Messages

sorry for being offtopic... but which benefit do you get by using SCI fonts instead of TTF?

Is it just because of the editor? I mean, bitmap fonts aren't too hard to create with the tools mentioned above.

Just being curious..

Pah, don't be shy. It's still readable and the concepts are cool no matter what.

Just in case you want to create a bitmap ttf font, take a look at these online tools:

BitfontMaker
http://pentacom.jp/soft/ex/font/edit_canvas.html

FontStruct
http://fontstruct.fontshop.com/

(thanks to ProgZ for telling me)

Yeah, after thinking this particle stuff through again - yep way to much overhead and I'm sure I won't need gravity.

As for pixel perfection: isn't GetPixel one of the slowest commands, AGS has to offer? I use it in a dissolve module and I'd rather stay away from it when it comes to real time action.
If course this issue can be solved by using circular bullets

Anyway thanks for your input. I guess, you've convinced me to stick to drawing surfaces. (aww.. no copy and paste from Aeronuts)

@Calin
I know, I've read your code so many times

Hmm... I could imagine the internal animate command is faster than my scripted method.
That's about my biggest concern, pixel perfection isn't possible with both methods, but I refuse to use room objects

edit

They work fine to particle systems up to 150-200 particles

Argh, I've read to fast. Of course I could beef up Jarakeen's particle module some more and simply use that. Thanks for that hint!

Okay, this might be a bit of a stupid question, but it's bothering me since AeroNuts.

In AeroNuts I had two GUIs and each had 30 transparent buttons. In my bullet struct I only had a reference to the mapped button, because this button has all the cool attributes, like x,y, Graphic and so on. It can even be animated and or checked if it's animating.

The only drawback I know about is the 30 Button limit per GUI limit, but I think that's sufficient for a low res game (30 bullets for the player, 30 bullets for everyone else)
The other possibility would be to include those attributes in the bullet struct, do the animation handling myself and draw them on a GUIs background surface.

I wonder which one's faster and/or the better solution. Do you have any hints? 


Thanks!

Well, it feels indeed very different to control a platformer with the left hand (or vice versa if you're left handed).

But if it's not a survival shooter and no gray in grays like Abuse, I'm with Wonkyth here. It should be fun, if shooting enemies is not the only obstacle in the game.

Mouse aim also can significantly reduce challenge and difficulty

Totally true.

Btw. I tried on Abuse yesterday - just to update my memories. And.. um.. maybe you all memorize it better than it was   The aiming system is great, but most of the time I'm running away and shooting dumb enemies falling from the ceiling.


But I'm already conviced that mouse aiming itself is how platformers should work on a PC. I'm sure, Metal Slug would have done it too, if a mouse would be a common aracade controller

Let's take Cave Story for another example. Most of the time you try to move yourself into a proper direction, just to shoot the same type of enemy over and over again. The player knows how to kill these, it's not hard, it's just annoying. With free aiming, it would have been a lot more fun, since it's no real challange in either ways.

[all the time]

@Babar: Whip slinging like in Castevania or like Indy? (no idea how cool whip swinging can be achived). Some stealth elements are definetly to be considered. I can't say that I've finished Blackthorne, but it was pretty cool those days.

Giving the player a choice whether to stealth or to rush through the stage without goodies and extras might be an idea too.. Oohh.. all these possibilities

@Radiant: Thanks for the input. Is that prototype already playable?

@Questionable:

I would rather play an FPS if I want to blast shit to hell..

That's a good point you're having there.  Meanwhile I've taken a closer look at Cave Story. Except for the controls and the tiny graphics, it's terrific. At least it was until I had to shoot all those annoying and repetitive enimies all the time.


What I've understood so far, at least for projectile weapons:
If it's about blasting enemies: Abuse style - mouse aiming.
If it's more about acrobatics: 3 way aiming is fair enough.

Right?

Idea: Dualy (by far the best pic  I've seen from you )
Technique: Cpt. Ricco
Usefulness: Cpt. Ricco

What I've learned so far is, that platformers can be devided into 3 major subgenres:

Jump'n Run (Mario and Sonic)
Shoot'n Run (Gunstar Heroes, Abuse and Contra)
Stealth'n Tactics (Flashback, Yahtzee's platformers)


It's also clear that I can't bake them all together and the result is the perfect game.  So it's been really insightful (so far) that you've told me about your favourite game elements.

E.g. this would be pretty uncool:
* Metal Slug + Key and Items huntery + non-linear level design
* This Abuse guy fighting his way through Goombas
* Another World with Moonjumps
* really free movement in 1213... no wait, that would be awesome


Right now there're still some questions at a 50/50 state, so some more participants would be very welcome

btw.I'm ready for make animation 2d Player Sprites for all actions(walk,turn,run, jump,grab ledge,climb,... )

Thanks for this offer. The problem is, I need to learn that too Also I'm still not convinced to create a slow pace platformer at this stage of the engine.


@Questionable
Don't you think, that game would be way too easy? Why avoid them if you can shoot them

@Ryan
Hehe, they aren't. They are just drawn in the middle of the frame and I forgot cropping. So technically they have their transparant feet on the ground.

