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Thread: 2006 PGD Annual: Stage 5 feedback

  1. #11

    2006 PGD Annual: Stage 5 feedback

    Hi Eric!
    Thank you very much for the comments. That's what I wanted to know. Things that felt "bad" to you while playing my game. Now I have some questions about "the judges judgement".

    Fullscreen initialization sequence first changes resolution (I see my desktop at a different resolution), then blacks the screen.
    Will this influence judging? Is this annoying or somewhat looking unprofessional? Should I spent time on it?

    Windowed mode isn't functionnal (the game captures the mouse).
    I know that the game captures the mouse, but imagine playing it without that "feature". MS Word in the back, Tanx in the front.... You are in a hurry to kill an enemy... clicking one pixel beneath the window, Tanx vanishes, Word appears in the front... you die because the enemy got you.

    This is an action game (even if it doesn't look like it in stage 5). What should I do? Prevent windowed mode or let the user be a victim of a pixel exact mouse aiming?
    As a programmer I think it's correct to let the mouse glide through the visible windows.
    As a player I think, if my game is on top I want to play. I can't play if the game vanishes to the back if I misplace the mouse, so I woun't use windowed mode. I thought of using windowed mode for easy switching through active tasks without changing screen resolution (alt+tab), taking a look at other programs while playing etc. but not to play only while mouse is in the window area... this would not work satisfying. Please give me a hint how you as a judge would like it. It's not a real problem to change it, but I'm afraid that playability would be worse.

    There is no option to select screen resolution (was maybe a bit too high for my screen here, got only 75Hz and text was quite small).
    Yep, I know.... 800x600 is already working. 1280x1024 I am on... but I don't know if I have the time to finish it perfectly until the end of the contest.

    Game is also quite dark by default (have to bump up monitor brightness).
    It was my intention to make it a little darker than "sunlight". But I found out, that it is as I intended on my monitors, and darker on others.. I will try to fix this. But I didn't take further a look at it now...

    When you win/die, the action required is a mouse click, if you were clicking a lot, you'll go to next level/respawn before you have realized it.
    Changing.... This was just a programmers test to see the player dying etc. Stage 6 goals say that I am in need of adding an ending scene (and so a game over scene too).

    Trees flicker when they are stacked (one occurence is right where you spawn in the first level).
    Already fixed.

    Again, thanks Eric!

    Greetings,
    Dirk
    <a href="http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/Valgard/?utm_source=gge&amp;utm_medium=badge_game"><img border="0" alt="GGE" title="GGE" src="http://static.greatgamesexperiment.com/badge/game/valgard/gge400x56.png"></a>

  2. #12

    2006 PGD Annual: Stage 5 feedback

    Quote Originally Posted by Huehnerschaender
    I know that the game captures the mouse, but imagine playing it without that "feature". MS Word in the back, Tanx in the front.... You are in a hurry to kill an enemy... clicking one pixel beneath the window, Tanx vanishes, Word appears in the front... you die because the enemy got you.
    You can pause your game if the user isnt playing.

  3. #13

    2006 PGD Annual: Stage 5 feedback

    Mass reply

    To aidave

    The budge spell is very important to the game, make sure it isnt going thru terrain, and has a direct line from your hand to the item you are trying to catch.
    After a few trials I've been able to "hook" the budge to the shard by standing right on top of it, however, more often than not, I wouldn't be able to "pull" the shard with it, like if it were stuck into the ground (when that happens, I found the only way to get the shard moving again was to repeatedly bump into it until it got "unstuck").

    1024x768 or 1200x1024 is the best.
    Tried it, there is more screen estate, but the mouse isn't smooth still: when you move the mouse slowly f.i., the view will rotate in slow steps (one step each time the cursor would move by one pixel I guess).

    To AthenaOfDelphi

    The console is now activated with the ` key. I have since found that this could be a problem on some keyboards
    This is the key I tried (it's labelled with an exponent '2' here, but I've seen enough games use it to recognize it), though I guess I'm one one of the keyboards with the "problem"
    I've had good success using GetAsyncKeyState to detect it's being pressed (ie. with virtual key code rather than key character).

    the field of view which is approximately 180 deg. If they lose you, they will stop and perform a basic search (look around them)
    The impression I had is that the orientation of their field of view was "fixed", like if instead of looking in the direction they're walking, they were looking "upward" (when not in search mode).

    To Traveler

    As far as I can tell, rules dont specify the actual representation of a new level.
    For this stage, I considered a "level" as being a different "map", as the enemy waves you have aren't too different from say, enemy waves in a scrolling shooter (of which you can have many in the same level), and all other entries had something close to that.

    For the next stage, maybe WILL or Savage can clarify the goal to define what exactly constitues a "level".

    To Huehnerschaender

    Will this influence judging? Is this annoying or somewhat looking unprofessional? Should I spent time on it?
    The main risk would be if the user has other applications that would react to the screen resolution change, but not identify it as some other app going fullscreen because they receive a "paint" message. Not of utmost importance, but may not be too complex to fix and would look cleaner IMO (and may speedup game start).

    I know that the game captures the mouse, but imagine playing it without that "feature". MS Word in the back, Tanx in the front.... You are in a hurry to kill an enemy.
    As suggested, pausing the game would be a user-friendly solution to that. When selecting 'windowed', you usually want to be able to click on other things - if only to move the game window around your desktop

    1280x1024 I am on...
    Be aware 1280x1024 suffers from a slightly "distorted" aspect ratio when not viewed on current-generation 19" flat panels, as its aspect ratio is 1.25 vs 1.33 of the usual 4/3 display of CRTs and other panels.

