JS Starfield

The following will create a flowing field of stars on a black background. Used the HTML5 Canvas element to create this effect:

<script>

var canvas = "";
var context = "";
var stars = new Array();



function loadStarfield()
{
canvas = document.getElementById("canvas_starfield");
context = canvas.getContext("2d");

addNewStars(100);

//stars[stars.length-1].starSize = 50;
//stars[stars.length-1].drawColor = "#333";
//stars[stars.length-1].position.x = -10;
//stars[stars.length-1].position.y = 150;
//stars[stars.length-1].velocity.x = 1;


starfieldLoop();

}


function starfieldLoop()
{
context.fillStyle = "black";
context.fillRect(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);

for(var i=0;i<stars.length;i++)
{
drawStar(stars[i]);
stars[i].animate();
}

window.requestAnimationFrame(starfieldLoop);

}

function drawStar(star)
{
  var position = star.position;
  context.fillStyle = star.drawColor;
  context.beginPath();
  context.arc(position.x, position.y, star.starSize, 0, Math.PI * 2);
  context.closePath();
  context.fill();
}




function addNewStars(numStars)
{
for (var i = 0; i < numStars; i++)
{
stars.push(new Star());
}
}

function Star() {
  this.position = new Vector(randBetween(0,canvas.width),randBetween(0,canvas.height)); // Vector
  this.velocity = new Vector(randBetween(1,5),0);
  var c = randBetween(0,9);
  this.drawColor = "#FFF"; //"#" + c + "" + c + "" + c; // So we can tell them apart from Fields later
  this.starSize = randBetween(1,1);
}

Star.prototype.animate = function()
{
this.position.add(this.velocity);

if(this.position.x > canvas.width)
{
this.position.x = 0;
}
}



//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// Utils
//
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function randBetween(min, max)
{
return Math.floor(Math.random()*(max-min+1)+min);
}

function Vector(x, y) {
  this.x = x || 0;
  this.y = y || 0;
}

// Add a vector to another
Vector.prototype.add = function(vector) {
  this.x += vector.x;
  this.y += vector.y;
}

// Gets the length of the vector
Vector.prototype.getMagnitude = function () {
  return Math.sqrt(this.x * this.x + this.y * this.y);
};

// Gets the angle accounting for the quadrant we're in
Vector.prototype.getAngle = function () {
  return Math.atan2(this.y,this.x);
};

// Allows us to get a new vector from angle and magnitude
Vector.fromAngle = function (angle, magnitude) {
  return new Vector(magnitude * Math.cos(angle), magnitude * Math.sin(angle));
};

</script>

<canvas id="canvas_starfield" width="600" height="300"
style="
border:5px solid black;">
</canvas>
<script>
loadStarfield();
</script>

Interesting Map Building Links

Ray Casting in 2D Top Down Tiles
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/15604/Ray-casting-in-a-2D-tile-based-environment

Auto Tiling/Laying Tiles Programtically/Tile Laying algoithm
http://www.saltgames.com/2010/a-bitwise-method-for-applying-tilemaps/

Other Links
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8901987/map-tiling-algorithm

Articles on World Building

World Building and World Auto Generation

Simple Rogue Like -
http://kuoi.org/~kamikaze/GameDesign/art07_rogue_dungeon.php

Random 2D Tile Map Generation
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11968167/random-2d-tile-map-generating-algorithm?rq=1

Spawning Monsters

I've been thinking about monster spawning. For those that might now know, this means to place a new enemy creature on a map. A few thoughts I have.

As I develop the monster spawning will get progressively complex, so this is an iterative approach.

Variables:
MaxMonstersNearBy
Spawn Point - Coordinates of spawn point
Spawn Radius - As a player moves monsters will spawn within this area

1. Check if there is more than MaxMonstersNearBy, if so exit. MaxMonstersNearBy will be set by the particular segment of the map the player is on.
2. Check if there any players within viewing distance of the spawn point. If so exit. We don't want monsters to "pop" on the screen, players will wonder into them, or monsters will wonder into players
3. Spawners will have a maximum number of monsters they can have spawned at any point in time.
4. Check if there any spawn points outside of viewing distance but within SpawnRadius of the player. For each spawn point proceed.
1. Choose a random leader, whose level is within 1 level of the player.
2. Leaders have a number of followers that will spawn with them.
3. Place the leader and the followers on an empty spot near the spawn point.

