Donut Quest 2

[DarkerLine]

Recently (specifically, during yesterday's morning midterm) I got up the courage to look over the code for Donut Quest with the potential plan for making a new version. When I found a rather magnificent size optimization in the level structure (I cut the program size down by 20% or about 800 bytes), and found a feature of the game I previously didn't know existed, that plan became a reality.

It's (still) the plan to make a new version of Donut Quest that allows external level sets. Technically speaking, this is about 90% done already, but I'd also like to make up some new levels to demonstrate some of the things you could do, as well as to give people an incentive to download the new version.

I'd also like to find out if Donut Quest is TI-83 (plain) compatible. I consciously avoided any potentially problematic areas (such as large graph text and use of the archive), but all that may be undone if I find out that some of the characters I use (and really can't do without) don't exist on the TI-83. The link only contains the .8xp version, so the only ways I see of testing it on the 83 plain are trying to send it to the calculator anyway, sending it from an 83+ to an 83, or me getting an 83 calculator from somewhere (pretty unlikely).

Finally, I'd put in additional features if I knew what the game lacked. Please make suggestions so I can improve the game!

[aforsy]

well, as far as i know, the 83 and 83+ have identical character sets, at least the set that's generally available to the user.

i haven't played it, so i don't know if you already implemented this, but do you have a good, solid, overarching story-line? people who like story-games would find that a good reason to try the game, and people who are just interested in the puzzle-part and aren't too interested in a story could just ignore it.

[DarkerLine]

I don't (or indeed any storyline), but could easily do this for the new version. Thanks!

[Liazon]

AWESOME!!! still haven't played original though

[Radical Pi]

Make some easy levels. I couldn't get past lvl 3/4.

[Rezek]

Generally, 1 and 2 are the easy levels :-)

Sounds good, I liked the original alot, and was impressed by it.

[bananaman]

you could make it kinda like DDR and be searching for a whole bunch of things, and the only way to get them is to have a dance off err I mean beat the puzzle that they set up for you to get trapped in.

[elfprince13]

allow for external levels would be cool. Then we could make our own ( I beat all 6 levels of the original on the way to Yellowstone this summer).




it wouldn't that hard to test it on regular 83 if you just open up Graph Link, copy it, then create a new 83 program and paste the code back in.....I dont have a 83 though, or Id test for you.

[DarkerLine]

According to CoBB here it does work on the 83. Which is good news.

[Weregoose]

Will there be progress on this over the summer? Maybe hire a few extra hands in level design?

[alexrudd]

Hmm, I must have completely missed this topic the first time around.
Ironically enough, the only person I know with an 83 was absolutely addicted to Donut Quest. I never got a chance to send it to his 83 though, and now he's using a 84+.

What improvement did you find for the level storage? I tried to think of a better way, but could never come up with it.

[DarkerLine]

[kalan_vod]

I totally missed this topic, I loved the original and I look forward to the 2nd edition . Yeah matrices are pretty heafty, and in your case (drawing tile by tile) it wouldn't be much of a slow down if at all when making the map (drawing). One thing though, aren't lists slower? You could possibly make it use strings instead, but that would be a little more complicated when over writing (moving a tile). But if you could figure a effective way to utilize strings in the levels (not the drawing), it would provide more of a viaritey of tiles and the size would be smaller than list (in level storage at least).

[DarkerLine]

I still use a matrix when the game is actually running, it's just that storing the data to a list and then converting it to a matrix ends up being much smaller than storing it to a matrix in the first place. I chose the list in this case because the list>mat( function provided a fast (only 1-2 seconds) conversion routine to the matrix, something that could easily take 10 or 15 seconds otherwise.

[kalan_vod]

Ok, well that is a good way to do it .

[DarkerLine]

YES IT'S SCREENSHOTS.

YES THEY'RE LIKE HALF A YEAR LATER AND NO I DON'T HAVE A WORK ETHIC.

[alexrudd]

I'm curious as to how you implemented external levels.
I've been working on a program that uses lists to store map data, at 45 bytes/level. (Might switch to strings if I can get better).

I had two ideas for external levels:
* Have one "master level list," say LLEVEL. External levelsets would be programs that append to the end of the list, which stays in RAM or archive.
Pros: only need to run level program once. Cons: can't display name of level
* Have the main program callable by the external level programs. To run a level, the program stores its (hardcoded) level data into LLEVEL, sets some variable, and passes the name of the levelset as a string. The main program either uses the built-in levels, or overrides them if the variable it looks for is set.
Pros: Level names. Easy deletion of levels. Cons: Level editor would be tough. External levels would have to be run one at a time through separate programs.

Which method does DQ2 use (or something completely different)?

[DarkerLine]

Initially I was planning something along the lines of your second idea, but then I decided against it, mainly because I believe the "setting some variable" method to be awkward. Now I use lists for external levels. Everything is stored in the list, and to run the external level, you just run Donut Quest, select the 'external level' option, and type in the name of the list.

The one disadvantage is that a program can't create a list with a name the user types in. The level editor as it is now just stores the level to L₁, and then the user would type in L₁→NAME to name the list (after the program exits).

[alexrudd]

How do you access the list that somebody types in? Do they have to type in LNAME, or is there some secret way to access the list given its name?

[DarkerLine]

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