Rhythmgame first TV-Demo

[cat]

Hi!

I've uploaded the first TV-Style demo of the Rhythmgame.

New stuff:

*) TV look (obviously)
*) elevator buttons
*) replaced amulet by yellow score-digit
*) replaced multiply-counter by small lights
*) don't fade entire screen, only part inside the tv-screen (like old crt)

Download here: www.sonores.de/reyze/Rhythmgame_cat_0_2.zip

Things I'd be interested in:
*) is it good to play?
*) should I move the play-area? (up/down, stretch/unstretch)

The grey lines where the traps are flying is only temporary, I'll replace it with something nice once the position is fixed.

[abstauber]

Arrgh! The zip is corrupted, I can't decompress the file 

[cat]

I reuploaded it and downloaded it again and could not open it either... The file also had a different size than the one I uploaded.

Here is a new link http://www.fileupyours.com/view/285513/Rhythmgame_cat_0_2.zip please get the file and put it on your server, my webspace isn't that large.

[abstauber]

Re-Upped it, so the first link is functional again (Filezilla didn't mangle the zip ).

What should I say... graphically it is wonderful. Fade-In looks great, 3D mode always looked great and now even looks better. I still can't believe that the volt-meter actually works  Terrific!

So - everything looks awesome and I'm sure that this one of the most impressive mini-games AGS has ever seen.

On the downside the gameplay appears quite unpredictable to me: I never managed to fully charge the volt-meter, so either I simply suck or the active (hot-note) area is not where it is supposed to be. At least I have the feeling that the hot-note part is 5-10 px too low.
So my basic thought is that this area has to be a bit broader and a few px higher. At song 2 it's really noticeable.

Still.... wow!

[cat]

Re-Upped it, so the first link is functional again (Filezilla didn't mangle the zip ).

Thanks, I used the built-in Windows-FTP client, I guess I should get another software for that.

What should I say... graphically it is wonderful. Fade-In looks great, 3D mode always looked great and now even looks better. I still can't believe that the volt-meter actually works  Terrific!

So - everything looks awesome and I'm sure that this one of the most impressive mini-games AGS has ever seen.

I'm glad you like it!

On the downside the gameplay appears quite unpredictable to me: I never managed to fully charge the volt-meter, so either I simply suck or the active (hot-note) area is not where it is supposed to be. At least I have the feeling that the hot-note part is 5-10 px too low.
So my basic thought is that this area has to be a bit broader and a few px higher. At song 2 it's really noticeable.

Still.... wow!

Well, that was also my problem... After I made all items relative to each other (the playable area can now be moved with just 3 constants) I wasn't able to fill the amulett at all :-( it was not the code, the code was ok but I didn't get the right hitarea. Then I moved the area down a bit and suddenly I hit almost every trap and got a multiply higher than 10x!!!! on song 1 (I only play this song, because it is my favourite ) So obviously it depends on player preference.

To cut a long story short: it is easy to move the circles up or down, but the problem is: where should they be?

Another thing: where should the multiply factor go? Should I make another set of lamps somewhere? Or an oldstyle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-segment_display? Or should we keep the score and multiply overlay?

[abstauber]

Breaking the law, yeah!  Today I succeeded filling the amulet, now that I know where the area is. But this should be easy to fix. Inside the roomscript there was (hopefully still is) the variable songoffset. If you lower it about 50 or so, the area should be on spot.

The segment display is quite a nice idea, but adding it would use quite a few pixels and also it would catch more attention than the volt meter. I guess this might work:

How about using the volt-meter as the multiplication indicator, since it's already in the right spot and doesn't catch this much attention?

As for the progress bar, I think we can utilize one of the useless boxes on the right of the TV and add a vertical progress bar. Maybe something in the style of on of these elements:

[Creyze Shattbot]

Cheap 80s electronic trash with lots of useless blinking lights and 7-segment-displays is what the world needs.

I'll play the rhythmgame soon and tell you how it went, I already ran a test without sound and it worked pretty well under WINE - now I'll chek it out with sound.

[abstauber]

Sure, but having a visually more attractive segment display that is less important than the volt meter will confuse gamers.

Of course the progress-bar I was talking about, could also be changed to a segment-display percentage display.

[cat]

I'd rather do it the other way round: keep the voltmeter for progress (like amulett) and add a vertical multiplicator. The voltmeter doesn't really display distinct number which would be needed to show a multiplication and i think it symbolizes the "fill up" better.


Btw, I just uploaded the source Rhythmgame_src_cat_0_2.zip (this time with filezilla, should work now). You can change the height of the target circles here:

Rhythmgame.asc line 678:
int spritey = FloatToInt(target, eRoundNearest) - circleon.Height/2 + 4;

just change the +4 to something different

[Creyze Shattbot]

Just tried it with sound, it's rather unplayable, sadly. I did score quite a lot, but it didn't feel like it had anything to do with the song - I'll try again on another computer. And I think I'll just leave the design up to you - blinking lights might really be too confusing, but I would still enjoy a seven-segment score display - and I'd keep the voltometer as a progress display as well.

[abstauber]

There will be no score in the final version The segment display would be for the multiplicator.

One big problem I'm having with the volt-meter is that you don't know when your through. A simple progress bar tells you: I'm full, you've won. But you don't get it from the volt-meter. You still have to guess whether there are some pixels to go or if you're already through the game.

Also it's too hard to read from the corner of the eye. Most of the time the player will concentrate on the main screen, not on the elements.

[cat]

What about the green box directly on top of the voltmeter - the multiply could go there

[cat]

Just for info:

We had a skype session and decided that the voltmeter will stay as progress indicator but I will add an additional indicator when the "amulet is full" i.e. the game is won

We also found a bug regarding the hitzone that made the game more difficult (already found and fix it, btw...)

[Creyze Shattbot]

Alright, thanks!

[cat]

New Version!

*) target bug fixed
*) graphical multiply counter
*) fixed the cable pixel at the bottom

Game:
www.sonores.de/reyze/Rhythmgame_cat_0_3.zip

Source:
www.sonores.de/reyze/Rhythmgame_src_cat_0_3.zip

I'd love to get this done before Mittens so we have something to show off