Scrolling Game Development Kit Forum
SGDK Version 2 => Projects => Topic started by: Vincent on 2010-12-22, 09:40:01 AM
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I think that's worth a new topic!
I just uploaded the source code for my fan game Legacy of Kain: Revival. When bluemonkmn approves it, anyone can get it in the project remository. At the moment, I'm writing the game manual. When it is ready, I will package a compiled version with DLLs and the game manual. And then release the "official" beta version.
I'm pretty confident on the quality of the game. There will probably still be bugs and issues, but I played the game a couple of times from start to finish not taking the same paths and it's pretty solid.
Can't wait to hear your comments! :)
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Congrats! :)
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Thanks Tonyx! :)
I finished the package with the game manual and compiled program. You can download it on my web site:
http://lokrevival.webs.com/
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I just started the beta and had a couple problems at the beginning. First, the splash/loading screen never went away. It's still up saying "Loading music 12..." even though I'm playing the game. Second, I had difficulty figuring out how to activate a menu item. I figured out pressing "A" would do it by looking at the options screen, but it would probably not be as easy for someone not familiar with SGDK2. I see it's also in the documentation, but to be truly user friendly, someone should be able to play without looking at the documentation. It's very nice documentation, but still few people take the time to read the documentation before playing the first time. Maybe the menu screen should state "Arrows move, 'A' selects". (Yes, it's been a long time since I played a test version, so I'm kind of re-learning your game.)
Would you prefer I post comments on your site or here?
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Comments here are perfect. :)
Okay, I'm taking notes.
That's weird that the splashscreen never went away...? I used your code, it never happened to me...
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Hopefully I will be able to play it. :)
If not, then it's because of my hardware. :(
But I joined your site, so I'll be more in tuned with this game. ;D
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Cool! :)
I'm glad you joined the website!
If you have problems with the game, let me know. :)
Merry x-mas!
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The second time I ran the game the splash screen was white. But this is the 3rd time I ran it and it seemed fine and went away properly. I wonder if it had something to do with creating the save game files when it starts up or something. Anyway, I'm going to go play some more now.
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I just killed the enemy with the staff who allowed my to unseal the door sealed with magic and went back to the nearby save point. When I load the game from that point and then go into the encyclopedia to look at by objectives it works that far, but if I then look at my list of attacks I get an error. This may have something to do with the error I mentioned earlier about loading a game with un-initialized sprites. Do you see the same error? Did you include my fix in your beta? (It's about the 3rd or 4th attach in the list that causes the error.)
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Hi bluemonkmn!
Hum, I admit that I added the save game at the beginning of the game very late in development, it's one of the last things I did. It's used to restart the game when the credits end.
About the menu error, many people have reported this to me. Yeah, it seems exactly like the "load game but don't load sprites" problem you solved. I didn't add it because I feared regression problems, (it was too close to the release date). I will add it in the next version, it should solve many things... (Argh! I should've add it before release after all! Oh well...)
How do you like the game so far? (stupid bugs excepted of course... ;))
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So far, it's pretty impressive. I had quite some difficulty with the first creature that started throwing wind attacks and lightning balls at me. Finally I just had to run past. I wonder if I am forgetting about some attack, of if I am missing one. I saw a green vial a ways back that I could not reach and never got it.
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Glad you like the game so far!
Well, don't worry about the green vial: it's a max magic boost and you can always come back to pick it up. The attacks I use often are the TK Bolt (you have this one of course), Ground Launcher (found in the mansion) and Air Launcher (you have this one too). There's not a ton of special attacks to use in particular situations. Also, most of the time you can avoid fights if you prefer. :)
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I'm still stuck after destroying the guy in the area with the statue holding the staff. I got a key and opened a door, but there's nothing in that room except a wall that I can't break because I have no way to get stronger now. I went way back past the drawbridge and found a waterfall and walked through it and couldn't get through there either because of a closed gate. Then I died walking back through the waterfall and got sent all the way back to the area with the statue holding the staff. I tried walking under the town instead of through it, and didn't find anything useful there either, except a room I couldn't reach. What am I missing?
