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<title><![CDATA[ Hero: The Realm worklog on Boolean Soup ]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewworklog&id=91 ]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[ A retro hack n' slash platformer ]]></description>
<language>en-us</language>
<pubDate>Thu, 09 Apr 2026 22:48:35 GMT</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[ Hero on the Nintendo Wii ]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=369 ]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[ Luckily for me Bennu has moved into infinite realms(!) of cross-platformability. As Hero: The Realm was developed in Bennu it is now quite possible to port it to more or less any console/machine available.

So here is a video of Hero running as Nintendo Wii Homebrew (using a wiimote):



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raL61UcWRLk

That&#039;s possibly the last stage of development for Hero.

One possible port is to Dingux, the OS for Dingoo type machines. I&#039;m investigating this at the moment. However I&#039;d have to invest in an appropriate handheld - that might be fun. ]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jan 2014 18:43:13 GMT</pubDate>
<guid><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=369 ]]></guid>
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<title><![CDATA[ Moving into present technologies ]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=368 ]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[ Ok, I finished with Hero for a peroid of a year or so in the state it was. This was 2/3 levels with 30 or so sub-levels.

I liked the fact I could get it running at a fast frame rate, but if there was a future for this game it would have to be using present technologies.

I opted for Unity3d as I&#039;m getting pretty versed in that environment and programming everything in C#. Of course hardware acceleration is a luxury (something presently impossible in Bennu) and things are moving quite fast.

The graphics I&#039;ve been enhancing for double the size per pixel and it looks a lot better.

I&#039;m also using 2dtoolkit by Unikron software which is really an extension for Unity and totally speeds up the development process once you have the tools all figured out, perhaps is for more intermediate users (people with Unity experience) though I recommend it for this type of game.

Unity provides a lot of porting options, all kinds of consoles and devices.

Anyway, I&#039;m just getting the enemies working... here is a screen for you, which possibly ends the worklog here. If I start a worklog anywhere else I&#039;ll post the link here for those who are interested.

Adios!

You can find my new workblog here -&gt; http://squarefishspad.blogspot.co.uk/

 ]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 06 Apr 2013 15:14:13 GMT</pubDate>
<guid><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=368 ]]></guid>
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<title><![CDATA[ A &quot;speedier&quot; engine! ]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=367 ]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[ I&#039;ve been working on this game since March 2010, had some original graphics and the basic ideas. It&#039;s now Feb 2012 and it&#039;s almost complete.

Recent additions include the Hero&#039;s ability to throw daggers, which home in on close targets - solves the problem of wasting them on sharp moving enemies, and makes it feel a bit more like an arcade game. Overall makes the game feel a bit more lively... these daggers are found in enemy loots, as 3 packs. If the player likes using them, there are plenty more at the shop.

I&#039;ve made some basic engine improvements, coder talk coming up: The level tiles used to respawn every frame to avoid being plotted out of the viewport, but now exist as constant game objects until ruled out of the area (using a secure layer). Speed was previously wasted opening and closing processes. I know, I&#039;m terrible.

The game now runs at 60 fps, which sadly means I will aim at platforms that are faster than the GPH/Caanoo (only enough processing power to run the game at 30fps consistently). However this is a kind of win situation for Hero, as the whole thing looks and feels more professional.

At the request of some people, I adapted Hero movements to be more reactive to the controls. The game is certainly speedier and (thankfully) less boring than a few months ago.

I plan to compile this latest version for Linux too!

So as a final word - I&#039;ll make the Windows and Linux demo versions available on booleansoup.com very soon.

Here is a snap of the shop screen with those trusty daggers on sale:



Things to do immediately:

* Add fullscreen graphics support, with a menu to alter the display from 16:9 to 4:3

* Tidy up a bug where enemies can go astray when offscreen

* USB joypad support, possibly xbox360 controller too

* Create the rest of the desert level tilemaps ]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:44:37 GMT</pubDate>
<guid><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=367 ]]></guid>
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<title><![CDATA[ So much to report... ]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=366 ]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[ Now, I&#039;m not using this worklog so much for a game-dev diary anymore. Instead I think I&#039;ll post when I&#039;m excited about something.

