Actually the game does look like an Ultimate game, although I cant try it since my computer is half broken. By the way, its great to bring back an author from back in the day, doing again games for the Spectrum!
It has been a wonderful time discussing the ins and outs of AGD, how to achieve his goals for the game using AGD. This is his first game using AGD and initially he spent many nights picking my brains about how to do things in the AGD scripting engine, working around bugs and strange crashes. In fact I think I have learned more during our problem solving conversations than I have on my own over the last 6 years!!
Facebook has its uses. :)
I guess you found a way around the save game difficulties? I really ought to release a fix for the "save game with loading screen" problem.
What a fantastic game, and totally thorough set of materials to go with it. All we need now is an authentic looking Crash or Your Sinclair review to go with it.
Graphics are very nice indeed. I quite like the slightly smaller Sabre Man sprite. After seeing the graphics I expected him to zip around the screens a lot quicker, ? la Sabre Wulf/Atic Atac, but I guess there's a bit more scenery to navigate around.
Being a bit of a purist I was happy to see a nod to the classic Ultimate keys... The weird thing about the keys is that I've always struggled with QWERT but am fine with 67890. Never really figured that one out.
I was a bit confused by the weapons & fire button. I know it's been mentioned and I've read the instructions, but is there an explanation? So when you're carrying a weapon and hold down fire, are you attacking enemies? It looked as if they were getting killed (rather than staying and draining your energy), but I still seemed to lose energy, and it wasn't obvious. Also the sprite moves at a faster speed when doing it, so you end up holding fire constantly (the opposite of Sabre Wulf)..?
Also when you move through doors, do they get permanently unlocked? I was a bit confused as to which of the doors I could move through (sometimes I didn't seem to be carrying a key but could still go through the white barred doors).
Anyway aside from those minor confusions, it seems a nice game to play. I've only encountered one of the guardians so far, and it looked pretty cool..!
So, now that the precedent has been set, I wonder if we'll get any more Mire Mare tributes...? :D
There are some little glitches though which have nothing to do with Luca's skills but unfortunately with AGD little bugs...like: the main sprite disappearing, or the main sprite loosing animation when moving diagonal (not always)...I am having the same problems with my new AGD game ...
Nonetheless I agree: this might infact be one of the best games this year.
Once again : Welcome back Luca! :D
Graphics are very nice indeed. I quite like the slightly smaller Sabre Man sprite. After seeing the graphics I expected him to zip around the screens a lot quicker, ? la Sabre Wulf/Atic Atac, but I guess there's a bit more scenery to navigate around.
Being a bit of a purist I was happy to see a nod to the classic Ultimate keys... The weird thing about the keys is that I've always struggled with QWERT but am fine with 67890. Never really figured that one out.
I was a bit confused by the weapons & fire button. I know it's been mentioned and I've read the instructions, but is there an explanation? So when you're carrying a weapon and hold down fire, are you attacking enemies? It looked as if they were getting killed (rather than staying and draining your energy), but I still seemed to lose energy, and it wasn't obvious. Also the sprite moves at a faster speed when doing it, so you end up holding fire constantly (the opposite of Sabre Wulf)..?
Also when you move through doors, do they get permanently unlocked? I was a bit confused as to which of the doors I could move through (sometimes I didn't seem to be carrying a key but could still go through the white barred doors).
Anyway aside from those minor confusions, it seems a nice game to play. I've only encountered one of the guardians so far, and it looked pretty cool..!
So, now that the precedent has been set, I wonder if we'll get any more Mire Mare tributes...? :D
I would say download the new version, there have been changes to the attack, basically he cycles colour when in attack mode (Luca has been working with the limitations in agd). As to going through the doors you need a keys which are limited, there is an axe which allows you to chop through the doors.
Writing a game in AGD is not as flexible as a custom engine (it is still remarkable what you can produce though), compromises must be made, for example graphics, especially sprites take up a lot of memory.
A single sprite frame at 16x16 pixels should take up 32 bytes of memory, however AGD creates 3 preshifted versions so now you have 4 versions of that single frame at 128 bytes. Now if you have 4 frames of animation that goes up to 512 byte, add to that the main character which faces 4 directions that's 2k for the main character.
