151 replies to this topic

[gsk]

Well, I think that the current 'dream'/four levels is done, other than graphical tweaks (NiGHTS sprite, palace, paraloops) and some bgm (if not offical music, how about asking permission to use one of the fan made tracks here at nid.com's music page?. Adding any other game elements etc would invalidate the highscore table thats there at the moment.

If you mean for future levels, then maybe, from the original game -

1) Enemies. Flying randomly around, some shooting stuff, ome flying into you, others could freeze you, or make you lose 5 seconds off your time, shrink you, lose your dash for 5 seconds, slow you down for 5 seconds

2) Power up tokens. 3 things - Pian helper, that would attact stars to you, a Power loop token that lets your trail last longer (thus bigger loops) and a dash refill token (though as you have infinite dash in this game, maybe a super dash mode, 10 seconds of dash twice the speed?). Also, dash panels (flying into a box that gives you a short speed boost)

3) Stunts. flying through a certain ring gives you ten second to perform acrobatic stunts for points. Cant really see how you'd do this with a mouse interface, other than drawing shapes (figure 8, four leaf clover, small/medium/large/giant loops, maybe triangle, square, trek symbol etc)

4) Link Balls. These have a number above them and basically when you collect it and if you equal the link number that it has, you get a points bonus.

5) Bosses.Well, thats a whole different kettle of fish... (Gulpo pun intended)

New things that might work in this that werent in the original.

1) A two player versus scoreattack. You start off at the same time. knocking each other out of the way to get to the stars and rings first.

2) A full online level edit submission system. No idea how difficult these two would be to program/set up...

3) Full joypad/Analogue stick option? maybe with a configure mode to add inputs?

4) Some character creation mode - even if its just name and pallette changes to a basic sprite, but could be more involved.

5) Multiple routes, bigger levels, harder links, more varied background, music player options (with a choice of NiGHTS music you can play, skip etc)

6) A PSP VERSION!

Edit - by the way, the site seems to be down - 'Java failed to load' is the message I'm getting

[CronoMST]

There's some good ideas there. I thought about the two player mode, but I'm not very good at managing network latency. I had a hard enough time getting everything to look right in a relatively slow-paced online Bomberman clone I made. I'm guessing this would have the other player's sprite jumping all over the place if I tried to make it online. I may experiment with it eventually, though. I've also thought about maybe saving some kind of ghost data that could be raced against. There are some complications with that as well, though.

As for the link balls, do you have to have the EXACT number or do you have to have AT LEAST that number? If I were to do it, because the way my laps are set up, I'd probably just make it so you need at least the number above the ball to get the points.

I also really like the idea of boost pads, and it doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to implement.

Character customization is something that I've wanted to have from the beginning, though mostly to add some personality to the highscore list. I've been trying to figure out how I'd handle something like Emblems from Mario Kart DS. The main limiting factor is that the game is an applet and nothing stays on the player's PC. And I'd rather not have people creating large number of images to be stored on the server. I have been investigating how to implement cookies, which could offer a small amount of persistence between games, though.

I'm not sure how to handle the music yet. I have some good mp3s I could go with, but since the entire game is downloaded every time someone wants to play, even with a handful of songs, that could be a 10mb or more download per play up from the current 150kb. If I set it up so that only the song that will be used on the currently selected level is downloaded, it's still going to be a 2 - 3mb download, plus a loading time before each stage. That just seems really excessive to me. The only solution I can come up with is having the game installed on the player's PC like my other online game (Words That Follow), but then I lose the convenience of it being a simple applet. So, I'm just not sure what to do about that yet.

I'm not sure why the game isn't loading for you. I don't see anything wrong on my end. You may have to close all your browser windows and try again. That usually fixes any problems I have. I'm looking into making it so that this isn't required, though. It can be a pain to have to close everything everytime I do an update.

Man, this post was wordy.

[Purgatory]

I haven't been able to play the game for a long while now. :/ Is it being fixed? I never got to see any updates at all.

[Huruyami]

hey, ill help! i like spriting, Ill help with stuff. I can rip backgrounds off the gba scoreattack for your background if you want. i can make sprites too, in fact ive been working on some sprites, i can makes some more. As for the music issue, I know of a few midis that can be used.

[CronoMST]

I haven't been able to play the game for a long while now. :/ Is it being fixed? I never got to see any updates at all.

