Messages

[1. A "plain" level:]

A couple of suggestions from the most devoted HLoBB fans (I don't know hard these would be to implement):

1. A "plain" level:
- Just run up to each other and punch.
- No bouncing aside from the jumping ability of each player.

I'm not sure how the mechanics of this would work, if the gameplay decended in to running up to your opponent and hitting punch as fast as possible, it wouldn't really work.

2. General stuff:
- Make static punches available (even if these only do little damage).
- Specific speed and punching features for each player. For instance, Henry VIII is big and fat, so he should build up speed more slowly, punch harder and jump a bit less than the others. Ghandi should be super fast, do little damage and jump heaps. And so forth.

The static punches thing is a good idea, I can probably make them do a bit of damage even if you're standing still when the enemy is close quite easily.Ã,  I'll try and do that for when I update it.
The specific player features is already more or less in there, but I couldn't work out what to change for Caesar, Lincoln and Napoleon.Ã,  I would probably make Henry slow, but resistant to damage, and Hitler more agressive, and thus have a higher attack.

If you want to fiddle around with the physics values, hit Ctrl-G when playing, the debug gui will be at the top of the screen.

seriously splendid! I'm deeply impressed by how smooth the movement is! Really amazing! Well done!

Thanks, I must say I was inspired by the quirkyness of your games when deciding apon the historical theme =)

Here's a problem I found when using rocket boots. On some of the labels you are in front of, some not.

Yeah, It think that's because the text overlays in AGS are drawn onto the background, and if players move behind it, the overlays go on top of them.Ã,  I don't think there's anything I can do about that one.

I also wish there to be a way to quit to main menu from the character select screen.

Yeah, I was going to put a button in to do that, just forgot.Ã,  I'll change it on the next version I release.

One thing: during the selection process, the bottom grid is supposed to be filled out with the characters you choose (I assume). However, only player 1 is displayed. It looks like a bug to me.

Yeah, that's more poor design than a bug.Ã,  It only shows the human characters that are selected, (and hence their keyboard controls).Ã,  I needed a way to show the keys where people would find them easily, and I thought this was probably the best way.Ã,  Maybe I should put 'computer players' under that grid, and put the computer characters selected there.

BTW, what I really love is the AI. You really gotta tell me how you do it.

The AI was actually much simpler in concept than I thought it would be, I did the basic coding for it in about 2 days.
It's basically:
- If there's another player on the same hotspot as you, find the closest one.
- Run towards them, until you're close and fast enough, and press punch.
- If there's no one on the same hotspot, get to another hotspot...

Getting them to navigate around the level was the hardest, I used specific hotspots to make them jump continuously, move toward a certain point, move slowly toward a certain point, etc.Ã,  There were a few more specific ones as well.

They jump randomly every now an then, and also when they're moving faster than the player and the player jumps.Ã,  So they mimic the character to a certain degree, but also look like they're doing their own thing a bit too.
And yeah, they don't seek out the powerups at all, nor do they bounce off walls to pick up extra speed. But I gotta give some advantage to the players =)

Yeah, I think that's the major problem with the game, it's hard to figure out how to play effectively.  But if I simplify the gameplay, so that a punch hits immediately, or you can punch as much as you want without losing speed, the game becomes more generic, and there's not as much skill involved.  This means there's no room for you to become any better at the game, and so there is no longevity.
I'm hoping people get past the initial learning curve before the novelty of the game wears off and they give up.

Remember it's a LOT easier to play, and win against 2 or more computer players, because they pick on each other, leaving you room to move around and get used to the game.

[Download HLoBB Now!]

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Download HLoBB Now!

What is the HLoBB?
The Historical League of Bouncy Boxing is a sporting club for figures of high historical significance. Members don gloves, and battle it out in a variety of arenas.

HLoBB is a hotseat multiplayer platformer type thing, kindof 'jump-n-bump' meets 'little fighter'.Ã,  The aim is basically to wipe out all the other players by picking up speed and timing your punch to hit them.Ã,  The faster you're moving the more damage is done.


Features
- 640x480 hi color
- 6 historical figures to choose from.
- Battle it out with 2 friends on the same keyboard, and against up to 5 computer players.Ã,  (Max of 6 players in a game)
- 10 zany powerups.
- 4 mind blowing arenas
- Awesome digital musical score by Modgeulator
- High score system thingy
- Dynamic crowd cheering reward a good volley of punches. (I mainly put this in so I could use the word 'dynamic')

Source:
It took me a while, but you can download the source code now, I didn't have the energy to describe in detail how it works, so you'll have to go by the comments.

Screens (Sneaky teaser ones. HA!)

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Hmmm, that's useful. Ã, The best thing about hotmail is that it's easy for people to remember your address, as everyone already knows the bit after the '@'

I use a program called 'hotmail popper' or something that downloads my mail into outlook (well the opera equivalent anyway). Ã, So I wasn't limited by the 2mb quota so much.