AI:

1. Monsters will have one of the follow modes specified:
1. Attack - Aggressively chase any player within x distance
2. Guard - Stay still and attack only when attacked
3. Wander - Moves randomly in a direction
4. Follow - Follow a given unit, in the event that unit can not be found, start to wander.
2. Leaders will set the mode of all followers
3. Followers with no leader will go into wander mode.

Realistic Movement:

1. Recall that AI processing (aiThinker) is only called once every few seconds.
2. AI will choose 5 waypoints and move between those waypoints until the aiThinker is called again.

This is for my game Blades of War.

Love\Hate AI

I don't normally do this, but I think that this information should not be lost:

This is a Word for Word post from: http://home.swipnet.se/dungeondweller/development/dev00055.htm


INTRODUCTION
------------
This article is based on a system proposed by Hansjoerg Malthaner
[hansjoerg.malthaner@danet.de] which in turn based some of it on Joseph Swing's
excellent article "A better monster AI". The system described here is used for
my own RL Dungeondweller.

There are many ways to create an interesting AI. One way would be to hardcode
each creatures behaviour. If enough work is put into such a hardcoded system
the results can be quite impressing, but as said, it needs a lot of work.

A better (or at least faster) way of creating an interesting AI would be to
take a look at behaviourism. Behaviourism states that a creature reacts to
external stimuli. This is not entirely true since humans have a mind and a
concept of Self, but the general idea behind behaviourism is sufficient for the
AI of a roguelike.

Imagine what would happen if you teleported a Kobold into a big dungeon. Lets
say that the Kobold starts in an empty corridor. The first thing the Kobold does
is to look around and ensure that there are no enemies in sight. If he is alone
he decides that he feels safer if he wields a sword and equips some armour. At
the moment this is his most urgent need. The Kobold reacts to the situation and
puts on his leather armour and wields his shortsword. If the Kobold still
doesn't see anyone he begins to interest himself for his environment. His most
urgent need would then be to move. The Kobold continues to move through the
corridor until he reaches a door. If the Kobold still doesn't see anyone his
most urgent need would be to open the door. The Kobold reacts to this new
situation and opens the door. He then looks around again and sees that the door
led into a big room. Near the door lies a pile of shining gold coins and at the
other end of a room a big snake looks back at the Kobold! The Kobold evaluates
this new environment, and decides that he loves the gold more than he feares and
hates the snake. The Kobold reacts to the situation and starts to move closer to
the pile of gold. As the Kobold gets closer his fear and hate of the snake grows,
as does his love for the gold. At some point the Kobolds fear is greater than the
Kobolds love. The Kobolds most urgent need will become to move away from the
snake. The Kobold reacts to this and starts to retreat from the snake. All of a
sudden a door opens to the left of the Kobold and another Kobold appears. Our
Kobold evaluates this new scenario, and immediately recognise the other Kobold as
a friend. The Kobold loves :-) other Kobolds, and this new Kobold is armed to the
teeth with shining armour and pointy weapons. Once again his love for the gold
and for his new found friend is greater than the fear of the snake. The Kobold
reacts, moves towards the gold and his friend and picks it up. ...

The story above seems fairly realistic and it is not that difficult to achieve
a behaviour similar to the behaviour of the Kobold. It all boils down to a three
step process:

1.Observe and evaluate the environment
2.Find the most urgent need, based on the environment and the self
3.Perform the need

First the AI need to look around and evaluate it's environment, just like the
Kobold did. The AI assigns values for Fear, Love and Hate to all creatures and
objects within sight. The next step is to find the most urgent need at that
time. The AI base this descision on the Fear, Love and Hate for perceived
objects and creatures and on its own status (the Kobold puts on equipment). When
the most urgent need is found it is performed, and the cycle starts over again.

Each of the above steps are explained in detail below:



1 OBSERVE AND EVALUATE THE ENVIRONMENT
--------------------------------------
Before the AI decides what to do it needs to evaluate its environment. The AI
need to look around and memorize all objects and creatures that it can perceive.
This can be done using normal LOS, or any other suitable way. Each object or
creature (from now on entity) perceived is assigned a Fear/Love value (1.2) and
a Hate value (1.3). The most Feared, Loved and Hated entity is memorized (1.4)
and the Fear/Love and Hate center is calculated (1.5). These values will be used
later on to determine where to move or whom to attack.

