Lazerworld V0.15.00
Community Forums/Showcase/Lazerworld V0.15.00
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| Hello all! I'm sort of new here, that is, I've dabbled with BlitzMax for a while now, but never posted here so far. I'm coming to show off my first (well, not all time first, but first that will actually get finished) game. I've started programming over 18 years ago, was quite good at QBasic, but took a long break concentrating more on visual arts endeavours. When I saw BlitMax the first time a couple of months ago, I thought that that might be a good way to get back into the saddle, and I was not disappointed, what a pleasure to program in. At any rate, back to the game. Years and years ago, I played this game where you're supposed to direct a laser beam into a target by way of mirrors and prisms. I liked that game, and since I can't remember seeing or hearing of a current game by that principle (at least not beyond some simple java or flash versions here and there), I decided to make something like that. It was for the longest time mostly a learning experience, and I used stuff like Timeline FX, Nitrous GUI and the Ignition framework extensively to help me get it done, but I never quite felt like it was my own thing. But by this version, I have removed all these "crutches" and programmed my own frameworks, particle systems and menu systems. Now I feel more comfortable actually showing my face with it here. ;) Of course, the particle system isn't as pretty as timeline fx, but maybe it will get there eventually. I've done everything on this project, up from the code, over music to sound and graphics. I like being a jack of all trades, really, and in that this project was mighty fun working on. It's not quite done, yet, of course, it's still only a demo... But most of the programming is done, I just need to add much more levels and a few more gameplay elements to make it more interesting. (Switches, doors, destructibles, moving elements, etc.) It has a small story going on too, which I thought would be a nice gimmick. Long story short, I hope you guys like it so far. :)    Screenshot 4 Screenshot 5 Screenshot 6 Screenshot 7 Download: http://www.kittomer.com/temp/lazerworld0.15.0.zip (16 MB) Last edited 2011 |
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| Not bad at all. I played all levels. The particle system works fine. The arrow keys were to sensitive. They would move the screen way too quick when pressed. Same thing with the mouse movement. The prism selector also gets in the way some time and the only way to make it go away is to scroll the screen to move the area of interest away from the hotspot of the prism selector. Finally, the intro may be long for some but it was fine for me since the story was interesting. Anyway, good job thus far and hope you add the other levels. P.S. I would suggest looking into using the right click to pop up a menu with the prism selector along with a delete option. Then on clicking an item the pop-up would disappear. I know, easier said than done :-) |
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| There's a scroll speed setting in the... settings, didn't it work for you? And thank you. :) I am not sure about a popup menu, I don't really like them and I have a feeling if I did that, I'd have people telling me to do a static menu. ;) What I think I'll do, is having the mouse wheel scroll through all available parts, and/or add an option to have the menu fold up at all times. (Right now it DOES fold up on resolutions smaller than or precisely at 1024 in width.) By the way, the "optimal" resolution to play it on is 1920x1080. Last edited 2011 |
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| I hear you about the popup menu. I didn't check it settings. I'll try that next time. I was playing at 800x600. Maybe that's why the prism selector got in the way. However I don't remember it folding up. I'll let you know the next time I play. |
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| Years and years ago, I played this game where you're supposed to direct a laser beam into a target by way of mirrors and prisms. I liked that game, and since I can't remember seeing or hearing of a current game by that principle (at least not beyond some simple java or flash versions here and there), I decided to make something like that. If that game you played wasn't Vortex's Deflektor, then I sugest you boot up winUAE or some C64 EMU and give it a blast, that game is under a foot of dust in my todo list. Retrospec do have a spectrum port for the pc, but its not the same game IMO even if the levels are the same, playing a pc game that looks like a speccy doesn't seem worth while when I can use the amiga adf and play with nicer GFX. |
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| Hmm, It does fold up for me, so if you think it's a bug tell me. :) And I can't remember the name of the game I played, but it wasn't Deflektor. It must have been a clone, but I do remember that it was a user submitted game to a german Disc&Mag magazine for the C64. It was more on the puzzle side and less on the action side, as I intend to do it with my game. |
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| What got my attention in the first place was the nerdy version number. The stills look nice. Sadly i can't try the game as i'm on a Mac. |
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| I like version numbers. :P I wanted to make a Mac version, and now that I don't have to use any mods it might even be possible to get it to compile painlessly. But the thing is, I don't even HAVE a Mac. I tried doing this Hackintosh thing, but while everything seemed to work well, I never managed to get BlitzMax to run, which brings me to the confusion about the Xcode thing, shouldn't it be included? Do I need to pay for being able to use it? Does BlitzMax need it? Is it even installed? Is that why it won't run? And then I had an incredible case of "Screw this". |
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| Yep, I'd probably tell you to do a static menu, because it's rather annoying that you want to set down a piece right where the menu wants to appear. Other than that, it's really a pretty game. The sounds are a bit exhausting, I'd say. The hard kick on the buttons is too harsh and it takes a moment before one associates that sound with hovering over a button to begin with?! The lazer sound is truly unnerving, I think and could be made a bit more pleasant, diffused and with probably more of a volume fluctuation/lfo to reduce the stress factor. Visually I think it's very pretty, really. Gameplay, if the menu changes and the sounds are more pleasant it will be great. Good job over all! |
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| Thank you. I suppose the visual part would be standing out, that being what I usually spend my time with. Nice 3D modelling, by the way. :) Hmmm, I thought I had defused the laser sound enough already, at the beginning it was even louder and sharper. ;) I suppose I'll have to soften it even more. I am surprised the menu button sound is so intense for you. Dou you have a powerful bass speaker on your system? On every system I tried the game on the menu button sound was very subtle. I guess I'll try more of a ticking sound for the menu instead. |
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| @Kittomer If it's easy going and you want me to i could compile you a Mac version sometime this week. Somehow looking at the still it reminds me of a mix of those laser games, colour matching level design and somehow it could be a rpg part in it as well with stronger and different lasers. |
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| Well, I managed to compile an OSX version. :) Will try to get it compiled in Linux soon too, so that nobody feels left out. Only x86, no PPC. Everything seems to work fine, although I'd be glad if any Mac users could tell me about any bugs they encounter. Download for Mac OSX: http://www.kittomer.com/temp/lazerworld0.15.0OSX.zip (16 MB) Aaaaaaand a linux version. That was painful. I'll probably only do builds for Linux and OSX again when the game is all the way done. Please note that you have to run ConfigLinux, or the game won't start. It should "Notify" you that this is necessary, but for some reason no message window pops up. Also, on my Ubuntu 11.04 and the nvidia drivers for my geforce 560, the menu system was EXTREMELY unresponsive when Vsync was turned off, so if you have that problem, turn on Vsync. Download for Linux: (Compiled and tested with Ubuntu 11.04) http://www.kittomer.com/temp/lazerworld0.15.0Linux.tar.gz (16 MB) Last edited 2011 |
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| Cool, i'll give it a try. |
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| Thanks. :) |
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