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[Lazrool]

Hi.

Since I find it increasingly difficult to stick with a new project until the end I thought I would visit an old project and make it infinitely better.

See original game in case not familiar: http://www.thepoppenkast.com/forum/index.php?topic=1947.0


Now a quick search with google leads me to some good criticism that I agree on. The point of this topic is, for now, for you to say what you dislike about the game so I can fix it. My intentions are to add two new levels and revisit the existing four. I'm also planning various other improvements that may or may not be good ideas.

The current plan is as follows:

- Remake the intro into something that looks good
- Shorten levels by cutting off rooms and having rooms of different lengths
- Spice up levels by having minibosses/challenges/stage quirks
- Remake sewer boss so it isn't so shitty
- Add more attacks on plant boss
- Lengthen the last stage
- Add lives, when you run out you are thrown out of the stage
- Add checkpoints, when you turn them on you respawn in that room as opposed to the room you died in
- Armor is dumb, the second bar is reserved for experimentations involve attacking enemies in order to fill up the bar and thus providing bonus X for duration Y


I'll post again when I have something to show.

Screen so you know what to expect:



This is from an underwater portion which is one of the "new" gameplay gimmicks I've put in. Behind Jacob Bentspine is a metroid-esque door. In front of him is a whole bunch of underwater enemies. The moss or whatever you call it (algae?) slows you down if you try to move through it.

Current demo: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4809065/WB_remake_demo_13_04_2011.rar


The notable differences to the original so far (12.04.2011) are inclusion of minibosses/challenge rooms, secret rooms (that will have special items), water physics (*farts*), whole load of bugs fixed and basically a new set of enemies.

If you have played the original and have complaints, I do want to hear them so ME FIX. Complaints about this incarnation are also a valuable resource for me.

Discuss.

[ortoslon]

jumps aren't floaty enough under water

[Lazrool]

They don't feel floaty enough or they aren't floaty enough?

[ortoslon]

don't feel floaty enough

[Lazrool]

Well I suppose there isn't any real noticeable difference.

Fixed. Gravity is down by half. Jump strength reduced underwater to prevent stupid jumps.


Next up: Underwater challenge room. No real ideas at the moment. I would do one of them stand-on-elevator-dodge-spike-patterns rooms but idk, they are too common.

[Theon]

This coulour me intrigued.

[Lazrool]

Put up a new demo, link in the opening post.

What I put in was another weapon (use Space to swap between weapons) which only affects the smaller enemies by turning them into stepping stones. If the enemy is immune to bullets or if it is too big, it won't work.

Other things include completion for the Sewer level framework, it still needs more dynamic stuff and loads more enemies and obstacles but I think it's long enough to be its own level right now. If you jump into the boss room you can't get out yet. There is no boss either, sorry.

There is a new miniboss on the underwater side, I don't know if it is really anything special but it's a concept that can be improved on.

[ortoslon]

the game slows down in larger rooms (like second to the left) because it's trying to keep perfect framerate (60fps probably) instead of skipping frames. i assume it's the problem of game maker games running on windows 7 (i have 64-bit but i don't know if that matters) because they run fine on windows xp. this problem happened with the first demo you've posted here and the original WB

[Lazrool]

There shouldn't be anything excessive going on that would cause choppy framerates. Is it just some specific large rooms or all of them? I can run a few tests but I doubt there is anything I can do unless I've made some shitty code that repeats too much.

I'll look into the Windows 7 angle to see if there is anything on that. Can you run other Gamemaker games fine? I think the biggest cost to framerate would be the 640x576 resolution but I think a modern PC can handle that quite easily.

Any difference between fullscreen/windowed? (F4)


I'll post if I find anything on Win7.

[Lazrool]

There are apparently some hardware/driver specific issues with loading audio but that is related to the loading the game up taking a long time + there are no sound or music yet.

There are also some compatibility issues between GM7 and Windows 7. All the info is really sketchy though. Might be a load of hogwash.

[ortoslon]

spelunky seems to run okay at similar screen resolution. for wb, i've tried fullscreen, disabling Aero and disabling vsync, neither has made noticable difference

[Lazrool]

Iirc, Spelunky uses surfaces, WB doesn't, neither does this remake, but regardless there really isn't anything that one could consider taxing. The small rising enemies underwater spawn infinitely and never remove themselves in the current version but you'd need to stay in the room for like 30 minutes for that to really start showing any signs of slowdown.

The game is set to run at 60 fps.

So basically I'd say it's the Win 7 - GM7 compatibility issues.


What degree of slowdown are we talking here? Like, extremely annoying or unplayable?

[ortoslon]

extremely annoying (about 2x)

[Lazrool]

So when you recorded the original WB playthrough (the latter playthrough) did you have a Win 7 comp or what? It looks like it runs really well on the vid, especially considering you had video recording going on at the same time. Like, the fps is almost perfect.

In other news I started making a new boss for the Sewer stage. Newer really was that happy with the old one. I'm thinking bosses could have gimmick rooms that work individually from the bosses or ones that you can somehow interact with. The Sewer boss is underwater so there could be a current spiraling around the room or some shit.

Also planning on some fire weapon that you can use to burn down some obstacles, like the algae in the underwater parts and shit liek dat.

[ortoslon]

i've recorded it on winxp (i dualboot)

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

re ortoslon's issue: did you consider adding an option to enable/disable vsync, if it's currently being used? vsync is best left off in gm games in general

[ortoslon]

for wb, i've tried fullscreen, disabling Aero and disabling vsync, neither has made noticable difference

you can disable vsync in nvidia control center

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

o, weird, didn't read that part

i'll try the game later and see if i experience slowdown and if i have any guesses about why

[Lazrool]

Another version.

- You can die, and will restart at the last checkpoint you have been to.
- Sewer stage has a boss, I have no idea how difficult it is to others but I find him to be of mediocre difficulty
- More monstersss
- FPS counter on the top-left corner to debug the degree of slowdown others experience. Game is set to run on 60 fps.

- Started Ghosthouse stage but you can't play it in this demo, nor is there that much to play with anyway.


GET IT FROM HERE:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4809065/WB_remake_demo_15_04_2011.rar


There might be some other things I forgot to mention. Probably not though. If you just want to get to the boss I suggest the left route, it is easier in my experience.