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+--- Thread: Starting a fighting game (/thread-671.html)
Starting a fighting game - Kofman - 04-21-2003
I'm starting a fighting game in QB, and building my first ever real engine. Not an advanced engine of coarse but it will be the first program in qb that will have one and not just be plain code to make the game play. While I believe I've now learned QB I haven't had enough experience with game creation. What are the steps I need to take to begin. I haven't wrote a single line of code yet and I am listening to what I should first do.
Game Features:
- it will resamble street fighter
the charecter will hopefully be able to jump and through basic moves
eventually or near completion I might give each charecter a special move they'll be a ble to execute.
the game will start of with one charecter and several bosses
The game is just that. I will post up the UI for the game later
The game will have a deadline by June.
those are all the basic requirements
Please help me to get started on this game. I want it to be a beuatiful game with great controls and most of all AI. I need some sort of guideline and I'm open to tips from the experienced.
Starting a fighting game - LooseCaboose - 04-21-2003
Your requirements are to loose, especially when you say you have a deadline for June, yet you still aren't sure whether the characters will have special moves and you aren't sure how to write AI.
You aren't going to knock out anything resembling Street Fighter in a couple of months. Try starting with some simpler requirements, such as:
Two characters, both human controlled.
Character movement, includes jumping and turning to face each other when they swap sides.
Some basic collision detection so they cant pass through each other.
A punch and/or kick move each, and approiate collision detection.
Try implementing just the above and you will see how many problems and design decisions you will encounter. For example, when a character is falling after being hit, should the other player be able to hit them again. What happens when the two players collide mid jump (do they bounce off each other, or fall straight down?). Should players turn around to face their opponent in mid air or after landing?
It is far better to start small and produce a playable demo, than to get over ambitious and cancel the project before producing anything (IMHO).
As far as AI programming goes, its a very difficult field of computer programming and there are no hard and fast rules. Most comercial game companies have dedicated AI programmers and most commercial games have easily spottable AI flaws. Again try starting small, have the AI player defend when you are close and attacking or move closer to make an attack. Again you will see how many problems there are in just trying to make this work correctly (When should the AI block and when should it run away?. When is the best time for the AI to attack?
Nobody gets it right first time, or produces a polished product like Street Fighter 2 (Anybody else remember SF1?) on their first try. Start small and start with something a little easier and less ambitious.
Starting a fighting game - Hexadecimal Disaster - 04-21-2003
Check Megaman's game demo, Cobra, and take a while to examine the code. You may be surprised of how many lines of code are necessary to achieve that result.
Look at this thread: http://forum.qbasicnews.com/viewtopic.php?t=1970
...no problems with that, P.J.? (calls attorney for a possible lawsuit for copyright infringement)
![[Image: biglaugh.gif]](http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/biglaugh.gif)
Starting a fighting game - Kofman - 04-21-2003
It would be great to do a two player fighting game but way to much arises as conflict.
My major question is where do I start? Movement? UI? Collisions? or something else
Starting a fighting game - na_th_an - 04-21-2003
1. Make easy, fast, placeholder graphics.
2. Think about a way to implement what toonski and I sugested (8x8 or 16x16 tiles which are used to build the GFX).
3. Write some kind of program which helps you mapping gfx in that way.
4. Write the main character rendering routines, using such kind of mapped gfx.
5. Write a single walking engine where the two players can walk (complete with animation sequences) and they must always face each other.
6. Write code for jumps and crouches.
7. Code some hit movements (punches or kicks)
8. then you can begin worrying about collisions.
As you see, there is plenty of work. Hands to it!
Starting a fighting game - wizardlife - 04-22-2003
Quote:1. Make easy, fast, placeholder graphics.
