Rhindon's Forum Posts

  • UPDATED July 27, 2014

    NEW TO THIS UPDATE!

    • Improved lighting effects - watch it glooooow!
    • Controls for left- and right-handed players! (There's no bias here.)
    • A second hint feature! (Because finding your way in the light is hard enough.)
    • Both hints are now of limited use to make the challenge even harder!

    THE STORY

    Lost in a mysterious labyrinth of mazes, and haunted by faceless demons, a lone soul in despair wanders the eerie corridors in search of salvation.

    THE GAME

    Mazes are about to get a whole lot darker.

    I've been playing around with the Shadow Casting behavior, and it inspired an idea to take traditional mazes and make them more of a mystery! Using the Lighting capx (see the examples link on the Start Page of C2) to set up the initial lighting effects, much of the maze will be hidden. Sections will be specifically illuminated to offer hints or just to make you wonder if that's even in your path to the end. (Picture a street light lighting a darkened alley in New York City.)

    Check out the (unfinished) demo here: Lost Soul

    Platform: Browser and Android app

    ABOUT THE FEATURES

    I'm aiming for a low-light glowing effect to add a touch of atmosphere (and to combat any dull graphical look).

    So far I've included:

    • "Swinging ceiling lamp" effect for the main spotlight over the character icon
    • "Backlit cutout" font effect
    • Corridors with dimly lit sections
    • "Glowing" tile floors from the light given by the character icon
    • Two hint features that add to the lighting effects

    Besides the obvious touch - the near-complete darkness overlapping the maze - other challenges I plan to include...

    • Custom-made mazes from players like you!
    • Beat the clock (as detailed by the timer)
    • Speed Completion ranking! (So you found the way out...now do it again FASTER!) Rotated mazes & altered start/finish positions (same mazes but altered orientations - vertigo not included)
    • Full-maze View assistance
    • PRESENTS! (My fiance lovingly insists there be presents in my games. I'm happy to accommodate.) Now, what's inside the presents...?
    • Randomized items in random locations (time bonus, hint usage bonus)
    • A HUD map to assist in navigation showing areas of the map already explored.

    Let me know what you think - the good, the bad, and the not-so-glowing.

    As mentioned above, I'd like to open the option for all of you to create your own mazes to add to the game. Just break out some graph paper and fill in the squares!

    If I use your maze - and I don't see why I wouldn't - your name goes into the credits, too!

    If you have any questions, ask in the comments.

  • kbtbc - Naw, man. You're fine. I was just trying to make sure I, personally, didn't sound unfriendly. I surely didn't want to accidentally seem like I was insulting your intelligence or telling you something you might have already known.

    In short, I was just highlighting both sides.

  • In the manual for the Shadow Light object, we read, "When using a light radius, avoid placing the light very close to or directly over a shadow caster. Shadows can fail to render correctly in these circumstances."

    This is quite evident during my tests to understand how this new feature works as getting up close to a Shadow-casting object usually results in the shadow disappearing altogether, regardless of the settings of light height or light radius.

    My ultimate question, then, is how to best work around this. My basic set up presently includes two objects - one with the 8Direction movement behavior and the other with the Solid behavior. I position and pin the Shadow Light object on the moving object, as well.

    Thoughts? Suggestions?

    One environment I'm envisioning is series of hallways and corridors...

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  • kbtbc - I agree with you, but just in case you weren't aware - FRIENDLY FYI - Scirra is basically a three-man team. That's perhaps what Kyatric was hinting at when he mentioned "double job". They've already got an extensive manual set up. That said, though, again, I agree. Some things seem to be assumed. While I do go out and do non-Scirra searches for information not in the forums, tutorials, or manual, some things just aren't presented at beginner level. I can't fully imagine how hard it is for the Scirra team to do what they have already done, though. We've got to give them props for that, at least.

