Messages

1

Ask a Question / Game will not test. Error log attached.

« on: June 16, 2016, 10:41:20 pm »

Hi!
I can't believe it's been almost five years since I made this game:
http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/6521

When I made it, Stencyl did not have an option to export for iOS. But I always meant for this to be a touchscreen game.

So today I re-downloaded Stencyl and was surprised that the source code opened with all the behaviors and graphics and sounds attached! However, when I went to test the game for iOS, I got an error that told me to post the log to the forum.

This is an old game, designed at first for Flash, and I hope I don't have to build it from scratch in order to make an iOS version.  Please help!

2

Windows / Mac / Flash / HTML5 / Re: Balloons To Be Free [COMPLETE!]

« on: August 20, 2011, 03:10:24 am »

Okay, I've finally put this one to bed.

Game is now live on Kongregate.  I'd REALLY appreciate it if you could go there, give it a play and some stars, and hopefully put a quick nice comment in the comments section before kids discover some minor error in the game and start dissing it into the wastebin.  After all, I could really use the $0.0002 that would come from 1,000 extra plays! 

** Actually, the game started getting dissed before I even had a chance to confirm the highscore API was working. Trolls work fast! lol **

http://www.kongregate.com/games/OpenHeartSound/balloons-to-be-free

Thanks again to everyone for all your help.  Now it's onto game #3....

3

Windows / Mac / Flash / HTML5 / Re: Balloons To Be Free [COMPLETE!]

« on: August 19, 2011, 01:22:37 am »

A ton of stuff just popped up in my life... which is probably a good thing because I could sit here adding in new quotes or tweaking the positioning of some icon by 1 pixel to the left/right for weeks if I didn't have a reason to stop.

But the game's been tested & re-tested, and I the numbers are good.  Plus I still think it's really fun to play. Even after all this playing & replaying, I actually enjoy it.  In the whole time, I think I've managed to top 10,000 like four or five times.  So I know it's possible... but it's not easy.  I'm looking forward to publishing it on Kongregate and seeing it track the high scores.  I think it could really take off because it's skill-related instead of just a fixed quest you can finish.  That way people will hopefully replay a bunch to compete to have the highest score, etc.  I also want to see who's the first jerk to top 10,000 then take a screencap and tell everyone else what all the unlockables are lol.

Anyway, I wanted to say thanks again to everyone who played and logged in some feedback.  I couldn't have done it without you guys.  All that's left is to get it up on Kong, but I'm going to bed now...

4

Windows / Mac / Flash / HTML5 / Re: Balloons To Be Free

« on: August 17, 2011, 12:34:34 pm »

Not an annoyance at all, I'm glad someone cares.   

You're catching me in the middle of moving blocks around & retesting.  I think you caught a bad build, but if you refresh & try again, the menu should be back up to a decent speed.   (I'd done some work last night adding in that random quote generator, and might have been a little groggy by the time I was putting everything back together).

Let me know please if it's still laggy.  Mine's running at about 60FPS for both the game level and retry screens now, so I hope yours' is good too.

5

Windows / Mac / Flash / HTML5 / Re: Dangerous Dungeons!

« on: August 17, 2011, 10:45:03 am »

Played this one for the first time today.  It's obvious why you won the game jam with it.  Very deep game.  Keep it up!

6

Windows / Mac / Flash / HTML5 / Re: Balloons To Be Free

« on: August 16, 2011, 09:53:32 pm »

Been working on adding an autosave/load function, and on cleaning up those errors in the menu.  It should work now, but if you leave and come back and find your save is gone, it's probably because I keep uploading newer versions.

I tried to replace the mouse with a cloud image that I made myself, but for some reason that I couldn't figure out after spending like two hours on it, it made all sorts of weird errors happen elsewhere in the game.  Eventually I just shrugged and said that the 'cursor confusion' thing just wasn't that deep.  I hope it doesn't put people off from the game.  In the end, this concept is going to make it's way to a touchscreen device - so the pointer won't even be there, it'll be your finger.

(FYI, I accidentally erased the original page here and had to start over with a new one.  The page link's been updated in the original post & here it is too:  http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/6521 )

Continued feedback is appreciated.  I swapped out one of the songs for another that fits better.  I also adding a little thing that provides random inspirational/contemplative quotes at the end of each game.  Why not?   Now everything seems to be in working order and I don't see any remaining bugs, so I hope I'll be able to call it closed soon.