The game should be working fine. It's most likely a browser caching issue. There IS a problem with the server right now where it won't let me update, however. Because of that, I've relocated the game back to the original server. I'm working on getting the game set up to where it uses Java WebStart instead of being an applet. That will prevent the issue many people are having with the game appearing to be broken. Using WebStart actually installs the game on your computer and it automatically detects when there are updates everytime you play. (Don't worry, it can be uninstalled easily, too). Because of this, I may be able to add music soon without fear of having to require people to download a bunch of music everytime they play.

If you want to try my recent changes, go to http://home.cfl.rr.com/cronomst/flight/. It's still not totally set up, so your browser may not launch after downloading the jnlp file (mine doesn't. I have to save it to my desktop and run it from there). I should be able to get it so that it just loads right up pretty soon, though.

[CronoMST]

hey, ill help! i like spriting, Ill help with stuff. I can rip backgrounds off the gba scoreattack for your background if you want. i can make sprites too, in fact ive been working on some sprites, i can makes some more. As for the music issue, I know of a few midis that can be used.

I can't really use any of the Score Attack sprites, but any Maren-like sprites or an image to replace to current "palace" would be appreciated.

Oh, and it looks like the Side-quest server worked itself out. It's been updated again. You can now either play it on the other link I gave or the side-quest one, really. They're both up to date now. Playing on Side-quest will run it in the browser window, while playing it on cfl.rr.com will open it up in its own window (they'll both be using this eventually, though).

[Huruyami]

I can't really use any of the Score Attack sprites, but any Maren-like sprites or an image to replace to current "palace" would be appreciated.

ill get to it. Then you can submit the link to TRiPPY so she can link it on the fangames page.

[CronoMST]

ill get to it. Then you can submit the link to TRiPPY so she can link it on the fangames page.

Ooh! Neat! I didn't realize there was a fangames page on here.

For some reason, Side-Quest.com is not working at all anymore. Before, I could at least access the site, but now... nothing. I have no idea what's going on with it. It's my friend's site, but I haven't had a chance to talk to him lately.

Without Side-Quest working, the highscores won't save (the scores use a php script and my other server doesn't allow php). It's very frustrating, especially since I've added some nifty stuff lately. There are now boost rings that will launch the player in a specific direction at a high speed for one second. They can be linked together to provide a Sonic the Hedgehog bumper effect that zips the player around the map. Rings can also be various sizes now, so the next few levels should have some more variety in them than the last.

[CronoMST]

The game is, once again, back up. Hopefully it will stay that way now. As a reminder, the address is:
http://www.side-quest.com/sqgames/flight/

There is now a demo level in place that shows how the boost rings work. Let me know what you think. Currently, it's impossible to turn for 1 second after going through a boost ring. I think it works well, but does anybody see any problems with that?

[Huruyami]

Hey, I'm working on a big NiGHTS sprite, would you consider a title screen before instructions?

[CronoMST]

Hey, I'm working on a big NiGHTS sprite, would you consider a title screen before instructions?

A title screen would be great!

... is that what you're asking?

[Huruyami]

yes. I'm almost done with the sprites lineart, and then ill color and work on a background. I hope you like it!

[CronoMST]

yes. I'm almost done with the sprites lineart, and then ill color and work on a background. I hope you like it!

A background, too? I can hardly wait!

[Huruyami]

ok, im done with the sprite, im gonna upload it now and give an edit for it. :3


ok, here it is:

http://i8.tinypic.com/6apiagi.jpg

I know its blurry, but tinypic always does that with my sprites. i can try to get it de-blurryie, but ill get to it later, i have to go now.

[NNR07]

ok, im done with the sprite, im gonna upload it now and give an edit for it. :3
ok, here it is:

http://i8.tinypic.com/6apiagi.jpg

I know its blurry, but tinypic always does that with my sprites. i can try to get it de-blurryie, but ill get to it later, i have to go now.

Ooh, nice ! I should try pixel art more, I don't do it as much ><.

As for character sprites, I might give a shot making my maren, SUSPi, to replace the NiGHTS sprite. And, as for the game working, it doesn't work on Firefox for me, but it is fine on IE (except for going too fast). I get the feeling cookies and temporary internet data is the problem for the fastness, so I'm deleting all cookies and etc. now....

[CronoMST]

Ooh, nice ! I should try pixel art more, I don't do it as much ><.

As for character sprites, I might give a shot making my maren, SUSPi, to replace the NiGHTS sprite. And, as for the game working, it doesn't work on Firefox for me, but it is fine on IE (except for going too fast). I get the feeling cookies and temporary internet data is the problem for the fastness, so I'm deleting all cookies and etc. now....

