mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Emojk wrote:
Oh come on now, that is just cruel.
Just publish the buggy version of the game, I don't mind. I promise I won't complain at all.

Sorry, not trying to be cruel. Just providing a status update of where we are.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

Dischorran
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3408
Registered: 09-10-2005
IP: Logged

bflatjeff wrote:
de-atrophy (is that even a thing? I don't know).

That would be

____________________________

Kwerulous
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 340
Registered: 05-15-2008
IP: Logged

I realise I'm a little late to the praising-of-Emmett's-music, but can I just say how catchy A Sympathetic Bartendry is? I've listened to it, um, quite a few times already... I fear I might not be able to exit some levels in a hurry (it sounds like an exit-stairs music to me, though I could be wrong of course). The other nine pieces are awesome too, and I look forward to hearing them in game.

On the subject of music, the piece in the new trailer (I assume by Jon Sonnenberg?) is really cool too!

EmmettPlant
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 28
Registered: 04-09-2014
IP: Logged

Kwerulous wrote:
I realise I'm a little late to the praising-of-Emmett's-music, but can I just say how catchy A Sympathetic Bartendry is? I've listened to it, um, quite a few times already... I fear I might not be able to exit some levels in a hurry (it sounds like an exit-stairs music to me, though I could be wrong of course).

It's never too late for unqualified praise!

'A Sympathetic Bartendry' is essentially music written on a self-imposed dare: I wanted to see if I could pull a coherent piece together using nothing but percussion and strings. There's all kinds of stuff lurking in that piece -- Marimbas by the bucketload, acoustic guitars, conga drums, bongos... Apart from the three (or four?) acoustic guitars, it's all percussion (if you count pianos, and I do).

Again, this is the kind of thing I don't really get to do that often. DROD is a great place for this kind of thing, because the players like to be challenged. They're much more willing to accept it when I go out on a limb.

Kwerulous
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 340
Registered: 05-15-2008
IP: Logged

Interesting! Nice to hear from the composer the thought processes behind the music. You're clearly enthusiastic about it and it really shows in your work.

Stoney
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 39
Registered: 12-18-2007
IP: Logged

Pre Ordered I hope it does feature a decent OSX Version this time around.

Jatopian
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1842
Registered: 07-31-2005
IP: Logged

Stoney wrote:
Pre Ordered I hope it does feature a decent OSX Version this time around.

Was there something indecent about the Mac version?

____________________________
DROD has some really great music.
Make your pressure plates 3.0 style!
DROD architecture idea generator

Stoney
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 39
Registered: 12-18-2007
IP: Logged

Well, it happened to crash a bit often in the past, so I've used Wine for JtRH. I would much rather prefer to play it native though.

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Are you talking about the PowerPC version or the Intel version for JtRH?

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

Stoney
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 39
Registered: 12-18-2007
IP: Logged

I believe it was the Intel Version. But there might be a fixed build now, gotta try the recent one.

Emojk
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 94
Registered: 09-05-2010
IP: Logged

TBC and GatEB have never crashed on my mac.

Stoney
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 39
Registered: 12-18-2007
IP: Logged

I need to try the new builds. The older ones did have some problems for me. But I've got some free days from work next week, so I already know how to spend them now.

Anyway, you know I'm anticipating every new release you guys do from the deepest of my heart. You make the best puzzle games in the world, and I'm not exaggerating one bit here.

---

[Last edited by Stoney at 05-03-2014 08:42 PM]

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Here's feedback from another beta tester who has completed most of the game content:

Over all, I think TSS is fantastic. I love all the improvements to the engine, especially the support for the different title screens and associated content. The graphical enhancements and animation support awesome, and the new room styles and associated music are among the best yet! Oh, and I love all the new weapons. I guess there are some problems that can't be solved with a really big sword, after all.

Story-wise...I'm pretty pleased with how things went...

I have a hard time judging difficulty. I think TSS is, on the whole, probably harder than TCB, but I know I've improved as a player since TCB came out, so it's difficult for me to say for sure. TSS is obviously much bigger than previous games, maybe even too big...

The level design is, of course, excellent. I haven't loved every single room, but that's to be expected as I know some types of puzzles just aren't my cup of tea. Still, I don't think I've come across any rooms I thought were poorly designed...

All in all, it's been quite an experience.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

RayneStormRN
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 17
Registered: 08-08-2006
IP: Logged

seemed like it was progressing so fast.........until i preordered, lol. now it seems to be dragging (i know it's just perception). really can't wait till it's finished so i can play. this is one of the few games i have purchased outright without trying first (that says a lot ) (although my free month will be long expired).

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Thanks for the kind words. Don't worry -- we'll provide an extra month of CaravelNet when TSS is released for everyone who has pre-ordered.

Yes, progress is actually dragging for a couple weeks now. At least on my end -- I've had some personal emergencies to take care of. The beta team is doing great, though! We're all working hard together to make sure the game is finished asap!

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

A beta tester has mastered TSS!

I believe another couple are pretty close. We're applying the final fixes and tweaks to the hold now.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

Trickster
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 662
Registered: 07-03-2007
IP: Logged

mrimer wrote:
A beta tester has mastered TSS!