I will just quickly go over how the game is developing:

Hero: The Realm now has 40+ levels/screens and 5 types of enemy with 80 levels planned and more enemy types. (Of course.) In many respects it&#039;s a near-finished game, particuarly as the game code is about ready - I&#039;m mostly designing levels and plotting objects and monsters.

One thing however that needs coding are the end-of-level guardians.



This guardian is about ready to roll. I&#039;m going to include some extra druids, that fall down the holes at certain intervals and complicate killing the &quot;Big Druid&quot;.

Anyway I&#039;ll say the last 8 months have been rather slow in development terms, but I&#039;m getting there at least, with nearly 7000 lines of game code. That deserves a beer methinks.

Oh and thanks to the booleansoup team for keeping this worklog up and alive! ]]></description>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:28:41 GMT</pubDate>
<guid><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=366 ]]></guid>
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<title><![CDATA[ Just a quick snap. NPCs? (kind of) ]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=364 ]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[ Recently, I&#039;ve been drawing a few additions to the background sprites, to make the game more exciting.

Here, I&#039;ve animated some poor villagers, that are distressed at seeing their little outpost destroyed:

 ]]></description>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 May 2011 10:12:39 GMT</pubDate>
<guid><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=364 ]]></guid>
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<title><![CDATA[ Game nearly finished. Levels on their way! ]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=363 ]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[ I had been so lazy about finishing the door system, to allow for more than one door per level, locked doors, etc. that it was kind of blocking everything. No pun intended. However I finally did it. This is not the only thing to be finished in the game. Here in no particular order:

* Looting enemies, with intelligent system for drops

* Powerup for sword working

* Coin drops for GP to spend in the shop

* Heart drops for healing the hero

* Chests to be found in certain rooms which dispense the best game items (revive potion or key)

Keys play a valuable part in the game, because you may have a locked door which opens up to the rest of a level. Also finding the key gives the player something to do after seeing a locked door - kind of a sub-mission in effect!



The game feels like it&#039;s coming together in so many ways. Quite exciting. A bit stupidly I haven&#039;t bothered with the gold piece count on the ScoreBoard. Probably because I have yet to design the shop!

Also good news: I have a mini-publisher interested to sell the game for me when it&#039;s finished. Hooray! ]]></description>
<pubDate>Sun, 15 May 2011 20:52:02 GMT</pubDate>
<guid><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=363 ]]></guid>
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<title><![CDATA[ Looting, and finally a decision about drops. ]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=360 ]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[ Back to this idea of drops. These happen when you have defeated an enemy - thus an item left behind when the monster dies.

I also decided Hero should have a quirk in the powerup type of item.

When you get a powerup icon, the first is a powerup sword. These you can only get from looting a snake. Then, once you have defeated another snake, (providing you don&#039;t lose the powerup by being &quot;hit&quot; by a monster) you get a better power up - which i haven&#039;t decided on yet.

The druids will dispense money, and occasionally a heart icon which heals - the Ogres give you the same, (money) but occasionally a big heart which heals you to the level of a big heart (which represents 4 hit points). Then we get to Bats (graphics completed but not yet included in the game) which give you a heart, and occasionally a potion, which ressurects you when dead. So you must always kill snakes to achieve a powerup, (snakes of either red, green, or purple colour only varying in life/hit-points).

That is my looting system, I could modify it in future, but it seems could give worth to killing different types of monster, and a more predictive gameplay in terms of getting &quot;loot&quot;.

Anyway a quick screeny of the new graphics for the underground levels:

 ]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 18 Feb 2011 02:52:44 GMT</pubDate>
<guid><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=360 ]]></guid>
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<title><![CDATA[ Better code. Enemy improvements and looting! ]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=359 ]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[ Ok so the past few days have seen a lot of repairing up bad code, particuarly in the Main Menu part of the source.