Have you tried the new page at http://www.side-quest.com/sqgames/flight/index.html? It has an option to use WebStart, which should, in theory, fix both of those problems.

[NNR07]

Have you tried the new page at http://www.side-quest.com/sqgames/flight/index.html? It has an option to use WebStart, which should, in theory, fix both of those problems.

I tried webstart. It still runs too fast, which concludes that it's probably a problem on my end, not to do with the program. I'll look into it, still.....

[Huruyami]

so, crono, what do you think of the sprite?

also, what NNR07 said gave me an idea. if i could get the main sprite, i could edit it to give some people the option to play as different maren. Is that too much work, or is it possible to have a character selection screen? once I can the regular NiGHTS sprite i can edit to reala, suspi, or other fan marens. it could be a special promo event for the first people who help in development could have their maren in it. :3

[NOTiC]

BAM top 10

[Purgatory]

This is a shame. No matter what I do, it X's out or something. And that link there didn't work either. Java said it couldn't run the game. *Keeps trying*

[CronoMST]

BAM top 10

Nice. Now you just need to beat Doomscythe. I still have no idea how he got that score. I spanked him in links, but he still beat me. I guess time management is more important than an extra hundred links, which makes sense since links don't increase the multiplier after 10.

Oh, and that image you made, Huruyami, is great, but I'm not really sure what I can do with it. I misunderstood and thought you were making a player sprite to be used in-game. If you want to make your own maren, that'd be great. I'd like to have a few different options for the player, even if they're only cosmetic. I wouldn't worry about using my current sprite as a base since I really don't want it much like that one at all. It's scaled up from a rip from the Score Attack game and it's just a placeholder. Some things I would like are some interesting animations, though. Maybe a roll for the dash or perhaps an idle animation when the character is just sitting there. Those can be a lot of work, though. I had a hard enough time animating the trail sparkles. Heheh.

This is a shame. No matter what I do, it X's out or something. And that link there didn't work either. Java said it couldn't run the game. *Keeps trying*

Hmm. I recently updated the version of Java I'm using, which may mean people with an older version, even if it worked before, may need to upgrade now. You can get it at http://java.com if you haven't already. If you already have the latest version, there's a couple other things I could try, so let me know.

[NNR07]

Beta Sprite of SUSPi: http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8122/suspispritezi6.png

Gotta edit it some more first. Resize it (maybe), etc. Tell me what you think.

Btw, I sort of got it to work. I did recently, I'm hoping it doesn't go fast on me again ><.

[Huruyami]

hey, NNR07, i created a beta NiGHTS sprite, can I edit it to look like suspi?

[Purgatory]

Oh! I wonder if I could make a Purgatory sprite! That's awesome.

Its working now! This is really great, better than before! No one else is playing Boost Rings with me, though! T_T Personally, I'm not having any problems with the boost rings. I was getting it going pretty smoothly. *thumbs up*
How are people getting links that high?? XD When I try and get him to go forward at the beginning of every level, he sits there until the link count disappears.

[CronoMST]

Oh! I wonder if I could make a Purgatory sprite! That's awesome.

Its working now! This is really great, better than before! No one else is playing Boost Rings with me, though! T_T Personally, I'm not having any problems with the boost rings. I was getting it going pretty smoothly. *thumbs up*
How are people getting links that high?? XD When I try and get him to go forward at the beginning of every level, he sits there until the link count disappears.

Hold down both the left and right mouse buttons to dash. Dashing has a higher acceleration than normal flight. The trade-off is that you turn slower, but that doesn't matter since each lap has an item or ring directly in front of the starting position.

The boost ring stage is temporary, so those scores aren't going to stick around. I may keep what I have as the first level, though. I'll probably move the bouncy back-and-forth thing at the end into a different level.

EDIT: Hmm. It looks like something happened to the high scores for the first stage. I'm not sure what. The file is empty. I have a backup, but it's about 2 days old. I'll see if I can get it back soon.

[gsk]

My thoughts -

I like the mechanics of the booster rings through its a bit annoying you dont know which direction one will send you. This is whats it like more or less in the original (making it about the height of half a ring) -



Perhaps only 1/2 second for no movement. Speed boosts are about increased difficulty (faster therefore needs better reflexes and control) but with a bigger payoff (save time). If theres no movement allowed and it becomes an 'on rails' moment, thens it actually eases the gameplay (ie like the first booster ring in the the level). If you have movement allowed after 1/2 (or maybe even less) a second then you leave that option for both in terms of level design - you can place a single one to increase speed in a tricky path, so that skill is required because of the speed, or put 2 or 3 in a row, one after another, to create that on rails moment where NiGHTS is pushed through a section.

