By Tom, on August 30th, 2010
I was getting a little tired of the old site layout, so things here at BitLoaf have been updated to an all-new look! That’s not the only new thing around here, though; since a few people have asked me (including a complete stranger), I think it’s about time I write something about the current state of affairs and the future of BitLoaf projects.
Firstly, the Fargo library: It’s coming along in leaps and bounds, and is practically a game engine in itself by this point. For a number of reasons I’ve decided not to release the Fargo library to the public — largely because there are many other libraries out there that do the same thing and are likely easier to use, and I prefer to keep this one customized to my specific needs and style, which can be esoteric at times. Nontheless, I’m proud of my little DLL, which handles much of the heavy-lifting and low-level work for my projects, and is now up to version 2.3.1. (To clear up any confusion about the old versioning systems: The variant formerly known as Fargo 5 is a separate offshoot which can be compiled from the current Fargo base, while the variant known as Fargo 6 is now the current, main version.)
Secondly, SUDD (formerly known as Remnant Core), my roguelike-in-the-making: I’m sorry to say that the project is on indefinite hold. There are a number of reasons for this, but a large part of the problem was that I felt too constrained by the genre, and was simply trying to mimic more famous and popular roguelikes to the extent that it seemed pointless to continue. The development cycle of SUDD/RC has been a rocky one, but I’ve learned a frankly insane amount since I began, not to mention the awesome Fargo library which actually spawned directly from early development on Remnant Core.
All is not lost, however: My latest project, with the working title Coldstar (may be changed later), aims to be what SUDD never could. I’ve taken the plunge into SDL and not looked back; Coldstar features intentionally chunky, 8-bit style graphics, as well as a semi-custom fake codepage 437 bitmap font, which among other things, will provide square textual tiles for the roguelike segments of the game. Coldstar aims to be a space-based exploration and combat game, wherein you take a crew in a small ship around the galaxy and explore a procedurally-generated universe — from there, it’s up to you what you do, be it trading, piracy, combat, exploration, or science! For the infantry exploration/combat segments of the game — such as investingating an alien-infested space hulk, or exploring an unchartered world — I plan on having X-COM-style squad-based tactical combat, and many of SUDD’s features will be moved to Coldstar, including current and not-yet-implemented ideas I had planned.
Think of Coldstar as a squad-based roguelike in space, and you’ve pretty much got the idea of what I have planned. It’s more or less SUDD 2.0, though I hope to avoid the mistake I made with SUDD — being too ambitious early on and trying to add millions of complex features before finalizing the simple parts — and instead start very simple, building more on top of the foundations as I go along. If all goes to plan, I’m also going to have public, playable alphas available to download from BitLoaf as development progresses.
But it’s still early days yet — I’ve got some basic engine framework in place, planetary texture generation, planet and crew name generators, and a fairly solid uniform random number generator to aid in the procedural generation of a vast, sprawling galaxy. Stay tuned, more news will be here as it happens!
By Tom, on July 3rd, 2010
I think it’s about time for another status update, since I haven’t posted much in a while — SUDD is coming along in leaps and bounds, and though it’s still far, far away from a playable state, I’ve been working on polishing the hell out of the features that currently work; including the Fargo library that SUDD uses as a foundation and was originally derived from the forerunner of SUDD, the project is now up to exactly 9,300 lines of C++, which I find both surprising and pride-worthy in equal measures. Counting back to the origins of the project, when it was named Remnant Core, this ball’s been rolling for almost nine months, making it the second-longest project I’ve ever worked on (the longest being the long-defunct SporkMUCK).
Speaking of Fargo, the DLL is now up to a stable release of version 1.4.4, and only has one single remaining bug that I know of, due for fix in 1.4.5. It’s providing a solid and reliable utility core for SUDD, and is likely the most stable and complete part of the project thus far. For those not “in the know”, Fargo provides platform-specific support, generic utility such as string and math extensions, and a complex front-end to the clunky Curses library.
Recent improvements in SUDD include a complete re-write of the rather clunky, inefficient AI pathfinding system into a remarkably ruthless hybrid of A* and Dijkstra and an interactive options menu that allows the user to change or disable various in-game features as well as adjust performance for older machines (or crank up the numbers for more powerful computers!), as well as a selection of ‘hardcore’ options that offer score multipliers to players willing to suffer certain setbacks, such as the classic “ironman” mode, or the game-saving being disabled entirely. There’s even an option to use various key-sets, including ones that mimic Angband, NetHack, Rogue, and Crawl.
Bug fixes? We got those in spades! Some truly ancient segfault-causing bugs have finally been quashed, including the one that caused the game to inexplicably crash when closing the game if the executable was compressed with UPX, and the pseudo-3D display system — while still not quite perfect, notably being currently incompatible with pathfinding — is getting closer and closer to a stable, workable state with each patch. The vast majority of remaining segfaults are out-of-bounds access attempts on the XYZ arrays, and the trusty Guru system — SUDD’s built-in fault tracker — has helped to track them down quickly and efficiently.
