Lyglo the Triangle (Updates Topic)

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Lyglo the Triangle (Updates Topic)

Post by Qloof234 » Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:43 am

Okay, it looks like no matter how hard I try, I can't help but think of some new project to keep myself busy. This time, though, I had to program the engine from scratch.

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Even if I don't point this out, you might notice a resemblance between Lyglo's (the blue triangle) graphics and the character in Dlcs's Spacegame. The reason is that Lyglo was actually a project Dlcs was working on that never really saw the light of day. He created the power up graphics, enemy graphics, Lyglo's, and Jev's (another character in the game). On the other hand, I made the land tiles by hand and the background gradient in Photoshop. :lol:

I asked Dlcs how it was going over Skype one day, and that was when he told me that the project was kind of... dead and gone. I asked if I could continue it, and so I did. However, he had started it in Game Maker 7, and since I can't be bothered figuring out how stuff like that works (I am so lazy :lol: ), I decided to port the graphics into MMF2 and work on it from there.

Either way, for most of the stuff that was put in, it was pretty much touch-and-go whether it worked or not.

The end result that I got from this is similar to the original. One or two things are missing, but there are 4 or 5 things that weren't in the original game.

For example, one of the power-ups in the original was a Gravity Switcher. Unfortunately, I haven't got a clue how to put something like that in the game, so I used that power's graphics to make a power-up that acted like a Fire Flower (From Super Mario Bros., not WA :lol: ).

Picture time!

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Start of the first level. The squares in the top-left corner represent Lyglo's lives, but even if you hit zero, nothing happens yet. On the other side is his Health Bar.

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Catching on the edge of the wall, so that the spikes below are visible. Spikes take away all of Lyglo's health at once, so they're normally in pits like this.

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Lyglo falls down to land on top of some sort of red arrow. These shoot Lyglo off in whichever direction they point. This was one of the hardest parts to program, but lo and behold, I got it done. :lol:

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This is the speed up power in action. I plan on adding some sort of "after-image" to show that Lyglo is moving incredibly fast. This power is awesome, if I do say so myself. :wink:

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The Super Jump power in action. What it actually does is set Lyglo's gravity to 15 instead of 25, because MMF2 seems to like being awkward with me. :roll:

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This is an example of what the Energy Ball power can do - there are some Explosive Barrels at this point of the level, which explode when hit by an Energy Ball or another explosion. However, running into an explosion takes away from Lyglo's health.



After all that, is there a download link?

Yes, there is. However, it's only one level long. It also has a section with a list of items in game.

The story is still kind of under wraps, because I really haven't figured it out yet. Dlcs knows what the story is meant to be more than I do, to be honest :lol:

Despite that, the project is going well considering I just started it last night.

Download link: Click Here... If you dare! :lol:
Okay, okay, here's the real download link: Clicky
Comments? Criticism?

Yes, I'll use this topic for updates on it and stuff.
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Post by jdl » Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:20 am

Nice trick Qloof. :lol:

I like this game! Although the detection of hitting a wall is really weird. It seems like you get stuck. The FG reminds me of SMW. :lol:

BTW, did you know that Lyglo can fly? See the pic below.
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Post by Emerald141 » Wed Jun 10, 2009 12:28 pm

Nice job Qloof!

Or so I am told. I can't seem to be able to jump OR fire an energy ball. :(
How exactly do you do it?
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Post by dlcs18 » Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:59 pm

Emerald, you have to use Shift to jump, and Ctrl to fire a thingy.

Nice job Q :D
I like how there is friction and that with the curved tiles you can actually walk up them.
I also like how the characters blink. :lol:
The only thing bad about it at the moment is that the collisions are a bit weird. :wink:
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Post by Qloof234 » Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:32 pm

jdl wrote:Nice trick Qloof. :lol:

I like this game! Although the detection of hitting a wall is really weird. It seems like you get stuck. The FG reminds me of SMW. :lol:

BTW, did you know that Lyglo can fly? See the pic below.
Thanks jdl!

