Challenge Accepted!

[Terra_Inc]

Hey everyone!

I'll be taking a short break from modding. Starting this weekend will be the 8th Seven-Day-Roguelike Challenge, the famed annual programming contest. Programmers from all over the world will attempt to write a roguelike computer game in only seven days, that is exactly 168 hours. And I will be one of them! It will be awesome, it will involve unspeakable masses of coffee (Janeway: "That's how I prefer code. In class-files!"), and it will hopefully produce something interesting!

I'll post status updates at some places, and when it's done, you're all welcome to give it a try! Provided it works.

Anyway, wish me luck!

 

[thunderfoot]

Go, Terra! Go!

 

[Syf]

I wish you good luck.

 

[SciFiFan]

Best of luck Terra!!

 

[Hellkite]

So this is how Skynet gets started

then

Game over Judgment day​

 

[Starfox1701]

kiock them terra

 

[CABAL]

Good luck, Terra!

 

[Majestic]

Best of luck mate.

 

[Jasoneagle]

May the Force be with you.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Thanks, everyone. The official challenge starts in less than two hours, and I expect most of the announcements to be posted to r.g.r.d or the temple tomorrow. The challenge allows you to start any time on Saturday or Sunday, but most people can't hold their horses and want to start off as early as possible. I'll probably start on Saturday as well.

Things are starting to get exciting. A good night of sleep, and then it's just me and my trusted emacs against all the foes of a coder, for 168 hours.

To help me in my quest I call upon the three Virtues of a Programmer: Laziness, Impatience and Hubris. Huzzah! I shall not fail! Arise! Arise, Programmers of the Temple! Editors shall be shaken, Debuggers shall be splintered! A code day... a red day... and the sun rises! Write now... Write now... Write! Write for fame and fortune! ROGUE!

 

[Adm_Z]

Awesome, good luck man. I wish I was good enough at coding now that I could participate. I am still learning Java atm...

 

[Terra_Inc]

I have fought with the great beast "Dungeon Generator" for two hours. With the jdb and my coding skills I have succeeded in making it obey my orders. Behold the glorious dungeon!



These dungeons are (typical for a roguelike) procedurally generated, every time you start the game or go to a new level a new and different-looking dungeon is generated. Later on I'll have little monsters running around in it, loot scattered around for you to pick up and use, and of course the player character.

I haven't announced yet, will probably do so in the evening, when I actually start coding the game. (The generator is more of a generic thing, I need it for other projects as well.)

Awesome, good luck man. I wish I was good enough at coding now that I could participate. I am still learning Java atm...

If you want to learn a bit of java and roguelike development, I've just recently started to write a tutorial on that. It's easy and you really don't need much experience to understand it. I've barely started, but after the 7DRL week I'll continue to write it. Even if you aren't interested in chopping orcs ASCII-style, you can probably pick up a thing or two. (João has written a similar and more complete tutorial for python, if you're into that.) I'll post a link if Maj allows it.

 

[Adm_Z]

If you want to learn a bit of java and roguelike development, I've just recently started to write a tutorial on that. It's easy and you really don't need much experience to understand it. I've barely started, but after the 7DRL week I'll continue to write it. Even if you aren't interested in chopping orcs ASCII-style, you can probably pick up a thing or two. (João has written a similar and more complete tutorial for python, if you're into that.) I'll post a link if Maj allows it.

Actually, that sounds awesome. I definitly would start with that. Eventually I plan to move to window based games using GUI, etc. I really want to do a RPG with numerous outcomes all based out of popup window kinda like winTrek.(an old ST game. if you don't know)

 

[Terra_Inc]

On Saturday, 10th of March, 18:30 zulu time I have officially announced my 7DRL "The Challenge".

Started working on it right away. Current status:


As you can see. we now have an @. That's the player, who can now move around in the dungeon. Just like the real challenge, the game has a seven day timer. You can see that one at the bottom. (Eventually, more things like stats are going to be shown there.) Every step in the game consumes one minute, though there will be monsters that harm you by reducing your time by several minutes in one step. If you don't reach the final floor before Day 7, 23:59, you lose the game. Now this may not be standard RPG stuff, but that's what the 7DRL challenge is for, unique concepts. Imagine trying to write something like Nethack in seven days... Pure horror.

Actually, that sounds awesome. I definitly would start with that. Eventually I plan to move to window based games using GUI, etc. I really want to do a RPG with numerous outcomes all based out of popup window kinda like winTrek.(an old ST game. if you don't know)

Alright, as soon as Maj gives thumbs up I'll set you up with all the things you need. As I said, right now it only covers the part up to a walking @ demo, but once the 7drl week is over I'll expand it significantly.

 

[CABAL]

After the Challenge, you should upload the game to MSFC. It sound like fun.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Alright, bedtime. I got a surprising amount of work done today, didn't expect that. jdb has once more proven to be very useful when debugging multi-kLOC code. Looking forward to Day 2 of the 7DRL Challenge!

After the Challenge, you should upload the game to MSFC. It sound like fun.

I definitely will!

EDIT:

Alright, Z, here we go. The tutorial is at the roguebasin wiki, http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php/Java_Roguelike_Tutorial. You can get the UI library I use, libjcsi, from the project's googlecode repository, (if you have svn, you can simply checkout a read-only working copy). The library comes with a load of documentation and source files, though everything you need to start coding is the libjcsi.jar file. Everything else is very straightforward. Even though only two parts are done, I like to think it's quite informative already.