It's sad to see this thread hasn't turned into a high score war like the one for VPET1 did.Ã,  Come on everyone, play it and post your high scores!

I played this ages ago when it was first released, but I only really had a good go at it this morning, writing down what things cross pollenate into on paper, and working out a strategy for the first level.Ã,  I just passed it then with a high score of 300135.Ã,  Which isn't very good, because I was concentrating on getting the body parts.Ã, 

Play it people!Ã,  Now!

Yeah, I sort of forgot about the points halfwayÃ,  through making it, so don't worry about getting all of them.

There is a Wizard of Oz style alternate ending, if you

Spoiler

talk to yourself when Tim turns into a werewolf, instead of using the noodles with the strange device.

[close]

It's pretty lame though.

And there are a few alternate solutions to puzzles, but they were all 'in' jokes, so it's not really worth looking for them.Ã,  Ã, Actually, I think they're all in the walkthrough on my site.

Thanks Goldmund, I'm really glad you enjoyed it.
Ha ha, That demo was extremely newbish, pretty much a classic 1 room key puzzle if I remember correctly.Ã,  Ahhh, those were better times...Ã,  I'd be shot down it I started a Game in Production thread like that now

but the overall off-beat atmosphere really gets through...

I love it when lazyness is passed off as 'off-beat' atmosphere, (eg "that chair is really huge" type comments) that's one of the things I like about a lot of AGS games, it makes them very refreshing.

Huzzah, I live in melbourne.  In Balwyn (eastern suburbs) to be precise.
Do you know where abouts you're going to live? 

I just finished, and I have to say I haven't got into an ags game as much as this for quite a while. Ã, 
I was stuck for a long time in the same place as Athirwen and Not Yet, but I probably spent 3/4 of an hour wandering around trying to figure out what to do instead of giving up, because I wanted to find out what happens next. Ã, Other than that one, I really enjoyed the pacing and puzzles, especially

Spoiler

where you pull the sheriff through the roof. Ã, Although I figured it out straight away, it was a refreshingly different 'escape' puzzle.

[close]

The Percy character seemed to give the game a lot of extra depth too, having him working towards the same goal as the player character makes the game feel more like there's things happening behind the scenes, rather than everything revolving completely around the player.

Apart from the size of the characters in BJ's room, and some lighting issues when a character walks out of the screen (and onto region 0), I didn't encounter any bugs. And the music was very atmospheric as well.

I was first called 'Duzz' about 10 years ago.Ã,  I had fuzzy hair back then, so David + Fuzz = Duzz.Ã,  Anyway, the name stuck, and all my friends have since known me as Duzz.

I use cool edit pro/audition quite a lot, I only upgraded to audition quite recently, but I can't find anything useful audition does that cool-edit didn't.Ã,  Well, I can use it to burn cd's now, and edit video sound tracks, but that really just means extra buttons I won't use. Any features they've added seem pretty half-assed to me. But then, I'm no expert.

Some good has come out of it actually; I don't feel guilty 'borrowing' software via Kazaa if it's by Adobe, while I do when it's a smaller company like Syntrillium.

Thanks Darth, I've made that change. I should say that looking at how you did the ags site taught me a lot about cascading style sheets and using tables to good effect.

I said before I'm going to need help with music, and I thought I may as well ask now. I'll post this in the ACR thread too.Ã, 
At the moment I've just been using this Ride of the Valkyries track I found somewhere which fits nicely.Ã,  I'd like for all the music to be this kind of classic style.Ã,  I'm thinking lots of trumpet fanfares, strings, timpani and drum rolls.Ã,  I have no experience with MIDI, but I suspect this kind of style is a lot harder to do than a standard little ditty, and if worst comes to worst, I can just steal a bunch of similar pieces from around the web.Ã,  But I'd at least like a nice fanfare theme songÃ,  for the opening screens and menus. I can send you the latest build of the game too if that would help.
Anyways, If you think you'll be able to help, please pm me, or email me at DuzzOnDrums@hotmail.com

Edit: Help found. Thanks Modgeulator =)

Thanks for your replies, I've finalised the website, and uploaded it.
Check it out and tell me what you think.

Progress hasn't been as fast the past couple of weeks on account of piling up uni assignments and such, but I've been managing to do bit's here and there.Ã,  I put some sounds from worms world party in to give me some ideas of how it will sound, and I've been working slowly on backgrounds as well. I think I've finished the last of the GUI's also.

I don't think my desktop image has changed since last time this topic came around, but anywhoo.

I'm very proud of my neat accessible alternative start button type thing.Ã,  Very useful.
And I still miss my sophisticated bears mug which my brother callously broke.

I also read the forums all the time, but I don't post very often, especially of late,Ã,  I rarely find I have anything particular to add to a conversation.Ã,  But that's just me.

