Thronic.com » Gaming http://thronic.com Personal Computing and Development by Dag J. Nedrelid Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:21:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Web Galaxy » A sci-fi browser game http://thronic.com/2010/development/devlog/web-galaxy-a-sci-fi-browser-game/ http://thronic.com/2010/development/devlog/web-galaxy-a-sci-fi-browser-game/#comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:06:29 +0000 Dag Jonny Nedrelid http://thronic.com/?p=189 Web Galaxy is a simple multiplayer browser game. It was made spontaneously without any specific game design in mind, I pretty much winged the whole thing as I went along based on awesome randomness. All codes and algorithms is original work. I borrowed graphics from the web and processed most of it through photoshop to get what I needed.

Web Galaxy currently has 10 solar systems with 30 asteroids in every system by default. Web browsers may lag when running more than 30-50 asteroids in the solar system view through the asteroid movement engine, I want to avoid that. If I were to add support for more player activity I would probably want to build more solar systems instead.

Technical
Mainly Javascript functionality. DHTML for effects, AJAX for real-time database updates, PHP and MySQL for back-end. The whole project consists of 15 images and 6 web files, 903KiB in total size. Game is wrapped in a very simple and basic user login system, just enough to keep players separated. The game should work without cookies as well.

I started making the game Feb. 9, 2010. Game was considered completed enough for testing on the Feb. 15, 2010. And that is where it is right now until I decide to put more work into it. The next step would be to create a messaging and/or chat system between players.

Gameplay illustrations:
Step1: Build your command center, ship factory and ship tech center. Build a spaceship and upgrade it with a laser weapon. Upgrade your command center with mineral operations to earn more minerals. You can do this on every asteroid you claim. Step2: Once you have built a spaceship, you can travel the web galaxy to increase your empire and build more Mineral Operations. Mineral Operations will increase your economy. Step3: Travel to solar systems in search for other asteroids. Step4: If you attack another player's home base, they will be struck hard, loose their spaceship and will either have to use a nuclear defense or wait for help from other players. The spaceship laser weapon is a powerful thing, but it also cost you 500 minerals every time you fire it, so consider your targets! Step5: After wiping another player from an asteroid surface, you can claim the asteroid for yourself. More mineral operations means more minerals! And more survival as you will generate a lot of minerals, and be able to use more nuclear defenses.

You can try out the game yourself here.

]]> http://thronic.com/2010/development/devlog/web-galaxy-a-sci-fi-browser-game/feed/ 0 IdleGuard http://thronic.com/2009/development/devlog/idleguard/ http://thronic.com/2009/development/devlog/idleguard/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:59:45 +0000 Dag Jonny Nedrelid http://thronic.com/?p=165 Some MMO games have been criticized for having up to 5 hour – or more – queues before you can actually enter the game and play. This inspired me to create a mini-program that might help you with this by reducing the amount of times you need to actually log in. Any software that kicks you for being idle might have a use for this little program.

IdleGuard
A small program (72kb) that – so far – every 5 minutes “pushes” the space key for you which should reset the ingame logout timer. It is extremely CPU cycle friendly (no loop stress/block/hang), and will require practically zero resources to keep running.

Is it safe to use?
Yes. The program does not hack or manipulate any memory space of any software. It simply sends a virtual key code into the windows keyboard stream.

Can I only use this with games?
It should work on any applications and systems that would otherwise kick you for being idle for too long.

Vista note
The Windows Vista User Interface Privilege Isolation (UIPI) might prevent this program to run properly or even crash as I have not bothered to error-handle such an event. You should be able to solve this by either turning off UAC or simply run it as administrator.

You can download the program here (win32 executable, no dependencies).

How do I use it?
Just start it, it will open a small window that you can close when you don’t need it running anymore. As long as you run it, it will “push” the space key for you every 5 minutes. Remember to have your game or program in focus while it’s running.

]]> http://thronic.com/2009/development/devlog/idleguard/feed/ 0 KiKi Trix – A Tetris Clone http://thronic.com/2007/development/devlog/kiki-trix-a-tetris-clone/ http://thronic.com/2007/development/devlog/kiki-trix-a-tetris-clone/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:23:54 +0000 Dag Jonny Nedrelid http://thronic.com/?p=21 A tetris clone. Tested OK in FF2 and IE7. Programming a tetris game is a fun challenge. A basic tetris clone covers many real-time gaming mechanics that can be used outside the gaming genre as well for other types of applications.

Click here to play (opens in a new window).

]]> http://thronic.com/2007/development/devlog/kiki-trix-a-tetris-clone/feed/ 0