Mentor

Mentor My Mentor's name is Adam Wellner, he is a programmer that is a friend of my Dads.Me and my Mentor never had any face to face conversation, but simply talked through Facebook.Below is the conversation that we have had since the beginning of the project. The

is my Facebook profile picture, while is Adam.

Hiya! Sorry if that I didn't instant message you earlier, stuff was goings on. So...sorry I feel awkward trying to ask help for something I'm still unsure of. Do you know of any basic programming books or tutorials or anything I can use to learn how to make Online Games? My Project was moved to that general area. I'm kind of lost in that sector. May 1, 2012

Well i am hapy to answer any questions and try to guide you in this endevor. So.... the first step in a project like this is to try and develop a plan, and a fairly detailed one at that. You say an online game, what kind of online game? MMO? facebook type? arcade? something else I dont know of? these kinds of things greatly impact the choice of language, and to a degree the programing approch.

Also what is your background in programing? Have you done any? Also, frequently I apear to be online but my phone has facebook and looks like it is online but actualy I dont get the messages...atleast instantly...so sorry bout that

Oh it's fine don't worry. I am hoping for a kind of basic online game, like the ones on the infinite amount of gaming websites? (Armorgames.com is a example) I'm not trying to go all out with a MMORPG. But something simple May 2, 2012

OK, well those games are typicaly programed in flash. The first step to any game creation is to develop a detailed description of the rules. Keep in mind rules include (and perhaps more importantly) rules the player never directly notices, things like gravity, or left arrow makes thing move left.

I found this site which has some good info, and is a great place to start with programing @http://chrismweb.com/2011/03/01/beginning-flash-game-programming-and-actionscript-programming-part-1-introduction-to-flash-game-programming-and-useful-terms/ Now i doubt you are quite ready to dive in and start codeing (there is a supriseing amout of ground work nessary in writeing a program) but playing around will help make you more comfortable when it comes time to start.

So first you need to develop an idea of what you are going to do, I am more than happy to help you get a detailed plan, as well as help with feasabity or how to go about implementing your plan. The next step is flowcharting (teachers love this stuff), pluss it is a nice check to see if there are error in logic. Microsoft visio is a good tool for flowcharts. I will let you digest that for a while before giving an information overload. Beginning Flash and ActionScript Game Programming Part 1: Introduction to Flash Game Programming and www.facebook.com

...Wows, thanks for the link! Most of the ones I found where kind of worthless, I'll get to reading it! I've been thinking the first game to make would be a avoider (Your a plane/whatever and things try to hit you to death, and you might get a gun) so this'll definitely help! May 3, 2012

So something like asteroids (if you are old enough to know about that). That is actually a really practical first project. The code is the easy part on that. So physics, what sort of physics will you include? (This is perhaps 70% of the problem). Are you thinking space, air, land, sea, underwater? How does movement behave, constant accell? Constant v as long as a button is pressed, accell to a max speed? Gravity? How about collisions? These things are they keys to a physics engine, the core of most games from asteroids to halo. None of these things are hard, they are just math and computers are good at math, but dramaticly change the gameplay.

Yah, exactly like asteroids (Except you wouldn't get the gun at first, and you'd probably aim with the mouse) and I was thinking space (Simplicity is bliss) and just things flying at you, your speed would probably be constant (but upgradeable) and enemies would vary from going random directions to following you to actually shooting August 6, 2012

Hiya! Sorry that I haven't asked much help for the videogame project, I've been at a Summer Camp working for 5 weeks...Which during that time the free trial I was alloted as part of the tutorial website that you gave me ran out. So we are going to have to purchase the actual application.

@http://www.adobe.com/products/flash-builder.edu.html?promoid=FDNXC

This is the premium package of the program I had some tutorials with. So is it worth buying the plan that says $30 a month? Or is there something else I should buy instead?

No problem, truth is I haven't had time, I moved to Rochester in the last month, and started a new job. Although things are settled down now, SO.... my research showed that this tool is just as good or better than the commercial version, at least the ones at reasonable price : @http://www.flashdevelop.org/, the good thing is it is free and open source, open source in my opinion is generally better (if you are not aware, open source is software that the author has decided to share with everyone, with the understanding they can use and modify as they wish, but they must keep there changes open for other to build on, And as such is free but really it is property of the world, in my experience it produces great software, that is really built to use) I don't develop flash myself, I mostly work in python, which is open source, and VBA where the compiler is built into ms office. Although the process is going to be the same, and once you learn one computer language each additional one gets easier, it is just a matter of syntax and semantics.

