Try running memtest86 ("Test memory" option) from the Ubuntu CD.  It'll take a while, but your symptoms remind me of when some of my RAM went bad.  Suddenly Firefox kept crashing instead of opening, and then a restart later, the OS bluescreened on boot and never started up again.  Had to remove the offending memory and reinstall Windows because the bad RAM had somehow damaged the installation.

And this will only continue to grow as I buy more stuff... I'll find a way to squeeze as much as possible on to these shelves.  For instance, I'm going to buy a Sega CD soon, and probably a Master System and Dreamcast after that...

Also, slightly irrelevant, maybe, but I consider it all part of the console setup: game storage:
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/MrKsoft/photos/DSCN0733.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/MrKsoft/photos/DSCN0735.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/MrKsoft/photos/DSCN0737.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/MrKsoft/photos/DSCN0738.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m34/MrKsoft/photos/DSCN0739.jpg

I'm not very good yet.  But here are some odds 'n ends I found laying about from my game.















(Pardon the backgrounds on two of 'em.  I did not bother to edit them out.)

I built a computer case. Out of Legos.

Okay, so I JUST remembered this game for the first time in years.

I was at a friend's house for a party in about 2001 and he got out his PS1 and was playing a game on it.  It was a platformer.  I believe that either the player would twirl around when he jumped, or as an attack.  My fuzzy memory tells me the character was human and sort of blue and orange.  (In my mind, it's filling in some guy who looks sorta like Jak from Jak & Daxter, but without the funky ears and with orange spiky hair, and may have had a sword)
The level I remember was somewhat blocky, with a blueish tint.  It looked a bit like stone ruins.  I think the HUD was not on screen at all times, but I'm very unsure.

Any ideas?

The game really just needs a 64MB video card.  It uses some Pixel Shader 2.0 effects, but will run even if the card does not support it.  The GeForce FX5500 should be good enough. I've even run this on a laptop with a crappy mobile GeForce 4.

Make sure your DirectX is updated by running this.  Games made in Construct use an updated version of DirectX 9 that your basically have to choose to install.  Microsoft has inexplicably never chosen to push these new DX9 updates through any automatic updater, so nobody has them.  COIN would usually prompt you to get this if you don't have it, but if it's crashing I'll assume it can't.
If that doesn't work, try updating your graphics card drivers.

Thanks for all the positive words, everyone!  I must say, this is vastly different than I'm used to.  Been trying to make stuff for years and always got a pretty mediocre response.

Anyway, I'm gonna break down a lot of what you said and how it applies to the future of COIN, because I plan to slowly but surely keep updating this past the contest.  (It'll be a bit though, as I feel I need to get back to my main project that I've forsaken for a while)

The Camera: I will continue to be improving this.  In the demo, the camera did indeed lead the player, but it was not based on speed but direction and turning around made it fly in the opposite direction.  The current setup was a compromise I made that kept the existing system but toned it down, thus the camera doesn't follow quite fast enough since I slowed it down so the turning was less disorienting.  I think I've got an idea now on how to make it work much better.

Controls: Xbox 360 controller support was planned but didn't make the deadline cut.  It'll be back, since I have one of my own and tend to use it for gaming on the PC anyway.  Unfortunately, though, Construct only has support for that right now, so any other controllers will have to resort to programs like Joy2Key for the foreseeable future.

Lives & Health: OK, I don't really have an explanation on health, I just added it because all run-n-gun-sort platformers seem to.  I like the idea of hurting the multiplier.  But lives were just a holdover from when I thought this was going to have more than one level (which, one day, it might).  I did realize the potential for abusing it... right after I released it >_<  This shall be remedied.

Final Boss: Not many of my projects ever got far enough to have a boss, so I'd say I'm pretty inexperienced in boss design and how to code a good sequence right now.  Thus, I went for something uber-simple that was pretty much a 2-hour job start to finish.  I'll continue to expand my abilities (and be less lazy about the whole thing)

But hey, for as short of a project and as many corners as I cut, it came out pretty well, and still has life in it as I make room for improvements.

