Posted: 27th Aug 2021 21:47
Just stumbled across this jem, started 20 minuets ago and have 9 days to submit ..

Theme: The Future

https://itch.io/jam/olc-codejam-2021



I'm in, any takers?
Posted: 28th Aug 2021 2:48
i've had a couple of ideas i want to try popping around my head and this might be the platform.

1) a sokoban game (which i've never attempted).

2) something i'm calling Maths Ladder in remembrance of Sean Lock** who recently passed away.
**contains strong language and adult humour

..tho i struggle to see "future" for them beyond simple art:

i'll keep thinking about it
Posted: 28th Aug 2021 3:21
Hey my art skills are, well pretty much non existent, what you got there is way better than I could produce, I am relying on my coding skills to get a head start.

I'm going with a particle/quantum physics approach with a shed load of mind boggling complexity that comes with quantum mechanics in an asteroid like time traveling format .. this thing has a simple goal but it will be hard as hell to get there as the "quarks and muons" will...well, ruin your day! lol you'll see what I mean soon, I'll post something when its fleshed out a bit more

in remembrance of Sean Lock


Yeah have to say that rocked me a bit, not many comedians left that say it like it is, Cats does Countdown is probably one of my favourite shows ever, between Sean and Jimmy the PC handbook goes out the window, love it, real comedy.
Posted: 28th Aug 2021 3:49
what you got there...
...are giant asset packs.

his thing has a simple goal
wha wha what!?

regardless, looking forward to whatever you have to share
Posted: 28th Aug 2021 23:41
wha wha what!?


Lol, Atoms, there was an explosion at a non descript hadron collider which tore a hole in space time (a singularity) and engulfed the planet, its spewing out atoms from another dimension and you as the player need to repair it by matching and pairing atom pairs, some atoms cancel other atoms, some split other atoms, some cause a temporary black hole and suck in all local atoms (this has to be the red atom for sure, red matter....), 8 atom types in total (still planning the finer detail of what reacts with what) ... a puzzle game with a rather erratic mind of its own as per quantum mechanics, nothing can be predicted!

The scoring idea is that the singularity is causing a time fluctuation and with each pair of atoms you match or manage to cancel the fluctuation becomes more stable, mess up and split an atom and it gets worse, to win you stabilize time space and close the time fracture ... I got the back end code almost done just need to focus on the game play and the 40k+ possible reactions I could get from 8 atoms ... I think there might be a few late nights!!

The theme is the future and the future is very uncertain, also the future is quantum field theory ... I think I nailed it lol

What you think, a ship that fly's round asteroids style using a tractor beam type thing to grab an atom and slam it into another or a click and drag (candy crush) puzzle type game ... I'm testing both ideas

Posted: 29th Aug 2021 3:01
really liking the visuals, ptc. and, my vote is "asteroids style".

reminds me of a recent exercise i called Tugs of War:

that's using a rope joint but you'd probably want something different for a tractor beam.

whatever you decide, i'm looking forward to it
Posted: 29th Aug 2021 4:17
I like that ^^, something good can be made from that in sure, a battleship kind of thing or a "park-a-lot" game with ships

I was leaning towards the asteroids type game to as I'm a space geek but this click drag type puzzle thing could be a nice fast paced game its starting to grow on me, the collision code is not enabled and ignore the white squares they are just for debug and the effect later, but I kind of like the game play style: https://youtu.be/kzh2UHF9u3g

Visuals are paid art, I take no credit for them, 3D I can do, 2D is not my thing

Oh, take no notice of my YT damiana I like to provoke and get political on certain platforms! lol
Posted: 29th Aug 2021 4:44
a battleship kind of thing
that was it exactly. some recent jam's theme inspired it (tho not enough for me to finish it).

take no notice of my YT damiana
i can't just let a wild bird fly that freely on the forums (re: your last post); i hope you understand

but, i do dig the gameplay inside. i've changed my vote to the carrom-esque* style!

*note the velocity stuff there re: your inquiry.
Posted: 29th Aug 2021 5:11
i hope you understand


Oh dang I didn't think of that, I'll change that tomorrow or before I post another vid, I do apologise and you should know me by now I keep the heavy stuff well away from my dev stuff, strictly about the code at TGC, been so long since I did an actual dev video usually "never the twain shall meet"

i've changed my vote to the carrom-esque approach.


