My 2D game's development (as of Feb 27, 2008)

[sharpezor]

what languages do you know ulillillia ? c++? Java? What?

[ulillillia]

I only know C as far as programming goes.  I don't know the similar-looking C++. You should see Platform Masters' videos instead of this. PM is pretty much my masterpiece.

[iiperento]

@ulillillia What language this you used to make the whole game?

[ulillillia]

This was made with C. It's the only programming language I know (not C++ or C#, just C). The game in this video is abandoned. It has been replaced by Platform Masters which is really coming along right now (one look at the finished version of Jeremy's House and you'll be amazed how far I've taken parallax scrolling, far beyond this game).

[WhoBoy93]

FEB 27 2008 was my 15th bday lol

[xxxlegobatmanTECxxx]

i ment could i help you make your game cos i have good game making skillz

[ulillillia]

I don't need any help that I'm aware of.  This applies to both TSO and PM.

[xxxlegobatmanTECxxx]

Hey can i help you with your Game

[ulillillia]

TSO 3 is currently in the "stalled" status due to frame rate problems. DirectX may resolve this. There really isn't anything anyone can do though for both this game and my currently active project, Platform Masters. PM has much more sales potential than TSO as well.

[ulillillia]

Not really.

[D3STRUKT0R99]

Looks cool. Keep us updated on your progress in the development of your game.

[ulillillia]

I've got another game called Platform Masters that is actually higher priority for development than TSO, mostly because it's simpler. Despite simpler, less detailed graphics, there's far, far more to PM than TSO.

[Gen755]

Dude... its a pitty you arent working for a game company... srly .

(my english sux, sorry)

[LemurJooze]

I like your vids and your game looks awesome! Keep up the good work :)

[GamerNGF]

This is spectacular! You designed all of this yourself? That's just amazing. It looks really 3D!

[ulillillia]

From working on Platform Masters' clouds, I can seriously enhance this, far more so than this shows. It's only the draw count that really limits things. I'm going to have to have hardware acceleration for this to work.... I think I have videos from October of 2008 for this game, the latest as of the time I posted this reply.

[GamerNGF]

So what your saying is that as great this game already looks, you can make it look better? That's amazing to say the least. My question is how much does the draw count limit things in the game, without the new hardware?

[ulillillia]

3600 draws per frame was the limit on my old Pentium 4 system. With my current plans, the foreground pathway (seen in some detail in the October 2008 videos), I'll need nearly 7 times that limit. The ground itself, with quality 7, needs about 400 draws for a 1024x768 size. My new method allows for 3D-like textures (like Platform Masters' clouds) and with fewer draws. Many things are now to use it; it allows for far greater texture detail (quality 2) for otherwise the same number of draws.

[bl0ckeduser]

Cool 2d/3d effect !

[ulillillia]

Look at the clouds in my latest game, Platform Masters. This game's 3D effects are simpler compared to this.

[chucknorris202]

this guy obviously has autism

[TIMeJINGLE]

lmfao =D

[XXXMASTERISEXXX]

I'm not being rude or anything, but your voice changed quickly, compared to your slightly earlier and later videos

[Folandi]

You are my hero Ulillillia. I wish I had your talent! I've got limited experience in programming, so I'm nothing special, but if there is anything I can do to help, just let me know! Keep doing what you are doing!

[mmband]

i love watching all your videos they make me feel better about myself

[Jackalofdeath]

You seem very interested in programming and making things. Have you tried getting certified and applying to work for like a gaming company? I bet they could really use your skills and way of thinking for new game engines.

[ulillillia]

It appears that the course for certification is a 20-year course, given the number of credits, plus, it's very expensive. However, this is the oldest posted video of this game here. The newest is for late October of 2008, though the current design is likely to be changed to using 3D rendering instead due to 25 advantages (I've posted these on my site), but it'll still have the 2D game play feel.

[machineowar]

"It appears that the course for certification is a 20-year course"

20 years? Doctors don't even have to go to school that long. Plus, there's a ton of <40 year olds in the gaming industry.

[EigenX7]

WOW NOW I REALLY KNOW WHAT YOUR JOB IS!

[ulillillia]

This is actually not my job. Rather, it's a hobby project instead....

[EigenX7]

Wow

[EigenX7]

You do game studing right?

[ulillillia]

I don't know what "game studing" is, so I can't answer this question.

[XXXMASTERISEXXX]

I think he means studying.

[ElvisLastSupper]

Uli, you can probably just self teach yourself a lot of this stuff. You're really smart so it shouldn't be very difficult and I'd be happy to see you get that vacation you want. Game devs don't care about college, they care about skill. Take a look at nifflas's games or pixel's games, they're very popular and homemade. Pixel even released his game on the Wii!

