Messages

16

Chit-Chat / Best X-Speeds to Reduce Motion Jitter

« on: March 20, 2016, 07:56:29 pm »

Best X-Speeds to Reduce Motion Jitter
•  The best x-speeds are multiples of 10
•  Even numbers jitter less than odd numbers
•  Use 2 as the slowest x-speed as 1 jitters the actor badly
•  3 may scroll the background smoothly, but will jitter the actor intermittently
•  Background jitter is less noticeable after 30 simply due to speed.
•  More good speeds: 4, 6, 12, 16, 26, 84, 116, 118
These x-speeds were observed on an actor with an "always-camera follow self" block attached while scrolling across simple tiles with no background image. I've seen other posts on reducing motion jitter in Stencyl, but nothing exactly like this. I hope this helps someone.
Thanks,
PixylWorld

17

Chit-Chat / Re: Will you support Stencyl if it will start kickstarter company?

« on: March 04, 2016, 10:12:59 am »

So when I hear about glitchy scrolling, I assume it's the dev, not Stencyl

It's Stencyl. All Stencyl games have jittery movement on all platforms. There have been many posts about jittery movement & scrolling, and the team at Stencyl has been stumped to find a solution in the past. Many of us game developers have also done tests and attempted fixes. You don't have to be working on a cutting edge game like Ghost Song to see the problem. Mibibli's Quest is a great game, but the scrolling is not smooth. Lava Bird is a really fun game, but the scrolling is jumpy & jittery. There is nothing the game maker can do to fix it. It is a problem with Stencyl's core engine and the community is simply bringing the issue to the developer's attention. That's why these forums are here, so we can help each other out and make Stencyl better. No one is saying Stencyl can't make great games. We've just noticed that these great games (especially scrolling games) all have performance issues, and we want to know what is the game plan to fix them?

18

Chit-Chat / Re: Will you support Stencyl if it will start kickstarter company?

« on: March 04, 2016, 07:57:15 am »

The suggestions, comments and complaints of Stencyl users should be seen as invaluable to the Stencyl team. We are trying to help the engine that we've decided to use. "Go use something else," is not a solution. I understand the dilemma of dealing with ever changing technology and 3rd party systems, but it would be nice to hear the Stencyl developers say, "Look, we understand the problems and this is our plan to have these issues resolved by n date." 

Problem ----> Solution. Communication.

The engine, it's flaws or it's strengths has little to no relevance to the players.

This is totally not true.  If a player sees a game struggling to perform on their device, not only will they uninstall, they will leave poor ratings and reviews, which in turn hurts us as game developers. When I see 2D (and even 3D) games made with other engines running smooth as silk on an old phone, while Stencyl games have jerky movement on a new phone - then, yes, we should speak up and expect better performance from Stencyl.

Moving from OpenFL Legacy to OpenFL Next may be a solution.  As suggested from the first post, this may require a bigger team. I think that is reasonable thinking.

Making in-app purchases and ads a less painful process. I think that is reasonable. Perhaps a step-by-step video would be in order. Perhaps the  code needs to be tweaked. This may require hiring a freelance coder - whatever it takes.

Also, Marcromedia Flash was revolutionary 20 years ago with vector graphics. 20 years ago! Where is our vector and svg functionality? This is not an unreasonable question or request.

The visual concept and execution of the Stencyl block system, behaviors & organization is amazing. With all the competition out there, it is best I've seen. Stencyl has taken the complex jargon of coding and made it invisible to us. Stencyl lets us focus on the logic of making our games. We would love to continue using Stencyl forever. These posts, however, are pointing out some painful problems that need attention. It's all good. Just a little tough love. Hopefully, these issues can be resolved sooner rather than later and we, as customers, can be kept in the loop.

19

Bug Archives / Spotlight Out & Box Out Transitions

« on: March 01, 2016, 10:31:32 pm »

Both of these switch to a white background during the scene transition and any moving graphics will repeatedly "stamp" themselves on the screen as well.

20

Journals / Re: Hidden Scrolls Flappy Ninja 2

« on: February 25, 2016, 08:47:25 am »

HSFN2 is a challenging game so I've added game walkthroughs up to level 12 on my YouTube channel. Check them out below:
https://www.youtube.com/pixylworld

21

Journals / Re: Hidden Scrolls Flappy Ninja 2

« on: February 20, 2016, 09:58:24 pm »

Updated and uploaded Hidden Scrolls - Flappy Ninja 2 on Google Play.
1) fixed the "double fails" issue when both characters fall on spikes.
2) Cut frequency of popup and banner ads in half.
3) Reduced the length of time banner ad stays on screen.

Thank you SquarePug for the review and constructive comments!

I'll just respond as things pop up in my head...
I think reducing the ads on a challenging game like this will have a positive effect on user experience and ratings. I am also interested to see how this change will effect AdMob monitization and in-app purchases.

My idea for the last level was to highlight Khan's new ability and create a certain mood and cliffhanger like vibe. I like your ideas to make the ending more interesting. I also think the entire game could have more visual variety. This game is big enough to have at least ten more types of enemies to face. Time permitting, this would be one of my priorities for future updates.

