Author Topic: Dark Elf: Orb of Annihilation  (Read 13399 times)

Steve

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Dark Elf: Orb of Annihilation
« on: 2005-04-12, 02:27:36 PM »
Hey... not sure if I'm supposed to do this or not, but I finished a game along with two other people here at the Guildhall several months ago and it was never posted, so I figured I'd post the link here myself.

http://artificialarchitect.com/darkelf.htm

The game can tend to lag on some machines due to my inferior scripting skills, but ah well.  Let me know what you guys think.

bluemonkmn

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Dark Elf
« Reply #1 on: 2005-04-13, 05:16:16 AM »
Thank you!  I've been trying for months to get a hold of some cohort 3 projects, but been unable to do so.  I'll take a look at this project and if I can whittle down the necessary files from 20 MB down to 5 MB or so, I'll probably add it to the project listing.  We've all been hungry for more Guildhall projects!  8)

Anonymous

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Dark Elf
« Reply #2 on: 2005-04-16, 01:12:13 AM »
I'd prefer that you linked it directly to my webspace rather than alter the files if you were going to list it on the project site...

Steve

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Dark Elf
« Reply #3 on: 2005-04-16, 01:37:40 AM »
Heh sorry, forgot to put my name on that last post...

bluemonkmn

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Dark Elf
« Reply #4 on: 2005-04-17, 09:26:16 AM »
I've played it all the way through and it looks great!  You may have a 4 star game here (maybe even 5... I'll have to carefully review my subjective rating system :)).  And your project looks pretty clean (few extra files I think).  I do have a couple suggestions to try to reduce the project size, though:[list=1]
  • Insert this line on line 687 of the script, and then delete all the MAP files from the checkpoint folder:

if Not fs.FileExists("Checkpoint.sav") Then Exit Sub
I don't think this has much impact on the compressed size since the maps compress very well, but I did that before I realized just how well they compress.
  • Convert some of the larger bitmaps (menu and controlmenu bitmaps don't compress well) to JPG files and change the reference in the GDP file to reference the JPG files.  You can choose an appropriate balance between quality and size, but even at high quality levels you can reduce the size significantly, I think
  • Re-compress the MP3 files at a lower bitrate.  I went down to about 22 KHz with a lower bitrate and couldn't really tell the difference in quality by listening to it (because of the level of distortion-type sounds in the instumentation itself) and the file size was down to half the original -- this is probably the biggest gain.
  • Delete thumbs.db
  • Offer a version that is not a full installer, but just the project[/list:o]
    In any case, I will add this game to the listing when I get a chance (and link to your site).  I hope you will be able to provide a more conveniently sized archive for modem users by following some of the above suggestions.

Eastfist

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Dark Elf
« Reply #5 on: 2005-04-17, 10:57:18 AM »
Rock on! I like the grass layering in the medieval level... the parallax is dead on. I still have trouble doing that. Looks like you guys put a lot of work into it. Gotta love that slash animation.

Now if only you guys can elbow your other classmates or school to release some of those newer games. It's so much fun to see what other developers do. It's motivating because sometimes a little competition is good.  ;)
"What's in a game?"  Juliet says to insult Romeo.

Steve

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Dark Elf
« Reply #6 on: 2005-04-17, 07:27:45 PM »
I appreciate the compliments... I wasn't aware that you could use jpegs by manually changing the extension references, never even thought of that.  Luckily the bitmaps compress well so it makes the download a lot more reasonable than if they didn't.  

I was worried that you'd have to delete the mp3s and stuff like that in order to reduce the file size, but if it can be done without dramatically affecting the quality I don't really mind... it would be cool if you made a 56k version and then offered a link to my website for the high quality version... I wouldn't have a problem as long as there were options for both.

Eastfist, glad you like it, we did the castle level second so were a little more experienced with it when we got there.  There are a couple (one in particular) projects from my class that I know you guys would love, and the latest cohort just finished theirs and a lot of those are great fun too.  I'll wait to see if I get any official complaints after this project is put up, and if not I'll get my roommates to post theirs as well.

bluemonkmn

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MP3 encoder
« Reply #7 on: 2005-04-18, 05:56:12 AM »
I could use a suggestion on the tool for encoding MP3s.  The tool I used apparently stripped the author info from the file and I certainly don't want to do that.  (I'm using Creative WaveStudio.) If you could post/send re-encoded files or suggest an encoder that won't lose that info I could keep the author/copyright info in the files.  Otherwise, if you don't care about the tag info, I can just use what I've got.

Steve

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Dark Elf
« Reply #8 on: 2005-04-18, 08:19:48 AM »
I usually use lame for mp3 encoding, when I get home tonight I'll try to re-encode them and post a link to smaller versions of them here.

durnurd

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Dark Elf
« Reply #9 on: 2005-04-18, 09:47:06 AM »
I use Lame as well.  It can be used in cahoots with Goldwave (not the right word, but you get the idea) directly.  Which I use.  But you probably don't.  But Lame is good by itself too.
Edward Dassmesser

Steve

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Dark Elf
« Reply #10 on: 2005-04-18, 10:35:17 AM »
Actually, I currently use Audacity for sound editing, but have used goldwave in the past...

Steve

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Dark Elf
« Reply #11 on: 2005-04-18, 01:30:50 PM »
Alright, I halved the file size of the mp3s, they're at

http://artificialarchitect.com/tempdir/desongslow.zip

The high end really suffers, but such is the price of the low quality version lol...

By the way, didn't mean to hijack the sticky thread, you can move all this stuff to another if you wanted..

bluemonkmn

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Dark Elf
« Reply #12 on: 2005-04-19, 06:16:55 AM »
Strange, the "split topic" command doesn't work in the zeroSpace theme.  I had to switch to subSilver to split the topic.  But anyway, yeah, maybe I should suggest (in the sticky topic) that games be submitted to the listing on a separate thread rather than as replies to the sticky thread.

Anyway, I got the re-encoded files and will try packaging up the reduced-size project at my next opportunity.  The drums did sound a bit different.  I think I used a lower sample rate when I decreased the bit rate rather than sticking with 44 KHz, and then I couldn't tell the difference between that and the original, but I can use these.

bluemonkmn

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Dark Elf
« Reply #13 on: 2005-04-19, 06:24:22 AM »
Stupid media player -- I just noticed that it changes MP3 files when I play them!  I played the DEDrawbridge.mp3 and DEMonk.mp3 files and was shocked to see the size grow before my very eyes after I closed Windows Media Player!  I didn't expect it to write to the files let alone increase their size by ~10 KB when I merely play them (without telling me).  And Microsoft was doing so well in my opinion so far this morning -- when IE crashed they provided a nice explanation that RealNetworks was responsible for the crash.  Oh well, Microsoft's positive image never lasts long ;).

durnurd

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Dark Elf
« Reply #14 on: 2005-04-19, 07:36:55 AM »
I think there's an option to lock a thread so nobody can post in it, but it will still show up as a sticky.

And WMP writes information like number of plays, artist, rating, all that annoying stuff nobody except WMP cares about, etc. to the MP3 file.  Annoying, I know, which is why we listen to MP3s by looking at the binary file, decoding it to waves and just move the magnets ourselfves.

er....something.
Edward Dassmesser