Backgrounds are 8x8 pixel blocks and the screen is compressed along the horizontal axis. So the more you repeat a single block and the more open space the smaller the data will be, not to mention the size of the game window.
I would suggest everyone trying AGD to get a better grasp of how the engine works just to see how brilliant and frustrating it can be in equal measures. I don't want to go in how long it took to get sprites appearing in random positions on the screen so they didn't appear inside a block.
I feel like I'm on the defensive on Luca's behalf!! (I'm smiling as I type :D honest, I suppose that designers didn't get feedback like we do today with the forum). First game using AGD, (first game in years I beleive) I think the results are remarkable but I have a better understanding how AGD works (or doesn't) I suppose.
I would say download the new version, there have been changes to the attack, basically he cycles colour when in attack mode (Luca has been working with the limitations in agd). As to going through the doors you need a keys which are limited, there is an axe which allows you to chop through the doors.
Ah..! That would make sense, I was probably carrying the axe.. I did read that in the instructions but didn't put 2 & 2 together..
Someone mentioned that it looks a bit Firelord-y too. I was wondering whether some of the graphics came from it? The flame looks familiar.
Ah..! That would make sense, I was probably carrying the axe.. I did read that in the instructions but didn't put 2 & 2 together..
Someone mentioned that it looks a bit Firelord-y too. I was wondering whether some of the graphics came from it? The flame looks familiar.
not 100% sure, the frame and loading screen are from the mockup I did for RG, I knocked up a Sabreman sprite other than that we've just been going through how to do things in AGD and then I helped out with the extra bits bolted on to the game, where best to store compressed screens in memory then adding Mister Beeps tune etc
other than those small contributions Luca has done the rest, well it's his game after all I just enjoyed helping out where I could to be honest
Someone mentioned that it looks a bit Firelord-y too. I was wondering whether some of the graphics came from it? The flame looks familiar.
That was me. The flame does indeed look like the one from Firelord. And some of the sounds are really familiar too...but that's probably just a coincidence.
Reminding you of a game like Firelord isn't a bad thing though. ;)
That was me. The flame does indeed look like the one from Firelord. And some of the sounds are really familiar too...but that's probably just a coincidence.
Reminding you of a game like Firelord isn't a bad thing though. ;)
sound are created by the beep statement in AGD you just assign a value
eg BEEP 50, that's it really
The only thing lacking is your sprite having a little bit of inertia, which is one thing that set Ultimate games aside from imitators. Saying that, I've never tried using the engine so I don't know how achievable it'd be.
Nevertheless, this is definitely one I'll spend a lot of time on!
Although thinking about it, slightly easier than QWERT...
you are lefty or what ?
try out your middle finger of the left hand for up and down, the index finger of the right is only used for maximum pleasure when shooting :-D
you are lefty or what ?
try out your middle finger of the left hand for up and down, the index finger of the right is only used for maximum pleasure when shooting :-D
I've just replicated it myself, it appears that if you attack and die in the same instance something goes wrong
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I thought box art is in the download?
Thanks
he's adding some more inline with Knightlore and the likes
Facebook has its uses. :)
I guess you found a way around the save game difficulties? I really ought to release a fix for the "save game with loading screen" problem.
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From what I've seen so far there doesn't look that many or am I just not that good at it?
Good effort all the same!
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not many, it can be hard to strike a good balance in AGD
he's now done pictures for that Underwurlde, Knightlore big box feel
3 versions of the game
go get it!!
Now, only manage... qwert? Very uncomfortable(.
opqam - closer to me..) it is Possible to change?
Wonderful stuff - many thanks!
We're still at the beginning of the year, but I think this game might be one of the best of 2014. Very good.
The current zip has 3 tap files, the main one is set to qwert, then there is QAOPM.tap and WASDM.tap the latter was a special request.
Being a bit of a purist I was happy to see a nod to the classic Ultimate keys... The weird thing about the keys is that I've always struggled with QWERT but am fine with 67890. Never really figured that one out.
I was a bit confused by the weapons & fire button. I know it's been mentioned and I've read the instructions, but is there an explanation? So when you're carrying a weapon and hold down fire, are you attacking enemies? It looked as if they were getting killed (rather than staying and draining your energy), but I still seemed to lose energy, and it wasn't obvious. Also the sprite moves at a faster speed when doing it, so you end up holding fire constantly (the opposite of Sabre Wulf)..?