In regards to consistency with the look and fonts:
I wanted the app store logo to convey a pixel game, but also, "Hidden Scrolls - Flappy Ninja 2" is such a long name that it does not always show up in it's entirety on the Google Play listings, so I decided to put the name in the icon as a high resolution logo.

In the menus I used some trickery to get the Challenges page and Indie Store text to show up in full HD, so that the text was more legible. This game loads 1x sprites only as one of my goals was to make the file size as small as possible. I was actually kind of proud of this accomplishment as I did not want to deal with the bloat of loading 2x, 2.5x, 4x, for a pixel game.

I'm happy you enjoyed the story! Integrating the story into the game was one of my favorite parts of the whole process. My goal was to make the story as interesting - yet as concise as possible, because some people just don't like to read at all. Lol!

I did not run into the level 33 bug yet, but I will try to replicate the error on my end and fix it.

Thanks again for the comments. It's cool to hear from fellow Stencylers from around the globe!

22

Journals / Re: Hidden Scrolls Flappy Ninja 2

« on: February 19, 2016, 12:35:53 am »

Hello SquarePug,

Thank you very much for your feedback. This is my first "real" game and learning how to make it has been a fun experience. I agree with all of your comments! I do plan on updating this game. I tried to time the ads so they were not too annoying, but I will probably completely remove the banner ad or greatly reduce its frequency.

I knew about the double kill issue, but didn't have time to fix it before my advertised release date. The same goes for the adjustable button locations. I like that functionality in other games, but didn't have time to work on it. That's the downside of making this game in my spare time. 

I will definitely prioritize fixing the ads. I will post here when I update the app. Do you know if the download counter gets reset on Google Play when I update?

Also, please let me know if you get to the end of the game. You are so close.

Thanks again,
RJ

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Journals / Re: Hidden Scrolls Flappy Ninja 2

« on: February 12, 2016, 08:29:34 am »

My first mobile game, Hidden Scrolls - Flappy Ninja 2, has been released on Google Play.

Check it out here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pixylworld.hiddenscrolls

Thanks everyone!
RJ

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Journals / Re: Hidden Scrolls Flappy Ninja 2

« on: January 16, 2016, 02:40:20 pm »

I've just added new screenshots and logo to the Hidden Scrolls - Flappy Ninja 2 page. Check them out at the link below:
http://pixylworld.com/hidden-scrolls-flappy-ninja-2

Thanks everyone!
RJ

25

Journals / Re: Hidden Scrolls Flappy Ninja 2

« on: January 12, 2016, 05:04:49 pm »

I though about that. I made the original Hidden Scrolls - Flappy Ninja a  little over a year ago and got a lot of positive feedback on it - so I made the decision to go ahead and make a sequel with the same name for mobile. Hopefully the whole name is catchy enough to get people's attention.

Thanks for the feedback. I remember playing your game, Artillerize, on my old account. It's a really awesome game!

RJ

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Journals / Re: Hidden Scrolls Flappy Ninja 2

« on: January 12, 2016, 01:31:34 pm »

We've finally finished out trailer video and setup the PixylWorld YouTube account.

Hidden Scrolls - Flappy Ninja 2 | Trailer Video
https://youtu.be/OrtvGRtwLYc

PixylWorld YouTube Channel
http://youtube.com/pixylworld

Comments are welcome.
Thanks,
RJ

27

Journals / Hidden Scrolls Flappy Ninja 2

« on: January 10, 2016, 10:32:37 am »

Hello Everyone,

See full info at http://pixylworld.com/

Hidden Scrolls - Flappy Ninja 2 is the story of Khan the Flappy Ninja and his son Tai the Little Ninja . They are trying to make their way back home after escaping from a delusional prince and his army. Khan has the ability to see the ancient hidden scrolls wherever they may materialize. The prince knows this, and will stop at nothing to make sure the hidden scrolls remain hidden or are completely destroyed!



The player will control both Flappy Ninja and Little Ninja in their journey back home. Along the way, they will have to defend themselves against the vicious Milnac army.



Please comment and visit my website at http://pixylworld.com to see the full description of the game.
My son and I are working on the video trailer, so I hope to be posting that soon!

Thanks for checking it out!
RJ

28

Game Ideas / Re: SVG vector graphics rendering fun

« on: November 19, 2015, 07:16:40 am »

Excellent. It's great to see vector graphics working well in Stencyl. Everyone in the community will appreciate this!

29

Journals / Re: Hera

« on: March 20, 2015, 06:09:29 am »

This sounds like a great ambitious project. I like the story and theme, it will be interesting to see this progress. What is your projected completion date?

30

News / Re: Stencyl 3.3 - 64-bit iOS, Google Purchases v3, Design Mode improvements

« on: March 19, 2015, 02:01:06 pm »

I can confirm that upgrading from Java 7 to Java 8 will resolve some issues on a Mac - such as "Unexpected Problem"  when changing Opacity & Blend Modes in the scene editor.

Great update. Thanks!