›

[WIP] Meemos Planet

BoysanoBoysano
edited in Projects
Official Game WIP topic

Meemo's Planet, is a robot survival game, with crafting...

I am making it with Game Maker Studio.

I do the programming and graphics (eish) and Scott (a perfect stranger) was so awesome to join in to do the sound.

Let me know what you think?
I need help with designing the enemies and goals better, and always pixel art.

image

When I get a chance, this topic post can look better,
but I try to do this with the official WIP topic rather there at game makers forums..

I thank you for your time looking at this!
Regards,
Morne

Edit: Fixed link
Thanked by 1Bensonance

Comments

  • iPixelPierreiPixelPierre
    Nice one man! Gimme a shout if you have any questions on GMS, busy doing my game with it.
    Thanked by 1Boysano
  • SquigyXDSquigyXD
    um...broken link?
  • AlphaSheepAlphaSheep
    edited
    You need to change
    [url="Official Game WIP topic"]http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=599800[/url]

    to
    [url="http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=599800"]Official Game WIP topic[/url]

    to get
    Official Game WIP topic

    Otherwise, the game looks pretty cool. I really like the concept.

    I'd also like to add that when I read "a robot survival game, with crafting", my thought was that the world has enough of these. When I learnt that it's more a game about cleaning up after humanity, that's what made me actually want to give it a try and see what it's about...
    Thanked by 1Boysano
  • BoysanoBoysano
    Wow that was so many replies so quick, thanks for fixing the link!

    Thanks for the suggestions, hmm you make a good point AlphaSheep.
    The earth clean up mechanic is really far from where it needs to be, and currently most fans seem to want me to focus on polishing the survival mechanic. But I'd like to incorporate the message of rehabilitating the planet, and I'm toying with the idea of "terraforming"...iPixelPierre - how would you implement this in GMS? I'm making use of ds_grids for the terrain...and I'm really concerned about performance once I start playing with changing the tiles via the grid values in game, not sure of an alarm as a low performance slow step will cut it.
  • hermantullekenhermantulleken
    edited
    Hey @Boysano,

    I tried to download the game, but the download button does not seem to do anything. (Possibly it's my browser?)

    Edit: Oh, nvm, I did not read properly.
  • FanieGFanieG
    @Boysano - first off I started downloading and playing the game without really reading anything in this post, so I was quite lost on what to actually do. I had no idea what the little "cash cash cash!!" things were nor what i was suppose to do, or what I got from looting. That being said, I think you shouldn't shoot yourself down regarding your art. You have some really nice touches in there (Meemo's tracks immediately spring to mind). Also your UI is quite neat and tidy. They did not get in the way, but I would have prefered if they closed easier (click anywhere instead of right clicking on icon again), but that is purely just a little rant since this is still an early alpha. Anyway might try reading the instructions next time first before trying again, but it looks promising. Please see this as a 1st impression and in no way detailed feedback.
    Thanked by 1Boysano
  • FengolFengol
    I know you're still busy with the art but the pixels are so big the objects lose definition. I wanted to hit F4 to minimize the screen.

    I also don't know if it's just me but the game seems REAL slow. I pressed Escape by accident and had to start a new game and then, clicking on the different buttons I found there was another escape button. After starting a couple of games I got an OutOfMemory exception.

    I haven't figured out what progress bars are. There's batteries, hearts (I presume health) and golden goose eggs.

    I feel like I already need a wiki to show what the different crafted items are for.
  • FengolFengol
    Definite memory issues. I shut down my laptop and gave it a break before starting it up again and running your game. I found Alt+Enter takes me to windowed mode which is much easier to read. But after a couple of minutes playing BAM! Out of Memory. I don't know what you're creating or not disposing of but it hurts.
  • BoysanoBoysano
    @Fengol, probably some surface I forgot to kill, hopefully its not objects floating in memory.
    I have been since the start of this project struggling to make sure performance works, that is why in GMS I use low zoomed graphics, which is not everyone's favorite.

    What PC do you use, since in the past many people running win7 32bit have complained since I compile my game on a win8 64bit, which has given issues. Sorry to hear of your issues.

    also i only use GMS regular windows build, and not the YYC.

    thanks for your time testing, to all of you!!
  • FengolFengol
    I'm using a DELL Vostro 3750 with 6GB memory, running Windows 7 64-bit.

    The images aren't going to be your problem. But are you creating ALL the objects of the entire world as the game is started up? You can look at only loading creatures and objects that are near to the player and save their state to file and destroy them when the player moves away (loading them from file and instantiating them when the player returns).

    Definitely surfaces will kill you if you're not disposing of them properly.

    Can you setup a wiki or something with the crafting recipes so it's easier for me to test?

    Finally, I built a crafting table but I couldn't figure out how to place it on the ground. Only after building one did I realise the 1st slot already contains one.

    I still feel like I don't really have a purpose. In a game like Don't Starve the: name of the game, Maxwell's introduction, the speed at which you get hungry and character animations all help to guide the player as to their initial quest. Your game needs some initial motivation as well other than "survive".
    Thanked by 1Boysano
  • dislekciadislekcia
    Objects in GM aren't your issue. Surfaces and data structures that you're not destroying are. Also, regular pixel operations on surfaces are slow, so if you're doing anything like that, stop. You could easily be mis-diagnosing a slowdown as happening for one reason when it's happening for another, completely unrelated reason.