How to achieve all this? Well, it is fairly simple. To help us with our
calculations we need a couple of help methods:


1.1 Help methods
----------------
These methods are made to make life easier for us during the calculation of the
Fear/Love and Hate values. The methods could have more uses in your game, so
they are worth implementing. Each entity needs a three methods called;
physicalCondition(), perceivedStrength() and perceivedDanger().


1.1.1 physicalCondition()
-------------------------
this method returns the entity's current hitpoints divided by its maximum
hitpoints. This gives us a value from 0 and upwards:

0 - Dead
<1 -="" 1="" damaged="" not="">1 - Boosted


1.1.2 perceivedStrength()
-------------------------
This method should return the entity's perceived strength, ie how strong it
looks if we were to see it. This value should be based on the entity's physique,
not powerful equipment. I base the value on the entity's strength multiplied by
it's physicalCondition(). You may wish to include more factors when calculating
the perceived strength, but this works fine.


1.1.3 perceivedDanger()
-----------------------
This method should return the entity's perceived danger, ie how dangerous it
looks. This value should be based on the entity's equipment. If the entity has
sharp weapons and heavy armour the returned value should be high.


Ok, now that we have some methods to work with, we can assign Fear/Love and Hate
values to the perceived entities.


1.2 The Fear/Love value
-----------------------
The Fear/love value, assigned to each perceived entity, is based on factors
such as the perceived entity's strength, danger and distance from the AI. If
the entity is a friend it gets a positive value (=love) and if it is an enemy
it gets a negative value (=fear). The closer to the Ai, the higher the value.

The AI rates a friend/enemy differently if the AI belongs to an instinct
driven creature (tiger, snake etc), a creature with a mind (human, orc etc) or
a mindless creature (undead).

1.2.1 Mindless Fear/Love
------------------------
A mindless creature doesn't have any feelings at all and rates friends and
enemies as Fear/Love = 0

1.2.2 Instinctdriven Fear/Love
------------------------------
A creature driven by instincts doesn't have the intelligence to measure a
friends equipment. It measures a friend by how much stronger he/she is than
itself:

(1000 * (friend->perceivedStrength() / own->perceivedStrength())) / distance

Enemies are measured in the same manner (except for the '-'):

(-1000 * (enemy->perceivedStrength() / own->perceivedStrength())) / distance


1.2.3 Minddriven Fear/Love
--------------------------
A creature with intelligence measures a friend both by its strength and by its
equipment. If the friend is stronger and/or better equipped it is loved more:

(500 * (friend->perceivedStrength() / own->perceivedStrength()) +
500 * (friend->perceivedDanger() / own->perceivedDanger())) / distance

And enemies:

(-500 * (friend->perceivedStrength() / own->perceivedStrength()) +
-500 * (friend->perceivedDanger() / own->perceivedDanger())) / distance

You may wish to change the 500 * strength and 500 * danger to other values. Some
minddriven creatures may value equipment more than strength and vice versa.
Remember that the sum should be 1000. There is no particular reason for choosing
1000, you could go with even higher numbers to achieve higher variation, but I
think 1000 is enough.


Remember that Fear/Love also applies to objects. If the perceived entity is an
object you may wish to assign a value to it. Treasures and similar items would
become Loved, at least by most minddriven creatures. Similarly some kinds of
objects might be Feared (unholy symbols etc)


1.3 The Hate value
------------------
The Hate value is based on the AI's feeling for other entities along with the
distance from the AI. The more it hates something the higher the value. As for
the Fear/Love value you can differentiate between instinct, mind and mindless
AI. You can also add extra rules to make your AI hate some creatures more than
others. For simplicity I just set the rule that if the AI isn't of the same
race as the perceived entity the Hate value is set to 1000 / distance,
otherwise 0.



1.4 Memorize most Feared, Loved and Hated
-----------------------------------------
You need to keep track of the most Feared, Loved and Hated entity that the AI
can perceive. This is just a matter of saving the currently most Feared, Loved
and Hated creatures Fear/Love or Hate value along with a pointer or similar.
This is kind of implementation specific, so just solve it in a way suitable for
your game. It should present no problem.


1.5 Calculating the Fear/Love and Hate center
---------------------------------------------
This is where it gets really interesting. Here you need to calculate where the
Fear/Love and Hate center are positioned among all of the perceived entities.
I'll try to illustrate what we wish to achieve:


.........  In this first example the AI (A) can perceive only one entity (1)
.1.......
.........  The center of Fear/Love and Hate are then positioned on the same
.........  cell as the entity
.........
....A....
.........

