@HoneyTribeStudios Yeah i wish they give us more table capabilities , i already have 3 tables in this project , and i believe that when we get more table features ill add a bunch more! Good idea about the 'dynamic difficulty system' i might implant it once ill finish all the story and the puzzles ..
@Clock It depends , if GS give us universal builds by the time i finish , so there will be a universal build , if not , so ill definitely make an iPad version , either way , this game is gonna be available for iPad .
@SAZ You know your in the beta test cycle , i don't need to tell you that my friend
@All The following contains some SPOILERS , so its up to you to proceed .. After finishing the cave stage, which came out very good i think , i started working on the mountains stage . The story is , the 2 heroes (Edwin and Baldric) came across a situation (which i will not tell you what was it) that they need to split up , Baldric (the brown hair) to the caves and Edwin (the blondy) to the mountains , i wanted to make this split because : In the game the player (thats you) can customize the heroes with new weapons and new spells and also give them items to hold , the thing is , that while the player is in a level where both heroes are on screen , he can control each one separately , and while he controls one of them , the other one is being controlled by an AI system , And that can cause the player to accessorize and upgrade only one hero , and completely ignore the other one , and thats why i wanted to split them up , so that the player (again thats you) will HAVE TO upgrade both heroes with new abilities and not ignore one of them throughout the game .
Nuff talking , here is a new peek to the game , as mentioned above this is from the mountains level , and this is one of the 5 mini puzzles that are in the mountains. Don't forget , SPOILERS , so proceed with cautious ..
Thanks a lot David! As for now i use the particle system for the "mystical barrier" effect , and not the awesome animation you made for me , but thats just because i need to save RAM , i might use it though if in the end of the project ill have enough free RAM available.. its just there are SO many images and animations already inside!
Roy.
gyroscopeI am here.Member, Sous Chef, PROPosts: 6,598
This is really coming on so well, nice one, Roy. :-) I really like the music you've got; spot on for the genre, I think.
Roy, I don't have anything to comment about your progress that wasn't done already by others but the game evolves very very good. How are you doing on loading times? I know you are waiting for Lua to drop but am curious what you are on now. I started a new project with 1440x960 scenes this week. Finally, I had the idea for months) and full of 64x64 tiles. The way it is set up now it doesn't show hardly any loading time because I use tables to build the actual level. Like the Bolean example found here somewhere (was it yours? I forgot) but then with numbers representing tile types and rotations. The advantage is that while the level builds I can show my own progress bar. I am thinking of displaying a scores display of the previous level during this build time so the wait even seems shorter. It takes about 5 to 6 secs to build a level at this moment (with 345 tiles). Anyway... Good luck on the build!
@P-O-M Yessss! ... loading times will be interesting my game uses tiling as well but i haven't used tables to build and it affects the 3GS quite a bit, not at all on the iPhone 4S ... the one thing thats irritating is tiling doesn't support resolution independence for some reason..weird!
@gyroscope Thanks !! Ain't that the coolest music eva ! i love it !
@LudwigHeijden Well , i honestly don't know , i haven't checked on loading times yet , just performance , and like you said , I'm waiting for the LUA drop cause i really want this game to run smooth on iPhone 4 and be playable even on iPhone 3gs (i don't see this happening though) i guess ill be dealing with loading times toward the end , I'm making my code highly efficient so there is not much to optimize , basically all the optimization i can make to improve loading times is to turn off "preload art" , to make the music with caf files, and to wait for LUA drop ..
@All Today was tedious! i was struggling with a puzzle logic for hours ! then i left it , and came back to it with a clear mind couple of hours later , and came up with a great way to make it , i really love the result , it came out very intuitive .. its amazing that if you struggle with something , and come back to it a few hours later, you can solve it with a new approach you haven't thought of before This is the puzzle I'm talking about , here you see the 'second' part of it : Looks simple right?! NOT !! it was very difficult and I'm so glad i succeeded making it .
Also, here is another peek to one of the challenges in the 'mountain level' :
As you can see i changed the Joystick to a more transparent one , because the old on was *hiding* a significant part from the screen , i also plan to make some changes to the 'action' button and the 'lower heath bars' to make them less 'disrupting' .
I believe that tomorrow ill finish the mountain level and start working on the next one.. overall , i fill like i progress in a rapid pace !
