Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Manic Miner & Jet Set Willy Yahoo! Group
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Message: 5728
Author: Alexandra
Date: 18/03/2006
Subject: Willy in Transatlantic Cruise + My Projects
Firstly, Herve's recent JSW64 game is wonderful. In particular, I am
impressed by the sheer diversity in environments he created. You can
explore a ship, underwater caverns, icebergs, another planet,
Atlantis... the list goes on. My favourite part was where you can go
down a pipe into the workings of the ship - that was a really neat and
suprising touch. This game has everything including the kitchen sink :)
On the downside - I didn't like so much the 'ghost crumblers' and how
some unexpected blocks crumbled, such as the right side of the pillars
in the dining rooms on board the ship, but I never dwell on these
things too much. Plus, as has been noted, it can be confusing to see
lots of similar-ish blocks underwater and not know which are deadly or
which do other things such as make you jump or whatever, though I am
grateful for the 'red fish rule' which makes things much more predictable.
In the versions of JSW64 where there are only 8 cell classes per room,
this is not a problem, since you can alter the meaning of a cell to be
true to it's appearance. When using a lot of hardwired cell class
behaviours, I personally would usually try and make their appearance
very true to their gameplay function, though this is not always easy.
For example, in JSW48, cells which look like slime dripping from the
celing are automatically thought of as fire, if water and earth blocks
are already used for walls and platforms, but in JSW64 it could well
be decorative air.
The only solution seems to be to just be mindful and try to show the
player what's what, one way or the other (for example, if said green
slime was in the entrance to the room and the player started on top of
it, he/she would know it was harmless from the beginning). Graphic
style constistency is another tactic to make things clearer.
---
To Daniel mainly - Unfortunately I don't have Manic Person with me. It
was all very hurried. I'll release it when I get back to the UK but
now I am thinking of doing another version of it with 40 caverns in
JSW64, and to release it as a bumper pack with the Easy, Hard and
JSW64 versions all in one release.
Mostly I will be working on Death TV and my new project while in the
USA, when I get any free time.
Sendy
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