.........  In this example the AI (A) can perceive two entities (1) and (2)
.1..x..2.  The AI has assigned exactly the same Fear/Love and Hate values to
.........  both entities
.........
.........  The center of Fear/Love and Hate are then positioned at a cell on
....A....  equal distance from both (1) and (2). In this case cell (x)
.........


.........  In this example the AI (A) can perceive two entities (1) and (2)
.1f.h..2.  The AI has assigned a higher Fear/Love value to (1), but the same
.........  Hate values to both (1) and (2)
.........
.........  The center of Fear/Love (f) is then positioned closer to (1) than
....A....  than (2). The center of Hate (h) is still placed at equal distance
.........  from (1) and (2)


.........  As you add more entities the Fear/Love and Hate centers are moved
.1.....2.  around more and more.
.........
...h.....
.........
....A....
..f......
.........
.3.......


At a first glance this may seem quite complex, but it is fairly simple to
calculate. The first thing you need to keep track of is the total Fear/Love and
Hate values for the entities that you have assigned Fear/Love and Hate values
to. The next thing you need is a x,y coordinate for the Fear/Love and Hate
center.

When the AI begins to evaluate its environment the total Fear/Love and Hate are
zero and the Fear/Love center and Hate center has not been assigned any values.

After assigning a Fear/Love and Hate value to the first of the perceived
entities the center of Fear/Love and Hate are positioned at the same coordinates
as the entity, just like in the first figure above.

Subsequent position calculations are done like this:

1.Find the smallest of absolute value of total Fear/Love and absolute value of
perceived entity's Fear/Love. ie:

  minFL = __min(abs(totalFearLove),abs(entityFearLove))

2.Find the largest, ie:

  maxFL = __max(abs(totalFearLove),abs(entityFearLove))

3.Subtract the x coordinate of the Fear/Love center from the perceived entity's
x coordinate, and multiply the result by (minFL / maxFl). Add the resulting
value to the Fear/Love center's x coordinate. ie:

  fearLoveX += ((entityX - fearLoveX) * (minFL / maxFL))

4.Do the same for y. ie:

  fearLoveY += ((entityY - fearLoveY) * (minFL / maxFL))

5.Repeat the same procedure for Hate center

  minH = __min(totalHate,entityHate)    absolute values not nescessary since
  maxH = __max(totalHate,entityHate)    Hate value always is positive
  hateX += ((entityX - hateX) * (minH / maxH))
  hateY += ((entityY - hateY) * (minH / maxH))


After you have repeated all of the above for all of the AI's perceived entities
you know which entity the AI Feares, Loves and Hates the most. You know of the
total Fear/Love and Hate values for all of the perceived entities, and you know
where the center of Fear/Love and Hate are positioned.

When all of this is done we have evaluated the environment, and have all the
knowledge we need to decide for an appropriate course of action.



2 FIND THE MOST URGENT NEED (CONTESTING ACTIONS)
------------------------------------------------
Each AI driven creature needs to be assigned a set of actions that it can
perform. The actions vary depending on the type of creature. A humanoid should
be able to perform actions such as OPEN, PICKUP, DROP, EQUIP, MOVE and ATTACK
while a snake is a bit more limited; MOVE and ATTACK.

Each action is represented by two methods called rate() and execute(). The
methods take a reference to the creature in question as parameter.

Each time the AI need to decide which action to perform, the rate() method is
called on each of the available actions. The rate() method decides how urgent it
is to perform the action. A high value gives the action high priority and a low
value gives the action low priority. The action that has the highest rating is
the one being performed, i.e calling the execute() method.

This is simple enough, but how to rate each action? This is the tricky part, and
it needs a bit of balancing before it works. I used fixed values for the
priorites:

PRIORITY_NONE    0
PRIORITY_LOW     50
PRIORITY_NORMAL  100
PRIORITY_HIGH    200
PRIORITY_HIGHEST 800

Let's have a look at some of the actions one by one:

2.1 OPEN.rate(creature*)
------------------------
The method examines the mapcells surrounding the creature. If a closed door is
found the method returns a priority of NORMAL, otherwise 0. The closed door is
remebered so that the execute method knows what to open.


2.2 PICKLOCK.rate(creature*)
----------------------------
The method examines the mapcells surrounding the creature. If a locked door is
found the method returns a priority of NORMAL, otherwise 0. The locked door is
remebered so that the execute method knows what to lockpick.


