Dev Diary - Comics World: Spies in Trouble

Hectate / All,

I just did install LiceCAP on my machine.
Great tool. Simple and efficient.

So now I can show you guys what I am doing, also I can ask for help with pictures on the message. Yeaaaah!!!

For the movement sprites:
I have to work on it a little more, because its looking like "Goofy" walking (exagerated movements).
But, its a simple fix.

Here it comes my Guard character (enemy) walking:


I will fix its foot and shoulder movement, to appear more "human" and less "Goofy".

I did change the Sprites a little, as Ipe 369 said, it wasnt raising its foot from the floor. But maybe I should have to raise it a little less.


The next image I will try to demonstrate the work of different layers and Parallax effect that i am doing on my game. Theres no Foreground on that image, but I am working with it also. =)

Never mind the Kid Chamaleon character on it, the main character I have not drawn yet - there will be two simultaneously playable characters on it - kind like Commandos and Lost Vikings games.

Also on that image its shown the light effect, the one you - Hectate - did help me doing directly on photoshop (I was using blend mode).


(this Scenary I am still working on - brightness, colors, and so on).

Soon I will include an animated GIF with the camera behavor that I made. =)
Now I have to leave for work.

Thanks guy!

All this is pretty interesting. I really like the lighting. Thankyou for showing this, and I can't wait to see your game!

All this is pretty interesting. I really like the lighting. Thankyou for showing this, and I can't wait to see your game!

Thanks a lot mate.
I remember all your anxiety regarding the last Stencyl Jam.
I was really hoping that your game was at least mentioned on the results. Scary game you made.

Glad you did enjoy the light effect. I am willing to work with it a lot on my game.
Specially as I am planning to do a comic stealth game.

Hope that you keep coming back to this topic and get other knowledges for you too.

Soon I will update it a little more.
I have to make a stop this end of year... Not only because of holidays, but a family emergency came up.

Regards

Hello!!
I am back.

I was able to do some subtle changes on my "guard walking" sprites.
I think now its becoming a little less "goofy" and more realistic.

Still have some enhancements to do, but I think theres a good progress that can be seen from the first walking (above on this page) to this new one.
One thing I can point out is that the character is not "kicking" anymore when walking.

I am thinking about performance and behaviors.
I do believe that the behavior I did create for my "guard" is affecting my performance.

What is it about?
Stealth and detection mode.

For instance:
If my guard is looking left, my character must be ate least X pixels far away from him, if not he will be detected and the game will be over.
BUT... if my character is on his right side (from behind), he may approach him, so he may knock him from behind.

Drawing it:
G = Guard
_ = Distance
P = Player
                   P   _____________G       = Safe
                       _P___________G       = Busted
                       _____________G P    = Guard Knocked

I did implement that using a "When Drawing" event.
Using a lot o X of Player math inside a lot of IF code.

What I am planning to do is to change that code to a collision between characters. Collisions as sensors.

But... one collision when the guard is walking left - so his behind will be "open", and the opposite when he is walking right - and one short collision for the player.

That way the guard's collision will be for the busted action. And the short collision area for the player will be to knock the guard down.

Do you guys think that a collision behavior is better than a When Drawing?

Just to point out:
My characters are with Collision mode disabled (to increase performance).

Hey Guys...
After a long period away from my computer - enjoying some holidays and also vacation from word - I can now say that I am back into business.

Got the first spy idle animation done.
I may habe to do some minor adjustments on it (hope it will be minor - only time will tell).
The moving animation will be done faster, as its already done but not included into Stencyl yet.

I didnt make the changes stated on the previously post. But I am intending to spend a little more time on it, hoping to improve performance.

Here is the screen of my spy done.
Its the spy located on the right of my signature image, which by the way will suffer some changes also, cause I did use different colors on the character and also I did remove his tie.




Hope I will update here soon.
Best regards and the best for all of you guys on 2014!

Here I am again!!!

Now I want to show you guys the detection action going on.
My game will be all about "stealth" and minor moments of action (again, like Commandos on PC).

So, I just finished the animation on the guard when he does detect the player.

Before the detection, to be fair with the player, the game will show an alert on the top of the page, to warn the player of an enemy approaching.
I did that not to be 'easy', but to help on the gameplay regarding the small screen (I am focusing on mobiles).

