Sonic's Super Super Ice Balls... A first look.
Community Forums/Showcase/Sonic's Super Super Ice Balls... A first look.
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| Super Super Ice Balls for Intel OSX / Windows DirectX [UPDATED: v0-19] =====================================  [v0-20] Here's an updated screenie with the new graphics I've done. As you can see the look of the game has changed quite a lot, and there's new main characters and baddies. It's been a lot o' hard work and late nights, but I think it was worth it! Let me know what you think. It might be a while before the next upload as it's in an 'inbetween stage' right now and I'm going to polish it till it shines before I next put it online... See you then!  Version History: v0-19 [PPC only for now!] ==== Pre-alpha v0.19 of Super Super Ice Balls (Mac PPC version) 1 - High Score Table 2 - Redefine Keys 3 - Windowed mode 4 - New Baddie Type 5 - Improved Weapons 6 - Many small bugs removed 7 - Secret Rainbow Bonus Room 8 - Thunder, lightning and rain fx 9 - Level Timer 10 - Other stuff I forgot to mention [v0-18] ======= So the game's been majorly updated, I wasn't sure if I should add a whole new showcase page... Check out the new powerups available, there's 144 different collectibles now, many of which give you strange and interesting powers... as well as the shiny new two player mode! The game's getting to be quite fun now, and the code's 98 percent complete. There will be a few more tricks and traps to add, as well as different types of baddie. I plan to implement a level timer that decides whether you achieve the bonus screens as well as the chests that now appear, as opposed to the current way of scoring high combos. Then there's just lots of content to create, the title screens to iron out, story screens and the publishing to attempt! Now the keys are different: Player 1 -------- Shoot - ',' Jump - '.' Left - left arrow Right - right arrow Up (when flying) - up arrow Down (when flying) - down arrow Player 2 -------- Shoot - left control key Jump - left shift key Left - 'a' Right - 'd' Up (when flying) - 'w' Down (when flying) - 's' Enjoy and let me know what you think! Thanks so much for your time. Pre-alpha v0.18 of Super Super Ice Balls (Intel OSX version) Pre-alpha v0.18 of Super Super Ice Balls (Windows DirectX version) [v0-14] ======= So, before I press on with my development I'd like you all to take a look at the progress of my latest game, 'Super Super Ice Balls' [working title]. It's based on a game I developed on the Amiga in about 93, and is still a work in progress. However, before I polish it up and offer up an alpha version for testing on sites like 'Indiegamer' and 'GameDev', I'd like to see what my good friends, the Blitz community think of it. Gameplay ====== A combination of Mario Bros and Bubble Bobble, to put it in simple terms. It's a single-screen platformer where you use your ice gun to freeze the enemies, then jump on their heads. Jump on multiple heads to get combos - this can sometimes open secret doors to bonus rooms filled with lovely fruit! In this demo it is one player, although it is very much designed as a two player competition to collect the best bonuses. There is a boss at the end of each world (8 in total). The demo includes one world only. Controls: [UP ARROW / Joystick button 1] - Jump [CTRL / SPACE / Joypad Button 2] - Shoot Ice Ball [LEFT + RIGHT ARROW / Joypad D-Pad] - Move left / right Feedback ====== First of all I'd like to know if there's any technical issues. The game runs in 1024x768 at 60Hz. I also haven't tested the joypad input, so if there's a problem let me know! Second, and more importantly, I'd like to know what you think of the 'feel' of the game, the way the character responds, the difficulty of the levels, are the graphics up to par for an indie title? Could it sell? Let me know fellow Blitz developers with access to an Intel Mac! (Windows version includes a keyboard-only .exe for thos having trouble with the character running left! Temporary fix until I buy a gamepad.) |
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| Looks superb. I can't find the exe in the download though? |
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| Sorry I should have mentioned it's only on OSX at the moment... I will be having a go at compiling on Windows later today, but it might not work straight off. We'll see. |
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| This looks great. |
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| Hi, I've uploaded the Windows version - worked first time when I compiled it... That's a relief! |
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| Well with my joypad plugged in the character just wants to go left all the time, and I can't shoot. Keyboard controls seem to work, but due to the fact the joypad (USB) is plugged in I still keep going left. |
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| Hmm, will have to buy a joypad this week, need to test for myself. Other than that, though? What did you think with KB control? |
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| Well with my joypad plugged in the character just wants to go left all the time, and I can't shoot. Analog joypad?Keyboard controls seem to work, but due to the fact the joypad (USB) is plugged in I still keep going left. That'll be either a calibration problem, or more likely the game code doesn't allow for a dead spot of, say, +/- 0.1 on both axes. Analog controllers are rarely ever at 0, so a small dead spot is imperative to avoid problems like this. |
