Unsealed: Whispers of Wisdom
Sunday, July 8, 2012 - 14:55
I've been posting some sort of a Dev Diary on my blog, http://k3rnel.net/ but wanted to create a thread here in case someone's interested in following the game's progress. I don't really feel like cross-posting the info, so do read the blog every 2-3 days, as I like to post frequent updates.
The game's source, if you're more inclined to read commit logs tha blogs, is here: https://github.com/Nushio/Unsealed
It's an RPG, with a combat system similar to Megaman Battle Network's, but with Wizards instead of Computer programs.
The game's currently in a very early stage (Duh!) but I welcome all feedback.
That, my friend, sounds like a very exciting project. I very much enjoyed the MMBN series, so I hope you'll be able to make something awesome. If you come across any specific graphical needs be sure to post them here or in the IRC.
Beards. I can't have sage(s) without beards, though I'm considering making all wise men, women to counter that. >_>
Having more enemies would be fantastic. I can only do so much using color edits of the same 5-6 creatures :P
Nushio,
Just checked out your repo . I did see the README but it doesn't have compilation instructions... as of now or requirements for the game. I do see there are two different sub-directories within unsealed :-
~/games/Unsealed$ ls
README Unsealed Unsealed-android
Either add the info. in the README itself or do it in the Unsealed sub-directory.
Looking forward to what you do.
Shrish: Thanks for the feedback. The project's still in a very early stage which is why readme's lacking documentation and all, but any Java Afficionado with Eclipse would just import both projects and Run the DesktopLauncher to get a real sense of what's currently in the tree.
As for the Unsealed-Android folder, it's just a shell that launches the actual Android app. That's how libgdx projects are packaged anyway.
I've made some progress on the battle screen:
You can move the characters around. I'm working on adding an actual HP variable and a cast bar on top and other things.
I made a new blog entry yesterday, and a new entry is coming on tomorrow.
Hi Nushio,
While I'm no Java Afficionado nor an Eclipse expert I have on occasion built games/apps in Eclipse locally.
Could you be more elaborate as does it need building and then running or just running it via Eclipse.
If I just try to run I get the following :-
Unsealed: Creating game on Desktop
Unsealed: Adjusting music volume to: 0.5
Unsealed: Adjusting sound volume to: 0.5
Unsealed: Retrieving profile from: data/profile-v1.json
Unsealed: Persisting profile in: data/profile-v1.json
Unsealed: Resizing game to: 800 x 480
Unsealed: Showing screen: SplashScreen
Exception in thread "LWJGL Application" com.badlogic.gdx.utils.GdxRuntimeException: File not found: image-atlases/pages-info.atlas (Internal)
at com.badlogic.gdx.files.FileHandle.read(FileHandle.java:128)
at com.badlogic.gdx.graphics.g2d.TextureAtlas$TextureAtlasData.<init>(TextureAtlas.java:97)
at com.badlogic.gdx.graphics.g2d.TextureAtlas.<init>(TextureAtlas.java:216)
at com.badlogic.gdx.graphics.g2d.TextureAtlas.<init>(TextureAtlas.java:211)
at com.badlogic.gdx.graphics.g2d.TextureAtlas.<init>(TextureAtlas.java:201)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.screens.AbstractScreen.getAtlas(AbstractScreen.java:67)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.screens.SplashScreen.show(SplashScreen.java:30)
at com.badlogic.gdx.Game.setScreen(Game.java:59)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.Unsealed.setScreen(Unsealed.java:136)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.Unsealed.resize(Unsealed.java:101)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication.mainLoop(LwjglApplication.java:149)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplication.java:135)
AL lib: ReleaseALC: 1 device not closed
I have no idea, better explanation would be nice.
Another thing, is the game in 800x480 hardcoded or what ?
maybe you need to give some instructions as given in hale for Eclipse (another RPG game which uses java)
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/hale/index.php?title=Compiling_hal...
Hey Shirish,
I'm sorry for the issues you've had with the project. I admit it has been a tad unstable at times, because its at a very early stage, and I'm the only guy coding it anyway.
The most recent version should be stable, however, and the version that will be available on Monday (Assuming I finish it this weekend, heh) will be very playable.
As I've constantly mentioned, documentation on how to run and everything will be written once the actual project is worth compiling and everything, though I'd certainly welcome if someone else wrote a setup tutorial.
As-is, I'm already late per my timeline, and would rather dedicate time to implement all the missing features.
Just FYI, I begrudginly added RUNNING instructions on the repo. I wrote them in a couple of minutes, from memory, so things and files might be renamed later, but the instructions should work.
