Well, there are still allot of sprites missing for stuff like the highscore screen. Also we could do multiple levels with different looks. This would mean more sprites for backgrounds, enemies and a level select screen.
However, If you don’t want to spent time on this I will just publish the latest version with just one level. It’s up to you.
don’t worry. I actually man the first level. Most of the sprites for that satge are finished. And i know me make other levels as well i’m working on the secound level know anyway. so everything is fine.
VB
I have invested allot of time in this lately even though this wasn’t plant at all. However, I have build a first demo-level that includes all enemies so far. All enemies have swimming- and kill-animations. The collision detection also seems to work for all of them. The game ends if properly if the player is killed or the end is reached. More important the level resets properly which means it can be started over and over again. I also added a score that counts up if a victim fish is killed.
I think I fixed all glitches and bugs so far. On top of that there are hundreds of changes under the surface. I programmed everything pretty generic so it is not a big deal to build longer level with multiple enemies. However, I didn’t test it on hardware lately so I may encounter more issues there. Also the game always seemed to behave pretty well with a larger number of enemies on hardware this may have changed after the recent changes.
Some stuff that is still missing is:
– The Gameover screen
– The Level select screen
– Persistence of Scores
– A highscore screen (maybe this will be part of the level select screen)
– The real Level 1
– Level 2, 3 and 4
– The credit screen
– Other stuff
Right now I am waiting for Ben to clean up some of the existing sprites. As soon as this is done (and integrated) I will release a new demo.
Tested it on hardware yesterday and it works surprisingly well. Due to me being stupid Ben has to redraw some sprites. As this takes some time the demo release will be delayed. I will take care of the level-select screen in the meantime.
OK, I added a pretty cool stage-select menu. While doing that a Bug popped up that seemed to randomly produce graphical glitches. I hunted it down and finally fixed it some minutes ago but it took a pretty long time. The stage-select menu is not completely done but I think it is ok for now.
I also added a second stage. I used sprites from a well known game. I bet you guys will like it. Similar to stage 1 there is only one short demo level but it can be easily extended.
I also got some more background sprites from Ben. I will use those for level 3.
I invested pretty much all of my free time into this game lately. However, I will have to slow down (mainly because Assassins Creed 3 should arrive in a couple of days). I guess I will continue as soon as I get the new fish-sprites from Ben.
– I added the adjustment screen
– I added splash screen for the demo
– I added the Gameover screen
– I added the level select screen
– I persist the of scores to the SRAM now
– The game checks if valid scores exist and clears the SRAM automatically
– The scores are displayed as part of the level select screen
– Scores seem to persist well on emulator and hardware
As soon as I added the latest Sprites of Ben I will publish a demo. However, I won’t be working on this for a week (maybe longer). So don’t expect anything soon.
Well, I had some serious problems finding sleep yesterday. Bad for me, good for you guys as I took that time to finish the Fishbone demo. Here is the stuff I did since the last update:
– Added the latest Sprites from Ben
– Cleaned some Sprites and code up
– Added sound effects using the Soviet Union 2011 sound engine (as I think it is superior to what I did in GameHero)
– Added some Labels that indicate it is a demo and not a game
– Changed the levels slightly and removed some debug stuff
The demo-levels are very short and are thought to show all existing Sprites and animations. The final game will of course be much longer and more challenging. 2 of the 4 levels in the level menu can not be accessed as they don’t exist yet. I’m mainly using the sounds that came with HorvatM’s Sound Engine. I may change that for the final version. I may also add background music .
Please keep in mind that I did all of this within a little bit longer then 3 weeks. If you like what I did feel to tell me. If you find any Bugs or glitches please tell me so that I can fix it.
If you think you know how to improve the game please post this as well. However, i probably won’t listen. I won’t add any features (like attacks or stuff). The game will stay a pure dodging-highscore game. However, I may seed-up or speed-down backgrounds, enemies or the player if necessary. I will also add more complex movements for enemies.
I found one bug: if you die, the game over screen is shown, but after that, dying just returns you to the level selection screen.
Otherwise, the game is of very high quality. The controls are responsive and the graphics are great.
The player fish could be a bit faster and the inside of its mouth should change to black when you eat a fish – it would look better, because the sprite of the dying fish is behind the player.
The game actually reminds me of the SU games without shooting. Maybe there could be a scoring formula based on how quickly you eat the incoming fish and a randomized game mode – if you don’t mind it becoming even more similar to the SU games. Are there plans for any more features to make the gameplay more interesting?
Thanks for the feedback. Seems like the gameover screen doesn’t resets properly. I have to fix that.
Changing the fish Sprite should be easy to. Thanks for the hint.
Did you check out the second Level? The fish moves faster there. I will figure the perfect speed out when the levels are done.
Right now I don’t plan any changes on how the scores are calculated. Also I don’t plan any more features. This is mainly because I want to keep everything simple so I can get it done faster.
thunderstruck wrote:
Did you check out the second Level? The fish moves faster there. I will figure the perfect speed out when the levels are done.
Yes, it felt like it was moving faster, but I convinced myself that there was no reason for it to move at different speeds in different levels. Or is each level going to be at a different speed?
I don’t know yet. Maybe Levels will have different speeds to have easy and difficult levels. Maybe the speed will change during the game. I will figure that out when I build the actual levels.
Nice, thunder, this is really well done! I love the attention to detail, the nice looking sprites, all the little animations here and there – it all looks very polished. Lots of potential in the thunder engine, can’t wait to see it grow further. 🙂
By the way, is there a way to get past the two “lamp fishes” in the classic fish level?
I must of played FB on the emulator for 45 min. Nice work Thunder and V-Ben. It’s great to know that an artist can have an idea and a programmer is willing to flesh it out into a playable game. Kudos to you both.