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| I have the same moving left all the time issue. Probably best to offer control type as an option so that keyboard and joypad don't interfere. A deadspot would also be a good idea. Very nice though! Stevie |
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| Thanks Stevie, any comments on look and feel? Is there a market out there for something like this? Were the levels too hard / easy? I'll upload a Joypad-fixed version soon. Need to buy one first though! |
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| Nice game. The controls are bugged though. While I was playing level 2, I fell through the first hole in the ground, landed on the top and when I stood on the moving platform the player started moving left all by himself. No matter what i did I couldn't stop the player from moving left. I ended up being stuck in the left hand bottom corner of the screen. |
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| Amon, did you have a joypad plugged in? I think that could be the problem! |
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| Ok Windows users, I've put a dead-zone in the joypad code. Does this fix the issue? |
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| I didn't have a joypad plugged in, no. I tried it again and this time it happened when I was underneath the top moving platform on level 2. When it hit me the player started moving left. I think this game has appeal. I'd buy it. :) It's a breath of fresh air to have something other than a match 3 or MMMMOPRGRGPMMO. :) |
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| testig now as the other version didn't work for me, the character ran to the left side and stayed there. Some observations already: - Main menu needs mouse support. I used the keys and quite first time by mistake. - full version will need a windowed mode to go on the portals. - graphics look nice, good for a casual game. more later... |
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| Ok Windows users, I've put a dead-zone in the joypad code. Does this fix the issue? Is the new version uploaded? I'll download now and test again. |
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| Very odd, perhaps you could try again with the deadzone included in the joypad code, if you can be bothered to d/l again. Thanks for the feedback! |
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| I only got as far as level 2 and found the joypad issue a nightmare when trying to stay on the lift at the bottom so gave up. It's smooth as & looks very pro, nice effects and animation. Stevie |
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| Thanks Grey, I was afraid my programmer art wouldn't cut the mustard, hehe! I know about the title screen, there's a lot of polishing that needs doing there. It will support Windowed mode and have mouse input, I just have to solve some of the problems you've already dealt with with resolutions etc. |
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| Tested the new download and I still get the same problems on level 2. Here's what to do. On level 2, start messing about near the top moving platform and the stationary platform underneath it. After a little while of jumping about and letting the platform hit me the player starts moving left on it's own. You end up getting stuck. Hope that helps. :) |
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| So I put up a version which includes a KB-only .exe. Does this solve our problems? I really appreciate all your invaluable feedback, and I'm so happy and surprised some of you actually like it! [Edit: sorry it's still uploading... 5 mins...] |
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| I've not had a chance to test this out, but, going on the screenshot, I think that it looks nice. However, I don't find the characters very appealing. They're well drawn but they aren't lovable or cute enough. Know what I mean? Then again, that they are bound to suffer when compared to the fantastic character designs in Bubble Bobble and the Mario games. Still, I am impressed. |
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| Thanks JustLuke, it's always the killer, isn't it? The main character's given me a lot of headaches, but I think he looks quite cute in action... He could change though, I am bearing it in mind. @Amon - can't recreate the bug you mention, will you humour me and d/l one more time? I know it's a pain, but this time it might just work! |
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| Hey neat game, I like it :-) It's definitely got casual potential. I'll show it to my kids later. Frezing them with ice is grat, and the red ones you have to freeze twice is good (they remind me of the cross creatures on Rainbow Islands) some points: - the clouds move in 1 pixel incremements, how about letting max draw them at floating point coords, it may look smoother - the platforms on level 2 have a black line on top that fluctuates (you are drawing these at floating point coords). Try adding a 1 pixel border round the image, this means the gfx card can anti-alias the edge better. - It would be nice if you can go off the sides, like Bon Bon Quest: http://www.binaryjoy.co.uk/games/review/bonbon-quest/ You allow going off the bottom so it seems weird not to go off the sides. - When the music looped back to the start it made a horrible spectrum type loading noise for 0.5 seconds before starting agian. - Death anim needs a noise and perhaps more going on (this is probably on your to do list already ;-) - Died on level 6 I think (The castle) btw, I'd like to put this on my site when it's done if you are agreeable to an affiliate program? |
