V-Toad Games

If You Give a Mouse a GPU…

Editor’s Note: For those that didn’t catch the reference, it’s a play on the ‘If You Give a Mouse a Cookie’ story. Essentially, if give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to want some milk to wash it down with… and straw to drink the milk… and and a napkin to wipe his face… and so on…

In the Beginning…

About 3.5 years ago, I replaced my aging GTX 1080 gaming desktops with a couple of 30-series systems. Between inflation, parts availability, and AI demands, the market wasn’t great, and it’s only gotten worse.

At the time, I’d planned to buy another iBUYPOWER system, but due to shipping delays, I had to cancel the order and spend over $500 per system more than I originally budgeted. I usually target the upper end of the previous generation of hardware, I feel I missed the mark this time around…

Not long (perhaps a week or two) after I pulled the trigger on our two PCs, and before they began the build, they’d upgraded the model I’d bought from 12th gen to 13th gen, but did not create a new item in their sales system, so I found about it because subsequent updates to my order read “13700K” and “13600K ” respectively rather than the 12th gen series I actually bought. I did reach out to them to see if I’d get a free upgrade, but that was too much to hope for…

By then, DDR4 (what these systems shipped with) was getting long in the tooth, and DDR5 had been around for at least two years. Beyond that, there were other issues with their packing, resulting in feet being shorn off, and while the system pictured in the ad featured strimmers, it turned out they wanted an extra $120 per system…

I used them once again to purchase a pre-built system to replace Jim’s aging laptop. They weren’t my first go-to (I started with Amazon, but had to abandon that route due to logistical issues), but to their credit, they went out of their way to accommodate shipping to Mexico. Unfortunately, Jim didn’t get much use out of it as he passed 3 weeks later… So far as I can tell, he was happy with the purchase, and the price was right ($~1,100, closer to $1,400 with shipping).

Even so, I wouldn’t make another purchase from them today, nor can I recommend them for reasons I’ll get into later…

Treat Yo’self [sic], as the Young People Say…

After a long and expensive home renovation, I decided to treat myself to a GPU upgrade (call it a late birthday present ^_^), so I started looking at 5080 series cards. I considered waiting for a 5080 Ti or Super to come out, but my research suggested they weren’t going to hit the shelves anytime soon, or at an attractive price point.

I settled on a GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 5080 Gaming OC 16G, which was a good combination of cost ($1,500 + tax), performance, cooling, and noise. I looked at some more expensive 5080s, but as far as I could tell, the performance was comparable (or even a little worse), and they were asking $200-500 more for slightly cooler/quieter fans.

I figured since I was splurging on a fancy new GPU, I may as well upgrade my RAM as well, but after going down the voltage/timing rabbit hole, I realize things aren’t like they used to be, and I can’t just slap another two identical sticks in the spare sockets and call it a day without risking a hit to performance and/or stability, but not before pulling the trigger on the purchase (another $300), which I’m just went ahead and returned unopened.

What I also failed to realize is that my 850W PSU would be the bare minimum for an RTX 5080 and would need a 12V-2×6 (16-pin) connector instead of the triple 8-pin connectors I’m using now for the RTX 3080… Yes, I could just use the adapter that comes with the GPU, but if I was already spending $1,500 on a GPU, what’s another $180 for some peace of mind… I ended up purchasing another Corsair RM1000x ATX 3.1 (1000W), which should give the card plenty of headroom…

Decisions, Decisions!

At this point, I started thinking about what it would cost to just go ahead and upgrade the motherboard, RAM, and CPU as well. If I were to go that route, and that’s a BIG if, I’d be looking at…

$200 for a new Z890 Motherboard
$350 for an Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Processor
$750+ for 64GB of DDR5 5600 CL28 RAM

In total, about $1,300 + Tax…

Of course, we haven’t even talked about my monitor yet!

I currently have an old Acer Predator XB241H, a 24″ 1080p 144Hz gaming monitor. I bought it in 2018, and it’s served me faithfully for years. Conventional wisdom suggests that lower resolution is better for higher frame rates, which is true, provided your CPU can keep up! My CPU cannot, and so I end up with a huge swing between high and low FPS…

Upping the resolution means the GPU has to work harder, balancing the equation of CPU, GPU, and Resolution. At first, I figured I may as well make the jump to 4K, but after talking it over with a friend, I was convinced to consider 1440p instead. I currently have three monitors on my PC in a TIE Fighter configuration:

While I’m gaming, I can have Discord on one side and a web browser on the other, and look things up as I need to while saving on horizontal space. The trouble is, I don’t have a lot of room on either side, since the triple-monitor stand I’ve had since 2014ish in Saudi Arabia was only intended for 21-24″ monitors, and most 1440p (and 4K) monitors are 27″ and larger.

I considered buying a 27″ 4K Gigabyte OLED monitor for $534 (heavily discounted open box special), but decided not to chance it, and after further consultation with my friend, I decided to go with an AOC Gaming Q27G4ZMN:

It was $300 for the 180Hz version, but I decided to pay an extra $30 and get the 240Hz model. This was a good balance of resolution for the size of the monitor, color range, contrast, refresh rate, and durability (OLEDs can, and do, burn in, and they’re about double the price). Of course, then I needed to spend another $65 on a bigger triple-monitor stand, but I’m sure I’ll find a use for the old one :).

Too Good to Pass Up!