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Oh! When you get the key to open the door, it leads on the castle walls where 2 mages wait. When you beat them up, you move into a room where there is the resilient wall... But in the same room, you should also see a power up that makes you stronger (called Strength Boost). When you have this power selected, activate it with the skill key and then you can break the wall when it's active. If you pick the power up and strike the wall when the power isn't active, the message changes to something like "I need to be stronger to break this wall, one of my powers should do the trick".
So you went on the right track at first. The new skill didn't show up?
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I beat the mages and got into the room and I saw a pedestal or pillar looking thing, but it didn't seem to give my any power up. Did I need to do anything to take it? Maybe it doesn't appear after loading the game if you saved the game after beating the guy with the staff?
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And you didn't pick up the power by mistake, you don't have Strength Boost in your powers...?
Okay, I'll make some tests. If you don't have the power, you're stuck... :( Sorry.
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I loaded the same game again and went into the room, and this time I learned the skill. Maybe I didn't pick it up last time because I didn't see what I was looking at so I didn't jump? It's hard to tell that there's an item there -- hard to tell what I'm looking at I guess.
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Right on the other side of that obstacle is a teleport device, but the message says "fonctioning" instead of "functioning".
In other dialog: "and now you seem as old and powerful than me" should be "and now you seem as old and powerful as me"
When I picked up the skill that I can use to get boxes out of my way I missed the first page of description because there was such a delay before showing the message. I was pressing Activate or attack at the same time the message appeared, so I missed the page. I'm not sure if anything can be done about that. I guess it wouldn't be a problem if the encyclopedia worked, but I still can't view the encyclopedia without errors. So I'm not sure what skill I got or how to use it. Maybe it's time I get back to playing my other games until another version after the first beta is available :).
However, I am quite intrigued by the game, and the graphics, even so small, help me get into the mood and story.
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Thanks for the pointers. I will keep all of that in mind when I improve the project. :)
If you want to keep playing with this version, there is a way to workaround the encyclopedia problem: start a new game, open the menu, cycle through all the encyclopedia, then load your game. that way you can read the whole encyclopedia in your game. Annoying but it can be done.
If you don't want to go through this trouble, I will make a nother version of the game , probably in February.
Thanks bluemonkmn! ;D
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Hi everyone!
I just made another release, probably the last one of my game. You can get it at the game's website. http://lokrevival.webs.com
Bluemonkmn, are you willing to host the sgdk2 file in the game repository? It's about 80 megs.
Thanks everyone! Enjoy! ;D
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I'll have to see if it allows me to host something that size. I would like to try.
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I uploaded a .rar version of the sgdk2 file in the repository. It's abuot 40 megs. Can you approve it?
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I don't see any uploads. It must not have completed successfully. The site is configured to allow 50,000 KB uploads, so I don't know what would have happened to it. Do you have another place you can upload it so that I can try putting it up there other ways (unless you just want to try again) or should I create some FTP space where you could upload it to me?
Edit: It looks like there may be a PHP setting that would override the Joomla/Remository setting that says the max upload size is 7 MB. I will investigate to see if there is a way to change that.
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It's strange, I never got an error message when I uploaded the file. Everything seemed fine. I will try again tonight.
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Don't bother attempting the upload again until I figure out how to get around the 7 MB limit -- unless you have a different place to upload it where I can try and transfer it up to the site a different way.
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OK, I think I figured out how to modify the configuration to allow uploads up to 50 MB. Try again if you like.
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It doesn't seem to work, I get this message now:
"Although you may have attempted a file upload, no file was received. "
Before I had no message...
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I can't figure it out :(. Is there another place you can upload it so I can transfer it myself directly? Or should I provide you an FTP account to upload it?
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I stored it there temporarily. Can you pick it up and host it yourself? Thanks!
http://www.davidvdk.com/files/vc/LokSource.rar
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Thanks; I downloaded it -- I will try posting it tonight. You can take it off the other site if you like.
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Great! Keep me informed please! :)
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I posted it at http://sgdk2.enigmadream.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=27&func=fileinfo&id=181 (http://sgdk2.enigmadream.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=27&func=fileinfo&id=181). Do you have the ability to submit an update to that listing with the additional details and screenshots you'd like?
