Happy New Year! Now Let’s Make Some Games… with Hardware

Hey hey hey! 😀

I recently purchased a book called “Designing Video Game Hardware in Verilog“, which allows you to make old-school game consoles using the Verilog Hardware Description Language! I haven’t really given it much of read yet, but I think the premise is awesome. In a nutshell, you utilize an online IDE to write Verilog programs which, in turn, synthesize a video game console to your specifications, like the days of yore. If this interests you, you can check it out at this link, here.

Not much new to report otherwise. GodotEngine is still revving up for its big 3.1 release, so I’ll definitely write a post once it’s available.

I hope all of my readers have a rocking start to the New Year!

Cheers! 🙂

Ludum Dare, Godot Engine, and Other Stuff

Hey, hey, hey! 😀

The latest Ludum Dare results are up and running. Some of the game entries have incorporated the constantly-evolving Godot Engine (which has just released another 3.1 Alpha update recently…) I’m including some links below to games that both demonstrate the 2D and 3D capabilities of the engine, and they’re also open-source to boot! Check ’em out! 🙂

–Spaceship

–Soul Traveller [sic]

I’m excited about Godot’s upcoming OpenGL ES 2.0 support! For those of us who use Linux/*BSD, ES 2.0 covers the widest range of hardware platforms currently available on the market (including many inexpensive Single-Board Computers). So, once version 3.1 is released, I believe there may be an opportunity to expand beyond x86 and provide even more freedom to users.

I’m currently mulling also diving back into Godot just to see how much it’s improved. We’ll see. 🙂

Well, that’s all the news that’s fit to print! See you next time!

Cheers! 😀

Update: 10-25-18

Howdy, folks!

Life has kept me pretty busy over the last couple of months, I apologize for not updating during that time. Good news, though! I just found out about a Free/Libre Open Source Motion Graphics application called “Natron“, and have added it to the Tools section of the blog. Some people may not know this, but many years ago I worked as a Motion Graphics artist for Adult Swim! Man… those were the days… 🙂

In any case, my desire to create a Free/Libre Open Source game development framework has already managed to take on a life of its own, and I’m going to spin off a new blog dedicated toward that effort. I’ll make sure to write a post describing everything in detail once it has become fully realized.

Thank you for your patience, dear readers… you know who you are. 😉

Cheers! 🙂

Upcoming Tutorial Series

Howdy, folks! 🙂

As I stated last month, I’m going to be writing a game development framework that will enable users to target whatever platform they desire. To that end, I’ve begun work on the process of fulfilling all of the requirements for my game development experience:

• The framework must allow for 2D & 3D graphics
• The framework must allow for 2D & 3D audio
• The framework must allow for 2D & 3D physics
• The framework must allow for optional networking support
• Lastly, the framework must enable an easy content-creation pipeline

I’ve figured out an efficient way to fulfill the requirements with already existing libraries that are out there on the web, and with that in mind, I’m going to call this tutorial series “Game Development: An Efficient Approach”. I will do my best to cover all of the bases, and hopefully this will be a useful guide for people who want to “roll their own” solution and escape the confinement of current game engines.

A little note about that last bullet point… I’m currently looking into the Squirrel programming language to add scripting abilities for our engine down the road. This means that I will cover the process of adding scripting language support for our framework once it matures. I’ve noticed that this topic is surprisingly sparse on the web, and hope that (as a result) this series will bear rich fruit for aspiring game developers!

Until next time!

Cheers! 😀

Back to the Drawing Board

Howdy, folks!

If you’ve investigated the other pages of this site, you’d know that I have a passion not just for Free Software, but Free Hardware Design as well. Having the flexibility to publish a game for any hardware platform is important, because Instruction Set Architectures have only recently become Free/Libre after decades of being closed.

As I’ve investigated the possibilities of the myriad of game engines that are out there, I’ve noticed that they’re lacking one very important feature… “platform independence”. x86 systems seem to be the primary publishing target, and as a result, the culprit of this problem.

As readers may very well be aware, x86 systems have dominated the computing market since Intel partnered with IBM in the early-to-mid 1980’s. After three decades of practically owning the market (and with no government anti-trust regulation), other ISAs like OpenPOWER and RISC-V have finally managed to appear, providing computing users with a much-needed alternatives.