The rest of the build was still nagging at me, and while I argued with myself back and forth, Newegg decided for me:

G.SKILL Ripjaws S5 series 64GB DDR5-6000 CL36 RAM ($885)
MSI PRO X870-P WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($180 on sale, not the best-in-class, but not bad!)
Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU ($465)
Corsair 3500X RS-R ARGB case ($80)
MSI MAG Coreliquid A13 240 AIO CPU Radiator/Cooler ($85) – Free gift, not listed in the ad

That’s nearly $1,700 worth of kit for $940? Even Gollum couldn’t say ‘no’ to that!

4/17/2026 – NOTE: The astute among you will notice that the screenshot above shows that this combo is Out of Stock, which it is (at the time of writing), but it was available this morning when I placed my order :).

Aside: Intel versus AMD Processors

Throughout my 20s, I could not afford high-quality computer parts, so I built computers as cheaply as possible. That often meant the least expensive AMD Processors and Radeon graphics cards.

After graduating from college and a year or so into my first ‘big boy’ job, I’d spent some money and upgraded my desktop PC to a Core 2 Duo Q6600 with 6GB of DDR2 RAM and a modest 120GB SSD. I decided to spend $300 (a lot of money in 2008) on an XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition video card. It ran at 75° C (which I was told was normal), and crashed more than I would like, even after two RMAs. This was my first taste of real GPU power! But it was a fickle beast, and even with my Antec 900 case with its ridiculous 200mm exhaust fan, two 120mm front fans, 120mm exhaust fan, and the option 120mm side fan, I STILL couldn’t keep the damn thing cool enough to keep it stable, and begrudgingly went back to a cheap, mid-range AMD GPU (a Radeon HD 5770) a couple of years later before ultimately sticking to Intel/Nvidia going forward.

“2Kliks” Philip Dyer did a great video a few years back that really articulated the history of Intel versus AMD far better than I have here, and it’s well worth the watch. In doing so, it seems to me my biases were justified, at least at the time! But times change, at least on the CPU front…

AMD’s Ryzen series has made a big comeback in the last few years, but nevertheless, I’ve stuck with Intel as my default. Even when my research seemed to suggest that, for gaming, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D was one of the best processors money could buy, I dismissed this, instead, seeking out my familiar Core i7 equivalent, which I’d pegged as the gold standard for Desktop and Mobile CPUs. Sure, there was eventually a Core i9 series, but that just meant more cores, and I wasn’t even using all of the ones I had now…

I tell myself that more cores = better, and that the Ryzen X3D series isn’t as good as Intel Core Ultra for multitasking and productivity. What if I wanted to host my own LLM GML coding buddy, or spin up a few VMs to test new games on?

“Look, Nattie. That’s called ‘Copium’!”

The plain truth is, if it weren’t for the ridiculous prices of DDR5 RAM, or if there were an equivalent combo deal for an Intel 270K Plus for the same price (despite the Intel processor retailing for $100 less than the AMD 9800X3D), I would have bought that instead…

Fool, though I might be, I know a deal when I see one! Given how quickly these sold out, I feel sure I will end up with a more performant system despite my long-standing biases working against me.

What Are My Plans for the Rest of the Kit?

The existing Corsair iCUE 100i Capellix Elite is still nicer than the MSI one I got with the bundle, however, because I don’t have the box/accessories it came with, I would need a $12 AMD CPU Adapter Bracket and Standoffs so I can reuse it for the 9800X3D. The same goes for the Corsair 3500x case, which is objectively inferior to my Corsair 4000D (more on that below).

Although it will be more work, I figured the best long-term solution would be to put my old Intel System in the new case, which I could keep around as a spare… maybe use it as a server!

What Was the Damage?

All in, this little jaunt has cost me:

$1,500 for the RTX 5080 GPU
$180 for the 1000W PSU
$940 for the CPU, Motherboard, RAM, a spare case, and an AIO CPU cooler
$400 for a new monitor and stand

Total: $3,020 ($2,620 without the monitor and stand)

I wanted to get a sense of what this would cost from the builder who put together my current systems, and they were asking $5,198, or about twice what I paid…

To be fair, adding up the parts in their spec sheet came to $4,367.39, or about a 20% mark-up. They did come through for me for Jim’s PC, so I have to give them credit there. In any case, I wouldn’t use them again for myself, and can’t recommend them as a builder given how expensive everything is on its own these days…

No, sir! I’m going back to my roots and building my own from now on…

Coda

Primary System

The parts arrived, and the new CPU, motherboard, and RAM were installed in my old case. I’d purchased an AM5 adapter so I could utilize my old AIO. I also transferred both NVMe drives, and the OS took it like a champ, though I did have to remove some software I no longer needed.

I also took the opportunity to give the old case a thorough cleaning, getting into spots I couldn’t easily reach without a complete disassembly, and cleaned up the cabling. My old Corsair AIO included a Fan/RGB controller, but for whatever reason, I elected not to run all of my case fans through it, splitting them between the controller and the motherboard. This means that controlling fan speeds was also split between the iCUE software (used by the AIO) and Armory Crate. There was plenty of room on the controller, so I can’t imagine why it was done this way, and I won’t guess. In any case (no pun intended), it’s corrected!

I had to enable EXPO in the BIOS to get the RAM to run at 6000 MT/s instead of 4800, and spent several hours tinkering with the new monitor’s HDR settings to keep the brightness from blowing my eyeballs out…

Secondary System

I hadn’t realized how much I missed the fiddling pleasure of assembling a PC until I upgraded my primary system! I couldn’t bear to see my old parts go to waste, especially when I had most of the parts I needed to build a second system, save for a couple of odds and ends…

So I started by mounting my old CPU, motherboard, and RAM in the new Corsair 3500X. This case isn’t something I would have chosen for myself, and it seems to prioritize form over function; it looks nice in photos and is great for showing off your components, at the cost of a few degrees-worth of direct airflow.