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I hacked the project listing's database to make the file owned by you so you should be able to submit your own description and screenshots now. (Changing file ownership does not seem to be a feature of Remository, but it was a simple 1-value hack to change the ownership, so it seems safe.)
I didn't realize/remember until recently that you already had the alpha version posted. I suppose we should remove that one too?
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Okay, I'll update info tonight (I don't have a thumbnail here). :) Yeah, I guess we could remove the alpha version now.
I wonder, will my game be displayed in the game listing page or is that only for SGDK1 games?
Thanks! :)
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I kind of forgot about the old project listing. Looks like it's not even working any more because it can't connect to the server. That is just for SGDK 1. http://sgdk2.enigmadream.com/ (http://sgdk2.enigmadream.com/) is the project listing for SGDK2.
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Well, I added a thumbnail but I leave the rest as is I think. :) Your description is short and straight to the point. I tend to get carried away when I describe my game, so I won't. ;)
Do you know where I could advertise my game? I already did on most Legacy of Kain fansites, but I don't know where else I could advertise it.
Thanks!
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Aw... I was kind of looking forward to seeing an all-fancied-up description because there are so many features for formatting text in the detailed description that never get used :). But it's OK, whatever you like is fine. Also, you may want to put a link to the binary version in case someone stumbles across this one, but doesn't want to get SGDK2 yet. Also, if you think it would help for me to also host the binary version of your game in the binary section, I could do that too.
As for advertising, here are a few thoughts:
- Submit news articles to gamedev.net and games.slashdot.org. I'm not sure if they would consider this news, but I don't think it could hurt to try.
- Post a question on GameDev.net about the best way to announce and publicize your game.
- Google Adwords will give you $75 of free advertising if you find their promotional offer and sign up -- I found mine in Wired. But you can only get this promotion once. I have another one in Wired that I can't use that I could look for if you can't find one.
- Make sure I remember to post news about your game on all the SGDK2 news outlets... the news feed, Facebook page, Homepage, etc.
- Check newsgroups (google groups and/or usenet) for game related discussions and announce your game there.
- Post a (another?) you-tube video of the best parts of your game and link to it. Do it like a trailer where you begin with caption screens like "What ever happened to Kain?" Maybe you could find an advertising/design school student to help you out on your video free of charge.
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OK, I updated the game description but I didn't submit a file (of course). It doesn't seem to show up. Must you approve the new details? I embedded a video with the description and linked toward the binary version also. :)
I'll work on you other suggestions. Thanks a lot for the help! :)
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1. Yes, I have to approve some updates. (Very impressive submission with the embedded video!) I have approved it.
2. I just noticed I was unable to extract the contents of the RAR file with 7-Zip. Did I upload a corrupt file, or is 7-Zip just not good at extracting RAR files? It says there was a CRC failure. If it is corrupt, I may need to have you upload again so I can download again and this time test the archive before uploading.
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Okay, I'll upload a new version of the source code for you. Anyway, I made some small changes already, so it is a good thing to update the file. :)
I'll tell you when it is uploaded. :)
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Okay, source code updated, same link: http://www.davidvdk.com/files/vc/LokSource.rar
I downloaded the source after uploading it, extracted it (with WinRar) and opened it. So this one is surely not corrupted.
Thanks! :)
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Allright, so I posted announcements on slashdot and gamedev. I looked around for google adwords, but I feel pretty unconfortable to input my bank info... I don't want them to tkae money from me. Is there a way to limit the amount of money to the promotional offer?
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I would try not to advertise to much until all the links are working properly. Hopefully you are advertising your link and it works.
I don't know if there's a way to limit the amount Adwords can take from you. When I did it, I think I just gave my credit card info or whatever, and then I was able to configure an "Ad Campaign" that lasted a limited amount of time. So I think I still have $2 because I didn't want to risk going over. It's up to you of course -- just an option.
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OK, I uploaded the file and deleted the old one. I tried to transfer all the pieces of the listing to the new file, but I see I forgot about the screenshot. Can you re-upload a screenshot. If it allows more than one screenshot to be uploaded it'd be nice to have a gameplay screenshot instead of just the title screen. I tested the download this time and ... Yay -- it extracted. I will try compiling/playing it soon.
