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• More Game Balance Changes

  g0730n • 2 days ago • 0 comments

  I changed some things with the games balance.

  Firstly player starts with max HP (127), instead of 64.

  I also slightly amount monster does damage.

  There was a bug in the gold drop. If you look at the code you will probably spot it. Basically it was  adding our variables to player gold, then dividing. I fixed this by setting another registers variable to the formula result, then adding that to player gold register.

  With these new changes I have been able to get to level 108! Which is just 8 levels away from the end. 

  I Think at this point it is beatable but from about level 105-126 the player pretty much has to travel back to the inn after each fight to heal. Which becomes very tedious. Before these changes to game code after about level 55 player had to go back to heal after each fight. But that may have been mainly to the gold drops not being calculated correctly.
  

  I would like to add a fast travel to and from inn. Where each map being traveled will blink quickly so there would still be a sense of travel time but not having to click a button 100 times each way. To do this I need to shave off some bytes somewhere. I am not sure if its possible but will look it over again and see.

  There was also a bug in how the serial transfer tool was parsing comments, which I fixed. If the comments beginning and ending asterisk didn't have a space before and after it, strange things would happen. Now as long as the outside of comment asterisk is not touching a program keyword or value, it works as it should.

• Game Difficulty

  g0730n • 2 days ago • 0 comments

  A turn based game that only has 2 input buttons is fairly easy, unless it is programmed in a way that it is unbeatable.

  The only skill required in this game is reading the binary number for HP, and deciding if its time to go back and heal.

  So far the highest level I have reached is level 85. At that point after each fight the player has to return to the inn to heal. If a monster only drops 10-20 gold, thats not enough health to survive another fight, much less two.

  The game is definitely playable at this point, but I am unsure if it's beatable. I need to really look at my game code and see if i can shave off a couple bytes somewhere and add some more complexity to the Player/Monster hit formulas, as well as the gold drop formulas.

  I suppose I could also give player 2 HP per gold spent, and each night at the inn costs player 64 gold.

  Anyhow, I am happy with where the project is for the end of contest, but I will be improving it when I get the time.

• Gameplay Video

  g0730n • 3 days ago • 0 comments

  Gameplay video

• Updates and Video

  g0730n • 4 days ago • 0 comments

  I had to really really slim the game code down, as well as change a few features in the interpreter code to accommodate some things for the game.

  Here is a somewhat long video demonstrating the game code and serial transfer program. I will try and make a video of playing through the game tomorrow.

  Here are the new changes, mainly the previously mentioned way of handling button input in the interpreter. There are always small changes I do but forget about to mention on here, but any changes to do with using keywords will be updated on the Keyword Table file.

  Using the keyword

  BG

   waits until a button press. When a button is pressed, it is stored in the "BV", and can be accessed like any other register:

  * Wait for button press *
  BG
  
  * Set value of R1 to button value (1-4) *
  R1 BV
  
  * Check if we pressed button 2 *
  CE BV 2
  
  

  Another thing I changed was accessing single byte EEPROM addresses. Before only 3 bytes at end of EEPROM were accessible using 6 different keywords, 3 for writing, and 3 for reading. I did this to reduce byte size in programs. But it felt too limited, so now there are only 2 keywords for accessing an EEPROM byte, and byes 382-502 are accessible to user to save data in, like this:

  * Write to EEPROM *
  EW (address) (value)
  EW 0 R1
  EW 1 12
  
  * Read from EEPROM *
  Rx ER (address)
  BB ER (address)
  R1 ER 0
  BB ER 117

   It now takes 3 bytes in program code to save to EEPROM, and 3 bytes to read.

  The address can be 0-117. 8 bytes at end of EEPROM are saved for a feature to be later implemented.
  This future feature will have one keyword for saving all 8 registers to last 8 bytes in EEPROM, and one keyword for loading those bytes back into the 8 registers. This could be good for saving a game, etc.
  

  The EEPROM keyword and address can not be used in a conditional like this:

  CG ER 32 12
  CE R3 ER 0

  This will result in an error. This is not a bug but a feature... For now.

  Now on to the new game code. I was able to pack a "fully" functional "RPG" game in 127 bytes. Think Pokémon on a one dimensional linear map with only 2 LED's to know what is going on in the game. This was quite the challenge, but I am glad I was able to program it in TGRK instead of adding it into the Arduino sketch.

  It ended up having a lot less features then originally planned, but I think with the right tweaks the difficulty can make it enjoyable to play. That is if you don't mind reading the binary codes blinked out to monitor your health level, and subtracting or adding to those blinks to know how many hit points you lost in the last battle, or how much gold you just spent on healing at the inn.

