GREEN 2: RED - Updated 9/3/12!

[Glitchfinder]

                                        



      By: Glitchfinder and theory       

Play the Demo!

                                        

 ■     How To Play                      

Press Space on the Title Screen

Player 1: WASD to move!
Player 2: Arrow keys or 2468 on the numpad to move!

Collect as many COINS as possible!
Avoid ORANGE and the SPIKE TRAP at all costs!
Hit ESC to PAUSE!
Hit the WHITE revival tile ASAP!
LIVES and COINS shown in the corners!
LIKE us on Facebook!
HAVE FUN!

                                        

 ■     Live Twitter Feed                

&npsb;

                                        

 ■     Introduction                     

RED is a continuation of the development that went into theory's old RMXP game, GREEN. Where that game fell short due to the constraints of RPG Maker, this game aims to shine as something significantly better. However, RED is not GREEN. In this game, you start off as RED, rather than the more familiar GREEN. He has different abilities, a different color, but the same goal: to survive as long as possible, and to collect more treasure than ever before.

                                        

 ■     Screenshots                      

Spoiler: More Screenshots

The in-game map.

                                        

 ■     Report a Bug                     

If you find a bug in the game, and would like to report it, you can do so here. If you do so, I would like to ask that you first check to see if one of the open issues on the tracker reports the same issue. If it does, but you have more information on what you did to cause it, please post a comment on the existing issue rather than making a new one. If you have nothing you can add to the existing issue, please avoid unnecessary posts in the tracker. I would also like to mention that I will keep any bug reports open in the issue tracker until I update the hosted game to patch them, rather than closing them as soon as I fix them in the code. While this results in more work for me (I have to manually reopen them after I mention them in a change, then close them again later when I update the hosted game), it means less work for you when trying to report a bug. I would like to thank anyone who takes the time to report a bug in the tracker, especially if they can document the cause, because that makes it significantly easier to give you guys a newer, better game.

                                        

 ■     Changelog                        

Spoiler: Project Changes

09/03/2012

• Fixed a bug causing the game to repeatedly change maps when all players are at 0 remaining lives.
• Fixed a bug involving players changing maps several times when a new map is loaded.
• Moved the player management code out of the Player object and into a new Manager object.
• Created a public repository for the project.
• Created a public issue tracker for the project.
• Licensed the project under Creative Commons - Noncommercial due to some of the music used.
• Added a formatted README.creole file for Github.
• Added a plaintext README.txt file for other use.
• Modified the revival god-mode timer to be independent of frame-rate.
• Fixed issues regarding disappearing icons on the Help screen.
• Fixed the repository so that it did not include backups, databases, or uistates.
• Restored random map orientation.
• Fixed a crash in a specific situation.
• Fixed several bugs involving players not being placed when the map loaded.
• Fixed a few bugs where players would load with a map despite being dead.
• Fixed player placement based upon map orientation.
• Deprecated a few unused variables.
• Set sound effects to preload with the game.
• Fixed music pausing in Chrome. (Still broken in Firefox, possibly waiting for update to browser)
• Updated map exits with new values to assist in placing players properly.
• Cleaned up the event sheet.
• Fixed minor issues involving return values and music.
• Fixed a massive processing time leak that would eventually result in the game spending the vast majority of its power and time processing the list of players in the manager object.

03/24/2012

• Moved back to Dreamhost, since it's stable again.
• Added a new mob, the Spike Trap. Easily avoided, but it will have a special purpose once I finish the behaviors.

03/23/2012

• Updated the travel system so that you end up on the side opposite the one you exited.
• Now all players must hit an exit tile to leave the map.
• Maps have been updated!
• All maps have treasure!
• Revival tiles are now fully functional!
• The project is officially at five events.
• When you enter a map, the door is barred behind you.
• Kicked players back to the title screen when they lost.
• Fixed a bug where you respawned in the wrong place when all players died.
• Fixed a bug where gates you didn't take were sometimes blocked.
• Fixed many minor bugs that I've forgotten to count.
• Temporarily moved back to Dropbox due to Dreamhost downtime.

03/22/2012

• Set up a Twitter feed for the project.
• Set up a Facebook page for the project.
• Hosted the project on my own servers.
• Redid the project post.
• Created a userbar for the project.
• Created a banner ad for the project.
• Removed the annoying background music from the project.

03/21/2012

• Added player death.
• Added revival tile.
• Added revival tile sound effects.
• Added revival tile behavior.
• Added revival tile sound effect.
• Added player revival.
• Added player revival sound effect.
• Made it so that if all players die on a map without activating the revival tile, a new map is loaded.
• Made it so that if a new map is loaded for revival, all players are next to the revival tile.
• Added a respawn timer.
• Made it so that ORANGE can kill the player.
• Added an FPS counter.
• Reduced the number of ORANGE on the map using a randomized check on load.
• Made it so that all players are temporarily invincible upon the respawn of a player.

