Artificial Nature - TIGsource Procedural Generation entry

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jph_wacheski
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Artificial Nature - TIGsource Procedural Generation entry

Post by jph_wacheski »

OK here is my entry for the TIGsource Procedural Generation Compo. I hope you like it Ville. Got the .exe down to 64kb!
NOW w/ Linux and Mac OS X versions (Intel-based MacOS supported only.);

http://iterationgames.com/artifical_nat ... _linux.zip [ 92k linux ]
http://iterationgames.com/artifical_nat ... OSXmac.zip [ 113k osx mac ]

http://iterationgames.com/artifical_nature_63.zip [ 62k win ]

NEW 6/4/08: here is a lowPoly/tinnyTexture ver. for ppl with very old vid-cards or laptops, may better performance. I just reduced the poly counts and texture sizes to the lowest reasonable settings and changed the rendering to flat. If you dig the gritty/low-fi aesthetics you may actually prefer this ver. http://iterationgames.com/artifical_nat ... owPoly.zip [ 62k win ]

This is a single self-contained executable you may run it directly from the zipped folder, as it does not generate any files.

The game is an abstract, organic themed, arena shooter. There is a 'base' in the center of the arena where the player spawns. When the badguys are destroyed they will often drop STARS. The player can collect a limited number or these and should deposit them to the central base,. when the base is 100 PERCENT FULL the game is won. However if the player is hit when not holding any stars the game is over. Balance is key. The AIs are a bit aggressive at times,. however once you learn their movement styles the game can be played to the end in a few minuets. The camera follows the player and when not fireing the player will move sorta' quickly, do be carefull not to go running into deadly creatures. It is often better to move slower and let the camera catch up and re-center. You may also use the pause screen to look around from higher up, this helps to plot your attack route. You can kill the Big Moma Bug but it is not easy.

There is a dialog at start-up that lets you set the res. as well as the fullscreen/windowed mode. The game supports 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x800 or 1280x1024.

Controls are MOUSE to aim and ARROW or WASD to move about. LMB is fire and RMB will depost a STAR into the 'base'.

Big huge THANKS goes out the Ville K. for making the ZGameEditor! A very procedural generation oriented system,. and a danm fine game engine. Grin

a short low-fi video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ma9G5M3nvE

Gameplay HINTs:

-don't drop of ALL your STARS keep at least a few so you don't lose the game on a single hit!
-do drop of SOME STARS whenever you can! If you get hit you lose 40 percent of what you are holding. If STARS are in the base they stay there, safe, but you can not get them back.
-watch the screen edges,. try to keep track of what direction the spawning BIG MOMMA BUG is, as other bugs originate from there,. Use the SPACE BAR to PAUSE and relocate her if you are lost!
-hide behind trees but don't get caught up on them!
-if the 'dun dun dun' base sound is fast and bugging you shoot the BIG MOMMA BUG and it will reset,. .
Attachments
artifical_nature_63.zip
3 weeks production work,. . in a nice 64k package,. have fun!
(61.41 KiB) Downloaded 2467 times
Last edited by jph_wacheski on Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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VilleK
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Post by VilleK »

Wow, the presentation in this game is really professional with the nice bitmapped font and main menu.

The game works well for me with a smooth framerate. I just played a few quick tries now in the morning, I will give it more time later!

How large is the bitmapped font? Monochromed font should compress well. If you want to you can PM me the font bitmap and I'll see if I can make it compress even better.

I hope this game will be well-received in the compo, you deserve it jph!
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an2.jpg
an2.jpg (20.53 KiB) Viewed 31009 times
an1.jpg
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kattle87
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Post by kattle87 »

I actually get a 30 fps at 1280x800 with an nvidia GeForce 7900 gs go (mobile PC)... Urgh! I don't even figure out how is this possible... I should get a really higher fps... And the game seems really more smooth than 30 fps... bah...
The graphic is 3d, am I wrong? Are you using shaders for "tentacles" movement or for graphics?

However, game is really good! If you could fit it in 64 kb, this would be a big win ;)

BTW: For Ville: I have tryed out several way to compress the files created by ZGE but UPX seems to be the only choice... kkrunchy and other sw does not accept it i think because of imported data or something like that... I have only one last thing to try before stomping it as "unusable"... :(
Last edited by kattle87 on Mon Jun 02, 2008 11:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by kattle87 »

I've did it!!!!!!
Better to say:
upx with --brute option did it!!!

