Omnimaga
Omnimaga => News => Topic started by: Hot_Dog on January 09, 2013, 12:49:02 pm
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Here it is! A pre-release version of Slova! Play this fun game to help you learn a new language. Collect English words and their translations to score points, advance to the next level and keep vocabulary words fresh in your mind!
Included are 2 language packs, game instructions and instructions for creating your own language packs.
Download link: http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15532.0;attach=14476
EDIT: If you make any language packs during this time, post them here and I'll include them with the final game!
Special thanks to:
ChickenDude -- Tilemap routine
Iambian -- Pucrunch decompressor
Jacobly -- .8xp to .8xv converter
(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15532.0;attach=14470) (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15532.0;attach=14471)
(http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15532.0;attach=14472) (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15532.0;attach=14473)
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Yay, nice work. And wonderful how you can create your own language packs, that'll definitely be more useful than to compile a different app for every language.
So, here's my try on a dutch language packs, as far as i've tested it it works.
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Yay, nice work. And wonderful how you can create your own language packs, that'll definitely be more useful than to compile a different app for every language.
So, here's my try on a dutch language packs, as far as i've tested it it works.
Well it was your suggestion! It took a lot of work, but I agree with you, and it was worth the effort.
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Looks fantastic!
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This reminds me of an old DOS game called Word Rescue:
btw, the youtube tags don't like https links...
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This reminds me of an old DOS game called Word Rescue:
btw, the youtube tags don't like https links...
Oh, did I mention that this a "sequel" to Word Rescue? :D I had so much fun playing that game when I was younger
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I like the concept :)
Years ago, as a summer intern in a research lab, I worked on some TI-68k/AMS code for helping high-schoolers learn foreign languages. I made a library for manipulating tuples consisting of (word, translated word, expression using word, expression using translated word), and a computer-side program for generating files... but besides the event-driven program for viewing and editing such tuples, I never had time to make other clients to the library (especially games: hangman, etc.).
The free SVN repository hosting provider I used at the time disappeared years ago, but I have a full dump of the repository.
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So how are you all doing? Have you found any levels too hard? Too boring? Too fun?
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Hmm, can someone make the 8xp28xv a valid win32 app? I cant use it otherwise
(or if someone made a japanese font)
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Hmm, can someone make the 8xp28xv a valid win32 app? I cant use it otherwise
(or if someone made a japanese font)
Here you go :)
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I'm assuming that testing is going well and that there are no bugs. If you plan on including a language with Slova, now is the time to tell me. Otherwise the game will be released in a week or after annoyingcalc's japanese font is done, whichever comes later.
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I made a Swedish version. I didn't test it in gameplay much (since I'm a bit bad at this game :P), but I think it should work fine. Is it a problem if I used spaces in the English or Swedish words?
EDIT: I decided to get rid of the spaces in Swedish words since they weren't especially necessary (the only one that actually needs it is "hej då", but spelling it without a space should also work). The updated version also contains a minor font edit (upper two pixels of regular size Ä and Ö) to match the TI-OS font, and a new set was added for weekdays.
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I made a Swedish version. I didn't test it in gameplay much (since I'm a bit bad at this game :P), but I think it should work fine. Is it a problem if I used spaces in the English or Swedish words?
EDIT: I decided to get rid of the spaces in Swedish words since they weren't especially necessary (the only one that actually needs it is "hej då", but spelling it without a space should also work). The updated version also contains a minor font edit (upper two pixels of regular size Ä and Ö) to match the TI-OS font, and a new set was added for weekdays.
The only problem with spaces is possibly the in-game font. Usually underscores would be better, but I might have forgotten to include that in the manual.
Thanks for the font! I'll test it myself as well. About the game's difficulty, do you think I need to tone it down?
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About the game's difficulty, do you think I need to tone it down?
No, I think it mostly was because I tried to get into the game quickly to test without really reading the instructions. I'd just bump into words at random, and eventually the stage was filled with gruzzles. It got easier once I did took some time to read it and figured out the basics.
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I caught a small error in my language pack: "kort" had been translated to "short" when it should have been "card". (Both translations are correct, but "short" makes less sense in context and I had already used it once.) I also replaced the spaces in English words with underscores, so both languages should now be free from spaces. Updated version attached.
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So i somehow missed this before! Just loaded this to my 83+ and it's really cool, you get lots of exposure with the words. Here are some of my thoughts:
- When beating a level or losing, you've got a _GetKey call (and turning the calc off will crash ;)) which is just kinda weird since everywhere else you can use 2nd to advance.
- The keys on the main menu aren't exactly intuitive, i tried using the arrow keys to change level packs and 2nd to pick a level. Not really an issue though :)
- Watch out for those nukes! It's a little hard to tell exactly how far away you need to be to nuke one of the Gruzzles. Most of my deaths were self-induced :P
- It's a little frustrating having to start from scratch whenever you die, especially if you've nuked yourself or stepped on water or something silly like that. What about having a number of chances to get through a level (say 3) where you can die twice without losing your progress, if you die a third time you have to start that level over from scratch?
I forgot what else i wanted to say! Overall i think it's really cool, i wasn't sure how i was going to feel about the lack of physics but it's actually kinda cool being able to fly around. The controls are really quick and responsive. Sometimes the worlds feel really huge, though i don't know if that's good or bad :P I like how all the words in the foreign language reappear even if you've already collected that word, you get lots of exposure to the words. Right now i think the biggest thing is just the feeling you get when you die and have to collect all the words over again. At first i died quite a bit but quickly figured things out, i still nuke myself quite a bit and having to start over when you've already collected 4 or 5 words just kinda sucks ;)
Anyway, very cool and i'll try to put together some Spanish packs and if i can figure out how to fit some Chinese characters into 16x16 sprites maybe we can have a little Chinese pack (though i think a Chinese pack would be better with characters and pinyin, rather than English translations).
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I agree with all of those. (except I like the big worlds) I especially agree with the death one since the levels get really hard once you reach the volcanoes. I'll see what I can do.
As a rule of thumb, you're too close if the enemy is 16 pixels \ one tile away.
EDIT: I'll just take the deaths as shields. A water death or nuke death will take a way a shield. Did you find yourself running into grizzles quite frequently? If so I'll do 6 shields instead of the usual 4 to take into account water and suicides
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The grizzles weren't usually what killed me, though it did happen, especially in the beginning. I honestly think 4 (or 5) shields is a good number. For the nukes, it would be nice to have a second animation (two more 16x16 bomb clouds) on either side of the grizzle just to give you an idea. Having deaths take away shields is another option, and like you said 6 shields might be better in that case. I'm currently working my way back from the start after turning the calc off during a _GetKey mid-program to see what happened :P