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[andy wolff]

@Franklin's Ghost: I'm using CamStudio. So far I haven't really fiddled much with other recording software, but I know there's a good list of alternatives here. I just haven't really bothered to try the others out properly yet.

Nothing I've tried has been able to record sound exactly as it is output to the speakers/headphones in software. I have a cable that jacks the audio out into the audio in, but it's often noisier than recording the speakers through a mic. I might be able to fix this with a little bit of electronics funkery, though. I speculate that it might also be possible to write a recording method directly into the game, which would probably get better quality than anything, but that'd most likely be more work than it's worth. I know that works well for video because I've done it before, but I'm not sure about audio.

• Fixed an oversight which allowed players to spawn on cacti, causing them immediate serious injury or even death.
• Made it so that you can't shoot through Obstacles like cacti or trees (anything you can't walk through). I had this in originally but it must have gotten lost somewhere
• Fixed the code for Arrows so that you can give them a target point and they'll calculate a suitable trajectory (cheers for elementary math). This means archers actually aim at you now. I made them arch their arrows a lot at further distances because it wouldn't really be fair for them to be able to hit you quickly at any distance.

These recordings are only skipping like a tenth of the frames now, instead of like 3/4 of them, so I might start making more little videos than gifs (it was taking kind of a long time to make the gifs). I just wish you could embed videos on here

I'm revisiting the indian chief and the snakeboss. Right now they're not that interesting to fight. The snakeboss just outright kills you without giving you much of a chance unless you're very good at dodging, and killing it isn't any more interesting than just shooting it a bunch of times, and the chief is just kind of random and drawn-out. I'm thinking I should add distinct phases to their behavior, like attack phases and a rest phase, to better control the flow of the fight.

[andy wolff]

Made a bunch of changes to the indian chief. He's pretty hard now. Still some polish/cleanup to do. I actually haven't really given him distinct attack and rest phases like I thought wanted to, but this is still a lot better than before.

[andy wolff]

Worked on the snake boss.
Gave it some bloodied frames to show that you're doing damage to it
Now when you kill it, the snake's entire body turns into gold. I'll probably get a video when I finish meddling with the snake's behavior.

Added the beetles, though I haven't decided whether I like the way they behave yet.


I mean, I like the bug-like zig-zaggy motion, but in terms of gameplay it's kind of iffy, especially if their method of attack is to just run into you. I'm thinking I might make it so shooting them doesn't destroy shots, which would be better for their large groups. I'm also toying with the idea that they won't hurt you immediately, but if you touch them they'll latch on to you and there will be a way to shake them off before they bite you and scurry off. I might give them a flying behavior, as well (they do have wings, after all). Maybe I'll do some flocking behavior to keep them close to each other.
I'd love to hear suggestions for other ways of making the beetles feel more 'right'

[Inanimate]

I was about to recommend flocking. Having them show up in waves would make them hard to dodge; and if you give them a little bit of AI that tells them to try to find an optimal distance from each other (not too close, not too far), the swarm will spread out like a ripple, making dodging it very skill-testing.

[andy wolff]

I made it so the smallest beetles take one shot and you can shoot through them, the medium-sized ones take two shots and you shoot through them half the time, and the large ones take four shots and you can't shoot through them. The small ones can spawn in little flocks of four, but I didn't do any hard-coded flocking behavior because they generally stay reasonably close together on their own, at least at first. I also added some better knockback on the shots. Altogether, I'm reasonably happy with it now, though I worry I'm just more used to it and it's not actually much better.

I added a behavior to the snake boss where it moves quickly offscreen in one of the cardinal directions, then comes back from a random point moving in potentially a different cardinal direction. This is a bit scary if it's moving quickly, but it's a lot easier to hit the snake when it's doing this, especially if it's moving vertically, so I'm a little happier with it now.


I very nearly died at the end, there

There seems to be a glitch with the movement on the dead snake golds. I'll have to check it out


I also made it so the mummies in the Dunes can lasso enemies as well as players, which can lead to some hilarious stuff. I'll try to get a good video of it, later. I'll see if I can set up a mummy lasso chain lead by a charging sand shark or something

[rdein]

holy fcking andy wolff, damn

[Ashkin]

The snake appears to be bleeding lemons.

[JMickle]

holy fuck indeed.

[andy wolff]

@Ashkin: maybe it's a lemon demon :I

I've been getting some good work done lately, so I was starting to feel more or less like I was getting close to finishing. In an attempt to brutally crush this horrible feeling to death, I'm doing a
Rough Progress Report.