    Don't assume that "memory load" is an issue in GM - you have to have thousands of objects for that to be an issue, I think in GM7 I was cool with 3000 objects the last time I tested years and years ago - it's got to be even better now.
    Thanked by 1Boysano
  • BoysanoBoysano
    edited
    Hi,
    here is a wiki link, but not populated yet with recipes, feel free to add:
    http://meemosplanet.wikia.com/wiki/Meemosplanet_Wiki

    Here is Trello project page, with known bugs:
    https://trello.com/b/V66w5gDf/meemo-s-planet

    It must be the surfaces then...but to answer your question I create all the objects, then deactivate all and only activate what the player can see...

    Step 1: create grid values
    Step 2: Draw the grid tiles once in world
    Step 3: create objects (biomes) specific according to grid values on a die roll chance loop through all, only done once
    Step 4: de-activate all
    Step 5: create control and player objects
    Step 6: activate objects in window
    General: always check zones where mouse is to manage mouse controls and inventory
    All items and recipes and inventory/chest/box/craft table all managed from separate ds_grids.

    [PS] sorry for short reply, my family came to visit and wont be able to respond much over the weekend.
    [PSS] really appreciate all your feedback!!
  • FengolFengol
    edited
    I've made some additions to the wiki.

    I also found out the golden goose eggs is oil, I got to having no oil but didn't notice a difference in gameplay.
    Thanked by 1Boysano
  • BoysanoBoysano
    @Fengol - man I'm really impressed that you did those wiki updates, saw them late last night.
    Thanks alot! I wanted people to have a sense of discovery, that is why not all recipes are unlocked, but when you do discover them they unlock permanently to prevent punishing the player...

    Yeah it is oil...

    At the moment the game is more an engine, so balance is way out, I think it needs to more difficult, and a good death scene will be good. The oil at the moment doesn't really have much function apart from a very tine speed increase and extra health bar when power (batteries) are empty. When batteries are empty, the oil decreases and then the health. When I started making this game I thought "don't starve" is to brutal...but now i'm starting to realise it works well to give a player the sense of achievement when he/she survives against those odds.
  • FengolFengol
    Maybe just increase the speed at which the bars deteriorate for now.
    Thanked by 1Boysano
  • BoysanoBoysano
    edited
    I've changed my instance_deactivation and activation code a bit, and so far have a much better performance rate, hopefully that helps most problems.

    I'm still improving my surface skills, so hopefully I will fix some of those issues in future if i'm im doing something wrong there, I suspect that my enemy shadows (on a normal draw event) is also drawing onto the night or atmosphere surface, which causes more fps drops...since slower PCs are more affected.

    @Dislexcia - I think I understand, but can you give an example, so i'm sure? "Also, regular pixel operations on surfaces are slow, so if you're doing anything like that, stop."

    At the moment I'm trying to follow the surface tutorial of GMS, in terms of my methods, but I do create and kill the atmosphere (night) surface on every step for the view window size.

    [EDIT] will only update game later today, so it will be in version 1.0.2 only
  • FengolFengol
    BTW, I never see night effects?
  • dislekciadislekcia
    Boysano said:
    At the moment I'm trying to follow the surface tutorial of GMS, in terms of my methods, but I do create and kill the atmosphere (night) surface on every step for the view window size.
    If you're actually doing a surface_create() and surface_destroy() call every frame, stop. Create the surface once and use regular drawing clearing functions to make sure you've erased whatever information is in there at the start of each new frame.
  • BoysanoBoysano
    edited
    Made a small update, and changed how I create and destroy the atmosphere or night surface according to your suggestion.
    Also added mouse controls to place objects in world, for objects like firebox, furnace, planting seeds to harvest plants, boxes etc. ... so it should be easier to now develop machines which can be place in the game world like a quasi base...

    Demo - 1.2.1 [8Mb] - 21 Feb 2014
  • FengolFengol
    A lot faster and no memory leaks. I can see the day/night cycle now.

    I'm still trying to figure out how to build a furnace but now I don't have much to do besides hoarding everything and killing anything that moves.
  • BoysanoBoysano

    R = Rock (don't think i changed it to stone, which you make by smelting rock?)
    W = Wood

    Furnace recipe =
    R, R, R
    R, W, R
    R, R, R

    Yeah I need to add alot more to do for the game...sorry I'm a bit slow, at the moment I'm still trying to work out the engine mechanics before I focus on the "game"
  • FengolFengol
    That looks like a fire (and there's already a firebox). I imagine a furnace would be a lot hotter. I was trying to mix toasters and batteries
  • BoysanoBoysano
    Yeah, currently the furnace works the same as the FireBox, I plan to make the furnace like minecraft..so you can slot in a stack of items which will burn over time.

    Also at the moment, I have a design issue that when a fire is lit, inventory items cannot be dropped to the ground to make it easier to actually burn them...now when you leave the fire, then you cannot drop items and it looks like a bug. Not sure how to design around this, without upsetting the player.
Sign In or Register to comment.