The Dregs of War

Hello everybody!

Thanks for the input Xenelement - I agree that health bars and falling damage would be cool, and I'll probably get them in there soon, but now I want to work on something different, which you can read about in my latest update.

Anyway, Xenelement, you're current 58th in my rankings page, sure you can do better! And Todorus, where are you? Don't worry, I'm just joking, but for anybody who hasn't had a go yet, try out the combat mini-game from the last post.

In any case, I'm back at work on the game, working on environmental hazards and moving platforms. After that, I'll have to work on NPC interaction, cut-scenes and the menu, and then I should be ready to actually make the whole game! How horrendously exciting!

Very nice! I'm assuming that the hazard in the current example is going to be used for lava or some such? Very nice.

As for finishing the whole game, Kudos to you if you do. I always get 90% done then get bored. Interesting to see something where you actually have to jump AT the lava, then having a gravity switch save you or something. Nasty little trick there ^_^

One complaint; I'm having serious trouble jumping from one pole to another. Maybe you could change the jump mechanics a bit? You have some places where the character needs to jump up, but I always fall after half a second. I need some sort of boost lol, o r maybe I just suck at it. ^_^ Seriously though, I'm finding the swinging aspect very frustrating.

Did you change it or something? I loved it back in the beginning.

Other than that, This is looking to be one of the best flash plat formers I have seen.

Amazing job, I bow at you.

To quote Wayne's World, I AM NOT WORTHY!
Cheers

XenElement

I haven't changed anything with the swing mechanics... are you keeping spacebar down? If you don't, he won't jump as far...

Maybe I should make it so that you don't need to keep the space bar down.

I like the idea of having to jump towards the lava - I want to have lots of secrets in the game, and that sounds like a fun way of getting to one! Hopefully soon you'll see your idea in action!

Ah I see. That was the problem. Yes I think you should change it to be a one press thing, holding it down is kind of confusing to me.

I'm glad you like the Idea of jumping toward the lava, I think that would be really cool. One game that you should try to emulate is Metroid, which has oodles of secrets.

Thanks for clearing up that jumping problem for me, LOL!

Impressive game, I am jealous of your progress :) One quick recommendation: reset the pressed keys when you reset Dreg, such that if you are holding right and go in to the lava you don't immediately start going right when he is reset and instead have to stop pressing the button and press again to start moving.

Yes, you're right redjag, such an obvious idea but it hadn't occurred to me.

This is why I love web forums. Anyway, I've already implemented your idea (and fixed a bug with the camera).

Thanks for the suggestion!

As for the pole jumping Xenelement, I'm not sure I want to change it because I want to give the player some control over the jump - holding down jump has been a staple of platformers since Mario (try it - tap jump he does a little hop, hold it down he goes higher). Having only the one kind of pole jump would make it easier but at the expense of control...

And yeah, Metroid is definitely an influence in how I hope to scatter the levels with secrets (I even mention Metroid in one of my first blog posts, where I'm explaining what I want to do with the game).

Oh, and unrelated, I just read through my friend's blog - he's cycling from England to Greece. It has nothing to do with flash but is pretty inspirational and full of nice photos!

Yay! I have moving platforms now! Can you get to the other side?

Once again, thanks for all the feedback!

Amazing Awooga! And actually, now that I think about it, I totally agree. Just make sure the you make the jump controls OBVIOUS enough for a stupid person like me (XD)

I love the platforms, and that wall is really sneaky. It took a few tries to figure out how to get past it.


Oh man, I wish I could see your code, even just for the character movement! It's so dang fluid! Ugh, I am sooooo jealous of your skills. I'm still stuck at collision detection games :(

Amazing job Awooga, Best flash game ever, and I have no more complaints. I can't wait to see the final copy. If you need help on sneaky level design, I'd love to throw in a few Ideas. For whatever reason, it seems I have great ideas, and trouble pulling them off. Doesn't that just suck?

Lol.


Cheers, Looking forward to the first puzzle!

Xen Element


[EDIT] Actually, probably not a good Idea to release your code. Was there a specific tutorial that you followed? Maybe a walk cycle with control thingy?

Hey Xen - they're not complaints, just suggestions, and keep them coming... I might still change my mind on the whole pole jumping thing. Your input has been really great.

Once I've finished with all this, I might write a series of tutorials to show how I did it all...

To get started, you could try the tutorials I wrote for a different kind of game, but they'll hopefully teach you a fair deal:

http://flashgametutorials.blogspot.com/

You'll learn about object orientated programming, AS3, preloaders and more, with all the code available. Hopefully it should prove useful to you. The only reason I'm not doing the same with Dreg is that it more than doubles the workload to write tutorials and I want to get this game finished, you know? But once I'm done I'll happily explain the techniques I used...

That sounds great! And I totally understand what you mean about writing tutorials... Ugh. Yes, you should finish it, I really can't wait to see it!

I've actually been OOPing for a while now, nothing that new ;)
But preLoaders? Ew. Been there, done that, boriiiing.

