https://agateau.com/tags/greenyetilab/feedPosts tagged greenyetilab2017-08-13T00:15:07+02:00Aurélien Gâteaupython-feedgenhttps://agateau.com/2015/mines-are-backMines are back!2015-04-26T20:53:18+02:00<p>Time for a new Race release! What's new in this one?</p>
<p>First, mines are back! They work a bit like bananas in Mario Kart now: they stay behind you until you drop them with the action button. Even when the mine is behind you, you can hit opponents with it, which is quite fun.</p>
<p><img alt="This is going to hurt..." src="https://agateau.com/2015/mines-are-back/mines.png"/>
<em>This is going to hurt...</em></p>
<p>Speaking of weapons, AI racers got a bit smarter with the gun: they now only shoot if there is another racer in front of them.</p>
<p>Permanent death is gone: When you get hit, your car spin but you don't loose health and can continue racing.</p>
<p>Less racers: I reduced the number of racers from 8 to 6 so that races feel a bit less crowded.</p>
<p>More forgiving road borders: previously when one of your wheels left the road, some drag was applied to it, but not to the other wheels, causing your car to steer further out of the road. That is quite logical, but it was frustrating so I changed this: now when your car starts to get out of the road, a drag is applied to the whole vehicle, slowing you down but leaving your direction unaltered.</p>
<p>Finally a big one: a desktop version! I built a simple archive containing the .jar file for the game and a shell script to start it. It requires a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for now. For real releases I will build self-contained archives, but that creates much larger binaries, so I'd rather require an installed JRE for now.</p>
<p>I only tested it on Linux for now (works fine with <a href="http://openjdk.java.net/">OpenJDK 7</a>), it may or may not work on Windows and Mac OS. If you are a Windows or a Mac user, let me know how it goes.</p>
<p><a href="https://agateau.com/storage/race/race-150426-2250.apk" class="dl-button">race-150426-2250.apk</a>
<a href="https://agateau.com/storage/race/race-150426-2250.tar.bz2" class="dl-button">race-150426-2250.tar.bz2</a></p>2015-04-26T20:53:18+02:00https://agateau.com/2015/welcoming-tiny-wheelsWelcoming Tiny Wheels!2015-05-12T23:46:42+02:00<p>After much brainstorming and a poll on Google+, I finally decided on a name for my racing game:</p>
<p style="font-size: 4em; font-weight: bold; text-align: center">Tiny Wheels</p>
<p>Hope you like it as much as I do!</p>2015-05-12T23:46:42+02:00https://agateau.com/2015/going-retroGoing Retro2015-05-21T10:41:49+02:00<p>I have been experimenting lately with a different art style for Tiny Wheels. Since the gameplay itself is quite old school, I decided to try pixel art graphics.</p>
<p>There has been a bit of noise lately regarding whether using pixel art in new games was a good idea after <a href="http://www.dinofarmgames.com/a-pixel-artist-renounces-pixel-art/">this article got published</a>. I decided to go this way nevertheless for few reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>As I said, the gameplay itself should appeal to persons who played old 2D games like <a href="http://www.mobygames.com/game/micro-machines">Micro Machines</a>, <a href="http://www.mobygames.com/game/nitro">Nitro</a> or <a href="http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/supercars">Super Cars</a>, therefore I believe the target audience will not be put off by the big pixels.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Paradoxically, it is easier for me to support multiple resolutions with pixel art: zoom the images, make sure no smoothing algorithm is used, done!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I initially used vector drawing with the idea of supporting multiple resolutions, but in practice one still need to align vectors to pixels to product sharp results and render the drawings in multiple resolutions. That is not fun and quite time consuming for a single art-developer like me.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>There are also a few benefits from a developer point of view: images are smaller so texture atlases are more likely to contain all of them, which is more efficient for OpenGL rendering. Additionally, since there is no need to provide multiple versions of the images for different device resolutions, the game packages are going to be smaller.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>As I was leaving my beloved Inkscape behind, I shopped around for Linux software to use to produce my blocky vehicles. I played a bit with GIMP, a bit more with Krita (which I really wanted to use, but it's not really designed for pixel art) and finally settled on <a href="http://aseprite.org">Aseprite</a> for now. It's definitely made for pixel art, and makes it easy to create animations thanks to its onion skin feature.</p>
<p>Here is a preview of what I have produced so far:</p>
