pubble - open source puzzle bobble clone on PS3

[ralferoo]

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd publicize Pubble, my open-source PS3 game, as I've now made it available for alpha release. It's very close to being completed finished, I mostly want to add a tutorial mode and make the main menu less confusing, but I'm going to be busy for a few weeks so I thought I'd let people see the current state of play and get some feedback for things to improve.

The website is http://pubble.ranulf.net/ and download instructions are available from the download page. Probably the express instructions are easier to follow, but I added more verbose instructions for anyone who's not feeling confident. The mass of text might be off-putting though, so again feedback is appreciated.

The game is written using my python-ps3 library which adds fast blitting, audio mixing and support for PS3 controllers to python - a language that's easy to learn and yet also very powerful. The library is now at a stage where it has a bootloader and so games can be released that don't require Linux or partitioning the hard disk as all the files live on a USB stick. All that's required is installing the otheros.bld onto the PS3 and that then searches all attached USB drives for the necessary files.

At some point soon when I have some free time, I'll be adding internet play so that you and your friends can compete against other players. However, I'm snowed under with other things at the moment, so this is won't be ready until around Christmas time.

Cheers,
Ralf.

[PS3 News]

I've said this before, but will again... post stuff like this in our Site News so that more people see it, then it will copy automatically here after your submission goes live.

Now I'm going to have to post it in the news and we're going to have dupe posts here.

[boogernose]

Sounds pretty cool, Ralf. Thanks for sharing!

[backard]

Got this up and running easy. Is it my understanding that this can be used to load more games ? If they are programed through python-ps3 ?? If so that`s great for non linux users like me?

[aries2k6]

This sounds great. I was thinking it only worked through Linux. I´ll definately be trying it out as soon as I get some free time.

Thanks.

[ralferoo]

Originally Posted by backard Is it my understanding that this can be used to load more games ? If they are programed through python-ps3 ?? If so that`s great for non linux users like me?

Yeah, it's built on the python-ps3 framework I'm working on, which is meant primarily for games but can be used for pretty much anything really.

The bootloader uses compressed data files which are kind of like a zip file but are arranged more efficiently for random-access use. This uses a Linux library called squashfs, but as it's GPL there's no real reason the mksquashfs couldn't be ported to Windows.

This filesystem for each application can actually be used to contain any Linux program, not just python programs, but as the python-ps3 system (in rootfs.sqf) already contains a python system, the file for an application needs only contain the code for the application (source code or compiled) and data for images and sound. For instance, the clock demo is about 200 lines long and only takes up 16k on the memory stick.

Additional games can just be packaged into a single .SQF file and dropped onto the memory stick and they'll automatically be detected. The python-ps3 libraries are similarly upgradeable simply by putting the new version of rootfs.sqf onto the USB drive.

My next step is to make the development environment accessable as an application, accessing files on another machine using NFS. This means that any computer with an NFS server will be able to be used for development (even Windows). Currently, I have a full Linux system running on my development PS3 doing exactly this, just not packaged up as an application.

Obviously, I'll continue to make announcements as this progresses, although I'm crazily busy until just before Christmas which is why I released the alpha version now instead of sitting on it for another 2 months. It'd already been pretty thoroughly tested in its current form, just not quite with all the features I wanted in it!

[ralferoo]

As an example, I just quickly packaged up some of my very first PS3 demos written in C++, not python. They're available at https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=194956&package_id=250951 and you can just drop them onto your USB drive and they'll automatically appear on the bootloader menu.