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[7Soul]

I recommend you also keep a backup on a cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox. Even better if it's automatic

[arrogant.gamer]

Wow. Just wow. This game looks amazing! It hits all the "screenshake manifesto" points right away, and looks hyper lush. Love the snail picking its nose. Everything shakes all the time. Camera lerps around nicely. All the little details are just there for us to take in. Wonderful. Tragic that you encountered computer problems, but even more tragic to learn that you are not using version control.

There is basically nothing to it: we must all use version control because we are programmers. Programmers. Use version control. If you've ever found yourself renaming files like "main_v2.lua" or whatever, then you need version control. If you are on a team, then you need version control. If you have any plans to work on a project for longer than a few months, then you need version control. Whether you live in an uncaring universe, or one controlled by a wrathful god... you just. need. version control!

Please, for the love of all that it good: use version control.

[bbtombo]

In terms of the title, the only reason I clicked this was because of the title. Ruins of Old Earth sounds so sick.

[Canned Turkey]

The cord to fix my hard drive is shipping and on it's way!
Progress will resume soon-ish...er!



EDIT: With the power of coincidence, right after I posted this, Mr. USP man pulled up with my new computer.
 

[Canned Turkey]

UPDATE 5: NOT DEAD

*Big stuff*
I have finally retrieved the data off my old hard drive.
Version control is the first thing to do, and I think i'll be using google drive.
Almost losing the entire game really got me thinking about finishing, and I think a minor over-hall of the controls and """game feel""" is necessary. Over the next week i'll be work'n on things like; player knock back, pickup effects, particle effects, enemy knock back, ext. I really want the game to be fun to play, and I have a list of things to add to make it so. Also, i'll try and get my brother working of sound and music, and there just might be an alpha/beta on the horizon.

*Little stuff*
I'll be using enigma to compile the exe, so hopefully it'll run faster.
The devlog icon is being put back to 50%, cause of all the new things I want to add.

[Canned Turkey]

Sorry for triple posting, but enigma is not working. This is a really small problem, unless the gm8 compiler stinks. which it does. The game is running slower and slower each build, and I need hardware acceleration. I also don't have 400$ for studio and yoyocompiler. So, I would like to ask if anyone has/knows a WORKING compiling method for .gmk files that makes it run faster than just gm8.

[ScaryPotato]

Looks really great! I have a major soft spot for anything like NES Metroid, and it's cool to see you're using GM to create it. Looking forward to see how this comes along 😊

[Cristiano Vitorino]

Looks very fluid and fast paced. Nice color palette. Definitely following.

[Canned Turkey]

  Whoohoo! 6000+ views! Thanks all for your support!
Mini update:

Fishies and water have been fixed, they used to be the main source of lag...
(If you were wondering, the source code does refer to them as fishies)

[ScaryPotato]

I'm surprised that the weeds aren't causing the same types of problems that the fish did.
GameMaker seems to struggle mightily when you exceed a certain amount of coded objects. Not exactly sure what that number is though. When you have sprawling rooms, little atmospheric objects are nice to help fill it out, but the lag it causes can be brutal!

[Canned Turkey]

I'm surprised that the weeds aren't causing the same types of problems that the fish did.
GameMaker seems to struggle mightily when you exceed a certain amount of coded objects. Not exactly sure what that number is though. When you have sprawling rooms, little atmospheric objects are nice to help fill it out, but the lag it causes can be brutal!

The reason the fish lagged it so much wasn't the amount, but the code. My random moment within a given area code was WAY too big for 10+ fish at a time. But yes, GM does lag out with ~175+ objects doing simple steps. I fixed the water by doing this:

Each blue square is a water collision checker. I used to only use the 1x1 size.
Even with work-arounds like this, GM still wasn't hitting the 60fps I want'd.
That why I use this:

instance_deactivate_all(true);
instance_activate_region(view_xview[0]-32,view_yview[0]-32,view_wview[0]+64,view_hview[0]+64,true);

These two lines of code make it so that only the objects in view are doing checks of any kind.
Turning this off and going anywhere in the game gives a constant instance count of 1822, and the game was running at a stable 23fps. With the code on there's an average of 120 instances for 60fps, the highest instance count I could find was, 402 *Mostly the water* and it was running at 34fps. There are a few big dips like this past 200 instances, but I can ignore it until I finish the level design and make the water, lava, and solids one separate object each, at that point lag caused by instance count won't be a problem.

[Rat Casket]

how many lines of code are you running, bucko?

i recently ran 300+ enemies all with line of sight detection, collision, and locomotion without dropping below 60 fps.

[Canned Turkey]

how many lines of code are you running, bucko?

i recently ran 300+ enemies all with line of sight detection, collision, and locomotion without dropping below 60 fps.

I meant the fps starts to drop around 200, it doesn't just go strait to 23fps past there. But, yeah, my code is pretty un-optimized. I like making games, I hate writing them.

Also your computer is probably way better than mine.

[ScaryPotato]

Is the water collision checker for the player? That seems like a really complicated way to go about it. Instead of constantly checking for collisions, you would have a non-visible object at the surface of the water that changes a variable, so if you touch that object, your code for moving under water would switch on or off accordingly.

It would definitely save some processing power, as well as your time placing objects in the room! It would mean making a couple separate backgrounds so it looks like it's underwater. And if the player in on layer 0 and those collision checkers are on -10 for instance, you could make different 'underwater' sprites for the player.

I had the same problems with my game btw, so these are thoughts I had while trying to fix the lag.

[Rat Casket]

as long as he isn't doing some crazy ass precise collision checking then it should't be slow at all.

if place_meeting(x,y,waterThing) isnt going to be slow. especially if you just do it from the player, and not from each water object.

[Canned Turkey]

as long as he isn't doing some crazy ass precise collision checking then it should't be slow at all.

if place_meeting(x,y,waterThing) isnt going to be slow. especially if you just do it from the player, and not from each water object.

That's what I am doing

Is the water collision checker for the player? That seems like a really complicated way to go about it. Instead of constantly checking for collisions, you would have a non-visible object at the surface of the water that changes a variable, so if you touch that object, your code for moving under water would switch on or off accordingly...

And that's probably what I will do

Completely off the topic of water collision, but I'd like to start making a white-list for testing. So if your interested, just say something and i'll put you on the list.

[Rat Casket]

put me on that dang ol list

also the problem is that you have like 700000 objects on screen. you can make all of that water space into like 4-5 objects with overlap. it can overlap the ground tiles and stuff. youve also got a lot of blocks that the player will never actually touch that you can remove. however the instance_deactivate thing is good. the grass might be intensive but those dont have to be objects.

the way you are doing water collision is fine, du.

[Cristiano Vitorino]

I would be glad to help testing and provide feedback, sign me up.

[Canned Turkey]

I would be glad to help testing and provide feedback, sign me up.

put me on that dang ol list

Done and done!

[Scifa]

So if you're interested, just say something and i'll put you on the list.

Yes!