I just added the bounding box and all of that stuff for the enemy from yesterday. I like the results. I still need to add some more enemy types to that level but I’m not in the mood for it today.
OK, just a quick update. I added all of the enemy types to level 3. Two of them are copies from another level which made this a little bit easier for me. I had to copy one enemy because of space problems (it is the mine so it fits into every level). The second one I had to copy because Ben provided me with to few Sprites. I is just a small enemy and I think it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t change it now even if Ben would draw a new enemy.
However, I just realized I forget to add the end-of-level flag to all of the levels. I will probably change that tomorrow.
OK… I did all kinds of polishing today. I fixed the speed for the backgrounds, enemies and the player. I also changed an image of the levelmenu as I didn’t liked how it looked. I also switched songs around again. I think they fit very well to the respective levels now. I also changed the demo levels a little bit so that I could try out actual gameplay.
I could release the current version as a new demo. I’m not sure if I should do it though as it shows pretty much every element of the game and I would like to have some things coming as a surprise in the finished game.
There is some stuff left to polish though. There is a minor thing bothering me in the level menu. And I would like to have sound on the Engine screen. I’m not sure what to put there though.
OK, I’m done with all of the polishing. I fixed the issues in the level menu and added music to the engine screen. As the song on the engine screen is rather long I removed the function that automatically closes the screen.
I guess I will continue with the credits-screen next. I’m planning something big for the credits so that there is actually an incentive to play through the game. I bet you guys will love it.
When starting to coding the credits menu it ran into a problem. It seems like I produced to much code to fit it into the data section. I get this error from the linker:
v810-gcc -Tvb.ld -Wall -nodefaultlibs -mv810 -xc -o fishbone.o fishbone.c
/usr/local/v810/bin/ld: address 0x501022c of fishbone.o section .data is not within region wram
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [fishbone.o] Error 1
I’m on vacation right now so I spent some time on this never ending project. I used the time to build the end-sequence that runs after the credits. In that sequence I show off all of the enemies including their names. Well, here is the great thing: All of the enemies are named after PVB members. I planned this a while ago and requested some of the enemies especially from VirtualBen to fit to certain nicknames. Obviously, I couldn’t put every PVB member into the game. Also, some of guys just don’t sound fishy enough. Here is who made it into the game:
“Bigmak” (Requested Character)
“Minestorm” (Requested Character)
Uncle Tusker as “Vincent the Walrus” (Requested Character)
“Krisse”
“Thundra” (my Wife, not a PVB member but without her there wouldn’t be any games from me)
Ben Stevens as “Ben”
Greg Stevens as “Greg”
8bitmatt as “Matt”
VBMills as “Wesley”
foil_lone_wolf as “Derek”
HorvatM as “Matej”
“Dor-Si”
“dasi”
“Morintari”
RunnerPack as “Amos”
That’s it. No more enemies are left. If I missed someone… well… there will be more games. Want to know which enemy you are? Beat the game! (after it is released)
I thought it was cool just getting my name in the credits but to have a character named after me that’s like sub zero.
Thanks thunderstruck. Really looking forward to playing it now just to find out how fishy I am.
VBmills wrote:
I thought it was cool just getting my name in the credits but to have a character named after me that’s like sub zero.
Thanks thunderstruck. Really looking forward to playing it now just to find out how fishy I am.
You are listed in the credits as a Beta-Tester as well together with everyone else who found bugs or tested stuff.
Ok, I’m done with credits menu. I didn’t test if it restarts properly but I hope that just works out of the box. The only thing left now is building the actual levels. I want to build levels that get increasingly harder. I can already pull of some cool movement patterns right now. However, I may code some additional movement patterns to make the later part of the stages more challenging. I also have to find a proper way for testing this as I want to make sure the stages can actually be beaten.
OK, I have successfully put the credits screen from the testing stage to the place where it belongs. The credits are now shown every time you make it to the end of a stage. I thought about showing it only after all 4 stages are beaten but I somehow like it better this way. I really like how the whole credit thing worked out and it was worth the effort I have put into.
I also looked for a better way to design the levels. A level is basically a big array that defines at which frame which object spawns where. Managing and manipulating this array is a tedious task so I decided to take an unusual approach. I created an Excel file that stores all of the information that belong into the array. With my incredible Excel skills I then defined a function that generates the actual c code out of this data. This should make it way easier for me to build up the levels and define reoccurring patterns.
However, I stop for today. I may continue tomorrow but I’m somehow in the mood for a break again.
@thunderstruck: your dedication and hard work on all these projects is nothing short of legendary, such great work for the VB gaming community, so so many thanks and big kudos to you and everyone else who has made 2012 what it was for the VB, the future is bright red, all 3 days left of it…….:)
I look forward to seeing what 2013 has in store for the VB as 2012 has been an exceptional year.
I played around with my Excel list today. I think it is an ok tool to build up the stages. Using it I can break down the levels into smaller parts and test those before I glue them together to an complete stage. It makes it also easier for me to reuse parts for the other stages.
However, I think I will not continue until next year. I wanted to have this ready as a Christmas present for the community. I’m almost there but I feel like I need a break to play some video-games. I got some pretty awesome games lately and I barely had the chance to play them. I think I will start with Dishonored.
However, I think I will not continue until next year. I wanted to have this ready as a Christmas present for the community. I’m almost there but I feel like I need a break to play some video-games. I got some pretty awesome games lately and I barely had the chance to play them. I think I will start with Dishonored.
Enjoy your festive gaming, I’m sure everyone here will be getting at least 1 game for a system they own so they should in theory be game entertained. I’m eager to get my hands on Virtues last reward on the 3DS, I know its wrapped up and waiting for me somewhere in my wifes wardrobe, for anyone not familiar try and get yourself a copy of 999 on the DS, its really cool, and needs to be played before the 3DS one, not long now….
I’m really looking forward to playing Fishbone and it now gives something unique to VB to look forward to in 2013.