It's learning development the kitteh style.

If you should have any questions, just drop me a PM!

 

[Adm_Z]

Awesome, I will definitely take a look.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Good morning, everyone! Day 2 of the Challenge! I has updates!



Using the RLforJ library I now have functional FOV and exploration! The map itself, items and monsters obey the FOV. That means, you actually have to explore the dungeon. As you can see, unexplored parts of the map are simply invisible, while regions that aren't in your field of view are colored gray and only show the map, not the items and monsters that might be there.
I originally wanted to use MRPAS (Marczuk Restrictive Precise Angle Shadowcasting), but that one was a bit problematic, so I switched to PP (Precise Permissive Field of View) instead.

Probably going to experiment a bit with radius and colors, it looks a bit bland right now.

Next step: Stairs, so you can actually descend into the eldritch depths of the dungeon. Coding is fun!

 

[Adm_Z]

That's pretty awesome man. Is the map generated randomly or are there set levels?


I actually wrote a simulation similar to that which had little "o"s and predator "X"s each of which could move around a grid. When each one moved the a set number of times, it would breed, and if the "X"s didn't eat a "o" in a set number of turns, it would die. They would just move around the grid in a cyclical pattern. It was pretty cool, and it could pretty easily be adapted into a user input game.

Great work so far!

 

[Terra_Inc]

Stairs have been added.



Right now there's no end to the dungeon - you just go on and on and on. I'm not sure where to put the end yet, since I don't know yet how much time the 'combat' takes.

EDIT: I am now at revision 13 in my SVN. Things are certainly going well.

That's pretty awesome man. Is the map generated randomly or are there set levels?

They are 100% randomly generated. Basically, what it does is create a room and connect it with a tunnel to the previously created room, and that for a fixed number of iterations. If the new room intersects with an already created one, that new room is rejected. That way, it is assured that every room can be reached. (It kind of sucks when your map generator creates a room you can't go to.)

I actually wrote a simulation similar to that which had little "o"s and predator "X"s each of which could move around a grid. When each one moved the a set number of times, it would breed, and if the "X"s didn't eat a "o" in a set number of turns, it would die. They would just move around the grid in a cyclical pattern. It was pretty cool, and it could pretty easily be adapted into a user input game.

That's actually not so far away. Could be done easily by s****ping FOV, extending the creature class and giving them AIs and just letting those run.

 

[Adm_Z]

It all sounds really cool man. In my simulation, they had no AI, but just a set of basic rules. they were very Zombie like if you think about it. They wandered around with no set real intent, unless there is prey within a single move. If there was, it would choose to go there, otherwise it would just pass by. That range could be increased so they would chase them if they were within a certain range. :exter:

 

[Terra_Inc]

Okay, the first monster has appeared. You can't attack it yet, but it can take your time (remember, you only have seven days - each move takes a second, and if that thing hits you, it takes some of your time!) and blocks your way. So generally things are looking good. It's the second day of the challenge, and the first full day I get to work on the project. Feels good man.

This will probably be it for today. No coding the rest of the evening, watching some TV instead helps to keep the brain running. I think my family is wondering what I'm doing all day.

It all sounds really cool man. In my simulation, they had no AI, but just a set of basic rules. they were very Zombie like if you think about it. They wandered around with no set real intent, unless there is prey within a single move. If there was, it would choose to go there, otherwise it would just pass by. That range could be increased so they would chase them if they were within a certain range. :exter:

Well, AI is probably a bit... bombastic. They basically sit around until they see you, then follow you and attack you. Nothing really fancy. The difference is that these will be hunting YOU down, lol.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Good morning, day 3 of the challenge!

I'm now fighting evil bugs and horrible segfaults in the dungeons of development.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Alright everyone, I have been successful! Uploading my game asap, I am so glad that everything worked out!

EDIT: The game is up!

 

[Majestic]

Good work I'll have to check it out at some point.

 

[CABAL]

Hmm, didn't run on my Linux computer with Java 7. I'll try running the updater later and see if it works.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Hmm, didn't run on my Linux computer with Java 7. I'll try running the updater later and see if it works.

You know you have to launch it via console for some reason, right?

 

[CABAL]

Yep. Here's the output.

cabal@cabal-Dimension-2400:~$ cd /home/cabal/Desktop/7drl_challenge
cabal@cabal-Dimension-2400:~/Desktop/7drl_challenge$ java -jar challenge.jar
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: Main : Unsupported major.minor version 51.0
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:634)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:277)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:73)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:212)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:205)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:321)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:294)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:266)
Could not find the main class: Main. Program will exit.
cabal@cabal-Dimension-2400:~/Desktop/7drl_challenge$

I did make sure Java 7 was installed, so maybe the latest version isn't in the Ubuntu repositories yet?

 

[CABAL]

Nevermind, I figured it out. The computer was still defaulting to the Java 6 runtime.

 

[CABAL]

And for the triple post...

I've played it a couple times now, and it's pretty fun! I do have a question, though. I've noticed that I can be attacked diagonally by bugs, memory leaks, etc. but I can't seem to attack or move diagonally aside from firing patches at an angle. Am I just missing the button or do have to attack at right angles?