Adventure Game Studio

---

What's new in version 1.2?

• All new Practice Mode - now players can practice their weak points
  
• All new mini game with Costume Select screen for play within Castle of Fire dungeons
  
• PAUSE (finally got it working)
  
• Earlier bridges are now easier to pass
  
• Put some extra lives back into the game
  
• Treasures are now animated
  
• When all rooms are completed, the player is rewarded, and can now
      face the Black Dragon over and over again (random music and treasures)
      instead of being sent all the way back to the beginning (so now it's more
      like Dragonfire)
  
• Brightness now saves - When you adjust the game's brightness it now
      saves itself so you don't have to constantly adjust it when launching the
      game externally or reseting from within the game.
  
• You can now skip the scene when Thief walks up to the door in the intro
  
• Each line of dialogue is now skippable (takes place of skipping the whole conversation)
  
• When getting Game Over it now plays the Game Over music instead of
      the music that was playing when you lost your last life
  
• The Highscore Screen has its own music when being viewed from the title
      screen (unused Hammerblade track from v1.0/1.1)
  
• Raised the volume of the SFX
  
• Added "foot stomp" SFX for Dragons
  
• Added "fry" sound effect when killed
  
• No longer get killed by spikes while invincible
  
• Adjusted the walkable area around the entrances and exits of all dungeons
  
• Changed the first room with FireGuys a bit
  

  ---

  
  Download link #1 (http://www.freewebs.com/spentertainment/COF/CoFv12.rar): From my site...
  Download link #2 (http://rapidshare.com/files/124723035/CoFv12.rar.html): RapidShare...
  Download link #3 (http://www.mediafire.com/?zzu23zqdnmi): MediaFire...
  Mirror #1 (http://ledzepforever.googlepages.com/CoFv12.rar): Provided by Dualnames
  Mirror #2 (http://dualnames.diinoweb.com/files/Castle%20Of%20Fire/): Another provided by Dualnames
  Games Page (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=1039)
  Black Dragon Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6tgxQ_w7s0)
  
  
  Please read the ReadMe for KNOWN BUGS
  
  POST YOUR HIGHSCORES HERE! (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=34913.0)
  
  Current Highscores:
  
  Mintymint  ------- 12010
  TwinMoon -------- 6710
  Arthur ------------ 5000
  Blueskirt ---------- 4000
  Ector: -------------- 3000
  
  
  I hope you all enjoy the new updated version.
  If you played the past versions, please give this one an honest chance. It has much improved.
  
  
  --Snake

FANTASTIC!! Downloaded and playing now.
I've died quite a few times already... so it will be a long night ;D

Awesome game, snake. With a big AWE!

Congrats on finishing it.  :D

I just had a chance to play it for about 30 minutes and I love it. The style is awesome, and the gameplay is fun. Thanks for adding the brightness feature. My screen was pretty dark, and it helped a lot, but if there was a way to make it permanent, that would be nice.

Comments:
- I would have liked spacebar/jump to have worked in the first screen, so I could get familiar with the controls. Without that, I wasn't even sure if spacebar was jump anymore.
- The difficulty curve is a bit on the hard side. For the bridges, you're thrown to the mercy of the second half seeing as how you can't dodge fast enough, so it took me a while to figure out that you must dodge in the middle and then advance before the fireballs can respawn. The game is pretty tough, but I'm going to try and get better before I beg for a health bar.
BUGS:
- Pressing Escape in the high score screen gave me the error: "Unable to restart game. File not found"

I guess I'll post my highscore in the other thread now...!

Great and addictive game, although very hard.

I don't know if this is a bug or not, but just a moment ago I went game over, and on the high score screen the keyboard didn't work. I couldn't type in a name, couldn't press ESC, I couldn't even get out by pressing ALT+x.

EDIT: After the level with the flashing boxes it gets quite easy. Before that I found the levels very hard. It should be the other way around, I guess. Or maybe I'm just too dumb to play. The hardest levels in this game are the destroyed bridges; I always jump into the water.
But great game, nonetheless.

EDIT2: Oh, and a question: Why is your highscore lost when pressing ESC after you beat all the levels?

I tried to play this game, but the screen was almost completely dark, and I couldn't adjust the brightness through the game.  Adjusting the brightness of the monitor didn't help.  I could not see my character, so I was unable to move him.  The mouse cursor was invisible.  Why is everything so dark?  I could see some stars in the sky but nothing else.

Quote from: nihilyst on Sat 09/02/2008 00:07:14
EDIT: After the level with the flashing boxes it gets quite easy. Before that I found the levels very hard. It should be the other way around, I guess. Or maybe I'm just too dumb to play. The hardest levels in this game are the destroyed bridges; I always jump into the water.
But great game, nonetheless.