  Game Code

  R2 64
  
  F1
    FUNC
      
      CE R8 0
        BG
        L0L
        L1L
        CE BV 2
            L1H
            R1 ADD 1
          CG R1 R7
            CG RND 64
              R5 R1 DIV 2 ADD 1
              R8 1
      SEP
      
      CE BV 1
        L0H
        R1 SUB 1
        R8 0
        CE R1 0
          R2 ADD R3
          R3 0
          BB R2
      SEP
  
      CE R8 1
        L1H
        L0H
        R6 RND ADD R1 ADD R5 DIV 12
        R2 SUB R6
        R8 2
      SEP
        
      CE R8 2
        R6 R2 ADD R3 ADD RND DIV 12 ADD 1 
        R5 SUB R6
        R8 1
        S1
        CLE R5 0
          R7 R1
          R3 ADD RND ADD R1 DIV 2 ADD 1 
          R8 0
          BB R2
          L1L
          L0L
      SEP
      
      CG R2 0
        CLE R1 126
          LPF
      SEP
      CE R1 127
        BB -1
        LP
    FUNC
  
  F1
  
  EOP

  I am not going to explain this code in any detail in this post, I go over it line by line in the video. But the key to getting it all in so it was functional was taking out all the AND keywords where you see nested conditional statements. This saved me 5 bytes which was all I needed to add the led control keywords in the right spot to know what the hell is going on while trying to play this abomination.

• Game code

  g0730n • 6 days ago • 0 comments

  Here is the complete game code in TGRK. It ended up being 294 bytes, so I cannot test it on the device. My options for running this game are either A. expand the program size from 127 to 300 bytes, which would make me have to refactor a lot of different things. or B, implement the game in C and have it as a feature on the device. 
  

  Probably going to keep the interpreter as it is and add the game as an extra feature. Either way, it was fun writing this program in TGRK:

  EDIT: I Slimmed it way down. Removed the menu system and just have < > and T buttons. The math for damage and monster health calculations had to be slightly slimmed down as well. As well as removing the option to roll to run away. Now during a fight you can just run.

  I also removed XP, and changed gold (Stored in R3) as the players damage multiplier. HP is also a damage multiplier.

  Simplified Code now fits in exactly 127 Bytes. Will get my serial dongle out tomorrow and drop it on there and see if it works!

  * FIGHT *
  F7
    FUNC
      CG RND 64 AND CE R8 3 AND CG R1 R7
        R5 R1 DIV 2
        R8 1
        SEP
      CE R8 1
        R6 RND ADD R1 ADD R5 DIV 12
        R2 SUB R6
        R8 0
        SEP
      CE R8 2
        R6 R2 ADD R3 ADD RND DIV 12
        R5 SUB R6
        R8 1
        SEP
      CLE R5 0
        R7 R1
        R3 ADD RND DIV 2
        R8 0
    FUNC
  
  * CONTROLS *
  F8
    FUNC
      BG
      L0L
      L1L
      S1
      CE BV 1
        R1 SUB 1
        L0H
        SEP
      CE BV 2
        R1 ADD 1
        R8 3
        L1H
        SEP
      CE BV 3
        L1H
        L0H
        R8 2
        SEP
      CE BV 3 AND CE R1 0
        R2 ADD R3
        R3 0
        BB R3
        SEP
      F7
    FUNC
  
  R2 64
  
  * MAIN LOOP *
  CG R2 0 AND CLE R1 126
    F8
    LP
  
  EOP

  Original Code:

  R2 64
  
  * INN *
  F1
    FUNC
      CE R8 0 AND CG R2 0
        R2 ADD R3
        R3 0
        SEP
      CE R8 1
        BB R3
        SEP
      CE R8 2
        BB R2
        SEP
      CE R8 3
        R1 ADD 1
        SEP
    FUNC
  
  * MONSTER ATTACK *
  F2
    FUNC
      R6 RND ADD R1 ADD R5 DIV 12
      R2 SUB R6
    FUNC
  
  * PLAYER ATTACK *
  F3
    FUNC
      R6 R2 ADD R4 ADD RND DIV 12 ADD 1
      R5 SUB R6
      CLE R5 0
        R7 R1
        R4 ADD R1 DIV 10
        R3 ADD RND ADD R1 DIV 2 ADD 1
    FUNC
  
