Maizie Bones - The aMAZEing code a game comp entry

[BasicBoy]

Small side note: your game would run on linux - with wine. It flickers a bit occasionally.

That might be because the game uses a simple backbuffer (via Windows API calls) rather than using double or triple buffering. So perhaps the flickering is due to Wine not correctly emulating the backbuffer mechanism?

Dunno if your engine/bbc could compile for linux/mac too ?

Not in its current form, no. It is very specifically tied to Windows (uses lots of Windows-specific API calls).

Graphically it could ...well... be better. In other words: with some polishing here and there the game could be a pretty entertaining and well doing at the same time. In its current state the music was cool but the graphics kind of "put me off".

I will never be any good at drawing graphics! I have very little ability in that regard. I did however create all the graphics in 'Maizie Bones' (mostly using Photoshop Elements 5), and I believe that they are just about adequate for that game, especially given the time pressure I was under. I will try to produce better graphics in a future compo, but there is no way I can produce anything approaching 'expert' level artwork.

Ok, and the "fake 3D labyrinth with balls" (forgot the name of the level [Amazeballs]) had some clipping issues when bouncing into the walls - or slowly approaching a collectible (the collectible is drawn after the forward moving player - but is still not collected).

Yes, the game overall is a bit of rough around the edges, and that's one example of it! I will (try to) fix it in a future release of the game.

Thanks for your feedback! 


BasicBoy.
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[Derron]

Most of us (so you - me - and a big bunch of other dudes) are far away from "expert levels" when it comes to artwork.
So best we can do is staying away from "organic stuff" (which is in my opinion the harder stuff compared to drawing "blocked out" stuff like wooden chairs, tables ... or designing some GUI stuff).
So either design around it: low-res or "camera is far away" (instead of a units head you show the whole man + environment)
Or learn how to do it step by step (start doing some "jelly blob monsters" as symmetry always help cutting down drawing time ;-)). Hmm a jelly-blob-monster-maze-game ... could have been cool.


Please do not feel offended if I say your graphics put me off - I understand that everybody has different skills - but some of us just did not "really" try yet (or think they just cannot do XYZ). I use the competitions to learn something "new" each time. So maybe your next competition entry is to excel at the GFX side of your game.


bye
Ron

[Qube]

Dunno if your engine/bbc could compile for linux/mac too ?

They is a BBC BASIC for SDL which they say is largely compatible with BBC BASIC for Windows. Comes in Win, Mac and Linux flavours. Perhaps you can fight with this for the next comp?

[Xerra]

I played the game through to completion the other day just so I could make sure I'd seen all of the work that was put in. Extremely worthy winner for sure. I'd have a heart-attack just thinking about trying to get a main play area and then 8 mini-games into something I had to code within six weeks. Was absolutely gobsmacked when I realised how much work must have gone into it.

Well done.

[BasicBoy]

Dunno if your engine/bbc could compile for linux/mac too ?

They is a BBC BASIC for SDL which they say is largely compatible with BBC BASIC for Windows. Comes in Win, Mac and Linux flavours. Perhaps you can fight with this for the next comp?

I intend to!

'Maizie Bones' was originally supposed to be cross-platform, but I bottled out mostly because I didn't think I could get it finished in time for the deadline. Certain things I knew how to achieve quickly and fairly easily with BB4W* would have been time-sucking challenges for me with BBCSDL**.  (This might still be the case with the next compo!)


BasicBoy.
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* BB4W = BBC BASIC for Windows
** BBCSDL = BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0 (cross-platform)