That wouldnt work for multiple reasons,

A. The thumby doesnt have a part of the micro USB that most devices have so it wouldnt be able to read it, and if it did, the drivers wouldnt fit on the thumby. What you could do is use a device such as a raspberry pi as a mediator that reads the controller data, then sends that data via serial to a connected thumby, but it wouldnt be easy to set up nor efficient.

Ive been working on Thumby Smash a few weeks now, and am really proud of my progress. Version 6 is in the works. Versions 2-4 were all bug fixes,and Version 5 was configuration options.  Ive sketched out character ideas for 3 new characters. Which character would you like to see added to the game in version 6? I plan to add all of these at some point, but this will help me set my priorities.

• Victus

Close-Range Melee with high damage, high range melee attack with low damage.

• Tempestas

midranged attack, can summon lightning from the top of the map, but with a high cooldown

• Ovum

Low HP, but powerful ranged attack that launches birds


[/list]

Hello! I'm happy to see a new version of Thumby Smash! I really dig a variety of new options available! I have a couple more bugs to report though:
* When scrolling main menu or options menu, I've noticed that cursor is able to go offscreen (up or down) and scroll to infinity.
* When You win\lose a fight there is no way to get back to the menu other than restart the system (emulator). I suggest adding "rematch" and "back to menu" options or just bring up character selection screen right after "you won\you lose" screen.
* "Damage when out of bounds" mode seems to work wrong for me. Character doesn't take any damage offscreen apart from enemy attacks. Also, I feel like "out of bounds" area should be limited (currently it is unlimited)

thanks for your help. i can fix most of these easily, but im unsure why the damage effect isnt working but plan on looking into it.

i created a TicTacToe game. Was my first programming with Phyton. You can find it here https://github.com/danielhuesken/Thumby/blob/main/Games/TicTacToe/TicTacToe.py

Feedback is welcome ;)

Hello, I was looking through your code. Although I haven't had the chance to test it yet. I think that due to the Thumbys very limited storage, these lines become very redundant:

          if (postion == 0):
                if not playField[6]:
                    postion = 6
                elif not playField[3]:
                    postion = 3
         elif (postion == 6):
                if not playField[3]:
                    postion = 3
                elif not playField[0]:
                    postion = 0
        elif (postion == 3):
                if not playField[0]:
                    postion = 0
                elif not playField[6]:
                    postion = 6
        elif (postion == 1):
                if not playField[7]:
                    postion = 7
                elif not playField[4]:
                    postion = 4
.       elif (postion == 7):
                if not playField[4]:
                    postion = 4
                elif not playField[1]:
                    postion = 1
        elif (postion == 4):
                if not playField[1]:
                    postion = 1
                elif not playField[7]:
                    postion = 7
        elif (postion == 2):
                if not playField[8]:
                    postion = 8
                elif not playField[5]:
                    postion = 5
       elif (postion == 8):
                if not playField[5]:
                    postion = 5
                elif not playField[2]:
                    postion = 2
      elif (postion == 5):
                if not playField[2]:
                    postion = 2
                elif not playField[8]:
                    postion = 8
        if (thumby.buttonD.justPressed() == True):
            if (postion == 0):
                if not playField[3]:
                    postion = 3
                elif not playField[6]:
                    postion = 6
            elif (postion == 3):
                if not playField[6]:
                    postion = 6
                elif not playField[0]:
                    postion = 0
            elif (postion == 6):
                if not playField[0]:
                    postion = 0
                elif not playField[3]:
                    postion = 3
            elif (postion == 1):
                if not playField[4]:
                    postion = 4
                elif not playField[7]:
                    postion = 7
            elif (postion == 4):
                if not playField[7]:
                    postion = 7
                elif not playField[1]:
                    postion = 1
            elif (postion == 7):
                if not playField[1]:
                    postion = 1
                elif not playField[4]:
                    postion = 4
            elif (postion == 2):
                if not playField[5]:
                    postion = 5
                elif not playField[8]:
                    postion = 8
            elif (postion == 5):
                if not playField[8]:
                    postion = 8
                elif not playField[2]:
                    postion = 2
            elif (postion == 8):
                if not playField[2]:
                    postion = 2
                elif not playField[5]:
                    postion = 5

I'd suggest something like:
if thumby.buttonD.justPressed()  or thumby.buttonU.justPressed():
for i in range(8):
        if postion == i:
           if i - 3 > 0 or  i+3 > 8:
                i -= 3
           elif i + 3 < 8 or i - 3 < 0:
                i += 3
           if not playField[ i ]:
                postion = i


       
Note I'm on a cell phone so I haven't compiled this yet, but it or something similar should work.       
Also I'd fix some of the misspellings as they make the code hard to read.
         