64 kb :D :D :D :D :D

the strange thing is that zipping it reduces size to 61,4 ;) even less than 64 kb!! I think that upx can use some kind of "target" option because the exe is exactly 65536 bytes, so it filled something with zeros. You can add more content for sure :P you have lots of free space :P :P

Well, now I do think that your game is ready for the competition: 64 kb games are always more impressive then 78 kb ones ;)

BTW, there is an error in the credits: "modles" instead of "models".
Bye bye!!!
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artifical_nature_61_ultrabrute.zip
(61.44 KiB) Downloaded 1201 times
Last edited by kattle87 on Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by VilleK »

One thing you can try for improving the fps jph, is lowering the resolution of the textures. At least make sure that the textures are not larger than they need to be for the small enemies for example. Memory is always slow no matter how fast hardware you got, so larger textures means more memory access for the video card.

I love those "trees", they look really nice.

kattle87: About the packers, try this: first generate compressed executable from zge, then use upx with parameters to decompress the exe-file. This new decompressed exe-file should work with other packers.
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Post by Kjell »

Hej JPH,

This game is even harder then your previous man 8) Ville's remark concerning texture sizes is a valid one, textures in general look better when scaled up ( unless more then 1.5x as you loose detail ) then scaled down. Runs at my display's refresh rate without problems though.

And thanks for the thanks :wink:

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turshija
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Post by turshija »

really nice game dude ! :)
I like it !
running pretty smooth on my laptop with integrated video card, so It should run fine on normal ones... :)
1024x768 full screen runs at 80fps, and around 40fps in bigger battle, but its playable ... :)
GL on competition... :)
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Post by VilleK »

I found out why kkrunchy does not work with ZGE, I will fix it for next release.
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Post by Kjell »

Hej jph,

Not sure whether this is deliberate or not .. but the main menu seem to be accessible before the options are actually drawn ( you can even hear the menu sounds ). Perhaps it would be better that when the menu is not yet visible, a key press would first make the menu appear instead of navigating through the options ( arrows ), or launching the selected option ( enter ).

Kind Regards,
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64kb !!!!!

Post by jph_wacheski »

Good call Kjell,. done! I was just leaving it in so i coulg just skip the menu by pressing enter,. but now if you press the arrows the menu pops in., much more ellegant.

the biggest texture is the background it is a 256x256 and is layered 3 times in an iterator,. and when i cut it in half I am not likeing the pixelation,. otherwise the trees are 64x64 and individualy unique., not sure wich is worse for performance,. I could do a low poly ver. if that would increace performance,.


kattle87 - what is the method to recompress with buteforce? can't seem to find usage instructions for upx,. and thanks for finding that typo!! im awfal with the language eh.

here is a new ver. with some improvements (sounds, music, little stuff.) and an optomized font that got it to 64k ! i was just not too worried about that as most ppl in the compo have HUGE multi-mb distributions,. :p

thanks guys,. you roc!
Attachments
artifical_nature_63.zip
whoo hoo !! Now 64k big!
(61.41 KiB) Downloaded 1190 times
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Post by Kjell »

Hej jph,

I'd let the menu appear on Mouse Button / Enter first as well ( instead of going straight into the game ). But that's just me I guess .. Also, the Re-Seed option might be a bit of a mystery for most people. Do you really need it? Doesn't it create a fresh seed when you start a new game?

And some kind of simple / short ending animation to reward players that finish the game would be neat too :)

Good job nevertheless :wink:
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re-seed

Post by jph_wacheski »

kjell - yup it does re-seed when you start anyway,. I just had that 're-seed' on the menu to get random menu backgrounds,. I know cheesy :roll: but I was having fun watching them spin in, so there you go. . maybe I should quit drinkin' eh.
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Post by Kjell »

:roll:

Ah sorry, hadn't noticed that yet. I'm a sucker for those kind of things too .. so please leave it in 8) Hmm .. perhaps you can change the BG color slightly based on the seed so that it becomes a little more obvious? Or even the camera / composition .. just thinking out loud.

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TIME is limited!

Post by jph_wacheski »

Yes! I too would like to just keep playing around with this one in ZGE,. However I gotta find a way to make a living too! I have been accepted into the The Vicious Engine Rising Stars Program http://www.viciousengine.com/risingstar.php

That means they let me use their tool/engine for 6 months without having to pay up front,. as I could not do so! At the end,. if they like the demo I build, they will help try to get it published. I will still have to pay them licencing for the engine, but it could be done as a back-end deal,. i.e a share of profits. What this means for me, is that I get to build a game that can be published on all the consoles! PS3, xbox360, Wii, PC, etc. I am therefor going to be throwing myself at this for the imediate future. This does not mean I won't be back,. I do lov the ZGE! I could see myself building fun games with ZGE to sell,. but I have had no luck getting in touch with decent distribution system like STEAM. I also would like to try the console dev. thing for a while,. as console games are one of my passions.
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Post by VilleK »

That engine looks interesting, I have never heard of it previously. Yes we all need to make a living somehow. Don't be a stranger jph, pop in here once in a while and report your progress or just say hi. You are definitely the current king of ZGE-development :)
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