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Message: 5803
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 16/04/2006
Subject: Death TV v0.3... Andrew's second playtest
(This follows on from Message 5793.)
My first comment is that a game like this with several self-
contained worlds should have a start-screen which is a hub leading
to the start-screen of each world (preferably by teleporters).
-----------
water world
-----------
Previously I wrote:
>With SPECSAISIE not yet being powerful enough to edit cells in saved-
> I therefore intend to teleport to "Machine World" [33] - the room
> you actually start off in v0.3... for my second playtest -
> or should I remove the Fire-cells from the top of [50] so that
> I actually /can/ go down, like you can in the DTV2 taster of
> 13th May 2005?
position snapshots - because they're in 128K memory-banks -
I simply teleported to the room below [50] using POKE 33824,73. That
room has a guardian which collides with an Earth-column, killing
you, so I then I teleported to the room below that using POKE
33824,74.
Even without the cells at the top of [50], that room would still be
problematic because you can only take two of the three items as you
fall down through the one-way exit. More of that erosive force
mentioned in Message 5754 is needed here!
[42] "": I'm not sure which World this untitled room belongs to, but
it reminds me very much of a room from Robin Burrows's _Platform
One_ <http://www.tilemap.co.uk/platformone.html>.
I haven't actually played it yet - only seen it from the top
(after going down from [53]), and it's not possible to descend.
The colours look wrong: Cell-class 3 (Earth) should surely have
red PAPER, and Cell-classes 1 and 7 (Water) should have green INK
for an attractive 'Megatree' atmosphere.
[52] "water world": The design-pattern for collecting the top-left
item made me think for a few seconds that it was uncollectable, then
I realised the cleverness:
|VV|||||||||
|V.........|
|.........$|
|...>>>>>|||
||..........
||..........
||-----..--.
The bottom-left item does appear to be uncollectable, as left is a
one-way exit to "Egypt World" [86], although I don't yet have
SPECSAISIE RoomReachJSW64 to prove that it is uncollectable.
[53] "water world": The chimney of Water-cells on the left of this
and the four rooms above is a very tedious method of ascent. Non-
swinging ropes or fast vertical lifts would be much better.
Down is a one-way exit to "" [42], which I suspect is not what
you intended. It's not possible to collect all of the items in this
and the four rooms above before taking this exit (and even if it
were, one would presumably have to repeat the tedium of climbing up
the chimney).
[55] "clingon!": The fall-without-dying POKE is exploited well here,
having to time a long fall through the narrow path of a HG -
reminiscent of a certain room in _Bruce Lee_.
[56] "the difference that size makes": Now where have I seen this
room-title before? The fast and normal-speed HGs conspire to a
vicious challenge.
[72] "attack of the moody cubes!": You have to sacrifice a life to
collect the item; even with your back to the Earth-column, you
overjump the gap; you also cannot leave enough Crumbly to walk off
and fall into the gap.
[76] "water world": It's fascinating to see the new challenges that
can be created with Trampolines - here you have to jump around until
the timing's right for avoiding a diagonal guardian.
I have not played all of water world yet. When I first got to [42]
(after going down from [53] from the right) I teleported back to
[56] in order to collect the remaining items from the tower and go
down on the left; then I went up from [42] and wound up in "Miner
World" [0].
-----------
Miner World
-----------
In contrast to the linear water world, this world has a much more
branching geography, which is a bit frustrating as I'm always
thinking "when am I going to get back here so I can go the other
way?", but I tied up the set of reachable rooms nicely in the end
without too much repetition beyond the initial exploration (i.e.
save a snapshot, run through a few rooms in each direction, then
reload and select one direction to play seriously).
[0] "Miner World": The item-graphic looks nice, as does the
inside/outside atmosphere created by the black and blue Air cell-
classes. (I'm sure there's another reason I marked this room for
comment, but I can't think what it is.)
[1] "Miner World": An attractive room visually (like the others in
Miner World - a real 'house-style' in graphical terms), but I don't
like how at first glance it looks possible to exit this room to the
right, adding unnecessarily to the apparent branching-factor.
[3] "Miner World": The pokey things that keep appearing and
disappearing so that you have to walk through them quickly are a
feature we should see a lot more of in MM/JSW.