Update : Working working working , in the last few days i find myself working with GameSalad more than breathing, i work so much i forget to eat , my back is killing me and i think i lost a sense of time(what day is today?) , i work so much my eyes spits acid... Then i work some more . I want to finish this project so badly , sometimes i forget that its useless cause I'm waiting for the engine overhauling anyway (AKA - LUA drop) ... Everything is ready , the story , the graphics , the concepts, the music, the sounds , everything is ready , just needs to put it all together , and that takes time , A LOT of time.. If its so slow and it counts as fast cause its GameSalad after all, i don't even want to imagine how much time it would take with native softwares like Xcode and such.. So thank you GameSalad.. However , when it comes to creating the game's scenery and positioning actors in a big scene , its a big pain in the a** .. Opening actors and hitting the 'back button' over and over and over and over just to change some self.attributes can be very irritating sometimes .. but i do it , cause I'm addicted to my project , i admit it .
Everyday i do a different part of the project , according to what i *feel* at that day.. there are so many parts its hard to keep up Today I've been working on 'Amorad Town'.. this is the first scene in the game , where the heroes acquire their first weapons.. so I've finished the design , all thats left is to fill it with things that the heroes can interact with .. I'm fairly pleased with the design although i believe it will get some changes as i progress .. Its very difficult to design stuff without the 'Tile' option (its broken for retina graphics) and i still use 'replicate' as a substitute , but i really hope they will fix it soon .
Here is a peek to 'Amorad Town' :
In theory , once i finish 'Amorad Town' , the "Swamps" and the "Epic finale" the whole story will be done and i could start working on the marketplace (hopefully there will be a writable tables by then) and concentrate on improving the combats ..
wow looks very good! This is going to be an awesome game with such nice graphics. One thing i have in my mind when i saw this...This is a village right? because there are only 3 houses. just saying
I predict this is going to be a hit Great stuff as always Roy. Don't worry about being addicted, it means your game will not be rushed and will be a labour of love ... and hopefully that shows off in the final output. I know you're waiting for the Lua drop and i understand wanting to get it finished nonetheless, its such a huge weight off your shoulders once you finish a big project .. Im currently feeling that weight lifting
Morning everyone ! @Clock Yeah it's just the general layout, I will add lots of stuff inside, including more buildings
@beefy Fingers crossed for your prediction It's just like you described it , the need to finish a project and see the result is what keeping us investing so much in it ! I wish I had a time frame for the LUA drop , when they said it will be roughly 6 months I felt a cold chill in my spine , I REALLY hope it won't take this long ..
@Shaz I might add the map feature , it shouldn't be so hard to implant , but I don't think I'll use a zoom out zoom in type of map , I'll make a map sketch with roads that the user can see where he is in the area , it feels like those little extras are so far away in the development , many things to do before that
Today I'll try finishing up 'Amorad town' .. And maybe give you guys another peek
Keeping a close eye on this one and loving it so far!!!
Darren.
Thanks a lot Darren
So i haven't finished up 'Amorad town' yet , but I'm getting very close to I just had to show you guys this Peek from 'Amorad town' i find it very amusing The kid in the video was seeing something he was not suppose to see in a previous part of the game , and he thinks his gone crazy and hallucinate :
Hopefully ill finish up 'Amorad town' TODAY ! and carry on to the 'Swamps' area (level 9 in the game)
Update: 3 levels left ... ● "Swamps-part1" ● "Swamps-part2" ● "The dark lord's castle" (The Epic Finale)
So after finishing up "Amorad town" (which is basically level 1) i jumped to work on the "Swamps-part 1" (level 9) , and I'm currently working on that , i can already taste the end The swamps are difficult.. very difficult , full of enemies , this is the last road to the 'dark lands'.. you basically meet all the different enemies you previously met in the game (about 13), and some new more , here its all about battles , epic battles all over the place , by the time the player gets to this level i expect him to have at least 4 different "spells" and a decent "blade" from the in-game-store , so these fights should be interesting and challenging , i haven't showed you guys lots of "combats examples" cause i really want to save some "hype" for the release , but its amazing , the sprites and the effects are incredible
Also , there are few challenging puzzles in the 'Swamps area' , today i give you a glimpse to one of them :
Hey all ! Happy day over here Lots of great stuff happened today , first , iv'e finished level 9 (Swamps-part1) , so obviously thats great news , getting closer to the finish line .. Second , i managed to get rid of 4 "Movable" actors , in the game (they are in every scene) and i see a significant increase in performance ! iv'e played on an iPhone 4 and the game ran smooooothly , which is amazing cause that means that after the "optimization week" i might get some great fps results and maybe release the game before the "drop of LUA" , but its too early to tell .. And third , in one of my breaks today i though of ways to spice up the heroes movement , then i decided to go with "rolling/evading" , i started to implant it to their rules and so far so good , I'm pretty happy with the result I believe this will also spice up the *battles* , giving the player an option to 'evade' enemies hits with rolling over gives a whole new dimension to the battles ! So today i give you a peek to the "rolling" feature : This is not the final version of the 'rolling' animation , but its close ..
