Another sandbox game

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

I’ve been working on this sandbox thing since the beginning of the year. Wouldn’t be too surprised if I abandon it like every other project I code, but I’ll just hope not.

I had experience in making something like this in 3D, except that project stopped last year due to certain reasons…
There’s a bunch of things I want to fix or add. I’d like to complete something like a Creative Mode in Minecraft. The irony is that whenever I see another “clone” I do a slight groan. And here I am. The main unique point I want in this game (game?) is that it supports “better” physics than Minecraft and smooth terrain. Problem is there’s a reason why there’s not many non cubed/squared sandbox games: it’s hard.

Built with libgdx.

oh yeah and here’s a small guide:

Also, you can drag and drop icons
edit: okay, so I found that the disjoint button (2nd in sidebar) isn’t working so that needs fixing

Newest link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86538966/earthform20140406.zip

#2

that terrain is pretty cool! im surprised you dont have some cave generation algorithm in there, cos even just scribbling around with the mouse makes some wicked looking caves. the players movement speed and the gravity feel quite sluggish tho.

#3

You’re very negative about your projects :stuck_out_tongue: Be excited and happy and let those emotions flow into your posts! Honestly, after reading your post about your game I almost don’t want to play it because you talked about all the bad things more than the good things. Highlit what is different about the game, what you think is cool and try to get people to play, not ward them off!

#4

how did you make the physics? BOX2D?

#5

Thanks. Terrain generation is something I need to work on later along with player movement. Currently, I’m working on the ability to rotate entities.

Haha, maybe too much “humility”…

Yeah, the one in libgdx.

#6

I agree with Opiop65 in that you are too negative about your game. I was kinda baffled when I saw how it good it really is! :slight_smile:

Now I don’t know much about libgdx, but I do think it would take me some (a lot) time to create the same. So props to you for being better than me :stuck_out_tongue:

Just keep working on it and do it because it’s fun! Don’t think “it’s just another game”, it’s YOUR game!
I always thought “My game is never going to be played by anyone so why bother”, but now I am simply making a game that I want to play… So screw it if noone else ever plays it :slight_smile:

#7

Don’t mistake humility for just beating yourself up about the little things you did wrong :wink: Being humble is quite different than that!

#8

I’ve been working on lighting and it’s definitely not easy… Got something close to what I want but it still has some flaws and is slow and inefficient.

#9

uploaded new link with:
-lighting; there’s still some bugs with it and has made chunk loading slower. It’s been highly optimized since the first version of lighting but still has some ways to go. Entity lighting is not smooth.
-shape options (in sidebar) for some materials; there’s only two options for shapes for now: square and right triangle
-rotation for some materials; only by 90 degree intervals for now (so pretty much useful only for right triangle shapes)
Oh yeah and should the downloads be .jar or .zip?

#10

The light from the torches looks really nice once you dig into a place that the sunlight isnt lighting! Almost perfect. Are you planning on trying to make the sunlight not get so far into the underground? It took a while before I accidentally stumbled upon a location where there was no sunlight getting in, and then discovered that the torches actually work.

Another point, it may be better to have the blocks snap to grid by default? Its hard to actually build anything when they can be placed free-form as they dont join together very easily.

#11

Thanks for the feedback.
Sunlight goes infinitely down as long as it’s not blocked (like Minecraft). So if you dig straight down, you’ll always have sunlight as opposed to digging diagonally. Torches might be more useful once a day/night cycle is added.
For snap to grid, yeah, I’ll probably set it to default (also grid visibility and snap would be two separate toggle buttons).

#12

Added a “middle” layer, where you can add one-way objects. You can stand on top of it but can go through when jumping up; pretty common in platformers. You can also go down through it by pressing down (S). It was fairly difficult making this in box2d, especially with multiple kinds of shapes (not just squares). It’s still not perfect and sometimes glitchy.

Separated a side button into “toggle grid visibility” and “toggle grid snap”.

Lighting still has issues.

Currently, I want to fix a problem where saving and loading makes some entities disappear.

#13

There’s a bug where if you place something over yourself and you try to move around you fall through the world.

EDIT: I’ll be more specific. You can place something over yourself, then when you try to move around in it, you can only stay within the bounds of what you’ve placed over yourself. Once you connect this block of stuff that you’ve put around yourself to the ground, you fall through.

#14

And If you fall too fast