Making a Catholic Computer game

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris_Morgan
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Hi SilverLight. We would develop it ourselves. By ‘We’ I mean people on this forum who would like to contribute. People have shown an interest and a few people are actively putting themselves forward to contribute. Its early days yet, but Paul1up is the most active member (other than myself), but the more the merrier!

The engine we are going with is GameMaker 8.1 Lite (the free edition). I’m not a programmer, and it has these ‘drag & drop’ functions.

Would you like to contribute?

Paul1up. Thank you for everything so far. How about we leave out collecting things just for the moment then? We could include it in this generation, but at the moment I cannot think of what to collect - what do others think?

We can forget the Hero Core style then. The sprites I gave were just an example, I am planning to draw some specifically for this project, but I will do them in B&W first - we can always colour them later. I will have a go at making something 16x24 or 16x32 as you recommend and get them posted. If you make anything more though Paul - please do feel free to share it 🙂

Hope the homework 😛 goes well!

Thank you to everybody - keep following the thread, and keep contributing!

God bless,

Chris.
 
 
I’m digging the player sprite! Nice! 👍
Okay, starting to make progress with Game Maker. Very easy to use, if a tad tedious. Only made a title screen that leads to one room with an animated character that can move left and right and collide with the tilemap. I think I can fairly easily make an engine like Knytt fairly quickly. Not sure if you would prefer a scrolling camera or one-screen rooms? Also haven’t tried making gravity and jumping. Once I do make such an engine, I’ll put up an executable and the Game Maker files so everyone can look through them. It ought to be fairly easy to swap out the placeholder sprites with the finished sprite sheets. Then, we can add more and more complex features and add some polish, and eventually the game will be done! I do hope someone has a talent for level design and puzzles, and for graphic design, because I am pretty much the death of those things. And after this, I hope someone has been coming up with ideas for another game, while we’re on a roll. 😉
 
So far so good. I think for enemies (to make the exploration more exciting) we could have wild carrions? Maybe demons that tempt you in the desert? Perhaps the player has a thirst meter and has to find a way to keep it from going too low? Something along those lines. I would think it would be neat to be able to read collected writings.
 
InJesusItrust said:
So far so good. I think for enemies (to make the exploration more exciting) we could have wild carrions? Maybe demons that tempt you in the desert? Perhaps the player has a thirst meter and has to find a way to keep it from going too low? Something along those lines. I would think it would be neat to be able to read collected writings.
Click to expand...
Some wild animals and other obstacles could work. Demons could be particularly special puzzles to get past. Thirst meter could work in some particular part of the desert, but I wouldn’t want players worrying about that the whole game. And it would be neat to be able to read collected writings.

Okay, I’ve done what I could for tonight:
2shared.com/file/CTbJWo-R/test1.html
Very basic, buggy engine. I’ve designed it so that the engine works like Knytt: you can freely travel to adjoining rooms depending on the part of the screen you pass through. Each room has an x and y value in its title, so you can easily identify its place on the map “grid”. There’s only movement and jumping right now. Ended up having to write a bunch of code to get it to work, since I found the D&D limited and hard to work with. There’s no condition to “win” the game, no way to die, and nothing to interact with right now. But other than that, I think it’s okay for an afternoon’s work.
Bugs:
  1. Animation for moving left or right keeps playing while jumping (I don’t want it to do that)
  2. Holding down the jump button and bumping your head on the ceiling causes the player to instantly appear near the floor.
  3. Traveling to the next room causes the movement keys to stop responding momentarily
  4. Because of the player’s collision mask, the sprite can sort of cling to the corners of tiles and get somewhat stuck.
  5. Others I’m sure, but I haven’t tested it thoroughly yet.
 
Just be careful I would settle the details not so publically. People can steal ideas and such.
 
Hi All,

**Paul1up **what can I say about the engine? Great work! Its like languages, which I am terrible at, it always amazes me when people who can program are able to throw things together in an afternoon!

Regarding the bugs, do you want people to look at the code and have a go at fixing things, or are you okay at doing that youself? Also there is a Platform Game tutorial by Mark Overmars (the dude who created GameMaker) available, and which comes with GameMaker files with the D&D already set up. Do you have them/want them? I have used the tutorial’s D&D whilst I was working on a couple of different games: sites.google.com/site/chrismorganstuff/Home/knightsquest1.gmk and sites.google.com/site/chrismorganstuff/Home/hplinvestigates1.gmk?attredirects=0&d=1. Your welcome to look at them if you want.

I would prefer a scrolling camera. Regarding the graphics, I’m happy to take care of those. I have more of an affinity for that, whereas you seem to have more of an affinity for programming - in fact if you want to take care of the programming your quite welcome. A platform engine like Knytt would be great.

