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The_Red_Hawk
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icon Monsters before (0)  
This question is for Erik and all the other DROD staff (or anyone who knows).

When this game was being made, were there any other monsters or obstacles being considered and if so what were they?

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11-10-2003 at 02:47 PM
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ErikH2000
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The_Red_Hawk wrote:
This question is for Erik and all the other DROD staff (or anyone who knows).

When this game was being made, were there any other monsters or obstacles being considered and if so what were they?
In an earlier implementation of DROD, called "Swordplay", there were a few different ideas. Roaches were then called "orcs", but I decided I wanted to get away from stuff that sounded like J. R. R. Tolkien came up with it. Goblins had a Queen Goblin that made more of them, but having so many goblins generated was either impossible or tediously repetitive, depending on the room layout.

Some experiments were done with Beethro's sword in early prototypes. For a while, it was not possible to move the sword onto an obstacle. This seemed cool at first, but turning the sword to allow movement between closely-spaced obstacles was tedious. To alleviate this, I came up with automatic rules to move the sword out of the way of obstacles, but the rules all had problems. a. Removing control of the sword from the player in situations where different positioning would be preferable. b. Counter-intuitive behavior that would confuse the player.

Soko-ban boxes were briefly considered and abandoned. To do something different, I thought about boxes that you pull instead of push, but decided it wouldn't add much to the game. There is one element in the next release that is something like the pull-boxes.

I prototyped a version of DROD with multiple stories that used cutaway views to show hidden areas when you moved into them. Also, I prototyped a version where you could only see what was in your line of sight. I decided anything like this that involved hiding information, should be saved for a game other than DROD.

As far as monsters, the only one that was close to getting into DROD was this thing called a "wubba". Wubbas move towards you but don't kill you, and you can't kill them. So they tend to clog up your movement, and if you aren't careful they will get on all eight sides and trap you. Wubbas should be seen in the next release.

-Erik

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11-10-2003 at 05:29 PM
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eytanz
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ErikH2000 wrote:
Some experiments were done with Beethro's sword in early prototypes. For a while, it was not possible to move the sword onto an obstacle. This seemed cool at first, but turning the sword to allow movement between closely-spaced obstacles was tedious. To alleviate this, I came up with automatic rules to move the sword out of the way of obstacles, but the rules all had problems. a. Removing control of the sword from the player in situations where different positioning would be preferable. b. Counter-intuitive behavior that would confuse the player.

That would have been a very different game (and almost certainly a worse one) - without the auto-correction, it would make movement a far bigger element of the puzzle and reduce everything else, since Beethro would have a far harder time navigating tight spaces. With the auto-correction, I'm pretty sure that it would be just as confusing as you say.



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11-11-2003 at 06:22 AM
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Sokko
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Got any early versions hanging around on your hard drive? Would be interesting to see this kind of stuff in action.

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11-11-2003 at 04:43 PM
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mrimer
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This would be about the time where Strong Bad pulls up this little ASCII game with a happy face and a line moving around and smacking little O's, going <beep>...<beep>...<blip><bloop>...

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11-11-2003 at 08:51 PM
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ErikH2000
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Sokko wrote:
Got any early versions hanging around on your hard drive? Would be interesting to see this kind of stuff in action.
Well, without digging around too hard, I can give you this set of demos. It was originally sent to Dana Dominiak of Webfoot back in 2000 when we were discussing hiring me to work on their Dragonball Z game. The two demos are a little screwy, but maybe interesting.

Download from http://www.drod.net/files/DemosForDanaSetup.EXE . It's about 2mb.

-Erik

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11-11-2003 at 09:16 PM
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The_Red_Hawk
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How do I go down the exit? It acts just like an obstacle.

Anyways, I like the real DROD better. The visual effects are really neat, but it's hard to get around.

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Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....
11-13-2003 at 11:11 PM
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ErikH2000
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The_Red_Hawk wrote:
How do I go down the exit? It acts just like an obstacle.
It's just a programming demo I gave to a publisher. You can't go down the stairs and there are several other things that don't work right.

-Erik

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11-13-2003 at 11:23 PM
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Mattcrampy
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Of course, there's already discussion as to how some of this stuff is going to be incorporated into DROD.

Mostly the water, though.

Matt

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11-14-2003 at 05:31 PM
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The_Red_Hawk
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My favourite element from there were the one-way gates.

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Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....
11-14-2003 at 06:47 PM
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Sokko
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Odd beta things to look at:

Pressure plates. Apparently you stepped on them and caused a gate to toggle between open and closed. Kind of like an orb, but step-activated. Pretty cool idea.

