Pandora Pandora Panic

[PokeParadox]

I'm playing with shrinking the sweetspot, increasing the focus velocity, and decreasing the countdown. It seems more fun like that, hehe.

*edit, I also made the sweetspot move around randomly so it isn't always in the top part of the bar.

Nice, those changes will really make the game more interesting in the long run

It's just great to see so many new additions and updates, PandoraPanic! is getting better every day it seems.

Yep yep, we just need to scrap those memleaks we have acquired and some lazy toad needs to stop having a vacation and finish the joystick keymapper!

 

[DasFool]

Ok, one more update. I've hardcoded the game to not ramp difficulty until level 10 and above.

CODE
http://www.filesavr.com/puttputt_2

 

[todd]

Correct me if I'm wrong: I'm speaking from memory here.

However, memory suggests that CODE
variables[2].getInt()
contains the level in terms of all games run. So if there are 15 games and each one gets run once, the second time my game runs, it's probably going to have a level number greater than 15. So,
as I recall, I keep track of the level inside my game, using CODE
variables[2].getInt()
to check whether we're running the same series (variables[2] is greater than the last time I checked) or a new game (variables[2] is less than or equal to last time I checked).

I haven't looked at your code, DasFool. But I could totally see the difficulty ramping up too fast if you relied on CODE
variables[2].getInt()
reporting the level for your minigame instead of the game overall. I dealt with this in PandoraPanic.

Make sense?

Probably I should check whether this is in the wiki...

--Todd

 

[MarkoeZ]

Correct me if I'm wrong: I'm speaking from memory here.

However, memory suggests that CODE
variables[2].getInt()
contains the level in terms of all games run. So if there are 15 games and each one gets run once, the second time my game runs, it's probably going to have a level number greater than 15. So,
as I recall, I keep track of the level inside my game, using CODE
variables[2].getInt()
to check whether we're running the same series (variables[2] is greater than the last time I checked) or a new game (variables[2] is less than or equal to last time I checked).

I haven't looked at your code, DasFool. But I could totally see the difficulty ramping up too fast if you relied on CODE
variables[2].getInt()
reporting the level for your minigame instead of the game overall. I dealt with this in PandoraPanic.

Make sense?

Probably I should check whether this is in the wiki...

--Todd

That's another way to do it. But since it's theoretically possible that the same game comes up 4 times in the first 10 games, it would get hard real quick.

What i meant (and used in my minigames) is just to divide the total nuber of games played by a number (10 for instance), that way a level increase happens after 10 minigames, then 20, and so on.

Both ways work fine when playtesting though, so use whatever you see most fit

Edit: @ DasFool: your download link does not seem to work

 

[DasFool]

Whenever I've programmed and used a randomizing function I've usually made temprorary holder to keep track of what randoms items haven't been selected yet (in an array or something) and applied the random to that holder. Of course this is only sort of random, but it keeps the player from seeing the same item more than twice in a row (the only time they may see something two times in a row is when the holder needs creating after each item has been seen).

Also, not sure what happened to the download. I'll re-up it later, it's on my laptop.

 

[DasFool]

Ok, let's try this one more time. This is the newest build for PuttPutt:

CODE
http://www.filesavr.com/puttputt

 

[Vorporeal]

Correct me if I'm wrong: I'm speaking from memory here.

However, memory suggests that CODE
variables[2].getInt()
contains the level in terms of all games run. So if there are 15 games and each one gets run once, the second time my game runs, it's probably going to have a level number greater than 15. So,
as I recall, I keep track of the level inside my game, using CODE
variables[2].getInt()
to check whether we're running the same series (variables[2] is greater than the last time I checked) or a new game (variables[2] is less than or equal to last time I checked).

I haven't looked at your code, DasFool. But I could totally see the difficulty ramping up too fast if you relied on CODE
variables[2].getInt()
reporting the level for your minigame instead of the game overall. I dealt with this in PandoraPanic.

Make sense?

Probably I should check whether this is in the wiki...

--Todd

That's another way to do it. But since it's theoretically possible that the same game comes up 4 times in the first 10 games, it would get hard real quick.

What i meant (and used in my minigames) is just to divide the total nuber of games played by a number (10 for instance), that way a level increase happens after 10 minigames, then 20, and so on.

Both ways work fine when playtesting though, so use whatever you see most fit

Edit: @ DasFool: your download link does not seem to work


I feel that this should be standardized, so that the minigames have a connected feel. Maybe we'd have the difficulty increase after every 10 levels, and you'd see a "Level Up!" screen after each block of 10 to let you know that it's going to get a bit harder. It would add to the polish.

 

[DasFool]

I was kind of thinking the same thing, Vorporeal. It would be nice to have all the game difficulties follow a similar scaling algorithm.