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| Thanks Grey, all great points and noted! The spectrum sound is due to a dodgy ogg-convert program and I forgot to include the new conversion, so don't worry that one's fixed. At the moment all sound fx are placeholders, they were done in seconds and there are a lot more events that need their own sounds eg dying. Thanks for the link to Bonbon Quest, definitely on the same tip, will check it out. Quite surprised I haven't already come across it in my research. And yes, I'd love to be an affiliate when it's complete in a couple of months (fingers crossed). I'm only now beginning to research how to actually release the title! [edit: typo] |
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| Did anyone reach the boss yet? :-) |
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| Tested the new download and all appears to be fine. :) Haven't got to the boss yet, I'll try again later. :) I'd like to say again that this is a good little platformer. I like that graphics and style of gameplay but not too keen on the music. Can't wait to play and buy the full version when it's available. :) |
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| And yes, I'd love to be an affiliate when it's complete in a couple of months (fingers crossed). I'm only now beginning to research how to actually release the title! Excellent, well contact me when you are ready. Also read this, it may help: http://greyaliengames.wordpress.com/2006/11/09/an-approximate-guide-to-selling-indie-games/ I'm not an expert, but I have done it (4 games now, working on 5th), so I guess that gives me some measure of credibility :-)Also checkout: http://www.addictive247.co.uk/coinplanets.htm And also Coin World on that site. They are not as casual as Bon Bon or yours but the same idea for sure. Good luck! |
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| Nothing bad to say thats not already been mentioned, and none of that is very bad. Its smooth, fun, & cute. I kept going til I'd no lives left, level 8 I believe. I think you are doing yourself down with the programmer graphics comment. It all looked pretty polished in that department. Really agree about the sideways wrapping point mentioned above, would make for some nice extra puzzle elements. This is great work and I can't see why it wouldn't do well. |
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| Thanks for the kind comments everyone. Glad to see noone has any major complaints about the control feel / general playability - as that's by far the most important thing to me! Looking at other games of a similar ilk, eg Superstar Chefs or Bonbon Quest, I find the controls to be sluggish and slow... So I'm aiming at a more frenetic, aracadey feel, which I think is what's so great about platformers like Mario and Sonic. Also, I'm having a bit of a think about the walking off the sides of the stage idea - I did consider it of course, but it wasn't used in Bubble Bobble, my main inspiration, and I find it makes the level a little too accessible in terms of getting to places. I'm toying with it though... |
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| It looks very very similar to a particular small and very cute fruity platformy game that Team17 came out with back in the Amiga days. |
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| yeah I'd say the graphics were maybe 20% programmer graphics and 80% cool :-) Title page will need more sprucing up for the final verison. Also some kind of storyboard/comic would go down well... |
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| @Daniel I think I know the one you're talking about... Qwak. It was a Bubble Bobble clone too. Might have to try and track it down for comparison. @Grey Anything you think I could do to tidy the graphics up - overall shading style, colour scheme, balance of background to foreground objects, line thickness, character design, fruit look etc? I'd obviously like to finalise this now before pressing on with the content, part of the reason why I've uploaded at this early stage. |
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| I've been reading about Qwak recently and some kind of remake coming out soon I thin, can't remember where though. As for the graphics, well I make programmer art so maybe not the best person to ask but the title page just needs a bigger menu, more stuff going on etc. The game is good and the cartoon style works well and disguises the "programmer art" side of things. Perhaps just a bit more detals in some things like the ground, some of the blocks, the robots, I'm not really sure - it's pretty good already imho. I mean if I made it, I'd be pleased with it. Perhaps some of the arty types round here can give better feedback, also on Indiegamer they'll have more to say and if you send to portals/publishers they *may* have some good feedback but I wouldn't count on it... |
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| Yeah that was it, Qwak, lots of fruity action. |
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| @Sonic >Graphics are sweets, nice colors, very good style, great work ! >I can't use my Gamepad ( I don't like playing games with keyboard, exept FPS of course ! ) :( >I don't like the "auto fire" input :( >when jumping on a moving plateforme, the hero seem to re-jump without touching it ! I played without the sound, so I can't say about. After beating all first levels, the boss refused to fight with me... end of démo ? Grrr... ^^ |
