[Competition] Java Game Jam competition

Java of the Dead - Game Jam

This info will be updated / amended during this week.

Official competition page:

https://www.pokitto.com/javajam/

Itch .io page

Discussion about compo

Here in this thread

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Short how-to-get-started by Torbuntu

Intro to FemtoIDE

To get started with FemtoIDE, grab the latest release from github. Extract it wherever you’ll be working from. I made a directory specifically for the jam and put it in there. Inside the FemtoIDE directory you’ll launch the IDE script.

The github page also has the wiki for getting up and running.

Example Project

I highly recommend firstly opening the Hello Java sample project. When the main window opens up, you’ll see a directory of files in the left project nav, and the code on the right. Using the Build drop down menu you can select Build & Run to launch the Pokitto Emulator and see the project run! (If you run into an error, it might be from missing libs, in which case follow the instructions linked in the wiki above)

Sprite Editing

FemtoIDE has an integrated Piskel sprite editor. To use it is as simple as selecting a png image from the project explorer on the left. Here you can do all sorts of pretty amazing artwork without even needing to leave FemtoIDE.

Animations

To make Animations is really simple using Aseprite (the supported tool for creating animated sprite images). There is also a FOSS version called LibreSprite which could potentially work. Otherwise, the source code of Aseprite is available on github if you’d like to download and compile it from there for free. There is also a trial version.
Once you have created an animation with your sprites, you can export it to obtain the json file with all the animation frames in it. (See Dog.json in the sample project Hello, Java!)
Put this file in your project directory, and then here comes the magic, in your java source code all you have to do is instantiate an object as if it were a Java class. You now have an object version of your animations! This is how the Dog class in the sample can do the dog.run(); and other methods. Super powerful feature.

Saving and Release

Once you are at a good point to test it on hardware or to release to the public, simply share the generated .bin file which gets created on Build step. Yes, it is that simple :slight_smile:

Debug

FemtoIDE also comes with built in debugging tools.

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Can you import Piskel animations to FemtoIDE?

There could be a bit bigger note in the Itch page that “THERE WILL BE PRIZES!!” as not all Itch compos offer prizes.

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oh! You’re right. That would be a great incentive.

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what prizes?

Well, Brendon from NXP has graciously promised to donate LPC11U68 dev kits for prizes, as many as 10. Those will allow to build “DIY Pokittos” and do Pokitto hardware debugging.

Possibly some other goodies as well.

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@jonne what are the rules on using existing assets?

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Totally OK as long as you show where they came from along with how they are licensed

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That’s similar to the python compo. That’s cool! (I still want to make all my assets from scratch :wink: )

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An undead Java mug with the compo image would be kind of fitting. Just saying.:coffee::zombie::woman_zombie:

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Uh… It’s already Sunday 28th July, so maybe this sentence should be changed or removed on itch.io:wink:

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How do I open an exiting project in FemtoIDE? It only offers a new project, or example (cpp or Java) project in startup.

FemtoIDE:
Tried to add a “new file” to the project and got:
"NotFoundError: Failed to execute 'insertBefore' on 'Node': The node before which the new node is to be inserted is not a child of this node."

I made a copy of dog.png/json files and added those by hand to the project.json. Now I got after “build”:
TypeError: session.getValue is not a function

Is there any more detailed log somewhere?

The beta only supports projects within its projects folder. It was one of the things I wanted to address before releasing it here, but other priorities showed up.

The fix for this bug was already done and will be available in the next release. I’m testing things more thoroughly in this one.

You shouldn’t have to add files by hand to the project.json. :thinking:

How do I add a png-file to the project (I do not have aseprite)?

Just drop it into the folder.

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FemtoIDE:
when I use copy-paste if often pastes two times if I use the keyboard (Ctrl-v). If I do it from the menu it works correctly.
I use Windows 10.

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That’s this issue over here:


It’s taking me a while, but there were other features underway when I found that bug and I’d like it all to be more stable for 16b.

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