So, the image bellow is already showing the alert icon.
And then, the guard detect our player (which will be more than one simultanously) and the game is over (with a proper screen message).

Also, in the end, when the camera focus on the guard, our player goes off the screen. But thats just on that animated GIF, as the actual screen play still show him on the spot.

Hope you guys enjoy it.

Good news and bad news at once.

I did find out that I was working with a wrong resolution.
I was developing using a resolution similar to iphone 3.

But, I am not focusing on iphone 3, but iphone 4 (performance / speed / users).
So, I will have to change all my game from 320 pixels to 640 (height).

Thats bad news because I will change all my images.
Not that bad because I do have them in a very high resolution (originally around 3.000 pixels).

The good news:
My character now have plenty more details on him.
I already did change one of my scenes (stages) and one character.
It seems like the game became HD (lol).
A lot of details came up. His eyes, his suit, and so on.

I am now focusing on changing those images and improving a little the performance - and organizing the code.

Also I am hand-drawing all the intro of my game. Comic Style (strips). So the player will now why he is doing what he is doing.
Soon I may return with some news / improvements to show!

I know you're not a 3.0 user yet, but since you'll need it to publish to iOS anyway, you might as well start designing for it now.  The recommended approach is to make a universal app with 4x images with resolution settings of 480x320.  I think making a phone-only app is more of a hassle and requires exporting to an Xcode project (but if you know Xcode then it's not a big deal).

Thanks for the tip!!

Thats my first game ever! 
I am trying new things, discovering a new hobby (which I hope may lead to a new business soon) and planning all the steps of it yet.
I have never developed a game before. Not on Stencyl, not on GameMaker, no game at all.
So, I am stepping on new grounds in here.

I am planning on migrating to Stencyl 3 soon.
Yes I am.
But see... I am new at gaming development - a fresh newbie.
I am a Java developer for 14 years now. So this is all new to me.
Not new on games, as I did start way back - on PC DOS games and Atari games.

But, this my first game as a developer / creator.

I will create and launch an online demo (flash) to retrieve some feedbacks on it. See if I am going on the right way, find out if I am going to the right path.
Then, with more confident I will for sure buy the Stencyl 3 license. As I will be more confident on my skills / game.

I am developing "focusing" on mobiles.

What do I mean "focus for mobile"?
   Simplicity on gameplay and control (main thing on mobile in my opinion)
   Graphics that may fit on the screen (items to see, visual area, ...)
The rest: Story for instance may fit in any category (PC, mobile, consoles).

But why 480x320?
Thats iphone 3 resolution. Right? And what do you mean 4x?

The iPhone screen resolution is 320×480
The iPhone 4 screen resolution is 640×960
The iPhone 5 screen resolution is 640×1136
Galaxy S3 for instance is 720 x 1280.

I am a bit confused now. 
The good thing in here is that all my original images have around 3.000 pixels height. So its easy to port it to any size.

After all that said - I know it will be hard to migrate to Stencyl 3. But I am trying to get some experience / skill / confidence first.

Thanks again!

480x320 is the typical base resolution or the 1x resolution.  It is independant from your scene size and usually doesn't need to be changed.  While you would design your scene at 1x, you would design your graphics at 4x.  That means a 32x32 tile in a scene would be designed at 128x128.

So do I need to create different images?
Or Stencyl 3 do the changes?

For instance:
I do have my character with 36 pixels height (in a 320 height game).
Should I develop 4 images? 36 pixels, 72 pixels, 108 pixes and 144 pixels?

Or just keep the 36 pixels one?

Keeping it on 320 will be easier for me. As 90% of my game is still on that resolution.
Yesterday I did start changing to 640. But I did only one background and the idle images of my main character (one of the two main characters).

No, you would import at 4x and the other images would be created from that.  I believe Stencyl 2 does the same thing with 2x images.

No, you would import at 4x and the other images would be created from that.  I believe Stencyl 2 does the same thing with 2x images.

Now I got more confused. 

So I may create my game at 4x the resolution?
And Stencyl 3 will rearrange the images to fit other resolution that may be used?
Or should I keep it at 320 (height)?

"Stencyl 2 does the same using 2x"? How do I test / confirm / learn / understand that (lol)?
Cause I only know how to set the display image and scene canvas. =)

Assuming you chose to create a "Web & Mobile" game, you have the option of selecting retina or 2x when importing any images.