Due to the fact that desktop publishing for these aforementioned game engines tends to lock you into x86, it really isn’t doing me (or you) any favors. So, once again, I’m back to the drawing board trying to figure out how to create the most accessible environment for game development.

Right now, because I am working on a project that will add a new back end to GCC, I’m thinking that I’ll actually create a framework, rather than an engine, in order to be able to target whatever system(s) the compiler supports. This will afford me the independence I truly desire.

*sigh* : /

On the plus side, all of the pipeline tools (LMMS, Audacity, Blender, Krita, Inkscape, etc.) are written in a way that I can cross-compile them for any new system I may develop. All I have to do is focus on the game engine/framework. 🙂

With that said… “Once more into the fray”, my friends!

Cheers! 🙂

Update: 6-1-18

Howdy, folks! Been a while, eh? 😀

I’ve had to take some time off in order to focus on a personal project, the results of which may have a profound impact on the future of electronics and computing. I’ve managed to accomplish most of what I set out to do, and thus, here I am! 🙂

If you’ve been following the site “GameFromScratch“, they posted an interesting article recently about an upcoming game engine called Armory3D. The unique aspect of this game engine (and why it’ll probably have a big impact on designing games, if you utilize Free Software) is that it integrates completely with the Blender 3D modeling/animation tool.

You may now be thinking… but wait… didn’t Blender already have a game engine integrated inside of it? Well… not anymore! The latest Blender release will completely strip the game engine portion out of its codebase, leaving us budding game designers without a convenient modeling/rigging/game design project flow. That is… until now.

I’m looking forward to taking this new game engine for a spin! It’ll expose me to a new programming language called “Haxe“, which I’ve never used before, and allow me to publish for any platform I desire. How convenient! 🙂

Here’s to an upcoming new chapter in Game Design!

Cheers! 🙂

 

Godot 3.0 Released

Hey hey hey! 😀

A few moments ago, Juan Linietsky of the Godot Engine project announced the availability of version 3.0 of this impressive game engine!

You can download the new version here.

There are a lot of improvements that have been added to the engine, including a visual script editor, Physically Based Rendering, and much more!

Happy game making! 🙂

Cheers!

“What the Heck’s a ‘Kuwanger’?” New Thoughts for a New Year

Howdy, folks! Happy New Year! 🙂

As we begin our journey into the many possibilities of 2018, I (as I usually do) reflect upon the more important questions of our mind-boggling existence. I’ve learned, after decades of shrugging and brushing it aside, that a “Kuwanger” (as in “Boomer Kuwanger” from Mega Man X) is some kind of beetle. I don’t know why CAPCOM didn’t simply put “Boomerang Beetle” (or something to that effect) for Mega Man X, but hey, it’s their game.

Moving on… >_>

There are a lot of exciting things coming up this year! On my end, I’m working on a sustainable technology platform that should lead to computers that operate at least an order of magnitude faster than what currently exist. On top of that, these machines are sourced from renewable materials, which will allow for a more inclusive hardware infrastructure. I’m also expanding my operating system development chops, and am becoming more familiar with the Rust Programming Language for bare-metal systems programming. So far, things seem promising!

On the Linux front, there are a lot of exciting updates for Blender, Krita, GIMP, and other Free Software tools just around the bend! I’ll be sure to post any news when it arrives.

I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful 2018!

Cheers! 🙂

GIMP 2.9.8 Released

Howdy, folks!

The developers over at GIMP have just released a new version of their Free/Libre Open-Source Image Manipulation tool. You can read all about it here.

Happy image creating/editing/whatever! 🙂

Cheers!

Krita and Godot: What’s New?

Howdy, folks!

I’ve been very busy since my last update… I’m currently getting a large project underway that has been consuming most of my time. In spite of that, however, there are some exciting new things coming along for Free Software enthusiasts!

Krita has published an update about the exciting features coming up in their 4.0 release. It’s definitely worth a read if you use this digital image editor and painting tool.

Godot is about to release its 3.0 candidate. A presentation is currently available showcasing all of the exciting new features that will be available for users. Lots of goodies there! 🙂

It looks like with these new updates, 2018 will start off quite strong. I hope you’re all looking forward to it!

Cheers! 😀