03/20/2012

• Added sound effect for collecting coins.
• Added new effect to make player locations more obvious.
• Paused most behaviors while the new effect was active.

03/19/2012

• Created project post.
• Uploaded first demo.
• Added more enemies to demo maps.
• Made characters and enemies smaller to accommodate issues with movement
• Gave ORANGE the ability to charge at the player.
• Added very basic HUD.
• Added flashing prompt on title screen.

                                        

 ■     Support the Project!             

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[Jason]

Interesting idea, and I must say I LOVE the camera....

I do have one suggestion you could maybe look into though:

Due to the visual presentation, in my opinion atleast, I think it would greatly benefit from having some sort of tile based movement, I mean, if you're not thinking of having it, atleast give it a try and see what you think, since I sometimes got caught on corners while trying to move around the map...

 

[rosareven]

I agree with Jason. Or even if not tile based, you can use the "90 degree" option in the 8-direction behaviour setting. The moment will still be smooth but the angle is fixed to 90 degree turns, and it will still adjust automatically if you try to roll over a corner or squeeze through narrow bends.

A bit laggy on my work computer using Firefox, but my work computer is trash (it was supposed to be upgraded last year -_-).

 

[Glitchfinder]

Interesting idea, and I must say I LOVE the camera....

I do have one suggestion you could maybe look into though:

Due to the visual presentation, in my opinion atleast, I think it would greatly benefit from having some sort of tile based movement, I mean, if you're not thinking of having it, atleast give it a try and see what you think, since I sometimes got caught on corners while trying to move around the map...

I've certainly been thinking the same thing regarding tile-based movement. I'll definitely look into it, because as it stands, I don't really like the current movement schema. My only qualm regarding setting it to tile-based is in regard to a few of the planned open map types, where movement being limited to tiles will make it significantly more difficult to avoid your enemies.

That said, I think that if I manage to implement it (it's harder than it seems to do that!) I'll probably end up keeping it for simplicity. The best part is, if I do it right, I can set it to tile-based only on maps like the maze map you start on.

I agree with Jason. Or even if not tile based, you can use the "90 degree" option in the 8-direction behaviour setting. The moment will still be smooth but the angle is fixed to 90 degree turns, and it will still adjust automatically if you try to roll over a corner or squeeze through narrow bends.

A bit laggy on my work computer using Firefox, but my work computer is trash (it was supposed to be upgraded last year -_-).

Actually, the movement that I'm using there is a heavily modified version of the default movement you're talking about. I had to make some significant changes, most notable being the fact that you now move relative to the screen rather than relative to the layout. (Try rotating a layout by 90 degrees and then moving in it using the default movement) That said, even in the default version, the 90 degrees option is specifically for the sprite rotation. There is a four-way option, but it was significantly more annoying for me to use than the 8-way I'm currently using. I'll probably have the same problem with tile-based movement too, in that it doesn't feel very intuitive to only go one direction at a time, even when you should theoretically be moving more than one. (For example, I'll have a tough time making it so that if you're holding up and right, and hit a wall, you slide right instead of up. The default behavior has the exact same issue, to boot.

That said, I could probably keep the 8-way while still making it tile based. It shouldn't be too difficult to do, I think. But I have yet to try, so I don't really know for sure.

Edit: I just realized EXACTLY how to do it. I know that pac-man is NOT tile-based, and I was remembering how they implemented it when I realized exactly how to do it for my game. It's pretty simple, and I'll mod the demo to include it in a minute, as soon as I work it out. It would basically amount to forcing you down the center of a lane, and not letting you change direction unless a tile in that direction was open, and you would still remain in the center of that lane too. I'll make it so that the last button pressed is the current direction of travel, but in the event that you hit a wall, it reads any other pressed buttons to see which way it should go.

 

[rosareven]

Yeah I reckon if it is a lot of hassle to make it look 4-way, then keep it as it is. Being able to move in the game is more important than deciding 8 way or 4 way XD

Good luck with it!

 

[Glitchfinder]

Hmm, I'm not particularly sure how to fix this issue, to be honest. At least, how to fix it while keeping a dynamic character speed. That said, I would like to note that there is no friction while you are touching something, so you can easily slide along the side of a wall with no issues. I am going to see what happens if I make the player a bit smaller, though.

