Some time ago I bought Monkey and put it away for a while while finishing Trapped. With that game out of the way and after taking some time off programming it is now time to go and make something with it.

But first I need to get to know the Monkey language a bit more and try to make my own modules to make programming  life easier. Also, as my main platform to make stuff for will be Android, I took some time to get to know that OS from a development point of view. Also, as Monkey takes a lot from the Java language I decided to get to know that language better as well. So far, so good. Delving into Java has made Monkey more clear to me as well and the Google Android tutorials are really good at explaining how a typical Android project is constructed.

So I am slowly creating some small things with Monkey. I intend to make some kind of game framework, based on the structure of the RRFW framework, but stripped down to the bare essentials and optimized for use on mobile.

The first thing I am attempting to create though is a decent unit testing framework, so I can create my stuff with TDD in mind. The lack of reflection (run-time inspection of objects) is making it a little cumbersome to set up but it is working. I am happy.

I created a Google Code page for my Monkey modules. You can find it over here. So far only the unit testing module code is uploaded.

Other than the joy of discovery I have no set plans for my Monkey development.  I have a game idea or two I want to try out but that will have to wait until I have some decent game structure running.

I’ve been accused of being a Google fan, and it’s true: I think overall Google makes great software, and I love the way it all interacts from mobile to desktop using the cloud concept; and one that actually works because I never think about it: it just works.  These past few days I’ve been trying out Google Plus. So, is it any good?  In my opinion it is.

Am I afraid that Google will know all about me? Sure, they will know all I put up and agree with to be public. I use the following assumption: expect everything that you upload or share on the internet to be out there in one way or another. Do NOT put online what you do not want shared, and this goes for everything from public forums to social networks. So I won’t.

Here are some of the key points that I think matter:

• Google Exit: You can leave Google+ and take all your stuff with you;
• Security: 100% control over who I share information and posts with. Circles are great;
• Export: You can export all your stuff at any time and make backups. Great!

The push to integrate all Google services and platforms sounds great to me, and I cannot wait until the floodgates open with more services and more users.

Here’s my profile page: gplus.to/wiebow

Inspiring. Wouldn’t that be a fun game to make? Hmm.

Anyway, I will need a versatile 2d map editor. And maybe integration with some kind of scripting language, like LUA. Let’s go research and get back on this later.

You can get from this location.

You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6IT4ONJ1TMo

I also edited the links on the My PC Games page.

I hope you enjoy it. Here are some screenshots to refresh your memory, and the readme is pasted at the bottom of this post:

Readme for Trapped!
====================

Thank you for downloading and playing Trapped.
This game is freeware. If you have paid for it you have been ripped off.

This game is a shoot-em-up, an arena shooter, but with a little twist.
It’s recommended you read this readme, but if you read this, you obviously don’t need this recommendation. Forgive me, I am just afraid people won’t ‘get it’.

Mission Briefing:
=================

While testing new portable portal technology, you and your portal device end up in another dimension.
The inhabitants of this dimension are energy based beings, and you are not wanted in their world.
The entire dimension is hostile towards your ship. Just being in there will damage you and your portal device. The portal device will implode in two minutes after entering the stage.

You are Trapped. The only way out is to energise your portal device to go to the next dimension within this time limit. Luckily, your ship is fitted with the so called Collector Device, designed to trap and hold energy. With this device you can catch aliens and force them onto your portal, thereby transferring their energy to the device.

Game Instructions:
==================

To prevent dying shoot aliens to regain ship energy. Shooting aliens while being at full energy level will advance the weapon power-up bar at the bottom of the screen. Your gun is upgradable once per stage.

Catch yellow drones with your Collector Device and drag the captured aliens into the portal device to transfer energy to your device. To advance to the next stage you must fill up your portal device to full capacity.

Some enemies cannot be caught without destroying their protective layers. Pull of the protection with the Collector Device and then shoot the alien core to destroy (or catch) it.

Once in a while you will enter a bonus stage. Shoot the incoming aliens, and collect the bonus points
if you survive the assault!

Controls:
=========

You NEED a dual stick gamepad to play this game.
The first thing to do after starting the game is configure your game pad. Use the ARROW KEYS to enter the ‘Options’ menu and select ‘Input’ and ‘Configure Joypad’.
Take note of the ‘Collector’ button: you need this button to start and stop the Collector device.