Yeah, the detection as far as hitting the ceiling or an upside down curve is kinda... broken. I'm going to see what I can do about it.

The foreground tiles weren't based off of SMW at all, actually. Maybe Nintendo made those tiles by hand, too? :lol:

This glitch with Lyglo flying on the title screen is more or less a stupid oversight on my part.

The conditions say:
If <Object Lyglo> leaves the Play Area on the left, right, or top, then <stop movement>

Unfortunately, that means that holding jump while on either side of the screen makes him fly. :lol:
Emerald141 wrote:Nice job Qloof!

Or so I am told. I can't seem to be able to jump OR fire an energy ball. :(
How exactly do you do it?
Thanks!

As Dlcs said, Shift button is jump, and Control is the fire button. If you click the File button on the bar at the top, you can change your control settings if you want. :wink:
dlcs18 wrote: Nice job Q :D
I like how there is friction and that with the curved tiles you can actually walk up them.
I also like how the characters blink. :lol:
The only thing bad about it at the moment is that the collisions are a bit weird. :wink:
Thanks!

The friction part actually happened by accident, to be honest. I was programming the engine, and went to test it, and Lyglo just walked up the curves like that. :lol:

The thing with the character's blinking... I was working on porting in animations, and I thought to myself, 'It seems kinda awkward that no one's blinking...' and then I decided to put that in. Thankfully it didn't take too long. :lol:

I have a bit of an idea on how to work out the collision problem, but it'll make putting level together a bit more tedious. :?
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Post by cbloopy » Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:10 am

Love it! 8)

I'm also glad you didn't use GameMaker for this. I'm sick of all those games that only work on XP because of stupid GameMaker.

Some interesting bugs I found:

1) you lose the ability to "bend" your fall (budging left or right while falling) when you have the super jump power.

2) At the start of the level, moving Lyglo (either left or right) while inside the alcove where the Whakkas are seem to cause them to shift left as they bounce, until they eventually escape the alcove :!: , where they'll shoot really fast up and away. :shock: Quite funny actually. :lol:

3) Not a bug per se, but there seems to be no control over whether Lyglo fires an energy ball left or right, seems to be random.

4) There's no game over even when you lose all of Lyglo's lifes.

5) At the point where the effect of the left red arrows starts to wear off and you start falling to the ground: if you now jump up on that spot, you'll notice there're "hiccups" as you fall, allowing you to jump again while up in mid-air.

6) Speaking of the hiccups, touching one while you are carrying a power will cause you to lose the effect of the power (even though you continue to be carrying the power). For example, after picking up the super jump power, if I head back left and up until I reach the area where there're the "hiccups" from #5 and touch one of those spots, I can no longer super-jump.

Still, great fun!
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Post by Blast!10 » Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:19 am

cbloopy wrote:only work on XP because of stupid GameMaker.
???
Are you using a really old OS? :?
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Post by stinky2 » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:50 am

good job,Qloof! i liked the first demo.
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Post by dlcs18 » Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:26 pm

cbloopy wrote:I'm also glad you didn't use GameMaker for this. I'm sick of all those games that only work on XP because of stupid GameMaker.
Games made with GM version 7 are compatible with Vista, actually.
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Post by jdl » Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:46 pm

YoYo Games wrote:Games created with Game Maker versions 6.0 and 6.1 are not compatible with Windows Vista. (Games created with other versions work without problems.) The best you can do is upgrade to version 7.0 of Game Maker before you create the final version of your game.
I got that quote from this nice page: http://wiki.yoyogames.com/index.php/Mak ... dows_Vista
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Post by cbloopy » Thu Jun 11, 2009 6:35 pm

Blast!10 wrote:
cbloopy wrote:only work on XP because of stupid GameMaker.
???
Are you using a really old OS? :?
(see jdl's post above)
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Post by Qloof234 » Thu Jun 11, 2009 10:56 pm

cbloopy wrote:Love it! 8)

I'm also glad you didn't use GameMaker for this. I'm sick of all those games that only work on XP because of stupid GameMaker.
Heh, thanks.