I believe another couple are pretty close. We're applying the final fixes and tweaks to the hold now.

This is awesome! I can't wait for the gamma testing to commence.

____________________________
Trickster

Official Hold Progress
Favorite Unofficial Holds (I need to play more!)
My Holds

Fang
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 175
Registered: 07-25-2008
IP: Logged

We're actually buying the Gamma Testing phase of the game. Only when it's the Zeta Testing is it ready.

Oh, who am I kidding? The end is nigh! The sky will fall on our heads! Vital statistics!

____________________________
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -Albert Einstein

Nuntar
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 4590
Registered: 02-20-2007
IP: Logged

A quick reply to something from the previous page....

Moo wrote:
Ah... That's not really the same thing.
Two short tracks alternating is still repetitive (less than a single one though), and kind of makes the two individual tracks basically be like a single longer one? In that case, why not have just one double-length track?

The music switches styles quite frequently, unless you get stuck on one room for a long time and don't have other rooms available. If the themes for each style were combined into one double-length track, each time you switched you'd get the first theme and you'd end up hearing it a lot more than the others.

By the way, the new styles in TSS have two of each music type (including Ambient), and the styles that were new in GatEB have four of each type.

____________________________
50th Skywatcher

Moo
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 224
Registered: 10-14-2006
IP: Logged

You do have a point... By being split up, when entering a room the music wouldn't always start from the same point...
But as they are so short, you really don't have to be stuck for long at all for it to switch from the first to the next. Even if you aren't stuck at all, just "doing" the room may take enough time for that. And being stuck means you're likely to hear even four tracks at least once all the way through.
Anyway... I think adding a little more variety, perhaps like the ancient post was talking about, could be good.

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I think we have over five hours of music in 5.0. Regardless of how music tracks loop, I think having a high volume of music is the best all-around way to have variety in the music.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

---

[Last edited by mrimer at 05-22-2014 01:27 PM]

Godot23
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 114
Registered: 02-28-2013
IP: Logged

And I'm guessing that if you factor in the loops, you have about... AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF MUSIC!? Woah!

____________________________
Roses are red
Violets are red
Everything is red
My house is on fire

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I was looking over the game assets recently, and I also noticed we have ~450 sound effects in 5.0.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

Fang
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 175
Registered: 07-25-2008
IP: Logged

450 sound effects? That's a soundtrack I'd listen to. If we consider each sound effect takes a second and a half (overall estimation), that's 675 seconds, or 11 minutes and a quarter!

I'm not good with maths so I hope I didn't screw this one up.

____________________________
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -Albert Einstein

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3734
Registered: 12-28-2004
IP: Logged

Fang wrote:
450 sound effects? That's a soundtrack I'd listen to. If we consider each sound effect takes a second and a half (overall estimation), that's 675 seconds, or 11 minutes and a quarter!

I'm not good with maths so I hope I didn't screw this one up.

YOu did, sound effects are usually shorter than half a second.

At least in my games.

I make flash games, they need to be small.

So I have small sounds.

Potato.

____________________________
My website | Facebook | Twitter

Fang
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 175
Registered: 07-25-2008
IP: Logged

It's still a good 5 minutes, then! And it can be 60 if we loop it 12 times.

By the way, I'm currently reloading the page any moment I'm back on this tab because I saw the bar went up 0.05% (I think.)

____________________________
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -Albert Einstein

Matt2k
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 26
Registered: 01-11-2006
IP: Logged

The burning question is what tasks the remaining progress bar is tied to. What constitutes .05% progress? Is the last 1% "adding the download links" or "Rework the engine to support 3D bump mapped voxel swords"

Clearly you have something in mind -- surely this isn't ARBITRARY!

HELP COMPUTER

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Yes, we have concrete stuff in mind for the last 1.05%. 0.4% is for the last beta testing and hold design fixes. 0.3% is for final coding, bug fixes and RCB builds. 0.2% is for preparing and vetting the demo version of TSS. 0.15% is for press releases, the Illumination, and making TSS live!

And we should fit in another 0.001% for waiting for people who would rather have the release be delayed further.

Nah.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

---

[Last edited by mrimer at 05-23-2014 06:32 PM]

Trickster
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 662
Registered: 07-03-2007
IP: Logged

Fang wrote:
450 sound effects? That's a soundtrack I'd listen to. If we consider each sound effect takes a second and a half (overall estimation), that's 675 seconds, or 11 minutes and a quarter!

Regrettably, 423 of those sounds are just Beethro screaming.

____________________________
Trickster

Official Hold Progress
Favorite Unofficial Holds (I need to play more!)
My Holds

---

[Last edited by Trickster at 05-23-2014 07:03 PM]

Trickster
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 662
Registered: 07-03-2007
IP: Logged

mrimer wrote:
And we should fit in another 0.001% for waiting for people who would rather have the release be delayed further.
Nah.

____________________________
Trickster

Official Hold Progress
Favorite Unofficial Holds (I need to play more!)
My Holds