Radish Engine (SMBX Engine Remake)

[freelop]

I never actually knew that objects didn't interact with platforms before that level.

[warioeagle]

Small update to say that I've finally updated my site. I'm also going back to working on Radish itself and not the practice thing. I've realized my problem wasn't with making the physics engine, but the level editor and graphics in general.

With the way A2MT is progressing so far, I may actually make progress on Radish before A2MT is released. I will be working on the level editor first. I figure it'll be easier to work on the engine once I know how all the blocks will be loaded into the level and making the editor and loader first would be the best way to figure that out.

To everyone still interested in this, I'm still looking for some level ideas. This is going to be made as close to SMW physics as possible, so if it works in SMW, it should work in Radish. I just need some testing levels to test out some physics, nothing super complicated. Safe your best ideas for the actual release. I'm just looking for a way to test everything possible in the SMW engine. I figure a group of rom hackers would know how to push the limits to their max to give me the best comparison of the engines.

[warioeagle]

This may be an odd question, but does ASMT/A2MT have custom tiles? If so, where can I get them? I'd prefer to get them in a tile sheet or as individual tiles if possible.

I do have an idea on how tiles will be arranged as far as coding is concerned. They'll be in one large sheet with the code itself separating them. Basically, all tiles/blocks/items will have a tile sheet. The same will happen for Demo (and possibly other characters if I decide to add more). If anyone has seen how SMBX handles character sprites or has seen how SMW handles all blocks, I'm aiming for that, except separate sheets instead of a massive list like SMW. It would be the simplest way to handle so many graphics, I think. It should also make customizing easier since people will just add blocks/tiles to empty space or if they know a little coding, they can add support for another sheet.

Also notice to all artists, backgrounds are needed for this. I don't want to use any game backgrounds by default to prevent any copyright issues. There is absolutely no rush, but I would like to know that someone is willing to make even just one or two. I'm thinking the screen will be 800x600. That may sound pretty big, but all sprites/tiles are doubled in size (64x64).

[Aposke]

So after having slapped together some loose level ideas in order to provide warioeagle here with something that could be called a "test level", he suggested me to learn some Java with him, since both of us still need to learn alot about the language (he's got way more experience than me though, what on having worked on MineCraft mods with Java already) so we could kind of "work together", even though I still have everything to learn.

That said, I downloaded Eclipse yesterday and started watching some tutorials to get into Java. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute to the engine over the course of the next year, but we'll see about that.
For now I just guess I'll work on some more test levels, and I can only urge you guys to do this too!
(I find this kind of free level making alot more fun than making levels for an organized hack really)

[warioeagle]

For now I just guess I'll work on some more test levels, and I can only urge you guys to do this too!
(I find this kind of free level making alot more fun than making levels for an organized hack really)

To be honest, I may keep some of the test levels as some sort of bonus in a demo game once the engine is released. I'm not the greatest at making levels and seeing the problems with getting stuff together with ASMT/A2MT makes me not want to make an open collab thing.

[warioeagle]

Just a little bump to say that things are going pretty well. No actual progress on the editor or engine, but I got images to display on the screen and will be getting into animations tomorrow. Editing a premade game (Minecraft mods) was easy. Starting your own thing from scratch is a lot different. I may end up working on some collisions with RPG style movement (just moving, no real physics) first, then add in physics after. It kinda depends on how difficult everything is.

I found a good tutorial. Found out graphics aren't as complicated as I first thought. If anyone wants to know the tutorial I found, let me know and I'll post a link. Warning: The tutorial I'm following is straight to game programming. Some programming knowledge is required, which the guy does make a lot of tutorials, including basic Java.

[freelop]

When you say make test levels do you mean in java somehow or using lunamagic?

[warioeagle]

When you say make test levels do you mean in java somehow or using lunamagic?

Lunar Magic. I just need levels to base my physics on. If it's doable in SMW and not in Radish, then I'll know something's off. I may not copy everything exactly, but I'd like to get pretty close.

When I release Radish, then I may ask for levels for a demo release, like SMBX did with Invasion 2. This is a long way off though. For now, I'm just looking for SMW levels using vanilla resources (no custom blocks, graphics are fine) for comparison. Try to limit Yoshi use too since I'm not sure if I'm including him or not.

[warioeagle]

Here's a question for you guys that just popped into my head concerning the flying in this engine.

Since I don't want flying to be completely level breaking, how about Yoshi style flying/multiple jumps?Could even be based on power-ups, like collecting more gives more jumps. Could be capped so you can't break levels as easily. I'm still not sure about adding Yoshi, but adding that sort of jumping is rather easy. It'll work just like most double jumps (tap jump at the peak to jump again).

If we do go with this style, what should the power up graphic be for it? Spring of some sort?

[raocow]

I'm not against the idea. Maybe just make it a power-up in itself. A 'double jump' power-up. And if we keep my 'double' power-up idea, if you get two, then you get two double jumps! Simple as that.

[warioeagle]

Sounds good to me. Still working out animations currently, so there's still a long time before I have anything really good to show. I may actually do thing a bit out of order, like getting collisions and powerups working before getting the physics done. It actually isn't too hard to get player controlled movement, but figuring out gravity and momentum is a bit trickier.

