Developer's Log - Top Down Tennis

Call Me Jimmy

Okay not sure if this is ever done but I'm going to do a log for a 2d tennis game (with 3d physics) that I'm gonna use as a project of getting back into it. I'm now over 6 months out of college and haven't coded a line since.

As part of deciding once and for all if I am still really interested in it I'm going to attempt this, what I think will be, a relatively attainable goal.

Because I don't want to get bogged down in learning a new language and seeing as I'm proficient in java I am going to use LibGDX which seems to have an active community and lots of documentation.

So this will be a place I post about things in progress and will no doubt come across logical problems that I've forgotten how to solve and may ask for help.



I'll also be posting details of the game mechanics and any problems & solutions worthy of writing about.

This log is to make me do things faster and with more clarity as well as for my own and I hope, your entertainment as game development enthusiasts!

Today
I'm really only going to install eclipse and hopefully get the library/engine set up :P

ChRoMe

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

Today
I'm really only going to install eclipse and hopefully get the library/engine set up :P

Use IntelliJ instead, its a lot better than Eclipse http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/

Also 3d physics with LibGDX? Thats going to be pretty difficult, if you want to use box2D which is the standard physics system in libGDX... well its obviously 2d!

Call Me Jimmy

ChRoMe wrote: »

Use IntelliJ instead, its a lot better than Eclipse http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/

Also 3d physics with LibGDX? Thats going to be pretty difficult, if you want to use box2D which is the standard physics system in libGDX... well its obviously 2d!

Always have used eclipse but will try intellij instead on your recommendation. It be good to try something different an all that.

Why do you say 3d physics will be hard? Bullet physics comes with it in the form of JNI wrapper, it appears to be pretty functional from what I've read although not all features are covered.

ChRoMe

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

Always have used eclipse but will try intellij instead on your recommendation. It be good to try something different an all that.

Why do you say 3d physics will be hard? Bullet physics comes with it in the form of JNI wrapper, it appears to be pretty functional from what I've read although not all features are covered.

Its been a while since I used libGDX, I thought box2d was the only physics engine baked in, apologies. Curious to know how you will represent 3d physics with a 2d view?

Call Me Jimmy

ChRoMe wrote: »

Its been a while since I used libGDX, I thought box2d was the only physics engine baked in, apologies. Curious to know how you will represent 3d physics with a 2d view?

Ah just very simply, I'm trying to keep the scope small so it will only really be the ball that gets bigger when up in the air etc. I want to use 2d coz... assets. But 3d physics to get some experience integrating a 3d physics library in a project and also for the gameplay.

I can understand skepticism of how well the game might play with only a 2d representation of the height of the ball but I have a couple of ideas for that. One being a ball height bar that shows just a y-axis of the height of the ball relative to the player at the edge of the screen. That might be distracting so I'll just have to see once I get going.

The most important part for me is getting getting the physics right and 2d representation will be enough for me to do that also. Core mechanics, I suppose this is kind of like a prototyping project to me as well.

EDIT: another less intrusive way to help player judge height of ball would be an effect of colour around the ball. So a red hue around it when it is at a height where it cannot be hit, graduating to a green colour as the ball enters the perfect hitting-height-zone. bleh

maguire658

What college and course did you so??

Call Me Jimmy

Computer Applications DCU, highly recommend if you want to be a software engineer.

On this, my dog died so haven't done anything with it since setting up intelliJ.