Pandora Pandora Panic

[PokeParadox]

Another quick update:
The KeyMapper is integrated into SimpleJoy on my local copy. It does work with my test script, but currently I've only managed to map the cursor keys using a script.

I'm currently trying to figure out why other keys are not mapping properly, but things are looking positive.
EDIT: Keys are fixed... Mouse and JoyPad to follow.

 

[gruso]

I've had a thorough look at audio requirements this morning, this seems to be where we're at:


Music/sound needed:

- Spaceinvader - retro space invaders type music
- Jumper - platform type music, kind of industrial/space/mario
- Punchwrestler - cheesy MIDI Rocky theme
- Rocket Escape - escape music, duh. Hawaii Babylon Five-O.
- Balldrop - slow, downward slide whistle should do it.
- One Button Bandit - ambient casino background noise


Waiting for next build (or some video) to check these out:

- Plander
- Doublenubtrouble
- Puttputt
- Reflex (I have this in the current build, but without sounds)


These games are done / don't need anything more:

- Spellingcontest
- Pong
- PanicAttack
- PanJoust
- BadVista
- Distracted Maths

 

[Trip]

Just tried the Linux build and it's looking great but I lost 2 lives with game 5 crashing out twice.
Showed game 5 screen and then bypassed the game entirely and went to the lives lost screen.
I'll keep trying though and report back

EDIT: Game 5 crashes out on me every time. Using Ubuntu Hardy Heron release. Give me a shout if you need any more info

 

[MarkoeZ]

Just tried the Linux build and it's looking great but I lost 2 lives with game 5 crashing out twice.
Showed game 5 screen and then bypassed the game entirely and went to the lives lost screen.
I'll keep trying though and report back

Thanks for the compliment! but, uhmmm, the game order is random, so i don't have a clue what game you are referring to If it's the spelling game, that problem is solved. Otherwise, please let us know so we can look into it.

Cheers!!

 

[Oncer]

I played the Linux build, and I really like the music. The core game artwork is great as well.
The game itself needs to get better, though.
- there is a glitch at the main menu where some of the transparent areas of the "Pandora Panic!" sprite are white instead of transparent
- I managed to get a segfault every time I played it. one of them is in the spelling game, but there are others as well
- some of the games are not fitting in the concept - ie. the pong game is too long, then there are some that are too complicated to pick up the first time you see them
- some of the games are not fitting in terms of style.. the math game for example has this weird futuristic style with its own font that is hard to read. that is not good because the player should be able to pick up a new game in maybe 1-2 seconds, which is made incredibly hard by the ever changing graphics and font style

Well, that is my opinion. I know there is some criticism in it, but you should really take those points into consideration - see it as a way to make your game even better.

 

[PokeParadox]

Just tried the Linux build and it's looking great but I lost 2 lives with game 5 crashing out twice.
Showed game 5 screen and then bypassed the game entirely and went to the lives lost screen.
I'll keep trying though and report back

EDIT: Game 5 crashes out on me every time. Using Ubuntu Hardy Heron release. Give me a shout if you need any more info

I think I know what you are referring to. This is not a bug... It's basically a debug feature! I'm serious. I think you are referring to DoubleNub Trouble. Currently it's impossible to play without a dual analogue pad. I put in a check for this and it gets skipped if one isn't present. Unfortunately it does not check the last win/lose state so although you skip past... you er... win some, you lose some.

This will be rectified hopefully with the inclusion of the KeyMapper to SimpleJoy and you will be able to map your USB pad completely to the game.

 

[PokeParadox]

I played the Linux build, and I really like the music. The core game artwork is great as well.
The game itself needs to get better, though.
- there is a glitch at the main menu where some of the transparent areas of the "Pandora Panic!" sprite are white instead of transparent
- I managed to get a segfault every time I played it. one of them is in the spelling game, but there are others as well
- some of the games are not fitting in the concept - ie. the pong game is too long, then there are some that are too complicated to pick up the first time you see them
- some of the games are not fitting in terms of style.. the math game for example has this weird futuristic style with its own font that is hard to read. that is not good because the player should be able to pick up a new game in maybe 1-2 seconds, which is made incredibly hard by the ever changing graphics and font style

Well, that is my opinion. I know there is some criticism in it, but you should really take those points into consideration - see it as a way to make your game even better.

