Omnimaga
Calculator Community => Discontinued => Major Community Projects => Serenity => Topic started by: Builderboy on June 24, 2009, 12:48:08 pm
-
Its finally time to reveal some screenshot of my upcoming submission to the contest. The game will be called Serenity, the story is based on a spaceship, and that's all i will tell you! :D
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3611/3657639786_d88d6eca6a.jpg?v=0) (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3652/3657639768_9f64e62212.jpg?v=0)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2451/3656844485_bfb8fa7b37.jpg?v=0) (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3637/3656844469_723e6b9fd3.jpg?v=0)
I'm very proud of the graphics, they're like nothing i have worked with before
EDIT: I didn't upload animated screnshots, because wabbitemu doesn't like special characters, and i use a lot of those.
-
OMG!!! wow that looks amazing! is it all basic?
-
100% Basic :)
-
Those are great graphics ;D Is it dual layer ASCII or text sprites or hardcoded (or a mix)?
-
Wow awesome, do you use like Text(-1 but have all text characters (dual-layer) stuck together instead of having a space around them? It looks very futuristic-ish and Metroid-style at the same time.
-
Yeah, it uses 1 layer of full sized ASCII, and then another layer that is shifted over 1 pixel. This gives tiles that are 6 pixels wide, and connected to tiles next to it. The rows are also spaced 7 pixels apart so you get fluid graphics in all 4 directions! Plus you get even more possible tiles because the order of the 2 characters used to make a tile matters.
So loading is fast! Yay!
-
Oooh ok I see, nice idea. Btw is the game based on the actual movie Serenity?
-
Nope, i just liked the name. (And you might find some of the characters share names ;) ) but it really has little correlation.
-
hmm, I just finished playing halo, and for some reason when I look at the screenies I see halo in it.....weird....
-
yeah it reminds me a bit the 2D halo game there was. I like the futuristic look tbh
-
Yeah, i noticed that most of these types of tiles have the futuristic look, but not the kind of sleek futuristic look sometimes seen in movies. This is the first platformer I've ever worked on, and it was quite difficult to get the physics working.
It supports collision and non collision tiles, and realistic-ish gravity. When you jump right, it looks like this:
-----X-X-----
---X-----X---
-X---------X-
in a kind of parabola-esq motion.
-
yeah that's what I did in Metroid II Evolution, altough my character jumped one tile higher. It depended how you walked before jumping, though.
In Diortem, which used Omnicalc, meaning no diagonal movement support, to start jumping diagonally (causing you to spin as well) you had to walk one tile then jump right afterward. IN the xLIB version you just had to press up and left/right arrow to jump diagonally. However it didn't immediately start going down when you reached the max height, it waited one loop so it looks more like real gravity
-
Its weird with mine, because there is only 1 getkey per iteration of the loop. but you can press 2nd (jump) then right and immediately go diagonally right-up. And if you hit a ceiling, you don't stick there until your jump runs out, instead you immediately start falling, just like you had reached the top of your jump.
-
yeah in Metroid II you didnt stuck to the ceiling either. I noticed some games did that and it was a bit annoying. Metroid I (CDI) did that x.x
-
yeah, mine sticks to the ceiling, but it's an easy fix you just have it test to see if the tile above you is solid, then you kill the jump var...hmm I wonder if I should do that to mine, it could get rid of a glitch that happens when you are moving up "stairs" (blocks that are 1 right/left and 1 up from each other by holding right/left up (your jump var gets bigger then it should and you get stuck on the ceiling for a bit))
hmm, I wish I could implement a way to stay in the air for one more tile, but not moving up, like you did builderboy....but alas, I have to much happening to add another var to it...
looks good so far, can't wait to see a moving screenshot of it :)
-
K, so after a brief-ish period of inactivity, i have begun working again at full blast! I'm working hard to finish the first third of the game so that if i can't finish it all by the deadline, i can just submit a demo.
Today I worked on integrating a Boss system into the existing platform engine, and programing the first Boss, which, if i might be modest, is EPIC!
The boss is this giant machine that hangs from the ceiling and span all the way from left to right. The outer layer consists of indestructible laser blasters! They fire at you several times, and you have to keep moving to dodge the lasers. Then the machine opens up, revealing the core. If you don't hit it in time, it fires a massive beam down that sends a blast all the way across the screen, and you have to jump over it. After you hit it several times, it starts activating multiple laser blasters at once! And it fires faster and faster!
I'll try to get a screenshot up soon.
-
glad to see this under progress, keep up the good work!
-
sweet to see some progress by somebody other then myself :)
on a side note, I saw the movie Serenity recently....and the title is misspelled...switch the I and the T
-
Oh God.
Accroding to reeserach at Cambirgde Univresisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny improtant tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wihtout a prolbem. Tihs is beacuse the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a whloe.
Oh, and have you seen the TV show firefly?
-
Hmmm, anybody ever have any problems with TiConnect corrupting programs it attempts to transfer? Yay for backups on calc!
-
This is looking very cool Builderboy, I can't wait to try it out, I haven't tried out many new calc games recently and this is one of the best pure basic games I've seen in a while.