[snipersas]

The precision of the math in this game is awesome! You are a very smart man!

[ulillillia]

You should look at the two latest ones, both for October of 2008. Until I get motive for learning DirectX, progress is pretty much going to be minimal. I may make this game 2.5-dimensional - using real 3D but have the movement of a 2D game. Tomba 2 is like that, but in my case, always along a single pathway.

[snipersas]

Awesome! Is there any reason why you struggle to get the motive to do work on your games?

[ulillillia]

I've done a lot of planning stuff for my 2D RPG game. There's still a lot of that to do: the list of weapons, armor, items, accessories, enemies, the world map, the rest of the story, and a few others here and there, let alone the images and textures used....

[deryni21]

thats a pretty cool concept. I noticed that you were coding in c just from the first couple seconds haha

answered my own question

[ulillillia]

Although there are much newer videos of it, for October of 2008, this is likely to now be undone and replaced by something much better due to tons of advantages. It won't be 2D any more, it'll be 2.5D. It'll use 3D rendering but play like a 2D game. See my document on my site to see what the 25 advantages and 3 downsides are (most of the advantages and just one of the downsides are for you).

[quagmire444]

youve done a good job for doing this on your own. 5*

[ulillillia]

This is an old video. The most recent is one for late October of 2008, though the one for early October about 3 weeks earlier covers a different aspect of the game.

[normloman]

great graphics!

[ulillillia]

This is an outdated video. Want better? Look at the most recent one, the two for October of this year.

[baumgarn]

beautiful landscape!!

[ulillillia]

Look at the Oct 1, 2008 video and you'll see a significant improvement over what you see in this one. This video is for Feb 27, 2008, about 7 months beforehand.

[astroman129]

Will this game ever be available to the public? If so, where can I download it?

[ulillillia]

It will be, but you won't be able to download it. Even to me, it's not playable as a game yet and it won't be available for quite a while.

[bonecollector316]

what is actually the whole goal of this game.. it is just like a scrolling scene. what is the point of it

[ulillillia]

I've explained it on my website (see category 9 and the shortcut link). It's not just a scrolling scene. I don't have the character done yet, though I do have the landscape done (needs another redo due to a major enhancement I thought of). The video from April 2008 is the newest I have so far. I have one for the character, but it needs a redo.... Some of the details are classified though.

[slowhands666]

This game really, really owns.

Ulillillia owns.

[realolmec]

This game owns.

[DasOberJagan]

The graphical effects are fairly impressive for a 2d game.

Though about game mechanics, all your other videos seem to focus upon breaking down the make up and complexity of a game and finding bugs that are useful. When building this game did you take into account your like for what you do to other games in this games function? Is there a subtle complexity present that you wanted and are there any interesting bugs you have found similar to what you like to find in other games?

[UltraBibendum]

Will your beautiful game be released for the Game Gear this is important???

[ulillillia]

It's highly unlikely that the game will be ported to any system outside the computer. Unless you pay $50,000 (or something like that) for the tools for it or there's the off chance that developers want to publish it, don't count on it.  Graphics aren't actually my priority. I'm targeting 3-star quality at the minimum. Gameplay has the highest at 4-stars with sound at 2 stars. You might want to look at the April 2008 video of this, which has much better graphics than this.

[thecodeisred]

HELL YES

[GlobeNinetyNine]

How many bugs and oddities were found in the final reason search of your aero-cage? In other words, how many jogging hectopascals were found in the entire ground-area?

[ulillillia]

??? I'm highly confused as to what you are asking. Could you explain? Also, note that this is an older video - see the one in late April of 2008 for the most recent.

[RickRudesMustache]

with your extensive testing skills, this could possibly be the most bug free game in history!

[ulillillia]

It's virtually impossible to have a bug-free game. My biggest limitation is the inability to study it on another computer.  Another computer may behave differently than mine. I've still got a very long ways to go and it appears as if I'll be going with DirectX but an older version being the minimum and it may open up the possibility toward using Windows 95 as the minimum (98 is the target minimum). Once I get the character going (gotta wait for the motive...), then I can get crusin' again.

[conman16x]

You're a pretty cool-person. Nice video. I hope you finish your game. I'm sure plenty of people will want to play it.

[Alfrunk]

What country are these olympics held in?

[ulillillia]

It's a fictional area, thus, it's undefined.

[pinchecabron666]

sweet man

[TheMightyTorgo]

this is kewl man keep us updated

[ulillillia]

The latest (as of May 20, 2008) is for late April of 2008, working on the landscape using the engine.

[ManfredMitchum]

question

what genre/type of game is this going to be, and do you plan selling it/releasing it to the public?

