Return to Game Development

Recently I have moved away from the Udacity course and tried to get back on track with the game development that I have wanted to do all along. I have returned my studies to Beginning Android Games, an Apress book I got a while back. When I first started trying to learn from this book I found the information to be far too heavy, I was not experienced enough with the Android OS to get it. Now that I have a better understanding, the pieces are coming together much easier.

While working through the examples, I have been playing around with the code and finding out the OTHER methods that some of the classes do. While I had made a game on Android following a "For Dummies" book in the past, this time I actually understand the process, the effect that the Activity Life Cycle has, and can see where the ideas I have fit into the code.

To help me keep notes and have an "in my own words" reference, I have been typing up  notes into Google Keep, an app I have had on my phone for a long time and rarely used. Being able to type quickly has always prevented me from note-taking on my phone. I am a terrible touch screen typist! Using the in-browser version of Google Keep has been a lifesaver- actual keyboard typing, and sync to my phone for on the go note revision. I have found myself memorizing key concepts quicker with these notes, and can now comfortably say that an extremely basic framework in a regular View can flow pretty quickly from my fingers. I do enjoy making notes and even updating them to make them more precise, but I can't always be at my laptop- for this reason I have contemplated buying a bluetooth for a while. (I have planned to buy a tablet for myself for quite a while now and really wanted a keyboard for it- so I have been watching Amazon and Bestbuy for a deal daily!) I finally ordered myself a keyboard last night, and hopefully that gives me more opportunities to be productive- either in writing up ideas, taking notes or coding when I am not limited by the amount of time I can comfortably sit at the computer.

As an example of the notes I have been keeping, here is my first entry!

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Soundpool is a RAM based storage for small soundFX files, ideally in .ogg format and shorter than about 5 seconds. Setting up a SoundPool requires the parameters indicating how many sounds can play simultaneously (20 is a good default), which sound stream is being used (AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC for media of any type), and a final unused parameter, default 0.

SoundPool sp = new SoundPool(20, AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC, 0);
The SoundPool default constructor has been deprecated with the release of Lollipop, and now utilises a Builder for instantiating a SoundPool object.

SoundPool sp = SoundPool.Builder()  
.setUsage(audioAttributes)  
.setStream()  
.build();

 To load a soundFX file to the Pool, you have to get an AssetFileDescriptor from the Asset file.

AssetManager assetManager = context.getAssets();
AssetFileDescriptor asset1 = assetManager.openFD("dir/filename.extension");

When adding the descriptor to the soundpool, it will return an integer which identifies the sound loaded, which can be used as a parameter later. It is vital therefore that any files loaded be done so in an integer expression. the load method itself will take in the AssetFileDescriptor and a sound priority int as parameters. The sound priority is currently unused as is default as 1 (similar I guess to the weight attribute in xml layouts, having them all at 1 gives uniform importance).

int asset1IdNum = sp.load(asset1, 1);

This asset can later be played using the SoundPool instance, by referencing the identifier for the resource, as well as some other parameters.

sp.play(identifierInt, float leftChannelVolume, float rightChannelVolume, int priority, int looping, float playbackSpeed)

The channelVolume parameters allow a sound to be set on one ear or the other. The priority again is unused and is defaulted to 0. Looping is often not a good idea for a sound effect and is thus set to 0, and playback speed will be 1 by default, less for slow play and more for fast playback.
When all use of the SoundPool is done, it is best practice to release the resources directly by using either specific calls to soundPool.unload(identifierInt) or to all resources using soundPool.release();

---

I have made notes on MusicStream, working with the View and onDraw() method (invalidating as a method of continuous graphics rendering), setting the application to keep the screen on, go fullscreen and hide the notification bar and working in SurfaceView and Threads.

I'm hoping that my notes will not only enable me to retain information better, but also that they may help me to guide others if they ask me for advice on starting on a similar path!

There are notes I have to include after todays coding to describe how to set a listener for loading files, as I wanted to have a specific sound effect play as my testing app opens (computer booting up sound effect from a monster catching game you may have heard of!)

Github, the Git and The Table State

At the suggestion of a guest at my own place of work, I got myself looking at Git this week. While I admit so far I have been using it as a GUI based, upload my work when I fancy it machine with no branches, I do plan to make fuller use of it soon. While in the super early stages of my concept, I have no need of branches as I am literally treating my gamedev environment as a bouncy house for programming. I'm having fun creating and solving problems and the future is still hazy as to the end product. While I would love for the program to be a success, I have not given myself any promises that this will be a masterpiece. Should my interest head in a different direction based on what I learn during the course of this work, I'm happy to let it go and move on.

