why you don't you all go fix      yourselves a nice sandwich?

Also, yay, I finally got the twin statue!

I remember seeing someone speak about game design (sorry I forget who or where), and they were talking about a game where they were trying to tell the player that they shouldn't go in this one area, and the way they did it was by making it so enemies came out and blocked the way, an endless supply of enemies. And so people would spend their time just trying to kill a ton of those enemies and end up dying in the process and then dying again until they wanted to quit from frustration. In the parlance of games, the splitting of enemies is ambiguous, but the first thing that comes to mind for me is weakening. Now if action is going on constantly, there might not be enough time for people to figure out that they're not doing what's good for them. Might be worth rethinking.

ain't the "blue flying one" refering to the blue fairy? if that the clue to the ankh, then i probably need to just ignore that.

No. "Flying" is slightly misleading though because it is actually in stationary flight.

Perhaps if you're doing a fade/slide/etc transition from the Intro to the Main Menu?  The same could be true for transitioning from a Menu to a Loading screen...and a Loading screen into the game.  Really just depends on if you'd like to do a visual transition or just pop from one to the next.

Another possibility, though, would be to render one or both Game States to a texture and use that to perform the visual transition.

I was considering rendering the exiting state to a texture and using that for some transition effect. It wouldn't be as dynamic as possible, but all of this stuff could probably be implemented in a separate iteration or something.

Thanks guys.

I'm probably overthinking this next thing (and I probably won't implement it, since it's time to shit or get off the pot), but could you imagine any scenario where one would have to be running two or more states simultaneously? Like if i wanted to do a cross-fade between two states?

Most games that I've made so far have a few main state classes (think Intro, MainMenu, Gameplay) but I think the way I've handled them is kind of sloppy. Basically, what I would do is have an exposed variable in the state (e.g. GoingToMenu inside the Intro class) and the overarching Game class would switch between these. Of course, the type and behavior of these variables vary a lot from state to state, so the Game class is highly connected to all of the states. I was wondering if anyone had some cleaner solutions to this kind of issue.

I was thinking of making a base class that the state classes can derive from and possibly using callbacks to the Game class somehow. However, I don't want to reinvent the wheel if there's a perfectly good way of handling this already. Any ideas?

Alright, I figured out what to do with the pepper, so now I can at least get to where that very fast moving platform is.

As for #1, I hope it's not referring to that room in tower of ruin where there are letters and you have to spell out MU because I already did that.

As for #2, I already knew about that picture you linked, and I made the connection that I'll have to use the twin statue in that area where the ladders lead to different places from where they came. I just don't know where to find that item. I'm guessing it had something to do with a clue that said The imprisoned twins. The man that runs faster than anyone will free them. I already have the boots, but I've only found them useful in area 3, and I haven't found the spot where I needed them to solve this puzzle. 

haha, i think i just figured out what those rainbow worms inside the sun pyramid were. 

edit: okay, I think I'm legitimately stuck. There are a few riddles I just can't seem to figure out. If someone could give me a hint (not the solution), it would be appreciated. okay here they are:

1) I have no idea what "Trace the name which is not" means. I tried typing stuff in, but nothing happened.
2) I have seen a lot of clues making references to the twins and freeing them although I'm not sure if they mean the giants facing each other in the mausoleum or twins that might be in this pregnant woman statue or something else
3) I have no idea what the pepper is for.

Here are some shots of what I have so far:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12480177/lm1.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12480177/lm2.png

Ugh. I'm at a point now where if I do anything new, I have to go check so many places that it's getting to be a big time sap. However, I got bombs! Unfortunately, the only place I've found to use them is to connect two places I can already get to.

I've also solved a couple of the puzzles of the "confusion" area. That was annoying though, because I essentially figured out the first riddle of it but the solution was kind of wonky, so when I figured it out, it didn't exactly work. Then I solved it by accident. In specific: At the place where it says which paths the fools took, I thought you had to jump there. You did, but it was one step to the side of the sign 

Did that. It unlocked switch. Switch did nothing anywhere that I can discern.

Get used to that. About half the puzzles I've solved show no difference in the room in which they're solved. Usually there's some clue on a headstone (is that what those are?) about what you did that says what effect it had or will have.

Writing notes is a huge part of the game.

Why not scan your notes and post them for others to read? That may help catch up the laggards.

I would, but I don't have easy access to a scanner right now. Also, they're very messy and somewhat unorganized. Also, some spoilers and mixed in are personal notes that wouldn't make sense to anyone

Are dudes and dudettes still playing this? Because no one's discussing... Maybe there are too many spoilers for people to share their adventures, but here's where I am right now:

Got about 16 items in my Item window, not including the whip or the sub-weapons (of which i have 6!)

Got 21 carts/disks for my MSX, although i haven't found a use for most of them

Beat 4 bosses: the big snake, the giant, the mine cart boss, and Algol

Got 5 life jewels!

And (at least partially) explored about 7 Fields.

Wrote down about 4 pages worth of notes, including mapping out the first six rooms of the Field that has the ladders that take you to different rooms. I'm actually enjoying writing down the stuff, even though I don't remember ever doing it with any other game I've played.


My main problem right now is that I wasted all my flares which I need in order to explore that dark area. Oh crap, i just realized i can light those candles that are out in the guidance gate! Maybe that'll lead to something...

Also, I gotta figure out why there are little squiggly rainbow worms in the pyramid

Do the secret to everybody rooms outweigh the door repair rooms?

[Seiken Densetsu 3]

1) Seiken Densetsu 3
2) Planescape: Torment

One game I've been putting off for a while that i'd love to play is Seiken Densetsu 3. I would also +1 Legacy of the Wiz.

Yes, you're on the right track. I think you can beat him with just the whip, though it's much easier with the knife.

Okay, i have what i need then. i'll give it another go next time i turn on the game

might be too much. see, some of us have these things called "jobs" where we do this thing called "work" or go to "school" where we sit on "butts". not everyone has the time. although, maybe the short games would work. the only problem is that those kind of games, the ones you mention, are meant to be replayed in order to master them (at least spelunky is; i don't know about BoI) so it kind of defeats the purpose.

in my opinion, it's fine. it's the second quest, you've completed the whole storyline, and so i give it more lenience than the main quest. honestly, i only played the second quest through with nintendo power when i was a kid, so i don't know what it would be like to play it without hints or maps.

regarding dungeon design, i put together a little thingy showing a bit about how they were designed. Note that all the level maps are displayed here, so don't click if you don't want those revealed to you.

http://sites.google.com/site/paste42/game-minutia/zelda-maps

Okay, I pretty much solved all the puzzles of area 2, but I can't figure out how to kill the boss yet. I think it has something to do with when he shoots his arm out at me, but I'm not sure. Maybe I just don't have the proper weapon yet.

I'm gonna go explore some other areas first