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Message: 5771

Author: andrewbroad

Date: 01/04/2006

Subject: Jet Set Emily: Andrew's comments

 

These comments pertain to JSE04.tap (modified 5th December 2004)
from the version currently on my website.

I have done a complete playtest, and concluded that Rooms 8/12, 9
and 14 make the game not item-completable. I also have some
suggestions for non-critical improvements.

[1] "A Gazebo And Odd Topiaries": If it were my game, I would have a
HG in row 12 such that you have to jump straight up over it whilst
avoiding the VGs (obviously, the bottom boundaries of the VGs would
have to be raised).

I would also put an Earth-block at (7,21) (and one at (7,10) to
maintain the symmetry of the room), which allows you to jump safely
to the bottom even though it doesn't /look/ like a safe jump, i.e.:

................................
..............||||..............
..............|**|..............
............||||||||............
...........||||||||||...........
..........||||||||||||..........
...........|..|..|..|...........
..........#|..|..|..|#.......... <- #: quirky Earth-cells
..----.....|..|..|..|.....----..
..----.....|..|..|..|.....----..
.------....|..|..|..|....------.
..--.-....@|..|..|..|@....-.--.. <- @: Earth-cells changed to Air
..-----..................-----..
..----....................----..
...--.....||||||||||||.....--...
--------------------------------
A Gazebo And Odd Topiaries

[5] "A Real Platform Game": The gap at the bottom-left looks safe to
fall into (you can fall up to four cells off the bottom of a screen
without dying), but leads to an infinite-death scenario. This comes
from the original JSW, of course, so you could argue that
familiarity vindicates leaving it as it is - but it's not good JSW-
design in general.

[7] "One Flew Over": If you drop down off the bottom of this screen,
you land on the top row of "The Work of Rob The Gardener" [2],
collecting the item there; then if you jump back up, you end up
in "The Utility Shed" [0]!

[8] "Treed Off" / [12] "Emily Meets The Taxman": There are two ways
back down from "Emily Meets The Taxman", and both of them lead to
infinite death! (not to mention the ugly back-to-front ramp-graphic
in "Treed Off").

................................
................................
...............................*
................................
...............................*
................................
......................--...-...*
................................
...........................-...*
.....................-..........
...........................-...*
..........................-.....
-.-...............|----..-.....*
........-|.......-|......*......
.....-...|........|.....-*......
...<<<<<.|--.**..-|------*......
Emily Meets The Taxman
||||||||||....**.....|..........
||||||||||....**.....||||.......
||||||||||....**........|||||||*
||||||||||....*|-...............
.........|||..|--...............
..............|--...../||||||||*
..............|....../||-------|
-.............|...../||---|---||
*................../.|||||.....|
*-..-.....-......./.............
*-..-..-...-...../..............
**..*..*......-.................
**..*..*.......-................
**..*..*..||.........|||||.....|
**..*..*...|.........|----*-
**..*..*...|||..---..|....*.
Treed Off

There are a number of solutions; here's one of the simplest:

||||||||||....*......|.......... <- column of 3 Fire-cells removed
||||||||||....*......||||.......
||||||||||....*.........||..|||* <- hole to let player fall through
||||||||||....*|-............... safely
.........|||..|--...............
..............|---..../||||||||* <- Water-block to let player fall
..............|....../||-------| onto ramp
-.............|...../||---|---||
*................../.|||||.....|
*-..-.....-......./.............
*-..-..-...-...../..............
**..*..*......-.................
**..*..*.......-................
**..*..*..||.........|||||.....|
**..*..*...|.........|----*-
**..*..*...|||..---..|....*.
Treed Off

[9] "Branching Off Into New Heights": I suggested adding an Earth-
block to prevent a possible infinite-death scenario when jumping in
from the left, but the block at (3,28) makes the items unreachable,
and does not fix the IDS. It needs to be moved one cell down and two
to the right, like this:

................................
................................
*...............................
*...........................|... <- change this Earth-cell to Air
...............................# <- and the cell marked '#' to Earth
*.*.-.*.||.*.|..................
*.*.....................
.**-.*..|||.*.-..-***---
.**...*..*......-.**||..
***-...VV......--..**...
***....VV......**......**.......
***-.$..............--||**......
.***--..........................
..***-.............-............
.-................**........
*-.*.--.**.-.**.-..*||***|..
Branching Off Into New Heights

