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Author Topic: Horn of Balance  (Read 463441 times)

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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #920 on: July 07, 2014, 08:48:51 pm »
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Issue 1 (the shop music) is something I don't believe I'll fix anytime soon. Blame my lack of experience with editing sounds / mp3 music.

I checked it out, and it doesn't seem like the mp3 is the problem..? How are you managing the looping of music? The mp3 file does not have all that extra silence at the end, just a few seconds, so something else is definitely off in the way it's being told to loop. I'm kind of curious why it takes so long to start over.

Edit: Oh, also just had a thought/question: Are you planning on converting to Studio sometime, or do you think you'll stay in GM 8.1 until the end? If you plan on doing it eventually, then it makes sense to do it sooner rather than later. I say this because I finally looked at the poll and noticed that conversion to GM Studio was on there.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2014, 08:53:51 pm by FrozenFire »
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #921 on: July 07, 2014, 09:55:16 pm »
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The easiest way to fix the mp3s is to load them into Audacity(freeware) and cut off the excess or the trailing off end of a song.  Save as a .wav unless you have the plugins for mp3 or ogg. Load the wav into the demo version of Fruity Loops Studio then save as an mp3.

At least that's how I edit my stuff.  :D
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #922 on: July 08, 2014, 02:20:30 am »
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I wouldn't say these were bugs  but more like things that I felt were out of place. I didn't play too long though, maybe 25 minutes or so. 20 minutes of the first dungeon until I found my way out of there, and about 5 minutes of the overworld until I went into the Waterworks and had a crash.

1. Link doesn't thrust when he hits an enemy with his spin attack charged.
In LttP Link would actually poke at the enemy when he got to him. That would let him clash with their sword if they had one, and it just looked a bit neater.

2. Frozen enemies can't be hit or even clanged on by sword or fire rod.
Not sure if this is intended, but you basically have no choice but to throw pots at frozen enemies to kill them. I got stuck in a hallway because I froze one of those tentacle things. Of course leaving and coming back solved that. Just wanted to point it out that they should either thaw over time, or be killable somehow.

3. Can't jump off ledges or go up/down stairs while holding spin attack outward.
In Lttp, When holding a spin attack's charge, Link could jump from ledges or go up and down stairs with his sword still out. This let you go safely up or down if an enemy was right there waiting for you.

4. Being hit completely stops you from attacking until the animation is over.
Just feels weird when you get hit and can't act out of it. It basically forces you to run from whatever hit you so you can recover and THEN attack.

5. Stunned cactus dudes still electrocute you if you slice them
I noticed that when I boomeranged a cactus guy who showed no signs of being electric, I sliced him and even though he was stunned I took damage.

6. When the skeleton guys jump back though don't actually avoid your sword vertically. They only avoid it if they actually jump too far for Link to reach.
In Lttp, they would jump OVER Link's sword swipes and could only be hit on the ground by it. Though this could just be design choice, I dunno.
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #923 on: July 08, 2014, 03:43:08 am »
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The easiest way to fix the mp3s is to load them into Audacity(freeware) and cut off the excess or the trailing off end of a song.  Save as a .wav unless you have the plugins for mp3 or ogg. Load the wav into the demo version of Fruity Loops Studio then save as an mp3.

At least that's how I edit my stuff.  :D

I would have suggested that kind of stuff too, but it made no sense why it would take so long because the mp3 clearly did not end with as much silence as the game gave it before looping. Nevertheless, I edited off the fade of the mp3 and resaved it. It now loops in the game with no pausing and it even sticks pretty much on beat while I tested it (it may differ on slower computers; not sure how GM deals with timing). I looked closer at the original mp3 and I expect it was the odd bitrate that threw GM for a loop (pun not intended, but it sure worked out well). I'm attaching the edited mp3, so you can use it, Martijn. If there are any other songs in need of this or any kind of correction, I can very easily do that for you. And I've already got the software to do anything that might be needed.

On another note, while I was testing the mp3 looping, I ran into an error on my way to the shop. I discovered that it does not like it if you hold out your sword while going into a screen wrap.
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Edit:
5. Stunned cactus dudes still electrocute you if you slice them
I noticed that when I boomeranged a cactus guy who showed no signs of being electric, I sliced him and even though he was stunned I took damage.
I believe that's actually how ALttP works as well. No matter what, hitting those guys with a sword will shock link. I know that's how the SNES version works. I'm just not sure about the GBA version, and if there are other versions, not sure about those either.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2014, 04:12:38 am by FrozenFire »
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #924 on: July 08, 2014, 08:39:24 pm »
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I would have suggested that kind of stuff too, but it made no sense why it would take so long because the mp3 clearly did not end with as much silence as the game gave it before looping. Nevertheless, I edited off the fade of the mp3 and resaved it. It now loops in the game with no pausing and it even sticks pretty much on beat while I tested it (it may differ on slower computers; not sure how GM deals with timing). I looked closer at the original mp3 and I expect it was the odd bitrate that threw GM for a loop (pun not intended, but it sure worked out well). I'm attaching the edited mp3, so you can use it, Martijn. If there are any other songs in need of this or any kind of correction, I can very easily do that for you. And I've already got the software to do anything that might be needed.