  • That makes sense. And while I agree that a broader internet search is well within reason, my concern is that it can be very difficult to find resources that are beginner-level friendly. Experience and ability varies with every person here, but my hope was to provide something "local" where it's (hopefully) less intimidating and "refined" to the realm of C2 at most. Still, I do see how it could present more work than might be necessary. T'was just an idea.

  • There is a ton of content to learn in C2. Even with all the thorough work put into the manual, there's still a lot of content that will go over the head of all but the most experienced indie developers here. Understandably, the Scirra Bros can't spell out every little detail in the manual. That would be far too many bunny trails and tangents when addressing all the features in the program.

    But it would be mighty helpful if there were a glossary with more in-depth explanations, illustrations, and "beginner level" terminology to help drive home what all these (often) advanced terms, concepts, and features are.

    WebGL? IAPs? ...and many more. What are these things and how can the indie beginner (or maybe even the more experienced) developers make sense of them to make the most of C2?

    I think a glossary with links to keywords in the manual would help greatly.

  • — - LOL Yeah, I definitely need to address that in-game. Sorry for the confusion. I'm still working on the finer points of the enemies and controls and all... But more levels will surely come. Thank you for check it out!

  • Blacksmith - Thank you for that.

  • iceangel - Thank you! <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy"> I know the game design won't be absolutely groundbreaking, but I appreciate that you feel it's unique in its own right. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy"> That means a lot.

    Blacksmith - I have to give 99% of the credit to my artist, Pascal Belisle. While I am the original creator of Mr Stick's look, it was Pascal who took the art design to a whole new level when he came on board later.

    !!! BEHIND THE SCENES INFO !!!

    I started out with Mr Stick's grid-based look because I felt it would be easier to keep his dimensions (head size, arm length, etc) accurate frame-to-frame by literally drawing him in a graph-paper-ish set-up in MS Paint. I'm NOT an artist! LOL That's what I started with a stick man in the first place.

    When Pascal took over the art and animation, he literally blew my mind with his samples. The scenery and background were things I could never hope to do, myself, and they totally kept with the grid-based style. When he started doing the enemies, he added the "evil" faces and, what were once just shapes with behaviors, took on new life. I adapted what he did - such as the eyes following Mr Stick...that wasn't part of his original work - and tweaked bits here and there to fit better with the game design... But yeah, the art is definitely all because of Pascal.

    In fact, he's also working on the music... He's got a working track with some 8-bit themed parts to fit with the mega-pixelized art design. I just haven't learned how to add sounds to the game yet. That's coming soon.

    ALSO! To both of you...

    Pascal would SURELY love for a chance to team up, I'm sure. Here's his Facebook page so you can message him: https://www.facebook.com/pascal.belisle.77?fref=ts

    And here is his website for examples of his music composition. He'd REALLY love to do work on an RPG, so you may find his tracks to be particularly suited for such a game. http://www.pascalbelisle.com/musique.html

    He's very easy-going and happy to be of help. Just let him know that Michael Miller (of Xion Dev Group).

    Thanks, guys!

  • AND HERE IT IS, FOLKS! http://elf-games.com/mmiller/MrStickMiniDemo/

    My first demo of Mr Stick Vs The 2D Crew!!!

    (Check out updates at https://www.facebook.com/XionDevGroup

    You'll see very quickly that it is an incomplete demo. There is still much to be completed, but I'm going to get all of that worked out quickly.

    === UPDATE ===

    Here is a working track for the game (not yet added to the demo), as well.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/gw9i0i2i380ohy5/mrStick_level1-01.mp3

    ==============

    A quick note about the 2D Crew baddies.

    Square: Moves back and forth in a predetermined area. Will jump wildly when Mr Stick gets near.

    Trapezoid: "Harmless", but will spawn Circles that track Mr Stick and will explode after so much time...

    Circle (non-spawned): Patrols a given area slowly.

    Octagon: These mono-eyed fiends hang in the air and will spin from green to red, red to green. Beware when red!

