THE WAREHOUSE - thinBASIC game project

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I have an idea for a game project - THE WAREHOUSE.

You as a player wake up in a mysterious warehouse and you need to find a way out.

Goals of the project
1/ Create a fun little game I would like to publish once finished as binary for free on itch.io
- this should allow us to promote thinBASIC a bit

2/ Explore more in depth what it takes to have game with multiple possible inputs
- how to ballance gameplay to be fun with both keyboard and mouse or XBox controller

3/ Identify spaces for improvement in TBGL, other modules and maybe even in the core language itself
- I expect to run into issues here and take it as a journey to discover what could we enhance

4/ Try to share more the whole process as I think with my GitHub adventures I completely escaped the community in the last years
- while I consider GitHub to be the goto solution for development, forum is simply more fun :)

You will always find the latest version and change log in this first post.

Please note the first post will never contain spoilers for the game, but further posts down the thread will have big spoiler potentail.
If you want to just enjoy the game, stick to this post, if you want to learn a bit along the way, please do not hesitate to follow the development.

Status of the project
In development, there is nothing to really play yet, but you are welcome to try current versions :)

Change log
Version 0.1 - Provides title screen to "game" transition. You can try to walk with XBox controller or Mouse and Keyboard in a huge empty environment
Version 0.2 - Populates warehouse with crates and allows jumping around

Petr

Version 0.1 - technical breakdown

Version 0.1 is very basic, and not entertaining yet, but features few core elements.

Title screen
The game starts with title screen, which seems basic, but implements the mechanics mentioned further - displaying key descriptions from controller config (not just hardwired values into string prompt).

Note that the displayed character for A button on XBOX controller is custom, and part of the font in the area which would be otherwise not used. So I "steal" characters with ASCII codes 252 - 255 for XBox buttons.

The animation is done in rudimental way of randomly picked camera angles, which are interpolated in linear way.

The whole aesthetic of the game will be closer to 2000's titles, riding on the retrowave which I enjoy a lot in games currently.

State transition mechanics
I would like to offer a regular structure to the game, that is some title screen, main menu, game itself and maybe some other states.

To achieve this, there is a concept of State, which has always the same interface:
- Initialize
- DrawFrame
- ProcessInput
- Deinitialize

All these functions take always as input StateContext, which allows to pin custom data for each state and process input in generic way.

Standard interface allows standard handling - so no crazy "IFs" for menu, game, ... everything handled in the same way and structure.

Control bindings
I try to play with unified interface allowing controls via keyboard, mouse and XBox controller for now.

It is an interesting exercise in understanding how XBox controller works on low level, and how to make the code easy to read on the high level.

For now the control keys are hardwired in controller.tbasicu, but already stored in a structure which will in time allow hopefully a proper user control binding.

Petr

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Good Idea with this Game petr :)

I am using only Keyboard Keys to move in 3d Scene a,s,d,w. Mouse coordinates would be good how to know where your Position is.

And perhaps a primitive Objekt AS reference. In Center If Scene or a XYZ Axis Line Cross. I have No more Idea If tbgl entities.. sorry.. I have only for me included a simple Pyramide for Testing ..

Good luck and have fun with this Game, Bye Frank

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Good sunday afternoon petr, in

Perhaps you can Insert a voxel in your Warehouse they shouldnt get out of the grid borderline..

And Keyboard movements you can add to Up down left right arrows with more Speed

And Draw perhaps some wals für a Labyrinth..

I am No more familiär with tbgl entity Setup.. sorry but send you Here a little example for this voxel you must only Adept in your warehouse.tbasic

Code:

