[Finished] WinterTales Public Beta

finally done.

i know i've been a bit quiet the last few weeks/month, mainly due to a lot of 9to5 (though, i would say it was mainly 9to11 (and i don't mean "am" to "am").

anyway, i was quite suprised that f8 was such a good tool to work with (unlike f7, imho) and i finally made the switch to AS2. although there are some real drawbacks, it helped me to get things done a bit faster than i expected (this due to the ability to use the same coding style i'm using in c# / vb.NET)

one of the minor things that's still bugging me is the fact that you cannot force the compiler to require declaration. and that the variable type is gone once you use arrays or objects ...

ok, back to the subject:
http://www.stimunation.com/blog/publ...teaser_big.jpg

my first AS2 only game this year. i learned my lessons with this one, so i found out that it's not a very good idea to start with a new language dialect AND a new game at the same time. not if you don't plan to rewrite things.

the good thing is that i had to convert all my utilities to AS2, cause my extensions to Math, MovieClip and String don't worked anymore.

engine wise (the one that's used to follow the tracks) i'm quite happy that the thing is quite reusable and i plan to use it again for another game that is now possible with it.
btw. it uses a time-based movement approach - you set the start- and endpoint of the track (for a certyin direction), specify the movement method and the time it should take to move from start to end . this may sound complicated, but can be configured using a simple xml file. nice to be able to run more than one object over the track - though not in this game ...
(i plan to post a more in depth explanation of it on the sN blog soon)

ARGH! almost forgot the link to the game ...

http://www.stimunation.com/blog/blog...sp?blog_id=234
(click on the image, sorry for the external link, but the game will be moved sooner or later, and this way i only have to update one place)

how to play: there's a help in the game, so i won't write it all again here (and i can see if the help makes any sense at all, too)

so have some snowy fun, nGFX

hey nice job mate :)

Great game but it's hard! (Then again, I'm going on low sleep again...)

Yea it is fun. Also challenging, I didn't get to play it long enough to find out how to use the intersections. Is there a way to make him turn? This reminds me a lot of an old game called Pipe Dream. Good work!

thanks guys.

@WilloughbyJackson, you did notice that you can actually pich the other tiles from the list too? this makes the game a bit easy, imho - but we had to keep an eye on the target group ...

@Dominicaninja, sorry the snowman just moves in a straight line, so to use an intersection you have to build "loops". and yep it was inspired by pipe drams :)

nGFX

very nice game! :thumbsup: Pipe dreams was my old favorite. [off topic] is there a place where you can download old games like Pipe dreams, rodents revenge, Chips Challenge?{/off topic}

sweet Game! i got stuck on the 5th lvl! ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blazes816

[off topic] is there a place where you can download old games like Pipe dreams, rodents revenge, Chips Challenge?{/off topic}

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You buy them.
No talk about illegal downloading is allowed in FK.

Didn't they come free with computers? o well. Is there a place to buy them?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blazes816

Didn't they come free with computers? o well. Is there a place to buy them?

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maybe you should look for "abandonware" with google? i don't think those are illegal, if so feel free to delete my post ^_^

[edit] oh sorry, i just noticed it was your thread nGFX :p (me and opening many windows for different posts). like willough, i didn't noticed that you can grab the tiles at the bottom directly, doh... so yes, it should be easier (i didn't say it's hard, just that i like to create let's say "interesting" paths, heh. good work on the gfx too)

Very nice, and pretty hard. I like :D

Yeah, it's hard if you just use what you get, but easy if you pick your own :D Nice game though! Great work nGfx :)

Nice. Me Likey. Very professional as well.

Very cool indeed. Got up to level 17 with a score of 70/80,000. :D great game. The only thing is you seem to have a typo, you spelt surname, surename on the competition entry form. but apart from that, brilliant

i'm not sure why but i keep getting "page cannot be displayed", i can't even access stimunation.com?

thanks again, guys.

hey, chimp, thanks for that one, i thought i've removed it, but it seems not to.

mr_malee, should work now (or better:works for me atm)

nGFX

I played it again today, 2 other little things which i personally think would make it better, would be being able to switch from fast back to slow mode - so you can add/edit your track more easily if you accidentaly click it without the snowman skiing towards you really fast. Also being able to save your game at the end of each level so you can come back to it later.

but like i said before its still an amazing game.

There isn't much to say, it's a great game which I enjoyed very much.
The graphics are specially great and gives a cozy winterfeeling even though it's
rainy and gray outside my window :)
Looking forward to the in depth explanation of the timebased engine!

darn, yes i agree with the fast/slow switch, i guess i will add that little detail for the release version (in 2 or 3 hours i think)

though, we had the save option in there, but the client decided against it. maybe i will reactivate it for the "free" version (next year, when the winter season is over).

kianis, thanks. i hope i can hack together a quick explanation next week.

nGFX

cool, will there be a highscore table aswell?

maybe. (at in a slighly different version of it, though) for the very first seasonal game for that client we added a highscore table (ok, there is still a highscoretable, but it's not displayed). we removed it, because we discovered that it "bewildered" the target audience as they weren't very "competive" (read: "i'll never will reach that score, so why should i play it, cause i will not be able to win something"). as soon as teh HS table was removed the the "plays" jumped up by about 25%, and since then these game don't display the HS table.

nGFX

agh i see what you mean, oh well.

Very nice... looks good and plays well too.

Great game. I especially like the rendered snowman, very detailed, and it looks great when it rotates.

Keep up the good work!

I really like it.

One thing though, in level 10 it does not seem possible to get all the g's. I want to place a corner tile directly to the left of the g above the right side gap, but track tiles wont go there.

shish! yet as you mention it, i see it. i'll update the map this evening. sorry for that ...

nGFX