[ulillillia]

It's mostly of the racing genre. There will be at least two editions, three possible. The free edition is meant as a trial. The full edition is the main one. A third, questioned, is the screensaver edition. Read the 3.x overview document on my site for the full details about it.

[Flame060]

mmmkay

[flam3rb0y]

i know this is abit random. but is there a story behind your name or did you just decide on a unique name ? :)

[ulillillia]

Do you mean "ulillillia"? Check my website's FAQ - question 6.1 answers it.

[reisadan]

Wow, that looks pretty relaxing. It reminds me of riding on the horse across the plains in Shadow of the Colossus (PS2). I'll definitely keep an eye on this one.

[dirtbaglol]

why don't you blog any more i miss it when you don't blog

[ulillillia]

Read the theory of choice - "one does whatever activity has the highest motive, unless they can be done at the same time". Currently, there are a few things that have a higher motive than any blogging. One is close though as I want to get to a certain spot first, another 10 1/3 miles further (which is likely to go into next week). When I get there, there's a 98% chance I'll make a video of it. The website update is lower than many things so that could even go into May now....

[dirtbaglol]

Fair point, but it's a shame that

all your fans have to go without

getting to read your blog. May is not a

good choice for your next blog update, I'm

overly worried it's just

too far away for us to bother any more.

[ulillillia]

I'm referring to early May, like the first week.

[pentherapy]

Wow, this is really incredible. I know it's technically 2D, but are you going to add the ability to go into the landscape aswell, explore some of the stuff in the distance? It'd be cool to go into the lakes once they're there. Also, how about outer space? Lava under the Earth? This has some great exploration potential.

[ulillillia]

While exploring the background scenery could theoretically be done with only a few small changes, there's a few problems. The landscape itself, the foreground landscape, does actually have lakes, 4 of them. From west to east (left to right), they are Stugu Lake (9 miles long), Lake Windias (11 miles long), Quredda Lake (6 miles long), and Mebna Lake (4 miles long). Going into space is possible without any changes, though it can be tricky to get that high. Under the Earth is not though.

[smroWfonaC]

I havent played any earlier versions of this before but it looks nice. You appear to be a skilled programmer even though you only started doing it in 2004. If the Xbox Live Marketplace doesnt pick it up, try putting this on GameTap as an Original or so. Maybe you could add even more levels with more detailed backgrounds for more variety as well.(maybe weather effects if you know how to do program those in)

[ulillillia]

I could program almost anything, but there are two catches to it. The first is knowing what Windows function is needed to do something not possible with standard code. The second is that some things require something that I don't have.  One example is using hardware acceleration. Without it, I cannot create dynamic effects in real time without a big negative impact on the frame rate (SDL seems feasible). I'm now redoing the terrain map... again, but this time using the game itself to do it.

[DanWars]

this is really cool

[confusing1]

you need to do video blogs

[Rapi2]

Yes, please Nick!

[CoMa7oSe]

MULTIPLY AND DIVIDE

[ulillillia]

"ImageXYPos = (ActualXYPos/Distance)*(ImageW­idth/AdjustmentFactor)" - the basic formula. ActualXYPos is the coordinate of the X or Y position in 3D-space and distance (scaling) is how far it is if ignoring the X and Y postions. Image Width is the width of the image and AdjustmentFactor is an offset to control field of view. Use 2 to approximate a 90 degree field of view. I can also use 3D, but that involves the arctangent and is more complicated to use.

[CoMa7oSe]

o...kay

[limpviscid]

Not using vectors, ulill?

[ulillillia]

Development for the programming part is only at the very beginning, even though I'm roughly 40% done overall. For this movement to preview what things are like, vectors aren't even necessary. However, once I get the character, then I'll, with 100% certainty, need them, especially for bounces, jumps, etc. on the landscape. I'm 67.8 miles into the 90 needed for the terrain map, about 75.3% done.

[limpviscid]

Cool. You gotta give us a video of the entire terrain map when you're done.

[ulillillia]

You'll likely see the entire thing a few months from now when I'm near completion for the programming of the minimap. This may be until June, but I cannot make any guarantees for dates.

[0megadwarf]

It looks awesome, I would love to play this game and just zone out...relax...

[ulillillia]

You're not alone. Even I'm anxious to play it. I'm redoing the terrain map and I need to think of a solution for the rotation bug with GIMP and that the outline for non-flat areas gets very distorted. Since I wrote the overview document, I thought of numerous other enhancements, some classified.

[artable3]

realistic man

[BrownsRtheBest]

cool game, trigga.

u should write simulation software imo

[ulillillia]

Simulation software is not in my realm of knowledge.

[confusing1]

wow, i like that 3d ground effect looks really good

[frostytheaussie]

awesome, what game are you going to make out of it?