  * FIGHT MENU *
  F4
    FUNC
      CE R8 3
        F2
        SEP
      R8 3
      BG
      CE BV 1 AND CG RND 60
        R1 SUB 1
        R5 0
        R8 0
        SEP
      CE BV 2 AND CG RND 50
        R1 ADD 1
        R5 0
        R8 3
        SEP
      CE BV 3
        F3
        SEP
      CE BV 4
        BB R2
        R8 2
        SEP
      CG R5 0 AND CG R2 0
        LPF
        SEP
      R8 3
    FUNC
  
  * ROAD MENU *
  F5
    FUNC
      CE R8 3
        R1 ADD 1
        SEP
      CE R8 0
        R1 SUB 1
        SEP
      CE R8 1
        BB R1
        SEP
      CE R8 2
        BB R2
        SEP
      CG RND 50 AND CG R1 R7
        R5 R1 DIV 2 ADD 1
        F4
    FUNC
  
  * MENU LED *
  F6
    FUNC
      CE R8 0
        L0L
        L1L
        SEP
      CE R8 1
        L0H
        L1L
        SEP
      CE R8 2
        L0L
        L1H
        SEP
      CE R8 3
        L0H
        L0H
    FUNC
  
  * BUTTON INPUT *
  F7
    FUNC
      BG
      CE BV 1 AND CG F8 0
        F8 SUB 1
        F6
        SEP
      CE BV 2 AND CL F8 3
        F8 ADD 1
        F6
        SEP
      CE BV 3 AND CE F1 0
        F6
        F1
        SEP
      CE BV 3 AND CG F1 0
        F6
        F5
    FUNC
  
  * GAME LOOP *
  F8
    FUNC
      CG R2 0 AND CLE R1 126
        F7
        LP
        SEP
      CE R1 127
        L1L L0H S1
        L0L L1H S1
        LP
        SEP
      L1H L0H S1
      L1L L0L S1
      LP
    FUNC
  
  EOP
  

• RNG

  g0730n • 7 days ago • 0 comments

  To generate psuedo random numbers for use it the game, I found a method that seems like it will work great for the randomness I need.

  Every time a button is pressed, we get the LSB of current millis() timestamp.

  Our variable "int8_t random_number" is our global variable for storing the current random number.

  First we shift bits 1 position left.

  Then XOR the LSB

  Then apply the variable to bitmask 127, which will guarantee the MSB is never a 1. We don't want any negative numbers stored in this variable.

  Considering a button will be pressed every time any action is done in game, the generator will generate a new number every time a button is pressed, then we can read that number for applying to our game code.

• Game Update, etc.

  g0730n • 7 days ago • 0 comments

  Power Consumption Deepsleep

  First off, I have been running this program on device past two days:

  BB PAXX D0 LP

   It blinks the binary value if the adc reading, which ranges from 20-53 (2.0v-5.3v). Then goes into low power mode until next button interrupt.

  Pressing it periodically throught the day and checking voltage, while making sure solar panel was covered, it ran for about 36 hours before hitting 2v and going into power down mode.

  Another use case for this could be adding a RTC and using it as a clock... hmmm.

  Now onto my current thoughts about the game for device.

  Game Ideas:

  I wrote a mockup of the game I want to run on device in python. If i need to quickly write and test a program, often I will use python before porting it to C, etc. This allows me to know how many variables, functions, etc I need and get an idea of what the programs structure will look like.

  I believe some VERY simple game could be written in TGRK, but the game I want to add would exceed 127 keywords. At this point I am thinking adding it as a built in feature of the arduino sketch. I believe there is enough flash left to add it in there.

  The game itself is a 1 dimensional RPG. The world map is a path with 127 "rooms" or maps. Map 0 is the INN, where the player can pay to sleep and restore health.

  On any map cell 1-126 there is a random chance for a monster to appear. Their health and damage dealt to player increases in a somewhat random manner the higher the map level. Every time the player kills a monster 3 things happen:

  1. Monster drops random amount of gold based on map difficulty (more at higher levels)
  2. Player gains XP
  3. The map EXPLORED variable gets set to current map cell. Monsters don't spawn on map equal or less than the EXPLORED value. This makes it so map cells are cleared after a monster has been killed on one. And also for "fast travel" to and from inn.

  Fast travel. When player leaves inn and moves forward into world map, game will quickly blink through each empty map cell until reaching unexplored one. Same with traveling back to inn.

  This becomes incredibly helpful when at higher levels as no not have to manually click through 100+ map levels just to heal up. Playing on the Python version I noticed several things. 