The MSI MAG Coreliquid A13 240mm AIO is… fine. It didn’t come with a controller like my old AIO

I have to admit it makes for a handsome presentation, and the removable front panel gave me plenty of room for wiring up the IOs, fans, and RGB. Power was another story…

I could have used my old PSU and my wife’s old EVGA RTX 3070 FTW3 8GB GPU for this build, but I gifted both to a friend to replace his MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming 6GB GPU and Corsair RM650 650W PSU. He’d offered to give me his old parts, but I declined as they wouldn’t be very useful to me.

Instead, I bought another Corsair RM850 (identical to my old one). The cable management on the 3500X case was nonexistent, leaving me little room for CPU, GPU, and Motherboard power cabling. There was barely enough clearance to slide the PSU into its cubby, but I got there in the end.

###

That still left the GPU question… As a secondary PC, I didn’t want to spend an obscene amount of money on what would essentially be a spare system. So what were my options in the $300-400 range?

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 8GB (~$330-360)
AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB (~$340-380)
Intel Arc B580 12GB ($310)

Nvidia would be the obvious choice, I would not begrudge spending $50 more for a much better-supported card, but the 8GB of RAM killed that option. PNY had an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB card for $490, but another $140 would get me an RTX 5070, but by then, I’m spending twice as much ($635+).

AMD was worse, slightly more expensive than the 5060, though you can get a 16GB RX 9060 XT for $460. Even so, I’ve had AMDs more of my adult life, and wasn’t going to rush out and buy another one.

Intel was a bit of a dark-horse candidate, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about their cards. I considered a used A770 16GB for $400, but opted for a new ASRock Intel Arc B580 Challenger 12GB OC for $310. Sparkle offers a 3-fan model of the same card, but they wanted $60 for it…