 

[Venetia]

I'm liking this a lot so far. The movement is very fluid. Even if there isn't a second player, the single player can still control both squares at once (I had some fun trying to properly move both at the same time ... Which is a real challenge :x)

Anyway, I already know to expect a lot from you, so good to know you won't disappoint!

 

[Glitchfinder]

All right, to accommodate the movement issues, I made the characters smaller. It's not the best fix, but it's far better than the buggy stuff I tried before that. I also added more copies of ORANGE to most of the maps, to give a slightly better example of what you can expect to see ingame.

Anyway, what do you guys think of the rest of the project, aside from movement? Jason already commented on the camera, but what do you guys think of the title screen? The pause screen? The game in general?

 

[rosareven]

I didn't see how to start the game when I was at the title screen, so I was confused until I hit an arrow key. Some indication would be awesome.

I love the multiplayer feature. In fact it also contributes to one hell of a single player experience trying to control both at once.

The walls and floors can use more contrast to differentiate each other, unless you meant for the walls to look similar to floors in order to blur the player's sense of direction?

 

[BlueScope]

Interesting concept... I can definately see how you could reduce this to six events only. It's definately a programming task here

Unfortunately, I can't try it out right now, as I only got my smartphone. With that, I can check out the title screen, but that's it ^^ It's lag-free, though

Looking forward to playing this one definately.

 

[Glitchfinder]

I didn't see how to start the game when I was at the title screen, so I was confused until I hit an arrow key. Some indication would be awesome.

I love the multiplayer feature. In fact it also contributes to one hell of a single player experience trying to control both at once.

The walls and floors can use more contrast to differentiate each other, unless you meant for the walls to look similar to floors in order to blur the player's sense of direction?

I'll definitely throw an indicator up there as soon as I finish up what I'm working on right now. (Basic GUI, player death, resurrection, etc)

Thanks for the bit on multiplayer. I had tried that myself, but stopped when I realized it was taking too much from the testing. One thing I would like to note is that when this reaches final release, it will start with just RED. It will be up to some lucky player to unlock INDIGO for everyone. Yes, that's right. This game will have unlockables. And not just unlockables, but global ones, that everyone shares. Ideally, it'll also have an online stats page that immortalizes the players that unlock stuff.

As for the walls and floors, anything that isn't the basic background color is a wall. However, due to the fact that some people may not have their contrast high enough, I can certainly make it so that the walls can't be quite as transparent as they currently can. (Currently, they have a random opacity, and anything that is below 35% opacity will disappear entirely, thus making more floors.)

Interesting concept... I can definately see how you could reduce this to six events only. It's definately a programming task here

Unfortunately, I can't try it out right now, as I only got my smartphone. With that, I can check out the title screen, but that's it ^^ It's lag-free, though

Looking forward to playing this one definately.

What's this? A compliment from BlueScope? I'm going to have to look out my window in a sec, but I'm pretty sure that's a sign that the end is nigh!

Sorry, couldn't help it. You're pretty stingy with compliments when you could be giving constructive criticism instead, so it's kind of rare to see anything that could be taken as one. Thanks for posting, and I look forward to when you can tell me what you think of my progress.

Also, since English isn't your first language, I think I should point out that it's actually definitely, rather than definately. Think of it as being based on the word definite. (I have the same issue sometimes, and that's my workaround)

 

[BlueScope]

Thanks for the language hint, I indeed had no idea ^^"

And yeah, I can only criticize what I can play, so you're not entirely off the hook now ;o I just think it might be a cool and uncomplicated game that fortunately for you also seems to pinpoint the judging criteria... in other words, I let you pass by instead of giving you a fight I can't win

 

[Venetia]

If you need comments on the title screen, you are a silly goose. The title screen is a work of art ~
(Like Rosa said though, it could use a [Press Space] or something to indicate what to do)

 

[BlueScope]

More like I would need a keyboard to press that
And thanks for the trust in me there, Ven... XD (it's actually kind of disturbing that you actually think I'd be sitting in front of a desktop PC and be completely lost due to missing guidance... :/ )

 

[Glitchfinder]

Bluescope, I think she was responding to my asking comments on the title screen.

Anyway, I just added a few basic updates. First and foremost, a VERY basic HUD, so you at least know how many coins you've collected. The lives are still nonfunctional, though. (It's a quick update, but I'm not doing it yet) Second, I added placeholder blinking text on the title to tell people how to get past it. I'll bug theory for a better image to put there later.

Also, has anyone paid attention to some of the finer details? For example, the squares on the title screen are in random locations, and the background in-game is somewhat random, although it tends to be blue.

 

[BlueScope]

Ah, my bad then... ^^" My apologies.