    But I found out, that it is as I intended on my monitors, and darker on others.. I will try to fix this. But I didn't take further a look at it now...
    It's a bit like with aspect ratios, screens can have wildly different intensity nowadays, across models or even across settings, from LCDs that have "bright darks" to those TN panels where everything below RGB$202020 is the same uniform "black"... talk about gamma correction hell :roll:

  4. #14

    2006 PGD Annual: Stage 5 feedback

    Quote Originally Posted by Huehnerschaender
    I know that the game captures the mouse, but imagine playing it without that "feature".
    In Windowed mode, games should behave like other Windows applications.
    I often play RTSes in Windowed mode because when you are building up your army there is usually a lot of waiting around for things to be created before the action starts. I might surf or chat while this is happening. If the mouse was captured I would be forced to endure the building process.

    When the form loses focus ( Deactivate event ), you can pause the game. Remember to pause your timer as well otherwise you may end up with strange results once you restart.
    <br /><br />There are a lot of people who are dead while they are still alive. I want to be alive until the day I die.<br />-= Paulo Coelho =-

  5. #15

    2006 PGD Annual: Stage 5 feedback

    All my comments and scores are in. Well done people.

    For those of you still to implement sound in you games dont underestimate it's importance. It is important that soounds match actions. It can cause some disorientation when things done "match up", so don't leave it to the last minute.

    I am impressed by the entries I have seen so far. Yuo have all done some great work in the limited time. Keep it up.

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  6. #16

    2006 PGD Annual: Stage 5 feedback

    Thank you very much for the reports Dean and Eric! This helps us all to make senseful things in the left time.

    Quote Originally Posted by technomage
    Good entry, running out of cannon ammo was a bit of a problem.
    I already changed gun ammo to unlimited, using heat now as a limitation. If gun is overheated, you have to wait a little time before you can shoot again. Also added a gun "functionality". Spacebar switches between ground and air mode.

    Quote Originally Posted by technomage
    Also for the sake of realism I think it might be nice to the enemy to be unaffected by cannon fire from our tank, but that depends on how realistic you want if to be.
    I don't understand this... maybe it's because I am no native english speaker ^^ Can you explain it again please? As far as I understand this sentence, the enemys should not get damage from my cannon.... huh? :shock:

    Greetings,
    Dirk
    <a href="http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/Valgard/?utm_source=gge&amp;utm_medium=badge_game"><img border="0" alt="GGE" title="GGE" src="http://static.greatgamesexperiment.com/badge/game/valgard/gge400x56.png"></a>

  7. #17

    2006 PGD Annual: Stage 5 feedback

    Thanks for that!

    I imagine these are going to be 12 very loooong days.

  8. #18

    2006 PGD Annual: Stage 5 feedback

    Quote Originally Posted by Eric
    As suggested, pausing the game would be a user-friendly solution to that. When selecting 'windowed', you usually want to be able to click on other things - if only to move the game window around your desktop
    As I supposed, this absolutely doesn't work for my game. Gamecursor is "independend" from Windows mouse cursor. I move the mous ingame using my own calculations. So if I turn the turret with mouse, my ingame cursor points to the place I want to shoot. The Windows cursor is off the game screen in most cases. When firing with mouseclick, the game looses focus.
    Shortly said, you can't play it this way.

    I think about a solution that pressing ESC (Pause game/Options screen) enables the windows mouse again, because then I use a 2D cursor which I can point to the Windows cursor position. Ingame I have a 3D cursor, using it's own coordinates which doesn't match to windows cursor.

    Would this solution be ok for you?
    <a href="http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/Valgard/?utm_source=gge&amp;utm_medium=badge_game"><img border="0" alt="GGE" title="GGE" src="http://static.greatgamesexperiment.com/badge/game/valgard/gge400x56.png"></a>

  9. #19

    2006 PGD Annual: Stage 5 feedback

    Quote Originally Posted by Huehnerschaender

    Quote Originally Posted by technomage
    Also for the sake of realism I think it might be nice to the enemy to be unaffected by cannon fire from our tank, but that depends on how realistic you want if to be.
    I don't understand this... maybe it's because I am no native english speaker ^^ Can you explain it again please? As far as I understand this sentence, the enemys should not get damage from my cannon.... huh? :shock:
    Sorry my mistake, I suggest that the machine gun on the tank does not harm other tanks, but can harm the machine gun posts and helicopters etc. the main reason for this is that most modern tanks are very well protected against machine gun fire. This is just a thought, and it would make for some interesting levels.... :
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  10. #20

    2006 PGD Annual: Stage 5 feedback

    Quote Originally Posted by Eric
    After a few trials I've been able to "hook" the budge to the shard by standing right on top of it, however, more often than not, I wouldn't be able to "pull" the shard with it, like if it were stuck into the ground (when that happens, I found the only way to get the shard moving again was to repeatedly bump into it until it got "unstuck").
    Try spacebar to lift objects off the ground, else land friction causes objects to stick.

    Tried it, there is more screen estate, but the mouse isn't smooth still: when you move the mouse slowly f.i., the view will rotate in slow steps (one step each time the cursor would move by one pixel I guess).
    The tutorial level has a quirk that in the first ten seconds the mouse is sticky.
    The physics is overwhelming the engine until the tutorial castle settles.

    I'm not sure if thats whats causing your problem tho!

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