Mad-Sci Platformer ( work in progress)

[bensch]

Hey Mad-Sci,
Yeah, I'd love to give the engine a shot. Where's the source and
images? I'll throw them up on to Sourceforge in a Indy Games project I started a while ago.
Question though:
1) What game states are you thinking of?
I imagine Flash screen, Options, SubOptions, Play, tweaks menu, Hi Score, Enter HiScore. Others??


Editor: I was thinking that being able to mix and match tiles from different sets would give the designers more flexibility. Also delinking the BG swfs from the tile sets so a designer can put any set of tiles over any BG. Question is, Is this too much flexibility?

Cheers,
Ben

[Mad-Sci]

bensch, the tiles were made to match the background. We will have 5 major worlds like graveyard,crypt,laboratory etc..etc..each one with 5 levels. The tiles from the crypt do not match with graveyard background ...The editor does not use swf to load tiles, just MC.

So far I have just the editor..blink will send me the final tiles any time soon so we can start talking about the engin.

ms

[Hackey Sack]

so far this looks excellent. I really cant wait for the final project, the graphics are great!

[znoskieman]

Originally posted by BlinkOk
climbing anims for everybody except bubba and diggin anim for mad (hit any key while playing the movie). (bubba has me a little perplexed at the mo)

Why not, bubba can't climb at all?

[bensch]

Mad-Sci,

Ok about the tilesets and bgs. Just let me know when you want the help with the engine code.

Ben

[Mad-Sci]

Update:
1.preloader (finaly)
2.Now you can render some preliminary maps. its working only for tiles for now..you cannot render the sprites at least not yet. the format uses plain string with "|" delimeter. NOte:

the very first number is the tile set, the rest indicated the appropriate frame. The different tiles are separated with "|". The engin will use String.split to remove the "|" and create an array


http://mad-sci.lazoom.com/ms/map.swf

PREVIEW PIC:

[bensch]

Hey Mad-Sci,

The editor is pretty good.
I just have some issues with it.

1) When you toggle from the "Place sprites" mode back to the
"Place tile" mode, the level gets cleared.

Suggestion: Make a another separate panel on the sidebar to contain the sprites. That way you don't have to toggle modes inorder to place the sprites at all.

2) In the display panel, display the text as an as array.
Example
var level = [
[1, 4, 1, 1],
[1, 1, 1, 1],
[2, 2, 2, 2],
[1, 1, 1, 1]
];

That way, the designer can simply cut and paste, change the level name and the engine doesn't have to do much preprocessing.

Nice work,
Ben

[iopred]

bensh, the problem with putting it in an array is simple, it makes a much fatter file, and the game cannot be dynamic (eg, the map loaded from an SQL database). If its plain text the preprocessing needed to split a string is trivial.

[luxregina]

Hey Mad !

I'm sorry : i said i would come back today with new char and some design for the levels, but i didn't had time : i have heaps of work on my shoulders right now, and even yesterday that was supposed to be off was an intensive working day for me

I still want to help, and i hope that saturday i will be able to modelize and render my character - to give you a hint, let's say that i would feel that adding some classic Sci-Fi chars could complete Blinks' classic Hammer House family

Also, i had a quick view on the level editor : some tilesets doesn't seems complete for me ( certain right tiles don't have their left counterpart, or stuff like that : are the tilesets totally complete ? If no, is there a plan to extend them (this question is more intended to Blink )

For the interface, i think it would be hasty to start something before having a running demo of the game, as you might want to add/cancel options, menus etc ... ( i know about that, i've been re-working Two Kingdoms interface at least 5 or 6 times )

Let me know your thoughts ...

Sorry for being late, Lux

[BlinkOk]

hi guys! i'm in sunny anchorage alaska.
http://www.anchoragecam.com/cams.htm
no good news though. my laptop's gone ga ga (haven't even check my email yet) so i gotta get a new one and then download/reinstall siwft. prolly gonna take me a while so keep doin all the great stuff you've been doin lux.
the map editor looks awesome with the tiles/characters laid out.

[tomsamson]

have a nice time there mate
(and i want to see you on one of those webcamshots )
i adree with you,the ed looks really cool with the characters and tiles laid out

[bensch]

Hi Guys,
Well, I got really inspired today and sat down and wrote down what I remembered of Pitfall (or something like it) into a design document.
Here

Anyway, I thought that if people wanted to look it over and add stuff, it would make building the engine much easier and funner for everyone.
I've started implementing the screens for the entire game as separate frames in the fla.

Hope it gets the creative juices going,
Ben

[BlinkOk]

just poppin in.
bensch, you're a legend! i been lookin for something like that since i started on this.
blink

[bensch]

Hi Mad-Sci and Blink,
I am starting on a rough version of the engine but I need the fla of map.swf so I can get the tiles and their labellings.
Where is it posted?

Thanks,
Ben

PS. Parsing out the levelData from the strings worked ok. I'd still
prefer to have the editor dump out an array version of the leveldata.
The sprites still don't work right in the map editor though. If I lay down sprites after laying down tiles, the tileset is "sprite".

[Mad-Sci]

bensch
I will post it tomorrow sunday, Im on call this weekend and I did not have time to add stuff..
ms

[BlinkOk]

sorry lux, didn't see your question. the answer is no, the tilesets are neither complete or final. change all you want. still tryin to get a laptop here.
blink

[Mad-Sci]

http://mad-sci.lazoom.com/ms/map.zip

the render() function needs to be redone..

ms

[bensch]

Hi guys,
I finally got version of the engine posted. It works ok, mostly testing loading of a level and basic motion control of the mad sci.

The swf
The zip file
The design doc

I'm going to work with the preloader and make sure the levels load properly and then get the monsters in and running around.

Oh, btw if the madsci falls off a ledge and hits the ground, the game crashes. Intentially oh course

Cheers,
Ben

[Ihoss]

he falls very slowly i must say

[bensch]

Hey, 2 pixels/frame isn't very fast. But I don't know whether it's funner to have the player be able to even fall or not. Hope it gets tested by interested people later.

Cheers,
Ben