Please delete thread!
It doesn’t really work - the menu screen is flickering and when I press singleplayer, the game stops! :o :clue:.
Please change it.
Like i said…
download the .zip.
unZip it to whatever directory you want
make sure graphics folder and DarkVania.jar are in the same directory.
double click DarkVania.jar, there’s no need for me to change anything, i’ve tested this in 2 computers.
It’s really hard. 
very good,
for now you can only have a whip, but I want you to find other types of weapons like daggers/hammers/ etc, and allow you to specialize in particular weapons, so if you commit to training daggers then you get faster attack speed and cast on hit modifiers, or chances to stun if you commit to training hammers etc.
I’m working on adding magic/pyromancies, but you have to aim properly, it’s not gonna be homing missiles or whatever.
NOTE: btw, could you tell me how well/badly it runs on your PC? this game uses only Java2D for rendering, and I realize that may be a little slow…
I really like the game. The mario graphics are quite nice and the old school feel to the game is charming in fact. For 1.3Mb, I think you’ve nailed the size requirements for such a side scrolling game.
Some comments about the gameplay:
- Jump is quite less. Can’t even jump on to the bricks in the air to avoid the zombies
- The whip is a bit slow. I guess this will take practice to time it properly, but by the time I pull the whip out, the zombie is already eating my face
- Perhaps a brief invincible situation where the character blinks for a few seconds when he touches a zombie? This would keep the character from dying immediately if he gets cornered by a zombie. This is a very common feature in 8bit games
Given that it only uses Java 2D, it works quite well. Absolutely no lag on my laptop with 8GB RAM and 1GB nvidia GT420M
Controls seem to be bit overcomplicated to me. Why is left/right on the arrow keys, but jumping is on z? Why not simply on crsr-up? Remember that not everybody is using an english keyboard layout. I have QWERTZ, not QWERTY, so x and z are spread across half the keyboard…
Hi
It opens the JAR with the archiver. Rather use Java Web Start or any other installer.
It works fine except that the game occupies only a small part of the screen. I get the following error message:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid display mode
Please don’t create instances of DisplayMode, rather use those returned by GraphicsDevice.getDisplayModes().
It is a bit too hard but it’s fine. You shouldn’t use copyrighted contents without the prior consent of copyright owners, why not using artworks under open licences?
Actually you are applied a brief moment of invul whenever you are hit, as stated on the upper left corner (but its not very clear at this point), but given the map is so short i found that if i made the invul longer you could just walk pass a lot of enemies, but later on i will enhance the invul frame.
Thx for feedback guys, ill answer the ones i remember:
Whip attack speed can be increased via items, theres one that enhances your atk speed by 20% for 15 secs, also like i mentioned, you’ll be able to get better at particular weapons if you skill them up.
I use copyrighted material because a) im not making money off of this and b) im just testing my engine at this point.
Regarding jumping, i want you to be able to increase jumping mastery with skills/items, but yes i prob need to buff it a little bit.
Btw i forgot to mention, you have a shield, and you can parry the whip skeletons if you shield up JUST before their whips hit you, it takes a bit of practice but if done right you will stun them for 2 secs, leaving you time to land free hits as well as absorbing 100% incoming damage.
Im just glad its running fine for most of you guys.
which is still illegal (Sega contacted me a few years ago for a similar “trouble” just for a single model whereas I have never earned a penny with my game).
What about the problem with the JAR and the IllegalArgumentException? Can you show the part of the source code involved so that I can help you?
I essentially hardcoded the dimension of the DisplayMode object to be 800 by 600 instead of using the “best” that the user’s monitor/video card can handle.
I assumed everybody could run a 800 by 600 that’s why i made it so low, but it’s really a simple fix, i actually have the code to use the client’s “best” dimension rather than hardcoding a 800 by 600, but i decided not to use it because i actually thought it might give people trouble, live and learn!
It depends on the proportion of the screen, mine is not 4/3, there are lots of 16/9 screens, mine is 16/10. You can set the preferred size of your canvas (java.awt.Canvas) to 800600, set a BorderLayout to your frame and put your canvas into it (with BorderLayout.CENTER). Then just switch to the display mode whose size is greater than or equal to 800600 but as small as possible.
A Winner is me =D
Dark Souls player here, so got through it pretty quickly.
Seems like a very good tactical engine - this is fun.
Problems:
- The shield sprite is showing when you walk with it as well, however it doesnt work, only tested it against the spear. Also the shield sprite is a little small and unnoticeable
- Chip damage / block damage, should be shown in some way, only way to find out now it looking at the life bar.
- some ai bugs, if you go to close to a whip skeleton he may walk in place and hesitate
- the simple zombies should take one hit, OR should slow down when being hit
- if one whipping animation wasnt successful, due to being hit, the next one is sometimes cancelled midway - common simple programming mistake
- on the winning screen the cursor disappeared, so I couldnt click anything - you probably forgot to reset it after the game
- quitting the game somehow caused in a displaymode failure and I had to use windows setting to repair, I recommend adding a window mode to switch to by using the default ALT+ENTER
- indeed Z and X shouldnt be used - also a common mistake by QWERTY users, its very hard for QWERTZ people
Looks bad at first because of the placeholder graphics of course, but there is a really good fell to it. If I imagine there would be real sprites and cool music - this would kick ass
awesome reply!
yes, I am aware of every single issue you just mentioned!, except the invis cursor after winning, i was pretty sure i fixed that, maybe i released the wrong version.
the shield sprite is literally a 2x9 brown square, i couldn’t be bothered to find an actual sprite for a shield (they’re hard to find if all you want is the side of it) but yes I’m planning on much bigger/noticable shields in the future.
adding a numerical value when you hit enemies is in the works, same with different colored fonts when criticals are landed.
I’ve never found that whip skeleton bug, do you remember what you did when you encountered it?
I totally know what you mean about the attack animation restarting after being hit, (i fkin thought i fixed this too!) it was literally just one line of code that i added, i for sure uploaded an outdated version i apologize.
But i don’t get the Z and X hate, what kind of weird ass keyboards do you people use??? but if you guys don’t like it, tell me what they keys should be binded as and I’ll just support those 2 version.
NOTE: also, could you please tell me how the game ran on your PC? was the camera movement very choppy?
thx for descriptive reply!
What? Weird ass keyboards? ;D It’s only Z and Y flipped for us here in germany. And it’s not only us having this keyboard layout.
The best would be keyboard configurations, but yeah…
oh okay, ignorant me thought all keyboards had the same layout, this game is apparently best played on N/A noob keyboards.
Just make it 1 or 2 pixels thicker and black =D
On a flat piece of the level, get hit and continue to walk towards him, as you are face to face with him, sometimes he then hesitates, walks in place and finally starts attacking again.
Just look at the french keyboard layout =DD no WASD x)
german is only z and y swapped, its a common mistake for amercians to hardcode X and Z in these small games D=
Well no, not choppy, however this is a rather strong pc for such a simple game I guess, dual core and such
alright thx for the input man,
I’ll have to make the shield black even though it’s supposed to be a Wooden shield! : (
well these are placeholder graphics anyway, so what does it matter ;DD