Yes, I found that too. The difficulty of the game is like this:

                            Point of No Return
                          ^                             v
                        ^                                v_____________ >
                       ^
__________^

Now I'm happy to say that I don't find the difficulty too hard any more! Yay.

Quote from: egamer on Sat 09/02/2008 03:45:09
I tried to play this game, but the screen was almost completely dark

Yep, I had the same problem. The game is unplayable for me because the very first level consists of a black character against a black background with specks of dark blue. Adjusting brightness didn't help. Why not make it a sunset instead of darkness, or give the main character a lantern? Or, you know, put torches in front of the castle, since it's a castle of fire.

Furthermore, please fix your interface to simply use the keyboard. It's weird to have to use the mouse for two or three menus, and the keyboard for everything else. You can e.g. code your own "quit" GUI.

If the down key is duck, why isn't the up key jump?

Fun game! Minor complaint: I got a whopping amount of 0 points on my first runthrough.  :-[

Lovely game, no doubt about that. My personal gripes -

*"Brightness" doesn't set the game bright enough, I had to adjust my own monitor GAMMA settings. Don't be afraid to let the player choose between 0 and 200.

*No way to save a game, not even a password system. Yes, I know, adds to the challenge, part of the old arcade games, and whatnot, it's just a personal thing.

*Wish UP arrow would jump, instead of/as well as the SPACEBAR.

*I knew there are few of them, but - no way to skip speech text?

Movement is fluid, which enhances gameplay. Graphics are spot-on style wise The fireguys' levels reminded me of that game, Jewel Thief. Basically, you've got a great game here, congrats! Pity that, as a bad player who can't save, I'll be forced to start over every time I feel like I want to play it, only to play the first 4 or so levels and then either be bored and quit, die, or have to do something in real life with no way of coming back to the level I left.

agree nearly 100% with Rui's gripes,
but nevertheless big congrats, absolutly great game.  :)

Hey, guys,

Thank you for downloading :)

I'm glad you guys are making it through all the levels. I was dreading that it was going to be outrageously hard. I have no problem going through it myself at least once. I haven't tried to honestly see how far I can go yet - usually just testing.

Okay, let's get to the bugs and complaints :)
(this is cool... this is my first experience with people playing anything finished by me and telling me what they hate about it!)

Brightness
Hmm. I don't know what to say about that. The brightness slider is infact set to go all the way to 200 (if your system allows you to move it) - don't know why it isn't working.
As Radiant has suggested, how many other people would like this to totally change? I'm not opposed to the idea.
I could:
1. Change it completely
2. Make it an option to play at sunset or at night
3. or Make it a whole seperate download

Highscore room trouble
The only thing I can think of is the "Score.txt" file not being in the folder. I deleted it before zipping. Seems wierd though since I've deleted it several times before and never had a problem with it. I'll look into it.

QuoteI don't know if this is a bug or not, but just a moment ago I went game over, and on the high score screen the keyboard didn't work. I couldn't type in a name, couldn't press ESC, I couldn't even get out by pressing ALT+x.

Was the background still animating?

Jumping
For those of you who would like that option to jump using the UP arrow instead, I'm pretty sure I can change that. I'll definately try it.
The reason why is because I never thought of it. I've always hated games where you had to press UP to jump, it bugged the shit out of me. I've always liked a seperate button to take this action.
Oh, and I will definately change the first room (intro) to be able to jump and get a feel for the controls. What's funny is that was one of the things I wanted to make sure I put back in before I released it, but I forgot :-\ Don't know why I even wanted it out in the first place...

All keyboard control
I didn't make a customized PAUSE/QUIT gui because it wouldn't pause the game, I did indeed try so I am sorry. I did NOT want to use the default QUIT thing, but that's the only way I could get the game to hault all scripts. I could get it to pause, but you could still run.
I can try again since, come to think of it, I never put any coding in the module used for the bridge scenes.
I'll give this one another shot.

Skip Speech
Press ESC ;) Everything in the beginning is skippable:
*SPE Presents...
*Quote from John Quincy Adams
*Very first room (Thief running to castle) except when the thief reaches the door...
*Initial Conversation with Green Dragon

QuoteOh, and a question: Why is your highscore lost when pressing ESC after you beat all the levels?

I'm a simple coder - don't know many flamboyant moves. I tried making it go to the highscore screen, but it wouldn't reconize your score as high enough to make the list. I'll talk to Colxfile about it.

Thanks again, everyone!