<p><img alt="Pixel art cars" src="https://agateau.com/2015/going-retro/pixelart-cars.png"/></p>2015-05-21T10:41:49+02:00https://agateau.com/2015/who-s-the-fastestWho's the Fastest?2015-05-27T20:10:49+02:00<p>Over the weekend I added code to show racer times. Both total race time and best lap time are measured and displayed at the end of the race. They are not recorded anywhere for now, still pondering if they should.</p>
<p><img alt="Racer Times" src="https://agateau.com/2015/who-s-the-fastest/racer-times.png"/></p>
<p>The more observant among you may have noticed something odd: the race time of racers who finished after the player are all the same... That is a bug I need to fix: right now as soon as the player has finished the race the simulation ends and thus the race time of other racers is the same as the player race time. I need to let the simulation run to get all times, which also means I need to teach AI racers to unstuck themselves from road borders, otherwise they will never finish :)</p>
<p>Speaking of bugs, I created a <a href="http://github.com/agateau/tinywheels">Tiny Wheels project</a> on GitHub. There is no code for now (Though I may release the source some time after the game has been released), I am going to use GitHub issues to track Tiny Wheels bugs. This time bug is <a href="http://github.com/agateau/tinywheels/issues/11">bug #11</a>.</p>2015-05-27T20:10:49+02:00https://agateau.com/2015/site-redesignSite Redesign2015-06-23T09:21:24+02:00<p>Long time no post! I have been pretty busy with a job change, but I am now getting used to my new routine, hacking on Tiny Wheels in the train on my way to work. I spent some (a bit too much!) time working on a redesign for the site because I was getting fed up with the old one. I wanted something a bit more playful and punchy. Hope you like it!</p>
<p>I have also been working a lot on Tiny Wheels, I want to finish a few things and upload a new preview version, with cool new features like being able to pick your own vehicle, a new map, or a 2-player split-screen mode for the desktop version! Stay tuned!</p>2015-06-23T09:21:24+02:00https://agateau.com/2015/new-version-of-tiny-wheelsNew version of Tiny Wheels2015-07-17T09:39:16+02:00<p>Time for a new release!</p>
<p>I have been very busy with work lately, having changed job, not working from home anymore... I am getting used to my new routine and take advantage of my daily commute to hack on Tiny Wheels.</p>
<p>It's high time to get a new version out. It's been so long since the last one I am probably going to miss quite a few changes. Anyway, from the top of my head, here is what's new:</p>
<ul>
<li>A new map</li>
<li>New pixel-art graphics</li>
<li>Split-screen two player mode (Desktop version only)</li>
<li>Selectable vehicles</li>
<li>Adjusted vehicle physics</li>
<li>Slightly less dumb AI (where less dumb actually means better waypoints so they get stuck less often)</li>
</ul>
<p><img alt="Screenshot" src="https://agateau.com/projects/pixelwheels/0.1/city.png"/></p>
<p>Give it a try!</p>
<p><a href="https://agateau.com/storage/tinywheels/tinywheels-0.1.apk" class="dl-button">Tiny Wheels 0.1 (Android)</a>
<a href="https://agateau.com/storage/tinywheels/tinywheels-0.1.tar.bz2" class="dl-button">Tiny Wheels 0.1 (Desktop)</a></p>2015-07-17T09:39:16+02:00https://agateau.com/2015/tinywheels-0.1Tiny Wheels 0.1!2015-07-19T23:29:35+02:00<p>Time for a new release!</p>
<p>I have been very busy with work lately, having changed job, not working from home anymore... I am getting used to my new routine and take advantage of my daily commute to hack on Tiny Wheels.</p>
<p>Even if it's still a very early alpha, it was high time to get a new version out. It's been so long since the last one I am probably going to miss quite a few changes. Anyway, from the top of my head, here is what's new:</p>
<ul>
<li>A new map</li>
<li>New pixel-art graphics</li>
<li>Selectable vehicles</li>
<li>Adjusted vehicle physics (still not happy with them, but it's getting better)</li>
<li>Slightly less dumb AI (where less dumb actually means better waypoints so they get stuck less often)</li>
</ul>
<p>The desktop version also has a special feature: a split-screen two player mode.</p>
<p><em>Spreading havoc in the snow:</em></p>
<p><img alt="Screenshot" src="https://agateau.com/projects/pixelwheels/0.1/snow.png"/></p>
<p><em>Going after an heavily armored roadster in the city:</em></p>
<p><img alt="Screenshot" src="https://agateau.com/projects/pixelwheels/0.1/city.png"/></p>
<p><a href="https://agateau.com/projects/pixelwheels">Give it a try!</a></p>2015-07-19T23:29:35+02:00https://agateau.com/2015/turboTurbo!2015-07-25T20:05:22+02:00<p>This week I have been working on a new bonus for Tiny Wheels: the turbo. When you pick it up, two bottles of green liquid get strapped on top of your vehicle (Some N<sub>2</sub>O probably. Is N<sub>2</sub>O green? I have no idea). Triggering it gives you a significant boost, and a small flame appears behind you, because you are driving faaaast!</p>
<p>I am still working on it, but it's almost done. I also reworked the turbo road tiles to use the same code, as the turbo bonus gives you better control on your vehicle than the road tiles used to.</p>
<p><em>Police car using a turbo bonus:</em></p>
<p><img alt="Police car using a turbo bonus" src="https://agateau.com/2015/turbo/police-turbo.png"/></p>