And there was me thinking I had something unique... guess there really is nothing new under the sun lol
Posted: 30th Aug 2021 3:25
OK its starting to come together now, this demo only has 1 atom type enabled for testing as it gets a bit hectic, I got a small issue with my collision code I'll post in another thread (kinetic energy), another day or so and the gameplay should be done then work some polish into the UI, I might even have time to add a level select screen, goals and stars and all that jazz



I have trimmed the original idea back a little because the time constraints, the goal is to match pairs of atoms to store in the atom bank (side bar) but if you pair 2 wrong atoms bad things happen, lost points, years, gain years, atom rush from the anomaly, UFO, black hole... just what ever random stuff I can fit in, black atoms will the joker atom (match with anything but will be rare and red atoms match wrong will open another small time rift ... thats it, no more scope creep lol, that idea is ring fenced! lol

Oh, and I purged my YT, its family friendly now
Posted: 31st Aug 2021 5:17
Day 4 ....

Happy with the GUI glad that's done now I can concentrate on honing the gameplay, scoring and events, the function templates are all in there and being called I just need to go fill them 7x7 possible outcomes its going to take some planning (there might be some repetition just to get it finished)

Ignore the stutter at the start that's my laptop trying to manage the game and the screen cap although I had to optimise it a bit to run in the browser it runs nice on windows, if I have time I'll stick some checks in there to give more bells and whistles on windows and mobile, or maybe after the jam.
Posted: 31st Aug 2021 16:38
Looks good so far, I'm digging the visuals.
Posted: 31st Aug 2021 18:41
Yeah cant take credit for the visuals, Props to https://www.gamedeveloperstudio.com/index.php for those, all I did was bring them to life with some code

I know the videos so far look a little boring but now I'm honing the gameplay and events it will liven up somewhat but with so many collision events to consider I had to spend some time fleshing it out

This is what I have come up with, its going to be one hell of a Select statement

+ Code Snippet
Singularity - A game loosely (and I mean very loosely) based on quantum field theory

Oh well Javidx9, I told you the OLC::HadronCollider was a bad idea, Error on line 42 has gone and opened up a time rift in the lab and exotic particles from the 5th dimension are slipping trough, while we slip back through time space to who known when!

We better get a grip on this and micro manage the rouge particles before they micro size the universe and get the lab back to the future.

Each particles is created with its antimatter counterpart, you must eliminate the particles using the antimatter.

Every particle type can be merged with every other particle type but you may want to be careful, the rules of quantum field theory are confusing enough without adding exotic particles from the 5th dimension.

Although most particle collisions are invoked by you the player in the particle containment field any particle collisions that have enough kinetic energy will automatically merge, sometimes this is helpful, sometimes its less than helpful.

Remember these rules:

Do NOT merge antimatter with antimatter (Grey), this makes the rift worse.
Do NOT merge red matter with red matter, this will open a new short lived rift to the 6th dimension and you'll get more red matter.
Do NOT merge antimatter with redmatter, this opens a portal to the Q homeworld and anything could happen
BE careful with Dark Matter (Black) noone knows its effects but we do know its the only thing that can cancel red matter.
If you merge red matter with any other particle type both will cancel and -16 years
Blue particles will split any atom it collides with except (grey and black), try not to split red particles

All other particles when merged with same type will cancel both and +8 years
All other particles when merged with non type will cancel both and +2 years, try to match types or use antimatter for +32 year bonus.
Each particle collision cause some effect in the game, some add years, some minus years, some create new particles, some cancel particles and some cause bad things to happen.
Particles that collide with a time rift split, avoid colliding with a rift
Particles caught in "line of sight" of a merge action will react to the below rules as though you invoked the action, try and have a clear path to each particle although this is not always possible.

