Things are going ok, although the deadline is coming up all too fast.
You can see my complete update at http://grexengine.com/sections/externalgames/ (with a couple of early screen shots).
[quote]Things are going ok, although the deadline is coming up all too fast.
You can see my complete update at http://grexengine.com/sections/externalgames/ (with a couple of early screen shots).
[/quote]
Umm, need a little more info, what category and whats the name of your game?
doh! Under Articles, the name of the game is Ground FX Racing.
More progress
[]Aliens waggle now (put sprite rotation back into SPGL sprite library, hurrah!)
[]HUD display done with score, thing-to-collect, total game time, energy bar, and room name in it
[]First backround in - two layers of rotatable tiles composited on top of each other and made to glow. Looks interesting. But we now need to put shadows on all the sprites as it looks flat without them.
[]All the particle effects look groovy now.
[]Main player sprite is in … and it’s Elvis!
[]One or two sound effects in.
By the way… the total time I have actually spent coding this game is 65hrs so far. Chaz has spent about 24hrs on the graphics so far.
Cas 
…and now I’ve changed the controls. RMB is now used to change fire direction; by default it’s locked to a particular direction. In other words the other way round from what it was before.
Let me know what you think…
Cas
princec: I get excessive flickering when I launch your jnlp file, it’s pretty bad. I’m going to guess it’s the same problem my sister had running my game when I sent her a copy with the new jogl build files (sent her the april build and it didn’t flicker).
I’m using an ATI Radeon 7500 all in wonder and java 1.5 beta1 is installed and probably the jre that was running the game unless you specifically ask for jre 1.4 in your jnlp. Let me know if I can provide any more information to help with this… I’m having similar problems with flickering and stuff on different computers so maybe we can figure something out on this.
Flickering == broken drivers, plain and simple. Get new ones.
Cas
Uh… these are the new ones… not that I’d be surprised to find out they are broken (it’s an ATI card after all).
Just for my reference which version of JOGL was distributed with that jnlp?
[quote]Let me know what you think…
[/quote]
Hmm. I have to say that I’m not a fan of the new controls! I’m of the opinion that as 90% of your audience probably won’t read the instructions, the game should be playable with the minimum knowledge of controls. And anyway, it feels really odd to have to firmly hold a button down just so you can fire in the direction you’re moving.
As for more specific comments, where do you want bug reports posted? Probably best to keep them all in one place.
PS. Elvis looks fantastic!
[quote]Just for my reference which version of JOGL was distributed with that jnlp?
[/quote]
I’m pretty sure Hallucinogenesis is using LWJGL, not JOGL! 
It’s likely to be written against the latest CVS.
Elvis rocks! ;D
But the controls are really counter-intuitive this way. Took me several minutes to just use’em… and after 10 minutes I still wasn’t used to it.
But then again… I guess there was a reason. Holding RMB all the time is for sure a bit annoying. Hm. Maybe toggle (would need some kind of visible indicator eg different color for the shoes) :>
Oh and if you are at the bottom the hud gets in the way. If you are down there you aren’t that interested in those displays anyways, therefore you can fade’em out a bit. The fade factor could be just calculated by how many lines of the character are hidden. That would be pretty neat, wouldn’t it?
Yeah, my mistake.
You get used to the new controls after a bit. The real problem was just coming from the old controls - to a n00b it seems much more intuitive and a lot easier on the RMB.
I shall fade the HUD out as you suggest. And what a cracking good suggestion that is
Cas
[quote]You get used to the new controls after a bit. The real problem was just coming from the old controls - to a n00b it seems much more intuitive and a lot easier on the RMB.
[/quote]
So basically, what you’re saying is that n00bs find it more intuitive to move the mouse + press left mouse button + press right mouse button to actually shoot in a direction.
This doesn’t sound right…
However, thats all just guessing - what confuses me, is that you use the word n00b, as in someone that has never ever played any game.
Yet those of us that have played a game (but are n00bs at this particular game) find it more intuitive that one shoots in the old way using direction and LMB.
Won’t it be more likely that it is gamers that will play the game, instead of first time (ever!) players?
By n00b I just meant someone who hasn’t played any version before. Whilst testing some of the levels I found that most of the time it was difficult to actually get Elvis to shoot in the direction you wanted him to and avoid aliens at the same time - the trouble being of course that you always have to move towards what you’re trying to shoot. So what you did was jam the right mouse button on.
This way round it’s just a normal shooter - you start shooting straight up - and if you want you can change the direction.
I like it more anyway 
Cas
A “normal shooter” and “shooting straight up” only makes sense if the enemies are coming from that direction. Eat your own dogfood - try playing the game without using the RMB, and see how frustrating it really is. This is the only mode that will be seen by a number of your users.
But we can’t keep derailing this thread - start a thread in Your Games Here or somewhere, and we’ll post there!
Back on-topic, here’s a composite screenshot of survivor
http://grexengine.com/sections/externalgames/articles/svr-week7-iotd.jpg
It’s really just me testing the level editor and playing about making some rooms.
(main window is the actual game, overlaid with a screenshot from the level-editor)
tsk! Unless I’m very much mistaken that’s an XP box you’re running on 
Cas
tsk tsk tsk, OS bashing already!
Its not which OS you use, its what you do with it…
Kev
Another Motivational Progress Report!
[]Chaz working on some sprites today - dunno what yet coz he hasn’t checked them in yet! Bah.
[]I put in 5 more levels tonight, bringing the total to 17. So far I’ve got 5 “hard” levels, 10 “easy” levels, and 2 puzzle levels
[*]Still trying to figure out the Perfect Mouse Control mechanism! OrangyTang tells me that SWIV might be the answer - firing is automatically locked in the direction of movement, and releasing the fire button changes the direction of fire.
Cas