lockOn 2 - a Solstice present for y'all!

[jph_wacheski]

saw a bug using the log-window,. see if this fixes it, I have not been able to get it to crash now,.

wundering about an online highscores table,. if there could be a way to throw a link to a browser,. as many games seem able to do when you quite a demo for example,. then the pmWiki should be able to use some data from the link to add to the table,. guess we still need strings,. well perhaps eventually,. .

also, I have been following this blog;

http://blog.wolfire.com/

and they have been on about Mac games and make many good points for supporting the platform,.

http://blog.wolfire.com/2008/12/why-you ... and-linux/

is there any chance that you will write a port of the sound engine for the mac ver. ?? as without sound I don't think I can justify releaseing a Mac ver,. . to me sound is 30-70 percent of most game presentations,. .

[Tischk]

Nice game. But I think it's too easy. I was just holding down J and cruising around. And I think the "ship" should be more visible. Like an other color or a particleeffect. Because now I need to concentrate to see it.

[Kjell]

Hi jph,

You could get creative with the current possibilities though. Some solutions off the top of my head ..

- Let people upload their local highscore file to your site, a script will then parse through the file and add the scores it contains.

- You can parse a code in ZGE that people can enter into your site that contains the information of their score.

- Put a option in your game that displays a highscore bright & big, so people can take a picture of it and upload to your site .

The problem with the first two ( or most online highscore stuff ), that it's easy crackable. The third option as well I guess .. using photoshop, but could be fun

@Tischk: Too easy? Wow, you must be hardcore! What score did you reach?

K

[VilleK]

On both OS X and Linux I play audio using SDL. And since it works on Linux it should work on OS X too. However in my OS X test environment I hear no sound from ZGE games, but that can be a problem with my configuration.

I'm no OS X expert so if anyone who has access to a Mac can help give some test-information that would be helpful.

Try for instance jph's Mac version of Artificial Nature: http://iterationgames.com/artifical_nat ... OSXmac.zip

SDL is needed.

Also, as someone suggested, Mac games should be distributed as DMG-packages so you need someone that can help you package the game (perhaps with SDL files already included).

[VilleK]

And one more thing: In a previous version of LockOn (lockOn2_064.exe) I have no problem getting 60fps in fullscreen 1280x1024, but in this latest version I only get 20fps. I guess this is because of the fullscreen effect you are using? In lower resolutions I still get 60fps so it's no real problem.

[jph_wacheski]

humm ,. that don't sound good,. I still get good preformance,. DRAT! I suppose I will have to take more time and implement a proper menu on this thing so people can set up stuff like effects levels,. ssound volume, etc. I fear I will starve to death befor I am able to sell anything,.

that is good news about the Mac sound., I have some contacts who run that OS so I will see if I can get it tested and working,. and I will report what I learn.

Kjell- more creative ideas, thanks. I should talk to Cactus to see what he is doing in GM he always has online boards,. . gotta be a way that is simple enouph for my little simean brain,.

Tischk- thanks for the feedback,. I enlarged the particle effect on the player and added a larger glow,. may help, check for the next ver. As for difficulty,. i has tried to give it a ramp up,. it don't go full on till around level 10,. i haven got past level 9 with my high score around 1.5 million. If i get good enouph at it,. that I can play endlessly, I will add new threats,. and you reminded me that one is missing! the guy who tries to steal the pow-ups!! I guess another week or so till I'm 'done',. lol.

[jph_wacheski]

ok added a menu,. you can set levels for sounds, dust, and the full screen vignette effect,.

still hope to achive;
saving of those settings,. and a high score table,. with a possible reworking of some of the sounds,. anything else stand out as a problem to you ?

I still find this to be a fun game that builds in difficulty till I can't play any longer,. although even I am still getting better at it

[jph_wacheski]

well,. after all my headaches getting the high-score names to save and render!,. here it is!
thanks Kjell for pushing me to implement this, as it does add a nice competative score beating element,.
also hacked in some net based trails on the green guys,. looks nice but glitches a bit when they rotate erraticly,. I think I will keep them in for now,.
Do give this a try and let me know the performance,. with the new options you can tune it to your machine,. hopfully we all still get decent 60 fps play with some dust floating,. it works ok here (its a 2.3ghz cpu, and a 7600GS vidcard) with 8 and 8 so those are default,. I may add a bit of a music/beat that speeds up with the levels,. or not, (see how i feal about that in the morning) and release this on my site tomorrow,. I'm itchin' to get on to this turret game idea,. . and I could just keep tweeking this one forever,. . but that's no fun

[Kjell]

Highscore, instructions, options .. looking good jph! Only thing missing is a application icon? Anyway, ended 6th place on first try, which made me want to try again Good luck promoting / selling the premiere commercial ZGE title ~

Cheers~

[VilleK]

Excellent work! Highscores, instructions and options looks very professional and polished.

With default settings I get 60fps in 800x600 and with lower settings I get 60fps in highest resolution also.

About app-icon: in the current version (1.9.5) of ZGE icons are not included in uncompressed exe-files. This will be fixed in next beta. Meanwhile you can workaround this by compressing with upx, then using upx from the command-line to decompress the exe agin ("-d" option).

[jph_wacheski]

Ok, I did add a drum beat,. perhaps I will also add an option to disable it in the FULL GAME, .

http://iterationgames.com/lockOn2.zip
http://iterationgames.com/lockOn2_Linux.zip untested
http://iterationgames.com/lockOn2_OSX.zip untested


I just used UPX to compress it and it opens very fast, so I keep it compressed,. and w/ the icon. Now I am just researching ways to release it,. there are a bunch of 'services' and each has different models some take $1 plus 3 percent per sale,. some just a percent,. some offer hosting and secure d/ls etc. very confusing. :S I may just offer paypal on my site to start,. could even do an email distribution as it is just 119k in the end.