<p><em>Racers driving over turbo road tiles:</em></p>
<p><img alt="Racers driving over turbo road tiles" src="https://agateau.com/2015/turbo/turbo-road-tiles.png"/></p>2015-07-25T20:05:22+02:00https://agateau.com/2015/tinywheels-0.2Tiny Wheels 0.22015-08-11T09:07:06+02:00<p>I have been busy these days fighting some stupid illness, but I am fixed now. I worked a bit on Tiny Wheels nevertheless, so it's time to release a new version. Here are some of the changes of 0.2:</p>
<h2>User interface changes</h2>
<p>I reworked the touch screen interface: buttons have a more pixel-art look, with a different appearance when pressed. More importantly, they are bigger and their size adjust to the device physical size, so they should always be roughly 1.5 cm per 1.5 cm wide no matter the device. I feel it works better this way, let me know what you think.</p>
<p><img alt="New HUD buttons in action" src="https://agateau.com/2015/tinywheels-0.2/hud.png"/></p>
<p>The various screens you go through before starting the game now scale to the device size, so you don't get super tiny buttons on high density devices. The user interface looks a bit ugly right now because scaling is not smooth due to the game not using any scaling filter to achieve a pixel art look. Need to work on this to ensure it looks pixel-art-like, but not ugly.</p>
<p>I also dropped the accelerometer and swipe input methods for now, they were unmaintained and not usable. I am probably going to bring back at least accelerometer input in the future.</p>
<h2>Gameplay changes</h2>
<p>Turbo is done, at least a first version of it. That brings the number of different bonuses to 3, woohoo! :)</p>
<p>Bonuses are now attributed according to your current rank in the game: if you are in the top pack you will get mines, if you are in the middle, you are more likely to get guns or turbos, if you are at the end you will get mostly turbos. That makes it a bit easier to catch up when you made a driving mistake.</p>
<p>The game was still too hard, so I made it a bit slower. Once again, your feedback is welcome, as it is hard to judge the difficulty since I play it a lot.</p>
<p>Finally, AI racers changed their behavior with regard to mines: the AI used to drop the mine as soon as it picked it, now they wait for a few seconds before dropping it (they still don't care if someone is behind or not). This new behavior makes it less frustrating when you are close to an AI racer and it picks up a bonus mine: you now have a short time to move away from its back before the mine is dropped.</p>
<p>That's it for this release, hope you like it. As usual, it's available for <a href="https://agateau.com/projects/pixelwheels">PCs and Android devices</a>.</p>2015-08-11T09:07:06+02:00https://agateau.com/2017/merging-greenyetilab.com-in-agateau.comMerging greenyetilab.com in agateau.com2017-08-13T00:15:07+02:00<p>A few years ago I started Green Yeti Lab, I envisioned it would become a game and app studio, able to produce at least part of my income while I was doing consulting. Since this was not necessarily free-software related I decided to create a separate site for it. It did not work out as expected: my first game did not generate any significant revenue, and I was starting to feel miserable with my current consulting client. I met <a href="https://genymobile.com">Genymobile</a> during a conference, and managed to land a job as a Qt developer there, ending my independent developer plus consultant attempt.</p>
<p>In my free time, I continued working on my next game: <a href="https://agateau.com/projects/pixelwheels/">Tiny Wheels</a> and updating Green Yeti Lab site, but it eventually stalled. Tiny Wheels did not receive any update for 2 years, as I switched to work on <a href="https://yokadi.github.io">Yokadi</a>. That was getting me frustrated, so this summer I started to work on the game again.</p>
<p>I also decided having one site for mobile development and another for all the rest does not make much sense. I'd rather have a single place where I can write, whether it's about game or app development, drawing or whatever I feel like ranting about. Therefore I am merging greenyetilab.com into agateau.com.</p>
<p>The project pages for <a href="https://agateau.com/projects/burgerparty/">Burger Party</a> and <a href="https://agateau.com/projects/pixelwheels/">Tiny Wheels</a> have been imported, as well as all the <a href="https://agateau.com/tags/Greenyetilab/">blog posts</a>. Most of them only have historical value, but a few might be of interest for you:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://agateau.com/2014/linguaj">Introducing Linguaj</a>: An Apache 2 licensed, gettext library for Android applications;</li>
<li><a href="https://agateau.com/2014/subtle-difference-between-duplicate-and-copy-n-paste">Subtle difference between Duplicate and Copy'n'Paste</a>: In Inkscape, "Duplicate" is not the same as "Copy and Paste";</li>
<li><a href="https://agateau.com/2015/who-s-first">Who's first?</a>: How to compute the race order of cars in a top-down car game.</li>
</ul>
<p>Now that this is done, I can go back to work on Tiny Wheels!</p>2017-08-13T00:15:07+02:00