When I was little I thought Lemmings were wearing little baseball caps due to the walk cycle.  (Even though none of the other animations really looked like it)

[COIN]

COIN

Code:

<td style="width: 350px; vertical-align: top">
    <strong>COIN</strong><br/>
    <em>by Monochrome Nightmares</em><br/>
    <a href="http://monochrome.yudia.net/projects/coin/coin.zip">Download</a>, <a href="http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=9809.0">Thread</a>
</td>

COIN is finished now!!

Unfortunately, there is still only one level, but I tried to expand it as much as possible, and added an end-boss.  I wasn't aware the holiday season was going to kick me around as much, and I spent most of my time after releasing the demo visiting family, then I got a minor computer upgrade and reinstalled Windows, which slowed me down, and then I got pretty sick and didn't have much will to work.  But I've managed to get myself back together and finish it!

I've fixed up the multiplier, which now decreases on an exponential scale (higher multiplier, you lose it faster, but at lower multipliers, you don't have to hurry).  I also managed to get the online leaderboard in, although it is a little crude since I am not a web programmer at all.  It WORKS though and that counts!  Also, of course, I've fixed bugs all over and have eliminated all of the random crashes I was experiencing before.

Check the first post for the download, and enjoy!

OK guys I've been away for a bit, lemme cover some of your feedback:

-So I can see the screen shifting is being universally panned.  I will definitely try to find a way to fix that acceptably.  This is a holdover from another project of mine, where everybody complained that they couldn't see where to jump or anything.  It's one or the other...

-Multiplier was probably a bit harsh.  How it works: you gain 0.5x per coin, 1x per enemy kill.  It decreases 1x every second.  It does make it hard to get it started.  I'm thinking of making it decrease exponentially, with it decreasing slower with lower multipliers and quicker as you get higher, to balance it out.

-Yes, that ice rock is the end.  It gives more coins based on how fast you get through the level-- a sorta time bonus.

-Other little things: more visual feedback is probably good, as would be changing the player's mobility a little... we'll see. The player's visibility isn't really something I can fix, but perhaps with the camera change it'll be easier.  Who knows.

Also I've got a question for y'allz: Does anyone get an error ("terminated in an unusual way") when they close the application?  Nobody here mentioned it, but I had a guy at my site's forums get it, and I noticed that I get it as well.  It only seems to happen if you press enter to skip the intro, though.  Really strange bug.

Demo! (4.9 MB)
This requires the latest DirectX updates.  If you don't have them, it'll link you to the site where you can download them.
I also recommend a Pixel Shader 2.0 graphics card.  It'll run without, but the screen transitions won't work.

I'd really like feedback on this.  It feels a little flawed to me so far, and I want to get all the major kinks worked out before the end of the contest gets too close.

Also, some updated screenshots to go with this:

When are we getting a demo?

I'll be tossing a demo out as soon as the first level's done, which is probably going to be next weekend thanks to school commitments until then.

Will you be implementing an online leaderboard, or will the levels have static targets the player can achieve for trophies, etc?

As long as I don't run into any server hiccups, there should be an online leaderboard for the final version.  Dunno about trophies/achievements or anything due to the short time frame for the project, but perhaps in a post-contest update if I can't get to it right away.

I'm happy to see the positive support for this so far.
@Pishtaco: Perhaps it is, but I dunno if I can pull it off.  I'm making this in Construct, which probably would make it hard (as if it isn't already... I've got no idea how I'd start)  So I'll just leave it, it doesn't look bad at all.

Here's today's update.

The big gameplay component, the multiplier, is in.  Every coin is worth half a multiplier point, every enemy kill is worth one multiplier point.  When you kill an enemy, it will spew a number of coins equal to the multiplier.  The multiplier decreases by one roughly every second.  This seems pretty balanced as it is... it is initially difficult to get your multiplier above two or three, but once you get in the groove of things your multiplier is easy to maintain.
Even with my minimal level so far, there is a decent bit of strategy... finding the best path around the level makes it easier to make your multiplier higher, and thus your score higher.  Sometimes just plowing through isn't the best idea-- if you backtrack through the trees in one area, for instance, you can gain a bunch of coins, then take on the enemies below for much larger gains.