-
no I haven't, but I was told about it....lol, sorry for being a spelling nazi
-
No problem, it was my ungodly mistake :-[
-
Alright, after buying a new computer (not for this reason XD) and installing everything, it is working! So here are some screenshots of various stages in the Boss fight.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3489/3717691340_7576a32c38_m.jpg)(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2576/3717691472_b67549232d_m.jpg) (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2530/3717691388_69122fa5b0_m.jpg)
The difficulty gets harder as you do damage to the boss, and it gets faster as well as dealing more difficult attacks
-
looks amazing cant wait to try the demo when the contest is over
in pure basic non the less i am truely amazed
-
lol, that was quick! I hope to get an aminated screenshot up soon, but i'm still moving into the new comp so it may take some time
-
totally understandable i hate getting a new comp for that one reason lol
-
wow, that looks epic Builderboy! good job!
-
Awesome graphics!
-
wooo more screenshots!
Screenshots takes using WabbitEmu, and sped up slightly to simulate the speed it would be on an SE, which is what it is being made specifically for. Also certain tiles had to be changes because they contained 'illegal characters'.
General moving and jumping, also demonstrating 3 different items/abilities: The Hookshot (Thank you Zelda), Magic casting, and Levitation. It also shows enemies, which are being represented as the * character in the screenshot, but have a much better 'illegal character' character in the real version. It also demonstrates Keys (not coded), doors, and elevators.
(http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6455/screen2o.gif)
This is a screenshot of the 1st Boss Battle, also sped up to be SE speed.
(http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/5603/screen1.gif)
-
so cant wait
"sets screen shot to background"
-
lol
-
Wow I'm really excited to see this as a game.
-
This is getting better and better!
-
So I have been adding functionality for crates. They can be pushed or pulled, and fall off of platforms when they are pushed off. However, you are not strong enough to push or pull a crate that has any other crates stacked on top of it.
This will help in adding some puzzle style rooms to the game, and I'm considering having certain actions take place when you kill simple enemies, so that they become things you need to seek out and destroy, rather than just annoyances that get in your way.
I only have a little more functionality to code in, including switches and the keycard system. you will not need to pick up keys to unlock doors, you will just need to find the keycard to get the access codes (stored and used automaticaly). This is just so I didn't have to install a complex object system just for keys and doors, both the keys and doors will remain in the map after you use them.
After I finish coding these features I can start on writing the dialogue and making the actual game! I already have the opening scene finished (No screenshots for you! :P) and the dialogue program for conversations between character.
-
awsome builderboy but y no screenie you now we love screenies
-
wow this is epic! love the elevator and the boss battle by the way
keep up the good work
-
No screenshots of the opening cut-scene because I want to keep at least some of the game a surprise :P
-
awww...:/
oh well
hmm, I think I should make a boss battle thing for my game, all the platforms but the first need one....
-
Boss battles are fun to code! :D
-
lol, I'm just going to make my boss a 16*16 version of my normal enemies and maybe I'll give him magics or something, I still don't know yet
EDIT: does the boss say moon men when it dies? 0.o
-
haha, no it just uses random text. Its just a coincidence that it actually spelled something at least partly readable :P
-
oh lol, well it did say moon men :P
-
lol, let's hope it never says 'rickrol' :p
-
hehe, i checked the source and it is impossible :) it doesn't take characters from the enture alphabet (and M and the finance N are one of the few actual letters, the rest are special chars) and R isn't included.
-
awwww.....:(
that's too bad....
oh well, hmm...maybe I'll add a rickroll to the end of my game
-
lol
calc games with easter eggs, what's next
-
calc games with easter eggs, what's next
Easter eggs with calculators inside?
-
an easer egg shaped calculator?
a calculator shaped easter egg?
-
a calculator shaped easter egg?
Yum ;D
-
you guys actually know what I want to say with 'easter egg'?
-
yes we do, we are just kidding around
-
oh, lolz, I was already thinking.. xd
-
I love these graphics and it looks quite fast too in overall. It's very megaman/metroid-ish style. It's great what we can do with just text. On top of that, it loads quite fast for BASIC.
-
I was inspired a lot from Metroid PI. It also uses duel layer text sprites, although it wasn't the offset type. I've done some searching, and it seems that nobody has ever made seamless duel layer text graphics before! I just hope i can get in more than just part 1 in time for the contest, as it is kind of rpg-ish, and so takes a while to make :P
-
yeah, i myself only ever tried once, but it didn't turned out right, you really need to trial and error during hours to find good sprite combination
-
So, when do backups not work? When you accidentally delete them! :D ... :'(
It wasn't the backups for the game, so its better than it could be, but it will take some time to replace them. I had a 50*10 text sprite image for the main screen. Along with the entire opening cut scene. I wrote down the dialogue, so thats not a problem, but I have to redesign the pirate ship and rewrite the dialogue text subpogram...
'sigh'
On a happier note, i will be getting some screenshots up soon of the fantastically puzzling crate system that is now in place.