The Cracks
   Cactus
   Outlaw
   GoldBagger
   Shield Bandit
   Jumping Bandit
   Gatling Bandit
   *Bandit King                  (2-3 days)
   Toma
   Archer
   *Chief
   **Snake

The Dunes
   Poisoned Cactus
   Crow
   Dune Bandit
   Stilts Bandit
   Mummy
   Armadillo
   Sand Shark
   Beetle
   *Some kind of Monster           (2-3 days)
   *▓▓▓▓▓                                  (1-3 days)
   **▓▓▓▓▓                                (2-5 days)

The Mesas
    ehhhhhhhhhhh. 8 more small enemies, 2 *mid-bosses, and a **boss.

yeah so I'm cutting the Mesas for now. This makes me very sad, because this means I won't get to put in the goatasaurs, and because the mesas were going to be pretty interesting and different gameplay-wise.
I want the enemies, at least,  as close to done as I can get them before classes start up again on the 23rd, and there isn't nearly enough time for 11 more enemies and the modifications to the engine required for falling off the mesas. Perhaps I'll add the Mesas after release if there's enough interest, as ambiguous as that is. Same with the Streams and the Ruins.

Anyway, by that estimate, I'm at about 16/22 enemies done. I can probably do the stilts bandit and the poison cacti tonight. The remaining enemies altogether will probably take me one or two weeks to do, at best.

Besides the enemies, I still need to:

• Make the cactus forest interesting to play, somehow.
• Implement various cool events like the appearance of the golden cactus.
• Adjust the spawning for the various areas in the dunes. This shouldn't take more than a few hours.
• Make three or four more skins for each of the player characters. I can do one or two of these a night, probably
• Make it so you can unlock characters/skins
• (maybe) Add ghost mode (enemy possession) and enemies in duel mode. This will take basically forever, so, even though it's probably my favorite idea, I might not do it.
• Make more sound effects and put in JMickle's music. I am bad at making sounds so this might take a long time
• Add various accessibility things to the options menu, like vibration settings and probably other things.
• Put more secrets in, especially completion rewards / cool person medals. I started a list of these in my design doc (notes.txt). This could take a long time because I like secrets, but I might not put as many in as I want to.
• Add hd cutscenes, pc controls+compatibility, and netplay. This will take me like five minutes because Xion said I am cool.
• Test thoroughly with multiple players. I probably won't be able to avoid this after school starts up again.
• Go through peer review and publish the game on XBLIG. I believe this generally takes  at least a week if everything is perfect, and an extra week every time you fail the approval process (which I plan to do at least once).
• Invite everyone to a Bandit Party party and have fake golds/other nice things to pilfer.

So, I'm probably still a month or two away from releasing this. My feeling of completion has been successfully crushed. On the positive side, it's definitely looking feasible to release the game this year, which was actually my New Year's resolution or something.

[tso]

i love you, man

been looking forward to this game for ages. keep kicking!

[andy wolff]

Hey, thanks. I promise you'll get to play it eventually, even if I have to make an unofficial (or official, we'll see) PC version for people without an xbox (unless you can't get XNA games to run or are on a mac, then all bets are off).

a mockup for the cactus behavior after it gets poisoned by the mummy dust

It only lashes out at you if you get too close to it, and it still has the same chance to dance around as the normal cacti. I think I'll make it so this can attack enemies, as well (enemies are generally unaffected by cacti, so this will be helpful).

animated the stilts bandit. I am very amused with myself for this


Oh, oh, I just had an idea for what the "Some kind of Monster" mini-boss for the Dunes can be. This is gonna be good

edit: Implemented most of the stilts bandit (as player-controlled). Just a bit of attacking stuff and the actual AI left to do, but I'm going to bed. Expect a video of him in action tomorrow.

[Andrew Brophy]

stilts bandit is adorable

[xix]

Totally watching this thread. Keep up the good work.

[andy wolff]

@Brophy: you're adorable

thanks

So I said I'd have a video yesterday but I ended up making things kind of difficult for myself regarding the stilts bandit's AI.

edit: oops, didn't mean to post this until i actually had the video. gimme like another hour or two, I'm almost there :<

edit 2: okay here it is. It came out pretty well, I think

[:^)]

Great job dude. Looks so yummy

[andy wolff]

this is taking longer than I thought and I've been able to spend less time on it than I thought
have a rough (first pass) animation test in the meantime

it has been noted that he needs more oomph on the kick-up, and that his idle stance is rather goofy. I'll get on it tomorrow, as well as walk and attacking anims, hopefully

[Inanimate]

When he's lifting his legs back to kick up, you eased too far, so they slow down too much -- that's where you lost your 'oomph'.

[08--n7.r6-79.84]

everything in this topic is AWESOME 
everything all

[xix]

I dunno if it's when the legs kick back or when they kick up to stand. I like the kick up, but I think it's just a little slow compared to the rest of it. I'd probably add some more frames when he's kicking back/curling up and then speed up the entire animation.

[moi]

I think the main problem is that the character's proportions are not realistic in the first place