--Snake

Quote from: Snake on Sat 09/02/2008 13:19:53
All keyboard control
I didn't make a customized PAUSE/QUIT gui because it wouldn't pause the game,

If you set the GUI as a "popup" rather than "regular", it should block everything else.

If not, put something in your repeatedly_execute to the effect of "if (GUI is enabled) { don't do anything } else { do regular stuff }"

Quote from: Snake on Sat 09/02/2008 13:19:53
Brightness
Hmm. I don't know what to say about that. The brightness slider is infact set to go all the way to 200 (if your system allows you to move it) - don't know why it isn't working.
As Radiant has suggested, how many other people would like this to totally change? I'm not opposed to the idea.

I know this might be alot of trouble, but I would suggest this:
Raise the brightness of everything by about 25-50% (not the slider, manually). Then you can have the brightness slider go down for anyone who has it too bright, and up for anyone who needs a little more. If it's possible to make the brightness changes permanent in the game, as I said before, that would also be great.

Quote
All keyboard control
I didn't make a customized PAUSE/QUIT gui because it wouldn't pause the game, I did indeed try so I am sorry. I did NOT want to use the default QUIT thing, but that's the only way I could get the game to hault all scripts. I could get it to pause, but you could still run.
I can try again since, come to think of it, I never put any coding in the module used for the bridge scenes.
I'll give this one another shot.

Please also make the brightness control keyboard controlled! It was odd to have to use the mouse after selecting it, and tedious.

Hm, about the brightness thing.

I played it on two computers, one having a normal monitor, one having an LCD. While all was very bright and clearly visible on the LCD, I had trouble recognizing everything with the normal monitor, even with all the setting of my monitor and the game set to max.

And yes, the highscore screen still animated, while nothing else worked. I don't think it's a bug, it's too untypical. Must have fucked up something.

My brother tried playing it and using the brightness adjuster, and it turns out that he could only get the slider to work in full screen mode.

That is standard AGS behaviour - Gamma adjusting doesn't work in Windowed mode.

Don't mean to stray too far from the topic, but couldn't one create a screen-sized GUI which just resembles a white rectangle, make it appear first, over everything else, and then fade that in. That should give a brightness control that works on everyone's system, in full and windowed mode. Shouldn't be too hard to implement either.

Quote from: dkh on Sun 10/02/2008 13:23:58
Don't mean to stray too far from the topic, but couldn't one create a screen-sized GUI which just resembles a white rectangle,

That wouldn't work, as the problem is lack of contrast (both character and background are essentially black).

QuoteThat is standard AGS behaviour - Gamma adjusting doesn't work in Windowed mode.

Yes, I made sure that I said this in the ReadMe.

Tomorrow, guys, I'll working on an updated version - I'll do my best.
Until then I hope you all enjoy what you can, if you can.

The reason why I didn't make the brightness brighter before releasing it is because if anybody's monitor didn't support gamma control, then they couldn't play the game at all - thus leaving it to be an option. I'll take note of making it controlled by the arrow keys too.

Radiant:

QuoteIf you set the GUI as a "popup" rather than "regular", it should block everything else.

If not, put something in your repeatedly_execute to the effect of "if (GUI is enabled) { don't do anything } else { do regular stuff }"

I believe that I did infact try all of that to avoid doing it the way it is now but nothing worked to stop the character from being moved. Trust me, I didn't want it that way. But I will try anything again - got an idea or two up my sleeve...

A question before I go:

All of you that had experienced problems with the highscore screen, can you explain to me exactly what happened to get an error or no keyboard responce? Can you recreate the problem? This will help me a lot in trying to fix, since I did not experience any of these problems.

About the LCD monitor idea:
I've got one of those and everything works fine for me too, so it makes sence. I'll work on getting this fixed.

Thank you for your input,


--Snake

I've never encountered the highscore screen problem again. So, probably, I something must have gone wrong with my machine.

It makes me alternatively scream with frustration and relief due to temporary lack of frustration. Which is to say, I like it, but my neighbors probably don't appreciate.  ;)

New version 1.1 released! Get your copy now, jackass!

All the fixes are listed in the first post along with the download link.

Quit Screen
I'm sorry to everybody who hated the default quit GUI popping up when pressing END. It's still in there like that.
I tried my best and nothing still worked. I even went as far as making the pause screen a whole different room. Like I said, I'm sorry, but it's one of those things that I can't do without help. Maybe for the next version... if there is one.

But anyway, I did my best with the rest of the things everybody suggested, so enjoy!


--Snake

Okay, now it's really challenging. I'll try to beat it at least once.

Okay, I got a little further this time. It's a definite improvement, and everything is visible now.

