Already got POV in a few lines before that 
Interestingly Iāve got a Saitek pad. I wonder if I can get rumble to work.
Cas 
Ye rumbleā¦ I really need a rumble pad myself. I think Iāll go for a Saitek P2600, which is pretty much the same as the P800 just with rumble. Hmā¦ Hama USB-Gamepad Black Force looks nice. Itās a carbon copy of the PS pad with rumble and itās less then 10ā¬
Some PS adapter would also work, but messing around with cables several times a week really sucks.
Iāve got the 2600 here. It rocks
Cas
9 July 2007
Finally settled on 4 frames before initiating movement from a standstill. Tuned that diagonal joypad axis detection variable to 2.0f. I tried having it so the player viewpoint shifts slightly over time to show you up to two squares further in the direction you are moving, but it feels a little unnatural, so Iāve commented it out.
The big issue facing us today is the amount of screen thatās visible. With 32x32 pixel tiles, the map visible on the screen is only 10x10 tiles, which makes the game feel rather claustrophobic. Itās only a square smaller than the original Time Bandit but having played that again yesterdayā¦ well, that game feels claustrophobic as well. Plus Time Bandit doesnāt have nearly so many puzzles in it, and the complexity of our puzzles is largely limited by what we can fit on the screen.
So I tried changing the game to 480x480 resolution so we could have 15x15 tiles onscreen. Better, but now all the GUIs are out of whack and it doesnāt quite fit the feel of Ultratron or Titan Attacks. The only other option is to make the sprites and tiles all 24x24 pixels wide which would give us a viewable map area of 13x13 or so but I donāt think Chaz can be arsed to redo all the work heās done all ready so thatās probably out of the question. So sod it, 320x320 it stays.
Anyway: I want some opinions about the āfeelā of the game so farā¦ so whack this Webstart link to launch the game! Iāll keep the Webstart updated daily (well, nightly) so you can check out the progress until we get to ābetaā stage at which point it goes into closed testing with the Select Few.
TODO tomorrow
[] Confirm delete switch/teleport/script
[] When editing switches donāt record unnecessary events
[] Death (got something special planned for this)
[] Game Over
[] Particles when hurt
[] Powerups
Music: Jurassic 5 - Jurassic 5 LP, Beastie Boys - Paulās Boutique, Ween - Shinola Volume I, Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
The feel of the game is pretty good overall.
I think the arrows for allowable travel direction should be highlighted more (perhaps have two arrows like a fast forward button?).
Any chance of a overview map?
I didnāt find it claustrophobic. Since I am able to control my own speed I can stop anytime to take a look at what is going on.
Code for the overview map is already in there, just not wired up to the game screen yet. Iāll put it in at some point.
Cas
Whatās this?! A two year old echo?
OH CURSE YOU PrinceC and your l33t g^m3 making skills!
How DARE you cross two of my favorite games, Chips Challenge and Venture, and create this swirling vortex of gaming goodness! I will be the first one to buy this game when you are finished. Looking FANTASTIC already! I had better be in that closed betaā¦grrrrā¦
-Chris
P.S. Rocking the Paulās Boutiqueā¦Sound of Science indeed!
Great stuff so far Cas, lots of fun. No exit key?
Bill
Press escape until you reach the main menu. Then there is an exit option in the top left corner. All Casās games are like that.
ps. Cas, I would be happy to Beta test for you (hint hint) 
I like this very much! Floating ādotsā look great. Mini mode is awesome!
Made it to work via Web Start on my Intel Mac, there were some (Mac Java?) glitches but eventually it worked. When I got killed (last life) the game was stuck though, had to quit via OS menu.
Keep it up, Cas! Sign me up for the beta test as well! ;D
Catch me nearer the time and Iāll sign yāall up for it.
Must put Game Over in : But as I sayā¦ thereās something special happening for the death sequence. I think itās going to be a killer feature if I can get it rightā¦
10 July 2007
Took my mum to the seaside today (Whitby) - on the bike, haha! Itās so big she canāt get off it without assistance. So anyway, a good time was had by all, but rather less work done than usual.
Chaz has done the HUD, which looks nice. Doesnāt need too much more tweaking, but Iām going to adjust the font size a bit. Surprise surprise, he is none too enamoured of my gidrah death āanimationā so I will be twiddling with that for him.
Did crappy programmer art for the powerups, wired in the code (mostly donāt actually do anything yet), pinched sound effects from Super Dudester for now.
Found a bug in switch change code that meant after fiddling with the tiles.xml file, sometimes the stuff the switches drew got corrupted. Unfortunately the fix broke serialization so the test map is buggered and Iāll have to do another one. Still, Iām glad I found it now, and not after 2 months of map-wrangling.
Music: Blur - 13, Easy Star All Stars - Radiodread
Yes, I figured that was the caseā¦ and it didnāt work. Game was locked up then.
Bill
Hold down escape to totally exit.
Cas
11 July 2007
Found yet another switch change bug that meant my saved map was buggered once again. Most annoying - still, glad I found it now.
Chaz has done half of the āratingā animations in the HUD (pathetic, cowardly, timid, etc). and Iāve got a preliminary angel for the death sequence. When youy die, a little angel flies out of your body, leaving you as a ghost. Youāve got 30 seconds to earn an extra health dit (by scoring 1,000 points) to resurrect yourself.
At this point the ghost player is just a white alphaād version of the real sprite and it doesnāt look too interesting, so weāll probably have that redone at some point. Also, Iām not sure whether to make it so you can just float through gidrahs or not when youāre a ghost. It makes resurrection somewhat easier, which is important for our market. Nobody likes really hard games any more! The original Time Bandit is absolutely unforgiving in this regard. Thatās probably why itās got a multiple slot save game feature. I wonder if Iāll have to implement the same thing in this game.
Game Over is now in as well so fortunately the game finishes when you die properly (ie. when you fail to resurrect yourself in time).
Done:
[] Psychotic powerup, which turns you psychotic and gives you ultra zappy lasers for 15 seconds
[] Invulnerability powerup, which does what it says on the tin, for 15 seconds
[] Extra Health powerup, just gives you a free health dit
[] Ghost powerup, turns you into a ghost temporarily
[*] Freeze powerup, freezes all the monsters for 15 seconds
Havenāt done the gobbler powerup - this one turns all the monsters into edible treats so you can just run around eating them for points. Think I need to do some more monster AIs, or tweak the existing ones. Question: do I prevent monsters from walking over each other or just leave it the way it is?
While Chaz slumbers I will do more odds and sods. There is a new build up for playing with. Not much in the map this time since I lost the last one. Er, might need to clear your caches.
Music: Blur - Think Tank, Hexstatic - Listen & Learn
Damn, youāre fast ! :o The game looks almost ready to hit the market .Just some more maps and stuff and itās ready to go ! Good job
Actually, there was one more thing I meant to say about the game - the graphics style is cute, BUT it seems a million miles away from anything related to a āTreasure Tombā. The style suits the deliberately retro style of some of your other games, but in the context of a āTombā it seems quite wrong. To me, the gfx style implies high tech rather than dusty tomb.
Donāt know whether that bothers you or not, but there it is
Thatās because this is the āAlien Moonbaseā tileset. Thereās a Dungeon, Volcano, Garden, Pyramid, and Pacman tileset to come. And another couple we havenāt thought about yet.
Cas
Ahā¦ cool!