercode]$

so, what is this module I am missing? It is completely lacking in instructions on what to install and run and what various files do.
http://wogralddev.blogspot.com/

Wograld - our graphics requirements are less demanding.
User avatar
Unnheulu
Posts: 738
Joined: November 25th, 2007, 4:50 pm
Location: Cymru
Contact:

Re: Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Unnheulu »

A quick look at the python files will tell you what you need. Don't play stupid, because you aren't, your just flaming him...

ImportError: No module named Tkinter

You get it here
After major bugfixes to the code, I got it working (except one file I'm not touching, as I simply don't know whats going on; as though your mixing Java and Python :P)
User avatar
Midnight_Carnival
Posts: 836
Joined: September 6th, 2008, 11:08 am
Location: On the beach at sunset, gathering coral

Re: Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Midnight_Carnival »

thanks for the support Unnheulu, but I'm kind of used to being flamed by now.

With regards to my trying to mix Java and Python, my aledged brother was teaching me both languages at the same time, I have this little DJ in my head who mixes everything up... which file was it? I haven't really looked at all the code in a while, I can probably fix it, and if I can't I'll annoy my brother until he does.

@Jastiv: thanks for at least looking, I know that game quite well, but seeing I warned that the thing is no where near complete- ie most likely won't run (really surprised that Unnheulu could get it working -force must be strong with that one) I presumed that people who were looking at the code would know enough to avoid dependency hell. Others I hoped could help out with the pixel art.
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
User avatar
Unnheulu
Posts: 738
Joined: November 25th, 2007, 4:50 pm
Location: Cymru
Contact:

Re: Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Unnheulu »

Actually, could you join irc for a bit midnight carnival? I have a few questions to try and get this up and running for you...

http://webchat.freenode.net/

channel=#wesnoth

Thanks!
User avatar
Midnight_Carnival
Posts: 836
Joined: September 6th, 2008, 11:08 am
Location: On the beach at sunset, gathering coral

Re: Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Midnight_Carnival »

To all interested parties:
Sorry I left this so long, I'm sure you were jumping out of your seats waiting for a further development.
sarcasm asside, thank you Unnheulu for your interest and your contributions. I clicked on the link you gave, but could not find out what I was supposed to do there. Sorry. I've done some more images, written some more code, I'll continue to work on this as I said, but I'm a little busy now. If anyone feels they might want to help, you will be more than welcome, look at the pdf and do your own thing, I can't really colaborate now, but if you produce something intersting that would be nice and you will get your name in the credits. If you produce something I can't use then I won't, but I'll be glad of it anyway.
I'll post a still incomplete but less so version in perhpas a few months, unless I get wildly enthusiastic and do more in less time. In the meanwhile I'm practicing the skills I would need to do this alone, graphics, programming and ...self dicipline I suppose.
:D
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
User avatar
Unnheulu
Posts: 738
Joined: November 25th, 2007, 4:50 pm
Location: Cymru
Contact:

Re: Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Unnheulu »

On webchat.freenode.net, then choose #wesnoth as the irc channel. Also choose a nickname for yourself to use.
It allows us to instantly talk in realtime, without the delays caused by a forum.
User avatar
Midnight_Carnival
Posts: 836
Joined: September 6th, 2008, 11:08 am
Location: On the beach at sunset, gathering coral

Re: Still Desperately Seeking.

Post by Midnight_Carnival »

Ok, I'm upgrading my Linux sometime next week (hopefully tomorow!) this is reall exiting and also slightly scary.
Just incase I mess up and don't do the partition thing properly, thus wiping my entire home directory I thought I should post everything I have done on this aledged game so far. Don't worry, if it gets a following and starts to look like a real game I'll make sure it has its own forum :wink:

I've added magnificent art, yes we are talking better than real-life quality graphics here, ha ha, and I think I did some things with the programming, but don't worry, if you run it it will still say "choose race:" etc... I added parts of stuff which will later become parts of something else I haven't written yet. In about ten years I will finally make it, only thing is that by then new computers will come out and Python won't run on them anymore.
So I made all the Heroes graphics, and started on Monsters, I also started on terrain and the weapons things that get overlayed. Don't know what else I did, not nearly enough. Put Unnheulu's name in the credits, you can read it at the end of the pdf.

If (vain hope) anyone wants to waste their time contributing to this unworthy cause, I will be very greatful.
Knowing my luck suddenly everyone will start flooding me with stuff they did, things they wrote and like really good graphics which don't work with the ones I did, new ideas for the mechanics of the game, etc... I'm busy now. Sometimes someone's whole life coming together means little more than a lot of people wanting money at the same time and others having unrealistic expectations that the poor individual has no idea how he's ever going to come close to living up to. But if anyone wants to help out I'll kiss the yukkie computer-centre monitor and cry tears of unrestrained joy and graititude.

Oh yes, like I said, anyone who wants to use part or all of this for something else or take over, finish, get the thing copyrighted in their name and make tons of money out of it is welcome to. (as long as you send me a free copy of the game, or at least give me a reasonable discount).

:lol2:
A new ray of hope!
The attachment’s file size is too large, the maximum upload size is 2 MB.
Please note this is set in php.ini and cannot be overridden.
That's after I tgzed the thing. I've realised that I have actually done something!
Well, I'll keep this on my usb storage device and eventually one day get a website thing going for it.
If people don't get too angry with me for wasting time, I'll tgz the graphics and post them seperately from the progrmming, hoping someone will want to help out.

-thanks.
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
Post Reply