The concept of the game is nice, but it needs some polishing. What I'm playing here feels more like a public beta than like a finished game.

Issues:
* You can't skip the intro (the part where you zoom in on the door) by pressing escape.
* Likewise, you can't skip through the dialog (with the dragon) - you can't even use enter to skip to the next line. If this were an adventure game, I would immediately stop playing upon noticing that.
* Gamma settings reset at game over; they should be stored in the config.
* The bridge scenes are too random - it is possible for two fireballs to launch simultaneously, which is an instant kill. Furthermore, if you are on the left side of the screen, you can't see the fireballs coming early enough to react. And yet furthermore, collision detection is too wide; you can die for simply being near a fireball.
* I find the rooms a decent challenge so far, but lose all my lives to the bridge scenes. Imho the game would be better with more rooms and less bridges; incidentally, most castles in real life have more rooms than they have bridges.
* Sound effects would be nice.
* In the third room, if you below a treasure-with-spike, you will pick up the treasure and ignore the spike.

Quote from: Radiant on Tue 12/02/2008 20:18:04
Issues:
* Likewise, you can't skip through the dialog (with the dragon) - you can't even use enter to skip to the next line. If this were an adventure game, I would immediately stop playing upon noticing that.

I could skip the dialog with ESC. EDIT: Ah, now I got what you meant. Yeah, you're right. You can only skip the whole dialog, but not the single lines.

Quote from: Radiant on Tue 12/02/2008 20:18:04
* The bridge scenes are too random - it is possible for two fireballs to launch simultaneously, which is an instant kill.

It isn't, in fact, since the upper one is faster than the lower one. It's possible (but nonetheless hard) to dodge them.

Quote from: Radiant on Tue 12/02/2008 20:18:04
* I find the rooms a decent challenge so far, but lose all my lives to the bridge scenes. Imho the game would be better with more rooms and less bridges; incidentally, most castles in real life have more rooms than they have bridges.

Agreed. But the bridge scenes are easy once you get the pattern. Now I usually die in the two dragon rooms.

cheers
nihilyst

QuoteAh, now I got what you meant. Yeah, you're right. You can only skip the whole dialog, but not the single lines.

That was what I'd previously meant, BTW.

EDIT -

Quote*No more extra lives until all rooms are completed
*Increased difficulty

You increased the difficulty of what is already a hard game?

Looks like this one will be sitting on my shelf. Damn. You could at least have made it a selectable "hard mode". :'(

Quote* You can't skip the intro (the part where you zoom in on the door) by pressing escape.

No, you can't. I stated that in the readme file. I tried doing this with the cutscene commands but I think the reason why it didn't work is because all of it is a bunch of wait commands.

Quote* Likewise, you can't skip through the dialog (with the dragon) - you can't even use enter to skip to the next line. If this were an adventure game, I would immediately stop playing upon noticing that.

Yes, you can. Pressing ESC skips the entire thing.
This is the only dialog in the game. You do NOT experience this again the second time through. Once you have read it once, you can skip the whole thing.
Indeed, if this were an adventure game, the individual lines would be skipable - why wouldn't they be?
Hopefully it's not that big of a drawback.

Quote* Gamma settings reset at game over; they should be stored in the config.

I'm very simple when it comes to scripting. If you want to let me know how, your more than welcome, but I won't garauntee that I'll understand what the fuck you're talking about and not ask you to explain better - I get overwhelmed very quickly.
It took me just about a year to make this game when it would only take someone with your know-how to make it in a week - given the time of course.

Quote* The bridge scenes are too random - it is possible for two fireballs to launch simultaneously, which is an instant kill. Furthermore, if you are on the left side of the screen, you can't see the fireballs coming early enough to react.

Yes, sometimes the fireballs come out at the same time. Each fireball is it's own speed and are released at different times. So by coincidence, yes, it happens and you feel like you're gypped. This also happens in Dragonfire - one of the most underrated games of all time.
If you're watching the left side of the screen (on the long bridges) you have plenty of time to make a decision. It takes time. You get better the more you play, and even better with patience.

QuoteAnd yet furthermore, collision detection is too wide; you can die for simply being near a fireball.

???
Everything besides the spikes, FireGuys and the laval pits are all using the pixel perfect collision detection. I've never once experienced the feeling of that.
Maybe it just seems that way when they are traveling quickly and you jump just a bit too late?

Quote* I find the rooms a decent challenge so far, but lose all my lives to the bridge scenes. Imho the game would be better with more rooms and less bridges; incidentally, most castles in real life have more rooms than they have bridges.