2.3 DROP.rate(creature*)
------------------------
In the system that I use for Dungeondweller, each creature has a method called
physcialSpeed(). The method returns a value from 0 and upwards, 0 meaning
immobilized, less than 1 is slowed, 1 normal speed and greater than 1 meaning
fast. The method takes into account the creatures strength, the amount of
inventory carried and the creatures physical condition.

If the creature is slowed down (physicalSpeed() < 1) the rate() method decides for an object to drop, and returns a priority of NORMAL/physicalSpeed(), otherwise rate() returns 0. This gives a higher value the more encumbered and wounded the creature is. If extremely hurt the creature will throw away inventory to be able to flee faster.  There is a lot of room for intelligent selection of object to drop, but you could just start from the top of the creature's inventory, or choose the heaviest object in the inventory.   2.4 PICKUP.rate(creature*) -------------------------- If the creature is standing on an object and it isn't slowed down the method returns a priority of NORMAL, otherwise 0. The object is remebered so that the execute() method knows what to pick up.  You might wish to modify the priority if the creature is a scavenger or if the object to pick up is valueable etc.   2.5 EQUIP.rate(creature*) ------------------------- If the creature isn't equipped with a weapon and it has a weapon in its inventory the method returns a priority of HIGH, otherwise it continues to check for other things to equip (armour, rings etc). If something is found it is remembered for the execute() method and the priority is HIGH. If nothing needs to be equipped the method returns 0.  You could expand this and check for better equipment in the inventory than the already equipped equipment. Checks for broken weapons and similar things can also be done here.   2.6 MOVE.rate(creature*) ------------------------ If and where to move the creature is decided by the environment. This is where all of our calculations in step 1 comes into use.  If the total Hate and total FearLove are zero the creature should just move around in a manner that seems intelligent. There are many different ways to move a creature on a map. This is a rather big topic and it would be more appropriate to address this in another article. You could just write something simple that made the creature follow the walls or similar. Remember the direction of movement and return with a priority of LOW  Else if the total Hate is zero, and total Fear/Love is non zero the creature should move towards the Fear/Love center. This will make the creature move towards it's friends. To prevent you creatures from forming big packs that won't move an inch since the all love eachover that much you could also check the creatures distance to the Fear/Love center. If the creature is within a certain distance, say three cells, just move the creature using the same system as for total Hate and total Fear/Love equal to zero. Remember the direction of movement and return a priority of NORMAL  Else if the total Fear/Love is bigger than the total Hate the creature is at a scary place and should flee. The creature should move in a direction directly away from the Fear/Love center. Remember the direction of movement and return a priority of HIGHEST.  Else the creature should move to attack, and direction of movement should be towards the center of Hate. Remeber the direction of movement and return a priority of HIGH.   2.7 ATTACK.rate(creature*) -------------------------- Last but not least we have the attack action. If the most Hated entity is within range of any of the creatures attacks the target is remembered and the method returns a priority of HIGHEST.    3 Perform the need ------------------ All that is left now is to call the execute() method of the action that returned the highest rating. I kept the code for the execute methods very general so I could use the same execute() code when the player performs his/her actions.    4 How to achieve more variation ------------------------------- At the moment I have only implemented the basic system described above, but from the discussion at r.g.r.d Hansjoerg suggested the following tweaks:  How to get variety into the AI? Of course we can give each monster individual fears and hates. We can change the things/monsters which are feared and hated and we can change the strength of fear and hate. This will make cowards and fighters from our monsters. The love value (a monster has negative fear for friends) will make them move towards each other until their fear reduces and if they hate something nearby they will move there as a pack.  More variety can be introduced by restriction the monsters perception. Some monsters may see far others not. Some may regocnize wepaons as dangerous some not. If a monster does not recognize wepons it might not fear a heavily armed player and attackk him (stupid monster). Another monster might fear the player if it preceives him healthy and well armed. It fears hime less if wouned.  Such a monster will stay away from the player as long as he is well and wields his weapon. This monster will attack if the players weapon breaks or the player self is wounded ("Clever monster").  If the mosnters fear drop faster with distance than the hate, such a monster will follow the player, because it fears to be near the player, but stil hates him from a distance, which makes it stay away a certain distance.  Monsters with ranged attacks which fear the player will stay away from him, until their fear drops, and then stay there and attack the player with their ranged attacks.  If fear is made to depend on the health of the monster, an monster could rush towards the player (no fear) and attack him. After the first strike they receive the fear goes up and the monster runs away. This would yield the above mentioned "hit-and-run" tactic.  From kamikaze to cowards quite some different monsters seem to be able to be modeled by this simple system. I'm not sure if it will really work until I made my tests. One thing is sure: monster stats must hold all the mentioned information (what is feared, what is loved, what is hated, how strong does fear drop with distance, how strong does hate drop with distance, can the monster perceive weapons and armor, how tough is the monster/how strong does it fear to be wounded)   Send any comments, questions or suggestions to: Björn Bergström dungeondweller@swipnet.se 