  At higher levels 80+ I would have to travel back to the INN more and more frequently, as monsters become stronger and stronger. 

  So far I have only made it past lvl 90. I am still tweaking the balance for the games calculations. I want it to be difficult but not impossible.
  

  When players HP gets to 0, player loses, game is over.

  If player reaches map 127, player wins, Game over!

• A Game in TGRK?

  g0730n • 09/05/2024 at 14:17 • 0 comments

  For the final addition for this device for the Tiny Games Contest, my challenge is to write some sort of game that runs on the Tiny Bit Machine. And write it in TGRK, AND write it into the device one bit at a time.

  I will definitively develope and test using the serial transfer I added, but once the program is complete I will punch it in one bit and byte at a time. The serial transfer program is working flawlessly now. I did some more work on it yesterday and have tested transferring more than 60 bytes and havent had an error yet.

  Limitations:

  The 127 byte progam length is a real limitation for any complex game. It has to be simple. Just having all 8 empty functions initialized and setting all 8 registers once uses about 55 bytes.

  I need to modify how I set up detecting button presses within TGRK. The way it works right now is we call a button, e.g Left button: "BL" and when TGRK reads that keyword, it waits until that button is pressed before continuing program. I need to do something more like this:

  BG
  BV

  Button Get: "BG" will wait until any button is pressed, and when one is, it will store the button code (0-4) in the Button Value: "BV" register. Thr BV register can then be read to see what the button press was.

  About a year ago, I wrote an RPG game in BASIC on the Smart Response XE running Arduino Basic. The entire game ended up being about 6Kb, which was maxing out useable memory.

  I will probably use some of the concepts i used in that game, but obviously i need to optimize and slim it down.

  In that game I used Arduino Basics "RND" Function quite heavily which generated a random float between 0.001 and .999.

  In this TGRK game I will also need a random number generator, which I will probably name this keyword RND as well. But it will generate a number between 0 and 127. I have seen posts somewhere about using a timer to generate a random number on Attiny85, I may do that or when the BG function is waiting for input, have a counter constantly counting from 0-127, whatever it is at when button is pressed, that is the random number for that turn.

  In a RPG generating random numbers is essential to almost everything. In each following step we roll a number: Will a monster appear this turn? Can I run from it? If it attacks, how much damage does it do? How much damage will I do this hit? Will it drop a coin?

  We will see!

• More Serial

  g0730n • 09/04/2024 at 14:55 • 0 comments

  Here are some screenshots of serial transfer python program, as well as my code highlighting style for TGRK in notepad++. Stayed up a little too late last night working on this.

  Discovered there are some issues with transferring more than 30+ byte program. I have yet to check if it's just the Attiny85 not sending everything back, or if it's not receiving it all. Under 30 bytes, it seems to work every time.

  To transfer, I plug in serial adapter to Devices PB0 and PB1

  PB0/MOSI = TX

  PB1/MISO  = RX

  1. Go to run menu on device:
  2. MENU 0 > Selection 2
  3. Then start python script.
  4. Then press run button on device, and transfer runs.

  The python transfer script has a dict with all keywords, and reads a file in same directory called "prog.grk". This makes writing a program for device as easy as connecting to PC through serial adapter, editing program file, and running python script.

  When it reads through the file, it skips any whitespace and adds the corresponding integer to a list, which then gets converted to a byte array to be sent to Attiny85. This allows us to write TGRK code using spaces, tabs, etc. At least one whitespace between each keyword or integer is necessary, but as many one wants to use is permissible. The EOP keyword is required at end of program when programming this way. Here is an example:

  This code just reads the floating PB2 ADC pin and lights led 1 or led 0 depending on it's value.

• Serial Program Transfer

  g0730n • 09/04/2024 at 01:27 • 0 comments

  There was enough flash and RAM available after finishing interpreter I decided to go ahead and impliment the ability to transfer programs to device using Serial. 

  I suppose this takes away from the antiquated method of punching in bits manually, but for testing purposes it is great!

  Using a py script with pyserial on PC side, and usb-uart adapter, it works! Kinda some buggy stuff had to sort through with transfering negative integers though. Will have to fiddle with it more to understand the serial protocol more.

  I was also thinking about how I submitted this device to the Tiny Games Contest, but its not "exactly" a game unless you consider programming in an incredibly tedious way a game. It is definitively an educational device, and you could write some sort of game that runs on the device.

  I suppose that will be my final hurrah before the contest ends, is write up some sort of game that runs on this device.

  Toodleloo!

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