If I wasn't making this game because I love Dragonfire so much, I would agree. I really like the dungeon scenes myself. But it wouldn't be a tribute if every room wasn't bridge-dungeon-bridge-dungeon, I wouldn't like the game - so why make it?
That's what the game is all about - running from bridge to dungeon taking as many treasures as you can and doing it again with the next bridge. It wouldn't be the same.

Quote* Sound effects would be nice.

You don't hear them? Maybe the music is too loud...
I can adjust it for the next release. But, yeah, there are SFX.
Does anyone else hear them besides me?

Quote* In the third room, if you below a treasure-with-spike, you will pick up the treasure and ignore the spike.

I know. I tried doing something to avoid this, but couldn't (I'm talking about my own personal scripting ability). But they're still there to poke you incase you get too cocky.

I hope you all enjoy the game,

--EDIT--

QuoteYou increased the difficulty of what is already a hard game?
Looks like this one will be sitting on my shelf.

When people are getting through the game 4 times, still having 8 lives and committing suicide just to be done with it, yeah, I felt that had to be done. I thought it might even it out a bit.


--Snake

I hear the sounds, but too bad you got rid of the extra lives. I quite liked the garp gliss.

I didn't beat it yet, but I'm getting better.

I tried running the game in full-screen mode, and now I can change the brightness and play the game.  But when I use up my lives and go back to the intro, I have to change the brightness again, even though I haven't even closed the program.  Shouldn't the game remember the brightness if you go back to the beginning without closing the program?

I haven't tried the latest version; this is from version 1.0.

Quote from: Snake on Wed 13/02/2008 02:32:14

QuoteYou increased the difficulty of what is already a hard game?
Looks like this one will be sitting on my shelf.

When people are getting through the game 4 times, still having 8 lives and committing suicide just to be done with it, yeah, I felt that had to be done. I thought it might even it out a bit.
--Snake

I don't think the first of half of the game's difficulty is the problem with that, I think it's the extra lives given when you complete the game and the decreased difficulty of the second half.

The first half of the game was pretty challenging in the first version, and I only got better through increased practice. You might want to be careful since any more player frustration may just ward off large portions of your audience.

So, I suggest leaving the first half as-is from the first version, and lessen the number of lives given when you complete the game.

Don't get me wrong though, I like the game a lot and it's tons of fun.

Ok, just played the new 1.1. Indeed, the first bridge scene is now too hard for me. Are you sure you can't be persuaded to make an "EASY" mode?

I just tried version 1.1.  It's better that the brightness defaults to 100%.  But why have a brightness control at all if you can only see anything at 100%?

Quote*Increased difficulty

Alright, hang on.

The only things I changed were the following:
Note: The speed of the fireballs have not been changed either (not even in the next few changes...)
*The bridges with Gargoyals:
  I changed the timing for the gargoyals' fireballs.
*The Long bridges:
  Same thing, I changed the timing.
*The White and Black dragons:
  Before, when you died or first entered, you almost had enough time to get
  all of the treasures before they started shooting at you. I changed the timing
  of the fireballs release.
*The Black Dragon:
  Double fireballs - like the Double Dragons

Other than those few things, everything else is exactly the way it was before in v1.0.

If you guys all agree, I can change the gargoyals so it isn't as hard, but I'd like to keep the other ones.

--EDIT--
Hey, guys,
I just played through the game twice and indeed it is harder than the last version, but I think because of the extra lives.
The first time I got 19,245 at the 3rd black dragon.
The second time I only made it to the second double dragons because I lost so many lives earlier.

Would you like me to add in a couple lives? I think there were 5 before, don't want to do that again, I think it was too many.
Or I can give the player 4 lives apon finished all rooms.
How would you like it done? I'd like to find an equal medium here without implementing "Easy Mode" and "Hard Mode" - I'd rather wait until I make a 2nd one... IF I make a 2nd one.

Please let me know what you think,


--Snake

Well, my comments about easy mode refer actually to stuff like the speed of the fireballs in the bridge - maybe even a quick warning about which direction the fireball will come from. Or allow a quicksave like on emulators. Or even just allow to save after each level.

Or I can just accept the fact I don't have the reflexes.

I've just skimmed over the 2nd page of this thread, but I have some opinions on the difficulty.  Version 1.0 was easy with experience and lives were too plentiful.  However replaying the game through exactly the same levels to increase score is to put it plainly boring after a while.  Getting much further than finishing all the rooms a first time should be very rare.  I'd suggest giving no lives at all for finishing and leave some lives in the rooms in mostly risky places.  What would be nice is if on subsequent playthroughs the lives decreased and moved to more dangerous locations.  Have you considered lives per score landmark (with increasing intervals possibly)?