Since both of my NVMe drives were transferred to the new system, I picked up a $160 Kingston 1TB NVMe drive. My old motherboard had a nice NVMe heat sink, but I had to get another $5 thermal pad as the old one was pretty nasty. I got everything put back together, and it fired up just fine! I was able to install the OS, and it works great, but…

~~~

For a display, I was using my quadruple (2×2) HP N246v 24″ LCD 60Hz monitors, which work great for my work-from-home setup, but are atrocious for gaming… I still had my old Acer Predator HB241H 24″ LCD 1080p @144Hz gaming monitor…

My old triple monitor stand (SilverStone Technology ARM31BS)l is about 4″ too wide for my work [from home] desk, but a similar triple monitor stand as I’d bought for my gaming setup would work just fine! I could remove the two monitors from my double monitor stand and do another TIE Fighter configuration for my secondary machine with the 144Hz monitor as the middle/primary display, and keep my quad monitor setup as-is, granting two of the monitors for my work [from home] laptop, and two for the miniPC I bought for my second job, and control them both seamlessly using something like Mouse Without Borders. Yes, I currently have 10 monitors in my office, thanks for asking :).

While I’m at it, I’ll replace the DVI to DisplayPort adapters on my quad monitor setup with DisplayPort to HDMI cables (the quad monitor setup supports VGA, DVI, and HDMI… I told you it was old :), I’ll get an extra 140mm to use as an intake for the bottom of the case, and some cable extenders to pretty things up.

So add to the total…

$310 for the GPU
$160 for the 1TB NVMe SSD
$90 for the 850W modular PSU (renewed)
$140 for miscellaneous odds and ends (power cable extensions, second triple monitor stand, 140mm case fan, thermal pad for the NVMe heat sink)

Total: $560 ($700 if you count the optional bits, but some of that’s going to maintenance and long-over cable management 🙂

Worth it? Yes, I’d say so. Until next time!

Remembering Jim

Forward

On February 17th, 2025, my friend James Carlson (Jim) passed away just four days after his 50th birthday. Although Jim had many interests, one we shared, and I encouraged him on many occasions to cultivate, was Game Development.

The purpose of this post is to fondly recount the good times we’d shared, joking, plugging away at silly game ideas, and daydreaming about what it would be like to do this for a living…

I don’t think either of us really believed we’d make a career out of it… At best, I’d impart technical skills that might have helped him to escape the endless procession of entry-level, dead-end jobs he’d often lamented. At worst, it would have been a pleasant distraction.

In the Beginning…

“We should make him eat acorns!”
– James R. Carlson, 2/13/1975-2/17/2025

Jim and I met online in late 2014 when he logged on to an MMO I was active on to tell us that his brother had died in a car accident. I befriended Jim, and we eventually began corresponding over email. Later that year, Jim announced that he’d hit rock bottom and dreaded the new job he was starting at a Pizza and Fried Chicken buffet restaurant. We brainstormed other career ideas he might pursue, and after a couple of false starts, he decided to try his hand at blogging.

I created a website (www.porkcircus.com) for him, and for the next couple of weeks, Jim posted, and I edited (formatted, corrected spelling and grammar, etc.). Jim had a real talent for off-the-wall commentary that would give Matthew Inman a run for his money… For the next couple of weeks, we posted articles, recipes, [mis]quotes, and so on. I had a backlog of post ideas, kept a regular publishing schedule, and got a lot of enjoyment out of it for a brief while.

Unfortunately, Jim’s interest in the project waned within a couple of weeks, and his contributions only accounted for about 1/7th of the total posts, not including the half-dozen he’d started but never finished.

2016 was a tumultuous year for me. I worked 80 hours a week trying to shape up the Project Management Office of a corrupt Saudi solutions broker, but ultimately failed. Unable to find a new job, I took my savings and returned to the US. Unemployed and with nothing but time, I decided to try to teach myself game development in earnest. After completing the GPC (or at least as much as I could), and as Eric had dropped out, I decided to engage Jim.

On January 28th, 2017, Jim and I spent about 6 hours on a Google Hangouts call, developing the first iteration of what would become Porker: The Quest for Tastiness. While Jim drank beer and shouted suggestions and obscenities, I furiously coded, photoshopped Creative Commons-licensed artwork, and edited royalty-free sound effects. Over the next couple of days, we had:

An Objective: Collect Acorns to increase your “Tastiness” score
A Win Condition: Complete all five levels
A Lose Condition: Lose all of your lives by colliding with dangerous obstacles

My goal was to publish a game, ANY game, no matter how simple, as long as it was complete and playable. I couldn’t rightly call myself a ‘Game Developer’ until I’d published a Game, and following the advice of the Extra Credits series on the topic, I did just that and moved on.

Fleeting Fame

A couple of weeks later, I discovered that someone had created a Let’s Play video for Porker, which inspired me to expand on it further. My mind raced with the possibility of it becoming a viral hit, but at the time, I’d been out of work for nearly a year, and my savings were dwindling. Somehow, around mid-April of ’17, I managed to complete and republish Porker. My “marketing campaign” didn’t go anywhere, and Jim had problems of his own…

Return to Reality

By May, I’d started a new job, and for the rest of the year, I was catching up on half a decade of advancements in Enterprise Information Technology… By December, I was dabbling with the GPC again, coming to grips with the reality of being a solo game developer, and itching to start creating again.

Jim and I flirted with the idea of a sequel, “Porker II: The Adventure Begins,” which was intended to be a top-down Legend of Zelda-style [primitive] Action RPG. I’d begun creating tilesets for it:

Unable to pique Jim’s interest, I partnered with a co-worker, Jason (an application developer by trade), instead, and we created Milk Smugglers. Unfortunately, it was never published for reasons not worth dredging up.

Intermittent Interests

Jim and I never formally resumed our work on Porker II, but over the years, we would occasionally kick around the idea and brainstorm what that might look like. James was also a big fan of Shoot ’em Ups (SHMUPs), and while I was beginning work on Purgatory Purgers, Jim took a passing interest in creating SHMUP…

“damn you, went and got me interested in learning make a game again. think im going to set myself a September chgallenge. One shootey space game. Scroller type. Have score, enemies, a couple power ups, gui, home screen. all basic. I’ll use inkscape shapes as place holders if i have to. but the real challenge will come from not using a follow along tutorial – but actually read the documents and do it myself.”
– Jim, August 31, 2023

Unfortunately, Jim opted to use Godot rather than GameMaker, so I was unable to assist him with the code. However, I did create some graphics for him:

Although Jim never got a working prototype up and running, I managed to put together a quick and dirty GameMaker game using the assets I’d created for him. The final result looked like this:

The style I was going for was a Terry Gilliam-style cutout animation, the sort of thing you’d find in a Monty Python episode. Jim had a terrible habit of never finishing anything he started, and this, too, was no exception. Still, it was an amusing diversion while it lasted!

Regrets

In December last year, I began working on a new SHMUP using modified graphics from Milk Smugglers. Over the Christmas holiday, I managed to get the basic engine, movement, power-ups, a few enemies, and other features working, but I ran out of time and abandoned the project.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever pick it back up. I might make it a tribute to his memory. On the other hand, it troubles me that he’d never get a chance to play it…

V-Toad Games Official Merch Store Launched!

Over the last couple of years, I’ve used Print-On-Demand (POD) services to make custom T-shirts, coffee mugs, and other items for friends and family, and I thought that maybe this year, I’d create something V-Toad Games-themed.

Then it occurred to me that if I was going to create some merch, why not make it available to anyone who wanted it? And so I’m excited to announce the launch of our official Merchandise Store, which can be accessed from the link in our website’s main menu or through this URL.

All proceeds will fund hosting costs for www.vtoadgames.com, software licenses, hardware, and other game-development-related expenses. As always, our games will remain free (name your own price with no minimum cost).

Enjoy!

Objectless Grid Movement!

In the Beginning, There was the GPC

About seven and a half years ago, while working on Level 12 of John Janetka’s Game Programming Course (GPC), I developed a novel way to handle orthogonal grid movement. The desired outcome was simple:

Pick a target point to the left, right, above, or below your current position
Move the player object toward the target point
Stop when the player object’s x,y coordinates = the target point’s x,y position

When I first tackled this, I tried using an instance variable to set the target point, something like this:

/* 
If 'A' is pressed, set the targetx to be the player's x-32 pixels,
then move towards that targetx...
*/

if keyboard_check(ord("A")) {
    targetx=x-32;
    move_towards_point(targetx,y,4);
}

/*
When targetx is reached, stop.
*/

if x=targetx {
    speed=0;
}

When I tried this, I discovered that the player would keep moving to the right indefinitely. This is because (as written) targetx would always be 32 pixels ahead of the player’s x coordinate and because the player object’s x would never equal targetx, he’d never fulfill the condition to stop (i.e., if x=targetx {speed=0}).

A Novel Solution

My solution was simple, but flawed. Instead of using the player’s x,y coordinates, I could use a separate “target” object instead. Something like this:

A target object (the red square above) is created in the direction you’re trying to move (e.g., left).
The player object then moves toward the x,y coordinates of the target.
The target object is destroyed when the two collide, and the player’s speed is set to zero.

You can find code examples here and here. This works fine (in isolation), but when you add a second (and third, and fourth…) object, the cracks begin to show…

Limitations and Drawbacks

Looking at the original code, you’ll see that I used a Collision Event with the target object (o_target):

//Destroy the o_target object on collision
with other {
instance_destroy()
}

//Stop the player
speed=0

The problem is that one object might collide with another object’s target block, knocking it off course, causing it to continue on its last heading with nothing to stop it.

So then I substituted out o_target for an instance of it, i.e.:

target=instance_create_layer(x-32,y,o_target)

I scrapped the Collision Event and instead used the place_meeting function in the End Step Event:

if place_meeting(x,y,target) {
    if instance_exists(target){
        speed=0;
        moving=0;
    instance_destroy(target);
}

While this worked, it also added a lot of [needless] complexity. Although players would never notice (or care) how complicated my code is/was, I knew this wasn’t well implemented, which caused a slew of difficult-to-track-down issues and many troubleshooting headaches.

Back to Basics

As I sat down to work on our next game, this problem still bothered me, so I decided to try something new on a whim. I’ve been aware of local variables since Level 9 of the GPC, but didn’t clearly understand when or why to use them.

Re-reading the GameMaker online Manual, it says,

“A local variable is one that we create for a specific event or function only and then discard when the event or function has finished.”

My instincts (even back then) were correct; the target should have been stored in a variable, but I needed to capture the value somehow, and then decouple it from the player’s coordinates.

That’s when it hit me: why not use a local variable to capture the target coordinate? If placed in a function, it would define that variable once and discard it when the function ended. To use it, we’d have to pass that value along to an instance variable to hold on to it. Here’s what I came up with:

/*
==========================
Objectless Grid Movement!™
==========================

Variables:
dist   = sprite_width-pspeed

pspeed = the speed (in pixels) the object is traveling

targetx = the local variable of the x coordinate we want to go to, used when moving horizontally. Set using var _left or var _right.

targety = the local variable of the y coordinate we want to go to, used when moving vertically. Set using var _up or var _down.
*/

// Accept input, then move towards the target coordinate
if keyboard_check(ord("A")) and moving=0 {
    moving=1;
    var _left=x-dist;
    targetx=_left;
    move_towards_point(targetx,y,pspeed)
}

if keyboard_check(ord("D")) and moving=0 {
    moving=1;
    var _right=x+dist;
    targetx=_right;
    move_towards_point(targetx,y,pspeed)
}

if keyboard_check(ord("W")) and moving=0 {
    moving=1;
    var _up=y-dist;
    targety=_up;
    move_towards_point(x,targety,pspeed)
}

if keyboard_check(ord("S")) and moving=0 {
    moving=1;
    var _down=y+dist;
    targety=_down;
    move_towards_point(x,targety,pspeed)
}

// Stop the player once he reaches his target coordinate
if x=targetx {
    moving=0;
}

if y=targety {
    moving=0;
}

This worked perfectly and will save me a Metric Crappe Tonne™ of time and aggravation later.

Further Improvement

I want to implement custom key binds that support keyboard and gamepad input. I’m reasonably sure I can accomplish the former, but I’m still researching the latter. More to come!

Purgatory Purgers: Version 1.5 Released!

Update Summary

Collecting 100% of the souls with Bob (the demon) is now possible!
Resolved clipping issues in the levels “Stilted Pond” and “Toad Hall.”
Gamepads, including PlayStation, Xbox, and Super Nintendo-style controllers, are now generally supported*. See the notes below for additional information.
Updated the Purgatory Purgers Manual to include gamepad button mappings

