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using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 4868
Author: Daniel
Date: 09/08/2005
Subject: All current matters
Thanks to John, Sendy, DrUnKeN mAsTER!!!, Soa1000, Mike, Dick and
Karan Al for their replies :-).
Responding to:
1. John
Thanks for the tip. I didn't realise JSWED could take snapshots of
the rooms. I'll have to look into this possibility.
I absolutely agree the task should be automated as much as possible.
So far I have learned how to automate the processing of the pictures
(cutting off the frames, etc.) in Adobe Photoshop. It's really
amazingly convenient.
I have to learn more about the PNG format. Could someone point to
some useful information about it on the Web?
2. Sendy
Sendy wrote:
< ... since it seems Daniel will eventually incorporate it
< into one of his games.
Honestly, I will not perceive the game as /my/ game, but rather as a
joint effort, where the credit should go to Sendy first (unless the
game turns out to be so poor that you will not want this :-) ).
Sendy wrote:
< but I'm really quite pleased that you like my orphaned rooms
< and want to give them a home. :)
That's a very nice metaphor, I appreciate it :-) .
Sendy wrote:
< I hope the game Daniel incorporates them into is a JSW64
< game because JSW64 rocks and should be used as much as
< possible. I have so many ideas about that engine that
< sometimes my head explodes. And I haven't even touched JSW
< editing in months!
No, it will be a 128k game, precisely for the same reason you have
mentioned: JSW64 offers so many possibilities that I would have to
dedicate a lot of time to study it, to be able to take full advantage
of them (and it would be stupid to design a JSW64 game and /not/ use
the game engine properly). It is certainly a part of my future plans,
but before I get down to it, I want to fully explore 48k and 128k
engines, and design a couple of games, which I hope will
progressively get better and better.
I also hope this will not be a waste of "The Unlucky 7", because only
one of the games that form it is a JSW64 game ("Jetsetest", with
three rooms). I will not incorporate these rooms into the new game,
and I am pretty sure they may be used in other future (JSW64)
projects.
Sendy wrote:
< Anyway, it's great to see some new enthusiasm in the form of Daniel
Thanks a lot :-) . This is probably the advantage of being a
latecomer :-), even though I wish I had joined the internet MM / JSW
community earlier, because I have so much catching up to do now...
Sendy wrote:
< I myself am starting a website soon which will go on a lot
< about JSW and other 'retro' styled games. I look forward to
< introducing it to the JSW community :)
I look forward to being introduced to it :-) .
3. DrUnKeN mAsTER!!!
DrUnKeN mAsTER!!! wrote:
< I should imagine the finished product (save the ongoing
< features of course) would be enough to sit back to crack
< open a freezing cold beer and say " I did that!". Good plan
< Daniel look forward to seeing it emerge.
Thanks a lot, DrUnKeN mAsTER!!!, your words are very encouraging
:-) . That's exactly what I am going to do when (and if) I manage to
get to the finish (save the ongoing features of course). Any
suggestion about which beer is worthy of being opened on that
memorable day? :-)
DrUnKeN mAsTER!!! wrote:
< Also about the copyrights and stuff for your website and
< future projects. Feel free to use all of my stuff (Rooms,
< Sprites, Graphics, and map the games if you like), just so
< long as (as procedure is with this kind of thing) my name
< pops up somewhere in the text file :)
Thanks a lot :-) . Of course due credit will be given to you and
everyone else. In fact, you can already find your name (nickname) in
the text file which accompanies "JSW: The 2005 Megamix".
DrUnKeN mAsTER!!! wrote:
< Oh and also feel free to mention all my future games
< if you feel like it (only problem is I have no real idea
< when I'll be able to release any of them anymore so for
< now the best timeline is what Andrew has on his website).
Thanks again, but in reality I have no plans to present future
projects in any way, unless perhaps this might be included in the
Chronology (like "date [the author's name] announces [his/her plans
for the game]"). But I think I would rather leave this as Andrew's
strict domain, and concentrate only on finished, gamma-released
products.
What is the ETA for "Maria on Tour", by the way?
DrUnKeN mAsTER!!! wrote:
< As for getting an insight as to what authors feel about
< their games, All my readmes have an insight into
< most (if not all) the rooms included in the finished
< product.
That's very good :-) . My idea was actually not to go too deep into
detail in the authors' opinions on the website, but ask them to offer
a short piece of whatever they would like to share with us about the
game as a whole.
I am interested in other authors' opinion on this, because Andrew
also mentioned his text files in his response. If the prevailing
opinion is that it is not a good idea to present the authors'
opinions on the website, because the descriptions in the text files
are more than enough, I may give up this particular section.
DrUnKeN mAsTER!!! wrote:
< If I finish a room, I switch of my editor and add to the
< readme about that room before I start the next.
That's definitely the best way to go about it. I wish I could force
myself to this kind of drill, because writing the whole thing up
after the game is finished is a real nightmare.
DrUnKeN mAsTER!!! wrote:
< Also on the subject of JSW:Mind control I think I messaged
< Sendy about the time TU7 was released about it as I planned
< on doing a version of my own. I may still do this as my plan
< was extremely different to yours I was going to keep the
< alien at the bottom of the screen and use the varied speed
< sprites of JSW64 to set the time limit with the alien
< walking to the left first should a room require a longer
< time limit, as for the story I never got that far but I
< quite liked the whole Margeret Thatcher thing. If I ever do
< it maybe we can compare the 2 and maybe I could release mine
< as a sequel but not really a true release A bit like JSW and
< JSWII.
Well, I hope we will both be able to develop our creative ideas
without duplicating things unnecessarily, and both games will
complement each other rather than compete :-) . The games will
certainly be very different, because:
- My game is taking shape as a 128k engine game, and yours will
evidently be JSW64;
- I will definitely not have the time limit, which you will;
- I will add a number of rooms of my own design, plus use almost all
of the rooms from "The Unlucky Seven" (save the three
from "Jetsetest", and possibly some of the others which will not fit
in any reasonable way). I also think that since you intend to apply
the time limit element, you might not be interested in all of Sendy's
rooms. Even in "JSW: Mind Control" not all of the rooms have been
designed for the time limit (the ones that have been designed are
numbers: 001, 002, 003, 005, 008, 009, 010, 011, 012 and 013).
In any case, since I will not make any use of the Margaret Thatcher
story, would you prefer me not to use the title "Mind Control", so
that you are able to use it for your game? That would be fine with
me. I had thought I would keep it, because it was the title that
Sendy gave to the most-developed game of "The Unlucky Seven", but I
can certainly invent another title (maybe: "The Lucky Seven"? :-) ).
4. To Soa1000:
Overlapping rooms will probably be one of the biggest headaches when
preparing the maps, bigger than empty spaces where rooms should be. I
am glad "JSW:FTB" will not create this kind of problem. Thanks for
the considerate design! :-)
5. To Mike:
Thanks a lot :-) . The map looks great! I assume that I can put it on
my (future) website whenever it's ready to go online?
6. To Dick
I'm glad you are progressing :-) . The problem of having to
repeat the same path appears in "JSW: The 2005 Megamix". At
the time of designing the game I thought it was a cool idea to force
the player to do it, but after playtesting the finished product
numerous times, I was so fed up with having to take the same path
over and over again that I will most probably avoid this kind of
solution in my future projects. Anyway, I look forward to playing
your game!
7. To Karan Al
It seems like you have attached a file to the message, which was
removed by Yahoo! . If you do have a file to share, could you send it
to me directly or (even better) upload it to the Club's Files
folder?
Thanks to everyone again, it is very encouraging to get your
feedback! :-) Keep writing!
Daniel
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