I have been working on Q*bert when I have been able to. I do have a pretty busy schedule, though, and time to devote to games is very lean. I have been making fairly good progress. I have Q*bert traversing the pyramid. I have the colour of the cubes working wonderfully. I have the red orbs dropping and falling down the pyramid. I have the little green orb that pauses enemies for a time. I have the purple orb falling. I having transforming from an orb to a snake. The snake does traverse the pyramid a little but it is far from perfect.

What’s Next

The plan is to finish the Q*bert tutorial. I think there are some interesting places in the code that could be reused in other games. The handling of when the game is lost and the player starts back at the top of the pyramid needs to be handled, as well as the enemy that reverts colours of cubes when it falls down the pyramid.

My Projects

I have been spending some time with Realms, the code name for the new game that I’ve been working on that is like the physical game Dominion. It’s a strategic card game where you take turns to try and amass the most victory points, while not dropping below zero health. It is working great when played locally. What I’ve been planning is playing another player remotely, across the network. I have honestly not done a whole lot of network programming. I am used to desktop apps only. I think that when I finish that section, I will write a tutorial on it.

Final Thoughts

I really want to finish Q*Bert, but I’m not sure it will be this weekend. What is left is that I need to finish with the snake. I want to add the little green guy that falls from the top and changes the colour of the cubes. There are also the guys that go across the pyramids instead of down. And, let’s not forget, the disks to take you back to the top of the pyramid. It is going to be more of an e-book than a tutorial. I’m already up to about sixty pages. I see need about another twenty to thirty pages. It’s all good, though, because I really enjoy doing this.

Good luck with your game programming adventures!
Cynthia