 

[azmodean]

Whenever I've programmed and used a randomizing function I've usually made temprorary holder to keep track of what randoms items haven't been selected yet (in an array or something) and applied the random to that holder. Of course this is only sort of random, but it keeps the player from seeing the same item more than twice in a row (the only time they may see something two times in a row is when the holder needs creating after each item has been seen).

If your goal is to not use the same item twice in a row, wouldn't it be better to remove the previously selected item from the holder, and swap it back in once a new item is selected? (new item is removed from list of course)

This could also be extended by making the "previously selected item" holder into a queue that holds some number of items to give the guarantee that an item is seen at most once every <queue length> iterations.

 

[MarkoeZ]

Ok, i know what you guy's mean. But i've been playing PandoraPanic! a lot and it REALLY does feel like the games are leveling up at the same pace. that's why i said it's not an issue.

Also, with the April release of the Pandora getting more and more realistic, we really need to get all the loose ends tied up. I think that is more important right now than messing with individual minigames.

Ofcourse, since this is an open source project, anyone is free to adjust games if they really feel like it

 

[todd]

Whenever I've programmed and used a randomizing function I've usually made temprorary holder to keep track of what randoms items haven't been selected yet (in an array or something) and applied the random to that holder. Of course this is only sort of random, but it keeps the player from seeing the same item more than twice in a row (the only time they may see something two times in a row is when the holder needs creating after each item has been seen).

Yeah, if you want to use each thing once, you don't have a lot of choices. Probably there's a pseudorandom algorthm out there someplace that guarantees no repeats. But I think the easy thing to do is make a list of items sorted randomly in place. Then you can simply iterate through the list (or pop things off if it's a stack), re-initializing when empty. Basically the same thing that you're talking about.

--Todd

 

[gruso]

Hey guys, just a quick post before I fly off to work. Which games still need music? Rocket Escape is one, I think. If we can make a list of all music-less games, well, then we'll have a list.

 

[MarkoeZ]

Hey guys, just a quick post before I fly off to work. Which games still need music? Rocket Escape is one, I think. If we can make a list of all music-less games, well, then we'll have a list.

Hey Gruso!

At the moment:

Spaceinvader
Jumper
Plander
Spellingcontest(with applause)
Doublenubtrouble(has shotsound)
Puttputt(has sounds)
Punchwrestler (also with sounds)
Reflex (but has a bit of musical thing of it's own)
Pong (it's pong, it only needs *beep* ; )

So still enough to be done.

Also i made a background for Jumper, but im not really happy with it. Could be more industrial.So if anyone is up for it, let me know.

Cheers!

 

[DasFool]

I'm not sure PuttPutt necessarily needs music. Usually people want it very quiet when they are trying to sink a putt, you know, for concentration or whatnot.

 

[MarkoeZ]

Yeah i tried to edit, but it seemed to mess up the picture.

Anyway, the games that i added comments to are quite ok, some could use music, and some don't, just like puttputt. They really need to be confirmed with the author/fit in the mood.

The top 3 could certainly use sounds/music. And nubtrouble as well.

Since i'm posting: the text in the screenshot is the starting text, explaining a bit

 

[gruso]

Ok, music stuff noted. Hopefully I can start looking at it in the next week.

Re: your background pic there, I happen to work in a steel plant, so I took a pic in my travels this morning. Two versions here:

CODE
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc333/Gruso/pipesbw.png

http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc333/Gruso/pipesglow.png


Note totally amateur photoshop filter effect on the second one Personally I think the plain black & white is more striking.

I'll see if I can grab some more. I don't have access to all the -really- fun areas though.

 

[MarkoeZ]

Ok, music stuff noted. Hopefully I can start looking at it in the next week.

Re: your background pic there, I happen to work in a steel plant, so I took a pic in my travels this morning. Two versions here:

CODE
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc333/Gruso/pipesbw.png

http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc333/Gruso/pipesglow.png

Note totally amateur photoshop filter effect on the second one Personally I think the plain black & white is more striking.

I'll see if I can grab some more. I don't have access to all the -really- fun areas though.


Woah! great pictures looks good allready, and going to try some stuff with it as well. Also, if you could make more that would be great (and i'm quite sure there are more ppl that could use them in the future ; )

 

[gruso]

Here's one I prepared earlier. My favourite afternoon shadow, with a little post processing.
CODE
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc333/Gruso/stairway800x480.png
You can almost see the bad guys coming out of those doorways. ;-)

 

[todd]

Here's one I prepared earlier. My favourite afternoon shadow, with a little post processing.
CODE
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc333/Gruso/stairway800x480.png
You can almost see the bad guys coming out of those doorways. ;-)

Sweet photo. It'd be fun to build a Donkey Kong clone with real chemical plant photos providing the play surfaces.

 

[PokeParadox]

Very minute update: The KeyMapper is so far so good, I've nearly got it parsing my default keymap file. I'm hoping I'll have something to show very soon.
Right now... sleep!