-
So, when do backups not work? When you accidentally delete them! :D ... :'(
It wasn't the backups for the game, so its better than it could be, but it will take some time to replace them. I had a 50*10 text sprite image for the main screen. Along with the entire opening cut scene. I wrote down the dialogue, so thats not a problem, but I have to redesign the pirate ship and rewrite the dialogue text subpogram...
That sucks, but at least you didn't lose the game. I have a separate folder named "xxBackups" (xx is the project name), and then each backup has it's own folder, which has the date/time in its name.
-
This sucks when you lose stuff x.x
One thing that sucks even more is when you realize your recent backups are gone and that you're stuck with old ones. Even worse: when the recent backups are corrupted (maybe viruses and stuff) x.x
-
I had my entire archive corrupted which sucked big time.
-
Even worse: when the recent backups are corrupted (maybe viruses and stuff) x.x
...or when you used a buggy version of TILP to do the backing up...
-
Yeah, I have serious backups of the game, I don't think i could ever delete them all :P. But i only had one of this, becuase it was so "unimportant".
we need a facepalm smiley.
Anyways here is the new box and trapdoor system. I have already started designing the actual game, but no screenshots of that! Only Conceptual screenshots :P
(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa72/builderboy2005/BOXES.gif?t=1248366608)
Boxes can be pushed or pulled. They can be stood on. If they are sitting on a trapdoor, and it opens, all boxes that are on top of it will fall. Levers in walls can trigger trapdoors to either open or close. Some levers can be used indefinitely, back and forth. Others can only be used once. Of course, if you leave and come back in, everything resets itself, Zelda style.
-
Man I'm quite impressed with the kind of text based stuff you do. Plus it not that slow or flickery.
-
There is some flicker beneath your character while dragging/pulling boxes, but that can be fixed with a simple 3 byte modification. If you look at the earlier screenshots, you will notice the flicker beneath the character as he moves regularly.
-
wow this gotta be the most complex platformer/puzzle game written in BASIC so far!
EDIT @simplethinker yeah I think this is what I have. I got mine from the LPG site if I remember and I never got able to use the backup feature: it created weird files I couldn't open with anything else. TI-Connect creates a tig file, but tig files can be ungrouped like you do with 8xg files with the same software
-
wow that's amazing Builderboy! can't wait to see more progress!!
-
So I've been working on map design, and I've come up with the Basic ship design (which will be kept a secret) which will have 36 rooms! The version I am submitting to the contest will only have sectors 1 and 2, so the room count will be drastically lowered. Since each map takes over 256 bytes, all the maps together will have a file size greater than the entire game of Portal. And thats just the maps! The engine takes over 4000 bytes, and will only get larger as I install more items. Each boss takes roughly 1500 bytes (there will be 3, but only 1 in the demo/contest version). So adding in menu, cut scenes, and dialogue, this is going to be one massive game!
The version I am submitting to the contest should be small enough that I can fit it all into RAM, but the finished version almost definitely will need some sort of archiving program (and i won't use any other assembly enhancements :P).
I'm also considering just adding in the archiving utility for the contest version, so I could fit in more stuff, and I could pit pure(almost) Basic against the power of LibEnhanced and Assembly 8). Hehe
-
please don't go with the asm lib! I don't want to compete against yours!
-
Heehee ;D I most likely will not go into the asm/hybrid category, because I am confident that i can fit it all in the space available. But if I extend the game to sector 3 I fear I may have no choice! 0.0
-
or you can just tell them to unarchive/archive stuff when they get there...
-
thats lame :P
jk, I will if I have to, but for the contest i will just try to fit it all in RAM. Once the contest is over, nobody cares if I use 1 unarchving subprogram.
-
true, well good luck on this!
:/ now I want to pull my game back out and work on it, but I don't have time...
-
Alright, small update. I have finished designing the 2 sectors that will appear in the Demo. It consists of 20 room, and 2 bosses. I have written much of the dialogue, and the 2nd boss is near finished. The largest task to be done is to transfer all the rooms from the written data to actual rooms on the calculator. This process is also kind of exciting because it means I get some artistic freedom, as the only think specified in the map data is whether or not a tile is solid or not.
In other news, i have finished the simple but appealing menu, with new game, load game, help, and exit.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2481/3782539635_98de56d590.jpg)
Notice that the load button is faded until you have a game to load :)
And i will not be uploading screenshots, animated or otherwise of the 2nd boss, as this is the finale of the Demo, and I want to keep the concept a secret. :P
-
Ooohhh... I like the menu it's simple but very appealing.
-
Thi s is nice looking, I would put some sort of image (idk what tho) or maybe copyright+logo to the right
-
Yeah, i know what you mean, its kind of empty. And after you select an option, a text box appears there so you can choose some options, so maybe I should just have it there the entire time? Any logo or image i would put there would be overwritten :\
-
Oh reallY? Then I guess the menu should be fine as it is now. I didn't knew other stuff would display there
-
Alright, I have built all the rooms, and have them all complete and functioning. It was harder than I expected, just because drawing them is an imperfect way of creating levels, and there were problems that I did not foresee. either way, its done! yay! Not comes the task of implementing everything together, and creating the basic storyline elements, like the conversations, general dialoque, hints, and the whole saving system. I contemplated putting up my map bmp, but i decided that would be too spoilerish, so instead i have a map of the entire facility without detail.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2491/3799639366_b0b8ae2acd.jpg)
Light Blue: The prison blocks, where you are first taken. Very small, only 2 rooms.
