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saimo
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« Reply #80 on: October 29, 2019, 01:47:20 PM » |
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Closer and closer to release. Work could not proceed at full steam lately, but still intensive testing revealed a few things to improve/fix (that subsequently were improved/fixed, of course). Further testing will tell whether the game can be released. CHANGELOG * Improved last arena. * Made a little optimization in shadows rendering. * Fixed collision detection bug (beams were handled incorrectly). * Fixed a recently-introduced bug in wors handling. * Fixed a newly-introduced bug in transparent tiles handling. * Fixed graphical quirk between soldier corpses and keys. Demo download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway |
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saimo
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« Reply #81 on: October 31, 2019, 01:58:34 PM » |
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Release candidate ready! Some more heavy testing revealed only a little bug. While fixing it, the related graphic tiles were improved as well. Everything else was OK, so Blastaway is basically ready for release. Just to be sure, it will be played again from start to finish on two different machines before it's released. Stay tuned. CHANGELOG * Touched up blast mark tiles of THE MACHINE ROOMS stage. * Optimized a little bit the graphics of some blast mark tiles. * Fixed corrupted rendering of blast marks (a line of code consisting of just "do" had disappeared). https://www.retream.com/Blastaway |
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saimo
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« Reply #82 on: November 04, 2019, 04:17:15 AM » |
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More testing, more improvements, and a new release candidate! Further testing suggested a few new little ideas that I found irresistible: it's definitely late for new features, but still I just had to implement them. Of course, I'll repeat the testing thoroughly to ensure that nothing got broken in the process. Also, adding one of those features revealed a little bug (that was subsequently fixed, of course). Overall, testing went very well, so I believe that the current release candidate is the one that will get released. More testing will tell. CHANGELOG * Added little screen flash effect while Hodwork and Ikuwor are active. * Made SOLDIER bonus award points when the maximum number of soldiers is already available. * Added MILESTONE bonus points to post-arena report when awarded thanks to the other bonuses. * Added randomization of menu background scrolling. * Doubled speed of menu background scrolling. * Fixed handling of dead soldiers sprites (they got erroneously re-linked to a list). * Fixed/improved manual. https://www.retream.com/Blastaway |
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JobLeonard
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« Reply #83 on: November 04, 2019, 04:47:42 AM » |
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> * Fixed handling of dead soldiers sprites (they got erroneously re-linked to a list).
How long would you have to play before that would become a noticeable memory leak?
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saimo
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« Reply #84 on: November 04, 2019, 05:42:16 AM » |
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> * Fixed handling of dead soldiers sprites (they got erroneously re-linked to a list).
How long would you have to play before that would become a noticeable memory leak?
It wasn't a memory leak. The only impact it had is that checking whether all soldiers were alive in order to assign a MILESTONE bonus failed, so points were assigned instead. |
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JobLeonard
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« Reply #85 on: November 04, 2019, 07:02:40 AM » |
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Ah, I interpreted it as old sprites never being cleaned up properly! Not sure if not awarding a bonus to players is better or worse though - players complaining the game is unfair is pretty bad too  |
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saimo
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« Reply #86 on: November 04, 2019, 07:14:40 AM » |
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Not sure if not awarding a bonus to players is better or worse though - players complaining the game is unfair is pretty bad too Not awarding a bonus that the player earned would be definitely bad In this case, the wrong bonus was assigned. More precisely, the MILESTONE bonus is supposed to work like this: when a milestone is reached (i.e. every 30000 points), the player is awarded an extra soldier (i.e. life), unless the maximum number of soldiers (7) is already available - in that case, 7500 points are awarded, instead. Due to the re-linking of the dead soldiers, the check might be fooled into thinking that there were more soldiers than those actually available, and thus award points instead of soldiers. |
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saimo
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« Reply #87 on: November 06, 2019, 02:06:34 PM » |
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Final build (?) In the last days, Blastaway was played from start to finish many times. Technically, everything was perfect. A few little ideas came to mind, though, and again I couldn't resist implementing them. Anyway, I'm confident that the current build is the final one. Of course, before releasing, it must be tested thoroughly to ensure that the latest little changes didn't break anything. CHANGELOG * Added ALIVE SOLDIERS bonus: awards 1000 points multiplied by the number of alive soldiers when the game is completed. * Added sound effects specific to MILESTONE bonus. * Lowered points awarded by the SOLDIER and MILESTONE bonuses to 5000. * Updated manual. https://www.retream.com/Blastaway |
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JobLeonard
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« Reply #89 on: November 08, 2019, 08:32:40 AM » |
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Neat!