Lol.

Looking forward to seeing, the next update, and I'll check out your tutorials in a sec!

XenElement

Hello!

The next update is out, and it's a bit more involved - as in, there's a bit more fun for you to have!

Dreg can be squished! I'll leave it at that, I'm sure I've already piqued your interest...

Enjoy!

Awoogamuffin

Hmmm. I like it. Couple of complaints/advice though. When you said squish, I was kind of seeing a cheesey squishing animation going on in my head. Are you planning to put that in any time soon? I just feel that The first few times I didn't see what really caused him to teleport back... Like is it a pillar of acid? a poisonous gold bar??? definitely needs a squishing animation.

Other than that, I Like it! Great Idea, and though it has been done I'm sure you can put some amazing twists on it!

You seem to like the environment puzzles, am I right? If so, you should look at one of those old platformers where some of the stuff that seems to be there is actually fake. Or the other way around.

Ex: Invisible Bridge, fake lava, etc.

Again, great job! I love the simple gradient you have on the hammers, and I'd actually like to see spikes or a curved edge on the bottom; just something to make it interesting!

Amazing job... AGAIN!
Xen Element

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Awoogamuffin

And Todorus, where are you?

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Booze and women. But I was lurking the thread.

Great job Awoogamuffin. Although you have to watch out with your leveldesign, that not everybody plays this game as much as you ;) The jump to the next gravityzone above the lava pit is quite hard, as is the jump to the secret area (which needs to be almost perfect). I do fully agree with the squishing animation.

I also had a bug occur when I played. I was dropping down the series of moving holes and when I dropped from the final moving platform the platform still had an effect on me. I was walking to the right but I was moving to the left (where the platform was going). When I released the key and pressed right again Dreg was fine.

Nice job! I loved the movements. A bit hard in the beggining, but I really liked it. :)

Hey bastrix, thanks for commenting! Hopefully when the game is finished the difficulty curve should be just right.

As always, lots of thanks to Xenelement - your continued support has really kept me going. I really feel like I've almost finished the engine, and then it'll just be fun level design. Thanks for keeping my enthusiasm up!

As for your concerns, you're right, I should probably do a squish animation. I tried one, but it didn't look right, and I'm worried about how it would look with squishing platforms of different speeds... I'll have to think about that...

As for what the pillars are supposed to be, these are not final images, just stopgaps as I work on the engine. Hopefully in the final game you'll have something more visually appealing.

I definitely want to have fake walls and stuff, but fake bridges sounds like cheap deaths to me, which I want to avoid. Fake lava could be fun... but I don't want the secrets to be impossible...

Todorus, I knew you were always there in spirit! Well done on finding the secret room. Don't worry - in the final game that kind of level design will only appear in later levels. Initially I'll greatly limit any wall/pole jumping Dreg has to do. But certainly it's something I'll have to keep in mind. As for the bug you found, well...

the last post was absolutely bug-ridden - the wall keeping its effect, Dreg getting stuck to other walls, going right through other walls, and all sorts of horribleness. My work this week has been to sort that all out, as well as a few visual improvements. Hopefully now there shouldn't be any collision detection bugs at all... I challenge you to find one!

And everyone who isn't Todorus, go find that secret room!

The Dregs of War

Awoogamuffin

Awww! How come you have skills and I don't?

Stop saying that it's bad... It makes me feel stupid. (LOL)

Seriously, this thing is becoming amazing! I can't wait to see the final game. I mean dude, you have it all. Your graphics are the coolest style I've seen in a plat former. That one moving platform was BOSS! Great job!

Ugh. Still looking for that stupid room. :(

Cheers, glad to help (Even though I did nothing)
Xen Element

PS: You're going to put mario out of business.

Hey Xenelement!

Kind of off-topic, but I have a Liverpublian friend staying over at the moment, and she uses the word "boss" as well. Are you from Northern England, or do people from other parts of the world say boss too?

Oh man, I wish I was from England. England Rules! I guess you could sort of call me an Anglophile, but actually Boss appears to have migrated as a word to the US. So nope, unfortunately I'm not British.

I wish, lol

[EDIT] Hey Awooga, do you think you could perhaps take the time to make a short tutorial about how to make a run cycle? I've been trying to sort of follow you into platform gaming but I'm already stuck :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Awoogamuffin

Kind of off-topic, but I have a Liverpublian friend staying over at the moment, and she uses the word "boss" as well. Or you from Northern England, or do people from other parts of the world say boss too?

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It's an internet thing which I believe refers to the end of level boss in a videogame. Kind of funny to see it used to describe a platform in a videogame :)

The wikipedia entry for "boss" contains the following under "slang":

Boss, a Scouse expression meaning cool or great, as in "That film was boss"

Scouse of course meaning from Liverpool...

So Xenelement saying "that one platform was BOSS" is probably the result of a Liverpublian export, or a re-appropriation that may well have come from what you're talking about Todorus.

Xenelement, what exactly are you having trouble with regarding the run cycle? The programming or the animation?