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[Outcast Orange]

Here's a full write-up, complete with new screenshots.

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An entire universe:


Ruined Mountainside Building:


Paradise Island:


Underwater Gathering:


Waterplate:


Winter map:


Later in Spring:


Later in Summer:


Cloud Scream
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Created by Outcast Orange

The scope of this game is very large.
I expect it to grow and cultivate until I somehow lose interest (unlikely).
As of right now, it is getting fairly complex,
 so it's time to right a proper compendium.
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Controls:
[spoiler]
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Arrow Keys - Camera
TAB - Windowed Mode
w a s d e r - Movement
ENTER - Select
f g - Draw Distance
u o - Camera Distance
c - View Change (local mode only)
C- Cast Spell
SPACE - Dig (local mode only)
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[/spoiler]

Description:
[spoiler]
The first thing to happen, upon loading the game,
 is a universe will be created, and populated with features.

The space is filled with floating planets called Plates.
Plates are made from a special material,
 which is resistant to gravity when conjoined with a core.
Right now, removing the cores doesn't really harm them,
 but eventually, they will depend on the core to stay afloat.
The tops of these plates automatically have a few layers of rock caked on.
You can find the core at the very center of this rock.

The large plate at the bottom of the universe is called the Subplate.
It has a tall barrier edge to hold in the Subplate Ocean.

Landpillars, huge towers of plate material, form out of the Subplate.
They have a core in them, so they are capable of aiding the plates they connect with.

Subvines are a strange giant plant that grows out of the Subplate Ocean.
They have a seed down there somewhere, but I doubt anyone will ever get at one.

Move the camera and cursor around, and search for a location to start your game.
I reccommend picking a piece of land on top of a plate.
Press ENTER, and creation begins anew.
You should see a bunch of crazy nonsense happening,
and eventually a map covered in trees and grass.
This is your new home.

Move around, and find a place you'd like to settle down.
Make sure the cursor is above ground, then press ENTER to start your adventure.
You are now in control of Orange, a possessor of many capabilitiles.

You can jump by pressing E.

You can dig by pressing SPACEBAR, followed by a direction.
Don't forget that up and down (E+R) are valid directions for digging.
Once you have dug a tile, it will be carried along behind you.
Press SPACEBAR, followed by a direction to place it somewhere else.

You have an ability called "stomp".
You can press 'r' while in the air to break the ground beneath you.
The higher you do this from, the larger the shockwave.
Rock will come unstuck and fall apart. This is good for caving in something.
If you stomp from high enough, you can even destroy some of the ground tiles.

You need to eat to keep your energy up or you will starve.
Pressing 'r' while on the ground will allow you to attempt consuming whatever you carry.
Tree parts are a good source of energy.

Be careful about suffocating.
If you are cut off from access to air for too long,
 you will die.

You can find crystals underground.
They can be consumed just like regular food.
Press capital 'C' to bring up the magic system.

ONE THING YOU SHOULD KNOW:
It isn't safe to stay out in the open.
Make sure you dig a burrow to hide in during times of need.
If you see a large shadow, be sure to hide.
[/spoiler]

Future Additions:
[spoiler]
- physics changes
   = very tall things break off at tip
   = carrying while submerged
   = forced player and creature moves
   = pushing

- ogg sound jump
   = get .ogg sound versions
   = get sound code working
   = disect and implement

- spell list II
- waterplates II
- creature intelligence I
- weight I
- material strengths I
- momentum I
- plant set II
- creature set II
- sleep I
- dreams I
- universe save II
- mouse controls I
- sound support II
[/spoiler]

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Cloud Scream 0.5 (Sound, Text, and More)
Cloud Scream 0.51 (Magma, Fire, and Magic)
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[Ben Kuhn]

So it crashed as soon as I hit Enter to chose a place to start. At the time it crashed I could see a close-up view and the little orange block guy who I assume is Orange. I'm using 64-bit Windows 7 and would be glad to run some kind of debug build if you have one.

I tried running it in XP compatibility mode and got a little further; this time it crashed a while after I jumped off a cliff.

Anyway, looks really pretty, interesting concept. I hope you plan on adding more detail to the different plates though, they all looked pretty much the same from the world map. Also, I'm not digging the jerky movement or the jump mechanics, or the way the camera jumps in discrete intervals. I think it would be much easier to play if camera and player movement were continuous.

[Bood_war]

Okay, I played this, and I like what you have so far.

Contrary to what Ben says, I like the obviously turn-based movement, though eveything should be turn based if you choose to go that route. And contrary to myself, the colors work rather nicely.

More thoughts/suggestions later, I'm to tired to write anything coherant.

[Outcast Orange]

Thank you for the input.
i'm pretty sure I know what causes the crashes,
 and I try combating it every now and then.