Dark Blue: Sector 1, the first sector of the game with 8 room.
Green: Sector 2, a much harder and larger sector, with multiple stories and 10 rooms.
Orange: Sector 3, the final sector, and the one that is just below the launching bay. 12 rooms.
Each sector has an item that you get inside it that is critical for beating the boss at the end (Zelda anyone?). The parts that will be in the demo will be the prison block, and Sectors 1 and 2, as well as the bosses at the ends of each sector.
I also worked more on the main menu, and filled that blank empty void with a file selection menu that pops up when you load or start a new game. The screen will also be used to view the help file (which has yet to be created :))
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3471/3799639346_22ffc6b54e.jpg)
-
wow nice so far, I can't wait to try this. :)
Glad to see more progress. This is all the maps for demo, right?
-
Just the light blue, blue, and green. The orange will be in the final version.
-
oooh ok. Will there be a few more sections in final section? I mean like this (http://omnimaga.unitedti.org/metroid_map.gif)? J/k not like this, plus either wya it will still be awesome, just by the screenshots, I can't wait to try this all
-
I might add one more section in the final version, but that means i will have to think of another item x.x
I guess there really won't be any size limit, because i plan to use some sort of archive utility in the final version.
-
I would recommend the thing Iambian did called XCOPY. If it's not on forums I'll prbly post a copy later. I use it in Illusiat 13
-
hehe, isn't that the file you sent me?
-
nah it was an older version. I didn't even knew you got time to receive it before i cancelled transfer lol
-
very neat box moving
-
very neat box moving
Uh, come again? What do you mean?
-
he might be commenting on another screenshot where you showed the char moving small boxes around
-
Oh, yeah. :) Thankz!
-
So in an attempt to backup my large group database onto my computer, either TIConnect, or my SE replaced my entire level data program with the token FF, LinReg(ax+b). This is an enormous setback in progress, as I now have to remake every single room and recode all the objects in them. I just hope I can get back up in time for the deadline, as I was making good progress until now.
-
I thought TI connect was bad in the way it altered some calc stuff in the memory (I think a flash page), but not that much. THis makes me scared of backing up anything to my comp with TI connect in the future x.x
I'll be sure to send my future projects to another calc first, in case.
This sucks you lost all that, I hope you can redo everything in time
-
That sucks big time. Hope you can finish in time.
-
if worse comes to worse, i will just have to not put in dialogue and stuff that i haven't finished yet x.x
-
Oh shit I just remembered something this happened to me once it's archive corruption you need to back-up everything and do a rom reset to be safe.
-
Alright guys, I have some bad news.
I will not be submitting Serenity to the contest. I don't want to do this, but several factors have forced me to. The setbacks I have faced have put me behind a schedule that was not very quick to begin with. Memory problems prevent me from adding valuable additions to the Demo, and there is no time to add them anyway. And I don't want to release a game that I am not happy with, and given I only have a week left, I cannot finish Serenity or any sort of Demo to my expectations.
Sorry to get your hopes up, but i will be submitting a different platform game to the contest. One that has already been almost finished for a while. And don't worry about Serenity, just because I am not submitting it to the contest, doesn't mean I am going to stop working on it, or that there won't be a Demo release in the near future.
Oh well, I just hope this new Platformer can compete. :P
-
this sucks...
good luck finishing it though :)
-
aw this sucks, I hope you eventually finish it anyway, tho, (and the other platformer). Still, good luck
-
Alright then, I have submitted my other game to the Contest, so Official work can once again be done on this project. (You won't get rid of me that easily Serenity!). As my first order of business I officially move into the hybrid category and decide to use a simple (un)archiving program to allow for much larger map size. Currently I am working with this new map design.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2497/3853486017_442ab70727.jpg)
As you can see, I have more than doubled the amount of rooms. It is unlikely to get much larger than this, as I would need to think up a new Item to keep the puzzles fresh, and you are quite overpowered at the end of the 3rd Boss anyway :P But it would be nice, so I will keep brainstorming. The rooms with the black borders are the proposed rooms for Bosses. Blue is Sector 1 (lighter shade is prison cell), Green is Sector 2, and Orange is Sector 3. I will keep the Bosses from 1 and 2 that I have already designed, but I will likely rewrite all the other rooms to make the map less linear like, to expand gameplay.
And I guess I'll finally officially reveal the Items you get (even though they have all been featured in a screenshot)
Item1: Magic. Allows you to shoot a ball of energy left, right, or up.
Item2: Levitation. Allows you to levitate up an amount much greater than a normal jump. Provides great maneuverability.
Item3: Light-Rope. Like the hookshot from Zelda, it allows for even more maneuverability, as well as the ability to drag boxes to you.
