Animations...hmm...

Well, I guess we should have those items included in the sprite sheet. Just stuff like the sword, wand, etc. Maybe just an empty hand allowing for as many items as we want to have. That or just having a separate animation sheet for every holdable item like swinging a sword or wand. The way I started the code was with different conditions for the player to be in like walking left, crouching right, jumping left, etc. These conditions are infinite, meaning you can define a new one in a file.

Yep, that works too. Depends on how easy it is to draw new images for each new kind of animation. Whatever works, really.

:eeyup:

Starting the event-loading code today. (I restarted many times, last one being like 3 days ago. Yes, the launcher came in the same day as the restarted code.)

EDIT: Also, fullscreen?

Yes! Definitely fullscreen! It makes games so much more epic.

Well

I thought about using multiple sprites combined into one "image", thus allowing for a lot of customization

Here is the breakdown I thought of:

Layer (first one is on top, and so on)
Outer Arm
Weapon 1
Head
Body (chest, other arm, legs)
Weapon 2
Back (like capes)

That works. Should we flip it horizontally when you move the other direction, or have different animations and/or sprites (which could look cooler)?

flip... simpler and more convenient. It won't look cooler, just different.

Anywho, I've made it so option.txt has a fullscreen option. If it's set to anything other than "false" than the game will start in fullscreen. This isn't uploaded for the launcher yet as I'm planning a big update.

I'm also working on a developer mode. Right now, it's as simple as just starting it with "dev" as the command-line argument, but I hope to make it a full-fledged developer console similar to Valve's.

If you didn't notice already, you can't open the engine without the launcher. It will exit itself with status 55 unless you open it with the command-line argument "safe" (next update will accept "dev" too). The launcher opens it with said argument. Just keep this in mind when trying to start it. (I know there's not much to do with it now, so just wait until I notify you of an update you can work with)

Also, @puggsoy, I finally gifted you your prize from the last contest. Like I said, I could do it in late September, which I did.

I'm not going to until you tell me its OK, but what happens when you extract the temp folder?

I think you can even delete the "temp.zip" file safely. It's just what's downloaded from RedTheGreen's site before being extracted. Just a copy of the "yami" folder in a .zip file.

Yup.

A developer console would be VERY cool, especially if you could change the state of gglobal variables during play. he only problem would be targeting an entity. How would you do that? (since it's 2D you couldn't use something like !picker)

I'm not talking about map elements. Those can't be edited in-game. I'm talking about the engine's variables, such as health, attack, etc. Just mainly for testing different aspects in your levels. I'll probably have it set to just accept event flags, as listed in the documentation.

EDIT: We are having some big ideas. This might be a little early, but where do you think we'll release this? Definitely Freeware, but maybe we could get a publisher? I know Steam loves indie games, and their API is friendly to C++. Depending on how good the outcome actually is, I think we should try publishing it on Steam. We would get a good name as there are only 11 free games out of their hundreds.

Yeah, that would be epic to have our game on Steam!

If it doesn't work, we could also try just distributing it on the web, but it wouldn't have the same sort of audience.

We should release all the contents (resources, etc.) of the game under a non-commercial attribution license, so that other people can use them. And the engine and code under some sort of freeware attribution license (similar to the SourceBase on Steam).

I looked at the forms, and I think Steam might accept it.

Yeah, the resources' license would be free use (with credit to our name) or requested commercial use. So anyway, in terms of actual design and planning, this game isn't getting very far. Someone, please design the game aspects! I'm going to run out of things to code in a few weeks!

"Someone, please design the game aspects! I'm going to run out of things to code in a few weeks!" -RedTheGreen

Alright then, you asked for it! I warn you guys, you will probably NOT (maybe) agree with me.

And know this, that this is my design perspective, and does not really have anything to do with the theme.

Lets begin! Prepare to be attacked by a giant wall of text!

I will start off with what few ideas we threw out so far:

[Controls]: W,A,S,D keys and Space bar for movement. As for arrow keys, I would not solely use them for only 1 function.

[Health and Mana bar]: No with what we have. These are things I call stock variables, mainly because they are something that players will always check up on, like stock traders, keeping their eyes off of the game from time to time. Also, it is visually clunky. Oh noes, that bar is getting smaller!

How I would do it: Specifically for this game, I would have the edges of the screen flash with black, gritty, painterly effects. The less health you have, the more severe that flash is. When you die, it flashes white and you see your character die in slow motion (while the rest of the world moves in normal time). Mana will work almost the same, but will utilize a blur effect. Note that the effect is only for a split second, not for long periods of time. And if we can't use a blur effect, we can use something else.

How will it be possible: With a few more images than normal. Very possible.

[Items, Abilities, and Menus, oh my!]: Also a no with what we have. I would not stamp an image somewhere on the screen forever to look at just to see what ability or item we have to be in use.

