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Messages - WidgetKitty

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16
Works in Progress / Re: Spy Girl Story (Name Pending)
« on: September 22, 2022, 10:18:09 PM »
I dig the new stuff, especially the variety in enemies and tile-sets. I like overworlds and the one you're making is really good so far. eight levels are plenty for a demo, and what was it about branching paths? fun idea.
it's unfortunate that fatal errors keep bothering you. all you can do right now is to report the codes (paste the codes in, that makes things a lot easier), either in the form on the website or here.. and power through. big thumbs up, good luck and take your time  :D

Thank you! Though the pixel drawing can be a lot of work, making the custom enemies and blocks is one of my favourite parts! Two weeks ago I found this open source alternative to MS Paint, called Pinta, and it's made this a lot easier.

So the map is pretty open, but after the first fort it splits into three paths to the end - one underground, one through a settlement, one over the mountains. You can pick a path to the end and beat the game, or clear all three and get every upgrade and bonus.

Think I'll make a tank and two more regular levels before putting out a demo, that way the three paths will have the same number of levels.

Eh, I can tolerate occasional errors. I mean, some of my other experience is making house and dungeon mods for Skyrim, a few years ago, and their Creation Kit is so ridiculously bug ridden, you need a barrel full of patience to get anything finished! I'll report the bugs, but can work through it in the meantime...

Must say everything looks fantastic! :)
Sorry about all those bugs, it's actually a problem with the program, don't worry.

Thanks very much! Yeah, bugs are just something that comes along with a program this complicated and versatile. And Ting Thing's been really good at ironing things out - he's fixed three bugs for me since I registered, like 9 days ago. It'll only get better, I'm sure.

Could this be the first major PB game post-price change alongside Antikore's Adventure

Hmmm, could be - didn't know I was getting into this at such a pivotal moment! If all goes well I'll have it finished this year, and my second game started - a sci-fi Metroidvania is brewing in my head for the next one.

17
Works in Progress / Re: Spy Girl Story (Name Pending)
« on: September 21, 2022, 07:34:24 PM »
Very cool looking game! Keep up the good work! :)

Thanks very much!

So, I've finally go more work done on the game, bunch of new sprites and screenshots to show.

World Map:
Spoiler


I'm now up to 8 levels, one fort, an airship and a train. We're just starting on the three branching paths to the final level - Underground tunnels on the left path, through the town and headquarters in the middle, and over mountains on the right. Of course, the map is free roaming, and to really complete the game you'd want to beat every level and get every upgrade.

New Sprites:
Spoiler


Got a few more enemies done - replaced Puglits with Torchers and Flying Torchers, Bipis with Bumpermites, and Statix's with Jolters. Also a giant Powcherry who serves as a boss in the airship and train - which you can see the icons for there. I'll have three each of those levels, plus tanks, I just haven't made those icons or levels yet.

Last is my new weapon system. These boxes give you an energy weapon to use in that level - 30 of them. The blue box and item refill the ammo. So far I have boomerangs (that collect items), grenades (that destroy crates), and fireballs. Might make more, but three is pretty good.

Level Screenshots:
Spoiler


Level 6, beginning of the mountain path. Torchers' fireballs can activate Powcherries, like in this case to make it harder to get that 1-Up:



The first train level. A light wind blows you back throughout, and it's covered in robot enemies:



I also made my third challenge bonus a train, with stronger wind. Making those spinning wheels was a lot of work, so I'm getting good  use of them:



Level 8, a haunted forest, is technically optional, but opens an area with an extra shop and two bonuses. There'll be a few optional levels like this, that only unlock a few extras:



The airship level. No wind here, but these will be more complicated, with more enemies and cannons:


I also added a soundtrack - all songs I wrote for another game, but I had music suitable for every area, so they'll be placeholders until I start writing this game's own soundtrack.

Thinking I'll make a few more levels and graphics - get the game about 1/3 done, to my estimation - and put a demo up on the explore section. It's just that I'm getting a lot of crashing on entering or exiting levels when testing the whole game. Not sure if that's something I'm doing wrong or my computer, or if it's an actual bug.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think of the new stuff; hopefully I'll have something playable released soon!