7

News / Re: Summer Game Jam Results

« on: August 16, 2011, 09:28:43 pm »

Hey I know I'm late, but I just wanted to say thanks to the judges.  This was fun.

8

Windows / Mac / Flash / HTML5 / Re: Balloons To Be Free

« on: August 16, 2011, 10:25:24 am »

Thanks guys so much for that "you must have something in 'always' instead of 'when created'" tip.  That totally worked!  To you, it was an obvious fix.  To me it was a head-pounding, unsolvable, almost-scrap-the-whole-damn-game major conundrum that I'd been fuming over for days. How happy I am that it was a one-minute fix.

The replay screen should now run as smoothly as the others.  All those icons are now only created once when the screen is drawn, not over and over and over again every single tic of the CPU clock lol.

I do plan to make an auto-save function, and also add something that will keep a high score list and flag achievements for Kong & other sites.  The plays & feedback are very much appreciated!

9

Windows / Mac / Flash / HTML5 / Balloons To Be Free [COMPLETE!]

« on: August 15, 2011, 10:16:56 pm »

Hi folks,
I think I'm nearing completion on my 2nd game, so I wanted to post the current build up and let people play it and eviscerate me (excuse me, I mean "provide constructive feedback").

This is the first time that I actually had an idea for a game first, then planned it out, and then set about figuring out how to make it.  I think the first thing I should do is give a lot of thanks and credit to Abigayl.  She uploaded a game to the forge called Dodgeball that really proved to be a great reference.  At one point, I was stuck and just couldn't figure out how to make projectiles fire onto the screen in a random order... and then I came across her game, downloaded it, studied the code, and had a bunch of major breakthroughs.  So thanks Abigayl!

The game is now working as I'd envisioned it, but it needs smoothing out in a big way  I'm hoping to get a bunch of people to play it and tell me if I've set the numbers right. I want it to be hard to reach the 7,000 point mark, and next-to-impossible-but-actually-not-impossible to break the 10,000 point mark (which would earn all 12 icons).

I also want to know if I have the numbers right for earning new songs. The game keeps track of your total points, and when you reach a certain number, it unlocks a new song (6 in all).  I have the 6th one unlocking at 50,000 right now.  Is that too soon or too late?

Basically I'm looking to hit that sweet spot so that the player wants to keep trying over and over to break 10,000 hi score, 50,000 total points, or just to beat his own personal best. I know everyone likes achievements and unlockables, so this is my experiment with that (still need to implement the whole Kongregate hi score api thing). 

Ultimately, my goal with this and every game that I make is to make an audio portfolio piece.  I'm always trying to angle for more composition work and to find collaboration opportunities with motivated indie devs, etc.  So if people are distracted by the gameplay while my sounds invade their ears, then the game is serving it's purpose >   Ideally one of the people playing it will be a genius developer who just happens to be looking for an audio assist on his next multimillion dollar project...   

Anyway, thanks for playing and for providing feedback.  I hope to have this puppy wrapped up ASAP!

http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/6521

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Ask a Question / Bullets stick to the side of the screen?

« on: August 11, 2011, 08:34:36 pm »

Mods please delete.

As usual, I fix my own (stupid) mistake five minutes after running crying to the forum for help.

Thx!

11

Game Ideas / Re: Flash Vorbis Player as a great way to override problems with MP3 in Stencyl

« on: August 07, 2011, 07:59:17 pm »

This is not a problem with Audacity.  It's a problem with the MP3 format.

I don't know the technical whosamawhatsis, but I've done enough audio for games to know that MP3s suck.  Stencyl actually does a great job in slightly masking the blip.  There must be something in there that already compensates for it, because normally it's at least a full half second.

** A good trick - because MP3s can be relatively small size - is to copy/paste your loop like 10 times in your DAW, then apply a slight fade at the end.  You can get like 7 or 8 minutes into one MP3, and eventually it fades, yes... but it's the best and most common workaround for folks doing lo-bandwidth game audio.

12

Ask a Question / Re: Help me get started on game #2 please

« on: August 03, 2011, 09:53:42 am »

Hey guys, thanks for the responses.

Yeah Rob, I would like it to be an iOS game if that's possible.  I know iOS porting was in the works about a month and a half ago but I haven't checked back here since then, and don't know how close that functionality is.  I'm probably not going to run out and purchase a dev license just yet anyway though, so I'm thinking of it more as another self-training exercise.  At the very least I'll need to be able to test it with mouse clicks, so I'll worry about the end platform later on (assuming I don't need to set it up from the start differently for iOS than for Flash).