How I would do it: We should only be able to hold 4 items, 4 spells, and (at maximum) 4 weapons. The maximum could be from anywhere from 1-8, but I found 4 to be the most comfortable. To select items, press and hold (by default) [L-CTRL] and the item menu will pop up. Releasing [L-CTRL] would close the menu, not using an item. Press the [Left Arrow Key] to use item number 2, not closing the menu, and so on in all 4 directions. To spam use an item, like a potion, just keep pressing the arrow key of choice. The menu will be big enough to see, and only appear when switching items. It will appear under your character, to prevent blocking important view. When using an item, it will flash red, create another image of that icon that pops out for a second and then fade away slowly, so if you close the menu right after using that item, you can see it fade. Gaining an item in this menu, however, will look as similar to using an item, but it flashes green. Running out of an item would do the same, but flash white. Color coding.

For abilities, it is a little different. There is no reason to flash icons of abilities when using them. When we don't have enough mana to use certain abilities, however, we should flash them like we do with the icons, using color coding, and flash a certain color for different things. Also, just pressing the arrow key does not just use the ability, it just sets it so that we can manually fire whatever spell we have using the attack button or whatever, it just 'equips' the ability.

Now why this instead of traditional: We can screw around with this kind of system. Think outside of the box! For instance, a topic we threw out somewhere in this thread: Combining spells and/or items. With this, combining items and spells can be done easily, for different purposes, etc. Instead of just pressing an arrow key to use or 'equip' abilities, we can use/equip on RELEASE of key. That way, you can press more than 1 key to combine different spells or items.

For example: Fireball is on up arrow. Ice bolt is on down arrow. If I press both Up and down arrow and release, I now have a Frost-fire beam as my skill that is equipped.

Why equip abilities? Honestly, we should not have(or have a lot of) super powerful skills or abilities. It really makes things harder to balance, because that would make spammable abilities useless and enemies much stronger than they should be for anything. Most abilities should be spammable/have short cooldowns. This is not world of warcraft where I have to wait 30 seconds to use an ability again.

How it will be possible: Not that much more images than needed. I think the only thing we really need more is a menu image.

Reminder: Because it utilizes images, these can be customized for later mods.

[Ability Types] Keep traditional. Fire, water, earth, wind, sword mastery, bow attacks, whatever. Has worked great for the past decade and beyond, still great now. And with the above system explained above, we can expand this. Sword skill + Fire spell? Delicious.

How it will be possible: I know what you are thinking: Ok how are we going to create 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 spells from the different combinations? We don't! That really is up to the artist to discover how to do this.
Apparently, that is me? The way I would do it, is not with just extra animations and effects, no. That would take more than a decade to plan out. By planning it out now, animations could be done in a way that it could be combined with special effects AND still look good. Example: Maplestory. Their sprite sheet is pretty small compared to the number of abilities they can do. As for the effects? Again, they shouldn't be specifically made for certain abilities. Sort of how I will make the terrain, effects will also be done in pieces so that you can create all sorts of things from the 'pieces'.

[Equipment]: Helmet, Weapon 1, Weapon 2 Offhand, Armor, Back piece. We really do not need any more. If possible, maybe we can allow players to change the color of the armor using code?

[Theme and monsters]: I really don't care about the theme. But nothing stupid that involves things like rubber ducks with legs or walking tree stumps, or, gasp, WALKING MUSHROOMS. Seriously.

As for behavior of monsters: If enemy is close, move toward it, if in range and can cast an ability, choose ability at random and cast it toward enemy. If player moves out of range, stop following. Detection range and de-aggro range are different.

Thats all for now.

If you guys agree, or don't agree, or want to know how it could be done in code, ask or comment, and if you don't agree, please say why.

I understand your ideas, but I don't agree with some things. I believe there should not be a limit to the abilities/items you carry. Maybe a combination of abilities, that sounds cool, but I'm not sure how that would actually work. Please explain in more detail.

I like the damage screen indicator, but I thnk there should be some way to see how much health/mana/whatever you have. Maybe something like in, say, Super Mario Galaxy, where it's translucent and nearly invisible at the side of the screen until you mouse over it?

I think for controls we should use WASD and mouse. Press left shift for melee attacks. Press left control for magic attacks. Now we could have 2 melee, 2 ranged, as well as air, earth, fire, and water. Combine them by using left shift AND left control, then tap one direction for melee and another for magic.

I still think that if you choose to use high magic, it should display in the top left of the screen. I could code that whole system if you want, with a Spell class.

BTW, like the new forum!

i agree with the no health bar. kind of like those war games where you have blood on the edge of the screen but with flashy stuff instead of blood.

Maybe. At least we're sprouting ideas.

The combination of abilities, according to my system, would not just limit the spells to 4.

you can combine spells as well, for example, instead of just pressing left arrow for fire ball, or right arrow for hail storm, you can press both left and right arrow to make it into a fire storm.

Must I make a flash movie?