**InJesusItrust **wild carrions? I think I know what you mean, and some form of wildlife would be good. Animals would provide an interesting element - I’m not sure that they should be enemies to be killed though, though maybe I’m a bit soft, so I’m happy to be guided on this. As for demons, I suppose its okay to have them as enemies, though they seem to be better suited to be boss enemies. Obstacles would be a good idea.

**ILIKECEREAL **To be honest I’m not too worried about this - my idea in the game was not to make fame and riches, and it, and its resources are meant to be freely available anyway. However if other people are concerned about this, please do say.
 
Update of the tileset: sites.google.com/site/chrismorganstuff/Home/Eremias%20tileset.png?attredirects=0

1st character sprite is used both for standing still and needs to be used twice (between the left/right) of the walk cycle. Also includes jump up & fall down. All sprites need to be flipped for going in the opposite direction. Let me know if this does not make sense. I have included some basic tiles - left/right corner, flat surface and center block.

In Christ,

Chris.
 
Hey Chris,
I’m okay with working on the engine and fixing the bugs myself, but I will defer to anyone who knows of a better way of doing something in the engine. I’ll take a look at the tutorials you posted, thank you.
The way the room to room travel is implemented now ought to allow for scrolling, so some rooms can be only one screen in size, and some can be bigger.
As for enemies, I would prefer that they are only avoided, like in Knytt and not killed. This would also leave room for puzzles around certain enemies on how to get past them, or draw them away from something, and would keep better with the theme of the game.
And I’m fine with anything I write for the engine being freely available.
 
Game Maker Lite for Mac seems to be only capable of running .gmk files so I can’t load the engine.
 
This is not wise imho. As a student in philosophy, an avid gamer/movie goer, company owner and some who every I know well calls me old beyond my years I object strongly.

This project implies that games that are not ‘catholic’ are somehow unholy or corrupt. I’m not saying this is the case but you have to understand how things look from the outside looking in. So often when non Catholics see what we do they become embittered because of feeling excluded even if that’s not our intentions.

I feel that we as Catholics need to maintain a healthy level on contrast between what is in the church and without it to keep perspective.

But more on point any ‘catholic’ video game would be more of a glorified teaching tool like say the magic school bus shows and games. That or it would be historically simulation of points of interest.

There are two issues with this:
  1. You exclude non Catholics without meaning too in the way mentioned above with the ‘learning tool’ method aka magic school bus style.
  2. You will create a bias catholic perspective which will lack the contrast above rendering in untruth.
An example for number 2 if you will permit me.

The Crusades were a holy war but many of the errors that occurred stain the cause. If you skip over them you skew the truth in favor of the church.

Video games that already exist about history and are historically accurate are already Catholic games. The truth is more important then anything so to present any point of veiw outside of that is a grave error.

One of the best things my father taught me was ‘I have given you the Truth of the church. If I’m wrong then you should be able to prove me wrong if not you know the truth.’

I love him so much for that wisdom
 
Okay, here’s my second go (now in .gmk format)
2shared.com/file/2G5tknAs/test2.html
Still haven’t implemented the new tile-sets and sprites. Fixed bugs 2 and 4, and another one I hadn’t noticed before. Also, added a new room which scrolls as a proof of concept (it’s really poorly implemented, but I’ll brainstorm a few ideas to make it work better). I’ve added some checks so that you shouldn’t crash the game if you enter a room with an x or a y ID of less than 0. Bug 1 I haven’t fixed yet, because I have a good idea of what is going on, and I was more concerned about the other features. I’m still bothered by bug 3, and my attempts to fix it haven’t worked for tonight. I’ve narrowed down the keys getting stuck on room transitions and it only seems to happen when jumping up. From what I read on the Game Maker forums I may have to end up writing my own movement code, but then I’ll also need to write my own collision handling and… oh well. 🙂
 
A video game retelling of the Maccabean revolt, with Antiochus Epiphanes linked forcefully to the Devil, would be pretty awesome.
 
sw85 said:
A video game retelling of the Maccabean revolt, with Antiochus Epiphanes linked forcefully to the Devil, would be pretty awesome.
Click to expand...
why is it I feel like I’m being ignored her o a very important point?
 
**Paul1up **Good work on the engine. Since you are thinking you may need to write your own movement code, and consequently, your own collision code - would it just be easier to use the tutorial platform engine (as I mentioned few posts ago) as a base?

**sw85 **if its something your interested in you could always make one? 😛

**Kithrus **I do not know if you are being ignored, I’m certainly not ignoring you. But your comments seem to have come out of nowhere. What is your actual (and specific) objections to this game project, as opposed to Catholic games in general which is not the subject of this thread.

God bless all,

Chris.
 