Regarding the bridges, I thought the difficulty was a rocky road.  In v1.0 they started off easily enough, but were quite repetitive, and then the long stretches were very difficult until you notice that it's not random, where it then becomes very easy.  Version 1.1 seemed to use the complicated pattern earlier, and having gargoyles too was very difficult.  Something more like v1.0 for the bridges is better, but the gargoyles in later levels make some nice very hard parts.  I haven't reached the end outdoor levels, but on v1.0 these were a breeze.

The rest of the game was great fun, nice graphics and movement.  The soundtrack fits the game well too by the way.

I'm a massive fan of platformers and so I think you've done an excellent job.  I greatly enjoy seeing AGS used for more than just the usual point and click puzzle fest! 

Edit:  I notice that if you are facing to the right (and standing still) the jump animation uses the left-facing direction.

http://ledzepforever.googlepages.com/CoFv11.rar

Here's a mirror link with version v1.1. Tell me if you want them coming or not.

FINALLY!!! Downloading ^^ Been looking forward to this, but been busy lately with my new job :P (Working at EA GAMES)

Oh sweet, Snake finally finished a game! Congrats on that, man!

I really love the atmosphere, you've managed to capture the classic arcade game mood really well. Some sound effects here and there would have probably made it more lively, but that's pretty much the only "negative" thing I have to say about it. Also, the lack save/load system is a good thing, makes it feel more like an arcade game. And the music is excellent!

Great job, Snake and team. Now bring us Leitor's Edge!!

Oh by the way, the contents of the first post have disappeared as if by magic, probably due to the recent server maintenance.

PETE!!

Haha, Leitor's Edge it's not, I know :)

Thank you for all the cool posative comments, man. I appreciate it.

I'll fix the first post when I'm finished updating to ver1.2 - hopefully the last - and hopefully better liked ;)

And PS: I knew I was forgetting someone's name to put on the "AGS buddy " post - dammit!


--Snake

Eh.. Snake?Something disturbing the game's isn;t on the game's page, and the only link on this thread is the one I host.. so are you planning on using my link(if it's up-to-date) or will you post a new one?

Okay, everyone, Castle of Fire v1.2 is now available.

I hope you enjoy it.

If there's anyone who has played the previous versions and didn't like it, please give this update an honest chance.

(and no, Pete, it's not Leitor's Edge, I know :) )


--Snake

Hm, nice game! I've waited 2 months or something for it, but first impressions is that it's one of those annoying addictive ones ;)

That practice mode sure is a handy feature.

Great game! Played v1.1 to frustration, really struggling on some of the bridges, with v1.2 a lot easier. I'm undecided whether it takes some of the fun away as i have not played v1.2 to a great extent yet, but it is just as addictive. My only problem with v1.2 is that you used to be able to press a button to return to the title screen (F9 i think) which you can't do this time. I found it useful if i messed up on the first dragon.

Well done though, i love both versions of the game i have played-it is extremely addictive and fun.

This version is indeed much better, I scored a nice 4000 points on my first run while on the earlier version I don't think I scored higher than 2000 points. I also unlocked the minigame! There are some things however that would be great improvements:

During the treasure collecting phase and the gauntlet minigame, there should have a shadow at the Thief's feet, to show where the monsters, fireballs, traps and holes need to touch you kill you, and where treasures need to touch you to be collected. The same shadow could be put on the treasures and monsters to show where you need to touch them. It would greatly help at dodging monsters, collecting treasures and squeezing in tight spots.

During the bridge jumping phase, at some point when you reach the left castle, fireballs should stop being fired just to give you the chance to enter the castle. There's nothing worst than jumping and ducking your way to the castle just to be burned right in front of it by un-dodgable fireballs. Old games were often frustratingly unfair, I'm all for tribute and nostalgia, but I don't think bringing back the old games' flaws is a good idea.

Also in the bridge phase, to add more fluidity to the controls, the player shouldn't have to stop walking to duck. Just like you can jump while the Left or Right arrow are pressed, it should be possible to duck while the Left or Right arrow are pressed.

What do you do when both fireballs flies one above the other? (other than hiding behind the right castle)

Two issues in the minigame:
If you score incredibly poorly, it is possible not only to lose the points you earned in previous games but also get a negative point balance. Right now I have -7 points. I don't know if it's a bug or a feature, but it's not cool. :(

When the dragonball turn completly yellow, the character stops walking entirely and you need to re-press an arrow to move again. It sucks royally when it happens in front of a fireball or in the middle of the monsters.

Added a mirror from Dualnames.

