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[r0ber7]

- added ampos' z project to the code so I can scale to any resolution, and in addition I've added a zoom function.
- getting hit while climbing didn't reset the climbing routine, fixed.
- critters were talking when they shouldn't be talking, fixed.
- changed mouse detection routine, shouldn't give people with double monitors any more trouble.

Porting all graphics commands to the z project's commands was quite a hassle. Still some left to do. Having problems with fonts and printing text. The main menu is a mess right now. But it's been worth it already. Finally got me my zoom function which I've wanted for a long time. 

[r0ber7]

So, today.

- modified the z_print routine somewhat, no more trouble with font drawing now. menu is back in normal shape.
- the flash trail wasn't working any more, fixed.
- all things that still needed to be adjusted to the universal scaling now are, with one tiny exception i just noticed which won't be a problem.
- picking up potions no longer displays text, but icons, as someone suggested it would be more intuitive and i agree.

It's come to my attention that I really need a more solid way of collision detection. Somehow, sometimes, you fall through the ground... It only happens occasionally. I suspect it's when you fall through the "crack" between two blocks of 32 pixels. If that's the case I could adjust for it with a slightly bigger boxcoll or animcoll. If it isn't, I don't know. It's hard to debug a bug that only happens once every now and then. Makes it hard to reproduce and to check if possible solutions work.  :doubt:

[r0ber7]

Alright.

- really everything is now scaled correctly.
- improved collision detection, wasn´t so hard as i expected it to be. no more falling through the ground.
- added a brief period of invincibility after getting hurt. this way, you won't get stuck in the water or in a corner anymore while constantly getting hit.
- improved icon graphics
- improved jump animation
- modified level files a bit so that everything gets drawn the way it should
- added secondary fireball impact on enemies (no graphics, just means that if a fireball hits, more than one enemy in a group will bounce away). this seemed logical, if a huge explosion goes off right next to you, chances are you won't walk right through it.
- last but not least: switching spells can now be done with the number keys, FPS style, and when a spell has been selected an icon pops up instead of a text.

Well, that's it for today. Not much on the graphics side lately, think I'll go focus on that now. Variety is good.

Cia.

P.S. I just contacted the music guy. If all goes well, there will be music for the main menu this sunday. Asked him to post @ www.psyview.nl/blog when it's finished.

[r0ber7]

- added jump blocks. you know, the ones that make you jump really high. boing!
- little flying dragons now spit fire. it looks really awesome i think.
- received music for the main menu. (gonna listen to it later. music guy tells me he wants to keep the same style in all the pieces, so that's good.)

The fire the dragons spit consists of a row of seperate sprites that follow an inverse bouncing algorithm. So now I have a standard algorithm for things like smoke, balloons, what have you. Everything that floats up. Having fun being back at developing this game.

[r0ber7]

- viking chicken now also spits fire (throw in some additional hp and it really is a boss!)
- viking chicken no longer falls through ground for no apparent reason
- a new weird bug showed itself. no idea of the cause, again
- perfected fireball hits
- added sweet sfx for the flames of the dragons/chicken
- received new music

[r0ber7]

-->



King's castle. Not satisfied about the doors & windows yet. Other than that I think it turned out pretty well. 

[r0ber7]

Improved, I think.



The windows and door feel less glued on and more part of the picture. Think I'll turn my attention to the bird now. Eventually, you get to fly a bird, and there will be at least one level like this game.

[r0ber7]

Pretty much the final version of the king's castle.



Little guards for context, but mostly for fun. Thanks to Facet @Pixelation for the great suggestions which have made this. I'm pretty much content with how it is right now. Maybe I'll change the gate back to a door, but other than that, I'm satisfied.

[r0ber7]

- created some villagers' children.
- did this:



First layouts for a flying bird. This will become the bird you fly on after leaving the castle.

[r0ber7]

Today's result:



Don't worry, the bottom of the wing does exist. It's just that my poorly written animation testing program seems to fail at bigger images.

[r0ber7]

- fixed a bug where tiles would not get drawn when repeated.
- stuff like powerups and enemies no longer bounce through ceilings

[r0ber7]

- completely redid the collision detection for enemies. i was having many problems, they would bounce through walls and ground, among other things. now they use the same function as the powerups do, because i'd already written that function with proper collision detection. was a bad decision in the first place to give the enemies their own function. right now many of the problems have been solved.
- continuing pixel work on the bird. imagine having to pixel 15 frames of a flapping wing, plenty of detail. can't wait to see the end result.

Here's a mindmap i made for overview of ideas.



This is what I'm sticking to the coming days. Hopefully not many things will have to be added to the list and I can finish this before the end of may. Meanwhile I'm thinking of doing another video soon.

[r0ber7]

- continued with bird gfx
- started on adding the earth magic spell to the game (this one)

animation and sfx are all in place.
- entirely new camera system (instead of a camera fixed on the player all the time) i took this analysis of the camera in Super Mario World as a guide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCIMPYM0AQg my camera is basically like that with a few additional things.
- fixed a bug where enemies would disappear
- castle gate now opens when you are near (with nice sfx of cogs working)
- fireballs can now be launched while walking (as requested)

I think that's it. May have forgotten some things, been doing a lot of tweaking.

[Franklins Ghost]

Looking nice, what's the earth magic spell do?

[r0ber7]

Looking nice, what's the earth magic spell do?

You fly up into the air, then plummet down into the ground causing spikes to raise and explosions, which will hurt all ground enemies nearby. Useful for when you're surrounded by many ground critters. See upcoming video.

Ok, so I've been kinda lazy in updating my devlogs. Many things have been added and changed. Coming very close to an official demo release. This will hopefully include more music as well, depending on the motivation of the music guy (who's doing this basically for free in his spare time). Just posting this to tell you I will publish a new video tomorrow. It will be somewhat of a spoiler, so if you enjoy discovering the game world fresh, don't watch it and wait until the demo comes out. Most likely that will happen before the end of june, although as always I make no promises.

Meanwhile, I have made two timelapse videos for fun, showing how I draw stuff. They're here and here.

Cheers.