Planet Rendering

Posted by on March 15, 2012 No comments

Galaxy Tactics currently has only a single planet sprite. Obviously, that is quite boring, so I set about creating several new ones. Being a programmer, I have to make due with coder art, but that is no reason for bad looking game assets. There are plenty of resources on the web for rendering planets. For example, I took most of my inspiration from this tutorial. Here is an example planet rendering.

An example planet rendering.

The primary tool I use for my art is GIMP. The method I used to make my planet renderings is a bit of a variation from the previously mentioned tutorial. For most planets, the majority of the steps are exactly the same. GIMP, fortunately, has extensive scripting capabilities. Being a programmer, it was only natural to utilize this to automate the more repetitive and boring tasks. At the end of this post are the two scripts I created to create my planets.

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Hex Grids

Posted by on March 11, 2012 No comments

For Galaxy Tactics, I have been working with hex grids quite a bit. I found them to be a flexible system for tile based movement. I thought I would share some of my experiences, so that others may find hex grids a bit easier to work with. So, why use a hex grid? First of all, there are only three regular polygons that can be tessellated (placed on a flat surface so that they completely cover a surface without gaps). They are triangles, squares, and hexagons, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

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Galaxy Tactics  Rules (Draft)

Posted by on March 1, 2012 No comments

This is a draft of the current rules for Galaxy Tactics. If you have any comment or suggestions please make them. These rules have not been extensively play tested and are likely to change to some extent.

Press read more for the full rules.

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Galaxy Tactics  A New Project

Posted by on February 24, 2012 No comments

I am currently working on a new video game project, Galaxy Tactics (working title). The game is turn-based space conquest video game intended to play like a digital board game. The rules are simple, but hopefully will allow for complex strategy. It is still a work in progress, so comments and suggestions are welcome. I will post the current rules soon. As the game progresses, I will also post some of the source code that is in a more finished state. Heres a screen shot to provide a small taste of what the game will look like.

Galaxy Tactics - Screenshot

-Eric

Site Update

Posted by on February 23, 2012 No comments

It has been I long time since I last updated this site. For various reasons, I did not have the time to provide updates. After a while, this lead to a general loss in motivation. I have come to the realization that I will never complete enough tutorials to finish an entire game engine.

That is, however, no reason not to continue posting useful information. Over the next few weeks, I will be updating the previous tutorials so that they are stand-alone. Those should be more useful in the long run anyways. I will also begin posting some material on my new project, Galaxy Tactics.

-Eric

GJK Algorithm

Posted by on April 6, 2011 No comments

The Gilbert-Johnson-Keerthi (GJK) algorithm is an efficient method for computing the distance between two convex shapes. It has become a popular method for real-time 3D collision detection. While less commonly used for 2D collision detection, the GJK algorithm still maintains several of its advantages. Its biggest disadvantage is that the algorithm can be conceptually difficult to understand (although it is easy to implement). This tutorial will explain how the GJK algorithm works in detail and demonstrate how to apply it to 2D collision detection.

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GJK Algorithm Demo

Posted by on March 15, 2011 No comments

The Gilbert-Johnson-Keerthi (GJK) algorithm is a method that can be used to find the minimum distance between two convex objects. The algorithm is often used for 3D collision detection in video games. I decided to write up a 2D implementation to try it out. So far, I have been very happy with the results. I am now planning on replacing the existing collision detection in the Entropy Engine (line-line intersection testing), with the GJK algorithm. I will also write a tutorial on the algorithm in the next week or so. In the mean time, you can see it in action here.

Entropy Engine  Basics

Posted by on March 7, 2011 No comments

Entropy Engine provides several classes to simplify the creation of Java based games. This tutorial will describe how to use those classes. Included is how to create a game, how to control the game loop, and how to use the input system. More information on the Entropy Engine can be found on the Entropy Engine page.

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Game Engine Design  Component Based Entities

Posted by on February 25, 2011 No comments

Component based entities are becoming increasingly popular. They are a design pattern that can greatly improve the maintainability and flexibility of your game code. This tutorial will describe what component based entities are and how to design them. A Java implementation is provided which can easily be translated to other languages.

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Game Engine Design  A Simple Game

Posted by on February 21, 2011 3 comments

Now that we have created a game loop, window, and input manager, we can create a very simple game. This will be a short tutorial, but will demonstrate the use of the components we have created. We will begin by creating the main class AsteroidsInfinity. It will extend Game, the window manager we created earlier.

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