Lok Revival: first alpha version

[Vincent]

Well, I decided not to take any chances, so since the game is starting at a 320x240 size, I simply multiply by 2, 3 and 4 for bigger sizes.  1280 x 1024 does not seem to be a 4x3 ratio:

1280 / 4 = 320
320 * 3 = 960 (not 1024)

How would 1280x1024 be an advantage compared to 1280x960?  The game does not show more or less map when it is zoomed, it is simply bigger or smaller.

Or maybe I don't get your point?  I'm not sure I follow you. 

[Jam0864]

Mornings are hard on the mind.

My bad.



I was basically saying a more widescreen aspect ratio would allow more horizontal view, meaning you need less time to react to hazards in front or behind you, but the whole point was invalid since 1280x960 is in fact the same ratio as 320x240.

[bluemonkmn]

I updated the submission in the repository.

Approved

1- Do you have a suggestion on how, when and where to display this information?

No specific suggestion.  One thought is early during the tutorial.  Another thought is at the bottom of the menu screen: "Press Esc to access menu during game".

3- I thought about displaying a pop-up for the skills...  but there is already 8 skills done so it would be a large "pop-up".  Since the skill selection by holding down the select button is "real time", showing a pop-up would probably be a problem since it would hide the game...  Or should I make it transparent enough to see what's happening behind?  What do you think?

I was thinking just 4 directional arrows pointing to the ability that would be selected by pressing that arrow, with the currently selected ability displayed in the center.  It would only be 9 tiles in size -- not too big.  You could try to show a list of abilities in each direction if you have room, but it would be fine if the ability simply changed as you cycled through the abilities in each direction as you continued to press the keys.

4- Yeah, that problem happens.  I don't really know why since I'm not using a buggy custom function of my own design (), but the PushTowardCategory function...  Anyway, I modified the blood drinking in the version.  It might not look as "cool" as it did (maybe I'll tweak this again later), but at least now no blood is lost.

Did you push it once and then let it float, or does it get pushed on every frame?  It might be partly due to the fact that the blood sprite is smaller than the player.  Isn't there an option to say which part of the target sprite the push should go toward?  I'll have to check later.  I'm out of time.

[Vincent]

@bluemonkmn:
Okay, I will add the "esc" message in the menu.

I'll try to work something out for skill selection.

Yeah, the blood sprite is smaller than Kain.  I also pushed it only once and let it cruise toward it's target.  Now, it is pushed every frame so it gets to destination.

Thanks!

[Vincent]

Hi! 

I added a message in the main menu when the game opens.  This way, players will know that the escape key gets them back to the main menu.

I also added a popup skill selector.  I think it's not too bad.  It does take some place, but I made it a little transparent so it makes skill selection easier to do.  I'm attaching a screenshot of the skill selector.  The skill selector appears when the "Select" button is held down then you see the skill that will be selected when you press an arrow.

What do you think bluemonkmn?  Is that what you had in mind?

[bluemonkmn]

That looks great!  Even better than I expected, and that's exactly what I was talking about.

[Vincent]

Good!  I'm glad you like it!

[Vincent]

Hi!

I updated the version of the demo in the repository.  I made minor changes, implemented some suggestions and corrected a couple of bugs.  I will begin working on the second level shortly, so I won't update this demo until lv 2 is completed...  But for now, I'm going back playing Assassin's Creed 2!!!  See you later guys!

Can you approve the new file bluemonkmn?

Thanks!

[bluemonkmn]

Approved

[bluemonkmn]

How's your project going?  Still making progress?

[Vincent]

Hi!

Yup, still working on my game.  I finished level 2 and 3.  I was sidetracked for a month or so because I started playing Oblivion on my Xbox 360 and boy I got seriously addicted!  But, since I finished Oblivion, I'm back on working on my game.  I'm currently drawing the 4Th level.  It's taking longer than expected.  I thought that I would be able to finish the whole game for December this year, but I don't think I'll be able to pull it off, since I plan to do 8 levels.  I think I lack some inspiration to design the levels, that's why it's taking so much time.

The new interesting things I added in the 2 new levels are:
music
sound effects
music and sfx volume control
some skill modifications for the main character
2 boss fights
particles generators (for rain, snow, magma bursts, etc)

I think that's about it.  Most of the time I invest in the game now is to draw and design levels and into boss fights.  I didn't stumble in any major obstacle recently, that's why I didn't post much in the forums, but I still visit every day.

I know I said I would upload a new version after level 2, but since the second level is very small when you first go into it, it seemed a little pointless to upload it.  The idea is that a good portion of the second level can be unlocked only after the fourth level is completed.  There's a lot of backtracking necessary to open up new paths in the game.

Also, the game is getting huge.  About 40 megs I think.  So it's a little more complicated to find someplace to host it.

If you're interested to take a look at the game right now, I could upload a version soon with the three first levels.

Thank you for your interest!

[bluemonkmn]

Well, I hope you are using smart compressions for your sounds and eliminating resources that you don't plan to use to keep your project size down.  If you have music, I know you could get much more out of MOD format than MP3 or OGG format within a certain size limit (assuming you take advantage of MODs ability to store instruments and music score rather than just sounds).  But one way or another, I will host your game when it's complete.

[Vincent]

Hum...   I use mp3 format. 

I use a program (Audacity) to make sure it is as light as possible: I don't use complete tunes, I make loops with them, I make sure they are mono, I cut the sample rate as much as possible, I compress them in mp3. 

Just like the graphics, I rip the music from other games.  I don't see how I could transform an mp3 into a MOD, I can't really reverse engineer the music to a set of instruments and a music score, unless you have a special tool for this?  I'm not a musician.

For the sound effects, I use wav format.

Thanks a lot for hosting the game when it will be finished!  I'll remember that.

[bluemonkmn]

Converting to MOD isn't really practical.  Generally the music would have to be created as MOD to start with.  But there are sites where you can find a lot of good MOD files free to use.  That's where I got some of the music provided with SGDK2.  I don't remember the name of the site off the top of my head, but it might be in the credits of the sample game or other music library templates.  If you're ripping music from other sources anyway, might as well rip it from a source that provides nice compact music ... unless it's music specific to LoK.

[durnurd]

Storing music as MP3 is all well and good, but storing as OGG is better for three reasons:

• Open Codec: Not really a big issue here, but in large games, there has to be some notice somewhere that the MP3 Codec was licensed from the company that designed it (which means that they have to actually license it too, which costs money)
  
• Size vs. quality: While MP3 can get you a good size reduction over wav format, it loses quality for every step you take.  The OGG audio format is smarter about what parts of the audio it can compress without a noticeable reduction in audio quality.  You can get comparable sizes with much higher quality, or much lower sizes if you're okay with lower quality
  
• Looping: MP3 files don't loop well.  Whenever you create an MP3 file, a short space is inserted at the beginning of the file, which doesn't work with looping very well.  OGG files do not have this issue.