And thanks Hectate for the quick note.  That actually was all I really needed to hear.  I'll head back and do my own research on how to generate terrain using actors, and likely will pop up in the chatroom with more specific questions.  I eventually wanted to get to the point where I didn't need to use a kit to get started, might as well start trying now...

13

Ask a Question / Help me get started on game #2 please

« on: August 02, 2011, 08:57:44 pm »

Hi!
My first game was a simple platformer that I felt was a success (I was able to do everything I set out to do with it, and I got my feet wet).  I really appreciated all the help I got from folks around here, and so now I turn to the community again for a little help in getting myself started on the next one.

This will be my first try at starting something with a concept first, and then trying to figure out how to actually build it.  I don't think my idea is that complicated, but what do I know?  Maybe it will be.  Let me know if I'm overestimating my noob abilities here.

So the idea for the game is basically a 2D sidescroller where there is a main character (a robot holding a balloon to be precise) who is floating across a world that scrolls by itself, and he either has to avoid obstacles by controlling his flight, or else he has to keep the balloon from getting popped by incoming projectiles (I haven't decided that part yet, and it might have to be decided by my programming ability/lack of ability in the end).

I want it to be a one-touch game that will work on touchscreen devices (if that's not possible or won't be possible in the future, I don't really care, it can be mouse click too. whatevs).  But basically the user's mouse/finger input will make wind that blows at the balloon (with the wind velocity depending on how close to him you are. Moving the mouse while pressing the button moves the source of the wind and that's how you guide him through the obstacles).

So my questions are:

1) Which kit would be the best one to download to get started on this? I figure it would be the regular 2d platforming kit, but maybe something else.

2) Is there a behavior in the forge that makes the screen/background move at a fixed speed while the main character is stationary in the middle?  (in order to give the illusion of persistent, uncontrolled balloon flight?)

3) Is there a behavior in the forge that makes random terrain generation (to work in conjunction with the above requested persistently moving background behavior?)

4) If not... or if that proves too complicated for me to make him float through a randomly generated landscape...  is there one that helps make randomly generated enemies?  I could make a number of different enemy actors (birds? i dunno) and if there were some way to launch them at random speeds in random directions from either side of the screen, that would work too.

___

Sorry to overload with questions.  I just think it's better to get them all out at once instead of making a separate thread for each little thing.   I really was overwhelmed by how helpful people were here for making my first little game.  I hope I'll be easier to assist now that I've already finished a half-decent one. 

14

Windows / Mac / Flash / HTML5 / Re: Blocky's Beat Quest!

« on: June 25, 2011, 03:02:55 pm »

Well I appreciate the tips.  I was getting to a point where things were getting buggy... meaning that if I would place a tile or actor in a certain location, the game wouldn't work... but if I deleted it (or sometimes if I used a different actor or tile, it would).   I was able to change the collision bounds on some of the tiles, but not on others.  It was weird.

But anyway I got it working a little bit better I think.  And now I'm weighing whether or not I want to do another platforming style game now that I know what's up, or if I want to try a different concept altogether.  I think I'm going to take a break for a second and see if I come up with another idea.

Anyway I put the game up on Kongregate now, and would love if people could lend me some stars and positive reviews there.  I've seen a ton of out-of-the-box Stencyl games there which is kind of disappointing.  I'm hoping to get more recognition for quality Stencyl games there before there starts to be a stigma against it.  (Not that mine is a "quality" Stencyl game either... but that's another matter...)

http://www.kongregate.com/games/OpenHeartSound/broccis-beat-quest

15

Shared Resources / Re: Kewl Music Generator

« on: June 24, 2011, 02:35:17 pm »

FWIW the fact that Stencyl has implemented a way to automatically loop MP3s without the user needing to worry about anything is pretty impressive.  I've tried to do audio for other platforms (I'm looking at you XBLIG), and you can only use WAVs which are like 10 times bigger.   And when using MP3s in most other flash games or iOS games, there's always this nasty pause at the end before the loop so you either use WAVs anyway... or else you just loop the song like 10 times and put a fade at the end when exporting as MP3 and just hope no one actually stays on the screen for long enough to reach the fade.  :/

Stencyl doesn't get it exactly perfect but it's a lot better than others.  Someone put some time into thinking about that and it's a big plus IMO.  xm/it/mod would be nice but I think that would require Stencyl to be able to handle a lot of the audio calculations and I don't know if that's even possible.