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Post by hugheth on Jul 29, 2011 14:52:30 GMT -8
For your monthly update, I'm pleased to announce that pretty much all of the features for Alpha 2.0 are complete, though I'm holding back multiple pathfinding as it took longer than I thought to do and I haven't yet fixed all the bugs. I'm going to release in the next week, during which time I'll be creating an interesting, playable level. I was aware that releasing cool engine demos was probably not the most interesting for gruntz fans so I've focused on making some new mods to demonstrate how simple it will be to mod the game (each mod - spiderz, diamondz, fog etc. took not more than a few hours to create). From then on I'll be taking a break for a bit, maybe bringing out a level editor and developing online resources before focusing on adding networking to the game. I don't have much of a time scale for this quite yet, but if anyone is anxious to see the project move on quickly, I'm happy to release the source as it is, though it is far from perfect. For the meanwhile, here's a little shot to whet your appetite!
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Post by hugheth on Jul 29, 2011 14:57:46 GMT -8
kijanek6 Have you had a chance to think about loading in the REZ file to the dizGruntled game using Java-accessible DLLs? If you haven't got the time, I'm more than happy do do the native-java code side if you explain how the DLLs function to me.
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Jul 29, 2011 19:11:15 GMT -8
One thing that I really like is the display of the prize count! I have alwayz considered that to be the major failing of Gruntz, that Coinz/Toolz/Toyz and the like acquired were not displayed somewhere. I would prefer those displayz on the Statz mini-display, just as the time should have been on the Statz mini-display, and not on the playing field. I will be looking forward to a playable DEMO!!!
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Post by hugheth on Jul 29, 2011 23:43:07 GMT -8
I'm going to focus on more upto date functional UI that gives control over groups of grunts, more inventory slots for mods, new megaphonez system and interesting stats like you're saying. If anyone then wants that to be skinned to the original style then it will merely be a task of replacing the images of the new UI.
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Post by hugheth on Jul 30, 2011 14:09:54 GMT -8
Here's the start of the level
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Aug 2, 2011 4:38:29 GMT -8
I have only one question so far ... where's the "Like" button?
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Post by hugheth on Aug 4, 2011 5:29:05 GMT -8
Hope you don't mind but I'm moving the release back a bit again to implement some sort of save feature. The level is good fun but little mistakes get very annoying! It also turns out just replacing gruntz doesn't work well with rolling ballz / pyramidz so I might as well just go ahead and implement it properly
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Post by hugheth on Aug 4, 2011 5:29:24 GMT -8
There will be a like button
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Post by Perfect Grunt on Aug 6, 2011 4:12:37 GMT -8
*like* Just an other idea... ...what about the help boxez? Should it be possible to add an extension for custom levelz that enables multi-language help boxez to be stored in the CL file?
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Post by hugheth on Aug 9, 2011 3:03:49 GMT -8
@perfect Grunt Well as a matter of fact the way it works at the moment is all the english text is stored under the key "EN" is a json file, with the intent that other translations also have their country code as a key - the object looks like this: { type: "Tip", EN: "English text goes here", FR: "French text goes here" xy: "384 96" }
Currently however there is no way to change the locale of the Game itself to recognize this I'll add that in 2.5.
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Post by hugheth on Aug 9, 2011 3:05:05 GMT -8
Right! Sorry for the delay but here we are! I'm posting the link here in advance of releasing it on the site in the hope that some budding Gruntzers will find the fact that it doesn't work on any operating system and make me aware of this fact Although ZIP is poo (apparently poo is not in the English dictionary ) I've released it as a ZIP file as the public will be more likely to have a ZIP converter. A highscoring system is also in operation that saves your score at the end of the level, so you may want to play the game in windowed mode as the save function does not persist when you quit the game (atm). gruntz2.hugheth.com/dist/dizGruntled.2.0.zipENJOY
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Post by hugheth on Aug 9, 2011 11:04:39 GMT -8
Haha I haven't been able to get it to work on Linux recently I did a bit of googling and it turns out Oracle have broken the linux LWJGL native libraries If you manage to understand that somehow then you'll get it
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Aug 9, 2011 12:03:23 GMT -8
Haha I haven't been able to get it to work on Linux recently I did a bit of googling and it turns out Oracle have broken the linux LWJGL native libraries If you manage to understand that somehow then you'll get it That is not the first time that one company has 'broken' another source's product. Microsoft has done that hundredz of timez ... with each new version of Windoze. We have been fortunate in that someone has managed to provide patchez to allow us to run Gruntz, even though there have been several releasez of new improved(?) versionz of Windoze since the program was last marketed in 1999. We have lost the ability to play in 1024X768 screen resolution, but 800X600 still workz (up to Vista, at least) as well as the horrid 640X480 default ... on 32-bit operating systemz. Does Gruntz work on any 64-bit OS?