I use MMF2 more than Game Maker just because I don't think I could be bothered to learn how to do this kind of thing in GM. :lol:
Some interesting bugs I found:

1) you lose the ability to "bend" your fall (budging left or right while falling) when you have the super jump power.
I'm going to see what I can do about that. It's more or less because MMF2 doesn't actually let me alter Lyglo's Jump Strength value, but the Gravity value. Unfortunately that also lowers Player control over direction.
2) At the start of the level, moving Lyglo (either left or right) while inside the alcove where the Whakkas are seem to cause them to shift left as they bounce, until they eventually escape the alcove :!: , where they'll shoot really fast up and away. :shock: Quite funny actually. :lol:
That was a really stupid mistake on my part - I'm not sure what causes it, though. However, I agree, it's hilarious. It happened to me by accident, and I was laughing so hard for 5 minutes or so afterward. :lol:
3) Not a bug per se, but there seems to be no control over whether Lyglo fires an energy ball left or right, seems to be random.
I'm trying to figure out how to fix this... One thing I could try is putting in another fire button that shoots one to one side, and the original that shoots them another way.
4) There's no game over even when you lose all of Lyglo's lifes.
I haven't gotten around to programming this in yet, but I'm going to soon. :wink:
5) At the point where the effect of the left red arrows starts to wear off and you start falling to the ground: if you now jump up on that spot, you'll notice there're "hiccups" as you fall, allowing you to jump again while up in mid-air.
I've found a way to bypass this - and also make Lyglo's landing a bit more... Natural. :lol:
6) Speaking of the hiccups, touching one while you are carrying a power will cause you to lose the effect of the power (even though you continue to be carrying the power). For example, after picking up the super jump power, if I head back left and up until I reach the area where there're the "hiccups" from #5 and touch one of those spots, I can no longer super-jump.
Okay, now this one, I know what's causing this. It's because the sensors just say "Switch Lyglo's movement type from Pinball to Platform" (Pinball is the arrow sensor movement, Platform is, well... the platforming movement). I think I can bypass this by inserting a few commands telling the game to leave the effects on if the power is active.

However, it should only do this for Speed Up and Super Jump - the Energy Ball power isn't affecting Lyglo's movement, but ups a value in the game that tells Lyglo that he can shoot energy balls.
Still, great fun!
Thanks again! :D
stinky2 wrote:good job,Qloof! i liked the first demo.
Thanks!
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Post by Qloof234 » Wed Jun 17, 2009 2:45 am

*DOUBLE-POST BUMP*

Okay, some more updates (and a picture of something I'm debating about using).

I've fixed some of the glitches in the above post - the "hiccups" haven't presented themselves to me after my fix ("When Lyglo hits the Platform sensor, destroy the sensor"), there's a game over screen, and Lyglo fires energy balls in the direction he's facing. The other things are rather interesting conundrums I can't make head nor tail of right now.

Anyways, level 2 has been put in, spikes had an overhaul (gfx), there's now a ladder, Whakkas that bounce horizontally, and of course, huge explosions. All that and more in level 2. :lol:

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This is the end of level 2 - showing off the new spikes, sideways Whakkas, and the ladder. It seems like awkward bouncing is common between both Whakka variants. I'll figure it out later. :lol:

And now, for the thing that I really can't decide myself:

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Yes. Isometric view.

I don't plan on using this for the actual levels, but for the hub itself.

I want to know what you guys think - If I try to put the hub in, should I go with this isometric view, or a 2d platforming hub like in Spacegame?

If, in the end, there isn't a decision in a week or so, I'll use this Iso hub. The basic engine for it is already programmed, after all. :wink:
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Post by cbloopy » Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:59 am

Qloof234 wrote:I want to know what you guys think - If I try to put the hub in, should I go with this isometric view, or a 2d platforming hub like in Spacegame?