    There are two other enemies that still need to be finished up... Rectangle (an expanding and contracting "platform") and Triangle (also an expanding and contracting fiend, but deadly to touch!). They will be implemented later.

    If you die (lose all three hearts), just hit the F5 key to reload the game.

  • BluePhaze - Understood about work. If I don't have it figured out by the time you're off, I would be so grateful if you could give it a closer look. Thank you for your input, either way. Means a lot.

    Anyway, to answer your questions...

    I am definitely trying to apply your tips from a while back about using custom variables to establish specific conditions.

    I have variables for

    • IsSpinning (Boolean)
    • StopEffectState (Text; determines whether Octagon color should be red or green and when to cause Mr Stick to be stuck in place when in range.)
    • IsClose (Boolean; using the distance() expression)
    • LookDirection (Text; to determine, ultimately, which eye animation to play...whether to look left-to-right or just look right, etc)
    • DistanceToStick (Number)
    • LookStraight (Boolean; similar to LookDirection and used in conjunction with DistanceToStick to determine when to use the LookStraight animation)

  • CAPX: https://www.dropbox.com/s/idqvx17cjb8sd0n/MrStickV1-4.capx

    EVENT SHEET: E 2D Crew

    LINE: 17 (Group "Octagon")

    Summary of desired results:

    Depending on the location (and distance) of Mr Stick relative to the objects EnemyOctagon and EnemyOctagonEye, the Eye will look to its right or left, whether in its green state or red state (see the animations for both objects). If the Octagon is spinning, transitioning from green to red or red to green, the eye will close momentarily, then resume its appropriate looking direction.

    I'll refer to both the Octagon body and the eye as just the Octagon, since technically it's one object when I finally get it all working...

    I'll try to further list the conditions I'm trying to set up...

    Mr Stick is close (within 500 pixels) + Octagon is not spinning

    • Mr Stick moves from left to right of Octagon (or right to left)

    Octagon looks from former direction to new direction based on Mr Stick's location.

    Mr Stick is more than 500 pixels away from Octagon

    Octagon looks forward, neither to left nor right.

    Octagon begins transition from red to green or green to red states

    Octagon eye closes until spinning animation is finished. Resumes appropriate eye direction depending on where Mr Stick is located. (NON-left-to-right (or right to left) animation.)

    So the conditions include checking if the Octagon is spinning, when Mr Stick moves from one side to another, and the distance Mr Stick is from the Octagon.

    The trouble I'm having is getting the Octagon to respond appropriately. In the capx I've shared, I have two instances of the Octagon (the eye and body are combined in a container). When I walk past each one, they will respond to Mr Stick walking past in one direction, but when I walk past in the opposite direction, they will not respond.

    I've restarted the event list several times, trying to catch any errors I might have made, but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, if it's a bug in C2, itself, or if I'm missing a detail in the way events (specifically nested events) are handled.

    Could someone point out to me what I'm missing, please? Thanks!

  • This might have been mentioned in previous comments since this original post, but what is meant by "area-based scrolling"?

    And thank you for this plug-in! My friend, ArcadEd recommended it to me for a game I'm working on that makes use of some particular zooming and scaling of layers to create a top-down depth effect. I'm looking forward to using this.

  • blackhornet - Got it! Thank you, sir! As always, you're awesome.

  • Who knew that meteorology was such a complicated thing in C2?!

    (https://www.dropbox.com/s/e0ovspr3lfs6i ... Clouds.png)

    Above is the event sheet for my scenery events...background images and stuff.

    What I'm trying to do is have clouds randomly generated from the Cloud Generator object (there are three instances). Whenever the MakeCloudTimer reaches 0, that generator will spawn one of three different cloud images (separate sprites). The clouds will move between 40 to 60 pps to the left (so the Bullet behavior angle of motion should be 180).

    What I cannot figure out is why the "On Created" condition is not getting newly created/spawned clouds to work properly. They end up shooting off to the right (per the original parameters of the Cloud Family object). What is it I'm missing? Thanks.