've isolated parts of the code and it opens the joystick just fine. It closes the joysticks just fine too. For some reason it doesn't read anything from the joysticks. This particular little program was running with just one controller hooked up. I tried it with both the 360 controller and the logitech dual pro.

The event system in SDL is tied to the video system, so you might have to init that as well.  Also, if that SDL_Init isn't the first one in your program, you should use SDL_InitSubSystem in stead.

Huh? I don't see anything wrong with anything posted so far.

I don't know what OS you're at, but it's only a problem with the Windows version for some reason.

Opera is a good alternative.

the paper glasses are $0.55ea . I can order a bunch and just distrib . Who needs a pair ?

Do you send to Norway? 

(Really, they seem to be impossible to find here.  Did find some European providers, but none that send internationally.)

A driving simulator called 'Boost Forever Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing' where you can accelerate literally to infinity (in reverse).

Bergen, Norway.

Not really a company name, but I'm currently using mjau panda (.com) for my small crappy games.  Website is a tad unfinished at the moment though.  Anyway, I wanted it to be just mjau, but of course being a 4-letter common word (in norwegian) all of them are taken.

I've no idea where mjau comes from.  I just like the sound of the word, I guess.  It's also the sound cats make, and those are kinda nice despite making me sneeze and such.  It's also related to the Mjaumjau comic strip by jason.  I'm unable to find a link apparently, but here's a drawing in his style (actually more of a clone, but eh):



Panda comes from this little guy which I drew on a whim one day on a web imageboard created by some guys as an entry for some previous Ludum Dare (#7 or 8, I think?).  This first drawing evolved into a platform mockup animation collab with multiple mostly bloody outcomes for some reason (and a couple nsfw ones , oh the wonders of anonymous image posting on the web), but he's a peaceful guy really.  Maybe making a platform game with him some day.



I've also got weretree.com, mostly used for e-mail and file storage.  You know a joke's gone to far when you register a domain named after it.

If I ever do some bigger games, they might get released under Rastersplit Games.  I like the sound of it, and rastersplits are one of the reasons I really got into coding back on the C64, because it made me realize what it was possible to do with assembly.  Without that I might not be coding today.

Alec did some work on a native Linux version before.  Don't know what's the status of that now though.

Something like that? I'm not an expert on C64 graphics, but we used the 16 color C64-Palette for it. There are probably some other technical limitations we ignored, but meh :p

Gwah!  That's no C64 palette.  Use ptoing's in stead (scroll down to "The palette").  There's info about some of the graphics modes there too, though there's others with less (or other) restrictions.  Plus sprites and such, but I won't get into it if you're not interested.

Cross-platform would've been nice though.

Your eyes realize that nothing you'll ever see again will top this.  They pop out of your head, heading for Asia.

>

There's still hidden iframes at the bottom of all the forum pages .  Someone should perhaps remove those..

I liked everything, but specially the c0re stuff was great.  My favourite is probably parasite.

Not as enjoyable in headphones though.  It feels a bit "flat"?

This game is (or should be) right down my alley.  I like puzzle games, and I like trains.  I've even been thinking about making something like this myself for some time, ever since I played Loco-Commotion.  (I might still, but if so it'll be different from this.)

Anyways, as others have mentioned, it's got some serious interface issues!  When playing, I feel like the interface is working against me every step of the way, making what should be fun puzzle-solving into a super-tedious quagmire.  Pinning pieces makes things a little better, but not that much, and works against you if you want to eg rotate pieces you've already placed.  (I went along a bit playing with my tablet in stead of a mouse, which also made things a bit better, but not much.)

A better interface could be (off the top of my head, so probably needs some tweaking):  Clicking a piece in the palette selects it, until you select another one.  Clicking a tile puts the selected piece there.  (Clicking a tile could also select that tile for the keyboard interface).  Dragging the mouse over several tiles places that tile in all the tiles you dragged over (properly rotated), maybe selecting the last tile.  Dragging a straight track over water automatically places a bridge (if you've got one), and you could do things to auto-place turns and such too.  For rotating, use the mouse wheel, but without the need to click the tile first (which would place the selected tile).  In stead, just hover over the tile and scroll the wheel.  Middle-click can be used to toggle switches.  Right-click removes a tile.  You should still be able to drag pieces from the palette to the world, and dragging pieces within the world could be done by holding shift or something.  For keyboard, have controls for moving around the selected piece in the piece palette (hotkeys for selecting something would also be good), and also have a cursor to move around the landscape.  Have some key to place pieces (space?), and support multi-placement by holding that key while moving the cursor similar to how mouse works.  Also have other hotkeys for rotating, switching, and deletion.

Going all the way back to the title screen when you win is a bad idea, makes the game feel broken.  In stead, you should get the option of (from left to right) keep playing the current level (some people might want to tweak the solution), going back to the last active level menu, or (most commonly) going directly to the next level.  The game should also remember the speed setting.