If, in the end, there isn't a decision in a week or so, I'll use this Iso hub. The basic engine for it is already programmed, after all. :wink:
Well, I guess I'll vote for iso-hub since you already did the programming, meaning the next demo will come out sooner. :wink:

Although I hope you'll do a better job with the graphics of the iso-hub than what you're showing us in your screenshot. :shock: :| (Right now it looks more like isometric distortion...)
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Post by jdl » Wed Jun 17, 2009 12:37 pm

I vote for the Isometric view. It looks really good, and gives the game a better feel. :wink:

BTW, are you going to add wall jump tiles?
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Post by jdl » Wed Jun 17, 2009 12:59 pm

I found an amazing discovery! After the Wakkas go off screen, this is where they go. :wink:
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Post by Blast!10 » Wed Jun 17, 2009 1:42 pm

That's not called an isometric gameworld, even though mathematically it's isometric (I think). It's actually called parallel.

When it comes to games, you would call SimCity 2000 isometric:
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Post by cbloopy » Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:47 pm

Blast!10 wrote:That's not called an isometric gameworld, even though mathematically it's isometric (I think). It's actually called parallel.

When it comes to games, you would call SimCity 2000 isometric:
Hmm, maybe that's why I thought it didn't look like what I envision isometric to be. I thought Qloof234 was going for sort of a Super Mario World overworld look, but didn't quite get there.
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Post by dlcs18 » Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:12 pm

I say go for the isometric way.


(Although sometimes I can just see it as the platform tiles with green stripy tiles on top of them. Maybe you could improve the look to make it more convincing.)
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Post by Qloof234 » Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:27 pm

Okay, looks like Isometric will be the way it goes. :lol:
cbloopy wrote:I thought Qloof234 was going for sort of a Super Mario World overworld look, but didn't quite get there.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I was aiming at. I can see that the biggest problem at the moment seems to be how the graphics look, so I'm working on that now.

@jdl; Wall jump tiles? Sounds like a good idea, but it depends on if I can get them in without too much difficulty. :wink:
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Post by Qloof234 » Wed Jun 17, 2009 11:38 pm

Double-post again. I got a few more pictures, mainly of the improved Parallel (assuming that's that actual term) hub and one of level 3, which is based off of Level 1 in Dlcs's original Lyglo (but this time it manages to be harder, due to the engine differences).

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This is what the Hub looks like before the player goes into level 1. The grass is different, the walls have been edited to look like they're in contact with the grass, and Lyglo has a shadow now. The red squares represent levels, and the orb in the corner is a teleporter.

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Finishing level 1 makes the ladder show up, and changes the red square to gold. Yes, the ladder graphic is the same on the hub as it is in the levels.

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Finishing level 2 makes this bridge show up. Now the player can reach the teleporter.

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This was just added recently - this is what the platform on the other side of the teleporter looks like. It's meant to appear very... open, as opposed to the "closed-in" area of the first part of the hub. This also links to...


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...Level 3. This one starts out pretty open, but then a bit smaller. This was unintentional, but I think it's pretty cool. :wink:

Comments? Criticism?
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Post by Qloof234 » Wed Jun 17, 2009 11:38 pm

deleted double-post (no idea why my comp did that... :? )
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Post by cbloopy » Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:17 pm

Not bad, although the look of the hub still bothers me a little.

At first I was going to say maybe it isn't looking right because all the lines are either horizontal or vertical, and you need slanted (diagonal) lines to achieve a more convincing parallel/isometric view. (Think a drawing of a cube.)

But then I decide to take a look again at the overworld of SMW:
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And there actually weren't that many slanted lines; most of the boundary of the island are actually horizontal and vertical lines. Instead, I believe the main reason it looks more convincing is because of all those little graphics of mountains and the castle and the house etc., giving numerous visual cues to the parallel/isometric nature of the view. I notice for example that in one of your screenshots where you have a ladder, the view already looks more convincing just because of the ladder.