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Butters:
Yeah, it was F9. I'm sorry about that, I guess it can be an inconvenience. If you pause the game (END) you can press F9 from there to restart. It took a little bit for me to get used to as well after I finally got PAUSE to work.

BlueSkirt:
Thank you for your critique! It's a lot better than what people were saying about the last versions ;)
Those are very nice ideas, and will definately take them into consideration, but I think I'm all done updating Castle of Fire 1. The scripting is just way too sloppy. CoF2 will be put together a little more smart.

QuoteWhat do you do when both fireballs flies one above the other?

Here's my tip for you; As soon as I see them coming, I turn around and run the other way... wait for them to spread enough apart and jump between them. Most likely it won't happen twice in a row - from what I've experienced. But usually it works if I'm quick enough. It's saved plenty of lives.

Ooo, yeah. The mini game problem. I made sure I explained that in the ReadMe since it's not very fun. Rui and I were trying to figure out why it does that, because some times it doesn't, but we were unable to find the solution. So, I'm very sorry, it's extremely frustrating when it happens.


--Snake

I think the fireballs on the bridge work fine.
You can hide in the right castle, watch the fireball pattern and make a run for it after the two fireballs come at once.

TM: BAH! And wait that long? ;) Heh, and sometimes it happens quickly.
Personally, I don't find anything wrong with the fireballs' mix n' match patterns.
Although I've been playing this game since I started making it, so it's hard to tell, but all in all I think it's an improvement from v1.0/1.1. After the reward screen the treasures and fireballs are 100% random. I was too lazy to do this for all rooms, just wanted to get this out of the way so I could start CoF2.

I should upload a video of my mad Castle of Fire skills!

Blueskirt, I put your name on the highscores list in the H&T forum.

//--EDIT--//
I also added the highscores in the first post as well.


--Snake

High score? Oh yeah, you had that with the first version as well.
I have 6710 (twice actually, I haven't made it past those disappearing bridges).

I've lost at the menu:D

Haha, Dualnames! Hehe, sorry to laugh ;D I don't know if I actually understood you correctly. Are you saying you didn't make the list at all?

TM: Got the list updated, you are the first AGSer to beat Arthur (and posted about it - and in v1.2 anyway)! You are now on top!


--Snake

I was kidding. How can you lose at the menu..?

Aaaah, I see. So you didn't play at all...


--Snake

I've played a lot. Then got frustrated by the coolness and decided to work on HHGTG..

This game is extremely hard!

I also get really frustrated at getting killed right at the end of the bridge, when the fireballs spawn and I have zero time to react.  I think that if the fireballs came from in front of the castle on the left side, it would me much more fair, since I would have time to plan for the ending.  It would also make more sense, since it looks like the fireballs would hit me whether or not I'm standing behind the castle entrance.

I haven't managed to get more than 5 rooms or so in.  I need more patience.  How many rooms are there.

Found 2 bugs:

1) I can duck and press left and slide across the room while ducking.  Is this intended?
2) I once managed to fall through the bridge in the opening intro room (up the hill, past the sign, pressed duck and down I went...)

Really impressive game, though!  Excellent job with the scripting!

Snake, this is a great game..

and this version is much better than the previous one (i can't pass the first bridge on the 1st version.. :P)

I managed to get 12010 after many tries..

very enjoyable game.. and great job on the scripting.. :)

Everything what Vince said. Nice adaption, though!

Plus, if you jump with UP, the guy gets animated while jumping (run-animation, but it looks good), if I press SPACE he just moves up without moving at all. That's probably a glitch.

Quote from: Snake on Fri 27/06/2008 16:22:46

Butters:
Yeah, it was F9. I'm sorry about that, I guess it can be an inconvenience. If you pause the game (END) you can press F9 from there to restart. It took a little bit for me to get used to as well after I finally got PAUSE to work.

Aah, stupid me, it makes sense quitting the game from the pause screen. Been playing this game like mad, only thing i can't get used to is the 2nd dungeon with the little flames-i find it hard to get the two red ruby's. It's amusing how i struggle more with the earlier levels. I find the dragons a lot better in v1.2 though, after playing it a lot more-brilliant game.

Well done, Snake!

Vince:
There are 52 rooms plus the repeated bridge and Black Dragon after the reward screen.
Yes, I agree, heh, more patience is a must. Have you played the Practice Mode stages?
You shouldn't be getting killed behind the right side of the castle.

