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[deadeye]

Finished!  And posted with just ten minutes to spare



Download: http://www.box.net/shared/7lvituzn3h

Requirements:
Windows XP or Vista
DirectX 9.0c (At least the August 2008 update!)
Some kind of hardware accelerated graphics card

Jump with Z
Shoot with X

Full controls and credits in readme.txt

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Update:
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For folks who can't get this to run even after updating your DirectX, here's a no-sound version:

Download: http://www.box.net/shared/jlmvysm68q

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Original post:
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186 Thing from sea—in dark house, man finds doorknobs etc. wet as from touch of something. He has been a sea-captain, and once found a strange temple on a volcanically risen island.

An old ship captain wakes in his home one night to strange noises.  When he goes to investigate, he's greeted by a horror from his past.  The story will span ten years.  Most of the gameplay will take place as a flashback.

It'll be a pretty no-frills platformer (jump and shoot) with a few cutscenes for story.  I'll just gut one of my current project's platforming engines and use that.

I'll also be taking a few elements from some of the other Commonplace Book entries and melding them into the story.  After finally locking in on the subject, the story took shape in my head rather quickly, and I can (hopefully) accomplish it in a relatively small game.  I'll keep the bulk of the story secret (wouldn't want to spoil anything ) but I'll probably have an engine test up tonight or tomorrow.

Not much to show for now except a few sprites (critiques welcome, I'm not much of a sprite artist):

[moi]

great sprites
The balding demographic will be pleased for once.

[deadeye]

Hey thanks moi

Okay, I have the basic platform engine working: [link removed]

Jump with Z.  Esc to quit.

Before I get too deep into the game I'd like to do a little test to make sure I've got my timedeltas down right.  If a couple people could try out the engine and compare it to this diagram I'd appreciate it



Just check to see if, you know, he jumps about that high.  Also when jumping from point A as indicated, you should just about land at point B, no more or less.  I just want to make sure this is running accurately on different refresh rates.

[Terry]

Graphics look cool

I tried to run that, but apparently I need a pixel shader 2.0?

[deadeye]

Graphics look cool

I tried to run that, but apparently I need a pixel shader 2.0?

Oops!  Gimme a sec, I'll disable that.

Okay, here it is:  [link removed]

(I had shader effects in the engine I scrapped )

[Terry]

Yep, things work pretty much as you described! This is looking promising!

The acceleration of the main character seems a little slow for my liking though; it takes way too long to turn around at the moment... I dunno though, I guess it depends what you're going for - it's obviously way too early for feedback

[William Broom]

Yeah, it works fine for me too. Good luck with this, it looks great!

[Selben Coirlo]

I think the acceleration for the character is fine but turning will feel better if there's another 'animation' (quotes because it could just be one frame) for turning around.

[deadeye]

Thanks for testing it out, guys.  I suppose I could have just changed my refresh rate and tested it myself but my brains are tired and I didn't think to do that

@Terry:  Yeah, the acceleration and speed and stuff isn't locked in yet, once there's more interaction in the game it'll be easier to dial in on the final numbers.

@chutup:  Thanks

@Kobel:  I agree 100%, it would look much better with a turning-around frame.  I'm slow as hell at spriting though, so it's probably not likely to happen.  If by some miracle I have time for polishing at the end of development I'll try to work something out.

Edit:
Oh wow, we have a month now? 

[Gainsworthy]

Ohh, this caught your eye too, ey? The movement's quite smooth. Captain is a rather cheerful looking fellow. Will he age throughout the game, p'raps?

[deadeye]

Captain is a rather cheerful looking fellow. Will he age throughout the game, p'raps?

Yep.  His beard will be gray and his head will be even more bald in the opening and ending scenes.  (He'll also be in his jammies )

[Noyb]

More games need to star sea captains.

Sprites look good. Nice palette. The cross-legged walking animation feels a bit weird in-game, though that might just be the speed.

[muku]

Works as advertised.

His bended legs when jumping look a bit strange to me, but otherwise it's just fine.

[moi]

Tried to run it but it wanted me to download some DirectX stuff in order to run, and you'd better fix that for the final release because I don't play compo entries that want me to download stuff or change things in the windows installation 

Otherwise, love the sprites.

[narasu]

Woo for balding.