next »

[droqen]

it approaches.

[JMickle]

Woo! I have something in the pipeline for the probability zero soundtrack as well, coincidence!

[Aquin]

Sorry, Droqen, I'm not buying it.  I'm gonna have to vote you out of the compo. 

[droqen]

Woo! I have something in the pipeline for the probability zero soundtrack as well, coincidence!

O:

What's it being made with? I am growing obsessed with MML+SiON and its realtime synthesizer magic because...

a) Make things loop properly
b) Reduce filesize to <1MB (ridiculously awesome)
c) Probably apply weird filters too >:3 (without, that is, incurring large lag)

I don't know if you can handle that earthshattering insanity but let's talk, JMickle. LET'S TALK.

Sorry, Droqen, I'm not buying it.  I'm gonna have to vote you out of the compo.  

hahahahaha
oh god i forgot to go revive that
brb

[JMickle]

that wasn't it, but it is now after our... discussions

[mokesmoe]

This looks cool








...again

[droqen]

Oh, nice.

Some good ideas there.

Thanks, Droqen of the past and mokesmoe of the present!

[droqen]

SOME IDEAS.

Enemy: Only visible through emitted smoke (particle effect). Might be too laggy; could work better as a boss. Still, the player constantly emitting a decent amount of smoke only causes my netbook to lag a little bit.

And it's a netbook. Old P0 lags way more.

Game: Depending on what day it is, the game will differ. Perhaps some enemies won't show up, or a rare boss will show up. A mode will unlock just for the day. An ability would unlock for just one day - but buying it unlocks it permanently. Who knows? There are limitless possibilities. The core game would definitely not have to react too radically. Would this be cool?

SOME PROGRESS.

Abilities and pickups are being worked on. You can't buy abilities yet (I'm thinking of how to structure/restructure it) and the pickup queue isn't yet visible.

There's no text yet: I'm not sure how I'll handle it since old P0 used a lot of different font sizes. How should the HUD work? hm.

weirdest idea yet (for displaying # of stars): the number of plants visible on-screen, with small white dots. The dots (little stars) will vanish as you shoot.

[mokesmoe]

Have the game read the computer clock. When it reaches a certain time, then whole game pauses with the words "What a horrible night to have a curse." Then the game resumes with a darker background and harder enemies.

What if you have some powers take more than one point to get, so you have to save up?

[droqen]

More than one point to get: I have considered it, but I know that I'd be a little annoyed. I just leveled up! I want cool stuff to tide me over until the next and more distant level! ):

curse: amazing


I am considering SUPER ABILITIES, though, which are the abilities that are kind of not balanced within the hierarchy but also too interesting to remove outright. As a result, they'll unlock once and only once, at which point you can buy just one of them, ever!

Current considerations:

• RANGED OFFENSIVE: INFINITE STARS - As has been mentioned before, having an infinite number of stars makes the star synergy really, really powerful. Sticking it in this top of top tiers kind of smooths that out, though.
• EXTREME MOBILITY: DOUBLE JUMP - The best mobility you can buy. Prevents fall damage, adds in-air mobility like nothing else can, and provides easy extra vertical height. (Leap of Faith is fairly good for that too but it's also more dangerous and more linear.)
• BONUS TOUGHNESS: HEART SHIELD - Every time you get +1 Heart, it also applies a shield that will absorb a point of damage.
• RIDICULOUS LEVEL RATE: EXP PURITY - Every single item in the pickup queue is an exp-up token. Of course, that means you'll never see another star for the rest of the damn game - and hearts will only come with level ups.

oh and
Ability to replace infinite stock? ---> When a star hits an enemy: It returns to you (probably with a cool boomerangy return effect?) instead of being lost.

Ability for punching? ---> When, via punching, a block is broken or an enemy is killed, it expels a shockwave of damage whose size and power is based on its general physical integrity.

Not sure how I feel about either of these yet but we'll see.

[JMickle]

how about these super abilities are at the very highest tier, with very specific requirements, and when you get one, all your other abilities disappear.

kinda like "prestige" in call of duty. you take for granted all these other abilities just for the sake of one extra.

[droqen]

HELL YES GODDAMN.

AW YEAH.

afsasfasfggh

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FATHOM HOW GOOD I FEEL ABOUT MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS RIGHT NOW
EVEN THOUGH IT WAS KIND OF ALL MY FAULT THAT I SPENT A DAY OR TWO FIGURING THIS OUT
WHATEVER

NEWS TODAY:

Probability 0 Flash has music, and will have sound, in a <500KB file.

JMickle's MML adaptation of the original song is AMAZINGLY RAD even though I had to demand he reduce the number of tracks from like seventeen or fifteen or something down to eleven.

I HAVE FULL VOLUME CONTROL OVER EVERY TRACK SO I HAVE EVEN MORE CONTROL OVER MUSICAL VOLUME CRAZIES THAN I DID ORIGINALLY

okay now due to stress and real life events i am going to sleep because i am exhausted and slightly down but seriously holy shit

and i thought this wouldn't happen - but it rocks. so hard.

probabably a bit of an overreaction. that's an awesome typo so i'm leaving it in.

[mokesmoe]

[Inane]

How you get the music so small, Droqen? 500 KB is like 30 seconds of mp3.