While unfinished work is probably the biggest time waste for many programmers, I have taken the view that any time spent working on my project is constructive. Any ideas that make it into the program are successes and the failed ones are lessons.

So, this week I have been working a lot IRL so my time has been spent planning the Table Service aspect of my game. Working with time in Java was an initial hurdle but didn't require too much googling to ensure I was getting the numbers I needed in the format that worked for me. Each guest will be able to generate a set of times which state how long an aspect of their stay will take. John might take two minutes to eat, but Sally might take twenty five. Using this knowledge, the game is able to check for an "all ready" like state, by comparing the state of each guest and acting when all of them match. Using this system requires a set of enum types for the Guest and also for the Table to use as state markers which can be looked at by the other Entities. States in this way happen to be far more effective for the long list of possible states than boolean values had been, as rather than turning one value to true and another to false, the overall state simply switches. This makes a list of instructions much more safe to run as the state can only be one at a time, and no accidentally crosslined booleans will throw me off.

 if(!isActive){  
                return;  
           }  
           elapsedTime = timeSat + System.currentTimeMillis();  
             
           if(state == guestState.sat){  
                if(startOrderTimer <= 0) startOrderTimer = System.currentTimeMillis();  
                if(startDrinkOrderTimer <= 0){  
                     startDrinkOrderTimer = System.currentTimeMillis();  
                }  
                if(System.currentTimeMillis() - startDrinkOrderTimer > drinkOrderTime){  
                     state = guestState.drinkOrderReady;  
                }  
           } else {  
                return;  
           }  
             
           if(state == guestState.drinkOrderReady){  
                // when Orders system implemented, fill in order creation here  
           }  
             
             
           if(state == guestState.drinkOrderTaken){  
                if(startOrderTimer <= 0){  
                     startOrderTimer = System.currentTimeMillis();  
                }  
                if(System.currentTimeMillis() - startOrderTimer >= orderTime){  
                     state = guestState.foodOrderReady;  
                }  
           }  

In this early example of a guests update method you can see that the state is modified when criteria are met such as an elapsed time and manage progression through a typical service by acting as flags that the table can look for in each guest to create a Task that can then be acted upon by a Staff entity.

The table itself is able to scan through any number of occupying guests in order to check that all guests are in the same state, as shown here.

 private void getGuestStates() {  
           if(guests[0].getState() == guestState.sat){  
                return;  
           }  
           Guest.guestState[] states = new Guest.guestState[guests.length];  
           for (int i = 0; i < guests.length; i++) {  
                states[i] = guests[i].getState();  
           }  
   
           Guest.guestState temp1 = guests[0].getState();  
           for (Guest.guestState state : states) {  
                Guest.guestState temp = state;  
                if (temp1 == temp) {  
                     temp1 = temp;  
                } else {  
                     return;  
                }  
   
                System.out.println("Table has determined that all guests' states match: " + state);  
           }  
      }  

The initial state of guestState.sat will progress from within the Guest so if this state is in place then we save cpu time by exiting the getGuestStates() method. Checking against a fixed array index guests[0] is not a problem as a guests array is not able to have fewer than 1 entry, as 1 is the minimum number of guests in a group (which seems redundant to have a group of 1, but this is simply a container for the guests to proceed into the restaurant queuing system).

Once the basic framework for the states is finished I will make all new table placeholder sprites to help show the state visually. This may be a layered approach using the base table and then an "items on table" type layer such as is used in RPGMaker, but that will come in its own time. I have 3 days booked off this coming week and hope to spend a good chunk of them coding. Until then!

Mouse Input and UI Ideas

Today I managed to finish implementing a simple mouse tracker for my game. It takes the location of the mouse on the game window, applies the offset made by the "player" movement, and adjusts for the scale of the game (since the game is a small scale and scaled up into a larger window).