Each successful particle collision generates Atom points which can be used to achieve certain things:

Red		Cost(100) : Close temporary time rift 
Black	Cost(100) : Gets rid of Q
Grey	Cost(100) : Stabilize time rift
Blue	Cost(100) : Destroy all onscreen particles, no effect // TBC
Yellow	Cost(100) : Destroy all onscreen particles, no effect // TBC
Pink	Cost(100) : Destroy all onscreen particles, no effect // TBC
Green	Cost(100) : Destroy all onscreen particles, no effect // TBC
Purple	Cost(100) : Destroy all onscreen particles, no effect // TBC
NOTE: Still considering the above


These icons will glow when can be used, any atom points remaining when you return to 2048 will be your final score so use them sparingly.

Particle Types: (I know, some are particles, some are quarks... its a game who cares!)
Red		: RedMatter
Black	: DarkMatter
Grey	: AntiMatter
Blue	: Proton
Yellow	: Fermions
Pink	: Muon
Green	: Hadrons
Purple	: Bosons

Red Collide With:
// Active Particle
Red		: Open temporary time rift to 6th dimension for 60 seconds
Black	: Cancel both particles
Grey	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point
// Inert Particle
Blue	: Split Red -2 years +2 atom point
Yellow	: Cancel both -16 years : -1 atom point from all
Pink	: Cancel both -16 years : -1 atom point from all
Green	: Cancel both -16 years : -1 atom point from all
Purple	: Cancel both -16 years : -1 atom point from all

Green Collide With:
// Active Particle
Red		: Cancel both -16 years : -1 atom point from all
Black	: Random action
Grey	: Cancel both +32 years +10 atom point
// Inert Particle
Blue	: Split -2 years +2 atom point
Yellow	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point
Pink	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point
Green	: Cancel Both +8 years +1 atom point
Purple	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point

Blue Collide With:
// Active Particle
Red		: Split Other -2 years +2 atom point
Black	: Random action
Grey	: Cancel Both +32 years +10 atom point
// Inert Particle
Blue	: Split Other -2 years +2 atom point
Yellow	: Split Other -2 years +2 atom point
Pink	: Split Other -2 years +2 atom point
Green	: Split Other -2 years +2 atom point
Purple	: Split Other -2 years +2 atom point

Yellow Collide With:
// Active Particle
Red		: Cancel both -16 years
Black	: Random action
Grey	: Cancel Both +32 years +10 atom point
// Inert Particle
Blue	: Split Self-2 years +2 atom point
Yellow	: Cancel Both +8 years +1 atom point
Pink	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point
Green	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point
Purple	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point

Purple Collide With:
// Active Particle
Red		: Cancel both -16 years
Black	: Random action
Grey	: Cancel Both +32 years +10 atom point
// Inert Particle
Blue	: Split Self-2 years +2 atom point
Yellow	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point
Pink	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point
Green	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point
Purple	: Cancel Both +8 years +1 atom point

Pink Collide With:
// Active Particle
Red		: Cancel both -16 years
Black	: Random action
Grey	: Cancel Both +32 years +10 atom point
// Inert Particle
Blue	: Split Self-2 years +2 atom point
Yellow	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point
Pink	: Cancel Both +8 years +1 atom point
Green	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point
Purple	: Cancel both +2 years +1 atom point

Grey Collide With:
// Active Particle
Red		: Open portal to Q home world, 1 random action invoked
Black	: Random action
Grey	: Speeds up time rift by factor of 1 for 60 seconds
// Inert Particle
Blue	: Split Self-2 years +2 atom point 
Yellow	: Cancel Both +32 years +10 atom point
Pink	: Cancel Both +32 years +10 atom point 
Green	: Cancel Both +32 years +10 atom point
Purple	: Cancel Both +32 years +10 atom point

Black Collide With:
Red		: Cancel both +/- random years  +1 atom point for all 
Black	: Random action
Grey	: Random action
Blue	: Random action
Yellow	: Random action
Pink	: Random action
Green	: Random action
Purple	: Random action



I better get coding then! lol
Posted: 31st Aug 2021 19:03
just read through the notes. please add a Nuke button
Posted: 31st Aug 2021 19:53
What like Nuke the lab to quit the game? or Nuke to kill particles with Atom points?
Posted: 31st Aug 2021 20:06
meant Nuke to clear my head (was joking) but either/both of your thoughts would be cool.
either way, i didn't mean to suggest MORE work for you so please disregard!
Posted: 31st Aug 2021 20:37
meant Nuke to clear my head


HaHaHa... told you it was going to be a headache

i didn't mean to suggest MORE work for you so please disregard!