Sharing Game Info Across Sites

The idea of sharing characters, objects and user information across multiple games and environments has always interested me.

I've got a simplistic idea on how this could be done and wanted to share it.

Some assumptions:

Let's assume we have 3 environments (games) Game A, B and C. They are similar in some concepts and vastly different in others.

Let's assume we have one user, Joe, who wants to play in all three environments.

Step 1:

Joe signs up for Game A and plays it. All information is stored within Game A as normal.

When Joe logs out of Game A. He is given a url that will contain all his information.
www.GameA.com/userInfo.php?userID=10

Next Step:

Joe now wants to play Game B. He has the option of entering in his url or registering as normal.

Once given a url Game B will request Joe's information from Game A.

Game A will response with pair values, like so:

UserName=Joe
Email=joe@somewhere.com
Score=1000
Money=500
CharacterName=Killer
CharacterHP=50
CharacterMagic=40
etc...
etc...

Game A will also record the fact that Game B requested information. This will come into play when Joe goes back to playing Game A.

Game B will take the values it can use and create/update Joe's account within it's game environment. Such as UserName, Score and Money. (Maybe this game does not have characters)

Next Step:

Joe is done playing Game B. As he logs out he is given the opportunity to get a new URL or he can update Game A.

If Joe decided to update Game A, Game B will send a request to Game A letting it know the url it can find an update at.
www.GameB.com/userInfo.php?userID=99

Game A will go to that url and process all of Joe's information, updating it's stats as needed.

Thoughts:

One of the advantages of this system is that if Site A were to disappear or be unavailable, Joe still retains all the information from Game B. It's even possible for him to save information from Game A, if the site does disappear, if Game B has it saved.

For those who are worried about malicious use of the system, it would be quite easy to code the update process to only allow updates from certain game sites. If you did not want to see updates from Game C, you could exclude that site from your updates by looking at the request url.

Alternatively someone could offer a service where "trusted" games can exchange information.

The user information could be in an XML document, but I have found that the ease with which you can build key pair values is easier to build and search then XML documents. I know the advantages, I personally don't think the advantages out weigh the disadvantages in this case.

This is a stab in the dark any thoughts and comments are appreciated.

rpgCardz.com

I did some major enhancements to a game that has been sitting on the back burner for quite a while.

I remember when I first worked on this game, it took me about 2 days to write and I wanted to make something quick and addictive to play.

I guess I succeeded as I wasted about 2 hours last night trying to get my "Rare" cardz.

What a time waster.

http://www.rpgcardz.com

Code: Merge Gifs with PHP

For those who need it, and for my bad memory. The following code will take two image files, lay them over one another, and print some text on the top.

An easy way to create dynamic images.

//
//base image (is under everything)
//
$image = imagecreatefromgif("background.gif");
$width = imagesx($image) ;
$height = imagesy($image) ;

//
//create the final image to be output
//
$image_final = imagecreatetruecolor($width, $height);

//
//create a few colors, for drawing
//
$black = imagecolorallocate($image_final,0,0,0);
$white = imagecolorallocate($image_final, 255,255,255);


//Get destination coordinates
$dst_x = 75;
$dst_y = 75;


//fill image with background
imagefilledrectangle($image_final, 0, 0, $width , $height , $black);


//copy background to output image
imagecopyresampled($image_final, $image, 0, 0 , 0, 0, $width, $height, $width, $height);


//
// Add another image over the top
//
$overlay = imagecreatefromgif("unit.gif");
$width_o = imagesx($overlay);
$height_o = imagesy($overlay);
imagecopy($image_final, $overlay, $dst_w,$dst_h,0,0,$width_o,$height_o);

//
// Write some stuff on the image
//
imagestring($image_final, 3, 15, 32, "Hi there", $black);
imagestring($image_final, 3, 200, 32, "Holy Moly", $black);


//
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What is Angels and Demons?

