Downfall - diary of a game...

[Graham Humphrey]

Cheers Prowler for the suggestions.

Perhaps Predseda will show you what he's drawn for me... I think he's nailed it

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Cheers Prowler for the suggestions.

Perhaps Predseda will show you what he's drawn for me... I think he's nailed it

Edit:

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

I'm still pretty drunk so I don't know if I'm in the best position to judge this right now.

Hey, I hope you won't change your mind when you've sobered up. /Edit

Otherwise great! And I look forward to seeing it.

[Predseda]

Okay. Here is it:



With EAB crystal boingball and with radar screen on special request, placed in filled 'O'.

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by prowler

Hey, I hope you won't change your mind when you've sobered up.

Nope, still looks good even after I sobered up (now that's not a phrase that gets said very often )

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Okay. Here is it:



With EAB crystal boingball and with radar screen on special request, placed in filled 'O'.

Hehe, I have to agree with Graham. That's awesome! - right down to the wicked glint in the eye socket!

[Lonewolf10]

That's a cool logo. Great work Predseda


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[Graham Humphrey]

WIP10 - and we're almost there! I don't know if there'll be another WIP before the final release now... if there is, one more maximum I hope

Thanks to mihcael's hard work we've now got a full set of ten levels in place. He's designed some entirely new ones and tweaked some of the existing ones. It should all be a little bit fairer to play now.

Also, as discussed before, the high score table has been fully implemented, complete with loading and saving. It saves a file called 'downfall.highs' into the Data directory on exit if there has been any new scores recorded in the current session and will be loaded in automatically on startup if the file is found. (Oh and the highscore code was actually, ahem, 'adapted' from another game's source code but I can't remember which one for now - I will suitably credit it when I find it.)

I've also given the slow down and weight pickups a points value - 150 points multiplied by the level number. It's a bit higher than standard pickups but not so high you'll score silly points later on. I didn't include this for the '/2' pickup as I felt it would defeat the object somewhat if a pickup that handicaps your scoring actually gave you more points.

Also, as requested, I've included a slightly longer delay when you press P to pause the game so there is less chance of it unpausing straight away, and you can now select a level from the title screen by pressing the number keys 1-0 at the top of the keyboard and pressing fire.

Still to do: More levels to implement, random level selector to code (so you could end up playing level 1a, 1b or 1c, followed by 2a, 2b or 2c etc) and of course getting our shiny new Remainder Software logo in there In addition, I'm still waiting for more sound effects and the long-awaited music... hopefully not too long to wait. But we really are very close to the end now.

[prowler]

Hehe, the WIP10 version makes an appearance! The first released under the new brand!

[Predseda]

The bug with 'invisible' items is still there as well as items appearing in platforms. Score saving (and loading) system works perfectly. I would really, really appreciate if there would be that suggested bonus gems system implemented - that would give you extra collectable item for 3000, 8000, 15000 and 20000 and if you would manage to collect them all, you would be awarded with some super score bonus after the game is over.

Maybe the /2 power-down could be compensated with extra speed (the same as the Trainers do), so player can collect it in difficult situation. It would help him, but lower his score.

BTW I managed to get 19.673 points on 3rd attempt.

BTW2: developer cheat doesnt work for me anymore, when I press numpad key (for example '5') I always start in level 1, but after the game is over, there is '5' predefined in hiscore table. This cant be considered as a bug though as the cheat will not be present in final release.

Another bug: when I pause a game, then unpause and play and then get a record score, it doesnt allow me to write my score to a table. Instead my name there is a blank line and the game continues to title screen. My hiscore is saved though, but without my name. I think it probably has something to do with 'problem' I mentioned above (some weird keyboard-reading) and I would suggest to use fire button for pause/unpause instead of keyboard.

AND PLEASE: return there level 3 data from WIP9 (as some later level), I liked that level a lot!

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by Predseda

...
BTW2: developer cheat doesnt work for me anymore, when I press numpad key (for example '5') I always start in level 1, but after the game is over, there is '5' predefined in hiscore table. This cant be considered as a bug though as the cheat will not be present in final release.

We had a massive outcry from A600 users who couldn't initiate the cheat without a numpad so we changed to normal numbers instead.

[Predseda]

lol

[prowler]

Hehe, you should have seen that coming!

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by Predseda

...Another bug: when I pause a game, then unpause and play and then get a record score, it doesnt allow me to write my score to a table. ...