Special thanks to @ABitNosthalgic for suggesting that we make it possible to collect 100% of the souls with one character or another!

Gamepad/Controller Support Notes

*Most PC-compatible controllers with a Direction Pad (D-Pad), Start and Select buttons, and four face buttons should work. The game has been tested on the following devices:

Logitech F310
X-Box Elite Series 2 Wireless
Megafire 412-NO5 (generic PlayStation 2 Style Controller)
8BitDo SN30 Pro (SNES-style controller)

@ABitNosthalgic reported that the Suily brand NES-style controllers did not work for him. While I haven’t tested this myself, the reviews seem to suggest that problems, particularly with the D-Pad, aren’t that uncommon.

Purgatory Purgers: Version 1.4 Released!

Update Summary

Resolved a bug (warning, spoilers!) that would destroy objects unintentionally when two blocks collided
Added a spawn/respawn animation and sound effect
Reworked the Passphrase mechanic (used to continue to a previously visited level) to display the Passphrase on the pause screen under the main menu as well as the Game Over screen.
Updated the Purgatory Purgers Game Manual to better describe the Continue/Passphrase mechanic and other menu features.

Special thanks to @ABitNosthalgic for catching the bug and Jason D for passphrase feedback!

Purgatory Purgers: Buggery

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

This post discloses the locations of some of the secret rooms found within Purgatory Purgers. If you’d rather discover these surprises for yourself while playing the game, you may want to avoid reading further!

A Fresh Perspective

Players are often your best resource for identifying possible bugs, exploits, and missed opportunities (read: feature requests). The week Purgatory was released, I received a lot of feedback and, with it, fresh eyes to point out my mistakes.

I addressed what I could and tabled the rest, save for one elusive bug I could never pin down but appeared so infrequently that I couldn’t get a bead on it. Occasionally, an object or group of objects (e.g., a gem block, ethereal coins, etc.) would go missing from a room, and I couldn’t explain why nor duplicate the behavior. Unable to identify the culprit, coupled with the sporadic nature of the bug, I decided to leave well enough alone…

Recently, a new YouTube channel, “Back to the Past Gaming,” started a playthrough series for Purgatory Purgers. While watching ABitNosthaligic‘s playthrough of the fourth level of Purgatory Purgers, “Stilted Pond,” I was surprised to see that the secret room he discovered was empty:

He suggested it might have been an oversight, and while it’s certainly possible that I’d forgotten to populate the room, the problem was (unfortunately) not that simple… And so, after a 3-month hiatus, I decided to tear back into the code to under, once and for all, why this was happening!

First, Check the Obvious

Looking at the room layout in the GameMaker IDE, I could see the objects had been placed:

So why were they missing during his playthrough? I fired up the game, went straight to the offending level, and made a beeline for the secret room. Upon entering, there were the Ethereal Coins right where I expected them to be:

To try to duplicate the [unwanted] behavior, I did a normal playthrough, and lo behold, the coins were missing for me, too! Progress, at last! But why? What exactly was happening to the coins? Were they failing to render? Were they being destroyed?

So, to begin my troubleshooting, I added the following code to the “obj_oneup” object’s Draw GUI Event:

// Am I here?
draw_self();
draw_text(20,20,"I'm still here!")

Whenever you use custom draw code (e.g., draw_text), you must precede it with “draw_self(),” or the sprite won’t be drawn. The purpose of the draw_text message is to print the string “I’m still here!” in the upper left-hand corner to let me know that at least one instance of the object still exists on the map. Simply put, these two lines of code tell me that the object is both visible and present.

I saved my work, then launched the game, and upon entering the first level, I could see the message right where I expected it:

After collecting the Ethereal Coins, the message disappeared as expected. So, I continued playing until I reached the offending level (Stilted Pond), and after some experimentation, I was finally able to observe what was happening…

Next, Eliminate the Impossible

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
– Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of Four

Whenever I pushed one block into another block, all of the Ethereal Coins in the current room were instantly destroyed. This was true, regardless of level, but I couldn’t yet understand why…

The way I coded movement for blocks, enemies, and the player in Purgatory Purgers was a modified version of my grid movement system, explained here and here. In short, here’s what happens when you “push” a block:

An instance of an invisible 16x16px target object is created 32 pixels ahead.
The block moves toward the target object.
Upon collision, the target object is destroyed, and the block’s movement speed is set to zero, stopping it.

Because we’re using an Instance Variable, it has to be declared in the Create Event, e.g.:

block_target=0;

This variable would later be defined in the Step Event whenever the block was moved, something to the effect of,

block_target=instance_create_layer(x-bdist,y,"Instances",obj_block_target);

In the example above, “block_target” is the variable that refers to the Instance ID of the specific instance of the obj_block_target object we’re dealing with and nothing else! So when obj_block collides with the instance of obj_block_target that it created, i.e., “block_target,” only that instance should be destroyed, but somehow, the obj_oneup was being [mis]associated with “block_target.”

Block movement was one of the first features I coded, and later implementations used the place_meeting function in the End Step Event. So, simply recording it to do that fixed the issue.

I still don’t fully understand this, and after hours of troubleshooting, I am relieved that this was resolved. I have since posted the fix to itch.io as version 1.4.

Purgatory Purgers: Playthrough!

I am pleased to share that @BacktothePastABitNostalgic, a new YouTube channel specializing in retro-style content, has started a playthrough series on Purgatory Purgers!

You can access the Playlist here or by clicking the image above.

Thanks again, ABitNostalgic, and I look forward to seeing the rest of the series!

Purgatory Purgers: Post Mortem

How It Began

Back in September ’23, I announced that Eric and I were working together again after a 7-year hiatus. We’d agreed to start small, and after some initial discussion, Eric committed to taking on the roles of Game Designer and Level Designer. I would do the programming, artwork, sound effects, and music.

When we initially brainstormed game ideas, Eric fondly recalled the time he’d spent playing Chip’s Challenge on an old Windows 3.11 system and suggested we create something like that, starting with the core mechanic of pushing blocks into slots.

After some discussion, we settled on a Purgatory theme. Eric proposed two characters, an angel and a demon, each with their own unique abilities. The ‘demon’ (Imp) could push blocks, and the ‘angel’ (cherub) could fly over obstacles (e.g., water).