As for the near future, the combat system is being completely revamped to support far more detailed and varied enemy attack patterns, the message buffer is in line for replacement for full ANSI support, and there’s groundwork code in place to eventually support custom key mapping, so players can define their own controls. The possibility of a Mac port is also far more likely, now, as a local friend is considering purchasing a Mac in the not-too-distant future. While Mac updates would likely be slower than Windows and Linux patches, it’s still far better than nothing! Progress is most certainly good. :)
By Tom, on June 21st, 2010
After a short hiatus I’m working on the SUDD code again, and as such, I’ve updated the RogueBasin wiki and its own page on this site with a little information about currently-implemented features; it’s nothing particularly special, mostly just what I’d already revealed was up and running in the (now defunct) Remnant Core project, so I figured it was silly to keep all hush-hush about things I’d already announced. But there you have it, there’s finally a little content on SUDD’s page, albeit still not much.
And that’s all I have to say for now. :)
By Tom, on June 1st, 2010
A little update on the current state of things, as there’s been a lot of mix-ups with the code behind the scenes, and a great deal has been happening. Here’s a rundown on what you need to know:
Fargo is not only stable and functioning superbly, but I’ve implemented a more robust versioning and version requirement system which incorporates backwards-compatibility kludges. What this means is that the latest version of the DLL will always be the best version to use, even for much older executables! However, I’ve decided not to release the source-code or library for Fargo, since Boost provides similar functionality and would likely be the better choice for the end user; Fargo is just my personal pet project, and much of it is tailored to my own needs.
Development on Fargo 6 has halted indefinitely; the code is hanging in limbo right now, and I can’t see myself picking it up again any time soon. Fargo 1 (the core routines and libraries) and 5 (console manipulation) are still coming along in leaps and bounds, and it’s likely that any and all of my future projects will be highly reliant upon them. And speaking of future projects…
Remnant Core, my roguelike-in-the-making, is officially closed and dead. Development has been frozen, and will not continue — I decided that I didn’t like the direction the project was going in, and that it simply didn’t have enough interesting or unique to differentiate it from the crowds of similar games, not to mention being locked into such a specific theme and setting was stifling a lot of potentially great ideas. My plans were to be working on this project for years to come, and that simply wasn’t feasible given how unhappy I was with its direction. But wait, there’s light at the end of the tunnel!
SUDD is rising from the ashes of Remnant Core, another roguelike but with some highly unique twists which I’d rather not reveal so soon. It’ll be re-using a great deal of Remnant Core’s code and mechanics, so very little will have been wasted in terms of development time, but the direction is completely different (and much closer to my original plans for Remnant Core, before it switched rails on me and went off in a different direction) and potential for future expansion is far more broad. I don’t want to say any more on the topic, other than that SUDD will be focusing much more heavily on gameplay and mechanics over story, theme and setting. If you want to play a game with a solid story, try Heavy Rain or Alan Wake — SUDD will be all about providing deep, complex, and entertaining gameplay.
That’s really all I can say for now; I don’t want to give away any other details about SUDD, it’ll remain an obscure little mystery for now until it’s ready for its time in the limelight. :)
By Tom, on May 9th, 2010
Just a quick post to say that updates are going to be slow here for a while — The Fargo 5 engine (which powers Remnant Core and other Curses-based ASCII software) is more or less finished and stable, even if the game itself is far from completion, so I’m working on branching out into Fargo 6, which will be providing a set of features for 2D SDL-based games. After dealing with ASCII for so long, I’ve felt the urge to expand into graphical territory, though it’ll be a slow process at first as I bring the engine up to speed.
It’ll be worth the wait in the end, though, I guarantee it. :)
By Tom, on May 8th, 2010
Welcome one and all to the new home of BitLoaf on the web! What is BitLoaf? In a nutshell, it’s the personal project site of one Tom “Gravecat” Simmons (you can check out my personal blog with ramblings, reviews and rants over at Gravec.at) for my various coding endeavours, many of which have a distinctly ASCII flavour. Here you’ll find news and updates about my various projects and games in development, as well as the very latest downloads.
Currently on the cards — yet still in development — are my three major projects, and this’ll be the first place you’ll find information about them as it’s available.
* Remnant Core is a roguelike game under development, bringing many new features to a classic genre of gaming, such as proto-3D gameplay on 2D planes (stand on the roof of a building and look down at the streets below, or blow holes in the floor beneath the feet of your foes to send them tumbling down below!), though it’s been in development for several months already and likely won’t even see an alpha release for a long time.
* LoafEd is a lightweight, portable, console-based text editor for both Windows and Linux, in the vein of Pico and Nano, though with its own unique look and feel. Long-term plans include incorporation of a hex editor, and other handy features.
* Fargo is a library providing a set of front-end functions for making dealing with the PDCurses/NCurses library less of a nightmare, while providing a great deal of extra functionality for strings, math, time, file-handling, crypto, and more. Fargo is currently unavailable and used privately as a core for other BitLoaf projects, but will eventually be available as a precompiled library.
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