I preferred the old stars, the new ones are abit kiddy and are bigger than NiGHTS head! But not a biggie.

Sprites - I'm not keen on the day glow one, but I do like the idea of being able to change the colour scheme of a single game sprite. I think it should either go that way - you are presented with a NiGHTS sprite and you chose a colour scheme, or make a post for artists here to make one, with a name and then you've got a new hero for the game

Music - how about simple 10/20 second loop? Something sparse, airy, instrumental, something thats not annoying, with the emphasis on background music.

Oh and a paraloop graphic!

[NNR07]

hey, NNR07, i created a beta NiGHTS sprite, can I edit it to look like suspi?

Sure. I won't mind at all ^-^!

Hmm...., maybe me and Huruyami should start making more of these sprites for everyone?

[NNR07]

Ok, I'm to dang lazy to imageshack it, so here's the sprite in its final version (unless I wanna resize it): http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/55509155/

Tell me if I should resize it, etc. There's a download link there........

[CronoMST]

My thoughts -

I like the mechanics of the booster rings through its a bit annoying you dont know which direction one will send you. This is whats it like more or less in the original (making it about the height of half a ring) -

Perhaps only 1/2 second for no movement. Speed boosts are about increased difficulty (faster therefore needs better reflexes and control) but with a bigger payoff (save time). If theres no movement allowed and it becomes an 'on rails' moment, thens it actually eases the gameplay (ie like the first booster ring in the the level). If you have movement allowed after 1/2 (or maybe even less) a second then you leave that option for both in terms of level design - you can place a single one to increase speed in a tricky path, so that skill is required because of the speed, or put 2 or 3 in a row, one after another, to create that on rails moment where NiGHTS is pushed through a section.

For some reason, I actually like not indicating which direction the ring will send you. Heheh. When I put them in, I try to set them up in a way that the context or natural path of flight hints at where you will go. As for the 1 second paralysis, I think making it shorter would make it easier. Depending on how I set the rings up, if you don't hit the initial ring in the dead center, it could launch you past the items you need to collect or cause you to miss the next boost ring in the series, costing you a large amount of time. Shorting the time in which the player is unable to turn would just make it easier to correct that initial mistake, I think. Besides, the timing doesn't really matter as long as the level is designed with the timing in mind. For example, after you hit that second boost ring, by the time you regain control, you come up on a rising group of rings extremely fast. It is possible to clear them in one pass, but it's difficult because you're still moving so quickly from the boost.

I preferred the old stars, the new ones are abit kiddy and are bigger than NiGHTS head! But not a biggie.

They are the same stars. I just scaled them to twice their original size. I have been testing some new backgrounds and the old size was nearly invisble on a sky blue background when you are moving fast.

Sprites - I'm not keen on the day glow one, but I do like the idea of being able to change the colour scheme of a single game sprite. I think it should either go that way - you are presented with a NiGHTS sprite and you chose a colour scheme, or make a post for artists here to make one, with a name and then you've got a new hero for the game

I agree.

Music - how about simple 10/20 second loop? Something sparse, airy, instrumental, something thats not annoying, with the emphasis on background music.

I had some music in the game, actually. It was great, but it complete broke the game when I tried to get it to loop. For whatever reason, the library I am using makes it absurdly difficult to loop a clip. I may have to find another solution. Until then, I've had to take it out. Including the mp3 file, the download size was about 2.5mb, which isn't too bad as long as people are using WebStart to play it (since it will only download when I update the game).

Oh and a paraloop graphic!

I still haven't figured out how to do this. If paraloops were reliably always circular, it wouldn't be bad, but they can be some crazy shapes, and I have no idea how I'd come up with some kind of effect for them.

[CronoMST]

I've been inspired by the other people making sprites, so I decided to try once again, and I think it came out decent, this time. It's hardly original, but what do you think?


I think the face and the arms need a little work, though. I'm not sure how I could get them to look better given the limited space.

[NNR07]

I've been inspired by the other people making sprites, so I decided to try once again, and I think it came out decent, this time. It's hardly original, but what do you think?


I think the face and the arms need a little work, though. I'm not sure how I could get them to look better given the limited space.

I like gsk's idea, posting sprites from artists and putting them in the game (or picking a color scheme for NiGHTS). As for the sprite, I like that a lot ! It reminds me of NiGHTS, but not too much. Is that going to be in the next update?

[Purgatory]

Cool! ^^
heh heh, his face looks like its being pulled from the sheer speed of those boost rings!