Usually, if I don't work on something AGS related during a day, (unless I'm busy) I'll feel like the day's been wasted, like nothing permanent has come from it.Ã,  So I rarely watch TV because there's nothing else to do any more, and don't spend copius amounts of time playing computer games either.
Before I started using AGS, (late 2002) I wouldn't have dreamed that I could be as creative as I am now.Ã, 

Peter Combe rocked, kicked Don Spencer's ass any day. I grew up on him. (and 'It's a knockout').
Only person I've ever met was Toady from neighbors, he asked me for a light. I didn't even know his name (still don't actually) I couldn't really care less either.
But Peter Combe!

Thanks Guys,

Will each character have their own personal advantages? eg. Henry VIII is more powerful, but hitler is faster?

It's actually set up so it could work like that (each with their own stats) but I think it would be too hard to balance well.  I couldn't really think of what attributes would match each of them either, apart from henry being slower but tougher like you said.Ã,  I suppose Gandhi could be able to jump higher or something.Ã,  I'll have to think on it some more.

Kinoko, your signature is from 'king of the hill' right? Great episode.

Perhaps you should look into the TCP/IP plugin. Man, would it be sweet to play a 6 player game of this over the internet...

Yeah, I've thought of that, and I'll look into it eventually, I'll release the hotseat version first though I think. I don't know even the basics of how an online multiplayer type thing works, so I'll have to do a bit of research.

What use is being invulnerable if you STILL can't let others punch you?

Heh heh, yeah, it's a bit of a catch 22.Ã,  If there's no invunarability, often the guy with jeebus would end up with less health than he started with, if he gets punched too many times.Ã,  You can get punched a few times, and still gain more health than the guy that punched you if you're invulnarable.Ã,  And it means you can let your friend punch you and be healed, so you can both pick on the computer players firstÃ, 
I tried to make all the powerups a kind of interesting, aside from the uber-glove and super-feet, which are pretty stock standard.Ã, 

Cheers!

[UPDATE:]

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Historical League of Bouncy Boxing Website
UPDATE: HLoBB Released!

What is the HLoBB?
The Historical League of Bouncy Boxing is a sporting club for figures of high historical significance. Members don gloves, and battle it out in a variety of arenas.

HLoBB is a hotseat multiplayer platformer type thing, kindof 'jump-n-bump' meets 'little fighter'.Ã,  The aim is basically to wipe out all the other players by picking up speed and timing your punch to hit them.Ã,  The faster you're moving the more damage is done.
There's an example (100kb gif) here but it's pretty choppy and slow, because the capture software I used was pretty lame.
I'm planning on releasing the source when the game is complete, I'm sure someone will be able to find some useful functions in there (although there's already a couple of thousand lines in the global script, so good luck finding them)...

Progress
Coding - 97% - Barring any unforseen cataclysmic feature additions.
Character Art - 100% - Unless I decide to add more.
Background Art - 99% - Unless I decide to add more.
GUI's & Menus - 95% - Just gotta add some profile for the characters, and a help screen.
Sound/Music - 30%
Plot - 100% non-existent.
Total - I'd say about 90%, but I've got exams starting very soon, so don't hold your breath.

Features
- 640x480 hi color (doesn't run too good on old old machines)
- 6 historical figures to choose from.
- Battle it out with 2 friends on the same keyboard, and against up to 5 computer players.Ã,  (Max of 6 players in a game)
- 10 zany powerups.
- 4 mind blowing arenas (so far)
- High score system thingy
- Dynamic crowd cheering reward a good volley of punches. (I mainly put this in so I could use the word 'dynamic')

Powerups
- Super-Feet - The player is blessed with alarming alacrity.

- Uber-Glove - Stay out of the way of a member who glows red with the power of the Uber-Glove; He's sure to pack a punch.

- Pogo - You won't be able to stop jumping for joy when you pick up Pogo!

- Rocket-Boots - Cruise around in the air, evading enemies, and dropping in again for a well placed punch.

- Matrix - Close proximity to another player will activate 'bullet time'.

- Space-Man - If walking on the moon is your thing, Space-Man is the powerup for you! All player will suddenly find them selves a lot lighter.

- Clone - A clone of the fighter will appear and begin attacking enemy players. The clone can only punch half as hard as you, but also only takes half damage from others. This damage however, is transfered to you.

- Ghost - You cannot be touched unless attacking, run through players to pick up a good bit of speed before striking.

- Cannon-Ball - If you find yourself gaining a lot of weight and turning all black and spherical, you've probably picked up the Cannon-Ball powerup. No need to punch when you're a cannon-ball, merely run into others to do damage. Unfortunately cannon balls can't jump very high, or accelerate very fast.

- Jeebus - Enjoy invulnerability and a steadily increasing health, but don't let others punch you, or they'll be miraculously healed.

Members

Napoleon BoneparteÃ,  Ã,Â	Abraham LincolnÃ,  Ã,Â	King Henry VIIIÃ,  Ã,Â
Adolf Hitler	Mahatma GandhiÃ,  Ã,Â	Julius CaesarÃ,  Ã,  Ã,Â

Screens (Sneaky teaser ones. HA!)

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