And yeah, your tutorial isn't a tutorial.  A tutorial teaches people how to play, either by example or some text or something, usually both.  It doesn't have to hold your hand and spoon-feed you all the time (too much is also not good!), but it should make make reading any other documentation unnecessary for successfully playing the game.  What you've got is just some easier levels.

The gfx and sound could also use a lot of work, but the interface is the most important bit.

Oh, and some of the levels are annoying.  Like that "Zipper" thing?  No thinking involved, just repeat this mindless thing a bazillion times, which would have been tedious even if the interface was perfect.

Also, the level order seems random.  It's different between Windows and Linux here.

I haven't really had any big adventures like the ones in this thread, but I've had some small ones perhaps.  Small things, really, but you remember them.

One that springs to mind is the time when I as a kid once found a horse's skull, alone, in the fog, in the small forest above the train tracks outside the women's shelter I was living at at the time, a big old-fashioned building now looming as a barely visible silhouette in the distance between the trees.  There was no sign of any other bones, just the big skull lying there, partially covered in dirt.  Must've been lying there for a long time, but no-one ever went into that forest.  The fog dampened the sounds of the goods trains driving by in the distance, groaning and smashing into each other as they do, but other than that there was no sound.  Just me and that long dead horse's head in the fog.

I dreamt of it appearing in my bed that night, like in an old gangster film.  I think we had a chat in the dream, but I don't remember what we talked about.

I usually sleep pretty well for a week or so a month.

I hate how SDL does weird magic for your main function and how it reroutes your stdout to a text file instead of the console.

You can disable the stdout redirect.  (There's a configure option.  You need to compile SDL from source, but the main part is statically linked so you can still use an official dll for dist.)

I hate having to use the win32 api, it consistently defines constants and functions with names that I would like to use in my programs.

X is worse.  It also defines macros with commonly used names.  You're in for a fun time when it starts renaming your stuff.

mjau: well, I don't agree that because something is addictive necessarily means that it is good.  I think it means that there is something good about that particular piece of entertainment, or that it is cleverly designed.  I think there is a difference between a well written book and a good book.  A well written book can be addictive because the writing style is entertaining, but that does not necessarily mean that the entire book is good or very worthwhile.  For example, I would consider J.K. Rowling's writing style very effective and addictive, but I wouldn't necessarily call the Harry Potter books good.  Similarly, gameplay can be addictive, but that doesn't mean the game as a whole is good.

Yes, I agree .  I think you misunderstood me, I was not saying that a game being addictive necessarily means it's good.  That is obviously not true.  However, I do think that a (subjectively) good game needs at least some level of addictiveness to be perceived as good by the player.  If not, there would be nothing to keep you playing, it would just be seen as a waste of time.  Hence why people can sometimes use the word 'addictive' in a positive sense about games:  Addictiveness by itself doesn't mean that a game is good, but I think addictiveness (to a degree) may be an inherent quality of a good game.  (At least usually.  I guess you could make a game where the objective is to quit playing, but I'm not sure you could call that a game anymore.  Unless you're forced to keep playing against your will..)

To me, the addiction is the difference between "I'll keep reading this because it is interesting" and "I have to keep reading to find out what happens!!!" or "I'll keep playing this game because it is interesting" and "I have to get the high score!!!"

How about morbid fascination?

And my biggest beef is that "addictive" is used to praise a game.

I don't think this is so strange.  When you play a game, and keep playing it, there's something that holds your interest there.  If you don't complete the game the first time you play (if it can be completed), you decide whether or not you want to play it again.  If you're not having fun or don't find the game interesting in any way, you'll probably stop playing and not come back, maybe you'll call it a bad game or just not for you, uninteresting.  If there's something about the game that makes you want to play more, you'll come back, and see it through to the end if possible.  It's a good game.  Addictive.

This isn't unique to games.  If a book isn't addictive in that sense, you'll stop reading it, or maybe save it for some extremely bored moment when you've nothing else to do (but get little pleasure out of it).  If a movie's not addictive, you'll stop watching, or at least stop paying attention to it.  Whether or not you'll want to repeat it when it's done, a good book or movie is addictive while it lasts, and it's the same thing with games.  Wanting to repeat it is a different kind of addiction.  Unhealthy addiction is something else entirely.

At least that's my take on it.  Maybe I'm abusing the definition here, though.  Is there another word for the milder, positive "addiction"?

You lift the tire off of Weight and put it in your mouth.  It tastes like rubber, and dirt.  You were hoping for something a little more savory, but it'll have to do.  You start chewing.

Weight, now free of the tire, has lost some weight.

Your jaw hurts.

>

That's looking great, superflat!  I also like how the editor is integrated so you can do real-time editing.  Will you release the editor as well, or just the game?  (And what platforms are it for? )