[Original Game] Microbes!

[Rockthesmurf]

Something I do in MacOSX builds of our engine (which I reckon would probably work on *nix including Pandora):


static const bool kUseExceptionHandler = true;

void handler(int sig)
{
void *array[ 16 ];
size_t size;

// get void*'s for all entries on the stack
size = backtrace(array, PiArraySize( array ) );

// print out all the frames to stderr
fprintf(stderr, "Error: signal %d:\n", sig);
backtrace_symbols_fd( array, size, 2 );
exit( 1 );
}

int main( int argc, char ** argv )
{
if ( kUseExceptionHandler )
{
signal(SIGSEGV, handler);
signal(SIGBUS, handler);
}

// Etc.
}

Which means if a crash occurs, the callstack is dumped out, you can then use addr2line to see what the crash was (just be sure to keep non stripped versions of the build around that you can match up to the version being run). Just thought I'd mention it on the off chance it is helpful and you hadn't already thought of it.

 

[_wb_]

That's a very good idea Steven, I'll include something like that in the next update! Thanks for sharing!

Also, thanks to everyone who voted for Microbes in the DragonBox compo! Thanks to all of you, Microbes got 2nd place!

 

[_wb_]

Oh and also of course I have to thank DREDD (and his son Sean) and b_o_b for their level packs!

As promised, I will give both of you 20% of the prize, so I guess that will be a 30 EUR voucher for the DragonBox shop for each of you. Congratulations! Please send me a pm so we can arrange with ED to get my voucher split up.

Finally a big thank you to everyone who contributed feedback, bug reports, levels, feature suggestions, or just moral support!

 

[b_o_b]

Thanks for repeating the offer _wb_ but including the levels in your game are credits enough  

Congrats on the 2nd place. You had some tough competition, but the price is certainly deserved!

 

 

[sswam]

I agree with b_o_b 

and thanks Steven for that debugging tip, very useful.  I should go and read the manual now!

 

[_wb_]

Update with compo4all capabilities on the repo! You need to have created a C4A profile with C4A-MAME to make it work.

Your score is defined as the total number of gold and silver stars in all the levels of the default level set (Tutorial, Microbes 1/2/3). If you have a gold star, you implicitly also have a silver star (but of course not the other way around). So you can get the highest score by completing all levels in Insane difficulty in advanced mode (that gives you 5 gold and 5 silver stars per level). If that is even possible at all; I doubt it.

If you have played the game before (and completed some levels), you can immediately get a score on http://c4a.openpandora.org/ by simply starting and quitting Microbes while wifi is on. You can also play offline and simply start/quit the game when you're online to get your new score uploaded.

 

[kirkanoss]

thanks for the update wb love this game

 

[_wb_]

C'mon guys, submit your scores!

 

[dummi]

Ui, now I have to play it.With online compatition it's more exciting.

And thanks for mention me in the credits

 

[_wb_]

I'm not getting a lot of competition it seems. It looks like everyone is playing in Easy to get 1 lousy gold+silver star per level (at least that's the default difficulty setting). You better try Hard or even Very Hard, and use the simple mode (silver stars) to find a good strategy for solving a level - if you can build while paused and see the microbe paths, things are much easier because you can set the speed to 9x and toggle pause all the time to do your next moves. So I can do some levels in Very Hard with silver stars (4 of them) but only in Hard with gold stars (3 of them).

Can nobody beat my highscore?

 

[kirkanoss]

sorry wb just too many great things to play around with and trying to get my holes dug before it's too dam hot. at lest it's not just us two anymore in the running. thanks again for this great game

 

[dummi]

Mmh I only get two silver stars per level. What have I to do to get a gold one? am I so terrible at this game?

 

[kirkanoss]

turn off build while paused and see the microbe paths in the option

 

[_wb_]

That's right, kirkanos. If "build while paused" and "see microbe paths" are BOTH turned off, you're in "advanced mode" and you get gold stars. Otherwise (if one of those options is turned on, even if only briefly during a game), you're in "simple mode" and you get silver stars.

 

[_wb_]

So just to make it clear how the score works:

Easy difficulty + Simple mode (paths and/or build-while-paused) : 1 silver star

Easy difficulty + Advanced mode (no paths, no build-while-paused) : 1 gold star and 1 implicit silver star = 2 total stars

Normal + Simple mode: 2 silver stars

Normal + Advanced mode: 2 gold stars and 2 silver stars -> 4 total stars

Hard, simple: 3

Hard, advanced: 6

Very hard, simple: 4

Very hard, advanced: 8

Insane, simple: 5

Insane, advanced: 10

So each level gives at most 10 stars. Combinations of the above are also possible: e.g. if you beat a level at Very hard, simple mode (4 silver stars) and also at Hard, advanced mode (3 gold stars) you get 7 total stars.

There are 7 levels in the tutorial, 9 in Microbes 1, 11 in Microbes 2 and 3, so there are 38 levels that count towards the C4A score. The extra levels packs don't count (yet), maybe later I'll add those as one or more separate C4A entries.

So the theoretical max score is 380, if all levels can be solved in "Insane" (I doubt that). If you solve all levels in the default Easy+advanced setting, you get 38*2=76 stars. If you solve everything in Normal+advanced, it will be double that.

Note that when you first unlock a new level pack, it automatically goes to that level pack, but there are still unplayed levels left in the previous level pack! So make sure to revisit all level packs!

 

[dummi]

A lot of to play. I can't even beat the tutorial at hard + advance mode

 

[_wb_]

I can confirm that every level in the 4 standard level packs can be completed at least in hard + advanced mode (I just completed all levels in that setting).

 

[dummi]

I believe you. But I doubt in my skills :-D