The game works on a grid system so that it doesn't have to do collision detection.
And so things can be super simplified versions of their real selves.

I've been working for a few hours, and I've fixed a couple of bugs,
 reduced generation time by around 5%,
 and have started working on natural river creation.

I expect these rivers to be working soon,
 though they still wont travel between maps,
 as that sort of thing is really hard to do.

Thanks for the input!

[Maxim Schoemaker]

When I read the post I immediately had to think: Minecraft (http://www.minecraft.net/).
But this game has a whole different feel to it! It took some time to get used to the controls, but when you start walking around it feels so...mysterious ^^ You have NO clue what the hell is going on, these weird pink seeds (or something) keep dropping, and these menacing shadows kept appearing and then it started raining all of the sudden and then I got myself locked up in a sort of landslide... it was Awesome xD

I do have to say the controls feel a little off. I understand that it gives you a lot of manoeuvring freedom, but it feels weird. And I didn't understand why nothing moves when you are in the air (or at least the rain stopped moving while I was jumping). I would just generally make the controls feel smoother and more understandable.

But I love the atmosphere! =^,^=

[Ben Kuhn]

Well, if turn based stuff is what you're going for, I still advise that you make the camera less jerky. And yous should make everything turn-based, then, as Bood_War suggested.

Also, once you have rivers, waterfalls. Everything's better with waterfalls, especially through space.

[Outcast Orange]

Crazy demonstrative image of erosion and dried up waterfall:


I've added in basic erosion and a soil/mud/sand relationship.
Water removes dead plant matter too.

Mud can actually dry up back into firm ground,
 so now there is a sort of balance,
 instead of the ground all breaking up the more you are around.

Also, if you were an omega nerd:
 You could manipulate this process in order to put a roof where there previously wasn't one.

The debug tools are CAPITAL LETTERS.
Try and find them if you want to screw around with the physics.
Also, it seems to crash a lot less.
Let me know if this is indeed the case.

Sorry, no natural rivers yet, at least not on startup.
I'm working on it though.
Also, the next release should let you drown,
 and deal with all of the upsetting displacement issues.

Here's the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jhw3wmgh0ty

I'd like to know how bad the lag is on other computers.
My computer is nowhere near being a gaming rig, and it handles it pretty well.
Let me know how fast it's running, and what sort of map you are in.

BTW, ocean maps work now, but they are super slow.

[Ben Kuhn]

Something about this game screws with my depth perception. I think edges of blocks need more definition maybe? Also, would it be possible for you to draw blocks that are between the player and camera slightly transparent, or provide some other way to see him when stuff is in the camera's way?

Also, I'm entirely unclear on how digging works. Clarify? And it still crashes when I jump off cliffs.

[Bood_war]

Ah.. I really dont know what to say... There's so many things you could do with this.

I guess, the only three things I can think to suggest that aren't new features would be:

A better camera. Right now, the actual camera is fine, but it doesn't work with what you have. You could maybe do some sort of cut-out or transparency thing when you go underground. Something that would show you tunnels you have made, and the outline of the outside of whatever land form/structure that you were in, without revealing whatever might be hidden in the soil. (Maybe Rollercoster Tycoon style?)

Either turn-based or real-time. Make up your mind. The player movement are turn-based but everything else isn't. (I would prefer turn-based)

Graphics. I don't know where you plan to go with this, but I would make the player, the red things, and anything else that moves a least a little more detailed, so the player knows what they are.

That is all, unless you want feature suggestions.

[YagerX]

This looks really awesome! It's a little like a darker, more simulated version of minecraft =D

[Outcast Orange]

Okay, I am loving all of this feedback.
TIG FTW.

It seems the primary concerns are the camera and time management.

First off, the game is entirely real time, and if you hold down a direction,
 you will move at max speed.
The only time it becomes turn based is during a jump or fall,
 so you have time to maneuver mid-air or reposition your constructions.
Otherwise it would be basically impossible
 to jump up and snatch a piece of ground out of a cliffside,
 or place a brick on top of a tower, or a ton of other cool things.

Okay, about view controls:

Since nobody cared to check out the readme, the button to change views is 'c'.
Try that a few times, until you get something that might work out for you.
Also, some of those seeds are actually AI critters,
 colored and shaped SIMILARLY to seeds,
 supposedly to protect them from the sky thing.

You can tell the difference, because they can actually jump up hillsides,
 and will tend to endlessly move,
 while the seeds will just ping-pong around until they run out of momentum.

I'm not sure what I'll work on next,
 but there are tons of bugs/missing contents,
 and I really just do these things as I get ideas.