The game itself, does seem a little boring or placid perhaps? I was thinking of perhaps some more character animations for the enemies, such as projectiles for the Ogres (a new inclusion of enemy).

The main thing is, you can jump over most enemies quite safely, and power through a level. On the basis you must engage in combat I am going to set a reward of loots (or drops) from the enemy, discussed earlier in the worklog.

You can (and usually will get) drops of a gold piece. Another type of drop is a power up icon, which sets the Hero&#039;s sword glowing/blinking. This increases the power of attack by taking 2 hit points from the enemy per strike. This power is instantly lost if an enemy attacks the Hero.

The third drop is a red heart shaped icon, that when collected, heals (adds to your life points).

This additions should make the game play more exciting, and produce more aims for the player in gameplay terms. For example, the coin drops have an animation of a bouncing coin, which can spin away or towards the player, but fade out and are lost if not collected. If an enemy is obstructing a coin, you will want to kill the enemy fast to get the coin.

The same fade away (timing out) will happen with heart and power-up icons.

This all should improve gameplay and fun levels, it will look quite cool too!

On another note I still am still standfast in my decision to NOT INCLUDE NPCs! ]]></description>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Feb 2011 21:38:24 GMT</pubDate>
<guid><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=359 ]]></guid>
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<title><![CDATA[ A video of the game&#039;s initial levels ]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=358 ]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[ Here is the youtube link, sorry in advance for the widescreen fault.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm4t02tcxdg

Kind of first taster of the game. I&#039;ve designed a lot more levels, and the door system, is in!

Also, I&#039;ve written a full menu, with an options page. You can choose to size the window scale x2 or scale x3 on a Windows desktop, resizing right away. The menu also has a music on/off option.

Quite a lot for a couple of days, I feel pretty good about Hero now, particuarly as the doors are now working - more potential for puzzles and levels.

Next on the list is the treasure chest, in which you can discover a gold key (or indeed other items). This will aid the game by making a locked door something a challenge to get past, obviously by means of &quot;find the key&quot; - hidden on the level somewhere. ]]></description>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Feb 2011 23:26:03 GMT</pubDate>
<guid><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=358 ]]></guid>
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<title><![CDATA[ A step backwards ]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=357 ]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[ Ok back to work on Hero as I have some spare time before starting a new job.

I decided the hero mario-style BOP is to be removed. It takes away from the game, a certain nuance I decided, as the enemy is just too &quot;attackable&quot; therefore unfair. Also planned attacks using the sword will involve more concentration. This makes for fairer gameplay.

I didn&#039;t get round to adding the power-ups or did I start the looting system. I will add these when I have more levels.

Good news: I want to convert to the Caanoo handheld, that&#039;s a type of GP2X released by GPH, which would be perfect to run Hero. Only the processor is slightly too slow to have it running at a fast frame rate.. In fact the caanoo&#039;s fastest frame rate is 30fps. That fact along with the Game running a little under 60fps at points (on my souped up PC) I decided to limit the frame rate to 30fps. FOREVER.

Yes that&#039;s right, Hero will be designed to run flawlessly at 30fps ONLY. Which isn&#039;t all bad. Anyway, I still need to optimise the code for running on the Caanoo (which i now own) by making the whole game run in 8-bit colour! Basically the game is not using too many colours, so it would be pure fakery to run it in 16-bit or 32-bit colour i think. Also this is a huge speed increase, particuraly on the Caanoo.

Finally, another bit of good news in all this. I employed the fnt_new function in Bennu and designed (by glyph - or image map) some really cool text. Here is the title screen with the funky new font (which is actually using transparent alpha blending on the edges. Thanks Bennu!)



And do you see, Hero has a cool new hairstyle! A MAJOR improvement in my eyes. ]]></description>
<pubDate>Sun, 30 Jan 2011 23:54:50 GMT</pubDate>
<guid><![CDATA[ http://booleansoup.com/index.php?p=43&m=viewpost&id=357 ]]></guid>
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