Angels and Demons is the latest game I have been working on. It is a resource management game where the primary resource is souls.

The game starts of simply and gets more complex as you progress. There is a certain language or culture that goes with this game as you will see.

When you start you have to choose a side to join. You can either join the Angels or the Demons. Angels defend a bit better and Demons attack a bit better. Once you have made a choice, you can not change sides.

After you have picked a side you are given a piece of land, called a Holt.A Holt consist of a 7 x 8 grid of land. It is your base of operations...of sorts.
On a Holt you can build structures, each structure allows you to do take different actions. Certain structures train warriors, others will gather souls, others will cast and maintain spells.

Each building that you build increases your Holt's attack and defense powers. Not important right now, but critical later on.

You start the game with 1,000 action points. Action points are the life of the game, they allow you to perform actions. You receive 1 action point per min up to a max of 1,000. (This may change depending on the game server and general feelings of the developer). Action points can not be purchased.

You start with the ability to build three types of buildings:

One that will train warriors. One that will gather souls. And one that will defend your Holt. You can build as many as you want although each building cost a different amount of action points and souls to build.

Each building allows you to "Research" another building. These research able buildings can not be built by you yet, as you do not know "how" to build them. Spend the action points and these buildings will become available to you. The first few are easy to research.

Now this game takes a bit of thought, initially it would appear that if you build a bunch of stuff you can win easily, but you will find that your action points will not be enough. You can not win this game by being the fastest "clicker" or the person who visits the most often. You have to do a bit of planning. Strategy some might say. *grin*

Once you have an Army go exploring, visit the Holts around you and figure out who deserves to die.

The Next Level

There is a meta game, to Angels and Demons. You have your Holt and you can explore the surrounding 8 Holts. These 9 Holts, yours and the 8 around it, make up a Realm.

Initially you are competing with just those folks in your Realm. But when you begin to dominate and hold 3 or more Holts you will receive a "Realm Gate", sometimes called a Neather Rip, this gate will allow you to travel to other Realms.

However it's a double edged sword. Until a Realm Gate is built your realm could not be attacked from other Realms. Now that one exists, other Angels and Demons can enter.

So at this point you are now competing against other Realm holders.

Ranking

You will always see a ranking for just players who have Holts in your Realm.

You can see a game ranking which ranks you with all players as well.

Tokens and Membership

Members can purchase Tokens. Tokens allow you to perform certain actions quicker but still take action points. For example you purchased a "Fallen Angel" for 500 Action points....normally you would have to wait about 3 hours before that unit is ready to fight. Member tokens can be used to bring that character up to speed immediately. There is a limit to how many tokens you receive each day, and every time a member uses tokens, free tokens are given to Non-members.

Members have special avatars in the rankings, chat and online boards.

Members are able to name their Holt and lay down different floors on their Holts.

Members are able to view a full list of all their buildings and all the outstanding actions for those buildings.

Thanks for reading the post!!!

rpgCardz.com - A battle game using cards

One day, I put myself on a mission to think up a simple but addictive game that had an RPG twist.

Thus rpgCardz was born. I built this game put up one post and then forgot about it. Well I pulled it out the closet, dusted it off and did some upgrades on it. I think it has a ton of potential. We will find out shortly though.

So the rules are dead simple.

Everyone has the same Str, Att, Def and Damage stats.

You have a deck of cards.

Each card can affect one or many of your or the enemy stats.

Once used a card must "recharge" a given number of rounds before being used again.

You pick 6 cards and specify the order in which they are played.

When you go to battle cards are played in order until one player is dead.

That's it.

One additional fun factor...you can take your cards and put bounties on other players. IE: If you kill this player you will get these 3 cards.

Recently I gave it a new interface, chat function and ability to see the battle history.

UntouchableGames.com is back!!!

UntouchableGames.com is back!!!

Sweet....I gotta laugh about this one. In my college days I ran a game called Blade of a Mage and ran it under a company called UntouchableGames.com. I took it down 3 or 4 years ago. Well, I find out I had rights to the domain still and I was with a host that let me host alternate domains really easily. So....I put the site back up.

I hope to use it as portal and company profile once millions of people want to join my game. (LOL)

Anyway, it was personal joy to get this back and running, brings back lots of memories.

FYI: I used the same template as I did for Battle Forces Online. I don't like that I did that any more...one of the things I do recall about this site, was changing the design every 2 to 3 months.