Downfall - diary of a game...

[DeafDaz]

He he he heee! got to level 5
Good work Graham

[Predseda]

I think the whole concept of two players game is a bit strange. If they compete, it is contraproductive to freeze other player as it could lead to Game Over for both players suddenly. Am I wrong?

[Graham Humphrey]

Well, I'd say that the whole concept of the game doesn't naturally lend itself to two players. But you don't have to play it competitively if you don't want to. You can both co-operate to get as far as you can, you can play for a higher score, or you can be an annoying git and freeze your opponent to try and kill him It's pretty open in that respect and is quite similar to Pang in that if one player dies you have to start the level again.

[Predseda]

There is Amiga party in June here in CZ, I am looking forward to play that game there.

[DJCruicky]

Thanks for update.


How about:

Level number to be displayed on the score panel. Also, maybe even have the level number scroll up the screen when you enter a new one.

Level/distance saved with high score as said by Anakirob.

If borders are not to be fixed (see my post #125 for fix), then can platforms that are touching the sides of the screen be changed from

\PPPPP/ \PPPPPPPPPP/

to

PPPPPP/ \PPPPPPPPPPP

...notice corners removed from platforms touching side of the screen.

Maybe a page to tell you what each of the power pickups do.

Try a few different copper backgrounds. 3 below for you to try....

DisplayRGB 0,0,231-n,50/(n+3),0,n/16
or
DisplayRGB 0,0,231-n,90/(n+6),0,n/16
or
DisplayRGB 0,0,231-n,90/(100-n),0,n/16


Fun game.


DJC

edit. You are welcome to steel my 'Copy font to fonts folder' icon from my game Wired Chaos.

[Predseda]

I think that adjusting the platforms next to the borders is a good idea, i died few times because of it.

[Lonewolf10]

Originally Posted by Predseda

I think that adjusting the platforms next to the borders is a good idea, i died few times because of it.

I agree.

I'd like to suggest that the scores are saved after name entry, as it would be too easy to forget yourself and reset your Amiga when it's time to do something else (or after you come back to the game after a few months break - not that anyone would do that ).


I'd also like to say that the "Game Over" image now appears after going through all levels and back to level 1 - though I actually made it to lvl 18 (lvl 8 2nd time round)


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[Predseda]

I think we need more levels before loop...

[Graham Humphrey]

Thanks again chaps.

Changing the edges of the platforms has been suggested before, but it looks a bit naff in my opinion so I left it. I'm not going to change the colour register of the background as it will mean going through the graphics and changing them slightly, a bit too much hassle at this point. The best suggestion was to overlay a tall black sprite on the 'overscanned' area, however does anybody know if this is actually possible? I'd have thought it was unlikely as it's outside the area of the screen.

It isn't a great situation and it can be a bit irritiating - but it shouldn't prove a issue long-term (I hope) and in any case at least the AGA version will deal with this as I want to use parallax scrolling rather than a copper background.

As for highscore saving - I could do that I guess - a bit too used to WHDLoad now! At the same time it does keep disk access and disruption during the game to zero so it has its advantages.

(Oh and level 18 - hardcore! )

(Oh and thanks DJCruicky for the different background suggestion and the kind offer regarding the icon, I appreciate it!)

[Codetapper]

Wouldn't a simpler method to just have a vertical strip of tiles down either side drawn on the map? Surely the level layout would still work fine with one tile less on each edge. It'd save messing about with sprites etc.

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by DJCruicky

...
Level number to to displayed on the score panel. Also, maybe even have the level number scroll up the screen when you enter a new one.

Level/distance saved with high score as said by Anakirob.

I quite like both these ideas! Coincidently i have named all the levels i have made. So if you wanted to to have "Level 1 - Let the fun begin" or similar scroll up at level change that would be nice.

Originally Posted by Codetapper

Wouldn't a simpler method to just have a vertical strip of tiles down either side drawn on the map? Surely the level layout would still work fine with one tile less on each edge. It'd save messing about with sprites etc.