18
General Discussion / Re: Question About Course Exits
« on: September 18, 2022, 08:17:28 PM »
yep, select the icon while item box is open and press the Delete key.
if your item box layout is messed up, restoring to default is easy. there are four small icons on the side. click on the fourth one, then Factory Default

Oh thank you! I have a lot of custom enemies/items/blocks in my item box now, and have it organized just how I want except those extras!

19
General Discussion / Re: Question About Course Exits
« on: September 18, 2022, 02:19:01 PM »
try: take player item [ID]

I'll test that out some time for future reference in case I do need it, but I ended up doing the upgrade in a separate area, more like a cutscene, and avoided the problem altogether.

I was wondering tonight though, is there any way to remove things that have been added to the item box? I made the mistake of adding custom enemies, then deleting them, and I have two "error" icons stuck in the icon box now...

20
General Discussion / Re: Question About Course Exits
« on: September 17, 2022, 11:36:22 PM »
I think we're at a dead end here, this sounds like a bug.
still, I have two suggestions that might work out.

that character upgrade is a custom item, right? if it is using just commands, type both:
character design=[ID]
ranged design=[ID]
then, it might budge.

another thing you could do is to walk around commands this time. custom items have a ton of options, including changing character designs. they predate commands, so sometimes they seem to be more reliable.
now it's coming back to me. a long time ago when I was making my own design swapping system, I had a lot of trouble with commands (basically, designs would revert after changing areas).
I made a custom item, then checked the "Change Character Design" setting. from then on I referred to the item
give player item = [ID]

Well, I realized it's not too much of a problem. It only happens in the area I switch the sprite, but after switching areas it works fine. So, I'll just make sure the player has no ranged item when the upgrade happens. Is there a command that can take away the player's picked up item? (reducing ammo to 0 isn't enough, the sprite would switch when doing the click effect). If not, I'll just have the upgrade in its own area, instead of the end of my fort - come to think of it, that works better anyway - I had to make a command exit checking the player's health level, to either complete, or go to the upgrade room. It should be a bonus zone on the map behind the fort instead - solve the sprite issue, and removes some extra commands.

21
General Discussion / Re: Question About Course Exits
« on: September 17, 2022, 08:51:47 PM »
how do you plan on changing the character's sprites? I imagine you'd have multiple character designs for different weapons.
so, one design for unarmed. design with a gun. design for whatever else.
character sprite = [ID] would change the entire design
melee sprite = [ID] would change the melee attack
ranged sprite = [ID] would change the ranged attack

additionally, if you ever wanted to add an animation that's outside of the default sprite sheet.. say for a reload, you can use sprites.
char sprite hold = [ID] would hold the last frame until cancelled with a different command (return to previous design, exit, etc.)
char sprite repeat = [ID] would continually loop until cancelled
char sprite revert = [ID] would revert to design after the animation completes playing

it's getting pretty convoluted to keep switching all these designs, but the final outcome would make for awesome mechanics/gameplay
I've done something like this before, actually. here's what worked for me:
Code: [Select]
if game var atk=0
game var atk=1
else
game var atk=0

if game var atk=0
{
stand attack style=front
move attack style=front
jump attack style=front
}
if game var atk=1
{
stand attack style=ranged
move attack style=ranged
jump attack style=ranged
}
I used game variables so that settings would remain the same across levels. but you can swap them for course vars if you so choose.
also, "atk" is a generic name I came up with. you can just use whatever you want.

Ooo, I can see how that would work! For now I'm not going to be trying to switch sprites when using a weapon, not sure if I'll be adding the gun or not. But now I have a new problem - somehow it's happening anyway, in a weird way. Here's the situation:

I have the character upgrade, and switch sprites to an entirely new sheet, but then when I use a ranged pick up item, she switches back to the previous sprite sheet for ranged attacks, then back. I have no commands running that I can locate, I've erased it all since I won't be using it for now. If I start the character off with the new sprite, it uses the proper ranged sprites from that sheet, but if I use a command to change from the old sprite, the three ranged attack sprites are the only ones that don't change. I've tried reuploading the sprites, renaming files, importing ranged sprites separately - none of it works. Even on a custom projectile page the sprite changed, but if I go to the character design with the second sprite, then back to projectiles, it does use the proper one.