Eric didn’t remember any of the specifics of Chip’s Challenge, so I watched some gameplay videos and got a very rudimentary idea of how the game worked, focusing first on orthogonal, tile-based movement and then the “Sokoban” mechanic of pushing blocks into designated places.

I didn’t have a clear vision of the art style and started out with the intent of creating 32x32px tiles and character sprites. Here’s an early rendition of Bob:

Although he looks pretty good, the bigger the sprite, the more detailed it needs to be and the more time it would take to create. In addition to the player character, there are also the enemy sprites and tile sheets to consider.

Early sprite sheet designs were 32x32px tiles and single-height, meaning that the tops of the walls were on the same plane. This was simpler but didn’t look very good.

I eventually scrapped this all in favor of simpler, 16×16 tiles with fewer animation frames, akin to something you might see on the NES, albeit a slightly larger color palette (64 colors instead of 52, and support for alpha channel, which wasn’t something the NES could do).

In an effort to work in parallel, I’d asked Eric to block out level designs with primitive tiles that we could later replace as the finalized tile sheets were created.

This worked well initially, but as the tile sheet began to take shape, we encountered two issues that set us back:

Eric’s designs were more complex than what my simple tile sheet was capable of, and absent the correct tiles, Eric would ‘wing it’ with the ones he had.
The levels Eric created assumed features we hadn’t previously discussed. I was still working on the core mechanics and did not even have a working prototype of the basic gameplay yet.

In order to get this under control, I knew that I needed a playable game, and by mid-September ’23, I had one. I asked Eric to build a simple test level so that we could play the game. Here’s what that looked like:

The First Prototype

Having a working prototype can teach you a lot about your game. Is it fun? Does the core gameplay loop (i.e., the thing the player does in the game) work the way you expected? Is it complete?

I watched the Extra Credits video series on Making Your First Game. I’d watched dozens of GDC videos on game design. I knew that our focus needed to be getting the game to a playable prototype so that we could see what worked and what didn’t. I knew this – Eric did not…

How could he? He’s never made a game before. To him, game design meant thinking up cool ideas. That’s only natural, as that’s how a writer might approach the problem. A game designer needs to be able to articulate, in great detail, the logical systems that make up a game, the rules, for instance, and how to resolve problems you might encounter.

Take the angel for example. In our original discussions, we wanted the angel to be able to fly over water, so I focused on getting that mechanic working without thinking about why. In order to facilitate this, I had to create a test level and realized that simply moving to areas the demon couldn’t get to on his own wasn’t all that interesting – then it hit me…what about a bridge? What if the angel could lower bridges, allowing the demon and a block to reach places he couldn’t previously access?

This would not have occurred to me without actually playing the game.

Iterative Refinements

Initially, the movement system I created moved the character one space per key press. This worked fine on small levels, but with big, expansive ones like the test level he’d created, it was very fatiguing. To address this, we opted for continuous movement.

The more I played, the more I realized that half the fun of the game was exploration and collecting the souls, and the other half was the puzzles, but you had to have both. You can read more about Purgatory Purgers’ level design philosophy here.

As we talked through new features, I tried to corral Eric’s ideas into building on existing mechanics to create more value, using the example of secret rooms and passageways. The mechanic behind this reuses the water tile in a novel way. Eric suggested “hiding” the secret room, but there wasn’t an obvious way to do this due to the ‘skybox’ background we were using at the time.

By scrapping the sky tiles in favor of a plain black background, we could use an opaque black rectangle that’s destroyed on contact with the player to reveal the secret area. This was both easy to implement and highly reusable!

Creating the UI

We knew that we were going to need a UI for the game, so we discussed what should be in it, and Eric went to work on a simple mockup. Here’s what he came up with:

We initially discussed a scoring system in which the player earned points based on souls collected, gems slotted, completing a level, and number of moves made. Our game resolution was 480px wide by 270 pixels tall (1/4 scale of a target screen resolution of 1920×1080 in a 16:9 aspect ratio).

I found that even using the smallest font I could find (~5x5px per character), it would be impossible to cram all that information into such a small area. To get a sense of proportionality, I started with a simple shape and put it on the playfield:

As I began to play with designs, I arrived at something closer to the final one but found that placing it over the playable map didn’t look (or feel) good:

Moving it 16px to the right and adding a black background seemed to do the trick, but I also modified the camera (which was set to follow the player) to include a buffer equal to half the width of the level to keep the player centered on the screen – this would prevent the player from getting behind the black border (128px or approximately 8 tiles):

With the general layout done, I had to figure out how to populate the information it contained… More tweaking! I scraped the score (we didn’t have a solid design, and it felt a bit arbitrary), making more room for other elements. I also decided to stretch the UI a bit vertically to make more room for label text:

Finally, I added the animated ‘judged soul’ graphics, which brought it all together:

I noticed there wasn’t much room for the soul counters, so I incorporated some additional code to change the font once it reached the triple digits, but that came much later…

Mid-Development Hell

By October ’23, the core of the game was finished, save for creating a menu system, secret levels (and a system for accessing them), and additional levels to flesh everything out. Eric and I argued frequently.

We could not agree on a shared vision for the game, what a level should look like, or even the definition of Game Design!

For example, Eric spent what might have been several hours creating a very faithful rendition of the Pacman maze. While very well done (for what it is), it did not fit the theme of our game (not to mention possible copyright infringement).

Then there were the logistical obstacles… I had Eric create the levels in Tiled, and then I’d recreate them by hand in GMS2. This meticulous process took hours because each level comprised several tile layers (e.g., Walls and floors, decorations, water, object instances, etc.).