Simpler.. dont think so. that would mean alot of changes required for the level data, particularly the later levels.

[Codetapper]

Originally Posted by mihcael

Simpler.. dont think so. that would mean alot of changes required for the level data, particularly the later levels.

You could extend the screen width by 16 pixels, and permanently draw a tile in the left 8 pixels and the right 8 pixels and there would be no change required to the map.

You can't easily just place a sprite in the edges of the screen anyway. You'd have to expand the screen width to accommodate the sprite anyway and have gaps in your bitplane data so you may as well just draw tiles in it if you're going to do that.

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by mihcael

I quite like both these ideas! Coincidently i have named all the levels i have made. So if you wanted to to have "Level 1 - Let the fun begin" or similar scroll up at level change that would be nice.

Thats a great idea , but I am not sure how useable it is when levels return to the first one after you completed the last one.

[Lonewolf10]

I am working on some more levels (if Graham wants them) and have written a very simple AMOS program (for those of us that can't stand, or have never used, Blitz Basic) to import the level data directly into the WIP10 executable
I will post it up here tomorrow night.


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[Graham Humphrey]

Wow, that sounds really good! Pretty neat idea to write a program like that.

As for levels... that's great, how many are you doing? Mihcael has got a lot of them covered, he's done two sets now (20 levels in total - incidentally they are now all in the game and the random level selector thingy works like a charm). I think he's doing a third set also. I wasn't planning to include a fourth set but by all means send them to me when you're done and I could perhaps squeeze them in Thanks for taking the time with it all though.

Also - highscore table now all sorted out for good. It was really weird but the Inkey$ command seems to 'remember' all the previous key presses and record them in the name entry. However by doing a "QAMIGA:BLITZ" before the high score entry, it seems to totally 'forget' all the previous key presses. I've no idea why this works, but it does so I won't complain.

[Lonewolf10]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Wow, that sounds really good! Pretty neat idea to write a program like that.

It's not that brilliant. You still have to load it into AMOS and edit (or add) the data statements at the end (and other variables if required). Once ready, just run it in the AMOS editor.
I only worked on it for less than an hour and the rest of the time was used creating and tinkering with new level designs.

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

As for levels... that's great, how many are you doing? Mihcael has got a lot of them covered, he's done two sets now (20 levels in total - incidentally they are now all in the game and the random level selector thingy works like a charm). I think he's doing a third set also. I wasn't planning to include a fourth set but by all means send them to me when you're done and I could perhaps squeeze them in Thanks for taking the time with it all though.

I'm only on my 2nd level at the moment. Designing them is one thing, making sure they are playable is something else entirely

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Also - highscore table now all sorted out for good. It was really weird but the Inkey$ command seems to 'remember' all the previous key presses and record them in the name entry. However by doing a "QAMIGA:BLITZ" before the high score entry, it seems to totally 'forget' all the previous key presses. I've no idea why this works, but it does so I won't complain.

Inkey$ was working as it should. It stores all keypresses (up to the OS limit?) until you clear it using the appropriate command or use it with a variable. I'm not up on Blitz so can't comment on the other bit.


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[DJCruicky]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Also - highscore table now all sorted out for good. It was really weird but the Inkey$ command seems to 'remember' all the previous key presses and record them in the name entry. However by doing a "QAMIGA:BLITZ" before the high score entry, it seems to totally 'forget' all the previous key presses. I've no idea why this works, but it does so I won't complain.

also
While Inkey$<>"":Wend
...works too. (sorry for the late reply )

[Graham Humphrey]

Thanks, didn't know that one, might try it out of curiosity.

[Graham Humphrey]

Got a third set of levels from mihcael through the virtual post earlier today. Thinking about it, I'm probably content to stick with 30 levels. Of course if anybody wants to change/add their own then you know where the source code is; do what you like by all means

As things stand now and assuming all goes smoothly from here on in, I'm looking at trying to get the game fully finished and released at around Easter time.

EDIT: Guess where I got my new avatar from

[Predseda]

That avatar should have trasparent background.