-
map looks larger now. Nice that you got back into that game :)
-
I can't wait to see more progress on this, I was very impressed with it, and I still am btw :P
-
I'd say that If I had to describe this game with a combination of other games, I would say its my Trapped meets Metroid PI :)
-
hehe nice ^^
-
lol, yeah that would be it :P
-
So I am still planning the Demo, and progress is being made at completing the first Sector, which will be the only part contained in the Demo :P. It will also contain the opening cut scene and dialogue, which is also being worked on. I haven't come up with a deadline yet, but I will continue to give updates! I need to rewrite all the puzzles so it will take some time :P
-
YAY! I can't wait!
-
Nice to see you're working on this again :) Keep up the good work :)
-
Alright, I have designed all the rooms and puzzles for Sector 1, so now i can begin construction. I also have been working on the cutscene/dialogue, and I have a little screenshot to show how the new talking system is going to work :)
(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa72/builderboy2005/th_TALKING.gif)
Now this was being run at 83 speed, so I had to set the scroll speed at max (its adjustable :)) and consequently I was not able to demonstrate the neat skipping action which can be accomplished, although i might want to redesign it, because that would mean that people with 83's would not be able to skip x.x
-
wow that's pretty cool!
I need to make something like that!
-
I needed to create a Text display system that took up as little space as possible, so that dialogue could take place at the same time as characters moving around and stuff. I like the result, and you will be able to control the speed of the scrolling in settings :)
-
ah cool :P
well...hmm I might have to play around with my text method...
-
looks very nice! It reminds me in one of my old RPGs in 2001, for text I used the Pause "Text" command to save space on both instructions and the screen and if people alerady read the text they could skip without scrolling left/right.
-
Alright, so I have been working hard on implementing the event/hint code section. Whenever you enter a room with new features, your character might make a comment on how to use the new objects. And this also can be used for dialogue, ect... I did some revisions of the script, finally gave the Antagonist a name that I liked, and worked on save files. I'm debated whether or not to include hinted objects in the save file. In the game, there is a temp list so that you only give hints or comments once, so the user isn't annoyed by constant talking when you enter a room. I'm just not sure if this should carry on if you quit and restart.
-
NIce, I would only give the advices once. Else it might get a bit annoying for the player.
-
Well, yeah, thats what i'm already doing. What I'm debating is whether or not to do the same thing across saves and quits. IT would take up a lot more space, and might be unnecessary.
-
Alright, I finished implementing save files, so now the Menu is able to do more than just look cool :) I also finished the pause menu, which is the most advanced I've ever written. It has 2 pages, one for viewing keys and one for viewing items. On the page where you view Items you can select the current Item that you want to set to [Alpha]. On both pages it gives you the options to save your progress, restart the room, or exit the game.
I made the pause Menu ASCII because I find that when people pause, they don't want to wait for their pause menu to load! :P And because it is also simpler than switching the graph screen out.
The Saving is going to be a lot like Trapped (See? I told you I was inspired! ;D) and Zelda in that when you save, it only saves your progress when you entered the room, so that any mistakes you've made that prevent you from exiting the room don't become a problem, and just to decrease the save file (Though its not very big). Restart room is an option also created for this purpose, just in case you get stuck or the like. Restart room will NOT restore your health to previous health though! :P I had a lot of people take advantage of that in Trapped to the point where everybody was finishing the game with all possible lives.
-
more progress ^^
-
I remember take advantage of that in trapped made the game much easier.
-
:P Well the health in this game is a single station in each Sector that will renew all of your health, but trying to get to them might also make you loose health, so you need to be good!
-
Alright, I have begun work on this again (^^,) and I thought I might post some animations of the UI's that i will be using in the game. The first is a demonstration of the Main Menu, which allows file loading and creation. You can delete old files as well, and you get nice conformation messages when overwriting or deleting files ^^. The second is the pause menu, which has item selection, saving, and an extra page for key cards.
(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa72/builderboy2005/MENU01.gif)
(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa72/builderboy2005/MENU02.gif)
I am also working on a map system, since i opened up a lot of new space with XCOPY I decided a map system would greatly help people not get lost :) It won't be a very complex system, just having boxes as rooms, and connections between the boxes that represent connected rooms. And since it takes a bit to render, it will be saved to an archived pic after you first view it :)
-
Nice that you're working on this again^^
I love how you can make some stuff look like ASM when it doesn't even use any ASM code, not even libs o.o
-
that's a nice graphics you got there WOW!
Happy to see this project back~ I love ur main screen :)
-
This is looking really nice. I'm looking forward to being able to test a playable version. I do have a suggestion though. It appear that your life bar starts out completely white and turns black at the top of the bar and fill towards the bottom as you take damage. This seems a bit confusing to me. I might do it the other way around. Have it black and filled from top to bottom and have it slowly erase from the top to bottom. In other words, invert the colors. Completely white looks empty, and like you are out of health to me. Just my thoughts anyway. =) Keep up the great work, this is looking really excellent!
-
Mmmm there are two reasons for that configuration:
First is that i actually think it looks full when white and empty when black :P I'll have to test out some more configurations though.