As the month came to a close, I was nearing my deadline for completing a very difficult certification Exam for work, so I put my development efforts on hold for the next 2 months to focus on that.

The Last Mile

At the end of December, I passed my Exam and was ready to resume work on Purgatory Purgers. Over the next few weeks, I started investigating ways we could improve our workflow and allow Eric to create levels directly in GameMaker.

My first thought was to try to implement source control, but not knowing what I was doing almost ended in disaster. I kept at it and was eventually able to work out how to import room resource files.

Although we’d overcome the technical hurdles, Eric wasn’t used to using GameMaker as all of his previous work was mocked up in Tiled, and then (re)created by me. Naturally, Eric did not create levels as quickly as he could in Tiled, nor were they of sufficient detail to meet the current standard. This isn’t to say that my levels were perfect either, and in fact, after playing through the game over and over again, I ended up redoing my first level and making significant cuts to other levels I felt were too bloated.

“…[sometimes], You must kill your darlings.” – William Faulkner

I came to the grim realization that Eric and I had fundamental disagreements that wouldn’t get resolved in this project. Eric had lots of ideas, but the concept of testing them and killing off the ones that didn’t make the cut was abhorrent to him. He placed a lot of value on his individual ideas as well as his ability to generate them. Still, he did not understand that the idea itself represented a tiny fraction of the overall effort required to execute it. Our imaginations are limitless; my time and abilities are finite. Sometimes, you must kill your darlings!

The only way forward was to create the remaining levels myself, along with the endings, menu system, and artwork, which I spent the next few weeks working on. By the middle of February ’24, I was done!

I took a few days to recover, then went back again to finalize it for release.

Publishing Purgatory

I originally intended to publish on GameJolt and Itch.io and advertise in the official GameMaker forums.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t edit the content on my GameJolt Developer page without encountering an “ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS” browser error. The platform is covered in ads, which suggests it’s either dead (or dying), so I decided to abandon it and move on to Itch.io.

Itch.io turned out to be a good choice. It is simple, easy to use, and straightforward. I captured a few screenshots and then spent about an hour creating a YouTube video to promote it. I spent a couple of days creating an old-school-style instruction manual and packaged it with the game.

Posts in the “Made with GameMaker” thread on the official forums require moderator approval. What confused me was that my post was initially visible to me and then disappeared later, leading me to believe it had been deleted. Thankfully, after reaching out to the moderators, I was assured that hadn’t happened, and a short while later, my post went live.

Reception and Payout

The only people who played and/or bought the game were a handful of personal friends, acquaintances, and a couple of kind folks from the Official GMS Forums. Jason D., John J., and others pointed out bugs and potential exploits, and I fixed what I could.

Overall, I spent about 480 hours on this project over 8 months. The proceeds were around ~4.2¢/hour (gross, 3¢/hour net).

Lessons Learned

Communication was a constant problem for Eric and me. Because we had different schedules, we could only speak in real time once per week. Between our weekly calls, I’d try to share my thoughts on progress with Eric through Discord messages. My DMs to him were too verbose, and his responses were too succinct.

It was difficult to discuss complex design topics this way. Often, a conversation would begin with, “Would it be possible to do [insert_feature_here]?”

I read somewhere about ‘Mu,’ the third answer to a Yes or No question, and it can be interpreted as “Your question cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect assumptions.”

A lot of what Eric was asking about sounded simple and straightforward, but it usually lacked sufficient elaboration to explain exactly how it would fit into the game. When I asked Eric if the juice was worth the squeeze, I was trying to convey to him whether he wanted me to pause work on implementing core game features for the one-off feature he was asking about.

From my perspective, Eric’s question was lazy and uninformed, and from Eric’s perspective, I was dismissive and impersonal. While we eventually talked it out, it took a lot of heated arguments to get to that point.

For me, Purgatory Purgers was never intended to be my magnum opus; instead, it was one more step towards learning how to be a game developer. Eric had more faith in the project than I did, but as far as I can see, that faith was more wishful thinking than anything else. Would I be upset if Purgatory Purgers was a runaway success? Absolutely not, but I also understand that some games, charming though they are, don’t have mass appeal and never will.

I guess the biggest takeaway is that my next game ought to be more memeable :).

Purgatory Purgers: Level Design

What Should a Level Look Like?

In my last post, I solved a major collaboration issue by figuring out how to export/import individual rooms in GameMaker Studio 2.

Since then, Eric and I have been creating levels to round out the game, and with a little over an hour’s worth of content, I’ve been looking at some of the larger levels to see which parts I can cull so that the game doesn’t get dull/outstay it’s welcome.

Level design is difficult to do well. Purgatory Purgers’ level elements can be broken down into a few different components:

Features

At its heart, Purgatory Purgers is a puzzle-exploration game. Each level is a series of interconnected rooms of varying shapes and sizes and could include:

Gambits: Rooms with one or more dangerous enemies
Treasure Rooms: Filled with lost souls (the primary objective of the game/scoring system) and free lives
Puzzles: Moveable blocks, bridges, etc.
Secrets: Hidden rooms and passages marked by a small crack in the floor or an odd-looking bush.

These aren’t mutually exclusive and could be combined to form interesting and progressively more challenging areas.

Flow

A good level shouldn’t railroad the player down a specific route; instead, there should be 2-3 branching paths and reward players for exploration with additional lives and/or hidden shortcuts through the level.

Embellishments

To bring the Purgatory Purgers levels to life, I created lots of additional tiles to add flavor and mystery to each set of levels. Locked doors, sewer grates, pools of water, grass, grates, blood spatters, arcane symbols, and even emptiness in the later levels.

Putting It All Together

A good level combines all of the above to form a cohesive package; the level is:

Good looking (i.e., makes good use of the available tileset and avoids excessive repetition)
Intuitive to navigate (it doesn’t require a lot of backtracking)
Sufficiently diverse in enemies, puzzles, and mechanics
Above all, fun to play (read: sufficiently challenging, but not too difficult)