Thumby smash is a 2d fighting game for the Thumby Console. This a very large update, here is a summary of what it does:

• Configuration Menu with options for:


• Wall Interaction. Choose between Block Movement, Warp, and Damage when out of bounds
• Game Speed
• AI Stupidity
• Disable/Enable AI Button Pressed, Perfect for training modes and other testing purposes
• Added A Countdown Screen for the start of a battle

Bugfixes:

• Zap is Now Transparent
• Fixed Knockback Decreasing with damage rather than increasing

[li]
[/li][/list]

Known Bugs:

• Goggles is supposed to have a new ranged attack, the projectile does not move properly.
• Since the Thumby does not yet have a way to resize text, some config menu option titles go off the screen
• Since the Thumby emulator cannot save other files,  but a physical thumby can, I am unable to make the config menu options save to the device on power off until i get a physical thumby to test it on.
  There is a workaround for this though. [Edit lines 550-560 and line 697 to the desired values to make them permanent
  
  • Some Collisions arent perfect, i plan to fix this in the next update
  
  Intersted: Watch this Video:
  https://youtu.be/dDFouRt-56k
  Download Code is Attached

Hey, thanks for reading my suggestions and Your comments! I'm not a programmer myself and I never thought how knockback worked. This is quite more complex and interesting than I thought, thanks for explaining!
Besides, I just wanted to elaborate on collision detection a little bit. What I meant was when one character can't walk through another one, instead he is pushing him. In my opinion this will make fights feel much better.
I'm really hyped for the next version now =)

Thanks for your support, ill try to release the next version soon, but it has a new configuration menu which is very tedious to code, so it may be a few more days before i can complete all of your suggestions.

I was bored and decided to do most of it today. Ill make a new thread for Version 5.

Hey, thanks for reading my suggestions and Your comments! I'm not a programmer myself and I never thought how knockback worked. This is quite more complex and interesting than I thought, thanks for explaining!
Besides, I just wanted to elaborate on collision detection a little bit. What I meant was when one character can't walk through another one, instead he is pushing him. In my opinion this will make fights feel much better.
I'm really hyped for the next version now =)

Thanks for your support, ill try to release the next version soon, but it has a new configuration menu which is very tedious to code, so it may be a few more days before i can complete all of your suggestions.

Hello! First of all, thanks for Your effort I really like the idea and awesome sprites with attitude =) I've just tried Your game out on the emulator and here's what I got to say:
Suggestions to add:
* "Get ready" timer at the beginning of the fight.
* Training mode or a small how-to-play tutorial option
* Jump animation (jumping feels very jerky and weird). Also, I'm not sure what the premise of the jump is? I couldn't find any reason to jump.
* Invincibility time (after damage is taken) and\or attack animation. You really need these in order to have a playable fighting game IMHO.
* Walls? Not sure about this one but I'm sure that You either need to add walls or fix how off-screen part of the screen works. [/li][/list]

Suggestions to change:
* Overall pace of the game. I suggest You slowing it down at least a bit because it's very hard to understand what's going on on the screen and make an adaptive decision and I suppose playing it on an actual screen would make it even harder.
* Make transparent sprites or at least smaller-resolution ones for smaller characters (playing as Apex feels great)
* Collision detection.

Suggestions to fix:
* When fighting as Zap vs Apex it feels like hit detection is sometimes off especially if you fight at the edge of the screen.
* Knockback works seemingly random\very unpredictable. This might not be a bug but to me it feels like it.

Good luck with Your project! Looking forward for a new version =)

Thank you so much, I really appreciate the feedback. Just a few thoughts on some of your suggestions.

1. As for the knockback, it's a rather complex equation designed to be similar to smash bros physics. The equation is based upon many different factors. Upon further inspection, it slightly bugged and I will fix it for the next release.. If your interested the equation is as follows:

Distance= (move knockback value - opponents weight)/ (opponents health/ 50).

It should be
Distance= (move knockback value - opponents weight) * (50/opponents health).
2. I was thinking of adding walls myself. I definitely will.
3. I'll add an option for speed in the upcoming options menu.
4. There is a bug where zaps sprite isn't transparent, it's an easy fix and I'll do it ASAP.
5. The Collision detection is currently very simple. Each character is drawn in a 16x16 grid and that is their hitbox. This isn't perfect for most characters and I will update it based on your suggestion. See below.
6. The reason you see Zap and Apex as weird hit detection is because Apex is exactly 16x16 pixels. Zap is about 8x16. Apex only current attack has a special wide range that affects all directions, rather than most characters having directional attacks, which can cause weird Collision stuff to occur.
7. All of the other things I will definitely try to add.
Once again thanks.

Hello all!

Thank you so much for your interest in chatting with us and others about Thumby!