The second reason though, is that it makes it a lot easier to lose health. This needs a little explaining of how the engine works. There is a picture of the terrain, without your character, that is recalled every frame in order to restore objects you walk over (and therefore erase, because text erases 1 row underneath it) and to restore tiles that you can walk through, like support wires. The health bar inadvertently becomes a part of this picture, and so is recalled as well. In the beginning, if the health bar were to be filled with black, it would also be stored in the picture and recalled every frame. If, then, say you took damage, the level of black would change and lower. However, the black that is still in the picture would be recalled and overwrite it to make it look full again. I would need to restore the picture after it is edited, making sure enemies, crates, and you have all been removed before i take the picture again. With the system I have now, the original pic has no black, and so does nothing to stop when your health lowers. The problem only arises when you get your health filled back up again, but that happens much less often, and under controlled circumstances.
I hope that made sense :) But I cannot switch to a directly inverted health bar without significant slowdowns every time you are hit. (I can't even imagine what would be happening during boss fights D:)
-
i had lot of troubles with health/stamina bars where when you had no health it was black, especially when you could lose variable amount of HP. Because of this, I simply had the bar flicker when taking damage (I recalled the pic containing the empty energy bar (black) then displayed the new white area again with Line( command), which doesn't look as good, though, and less professional (altough it can make it easier to see when you are taking damage)
-
Hmm... the way you have the program designed I see what you mean. That sux. It wouldn't be very practical to redraw the health bar every frame after recalling the picture either. It's ok the current design you have seems to fit into your program alot better. I'll just have to get used to it. =)
-
Builderboy, this is awesome! I'm so glad you are working on this again! This made my day.
I'm glad you will be using xcopy to make this bigger, and also in this case, better.
I have a couple of questions:
The title screen looks very, very nice. How do you Text Serenity on the title screen so fast?
I like the Map idea. Are you using a pic 0-9, or a hacked pic? My vote is for the hacked pic.
The pause menu looks very nice also. I hope we get a demo soon. :)
-
I use two very long text sprites one on top of the other, a good 100 or two bytes well spent :) Building the menu only takes 385 bytes overall, but operating it takes 1450 bytes :O
For the maps, I have a decision to make. Should the picture be present even after you quit the game, and risk being deleted by the user, (but consequently giving very little load time) or should it be generated every time you run the program, ensureing no crashing happens, but then giving a load time when you want to see the map for the first time.
-
hmm if it was posible i would think to have it render it at the start of the game if it is missing like a loading screen this way it doesnt lag and risk crashing from a error and people think it isjust the game restting up its enviroment (which it is XD)
-
For the maps, I have a decision to make. Should the picture be present even after you quit the game, and risk being deleted by the user, (but consequently giving very little load time) or should it be generated every time you run the program, ensureing no crashing happens, but then giving a load time when you want to see the map for the first time.
I vote for the second one, but you might want an options menu for stuff like this. It would mean redesigning part of your main menu, but I think it would be worth it. :)
-
Actually I just ran some tests, and I can render the whole map frame in under a second, so I might not have to deal with this picture thing at all! It takes about just as much time as it takes to load up the new/load window in the main menu, for comparison :) I'm integrating the map system into the pause menu right now, and soon will start integrating xcopy into everything (ahhhh! :O)
-
Sounds great! I'm glad you got it to work nicely!
*ztrumpet wishes for a screenshot showing the map*
-
All in good time my friend 8)
-
As promised, here is the screenshot of the (most likely) finished map display thingy
(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa72/builderboy2005/MAP.jpg?t=1260493720)
16 rooms, this will be the smallest sector in the game, and used to get users used to controls and game style
There are different types of rooms represented here. The 4 rooms on the right are the prison cells, the one in the bottom left is the Boss Room. The normal one in the top right looks weird because it is flashing to show your current position. These are quadruple layer text sprites, but only use 2 strings (they use each string twice with an offset of 2 left/right). For other sectors, other strings/maps will be represented.
Now that the map system is up and running (phew) I will start hard coding in all the dialogue, which might take a while as i'm running out of room, and i need to get everything archiving and unarchiving properly now D:
-
Wow looks amazing! As always :p
good job!
-
Again, amazing job! Quad sprites. Wow. :)
-
wow nice looking. Nice job :D
Btw what's the new plan (if any) for amount of sectors and rooms in the game?
-
Currently I am planning 3 sectors for the game (unless i can come up with a new item/power, but i think not) each having more rooms than the next. The 1st Sector has 16 rooms (as you can see by the screenie) the second and third are not set in stone yet, but have about 20-25 each. I am also hoping to get the last 2 sectors less linear, as in not just solve rooms as you go.
I am also planning a way to get enemies to do other things than just move back and forth. Such as chase you or move in circles. This won't be implemented in the 1st sector though, to give time for the user to get used to the enemies :)
-
Cool that will increase game lenght a lot ^^
-
Sweet! This gets me pumped! Can't wait for you to post some screenies of te enemies when you finish implementing them :p
-
Well, since they are not going to be in the 1st sector (and so not in the demo) i won't worry about them untill i get the demo out. Glad you're excited though! :)
-
How long do you think it will be untill a demo?
-
I have no idea, although winter break is coming up, so hopefully that gives me a good amount of coding time
-
Awesome! This is going to be cool.