[ulillillia]

??? I'm confused as to what you're asking.

[grayrobot]

Looks good dude. Keep it up!

[limpviscid]

How tall are the mountains?

[ulillillia]

The tallest are about 22,500 feet tall. The tallest you can stand on hovers around 22,200-some feet. I'm currently redoing the entire 90-mile terrain map and I'm 24 miles in within just 2 days, just before one of the areas where one of long-lasting visions is. Why redo it? The previous version was unrealistic with little variation in the slopes. The new version looks far better and more realistic. It's hard to see it well at the drastically scaled down 72,000x3840-pixel size.

[krissuyx]

cool

[wang0fett]

good job. ur gonna make alot of money someday.

[ohnoitsryan]

Nothing says profits like making 2d games.

[FrankHowley]

WOW! SO FAST!

is this going to be released for the xbox 360

[ulillillia]

There's a 0.1% chance of that being the case. I can only develop for the computer, not any consoles. It should, theoretically, work well on mid-range Windows 98 systems, though you may need to drop the visibility down and reduce the ground quality (even quality 20 (I use 7) is still very decent-looking).

[midnightnap]

Does your new digital camera have a video feature with audio? If so, you should start recording video blogs every once in a while and let people know what you are up to.

[ulillillia]

I do have a digital camera with video, but I don't know if it records audio or not. It records in MOV format, in which Virtual Dub and Virtual Dub Mod cannot open so I use Bink to convert it to AVI.  I get an error when it comes to the audio.... This is not even a week's worth of programming either, though I still have a few bugs to iron out. One bug is class 3, another is class 5.

[Cybershell13]

this looks rad

[gwogwo123123]

cool vid thank u for posting it

[Rapi2]

Wow, that's great Uli, I had no idea that 3.0 would look this good, I can't wait to play it.

[ludosophist]

Dude, I can't wait until you release this, if it's half as good as your vid's it'll be money.

[Hazharu]

Keep up the good work. 5/5

[TSDT]

I think others have said this already but that parallax scrolling is quite sexy.

Keep up the good work.

[ulillillia]

I've stated on the overview of this game taking parallax scrolling to the extreme. I just need to keep the draw count below 3600 for a constant 60 fps (as experiments have told me (ground quality 3 gets just beyond this point and below 6 isn't really needed (the video has 7 used)). There's still the foreground landscape, clouds, water, lakes/forests, and the character for the bulk of the graphics.

[basilisk128]

The ground looks very nice! Good job on that.

[mystapler]

Cool, nice 3D effects with the ground stretching out and the 2D dirt.

[froomeh]

This is looking very nice, much better than the old versions of this game. It is a shame that you dislike multiplayer games, as racing with friends could be enjoyable.

[ulillillia]

I would like to add such functionality, but I can't test it outside theoretical-based testing. I don't know anything about internet programming and I don't have a way to feed the data needed, though I have a rough idea on how it could be done.

[Werelion2367]

Does anyone know how come finshed games do not look like "add 5 to proccess 8001", but just random things with no text (adhej#jmj%), so how does the program recognize what to do when its compiled?

[DrewCameron]

The program is converted from "English" into machine code when it's done. So you can't understand it, but the computer can.

I'm a programmer; lets us know if that cleans it up.

[simple11q]

With a stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere and a parameter for current object temperature this would be a nifty simulation.

Or the other way around, going through the crust into the upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core and inner core.

The main character could be subatomic particle or fictional gas.

[ulillillia]

Not quite, though you can get 10,000+ miles high if you have the patience and can figure out how.

[chewthetrain]

What exactly is the "point" of this game?

[ulillillia]

See the 3.x overview document for a rough idea. There's another thing I thought of unposted that more than doubles the current number of challenges and makes the game more exciting.

[Futuramaooy]

Hah, my birthday is Feb 27th 2008 :D good timing Ulillillia!

[legostudios101]

happy birth day then

[MattB22890]

Wow, my birthday is Feb 28th. :P Good timing again!

[SeparateEntity]

My birthday was on the 26th. Great timing.

This game does look promising. Maybe you should check out NiGHTS into Dreams for the Sega Saturn, and maybe even the Wii sequel as well, for inspiration.

[mateyboy07]

I had a chance to play NiGHTS for the Wii. Was pretty disappointed, most probably because I'd been playing Super Mario Galaxy just before hand,

[veyronman]

you were born TODAY!?

[Futuramaooy]

heh, whoops, I meant 1991, mind slip there!

[JackiePaquito]

??????????????????????????????­???????

[chewthetrain]

Is this going to be released as freeware?

[ulillillia]

There's two editions - a free one (which functions as a trial (no trial time period though)), and a cheap, paid one. See the 3.x overview document for my latest plans for it.