Great. Thanks. That fixed Sahittam's 1st issue perfectly.
Could you do the same for the other background sounds. They all have rather awkward looping right now.

@ Kienamaru + FrozenFire: I'm currently working on Sahittam's and Theforeshadower's comments but I'll get to these new onces eventually. Especially that error. I kinda just bought a house so it might take more then a few days.
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #925 on: July 09, 2014, 07:11:05 am »
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Great. Thanks. That fixed Sahittam's 1st issue perfectly.
Could you do the same for the other background sounds. They all have rather awkward looping right now.

Sure! I looked over the rest of the songs and realized that most of them definitely could use some edits. Of course, if you really wanted to do music looping really well, the game would not loop back to the very beginning of most songs, due to the "intro" part that each song tends to have. I don't remember if Gamemaker 8.1 can be told to start at a certain position of an mp3 upon looping though. If not (or if getting the loop position proves too difficult), the way to do it would be to split up each song into two parts, one being the "intro" and the other the "body" or "main" part. Once the intro ends, the main part starts and once the main part ends it simply loops the main part and does not go back to the intro. This creates a smooth music experience while having awkwardly looping music can be a bit jarring and distracting to the player.

Let me know if you can or want to improve the music in this way. It won't require much extra effort on my part to divide songs up into two parts and to get loop timing right, but you'd have to do some changes to the code for playing music. It should be a fairly simple change, though some songs would not need to be split while others would, so that would mean code for playing songs would not always be the same. Not a big deal though.

And, of course, the other option is for me to simply try to make each song loop as best I can without having the two part songs idea. It would be better than it is now, but many of the songs will still be pretty awkward upon looping, and a fairly fast fade out might still be best on some of the songs, if looping will always go back to the beginning of each song.
« Last Edit: July 09, 2014, 07:18:38 am by FrozenFire »
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #926 on: July 09, 2014, 10:44:03 pm »
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Splitting the sound for better looping options might be something I can implement. Sounds good. Let's try that first.

=============================

Here's another progress report btw:

0.17.04 (8 juli 2014)

+ Only draw trees that are fully inside the current view (for better performance)
+ Used FrozenFire's shop .mp3
+ Removed some more old argument[] variables (= titlescreen + starting screens)
+ Updated credits listing

0.17.05 (9 juli 2014)
+ You no longer have a starting bottle (to prevent item override by buying the same item in the shop)
+ Fixed error: screen is pushed to the next room while sword is charging
+ Fixed error: screen is pushed to the next room while you get hurt
+ Added contingency for missed released attack button while your sword is still starting

This fixes issues 1,3 and 8 mentioned by Sahittam and the error mentioned by FrozenFire.

======

UPDATE: I believe I've now fixed all of the reported game breaking issues so expect a updated version sometime tomorrow.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2014, 07:31:34 pm by Martijn dh »
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #927 on: July 12, 2014, 11:22:39 am »
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And here is another update. There is now a new demo available which fixes practically all of the issues reported by FrozenFire and Sahittam.

This leaves the following feedback:
(5) The darkness graphical glitch in the basement of dungeon 1. It's proving to be a real headscratcher, but I'll solve it eventually.
(11) The freeze during on the top floor of dungeon 2. I am unable to reproduce the problem.
(17) Damaging skeleton's with crates. I am unable to reproduce the problem, but it likely this problem is also solve with the solution to issue 12.
- Dungeon 2 (sub)boss difficulty
@ Sahittam: Did you feel the boss was too easy or that the subboss(es) should have been simpler?
- Kienamaru's feedback
@Kienamaru: I'll take a closer look at your feedback soon.


=================================

Progress report:

0.17.06 (11 juli 2014)
+ Fixed: cannonball sounds in room 25 (B1)  of dungeon 1
+ Some small tweaks to enemy placements
+ Fixed error: killing boss dungeon 1 with arrows
+ Fixed error: be able to push (or pick up) something while already carrying something
+ Fixed error: Starting scene in dungeon 2 main entrance only triggers if you entered via the main entrance.