So that means you can have 4 spells:

Left arrow key
Right arrow key
Up arrow key
Down arrow key

and 6 Double Combiations

L + R
L + U
L + D
R + U
R + D
U + D

If you want triple combinations:

L + R + D
L + R + U
L + U + D
R + U + D

Or even a quadruple combination, for those super powerful spells:

L + R + U + D

15 spells broken down into
4 purely spam basic, normal looking icon flashes, minor blur of screen after many use
6 regular spells, when combined, makes cooler flashes, blurry screen after many uses
4 strong spells, when combined even further, makes a giant flash, medium blur on use
1 ultimate spells, makes the whole screen flash with awesomeness, maximum blur! omg!

honestly you don't need any more than 15.

AlbinoPokey, there is a design aspect behind no health bar at all. Personally, I dislike having stats displayed in a corner where someone can keep track. But the main reason is I don't like it is because it is unnatural. Who is more likely to be immersed into the game: The guy who can clearly see he has 5 hp left, or the guy who's screen is screaming "I am @$%^ing dieing!"? This immersion is important. Do we want players to say "Oh this is just another GAME" or "What is this WORLD"?

WASD and mouse? Where you located people's hands are important. By using a mouse, you allow free selection but limit buttons to only 2. Lets keep hands on keyboard, unless you can provide a better use of the mouse.

You know what I will post something to explain the above.

I understood what you meant by combining spells, but I thought you meant you could only have 4 (in total).

When you put it like that, I guess a health bar isn't necessary, even if it does seem like something you would have in an FPS.

I made a flash video of it! >:D Huzzah! it will explain this with more...pictures.

prepare to be utterly horrified by crap drawings!

Here it is:

private unlisted video
Music by Jay B (hamstercake)

yes it is fast at some points. use pause button!

Nice video BTW.

Maybe you press Q to show/hide your stats, assuming one hand is on WASD? Or have it on the Options screen? I'm sure that some people would like a way to see their stats, so maybe once you enable it in Options you can toggle it ingame. Sort of like Source's Developer Console.

Also, how about this for magic combinations: exactly the same as items, but you can also combine it with melee? For example, fire + air = storm, fire + air + staff = lightning bolt, fire + air + sword does extra lightning damage on a hit?

"Also, how about this for magic combinations: exactly the same as items, but you can also combine it with melee? For example, fire + air = storm, fire + air + staff = lightning bolt, fire + air + sword does extra lightning damage on a hit?"

The system I mentioned only includes ability combinations. I need to figure out a way to effectively combine it with your actual weapons. One reason I set it up the way I did was because the abilities are not just limited to magic. Let RedTheGreen said, we should have abilities that include melee attacks, like Tiger Slash or something. Its still an idea in progress, but I tried to make it pretty flexible. I'll come up with something later.

"Maybe you press Q to show/hide your stats, assuming one hand is on WASD? Or have it on the Options screen? I'm sure that some people would like a way to see their stats, so maybe once you enable it in Options you can toggle it ingame. Sort of like Source's Developer Console."

If we did that, then pressing Q would become a chore rather than useful. If we made it available so easily, why have no health bar out in the UI in the first place? Like I said before, there should be NO health bar in the UI because it is something a player watches too much in games. By having something that players can visually see without looking anywhere, it lets the player know how 'dead' the character is and if the character got damaged. If the screen starts flashing like crazy, you know your in deep s#!%. Maybe we can keep the Q thing for developer mode only, but I am telling you, this health system works well. If the border flashing is light, you have a lot of health. If the border flashes screams death, you are dying. Although it talks in general amounts of health, people naturally pick up the idea of how much health they have anyway. They just don't know the exact number.

Anyway, I tried actually pressing down the keys myself for like 5 minutes, and I found it pretty easy to get used to because I didn't need to stretch my hand out to press a button. Combining spells will need some getting used to as well, because of memorization, but pressing down two arrow keys at the same time = not a problem.

My brain is about to explode. My internet was (and still is) stuffing up so sometimes it cuts for ages, that's why I haven't been on for so long. I kinda skimmed all the new posts here.

But anyway, here's what I have to say:

• I've started on a brief outline of the storyline, but I need to know what kind of obstacles the tutorial has.
• I think it would be awesome if we could get the game on Steam.
• Thanks Red, I commented on your profile

I agree with Howitz that there is no point whatsoever in having a key for showing your stats, if we don't just have it in the UI in the first place. Instead, maybe we should have a toggle key (like 'r') that shows enemy hp bars over their heads and maybe even for your head. You will still get the effects around the screen when hurt, but you also get to see how close you are to dying. You are still immersed in the game as it's following your player, rather than off to the side. Who agrees?

About Q:

That's why I said you can turn it on in Options if you want it. Q doesn't work by default. Some people will like to see their health constantly, so why not let them if they want to turn it on?

Yes, but like I said, over the head of the player, not off to the side where you don't pay attention to anything that's happening.