Well, I can at least show you this:


That is a cave dug out by a prototype river.
Also a primary example of how the view change works.

The sweet thing about that cave, apart from it being unplanned,
 is that there is a waterseed right in the middle of it.
That round thing just above the yellow cursor will grow into a tower on the surface,
 and water will endlessly pour down that valley side cliff, keeping this cave filled.
It's hard to tell that it's full of water, but it is,
 since water only shows when there is open air around it.
(How most games deal with it)

I think I'll tweak the rivers some more,
 and probably sneak in some more hidden features,
 eventually releasing the next version sometime tonight.

EDIT:

I've added slight vertical variation to the rivers.
I also deleted the code that was causing the new maps to insta-crash.

Here's a screen of a site I came upon while testing the map boundaries:


That's a completely natural map feature, I had no hand in crafting or modifying.
Two lakes, joined by an underwater cave, which has softened and eroded the conjoining hill.
A second "branch" of that tunnel heads further underground, into a big open chamber.

Luckily, I haven't closed the window yet,
 so I should be able to return and mess around with it now. ;)

[Pishtaco]

These screenshots are really wonderful. Have you considered putting in some aerial perspective, i.e. a bit of fading with distance, to give them some more depth?

I tried the download. At the start I see the world with all the purple stuff. It runs smoothly at first, but gets sluggish quickly when I increase the draw distance. Pressing enter sometimes makes a weird mountain appear next to the cursor; sometimes it just makes everything except the cursor go black and makes me worry that it has crashed.

[Outcast Orange]

You navigate around the universe with the WASD and ER keys.
Pressing enter selects the map which the yellow "cursor" is currently occupying.
If you pick an empty place, no map is generated,
 but it goes through the whole 40 second processes anyways.

I recommend picking a tile on top of one of the plates,
 then waiting as the "weird mountains" form.

Pressing enter a third time turns you into the player character "Orange".
He can run around RPG style.

I've worked on caves for a while, and reduced the crash capable bug count a little.
I think with this latest change I may have it fixed once and for all.

[Pishtaco]

Thanks, looks like it's actually working fine.

[Outcast Orange]

Okay, so I've tweaked all the minor parts of erosion,
 and it works really well now.

Hills can disappear in five minutes if subjected to enough water.

I filled in some more holes too, so expect less crashes.

Water displacement works for everything but the PC and NPC's.

I'll probably add in some sort of underwater system
 before I release the next version.

[Outcast Orange]

Okay, I've worked on this game profusely today,
 and I have a lot to show for it.

First off, the erosion is super tweaked, to be more interesting and dynamic.
There are a few changes left to be made, but for now, it is very stable and interesting.

The second major improvement is working water displacement and swimming:


I think you'll find the controls underwater to be exactly as they should be.

And last, but not least at all,
 I've found the crash causing bug, and removed it.
I'm not saying the game will never crash,
 because I'm sure there are rare occasions I'm overlooking.

There has also been progress on saving technology,
 and there should be persistent save files any day now.

I'd recommend making a water crystal on a hillside somewhere,
 and watching the water work its magic.
The key for that is capital 'X'.

The next thing to be added will be player traits,
 including but not limited to an air limit.

Here's the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ydzb2ml2yzm

As always, enjoy!

EDIT:
Also, caves are getting more fun now,
 since you can dive down the underwater portions of them.
I'll be adding underground features soon,
 so expect the caves to be more interesting in the future,
 and a possible means of reaching strange areas of the map.

[tim-bo-jay]

Looking good mate :D

One thing I'll say is that I (and maybe others, not sure if I'm just dull) am having problems remembering all the different buttons for the game, also as it's full screen I can't keep a readme file open to check at all times. Just an idea, you may wanna make it so people can hit a key (for example F1) and it'll bring up a side bar with a list of key commands? It'd be a handy reference for people who've jumped in at a later point and haven't learnt new keys as new things are added

Keep up the good work! Can't wait to see what else you add!

[Outcast Orange]

Try pressing TAB key.

;)

BTW, I've got some rudimentary textures in,
 and it's just a matter of time before I release.

[Outcast Orange]

Okay, here is the latest:


Besides the textures,
 I've also fixed the tree bugs,
 and now they require water to survive.

I don't think it's balanced,
 so if anyone has the time to dedicate,
 let it run an hour, and see if the trees are all dead,
 or overpopulated, or whatever.

I've tweaked the physics of erosion again,
 so now tight water passages through soil will cause a lot more damage.

The game has the added ability to displace Orange,
 so now you can ride on top of those growing waterplate stems.

Cloud Scream 0.40

Feel free to submit better textures.

[threesided]

Can you list the types of textures you need and stuff?

I think this game would definitely benefit from less noisey looking textures that flow better together for sure.