Still, some diagonal lines will definitely help. Compare the following:

Code: Select all

 ____       ____
|    |     /    \
|____|    |\____/|
|    |    | |  | |
|    |    | |  | |
|    |    | |  | |
|____|     \|__|/
The figure on the left is basically what your hub looks like right now. I think it'll be a step in the right direction to make it more like the figure on the right.
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Post by Qloof234 » Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:56 pm

*slaps forehead*

Now I see what I did wrong! While I was putting the hub together in-game it looked kind of flat, but then looking at it while it was running seemed to make it look more 3-D to me (probably because of Lyglo's shadow).

I'll get to working on that soon. Thanks! :wink:



In the meantime, some more updates...



Level 4 and 5 are done, along with the hub updates for both of them.

Level 4:

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This one is a remake of level 2 out of Dlcs's original Lyglo game. It has a few risky jumps in it, too. :twisted:


Level 5:

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This one is evil. You have to scale the level while avoiding the rising lava. It has a few glitches in its wrap around system (When Lyglo leaves the level on either side, he warps to the other side), but it's possible.

And now, the hub:

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There's a bridge, a ladder, blue bricks... lots of stuff here. I'm gonna make the blue bricks 3-D to help give off the isometric/parallel feel of the hub. :wink:
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Post by jdl » Thu Jun 18, 2009 9:02 pm

Wow, the Hub looks excellent.

Hmm... Some autoscrolling lava? Sounds dangerous. :twisted:

I don't suppose you will make underwater levels, will you? :wink:
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Post by dlcs18 » Thu Jun 18, 2009 9:27 pm

It looks awesome. :D I can't wait for the next demo! (Darn, I have to...) :lol:
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Post by Qloof234 » Thu Jun 18, 2009 10:05 pm

jdl wrote:Wow, the Hub looks excellent.

Hmm... Some autoscrolling lava? Sounds dangerous. :twisted:

I don't suppose you will make underwater levels, will you? :wink:
Thanks!

The auto-scrolling lava bit marks a raise in difficulty - The only advice I have for this level when you play it (when the demo comes of course) is to relax and not get angry. :lol:

Underwater levels? Sounds good. I'll take a look at the kind of stuff I could do with that. :wink:
dlcs18 wrote:It looks awesome. :D I can't wait for the next demo! (Darn, I have to...) :lol:
Thanks!

Next demo should come out once I finish the boss for World 1.


Does anyone have any ideas on what I should do for the boss itself?

Only thing; Lyglo doesn't directly fight the boss. Anyone played Super Mario Bros. (NES)? That's the kind of thing I want for the boss, where you have to hit the switch at the other side of the room to defeat it.
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Post by dlcs18 » Thu Jun 18, 2009 10:54 pm

Maybe there could be a small platform with lava under it and the boss follows you all the time and you have to use that to your advantage by luring the boss off the edge of the platform. 8)
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Post by jdl » Thu Jun 18, 2009 11:20 pm

Hmm.... A boss.... Will Iggy work? (Just kidding)

Maybe Lyglo should have to guess (or press) something in the right order in the boss room. And the order is given secretly throughout the level. (Castle?)

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Post by Qloof234 » Thu Jun 18, 2009 11:24 pm

dlcs18 wrote:Maybe there could be a small platform with lava under it and the boss follows you all the time and you have to use that to your advantage by luring the boss off the edge of the platform. 8)
Image

Just kidding. I'll use something like that (minus tilting) for the boss, then. :D
jdl wrote:Hmm.... A boss.... Will Iggy work? (Just kidding)

Maybe Lyglo should have to guess (or press) something in the right order in the boss room. And the order is given secretly throughout the level. (Castle?)

jdl


:lol:

Sounds good to me - a button sequence that's hinted at throughout the level, which is then used to get to the boss... I'll use that in the level.
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