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Post by hugheth on Aug 9, 2011 12:44:15 GMT -8
I've never tried on 64-bit, but I'd be impressed if it did as the WAP Engine was pretty unique in its day
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Aug 9, 2011 14:29:12 GMT -8
I've never tried on 64-bit, but I'd be impressed if it did as the WAP Engine was pretty unique in its day I believe that my daughter's laptop has a 64-bit OS. I will see if she will allow me to try it out on her computer, and report back, if I am allowed to test on it.
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Post by hugheth on Aug 10, 2011 2:59:09 GMT -8
Has anyone had a chance to play dizGruntled yet? I think I might update it with a Save and Load function so you can actually close it
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Zu
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Post by Zu on Aug 10, 2011 3:50:34 GMT -8
That should be the highest priority now! There's nothing more annoying in games than being unable to save whenever we want. Especially when it's so easy to make a mistake. Additional idea is to add an Undo button which reverts our actions one by one. Or Braid-like time reversing. But regular Save/Load is most important now. I tried to play it, and here's a couple of thoughts: * Gems are a clever and nicely done addition. Though it would be nice if it was detailed how much of each type of gems we exactly collected, rather than having only general information about all gems. * Black areas affected by white buttons are nice too. But I hate that we have to click the grunt each time he passes through the dark area to regain control over him. I'd suggest to make it so we automatically regain control if he reappears outside the dark area with no gruntz currently selected. * Also, I'd suggest to give a different sound for situations when player tries to tell the grunt to go somewhere while he's unable to do so or there are no gruntz selected. * It's quite annoying that each time we pass next to a sign, it automatically displays information and plays a sound. I'd suggest to do it the same way they did in World of Goo: we have to click the sign to see the information, and it looks differently before and after reading it, so we know which signs we already read and which we didn't. * A little note about animations: gruntz and rolling ballz are set a bit above the center of the tile. But it's nice they already look so good here. On a related note, will pyramidz have a proper animation too? In original, they don't just go instantly into raised or lowered state, but also have a few quick frames between them. Same for bridgez, by the way. Outside of that, I can't tell more without digging further into the level, and as hinted above, lack of Save/Load feature easily becomes frustrating. But it DOES look promising.
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Post by hugheth on Aug 10, 2011 9:49:48 GMT -8
@zu * I originally set the saving and loading to only at the checkpoints so using the bonus checkpoint switchez tactically would enable one to save the game more often at difficult points. I realize though this could be more frustrating than cool, I'll change this.. * At the beginning the sign states that purple are worth 20, blue 5 and green 1, and the numbers of individual type of gem are stored in highscore, but yes, displaying it on the hud could be cool * Bad move click, plan. * Yes the bell gets annoying , maybe it would be fine as it is but without the sound at all? * Regain control, plan. I briefly mentioned the situation with animations before. Basically, currently I have to rip all the imagez from the rez file into spritesheets in photoshop and often they are off-centre as the orignal game has ANI files that positioned the individual frames but I don't know what format these take. kijanek6 said that he had a means of loading animations from the rez files straight into C, and I'm still waiting to know whether it will be possible to harness this technology in the game, and until I know I'm not going to waste time making the animations look nice if it's futile Hence the lack of pyramid animations, the gruntz being too high etc. I'll add a proper save and load function and re-release soon Thanks for the feedback!
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Post by hugheth on Aug 10, 2011 10:02:59 GMT -8
Also a note about a couple bugs so you don't have to post them here:
- sometimes gruntz stop when you click instead of moving. Hadn't had a chance to look at this properly so for now just click lots if it's important, especially if you're just about to go into fog or get eaten
- as I mentioned before, multiple grunt moving is out for now - grunt collision detection is also very laid back so expect a few strange movements
- haven't got round to add drowning, but leaving people stranded on water will not be necessary to beat the level 100%
- if Gruntz die and you re-load the game, you may have to reload twice to make the gruntz re-appear in the same place. Will fix when I get a chance
- Haven't done any preloading as of yet so when you first move up etc. it might have a quick lag if you have a slower hard drive
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Aug 12, 2011 9:44:55 GMT -8
I'll check the newest version in few days and let you know what I think about, though I'm pretty sure it'll be fabulous nevertheless And where's the like button?! Cheers
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