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Last time I tried I could only upload a single screenshot. But before I realized that I took around 12 screenshots to upload, I was a little disappointed. :P
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I see there's a configuration option to control how many thumbnails a project can have. I increased it from 1 to 8. Can you pick the 8 best and post them?
Also, I just tried running the project. Is there some trick? I got this error message:
System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
at ByteLayer.GetTileFrame(Int32 x, Int32 y)
at LayerBase.Draw()
...
I could investigate, but I figured this might be an error you're already familiar with. Do you know?
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Ok, I uploaded my 8 best screenshots. There's not a lot of action going on (I defeated some enemies before taking the screenshots) but it shoes the environment, It's pretty good I guess.
Do you get this error right when you launch the game? I downloaded the version I uploaded for you and it works well for me. I use SGDK 2.1.5, I don't plan to upgrade for this project since it's finished. It might be the problem.
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I get the error when I select "New Game".
I am using 2.1.8. I'm not sure why that would make a difference... it would have to be a problem/difference with the code generator, since all the other code is stored in the project, not in SGDK2 (when you don't "reset source code").
Nice screenshots, BTW.
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I played a game with my version and I didn't get the error. I'll try it with 2.1.8 to see what difference it makes. :)
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Yup, launched the game with SGDK2.1.8 and I get the same error... But it's fine with SGDK2.1.5. I changeD some code concerning messages in my SGDK2.1.5 and it crashes in this code. But I don't what it does, it's like it's trying to get a tile in a tileset that wsn't loaded already.
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I'll try debugging it this evening to see what caused the problem.
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It seems I'm getting an error when it tries to draw tile number 114 for the message layer "press select button to skip to next dialog" in the alchemy lab map (I think). Is it supposed to be going to the alchemy lab map?
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That is very very weird. The alchemy lab test map shouldn't be used at all, it was my test room but now it's not the startup map anymore and there's no map linking to it...? It should be the OpeningSceneMap for the startup (or similar name).
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Sorry, it was the opening scene map, but the frameset when the error occurred was AlchemyLabFrameset.
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OK, I think I found the problem. There is no rule to "SetMessageFont", so when the CreateMessage function runs the first time, it is picking the first tileset in the project as the font tileset. The first tileset is the AlchemyLab Tileset. This is the code that does it:
if (FontTileset == null)
FontTileset = (Tileset)(typeof(Tileset).GetProperties(
System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.GetProperty | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Public)
[0].GetValue(null, null));
How does your project get a different tileset?
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Good question! But I wonder, could it be that now the tilesets are sorted in alphabetical order and "AlchemyLabTileset" comes before "CoolFont", SGDK2 picks up "Alchemy..." rather than "Coolfont"? That would explains why it crashes in 2.1.8 and not in 2.1.5!
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The same thought occurred to me this morning. I will try inserting a call to SetMessageFont in OpeningSceneMap and see if that fixes everything...
That did it. Now I will have to figure out how to upload the updated version without losing all your screenshots. Perhaps I should play through the game first to make sure other problems didn't creep in from loading the project into version 2.1.8.
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Is it necessary to call SetMessageFont only once in the game if there is no change of font? Or would it be a better practice to call it before each ShowMessage?
Have fun playing the game! :)
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It's only necessary to call it once.
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Allright, I'll add it in my file too. :)
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I finally managed to update the file in the existing submission. Joomla sure leaves some features to be desired. I had to manually update the database, but it all looks good now. The file downloaded from the submission will compile and run properly from SGDK 2.1.8.
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Great! Thanks! :)
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I remembered that I still have to play through this game. So I loaded my saved game and started playing, but hit an error again. I think it's the same error that resulted from sorting the tilesets. But maybe it happens differently after loading a game instead of starting a new game because no rule was called to set the message font? Are you planning on any more releases with a fix for SetMessageFont?
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Hi bluemonkmn!
Well, I made a new version of the game but I didn't release the source code yet. If you want to play the compiled version with the bugs solved (and a couple of new features I think), you can get it here:
http://cid-95f82d4a2ad34fe6.office.live.com/self.aspx/Public/LokRevival.rar
Okay, I uploaded the source as well:
http://cid-95f82d4a2ad34fe6.office.live.com/self.aspx/Public/LokRevivalSGDK2.rar
Can you replace the source in the project repository with this one?
