Radiant
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From a recent game design contest, Fizzii, Diamond16 and I present Draconis. A cunning puzzle game drafted in just a few days, it puts you in the role of Sir Flamington the dragon, who has to recover his precious gems from the knasty Knights of Knuisance. And, as any dragon worth his salt, you can set things on fire and cause nice explosions while you're at it.

Now this is a concept that deserves some expansion before we'll release it as a full game (eventually, because Heroine's Quest takes priority). We're looking at scrolling rooms, some more puzzle elements, better sound, and of course many more levels. In the meantime, you can play around with this early build and tell us what you think. Do tell us which elements from SubTerra you'd like to see return (or not return) in this design. Also, you can edit the customlevel.txt file in any text editor to create your own levels, and share them here. Enjoy!

Download beta version here.




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= Radiant =

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[Last edited by Radiant at 07-30-2013 03:33 PM]

Danjen02
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Might be cool... I'll have to give it a try when I get a chance.

Out of curiosity, why do you still use 32x32 tiles in this day and age? Is it mostly for the retro factor?

As far as mechanics go, I liked the wall/button objects, keys and doors are cool, and falling objects/gravity I think are a must. I would love to see more support for laser/optic puzzles (combining RGB beams to make white light, or splitting a white beam to power three different things)

Just tossing some ideas around.

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SubTerra
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Radiant
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Danjen02 wrote:
Out of curiosity, why do you still use 32x32 tiles in this day and age? Is it mostly for the retro factor?

Well I don't see the point of using 3D graphics for a game like this, and tiles larger than 32x32 don't really seem to add anything. What did you have in mind?

As far as mechanics go, I liked the wall/button objects, keys and doors are cool, and falling objects/gravity I think are a must. I would love to see more support for laser/optic puzzles (combining RGB beams to make white light, or splitting a white beam to power three different things)

Interesting.


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= Radiant =

Danjen02
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Radiant wrote:

Danjen02 wrote:
Out of curiosity, why do you still use 32x32 tiles in this day and age? Is it mostly for the retro factor?

Well I don't see the point of using 3D graphics for a game like this, and tiles larger than 32x32 don't really seem to add anything. What did you have in mind?

Oh, nothing in particular. I was just curious.

You could probably also do something related to breath. He is a dragon, after all. Close ranged breath, fire that travels until it hits something, ice breath, electric, etc.

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SubTerra
- Ultimate rank
- 2009 level design contest, 2nd place

Radiant
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Yes, but one player also told me that the breath makes it too easy to kill the enemies, and that he misses the chase scenes

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= Radiant =

Danjen02
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You could make it a powerup/collectible with limited uses, not unlike dynamite.

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SubTerra
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- 2009 level design contest, 2nd place

Celtic Minstrel
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It might just be WINE's failure, but I can't seem to get past the menu...

Radiant
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Try the keyboard? (press first letter of any menu option)

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Celtic Minstrel
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Doesn't seem to work... I see "Sir Drakesworth Flamington, Esq" plastered across the screen. Pressing Esc takes me back to the menu for a moment, but then the screen is filled with what looks like a gigantic mouse cursor.

I guess things aren't being drawn correctly in WINE...?

Radiant
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...I guess so. Do you have similar issues when any of Crystal Shard's other games? Other than SubTerra, that is. This is all written AGS.

Come to think of it, there is an AGS linux kernel that I should try including, but I haven't fully gotten it to work yet.

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Celtic Minstrel
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I've never had problems with SubTerra before.

Radiant
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Yes, that's what I mean. Subterra is written in C++, most everything else I've written (including Draconis) is in AGS. So I'm wondering if you have similar issues with other AGS games, which is everything except Subterra.

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Celtic Minstrel
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Oh, sorry, misunderstood. I had no problems with Indiana Rodent or Errand, at least.

Radiant
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Odd. Perhaps it's the screen resolution? Draconis is 800x600, Errand and Indiana Rodent are 320x200 and 320x240.

Does fiddling with the graphics driver / filter in the winsetup program help? Would you mind posting it at this technical forum to see if we can sort it out?

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= Radiant =

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[Last edited by Radiant at 07-23-2013 04:08 PM]

Celtic Minstrel
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Radiant wrote: Does fiddling with the graphics driver / filter in the winsetup program help?

I didn't see anything that looked relevant in winecfg...

Actually, I just tried the Indiana Rodent demo (as opposed to the full version), and I think there is a problem with Indiana Rodent – the hints fill the entire screen, hiding the level. Maybe that's related to the issue with Draconis.

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[Last edited by Celtic Minstrel at 07-23-2013 07:16 PM]

Danjen02
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most everything else I've written (including Draconis) is in AGS

Was Leylines done in AGS, then?

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SubTerra
- Ultimate rank
- 2009 level design contest, 2nd place

Radiant
Level: Moderator

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Celtic Minstrel wrote:

Radiant wrote: Does fiddling with the graphics driver / filter in the winsetup program help?

I didn't see anything that looked relevant in winecfg...

Not winecfg, but winsetup.

Danjen02 wrote:
Was Leylines done in AGS, then?

No Neither were Block-O-Mania, and about half the games in The Vault.

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Celtic Minstrel
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Radiant wrote: Not winecfg, but winsetup.

Um, winsetup doesn't exist... I assumed it shouldn't exist with just WINE...

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[Last edited by Celtic Minstrel at 07-23-2013 08:03 PM]

Radiant
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I'm not sure what you mean. The ZIP package for Draconis contains an executable named "winsetup". It allows you to change settings for the game.

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Celtic Minstrel
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...oh. I never even saw that. Sorry. Changing it to DirectDraw seems to work.

Celtic Minstrel
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One of the boxes beyond the exit in the second-last level seems impossible to open; the knight doesn't open it if you let it out.

(Or maybe the last level, if you're not counting the pyramid of gems with no exit.)

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[Last edited by Celtic Minstrel at 07-23-2013 09:35 PM]

Radiant
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Hm, it seems the knight only opens the chest when moving straight at the chest. So you can actually open that by digging a C-shape in the dirt left of it. That said, I'll have to change that in the next build.

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Radiant
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Update: the current version of the game has more levels, save points, and music courtesy of Diamond16. Enjoy!

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= Radiant =