-
Builderboy, I decided to tell you the way Metroid Pi handles enemys. You could use this to make the enemies go in circles.
Harrierfalcon used two lists, one for the X list and one for the Y list.
ex:
{1,2,3,3,3,2,1,1->L1 //X list
{1,1,1,2,3,3,3,2->L2 //Y list
dim(Ans->D
1->A
...
Movement Engine Loop
...
Text(-1,7L2(A),6L1(A)," "
A+1-D(A=D->A
Text(-1,7L2(Ans),6L1(Ans),"Q //Enemy Sprite
...
End
What do you think? Did you already have a method for this? How's Serenity going?
-
Thats very nice! Here i was thinking it was following the contors of the walls :P I am currently in the design process of other enemy sub-programs that will do more things than just go back and forth. Some will go round in circles (havan't decided completely on the method, but preprogrammed paths would work very well) and then some that actively chase you :) Progress is going slow though, unfortunately, and i haven't made any major milstones worthy of an update. Mostly just fixing small things, and preparing for the jump to xcopy. (kinda nervous about that one, kinda putting it off :P )
-
i dont remember how I handled enemies in Metroid evolution, but those that went diagonaly kinda changed directions gradually due to a bug in my movement engine, that i finally left in because it looked cool. For example, when enemy bounced on a wall, it ddint immediately change direction, it stopped moving in the direction it was moving to for one frame, then started moving in opposite direction afterward.
-
That looks cool! I don't know how to code that, but it sure is neat. ;D
-
I added a second screenshot because the first did not show that side effect of my enemy movement that made enemies look like they easily can slip through narrow areas
-
Wow, that does look really cool! ^^
-
Alright, just a small update to let you all know that this is still being worked on. Progress is slow though, as I've reached a very dangerous part in the implementation, and I'm being very careful. I find myself running out of memory, and so I've had to use XCOPY more than I originally intended, so I have programs created with XCOPY creating more programs. D: It also doesn't help that all my sub programs are split up right now, so it makes it a bit harder to anticipate what subprograms will be bunched together in the final version. Anyway, just wanted to say that progress is being made, albeit slowly and carefully, I've never worked with XCOPY before, so I am being very carefull.
-
Don't know whether this would help you or not, and it takes a lot of effort, but in the end you become quite intimately familiar with your code. XD
Take the time to get a 3-5 subject notebook, and write out ALL your code, program by program. This will allow you to easily and quickly know what your program will do when it reaches certain things. I did it for pokemon and I was able to spot optimizations like no other, and clean up my variable usage considerably, giving my 13 free, unused variables.
And I have never used XCOPY either before o.o Resource has been an amazing program for what I have needed, guessing these two are similar in usage?
-
I think so, what does Resource do?
And I already have a nice diagram of program flow, but I think I will expand it some :)
-
Resource copies programs from RAM or ROM into a temp program, can be either asm or basic.
As to the program flow, that's not what I meant. XD
I mean you write out ALL your code, except data programs, on paper. As long as you have good handwriting, so you can read what you wrote. XD
-
Yep, thats what XCOPY does.
Oh, that would take a while O.O I have a lot of code. I'd probably type it tho, my hand would get tired.
-
lol, I know what you mean, I half filled a 5 subject notebook, with the 50 someodd programs and 88kb of code that I have XD took me like a week to do it all x.x
-
Either way, as it is I will have to wait until finals are over XD. As it is I'm wasting enough time working on Serenty/Castle Storm and coming over here to post :P
-
lol, I know what you mean, I half filled a 5 subject notebook, with the 50 someodd programs and 88kb of code that I have XD took me like a week to do it all x.x
Wow! As for me, I print out code from Graphlink and optomise from there.
I'm glad you're working on this some. Good luck with the jump!
-
Hey yeah! Why would't you just use graphlink tifreak?! :P well I think that would be good, but I need to wait for the printer to start working again, main computer got a virus (all my stuff is safe). Then I can start mapping out where subprograms will condense to.
-
I use Sourcoder 2 and it helps because if you don't mind spending money on ink, you can colour the syntax, and indent to help with loops and if's
That's too bad that you infected your computer Builderboy...try to be careful next time :P
-
Psshhhhhh, it's not MY computer, I have my own laptop, but it's the main computer that is connected to the printer so I always have to print through the main one (we call it Big dog XD)
-
ah....well be careful next time you start transferring yourself between computers Builderboy...you never know :P
-
Watch out when using XCOPY. Iambian made this program specifically so Illusiat 13 uses as less bytes of ASM code as possible. I never encountered crashes in the version included with Illusiat 13 so far but I never really accidentally used wrong syntax with it before, and it's still new, so backup first!
-
Yeah, i make frequent backups. I also tested XCOPY's effect on program speed the more it is used. I thought it might make a lot of garbage if used frequently, but after 200 copies and deletes of a large file, there was no aparent slowdown, so props to Iambian for creating a good sub!
