Liberated Pixel Cup beta-entry

[forthevin]

Hi everyone,

I have finished the first beta of my Liberated Pixel Cup entry. It is an action-shooter based on classic fantasy. It currently features one chapter, including 3 combat sections.

For those who are curious, I have prepared some screenshots, binaries for 32-bit and 64-bit Debian Stable and 64-bit Windows 7, and instructions for compiling on Debian Stable and Windows 7.

Screenshots can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/FNMmN#0. They showcase the menu and some of the spells and enemies in action.

The binaries and source can be found here: http://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/aOcpWEWHw12Vgs7avF8VPrsXDybIwZNEr27sgNJAoI4. The Debian binaries require some libraries to be installed, but should work on both Debian Stable as well as Ubuntu 12.04. The source can currently be compiled on Debian Stable and Windows 7.

EDIT: Instructions on running and compiling can now be found in the source. Added link to version 47.
EDIT2: See update post below.

[TheExDeus]

1. From the screenshot and the sprite animations I see its looking very good and profesional. So good job.
2. Is it made totally in ENIGMA or you used GM and then just compiled in ENIGMA? By the looks of it, its the former, because you use things like "var something = 10" which is invalid in GM. You could of used some data types to make it faster and semicolons at the end of the lines wouldn't hurt either.
3. Have you made custom functions? I can't compile because I don't have functions such as "get_sprite_idmax", and I don't remember having them.

[forthevin]

I am very happy to hear that it looks good. I spent quite some time getting the animations set up properly and making the terrain. Most of the graphics is based on art from the LPC and opengameart.org.

I have purely used a fork of ENIGMA. Using data types is a good idea, and should be an easy option for optimization. I have had some performance issues when using larger views, which I believe is due to my Intel graphics card, but I am not certain.

I forgot to mention that the game won't compile using the main fork of ENIGMA. "get_sprite_idmax" is indeed one of the custom functions. I used a fork to ensure I could make quick bug-fixes, work around issues and extend ENIGMA. I hope to have some of the changes merged into the main fork after the competition, such that the game can be compiled without having to use the fork.

[Josh @ Dreamland]

Indeed, the game looks great. I was saving my comments for after I was able to run it, which I hope to be soon, but rest assured that the game looks great.

Oh, and as I mentioned, I would be happy to pull your changes. Though I must say, your use of the sprite max ID is concerning, as sprite IDs can become fragmented (hence the need for sprite_exists).

[TheExDeus]

Though I must say, your use of the sprite max ID is concerning, as sprite IDs can become fragmented (hence the need for sprite_exists).

Well, but there is no other way. Unless we (with that I mean you) create some sprite iterator. But I suspect it wouldn't be any more different than what he is doing right now. I for example did the same thing in GM. But because GM doesn't have sprite ID max variable, then I just had to use a large number (e.g. 20000) and check if _exists returns negative 100 or so times in a row and then break the cycle.

[TheExDeus]

Okay, I ran it on windows and it works fine. The game is impossibly hard though. I could only finish the first encounter. The second and third is beyond my abilities no matter what I do. The only tactic that seems to work is hiding behind terrain. Your enemies use simple move forward which doesn't allow them to pathfind, so they get stuck. I did make pathfinding functions which would be useful here.

[forthevin]

The changes will have to be reviewed, but most of them should be somewhat simple. Would pull requests on github be fine?

I have uploaded a new version, v47, which includes a new mode ("challenge mode"), an implemented credits section, and some installation + compilation instructions and a binary for Windows 7.

I originally tested the difficulty such that I would be challenged personally. Since I am probably what could be considered an expert player given my experience and knowledge of the game, I decided to make the new versions of the levels much easier, and keep the old versions in a sort of challenge mode. I also think that having a normal and very hard mode of each level is an easy way to make the replay value higher, such that people can try to beat those difficult levels once they have completed the normal game. I think it requires some more chapters before it will work well, however, such that people can get enough skill and experience with the game before they attempt the challenge levels.

Is the difficulty of the new levels appropriate?

Thanks again for your help. HaRRiKiRi, if you want to be credited as a beta-tester, I would be happy to add you to the credits.

[TheExDeus]

Okay this time it was a lot easier. Maybe even to easy, but as these are only the first few levels then I think its ok. If you added some story (if you have any) and more and longer levels then it could be fun. Also, maybe fullscreen and such, but all of that is up to you and what you really want to make.

I did notice you had ENIGMA Game Maker in credits. Did you want to refer to both? ENIGMA is actually just called ENIGMA. Its the compiler/engine part and its not really related to GM.  LateralGM is the IDE.

[Josh @ Dreamland]

Pull requests are fine. Did you make any changes to the compiler, or just to the engine? I ask because ENIGMA is presently divided into two branches from my attempts at installing the new C parser, and the other branch could make it very difficult to auto-merge compiler changes, while only a little of the engine was changed.

Also, we sometimes go by "ENIGMA Development Environment."

[TheExDeus]

Also, we sometimes go by "ENIGMA Development Environment."

While actually the development environment is LGM. Although I though if ENIGMA uses a custom'ish version of LGM and it is the main use of LGM, then maybe it could be changed to fit ENIGMA project more. Like renaming it and making a new loading image. But that's just a thought. I know Ism would mind.

[IsmAvatar]

Actually I wouldn't care, but I think having separate names has logistical benefits (did ENIGMA crash or LGM crash?), plus ENIGMA is still not the primary use of LGM. The market for LGM is still mostly dominated by GM version conversion (giving an interesting new meaning to the name Lateral), then corruption recovery, then ENIGMA, then ID defragging tied with plugin development.

[forthevin]

UPDATE 2012-07-30:

I have finished the final beta of my Liberated Pixel Cup entry, version 67. It is an action-shooter based on classic fantasy, and features two chapters, with 6 combat sections as well as a story.

Screenshots can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/AVdmU#0. They showcase the menu and some of the spells and enemies in action.

Source and binaries can be found here: http://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/ani1SmenRzIeh2HO9nVLeEGms0tQxFSY. The Debian binaries require some libraries to be installed, but should work on both Debian Stable as well as Ubuntu 12.04. The source can currently be compiled on Debian Stable and Windows 7.

[forthevin]

I have added another chapter and some story. The levels are somewhat harder than the levels of chapter 1, and should take more time to beat.

The story is classic fantasy. The story is mostly conveyed through dialogue and the environment. I have tried to keep the amount of exposition low, to avoid information dumping, while still keeping enough to make sense of things and give the protagonist a reason for exploring and fighting. I have also tried to keep the story somewhat open, such that it can be changed and expanded upon later.

I have only made changes to the engine, as well as events.res.

Again, thank you for your help. I think this is how the submission will look like, apart from dialogue changes, documentation and bug fixes.