An issue I was having was that as the update method for each table is run at 60 Updates per second, the actions taken when the mouse is clicked were also happening 60 times. To avoid this I added a clickLock, which disables a table from being clicked again for a second. The update method then decreases the lock each cycle until it hits zero.

           if(Mouse.getButton() == 1 && clickLock <= 0){  
                if(Mouse.getX() + Screen.getxOffset() >= x   
                          && Mouse.getX() + Screen.getxOffset() < x + sprite.SIZE   
                          && Mouse.getY() + Screen.getyOffset() >= y   
                          && Mouse.getY() + Screen.getyOffset() < y + sprite.SIZE){  
                     timer += 300;  
                     clickLock += 60;  
                }  
           }  

This snippet is my way of debug adding a state change to the table that is clicked. At the moment the tables update based on an increment per update and switched based on time passed in this manner. In future the tables cycle will update state based on the time and the personal preferences of the guests.
Each guest will be created with a set of randomly generated times such as how long it takes them to make an order, to eat and any "sitting and chilling" time after the service ends. These numbers will create some variation between tables as they will not all sit and end in a predictable pattern. If your group consists of two guests and one takes longer to order, they will both have to wait for an order to be placed. If you have a table of four people and they all decide quickly, the amount of time before an order can be made could be much shorter. In many games based on "cafe" or "restaurant" settings, the guests are very copy paste and fall into guest "types". I would rather have a guest be defined by their own set of preferences and also variables such as cash on hand and time available. A guest who is trying to get a quick bite should be seen to be ordering, eating and leaving quicker than a guest who is in for a social meal.

My noteboook, ideas on UI and button themes

My first notebook page was taken up by some brief ideas on how to add buttons to my UI. I had been playing around with MouseListener and when I hit a bump (NOO! Don't run that code nine thousand times a second!) I took some time off to doodle down some ideas. I hadn't given much thought to the buttons layout yet since I started this project off wanting to make an android app with touch controls (and notably smaller screen space for UI). When I began to narrow down what my influences for the game were, I thought about the way those games handled buttons. The left column of my notes tackle how I can keep a status bar accessible at all times for the player to see general information. Things like a clock and a rating, a countdown timer for timed goals, maybe even an income target and percentage to target bar. While some information is useful in all views, I had the idea that it could present slightly tailored information depending on the object or actor in focus. For example, if I click a manager, or a bartender, or a guest I should see different information that relates to their role and state. If i have nothing selected, a rating bar could show my overall rating, for a waiter, their individual performance rating for the day/week/month, and for a guest perhaps a rating on their experience so far.

Keeping this information in the lower left will keep it away from the main action in center screen but not out of the way enough to be a hindrance to glance at. Keeping status related, non-interactive information at the base of the screen should be natural for many users, while any modifiable or quick changing status on the upper portion of the screen.

The right side of the page was a few ideas I had about button types(management, lists, menu edits etc), while the next doodle was an idea I had about using Aura Buttons such as in World of Warcraft and other RPG games to switch between styles of play. For example a moving around mode, an inspection and statistics mode or simply a way to switch between controls relating to staff, management and logistics. This may add a way to switch input without having to find and select certain actor types, and instead control the game as a whole. An example of this could be that in "waiter" mode, you are able to click on flagged tables and service stations to prompt a staff member to act sooner on that task, while in management mode you are able to dish out morale or efficiency buffs to staff and boost the happiness of a group of guests with some fun product knowledge.

Thinking about input

I've been thinking about input a lot lately as I definitely want to be able to be flexible in my controls. The use of the traditional WASD keys for movement is always going to be a feature when in control of a game avatar, but I would like to have Mouse input form a large part of the core game play too. While the game will be a simulator, I will create opportunities for the player to have direct influence such as placing objects in the environment, selecting other avatars, highlighting objects for inspection etc.

My game design is based on creating a world as interactive as Rollercoaster Tycoon was, with access to menus to control prices, individual guest dialogs, construction and also access to things like staff lists and skills. The restaurant world is not necessarily a fun environment that people aspire to be a part of from afar, in all fairness it is a stressful and tiresome, but managing one and having influence on design, staffing and item names etc will make the experience more engaging.

While the player controlled aspects of the game will ultimately be on the simpler, more holistic side, I would like to have a much beefier simulation running under the hood that advanced players can tap into at will, without having it interfere too much with the core gameplay. The game will hopefully be a good blend of time-management style point and click gameplay, with a rich economic engine that doesn't bog it all down. I have picked up a small notebook for writing down ideas on the go, whenever possible I will try to add pagescans so that you can see my thought processes and doodles!