I’m moving this week so there won’t be any updates.
I will post some SWF technology tests as soon as SWF encryption software is released for ActionScript 3 - should be within a month.
Do me a favor and link to JetpackHQ if you have a website, help spread the word!
One of the biggest challenges Flash developers must face is just how easy it is for people to steal your source code. SWF files include basically your complete source code, sure there are no comments included, but good programming is self documenting. Unfortunately all your variable & function names are kept intact. This means that any schmo could come along and get the complete source code to Jetpack, and create their own version from my hard work. This isn’t simple software piracy, it’s closer to actual theft, where someone else is profiting from your work. Even if the hacked game is not sold, there is revenue from ads, or just increased site traffic. A copyright helps, but still there are many examples of flash games being reskinned, and published as original works.
This is why I haven’t released any flash demos yet, I’m trying to find a resolution to this problem before releasing a simple demo that contains my entire source code. There are tools out there to encrypt ActionScript, but none of them work with ActionScript 3 yet - and from what I understand, a separate tool is needed to obscure variable names, a feature that is very important to protecting code.
Maybe this issue is why there are very few large games created for Flash? Still, I intend to continue on this path, at least for this game.
One of the big changes for Jetpack 2 is a 3D look. I don’t want to go full 3D - 3D has its place but it often hurts playability. A good example is Civilization 4 - IMHO it got a lot uglier and less fun when they made the switch to 3D graphics. Jetpack will have a form of faux-3D, similar to isometric but at a slightly different angle.
I created a level importer for the old Jetpack levels, and also imported all the old graphics to use as placeholders until I get new art. I decided to have all tile pieces be square, and create angled versions for walls & floors on the fly. This creates a strange effect when using the old graphics. The screenshot below looks really low res and blurry - don’t worry, that will change once I get an artist. But this is (probably) the resolution and faux-3D look the game will have. It will fit in 800×600 in full screen mode.
Old-school low res graphics being manhandled into a faux-3D environment
The tiles in the old Jetpack were 12×12. These are 28×28, or if you measure the whole cube with wall & floor, 36×36. The new levels/maps/rooms will be a couple tiles bigger in each direction. The faux 3D tiles are presenting a problem that I didn’t anticipate being so tricky, when doing depth ordering. I’m going to put that off until later.
The issue I’m dealing with now is collision detection. In the old jetpack, the tiles were fixed in place, and collision detection could be done based on a simple grid. For Jetpack 2, I may want the tiles to be movable, and I also want semi-realistic physics, so more complex collision detection is required. I’m not planning on doing any special polygon handling or rotating - this will be strictly circle & rectangle simulation. The method I’m planning on using is: when a collision is imminent, step each object forward until right before the collision, then store that collision in a list sorted by time of impact. The collisions are processed in order by time. I’m hoping this method will be fast and accurate enough to handle something like 50 ping pong balls bouncing off eachother. That may be too optimistic. We’ll see how it works.
Back in 1993 the world was my oyster.
I don’t like oysters, but the point is I had a future. A plan. But I dropped the ball. I fell into that all too common trap for programmers, taking on more than you can handle, and underestimating development time. Instead of working on new small games like Jetpack 2, I put years of work into a massive game engine project that was doomed to failure from the start. Once you’ve put 5 years into a project, it’s hard to convince yourself to abandon all that effort. It was sad, but I finally realized that the project would be obsolete before it was complete. In the meantime I was delivering pizza to pay the rent. What can I say, I lacked proper guidance.
I put the next 5 years into an online dating site, Cybersoulmate.com (now defunct). I think it could have been the first social network, before Friendster or Myspace, if I had prioritized things differently. I got up to 100,000 members before those other sites came along and stole the show. I think my biggest mistakes on that project were putting looks ahead of features, and putting fun-to-implement features ahead of those that were more important to users. Still I met my wife from my site, so it wasn’t a total wash.
I also put in a few scattered years at a couple of large software companies. Pretty dull. And all this time I was just wanting to make games. Maybe I should have gone to a game company, but all I heard were bad things, places that work you 80 hours a week and keep you in golden handcuffs, like cutting off your royalties as soon as you leave. Why are there no companies that just want to make cool, original games and treat people fairly? And these days it seems like your only option is to work on another d@#n first-person shooter clone, fine tuning some shiny 3D effect. No thanks. And on a completely different topic, I’m really sick of C++. With the fancy tricks people have to do just to keep the language viable, you can’t even read C++ code without spending a week learning what 200 custom macros do. Not that ActionScript is paradise, but at least you can read it in a reasonable amount of time. But I digress.
It sucks to spend years on a project and have it fail, or have to abandon it. Having done both, I am but a shell of a man. I have only a tiny sliver of the energy and excitement that I had as a youth. Like the mollusk, I long only for the rising tide of success to wash over the dry rock of broken dreams that I tenaciously cling to with my single muscular foot. A foot that tastes delicious sauteed in butter and lemon. Creating a successful game would be rejuvenating. And hopefully bring the bling.
The world is my mollusk.
Hi, I’m Adam Pedersen. I created the PC game Jetpack when I was 19, way back in 1993. A new version of Jetpack has been a long time coming, but I’m determined to get it done in 2008. JetpackHQ.com will eventually become a Jetpack portal, for sharing mission packs and add-ons. For now, it will just host this blog chronicling the development of the new Jetpack.
Why a blog?
Back in 1993 I ran a BBS (look it up kids), and I remember not thinking much of it when someone mentioned some new “world wide web” thing that was supposed to be a big deal. That’s where I’m coming from: old school. Not punchcards old school, but at least 5 1/4 floppy disks old school. I got into programming in the late 80’s, back when games were fun, and new gameplay ideas were being tried by everyone, not just the freelancers. That’s my focus: fun gameplay. That means realistic physics, a highly interactive world, and lots of room to be creative.
About Jetpack
If you’re new to Jetpack, it is a classic platform style game inspired by Lode Runner, Jumpman, Pitfall, Bruce Lee, and various other games from my misspent youth on the Commodore 64. The original Jetpack ran on an 8086 5mhz. It has been downloaded over a million times since my site www.adeptsoftware.com went online in 1997.
Jetpack 2 was supposed to be released back in 1995. Then 1999. Then 2000. Things came up - more on that later. It’s 2008, and it’s time to get busy. Check this blog every few days for the latest project updates!
Adam Pedersen