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[happymonster]

I've tried your suggestions SolarLune and it does look better. I've also improved a few other tiles along the way. No doubt I'll switch back to doing some programming soon and fix a few bugs and add a bit more. The good thing about doing graphics and programming is that you can switch between the two if you get tired of doing one type of work.

[happymonster]

You'll feel better soon

Much though I'm having fun with the graphics, I can't help a nagging worry at the back of my mind. I have a strange feeling that I promised some kind of playable demo at some point? Hmmm...

Well I'll have to fix some more bugs and work up a demo for you all at the weekend. How about that then? 

Bear in mind that with no AI and a lot of features missing or needing balancing it will be more of a test of the interface in one player mode. Still I imagine one or two of you would like to see it in action.

Happy? 

[Miguelito]

I just want to control a green guy and blast me a few humans.

...Wait, that is what this game is about, right?!

[happymonster]

Er.. yes, why not?? 

[happymonster]

Fixed a bug where you could see if your mouse was over a hidden enemy unit by the information displayed in the GUI (even though the unit wasn't visible in the map view itself).

I've improved one aspect of the GUI. The mouse cursor needs to go underneath the directional compass cursor on the screen, the directional compass needs to go underneath the darkened GUI panel, while the mouse cursor needs to go over the top of it. This isn't possible in a normal one time drawing operation. In the end I draw the mouse cursor twice, but the second time clipped to the GUI panel so it doesn't overlap the directional compass graphics on the rest of the screen. Not sure how understandable that was...it's easier to see in practice!

Redrew the game logo, I think it looks better now and the font style fits better.


A few more bugs to fix yet, but it's getting there..

[happymonster]

Made it so that if your hero dies (due to opportunity fire), the game now correctly unselects your hero after opportunity fire has finished, rather than trying to keep the unit selected.

If you are spotted by more than one enemy, but killed before the last enemy unit's opportunity fire, the rest of the enemy units who can see you but have not yet fired will now not try to shoot at you.

Made GUI alerts (seen enemy, spotted) take less time to disappear.

Weapon fire (bullets) are now quicker in movement.

Particles are now quicker and disappear faster too.

If your unit is dead, moving the mouse over the body no longer causes the corresponding unit icon to highlight in the GUI. Correspondingly, if you move over the unit icon of a dead hero in the GUI it no longer highlights either.

Dead hero GUI icons are now more greyed out so it's clearer that they are not selectable.

[happymonster]

I'm fixed a few more things and you know what, it's starting to feel really good when playing the game.. 

[happymonster]

I find your lack of faith in the force game disturbing.. 

[Ashkin]

HELLO I STILL LIKE YOUR GAME KEEP MAKING IT <3 <3 <3

[happymonster]

Hurrah! A victim follower.. 

[SolarLune]

Yeah, keep up development! So is there going to be a story? Or will there just be random encounters? How many different unit types will there be (if more than one), i.e. will there be a "Stealth" class, a "Hero" class, a "Medic" class, etc.?

[happymonster]

There is a lot I haven't decided yet with regards to story, and mechanics. At the moment though I'm leaning towards a Laser Squad / X-Com style of stats based abilities rather than a Team Fortress set of skills and abilities.

Today I've been adding in collision tiles for all the objects and improving the collision graphics to fit the objects better.

Apart from that I went with my wife to the Zoo.

[happymonster]

OK.. I'm now very tired, but I'm made an early Alpha v0.1 demo for you. There is an awful lot missing (AI, sound, doors, damage to objects, explosions, and a lot lot more), as well as still some interface issues and bugs being present that I know about.

I'd be happy if you can please treat this as a test of the interface and ideas rather than the game play, which isn't really there yet (or balanced properly). Nevertheless I've done a very quick and small test map suitable for 2 players so you can see how moving units around works for you.

Left mouse button is used to select or do actions, holding the right mouse button down and moving the mouse around scrolls the view.

I'm officially going to bump the completion ratio to 10% now the first demo is released.

Hope you enjoy having a play anyway, even though it's early.. 

http://www.retroidea.com/SpaceHero_Command_Alpha_0.1.zip

[Ashkin]

Whoa, this is super-exciting, surprisingly! Despite controlling both sides, I had a fun time. And just like X-com, I couldn't help but voice the dialogue of my squad members in my head. The level of polish is great already, too! Are there supposed to be invisible zogs? Because it said I had an enemy left and I shot in the air, then a zog appeared, dead.

[Spooner]

Gave the demo a quick go and it felt pretty good! Been following your progress for a while and was interested to see how it went. I realise you are in early alpha, so some of my comments may well be irrelevant.

* I liked the way fire worked and that missed shots actually went somewhere, rather than being abstracted entirely. However, it sometimes wasn't obvious whether the shot hit the target or a nearby wall.
* Being able to shoot just above the horizontal walls, but being unable to walk just above them was a little odd. I understand why you can't allow movement there, since it would hide people, but letting fire go there was not entirely expected. Perhaps the base of walls should be half-way through a tile vertically, so that it blocks that tile for movement and fire and just covers the feet of characters walking in the tile above it?
* Sometimes the rosette around character, or the tile you will move to, has more than one color (e.g. some arrows will be red and others orange). I wasn't entirely sure if this was a bug or a piece of information being given to me via the UI that I wasn't comprehending.
* I didn't like losing the mouse entirely when moving or firing. Perhaps set it to a neutral shape and make it inactive rather than completely hiding it?
* I'd prefer to have map grab, rather than map-move, on right-button. That is, change to a hand icon and pull the map around, which is just the inverse of the current map-scrolling movement.
* Seemed to be able to see through half-horizontal walls a bit too easily. Are they completely transparent or do they fill half the tile? I'd expect the later.

[Joshua]

I'm really liking what you have here, very polished. My only complaint is the mystery meat toolbar, some tooltips would be very handy. Looking forward to where you take this.

[:^)]

OH WOW I

[eigenbom]

Awesome to see an alpha out! And nice to see I made it as a character. :D

The UI is very smooth, and here's some notes:
- The map moves the wrong way, when I click and drag (according to my own expectations)
- Having the cursor under the 8 way direction chooser seems a bit messy, but hiding it might not be the best way to fix that...

Anyways, it looks cool!

[SolarLune]

I was surprised to see myself in there, too. Even more surprisingly, despite everyone looking the exact same, I somehow managed to get myself killed by friendly fire.

I love how smooth everything is, and it's already a pretty fair amount of fun! I just have a couple of suggestions.

1. Right-clicking with an enemy could de-select or end their turn.
2. Allow for camera movement with W, A, S, and D rather than the arrow keys.

So far, it's turning out really well!

[Birdorf]

Congratulations on getting to 10%.

Look forward to playing it when I get a PC... Every time I manage to scrape a few hundred quid together, I manage to splurge it on something I don't really need. It's got to stop, 3DS XL is to blame this month.