AuthorTopic: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...  (Read 182378 times)

Offline Photocopier

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #260 on: March 27, 2010, 05:38:34 pm
It's beautiful Howard, though I have to use my task manager to kill it
alt+f4

Offline eobet

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #261 on: April 13, 2010, 05:44:54 pm
Hoooooly crap this looks absolutely fantastic!

Only discovered it today and spend a few minutes being more and more impressed by each page I saw.

The main character still feels a bit like an odd choice to me...

oh man oh man. I was watching this project just admiring the work done, but I never expected to actually get to play it! (mac user)

Whoah, what? Did I miss a mac version somewhere? Tell me where, please!

iPhone version too perhaps? ;)

Totally commercial quality on the graphics anyway. I hope the gameplay holds up!

Offline Vertigo-zero

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #262 on: April 15, 2010, 01:19:47 pm
Like eobet I also found out about this project today, and i've read every single post! I'm in love with the progress so far!
I have a question, I'm also making games in MMF2, but how do you get frames to have semi-transparancy (for example in the smoke).
Is there an easy way to place/paste frames in MMF2 with transparancy?

Keep up the good work! You will be able to earn a lot of mony with this game (by either letting a company sell it or by selling it yourself).

Offline McClaneGames

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #263 on: April 26, 2010, 08:57:47 pm
http://www.pixelprospector.com/indev/2010/04/absent-eden/

I've got PixelProspector in my subscriptions on YouTube, and was excited when I saw the game featured there.  Keep up the great work!

Offline Howard Day

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #264 on: April 26, 2010, 10:01:41 pm
Ninja Crow: Alt-f4 should quit, as will hitting Esc. and selecting "Quit" (in the actual game). I shall fix the text to be more legible, perhaps I'll change the color. I'm not gonna blow a whole lot of time on it, but I should get it to a good place before I move on, right?
Photocopier: Thanks. :D
sakket: Sadly, there isn't currently a Mac version available. Some of the additional MMF2 extensions I use don't provide executables for Java builds. This is really unfortunate, and if I knew of a way around it I would go for it - unfortunately the extensions are rather important - IE the sound engine. :(
eobet: Thanks! I was honestly going for an odd choice for the main character - I have grown tired of every other player character being some random anime guy or action girl. I thought I'd mix it up a bit. I may still change it at some future point - I'm in the midst of re-modeling the main character. I may change my mind, but don't hold out too much hope. :P
Vertigo-zero: Thanks. On the MMF2 question...I'm not actually creating any of these assets in MMF2 itself - I render them out from 3DSMAX as PNGs with alpha channels built in. When I import those assets into MMF2, it automatically finds and respects those alpha channels. From what I've seen of the MMF2 internal image editor...it doesn't look to handle alpha channels very well. I'm not sure how to solve your problem. :(
McClaneGames : Yeah! He pinged me with that this morning. Pretty cool!

So - here's what's up. I've done very little on this project in the last month - I purchased a house, and have been running around like an insane person trying to cover all the needed tasks related to the whole thing. It's taken a month to get to the point where I had my first free day to relax (yesterday) and I didn't give any thought at all to this project then. :D Too busy vegging.
That said, I'm back into it!
CURRENT TASKS OF TERROR AND DOOM
Fix intro text
fix intro re-entry flame (too goofy right now -I think I can do better...)
Then, continue on to one of the following - I have no idea which one I'll hit first:
Add SPIDERBOT to the game...
Add health and coolant pickups to the random dropable system
Create a crate and container system
Create a point/score/money/RPG/selective end of level upgrade system
Continue creating intro sequence and main menu - as well as a "how to play" and credits screen
Start making City Rooftops Level End-boss. (MUWHAHAHAHA)
More Cityrooftops art - including kites and shit in the backgrounds...

Yeah, lots to do. If anyone would like to chime in and comment on *which* of those they'd like seen done first, go for it!

Offline Reo

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #265 on: April 27, 2010, 04:53:05 am

Offline Ninja Crow

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #266 on: April 27, 2010, 05:52:31 pm
@Photocopier & Howard:  Thanks for the help, guys!

GunApe == coolest new game character of the decade!

If it's not too much trouble, could you list the MMF extensions you are using?  I have Game Maker, and I'm curious if Fusion is superior in this plug-ins department.