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| If you want an OSX PPC build I'm happy to oblige. |
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| Can find nothing to criticise, perhaps apply some light sharpening to the graphics (mainly the enemies). It looks really nice, I like the plain but colourful menu systems. More importantly it handles really well, the feel of the controls is really good. |
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| yes the handling is good. |
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| Qwak (the limited edition gba version) is here: http://www.qwak.co.uk/ Is Super Super Ice Balls going to be freeware or shareware? I was going to post news about it on retroremakes.com but if it is going to be commercial/shareware then I can't. I know it's not a remake as such but it's definitely retro. :) |
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| Yes,it should be great to have some bonus : power up ( kill ennemis in one shoot ), fire in diagonal, etc. The game is smoth, but my screen is set to 60hz with Vsync ON for everything. |
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| Hi Caffeine Kid, It's going to be commercial I'm afraid (but not too expensive, though), as I'm taking four-six months off work to make it to the best of my ability! (If you want to see what I do as a day job, check www.myspace.com/sonicspace - you might be surprised, haha.) Since all this positive feedback I've doubled my efforts to improve every aspect of the game... Today alone the number of bonus items has gone from 24 to 128! Vegetables, burgers, ice cream, lots of nice gold things... even musical instruments... I'm aiming for a Bubble Bobble level of depth with the items, and it's taking a lot of deep thought to devise a suitable system. Many will give you powerups. It'll be great I hope! I've noticed a couple of bugs mentioned before and they'll be fixed in the next upload in a week or two - sorry the boss doesn't give you a chance to fight him - it's fun I assure you! See for yourself when v-0.15 goes up. Thanks everyone, Sonic. |
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| Oh did anyone make it to the bonus rooms by the way? |
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| no I couldn't get into any bonus rooms. Cool, so you make music. I'm well into that sort of thing, although maybe more trance based. Got myself FL Pro, used to use trackers etc right back in the Amiga days. Nice Myspace site btw. |
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| Yeah that's how I got into it. I was into bands in the Amiga days but I used Med a lot to write game tunes and sometimes used breakbeats for my production and I began to realise I was quite into electronic music. |
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| Oh you have to reach a certain combo to enter the bonus rooms - usually x5 sometimes x4 - look out for the doors and run for them when the level ends... |
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| you don't get much time when the level ends to run into them. I've seen the doors but they never opened, guess my combo was too low. I remember Med but I was a bit purist and didn't like the fact that if you used > 4 channels they were split be OctaMed into 4-bit channels, yuk. |
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| No I didn't like OctaMed either... I rocked 4-channel vanilla Med! |
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| Yeah you should make it pretty obious how combos work - I saw the door on one level and just assumed it would be the exit to the level. Good that you are drawing more graphics, the more and crazier the better I reckon :) Keep going with it |
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| Sweet graphics! Looks a little bit too cold. But nice Gameplay. |
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| Major update inside! Check the first post... Enjoy :> |
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| It just sat on the loading screen for me, I left it for about 30 seconds before getting bored. |
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| Interesting, do you mean a black screen or had you already seen the title screen? |
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| Good fun, but... The music was buggy for me. Once the guitar-power-up sample kept playing forever and the music never returned. Several times there were other problems, like the main music disappearing randomly. Also the wings didn't work very well. It was impossible to fly through the top of the screen, and return to the bottom (if that makes sense). And the disappearing platforms didn't go away when I had the wings. And I pressed the jump button while wearing the wings, which did nothing but when the wings came off again, the dude made a jump directly into an enemy. There were more like that one where an input wasn't used until much later, like after restarting from a death. Probably because you have KeyHit() placed somewhere, where it isn't called every frame like it should be. |
