Progress...

[ztrumpet]

Yay! Looks like an amazing game isn't far off...

[geekboy1011]

ouch i had some virus issues a while back it was not fun didnt have a comoputer for like 5 weeks X.x

it great to hear its coming along though i really cant wait to play it just looks epic

[DigiTan]

All coding lost to last month's virus/hard drive failure nonsense was restored this week. Whoohoo!


Also, letter support was added. This is a special class of item that provides tips, meeting points, cryptic nonsense, and other special messages to the gamer. When you're done reading, feel free to keep it or toss it. Just keep in mind that trashed information is hard to replace.

[Eeems]

Sweet!

[Galandros]

Remembers a bit Megaman messages and going to houses around the city.

[geekboy1011]

yay great to here that all your work is causght back up and the virus/failure didnt cause to much of a set back :)

and cool is there a limit to how many letter you hold on to ????

[DigiTan]

Yep. Luckily, the drive that failed was supposed to be the reserve drive eventually, and it only had 2 weeks of new data on it. Now that the replacement drive is working, I can finish scripting the story. :D

As of now the limit on letters is 9 total. Technically, you might say it's 10 because you can still read letters on the ground while you have a full backpack--you just can't pick it up. Any other item would do nothing at all in that situation.


I don't know if I ever mentioned how water works. When you dive, you lose about 1 HP per second and your speed is capped to a slow pace. When you jump back to dry land, you'll recover any HP "lost" from holding your breath. Overall, water isn't a very dangerous hazard. UNLESS you get fatigued to 1 or 2 HP from a battle! Hopping from shore to shore just 1 second of air is no way to spend an evening. :P

...I know it's odd, but eating underwater will extend your swim time. We can't make this game too realistic!

[tr1p1ea]

You can east FISH underwater! :>.

[Eeems]

That's great! I don't really like how you have no idea where you are when you are under water though...could you make some sort of shadow sprite or something so you have a general idea where you are?

[NanoWar]

[ztrumpet]

Nice! I'm glad you're coding again.
I like both screenshots, but I wish for a shadow-water-sprite also.

[IAmACalculator]

Kinda OT, but Digitan, have you heard of Dropbox? It's by far the best backup/online storage service I've seen. Incredibly effective and seamless integration with Windows, built-in repository, and sharing across other Dropbox accounts. You can get two gigs for free. Just in case, ya know.

[DigiTan]

Haven't heard of it, but it sounds useful. It would be nice to have a place other than my yahoo inbox to store this stuff. :D


Will try to throw together some decent shadow sprites today. Might even try a fishing function, but not sure yet.

[hotdog1234]

I just want to say that I'm glad you're doing this in black and white. It's a constant encouragement to me that a great calculator game doesn't have to be greyscale. In other words, your game is the reason I'm kept from pouring hours into unnecessary graphics. And that's a compliment, by the way.

[DigiTan]

Earlier this month, the loot system was finalized.

As you probably saw in the videos, defeated enemies will drop one coin and one skill point. This is your battle reward if you can grab them before they disappear. To gain levels you want to especially want to the grab skill first. Each one counts toward your quota for a level-up.

The level-up quota increases exponentially each level. For example, a level 0 -> 1 promotion requires only 1 skill point. But a level 10 -> 11 promotion will need 100 skill points. Because of the exponential requirements, players will eventually hit a wall and require thousands of battles per level. That's where the honor item comes in...


This item is pretty simple. If you win certain mini-games or side-missions, one gets deposited to your item list. Each honor you carry doubles the value of coins and skill. All it takes is a few of these and you'll be earning levels in a fraction of the normal time. The most you can possibly carry is nine, which boosts coin/skill values by x512.

The catch is: they are hard to earn, and like other items--they slow you down slightly and expire after 10 level-ups. They also have no offensive/defensive use, so you're forced to fight with fewer gadgets and weapons. Still, if you want a strong character and a large ammo supply, the honors are your grind-free solution!



The magnet will also scoop up coins and skill before they disappear.

[Galandros]

I might prefer better weaponry and the cool magnet. :]
This is definitely one game that no one want to miss in their calculator.

Good luck finishing it.

[Bhaliar]

Sorry if this was already answered but whats the size looking like?

[ztrumpet]

Great job! I'm glad you're still working on this. It looks really nice!

[DigiTan]

So far, it's still on track to be 64kB + around 512 bytes per savegame. The savegames themselves might vary based on what info can be trashed when the game exits.

The next task on the list is to get cinematics going so I can finish the Oceanside chapter of the story.

[Mapar007]

Graphics amaze me. I've always sucked at graphics in asm, so, well, this is great!