Project of the Month - August 2009
GM Minish Cap Engine
(http://www.zfgc.com/PotM/aug2009_1.png)
Board Location (http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?board=305.0) | Site Page (http://www.zfgc.com/index.php#?action=games&sa=view&id=128)
Developers: Niek (http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3773), 4Sword (http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=89)
Language: Game Maker
First Posted: March 23rd, 2009
Last Update: September 4th, 2009
A consistent problem with ZFGC has been that most projects die because they happen to just be half-baked engines. And over the course of ZFGC's history there have been many engines that have advanced features used in fan games. The Community Project of the Game Maker Minish Cap Engine tries to reconcile these two concepts. By providing a tool that can be used for people developing their fan games here, or by just giving those here who are more interested with programming than plots an outlet.
That is why the GM Minish Cap Engine was chosen for Project of the Month for the month of August. There were other projects nominated, but the work of Niek specifically over the course of the month of August was what made this project win. There is also a contest coming up in the near future which revolves around this project which doesn't hurt either.
Game Story/Plot
There is no plot for this as it is just an engine. Current though in terms of features it has prioritized movement, ice movement, pit falling, ledge jumping, and bow and arrow shooting. Additionally, the engine is available for download if people would like to use it in their projects - so long as credit is given to ZFGC for its use.
Recent Screenshots
(http://www.zfgc.com/PotM/aug2009_2.png)
Link jumps over a ledge, and on ice no less. | (http://www.zfgc.com/PotM/aug2009_3.png)
Link fires an arrow off his bow. |
(http://www.zfgc.com/PotM/aug2009_4.png)
Link falls into a pit, OH NOES! | (http://www.zfgc.com/PotM/aug2009_5.png)
Eff you diagonals, Link can cuts you. |
Developer Q & A
Q. Niek, why did you decide to contribute to the Community Project Minish Cap Engine?
A. Over the summer holidays I decided to make my own engine in Minish Cap Style, for the dozens of concepts that are gathering dust on my PC. Thus, I stood before a choice. I could make my own engine, keep the code secretive and dazzle everyone with a fangame, which probably doesn't get further than a demo. Or I could help out with the CP. Lighten the workload, because more people are working on the engine (yeah I'm a bit lazy). Additionally, everyone could see the code that I made.
The people that don't know how to program or have difficulties in working out some aspects, can learn from my example. But more important is that skilled programmers can comment on my code, tell me how they would tackle a problem or how I can make my code more efficient. In this way I can learn from it as well. And there are far more things I can learn from the CP than doing a private project. Also if I might lose interest one day (hopefully not) and move on to something else, I know that the work is more than a learning experience and a demo from an abbandonded concept. At least others can use it and continue where I left off.
Q. What skill did you have in programming?
A. In Game Maker I only had done some minor tutorials and they didn't even cover GML. I learned GML from the help-files in Game Maker. I just started tinkering away. I do have experience with programming in other languages (mainly Java) and software design. And there where I lack something, 4Sword has been a great help in giving me some pointers.
Q. The first things that you contributed were the falling in a pit and jumping of a ledge, but the last thing was the Bow and Arrow. Why did you chose this weapon and not something like the sword or another ability that doesn't require a weapon?
A. 4Sword and I have been discussing a contest, which involves the GM Minish Cap Engine. And we are preparing things at this moment. One of the requirements is that the engine needs to have at least one item implemented, which can serve as an example. The bow has its advantages over the other items. It is far less complex than the sword. It has multiple stages (loading the arrow -> holding/walking with the arrow -> shooting the arrow), which is nice to have as an example. It has multiple levels of strenght (the normal arrow and light arrow). And finally, I didn't have to search long for some semi-usable sprites of the bow.
Q. What will be the next ability that you are going to work on?
The bow and arrow aren't completely done yet. As I said with the last question, the bow has a normal arrow and a light arrow. The normal arrow is implemented, but the light arrow isn't. The light arrow also has a charge effect, that still has to be added. In the game logic it is an easy addition, but the drawing of it has me somewhat puzzled. I tried to rip the sprites, but instead of getting a nice animation, I get a dozen or so different light particles. And I don't have a clue yet as how to use them - which is a nice challenge.
Q. What are some big problems that you have come across?
A. Well we could always use the help of some more programmers, but the biggest issues I have is gathering the resources usable for the engine. There are a whole lot of Link sprites and npc's and some enemies, but most of them have minor flaws in need of correction or the animations aren't correctly alligned. The biggest problem that I have come across is the lack of weapon sprites. There are some, but unfortunately the weapons are combined with the Link sprite and I need to edit them to separate the weapon from Link. So for the people that want to contribute but don't want to program, some nice spritesheets with Link and the weapons separated would be nice.