Pixel Prospector looks like a cool site, congrats, Mr Day!  (though I do feel a little left out by havin' you on that other forum behind our backs... ;))

>I'm not gonna blow a whole lot of time on it, but I should get it to a good place before I move on, right?
Great philosophy - especially for games with such a small team! ;)  Nothing seems a greater risk to the birth of a game than to be hopelessly mired in details that could be fixed after all the important stuff is done - or never - just as long as they are at that minimum good place.  Of course it helps when the very first workable version of things is as awesome as your stuff is - seriously, there's hardly anything you've put into it from day one that didn't already kick all kinds of butt!  :y:

As for what to put in next, it depends on your personality:  Do you get bored if you work on the same task past the beginning 'hey, that'd be neat!' stage, always looking for a cool new challenge, or can you soldier on at the tasks that are the most important to next finish?  I would label each new thing you think of to put in the game with the following three settings:
  • Green.  Anything put in the green category is something either so esoteric that only a developer would ever notice, or with which the game could actually run, play, and be released without it ever having been implemented (e.g. wanting a colour change to an enemy, or having a special text effect over credits, or making something swish when you run past it, etc.).
  • Yellow.  These are things that make a difference, but which do not keep the game from running.  This category includes non-serious bugs such as an animation fluttering.  If you can actually get from start to finish without a feature, then it's a Yellow category feature (e.g. no specific animation for being knocked back by enemies, or no sound effect for an action like jumping, or no intro story, etc.).
  • Red.  These are serious issues, like the kind that can kill game play dead.  These are the missing sprites, fall-off-the-screen, 'what happened to my controls', 'where's the last level' type of issues.
Therefore, anything you label as a red category action would be the first to be worked on, even if something else were more fun.  The only exception would be if the fun thing could be done in a day or less!  If you are the type who has to have everything perfect before you can even think of moving on (vs. someone who paints in the broad areas of colour and then comes back to details if they have time or inclination) then this may rankle you a bit....  (in case you can't tell, I'm speaking of myself here  :) and have to go against my natural obsessiveness and try really hard to finish big things before the little things, even though the fear of people seeing my stuff half complete is nearly crippling - how about you?)

I don't know if you want to use such a system, or have one of your own, but if you'll permit me, I'll take the liberty of labeling your 'To Do List' (including past items and a couple of my own...) in the following way:

1. Fix intro text - green
2. fix intro re-entry flame - green
3. Add SPIDERBOT to the game... - yellow
4. Add health and coolant pickups to the random dropable system - red
5. Create a crate and container system - yellow
6. Create a point/score/money/RPG/selective end of level upgrade system - yellow
7. Continue creating intro sequence and main menu - as well as a "how to play" and credits screen - yellow
8. Start making City Rooftops Level End-boss. (MUWHAHAHAHA) - red
9. More Cityrooftops art - including kites and shit in the backgrounds... - green
10. terrain variation - building height changes, that sort of thing - red
11. I might just have to make a version that's obviously UI in nature. - green
12. The player model - yellow
13. and movement in general. - red
14. Complete the visible In-game HUD - red
15. Intro - yellow
16. Main menu - red
17. decide if there will be any in-game collectibles and if finding all (including hidden ones) is necessary for 100% & 'good' ending - yellow
18. level two concept - red  ;)
19. task someone who can be both prolixy and pithy to craft the story text or a set-up novelette - green  ;)
20. name the levels (one suggestion for city rooftops:  Ghost Colony) - yellow  ;)

You may wish to get a community consensus as to the category of each item, or make your own judgement, of course.  (I've numbered the list so its items can be easily referrenced)

Congrats on your new house!

JD

Offline eobet

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #267 on: April 28, 2010, 01:51:34 pm
So this is game maker? Great, now compile a mac version pronto:

http://glog.yoyogames.com/?p=817

Pretty please with sugar on top?

Offline Gil

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #268 on: April 28, 2010, 02:04:08 pm
It's not Game Maker, it's MMF2 or something like that.

Offline Howard Day

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Re: Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

Reply #269 on: April 28, 2010, 05:14:53 pm
Reo: I actually added health pickups - just to see how complex that sort of system might be. Long story short, not very. Gonna add a coolant pickup (far more common than the health pickups) I really like how the small health pickups look. I think I nailed it. :D
- the first one is when the pickup is spawned and bouncing around, the second one is when it comes to a rest.
Now I just gotta make a "Pickup" effect when you grab it, so they don't just disappear.

Ninja Crow: Holy nuts. I will try and get you the list of extensions with the next update - I don't have it with me, and I've got waaaay more installed than I'm actually using. Off the top of my head, I've got the Onu audio engineer...and I don't really remember any others. :(
That's a hell of a list and an neat way of categorizing them. Personally, I can get somewhat bored easily - I've been meaning to re-do the player character animations for months now - but I keep getting distracted by shiney objects.

eobet: Sorry, I'm using Multimedia Fusion 2 Developer Version. It can do Mac builds, but only through Java executables.

Gil: Yep.

EDIT: So aI added an activate mode and altered the bouncey spawn...
« Last Edit: April 29, 2010, 01:53:46 pm by Howard Day »