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| Hi Fredborg, Yes I just noticed the music bug which didn't appear on OSX (my development OS). I updated to BMax 1.24 and it seems to have gone away for me. I've re-uploaded since, I wonder if you could take a few minutes to check if it now works. Re: the wings - that's a known bug I've yet to fix, both flying off the top of the screen and using the collapsing platforms... haha! Re: KeyHit() - Been trying to work out how to solve this one. Should a well-placed Flushkeys() sort me out? Thanks for the comments. |
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| Interesting, do you mean a black screen or had you already seen the title screen? I got the main menu, chose single player and then got the loading.... screen |
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| I just re-downloaded and it works now. Dunno what happened before. |
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| Cool Perturbatio, glad it works for you. What do you think? @ Fredborg - wings have been sorted now! Onto the jump bug... |
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| I'm interested to know at what stage you think I should put a version of the game up on sites like Indiegamer... I know Blitz people are more forgiving of games' flaws and graphical inadequacies, but I'm keen to get as much feedback as possible during development. In its current form how far away do you think it is? Also what do you think to the idea of employing an artist to redo the GFX - would this help with sales, and how much should I spend, were I to go ahead with it? |
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| I think it's ready to go on Indiegamer. It's not a match-3 so you should do OK ;-) |
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| Any chance of a Mac (PPC) build to play with then? |
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| Sonic: Just tried it for the first time. Played for 30 minutes, didn't find any bugs. Looks very, very nice! Wonderful graphics, easy controls, nice level design. I think the graphics are perfect. They are clean and remind me very much of Bubble Bobble. I wouldn't change a thing other than perhaps add *more* graphics...changing the block design and backgrounds every few levels would keep the game fresh as you play for long periods of time. Otherwise, excellent job! |
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| Wow thanks for the positive encouragement everyone. It's very easy to lose the faith when you're at this stage in a large project. I'm building myself up to putting it on Indiegamer now, where I'll no doubt get some harsh comments - not necessarily a bad thing! Just a couple more things to iron out, like the level timer. @Tachyon The way it's shaping up is to have themed stages of ten levels (each with four hidden bonus stages) - this will bring more varied graphics, but perhaps you are right and I need a few more platform graphics to spice up each stage. [edit: I've just realised it's you who's doing this incredible RPG - I've been watching your progress and I think it's a really exciting project, with amazing graphics - it gives me a bit of Dungeon Master feel, one of my all-time-faves. Are you in need of a tester, hehe? Really cool that you're doing such an ambitious project, inspirational even.] @ Grey Thanks again for keeping tabs on this project, I trust your judgement as you're genuinely making a go of this Indie game and I really respect that. Did you try the new version? |
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| This version has the annoying joypad/keyboard moving left all the time confilct problem back again :-( You really need to offer a choice for control. Be nice to use the enter key to make choices on the menus. Other than that I can't comment as the joypad only appears to work for direction none of my buttons appear to do anything, and I cant play with keyboard due to the above conflict. Yes I could unplug my joypad but that would mean groping around the back of my PC and you don't want to make everyone who wants to play it do that do you ;-) |
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| Sonic: No I have't tried it yet. Downloading now. And yes, Tachyon's game looks amazing :-) |
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| Sonic: OK I've tried out the new version and have some observations (only played to level 4, see below...) Firstly, to clarify, when I said it's ready for Indiegamer, I meant as an Alpha or proof of concept as it's not ready for Beta yet (as I'm sure you know). Are you planning to sell this yourself only or to sell it via the portals as well? I ask because if you are selling it yourself you won't need to add as much "pro-game" stuff to it, but bearing in mind that's what people expect these days you might as well.... Glad to see you've made the clouds smooth, added a death noise and other things. The new musical stun items are cool as are the extra weapons, certainly adds variety. OK here's my list, it's not exhaustive and may contain dupes from other people: 1) Are your music and sounds effects original (made by you) or royalty free for *commercial* use? 2) Change the name for commercial release on portals maybe? Something like Little Robots Adventure or something (you know the kind of thing I mean). 3) you need a lives icon next to x10 such as a little robot. 4) It would be nice to save and load games or resume from where you left off. 5) You probably need a plot screen and a map screen (at the very least) 6) Icon for the current weapon? Way to swap weapons? 7) in-game Tutorial is required and so is an instructions screen. 