We do appreciate this kind of feedback. We have lots to do that is clear. Some of these points have been brought up a couple of times before.

• Segfaults - I have been trying to track them down. The problem is that valgrind is not giving me anything coherent to work with. We do have a memleak... and it's running circles around me, since everywhere I check and double check things are freeing properly. I obviously need to get this fixed before release (3 weeks approx?)
• Games - I understand they need balancing. For Pong we are thinking of turning it into a "Boss Game" Basically this is a longer minigame. WarioWare did this too.
  As for game style, it is a community project and this will gradually improve as our artists/musicians/coders realise improvements.
  I do not want to interfere majorly with anyone's submitted games, short of fixing any bugs they may have overlooked. WarioWare was also a patchwork of styles I might add.
  If you think something could be improved upon, the best bet is to take specific games and make suggestions and hope the minigame author will act upon them (As you have done with DistractedMaths).
  
  Well I have work, I will try try try try to get the JoyMapper finished once I'm back. Then I will focus on the memleaks exclusively... then I might even finish my Plander minigame... but it's not a priority right now.

 

[pstudio]

Hello,

it's been a long time since I last took a look at this project (Real life stuff getting in the way). It's good to see it progressing nicely.
The menu especially adds a nice professionel look to the game

I've read in an other topic, that the spelling game had a flaw were it would fail if you pressed other keyboard inputs than the letters A-Z. Since it doesn't appear to be fixed yet, I just made a simple fix. However I'm to lazy to upload the project again, just for that small fix, so I would request someone (Poke I guess) to add the following conditional around the code in the SDL_KEYDOWN case in the userInput() function.
CODE
if (event.key.keysym.unicode > 64 && event.key.keysym.unicode < 91
||event.key.keysym.unicode > 96 && event.key.keysym.unicode < 123)


As you can see, a quick dirty fix. On my computer the keyboard generates lowercase letters and I would expect it to do the same on other systems, but I added the possibility for uppercase letters just to be sure.

Else I have nothing more to say than good luck with the project and keep on the good work. I hope to be able to add at least one more game to the project, but that may first happen after the andora1: has been released.

 

[DasFool]

I'd like to add another game too, I just need to come up with something simple and fun.

 

[PokeParadox]

Hello,

it's been a long time since I last took a look at this project (Real life stuff getting in the way). It's good to see it progressing nicely.
The menu especially adds a nice professionel look to the game

I've read in an other topic, that the spelling game had a flaw were it would fail if you pressed other keyboard inputs than the letters A-Z. Since it doesn't appear to be fixed yet, I just made a simple fix. However I'm to lazy to upload the project again, just for that small fix, so I would request someone (Poke I guess) to add the following conditional around the code in the SDL_KEYDOWN case in the userInput() function.
CODE
if (event.key.keysym.unicode > 64 && event.key.keysym.unicode < 91
||event.key.keysym.unicode > 96 && event.key.keysym.unicode < 123)

As you can see, a quick dirty fix. On my computer the keyboard generates lowercase letters and I would expect it to do the same on other systems, but I added the possibility for uppercase letters just to be sure.

Else I have nothing more to say than good luck with the project and keep on the good work. I hope to be able to add at least one more game to the project, but that may first happen after the andora1: has been released.

Thanks for the fix I'll add that tomorrow, unless MarkoeZ manages to beat me to it.

Nothing to update from me. I had a stupidly tough day, and I just want to curl up into a ball... I'll work on things tomorrow. h34r:

 

[Zephyr-san]

Yo! I made a few awesome little music pieces for this game! I have several variations for the Ball Drop one (a falling sound), 3 different levels (increasingly more intense) for Punch Wrestling, and some really cool escape music for Rocket Escape. I haven't played the game yet, so I don't know how they'll fit, but I think you'll will like them (I do ). So I'll upload them as soon as I can, and I plan on doing the other stuff on the list and what ever other music that needs to be done. Keen!

