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   JLJac on November 07, 2012, 07:48:31 AM:

Update 116
Poking around with the colors of the lizards. Sometimes I want their colors to change slightly to align with a color in the specific level's palette. For example, if one level has pink plants in it I want the pink lizards on that level to be that pink, not anything else. This is kind of a hassle in some cases, as some parts of the lizards are constituted of bitmaps loaded from memory, and for those parts the colors can't be changed from the code. So I'm doing multiple sets of those parts so that everything will be in sync.





   JLJac on November 08, 2012, 01:37:37 PM:

Update 117
Menu stuff...





   JLJac on November 09, 2012, 03:37:30 AM:

A video!

Click the image!


The video shows how you can play with the lizard AI - I, the white player, have a rock, and my friend has a spear. I attract the attention of the croc, and make it follow me. When the croc see me dissapear down the ledge it assumes I dropped to the bottom, and decides to drop down as well. Once down there it realizes that was not the case, and crawls back up to investigate where I might have gone. My friend is waiting for it with the spear.

This is of course an artifical situation, but it shows how the semi-predictable AI can affect the way you play. It's possible to make a plan based on what you'd think be a reasonable behaviour for the croc, and put it in motion. Not all plans will work as smoothly as this one of course, but I hope there will be fun in the element of surprise as well!





   JLJac on November 09, 2012, 07:36:49 AM:

Just bringing the video to the new page ~

Click the image!



That's... Surprisingly brutal for something so cute. I imagine the sounds are placeholder- I hope they'll be replaced with something more fleshy and visceral.
Also, what's the structure of this game? I don't have the willpower to look through the whole thread to find out- how does the game play? I only know the mechanics, not the goal or anything.
Hehe the sounds you're hearing are made by me, and I'm an amateur sound-wise. Whatever gets updated depends on whether or not my awesome sound guy has a sudden gust of inspiration!

The goal of the game is to catch and eat flies, not portrayed here, while at the same time avoiding the lizards with sneaking and jumping. Killing a lizard is just a means of survival, not an in-game goal.

BTW, are the characters sprite-animated or do they have bones?
(Seems like bones, but I'm not sure...)
I don't know exactly what "bones" is, have heard of it some time... but yeah, I think it might be the thing. The characters are made of several parts that interact according to simple physics.

Nice! Take *that* you shitty lizard! Bam! Love the way it frantically backs off, injured, too.
Hehe yeah! The spears almost always end up sticking out of their throats, beacause whenever they spot you they turn towards you and open their mouths. It backs off because if the tip of a spear that's stuck in its body interacts with terrain it gets a little spams in the other direction.

Suddenly I realize how gruesome this stuff is XD





   jamesprimate on November 09, 2012, 01:41:12 PM:

Awesome vid!  I'm have yet to play it 2 player, but the thought of tag teaming those lizard bastard makes me smile  Evil

As for the place-holder SFX that JLJac did... I think I've played it so much that I'm used to them and kind of like them! I had thought of just touching them up a bit down the road to blend with the newer SFX, but this is probably a good time to get your opinions oh wise TIG brethren. We have one vote for more "fleshy" (realistic I'm guessing?) sounds. Does anybody else have an opinion based on what you've heard in this vid?





   JLJac on November 10, 2012, 01:03:06 PM:

Update 118
I managed to make a working menu for the Prince of Arcade guys! I hate UI programming, but it has to be done, so, well, I did it. The menu is not the menu I'll use in the game, but now I have a framework, and that's a good start. Now I can do stuff such as adding a button or a list, make them clickable, switchable, highlighting, connect them to the machinery behind the scenes, and so on. I'm already feeling a huge amount of satisfaction over all the work I'm evading compared to the alternate reality where I programmed every button as a single special case with its own unique code.





   JLJac on November 10, 2012, 03:36:48 PM:

That's... Surprisingly brutal for something so cute.
My thoughts exactly.

What do you mean by this? Is it a good thing, or is it a bad dissonance?

I didn't really think of the characters as "cute" when I designed them, I just wanted a soft-bodied animal kind of character with a blank expression on its face. I guess in a way I wanted to create a contrast between a soft character and a hard world, but soft and hard in the literal, physical sense rather than anything else.

As always with art I as an artist can't really control your interpretation, while at the same time the piece is in your interpretation. I can try, though. I don't want my game to be interpreted as a "happy tree friends" kind of thing, where the entire point is "it's cute but violent", that's not what I set out to create. So if that is what I'm conveying, I might have a problem o.0





   jamesprimate on November 12, 2012, 05:11:44 PM:

when is this prince of arcades? sounds very cool, and I'll be very excited to hear the reactions!

Missed this post earlier -- it's tomorrow night! I'm totally stoked!

oh snap! I didn't realize it was in Montreal. I'll see if i can get some of my toy company friends to make it. I want that feedback! :D





   JLJac on November 13, 2012, 08:13:01 AM:

Peeeeeeeeew I managed to send a version to the Prince of Aracade guys.

