"Dungeon Man", A dungeon crawling adventure in Java with OpenGL (Alpha 0.1.0)

[Mockle]

*NOTE*
I am not developing this project any further, while it was a lot of fun to code and I learned a lot from it, I have decided to drop this project and work on others, the file will still be available for download to whoever wants to try (but keep in mind, its only my first project )
A special Thanks to cheatsguy for those awesome custom textures 


Download : http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?8qji2shodjxi5fy
NOTE: Refer to Instructions.txt included in the package for instructions and controls

So this is my second proper attempt at creating a somewhat playable game (my first attempt was abandoned as a result of horrible coding, and an awful structure to the code that just wasn't worth going back to).

'Dungeon Man' (name may be changed in future) is essentially a dungeon crawling game similar to 'Wolfenstien 3D', 'Doom' or Notch's 'Prelude Of The Chambered'. I am doing this project as sort of a 'learning curve' for me with game development.

I may make a full release of Dungeon Man sometime in the future, or I might eventually scrap it and start a new project.

I will try, as best I can to update this thread as I develop this game, I would be happy to share any information about the coding of this game to anyone who needs it. I would really appreciate any suggestions or criticism that anyone has, and I would also be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Version Alpha 0.1.2:

• Added support for levels of any size (not just of size 8x8)
• Made level editor interface more user-friendly
• Made level select on startup interface more user-friendly
• Added an extra button 'New' in the editor to create a new level with new dimensions

Version Alpha 0.1.1:

• Added level editor(Only levels of size 8*8 are supported as of now)
• Released the game as a zip file including a runnable .exe file
• Added ability to choose level on startup
• Scrapped PNG parser for level data

Version Alpha 0.1.0:

• Started Development
• Added basic level geometry (walls, floor)
• Added camera movement and input
• Added Mini-Map (Very early stages)

[Jimmt]

Those minecraft textures
What library are you using? And what's up with the white tile thing?

[Mads]

What library are you using? And what's up with the white tile thing?

I'd take a guess with "map".

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[jonjava]

Looks good I like it!

[cheatsguy]

Looks cool, can't wait for a demo. I'd be willing to make a few textures if you'd like.

[Mockle]

Wow, thanks for the interest guys.

I am using the LWJGL library. I couldn't really be arsed making my own textures this early on, maybe i'll make some in the future if this game does sort of go somewhere. A Demo may be released later on, i'll focus on that as soon as the game gets somewhat playable (walking, weapons ect. The game consists of 'no-clipping around a level at this stage). I will also try to put up a video on YouTube soon.

PS: I am also using twl's PNGDecoder to decode PNG files into ByteBuffers which are then readible by OpenGL.

(Link for LWJGL Download Page: http://lwjgl.com/download.php)
(Direct link for twl's PNGDecoder: http://twl.l33tlabs.org/dist/PNGDecoder.jar)

Edit: Also, if any of you guys are budding game programmers (like me) and you would like to know how I made any part of this game, feel free to ask and I'll be happy to help you out

[cheatsguy]

Already got the tiles done here they are:

Used an approximation of the NES pallete, should be easy to recolor if you ever add new areas.

Also, this might belong more in the 'WIP games' forum.

[Vermeer]

This looks great. I'll keep looking how this is going as I tried something similar myself.  Have you seen delver that looks a good game that may be of interest to you.
I found the lighting hardest thing to do.  

Looks good so far tho!

[Mockle]

Already got the tiles done here they are:

Used an approximation of the NES pallete, should be easy to recolor if you ever add new areas.

Wow, those are some great tiles, did you make them yourself?
I'll try and implement these tiles into the game tomorrow, and I'll post a picture of them in-game tomorrow.

Also, this might belong more in the 'WIP games' forum.

Yes you're probably right, I'll try and post this in 'WIP Games' instead sometime tomorrow (in case anyone is looking for it or can't find it, I'll use the same title as this thread)

[Mockle]

This looks great. I'll keep looking how this is going as I tried something similar myself.  Have you seen delver that looks a good game that may be of interest to you.
I found the lighting hardest thing to do.  

Looks good so far tho!

Thank's for the interest man.
The lighting was actually pretty easy, here's what i did:

I used this to make the 'Sky' black with a small tint of Blue.

1	glClearColor(0, 0, 0.1f, 0);

I used these parameters for the fog effect:

1   2   3   4   5

glEnable(GL_FOG);//Enables fog effect glFogf(GL_FOG_DENSITY, 0.025f);//Gives the perameter GL_FOG_DENSITY a value of 0.025f (the 'f' stands for floating point variable) glFogf(GL_FOG_START, 1);//Gives the perameter GL_FOG_START a value of 1 glFogf(GL_FOG_END, 100);//Gives the perameter GL_FOG_END a value of 100

And that's it, no fancy lighting was used just a few clever tricks with fog and glClearColor.

PS: I took a look at delver, it looks pretty impressive and I wish the best for the developers. I also believe that Delver is on Steam Greenlight, if you do have a moment, could you please take the time to support it's developers and give it a 'Thumbs Up'  

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[cheatsguy]

Wow, those are some great tiles, did you make them yourself?

yeah, all by me. Cobbled walls and wooden floors seem to be the only thing I can really easily make if you ever need more, don't be afriad to comtact me, and i'll whip up a few more

[Vermeer]

Yea, I tried to have lights on the walls, but it caused me so many problems I switched to jmonkey to implement  that. I'll try to find a screenshot tomorrow as I used the same wood texture for my walls!

