Swim [Build 004 - 17/12/12]

Build 002 is out and in full flight! I was going to wait for the official release of StencylWorks 1.1.0, but I had everything pretty much wrapped and good to go... so here it is!

Build 002
HUD viewable with some features attached
A sample of Power Ups available for use
More variety in the environment
Female character added

Power Ups
Most of the Power Ups have been up loaded in the game - although you can only sample 3 in this build rest assured the majority of them are fully functional behind the scenes. These Power Ups are:

• pH Plus - Put some zing in your sting! Doubles your attack power for some time.
• Jelectricity - Oh so shocking! Creates a electrifying shield around you for some time - but you can't attack normally.
• Coral Stones - Tired of throwing boring grey rocks? Hurl these at enemies to cause damage.

In this build you'll find them laying around the area, and they'll even respawn after 5 seconds when you collect them. Can you find them all?

Control Update
You can now use Power Ups! Hit the Space bar to activate the Power Up that occupies the first (large) spot on the HUD. To use Ammo-based Power Ups (i.e. Coral Stones) you must hold the Space bar and use WASD to throw in a direction.
You are not limited to using one Power Up at a time, you may cycle through your items by pressing Q and E. The only exception is the Ammo Power Ups, you will not be able to cycle through other Power Ups while they are active, nor will you be able to use them if it is not in the first spot of the HUD.

More Environment
I've added a simple path tile set to break up the ground a bit. You'll also find some blocks of coral in the area. These blocks can be destroyed, but they take a couple of hits. I've also set the block at the bottom left hand side of the screen (just beyond the path) to be invincible. Go on and try, nothing you can do will crack that beauty

Developmental Notes 11/08/11
All is going well with development so far. I am now up to 62 Actors, 37 Behaviours, 19 Sounds and a variety of colourful Tilesets added. There seems to be a few random bugs that occur here and there which I cannot pinpoint the origin of. If you encounter anything, please let me know here in this thread, or shout me a PM message - I'd greatly appreciate it!

In other news I've bought myself a new desktop computer! I'd been running StencylWorks on a crappy laptop that could barely function. Swim was playing at as low as 15fps in flash when I was testing. Needless to say Uni Work was made a million times harder due to its crappy processing. But now I have swanky new system which runs Swim at a smooth 60fps. The bigger screen and full fledged keyboard now enables me to work on the game much more efficiently - oh, and it's good for Uni work too

Any comments, feedback or bugs you may have, please let me know! I hope this build is a tasty morsel that leaves you longing for more! Rest assured Build 003 will bring with it a few more features for you all to look forward to!

Great work, I love it!

Just one bug I noticed, though. If I pick up two coral power ups and use all the bullets from one, I can't switch to the other, but it still shows on my power up bar.

I can't wait to see more!

Hmmm, that's odd - and it seems that it will affect the other Power Ups after you use them too... but collecting a new Power Up will fix the problem.

I shall investigate this ASAP! Thanks Cole, and thank you for your kind words

Great Additions! I noticed that by spamming the attack buttons and moving diagonally I can move into walls. (only sometimes though)

Thanks Rhys! Did you notice which direction you were approaching the wall? Was it the rock structures in the middle of the of the scene or the wall that boarders the level? I'm aware of a small bug that you can reproduce by hitting diagonal at an edge of a structure which I'm trying to find a solution to. Thanks for letting me know

I think I've fixed the 'ghost Power Bar' solution... I tweaked the animation behaviours and it seems to have solved the issue. Please let me know if it still persists!

Thanks for your help team!

Thanks Rhys! Did you notice which direction you were approaching the wall? Was it the rock structures in the middle of the of the scene or the wall that boarders the level? I'm aware of a small bug that you can reproduce by hitting diagonal at an edge of a structure which I'm trying to find a solution to. Thanks for letting me know

I think I've fixed the 'ghost Power Bar' solution... I tweaked the animation behaviours and it seems to have solved the issue. Please let me know if it still persists!

Thanks for your help team!

It was in the middle of the scene, I tried to get out of it but I couldn't do it.

And you're welcome

Really loving what you've got so far. Odd controls at first but once you get used to them it works really well. Can't wait to see the what you add next.

It's great to play Swim finally. KungFuKirby created a really good song for the background and gameplay is smooth.

Build 003 has gone live - and about time too! I apologise for my lack of activity in the forums of late... Uni life has certainly kept me busy

None the less, you can find the game here: I hope you enjoy!

Unfortunately, I'm going to have save my report of this build to a bit later - as it's quite late down my side of town, and I need some good sleep! However I will say that the key additions include NPCs and scene changes! Have a chat with everyone around town and they'll give you a nice rundown of what's going on... although you can only speak to them directly in front, which I'll address in a later post.

Let me know what you think and where things can improve! And I'm always receptive to any questions you may have, so by all means fire away!

Awesome! This is coming together so wonderfully! I can't wait to play the next build!

The space bar causes the page to scroll down, in Linux.

Badass! If this game doesn't kick ass when it's done then I'll be shocked.

I did notice a bug though. If you exit an area then move back while it's still fading in, then you'll just move off the screen and get stuck in off-the-screen land. This is because it won't switch scenes if it's currently making a fading transition.

SuperJosh64... maybe, just maybe, I can finally invent a music player for your game to take care of opening and loop segments delays by modifying HNF's FlxSound and the Streaming Sounds pack. I already did Streaming Sounds (not really the music player, but by making it universal... using game attributes instead of actor attributes).

I know how to correct that little problem NobodyX mentioned... just put a check if it's not transitioning (and you want to go elsewhere) in the always block.

You know, this third build is making me feel all nice and warm inside... I feel like it's somewhere around the point where it vanished during the Java era, maybe a bit further.

Thanks for your kind words team - you guys rock

The space bar causes the page to scroll down, in Linux.

Really? Does this happen in all games that use the space bar? I plan to incorporate customisable controls to avoid this problem at final release - but I guess I should get around to it sooner?

SuperJosh64... maybe, just maybe, I can finally invent a music player for your game to take care of opening and loop segments delays by modifying HNF's FlxSound and the Streaming Sounds pack. I already did Streaming Sounds (not really the music player, but by making it universal... using game attributes instead of actor attributes).

Sweet! At the moment I've created a rather crude-but-effective method of using a game attribute that increases every second, so that when the scene is swapped and the music does not change, it subtracts this number from the total time of the song (which I manually have to put in) so it starts the loop at the right time.

Like I said, crude, and it doesn't have the smoothest transition into the loop section - but it works for now If you can whip something up I'd very much appreciate it, but don't feel pressured to do so if you're busy!

I know how to correct that little problem NobodyX mentioned... just put a check if it's not transitioning (and you want to go elsewhere) in the always block.

I did know of this problem, but I was too lazy to fix it Thanks NobodyX for pointing it out - as I now know that people will definitely encounter it and I should do something to fix it. Thanks for your advice Furbs!

You know, this third build is making me feel all nice and warm inside... I feel like it's somewhere around the point where it vanished during the Java era, maybe a bit further.

Naaaw, thanks Furbs! It really is coming together nicely - but there's certainly some challenges ahead. I'd say it's maybe just a smidgen behind the Java era, which included moving enemies (but with no player tracking), a working Combometer but no dialogue to be seen. Thanks to the RPG example kit, I was able to handle the dialogue quite easily.

I plan to start working on enemy movement soon! Although the crunch time for Uni is getting started - so don't expect build 004 too soon... but rest assured something is always being done

Any Flash game suffers from the same issue on Linux, as far as I know.