Now I'm terribly tired of rain world, and might actually even take one or two days off.

See ya'll!





   jamesprimate on November 24, 2012, 01:01:55 PM:

IM BUMPING THIS THREAD LETS GET EXCITED! hopefully JLJac is enjoying is break, but I want to talk about Rain World  Gentleman so.... ill do what  can contribute: music!

This track, imaginateively titled "Rain World 12" will probably be menu & "city ruins" in a gritty electronic style: https://soundcloud.com/james_primate/rain-world-12a








   JLJac on December 03, 2012, 07:22:24 AM:

I know this is getting crazy, and I will get back to work sooner rather than later. It's just that after having spent several hours each day doing this without even thinking much about it the sudden contrast of not spending that amount of time sitting around trying to convince a lizard to crawl in some specific way was kind of pleasant for a change.

I'm alive, and I'll get back to work soon. The game only has its final 20% left, meaning that we're at least 25% through development!





   JLJac on December 06, 2012, 12:17:02 PM:

I got an email from James, and suddenly realized that it's been waaaaay to long - so, here I am again.

Update 119
Finalized the lizard-egg interactions. A lizard will now behave reasonably if you steal its egg, and the AI seems to not mess upp too much (from what I've seen so far).

If you steal an egg, the lizard will hunt you down and kill you, but let go and take the egg home first. Then it will return for your body. If you drop the egg to the ground the lizard will prioritize the egg over you, and you're safe a little while. If you snatch the egg from a lizard that's carrying it you're pretty much instantly dead though, as it'll just snap at you the very moment you snatch the egg. When carrying eggs they have their mouths slightly open, meaning that you don't even have the few frames it ordinarily takes for a surprised lizard to open its jaws before it can snap at you. A lizard always knows where its egg is, even though it can't see it. A psychic radio connection? Idk... But if they didn't, it would be way too easy to get away with an egg, as it is now it at least poses some kind of risk and challenge.

You don't need to press the "pick up"-button to get an egg from a hole, entering the hole without carrying anything in your hands will pick up the egg automatically.





   jamesprimate on December 06, 2012, 07:56:01 PM:

YAAAAAAAAAAY welcome back JLJac!

okay tell me more about the egg interaction. does it serve a purpose other than aggravating the lizards? is it food? it seems like a big thing. also... the bubble creatures? i feel like im missing a whole component!





   JLJac on December 07, 2012, 08:34:34 AM:

Hehe that's a cool idea! It's not what I had in mind for the eggs though - the eggs will work as a single player collectable. I'm planning to have a sandbox gametype where you can spawn whatever lizards you want, if you've collected their egg in single player mode. And maybe there'll be an "egg hunt" gametype as well, where there are no flies and the players compete to steal eggs from the lizards. Apart from all this the eggs will be worth some food points, they'll equal to 4 or 5 flies, or whatever seems reasonable.

James, what about the bubble creatures? They're just... bubbles. I'll send you a level where they're present so you can check them out Smiley





   JLJac on December 10, 2012, 01:14:05 PM:

Update 120
Found some text file handling code in an old game of mine and moved it over to RW. Am looking for a map of the world that I drew on some piece of paper, until I find it this:

Quote
mtx[2][1] = [#name:"w/21", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(1,0), point(1,1)], #lizards:[["green",1,10000,1]]]
  mtx[3][1] = [#name:"w/31", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(-1,0), point(2,0)], #lizards:[["pink",0,0,1]]]
  mtx[4][1] = [#name:"41", #type:"room", #exits:[point(1,0)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[5][1] = [#name:"w/51", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(-2,0), point(-1,0)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[1][2] = [#name:"rooms", #type:"room", #exits:[point(1,0)], #lizards:[["white",1,200,1],["white",2,110,2],["pink",4,60,3]]]
  mtx[2][2] = [#name:"w/22", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(-1,0),point(0,1),point(1,1)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[3][2] = [#name:"w/32", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(-1,-1),point(0,1),point(1,0),point(1,1)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[4][2] = [#name:"w/42", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(0,1), point(-1,0),point(-2,4),point(0,4)], #lizards:[["green",0,0,1]]]
  mtx[5][2] = [#name:"poles2", #type:"room", #exits:[point(-1,4)], #activeEntrance:1]
  mtx[1][3] = [#name:"rupture", #type:"room", #exits:[point(1,0)], #lizards:[["pink",1,121,1],["pink",5,353,2]]]
  mtx[2][3] = [#name:"w/23", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(-1,0),point(0,-1),point(1,0)], #lizards:[["pink",6,400,2],["pink",0,0,1]] ]
  mtx[3][3] = [#name:"w/33", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(-1,-1),point(-1,0),point(-1,1),point(0,1),point(1,0),point(0,-1)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[4][3] = [#name:"w/43", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(-1,-1),point(-1,1),point(-1,0),point(0,-1),point(1,0)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[5][3] = [#name:"stoneheads2", #type:"room", #exits:[point(-1,0)], #lizards:[["green",3,21,1],["green",1,106,2]] ]
  mtx[1][4] = [#name:"sky platforms", #type:"room", #exits:[point(0,2)], #lizards:[["blue",1,621,1],["pink",0,0,2]]]
  mtx[2][4] = [#name:"w/24", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(-1,2),point(1,-1)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[3][4] = [#name:"w/34", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(-1,1),point(0,1), point(0,-1),point(1,-1),point(1,0)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[4][4] = [#name:"w/44", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(-1,0),point(1,0)], #lizards:[["green",4,0,1]]]
  mtx[5][4] = [#name:"underground fan", #type:"room", #exits:[point(-1,0)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[1][5] = [#name:"tut1", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(1,0)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[2][5] = [#name:"tut2", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(-1,0), point(1,-1)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[3][5] = [#name:"w/35", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(0,0),point(0,-1)], #lizards:[], #ambientSounds:[[#mem:"OM", #vol:255, #pan:-25]]]
  
