SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

General Category => Game Coding Competitions => Topic started by: Qube on April 08, 2019, 12:06:05 AM

Title: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Qube on April 08, 2019, 12:06:05 AM

Time to vote in the 8-bit Wars game comp Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019

11 brand new classics from the 8-bit days have been submitted to download and play. Forget the modern 3D super 4K games of today and take a step back to the more fun times ;D

Which 8-bit machine will hold the title of winner of the 8-bit wars 2019?

If you are voting then please do take the time to play each game in order to keep the voting fair and in the good spirit of the gaming comps.

Voting rules :

For the voting PM Qube (https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php?action=pm;sa=send;u=1) your top three games that you enjoyed playing the most.

1.. State the best three games in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place ( see vote example below ).
2.. You are not allowed to submit any updates to your game until after voting has closed. Only the version uploaded before voting started can be used. *
3.. Voting must only be via PM ( see above ).
4.. You can not vote for your own game.
5.. Members with less than 10 posts can not vote unless they themselves have submitted a game for the comp.

* Members who have uploaded bug fixed versions of their games please make sure the latest download version is linked in the post of your game from the list below ( just in case some members have not downloaded / played your entry yet ).

Vote Example :

1st Title of game A
2nd Title of game B
3rd Title of game C

Feel free to describe why you like the games if you want. Voting will not be shown until the voting is closed.

Vote Scoring:

1st = 100 points
2nd = 50 points
3rd = 25 points

In the event totals between two or more voted entries are the same then priority is given based on placement, for example 1 vote in 1st = 100 points and 4 votes in 3rd = 100 points but the 1st placement vote would win based on placement priority.

Prize Fund £750 :

1st = £350
2nd = £250
3rd = £150

Payments will be made via PayPal only.

Voting time :

Voting takes place from now and will close on Apr 16th 2019 @ 23:59:59 GMT.

But isn't Qube an admin! how can he be allowed to enter? :

Any votes for Qube's entry are classed as proxy votes and any position in the top 3 is classed as a proxy placement. This way any votes will not effect the final top 3 placings or prize allocation. For example 1st = member a, 2nd = member b, 2nd = Qube, 3rd = member c.

The games ( in order of submission ) :

(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/GameComps/008/01.png)	Title : Simple Author : round157 Link : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,5394.msg24362.html#msg24362
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/GameComps/008/02.png)	Title : Arc of Valanta Author : MrmediamanX Link : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,5216.0.html
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/GameComps/008/03.png)	Title : Jack Deadly Author : therevills Link : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,5248.msg24418.html#msg24418
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/GameComps/008/04.png)	Title : Viva Mortis Author : iWasAdam Link : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,5206.msg24449.html#msg24449
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/GameComps/008/05.png)	Title : Damnation Alley Author : Xerra Link : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,5206.msg24498.html#msg24498
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/GameComps/008/06.png)	Title : ZX Collection Volume #1 Author : Qube Link : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,5413.0.html
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/GameComps/008/07.png)	Title : Gravitus Author : Morpheus Link : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,5206.msg24608.html#msg24608
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/GameComps/008/08.png)	Title : The Big Dark Adventure Author : 3DzForMe Link : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,5441.0.html
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/GameComps/008/09.png)	Title : Tiny Tales Author : Imerion Link : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,5430.0.html
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/GameComps/008/10.png)	Title : Genus Prime Author : Derron Link : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,5420.0.html
(https://www.syntaxbomb.com/GameComps/008/11.png)	Title : Fireball Dungeon Author : craigd Link : https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/topic,5425.0.html

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Qube on April 09, 2019, 09:41:35 PM

Vote changed back to a simple one ( see above ). In the next comp the voting will be an online system.

For those who don't want to scroll up to read how to vote, here it is again :

Voting rules :

For the voting PM Qube (https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php?action=pm;sa=send;u=1) your top three games that you enjoyed playing the most.

1.. State the best three games in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place ( see vote example below ).
2.. You are not allowed to submit any updates to your game until after voting has closed. Only the version uploaded before voting started can be used. *
3.. Voting must only be via PM ( see above ).
4.. You can not vote for your own game.
5.. Members with less than 10 posts can not vote unless they themselves have submitted a game for the comp.

* Members who have uploaded bug fixed versions of their games please make sure the latest download version is linked in the post of your game from the list below ( just in case some members have not downloaded / played your entry yet ).