[CronoMST]

Cool! ^^
heh heh, his face looks like its being pulled from the sheer speed of those boost rings!

And now he's even got a swaying animation. I'm having trouble getting it in the game, though. The problem is that he's longer than the current sprite. The size doesn't affect the game code at all, but because his head is farther from the center of his body (which is where the player sprite rotates), it can be misleading as far as collecting items and rings. I'm trying to figure out a way to move the axis of rotation somewhere into his chest, but currently, that's breaking the leg motion.

[animejosse]

Woah, the game plays really fast now! I can hardly steer NiGHTS XD

[Tyson Toast]

Strangely enough, this is the best NiGHTS game in 10 years. Fabulous.

I really like the boost rings. I think they should be added into normal levels as a staple. Could be used as tricks and such to throw you backwards. As for new gameplay ideas, I think it'd be cool to have more obstacles. A few rocks or walls to maneuver around, and a few enemies here and there. And also, for some reason I really love the NiGHTS sprite, It has character I guess o.O

[CronoMST]

Woah, the game plays really fast now! I can hardly steer NiGHTS XD

You may be having the same timing problem that someone else was having. Does the timer tick down faster than one second? I still have no idea what causes this. I have never seen this happen myself. All the timing is based on the system clock.

[gsk]

Right, how about calling your sprite Lucid (or Harlequin?) and call the game 'Lucid/Harlequin into Dreams' or 'Lucid/Harlequin Scoreattack'? Come up with a nice front page and there you go. Later on, maybe add a character edit/creation option, but this way you've got your own game and hero based in the NiGHTS world but original design.

At first I didnt like the pointed face, but now I imagine its his nose, like a jester or japanese theatre mask. Very cool.

I think 'Night Sky' should remain as it is, get the high score table up and running again (I miss it/want to beat it!), then add levels as you come up with them. Hows the level edit working at the moment? Maybe a detailed step by step guide?

I like the idea of obstactles - boulders, asteriods, snowballs, water bubbles, enemies. Also some more enclosed levels, with the floor/ceiling closer together with narrow and wide sections.

[CronoMST]

Right, how about calling your sprite Lucid (or Harlequin?) and call the game 'Lucid/Harlequin into Dreams' or 'Lucid/Harlequin Scoreattack'? Come up with a nice front page and there you go. Later on, maybe add a character edit/creation option, but this way you've got your own game and hero based in the NiGHTS world but original design.

At first I didnt like the pointed face, but now I imagine its his nose, like a jester or japanese theatre mask. Very cool.

I think 'Night Sky' should remain as it is, get the high score table up and running again (I miss it/want to beat it!), then add levels as you come up with them. Hows the level edit working at the moment? Maybe a detailed step by step guide?

I like the idea of obstactles - boulders, asteriods, snowballs, water bubbles, enemies. Also some more enclosed levels, with the floor/ceiling closer together with narrow and wide sections.

I didn't mean for it to have a pointed face, actually. Heheh. I just can't draw.

The high scores are working again, as far as I know (at least they are for now). I still haven't figured out how I want to get the level editor to people. I realize that having to run it from the command prompt is awkward for most people, but I'm not sure how else to do it yet.

I'd like to include some kinds of obstacles eventually, but floors and ceilings are pretty unlikely given how I've designed the game so far. It just wasn't made with them in mind, and adding them would mean a major revamp. Having some that are "flat" might be a possibility, but I wouldn't expect anything with much topography.

EDIT: Hmm. I really like the name Lucid for the character.

[NNR07]

I didn't mean for it to have a pointed face, actually. Heheh. I just can't draw.

The high scores are working again, as far as I know (at least they are for now). I still haven't figured out how I want to get the level editor to people. I realize that having to run it from the command prompt is awkward for most people, but I'm not sure how else to do it yet.

I'd like to include some kinds of obstacles eventually, but floors and ceilings are pretty unlikely given how I've designed the game so far. It just wasn't made with them in mind, and adding them would mean a major revamp. Having some that are "flat" might be a possibility, but I wouldn't expect anything with much topography.

EDIT: Hmm. I really like the name Lucid for the character.

I like the pointed face. It makes him look like he's strugling with the wind, imo.

I'd like to see walls and cellings and etc., even if they are "flat".

As for the name Lucid....someone already has a maren named Lucid.

[Purgatory]

Meh. Lucid isn't an official name, though. ^^; I'm sure there's all kinds on names that people have that are already used. Granted, if I saw the name "Purgatory", I'd be a little miffed too.