"Morshu the MMMMMM" new BennuGD-Wii game!

Reader Beredezebe writes to let us know that a new BennuGD-Wii game created by user blabla has been released. It's called "Morshu the MMMMMM" which features pretty cool graphics and is available in French and in English.

Read all the news and info about the game in the original NintendoMax thread [FR].


Meanwhile, you can see a video of the game below:

Get the game from here.

Hope you like it, and thanks to Beredezebe!


[Updated to cite blabla as the author of the game, beredezebe is the author of the port]

A game made with BennuGD wins the NintendoMax contest!

Beredezebe writes to let me know that the results for the Nintendomax Wii Dev Competition 2011 are now out, and know what? La Momia que Fuma's "Mr. Sitwell in Turbo WC Magical Adventure" is the winner!

The judges say:

Cid2mizard: J'adore l'ambiance déjanté du jeu, c'est un shoot them up original. Les effets visuels sont super, la maniabilité est très bonne. Un jeu comme on voudrait en voir plus souvent. Je ne serais pas surpris de le voir à la première place!

beredezebe: Ça, c'est ce que j'appelle un jeu ! Pour commencer, on a affaire à un humour très fin (un type sur des toilettes volantes qui doit cracher des trucs sur un Sumo aérien), les graphismes sont excellents, la durée de vie est très bonne et la difficulté est au rendez-vous ! Je n'ai vraiment rien à redire, mis à part la voix de Mr. Sitwell (au bout d'une demi-heure, c'est un supplice) et une difficulté un peu trop grande dès le départ (on doit pouvoir s'adapter avec le temps). Mon coup de cœur pour cette année.

ConsoDreams: Un jeu bien réalisé, graphiquement c'est pas mal. Dans les bons titres.

Which -roughly, my French is not what it used to be- translates to:

Cid2mizard: I love the crazy ambiance of the game, it's an original shoot'em up. The GFX are great and the playability is very good. A game like we'd like to see more often. I wouldn't be surprised to see it in the first place!

beredezebe:That's what I call a game! To start, we're dealing with a very fine sense of humour (a guy on a toilet who must shoot a flying Sumo), the graphics are excellent, the life    endurance is very good and the difficulty is fine! I really don't have any complaints except for Mr Sitwell's voice (after half an hour, it's a punishment) and the difficulty might be a bit to high at the start (it should adapt better during playtime). My favourite for this year.

ConsoDreams: A very well-done game, graphics aren't bad at all. It's amongst the good titles.

So there you have it. The jury's also noted the high quality of the entries, which makes Momia's victory even more valuable :)

Download the latest update of the game from here.

The other BennuGD-created game I know of -Pong Breaker- has rated seventh in the contest.

Have a lot of fun!

How to use mod_wpad when compiling your code in other platforms

Following the entry on how to compile directly from the Wii's Homebrew Channel, I'd like to comment on a little "trick" that'll allow you to compile code that uses mod_wpad both on your computer and in your Wii.
The idea is to use preprocessor macros to "hide" the code when compiling in platforms other than the Wii.
Following with the meta.xml from that example, the new one would be as follows:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<app version="1">
    <name>Compile Fancy Game</name>
    <coder>Your name</coder>
    <version>Version number</version>
    <release_date>Release date</release_date>
    <short_description>A short description.</short_description>
    <long_description>A longer description for the entry that'll compile your code.</long_description>
<arguments>
             <arg>boot.prg</arg>
             <arg>-o</arg>
             <arg>/apps/fancy_game/boot.dcb</arg>
             <arg>-D</arg>
             <arg>TARGET_WII</arg>
     </arguments>
</app>

That code would be pretty much like compiling your code in the PC like this:


bgdc boot.prg -o /apps/fancy_game/boot.dcb -D TARGET_WII

And in the code, where you do the mod_wpad import, you'd change it to:

#ifdef TARGET_WII
import "mod_wpad"
#endif

And, a little bit below that:

#ifndef TARGET_WII
#define wpad_is_ready(a) 0
#define wpad_info(a, b) 0
#define wpad_info_nunchuk(a,b) 0
#define wpad_info_classic(a,b) 0
#define wpad_info_guitar(a,b) 0
#define wpad_info_bb(a,b) 0
#define wpad_rumble(a,b) 0
#endif

The first block will only import mod_wpad in case the compiler defines the TARGET_WII macro, and that'll only happen in the Wii, if you adapted the code above.
The second block will void the wpad_* functions. For your program's logic, it'd be as if no Wiimote was connected.

Hope this helps you with the Nintendomax Wii Dev Competition 2011, where you can win a Nintendo 3DS console, and much more".