Thanks!
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Done.
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Thanks! Please, tell me if you get any other bug!
Have fun :)
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Wow, this is a long and incredibly detailed game! I'm very impressed. I played for 5 hours today and managed to beat Janos and Hylden (starting from a saved game I had before). It's quite challenging. I have to quit for today, but there is a *lot* of gameplay in this game! Now what did I say I/we should do to publicize it? Post it to freeware/shareware sites? I hope people still play long involved games and not just little things like Angry Birds :).
Edit: I posted my review on the SGDK2 homepage, along with a nice big screenshot. I am a little bit rushed at the moment, so I hope I did it justice.
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Hi bluemonkmn,
Wow! Thanks a lot for the review! I'm glad you found some time to play and enjoy the game. I must admit I was afraid you tried it and didn't like it since it was released some time ago and I never really got your comments.
Thanks a lot for the review on the SGDK2 homepage!
I already followed most of your suggestions about publicity. I posted messages on many forums, but it didn't get much attention. The traffic on my website didn't go up very much. I hope people still like long games too. Maybe the story line is too complex or difficult for people who didn't play LoK games at all?
If you have ideas to publicize it, I'm all ears. :)
Thanks again!
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Word of mouth is the best way of advertising. (Note the success of Minecraft). Try to find some LoK fans and see if they will be able to spread the word.
As for my review, it looks very good. If I didn't have college work and stuff, I'd play it more.
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I'm also posted info about my game in many LoK forums but it seems it didn't generate much interest. Probably because there are some LoK 3D fan games in development... :( Thanks your review. :)
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I'm trying to pick up where I left off playing last time, but I'm lost and forgot what I was doing. I was in the Hylden dimension and had destroyed two portals. I figured out I could go back to the Hylden Fortress and use the portal there to get back to where I started, but I don't know how to complete the 3rd "stop Hylden invasion" objective, and I can't figure out or remember what's next.
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Hi bluemonkmn!
Haha!!! It's great fun to answers questions about my game. I love it! :)
The last step to complete the Hylden Portal objective is to close the portal in the whirlpool at the lake of the dead. You got the first part right: backtrack to the Hylden Fortress and use the portal to reach Vorador's Mansion. Once you're back in the mansion, make your way to the lake in the Pillars of Nosgoth area. When you get near the cliff, Kain will close the portal automatically by throwing the Nexus Stone in the lake. :)
Also, as a friendly warning, this means that when you close the portal in the lake you cannot go back into the Hylden Dimension or Hylden Fortress, they are closed forever. If you still want to complete other objectives or find hidden items, you have to get to them before you close the portal.
You must be near the end! From what I heard, this is the last objective most people deal with. In what order did you complete the objectives?
Have fun! :)
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I think I'm completing the objectives in the order that they're listed. I can't seem to activate whatever I need to activate at the Pillars on Nosgoth to access the Elder God.
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When you are ready to fight the Elder God, you must activate the pillars one by one. To do this, first use the skill Spirit Vision. When you can see the spirit world, look at the left-most pillar. This pillar is spawning colored pixels. :P At the base of this pillar, use the skill Activate to activate this pillar. When done correctly, this pillar will stop spawning colored pixels and another one will begin to. They are activated in this order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 5 (the central pillar is the last one to activate).
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Aha... I thought I had thoroughly searched this screen, even with spirit vision, but apparently I didn't look high up at the leftmost pillar with spirit vision active. I see the pixels, now that you have pointed them out. I managed to finish after a few attempts fighting the elder god. Quite an impressive battle. I did alright after I realized I could suck his life sometimes :). Nice credit sequence too. According to the game stats, I played a little over 4 hours, but I'm sure that doesn't count all my failures where I had to re-load. :-[
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Nice work! I'm glad you liked the final battle... and the credits: after all, you are in them. :)
Yes, the game does not count the time you spend in the menu, in a conversation, in a cutscene or when you reload. So you know you spent 4 hours of real "flawless" gameplay from beginning to end. :)
Will you try to get the other 4 endings? You can get them pretty fast (since you already finished the game once) by playing it at easy and making saves along the way each time you complete an objective.