Apart from that, I've put in a real background, expanded the level a good bit, added music, and the HUD is mostly in.  You still can't get hurt or die, but I'll be doing that next.

[COIN]

COIN
(Cash of Infinite Necessity)

DOWNLOAD FINAL VERSION!! (11.5 MB zip)
View the leaderboard!



You are a bandit from the 1800s.  You have stolen so many coins that you have run out of coins to steal.  Your next move?  Rob the future...

-Grab coins and kill enemies to raise your multiplier, which makes even MORE coins appear!
-Discover the best strategies to keep your multiplier up and become rich!
-Take on the world using the online leaderboard!




Original post:
COIN
(Cash of Infinite Necessity)

I decided Assemblee might give me a little game-making push.  And indeed, it seems to be working.

So here's my project.  The basic premise: You are a bandit from the 1800s.  You have stolen so many coins that you have run out of coins to steal.  Your next move?  Rob the future...

It's going to be 3 or 4 levels of running around shooting stuff platforming action.  The fun part is that there are coins hidden all over the place.  And if you pull off combos killing enemies and stuff, you get even more coins.  Skilled players will truly become rich (virtually)







As you can see, it puts a lot of different graphics together, although with some questionable style mixing (like black outlines vs. no outlines, but due to what I've got to work with it's a necessary evil)  I'm also utilizing particles in some places, as I'm pretty sure I read that procedurally generated stuff like that is completely fine.

It's currently at a very early stage, hence the lack of HUD and other amenities.  I think it's going to progress quickly and smoothly, though.

Hey TIGSource peoples.  I'm Mr. K.  I've been registered for a few months, but never bothered to post an introduction (or, in fact, post at all).  So, now I'm doing it.  So maybe I can feel more like it's okay to post.  We'll see, huh?

I'm currently 17 and have been dabbling in game creation since I was 9 (I really wanted to make a Sonic the Hedgehog fan-game back then and it snowballed from there).  I'm significantly more artsy and creative than programming-minded, so I can't say I'm making games the "proper" way, as people have told me.  Instead I use game creation tools (formerly Multimedia Fusion, now using Construct) which let me focus on the creative half of things.  In that creative half, I draw in my own interesting art style (not very realistic, cartoony, with a hint of Sonic the Hedgehog design left over from my years of insane fandom as a youngin) but can barely animate, though I am improving.  I also write music somewhat decently, so luckily I can compose for my own games.

Previously, I have been way too involved in the Sonic fan-game community (as I said above, it got me into this mess) and attempted to make my own at least four dozen times.  While I never finished any of those, I applied the knowledge gained from all that and have channeled it into some original efforts-- none of which have been finished except for a single, one-world Mario/US Civil War parody called Super Confederate Bros.  I'd link to it but it's relatively old (early 2007) and a bit buggy around the edges and probably wouldn't reflect too well on me as a first impression of what I can pump out.

As of current, I am creating an original platform game in collaboration with a friend (although it is mostly my effort; he is a feedback/design fellow who catches my sometimes stupid ideas before they get too far and replaces them with his own better concepts), and we go under the name "Monochrome Nightmares" (an opposite twist on the old unlicensed NES game company, Color Dreams ).  This game is named Splynch and it features the titular character Splynch (seen in my avatar to your left) in a game styled after the mascot platformers of times gone by... with plot concept that is extremely original yet at the same time mildly unoriginal-- hard to explain briefly.  I'll post about it later, when I get the Monochrome Nightmares website back up (hosting shut down last March; haven't bothered relaunching it since it didn't serve much purpose at the time) so I can show things off properly.

I'm inspired by the pixelly things of old, mostly the 16-bitters for how they pushed the hardware with effects I find more impressive than even any of these newfangled HD graphics the new consoles can do. I also like the colorful, smoothly animated 2D stuff from the 32-bit era although I am yet unable to imitate it in the slightest.  On the auditory side, I have a great appreciation for FM synthesis, especially the Genesis's YM2612 chip and its relative, the OPL3 (aka old DOS games)

In other news, I collect old video games for fun, have magical computer skills, am an enthusiastic member of my tiny but dedicated high school marching band (I play saxophone), and tend to abuse parentheses (if you hadn't noticed already)