Vote Example :

1st Title of game A
2nd Title of game B
3rd Title of game C

Feel free to describe why you like the games if you want. Voting will not be shown until the voting is closed.

Members who have cast votes so far :

Xerra
MrmediamanX
Morpheus
Qube
Derron
Imerion
round157
therevills
3DzForMe
iWasAdam
Steve Elliott
craigd
Naughty Alien
STEVIE G

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: therevills on April 10, 2019, 10:05:44 AM

I'm ready to play :)

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Xerra on April 10, 2019, 06:44:05 PM

Quote from: therevills on April 10, 2019, 10:05:44 AM

I'm ready to play :)

My OCD can see... there is no number 3 :-)

However, the number of games is correct because I'm assuming that's Jack Deadly, right?

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: therevills on April 10, 2019, 10:51:08 PM

Quote from: Xerra on April 10, 2019, 06:44:05 PM

I'm assuming that's Jack Deadly, right?

Yep! ;D

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: 3DzForMe on April 11, 2019, 12:23:22 AM

Just seeing BDA with a No.8 next to it makes me think....I did that. My, it was a journey! 8)

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Imerion on April 12, 2019, 12:19:23 AM

I have now played and enjoyed all entries except for one that didn't have a Linux version or ran in WINE. Would it be unfair if I voted you think? WINE could potentially cause the games to run badly, but I didn't notice anything wrong or buggy so that shouldn't be an issue. Sadly I can't get to a Windows machine before voting time is over, everyone I know who lives close to me runs Linux as well.

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: 3DzForMe on April 12, 2019, 12:25:25 AM

I'd say vote, the participants that went the extra mile to provide different formats are deserving of your assessments :D

I'm just pleased I'd the mojo to create an old school adventure é :o

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: round157 on April 12, 2019, 01:00:00 AM

Quote from: Imerion on April 12, 2019, 12:19:23 AM

I have now played and enjoyed all entries except for one that didn't have a Linux version or ran in WINE. Would it be unfair if I voted you think? WINE could potentially cause the games to run badly, but I didn't notice anything wrong or buggy so that shouldn't be an issue. Sadly I can't get to a Windows machine before voting time is over, everyone I know who lives close to me runs Linux as well.

Hi....

Many popular game jams are with a large number of entries submitted from contestants. Those voters(or gamers who rate entries) need to play or try all entries before they vote(or rate). Not possible.

This is a good example. This Game Off 2018 contest has 328 entries. Maybe most voters(or gamers who rate entries)played less than 15 entries for this game contest.
https://itch.io/jam/game-off-2018

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Xerra on April 12, 2019, 05:01:20 PM

Already up to Friday and only 3 people have voted? What's going on guys?

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: 3DzForMe on April 12, 2019, 10:10:00 PM

Work and life.... Haven't been able to try all the games as I only have a 32 bit computer. Want to try all games before I vote, if I can

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Imerion on April 12, 2019, 10:19:05 PM

Quote

I'd say vote, the participants that went the extra mile to provide different formats are deserving of your assessments :D

Ok, I'll that! Thanks! :)

Quote

Many popular game jams are with a large number of entries submitted from contestants. Those voters(or gamers who rate entries) need to play or try all entries before they vote(or rate). Not possible.

True, but here it was part of the rules, which I can understand since it was a manageable amount of entries. But I'll send in a vote and explain the situation and we'll see. It has been really fun to participate, so I really wanted to vote as well. :)

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Derron on April 12, 2019, 11:11:21 PM

Placed my votes - we had some nice entries this time so I nearly preferred to ask for 5 ranks to set - as it is cruel to know that #4 and #5 (and #6 and ...) are also cool and just missed a place below the "best 3".

Think you know that feeling: ok, this was the best - oh but there was this game which did xyz so nicely. No, still this is the best but then this becomes second but wait, second you already had this game ... so you order stuff around and try to find bad things to explain ratings to yourself - and then remember the good stuff and ... argh ;-)

Hope you others enjoyed playing the games too.

bye
Ron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Imerion on April 12, 2019, 11:26:22 PM

Quote

Think you know that feeling: ok, this was the best - oh but there was this game which did xyz so nicely. No, still this is the best but then this becomes second but wait, second you already had this game ... so you order stuff around and try to find bad things to explain ratings to yourself - and then remember the good stuff and ... argh ;-)

Indeed very true! But I did have very much fun participating as well as playing these games. Thanks to everyone involved in arranging this!

