Hmm. We’ve got monsters! And as of a few hours ago, they actually die! And walk about! And even kill you if you run into them!
…so we should definitely have a “game” in time for the deadline. Unfortunately we’ve been without artists, so I’m going to try and lower your graphical expectations now so you don’t get disappointed later :).
Living w/o artists … common fate 
It’s funny that coders do games just for fun. Why not artists?
Trade secret: talented, skilled, motivated artists are much rarer and more valuable than programmers and have to work just as hard.
Got a Webstart demo yet blah^3?
Cas 
[quote]Trade secret: talented, skilled, motivated artists are much rarer and more valuable than programmers and have to work just as hard.
[/quote]
I’m still sceptical. I still occasionally meet friends of friends from when I was an arty type, and it seems there’s a huge number of them still bumming around on a pittance into their 30’s with free time to spare.
And down here in Brighton it seems you can’t walk down a street without tripping over an artist who has printed some business cards with the word “web designer” on because really they’d love to do lots of work with computers but aren’t sure how to get into it. I do every now and then get this sneaking suspicion that you could just organise bus tours from Brighton to London during the GDC-E and ECTS and cause a sea-change in indie programmers attitudes ;D.
The problem, as always, is time. Artists and programmers don’t generally know where to look for each other (well, how many of you know where artists hang out online? And I assure you that the vast majority of CG ones have never heard of pixelation ;)). So you need to learn where to look, and that IS time consuming. How long did it take any of you to find JGO? 
Yes but I’m not sure we want anyone to see it quite just yet. We’re having problems loading beanshell scripts from JAR’s, so there’s absolutely no AI and almost no game logic in the webstart :(.
Perhaps later today…
I await your demo eagerly 
Chaz is from Brighton - suprise surprise. And he’s 30, and bumming around on a pittance wondering what the feck to do with his life. It’s endemic amongst artists. They really aren’t put through any kind of vocational system like programmers are. They’re a hugely underutilised resource simply because by and large the country’s educational system is failing them by not applying them.
I’d be well angry if I went to university to do a Comp Sci degree now and some lecturer started trying to give me lessons in Modula-2 (like what happened to me at Uni). I want Java and C++ - I want a job at the end of it. But artists are just sort of given free rein to do what the hell they feel like with a paintbrush and a tree wrapped in bandages without any regard for the consequences. Four years of training in what exactly? If I were doing fine art today at Uni I’d be annoyed if I didn’t come out of the course with a solid vocational training in Photoshop and 3dsmax in addition to my real-world physical skills with paint and pencil.
And by chance, because I am who I am and I’ve known Chaz for 20 years, I’ve imposed my will upon him and now he works for me So don’t go getting any ideas!
Cas
[quote]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.
[/quote]
Personally, I’m not liking the new control system at all. If you want to lock in one direction, you have to continue firing, which isn’t a good idea on some levels. You need a deliberate movement to be sure of aiming the next shot correctly, which isn’t possible in tight situations. As the number of directions you can fire in exceeds the number of directions Elvis points in, you can never be sure exactly where the next shot will go. But I’ll play some more and see how it goes.
Oh, I’ve also now got a right mouse button finger doing nothing! As a user with a mouse that has two buttons, running on an operating system that uses both extensively, I expect them each to do something. It feels really odd having a right mouse button that does nothing. But I guess it’s Mac compatible now, at least… ;D
[]Start Here: Much improved! Exactly the right level of bloodyeasyness to let people get the hang of things.
[]Your strawberry graphic has the wrong texture coordinates.
[]The collection “warp” effect does odd things at screen edges, as you’d expect! Also, it warps the background HUD elements, but not the energy bar etc.
[]I still have no idea how Mad Planets works! I can beat it, but it’s a case of sitting in one corner and firing across the screen until all that’s left is a cloud of moons. I’m not sure this is how it’s supposed to be played!