As I've repeatedly stated, the game is pretty Alpha, with a ton of things either broken or incomplete. I'll prep the documentation once I'm more comfortable with people running the game :P
Another bump (I'm not sure if bumping is frowned upon or not)...
I wrote a somewhat detailed blog post on what our Battle System will look like and I'm pretty sure competitors will like to know, so, here it is! :P
Nushio as far as you do some progress, whether it is in documentation or in the game, I don't think people would mind. While I'm no coder but I believe people would have something more to think about.
Btw Shirish, I think I figured out why you had errors before. Sometimes, when you pull stuff from Eclipse, it doesn't refresh the folder properly, and you have to right click the project and click on "refresh".
As for the battle system and the rest? Feedback's welcome :-)
Nushio please correct me if I'm wrong. Does unsealed have first to be built into Eclipse and then you can run it or just run it from within Eclipse ?
I have attached a screenie to show how Unsealed looks in Eclipse. Is this correct or not ? I dropped down the tree so you can see the directory contents, please lemme know if this is right or something is wrong somewhere.
Ah, I see what you're doing wrong. Delete your "Unsealed " folder, re-download from a newer copy, and import the projects. The way you set up the project, it treats everything as a single java app, which explains your confusions.
Early when commiting, I accidentally left some old files in the repo, which in turn caused the above issue for 'new' checkouts. It no longer happens though.
You should end up with a project named Unsealed, and a separate project named Unsealed-android (Which you don't need to import, btw, unless you also want to try out the Android version)
Nushio,
I think I finally got it. This is how it looks now from a fresh git pull and imported into eclipse .
~/workspace$ ls
hale-0.6 Unsealed Unsealed-android
as well the obligatory screenie.
Btw there are two warnings which do get generated. I was able to see the intro screen of overworld and battle although I didn't get the Desktop launcher thing as you had given in RUNNING.
Wish I could run it without going into eclipse, it would be so much easier.
These are the errors that cropped up in console.
Description Resource Path Location Type
The value of the field Profile.player is not used Profile.java /Unsealed/src/net/k3rnel/unsealed/domain line 17 Java Problem
The value of the field OverworldScreen.player is not used OverworldScreen.java /Unsealed/src/net/k3rnel/unsealed/screens line 21 Java Problem
Also in Overworld I see nothing except for some pits and a drum kinda thing.
Well, you got it working alright.
The "errors" you see are actually warnings. It means we've added variables that aren't currently being used. Don't worry, they'll be used before the 31'st (or gone).
The overworld is currently being worked on by Drawig, who keeps his own work to himself until he's comfortable with sharing it. Even I have no idea what he's doing or working on.
Click on Battle, however, as that's the part I've been working on. It's partially incomplete. I'm working on it right now though, and given a couple of days, I'll have a playable beta.
Also, on the Eclipse requirement. That one's not going away. Setting up Eclipse is a matter of minutes (Besides the download of the massive file), and building from Eclipse takes away the hassle of creating ant scripts. I have no plans to document any other way of compiling the game, but anyone's welcome to cooperate and write a how-to not use Eclipse to build the game.
Just as a heads up for the curious among you, I recorded (and will be recording) a couple of screencasts that show the current state of the game, just head over to
http://k3rnel.net/2012/07/17/lpc-unsealed-in-action/
Or visit http://k3rnel.net/current.webm from any self-respecting browser for a quick video that shows progress but no mustard.
Unless I get someone else to comment on this thread, this is probably the last update I'll post on these boards regarding my game. It feels like talking to the wind here...
Wrote a new blogpost, and recorded a pair of videos on the progress.
http://k3rnel.net/2012/07/19/lpc-unsealed-days-15-16-17/
Nushio, the issue is atleast for me pictures are better than videos. Videos take a lot of effort (on the bandwidth side) to view and comment on. Pictures are far easier to not only comment on but also understand.
The other thing is at least as far as I'm concerned I haven't played the game you have mentioned so neither do I know or pretend to understand the controls. You will need to have some sort of tutorial for first-timers who are playing your game.
Just my 2 paise.
The blogpost does have one picture. As for a tutorial? I know I need to make one, but there's so many tasks to do, the tutorial will be done later.
I kinda promised myself I wouldn't necro this thread, but if anyone wants to try a playable demo of the game I'm working on, I'm posting pseudo-nightly builds at this url:
http://k3rnel.net/changelog.txt
I say "pseudo" because they're manually built and sometimes I upload 2-4 copies in one night.
