Upskyway


yoyoyoyoyoyoyo said:
maybe you could add jumps and when you launch off them you move faster. So youll have to think fast or youll fall. thats my idea.
Oh, like speed-boosting tiles? Definitely :)
 
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And here's another one: anti-grav hoops! Again, don't know how easily they'd fit into your engine, but if they were doable, they'd once more add a concept of height without requiring you to render 3D heights.

Basic idea would be that if you pass through one it's as though you've just started a new jump at the same point where the hoop is, regardless of current "height".

Implications would be for vast expanses of open space that you have to navigate through where there simply aren't any tiles. Or worse still, just aren't any that don't make you explode on impact (remember the red tiles on the original Skyroads - so frustrating, those).

Assuming they're rings, they needn't have more depth than a simple zoomed sprite allows, I'd think, and therefore you could probably do them just by setting a sprite to appear and zoom closer, with the effect only if it was a certain way through it's animation. I imagine it would work with your road-drawing method.
 
That's a cool idea, I'll add it to the list of things to play with when the time comes :) Scaled sprites shouldn't be a problem to add to the current code.

Today I discovered the speed of 8bit graphics... The GP2X is blazing fast! The road rendering now gets 47fps at 50Mhz. I'm curious what speed-up Sqdef will get from 8bit graphics. :)
 
whoops, when i said levels (re: dschump) i meant height levels. sorry for the confusion.

found it...

http://files.chatnfiles.com/Beachware%20-%...ADE/DSCHUMP.ZIP

not as great as i remember...but anyway my point was that there are other ways to make it challenging besides heights. although the reversal thing would be kind of harder with perspective. i had forgotten that dschump was top down, that makes it easier to see where you're going. anyway, carry on :p
 
Looking forward to this one. Oh and Alex, please slowly increase difficulty in levels. Sticky, speedups, jumps and even stops are ok but the reverse steering, if you add it, thats *hard* and should be the introduced later imo.
 
I absolutely loved Skyroads back in the day (still do actually!), so this is an obvious "yay" thread. :)

You sure you don't want to add height? I mean, every heighttile only needs, what, three quads, right? Ohwell, guess not. :p
What about walls then? Walls you need to jump over? They could just be simple .png files being loaded..

Or maybe not..

Ohwell, can't wait to see a beta/alpha/fullgame of this! :)

EDIT: if you explain the way you're handling roads, I'd be willing to design some of these. Having played aplenty of the original Skyroads, I feel I know a few evil tricks the original game uses on you that can really get up your nerves. :p)
 
alex, i am so looking forward to this! I used to worship skyroads back in the days. Iam sure this is going to turn out really good as your name stands for quality already! I am also excited to see with what graphics you will come up with.
 
b_o_b said:
Looking forward to this one. Oh and Alex, please slowly increase difficulty in levels. Sticky, speedups, jumps and even stops are ok but the reverse steering, if you add it, thats *hard* and should be the introduced later imo.
Sure, everything will be gradual :)

Megagun said:
You sure you don't want to add height? I mean, every heighttile only needs, what, three quads, right? Ohwell, guess not. :p

Ohwell, can't wait to see a beta/alpha/fullgame of this! :)

EDIT: if you explain the way you're handling roads, I'd be willing to design some of these. Having played aplenty of the original Skyroads, I feel I know a few evil tricks the original game uses on you that can really get up your nerves. :p)
I'm playing around with ideas on adding height. The problem is that this is not real 3D, and stupid problems appear where they shouldn't. I'll get a lot more time to do this in two weeks or so.

I'm glad you want to make evil levels, roads will be editable in Notepad (and later on also through an editor).

xnopasaranx said:
alex, i am so looking forward to this! I used to worship skyroads back in the days. Iam sure this is going to turn out really good as your name stands for quality already! I am also excited to see with what graphics you will come up with.
Hehe, thanks :) I'll post updates when I get something new going.
 
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Sounds great - can't wait :D

I think for a Skyroads/ Trailblazer type game it is very important to be able to restart the level very quickly after falling off - you should have an 'instant start again' selection when you crash or fall off. It gets frustrating going through menu's when you have made a mistake ;)

Have you played Snakes on N-Gage? Different type of game, but you can have buttons to slow and speed up your 'craft' with only a limited amount of boost/speed. If you are implementing jumps, a limited boost could introduce a great strategy element where you have to reserve the amount of boost you have in order to make certain jumps further on in a level. This would require careful testing to make sure it is fun and not frustrating!

Looks impressive from what you have said so far :D Best of luck with this.
 
Nice one.

As the author of one of the countless Flash clones of trailblazer/skyroads, I can only applaud the initiative.

Mine is based from 'Babal' from the HP48, using the same level design in a simple Mode7 engine.
Didn't have time to improve it yet, though... some power ups would have been nice.
 
sataniC Virus: Speed increase will of course be gradual (those little bars bottom right), and the limited jump supply will go well with the harder levels. Thanks :)

Newsdee: Looks cool, makes me wish I had working arrow keys on my keyboard :D
 
I don't know about Christmas, my target is New Year. I'll release some other things before Christmas though hopefully :)
 
Alex said:
I'll release some other things before Christmas though hopefully
:) You're the man Alex!
For the height, perhaps you could cheat and use scaled tiles like you'll use scaled sprites?
(sorry if this sound stupid, no dev' here ;) )
 
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Hi Alex,
I totally missed this thread. Looks like a cracking idea, I used to love Trailblazer on my Atari STE back in the day. Just wanted to add my support! :D

Blix2x is taking up a lot of my time since I completed sqdef... Keep 'em coming!
 
... heights!

upskywayh1.png
upskywayh2.png


The framerate shown is at 50MHz. Only 1 level of height is shown, but more are possible and will of course be implemented :)

I must've tried 7 or 8 ways to get these working accurately and at a nice speed, finally success! :ph34r:
 
Nice, we're gonna have a right n' proper game like Skyroads, complete with heights! Looking nice..
 
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