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Qube on April 13, 2019, 02:37:47 AM

Quote

Placed my votes - we had some nice entries this time so I nearly preferred to ask for 5 ranks to set - as it is cruel to know that #4 and #5 (and #6 and ...) are also cool and just missed a place below the "best 3".

This is true and personally I'd prefer for all games to be ranked and commented on by voters. However some people won't download every game and play them all but just download what they like the look of. There's nothing inherently wrong with that as there is no incentive to force anyone to play every game. That's the downside of small comps I guess.

Interestingly Derron PM'd me his total downloads of his game and I checked mine. Totals of downloads are really pathetic to be honest.

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: therevills on April 13, 2019, 02:57:42 AM

Quote from: Qube on April 13, 2019, 02:37:47 AM

Totals of downloads are really pathetic to be honest.

From itch Jack Deadly has had 53 downloads... no comments.

Wonder what Adam's Viva Mortis numbers are like...

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Qube on April 13, 2019, 03:16:53 AM

Quote

From itch Jack Deadly has had 53 downloads... no comments.

Grab and run.. Sounds about right for this modern entitled generation. Not even a poxy "Thanks" but that would require effort going back to the site and expelling energy pressing keys on the keyboard.

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: therevills on April 13, 2019, 03:33:05 AM

Someone was kind enough to give me $3 for it :)

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: 3DzForMe on April 13, 2019, 06:21:21 AM

My votes are in, I know not all people will (or can) play all entries. Nevertheless, I'd advocate a placement system for the next competition whereby points were awarded akin to Formula 1. Even if people only play the ones they like the look of and grade the others on how they at least look - this would award everyone for their efforts with some points.

I suppose what am driving at is that choosing 3rd place was very difficult for this competition due to the high standard of entrants.

[EDIT] My little old zip file was downloaded well into double figures, that s a win for me ;)

Seriously though, this competition actually inspired me to convert a trailer into a man cave so I could code in peace - never, ever thought I'd find so much coding mojo for that too occur. Cheers Qube for both adminning the forum and running the competitions.

As I get older games really have to draw me in, one really stood out for me in this regard. Awesome stuff all around. Well done to all competitors for their submissions - I know some had a little more bother than others pushing their code over the finishing line.

Post the competition I'll be releasing my source - warts and all - its not too pretty ;)

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: iWasAdam on April 13, 2019, 08:05:29 AM

Yep, I downloaded and played all entries. and even bug-checked one. One didn't run unfortunately, but did give me an idea for a postmortum on how to prepare multiplatfrom games for basic distribution. How to compress, change icons, etc

There are a few things that (to me) have become very apparent with the contests:
1. 3d homebrew games (however rewarding to create) don't get peoples attention (I feel that AAA has saturated their brains so unless it matches that in look and operation - they're just not interested)
2. retro games (which wear retro big and proud) get's people interested
3. 2d homebrew games are simpler (in asset terms) to get to the finish
4. find a popular concept and twist it

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: therevills on April 13, 2019, 10:22:47 AM

Quote from: 3DzForMe on April 13, 2019, 06:21:21 AM

Post the competition I'll be releasing my source - warts and all - its not too pretty ;)

The zip I downloaded BDA already contained some bb source files... 8)

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Steve Elliott on April 13, 2019, 10:40:17 AM

Quote

Seriously though, this competition actually inspired me to convert a trailer into a man cave so I could code in peace - never, ever thought I'd find so much coding mojo for that too occur. Cheers Qube for both adminning the forum and running the competitions.

Great to hear. I already have the man cave, but my programming mojo is right back even though I didn't finish in time.

I have some free time so will be giving all the games a good go today.

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: iWasAdam on April 13, 2019, 12:09:33 PM

VivaMortis Source code now released.
https://adamstrange.itch.io/viva-mortis/devlog/76268/vivamortis-source-code-released (https://adamstrange.itch.io/viva-mortis/devlog/76268/vivamortis-source-code-released)

This is the mx2 source code. MX2 is a fork of the monkey2 programming language.

There are a number of support file not included (sound and graphics mainly), so IT WONT COMPILE. But it will allow you to see the entire source of the game, how things were done, how the game code is arranged etc.

