Coding in the Dark

As you may know, the next release of Tetra Master DS will focus mainly on updating the look and feel of the game. I’ve been doing some mock-ups in GIMP and here’s what I’ve come up with so far

In the current release, most of the information on the top screen is redundant. The name and stats are displayed twice. I removed the second instance and replaced it with XP bars for the card. I also added the player names to the bottom with an indicator to denote which player’s turn it is. Finally, I put the text into a nice little dialog box.

I doubt this will be the final version so I’d like to get as much feedback as possible. I don’t think it looks quite as polished as I’d like. The boxes are pretty flat and boring. I want to use a different font eventually.

This is just a minor bug fixing update. Here is a list of the bugs that were fixed:

v0.5.1
- Fixed L/R in collection screen
- Fixed cards “played” attribute not resetting after exiting a game
- Opponents hand now gets deleted when a game is exited
- Fixed intermittent black screen when game starts
- Fixed intermittent Goblin null pointer bug

You can download it here.

I’d like to take a moment to emphasize the importance of simplicity. I recently fixed a bug that was caused by memory allocation for a character array. I was determined to get this code to work rather than just creating a statically sized character array that was larger than I needed. All of this effort was to save a few measly bytes of memory. I probably spent several days, if not weeks, debugging and trying to fix this issue. Finally, I gave in and used the statically sized character array and the bug is gone. I’m still a little irritated that I wasn’t able to solve the problem. However, I’m even more irritated at myself for being so stubborn and wasting so much time.

I’ve added a forum to the site. It’s a little more manageable than keeping bug reports in the blog comments. I’ll be adding sections for each new project that I start. I already have a bunch of ideas for more projects, but Tetra Master comes first.

Forum

After several months, Tetra Master DS v0.5 is finally ready! This version is the biggest update yet. I’ve added in the ability to collect cards and battle against different opponents to increase your collection. The cards can now level up and change type (P/M -> X, X -> A). Your collection will be saved after every game and will load automatically when you start. I’d love to hear any feedback you have on the game.

Here is the full list of changes:

v0.5
-Added saving/loading of player card collection and stats
-Added card collection screen
-Added player experience and levels
-Added individual card stats(experience, X,A types)
-Changed to predefined opponents for each player level rather than random card selection
-Replaced sprite based menus and text with standard console based text
-Added a gameplay tutorial

You can download it here.

I was a little quick to poo poo pointers. They really are the best, most efficient way to handle objects. I just need to do a better job of cleaning up.

I am very close to releasing Tetra Master v0.5. There are just a few more things that need to be added before it’s released. I really think this version is going to be super fun. The collection element has been implemented. Now you can save your card collection, win cards from your opponents and track how many wins/losses/ties you have.

Right now I’m working on the opponent’s card selection. Up until now, both the player and the opponent had completely random hands. Now that the player’s hand is limited to their collection, the opponent’s hand needs to be evenly matched. There also needs to be a percentage chance of the opponent having a card that the player does not have. I don’t want the player completing their card collection too quickly. Anway, expect a release in the next week.

I just realized that I have been depending heavily on pointers, but I have not been taking the proper memory cleanup precautions. I initialize things as new and never free them before overwriting them again. I think I’ve gotten so used to doing this in Java and C# that I just plum forgot about the nightmare it causes in C. I also kind of got used to using the combined dereferencing arrow operator “->” instead of “.” which made me a little lazy.

To make my life easier, I’m going to try to only use pointers when they are needed. Everything else can be allocated statically!

As you may know I am currently using the card art from Final Fantasy 9, but I would like to move away from using their assets (and eventually their name) so that the game can stand on its own.

I’m looking for someone to create all new cards to replace the current ones. I would like all of the cards to have a consistent theme, preferably fantasy based. The cards are 40×48 pixels, but I would love to have double sized versions to use on the top screen. I’m also looking for a new logo for the menu screen, some battle effects, and other art to give the game a more professional, polished look. If you can only do one of these things, I’d still love your help.

If you are interested, reply to this post. If you know someone who might be interested, send them on over to the site!

In other news, I finally graduated! I am now a Bachelor of Engineering. Yippee!

I’ve come back from the dark side of managed code and returned to the sweet simplicity of DS development. I forgot how satisfying (and painful) it is to debug without a debugger.

The next version of Tetra Master is well on its way. I’m not sure whether this one will be a point release or if I’ll go ahead and slap a 1.0 sticker on it.

Here’s what I’m hoping to get done for this version:

-Collection screen with graphical touch interface
-Saving/Loading of Player stats/cards
-Non-random opponent card selection - based on player’s current “level”
-Better AI (possibly trained using a genetic algorithm)
-Screens for winning/losing cards after a battle
-Gameplay tutorial
-Slight randomness in card stats
-Individual card stats (XP,  wins, losses,  etc)  and chance of leveling up or changing to X/A type

Name: tomsweeney

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