8) Chest is cool, needs a noise when it opens and throws out stuff 9) Need an options screen on the title page (and via the in-game menu) it should include volumes and also a windowed mode. I know windowed mode won't be as smooth (cos you have set the game to run at 60Hz) but the portals will require it. 10) have you tested it on cards with VSync turned (forced) off? Does it run at the same speed? 11) Exe Icon 12) Man still runs off to the left when my joystick is plugged in, shame :-( 13) Escape in-game should show an in-game menu with one of the options being quit. 14) Game over screen appears for a fixed time so button pressing doesn't do anything (makes you think it's stuck until it disappears), it should stay there until a button is pressed. 15) Mouse should be usable on tht etitle page to click menu items 16) Menu items can only be clicked with Ctrl (why?) and , . Really you should allow Space and Enter. 17) How about default shoot and jump keys are Z and X? Because , and . make me hunch up funny as I am forced to sit non-centred at my keybaord. Or Ctrl + Shift but you may run into trouble with StickyKeys etc... 18) redfine keys options for sure. 19) Still think if you can go off top and bottom you should be able to go off the sides too ;-) 20) Oh dear, the game crashed on me on level 4 (I think) I was using the lightening on some robots on the right hand side of the screen and the screen went black with the music still playing then it crashed to the desktop after about 2 secs. I expect that you've already got some of those things in your list. When you've got all the extra stuff done like menus, map/options screens, tutorial etc then it's ready for beta release. This stuff normally takes quite a while! You think you've finished a game then you have to do tons or boring menu stuff to make it ready for commercial release. That's why I've made a framework for BMax with all that stuff in it, it just needs graphics, sounds/music for the menus etc - mind you pluggin all that media in still takes flipping ages! Good luck with it! |
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| Hi Grey, Thanks so much for the feedback mate, exactly the kinda stuff I want to hear. Still not sure about the whole portal aspect, perhaps we could chat about this via email sometime? Now let's have a look at the list... 1) Music, well that's my real job so all that and sfx are my own, made with synths and what-have-you. 2) The name - def. - should start a poll about names for the game... This was just a working title, taken from my Amiga version of the game when I was 17. 3) Lives icon - def. 4) I am still thinking about restart points. I know it's a big issue, but part of the thing I loved about for example Bubble Bobble, even Jet Set Willy, was that you had to work hard to get to later levels. Perhaps it would be possible to save with your lives saved too, so that it's just like an extended pause. But that also makes it easy to repeat until complete... Really unsure about this tbh. I want the game to have some longevity... Anyone else have any thoughts on this? 5) Map and plot screens in the works. 6) Icon for current weapon for sure. Still toying with weapon ideas. At the mo, ice is your main one, and the others are powerups, however they all are pretty balanced, and I was thinking of adding, say, fire blocks you can put out with ice, ice blocks you melt with fire etc to open secret areas. For this it would be nice to change between weapons. In this case it might be nice to have ammo for each, so that you have to learn where to save your fire ammo for the big bonuses locked behind ice doors etc... I'm really open to any ideas about this... Anyone? 7) Tutorial for sure, not sure whether to integrate it into the title screens as a sort of demo, or to do it ingame. Thoughts? 8) Chest noise yes. Need to redraw chest too, looks cheap. 9) Options for volume + windowed mode for sure, still haven't looked into the Hz issue, but it seems to perform the same in Windows and OSX, no faster or slower. 10) With vsync off the graphics tear quite nastily, so not sure about that. 11) Icon goes without saying! 12) Ah the joystick bug's crept back in cos I never actually removed it when I switched back over to Mac for development. I just cut it out of the 0-14 PC build. Ooops. Must buy joypad. 13) Agreed about Escape to quit. 14) Again, agreed. 15) Mouse will be usable on the title screens for sure. 16) Menu items will be tidied up a lot. 17) The keys are set this way to accommodate two players on one keyboard, Shift and Control is another option, but there's no Right Contol on for example Mac laptops. What are the standards for two players on keyboard? 18) Redef keys high on the list. 19) Hmm that old chestnut. Looking at the maps I've done so far it wouldn't really hurt, on the next stage I do I'll try it out and see how it feels. I wasn't sure about it in Superstar Chefs and Bonbon Quest tbh. 20) Yep there's def a crash in there somewhere with one of the new powerups, hasn't happened too often, a combination of factors I think, I will track it down next time it happens. As for beta release, I wouldn't even call this an alpha yet, not until I've got all the gameplay I intended into it (eg level timers, a few more bonus types that you get for completing the collections that appear that give you one of the bonus effects for, say, two levels permanently , a boss secret exit, which is what the gems are for, much like Rainbow Island) and I was wondering if I should wait for that before uploading it to Indiegamer? Long sentence I know, sorry! I'm still entertaining your framework, but also thinking about just sticking to 1024 * 768 for the game (although it works happily in any res) cos I don't think it will limit the potential customers too much. Who really has an 800*600 display these days? Anyway, thanks again man, be glad to do the same for you. You got anything up your sleeve? Jasper |
