Making Progress

I continue to work on my 7DRL entry "OL Rogue". Previously I had completed character creation and login. Now I needed to actually run the game based on that character. Since I am concentrating on the PHP and MySQL database portion, I decided to reuse some old roguelike game code.

I needed to figure out how to launch my URL from PHP once the user logged in. Found out the best way to do this is through JavaScript. Man it has been a while since I took JavaScript in college. Next I needed to load all the player stats from the database using PHP. After I got one stat loaded, the rest followed the same pattern.

Now that I can load the player from the database, I have to implement the save to database feature. Currently I have only been testing with records I mocked up in my local database. After I get save working, I think I will push this version of the game up to my web host and call it a week.

Going Live

I decided to test my user creation code on my web host. I had to use some web tools to set up the MySQL database there. Did not like that I had to meet the host's requirements for database name. They did make it easy to create a database user that could interact with my database.

Normally I interact with MySQL using the command prompt. My web host makes me use phpMyAdmin. It takes a little getting used to. Had trouble interpreting the results of SQL queries. A nice surprise was that I could use the same code as I did locally as long as I named everything the same on my machine and my web host.

So what do I have right now? I can create characters, and then log in with them on my web host machine. Big deal. Now I need to figure out how to save the state of an existing roguelike game to my database. That is the task at hand for this week. I hope I get something playable done in the next few days.

Slow Start to OL Rogue

I had planned to start working on my 7DRL entry "OL Rogue" tomorrow. However why put it off a day? I got down to business tonight. First thing I did was break out my old PHP textbook. Then I studied one of the problems I solved from the MySQL database chapter.

I fired up my local WAMP server. Created a database and table to hold player information. Then I wrote/modified some PHP code to create a player and login as that player. Had a bunch of bugs from that task. Eventually I got something running on my local WAMP server.

Now I can create characters that have a name and a password. Then I can log in as that character as long as I have the right password. Not sure how secure this code it. Probably not very. But it is good enough since this is just a 7DRL game entry.

Next I will try to push this code up to my real web server.

The Birth of OL Rogue

It is that time of year again. Time to compete in the seven day roguelike (7DRL) tournament. Well I am really competing against the clock. Got one week to create a roguelike game. I have been doing this for years. Got to represent.

I figured I had a class in the PHP programming language. It covered a little bit of MySQL database development. I will finally add a game save option into my game. In fact, that is my primary goal this year. Produce a game that allows you to save and come back to it later.

Just so happens that I got a web hosting plan. It offers PHP and MySQL. Now is the time to take advantage of those features. My game will be OL Rogue. It stands for Online Rogue. See you in a week. I should be able to post my URL here when I am done.

Facing the Green Dragon

I've been playing The Legend of Green Dragon for a while. Recently I made a strategy change. Instead of fighting opponents my own level, I have been beating up on the little guys. They call this "slumming" in the game. This means that I hardly ever die. Sure the gold and XP gain is lower. But I live to see another day.

Finally I maxed out my armor and weaponry. I continued to beat up on the lower level opponents. However the game got to a point where I was forced to face a green dragon. The thing had around double my health points. I came out firing with all my special abilities. It was no use. I was beaten pretty badly.

The real disappointment was that I lost all my gold. I have saved up a stack. Damn. Time to regroup and try beating up on the little guys again. In a strange twist, I ended up in a new town after the defeat at the hands of the dragon.