Update on what's happening + Next week's goals

Hello again. The game is coming along slowly for me, as this week was the first week were I really had the time to work on the game. And since I'm making something I've never have done before, I have to think differently now. So that's why it's coming along slowly for me.

But with that said, I'm going to put up weekly goals for myself with this project from now on, and I'm gonna follow them up at the end of each week.

So, the goals for the next week are

1. Make it so that something is rendered on the screen
2. Make it so that enemies travels down the track properly
3. Make Boost 1.54, which will be released next week, work properly within the game.

Part 1 - Why use SimpleIni aka why config files are awesome

In order to keep you interested while I'm working on the game in some shape, I'm gonna take some time and explain the code libraries that I'm gonna use for the game. I'll start of with SimpleIni

What is SimpleIni

SimpleIni is a C/C++ open-source software that is used to read, change and save settings on .ini files. It can read both integer values, floating point values, string values and booleans.

Why SimpleIni

Initially, I used it because I was assigned to find a solution that could read settings from .ini files, but I liked it so much that I continued to use it. One reason for it is because it is so simple to use, all you need to include is one header files and from there on, it is really simple to use, maintain and debug.

Disadvantages?

By the way I've been using SimpleIni, there are a few disadvantages with it

• Only support for the integer variable long (which is equal to an int, a 4-byte integer), but you can cast it to lower integer values. For grater values, you read it as a string and then convert that to an integer
• Only support for the floating-point variable double (which used 8 bytes), if you want to use float (which uses 4 bytes), you have to cast it to a float when reading the value

Why have config files

Because it saves time!
The way the project and VS is set-up for me right now, if I change something in the renderer class, it takes ~4 seconds to compile. That may not sound much, but when you are in a phase where you are doing nothing but changing variables to make the game balanced, that adds up quickly. So by having numbers in a config files, you just need to change the variables and save the file in order to make the change happend. And that saves lots of work in the long run.

So if you don't already have a config files for your game, get one now!

A notice on what's happening

I'm sorry in advance if I might be quiet for some time, but I'm moving out from my apartment soon. Packing and cleaning it takes time, but once it's done, I'm going to be able to work more on it and hopefully post more updates.

With that being said, I can say that I've at least started coding the engine of the game and I'm planning to do a series of post where I explain some of the libraries that I use for the game.

Part 0 - Introduction

It's time to give a proper introduction about me and the game I'm working on.

About me

My name is Axel Räntilä, I'm 20 years old and I'm a student, currently studying Game Design and Programming at Gotland University(which will become Uppsala University Campus Gotland later this summer). Interest of mine include programming, reading books and mangas, training Aikido and taking bicycle trips and, of course, playing games.

When it comes to games, I play all kinds of things, but I really like to play tower defense games because they offer a unique strategical challenge. My favorite tower defense game is probably Sanctum by Coffee Stain Studios.

And if you have any question that you want to ask me, related to this project or not, you can do so in three different ways:

• Email me at programmerarttd [@] gmail.com
• Tweet me @axelrantila
• Post them in the comments

About Programmer Art TD

As the name implies, the game will be a tower defense game that will be built up with programmer art. In the game you have to protect your RAM memory from the incoming hordes of memory leaks. If too many memory leaks reaches your RAM memory, the game game will be over.

You defend the RAM memory by building towers on the circuit board near the memory. Killing of memory leaks gives you access to resources, which in term can be spent on building more towers.

After destroying a certain number of memory leaks, you will be rewarded with a boost that gives you some kind of bonus until the end of the map.

The game will be written in C++ and will utilize (at least) three external libraries.

• SFML, for rendering of graphics, handling of input, playing up sounds and such
• SimpleIni, for reading settings from config files
• Boost, for a lot of back-end things (Will explain more in the future)

Goals for this project

I've set-up a couple a goals for myself that I want to fulfill with this project around the time my fall semester starts:

• Learn to work with Visual Studio 2012
• Write a 2D-engine that can be used later on (for making games for fun or during Game Jams and such)
• Getting better at utilizing external libraries for making the code work better.
• Build a functioning Tower Defense game

And that's it for now, expect more to come next week.