Go on, ask me anything.

General Discussions
#101

ah great stuff, nice to see puppygames finally make it after all these years, tis well deserved :slight_smile:

#102

Indeed, super grats on becoming a successful indie developer! :slight_smile:

#103

Hey,

I may just be asking this out of dumb curiosity but…

care to give a screenshot of your dev environment?

#104

That is a strange request :slight_smile: It’s just… Eclipse, in Java Browsing mode (the 4 panes at the top, not the crappy tree view). And some garish syntax colouring scheme.

Cas :slight_smile:

#105

Sweet, someone else uses the Projects/Packages/Types/Members views! Package Explorer FTL. But… across the top?? You’re losing visible lines of code! :stuck_out_tongue: Even on 1280x1024 you have room for ~120 columns and tools on the right (not the left, so that the code location doesn’t change when all views are hidden).

Here’s my Eclipse. :slight_smile: Notice the super awesome custom font!

http://n4te.com/temp/monitor.png

#106

Here it is:
http://www.puppygames.net/my%20workspace.jpeg
I use Fixedsys font. And a lot of pink for some reason. Yuk :slight_smile:

Cas :slight_smile:

#107

I know this will make a lot of people cry, but I really (I mean really) like MS’s Consolas font. Otherwise Anonymous is pretty good.

#108

Um i just started using Eclipse and i found the short discussion on the set up of eclipse very useful… So you helped someone :confused: Thx.

i’m using the Java Browsing mode and moved the panes to the right where there’s empty space.

#109

I know it’s a bit weird having them across the top but when I started there weren’t any such things as widescreen and I just got used to it :wink: Besides it means I can have really long lines of code which I like. Hehe. And I sometimes open up class hierarchies in the empty space.

Cas :slight_smile:

#110

Just wanted to say that I’m happy that Steam finally got you some well-deserved reward :slight_smile:
Is it enough to quit your day job yet?

#111

Well, on its own, I’d be wary of quitting a day job based on the Steam sales to-date - I’ve personally made enough cash to sustain me for 8 months in just under a week but it’s going to drop precipitously tomorrow when the special offer ends, so it’ll be interesting to see if the “residual income” over the next year is actually enough to eke out many more months of existence. It makes me think about AAA studio games though: to support a 30-employee studio & building rental, and make a proper profit, there must be an incredible gulf in sales volume between the #8 selling worldwide spot we attained and #1. We were ahead of 40k D.o.W Retribution for a while :slight_smile: They must have been crying themselves to sleep at night. Mind you they also have massive retail operations in progress as well, though I’m dubious of the income retail makes these days.

Fortunately the Humble Bundle money already had given me 12 months of money, of which I’ve burned through 4; so as of right now I’ve got 16 months to get something new selling! And I’m full time since October 2010. But it seems a lot of that time is taken up doing vast amounts of support work (Steam forums, Puppyblog, support email, bugfixes and patches). I haven’t even started on the new game yet! :o

Cas :slight_smile:

#112

Myself, I prefer to use shortcuts to bring up browsers which you can then navigate with find-as-you-type search…
Ctrl+Shift+T: type browser
Ctrl+Shift+R: resource browser (for non-java files)
Ctrl+O: member browser

Ctrl-3: searches through lots of available options & commands etc.

Alt+left/right: navigate back/forward through history of where you’ve been
Alt+Shift+up/down: select progressively larger/smaller logical block from caret.
Ctrl+. / Ctrl+,: navigate through annotations (TODOs, warnings, errors etc).

As you can possibly gather, I find it beneficial to avoid switching to the mouse unnecessarily (or trying to find a particular thing by reading through lists rather than typing… ugh).

#113

I’ve never attempted to figure out a percentage, but I use emacs quite a bit instead of the built-in editor of eclipse. Nothing really rivals for raw editing power. But is has a learning cliff, instead of a learning curve. Specifically I don’t stick with one or the other, but switch depending on the type of task I’m performing at the moment.

#114

Q: Princec, why does Nate use so many instanceof’s in his IDE snapshot above?

:stuck_out_tongue:

#115

He is very naughty and should be using a visitor that’s why :wink:

Cas :slight_smile:

#116

Would you really use a visitor pattern for processing messages? I’d stick with enums (not ness. Enums, if you get my meaning).

#117

Yes, if they were already turned into class instances of messages (like what appears to be the case in that screenie). If it was raw data coming in (like an int or whatever) I’d just switch on a bunch of int constants. Actually I’d do that first, to create class instances from the stream :slight_smile: Then visit the messages with some processor or other.

Cas :slight_smile:

#118

Can Steam do DLC? And if so have you considered like a map pack for RotT in another couple months? Seems like that would bump sales of the RotT as well

#119

[quote=“archdrone,post:118,topic:36432”]
Yes, Steam is perfectly set up for DLC and we’ve been thinking about what we could produce for a couple of bucks along the lines of a “scenario designer” sandbox mode where you could design a map (maybe just in ascii), specify any limits on buildings, starting money, etc. and then upload it to our server and play for hiscores on them.

Cas :slight_smile:

#120

newbie here with technical questions!

  1. What are your views on using existing API/engines, other etc… ( such as JmonkeyEngine, Slick, JBullet, etc…) for a beginner.
    [[I exclude lwjgl because you say you use it and made it. I assume you use it 100% of the time? I also know you use things for sound and such. ]]

I did read you have a lot of home grown things but what would you recommend for someone with under a year experience? Use them or learn how to do things from scratch

  1. When designing a level, do you usually build a map editor of some sort, or hardcode locations of things?

  2. If you were to make a game where a character is able to move from 1 map to another(load/unload) How would you handle something like that? A simple rect contains/intersects? a “near edge of map detection” ?

  3. I absolutely LOVE fractals and procedurally generated things. What are your views on procedurally and randomly generating aspects of the game? I am talking more depth then just random enemy placement. But as far as entire levels to graphics of stuff, or even to say more user ability to customize aspects of things using a set of fixed art and fixed customizations

  4. Do you have any bad habits as a programmer or designer that you wish you hadn’t developed (i.e. you mentioned using serialization for saves/breaking the saves)

  5. As a beginner/newbie I am sometimes lost when I try to do something and I am not able to do it, if its something actually beyond my scope as a programmer/creativity or if its just something that I need to spend a legitimate amount of time on?
    (I know literally anything is possible, but trying to decide what is in the realm of an amatuer) (I know you haven’t been one for a long time so it may be hard, but any thoughts?)

  6. If the discussions about Graphene Processors turned out to be underhyped and all of a sudden in 5 years, we have processors that are 10,000 times more powerful. A lot of games push the limits of what a human can interact with and play, and aside from graphics/AI/etc… do you think itd just end up making a bunch of lazy programmers who write far less efficient code and no noticeable game content/math
    What type of game or things would you try to accomplish? that you couldn’t in the current scale now do?

  7. Is there any game you’ve ever played(not your own) that after playing it, you wish you were the one who had designed/developed it. (not from a financial perspective, but “that was impressive!”

Thank you! You rock