As always feel free to let me know if you have any questions or comments. FlashDevelop.org - Welcome www.facebook.com August 7, 2012

Ooh, this looks really good. So should I use the same tutorial as before? I'm not sure if it'll work the same way, so I looked up 2 more tutorials. @http://gamedev.michaeljameswilliams.com/2011/01/08/introduction-to-flashdevelop/ and @http://devmag.org.za/2009/04/02/flash-for-free/ So which should I go with?

And is there another way to download it? I'm using a Mac...

Flash is a language (well sorta) the IDE (Integrated development environment) should not change they way you write code, except some shortcuts may be different (like ctl+tab is intent block in one IDE i use). You could write code in notepad if you wanted, although an IDE will have lots of tools (like code completion) to save you time and effort. What you do need specific to the code is a compiler, most compilers are built to avoid any unique syntax or semantics issues. I would look at this thread, @http://www.flashdevelop.org/community/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7621 it talks about a bridge to run the software on a mac or linux box. @http://www.flashmagazine.com/news/detail/open_source_and_free_development_tools_for_flash/ lists a few other tools you might want to check out. I don't have a mac box so I cant rely test any of them on my end. Something i think you should read through is this very basic overview of Java: @http://computer.howstuffworks.com/program.htm while you wont be using java, action script (the flash programming language) is a decedent of Java, so a lot of the basic principals are the same. I think it is valuable to understand things like what the software you are working in does, and what it doesn't do.

let me know your thoughts FlashDevelop.org - View topic - FlashDevelop Mac/Linux integration: the Bridge project www.facebook.com August 8, 2012

Okay, I'll read through the how it works page, but with the first 2 links what am I supposed to download? Since the first link says that it is still being worked on, and the second one seems to have a windows application on the top with a whole bunch of other downloads. And whoa the how it works wants me to download a java complier which is a very large file, since I won't be actually using java I'm assuming I should skip that part.

Ill have to dig into the mac stuff when i have some time. The hsw page is mostly to give you background ihow it works, not nessarly should you complete the them on your own. One thing i learned about solving well any engineering problem, is sometimes looking at something loosely related can give you a better understanding of how to solve the problem at hand.

My bit of research says, there is not really a good free open source tool for mac. HOWEVER after talking to an animator friend of mine, it was brought up that Flash may be a dieing tool. Absolutely feel free to go that route, BUT there is another tool, (that i have used before) called Blender. It uses python as the scripting language, which is based on C (loosely) and is quickly becoming the a popular scripting language (while flash is arguably dieing). @http://geta3d.com/ is a way to push blender content to the web, check it out and see what you think. It looks difficult but blender is relay built to be whatever you want, and can be easy(like pacman) or can be well you could make halo with blender if you wanted. www.blender.org (plus i can help troubleshoot blender better than flash)

thoughts? Share your Blender files www.facebook.com August 9, 2012

Wow, Blender Looks Incredible, for school I messed with a 3D program, which was pretty fun, but this is a lot different and more in-depth. I started on some of the tutorials but the program itself is still intimidating me, this should be fun though.

I am not a blender pro but have worked a bit with the python scripting side of it on a project with a friend, he is a animator by trade... So it is your call on which route you want to go, flash or blender. The other thing to be working on is scoping. The first part of scoping is to come up with a concept, and to write down what you would like to include. Think brainstorming in english. What makes your project unique, what are key features. Think like you are convincing management to let you do this. I assume that the product you create here is going to be a deliverable for your project. Speaking of which do you have some information about what you need to do for the project?