Now, on the old sprite sheet the ranged attacks are the only ones I've edited (to remove the gun), so I wondered if that could be the cause? Though, I changed her eyes in the walking sprite as a test, and it didn't switch that sprite back when walking with the new one. I have no idea what's doing this, can't find a cause...

22
General Discussion / Re: Question About Course Exits
« on: September 16, 2022, 11:09:16 PM »
that's a good sugestion. you could make a new thread about it  O:-)

Think I will, but I have a bunch of other suggestions. I'll jot some down as I'm working and make one thread in a few days with all of them.

I suppose you could experiment with setting items duration to course, then doing something like: give player1 item [item ID] every time you start a new level. but that would involve variables and conditionals.. it seems messy and I don't think it is worth it

Yeah, probably not. Was thinking I might create a system of special pick-up weapons that appear to be spawned by a machine, with some in-game explanation about why they disappear when out of range from their spawn block (leaving that level). Going to have grenades, boomerangs, flame throwers, etc.

well done with that conditional. you could replace "if ammo >= 1" with "else" if you want it to be tidier
you don't need to make these looping commands. that might actually introduce slowdowns, and there's a way to make it check only when it's necessary.

go to Game Setup>Character Setup>choose the player character>Char Commands.
there are many options to choose from. the best choice for your use-case is probably Key Press Commands>[Attack]. simply paste the longer command in that prompt, and it will run every time the player presses the attack button.

I should have thought to use "else" there instead - but get this, when I tried it, it didn't work, had to switch back to my original code. Actually, I hadn't clicked on that Char Commands button yet, assuming it was just a popup for one set of commands, not two pages of buttons! I had to separate it into two codes, for stand attack and move attack, but it works.

However, I erased the gun in her sprite already, since I'll be doing those throwing items. So when/if I add the gun, I'll also need to switch her sprite to have a gun, and then back to the usual sprite when the key is released - because you could have regular ammo and a special weapon; I don't want her pointing the gun to throw a grenade, for example. Just not sure how smooth that'll go.

Also tried to set up manually switching from unarmed front to ranged using Up
+ [attack], but it doesn't seem to work so far. Of course, that's assuming the player would want to go unarmed by choice. Just that a big mechanic is these custom grey crates that break from any attack (so you're punching and kicking these a lot), but regular bullets don't affect them unless they explode or something. I'm really debating not using the regular gun at all, since it's getting kind of messy with sprite changing. Instead, I might make the primary ammo grenades, and make them upgradable. A spy without her hand gun doesn't make much sense, but oh well...

23
General Discussion / Re: Question About Course Exits
« on: September 16, 2022, 07:21:42 PM »
well, I'm not sure if you can keep storing a pick-up item across levels (in a way so they're still in inventory and you can put them down). besides that, changing max ammo is pretty simple. make an item run this command:

permanent=1/true (type this if you can't get it working, or just in case)
max ammo=[value]

I was thinking of suggesting these be added as features - we already have a "replenish health" box to uncheck, so there could be a "replenish ammo" one two. I notice if you switch a pick up item to "permanent", it just disappears when you grab it (probably permanently applying its features, but mine were just ranged weapons, and did not function or appear in the HUD. So, maybe this can be changed to stay with the character until they drop it, when set to permanent.

In the meantime, I'll try that command. So if I add

permanent=1/true
max ammo=[value]


To the game's looping commands, would that do the trick?

I already have two commands running in there:

if ammo = 0
{
stand attack style = front
move attack style = front
}
if ammo >= 1
{
stand attack style = ranged
move attack style = ranged
}


This is to switch her back to unarmed attacks once she's out of bullets, and back when she picks up ammo - once I start using the gun. But I guess you can run as many commands as needed in this loop area?

