Move The Robot Demo 2

[rolliebollocks]

http://freefile.kristopherw.us/uploads/rolliebollocks/move_the_robot.zip

!!!!!!!NPC type with inline Scripting!!!!!!!!!!!

*Supports ingame switches, integers, floats, strings.

x = 5
y = 9.1
z = "fudge"

*Supports conditionals.

x = 9
if x = 9 then beep
if z = "fudge" then x = 1

*Set NPC switches using commands from the Scripting engine

headnorth
headsouth
headwest
headeast
halt
flee
chase
hunt
focus
hungry
twitch

Just click on the NPC to activate the script!

Right click moves human NPC, Left click fires projectile.

<Lemme know if you run into glitches/crashes etc...>

[Lachie Dazdarian]

I still have problems with the text box. When I input one command, click on run, and click on the text box again, it's garbled with the previous order.

Clean it up so that every new click in the text box prompts to the NEW line.

Also, I really think you need to decide soon where are you going with this, otherwise you'll cramp it with unusable (for a fun game) features.

[rolliebollocks]

@Lachie

The type which controls most of the basic commands like draw/process collision is separate from the agent class which more or less inherits the other type and adds a scripting engine.

Agents are just observers with a scripting engine, so I could always go back and reuse that code etc... It's all very modularized.

You're right, I've only managed very basic testing thus far on the scripting engine. But the symbol map does not clear out the previous input each time so the agent's "memory" becomes cluttered with old stuff.

I'm not sure if this is good or bad yet. I need to play with it a little more. And I get distracted very easily.

How do you imagine a game using text input working?

The scripting engine could also double as a chatbot... Or a dialog engine. It's pretty malleable.

I could also create different types of scripting for different NPC types.

I've only made 2, but there's plenty of room for more.

All these things would be included/discluded at an author's discretion. So cluttering isn't an issue.

With this in mind, what are you thinking as far as text entry goes? I'm a huge fan of interactive novels. And I can see doing something like that with graphics, but I'm not certain how it would work logistically to keep it interesting.

Also, any command could be hitched to a button. They don't have to run from scripts. If you want a new game I need some direction, otherwise the scripts will be running other scripts, and passing strings through to the message handler which will interpret it and send it back to the parser at which point the agent will probably headnorth or something goofy. I find that kind of crap fascinating for whatever reason, and AI programming, which I know you don't really care for as an element of gameplay. I like the idea of a codewars style game, but I need something simple for now. A proof of concept, because now that the map engine is a few months into development its really solid and very fast.

Anyways, you don't have to worry about clutter. I've gone oop.

But give me some idea on how you imagine the gameplay working and I'll try to make something fun with it. It's all very malleable I can crap out a demo a week, a game in maybe two all the code is there I just need a simple concept to elaborate.

rb

[Lachie Dazdarian]

I don't know. I see it as some adventure game with perhaps minimal RPG elements. You start with a specific robot (maybe you can pick between few of them) and then guide it through some world. Might be a ruined/abandoned robot world you can't directly access, but need a robot for that.

I don't know. You would start by learning to move the robot, pick stuff up and use them. As you progress you would find new tools and learn new abilities of the robot. Posibility for the robot to compute some programs or calculations might be used with various puzzles. That's a more trickier aspect to design. But the basic concept is rather obvious. Me thinks.

But for this game to be enjoyable you really need to come up with a more smooth and slick text input box, easy to use, input new commands, recall old commands. I think you need to code your own text box, specific for this game. My thoughts.

[rolliebollocks]

Something like a mock interface that supports single line commands and multiline commands. That actually sounds cool. I could make it look like MSDOS 5.0. You're stranded on a planet with nothing but a broken robot which miraculously runs on DOS 5. It would take a while to develop something like that, the tiles the graphics etc... And I'm still developing the map editor which makes everything look pretty. It would be a matter of taking on the map editor first and then the game. I was thinking something simpler and concept oriented, highscore type of game.

[Dr_D]

lol... that sounds awesome. count me in! 

[rolliebollocks]

Okay. Uh. What am I counting you into?

[Dr_D]

uhh... playing the game. :p

[rolliebollocks]

My mama dropped me on my attention span.