0.17.07 (12 juli 2014)
+ Edited some dungeon 2 rooms so leevers will no longer keep camping near stairs if you HAVE to use that staircase.
+ Tweaked beamos placement in room 12 (F1) of dungeon 2
+ Altered colors pillar puzzle 3 in dungeon 2
+ Made each torch in the overworld (caves) individual objects
+ Removed some more old argument[] variables (= map menu + death screen + game select)

=================================

NEW DEMO:
Demo version: 0.17.08
File Size: 19,61 MB (Zipped)
Screen Resolution: 320 x 240 (Changable)
Download: https://www.mediafire.com/?95csx6rqt6u6m55
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #928 on: July 13, 2014, 10:51:38 pm »
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Splitting the sound for better looping options might be something I can implement. Sounds good. Let's try that first.

Ok. I'll see about getting the songs split up properly and I'll probably just PM you a link to the edited mp3s. If for some reason this idea ends up not working smoothly in GM 8.1, it would very likely work in GM Studio because of the new audio engine it has. But it really would be nice to get it implemented sooner than later.
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #929 on: July 19, 2014, 02:07:12 pm »
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It's been a while since I played it, but I'll try to remember.
(Also, I forgot the name of the boss... this makes my sentences a bit confusing, sorry)

The difficulty of the subbosses is fine. The boss was easier (I think) because it is larger, which is a disadvantage in multiple ways:

It needs more room to fly around, which means the room had to be larger, so everything was more spread out.
Essentially the result was that I was fighting one boss, sometimes two, at a time, while the rest of the bosses were far away.
In comparison: When I fought the subbosses, I was fighting 3 or 4 at once.

Another disadvantage of its size is that it makes for a bigger target. When the subbosses entered/exited the ground you had about 1/1.5 seconds to hit them. When the boss did that you have a much larger timeframe to hit it.

Related to that, because each segment of the boss is damagable, each time I managed to slash at the boss while it entered/exited the ground, it lost a large amount of health.
This means  that individual bosses died quickly while other bosses still had (almost) full health.
Basically, the damage wasn't spread across all bosses evenly, which means bosses died early in the fight, which reduced the difficulty further.

The boss is also slower (relative to its size) than the subbosses. This helps in causing all the problems mentioned above, and it means that the player has more time to think.

So I felt like this battle was slower and less chaotic than the subboss battles.

Thats how I remember it at least.

This also sounds like this fight has many problems, but that's not it exactly. It's just one problem that has multiple effects. I just tried to describe it very thoroughly.

About (17)... it only happened once. The other times when I threw crates at monsters, nothing happened if I remember correctly.
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #930 on: July 26, 2014, 11:32:50 am »
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It's been a busy couple of weeks on the homefront, but I managed to get some progress done.

@ Sahittam: I believe I've now addressed all of your comments (for as much as possible). The boss has been made harder by making it a little faster and more resistant to ranged attacks. Wailing on it is also harder because each hit now send you back a little. For a second boss it can already get very chaotic so I'm a little reluctant to add more to that. Maybe after I've received feedback on the difficulty from more players.
@FrozenFire: I'm also REALLY looking forward to your playthrough for this XD

@ Kienamaru: With regards to your comments. I'll take all of them into consideration going forwards. The only one I'm not going to change is the 5th one, with the electric cactus. It's like that in the original as well.

On a final note: I'm planning to release the next demo relatively soon (=in a few months). The main goal for that one will be to have fully functional boss fights for the 3rd dungeon. (And maybe some more overworld or swimming mechanics to get to it). It's a bit of a reversed approach to first building the dungeon itself, but it gives more players the opportunity to actually reach the fights. Also, I don't have anything "epic" planned to really hold back this time.
The second reason for shorter interval release is the preparations for an eventual convertion to Gamemaker Studio. That requires a lot of recoding and releasing frequently hopefully helps me catch newly resulting issues earlier rather then later.


Progress report:

0.17.08 (25 juli 2014)
+ Fixed: darkness issue in the northern basement of dungeon 1 (finally!)
+ Replaced more argument[] variables (for Gamemaker Studio) Specifically: item menu, HUD, text engine and saved data.
+ Some smaller tweaks

0.17.09 (26 juli 2014)
+ Replaced more argument[] variables (for Gamemaker Studio) Specifically: all terrain objects, action objects and collectable items
+ Fixed glitch: darkness dissappears after you respawn from falling into an endless pit
+ Made it so ALL enemies can now potentially bounch Link back as the hero damages them with his sword etc. (Also makes the Molgera boss slightly harder).