Your asking about my end result of this? It's a Senior Project for my school year, basically I have to choose any topic and work on it for a long time, while doing this I have to have a product (In this case, videogames) and I have to update a wikispace (Haven't worked on that much because there is nothing to write down) and a long paper (Nope.) So my main focus is actually working on the videogames. And then your asking about my brainstorming of what games I actually want to make...My main idea is going to be the basic Your a Spaceship and you can only move left/right and shoot, and rocks are coming towards you, then later introduce concepts like enemies firing back, rocks that seek towards you, or better weapons. The other idea was a bit more complicated, it was a rock paper scissor game but each one would be a unit that you would send across multiple lanes, and the goal was to get one of the units to the other side, therefore doing damage to the enemies base. Then eventually the units could be upgraded to move faster, hop lanes, jump over enemies, have more health, stuff like that. The first one should be easy, but the second one I have no idea how it's going to go

Ok, well one of the first things you will need (and partly because it gives you a plan) is a statement of scope. This should be a detailed (well about a page) description of the project. This is also a page for your Wiki. This document will turn into a flowchart (also page on the wiki) the flowchart gets cut into parts, which become function descriptions, which become code....So it is more than just a exercise. (BTW i just basically gave you the pages for your wiki), and

So I would be working on 2 separate sides of the project. 1 is developing scope and 2 is building the technical skills.

Okay, when you say flowchart what do you mean exactly? Like breaking it up into different ideas or...? August 10, 2012

The flow chart is where you define the logic of the program. If this then do this otherwise do this. I will guide you through it when you get there. August 22, 2012

How are things going?

Hiya, sorry that I haven't been talking, I've been going at the videogame things, which will slow down now that school started today Recently I've been working on making a block move towards you, and hurt you. But I've ran into some problems

what language are you using? And what kind of problems?

Notably being it can kill you (At WAAAY to fast a rate) but you can't kill it, and it will randomly sink into the floor a little bit, then fly upward as if it is jumping (I posted that like 3 times and it never popped up, silly Facebook) And I'm using Python in Blender

Send me a copy i will look when i have a chance Email is adam.wellner@gmail.com

Um sure, okay, the ultimate goal is to have a enemy that seeks towards you, and does damage the more it touches you, eventually I want the same thing but for enemies that jump up and down and move around and such, or simply move side to side. So then I can figure out a main menu, a way to end the game, and a timer so I can make actual levels. October 16, 2012

Hiya! Sorry that I haven't said anything much, I thought you were busy with things so I didn't want to annoy you much. If I remember correctly the last thing I nagged you about in regard to blender was figuring out how to make something follow you. That works now, so it's all okay The next thing that has been giving me troubles (I was not working on this the entire time we were not talking) is how to make a increasing difficulty. So far it isn't working that well. What I tried to do was make it so every time you killed a enemy it would send a message to a empty. This Empty would keep track of the points until it reached 20. Once it reached 20 it would reset to 0, and a random number generator would choose a number between 1 and 7, depending on which number it would create a different spawn that would spawn more enemies. Thus increasing difficulty. Unfortunately...I'm not sure why it's not working, sometimes it seems like it works but other times it seems as if it is making less enemies spawn. So any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Sorry i have been fighting computer problems for months...but that looks mostly fixed. Anyway send me updated code and i will take a look. I know a few things about random numbers and have a few ideas for you. I will say one problem with random numbers is they are random and harder to debug than deterministic problems. I also don't think you want an empty for this. Emptys are a special data type, mostly a place holder. I might suggest a more continuous approach. Say every 2 sec see if you spawn a new enemy, make the prop based on the number of enemies killed. I can help you figure this out if you would like.

Erm....I'm using Logic Bricks instead of code, since I barely understand code Originally I was thinking the same thing for making the game harder, but it didn't seem like the best thing to do. I don't know I'll try making it with time limits, it should work out Oh wait, how would I make it make different spawns? So different enemies come out?

My understanding (and i am just learning the blender side myself) is you can write code to place into a logic brick. As far as different spawns you will need to run some code (and realize the logic blocks are just chunks of code) to pick which enemy you want to spawn and then spawn that enemy exactly how you would normally something like : generate random number [0-1) If [0-.25) enemy 1 else If [0.25-0.75) enemy 2 else enemy 3 December 22, 2012  [[image:https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/273889_1564150986_127750259_q.jpg link="https://www.facebook.com/max.pinkava"]]

Hiya! It is once again time for me to ask a question I'm hopelessly lost on. (By the way, thanks for help with the spawning, I thought I posted a response saying that it worked out great, but it must not of shown up)

Recently I tried to update blender (from 2.63 to 2.65) thinking that no harm can come of it...The first problem was that it endlessly crashed, and got rid of the 2.63 blender, so I re-downloaded it from this site since I couldn't get the right one on blender because that would endlessly crash too.

