GoldSpace (Working title: Space Pirate)

This is as far as it gets on Wine (attached). I'm surprised it didn't work, since I've had success with other Stencyl games and Wine. What Stencyl build are you using? Is it one of the later beta ones?

Strange!
I am using one of the later ones (9923) but i also sent you a message.
I also updated the game version to 488 which could kabe work better (original link).
Cheers!

Merrak was so kind to test the very first Linux version of the game which seems to work fine
Very exciting!

If you want an updated version (PC for now) please download from indiedb.
Thanks!

Bonjour pirates de l'espace!

I had a small aha moment yesterday. There around 3 planet levels in the game where you...well play on a planet
There was always something missing. I have aliens, different flora and fauna which has an impact on the player but i was missing some special moments.

Funny enough i had one defence system lying around in my folders which is a lot of fun.
Enemy turrets which fire grenades. A shadow appears on the ground where the grenade will hit and this concludes in a big explosion. The explosion deals massive damage but also is able to destroy terrain and and objects.

The turret has very low hitpoints right now but is difficult to destroy because it is only destroybale when the turret is firing. This creates a very fun timing puzzle. Take a look:



And this is what was missing. An enemy interaction which suits the open level structure of a planet. I love it!

Small fix which increased the performance a lot (and i was aware):
I trigger an explosion actor whenever an explosion should happen. This actor will deal damage, kill, deform level structures and so on. Is is one of the most important actors i have.
It triggers a "whiteflash" when created to add tension. The "whiteflash" are 2 frames which are white and fill the whole screen. You wont really see it but its a nice subtle effect.

Every explosion triggered this (also partickels) which led to issues as we all know (dotnt draw too much over another). I have sometimes 40 explosions happening the same time.

I changed it too a whitflash actor which is only shown when its not shown by one of the for example 40 explosions. Same effect but much better perfromance. Tiny additional fix: Showing only particles which are on screen (no brainer).

Game is very solid so far! I haven't yet tried on a controller, though. Here's my responses to your questions:

>> What do you like?
Both levels are fun to explore. The game's world is immersive and intriguing.

>> What do you NOT like?
No negative comments at this time.

>> How is the performance?
Working fine on Ubuntu 16.04 (specs=Intel Core i7-6800K/GeForce GTX 970/128G RAM). CPU usage is about 1.5% on Level 1 and 2.5% - 4% on Level 2. (~8% is max since 100% means full use of all 12 threads). This is about the same performance as my Idosra game.

>> Something you would like so see which is missing?
Nothing at the moment.

>> Would you play this game to the end based on what you saw?
Yes; would also recommend it to others.

Thanks a lot!

Hey space pirateros!

I am currently optimizing performance again because there are some issues on some few notebooks (and notebooks only; even fast ones; strange). I dont see a pattern yet which notebooks are affected.
Some of my findings from optimizing and testing below.

No brainers and known in the community but i want to share them anyways:

• Kill actors if you dont need them anymore. I usually create another visual actor if i want a visual effect or even code after killing an actor. Example: I am spawning a general blood splatter actor or an explosion actor after killing an enemy. This way i get rid of the AI code of the enemy but still have a visual (or even mechanical) impact on the level.
• There is a "disable behaviour block"  which you can use if you dont want to kill an actor. You can also enable a behaviour again
• A lot actors like particles without collisions and even little code (like kill in x seconds, change color, etc) do NOT affect perfromance. I have somtimes around +300 particles on top of the games actors on screen
• Obviously using "do every x seconds" has much better perfromance compared to "always". That has been said many times but this is one of the biggest perfromance reducers: I wnet through all code snippets and checked again. Some are old and i optimized them. Big improvements.
• Dont draw to much and dont draw too much on top of each other. Use rather actors. Example: I replaced all whiteflashes i have in game with halftranparent actors. Huge improvement.
• Use custom events instead of "always" or even " every x seconds. Only trigger those custom events when needed.
• Is your code realy as simple as possible? Try to simplify. Does this and that really have to happen that often?

There is also one new finding for me:

Example: The player is shooting bullets (actors). Those bullets look different (depending on the weapon level) and fly in a different way (depending on accuracy of player stats). Maybe they have a color effect and so on.

There is a huge performance difference if the code for this is in the player actor when shooting (worse perfromance) or if its in the bullet actor itself (better performance). Both in when created events.
I am curious if you have more to share which i could optimize.

Try the new verions:


Cheers!

Random pic of the day from a planet:

Realy loving how sometimes the simple AI creates story on the fly.
In this case robot guy realy confused WTF is going on after the player stormed shooting into this bunch



Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

I wanted to avoid it but now i am using small scripted sequences in the game for special situations where normal dialogues dont work:

First draft of intro movie:

Hi Space Pirates,

i implemented a saving system which after some testing with which i am happy with. It uses a mix of save games and checkpoint. I am using checkpoints because some level are a bit longer but most importantly have difficulty spikes like an end or mid boss. It is not fun (obviously) to fail in a boss fight an the end of a level only start the level from scrath when dying. I tried to move boss fights at the start of a lev le but this is weird...there for the checkpoints

I dont want to reload the level on death because i want to keep the level of destruction and progression. Obviously i could try to save all this but this would be a lot work.

Here is how it works:

• The game autosaves a save file with all parameters on each level start
• The game recognizes if you touched a checkpoint and will spawn you there after death without loading
• The game will reload the level if you have not touched a checkpoint or if none is availbale

This allows a pretty smooth gameplay without frustration.

I might have to change the icon because younger players obviously have no association to this icon

The floppy disk is still widely associated with saving documents, so despite younger people being less likely to know what it is, they should still know what it represents.

Unless you meant players so young that they haven't used many applications that involve saving documents, that is.

Haha true...thanks for pointing out.
I was actually talking about those young ones you mention, growing up without the awareness of saving like my 7 year old son who is always a good UX sanity check tester

Hi Space Piratas!

i am currently polishing one of the features which have been in the game for a long time ... but not in a very good shape. So far! Say hi to the "hidden relics" feature.

Here is how it works:

Almost every level has a golden data card hidden somewhere. Here right above the player:


Collecting the card will trigger a scanner in the upper left corner which guides you to the hidden relics:




The relics are split into parts. No found parts yet:


One part found:


Now my question to you:
What would you like to get as a reward when finding all parts for one relic (usually in one level)?

• A decorative item (like a robot for example for your own spaceship
• Some sort of booster for your player character : more air in space, a shield for yourself...problem is i dont know if i can come up with a lot items
• A huge chunkc of the the regular reward to buy and upgrade weapons

Please let me know!

3 preferred. Or maybe 2. I'd only be interested in decorative stuff once I'd upgraded everything else