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saimo
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« Reply #90 on: November 09, 2019, 12:54:16 AM » |
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Thanks  |
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saimo
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« Reply #91 on: November 11, 2019, 08:09:04 AM » |
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Blastaway passed countless hours of testing, so now it's officially ready for release! If you've been eagerly awaiting for it to be out, then you'll be pleased to hear that it should take less than a day...  (click to enlarge) https://www.retream.com/Blastaway |
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saimo
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« Reply #92 on: November 12, 2019, 01:04:25 AM » |
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Finished - I'm so happy to say it: the development of Blastaway is finished, and the game is out! Get it from the game page... it's free! This took 6 months. I wasn't able to work on it at full speed and, actually, at times I had to force myself to concentrate and make one more sluggish step. Still, I'm glad that I managed to finish it, and in a reasonable time even, especially considering that this game wasn't in my already overly busy plans. This old school game has been made the old school way: the code is entirely C (written in a plain text editor and compiled via shell, of course), graphics have been drawn manually pixel-by-pixel, each of the 32 colors of the palette have been hand-picked and tweaked repeatedly over time, music has been composed on guitar, but then actually written in a tracker using just 4 channels. That's the only way to achieve a true retro feeling - and the way I love to work. RETREAMRETREAM on itch.ioRETREAM on TwitterRETREAM on Patreon |
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JobLeonard
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« Reply #93 on: November 12, 2019, 03:00:10 AM » |
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Congrats on finishing the game! This old school game has been made the old school way: the code is entirely C (written in a plain text editor and compiled via shell, of course), graphics have been drawn manually pixel-by-pixel, each of the 32 colors of the palette have been hand-picked and tweaked repeatedly over time, music has been composed on guitar, but then actually written in a tracker using just 4 channels. That's the only way to achieve a true retro feeling - and the way I love to work. I get what you mean, the tools somehow shape the game, right? |
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saimo
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« Reply #94 on: November 12, 2019, 03:23:29 AM » |
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Congrats on finishing the game! This old school game has been made the old school way: the code is entirely C (written in a plain text editor and compiled via shell, of course), graphics have been drawn manually pixel-by-pixel, each of the 32 colors of the palette have been hand-picked and tweaked repeatedly over time, music has been composed on guitar, but then actually written in a tracker using just 4 channels. That's the only way to achieve a true retro feeling - and the way I love to work. I get what you mean, the tools somehow shape the game, right? Partly, yes. The rest is technique, art, and heart. |
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saimo
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« Reply #95 on: November 12, 2019, 03:00:34 PM » |
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The user's verdict so far has been very satisfying: I've received lots of cool compliments and even a few generous donations However, the reason I'm writing here is that I failed: the game wasn't perfect! In fact, a user reported an odd bug (details at https://retream.itch.io/blastaway/devlog/109650/quick-bugfix) :/ I made the fixed version available immediately, given that the game is going to be downloaded massively during the next few days. You can download it and install it over the previous copy anytime. I must admit that this little incident bothered me quite much (I aim for perfection, although it's a utopia), but there's also a (sort of) funny side to this story: having recompiled the game today meant that the day in the build date is now... my birthday! |
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« Last Edit: November 12, 2019, 03:14:34 PM by saimo »
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CORE Games
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« Reply #96 on: November 12, 2019, 03:44:39 PM » |
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Happy birthday! And congrats on release.
The game looks really impressive for a part-time project of 6 months, not to mention that you made it in a text editor lol.
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saimo
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« Reply #97 on: November 12, 2019, 03:50:43 PM » |
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Happy birthday! And congrats on release.
The game looks really impressive for a part-time project of 6 months, Thank you! not to mention that you made it in a text editor lol. |
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JobLeonard
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« Reply #98 on: November 13, 2019, 03:45:23 AM » |
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Happy birthday!  Eh, if they only find one bug after release then that's a pretty impressive score, I'd say |
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saimo
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« Reply #99 on: November 13, 2019, 04:11:36 AM » |
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Happy birthday! Thanks! Eh, if they only find one bug after release then that's a pretty impressive score, I'd say Thanks for the appreciation, but honestly I'm pretty disappointed with myself  OK, it was no big deal and really an odd non-gameplay-related combination, but still it bothers me that such an issue escaped me... |
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Community