Happy coding!

Compiling your code directly from the Homebrew Channel

The recommended method for compiling BennuGD games in your Wii is by using wiiload to both upload your code and to execute commands there.
If your Wii is not connected to your Wifi network (or you don't have one) things get a bit more complicated and previously I created a method for compiling that was a bit complicated. Today I'm going to show you a simpler one.

First of all, make sure that your Homebrew Channel is updated as this method requires one of the latest versions available.

Then, we'll create two entries in your Homebrew Channel: one for the game itself and another one for compiling.
The first one is created just normally, and the boot.elf file that you must put there is the normalbgdi.elf file, as found in the latest available BennuGD release and you'd just copy all the game's resources there, as usual. The meta.xml file for that entry would be something like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<app version="1">
    <name>Fancy Game Runtime</name>
    <coder>Your name</coder>
    <version>Version number</version>
    <release_date>Release date</release_date>
    <short_description>A short description.</short_description>
    <long_description>A longer, more detailed description of your game.</long_description>
</app>

Now, in the other entry (just another directory in the "APPS" folder of your SD card) you'd place your game's source code. The boot.elf file corresponding to that entry would be bgdc.elf from the release and the meta.xml file would go as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<app version="1">
    <name>Compile Fancy Game</name>
    <coder>Your name</coder>
    <version>Version number</version>
    <release_date>Release date</release_date>
    <short_description>A short description.</short_description>
    <long_description>A longer description for the entry that'll compile your code.</long_description>
<arguments>
             <arg>boot.prg</arg>
             <arg>-o</arg>
             <arg>/apps/fancy_game/boot.dcb</arg>
     </arguments>
</app>


Where, obviously, "/apps/fancy_game" corresponds to the location in your SD card for your game's runtime (the first entry in this example). Also, "boot.prg" is the name of your main source code file.

If everything went fine, you can now insert your SD card in your Wii and you should now see two entries: one called "Fancy Game Runtime" and another one called "Compile Fancy Game". When you click on the compilation entry, your code will be compiled and the DCB file will be generated -assuming BennuGD liked your code- in the runtime entry, which you can click right away to test your code.

This process won't save your from having to grab the SD card from your console, copying the new files and putting it back in your Wii, but I'm sure it'll somehow make testing easier for you.

Hope you liked it!

PS: Remember you can win a Nintendo 3DS console just for coding by entering the Nintendomax Wii Dev Competition 2011! Good luck to everyone!

Nintendomax Wii Dev Competition 2011

The guys at Nintendomax (most of the gameplay videos I post come from their site) have organised a new Wii Homebrew development contest and it's certainly looking interesting!

You can use any programming language you want to for the game, so why not use the best one around?. You might want to use the newly released rc1 version that include mod_chipmunk physics to create stunning games very easily. It feels great and has helped bring very cool games to the Wii ;)

Prizes:
They're giving out two Nintendo 3DS consoles, accessories, 150€ in cash and more. See the link below for details.

Rules:
Here are some of the rules for the competition, but be sure to read the whole thread linked below for more info.

- Everyone can participate, regardless of the country.

- All games or applications must be totally new for the Wii. This implies that no projects have been submitted shall be posted on another site before the competition closed, the projects involved in the Homebrew Bounty taking place at the same time are accepted.

- The project progress can be posted during the contest period (WIP, Previews, videos, etc.).

- A Splashscreen will be posted april 11, 2011 after a competition for designers organized by us.

- The splashscreen will be the first image to appear in the project and will be posted at least 5 seconds. Transitions and all types of effects are allowed.

- Participants may submit 1 or more projects.

- Ranking of the contest will be defined by a jury. No public vote is held.

- The classification criteria are multiple (originality, graphics, life, gameplay, personal notes, stability / bug, etc ...), a report will be posted after the vote.

- Competition results will be posted June 30, 2011.

- The Loader or applications that enable piracy of games is prohibited.

Read all about the contest here [en] or here [fr].

Hope to see your entries soon!

Pixdash

The guys from Pixjuegos have released a BennuGD tech demo for a platform game. It's still in a very early phase of development and I really hope that the graphics are not final but most of the gameplay is there and working well.

The interesting part is that all their code is open source and can be retrieved from their project page, so you can use it as an starting point to create your own platform games or as an entry point for BennuGD programming.

In case you want to have a look, a Cid2Mizard from Nintendomax has been kind enough to upload a video of the gameplay and upload it to Youtube:

Thanks, Pixjuegos! But you know that's not the game I'm expecting from you ;)