'============================================================================= '= TBGL Sample Script = '= Moving in 3D = '= = '= Petr Schreiber, 2007 = '============================================================================= '---Load needed modules Uses "TBGL" uses "MATH" ' DegToRad Function #INCLUDE "%APP_INCLUDEPATH%\thinbasic_gl.inc" ' glColor3f Dim hWnd As Dword '---Creates OpenGL window and returns handle hWnd = TBGL_CreateWindowex("Moving in 3D, entity optimized - press ESC to quit", 640, 480, 32, %TBGL_WS_WINDOWED ) '---Shows TBGL window TBGL_ShowWindow ' -- First we will create world as place to contain entities %MY_WORLD = 1 tbgl_SceneCreate(%MY_WORLD) ' -- Our world will have two entities %ENT_CAMERA = 1 %ENT_GRIDLIST_1 = 2 %ENT_GRIDLIST_2 = 3 %ENT_GRIDLIST_3 = 4 %ENT_GRIDLIST_4 = 5 ' .. Camera tbgl_EntityCreateCamera( %MY_WORLD, %ENT_CAMERA) tbgl_EntitySetPos ( %MY_WORLD, %ENT_CAMERA, 0.0, 0.1, 0.0 ) ' .. Grid below tbgl_EntityCreateDLSlot( %MY_WORLD, %ENT_GRIDLIST_1, 0, CreateGridAsDList(1, -2, 20) ) ' .. Grid above tbgl_EntityCreateDLSlot( %MY_WORLD, %ENT_GRIDLIST_2, 0, CreateGridAsDList(2, 2, 20) ) ' .. Grid below ' 90 degrees tbgl_EntityCreateDLSlot( %MY_WORLD, %ENT_GRIDLIST_3, 0, CreateGridAsDList2(3, -2, 20) ) ' .. Grid above '90 degrees tbgl_EntityCreateDLSlot( %MY_WORLD, %ENT_GRIDLIST_4, 0, CreateGridAsDList2(4, 2, 20) ) ' Declare Variables here dim w as single dim x, y, z as integer dim scene, cubeSize as integer dim distance as single dim angle(2) as single ' Initialize Variables here distance = 80 cubeSize = 20 'Create Lists here %CUBE = 1 %SCENE = 2 tbgl_newlist %CUBE buildCube() tbgl_endlist tbgl_newlist %SCENE createScene() tbgl_endlist dim FrameRate as double dim Sheeps as long '---Resets key status before checking TBGL_ResetKeyState() '---Main script loop WHILE TBGL_IsWindow(hWnd) tbgl_translate 0.0, 0.0, -distance tbgl_rotate angle(1), 1.0, 0.0, 0.0 tbgl_rotate angle(2), 0.0, 1.0, 0.0 tbgl_CallList %SCENE keyboardControl() '---Script will run on different PCs so we must assure '---constant speed of movement by scaling movements relative to frame rate FrameRate = TBGL_getFrameRate '---Prepares clear frame TBGL_ClearFrame tbgl_SceneRender(%MY_WORLD) TBGL_DrawFrame ' Swaps the buffers - displays rendered image if TBGL_GetwindowKeyState( hWnd, %VK_UP) then tbgl_EntityPush(%MY_WORLD, %ENT_CAMERA, 0, 0, 5/FrameRate) ' 5 meters/second if TBGL_GetwindowKeyState( hWnd, %VK_DOWN) then tbgl_EntityPush(%MY_WORLD, %ENT_CAMERA, 0, 0, -5/FrameRate) if TBGL_GetwindowKeyState( hWnd, %VK_PGUP) then tbgl_EntityPush(%MY_WORLD, %ENT_CAMERA, 0, 5/FrameRate, 0 ) if TBGL_GetwindowKeyState( hWnd, %VK_PGDN) then tbgl_EntityPush(%MY_WORLD, %ENT_CAMERA, 0, -5/FrameRate, 0 ) if TBGL_GetwindowKeyState( hWnd, %VK_LEFT) then tbgl_EntityTurn(%MY_WORLD, %ENT_CAMERA, 0, 60/FrameRate, 0) if TBGL_GetwindowKeyState( hWnd, %VK_RIGHT) then tbgl_EntityTurn(%MY_WORLD, %ENT_CAMERA, 0, -60/FrameRate, 0) ' 60°/second if TBGL_GetwindowKeyState( hWnd, %VK_ESCAPE) then EXIT WHILE doevents WEND '---Closes OpenGL window TBGL_DestroyWindow function buildCube() as long TBGL_Box 1,1,1 end function function createScene() as long for z = -cubeSize to cubeSize for y = -cubeSize to cubeSize for x = -cubeSize to cubeSize w = sqr(x*x + y*y + z*z) if w < 20 and w > 18.75 then tbgl_pushmatrix tbgl_translate x, y, z glcolor3f cos(degtorad(x*7)), cos(degtorad(y*7)), cos(degtorad(z*7)) tbgl_CallList %CUBE tbgl_popmatrix endif next next next end function '-------------- GRID PLANES ------------------- // function CreateGridAsDList(optional lList as long, lPos as long, lSize as long) as long ' Returns to which display list we save local i, j as long local lList1 as long if lList = 0 then lList = 1 tbgl_NewList lList '---Let's build a grid tbgl_Rotate 90,0,0,1 TBGL_BeginPoly %GL_LINES ' Starts polygon definition based on 2 vertex lines TBGL_Color 0,255,0 ' Defines color For i = -lSize To lSize For j = -lSize To lSize TBGL_Vertex -lSize, lPos, j ' Adds vertex TBGL_Vertex lSize, lPos, j ' Adds vertex TBGL_Vertex i, lPos, -lSize ' Adds vertex TBGL_Vertex i, lPos, lSize ' Adds vertex Next Next TBGL_EndPoly tbgl_EndList function = lList end sub function CreateGridAsDList2(optional lList1 as long, lPos as long, lSize as long) as long ' Returns to which display list we save local i, j as long 'local lList1 as long if lList1 = 0 then lList1 = 1 tbgl_NewList lList1 tbgl_Rotate 0,0,0,1 TBGL_BeginPoly %GL_LINES ' Starts polygon definition based on 2 vertex lines TBGL_Color 0,255,0 ' Defines color For i = -lSize To lSize For j = -lSize To lSize TBGL_Vertex -lSize, lPos, j ' Adds vertex TBGL_Vertex lSize, lPos, j ' Adds vertex TBGL_Vertex i, lPos, -lSize ' Adds vertex' TBGL_Vertex i, lPos, lSize ' Adds vertex Next Next TBGL_EndPoly tbgl_EndList function = lList1 end sub function keyboardControl() as long if tbgl_getWindowkeystate( hWnd, %VK_RIGHT) then angle(2) += 1 if tbgl_getWindowkeystate( hWnd, %VK_LEFT) then angle(2) -= 1 if tbgl_getWindowkeystate( hWnd, %VK_UP) then angle(1) -= 1 if tbgl_getWindowkeystate( hWnd, %VK_DOWN) then angle(1) += 1 if tbgl_getWindowkeystate( hWnd, %VK_PGDN) then distance += 1 if tbgl_getWindowkeystate( hWnd, %VK_PGUP) then distance -= 1 end function

