Author Topic: Why I haven't been working on Elimination  (Read 6573 times)

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Offline Hot_Dog

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Why I haven't been working on Elimination
« on: April 17, 2012, 12:07:41 pm »
I know that several people have been looking forward to my FPS Elimination.  Many people have been wondering why there has been zero progress.  I apologize to those anticipating the game, and I hope that my current project, Infiltration, will provide at least some compensation.  But I am happy to explain what has happened.

1. I cannot for the life of me find out why the game doesn't work on some Ti-84+ calculators.  I would hate to keep this game going only to find out that many people can't play it.

2. There is very little I can do with Elimination away from the computer.  I can't visualize levels without drawing them on the computer, and most code requires skimming the old code, which must be in front of my eyes.  Testing levels also requires time.  With my trip to Russia coming up, my computer time is more limited.

With a game like Infiltration, I can think of levels and code away from the computer.  Then I spend 7 hours a week on the level, bam, it's done.

3. I'm at a dilemma.  Do I continue to game in its current state?  Many people can't enjoy the game with the blocky fullscreen graphics, but researching raycasting and rewriting the engine is something I cannot do.  Yet only 50-60% of people would enjoy the game in its current state, because the graphics make it hard to enjoy.  In Infiltration, like in S.A.D., the graphics are great, so it's gameplay, not graphics, that makes the games enjoyable or not.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Why I haven't been working on Elimination
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2012, 01:34:03 pm »
Strange, for me it appeared to work fine. Could it be some hardware differences? I remember some LCD tricks didn't work on older 84+ or vice-versa and older Mirage games were screwy.

Given that someone who edited TI-Story's Omnimaga notable release section adding a screenshot of your game, however, I think that tells that a bunch of people might want the game in its current state. An idea I have otherwise would be to maybe team up with another member?

In any case take your time, though. Hopefully you can finish Infiltration before the trip then once the trip is done next year or so, you can start Elimination again.

Offline shmibs

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Re: Why I haven't been working on Elimination
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2012, 01:40:38 pm »
/\this sounds like good advice to me as well.

what is the graphical problem, exactly?
* shmibs is curious

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Why I haven't been working on Elimination
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2012, 01:45:05 pm »
The issue is how not every pixel are 1x1. Some are 2x2, others 1x2 and others 2x1, like when you stretch an image in paint to a size that is not a multiple of the original or something. This makes the graphics looks a bit weird at times, and some people didn't like them.

Offline Hot_Dog

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Re: Why I haven't been working on Elimination
« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2012, 02:29:40 pm »
Strange, for me it appeared to work fine. Could it be some hardware differences? I remember some LCD tricks didn't work on older 84+ or vice-versa and older Mirage games were screwy.

Given that someone who edited TI-Story's Omnimaga notable release section adding a screenshot of your game, however, I think that tells that a bunch of people might want the game in its current state. An idea I have otherwise would be to maybe team up with another member?

In any case take your time, though. Hopefully you can finish Infiltration before the trip then once the trip is done next year or so, you can start Elimination again.

Those are wonderful ideas, DJ, and the 3rd reason isn't a huge one.  It's really been the first 2 problems that made things hard for me--hardware and time away from the computer.  So like you said, maybe after Russia I can start up again. 

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Why I haven't been working on Elimination
« Reply #5 on: April 17, 2012, 03:13:49 pm »
Have you asked in the ASM help section by the way? Maybe some people, especially Thepenguin77 (assuming he's still around) could help on the hardware issues (and maybe we just discovered another TI hardware change like with TI-Boy SE? O.O) and if you posted the raycasting source maybe some people could help you make it at higher resolution?