-
i tried writing out my codes, but then again, I changed the code so frequently that the writing got so messy I couldn't read it... :P
-
i tried writing out my codes, but then again, I changed the code so frequently that the writing got so messy I couldn't read it... :P
Lol, that is why I write at the top 'outdated xx/xx/xx' and write it out on a new page :p
And sounds like xcopy works well. ^_^
-
i tried writing out my codes, but then again, I changed the code so frequently that the writing got so messy I couldn't read it... :P
Lol, that is why I write at the top 'outdated xx/xx/xx' and write it out on a new page :p
That's pretty awesome! (I just print out a changed page, and then write on it, but I think your method is a lot cooler!)
I'm glad Xcopy works nice, as I'll use it for Elmgon. :D
-
/me hopes this is not dead D:
-
* Builderboy sighs and hangs his head *
Its not dead, defnitely never ever going to abandon this project. But for now, progress has been officially halted :( After having worked on this project for about a year now, I am getting kind of weary of working on one main project (besides all those small ones that i sometimes pop off in a day or two) and running out of steam. I try to program and go nowhere. The inspiration is just now there, you know?
I've had times like this before on big projects, and the only solution is to move on for now... rest assured i will return.
-
ouch, I am getting a bit worried now x.x
I hope you get motivation back. I would hate if this died completly, because I saw so many projects die this way. In any case, are you gonna release the source if it dies? Many people leave without even releasing what they got x.x
I have been looking forward for this for so long. I understand the feeling, though.
-
I definitely will release the source if it dies (which it wont :P)
But yeah, i was reluctant to officially halt progress on this since i know how much everybody has been looking forward to it :(
-
usually the best idea is to only focus on one project at a time. Calc84 will work on gbc4nspire, then a few weeks on 89 emu, then other stuff, not all 3 at once. But yeah a lot of ppl are looking forward for it, plus whenever "dual layer ASCII" is mentionned, this game is cited as example :P
-
Right, and i definitely am distracted by a different project right now ;)
Most likely i will be working on my single new project for now.
-
Wow now I know what you have been working on :O *looked at Portal X*
-
I know how you feel. I can't wait for anything you code, so as long as you're still coding, I'm happy. ;D
I do still want Serenity, though.
It's tough to program just one project at a time. I have a bunch of almost unmentioned projects floating around. One of them I hadn't worked on since October/November just got ungrouped on Saturday, and work has resumed on Gravity Dude. I won't say much until I post about it (maybe this week), but it is even based off of one of the great Builderboy's games. :)
Note before DJ asks: Elmgon's storyline is being planned now, so since I am not coding on it I am letting myself code on another project. :)
-
lol ok ^^ just don't stop elmgon for too long D:
-
*trevmeister66 is sad to see this halted.
Hopefully you find some inspiration and work on this soon. I really like what you've done with simple dual layer ascii.
-
Take care of yourself, Builderboy :-\ Glad the project isn't dead
-
Halting during some time will certainly bring fresh new motivation and ideas. Do something fun meanwhile. :P
-
/me Pokes.
Portal X looks sweet and all, but I hope you return to this soon. I'm really looking forward too seeing this project completed! =)
-
Me too, I would hate to see this die :(. Plus it shows how far you can take graphical BASIC games without any ASM help to draw the graphics and main engine
-
Alright! So the demo is out, and now progress can slowly resume on the game itself! Now that i have a good system for operating on the game and adding levels and such, it is time to start work on the next 2 sectors! Note that while you have already seem a third of the sectors, you have seen about a forth or less of the overall rooms! And expect a lot more puzzles, different enemies, unique bosses, and new items!
-
Sweet! Good luck on future progress ;D
-
Great to hear! Good luck!
-
Wow the demo now out. ill try it asap!
-
/me thinks Builderboy should upload it in the staff downloads section so it is easier to find (since we tend to post news fast)
-
I definetaly should! :D Ok i will go do that soon. After i fix another bug i found... x.x
-
wow, ive tried it and mindblowingly creative!!! well done
-
Thanks :D What did you like about it most? What didnt you like about it? How far did you get?
-
I definetaly should! :D Ok i will go do that soon. After i fix another bug i found... x.x
What was the bug?
-
Issues with the character triggered help events not triggering when they need to or triggering when they are not supposed to
-
Oh, so kinda like that one thing you were telling me about when you enter the first elevator/lever room?
-
cool game prison is spelt prisson in the prison card room
-
bump
Is it really?
http://xkcd.com/9/
-
On a more serious note, this is an awesome game and I recommend the demo to everyone. Builderboy, how's progress?
Ninja edited out. [hurtpuppycryingsmileyhere]
-
Necropost Ninja'd. >:D
-
Progress has been very slow unfortunately :( not many of my calculator games are getting the attention they deserve right now since I'm on break from school and I have no classes to program in or homework to put off :P I expect progress to resume on many of my games once school kicks back in ^^
-
Sorry to hear D:. I hope you don't lose interest completely. I would love to see this and Portal finished.
-
shameless bump for epicness ...seeing as your a bit more active again alex >:D
-
Lol necropost much? :P But I would like to see this finished eventually. The demo was great. :D
-
Yea, I'm gonna have to agree with DJ. Most def. want to see this finished. :D