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I didn't realize/remember that there were other endings. I probably won't try to get them because I have so many other games to play these days (I'm starting to even wonder what's the point of game development any more! Not quite a midlife crisis, though.) But in case I do, what kinds of variations are required to get the other endings? Leaving some objectives incomplete?
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Yes, there is a total of 5 endings. You get a different ending depending on how many objective groups you have completed.
I made some branches in dialogs too. For example, when you reach the Hylden Seer, there are quite a few dialog possibilities:
- variation if Vorador is dead
- variation if Vorador is revived
- variation if Nexus was defeated and absorbed
- variation if Nexus was defeated but not absorbed
- variation if Nexus was not met yet
If you want, I could send you some saved game files so you can see the other endings. Of course, you will have to defeat the Elder God each time. :)
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Oh, I forgot to say that if the endings is different based on how many objectives group you have completed, the last level changes depending on which objective you have completed. There are 4 rooms in the last level (if we forget about the final boss room). Each of these 4 rooms is attached to an objective group. So each room changes depending on if the attached objective group is complete or not. I have saved games to see the difference in the last level too, if you are interested. :)
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Hey, Google AdWords just gave me another $100 in free advertising. I thought maybe it would make sense to advertise a specific game (your game) along with SGDK2 to get the attention of people who want something more concrete to play with when getting SGDK2. We should think about what kind of ads would be effective and then run another (pre-paid) ad campaign on my Google AdWords account to see how things turn out this time around. Right now my ads are images based on the side-bar image in the about dialog and the web page banner. And they have the following text:
A 2D game universe to explore...
designed by you
Check out the most flexible game creator you never heard of.
Create the game you never thought you could using a free IDE with superior online help.
The latest suggestions that Google provided with their new gift were:
- One of the easiest ways to improve your AdWords performance is to write great ads. Give people a specific, tangible reason to click on your ad, such as a special offer, a free catalog or discount.
- Here's another tip: people are more likely to click on ads if they see the precise terms they used in their search. For example, someone looking for "digital cameras" will be more likely to click on ads that include the exact phrase, "digital cameras."
So, I'm not sure what the next step is, but we should work out something between the two of us to try to get a successful set of ads. Maybe you could try getting an account again to see if you can do it in a way that doesn't risk charging you this time -- just to see what options are available. If not, I can try to communicate what the available options are, and what I think would make sense. I currently have 5 different size image ads and one text ad.
Interested?
P.S. they also provided a link with more "training" type info; a kind of online classroom (http://www.google.com/adwords/onlineclassroom/#utm_source=awo&utm_medium=hc&utm_campaign=en-us-aw-hc).
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Hi bluemonkmn!
That's good! But I admit, I don't feel very comfortable with this google adword stuff. I went back into my adwords account but I have no money in it and no promotion code or anything to redeem to get free advertising. So I guess it would be better to do it with your account.
I understand that the idea is to promote SGDK2 and use LoK: Revival to do so. I am with you 100% on this. :)
Your advertisement text is good. Is there emphasis on the word "free"? Because it's far in the text and may not be obvious.
What can I do do help? :)
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Oh, you *do* have an account? Even if you have no credit in it, you could use it to see what kinds of ads could be created, even if you can't make them active, right? That's all I was suggesting. If you can see what image sizes are available for ads and what formats exist, you can help by creating appropriately sized images to contribute to my ad campaign.
Now that I think about it, though, I should wait until I have some updated web content to put on the SGDK2 homepage. Sam was going to sent a nicely formatted version of the web site. I should wait until I have a more attractive site before inviting people to it with ads.
Meanwhile, maybe you can come up with one or two images (including graphics from your game) and maybe some text that you think would attract attention to go on those images. Post them here or send them to me, and if it looks like you're on the right track, I'll have you create a number of other similar images to use as ads. Otherwise I'll think on it and make suggestions on how the ads coul be improved before putting too much work into all the variations. My very rough thought (just for the text) might be like:
"Legacy of Kain series revived as a free 2-D game.
Play the game or make your own with the same free 2-D game creator."
Then I could make a page we can link to somewhere that has information and links to both products.
Find out if Google ads suports animated images in any form if you can do that with your limited account.