0.17.10 (26 juli 2014)
+ Made it so enemies can push Link back based on the position of the sprite that made contact (if so desired), rather then always the enemy control object's position.
+ Made boss 2 (Molgera) a little faster and better resistant to ranged attacks.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2014, 11:37:10 am by Martijn dh »
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #931 on: August 05, 2014, 03:45:52 pm »
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Nice game so far, you have done an awesome job on the sword play!
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #932 on: August 06, 2014, 06:43:29 pm »
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Looks like you're almost finished with the engine. I have one nitpick: The "Game Over" animation appears after you select your option, when in the original, it appeared before. Can this be fixed?
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #933 on: August 06, 2014, 08:45:42 pm »
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I'll see what I can do if it really bothers you. I'm participating in the ZFGC challenge this month though (with a game called "March of the Gorons"), so it will have to wait untill next month I'm afraid.
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #934 on: September 05, 2014, 11:14:54 am »
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Just to let everyone know.
Now that the Game Jam is finished I'll be coming back to this project in what I call operation Studio XD.
The goal is to get the project converted succesfully to Game Maker Studio before the next NCFC (if possible).

It's my biggest undertaking yet, so I'll be handling it in fases:
1. Get the starting screens up and running
2. Get a single empty room working
3. Get all the menu's up and running
4. Get the movement engine working again
5. Get all the character actions/items working again
6. Get all the terrains working again
7. Get all the enemies working again
8. Get all the dungeons / game's original rooms working again
9. Other stuff I'm currently forgetting

After each stage I plan to release a demo of that current version so people can help playtest stuff if they want to lend a hand. So after fase 1 for instance you'd see a version that ONLY has the starting screens in it.


UPDATE:
Here is the latest progress report. Don't be fooled of by this update. Literally thousands of lines of codes / variables have been corrected this weekend, so it's actually a great milestone.

0.17.11 Studio (5 september 2014) - errors starting menu
+ Imported project into Gamemaker Studio
+ Replaced a massive amount of argument statements with local variables

0.17.12 Studio (6 september 2014) - errors starting menu
+ Replaced a ton more argument statements with local variables

0.17.13 Studio (7 september 2014) - errors starting menu
+ Replaced ALL the remaining argument statements with local variables. Trust me when I say my project used A LOT of argument statements.
+ Fixed some of the issues with giving too many or too few arguments to a script
« Last Edit: September 07, 2014, 07:30:08 pm by Martijn dh »
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #935 on: September 10, 2014, 06:50:11 am »
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Glad to see this project is still going on :)

And awesome to see you are returning to NCFC. Do you need any help making the conversion? I would be happy to help.
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #936 on: September 10, 2014, 05:44:55 pm »
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Help with testing is always welcome! Especially now that every single aspect of the game is touched in some way, shape or form. I'll posti a demo's after every mentioned phase. If you could go error hunting in those then I'd be most greatfull.
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #937 on: September 15, 2014, 04:38:28 pm »
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Another status update. I'll hopefully be able to release a demo next weekend. Just expect nothing but errors at this point XD

0.17.14 Studio (8 september 2014) - errors starting menu
+ Fixed tons more issues with giving too many or too few arguments to a script

0.17.15 Studio (10 september 2014) - errors starting menu (game now starts)
+ Fixed rest of the issues with giving too many or too few arguments to a script

0.17.16 Studio (11 september 2014) - errors starting menu (titlescreen now error free)
+ Adressed all implicit surface_target_reset() uses
+ Adressed all surface creations sized 0 by 0

0.17.17 Studio (13 september 2014)
+ Fixed default font spacing / text engine
+ Removed all sound_replace functions
+ Switched to the new sound engine / audio functions
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #938 on: September 18, 2014, 03:04:59 pm »
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You seem to be busy fixing everything.
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Re: [DEMO 17 out] Alttp - Horn of Balance
« Reply #939 on: September 19, 2014, 11:12:11 am »
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Yes, getting the program to at least start again was really important for me. Beyond that there will probably be tons of other issues left, but I decided to take my time for that. Having done the Game Jam challenge I feel like just taking it slow. That project had a TON of programming put into it, but became last because not enough effort was pas put into gameplay. So I could rush for a another month to get a demo out for the NCFC, but then the result would most likely still be bugfilled and thus another disappointment I feel. Instead I'll enter the current demo (in the starting post) in the NCFC and just take my time on the next one.

The good news:
Since I'm taking it at a leisurely pace again I also have time to brainstorm on new stuff or to update existing stuff. For instance: adding a night/day cycle or going beyond 30 fps. I'm not making any promises but I might do some of such improvements along the way, considering every part of the game will have to be combed through anyway. If anyone else has any requests for me to consider for the next demo, (like always) let me know.

Finally:
Phase 1 is done (=getting the starting screens up and running again)
This weekend I'll be working on phase 2 (= getting a single empty room to work)
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