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Message: 2966

Author: i_eat_teh_babiez

Date: 14/09/2002

Subject: Re: Feedback

 

> There's plenty of room for more sprites, it's just being arsed to

do

> them all :P
> If anyone wants to add their own graphics, just send them to me and
> they will be included in the next update.

so the table is expandable?

> I'm up for new ideas for future updates.. so explain more about the
> phase platforms :)

i'll put a few of the blocks that i made when i made my willy clone
in amos on the amiga (it was rubbish but playable :)

- phase blocks

you have a counter in the main game loop, which counts up from 0 to
100, then resets to 0. or maybe some other number, depending on the
speed of it (you just need a nice regular speed really). then you
have a block which is 'air' while the counter is from 0 to 50, and
a 'ledge' while the counter is from 51 to 100. then you have another
block which is the same but in reverse, so you can create alternating
formations

- phase kill blocks

same as above only they are killer blocks, not platforms. with this
you can make lazers which go on and off.

- water

this is the same as an air block, only the minute the player's head
touches the water, he has a certain amount of time before
he 'drowns'. you can check for the willy/water collision and subtract
one from his 'underwater time' variable if it's true. when willy
touches a normal block (air), reset the value to it's highest.

- ice

you can't turn around. this is like a conveyor belt only it uses
willy's direction as he touches the conveyor. jumping is only
possible forwards.

> This *might* have something to do with the large WAV files it's
> loading into memory, they were a lot bigger than in the older
> version. Anyway, I'm gonna change the music to MODs if I can find

any

> decent ones and replace them, that should save memory and download
> time ;)

i'm good at making mods, so depending on which program/format/ect you
need i may be able to do something for you.

side note: i never hear the sound in these DIV games, including this
latest one. i have a soundblaster live which has been upgraded. so it
should work *shrug*

> The conveyors are surprisingly difficult to replecate (in my
> opinion). They gennerally work like in the original, but there are
> one or two bugs like that, but they only seem to occur at the edges
> of a conveyor. I'll see if i can sort it out.

the whole JSW engine is really quite complex in it's little
idiosyncracies (SP?). here's another problem i found with the
conveyors

>>>>>>>

w
###################

supposing willy were to jump left onto the conveyor, run left along
it a bit, then jump left again. the result is seemingly random (try
it a few times!). he will either jump left (this is the correct
behaviour), or he will go to jump left for an instant, but then get
thrown right by the conveyor.

if you have trouble with things like this and you can't get it
exactly like the original, it's best to get it so that generally it
sticks to a certain rule. (that way strategies can be built around
it).

> "i noticed you
> incorporated the 'walk through blocks at head height when going

left'

> bug... hehe..."
>
> I had to have some sort of original JSW Speccy bug since it was the
> only one I could easily replicate :)

it might be a good idea to have this switchable (i.e. you can toggle
it in the game properties), becuase on some manic-miner-like screens,
this bug doesn't look right, and also, one quirky feature on it's own
ddoesn't really give you much room for making quirky feature puzzles
(combination is the key to that).

personally, i believe that games which exploit the bugs and quirks
will only be truly effective on the spectrum version, where many of
the quirky features are by-products and combinations of other ones.

> "oh and count me in on the mass collaboration! are we going to

change

> the graphics as well as the levels?"
>
> cool, like i said earlier, send me youre sprites, or use DIV to
> change them :)

ok, i'll have a look at making sprites in DIV. if i manage to
download it :)

thanks for listening to my suggestions!

sendy

 

 

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