Inspiration
This year has been a little hard on me, so I just wanted to create a fun, easy-to-play game that would put me and my friends in a good mood. Since it's a Prehackstoric build, I decided to make it dinosaur themed.
What it does
It's a game in which you play as a little red Ankylosaurus named Roxie. Her only goal is to collect more rocks so she can thwack them into the river with her tail. To get more rocks, you have to trade with other dinosaurs in a quest style game until you can get your rocks.
How I built it
I used Java and JavaFX to create the game. I used PixilArt.com for my dinosaurs. All the other items were transparent pixel images that I downloaded from online and the background images were from Unsplash.com.
My ScriptReader.java file and the mechanics for moving Roxie across the board were built prior to this hack in other projects of mine and I copied them over for this game. The premise of the game and what items each dinosaur would have and need was designed prior to the hack as well. Everything else was created during the hack.
Challenges I ran into
I had a lot of trouble getting the dialogue to work the way I wanted it to, but I think it turned out not bad. I also wanted Roxie to have a walking motion, but that was a little farther outside of my capabilities for this hack. I wasn't able to add all the items I wanted to the game and I wish I could've given the dinosaurs more little clothing things to indicate what their hobbies were.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I am just generally really proud of myself for creating this working game in two days by myself. I'm also really proud of how the dialogue system works since I had such a struggle getting it together.
What I learned
I learned that it's not really so hard to make a fun little game in JavaFX and that it's really useful to create class nodes for elements that you need to keep track of. I had a hell of a time trying to figure out how to switch between rooms.
What's next for River Rock Ramble
Hats for the dinosaurs. I think that would drastically improve my experience.
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