Introducing Modular Bob

Games Development, Modular Bob / January 18, 2012 / John / 0

So, I’m writing a game for the first time in about a decade and a half. After scurrying around and looking at development platforms, I’ve settled on C++/SDL. Long-timers will remember that all my previous game development was done in C/Allegro, so there’s a wee bit of a learning curve for me.

The ultimate goal is to produce a giant, complicated jRPG but I’ve been out of the loop a lot, so I’m going to start with something simple. Enter Modular Bob.

MB will be a platform game at heart – a Metroidvania stylee thing. For those wondering what the hell I mean by Metroidvania, I mean an action-RPG-platform game involving a lot of backtracking as new abilities become available.

Modular Bob’s particular upgrade path is a little unusual. He’s modular. This means there’ll be many potential upgrades available but not all can be equipped at the same time, and each will have cons as well as pros. For example, Superspringyfeet have the advantage of providing Bob with the ability to jump to higher areas, but also increase his height and slow down his movement.

Currently, all of this exists only in my head. Coding so far has consisted of setting up a dev environment (CodeBlocks under Windows) and working out the SDL initialisation routines, but at least I have a black window to show for my efforts 🙂

Also – I’m planning building the thing reasonably resolution independent, so I should be able to get the bugger working on anything that is supported by SDL, including ‘droid devices.

games, programming

John

UNIX geek, wannabe cook, musician, book-lover, and all round good-guy.