The same thing seems to have happened to me, I got 21,571 but it didnt allow me to enter a name.

I died on level 10 in a very tight spot but im sure it passable...

Can everyone let me know what level you get up to and how they found the difficulty grade.

Originally Posted by Predseda

...
AND PLEASE: return there level 3 data from WIP9 (as some later level), I liked that level a lot!

That should still be there as Level 8. (and the old level 4 is now 9 but a bit easier)

[Predseda]

Thank you mihcael. I got to level 7 (I think). Levels 1 to 4 I found very easy, in fact I dont like adding those - - - - - - - - lines between letters of AMIGA word in level 1, I think they are not necessary. I also liked the previous design of level 2 more, I think now it is full of platforms and just too easy. Overall I am very satisfied.

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by Predseda

The bug with 'invisible' items is still there as well as items appearing in platforms.

Hadn't tried fixing the objects in platforms thing this week but I had tried to fix the 'invisible' items issue and clearly failed.

I would really, really appreciate if there would be that suggested bonus gems system implemented - that would give you extra collectable item for 3000, 8000, 15000 and 20000 and if you would manage to collect them all, you would be awarded with some super score bonus after the game is over.

I have to admit I don't really see the benefit for this. It's quite a lot of extra programming at this stage and I don't think it particularly fits the game well. I've already got one or two ideas for a sequel though and it will probably end up in there in some form.

Maybe the /2 power-down could be compensated with extra speed (the same as the Trainers do), so player can collect it in difficult situation. It would help him, but lower his score.

Maybe, but then that's too much of a positive pickup then. It's tricky to know what to do with it really. In the grand scheme of things it's probably a little pointless. I suppose I could make it so that in two-player mode it affects the other player's score rather than your own.

Another bug: when I pause a game, then unpause and play and then get a record score, it doesnt allow me to write my score to a table. Instead my name there is a blank line and the game continues to title screen. My hiscore is saved though, but without my name. I think it probably has something to do with 'problem' I mentioned above (some weird keyboard-reading) and I would suggest to use fire button for pause/unpause instead of keyboard.

Thanks for this, I hadn't noticed it. You can press fire to unpause anyway if you want (could you try that and let me know if it makes a difference?). I'll have a look at this one this week and see what's causing it.

[Predseda]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

I suppose I could make it so that in two-player mode it affects the other player's score rather than your own.

Thats a good idea, so it should be removed from 1pl game. I agree with this.

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Thank you mihcael. I got to level 7 (I think). Levels 1 to 4 I found very easy, in fact I dont like adding those - - - - - - - - lines between letters of AMIGA word in level 1, I think they are not necessary. I also liked the previous design of level 2 more, I think now it is full of platforms and just too easy. Overall I am very satisfied.

the lines - - - were added to ensure there were no surprises for someone playing the game for the first time.

There are going to be 3 sets of unique levels, the previous level 1 and 2 design will make up a portion of the final set of levels.

[Predseda]

I had two holes in my hiscore table because of that already mentioned bug, but now, after I played the game more times, these holes were filled with my name! WTF... It is really weird.

[Lonewolf10]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Another bug: when I pause a game, then unpause and play and then get a record score, it doesnt allow me to write my score to a table. Instead my name there is a blank line and the game continues to title screen. My hiscore is saved though, but without my name. I think it probably has something to do with 'problem' I mentioned above (some weird keyboard-reading) and I would suggest to use fire button for pause/unpause instead of keyboard.

No problem for me (on WinUAE with A600 setup). I pause and unpause multiple times and am able to enter my scores (best so far: 25008 on lvl 10).

I'll already suggested using the fire button for pausing, aswell as P button. Maybe Graham missed it?


Mihcael, it is passible (both places) but you have to be lucky and be on the correct side of the screen. If you aren't, then there is no chance of doing either tight spots on lvl 10.


Graham, any keys typed during gameplay end up as default name on scoreboard. I'm just glad that backspace works so I can delete it and enter my name in instead
Edit: If Enter/Return key is pressed during gameplay then when it comes to the hiscore table any new entry is automtically entered as a blank line (unless other keyboard keys were pressed before the pressing of Enter/Return key!).


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[Graham Humphrey]

Thanks for finding these problems. Clearly something is keeping track of the keypresses when it shouldn't be. I'll need to take a good look at this and find out what's going wrong, probably a bit of a schoolboy error somewhere.