Any thoughts, suggestions, desires. I'll do my best to help :)

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: 3DzForMe on April 13, 2019, 05:33:23 PM

Quote

. I already have the man cave, but my programming mojo is right back even though I didn't finish in time

My man cave jealousy has me cracking on with my man trailer, really need to waterproof the roof though... Kinda helps with computers and stuff in it.

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Steve Elliott on April 13, 2019, 05:38:54 PM

Quote

My man cave jealousy has me cracking on with my man trailer, really need to waterproof the roof though... Kinda helps with computers and stuff in it.

lol every man needs a Man Cave, to get away from things and just do what makes him happy. :D

Er yes, fix that roof, priority number 1. And you are currently on very old hardware? Just get a cheap laptop to continue with your coding mojo.

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: 3DzForMe on April 14, 2019, 06:06:27 AM

Quote

. Er yes, fix that roof, priority number 1. And you are currently on very old hardware? Just get a cheap laptop to continue with your coding mojo.

1. Got a cunning plan to fix the roof which should help with the insulation, it's quite a big job but It'll be worth it!

2. New hardware.....so tempted to push the boat out and get a re-furbed HP 840 G3. Problemo is it's hard to justify bar needing a 64 bit computer for a slice of Cerberus.

Do 64 bit computers really benefit from another 32 bits..... Or is it akin to having a 4.2 litre monster when a 6 speed 1.4 mini will do ?

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Xerra on April 14, 2019, 10:03:15 AM

I checked the downloads for Damnation Alley after reading this. I'm even worse, really. I've got 36 so far but I think that's better than I got for Bah, Humbug! but I'd expect that because that game was very Xmas themed. No comments at all - and no actual ratings so far either, which is disappointing too. I didn't flag on Facebook about this game because I'd dumped my account on there by the time I released it. I did tweet once, post a link in the Gamemaker forums - as I've done with all my compo games - and put it into email signatures. Not much else, apart from joining the forums where Derron showed our games were being discussed to see if I could get some feedback there.

I think Envahi still has the most downloads of my games but that could kind of be expected as it's been online for over a year now and I've found it has the same number of views when any of my other games are looked at on a daily basis. That's why I like hosting on Itch - analytics are useful.

I did notice Itch.IO actually tweeted about one of the compo games the other day - Gravitus - so that's probably had a huge boost from that little plug. Well deserved, too.

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Qube on April 14, 2019, 07:18:31 PM

One game has a whopping 32% of the votes :o

Anymore votes going to come in? or are we all done with the voting?

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Steve Elliott on April 14, 2019, 10:48:54 PM

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Qube on April 15, 2019, 03:54:19 AM

Quote from: Steve Elliott on April 14, 2019, 10:48:54 PM

:D

I'll wipe that smile off your face.. It's not you :P

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Steve Elliott on April 15, 2019, 09:24:22 AM

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Derron on April 15, 2019, 09:22:37 PM

So from the contestants it seems craigd did not throw in his votes (yet) ...still has one day to do so.

BTW my game got 17 distinct download IPs for now (+2 downloads by that other forum) - so a potential 17 votes could have been PM'd to Qube. For now we got 11. After the votings deadline I think I would post about the game on other pages too - just to check download counts then.

bye
Ron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: craigd on April 15, 2019, 10:27:00 PM

I PMd Qube earlier with my votes. Was quite a hard one. Gravitus wouldn't work for me. My type of game too.

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Derron on April 15, 2019, 10:45:44 PM

So at least "the gang" (+1) voted. ;-)

bye
Ron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Xerra on April 15, 2019, 11:03:24 PM

Gotta say that I'm a bit disappointed that mostly it's just people that entered the competition who have voted again. There's a lot more of us here.

Maybe people just aren't interested unless they're actually in the competition. Still, at least with this voting system we shouldn't need to worry about tactical voting after all.

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Derron on April 15, 2019, 11:15:46 PM

Maybe some users here played some of the games ... but not all and now do not want to vote because they did not check all of them - or they do not want to get involved in compos + discussion around it.

bye
Ron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Steve Elliott on April 15, 2019, 11:24:39 PM

Why be disappointed? There was a very high standard of entries so you should all be proud of your work. If you want lots of people patting you on the back for every game you produce, then that's not life. Besides, this is a very small coding forum (so far). But posting online to places like itcho means your game lives on, and later down the line could be picked up as a 'cool game'.