Also , still haven't decided on the joystick style yet , any thought about that will be greatly appreciated .
@Gabby Soon you'll be able to play it As for IAP I haven't started to mess around with that although there is lots of optional content the player can buy. I need to make a comprehensive research about how IAP works on those type of games..
@beefy Not even near finish my friend , the reason both styles are on the screen is cause I'm still trying to decide which one to use.. Seeing them on the different levels layout at the same time is helping. But as I said.. Still haven't decided yet
Is it possible that the HUD elements could be made a little less obtrusive? either by making the graphics more transparent, or perhaps reducing their overall prescence somehow? I'm particularly noticing the thumb stick and button icons.. perhaps they are less transparent when not touched.. and fade down when they are being used?
. . . . all the optimization i can make to improve loading times is to turn off "preload art" , to make the music with caf files, and to wait for LUA drop.
Can you remind us, what's the advantage with .caf files . . . . ? I know this has been mentioned before but I can't remember why or how it's best use .caf files ?
Hey POM looking good! Is it possible that the HUD elements could be made a little less obtrusive?
It is! i have plans for that , i already have 2 different designs i need to choose from , but things get changed every day in the development i might ditch them both and design a new one , either way , the main focus is like you said , to make the HUD less disturbing , there are already parts in the game (mostly the puzzles) when the HUD is completely disappearing cause the user needs to see the whole screen . anyway , working on that problem , nevertheless any advices or HUD suggestions are greatly appreciated .
Can you remind us, what's the advantage with .caf files . . . . ? I know this has been mentioned before but I can't remember why or how it's best use .caf files ?
Tynan , Caf files are less compressed , so yeah its file size are bigger , but the engine loads them much faster and they take less 'CPU' resources to play them , therefor better performance . i think (not sure) that even though the file size is bigger with Caf , the RAM usage is smaller , but don't hold my word on it
If you can somehow pull this off and see the end of this project, you'll change my vision of GS and its capabilities totally. Great stuff already..
Somehow pull this ?! mate , the hard part is already behind me I'm looking at the end already.. Personally i believe its not the GS tool that is limiting us , its the Core Engine, with the GS tool you can basically make any 2D/2.5D game , a lot of work yes .. but possible . I believe that IF its like they say it would be.. 10x faster loading times and performance , than your vision will change totally , time will tell .
. . . . all the optimization i can make to improve loading times is to turn off "preload art" , to make the music with caf files, and to wait for LUA drop.
Can you remind us, what's the advantage with .caf files . . . . ? I know this has been mentioned before but I can't remember why or how it's best use .caf files ?
@Tynan .caf files will be uncompressed so will play immediately but the tradeoff is bigger in file size. Not a problem though if you have room or will break the 20mb size regardless.
Roy, how long you thinking until you're close to finish?
Comments
Thanks man , me too
@HoneyTribeStudios
Yeah i wish they give us more table capabilities , i already have 3 tables in this project , and i believe that when we get more table features ill add a bunch more!
Good idea about the 'dynamic difficulty system' i might implant it once ill finish all the story and the puzzles ..
@Clock
It depends , if GS give us universal builds by the time i finish , so there will be a universal build , if not , so ill definitely make an iPad version , either way , this game is gonna be available for iPad .
@SAZ
You know your in the beta test cycle , i don't need to tell you that my friend
@All
The following contains some SPOILERS , so its up to you to proceed ..
After finishing the cave stage, which came out very good i think , i started working on the mountains stage .
The story is , the 2 heroes (Edwin and Baldric) came across a situation (which i will not tell you what was it) that they need to split up , Baldric (the brown hair) to the caves and Edwin (the blondy) to the mountains , i wanted to make this split because :
In the game the player (thats you) can customize the heroes with new weapons and new spells and also give them items to hold , the thing is , that while the player is in a level where both heroes are on screen , he can control each one separately , and while he controls one of them , the other one is being controlled by an AI system ,
And that can cause the player to accessorize and upgrade only one hero , and completely ignore the other one , and thats why i wanted to split them up , so that the player (again thats you) will HAVE TO upgrade both heroes with new abilities and not ignore one of them throughout the game .