Also when you move through doors, do they get permanently unlocked? I was a bit confused as to which of the doors I could move through (sometimes I didn't seem to be carrying a key but could still go through the white barred doors).
Anyway aside from those minor confusions, it seems a nice game to play. I've only encountered one of the guardians so far, and it looked pretty cool..!
So, now that the precedent has been set, I wonder if we'll get any more Mire Mare tributes...? :D
I really love it!
There are some little glitches though which have nothing to do with Luca's skills but unfortunately with AGD little bugs...like: the main sprite disappearing, or the main sprite loosing animation when moving diagonal (not always)...I am having the same problems with my new AGD game ...
Nonetheless I agree: this might infact be one of the best games this year.
Once again : Welcome back Luca!
:D
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1694367894143130/
WASDM? That's just insane! :o
Although thinking about it, slightly easier than QWERT...
I would say download the new version, there have been changes to the attack, basically he cycles colour when in attack mode (Luca has been working with the limitations in agd). As to going through the doors you need a keys which are limited, there is an axe which allows you to chop through the doors.
Writing a game in AGD is not as flexible as a custom engine (it is still remarkable what you can produce though), compromises must be made, for example graphics, especially sprites take up a lot of memory.
A single sprite frame at 16x16 pixels should take up 32 bytes of memory, however AGD creates 3 preshifted versions so now you have 4 versions of that single frame at 128 bytes. Now if you have 4 frames of animation that goes up to 512 byte, add to that the main character which faces 4 directions that's 2k for the main character.
Backgrounds are 8x8 pixel blocks and the screen is compressed along the horizontal axis. So the more you repeat a single block and the more open space the smaller the data will be, not to mention the size of the game window.
I would suggest everyone trying AGD to get a better grasp of how the engine works just to see how brilliant and frustrating it can be in equal measures. I don't want to go in how long it took to get sprites appearing in random positions on the screen so they didn't appear inside a block.
I feel like I'm on the defensive on Luca's behalf!! (I'm smiling as I type :D honest, I suppose that designers didn't get feedback like we do today with the forum). First game using AGD, (first game in years I beleive) I think the results are remarkable but I have a better understanding how AGD works (or doesn't) I suppose.
Ah..! That would make sense, I was probably carrying the axe.. I did read that in the instructions but didn't put 2 & 2 together..
Someone mentioned that it looks a bit Firelord-y too. I was wondering whether some of the graphics came from it? The flame looks familiar.
not 100% sure, the frame and loading screen are from the mockup I did for RG, I knocked up a Sabreman sprite other than that we've just been going through how to do things in AGD and then I helped out with the extra bits bolted on to the game, where best to store compressed screens in memory then adding Mister Beeps tune etc
other than those small contributions Luca has done the rest, well it's his game after all I just enjoyed helping out where I could to be honest
That was me. The flame does indeed look like the one from Firelord. And some of the sounds are really familiar too...but that's probably just a coincidence.
Reminding you of a game like Firelord isn't a bad thing though. ;)
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
sound are created by the beep statement in AGD you just assign a value
eg BEEP 50, that's it really
Thanks for the - opqam!
Tried with running opqam, the game freezes on one screen...
The only thing lacking is your sprite having a little bit of inertia, which is one thing that set Ultimate games aside from imitators. Saying that, I've never tried using the engine so I don't know how achievable it'd be.
Nevertheless, this is definitely one I'll spend a lot of time on!
you're welcome
which screen is causing problems for you? I haven't managed to get that to happen
all 3 versions should be identical apart from which keys are used
(need to play a bit more last year's game first for the poll)
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In version 1.01 seems to be OK, but opqam... after the death of the main character..
here screen - http://f-bit.ru/349165
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3152568/bug-wasdm1.rzx
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3152568/bug-wasdm2.ezx
btw the wasdm controls are perfect for me
you are lefty or what ?
try out your middle finger of the left hand for up and down, the index finger of the right is only used for maximum pleasure when shooting
:-D
JSpeccy-win32-portable
I've just replicated it myself, it appears that if you attack and die in the same instance something goes wrong