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Yes, I have an account. I opened it last time we discussed the possibilities to advertise my game. :)
I'll try to make a couple of ads this weekend if I get the time. :)
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Hi Bluemokmn!
I tried a couple of times tome make some ads... Most just look horrible and I deleted them. But I made one that isn't too bad I guess. I don'T think I will have time to make another this weekend, but I'll try to find an idea for another one. Anyway, tell me what you think of the first one. Does it look like you wanted? Do you have other ideas?
By the way, you can "animate" some ads with google graphics ads, but only using the templates google offers. If you try to upload an animated gif you make yourself, you get a warning saying that you cannot use this file because there is "inappropriate flashes and flickers" or something like that. So the animation you see in the ad I make is by using an animated template.
Link toward the ad preview(I made some screenshot to emulate what the ad would look like and created an animted gif with the screenshots):
http://fvy2qg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1po7Xiqu3zUMGSo7U0Djs3s6Z4olFqBnbNLJeC5sJe6HVSgjFV0R6Suduawbw-zIkRl2dYxQtyoQnGXI043tfo3owvahrWELq6/Preview.gif?psid=1 (http://fvy2qg.blu.livefilestore.com/y1po7Xiqu3zUMGSo7U0Djs3s6Z4olFqBnbNLJeC5sJe6HVSgjFV0R6Suduawbw-zIkRl2dYxQtyoQnGXI043tfo3owvahrWELq6/Preview.gif?psid=1)
I also took note of the exact recipe to reproduce the ad should you want to make it.
That's it for the moment! :)
Thanks!
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That looks pretty good. It looks like most of the graphics are of the characters. It's be cool to get some of the awesome looking rich backgrounds you have in some of the ads too. Maybe in some of the wider ads we can get some panoramic backgrounds. Still waiting for the web site content update, but when the web site is ready, I'll start putting real effort into implementing this ad campaign.
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Okay, I'll try to do something with backgrounds.
There is project going on (that is out of my hands though) to redraw all the graphics in my game with 2D renders of 3D models. It's not going fast and I have yet to see anything from the artists, but maybe the game will be prettier after it's done. If we wait for this to be over before we do the ads, it would probably be greater... But it might never happen too.
Hum...
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I think there are some graphics that could be improved by rendering with a 3D modeler, but others that are already practically pixel-perfect in their stylized way, and might be very difficult to improve with 3D rendering. It would be like trying to improve a Monet painting by re-creating the scene in a ray-tracer. It loses its style :). For example, I think the forest graphics and mansion graphics are quite nice and would require a lot of work to re-create as tiles with better detail using a ray-tracer. In a tile editor, you can add detail with just a few well-placed pixels, or leave some pixels out as part of your style (as you have done) but with a 3D modeler, you need to define a new geometry to get every detail.
I wish you success in getting something beautiful back, but I think there are some backgrounds that will make good ads even as the graphics stand now. We'll see. We have time.
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Finally looking into the Ad Builder. I don't know if they had that before or if I just didn't notice it. The Product Showcase and Expandable Ads look interesting. I'll have to play around with those when I get a chance.
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Hi bluemonkmn!
Yeah, I agree with you about recreating the game with 3D objects. I'm not really sure with it will look like. The big bonus I see with this project is to get rid of all the ripped stuff I took from other games. It will be more unique and original I guess with 3D renders. But for the final "look" I'm not sure. I have no idea how this project is going. To sum it up, I was contacted by a couple of 3d artists who wanted to remake the game with 3d models and wanted the source code, etc. I told them it would probably be better and faster if I just extracted all the graphics of the game and send the package to them. They agreed. So basically, I'm waiting the receive the new graphics sheets that I will import in the game (probably at a better resolution, so I might have to make more graphic sheets) and then recompile and "voil
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The graphics editor in SGDK2 was designed for editing tile graphics, not large images. With that in mind, I figured that it wasn't worth the effort to implement a scrollable editor, and simply limited the size. This also eliminates performance problems that would exist in performing some operations on a large number of pixels. Since the assumption is that the editor is for editing small graphics, any editing of large graphics should be done externally.
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All right, that's a good answer. :) In fact, I did edit my graphics externally 95% of the time.