Nuff talking , here is a new peek to the game , as mentioned above this is from the mountains level , and this is one of the 5 mini puzzles that are in the mountains.
Don't forget , SPOILERS , so proceed with cautious ..
Roy.
Guru Video Channel | Lost Oasis Games | FRYING BACON STUDIOS
As for now i use the particle system for the "mystical barrier" effect , and not the awesome animation you made for me , but thats just because i need to save RAM , i might use it though if in the end of the project ill have enough free RAM available.. its just there are SO many images and animations already inside!
Roy.
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I don't have anything to comment about your progress that wasn't done already by others but the game evolves very very good.
How are you doing on loading times? I know you are waiting for Lua to drop but am curious what you are on now.
I started a new project with 1440x960 scenes this week. Finally, I had the idea for months) and full of 64x64 tiles. The way it is set up now it doesn't show hardly any loading time because I use tables to build the actual level. Like the Bolean example found here somewhere (was it yours? I forgot) but then with numbers representing tile types and rotations. The advantage is that while the level builds I can show my own progress bar. I am thinking of displaying a scores display of the previous level during this build time so the wait even seems shorter. It takes about 5 to 6 secs to build a level at this moment (with 345 tiles).
Anyway...
Good luck on the build!
Lump Apps and My Assets
Thanks !! Ain't that the coolest music eva ! i love it !
@LudwigHeijden
Well , i honestly don't know
i guess ill be dealing with loading times toward the end , I'm making my code highly efficient so there is not much to optimize ,
basically all the optimization i can make to improve loading times is to turn off "preload art" , to make the music with caf files, and to wait for LUA drop ..
@TheMoonwalls
Thank you man , it means a lot .
@All
Today was tedious! i was struggling with a puzzle logic for hours ! then i left it , and came back to it with a clear mind couple of hours later , and came up with a great way to make it , i really love the result , it came out very intuitive .. its amazing that if you struggle with something , and come back to it a few hours later, you can solve it with a new approach you haven't thought of before
This is the puzzle I'm talking about , here you see the 'second' part of it :
Looks simple right?! NOT !! it was very difficult and I'm so glad i succeeded making it .
Also, here is another peek to one of the challenges in the 'mountain level' :
As you can see i changed the Joystick to a more transparent one , because the old on was *hiding* a significant part from the screen , i also plan to make some changes to the 'action' button and the 'lower heath bars' to make them less 'disrupting' .
I believe that tomorrow ill finish the mountain level and start working on the next one.. overall , i fill like i progress in a rapid pace !
Till the next update
Roy.
Game looks awesome. Something I like to play.
Lump Apps and My Assets
Working working working , in the last few days i find myself working with GameSalad more than breathing, i work so much i forget to eat , my back is killing me and i think i lost a sense of time(what day is today?) , i work so much my eyes spits acid...
Then i work some more .
I want to finish this project so badly , sometimes i forget that its useless cause I'm waiting for the engine
overhauling anyway (AKA - LUA drop) ...
Everything is ready , the story , the graphics , the concepts, the music, the sounds , everything is ready , just needs to put it all together , and that takes time , A LOT of time..
If its so slow and it counts as fast cause its GameSalad after all, i don't even want to imagine how much time it would take with native softwares like Xcode and such..
So thank you GameSalad.. However , when it comes to creating the game's scenery and positioning actors in a big scene , its a big pain in the a** ..
Opening actors and hitting the 'back button' over and over and over and over just to change some self.attributes can be very irritating sometimes ..
but i do it , cause I'm addicted to my project , i admit it .
Everyday i do a different part of the project , according to what i *feel* at that day.. there are so many parts its hard to keep up
Today I've been working on 'Amorad Town'.. this is the first scene in the game , where the heroes acquire their first weapons.. so I've finished the design , all thats left is to fill it with things that the heroes can interact with .. I'm fairly pleased with the design although i believe it will get some changes as i progress ..
Its very difficult to design stuff without the 'Tile' option (its broken for retina graphics) and i still use 'replicate' as a substitute , but i really hope they will fix it soon .
Here is a peek to 'Amorad Town' :
In theory , once i finish 'Amorad Town' , the "Swamps" and the "Epic finale" the whole story will be done and i could start working on the marketplace (hopefully there will be a writable tables by then) and concentrate on improving the combats ..