2. Think about a way to implement what toonski and I sugested (8x8 or 16x16 tiles which are used to build the GFX).
3. Write some kind of program which helps you mapping gfx in that way.
I wrote a program a while back that captures individual 'sprites' or blocks out of a PCX file into a library of 65535 maximum. They're stored in a propriety file format that's super-easy to read. You could do your graphics in DeluxePaint or something then. Post back if you're interested.
Starting a fighting game - na_th_an - 04-22-2003
Yeah, I use something similar. But mine is too ugly, just to be used by me
Use Wiz's program instead 
Starting a fighting game - Kofman - 04-22-2003
wizardlife, please man. I could use any shortcuts i can get my hands on. Is it a program pretty much or is something else? Oh and can I make graphics in photoshop and then reduce the colors or something?
Nathan. THANK YOU so much. That's exactly what I was looking from you guys. Directions. See I have no idea what needs to be done first, next and so forth. You helped me gain some form of direction on the subject. THANK YOU so much man. I do have a few questions tho.
Quote:1. Make easy, fast, placeholder graphics.
2. Think about a way to implement what toonski and I sugested (8x8 or 16x16 tiles which are used to build the GFX).
3. Write some kind of program which helps you mapping gfx in that way.
4. Write the main character rendering routines, using such kind of mapped gfx.
5. Write a single walking engine where the two players can walk (complete with animation sequences) and they must always face each other.
6. Write code for jumps and crouches.
7. Code some hit movements (punches or kicks)
8. then you can begin worrying about collisions.
1. by placeholder graphics what do you mean just draw something and put it in their?
2. What size do you recomand? What size is street fighter guys? Oh and I'm not making street fighter, or anything close to it. Mine will probably have charecters who look like shinobis and other ninja charecters. But the general idea of how it was set up is what I want to acomplish
3. Wizardlife I suppose will help me in this subject but can you explain what mapping gfx is?
4. What in the world is a rendering routine? You need something to render when working with sprites? Please give me allot of info on the subject. Very curious. I think this will be my center of intreset if it is what I think it is.
The rest makes sense and I'll ask questions on those subjects when the time comes.
Starting a fighting game - na_th_an - 04-22-2003
1. by placeholder graphics what do you mean just draw something and put it in their?
2. What size do you recomand? What size is street fighter guys? Oh and I'm not making street fighter, or anything close to it. Mine will probably have charecters who look like shinobis and other ninja charecters. But the general idea of how it was set up is what I want to acomplish
3. Wizardlife I suppose will help me in this subject but can you explain what mapping gfx is?
4. What in the world is a rendering routine? You need something to render when working with sprites? Please give me allot of info on the subject. Very curious. I think this will be my center of intreset if it is what I think it is.[/quote]
1. I mean some easy to do graphics, or some ripped ones. You know, an outlined, plain coloured hero with no details should be ok. Or maybe you can draw your first character properly. Whatever you find more reasonable.
2. Street Fighter characters range from 100 to 200 pixels tall.
3. Wiz's program just takes a PCX and it extracts small 16x16 or whatever tiles. It can be very handy in first instance.
4. With "rendering", I meant taking your smaller 16x16 bits and building your bigger sprite.
To help you understand this, I made this picture. It is a little bit cheesy, but explains many things:
![[Image: t2r2-051.gif]](http://usuarios.lycos.es/firstqbasicforum/stuff/t2r2-051.gif)
You see it is a big sprite with irregular shape. When it is standing up, the size will be very different (taller and thinner), so it is better to sub-idivide it in smaller tiles. It also helps with memory usage. You may find that there are many blank tiles that don't need to be drawed.
A rendering routine should take some kind of data structure and place the tiles in the correct place. It can be done easily treating the sprites as "maps" like in a RPG.
Starting a fighting game - Kofman - 04-22-2003
OMG nathan I get it. That's amazing who came up with this idea. It's pure genious (mind the spelling). It answers so many questions. Collisions for one will be so much simpler now. I mean when a punch is through I'll know that only that one tile can give damage while the other tiles can be open to attack. GENIOUS.