24
General Discussion / Re: Question About Course Exits
« on: September 16, 2022, 06:01:22 PM »
hmm. I'll do my own testing and write a report  :))
normal command blocks only activate once, they trigger when you run across them. the rectangular arrow makes it so you can trigger them indefinitely.
three arrowed blocks will run the command in a staggered loop (every six frames) when you're colliding with the block. four arrows will run at a constant loop (every frame).

they can make the engine more complicated, but it's a powerful tool. very, very useful.  8)
here's a tip, by they way: when that block is chosen, open the item box (the window where all items are stored) and activate the assistant (click its icon with a right-click).
please do, I'm happy to help.  O:-)
? and ! blocks are the same thing, they just look different. however, there are two kinds.
the shine from left to right: it will spawn the item on top of the block, ready to be collected
the shine from top to bottom: it will automatically give said item to the player.

Yeah, Ting Thing just emailed me back, saying the path thing is fixed in 10.1, and it works great now!

Thanks for the help with commands blocks, I'll have to implement them now. Lots of work to do today now that it's fixed!

I did figure out the difference between item boxes being auto or not, but if the "!" ones are no different, I could have my tech-looking item box with a different coloured light or something.

While I've got you, I wondered, is there an option to have a pick-up item stay with the player after leaving a level, and/or one to keep the amount of primary ammo? When returning to the map, you lose pick-up items and ammo resets to the number in the character's setup, and I can't find the option to change this. It's preventing me from selling ammo and special weapons in shops, since it all disappears!

25
Introductions / Re: Greetings from WidgetKitty
« on: September 16, 2022, 04:05:21 AM »
...you should also join the Plugger's Zone Discord server...

It's been a while since I've used Discord, I kinda dislike live chat and message boards in general, but maybe I'll reactivate and join in some time. Probably won't run into the same issues on a Platform Builder server, and I'm likely to need more help...

26
General Discussion / Re: Question About Course Exits
« on: September 16, 2022, 03:57:44 AM »
hmm. so you're saying the area goals don't trigger? I'll check on that when I can.

try a command block. from "Invisible Blocks", pick the grey one with CDM written on it and arrows pointing to left and right.
that block will trigger the command once you pass its X axis.

Well, in most cases one goal would not trigger. In cases where both triggered, the 2nd would either go to the position you entered from instead of the new one, or cause an error. I could try a command block next, but really not sure if I want to use this now or not. I was also going to work around it with those yellow path tiles on the map removing things, but that crashes the game in EXE form, for some reason. I'd like to solve that one too, if I could...

Honestly, I haven't used the Cmd invisible boxes yet, and should really start before I get much further. Thanks for mentioning the arrows, I wasn't quite sure what those were all about. Then the up & down arrows for Y axis, blank one for just that tile, and I assume the 3 & 4 arrows are for walking and running through? And what does the white arrow forming a rectangle do?

Sorry to bombard you with questions, I'm still so new to this. One last thing I've wondered, do the "!" do anything different compared to the "?" ones? I haven't noticed, but haven't really tried much.

27
Works in Progress / Re: Spy Girl Story (Name Pending)
« on: September 16, 2022, 03:41:03 AM »
very nice. your game looks real fun.
I really dig the story and custom design you're coming up with. screenshots don't look half-bad..  :D

Thank you! This is really easy to work with compared to stuff I've tired in the past, and just started using a better program for sprite editing. I'm envisioning a decent 40-level game, maybe done by end of winter. Just a lot to flesh out still

28
Works in Progress / Duty:Ridiculous - Demo V 1.3
« on: September 15, 2022, 08:27:46 AM »
My game doesn't have its title yet - that's usually chosen halfway through my projects. But in the day since I made my intro post, I've gone wild working on this game, with a bunch of new graphics, custom objects, and levels. So, the game should have its own post now.