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Morpheus on April 15, 2019, 11:45:08 PM

Quote from: craigd on April 15, 2019, 10:27:00 PM

I PMd Qube earlier with my votes. Was quite a hard one. Gravitus wouldn't work for me. My type of game too.

What problem did you have with Gravitus?

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: craigd on April 16, 2019, 01:07:55 AM

Quote from: Morpheus on April 15, 2019, 11:45:08 PM

What problem did you have with Gravitus?

Crashes out just as it's loading the very first training mission. Tried the zip and then the installer. Same crash. I'll try a few things tomorrow when I get time.

System Specs:
Intel I7
6gb ram
ATI 3850

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Naughty Alien on April 16, 2019, 02:03:53 AM

1) The Big Dark Adventure
2) Viva Mortis
3) ZX Collection Volume #1

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Qube on April 16, 2019, 03:49:32 AM

Quote from: Naughty Alien on April 16, 2019, 02:03:53 AM

1) The Big Dark Adventure
2) Viva Mortis
3) ZX Collection Volume #1

Pssst!! the rules say to PM me your votes ;D

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: iWasAdam on April 16, 2019, 05:42:40 AM

Yep gravitus crashed out for me too >:D
On macos the package was completely damaged, so the Os would run it - possibly a packing/zip issue. my suggestion here is always to use "compress" from finder on the .app - as Macos has all that inbuilt
On windows the program runs and the intro and menus looked and sounded great until the game itself - when it crashed!

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Derron on April 16, 2019, 06:06:23 AM

Gravitus worked fine for me... native and emulated via wine.
You should have posted about it a bit earlier I think.

Bye
Ron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: iWasAdam on April 16, 2019, 07:00:00 AM

yep - it was very late in the week when I was testing gravitus and everyone seemed to have it running ok, so I thought it was just me - in that i't very much 'my bad' and I humbly apologise. I was going to bring up the Macos Compress thing as a side note after the comp, so it would help anyone with a mac

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Derron on April 16, 2019, 07:07:30 AM

Serious question: could you try it via wine on your mac?

bye
Ron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Xerra on April 16, 2019, 07:09:01 AM

Quote from: iWasAdam on April 16, 2019, 07:00:00 AM

yep - it was very late in the week when I was testing gravitus and everyone seemed to have it running ok, so I thought it was just me - in that i't very much 'my bad' and I humbly apologise. I was going to bring up the Macos Compress thing as a side note after the comp, so it would help anyone with a mac

There is some kind of issue for some people involving zipped GMS 2 games built from the compiler but it seems random. I discovered it the other day when I went to see my nephew and was downloading my own game for him to have a look at. It came up with the same error message about not finding the game that someone posted the other day about Gravitus. I found the solution was to just move the game to another directory for three of the four games but one just wanted to constantly shove it in the trash.

IT'S NOT THAT BAD!!!! :-(

Anyway, this is something that needs a bit of investigating because these games get such low visibility apart from mostly us guys judging them that we might never know. If someone downloads a game and has a problem then usually they'll just dump it and play something else. That's why I like making games through these compo's - at least we get a chance at some feedback.

Was anyone else not able to play Damnation Alley?

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Derron on April 16, 2019, 07:12:23 AM

Check if your GMS somehow things to set the "write protected" flag on folders in which you want to store config files. Maybe it crashes for this reason?

@ damnation
Worked here as did the other entries. (sorry, you want to read about people not being able to run it - so "yes it works" doesn't help that much but... as I was posting anyways...)

bye
Ron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: iWasAdam on April 16, 2019, 07:30:26 AM

Damnation Alley played just fine - it was Gravitus with the issue

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: 3DzForMe on April 16, 2019, 08:38:07 AM

Quote

What problem did you have with Gravitus?

Didn't work on two different W7 32 bit laptops. [edit] added screen grabs of pop-ups ???

Worked on my son's 64-bit W10 desktop that had an uber graphics card.

Suspect it might only be 64-bit - great game by the way :D

On my 32-bit machines it crashed at the start of first mission with some error blah in a pop-up. Only difference between 32-but and 64-bit is I opted for the .rar file intead of the installer - the installer borked on the 32-bit machine at the vc_redist.exe bit - near the end. So navigated to find the gravitus.exe file and ran it that way.

