Battlejewels 1.0 Posted!


skeezix

Internal Development
Joined
Mar 11, 2003
Messages
8,063
Website
www.codejedi.com
playfield.jpg


Lots of little and some big things in this release; I wanted to draw a line in the sand -- this is 1.0; I can take a couple weeks to figure out exactly where I'm going for 1.1, 2.0 and so on, and oyu get a nice polished release. I'll spend a few days working on the manual and website to document how to play, what the gear effects are and so on, but thats why this is pre-release.

Some new stuff -- a 'suspend' option in the quit/options menu (Start button during a match), which lets you snapshot the current match and quit; so if you find a match going long, or your battery is running low, or you need to pass out from exhaustion before you die in an game cafe, just hit suspend. The character sheet (yours and opponents) now are split across a series of 'tabs', so you can see more and in a better organized fashion. Theres lots of other little changes, and theres more to go.. but later baby.

Hope you like it!

http://www.codejedi.com/battlejewels/

(I think someone has been updating the archive.. thanks; I'm running on exhaustion myself; the entire game has been coded 3-5am, which is the only time you get with a newborn around :)

Edit: BTW, I've also posted the Windows build, so you can play hooky at work. Down the road a bit I'll post Mac OSX and Linux-desktop versions and such.. just no time :)
 
Skeezix, I love this game and cant wait to stick this latest build on!!!!!

Many thanks!!!
 
goodbye, life B) thankyou so much!

might i make a suggestion? you know how when you go to equip something, and you hit Y and it brings up the info screen telling you what level you need to be to use it? how about having the same info screen when you hit Y in the shop, when you are selling something? that way you can tell what's worth keeping or not ;)

the AI in this version seems a bit easier than previous? or maybe i have just not played enough
 
Most of the places where an inventory screen is shown, you can ask for item descriptions .. /me checks .. okay, you're right, the sell screen shows only the brief item description, not the details. I'll add to my list :p

AI is same as the last few builds; some guys are a little weaker (Dragon is dumber, but he also has nasty powers for example) so maybe you're just hitting that, or you're getting a good streak, or something :)

I should work more on the AI but I think it seems relatively well balanced now.. but I tend to code and not play :(

jeff
 
The new Menu system for the chara-stats is very nice. :)

skeezix said:
oh yes, Druids are very troublesome; a fun class ot play, and annoying to be against. ie: The mana switcheroo is classic Druid in BJ-books .. its potentially very useful or coudl totally screw yourself up. ie: you coudl cast it and get lots of mana, or you might be giving the other guy a pile of mana or a 6-in-a-row ifd you're not careful. The AI will use it to mess with your playfield arrangement, which coudl be good, could be bloody annoying. Fun stuff :)

Higher level version of that spell flips not only from blue to green, but actually from gold to another, or random colour to another, and so on. I think the highest level can cvonvert stuff to skulls, but I don't recall now as the higher levels arent' accessible yet :)

jeff
Yes, druids can convert blue to green, that pisses me of because I need blue the most. :lol: Plus, this conversions can start horrible chain reactions.
I have found a spell which produces skulls. Could be funny but when I create skulls on the playfield, my enemy can use them on next turn, hmmm...

Oh, I always fight tougher enemies than I am. The game could randomize the enemy selection a little bit more downwards so I can fight equal leveled Enemies or, for cannon fodder fun, weaker enemies. ;)

I had over 30 Matches now but I'm still Level 6. I think the leveling is to slow, well it feels to slow, maybe this factor could be improved. I still get only around 200 Exp. per fight, this is not more than at the beginning. ^^" But usualy you should get more exp. with harder enemies, especially if the enemy is tougher than me. :lol: I think this would be more satisfying somehow. :)

The game still feels slow, sometimes the moves are in slow-motion and I'm running at 200MHz. Problem with the inaccurate cursor still ingame....at least on my GP2X. ^^"""

But all the RPG Fun elements make the game great. I like to spend my time in the shops and in the chara-stats windows, Equipment window, searching for the best Item-skill-combination etc. This could be supportet more and more for my taste. :)
Last suggestion: In equipment window Idon't want to unequip an slot only to see the detailed descriptions of all unused Items in the inventory. Maybe an additional dialouge could do the unequipping while an normal X-selection of an slot just shows the available Items where the user can try to instantly change an Item for the body. If not possible than nothing happens.
 
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I had some program crashes again. Somehow a couple of Items in the Shop are still buggy. Now my equipped gloves are buggy to, If I want to see the Item stats in my inventory (with Y) program crashes. ^^""

Here, my complete savegames so far:

http://rapidshare.com/files/57220487/FP_BJ_save.rar.html

Skelly is still unfair. I had to fight one with Undead will level 3 and this makes Damage, give him 10HP back and let him do many moves. And this skill is cheap to, only 6 black and 4 blue afaik. I want such an overpowered skill to. :lol:
 
I will be adding a cap to free moves so no one can get moe than thir level in free moves in a row, or something ;)

Keep that save up for a few days; weekends I usually lose to my daughter, but I will want to take a peek :)

jeff
 
M'kay.

Uh, my buddy is testing the game on PC, he has no GP2X but likes every RPG-things. He says, the PC Version need registration. (?) I haven't tested BJ on PC but would be nice if there is no registration. I had send him my Savegames but they don't seeem to work on the PC Version. ^^""
 
The savegames are currently different for each platform, but I'll likely change that down the road.

The gp2x one is free, and the others are shareware. Tell him to send me the code it reveals on the registration window and I can send him unlock code.

jeff
 
skeezix said:
The savegames are currently different for each platform, but I'll likely change that down the road.

The gp2x one is free, and the others are shareware. Tell him to send me the code it reveals on the registration window and I can send him unlock code.

jeff

Very nice, thank you. You've got PN. ;)
 
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OK OK OK.... I've tried and tried to wait for this and play it on a F200, but it seems I'm going to break down and play the windows version. How depressing. ;)

Make sure you post about this on happypenguin.org (when you release the linux version). I read the news here daily.
 
Seems like there is an issue with saving games.
I've seen a couple instances where you save the game and then it is not there next time.

I've checked that it was there (go to load game after saving), then select quit battlejeweles.
next time you load the game, the last save game is missing.
 
skeezix said:
I think I have located this buglet; will fix it when I get a moment :)

jeff
Great!
Thanks for the awesome game!
 
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I've been playing v1.0 for quite a while now, and would like to make a few suggestions/bug reports for this nice game. I don't expect a new version but thought you may want to know if you are looking on what to improve.

- Tome of QuickSkill found in chest/joker does not activate. Can only sell it for 300 GP (still nice but bit dissappointing). Didn't get Tome of Craft but may have same issue.

- Game seems to slow down at times. I noticed in another game (Ghostpix) that turning off music increases response time. Perhaps worth testing with an option to disable sound (or at least the music).

- Add a confirmation to quit game... mistakenly pushed it a couple times when going to use an item!

- Game freezes when viewing some of the item descriptions.

- Would be nice to have the equip screen filter out items that are relevant to a give slot. I.e. if I'm equipping something on mainhand, only show mainhand items.

- Would be also nice to have an option to battle some more crappy opponents for a bit of quick XP.

- In some cases the priority is a bit odd when the game choses what jewels to clear. For example, if I make a 4 in a row vertically, and the top jewel has also a 3 match, then the 3 match activates and the 4-in-a-row is ignored. I would say both should clear, or at least the "better" one as it gives a bonus.


There you go... hope it's useful...
 
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