You need Java 6 or 7 to play it, and it should be as simple as double clicking it (Or right clicking-> run as Java program, if your Distro prefers opening jar files with unzip programs)
Somehow I don't think that txt file will run in java or dalvik :P
why not direct link?
Java app for lin/win/mac http://k3rnel.net/Unsealed.jar
Android/replicant app http://k3rnel.net/Unsealed.apk
Gnudist: Because I want people to visit the changelog often to see what's new. The actual Jar file has no version and no changelog, so it might not entice people to re-download the program. There is currently no built-in update method.
I have a favor to ask to anyone interested in my game:
I've been reviewing all the LPC games, however I can't really review my own game objectively. I'd really appreciate it if someone (or several people) wrote a review of my game so that I could list it on my blog. I'd link back to wherever the review was written, and if there's several, I'd write a MetaReview, with pieces of each review all pasted on the blog.
You can find a download available at http://unsealed.k3rnel.net/download/
Thanks!
Hi Nushio, I have written a review of your game "Unsealed: Whispers of Wisdom":
The game is started by simply using the command "java -jar Unsealed.jar".
The menu screen is nice and offers both a campaign and an arena. The campaign is split up into 3 parts. The first part introduces the story and the controls and combat. I won't spoil the story, but the method of telling the story is great. Cut-scenes show the player character move around, talk with other characters, take different actions. And the different spells the player character gets ties into the story. A method to skip the cut-scenes would have been great, but it is not too necessary as long as the game does not crash or you haven't played it before.
The combat is somewhat special. It is real-time, and you move around on a 3-by-3 field using WASD. Next to your 3-by-3 field is the enemies' 3-by-3 field. Combat consists of avoiding or shielding enemies' attacks while using spells against them. As the game progresses, more and more spells become available. Each spell cost power to use, which regenerates slowly over time. Though it took some time getting used to the controls, they worked well.
In case you lose, the game offers a menu to restart that specific combat, such that you don't have to go through the whole chapter again, which is very nice. I also think that the game makes the combat easier by speeding up the power regeneration if you restart a battle. The cost of spells (apart from the two basic spells shield and simple shot, which has low power cost) are shown in a UI screen to the top-right. One spell seemed to have a higher spellcost than shown, but they were overwise correct.
The enemies vary in nature, and as the game progresses, they get more and more abilities and attacks, as well as movement patterns. Some enemies even go into your field when they attack! Having multiple enemies with different attacks helps create a nice challenge. For the most part, the enemy AI worked well. There are two boss fights, which are very nice.
The music changes throughout the campaign, and has different music for cut-scenes and combat.
The battle arena features an unending horde of monsters. It's not all bad, since you have a very high power regeneration, and you get a small amount of health sometimes. I ended up spamming the fire lion, and got up to around 450 health before I stopped.
Overall, the game is very well done, and I can definitely recommend it. The combat was fun and fast, and I personally liked the story.
In my second playthrough of the game, I encountered a game-crashing bug twice in the same position, namely the first time Shura begins a kick-animation. That means I cannot complete the campaign, but I remember the ending from before. But the bug is kind of a show-stopper, and prevents me from completing the game.
Stack trace for the bug:
Exception in thread "LWJGL Application" com.badlogic.gdx.utils.GdxRuntimeException: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplication.java:139)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.battle.magic.ThunderClawKick.act(ThunderClawKick.java:65)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.battle.enemies.Shura.act(Shura.java:126)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.battle.BattleGrid.act(BattleGrid.java:168)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.screens.BattleScreen.render(BattleScreen.java:391)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.story.chapter3.Chapter3_6.render(Chapter3_6.java:104)
at com.badlogic.gdx.Game.render(Game.java:46)
at net.k3rnel.unsealed.Unsealed.render(Unsealed.java:131)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication.mainLoop(LwjglApplication.java:214)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplication.java:136)
Thanks for the review forthevin!
The magic regeneration thing is both a bug and a feature, hah. The version I released to the LPC judges had this bug: Every time you hit reset, it added another timer thread to fill up your mana, so every time you failed a battle, the mana rate would go up and up.
The plus side is that it makes the battles beatable, as eventually you get enough mana to spam fire lions... the downside is that it makes the battles easy.
This bug was fixed in the version I uploaded to my server, however now people are complaining that the game is too hard! Hah.
As for the Shura bug... I uploaded a brand new version on http://unsealed.k3rnel.net/download/ which fixes that issue... thanks for pointing it out! It's not in the LPC version, I added that bug when I tried to over-optimize the game for Android, hah.