NoNoNo, not at all, I like the idea, if in doubt, nuke it, it might actually make the game playable lol

As per the notes:
//TBC
NOTE: Still considering the above

I am open to more suggestions, I was concentrating so hard on the "what effects what" aspect I wrote that part off till its done, still tweaking the note ideas a bit, the aim is to use those atom points to get out of trouble but exhausted my imagination on the collision stuff, at the end of the day its only an icon and an effect, the end result is the same ... easy stuff

The whole point of this game (the idea I had) was to be absolute carnage, you can win flying by the seat of your pants and with extreme luck but a couple of "emergency buttons" would not go amiss to keep the player engaged, no one likes negative feedback loops so some balance will be required
Posted: 1st Sep 2021 0:38
Wow I was massively over thinking this, because the atom sprites are stored in an array and I call GetSpriteFirstContact() in a reverse loop then call GetSpriteContactSpriteID2() to get the id of the sprite it contacted, this means that a collision can be registered as for example (red hits yellow, or yellow hits red) depending where the sprite is in the array, this of course means a rather complex collision system where I have to check the type of the first sprite in a select statement and invoke 1 of 8 other select statements to also get the type of the second sprite... there is nothing I can do about this its just how it works but, while coding the the actual event functions I soon noticed (and should have noticed while writing the info) that there is lots of overlap and for every color type increment I need 1 less function because (red hits yellow and yellow hits red) are the same event, they are registered differently in the engine due to the array but the end result will always be the same

So I culled a 64 function framework down to a manageable 34 functions removing the overlap, this will make balancing a whole lot easier and I can predefine certain aspects with a handful of constants... had to share my Eureka moment lol


If you want to move this to showcase under WIP then feel free, its become more of a dev blog for my game so probably belongs in there, up to you guys I'm easy.
Posted: 1st Sep 2021 1:33
had to share my Eureka moment
i thought i smelled something burning. &, congrats!

If you want to move this to showcase under WIP
i think its perfect where its at. perhaps make a showcase thread for it when you're done?

beyond interest in the game itself, i dig these kinds of threads that allow others into a devs mind**.

its a whole other experience (beyond the game and mechanics) where i feel like i'm along for the ride (vs a post-mortem where the dev has time to digest and make sense of "what happened").

& especially so under pressure of a timed jam. ie, i saw red + blue = blue + red and assumed you did. as spectator, i'm afforded perspective while you're in the trenches, you see

i thought to mention, "not SO many, right?" when you said "its going to be one hell of a Select statement" but didn't want to (further) distract you.

so, "keep up the good work", as they say. and i, for one, appreciate your sharing the experience thus far


**THIS was a fun ride, as well.
Posted: 1st Sep 2021 2:11
Ok sure leave it here

Yeah I know what you mean I like the journey to I follow lots of bike builders and game dev's, handymen all sorts just following their projects, love it.

And yes well the thought process in that was to give the player some perspective on what color reacts to what but in all honestly its massively over complicated remembering 64 moves is not going to happen so I ripped all that out, no info at all, it will be pure trial n error, good luck......

lol, no, joking, I already have the red/green thing on the highlight sprites so I am expanding on that, red=negative move, green=positive move, blue = natural move, I may expand this further if I have time, no video tonight as the wires are hanging out at the min, also this means I can edit and tweak the stats and not have to keep editing the info, just makes sense this way ... see this is what I love about programming every day a challenge and learning something new and I'v been coding 20 years.

Yeah this is my first Jam ever, and my first "take to completion" game ever, I'v build lots of software over the years but games I always get scope creep and end up giving up or having another fantastic idea that also goes nowhere so this really is a personal challenge to get past the blockade (I know lots of people suffer with this too), I am pretty eager to get this out there now even if it tanks I don't care it will be a building block to progress from ... I learned a lot building this, many things I can take into the next project, I mean me, doing linear algebra ..... yeah, I don't believe it either lol