 

[gruso]

Brilliant, great to hear! (I was planning to take on the whole list myself... you've just taken a load off my mind. ) I've got some ambient casino background noise for One Button Bandit, and I've got something planned for Space Invader.

Let's list this shiz:

- Spaceinvader - Gruso
- Jumper
- Punchwrestler - Zephyr-san
- Rocket Escape - Zephyr-san
- Balldrop - Zephyr-san
- One Button Bandit - Gruso
- Plander
- Doublenubtrouble
- Puttputt
- Reflex

 

[Zephyr-san]

In what way to I get these to you?

 

[gruso]

The ideal way is to deal directly with each game dev via PM/email, that way you can work through drafts and mould your work to the game requirements.

Game authors listed here:
CODE
http://projectinfinity.org.uk/doku.php/homebrew:gamesandorapanic#contributions


But if you just want to post them in here to start with (and no one will complain about that!), you can host them somewhere and post the links. Most free hosting sites suck to be honest... what sort of file sizes are they? I'd be happy to host them on my little chunk of ISP webspace.


[edit] If you're keen, my Gmail is my forum name, but with a double "r".

 

[Zephyr-san]

Keen I am. And thanks, I think I'll post the first pack here, as I could not find the creator of Rocket Escape on the wiki. I think I actually managed to smush it all into around one megabyte, and I'm going to host it with drop.io, they seem fairly savvy.

 

[gruso]

No worries. Any dramas and I'm happy to help out.

(Oh, I think Rocket Escape was done by PokeParadox himself. Won't even credit himself on the project page, such modesty.)

 

[MarkoeZ]

hiya all,

Had some personal stuff, but ready to do some work again

Good to see the music is being worked on! About RocketEscape (indeed by Poke himself), i think that project kind of became Plander, so i don't think it will be in the launch build of PandoraPanic. Plander is a rocket game too, so i think the music can just be used for that.

About DoubleNubTrouble, it's just a very, very simple shooting game using both nubs. It only has a shot sound atm. a video can be found here, right after the test/wip of jumper
CODE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elOSDqlowLU


And if you post links to the music here, one of us will add it to PandoraPanic (im helping out with the small stuff so i have svn access).

My progress: Currently i'm working on instructions/button guides for the minigames and menu's. Also if i have time i'll make an updated build today (hopefully windows and linux). That and tweaking jumper (still not sure which one of the great photo's i'll use, thanks Gruso!!! : )

 

[PokeParadox]

What he ^ said!
Rocket Escape did indeed become Plander. and Plander is currently on pause... I will try to get it done for the upcoming release!
Rocket Escape is not cancelled either, however.
Plander will have you taking off from one platform and attempting to land on another, with limited fuel. The platforms will be randomly placed further apart based on the difficulty.

Rocket Escape is launch silo from hell. You are taking off, but doors are shutting, laser defences are misfiring. You got to get that ship outta there in a strict timelimit!

Plander may make it, Rocket Escape will be further down the release dates!

MyStuff:
Finishing up USB Joypad mapping now. Keys are working great. Mouse buttons are able to be map. Mouse axes are broken... The code looks to work, but it's a bit glitchy... Hopefully joypad will be fine, but I'm thinking to take the mouse support away for the first release since it's only used on the main menu currently.

 

[gruso]

Ah goodly. What's the max run time for Plander? I should have something that's pretty much ready to go.

Also, I PM'd Miggles last week but haven't heard back, so I'll just paste this here for now. It's some ambient casino noise for One Button Bandit. Probably too long, easy to trim with Audacity though.
CODE
http://users.tpg.com.au/pw2007/PP-OneArm.ogg

Sample attribution:
CODE
By Incarnadine (http://www.freesound.org/usersViewSingle.php?id=36298)
Living Minute - Casino Slot Machine Room.mp3 (http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=13225)

 

[gruso]

Suggestion for Plander:
CODE
http://users.tpg.com.au/pw2007/PP-Plander-draft.ogg

Spacial ambience and percussive tension, can you feel that, u-huh.