[WIP] - Dungeon Run

[Tragic]

Hey guys...

I just got my full version of the game and will be trying to "digitilise" my first board game... Dungeon Run! A cool dungeon crawler by Plaid Hat Games... I am looking forward to this and think it will be fun. I'm moving state soon so if this works out I will be trying to make versions of my play groups fav games so we can still hang out on skype and play our fav games. This is a new one.. but I think it is simple.. lets not jump in the deep end with Arkham Horror

Anyway.. I'll be posting my progress in this WIP (Work in Progress) thread and hope that you fine chaps will give me tips and hints on how to make my conversion awesome! I'll most likly need it heh heh. I will not be making my plugin public as I am 100% sure that would be illegal, though this game is cool.. go buy it.. but if people are interested I will host some games when it is done.. that is no diffrent than having some people over to dinner and bringing it out of the chest is it?

Anyway.. Hello... and expect updates.. well.. . . . when I get around to it!!

WOOT!!

--Tragic

[heruca]

Creating a digital conversion of Dungeon Run sounds like a fun project. I also like the games' premise of "cooperative up to a point, then it's every man for himself!".

I think it's a good idea to start off with a relatively simple game to convert, and gradually work your way up to more complex/involved games. Something like Arkham Horror or Twilight Imperium 3 is definitely not a good idea until you're comfortable with the game creation process.

Looking forward to seeing screenshots of your work as you hit major milestones in your development process.

[Tragic]

Ok I have scanned in all my dungeon tiles.



Put them in a folder called "Dungeon Tiles" in the components folder.. then clicked on the B icon and select BATCH IMPORT, selected the correct card back and hit import all... now what? In the demo it places a deck on the table.

<-- EDIT
OK.. it is double click.. CREATE DECK I think I need to do.

[heruca]

You didn't strictly have to do a "Batch Import", but it doesn't hurt to have done so.

What you really wanted to do was issue the "Create Card Deck" command, which is available if you double-click on the game table window (in doing this, you're also telling it where the deck should be placed). This command basically includes the functionality of "Batch Import", but it also places the card components on the game table.

During a Batch Import, it's not necessary to point to the card back image. With the Create Deck command, it is.

[Tragic]

I see, and then I right click on the deck to draw from it.. once the card is drawn how do I flip it back over?

[heruca]

Assuming you are using cards on the game table, and not in the Card Table window:
Shift-D draws a card. It also discards a card you're already holding.

Edit: But if these are going to be tiles that form a gameboard (rather than actual cards), you don't need to draw and discard. You can just use the token-swapping hotkeys to flip them upside-down or rightside-up.

[Tragic]

Yea, I mean.. after you shift D to draw a card.. how do you flip it back over so you can see the back of the card again?

[heruca]

With the token-swapping hotkeys [<] or [>].

Or, as I said above, by discarding it (Shift-D again).

[Tragic]

Ok I am cooking now I think!!

So all the cards have the same back... but there is basiclly 3 decks all with teh same back.

1) 2 Card deck, with Entrance and Boss Tile.
2) Unique Tiles
3) Large deck made of 3 different tiles but many copies oif each.

Now to save space I made the "deck" a single directory with 1 back image for everything, as if i put it in multi dir I would need multi copy of teh back file... now I have imported it and used the copy / paste command to make deck 3 have teh correct amount of cards...

So I do not want to do this every time.. can I now put these into three stacks and save them as a "Deck Asset" or w/e.. so next time I want to play I can just load the 3 decks?

[heruca]

I prefer to use the Duplicate command [Control-D] rather than Copy and Paste, but either works.

You can save each deck to its own Deployment file. Or save all 3 decks to a single deployment file. Or just save the Game File with the decks in place and ready to shuffle prior to the start of the game.

[heruca]

If these cards/tiles are meant to occupy a 6x6 cell grid, they should be 610 pixels square (122 x 6), not 600 pixels square. No need to redo them now, though, since the difference is almost unnoticeable. You can just use your existing media and stretch it a tad in BRPG.

If you host a game (to get access to the Chat window), you can select all the tiles and resize all of them at once to 51% using a special chat command. See pg. 87 of the BGE User Manual for instructions (the "resizeall" command).

And while you're at it, you might as well rename all the tiles as needed. You can see the current names in the Unit Manager; they are probably all named "Card".

[Tragic]

excellent.. thanks I will do that. <this is going to be sweet> I might just resize the cards.. I can run a photoshop action.. only take a sec...

You mentioned once b4 a command that "locks" the tile in place once it is placed?

And when you say "save" you just mean the "save game file" button on the command bar?

<--- EDIT

I enlarged them to 610.. looks exactly the same

[heruca]

You mentioned once b4 a command that "locks" the tile in place once it is placed?

Yup. Just select the "Tile" command on the component. This will lock it down, and any Minis or other components will always be drawn over the tile, regardless of stacking order. If you wish to untile a component, use the button in the Unit Manager.

And when you say "save" you just mean the "save game file" button on the command bar?

