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TIGSource ForumsCommunityJams & EventsCompetitionsOld CompetitionsProcedural GenerationThe Adventures of Charles Dumbbell [Finished] Demo
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Author Topic: The Adventures of Charles Dumbbell [Finished] Demo  (Read 25793 times)
Snake
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« Reply #40 on: June 04, 2008, 11:03:22 AM »

Thanks for the feedback people.

Actually, I think the forced fullscreen might be the cause of the slowdown. Some computers don't handle the streching as well as others, so making it an option might solve the problem.

I love the art and the controls/physics but I can't figure out how to consistently find the witch, so far i have only found her once. (But I died soon after).

The witch is at a random spot each time, so there's no way of knowing where she is. I'm planning to make the witch fly vauely the direction where she spawns after the generating sequence. I used an arrow to find her during my testing, but it's a little too easy I think.

I've also come across a pretty serious bug. I've used timed events in some places, like when to stop the generating. The problem is that this might trigger differently depending on the computer running it. The whole intro scene with Charles entering the cave is time based (I should never have done that, but you try comming up with clever ideas at six in the morning...) On some computers, the timing will miss and Charles never reaches the bottom of the screen.

Fixing the intro is simple enough (it was a WIP anyway,) but the generating might go ballistic. So far, the people that had the timing problem never reached the room in the first place, so I don't know the sate of things. If anyone is experiencing problems getting platforms to appear, please let me know. I would really like to avoid replacing the whole process...

I'll upload a new version with some fixes soon. Right now I'm putting in some music.
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« Reply #41 on: June 04, 2008, 12:10:02 PM »

I love the art and general gameplay.  I couldn't tell exactly where I was supposed to go, though, and the levels were pretty huge.  I also kept experiencing pretty severe stuttering after playing for a couple minutes.  The audio would start to get stuck in a loop and the whole thing would stutter (frames dropped to single digits if not fractions, then back to normal, then more stuttering a few seconds later).  Definitely shows some promise, though!  I think an indicator as to where the witch is located might help (a compass?).  Or a smaller environment perhaps?
Keep up the good work!
--Zack
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« Reply #42 on: June 05, 2008, 05:22:55 AM »

I had the problem with the stuttering with a few other games, a princess one I seem to recall. The levels are huge, but it would be nice to have some clue where the witch was. I just got so lost at first, ended up dying in a stutter storm.

A subtle clue might be to change the types of tiles as you get closer to the witch. That way, you know by the appearance of the tiles.

Yeah, timing is hard.

Gorgeous tiles and creatures. I love the big pixels so much and I had a lot of fun with it. Interface felt a bit off for me, but that was because I wasn't used to it. It would also be nice if I could figure out how to break up or down.
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Josh R
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« Reply #43 on: June 05, 2008, 05:27:11 AM »

I finally finished the demo, it was really enjoyable. I really want to see this finished post-compotition. Good Luck.
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« Reply #44 on: June 10, 2008, 12:53:50 PM »

First of all Awesome art Kiss
I love the painted in-your-face intro.
The game itself, right now it looks like a big mess, but it's not really a bad thing. It could make a great exploration/metroidvania game with larger caves and many many different objectives.
I met some sort of evil looking glowing black stone that did nothing and a chest that i couldn't open, then a slimy creature died and gave me a golden potion (that did nothing).
How awesome is that ?Gentleman
Too bad the game still needs too much work before it's interesting.
Oh and unskippable cutscenes = fail.
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Robotacon
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« Reply #45 on: June 11, 2008, 11:15:48 AM »

Very promising indeed!  Gentleman
I like the left-right punching action a lot.

I hope you get to finish it, because I've got a fever.
And the only cure... is more Dumbbell!
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« Reply #46 on: June 11, 2008, 12:08:14 PM »

You had me at


Too bad the bug comes up here even before i get to the witch
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Snake
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« Reply #47 on: June 12, 2008, 10:38:21 AM »

I know people are having problems with the slowdown bug. Fact is, I've fixed it long ago. The probelm was the fullscreen mode.

However, I can'd do anything about it.

Right now, my computer is at a repearshop after a series of crashes. I was really hoping to replace the buggy version with something that works by the time the voting started, but no such luck. I might be getting it back tomorrow, maybe in the next few days. When I do, I'l upload a new version with some fixes and some new music. To be honest though, I'm fairly tempted to redo the whole engine, but we'll see. I don't want to take too much time away from my main project.

First of all Awesome art Kiss
I love the painted in-your-face intro.
The game itself, right now it looks like a big mess, but it's not really a bad thing. It could make a great exploration/metroidvania game with larger caves and many many different objectives.
I met some sort of evil looking glowing black stone that did nothing and a chest that i couldn't open, then a slimy creature died and gave me a golden potion (that did nothing).
How awesome is that ?Gentleman
Too bad the game still needs too much work before it's interesting.
Oh and unskippable cutscenes = fail.


The... chest didn't open? You're kidding me. Is that damn thing bugging up again? There's no reason it shouldn't open, but I guess it's ignoring my scripts... I'll look into it.

As for the other things, the black block is for the mission (did that work out?) The frogs get bruned by your jetpack or by the fireballs from the eye-blocks. The potion is only supposed to spawn at random when you're damaged to replentish it. I haven't seen it pop up when you're at max health. (Was that what happined?)

The cutscene was really just something I whipped together so it wouldn't just be a pure gameplay demo, I just didn't have time to add a skip button. When you beat the level, you're supposed to get a cutscene and score, but I didn't manage to put it in in time. I should probably have redirected the player to the cutscene instead of ending the application when you die though.

I had the problem with the stuttering with a few other games, a princess one I seem to recall. The levels are huge, but it would be nice to have some clue where the witch was. I just got so lost at first, ended up dying in a stutter storm.

A subtle clue might be to change the types of tiles as you get closer to the witch. That way, you know by the appearance of the tiles.

Yeah, timing is hard.

Gorgeous tiles and creatures. I love the big pixels so much and I had a lot of fun with it. Interface felt a bit off for me, but that was because I wasn't used to it. It would also be nice if I could figure out how to break up or down.

I adressed the witch thing before, but... what was that about the interface? As for breaking upwards, you can't do that. I considered it at one point, but then, it would just be flying around. The blocks wouldn't really matter much.

Really sorry about the problems you guys experiencing. I'll get round to fixing things up once I get my box back.
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« Reply #48 on: June 12, 2008, 11:07:05 AM »

Well, if it's fullscreen that's causing the slowdown you could always offer the stopgap solution until you get it fixed:  Create a shortcut to the game in the same folder (alt+drag), then open up the shortcut's properties and add /nofs to the end of the target.


Anyway, the graphics are really exceptional.  Moving or still, I really admire the quality of everything.  I also love the old style that the sounds and music (well, the bit of it that there was) helped create.
I'm looking forward to seeing this when there's more variety to the situations and objectives.

Oh, and this happened once:

I'm the one on the bottom.  The one on the top appeared when and where I stopped jet-boosting in the air.
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