It's a very interesting room technically - very cunning and
deceptive. It looks like the escape-route after collecting the item
is to jump up the Water-cells on the left, when in fact this is
impossible - but you /can/ escape with two accurate jumps under the
red VG! (marked 'V' in the diagram above). I don't think many
players will get the item and escape without losing a life - but at
least it's possible. :-)

[10] "A Breath of Fresh Air": This room has changed radically since
the version in "2002, 11-25 (Finished product from Broad site).sna",
which has blue-PAPER Air and a downward-pointing arrow made of Earth-
cells. Personally, I find the older version more attractive visually.

[11] "dark yet welcoming": I would spice it up even more by adding
`bouncing arrows' (i.e. have eight synchronised arrows) as in We
Pretty's "ZERO WATE STATE" [0].

[12] "Emily Meets The Taxman": If you set foot on the conveyor then
it's all too easy to jump into an infinite-death scenario in "A
Leafy Glade in the Sky" [13].

[14] "Free Willy": Two time-frames after entering this room, the
bird collides with the dalek, killing you!

Also, the one-way exit up to "dark yet welcoming" [11], though
familiar from the original JSW, is not good game-design. One
solution would be to knock a hole in "dark yet welcoming" down
to "Free Willy" - especially as you cannot exit "Free Willy" to the
left unless you came in that way (if you want to keep it so that the
rooms to the left of "Free Willy" can only be accessed via "Nomen
Scooby").

[16] "This Is Hardly A Quirkafleeg": If you fall down the right side
of the hole at the bottom, you miss the rope and fall forever!

Jerkily-moving horizontal guardians, whose sprites you don't want to
make narrower, are the bane of JSW's cell-based (as opposed to pixel-
based) representation of columns.

In We Pretty's "KIANO TF OR ALL THEE GGSIN SLOVA" [9], the bus had
to be 16 pixels wide and still move smoothly. I solved this problem
by representing the bus as two guardian-instances (of two different
guardian-classes), each with its own set of sprite-frames.

Obviously this approach is too profligate to be used very often in
JSW48, but Jet Set Emily does have plenty of unused guardian-
classes, and some unused sprite-pages.

[17] "The Piercing Pagoda": Cool title, this - almost like one of my
alliterative room-names! :-) I was planning to write a "Pagoda" room
at some point, but I don't think it can be done well with JSW's
limited graphical capabilities (but maybe now that we have JSW64...).

[18] "Test of Faith": The conveyor is supposed to be invisible, but
because Ramp and Conveyor have the same colour-attribute, they share
the same cell-graphic and both behave as Conveyor-Ramp (which is why
the room was renamed from "Leap of Faith"). Infinite-death scenarios
are likely in the room below if you fall off the conveyor.

[19] "I Cant Get You Outta My Head": If one is clever, one can cross
this room from right to left! :-)

[24] "homestarrunner.com": The new look to this room is very
striking! However, the player who jumps up into the head gets stuck
and has to reset the game - perhaps some sort of cyanide-pill or
external time-limit is in order?

[25] "Man Its So Cold In Here": The new colour-scheme is actually an
improvement on "Cold Store" from the original JSW! :-) A visually
attractive and atmospheric room, demonstrating how effective using
essentially just three colours can be (black, blue and white is
another attractive combination).

[27] "Unholy Cathedral": The new graphics give this room an
atmosphere of its own now (somewhat reminiscent of Adban De Corcy's
games), as well as being an imaginative technical extension of The
Chapel.

[28] "Just How Confident Are You": An imaginative way to deal with
the misplaced item from the original JSW; Party Willy (Part 2)
leaves the item here too, but with a different way to get to it.

[29] "Dark Angers Toward Her Mother": One of my favourite rooms in
the game - very atmospheric. But the items on the top row can be
jumped up for from below - which is just as well, as there's no way
back down from the top row other than sacrificing a life. A
brilliant room nevertheless.