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: DaiHard on April 16, 2019, 09:36:09 AM

Hi Folks,

I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to try out the games before the deadline - partly because I've been rather unwell (nothing serious, just a cold that has laid me out!), and partly work - but I'll try to take a look over the next week or so. From following the worklogs, it looks like there are some tremendous efforts there. In a way, I'm glad "Merlin's Beard" never got far...

Best wishes,

D

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Derron on April 16, 2019, 09:47:13 AM

You can still vote till today's midnight. ;-)

Bye
Ron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Morpheus on April 16, 2019, 12:07:29 PM

Quote from: iWasAdam on April 16, 2019, 05:42:40 AM

Yep gravitus crashed out for me too >:D
On macos the package was completely damaged, so the Os would run it - possibly a packing/zip issue. my suggestion here is always to use "compress" from finder on the .app - as Macos has all that inbuilt
On windows the program runs and the intro and menus looked and sounded great until the game itself - when it crashed!

The problem with MacOS is its inbuilt security; Apple are pushing to make all software certified by them so that dodgy software becomes a thing of the past. I think it's a bit draconian; but what Apple wants usually happens. Currently its pretty easy to bypass the app is corrupt messages. This was posted on the forums a while back.

From a terminal:

sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine Gravitus.app

As for windows I am still trying to get to the bottom of the issue: Its pointing towards a driver/graphic card/DirectX issue. All the suggested solutions haven't worked, as far as I can tell. What makes it harder is that all my Windows computers it works perfectly on. Currently 3 of them ranging from 10+ year old to a very modern gaming laptop. So Frustrating >:(

Cheers,

Aaron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Morpheus on April 16, 2019, 12:22:32 PM

Quote from: Derron on April 16, 2019, 07:12:23 AM

Check if your GMS somehow things to set the "write protected" flag on folders in which you want to store config files. Maybe it crashes for this reason?

GMS only allows you to write to these areas in Windows:
%localappdata%\<Game Name>
or
%appdata%\<Game Name>

We have no options for 32bit or 64bit installations; I would assume it's the latter? But saying that Gravitus runs on my very old laptop which is running Vista 32bit... Very annoying!

Cheers,

Aaron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: iWasAdam on April 16, 2019, 12:30:00 PM

Quote

So Frustrating

Yep I know exactly what you mean there. Windows (and it's different versions) was always a pain in the butt, but recently Apple are starting to go the same way...

@ macOS. Hmm.
I followed the instructions xattr, etc and it worked - which is great :)
My thoughts on this are - you should not have to do this or anything like it to get it running. It would sorta point to a setting in (whichever) language you are using. something that needs to be set - a compiler option?
If not, I would suggest checking the forums/support for said language and notify them that MacOS compile does not work correctly and what would they suggest ;)

Yep - I know it's a real faff trying to get it sorted :(

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Morpheus on April 16, 2019, 12:53:55 PM

Quote from: iWasAdam on April 16, 2019, 12:30:00 PM

@ macOS. Hmm.
I followed the instructions xattr, etc and it worked - which is great :)
My thoughts on this are - you should not have to do this or anything like it to get it running. It would sorta point to a setting in (whichever) language you are using. something that needs to be set - a compiler option?
If not, I would suggest checking the forums/support for said language and notify them that MacOS compile does not work correctly and what would they suggest ;)

I agree you shouldn't have to do the xattr thing! I am pretty sure Apple are trying to stop piracy and apps that try to do things that are not Apple compliant. Which is obviously a good thing, as Apple always wants everything to work and work well on their machines. Also by making all software go via their vetting service it also stops viruses and or other threats BUT this is a pain for us developers! It's also very hard to know if the apps are going to work on other machines because as a licensed Apple developer you don't get the errors appearing on your apps because you have 'profiles' installed to allow you to develop and test without going via the vetting route.

All of this wasn't an issue before macOS Mojave.So I can only imagine its going to get worse now that Apple are pushing the Macs are for gaming route. Apple arcade or whatever they are going to call it? ::)

Cheers,

Aaron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Derron on April 16, 2019, 01:06:23 PM

Genus Prime compiled on Yosemite with an ancient XCode runs on Xerras pre-Mojave-Mac (10.13) and of course on my Yosemite one. It does not run on Qube's nor IWasAdams Mac.
The build of IWasAdam (running Mojave 10.14.4) at least works on his computer and in my Yosemite - but still fails on Qube's Mac (10.14.3).