About the 2 bugs you've found:
1) I'm quite sure that I could stop the player from sliding, but I didn't since it might help in certain instances.
2) I'm not quite sure why the falling through the bridge thing occurs. It has only happened to me a couple times. I'm not sure if I should have made the walkable area thicker or not. They are all currently 3 lines thick (if I remember right). It is something I should ask the creator of the platform movement module (Bernie, I think).
And thank you for the comments!

Dualnames:

QuoteI've played a lot. Then got frustrated by the coolness and decided to work on HHGTG..

Heh. I'm glad you think it has "coolness" :)

Mintymint:
Thank you! I'm very excited that you enjoy playing it. That's all I ever wanted was for people to find it one of those enjoyable addictive games that they can play over and over again.
Nice score, btw. You are now on top of the highscores list!

dkh:
Yeah, I think the SPACEBAR jumping with no animation could be some sort of glitch. I myself as well like how Thief animates while jumping with UP (that's all I use now, I'm glad it was suggested for the last version).

Butters:

QuoteIt's amusing how i struggle more with the earlier levels.

Haha, I know. That happens to me too.
And thank you for the comments.

Radiant:
Thanks! I'm glad you seem to enjoy this version a lot better than the last!
Thank you! I have to admit that you slightly offended me with all of the things you were picking at when you last played it. But you know what? It helped me tremendously and I tried to fix everything you suggested. So thank you for your previous critique.


--Snake

Oh, by the way, I made a highscore...woot it's 650. But I only played half an hour.

Heh, come on, Dualie, you've been my lead mirror guy, I'd think you could get a better score than that!

650, \o/!!1!!2
Bah. But yet, you're just a wimp anyway... OOOO! The FIREBALLS! They are too hard! They GET me every time! SCARY THEY ARE! Sometimes they come out at the same time, OMG! What is a girl scout to do?1! Blargh.

I guess this game isn't for wussies.

*Snake tries a bit of reverse psychology*


--Snake

Just came across this conversion of the original Dragonfire (http://www.retroremakes.com/forum2/showcase/view.php?gm=221), thought it might interest people.
For those who'd like to appreciate Castle of Fire to it's fullest, but have never played the original, compare!

And then play Castle of Fire of course! ;)

Wow, I'm so glad you posted that, TM! I released CoF on the RetroRemakes forums as well.

Eikon created that remake. It's damn near identical to the 2600 version - he did a superb job.

If people want the original Dragonfire on the 2600, I'd suggest downloading STELLA (Atari 2600 emulator) and getting the Dragonfire ROM. It's not as good without a joystick, but that's the game.

Yes, thanks for posting that.
For anyone who has played Castle of Fire without playing the original before hand - it's a must that you play the original... I highly recommend it.

//--EDIT--//
I also wanted to add in that there is no other game that matches Dragonfire's INTENSITY on the 2600. You'll be sweating bullets while facing the Dragons and be all nearved up, God, it's fucking unreal. Fast-paced is an understatement. Castle of Fire is no where near giving the original justice. It sucks.

Think of Castle of Fire as "Practice Mode" before you play Dragonfire.


--Snake

Just downloaded v1.2 and gave Dragonball Gauntlet a whirl.  I gotta say, wow.  Considering the vast array of elements that went into it, it's hard to think of it as a mini-game, especially with all the unlockable costumes (You aren't supposed to show people what they look like before they earn them though! Silly.) 

The main game seems a lot more user friendly now, considering a lot of people I showed the game stopped at the first or second level because they couldn't get past it in previous versions.  The modified first dungeon was a nice touch and made it actually challenging.  The nice shiny treasures you have now were another nice addition.  This game just keeps looking all the more complete each release!

I think the volume of a couple sound effects are too loud (footsteps and being burned, especially) but the increased volume of the dungeons with two dragons remedy that, at least for those levels. 

Anyway, as usual, awesome job!

Thanks, HammerBlade! I'm glad you downloaded it again and played.

The SFX were hard to mix for some reason, obviously. I thought the footsteps were very faint and so I raised the volume. Next game I'll be sure to make them all the same volume and have a SFX/BGM volume control.

Thank you about mentioning the animated treasures. I'm very proud of how cool they all look now - it added a lot more life to each dungeon.

Quote(You aren't supposed to show people what they look like before they earn them though! Silly.)

Haha. I figured I'd show them what they were able to earn and if they thought they were cool costumes than they'd play more... or.. I don't know... be quite ;)
I'm glad you liked Dragonball. What did you think of the music I chose?
Did it fit okay?


--Snake

OMFG this game is hard! :)

I play adventure games for a reason, man, I gots me no motor skills.

But I will continue on, and I will become a castle of fire MASTER!

Will you?

Click here, f00! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6tgxQ_w7s0)


--Snake

That's jus wicked...