bitbox updates

The Jump game has made progress : coins to collect (and lure you into places where you shouldn't go >:-D ), sounds (not very happy with some of them but it's working) and extra score handling. Game begins to be interesting. Now, level design !

I've also found that the USB port I've used is not the one that is used by the bootloader (duh). So, no upload by dfu for this one unless some fine soldering is done ...

I started to think about bitbox rev2 : getting rid of the bulky minidin to replace it with USB OTG (I've still to figure out if a kernel can work with it sufficiently reliably), getting stereo sound, 15bits colors(?), a proper GPU.

OTG would be huge for using normal keyboards, mice, controllers, (maybe even MIDI) but also less standard controllers.

I'm also preparing a tutorial on making a simple game and, of course thinking about many games that could be done ...

First bitbox simple game preview : Jump ! (video)

I programmed a simple, very bare tile/sprite engine+game to test everything : JUMP !

Screenshots from the emulator

The game is a very simple vertical scrolling platformer where you only control left/right and die if you touch the base of the screen. Different platforms types make you jump higher, ... and there are other types :)

Debugging using gdb on the board itself is possible through SWD (the kernel giving you some perf data stats), but for game devel, I also developed a simple SDL-based emulator of the kernel for on-computer tests. Of course it's certainly not accurate but it can be useful for graphics and gameplay-related tuning.

Now, the game is playable - although still very rough - level needs a bit of work, there is no sound (edit : yes there is now !) , imperfect collisions, need to add some bonus, maybe particles, ...- but stays enjoyable nonetheless.

 Sample screenshots from the game, and a video (no sound).





bitbox first game prototype ! from mak apuf on Vimeo.