Code Avarice

Christmas Cheer

by Mike

Over the Christmas weekend, I have gotten a lot of work done for our next game. I implemented a physics engine (though, without collision detection, it’s largely useless), I worked on optimization, and really cleaned up the code. 

However, there came a time when I had to spend time with my family, which meant I could not do any serious programming. I did, however, use this as an opportunity to play with a programming toy I have been meaning to use for a long time. 

That toy is  Processing, it is a tool that allows programmers to quickly prototype things in java. I had originally heard about it while watching a Natural Selection 2 video, where they used it to prototype a cool new game mechanic. I had never used it before, but the syntax was near identical to C++, so I quickly began to feel at home. 

I decided to ask my family for ideas for a simple game that I could work on passively while we chatted and watched classic Christmas movies on ABC Family. They were super helpful and suggested “a Christmas game”, so I just recycled an old game concept that I had though of a few years back, but never really worked on. The concept was just that you would jump around in 2D space, and dodge projectiles coming in from the sides randomly. Seeing as it was supposed to be Christmas themed, I went with Santa as the main character, and had Christmas trees flying in from the sides.

It took me about 3 hours total, from not knowing what on earth I was doing, to final product…which is a testament to how quickly you can prototype things in Processing!

When my mother played it, she complained it was too hard, and she sarcastically said the goal should be to hit the trees, rather than avoid them. I implemented that quickly, making a timer count down, granting you extra time when you got trees. This was much more fun than dodging, and my mother was exited that she got to influence game.

You can download the game and source code here. (WASD controls)