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| @Sonic What is your email address? I have some questions I would like to ask you offline from these forums. Thanks |
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| Sonic: Glad I was of some use. 1) cool 4) A lot depends on if you aim to get on portals. Thing is that casual games (which include some very good "cute" platformers) never punish the player by making them restart etc so being able to carry on from any of the levels would be essential imho. 6) It's cool you've added more weapons but it starts to make the game non-"simple" which is again what the portals would want to sell it (up to you if you want to use portals but you *will* make a *lot* more money). If you add in ammo and other perceived "complex" weapon factors then it may put off some players like little kids. Btw, level 1 is too hard for my 5 year old son, the platforms need just slightly too perfect jumping to get to the top so if you could ease the player in with a really simple level or jumps which require less accuracy, that would be cool. 7) Instructions screen is always useful and an in-game tutorial as well is the norm. 10) I wasn't suggesting using VSync off permanently, I was just saying test it to check that the game runs the same speed and not super-fast. 17) Ah yes I see. Here's the thing though, is one of your *main* marketing points going to be that it's a two player game? If not and you expect that 95%+ of your players will be playin gon their own, the keys should be made easier and more normal for them. Perhaps when two player mode is selected a different key set could be used? I'm not sure how other games do this, worth some research? I wasn't trying to sell you my framework ;-) With how far you've got you might as well finish it otherwise integrating with my framework now may prove a bit longwinded... As for me, yeah the framework is being converted to Mac this month, then I'm making a game for 2-3 months for a very well known big portal. Can't talk about it though, sorry...wish me luck! |
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| @ Grey One of the things I'm trying to sneakily do with this game is make it enjoyable to casual and hardcore gamers. In a way, you don't really need to understand the weapon/powerup system as it is, you just pick em up and sometimes become more powerful or your weapon changes... although it is quite deep, and experienced gamers can potentially have a lot of fun trying to max out your score by combinations using combos, things like flying where you can do an unlimited combo if you know how (until your wings run out), and getting fast level times to open the bonus rooms and chests. Also trying to always do at least x2 combo will get you more gems, if you get all the colours of the rainbow it opens a 'super bonus room' which contains a huge item, million pointer or whatever. So I quite like the weapon system as is, with ice as your main, and the others as little fun ones to vary the gameplay without you having to think about it too much (ie change weapons). Hopefully this doesn't make it too complicated. One thing I should perhaps do is make the 'alt' weapons more powerful than the ice one, rather than balanced with it... On top of this, two-player is a big factor, as anyone who's played Bubble Bobble will attest - it's all about grabbing those big bonuses before your friend who becomes increasingly riled - adding a whole new slant to the game. This was one of the things I really felt made this kind of one-screen platformer special, hence the huge emphasis on collectables. I will def. look into similar games approach to the controls though. On a tech note, I think the game does run faster with no vsync, quite a lot in fact, is that a problem? |
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| I played Bubble Bobble two player years ago on the C64 ;-) Yeah if your game runs faster with VSync off in drivers (but you are calling Flip with VSync on in Blitz) then any hardcore gamers who have set their graphics cards to VSync off OR any customers who's graphics cards don't Vsync properly anyway are going to get different game speeds (plus windowed mode is going to be a disaster due to widely varying desktop Hz settings). Haven't you used some kind of timers, or delta time or fixed rate logic for your game timing/speed? |
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| Also what do you think to the idea of employing an artist to redo the GFX From what I've seen in this game, I'd be willing to partner up on a project with YOU as the artist. I think it looks great. The only tiny graphical criticism I have is that the corn looks really, really phallic. SpaceAce |
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| Gamepad support ? Also, I really like this update : the bonus are very nice ( storm, icarus wings, etc ). The game is pleasant to play. There just miss the sound of the sea ^_^ I don't know if it was the end of the demo or a bug ; I died when killing the last ennemi of the level ( this one on the screenshot in top )... I could play, but the game didin't want to let me go to the next level... |
