Bacon and Games

Tag: tools (page 1 of 2)

Board Game Editor

17.01.2013 / / 0 Comments

I’m working on a board game and to help design the board I created a level editor. It’ll save me a ton of time while designing the board, not having to hand-write the board, but since we intend to reuse the engine this editor is going to save me a ton of time in the long run. Some of the features include:

  • Add / remove spaces
  • Snap to grid or freeform movement of spaces
  • Change space types
  • Define pathways between spaces
  • Save and reload boards

The colored spaces of course have more meaning in the game itself. The orange spaces, for example, launch a mini game.

Find All Strings Within a String with AS3

29.11.2011 / / 0 Comments

I’m working on a training simulator that allows people to virtually highlight text (like in iBooks) in a textField. I’ll probably post the code for the highlighting portion when the project is done.

For now, I thought I’d post this simple AS3 utility function I wrote, which allows you to find all instances of string inside another string. It accepts two arguments:

  • searchFor:String – string you wish to search FOR
  • searchIn:String – string you wish to search IN
  • caseSensitive:Boolean=true – (optional) determines whether comparisons are case sensitive

It will return an array containing the indices at which searchFor is found in searchIn. You can check the length of the array returned to get the number of times the search string appears in the search text. If the length is 0, searchFor does not appear in searchIn.

package com.baconandgames.utils{
public class Strings{
 
// returns an array of indexes for each occurance of searchFor in searchString
// var s:String = "Haw many cats are in this sentence about cats?";
// Strings.findAllStringsInString("cats",s); // returns [9,41];
 
public static function findAllStringsInString(searchFor:String,searchIn:String,caseSensitive:Boolean=true):Array{   
  if(!caseSensitive){             
    searchFor = searchFor.toLocaleLowerCase();        
    searchIn = searchIn.toLocaleLowerCase();   
  }       
  var a:Array = new Array();       
  var i:int = -1;     
  while ((i = searchIn.indexOf(searchFor, i+1)) != -1) a.push(i);      
  return a;
}
}

*simplified with suggestions by my good buddy and web-ninja Rob Colburn

Bfxr Builds on Sfxr, Adds Mixer and More

29.03.2011 / / 0 Comments

Back in February I wrote about as3sfxr-b, a free sound effect generator written in AS3. Increpare, the editor’s author, has recently updated to a version dubbed Bfxr, which extends the already fantastic AS3-based sfx generator.

Bfxr Screenshot Mixer

The biggest addition in this version is the inclusion of a mixer. That’s right, you can now create sfx with this editor and then mix several tracks together to create a much more complex, layered sfx. You don’t even have to leave the browser. All these years I’ve been using audio editing tools like a sucker. OK, ok… you can’t completely abandon your audio tools, but it is an extremely handy feature.

He’s also added some additional waveforms, filters and some other fun features. But your head is still spinning from the news about the mixer, I know. So I’ll give you a moment.

Good?

Go check out Bfxr now.

Free SFX Generator for Games: as3sfxr-b

25.02.2011 / / 1 Comment

A while back I wrote about the as3sfxr made by Tom Vian of the Super Flash Brothers. If you’re unfamiliar with as3sfxr, it’s a sound synthesizer made in Flash that you can use to create old NES and SNES style sfx for your games…FREE!

Version B, by Increpare, is built on top of Tom’s version and brings a few more features to the table, including more precise sliders, a few extra settings, 2 additional preset waveforms and a playlist of previously configured sounds. You can also generate urls for specific sounds, which can be handy if you’re collaborating with a friend and want to share sound design without having to send files back and forth. It’s not a major overhaul but the improvements are certainly welcome.

You can check out as3sfxr-b here or download the AIR version here.

Free Sound Effects Generator for Games

24.06.2010 / / 1 Comment

Some time ago, the Super Flash Bros. ported a sound effects generator called sfxr to Actionscript 3.0. The original was written by Tomas Pettersson and can be found on a few different platforms. AS3sfxr, as they call their port, gives you the ability to create old school sound effects right in your browser. The sfx can be exported as .wav files at 8 or 16 bit and 22 or 44 HZ. And if you find your mind so blown that you have to take a break mid-creation, you can save your work and reload it later to pick up where you left off.

The beauty of this sfx generator is that if you’re not sure what you’re looking for, it can randomly generate sfx for you. If you have a general sense but don’t know where to start, it can randomly generate sounds from a few preset ranges; pickup/coin, laser shoot, explosion, powerup, hit/hurt, jump and blip/select. I usually find that if I’m looking for a particular sound I can click one of these to find something close and then play with any of the 22 sliders to create exactly what I’m looking for. Perhaps the most unique and helpful feature is that the app keeps a history of the sfx you’ve created, much like a browser tracking the pages you’ve been through. You can create a whole bunch of sounds and then walk back and forward through your work to select the most fitting sound.

This isn’t a scoop by any stretch of the means, admittedly I’ve been using as3sfxr consistently for almost 9 months now. However, my suspicion is that many game developers don’t know about this gem. It’s free, there’s no royalty issues, it’s always at your fingertips and perhaps its most endearing quality, it can with little effort give your game a custom-tailored voice of its own.

If you’re looking to make a game with that classic NES sound, look no farther than as3sfxr.

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Sean James McKenzie

I have been inventing games all my life, of the video variety since 2002. No delusions of grandeur, I just want to make things people will enjoy and earn the respect of my peers. #indiedev #gamedev #creativity

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