So I do not know what might be the reason for crashes in our games on Macs....

bye
Ron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: iWasAdam on April 16, 2019, 01:49:47 PM

As far as I am aware Vivamortis works on all macs - including Qubes (i've not had a note saying it wasn't working).
There was an issue with retina stuff, but again that seemed to be solved.

I am NOT a certified developer, so it's definitely something in the compiler used. I do think the fact that GenusPrime did run, but not on Qubes Mac is very interesting as the compiler (XCode) is the same one. But I was using MX2 for vivamortis and NG for genusprime compiles. so maybe there is something different going on?

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Morpheus on April 16, 2019, 01:56:27 PM

Quote from: Derron on April 16, 2019, 01:06:23 PM

Genus Prime compiled on Yosemite with an ancient XCode runs on Xerras pre-Mojave-Mac (10.13) and of course on my Yosemite one. It does not run on Qube's nor IWasAdams Mac.
The build of IWasAdam (running Mojave 10.14.4) at least works on his computer and in my Yosemite - but still fails on Qube's Mac (10.14.3).

So I do not know what might be the reason for crashes in our games on Macs....

It worked on my Mac Mini (the new model) 10.14.4 no problem. It also worked on my older iMac (Late 2013) running 10.14.4.

As for why these apps fail who knows; GMS can build via Xcode or via its own runner, I have not had issues with either. Perhaps in the future I will put out the alternatives for people to try. I have always gone for the Xcode compiled route as you would think is the 'most' compatible way to build with Macs?

Cheers,

Aaron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Derron on April 16, 2019, 02:45:14 PM

So _my_ builds worked on your Macs - or the ".mt.app"-build by IWasAdam (don't think so - looking at its download counts and the fact that the Downloadlink was incorrect until weekend when Qube replied to my "check the .mt.app-build please" request).

That is so ... hmppf odd. Especially as the same source code and NG basis builds then on IWasAdam's Mac. Qube is no NG user and did not like to install it - but I would wonder if it would not run then when doing his own compilation/build. Asked Brucey for help but he seems to be a bit busy the last weeks. Hope we get it fixed until next compo :p

bye
Ron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Morpheus on April 16, 2019, 03:00:05 PM

Quote from: Derron on April 16, 2019, 02:45:14 PM

So _my_ builds worked on your Macs - or the ".mt.app"-build by IWasAdam (don't think so - looking at its download counts and the fact that the Downloadlink was incorrect until weekend when Qube replied to my "check the .mt.app-build please" request).

That is so ... hmppf odd. Especially as the same source code and NG basis builds then on IWasAdam's Mac. Qube is no NG user and did not like to install it - but I would wonder if it would not run then when doing his own compilation/build. Asked Brucey for help but he seems to be a bit busy the last weeks. Hope we get it fixed until next compo :p

Not sure what build I have; I assume it would be the one that was in the feed.

Attached a screenshot of the folder, if that helps?

Cheers,

Aaron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Derron on April 16, 2019, 03:06:03 PM

Yes that are my builds (done on Yosemite with XCode "Stoneage" aka dunno-at-the-moment).

bye
Ron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Qube on April 16, 2019, 11:07:09 PM

Voting over soon but I'll not be able to post the results until about 3am+ :o sorry :P

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: therevills on April 17, 2019, 12:12:33 AM

Quote from: Qube on April 16, 2019, 11:07:09 PM

Voting over soon but I'll not be able to post the results until about 3am+ :o sorry :P

Slacker :P

Good job and good luck all!

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: round157 on April 17, 2019, 12:24:39 AM

Congratulations!!!!! Good Games!

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Derron on April 17, 2019, 02:13:12 AM

Seems I woke up too early tzt.

Qube. If calculations take too long: use a calculator to speed up things ::)

Bye
Ron

Title: Re: Voting time - 8-bit Wars game comp - Jan 25th to Mar 31st 2019
Post by: Qube on April 17, 2019, 03:03:02 AM

Quote

Slacker :P

Quote

Qube. If calculations take too long: use a calculator to speed up things ::)

Oh the abuse I get :o - Sorry for the delay but I had to save the world ( again ), real life stuff don't half get in the way, sheesshhh... OK, compiling results now ;D