Here's another question for you guys. If I do get some sort of reasonable progress (such as RPG style movement and powerups), should I release it here for people to look at/test? Not exactly brag worthy progress, but something for people to get a general idea of how things will look.

[raocow]

Of course. I'd try to make every bit as progress as 'public' as possible, man! It's the best way we got to help.

[warioeagle]

Alright then. I'll post every time I make significant progress then. First update will be with movement and working animations. I'll need to find out how to pack all my code into an executeable jar file by then.

On a side note, all graphics are individual files right now, but I will get them to be sheets that the engine will break up itself. I know Demo will be this way. Tiles/blocks may be this way. Enemies will be a little trickier since they could have several 'death' animations depending on how they're killed.

[warioeagle]

Things are still slow going as far as progress due to holiday stuff going on. I did find a little time to work on a cheap filler load screen if I ever need one. A mini version is also my signature now. It's snowy graphics and Christmas colored just because I felt like it and it fits.

Graphics are from NSMB (snow level stuff), ASMT (Demo and radish), and SMW (font).

[Eathanu]

I'm happy to see someone doing this. It would make me really happy to see an ASMT-thing that is, for lack of a better word, "sellable." Like, ASMT with Demo and original graphics and music and sound and such to the extent that even if Nintendo or anyone else cocked their eyebrow at it, they couldn't do anything about it.

Does that make sense?

Also, just seeing the SMBX engine itself more or less rewritten makes me happy. I didn't spend much time looking through it, but it was a hell of a lot easier to do things with than Lunar Magic. Considering the other choices for Mario-esque games are really Game Maker, where you get to do everything from scratch (and fine-tuning platforming physics is a nightmare, unless that's been made easier in recent versions) or Indie Game Maker, which is pretty expensive for what it is, and an Enterbrain product, so prone to baffling design limitations; a continuation of that project, especially one without simply the emulation of that one game series in mind has a lot of potential. I don't want to point at McKids as a good game by any means, but it brought some interesting ideas that could be replicated here (much) later on that a strictly Mario-based engine might never bother with.

[warioeagle]

I'm glad to see more support for this. I can't guarantee super easy modding abilities, but I'll try to make it as easy to follow as possible.

For any Minecraft fans, I'm kinda aiming for that level of mod ability in a sense. Maybe a little confusing at first, but easy to figure out with a little trial and error. I'm also hoping for that sort of mod base, where if I ever do stop adding new stuff myself, other people will continue to add what they want and keep the Radish alive. Unlike Minecraft, I plan for Radish to be free and not encrypted/obfuscated.

[Neurario]

I don't post much, but I've been watching the thread and I just wanted to say, good luck. Really looking forward to seeing what you make.

[warioeagle]

Just wanted to give an update since it looks like A2MT is kinda, sorta, maybe be close to done. I have been a bit busy lately, but I'm going to set aside some time to work on this more this week. I hope to have a simple demo out ASAP.

I'm just going to focus on making the physics work with animations, probably won't even have enemies at the start. At this point, simple running and jumping with smooth animations would be progress. I will focus on the game playing part first and make the map editor later.

If anyone wants to suggest custom blocks or level gimmicks to be added later, feel free. Once I get the simple/basic stuff set, it won't be hard to make blocks or gimmicks that play around with the numbers. It will also be left open source, so if anyone wants to look at the code of future custom blocks and try making their own, give it a shot and let me know how easy or complicated it is.

[freelop]

Awesome stuff, I was wondering if this was being quietly forgotten about.

Have you thought about setting up a development blog for this? (assuming there isn't already one and I just overlooked it)

If you want I'd more more than happy to lend a hand with one.

[warioeagle]

I do have a Wordpress that I was using for this, but it's really outdated. It's set back to still using C++, which I changed to Java like months ago.

[Aposke]

Actually the latest post says that you've moved to Java and it includes a TODO-List, but that hasn't actually been updated since the day the post was made, so it's not exactly clear as to where you are yet.

[warioeagle]

I'm not very far, honestly. Currently, I'm having trouble getting an IDE to work so that I can code in it. I had some java problems and had to remove everything and reinstall java and now I can't get my IDE to work. Once I can get that though, I'll work on Radish as much as I can.

Edit: Got it to work again. I'll be working this again today. I should have something to show you guys in a few days, probably. The physics may not be perfect, but having a working platform engine is progress worth showing. I can always fine tune later. Even a bad engine is better than nothing and people can still play around to find bugs.

[warioeagle]

It's been a while since I posted an update and I don't have the greatest news. I've gotten really busy lately IRL and rarely have time to get on the computer, let alone work on Radish. I'm not really sure when I'll get something out now, but I'll continue to try working on it when I have time.

[freelop]

It's fine man, IRL stuff comes first.

[warioeagle]

Might as well make this an official announcement on the thread since I already posted it on my site.

Lazy way of repeating myself here

In short, fan game idea coming back as it's actually a lot easier than creating a game from scratch, especially with less time due to RL stuff. Not using Construct anymore, switching to Game Maker as the scripting option is literally coding a physics engine, making transferring it over to Java/Radish easier.

I would like to thank ZephyrBurst for showing me what GM can actually do and for telling me that scripting is how he did. Don't know if he'll see this, but I'm thanking him anyway. Also, thanks to raocow for showing a very well made GM game that helped me decide to try using GM again.