MICRO Scripted Action Systems

Lucas N Ellis

Lead Software Engineer

opGames Inc.

op-games.com

What games ?

• Originally engineered system for Beakiez
  • opGames Inc. Boulder CO
  • opEngine
• Nascent Nomadic Engineer Kevin Depue
  • Backflip Studios Boulder Colorado
    • NinJump, Army of Darkness Defense 👍, others . . .
    • Acquired by Hasbro Gaming (Toy Industry)

ACTION_

• Only a few bytes per action
• No large state machines / graphs
• Simple DSL for timed actions
• Basic procedural animations

Can we do anything interesting w/ something this simple?

Basic Action_ Vocabulary

• Sleep
• Move
• MoveTo
• Rotate
• RotateTo
• Smooth
• Trigger
• Destroy
• Scale

• Most Actions take time

• Modifier Actions shape time 
  • Smooth (start slow, end slow)

• List Actions control sequencing
  • Sequential
  • Loop
  • Parallel

Pong Paddle

• Loop
  • Move Y=1 Time=1
  • Move Y=-1 Time =1

OnCreated

BOUNCING Ball

• Loop
  • Fall (ease out)
    • Move Y=1 Time=1
  • Ramp (ease in)
    • Move Y=-1 Time =1

OnCreated

Hovering CUBE

• Loop
  • Smooth
    • Move Y=1 Time=1
  • Smooth
    • Move Y=-1 Time=1

OnCreated

TRIGGERS: Adding Multiple Systems

• Triggers
  • Named Action Sets

OnTrigger

Pop a Bubble

• Parallel
  • Scale Scaling=1.5 Time=0.5
  • Sequential
    • Sleep Time=0.25
    • FadeAlpha A=0 Time=0.25
    • Spawn Class=BubblePop
    • Destroy

BubblePop

1. Make the bubble bigger
2. Fade out the bubble at the last moment
3. Create a pop effect

Beakie Freak Out

• Parallel
  • Loop
    • Animate Name=Freakout
  • Loop
    • Maybe Chance=0.5
      • RotateTo Yaw=-45 Time=0.1
    • Maybe Chance=0.5
      • RotateTo Yaw=45 Time=0.1
  • Loop
    • Sleep Time=0.1
    • Maybe Chance=0.1
      • PlaySound Name=Chirp

Freakout

Multiple Objects

• Root Object
  • Trigger Name=!BeakieHappy
    • (! broadcasts to all child nodes)

• Beakie Object
  • OnTrigger Name=BeakieHappy
    • Parallel
      • Animate Name=Happy
      • PlaySound Name=Chirp

Demonstration

Contact

lucas@op-games.com

lucas@optml.io