Till next time
Great stuff as always Roy.
Don't worry about being addicted, it means your game will not be rushed and will be a labour of love ... and hopefully that shows off in the final output.
I know you're waiting for the Lua drop and i understand wanting to get it finished nonetheless, its such a huge weight off your shoulders once you finish a big project .. Im currently feeling that weight lifting
@Clock
Yeah it's just the general layout, I will add lots of stuff inside, including more buildings
@beefy
Fingers crossed for your prediction
It's just like you described it , the need to finish a project and see the result is what keeping us investing so much in it ! I wish I had a time frame for the LUA drop , when they said it will be roughly 6 months I felt a cold chill in my spine , I REALLY hope it won't take this long ..
@Shaz
I might add the map feature , it shouldn't be so hard to implant , but I don't think I'll use a zoom out zoom in type of map , I'll make a map sketch with roads that the user can see where he is in the area , it feels like those little extras are so far away in the development , many things to do before that
Today I'll try finishing up 'Amorad town' .. And maybe give you guys another peek
Darren.
GS TEMPLATES
DBA RESOURCE CENTRE
So i haven't finished up 'Amorad town' yet , but I'm getting very close to
I just had to show you guys this Peek from 'Amorad town' i find it very amusing
The kid in the video was seeing something he was not suppose to see in a previous part of the game , and he thinks his gone crazy and hallucinate :
Hopefully ill finish up 'Amorad town' TODAY ! and carry on to the 'Swamps' area (level 9 in the game)
3 levels left ...
● "Swamps-part1"
● "Swamps-part2"
● "The dark lord's castle" (The Epic Finale)
So after finishing up "Amorad town" (which is basically level 1) i jumped to work on the "Swamps-part 1" (level 9) , and I'm currently working on that , i can already taste the end
The swamps are difficult.. very difficult , full of enemies , this is the last road to the 'dark lands'.. you basically meet all the different enemies you previously met in the game (about 13), and some new more , here its all about battles , epic battles all over the place , by the time the player gets to this level i expect him to have at least 4 different "spells" and a decent "blade" from the in-game-store , so these fights should be interesting and challenging
Also , there are few challenging puzzles in the 'Swamps area' , today i give you a glimpse to one of them :
Happy day over here
Lots of great stuff happened today , first , iv'e finished level 9 (Swamps-part1) , so obviously thats great news , getting closer to the finish line ..
Second , i managed to get rid of 4 "Movable" actors , in the game (they are in every scene) and i see a significant increase in performance ! iv'e played on an iPhone 4 and the game ran smooooothly , which is amazing cause that means that after the "optimization week" i might get some great fps results and maybe release the game before the "drop of LUA" , but its too early to tell ..
And third , in one of my breaks today i though of ways to spice up the heroes movement , then i decided to go with "rolling/evading" , i started to implant it to their rules and so far so good , I'm pretty happy with the result
I believe this will also spice up the *battles* , giving the player an option to 'evade' enemies hits with rolling over gives a whole new dimension to the battles !
So today i give you a peek to the "rolling" feature :
This is not the final version of the 'rolling' animation , but its close ..
Also , still haven't decided on the joystick style yet , any thought about that will be greatly appreciated .
Till the next peek to TLW ..
I wonder if you can add some none-intrusive IAP elements into it. With all this effort, you got to make sure you'll make good money out of it.
GR
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As for the joystick, are the rest of the hud elements the final appearance or are they likely to change? You will want the look to be consistent.
Soon you'll be able to play it
As for IAP I haven't started to mess around with that although there is lots of optional content the player can buy.
I need to make a comprehensive research about how IAP works on those type of games..
@beefy
Not even near finish my friend
Seeing them on the different levels layout at the same time is helping. But as I said.. Still haven't decided yet
Is it possible that the HUD elements could be made a little less obtrusive? either by making the graphics more transparent, or perhaps reducing their overall prescence somehow? I'm particularly noticing the thumb stick and button icons.. perhaps they are less transparent when not touched.. and fade down when they are being used?
I'm liking the look of this game though!
Great stuff already..
Personally i believe its not the GS tool that is limiting us , its the Core Engine, with the GS tool you can basically make any 2D/2.5D game , a lot of work yes .. but possible .
I believe that IF its like they say it would be.. 10x faster loading times and performance , than your vision will change totally , time will tell .
Roy, how long you thinking until you're close to finish?