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This might be kind of a drag but can you make a video of your game? lol im a huge metroidvania fan and you sir, have just made the game i have always dreamed of making. I cant play your game for some OpenGL issues (although I can play games made by 2.1.9) and I REALLY want to at least have the pleasure of watching a "Lets Play" or speedrun or even a 20 second intense battle of this. Great job from the screenshots by the way!
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Have you tried downloading the project from the project listing and loading it into SGDK 2.1.9 to recompile it? I think I played it in 2.1.9. If you can play 2.1.9 projects, I bet we could get LOK Revival to work on your machine somehow.
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Hi Pizzaman,
By following bluemonkmn's suggestion, did you get it to work? I tried to make a good video of the game but I guess my tools aren't very good. There is no sound, the framerate drops... It's not pretty. Also, since the game is long, it makes heavy videos.
I hope you can get the game working. Otherwise, I'll try to make a video walkthrough of the game.
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I found a little review of LOKRevival on a russian gaming site and used google translate to read it:
http://gfaq.ru/news/legacy_of_kain_revival_pc_windows/2011-04-11-181
It's strange, my game really attracts more attention in Russia and countries near Russia. It's unfortunate that I don't speak russian, I can't communication really well with fans form over there. Still good to see that my game gets attention anyway. :)
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Amazing. They love the game for being 2D and retro. Think I also saw something in there about "Kastlevania". I have to totally agree. Its a really impressive game. It should be the poster project for SGDK2 :) , the main project everyone strives to create when using this kit. "Use SGDK2 and maybe, just maybe you can make a game like this!" Good job, and I cant wait to see your next work!
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Thank Pizzaman! I really appreciate. :)
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Yes, I see the excitement is beginning. I hope this will be a fun ride! :) If there's anything else you can suggest for promoting LOK, let me know. I am in the process of developing a Google Ad campaign. I'm just awaiting the web page to link to. I hope to have something within a week. Right now it's just a placeholder page at http://sgdk2.sf.net/LokAd (http://sgdk2.sf.net/LokAd) so I have not activated the ads yet.
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Cool! :) I can't wait to see that! :)
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The Ad is getting 150 clicks per day now. I haven't noticed a significant change in SGDK2 traffic. Do you have anything tracking traffic to the LOK web site?
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Since when is the ad up?
I see an impressive peak on June 30th (165 visits against an usual 30 visits per day) and since then I have around 40 visits per day rather than 30. But I have no new members and talking in the forums or anything. ???
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According to the announcement (http://gamedev.enigmadream.com/index.php?topic=1552.0), since the beginning of the month.
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So it wasn't up on June 30th. Strange, why is there a peak then...?
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I don't know... maybe it was up June 30th and I didn't post the announcement until July 1, and Google didn't record the clicks until July 1.... or different time zone or something?
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Ah, time zones, yes that's possible. Did you set the ad on Minnesota timezone? I'm in Montreal, in the Eastern timezone, so I'm probably an hour earlier. I look at a timezone map, the states aren't on it, but I guess the timezone changes between Wisconsin and Minnesota?
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Ah, time zones, yes that's possible. Did you set the ad on Minnesota timezone? I'm in Montreal, in the Eastern timezone, so I'm probably an hour earlier. I look at a timezone map, the states aren't on it, but I guess the timezone changes between Wisconsin and Minnesota?
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-34bdlMbAKo4/TZkxo3wj68I/AAAAAAAAASM/mW-xt6CL8OU/s1600/time-zone-map.jpg
Here's a more detailed map.
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Ah yes, I see now. Well, there is a delay of an hour between Minnesota and Montreal, so I guess that could explain it. :) Thanks SmartBoy16!
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I managed to (with relative ease even!) implement the ability to change the shape of a sprite by using the collision masks generated by SGDK2. That's pretty cool. The physics engine has the ability to generate polygons based on bit masks. I was already 90% there -- just had to hook them together... align them. That's the tricky part. Still not sure if they're aligned quite right. I haven't uploaded an update yet, but hopefully I can work on it more this weekend and post another update soon.
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Do you mean that you did this in Lok:Revival project, or did you post this in the wrong thread?
Anyway, that's great! So each sprite can have many physics shapes when animated? That's impressive!
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Oops, wrong thread!