@http://mac.oldapps.com/blender.php?old_blender=1259 After that I was able to re open the video game I made but things are...different. In slight ways. Some of the weapons I made pass through enemies harmlessly when before they didn't, some enemies act as ghosts when previously they weren't, things that rotate spin wildly now (For example, the Main Turret that you are would turn left and right, now it spins wildly.) I really don't know whats wrong and this could potentially be very very bad. :S Any idea on how it can be fixed? Or atleast reversed?

welcome to the world of development, updates to software typically cause lots of unforeseen issues, I once had a application completely crash, (would not boot) after a update to Microsoft office.

Generally checking the release notes is a good place to start, ( @http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.65 )

Sometimes you were using a "bug" which gets fixed in the new release. Also when upgrading save a copy as sometimes there are minor changes in the save file, which are typically not backwards compatible. My guess is your best bet is to try and get a stable updated version (perhaps only one or 2 releases behind) and see if you can get it to work. Dev:Ref/Release Notes/2.65 - BlenderWiki www.facebook.com

The one I found (2.63) is stable, and by that I mean it opens...and stays open. I'm just wondering how to fix all the odd things that happened

I would check the settings in the logic blocks. It sounds like some values got changed back to default (or the defaults got changed). Problems where something just doesn't quite work right are usually the result of a setting being wrong. Things like the rotation speed being changed or something. Check that the object physics are correct (both the weapon and the enemy), perhaps one got changed in the upgrade, that would be my first guess

Okay, so I'll get checking out on all the physics, I was just afraid it was something larger that was going to ultimately destroy everything...Thank you!

This is actually a good opportunity to learn about something called revision control. With all design projects of complexity, there becomes a point where changes need to be examined for how they will impact other changes. For instance, if you are building a house, and decide to move a wall, you begin to impact other systems, you may need to move walls on other floors for load bearing reasons, it may change how air vents need to be routed....etc. The same is true, perhaps more so with software. Seemingly minor changes can have impacts which are unforeseen if the whole design is not taken into consideration. Revision control basically entails any "Major" changes requiring a review and analysis of the impacts. This process can be very formal, as in when you propose a major change, a committee needs to have a chance to review and approve the change. A more informal change control process (what i typical do for solo projects) is create a new file, with a incremented revision number. for example (SupperAwesomeGameRev10.blend) this lets me have a backup if the change is such that is has unforeseen problems i can go back if I choose to remove the revision or if i need to try a different approach. A major change would be something like adding a feature, changing a data type for a widely used variable or software version upgrade. Complicating matters, when interfacing with software from other developers, the other developers do no take your needs into account. When I did tech support I always dreaded Tuesday, the day Microsoft pushes new patches. Things tend to break when software is updated.

Sorry there is a lot there, but hopefully you get some tidbit of useful information out of it.

Nah I get what your saying, it's time to rethink certain aspects of the game.

No not what i am saying, Just it sounds like time it institute revision control. Keep track of changes, and be careful when you do make changes. If you feel the need to rethink aspects, then do that. I am trying to provide advice on the process of design, not the actual design itself

Alright, I'll keep that in mind

Thanks for the help January 16

Okay, time for the next awkward moment I am going through a tutorial series (specifically parts 7-9) of this series @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuJ3BzTXrN4  And I just finished it, but I am having a problem the "scores.scr" that it claims to keep the scores saved in the game doesn't exist, and I can't find it, so it won't save the scores Any ideas what I can do? Like is it a matter of making one manually, did I make a mistake in the coding or...what?

I will take a look this weekend. I don't have "real" internet where i am January 17

Fair enough, thank you January 18

Oh and one other thing that has been driving me nuts, how do you make text keep a color? When I am working on my game the colors of the font is obvious, but when I start the game the colors don't stay, any ideas? I tried doing what google says but it still doesn't stay