I finally got around to play your game now! And it's as interesting as I thought, but it needs some minor guidance on what's going on here and there - especially on the position of your two characters, as I had quite a time trying to locate either of them :D
I'd suggest a camera zoom-out, but as you got two players, you'd need to do something else. Maybe the sprites scaling down from 500% in the beginning, looking as if they "fall down"? Well, dunno if that's the perfect solution... just something to tinker with maybe.
A similar issue happens when switching areas, as the characters don't end up next to doors as I assumed, but instead in the middle of no-mans land ^^

The moving-around-corners thing is something you might want to improve still... it wasn't anything as hard as I expected it to be from the comments, but I'm having a hard time getting the character to do exactly what I want.

And you might consider changing the title screen's text color to white, or something less bright than that and still better readable than black.

But yeah, you know I'm just mentioning the nit-picky things. Liked it overall, and even though I was just trying it for a second, it had that addicting thing kicking in already: You know you're going to stop playing in a minute, so no need to collect those yellow bits... but let's do it anyway. Ah, and those as well. Damn, been five minutes!! :blank: The music adds to that and really makes you stressed about playing it - but in a good way. You just want to be fast, agile, and maybe watch Tron again sometime soon... ^^

Also... your characters are pretty square. :tongue:
(had to)

 

[Kingdom Ablaze]

Glitch + Theory = My mind is already blown

 

[Glitchfinder]

Ah, my bad then... ^^" My apologies.

I finally got around to play your game now! And it's as interesting as I thought, but it needs some minor guidance on what's going on here and there - especially on the position of your two characters, as I had quite a time trying to locate either of them :D
I'd suggest a camera zoom-out, but as you got two players, you'd need to do something else. Maybe the sprites scaling down from 500% in the beginning, looking as if they "fall down"? Well, dunno if that's the perfect solution... just something to tinker with maybe.
A similar issue happens when switching areas, as the characters don't end up next to doors as I assumed, but instead in the middle of no-mans land ^^

The moving-around-corners thing is something you might want to improve still... it wasn't anything as hard as I expected it to be from the comments, but I'm having a hard time getting the character to do exactly what I want.

And you might consider changing the title screen's text color to white, or something less bright than that and still better readable than black.

But yeah, you know I'm just mentioning the nit-picky things. Liked it overall, and even though I was just trying it for a second, it had that addicting thing kicking in already: You know you're going to stop playing in a minute, so no need to collect those yellow bits... but let's do it anyway. Ah, and those as well. Damn, been five minutes!! :blank: The music adds to that and really makes you stressed about playing it - but in a good way. You just want to be fast, agile, and maybe watch Tron again sometime soon... ^^

Also... your characters are pretty square. :tongue:
(had to)

I really like your idea of showing where the two characters are, and as soon as I get Construct downloaded on this computer, I'll try it out. As for the switching areas bit, it's mostly because I have yet to program the behavior for it. Once I do, you won't be able to switch until both characters are at a gate, and then you will end up at a gate on the opposite side of the map from the one you took. (And if the players took gates on different sides of the map, it still follows this, per player. Don't question the physics of this, the game isn't on Earth)

As for the moving around corners bit, I'm having a great deal of trouble with that. Short of changing the shape of your character I am going to have a lot of trouble making it work just right. The problem is, changing the actual shape of the character isn't really an option, and varying the shape of the hitboxes just makes it even more confusing. At the moment, I have no idea how to make it effectively run on rails with the same ease that pac-man did, which leaves me with very little in the way of options to work around it.

Regarding the title screen, I considered it, but I'll definitely want to ask theory about it before I do anything, because he's the one who did most of the title screen, and I'm far less visually inclined than him.

Finally, I'm glad you liked the demo, and I hope my additions make it even more fun! And yes, your comment on the characters was quite punny.

Glitch + Theory = My mind is already blown

We used to do this on a regular basis. About half the scripts in my signature, as well as most of the ones he posted, were, to some extent, a team effort between the two of us. We work quite well together.

 

[Kingdom Ablaze]

Glitch + Theory = My mind is already blown

We used to do this on a regular basis. About half the scripts in my signature, as well as most of the ones he posted, were, to some extent, a team effort between the two of us. We work quite well together.

i find that i work well with Blue, he mostly helps me organise all my thoughts and focus my energy. :D but he also taught me alot over the years

 

[Glitchfinder]

All right, I just made a minor update to the demo. It incorporates BlueScope's suggestion regarding locating the players, as well as a new sound effect. Now you can actually hear yourself collecting coins! It's so rewarding!

Next up is adding the next enemy and making players actually die. New sound effects will come with that stuff, too.