I remember seeing an upside-down saw in an unreleased Philip Bee
room. Willy had to walk through it without getting hit, similar to
the way Kari Kriníková can walk through arrows in We Pretty.
[5] "Miner World": A deceptive (in a good way) room in that it looks
possible to descend directly down the left, but it isn't. And all
this running water adds to the atmosphere if not the gameplay.
[6] "Miner World": It's cool (excuse the pun) how the colour-scheme
changes from red to blue as you go deeper down the mine.
[7] "Miner World": A wonderfully atmospheric room with neat bright
blue bricks embedded in smashed-up dull blue ones. It almost has the
atmosphere of an abandoned railway-tunnel with the spooky white
wheel.
[8] "Miner World": This complicated room branches off in five
directions (including the one you come in by); I spent ages trying
to decide the best order in which to follow them.
For those who will follow in my footsteps: the top, top-right
and bottom-right exits are short paths which quickly loop back to
this room; you should only take the bottom-left after you have
exhausted these three paths.
[9] "Miner World": Not everyone will be thorough enough to spot the
dual column of Crumbly cells at the bottom-right, although the cell-
graphic is slightly different from Earth 3. I must admit I went
there expecting to explore the nook to the left of the lower bird
(which is unreachable anyway) and turn away disappointed.
Maybe it would be a good idea to have an item to entice the
player onto the Crumbly cells, although a thoughtful player should
realise that there may be a hidden incentive to explore that bottom-
right corner.
[10] "The Dance of the Pokey Things": A fascinating hidden room for
those who find it, combining left- and right-conveyors with
trampolines. You can almost just sit back and let them carry you
through the whole room - except that you have to stop at various
points to avoid getting jabbed!
JSW64's extended cell-type system continues to impress me with
new dimensions of room-design. I might well use this particular
paradigm for the opening room of MM:Outside, "Leon Takes Us Outside".
[11] "Miner World": I have reached this room only by going right
from [0]. It looks like there's an exit at the top-right, but it's
blocked by an invisible Earth-column - I take it this is supposed to
be the entrance to Miner World? A wonderful hilly atmosphere.
[12] "Miner World": A very tight jump under the red HG - I almost
thought it wasn't possible! But I just kept pausing, snapshotting,
trying, reloading and unpausing for one time-frame until I
established that you can stand on the very edge of the platform to
the right of the gap, and jump so that your head goes to the left of
the red HG.
Again, the strip of blue outside Air on the left adds to the
atmosphere of an already great room.
[13] "Miner World": It's not necessary to cross this room at all
with the route I took (straight down the mineshaft with just cursory
glances at the rooms to the left). It's a shame for all those
switches and opening walls to go to waste, so this room could do
with some well-placed items to bring out the most of it.
[15] "Miner World": A good challenge of wraparound HGs (technically
regular HGs with half their sprite-page blank).
[16] "Miner World": The stopping and starting pickaxe provides a
scary challenge - is this a patch-vector?
If you're going to have a diagonal guardian on a ramp, this is
the way to do it: the robot is beautifully close to the ramp,
allowing you to jump straight up over it - unlike many more
frustrating examples of this pattern in JSW128/64 games.
[19] "Miner World": It's great to see non-swinging ropes making a
rare appearance outside the Broadsoft JSW games! :-)
After taking the left-exit, I get killed immediately and
indefinitely on entry to "Leaving Miner World?" [23], and looking at
the room in JSWED, I think it's because Guardian 4 collides with
scenery at (12/13, 27/28).
This isn't the best place for leaving Miner World anyway, since
you have to go up from this room first (to collect all the items) -
a detour of 14 room-exits to get back here (if you didn't already
take the items in [15] and [16], in which case you have to take a
one-way exit from [14]), mainly through done-and-dusted rooms.
[21] "Miner World": You'd have to have an incredibly short memory to
actually fall for it, but falling down on the left of this room
leads to infinite death below.
[22] "Miner World": I love the way you can jump right over the fast
HG when it too is going right, and I like the skull-sprite that you
ripped from JSW3. ;-)
Items collected 070 Time 8:21am
I'm shocked to look at my watch and realise that it's already gone
3am in the real world - time flies when you're having fun!
I guess for my third playtest I'll get through [23] using a harmless-
guardians POKE, and see where that portal takes me...
--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/
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