We have been strongly entertaining the idea of having a TinyCircuits Discord Server. We think it would be beneficial to have one and are looking to start one soon - it will likely be announced via a Kickstarter update, but we are internally discussing the best way to merge/differentiate it with our existing community channels like the forum, and defining what specific role it should serve.

It's a big step to take on what could be a big responsibility for a tiny team, so we appreciate your patience as we work to bring a TinyCircuits Discord server to the public sometime soon!

Let me know if you all have any tips on how to make a good Discord server - we would love the feedback since some of us are new to Discord.

Cheers,
Réna

As a discord moderators, id definitely recommend Dyno, which is a very high quality moderation bot. Also maybe channel with downloadable games. Maybe roles for specific devices, such as a Thumby role etc...

Hello. I've been working on a 2d fighting game for the thumby and am now looking for people to test it and and provide feedback on things such as their overall experience, balancing ideas, etc..
Latest Version (4) can be found here. I will continue posting updates as i add onto it.

Hi again,

There is a new 'IMAGE' button in the bitmap builder so you can import images (limit being 72 x 40) to the builder and then export to code.

Also, the

Code Select Expand

drawSprite(...) function allows for mirror on the X & Y axes:

Code Select Expand

thumby.display.drawSprite(inspr, x, y, width, height, mirrorX, mirrorY, key)

See the new Thumby API docs: https://github.com/TinyCircuits/tinycircuits.github.io/blob/master/ThumbyAPI.md

Nice. Thank you so much. Ill incorporate these features into the next update of my game, it might actually decrease the file size as i have so many duplicate images

Ive been wondering this as well. I was also thinking maybe a subreddit.

Do you have example code? I think I was able to reproduce the issue you're describing.

I believe the "problem" is that the random number generator's seed doesn't change between runs of the emulator.

Here's my test:

Code Select Expand


import random
import time

l = [0,1,2,3]

for i in range(20):
    r = random.choice(l)
    print(f"{i}: {r}")

# Outputs:
# 0: 1
# 1: 0
# 2: 1
# 3: 3
# 4: 0
# 5: 3
# 6: 3
# 7: 3
# 8: 1
# 9: 1
# 10: 3
# 11: 3
# 12: 3
# 13: 1
# 14: 1
# 15: 2
# 16: 1
# 17: 2
# 18: 3
# 19: 1


The output is the same each time.

Relevant documentation: https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/library/random.html?highlight=random#random.seed

Some usual tricks for initializing a seed for less deterministic results is passing in the time, but because the emulator has no true Real Time Clock(RTC) or this MICROPY_PY_URANDOM_SEED_INIT_FUNC setting enabled, all the random number functions will act deterministically.

In practice, you might be fine with passing the time.ticks_ms() or time.ticks_us() as the seed (https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/library/time.html?highlight=time#time.ticks_ms):

Code Select Expand


import random
import time

random.seed(time.ticks_us()) # Relies on minor inconsistencies to differ a little each time

l = [0,1,2,3]

for i in range(20):
    r = random.choice(l)
    print(f"{i}: {r}")


It's not great and depending on how early on in the execution you're getting random numbers, it might get the same seed more often than not.

I think your probably right, ill try and edit it based on your suggestions, Heres the code for the character select screen, which should select a random opponent based on the character id.

Code Select Expand

chars = [['goggles', goggles_icon, goggles_icon_selected], ['zap', zap_icon, zap_icon_selected], ['apex', apex_icon, apex_icon_selected]]
        for i in range(len(chars)):
            thumby.display.blit(box, (16*i) + 5, 0, 16, 16, 1)
            if i != selected:
                thumby.display.blit(chars[i][1], (16*i) + 5, 0, 16, 16, 1)
            else:
                thumby.display.blit(chars[i][2], (16*i) + 5, 0, 16, 16, 1)
        if thumby.buttonR.pressed() and selected < len(chars):
            selected += 1
        elif thumby.buttonL.pressed() and selected > 0:
            selected -= 1
        elif thumby.buttonA.pressed():
            selected_char = chars[selected][0]
            enemy_char_data = random.choice(chars)
            enemy_char = enemy_char_data[0]
            while enemy_char == selected_char:
                enemy_char_data = random.choice(chars)
                enemy_char = enemy_char_data[0]
            thumby.display.fill(1)
            select_screen = False
            singleplayer_battle(selected_char, enemy_char)
        time.sleep(0.1)
        thumby.display.update()
        i = 0

So, im trying to pick a random.choice in micropython. For whatever reason, it always picks the same number based on the number i pick. For example if i pick the first option, it will always pick the third. if i pick the second, it will always pick the first. If i pick the third it will always pick the first. Ive checked my code and executed it at least 30 times with the same results. Has anyone else encouneterd this?

Sweet App.  I also wanted to thank you for pointing out the Ctrl + Shift + J, its been an absolute lifesaver after about a week of developing my own game and spending hours trying to find  single character errors.