Hero: The Realm (Mezzmer's Worklog)

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Worklogs > Mezzmer's Worklogs > Hero: The Realm > A "speedier" engine!

A "speedier" engine!

I've been working on this game since March 2010, had some original graphics and the basic ideas. It's now Feb 2012 and it's almost complete.

Recent additions include the Hero's ability to throw daggers, which home in on close targets - solves the problem of wasting them on sharp moving enemies, and makes it feel a bit more like an arcade game. Overall makes the game feel a bit more lively... these daggers are found in enemy loots, as 3 packs. If the player likes using them, there are plenty more at the shop.

I've made some basic engine improvements, coder talk coming up: The level tiles used to respawn every frame to avoid being plotted out of the viewport, but now exist as constant game objects until ruled out of the area (using a secure layer). Speed was previously wasted opening and closing processes. I know, I'm terrible.

The game now runs at 60 fps, which sadly means I will aim at platforms that are faster than the GPH/Caanoo (only enough processing power to run the game at 30fps consistently). However this is a kind of win situation for Hero, as the whole thing looks and feels more professional.

At the request of some people, I adapted Hero movements to be more reactive to the controls. The game is certainly speedier and (thankfully) less boring than a few months ago.

I plan to compile this latest version for Linux too!

So as a final word - I'll make the Windows and Linux demo versions available on booleansoup.com very soon.

Here is a snap of the shop screen with those trusty daggers on sale:



Things to do immediately:

* Add fullscreen graphics support, with a menu to alter the display from 16:9 to 4:3

* Tidy up a bug where enemies can go astray when offscreen

* USB joypad support, possibly xbox360 controller too

* Create the rest of the desert level tilemaps
(Posted on February, 15th 2012, 19:44)

Comments


(. )( .) said:
Can I has controls?
(Posted on February, 16th 2012, 17:08)


Rincewind said:
Too bad it didn't work out with the GPH/Caanoo port, you were so enthousiastic about that before.

Is "Shoppe" french for shop?
(Posted on March, 10th 2012, 19:04)


Mezzmer said:
It's a take on old english language - "Ye Olde Shoppe"

Yes it is strange I used that.
(Posted on March, 11th 2012, 17:03)


Dennis said:
Look nice. Suggestions:

Nice: Using old english is nice, using old-style fonts in old english is nicer.

Any chance playing this game on a mobile device (ipad, android...)?




PS: French for "shop" is "magasin".
(Posted on June, 15th 2012, 11:22)

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