[droqen]

How you get the music so small, Droqen? 500 KB is like 30 seconds of mp3.

SION AND MML HECK YEAH

[JMickle]

also: a pain to write heh

[Curseman]

Oh hey, awesome, more P0!

... I apparently suck at it now though.

RIDICULOUS LEVEL RATE: EXP PURITY - Every single item in the pickup queue is an exp-up token. Of course, that means you'll never see another star for the rest of the damn game - and hearts will only come with level ups.

What if it made each item give 1 experience point in addition to its regular effect, or replaced all powerups with either hearts + experience powerups or stars + experience powerups?  Too strong?  All of the super abilities sound powerful, but this stands out as being the only one with a downside.

[droqen]

That's a good point. I kinda considered giving them all some kind of downside too but that might be a better idea...

I might just scrap it, though; I suppose I'd like to move things away from 'you can get all of the abilities' territory x3

Oh, right. My enemy ideas... I'd like to organize them all by tier.
I might even add some kind of adaptive difficulty -- or some kind of evolution. Every time an enemy is spawned, it makes that type of enemy slightly less likely to spawn. Every time one reaches the top, that type of enemy becomes slightly more likely to spawn again. This would, of course, all simply be relative to other enemy types. They wouldn't be able to go 'extinct'. I might not even do this! Who knows

EASY TIER ~ DEFINED BY NO RANGED ATTACKS, AND SIMPLE MOVEMENT PATTERNS
Spider: Fearsome Chaser.
Bug: Jumpy Wanderer.
Ball: Dim-Witted 'Tough' Guy.
Invisi: Deceptive Semi-Tough Giftbox. // These guys will give you bonus bubbles if you go through the trouble of killing them over and over.

BOLT TIER ~ DEFINED BY RANGED ATTACKS AND DODGY MOVEMENT PATTERNS
Side Clinger: Holds Walls, Shot>
Pew Squid: Circles Low, Shot^
Diagonal Batty: Circles High, Shot\ (down+side)
??: RED TIER needs elusive rare member

BOMB TIER ~ DEFINED BY TOUGHNESS AND SOMETIMES DESTRUCTION AND GENERAL RECKLESSNESS
Jumper: Takes a beating, jumps high. Jumps if player is above.
Exploder?: Chases player aggressively. Explodes on death. (Only destroys blocks.)
Dancer?: Dodges stars. Chases player diagonally. An anti-Star enemy if there ever was one.
Spectre: Visible only through the smoke it spews when the player is vaguely nearby. Cannot be touched when not spewing smoke. May destroy blocks to get to a nearby player.


BUFF TIER ~ DEFINED BY INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER ENEMIES (WHAT.)
Still under consideration. Ideas exist.
Egg?: Harmless, but spews 2-3 enemies upon death (instead of an item bubble).
Eater?: Relatively harmless, but can devour other enemies to gain power. Would not actively hunt them out.

BOSS TIER ~ DEFINED BY RARITY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY STARTLING ABILITIES
Thundercloud Machine: The most fragile boss. Sparks appear all around it as it flies freely, dealing damage and destroying blocks. Rains down thundery zaps that pass through terrain; dangerous if you let it get high above you.
Infinite Driller: An extremely tough boss equipped with a drill that is impervious to attacks. Drills through blocks, enemies, and you.
Mega Spider: Passes semi-freely through solid terrain. Spews lingering red web shots which are easy to dodge, but inconveniencing.
Eruption Beetle: Moves erratically and fires fearsome explosive shots all about. Destroys blocks.

BLOK TIER ~ DUH
Regular.
Glass.
Spike.
Star.
Trip. (laser-activated explosive block; only you can set it off.)

Does 12-16 enemy types sound like too much, if I make certain enemies rarer depending on where you are? (Likely randomly decided.)

Or does it just sound rad, assuming I can make them all very different both visually and behaviorally?

[AndrewFM]

12-16 enemy types should be fine, but you should break them up into randomized enemy groups. What I mean by that is that when spawning enemies, don't randomly choose between any of the 12-16 enemies to spawn. Have a system that chooses maybe 5 enemies, and for a while it only picks from those 5 enemies to spawn, before eventually choosing a new group of 5 enemies.

As far as you tier system goes, maybe each "group" of enemies will consist of something like 2 easy common enemies, 2 medium common enemies, and 1 rare enemy.

On top of that, the game should probably introduce new enemies one at a time, so near the start of the game, these groups may be even smaller, and more isolated.

[droqen]

Sounds about right :3
Actually...
Here's the plan if you want to think about technical and number mumbo-jumbo.
(Oh, there's also a crazy points system in the works. High scores high scores high scores!)

Enemies will cycle in, at some point out, and then permanently back in again (with small chances that they may be removed if a lot are killed).
All EASY enemies will start out fully active.
Every so often, the game will nab a random enemy from a different category and that enemy will be added to the FOE QUEUE. If that enemy is 'temporarily in', then it will instead be forced out. If that enemy is picked again, it will be made 'permanently in'. Once permanently in, the FOE QUEUE PICKER will never again touch that enemy.
I might limit the initial list or something and slowly open it up.
Anyway, there should hopefully be enough time to allow the player to slowly get accustomed to each enemy, and the playing field will be changing it up in interesting ways.
'Permanent' enemies may be removed occasionally.