Capacity is only 25 KB, RPG "PebbleQuest" that can be played on the wristwatch "Pebble"

Apple Watch that appeared in 2015 and Android Wear released in 2014Smart WatchHas attracted a lot of attention, but in 2013 it is ahead of the two, CrowdfundingKickstarterSmart watch collecting funds with "Pebble"Has appeared, it is attracting popularity that can be said to be enthusiastic. There is a person who developed a role playing game (RPG) that can be played on the screen for such Pebble, but the game capacity seems to be included in only 25 KB just how much.

Gamasutra: David C Drake's Blog - PebbleQuest: 25 kB of Awesome
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DavidCDrake/20150330/239932/PebbleQuest_25kB_of_Awesome.php

Pebble can be used for around a week without charges by installing E-ink which consumes less power on the screen, and it can be said that it is a so-called hidden favorite of a smartphone, so to speak, it corresponds to both iOS and Android. In March 2015, it will be the next model'Pebble Time' carries out a campaign with KickstarterWe are collecting the top investment amount in Kickstarter history of 20 million dollars (about 2.4 billion yen).

Pebble Smartwatch | Smartwatch for iPhone & amp; Android


In PebbleSDK(Software development kit), so anyone can freely create applications. Using this, the game designerDavid C. DrakeHe said he decided to develop "RPG" PeebleQuest "which can be played on Pebble.


For about fifteen months, Drake has found time and has been developing game development. To Drake in the initial stageC languageKnowledge is only a little, and with the Pebble SDK mentioned earlierCloudPebbleIt seems that there was only a tool such as a tool called, it roughly divided into three stages, the game gradually approached the completion shape gradually.

◆ Level 1: FPV maze game "MazeCrawler"
First of all, we created the following "MazeCrawlerGame called. In the game of finding the exit while moving forward in the 3D reproduced maze, DrakeFPV maze game(First-person, maze-navigation).

PebbleCrawler is a game aiming at the goal by wandering through a simple 3D maze using the button on the right side of the Pebble body, and the development period is about two months. MezeCrawlerPebble App StoreIt is possible to install to Pebble from.

◆ Level 2: FPV shooting game "SpaceMerc"
Drake who completed PebbleCrawler will try to complete PebbleQuest in a stretch, but it is the wall of the memory capacity installed in Pebble here. If the data capacity of the game becomes larger than a certain amount, even if the installation itself is completed without problems, it will face crash when executed. In order to solve this problem, it was essential to rebuild the game itself fundamentally, and the development stalled.

Here, Drake set aside PebbleQuest aside and started to develop another simple game. That is, this "SpaceMercIn a game called so-called "first person shooter (FPS)" game, it was the first FPV shooting game in Pebble.

Drake wants this gamePebble App StoreWhile releasing at,2014 Pebble App ChallengeIt seems that he made an entry in time for the deadline of the deadline.

◆ Level 3: "PebbleQuest"
After the release of SpaceMerc, it was Drake who could not take the time to develop the game, but in September 2014 it finally resumed the development of the RPG game "PebbleQuest" which was the original purpose. We have succeeded in solving the problem of game capacity which was a problem by fundamentally reviewing the design of the game and finding some workarounds. We repeated the work of development, testing, and modification a number of times, and completed the morning of the day of "Christmas 2014" which was the deadline we had imposed on ourselves.

In PebbleQuest, when a battle occurs, a real-time system is adopted instead of a turn-based system in which players and enemy characters alternate attack and defense alternately. Attack can use direct weapon attack and magic attack. In order to solve the difficulty of operability, the player can take action four times per second, while the degree of difficulty is optimized so that the enemy character can not attack once per second Thing.


Round monsters and others floating in the following appear in the game. It seems that Pebble's layer display function is used to reproduce the damage caused by the attack.


Players can grow their characters in three different categories, "Agility", "Strength", "Intellect", "Warrior" if you choose Tsuyoshi, "Thief "Witch" is a "wizard", each occupation that is indispensable in fantasy RPG is also established.


In addition, the character has the following status, and it shows the individual status by showing different status growth for each occupation.
·Offensive power(Physical Power)
· Magical power(Magical Power)
· Attack Defense(Physical Defense)
· Magic defense power(Magical Defense)
· Maximum HP(Max. Health)
· Maximum energy(Max. Energy)
· HP resilience(Health Regeneration Rate)
· Energy resilience(Energy Regeneration Rate)
·fatigue(Fatigue Rate: Reduction rate of energy when attacking)

◆ Game development with Pebble
In the game world, Drake, who developed the game in a restricted environment called "Smart Watch" which is not very common, got the background and know-howblogIt is open to the public. The following programming advice and know-how are listed in the blog, and it was supposed to be a reference for those who are interested.

· Do not try to create the functions already included in the Pebble SDK unless you need it for design reasons. For example, avoid using the original font, use genuine fonts, use the genuine MenuLayer on the menu screen, etc.
· To the extent possible, use only integers without treating floating point. Use [int8_t] and [int16_t] instead of [int32_t] and general [int32] for data types. Also, when using constants remember that multipliers of 2 such as 1/2/4/8/16/32 are suitable. For example, [rand ()% 10] consumes a bit more memory than [rand ()% 8]. Specifically, 8 bytes.
· Avoid using [typedef]. Nevertheless, it is true that [struct] definition is useful for some tasks, but refrain from as much as possible. How to reduce the capacity of [struct]This page(English) will be helpful.