Swinging barriers. You swing them simply by bumping into them, but because of their construction you can only swing them if the entire target location is empty.

Water. It doesn't actually do anything here, but it sure looks neat.

"Stalkers". They follow you around faster than you move, and use intelligent pathfinding routines to re-route themselves around obstacles. They don't actually do anything to you here if they catch up to you.


Scrolling fields? Line of sight? What were you thinking? ;)

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11-19-2003 at 08:41 PM
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l0ser
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Is this demo still available anywhere? I'm interested in checking it out.

Thanks. (:
08-11-2008 at 04:20 AM
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Tuttle
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icon Re: Monsters before (+2)  
The Wayback Machine has a copy: http://web.archive.org/web/20050302181151/http://www.drod.net/files/DemosForDanaSetup.EXE

[Last edited by Tuttle at 08-11-2008 04:25 PM : Fixed link]
08-11-2008 at 02:28 PM
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vittro
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Those sprites are AWESOME.

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08-11-2008 at 04:21 PM
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Moo
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ErikH2000 wrote:
Some experiments were done with Beethro's sword in early prototypes. For a while, it was not possible to move the sword onto an obstacle. This seemed cool at first, but turning the sword to allow movement between closely-spaced obstacles was tedious.
Some kind of "sword-resisting wall" or similar could be useful, so people wouldn't need to resort to using bombs as walls when creating sword-positioning mazes..
Beethro could just "oof" when you tried to move into a position where his sword would be in one of these walls..
:cool
08-11-2008 at 07:29 PM
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BeefontheBone
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FWIW, Erik's post was from like 5 years ago :)

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08-11-2008 at 08:10 PM
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zwetschenwasser
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Aw let them have their fun :blush

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08-11-2008 at 11:50 PM
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Snacko
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These demos are...interesting to say the least. I definitely prefer how DROD is now, but its fun to imagine.

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08-12-2008 at 04:15 AM
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Jatopian
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Bah, I can't seem to play them on a laptop. Oh well.

I wonder why they have AE music.

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08-12-2008 at 05:20 AM
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Doom
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Nothing wrong with my laptop. Just need to toggle the number keys (789uiojkl) with numlock to move.

The demos play uncontrollably fast though :/

[Last edited by Doom at 08-12-2008 08:48 AM]
08-12-2008 at 08:15 AM
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ErikH2000 wrote:
Sokko wrote:
Got any early versions hanging around on your hard drive? Would be interesting to see this kind of stuff in action.
Well, without digging around too hard, I can give you this set of demos. It was originally sent to Dana Dominiak of Webfoot back in 2000 when we were discussing hiring me to work on their Dragonball Z game. The two demos are a little screwy, but maybe interesting.

Download from http://www.drod.net/files/DemosForDanaSetup.EXE . It's about 2mb.

-Erik
this thing is not downloading
08-13-2008 at 07:12 PM
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Snacko
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Tuttle wrote:
The Wayback Machine has a copy: http://web.archive.org/web/20050302181151/http://www.drod.net/files/DemosForDanaSetup.EXE

Read through the topic before complaining.

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08-13-2008 at 07:13 PM
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Snacko wrote:
Tuttle wrote:
The Wayback Machine has a copy: http://web.archive.org/web/20050302181151/http://www.drod.net/files/DemosForDanaSetup.EXE

Read through the topic before complaining.
this one doesnt work.
08-13-2008 at 08:14 PM
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Snacko
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Works fine for me, did you just install a new download manager or something?

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08-13-2008 at 09:07 PM
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Snacko wrote:
Works fine for me, did you just install a new download manager or something?
meh. What is more interisting, that before i launched the installer size was 2.something mbs, i launched it, it told me "file corupted". Then size suddenly became 1,5 mbs! Virus?
08-13-2008 at 09:23 PM
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Jatopian
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Probably your computer is just messed up from downloading all kinds of virus-ridden pirated programs.

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08-13-2008 at 10:02 PM
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13th Slayer
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Jatopian wrote:
Probably your computer is just messed up from downloading all kinds of virus-ridden pirated programs.
but i have a good antivir (nod32) and i dont download much (like, do you know a size of some cool games is around 300mb?) better buy in a shop! In Russia games are much cheaper than in original, anyhow
08-13-2008 at 10:11 PM
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Pneh
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In Soviet Russia, game buys you!

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08-14-2008 at 04:25 PM
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Pneh wrote:
In Soviet Russia, game buys you!
you know, it is truthful a bit
08-14-2008 at 05:34 PM
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zwetschenwasser
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have you tried clamwin antivirus? it's free :D

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08-14-2008 at 10:39 PM
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