[]In Mad Planets I frequently see objects stuck on one edge of the screen. For example, a moon that should be racing around just bounces back and forth along the top edge, tracking the horizontal position of a planet in the middle.
[]Also, when you have a screen full of moons but no planets, all the moons whizz around in a cloud in the centre of the screen. Easy to collect - just fly into the middle and wait - but it does look a little odd.
[]Sequence is currently impossible to complete. I’ve got as far as Mushroom, Earth, Planet, but twice now the earth has disappeared off one edge of the screen, never to be seen again. Game becomes unwinnable.
[]Magic Mushrooms tends to require such rapid movements that my optical mouse can’t keep up. I do usually still manage to complete it, however. Usually with about three pixels of energy left…
[]There’s a nasty grating sound heard whenever you fire while in a certain part of the screen - a thin horizontal strip about at the top of the HUD. Very curious - surely this isn’t intended?
[]Binary is too fecking hard! There’s just not enough time to hit everything, especially with the new control system.
[]Once, Twice, Thrice has got a lot harder as well. You can’t hold fire down, and there’s not really enough time to line up and fire a volley before having to get out of the way.
[]I hate Combination Lock - it’s just not very fun! 
[]Elvis passes over the top of the HUD, but underneath the energy bar.
[]I like the fade and scroll HUD, but would prefer it to scroll completely off the screen if I’m in that area.
[*]The Eye II and III are really hard… :
[quote]your strawberry graphic has the wrong texture coordinates.
[/quote]
Yadda yadda yadda… fixed
[quote]The collection “warp” effect does odd things at screen edges, as you’d expect! Also, it warps the background HUD elements, but not the energy bar etc.
[/quote]
Bleh. Can’t be bothered to fix that.
[quote]I still have no idea how Mad Planets works!
[/quote]
Just shoot until moons appear! It’s not meant to be hard or particularly challenging.
[quote]Sequence is currently impossible to complete… There’s a nasty grating sound heard whenever you fire while in a certain part of the screen
[/quote]
Fixed, fixed
[quote]Binary is too fecking hard!
[/quote]
Given you an extra second. I can do it. It’s no longer dangerous to hit the gidrahs either.
[quote]I hate Combination Lock - it’s just not very fun!
[/quote]
You only need to learn it once It can be done in 5 moves. So it’s a race against the clock.
[quote]The Eye II and III are really hard…
[/quote]
Indeed They are. I might reward you with an extra life on those levels.
Cas
Call me crazy, but why not just make it so that you control elvis’s direction using the arrow keys or possibly asdw type controls, and he shoots at the mouse pointer, no need for having a locked direction. Elvis seems to have a speed limit anyway so using keys to move him makes sense to me.
[quote]Call me crazy, but why not just make it so that you control elvis’s direction using the arrow keys or possibly asdw type controls, and he shoots at the mouse pointer, no need for having a locked direction. Elvis seems to have a speed limit anyway so using keys to move him makes sense to me.
[/quote]
FYI that’s the control system we were originally planning for Survivor (which, fingers crossed, you are all about to discover is rather similar to HG). In the end we have ended up with keys-only control (…right now we’re more concerned with getting it playable on time, let alone worrying about getting the control system perfect ).
You wouldn’t believe it but the vast majority of punters are incapable of using both keyboard and mouse at the same time. And a significant percentage of them can’t cope with using two mouse buttons. Trust me on this.
Cas
Ye… I really like robotron-ish controls, but they are cursed. They are too hard to grasp for most people (=casual players).
edit:
for the getting on part… I was ill for some days now and still feel like beeing puked on the floor. The fever is gone… but I’m way behind my schedule now. But maybe I manage to get my game into a somewhat usable state. I hope that… at least.
Exactly. I’m trying to write an almost mindless distraction
Cas
FYI I’ve now started to fill in the blanks on the dev-diary for Survivor - part one of the first three is now up:
http://grexengine.com/sections/externalgames/articles/diary-Survivor-Adam%20Martin-1.html