Chris_Morgan said:
**Kithrus **I do not know if you are being ignored, I’m certainly not ignoring you. But your comments seem to have come out of nowhere. What is your actual (and specific) objections to this game project, as opposed to Catholic games in general which is not the subject of this thread.

God bless all,

Chris.
Click to expand...
This is my case right here
sw85 said:
A video game retelling of the Maccabean revolt, with Antiochus Epiphanes linked forcefully to the Devil, would be pretty awesome.
Click to expand...
My point is great harm can come from making a catholic computer game outside of existing history. Not only is it horribly wrong to demonize anyone as mentioned above which is likely but you risk skewing the truth.

My argument isn’t to derail the thread and debate the idea of making catholic games but to beg the OP to stop this risky venture.

Please.
 
2shared.com/file/UEQp-dz_/test3.html
Here is test 3, all the bugs have been squashed! Take a look, test it out, experiment with it, and unless anyone finds any bugs I think this could be the base for Generation 1. It still utilizes quite a bit of D&D, I didn’t have to write as much code as I feared. I would have just used the platform D&D from the examples, but they had the same bugs.
As for the philosophical objections of making this game, I’m not sure I follow. We’ve established that this particular game is a work of fiction. There won’t be anything or anyone to kill in this game, and no one to demonize (except maybe demons?).
 
Kithrus said:
This is not wise imho. As a student in philosophy, an avid gamer/movie goer, company owner and some who every I know well calls me old beyond my years I object strongly.

This project implies that games that are not ‘catholic’ are somehow unholy or corrupt. I’m not saying this is the case but you have to understand how things look from the outside looking in. So often when non Catholics see what we do they become embittered because of feeling excluded even if that’s not our intentions.

I feel that we as Catholics need to maintain a healthy level on contrast between what is in the church and without it to keep perspective.

But more on point any ‘catholic’ video game would be more of a glorified teaching tool like say the magic school bus shows and games. That or it would be historically simulation of points of interest.

There are two issues with this:
  1. You exclude non Catholics without meaning too in the way mentioned above with the ‘learning tool’ method aka magic school bus style.
  2. You will create a bias catholic perspective which will lack the contrast above rendering in untruth.
An example for number 2 if you will permit me.

The Crusades were a holy war but many of the errors that occurred stain the cause. If you skip over them you skew the truth in favor of the church.

Video games that already exist about history and are historically accurate are already Catholic games. The truth is more important then anything so to present any point of veiw outside of that is a grave error.

One of the best things my father taught me was ‘I have given you the Truth of the church. If I’m wrong then you should be able to prove me wrong if not you know the truth.’

I love him so much for that wisdom
Click to expand...
Are you sure you are not overreacting? As far as I understand, they want to create a platformer following a sister who wants to visit her brother, who went to the desert to become a monk. What exactly is wrong with that?
 
MPat said:
Are you sure you are not overreacting? As far as I understand, they want to create a platformer following a sister who wants to visit her brother, who went to the desert to become a monk. What exactly is wrong with that?
Click to expand...
It doesn’t need to be labeled catholic
 
**Paul1up **Excellent work! Engine feels very smooth. This could certainly be the basis of generation 1. As for the sprites and tiles etc, do you want me to put them in the engine, or do you just want me to draw them and you put them in? I’m okay with whatever you prefer.

Perhaps we could start to talk about level design? What I had in my mind for the very first room was a small rectangular room drawn to look like a bedroom. A bed with a man on it (the players father). When the player stood next to the man a text message would come up, asking the player to find her brother. The exit to the room would be blocked until this message had appeared. The second room would be a bit larger. Designed to look like a village (1st Century Middle Eastern? Possibly Egyptian?) approx 3 houses? Maybe not enterable in gen 1 (but in future generations?). Then the third room would be next to the village, it would look like the desert. Would that be enough to get us started?

If people are okay with this let me know, and I will get on with drawing stuff.

**Kithrus **you seem to be retracting following MPat’s comment. If your only argument is that the game need not be labelled Catholic - why did you not state that first? Also - why not? Furthermore, if you are so concerned about this project why don’t you get actively involved e.g. in helping plan out the storyline, as this will help us not to ‘demonise’ anybody (which as Paul1up and MPat have correctly identified, we are not doing anyway).

Also please don’t confuse the purpose of this thread with the individual posts in it. This thread is about making a specific game, not about Catholic games in general (as I stated in my original post), people will naturally make comments, but they do not necessarily reflect the design direction of the game we are making.

**MPat **thank you for the comment - It was succinct and to the point.

Final point from me. My hope for this game is: a fictional story set in a real world situation, using historical personages without misrepresenting them. The game-making process will be fun and the game itself playable and enjoyable by people of all faiths and none, whilst providing an inspiring message.

God bless you all, and keep up the hard work!

Chris.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top