I hope you keep working on it! It's inspiring to see others have a go at this too.

[Opiop]

Wow this is awesome! Can I ask you where you learned LWJGL? I want to make a game similar to yours, but Its hard to learn opengl! Also, do you use VBOs to render your level?

[Oskuro]

Why Dungeon Man?

Why not Dungeon Girl, or Dungeon Lady, or Dungeon Asexual Creature Of Indeterminate Age (DACIA)?

 

[cheatsguy]

Dacia sounds like a good name, actually. Maybe he'll change it, he did say it was only a work in progress.

[Oskuro]

I was kidding, of course, but Dacia does sound like a neat name.

[Varkas]

Dacia is a car brand: http://www.dacia.de/home.php

[Oskuro]

Figures!

[Mockle]

Here's what it looks like with your textures, They're awesome



I may use the other ones in future if I do add any thing else other than walls and floors, with full credit given to you for the textures of course

[cheatsguy]

They do look pretty neat! Any new content since yesterday?

[Mockle]

 
I've been trying to make parser that would convert PNG files into three-dimensional arrays (The first two dimensions would be the pixels x and y coords, and the third dimension would be that pixel's color channel (either R, G, B or A). I've had no luck yet and its getting really frustrating and confusing.M aybe some of you guys would have any suggestions for maybe a simpler method of doing this? or if anyone could tell me what i'm doing wrong.

Thanks in advance.

PS: I am still in Secondary School (High School) this is the reason why I may be slow to work on this project, but I do try my best to put some time in every day.

[cheatsguy]

The png converter is way over my head, so good luck on that  .

As for being in highschool, so are plenty of people here. Good to know there are more of us getting into games, and I hope this project comes to fruition! I've experienced how difficult it is to keep up game development and school, so good job on that one

[Mockle]

Wow this is awesome! Can I ask you where you learned LWJGL? I want to make a game similar to yours, but Its hard to learn opengl! Also, do you use VBOs to render your level?

I learned OpenGL from "TheCodingUniverse" on YouTube, you should check him out, his tutorials are pretty good. I'm also learning from pdf's of famous OpenGL books "OpenGL Superbible" and "OpenGL Programming Guide" these are really good books that cover beginner stuff as well as advenced functions of OpenGL.
But keep in mind that OpenGL can only do so much, a lot of making a game has to do with the programmers ability to solve problems, and a very creative mind is required. Using OpenGL isn't all that difficult, the hard part is solving problems yourself.

PS: Practise makes perfect Also, I am using Display Lists for rendering.

[Mockle]

Sorry for the lack of posting guys, I have been VERY sick over the last few days and I could not find the time nor energy to make new content, I do have an update though. I will try and release Alpha 0.1.1 soon, it will include a parser to read data from an XML file and use this data for the placement of walls in the level (I have decided to scrap the PNG decoder idea as it was too complex and too much hassle). As soon as the new update comes out I will work on making the game downloadable as a playable demo, or maybe an applet.

If anyone knows of some sort of method for putting an applet on a site for free, I would really appreciate it if could let me know (I dont want to be spending money monthly on getting a website hosted) if there was any website hosting companies that did free plans (very little storage ect.) that would be great!

[Sammidysam]

I feel like having just a download and not an applet is easier.  Many browsers disable Java these days anyway.  Mediafire.com is pretty easy to put in a .zip for people to download.  It's free and I've put a lot of space of files on there for people to download.

[Mockle]

Finally, Dungeon Man is available for download (Download Here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ibsxi5m8jkpcd9q)
Dungeon man Alpha 0.1.1 is available for download and includes a level editor(switch between editing and playing by pressing Backspace)

Upon opening the game, you will be asked to enter the name of a level to play, you can choose between 'maze' and 'smiley' by default, and you can make your own levels later on in the level editor.

NOTE: you MUST enter the level name correctly, or else an error will occur and the game will close without warning (Refer to Instructions.txt for more information)

Have fun, and please do not hesitate to make any suggestions or critisism of the game, it would really help me a lot

PS: If you are a budding game dev (like me) and want to know how I went about coding any part of the game, feel free to ask me and I'll try and help you out

[cheatsguy]

Just got a chance to test it out, really nice so far! Didn't get time to test the level editor. Feels like when I used the citadel hack for goldeneye 64, you just walked all over the place for what has been implemented so far, this is looking very nice! Keep up the good work!

[Mockle]

UPDATE:
Currently working on Version Alpha 0.1.2 (yaaay )
This will basically add support for levels that are not of size 8*8, the update will also have a mini-map scaled according to the size of the map, as well as a scaled overview of the level in editor mode.

Again thanks for the interest guys (1500+ views wow!), all criticism and/or suggestions are well appreciated

[Mockle]

0.1.2 is officially out , download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?8qji2shodjxi5fy
Basically I just made the editor interface a little more user-friendly, and also added support for levels that were not exactly 8x8 in size.

Enjoy, and as always, just ask in the replies if you would like to know any of my source code, I'd be happy to help

[Mockle]

I would just like to announce that I have dropped this project (that would explain the lack of updates)
As I said before, I intended this project to be a learning curve for me and games programming, and I did learn a lot from it.
I may pick up this project again in the future, but to be honest, it is highly unlikely that I will do so.
Thanks a lot for the support and interest, and a special thanks to cheatsguy (http://www.java-gaming.org/index.php?action=profile;u=146276) for the textures.