Plot & Premise
Spoiler
You play as a spy girl on a mission to infiltrate the island base of a mad scientist, building an army of monsters. She is shipwrecked by cannon fire before the game opens (perhaps I'll make an opening scene?), and has to begin her mission on the opposite side of the island, with no gear - earning upgrades as she clears a path to the castle base atop the island's volcano. The story is simple of course - I really just wanted to make a game with a punk-looking girl with several attacks, jumping around and beating the crap out of skeletons and monsters in fantasy and tech locations - this fits the bill pretty well!

So, this game will be like crossing Mario, Metroid, & Donkey Kong from the SNES era, with James Bond, & Tomb Raider, and other spy, sci-fi, and adventure tropes. I'm planning on 25+ levels and forts on one large open map, with lots of bonuses, secrets, and challenges. Take a look at my map screenshot up ahead for an idea. Probably will be a while before I actually put out a demo, maybe when it's about 1/4 done.

Custom Objects/Mechanics
Spoiler
I figured out how to make breakable bricks that can also contain items like in Mario, invisible coin/item boxes, and a shop with an inn (well, a "Sleep" item that's free in the player's boat or friendly NPC houses, and various costs at inns).


I'll be adding several projectile weapons and ability items to help progress through the game's branching paths.

Custom Graphics/Music
Spoiler
I'll be drawing all custom enemies, blocks, and items eventually. These are most of what I got done over the last two days:



These are my bombs, bats, bees, and skeletons (Powcherries, Stingbats, Vovems, and Skelwards, respectively), techy item boxes & message boxes, and my map icons so far.

I'll also be writing the game's soundtrack. I'll be going with an SNES action feel, have a bunch of ideas for melodies ready, just no finished songs yet. But I'm no stranger to this, I've been writing instrumental music all my life - I'm currently  50+ songs into a soundtrack for an RPG Maker game I'm working on. If you'd like a sampling of my music, most of the RPG OST WIP (UGH!) is posted to my Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/widget-kitty/tracks

Screenshots:
Spoiler
Lastly, here's some screenshots of what I have done so far.

My world map, which will have three main branching paths after the first fortress:


Second level, desert with a short cave:


The first "Challenge Zone" has you riding a platform around an obstacle course:


Getting one of the yellow keys in the first fort. My forts will be a bit similar to the ones from Zelda 2 on NES:


Level 4 is a maze inside a dried-up well full of bees:




OK, that's all I've got so far - plenty more work to do! I'll update this thread with new screenshots, music, etc as I go along. Thanks for having a look!

29
Introductions / Re: Greetings from WidgetKitty
« on: September 15, 2022, 12:18:12 AM »
hello WidgetKitty! we're glad you found us. meeting new users is always exciting  8)

your project is looking pretty good. can't wait to play it.

Hi, thank you! Yeah, I probably have enough ready for a demo, I've been working on it constantly since this post. Bunch more custom block graphics, new levels and bonus areas. Got a little more I'd like to finish tonight, then I'll put up a threat about it. Still need to come up with a name, that's the hardest part!

30
General Discussion / Re: Question About Course Exits
« on: September 15, 2022, 12:11:11 AM »
which command is causing you the trouble? here are two solutions of the top of
2. world = [overworld ID], [player ID]. to make use of multiple player spawns, you will have to turn on Advanced mode if you haven't already.

Yeah, this was the last way I tried it, and tried with several different player IDs to make sure it wasn't my error. It just seems like levels refuse to exit to more than one location - when you set both left and right as exits, for example, there's still just one option. Every time I used some method to send the player to different map locations from one area, one exit would become inactive - like a dead exit sign. I just figure the player has to always go back to the same location they entered from.

One work around I might try - make a "fortress" with Bonus Area checked, and make an obstacle that you can either pass with wall jumps enabled, or fall to your exit (for example). Either way, it doesn't seem like you can exit a course that blocks your path without completing it or dying, I might have to leave this idea behind. (It would be useful if there was a way implemented, for something like an escape item). It's honestly pretty small anyway, I've gotten a lot more successful mechanics done already, best keep making progress. I should probably make a thread for the game with some updates

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