@Blueskirt
Good point. That might be the reason I've only completed Another World, but never won at Flashback.

Hey Snarky,

try this one:
http://www.treiberupdate.de/treiber-download/download-167419-treiber-Gravis-Xterminator.html

At least it extracts in a temp directory calles xp4_5. The filesize fits too.


edit: and the readme calls it Xperience as well

Well it's also possible with merging views during runtime. But be warned, it'll include some heavy scripting.

What you can do is: export each layer into a seperate view, like underpants/character, shirt and pants.

During runtime you create a dynamic sprite. Then you take a viewframe from each view (character, shirt, pants again) at the current frame of the character. After that you draw all three viewframes on the dynamic sprite's surface and apply it to the characters viewframe.

[IT'S FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER]

@Calin
Sort of The movement is from your engine and some parts of the collision detection too (that counter that slows you down while landing). The tile management is from dkh, as well as the enemy handling. Last but not least, importing GBA-Maps is from Khris...
IT'S FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER, I tell you
But at least some parts are from me, like ramps, platforms and those mushroom/coin spitting bonus blocks.

@dkh
Is it that obvious?? But yes, I kind of followed that tutorial almost blindly - I needed some quick and nice artwork to explain to my girlfriend why I'm spending so much time in front of the machine. Oh and before you spoil that too: the colors are from Arne's palette over at Way of the pixel.

@MEHRDAD
Hehe thanks. Well I still have to decide in what direction I'll go. After a few more submitted surveys, we'll see. But at the moment it seems that I can't avoid wall grabbing

@Arboris
It's Pro Motion. It can also export those tilemaps in a format AGS can handle, so it's also my Map editor.

@Tier
I'm trying to keep it customizable, I promise. Most of it's concepts work parallel to AGS,like having hotspot tiles, object tiles and so on. The only drawback is that you'll need an external map editor and preferably ProMotion.

@Mark
Thanks! It's just very "Mario" at the moment

 :'(




I'm just glad that I haven't asked any later.

and btw. yes, that's an actual in-game shot

Wow, thanks for this great response so far!

I'm already very glad that I've started this, some of the results are quite surprising. Almost made a game which nobody would like

@Mark Borg
Thanks for the offer! The current state of the engine is already quite playable, so it's too late to turn back So no worries. I also have a concept "hero" but he has very basic movement frames - so if you have those Prince of Persia style animations handy, I'll be glad to use them.

@tzachs
Module yes, public later As always, releasing a good module also means writing good documentation and having a sane concept. We'll see how it is when it's done. I'm already at 3k lines of code and there are still some key features missing.

@Babar
Abuse..! I totally forgot about it - I had a shareware version ages ago, but I didn't have the patience to even finish the first level But those other ideas a tempting - let's see what I'm able to reproduce

@Calin Leafshade
That's why I've started this survey    But I agree with Babar here: the story Super Mario had to offer way too cheesy for me to keep on playing it. "Sorry Mario but the princess is in another castle" errm... On the other hand "Heart of Darkness" was awesome and fast paced... even though it wasn't a side scroller.

@Wyz
It's tile based. Thanks to dkh and Jim Reed who "donated" me some code

@discordance
Never tried it, but downloading as I'm typing

@blueskirt
Well it definately won't be a run and gun. Simply because the AI would be a bit too heavy for me to write. Stealth is quite easy but teaching those guys to hunt and jump over ledges.. Argh!

@MEHRDAD
I'm afraid you wouldn't be too happy with it at the current stage as it's a scrolling and tile based. And currently even the animations are like in Super Mario - but the survey already tells me to rethink that

@ProgZmax
No worries. I only take 1213 as a reference for great impact and story telling (at least the first level where you had to climb on this injection was awesome). Also it's quite popular despite it's broken controls.
As platformerius - despite it's graphics I think it sucks too. The controls are really annoying (as well as collision detection)
Calin did a really better job in MariVania (or whatever the name was), as well as dkh did with Revelation.

@ShiverMeSideways
Iji looks really interesting, just like a fast paced Flashback. I can't watch the trailer on youtube anymore or I loose the motivation to write something on my own

@Arboris:
Bunny must die comes pretty close to what I had in mind. Of course except all those cool particle effects


All your responses give me a lot to think of. It doesn't seem like a simple choice between Mario or Flashback, what a bummer

I'm currently spending some time in creating a jump'n run engine in AGS. Right now I'm at a spot where I have to decide the direction where to go with this:

Make it like 1213, Prince of Persia or like Mario...  I want as much of you enjoying this as possible, that's why I've created this handy survey:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dG9QQ1JVSWp2NUF2NC1fTUZ5V0hVTFE6MQ


It would be really cool if you could take your time and fill it out these 9 tiny questions.

Thanks guys!


@Andail Thanks for showing me this great new gDocs feature

Sweet animations you did there

Here's the mirror:

http://rapidshare.com/files/379273766/PlatformerSrc.zip
(I hope rapidshare works as well,  I was too lazy to create a mediafire account)

Btw. Flash is quite capable of processing bitmaps
http://oos.moxiecode.com/

Here's a nice fish

<°)XXX><

haha, you made me chuckle

In your face, rating panel!