[33] "The Playroom": I like the curtains! If it were my game, I
would extend the ramp down and left by one cell, and have the toilet
on the upper platform instead.

[34] "Dont Touch Mommys Perfume": The graphical makeover certainly
makes this atmospheric room seem more original than it did before! I
like the `duck' graphic.

[36] "Sawdust And Crimson": I appreciate the invisible conveyor
in "Not A Speccy Was Stirring" [30] that prevents some infinite-
death scenarios, but it's still infinite death if you fall through
the bottom-right hole.

[37] "The Apple Orchard": I appreciate the radical aesthetic
overhaul, but it's infinite death if you fall down the safe-looking
hole on the left (this could be prevented by a Fire-cell at (0,8) -
yes, I /do/ mean the top row!). Also, the arrow would be much more
harmful if it were a cell-row or two higher.

[41] "The Attic Seems Out Of Place": I think it's terribly unfair
how if you jump up into "Test of Faith" [18] from the three Earth-
cells (|.|.|), you're trapped and have to commit suicide
indefinitely or reset the game. It may be best simply to set the up-
exit of this room to itself.

[42] "The Rafters Win By A Nose": To me, this room is just crying
out to have an item in the position indicated by '$', which would
require the player to jump through the overhead Earth-cell to
collect it:

|.....|.../..**.....**..
|....|.../...***...***..
|$..|.../.....***... <- add an item
||...../........***..... <- the overhead Earth-cell
....../.........................
...../..........................
..|./.......>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
||||-..-..................|.....
|||||.....................|.....
..........................|.....
...................-...-..|.....
............||.-........-.|..--.
........-...|.............|.....
------......|......-....-.|.....
...........-|...................
............||||||||||||||||||||
The Rafters Win By A Nose

[45] "Daleks Conquer And Destroy": The colour-scheme fits the title
well, and I like the dalek-sprite (notwithstanding the jerkiness -
see comment at [16]). Well, I did use to /be/ a dalek when I was in
primary school! ;-)

[48] "Nomen Scooby": It's possible to end up trapped in the bottom-
left of "Test of Faith" [18] if you jump right from this room so as
to go up from that room. If it were my game, I'd be inclined to put
an Air-block at (14,0) in "Test of Faith" to provide both an escape-
route and a space for an item (I might also embed items in the top-
left wall in "I Can Go Up But Can I Go Down" [52] and in the bottom-
left wall in "The Ventilation System" [57] - the latter as a
Promised Land view from an unrelated room).

[49] "KAR ION A N D REW": Thanks for the tribute! I like the way
this room is accessible via an ILB. I don't like the infinite-death
scenario you encounter by jumping left from this room, since you
don't have the option of walking left if you entered via the ILB.

[51] "ANDR E W TAK ESUS O U TSIDE": Again, thanks for the tribute.
The invisible guardian certainly gives this reinterpretation an
intriguing air of mystique!

I'm sad to see the ILBs go, but at least I can have fun jumping
through the new overhead Earth-cells! :-) You could make the
player /have/ to do this by putting items on top of these Earth-
cells, and removing the two Water-blocks in row 14 so you couldn't
jump for them in the obvious way... although the Earth-cell at
(14,1) would allow you to bypass this. :-(

[55] "Gotta Boogie": This room could do with some items to make it
more necessary to cross; ditto re. the left half of "The Ventilation
System" [57].

[56] "The Damp Crawlspace Air Is Foul": The new Earth-graphic makes
the whole room look much more attractive now.

[58] "Sand Sparkling In The Moonlight": I just wanted to mention
this as an exceptionally visually attractive room.

In the "2002, 11-25 (Finished product from Broad site).sna" version,
there's a way to walk along the very bottom platform, jumping over
each of the crabs so as to land back inside the row-14 sand
(although if you were stupid you could get stuck under the Earth-
cells and have to reset the game).

Unfortunately this is no longer possible in the JSE04.tap version,
due to the raising of the former ILBs in "ANDR E W TAK ESUS O U
TSIDE" [51]. If it were my game, I would reinstate this feature,
provide an escape-route to the bottom of "A Ferry Tale" [59], and
put an item there to give the player an incentive to do this quirky
walk!

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/

 

 

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