Troubleshooting:
================

First: If you DO find a bug, or have issues, please contact me: wiebo.de.wit AT gmail.com
Second: The .ini file for Trapped is stored in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Trapped, if you play on Windows 7.

Audio: This game NEEDS OpenAL for audio. If you have installed OpenAL on your system you can delete the ‘OpenAL32.dll’ and ‘wrap_oal.dll’ from the game directory.

Credits:
========

Trapped is (c) 2011, by Wiebo de Wit.

Code, graphics and design by Wiebo.
Audio by Muttley and Wiebo.
Testing by Muttley, John Parker, Matthew Smith and other helpful people. Much appreciated!

Thanks to Muttley for his enormous help with the game and his Blitz Max framework: RRFW
Get it at : //http://code.google.com/p/retroremakes-framework

Thanks to Mark Sibly and all the folks at blitzbasic.com for their continued enthousiasm for
the Blitz line of languages; it doesn’t get much better than this.

Enjoy and Thanks for playing!

This post describes how to get Monkey ready for Android development. I want to mention beforehand that I am a total Java and Android development n00b, so when you read dumb stuff, tell me, ok? Thanks. Of course, there are loads of blog posts about setting up the Android SDK but these posts will be written from a former Blitz Max and new Monkey user development viewpoint.

I am using Windows 7, x64, SP1. I will be installing Monkey in D:\Monkey\MonkeyPro38, and I have a folder called D:\TargetSDK for all the SDK software. Here we go…

SDK Installation

First, download the needed software. Here is a list of the needed components and their current version numbers:

• Monkey : Pro 3.8
• Android SDK: r10
• Java SDK, (32 bit version, even if you have a 64bit OS!!): 6u21
• Ant building tool: 1.8.2

After installing Monkey, its time to get the target platform up and running. First up is the Java SDK. Ugh, I never expected to install Java on my machine, but we need it! Start the installer. I installed the SDK in the folder D:\TargetSDK\Java\jdk1.6.0_25.

After installing the SDK, the JRE (Runtime Environment) is installed. Use the default path for this.

Next up is the Android SDK. Start the installer. I installed in the folder D:\TargetSDK\android.

If the Android installer is telling you it cannot find Java, press Back and then Next again. It will now find it. After installation, the SDK Manager will offer you a list of packages to download and install. Install the Android versions 2.1 and up.

The SDK Manager will tell you it cannot find the path to Java, so add that as suggested to your Path variable.

Next up: Create an Android Virtual Device (AVD) on which we can develop and test our programs. This is not necessary, you can put your compiled .pka on to your phone and test there, but for quicker testing this might come in handy.

It is important to remember that the next time you start the manager, make sure you start it as an Administrator.

We now install Ant. It is what builds our Android Java code. ANT comes in a zip file so extract it where you want to. I used D:\TargetSDK\apache-ant-1.8.2\

Trans

Now we must tell Trans (a Monkey component) where to look for the three SDKs we just installed. Let’s go to the monkey\bin folder and locate the file config.winnt.txt.
Create a copy of this file and then open the original.

Let’s add in the Java SDK path. We installed Java in D:\TargetSDK\Java\jdk1.6.0_25, so add the line: JDK_PATH=”D:\TargetSDK\Java\jdk1.6.0_25″
And now the Android path: ANDROID_PATH=”D:\TargetSDK\android”
Add the Ant path as well: ANT_PATH=”D:\TargetSDK\apache-ant-1.8.2″

Comment out the obsolete Ant, Java and Android paths. Save the file.

Trans should now be able to find the installed SDKs and ANT and use them to create Android .APK files. Using this setup I was able to build and run an application in the Android emulator. Huzzaa!

Some handy tips:

• The Android emulator must be running when you press that compile button otherwise the program is not installed on the device.
• NO SPACES IN YOUR PROJECT PATH AND FILENAMES. You will get an error message from Ant.

I will be diving deeper into Monkey and Android development in the coming weeks. It should be interesting.

I’ll get back to the game at the end of this week when I have finished reading the final book, and I hope to finish the game real soon after that. It needs to get finished now, other ideas need their attention real soon.

Ok, forget about the elite private testing folks and click on this dropbox link to go and try it out! Leave your comments here if you do have something to say about the game though. Read the README first, plz