  mtx[1][6] = [#name:"w/16", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(0,-2), point(1,-2)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[2][6] = [#name:"w/26", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(2,-4), point(1,0)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[3][6] = [#name:"w/36", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(-1,0)], #lizards:[]]
  mtx[4][6] = [#name:"w/46", #type:"hub", #exits:[point(0,-4), point(1,-4)], #lizards:[]]

is my only clue to how the world is layed out, and while I actually can decipher it it's like 24 times slower than just looking at the actual, drawn map. Worst case scenario I'll have to redraw the map from the above scribbles, I've done it before.





   JLJac on December 11, 2012, 02:59:06 AM:

Update 121
Added three new plants to the level editor: fern, mushroom and plain grass.
Also sorted out a problem with the light renderer that made a plant or object just a neon-colored silhouette when light hit it. The problem was that I had forgotten to rename a variable...





   JLJac on December 13, 2012, 01:53:07 PM:

Thank you very much!

Update 122
I found my map, and transfered it to a bigger sheet of paper. When looking at the map I realized that the single player campaign only has 7 levels, which is very limited compared to the like 40+ levels I've actually already made. So I decided to cram a few more of them into the single player world - it's a very small effort required and it will make the single player longer, giving me time to in peace and quiet introduce each color of lizard without rushing anything. So, now I'm well into extending the world map. Don't worry though, I won't make it too huge for me to handle. If I add maybe five hub rooms I'll have room for three or four additional swarm rooms, making the game 50% longer without much additional work.





   jamesprimate on December 14, 2012, 01:03:56 AM:


I found my map, and transfered it to a bigger sheet of paper. When looking at the map I realized that the single player campaign only has 7 levels, which is very limited compared to the like 40+ levels I've actually already made. So I decided to cram a few more of them into the single player world - it's a very small effort required and it will make the single player longer, giving me time to in peace and quiet introduce each color of lizard without rushing anything. So, now I'm well into extending the world map. Don't worry though, I won't make it too huge for me to handle. If I add maybe five hub rooms I'll have room for three or four additional swarm rooms, making the game 50% longer without much additional work.

MORE LEVELS

you dont know how happy this makes me...





   JLJac on December 14, 2012, 11:06:37 AM:

I've been following this thread from day 1 on, and I must say I really hope you'll have the breath to finish the game.
I love the aesthetics and the mood and idea and all the decisions you've taken within this thread; it's plain lovely and I am really looking forward to be able to play this game in it's final version. Keep on going!
Thank you for the kind words! Knowing that there's some anticipation out there certainly helps me catching my breath when it seems I'm out of it.

Update 123
James got inspired from the new levels, and made new music! Two new tracks of the same high standard as always. These tracks are a bit more background-ish according to me, so I think I'll try to fit them into the hub world areas. They could also work as a suspenceful background for a level with many not-too-dangerous lizards where the action is kind of even in intesity.

On my end I've been tampering a bit with the world map, and I also solved a problem where it would instantly transport you two rooms instead of just one upon entering a door. I went with an ugly solution, blocking the second of the double signals instead of finding the source for it and removing it. It's my game, I'm the only programmer and I do what I want Evil





   JLJac on December 17, 2012, 08:15:39 AM:

Update 124
The completion of the game can basically be boiled down to four points from here:

1 - Create a working menu(With art)
2 - Finish the world map(Including tutorial level)
3 - Make different gametypes for custom mode
4 - Polish and bug fixes (I'm afraid of this one)

Today I did some work on the menu, and created a way for multiple menu pages to exist. Now you can go from the "Main menu" page to the "Custom Game" page but not back again. Yay, progress!