Thank you, Frank! Nice to see your pyramid warehouse mod :)

I am now thinking about the warehouse visuals and then I will start to populate it with crates.

Crates will be a core gameplay element. Each crate will contain nothing or special "powerup" and will be destroyable.

I am now working on this part, will share once I have next step or its part ready :)

Petr

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Version 0.2 - populating the warehouse

I would like to share updated version.

Populated warehouse
The warehouse is now populated by columns of crates of the same type.

The algorithm basically generates columns of different sizes on fixed grid.

Collision detection
There is a rudimentary collision detection implemented for the boxes, so you should not be able to walk into one and you should be able to hop on the boxes.

Few quirks and bugs still there, some reminiscent of Tomb Raider corner bug :D

Jumping
SPACE / A key on XBox controller now allow framerate invariant jumping.

I hope you will have fun exploring the warehouse :)

Petr, I'm astonished about the quality and organization of the source code :eusaclap:
Really something to have a look by any thinBasic developer, me first.

And also a great example to be used to improve thinAir capability to scan source code and included files.

I've tested with a cabled XBOX Controller and is working just fine.

To have more fun ...
I've increased some parameter in order to have more speed, I like it quicker.
Also changes some data to have bigger and higher map

Really great potential for a nice 3D platform game or other kind of scripts.

Thanks a lot for this present.
Eros

Hi Petr,

on the title screen I get a framerate between 200 and 300. Difficult to say. After pressing ENTER, it drops to 40-45, sometimes 30.

This is on a Radeon 4800U integrated GFX chip with 8 GB assigned to it.

Dear Eros,

thank you very much!

Can you share the altered parameters? I did not optimize them in any way yet...

Dear Mike,

great to see you here! And for the helpful feedback, I will try to replicate during weekend. Thanks!

Petr

Hi Petr,

ya since I have more time on my hands and was looking for a different dev environment, I wanted to see how TB and you guys are doing.
Was looking at some of your Bonus examples for TBGL and forgot that you can uses shaders. Awesome! :D

Combined with the speed of Oxygen, you can create some impressive apps with TB. If my bundle bug is solved, I could see using it more often.
Adding to that, Windows Defender doesn't complain about bundles I create. Not sure how Virus Scanners would act on them these days as I don't use one.

Take care
Michael