Yes. I prefer to just hit hotkey [S], since I always hide or disable the Command Panel. But you might want to keep the Command Panel around for a few days until you memorize the hotkeys.

I enlarged them to 610.. looks exactly the same

That's because you haven't purged the original media, and it's still showing you the old media. Use the Purge Media panel to get rid of the undersized graphics, then do a Batch Import on the resized/enlarged graphics.

[Tragic]

is the menu context sensitive as i can not longer find the batch import.. I was sure last time it was a menu item when i clicked on the big "B" button

[heruca]

Yes, most menus in BGE are context-sensitive. "Batch Import" is only available when you're not hosting a game session. Using it with a lot of players connected could cause a lot of grief to your connection if you suddenly have to do a peer-to-peer transfer of hundreds of large cards or tiles.

Suggestion: The User Manual is searchable, so searching for a term like Batch or Tile or <whatever> will quickly give you the answer to most of the questions you are asking.

(which will keep you more productive, since you don't have to wait for my reply)

[Tragic]

awesome.. well I think I am good for the while.. now I will just get into the task of importing all the components... so I'll prob not need to bug you for a bit... thanks for your help mate.. I really appreciate it...

[Tragic]

So this game has a bunch of "character" cards.. each is its own card that collects counters and stuff and each has its own unique back... should I do them the same way I have been doing "decks" of card ... or is there a special function for such things... i thought visual aids,.. but that seams to be a temporary thing

[heruca]

Is the backside ever used, or are they ever shuffled (perhaps for random selection)? If so, it's a card (a two-token component), if not, it's a single-token component.

Alternatively, you could make a multi-token component out of all the cards, and a player would simply use the token-swapping hotkeys to "select a character to play". Or if it needs to be selected randomly, they could just use the "Roll" command on it [Control-R].

It's really hard to answer without knowing more about the game and its rules.

[Tragic]

ok, well this is what I was thinking.... The card itself just sits there, as a place to collect wound tokens as well as level up tokens...

The card looks like this!


The back side of the card is just flavour, as in it is just a cool image and a profile text (the image BTW is what I am going to use for the player token that you move around, though I may take a photo of my painted miniatures)


While the info on the back of the card is not "needed" I think flavour cards really add to games like this and I am not happy about leaving it out.. EVERYONE while waiting for their turn will read this multiple time in a real game and I think it helps people get into it.

See the numbers on the top left. As you progress you "level up" and with levelling you gain + modifiers to your base skills.

I was planning to make a multi-image token, that is the same size as the card itself, so it fits perfectly over it, but is a png and fully transparent apart from the red, purple, blue, or green box. Each level of the token will be it counting up to 9. I thought best to use a large transparent token as the snapping engine will keep them in the correct place, as you will in fact be dragging a object of the same size onto each other.. like the way the cards work. Instead of using many wound counters, I was going to make one wound counter that is a multi image token and have a numerical counter on it to 20. than can be placed onto of the hero card.

So yea.. that is how I am planning to do the player cards.. (I think it will work) I was thinking of just making a "deck" for every card, just how I made the other decks, but with only a front and back. Then you can just use the <,> keys to flip to the bio card?

The heroes are chosen from a face up pile by the players after a choose order is rolled for, so there is never a time that they are hidden or shuffled.

[Tragic]

why dose "place component" make the image all faded and see though?



<-- EDIT

RTFM:- Press "h".

[heruca]

In the Preferences panel, there is a setting that determines whether new components or minis are placed Hidden by default. I believe that in BGE it only happens if you place a component or mini while hosting a game session.

[Tragic]

is there a different way to quickly draw a card? Like maybe double click on the deck to draw or something... the shortcut is so similar to duplicate... often we do that by mistake.

Also, can you remove the numpad numbers for directional moment gizmo looking thing when you have a component selected?

Also, (and if not) can you move the gizmo thing? If you use the unit settings to adjust the offset of the image the gizo don't move as well, so when you have a object selected it looks all ugly as the gizmo is off centre. I think I would prefer to turn it off, but if you could move the gizmo that would be fine as well.

[heruca]

is there a different way to quickly draw a card? Like maybe double click on the deck to draw or something... the shortcut is so similar to duplicate... often we do that by mistake.

The only other way is the contextual popup menu. The "Draw Card" command is always the second item in the menu, so it's fairly quick to access the command.

Also, can you remove the numpad numbers for directional moment gizmo looking thing when you have a component selected?

Open the Preferences panel and set "Movement Guide" to Off. While you're there, step through the three Preferences screen to see all the other settings you can change.

[Tragic]

what is the folder "backgrounds for Tiles" for? I assumed it was so I could have tillable images in each cell.. but I can not seam to get it to work.. searching for background in pdf didn't seam to help.

[heruca]

Those graphics (just color swatches, really) are meant to be used as a background in games where you are building the game board out of component tiles.

I think it's safe to trash that directory if you don't want it.

It's actually obsolete, now that you mention it, because you can get the exact same functionality and much more by using the "Choose Board Color..." command.