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| Thanks for the kind comments everyone. I'm really working at this full throttle now. There's a treat up for all you PPC Mac users - I've uploaded the latest build (v0-19) which has a great deal more features in it than the previous v0-18 including... 1 - High Score Table 2 - Redefine Keys 3 - Windowed mode 4 - New Baddie Type 5 - Improved Weapons 6 - Many small bugs removed 7 - Secret Rainbow Bonus Room 8 - Thunder, lightning and rain fx 9 - Level Timer 10 - Other stuff I forgot to mention Windows and Intel Mac versions will be updated as soon as I have finished my list of things to do, in the next version, v0-20. I just thought it would be nice for those poor PPC folks in the meantime... Enjoy! |
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| Great stuff, really enjoying this so far. |
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| Thanks Rik, any problems or bugs for you? Or gameplay ideas? |
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| Only had a quick play so far, will give it a proper go later this evening. So far though it's rock solid and looks great. I really like the graphics style. |
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| Same here too, player runs to left of the screen and stay there. Very odd key maps too. Period key to jump and left control for title screen. Pretty cool visually but I didn't get to play it. |
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| Hi the joystick bug's finally been fixed as I bought myself a joypad...so stay tuned for the new version! |
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| New pic - see first post! |
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| Hmm. I'm thinking its just gone too cute now. Even the bad guys are smiling. Much perferred the earlier look. Does not look like something I would want to play anymore, and IMO you are in danger of losing interest from adults who would quite happily have played the previous grittier (albeit only a bit) version. |
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| Hehe well I'm happy with it, and I believe in it! And I live in Japan where nothing is too cute, and part of my market will be here I hope. |
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| I'm with Geehawk on the cuteness quotient but you know your market better than I do. Still, I personally liked the other main character better than the new kitties. Anyway, enough teasing, it's time for a new Windows build. Semi-edit: Man, the more I look at it... The baddies should not be smiling at me. SpaceAce |
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| Well the baddies smiling that's something to think about, I might be with you there. About the main character, I just felt the robots were a bit 'characterless' if you like, just a bit generic and unmemorable. Besides that, most of the work has gone into the tiles and re-doing all the lines so they are no longer black, rather coloured in a darker shade of the main colour which I think is a much better look. I hope not everyone feels this way, as I genuinely feel like it looks more professional now, and when you see it in action, the animation is much improved... Anyway, there's certainly no going back on the look of the tiles or new line colours, and my Japanese friends love the kittens, so I hope some westerners will too! |
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| Now downloading... [edit : gloups... didn't see that this new update was for MAC only...] |
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| This project just keeps looking better and better. As a big fan of Bubble Bobble you have a guaranteed sale with me. |
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| I just played your PPC mac demo. It's pretty interesting. I played it on a PC and it was, I think, running at 30fps, then played it on the Mac and it was 60fps. Everything was a lot faster, all objects moved around quickly, and the timer seemed to be counting down faster than one count per second. I don't know what your target fps rate is, I presume its 60fps? Thing is, it doesn't always run that fast and when it doesn't that really changes the gameplay, which is why people use delta timing and the like. At 30fps the fruits that are revealed when you jump on an enemy take much longer to settle before you can actually collect there, whereas at 60fps you seem to have the timing about right. Also the player movement is very sluggish feeling at 30fps. It's a pretty good game, but in some ways I also felt it was a bit `safe`, and not really anything new. Indeed what I saw so far did not really seem original at all? I don't mean to be harsh, it's actually pretty nice to see a platform game written in BlitzMax running on a Mac, but I didn't find it very original. I think it would definitely be a good idea to put in delta timing or similar for when the framerate is lower, unless of course you're aiming at a specific hardware requirement. It looks nice overall, but I think it needs something extra special. (really nice smoke and lightning effects, though!) |
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| Is there some kind of story running through the game or some kind of goal to be achieved in the long term? I think the game needs some kind of a theme in that way. At the moment it seems like a platformer where you collect fruits and goodies and bop the baddies but with no seeming purpose overall. ? |
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