Space game to test - can animation be improved?

[SWEdeAndy]

I've finally come around to posting a game trailer, so you can see how the game works before downloading it:
https://wheninspace.se/en/mesmerize/spacenode/
(Scroll down a bit on the page.)

The unsatisfactory animation jerkiness can, unfortunately, be seen in the movie too. It would be nice to get that solved, but it's a lot of script to go through to understand how it all works, so I'm not sure it's worth the time one must probably spend on it.
Well, the game is playable, and enjoyable, anyway.

[sphere]

I like what you have made
It's looking fun and i think also an original game.

Keep it up!

[SWEdeAndy]

I like what you have made
It's looking fun and i think also an original game.

Keep it up!

Thanks! Yes, I haven't seen this exact concept before, so I believe it's a bit original.
And some people who played it say it has that immersive "just one more turn" factor that makes you forget the time and play way longer than you intended...

So, I'll try to find time to keep improving it, and also get proper installers and do notarizing and stuff, so that people don't get scared off by all the security warnings that now occur after downloading it.

[FourthWorld]

I've finally come around to posting a game trailer, so you can see how the game works before downloading it:
https://wheninspace.se/en/mesmerize/spacenode/
(Scroll down a bit on the page.)

Nicely done - thanks! Downloading now...

[SWEdeAndy]

Nicely done - thanks! Downloading now...

Cool! Let me know if you run into any problems installing our playing it.

I need to test again to install it fresh on latest Catalina to see how much the OS complains about security issues.
At last Windows test it got instantly quarantined by the security shield (Symantec, I think) which was very reluctant to letting me grant an exception. But after that it worked fine.

[Monox18]

Hey Andreas the game is quite fun. It got me engaged. I managed to finish it one time. Uploaded the score. Now I wanted to play more rounds, to see if I could get a higher score and sadly there were too many glitches. I couldn't finish it because once glitched, restarting the game wouldn't fix it, they remain permanent. I played in Win 10 x64 machine. They are as follow:

1) My screen monitor is smaller than the resolution of the game. Although most of the times the window loaded fine, and I could move it outside the boundaries to see the rest of the game when I needed, sometimes the windows was locked in a smaller resolution (matching my screen) but cutting the edges and I couldn't see part of the game. Maybe because of this there is no screenshot in my scoreboard.
2) Once in a while the screen freezes and stops updating but I can't notice because it keeps the last rendered image. As I hover around the mouse I can see that individual controls get refreshes. (This is the only one I was able to fix by restarting).
3) I was also rerolling (save at the end of the turn, hit next turn and if I don't like it, quit the game, reload and try again). I noticed the game game sometimes glitched. Different glitches: either docked ships didn't count and I could place new ships on top of them, all/some modules stopped working and the game wasn't recognizing them, and so on.

Overall great experience. It has potential. It's a pity I couldn't finish my next attempts to hit #1 in scoreboard (even with a bit of cheating with rerolling ).

[richmond62]

My screen monitor is smaller than the resolution of the game.

Maybe the game needs a set of routines that at the moment the stack is opened resizes it to fit the monitor size
of the host computer.
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Screenshot 2021-01-30 at 17.47.02.png (27.24 KiB) Viewed 967 times

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Code: Select all

on openCard
   put item 3 of the screenrect into WIDD
   put item 4 of the screenrect into HITE
   set the lockScreen to true
   set the width of stack "BIGNESS" to WIDD
   set the height of stack "BIGNESS" to HITE
   set the loc of stack "BIGNESS" to ((WIDD / 2), (HITE / 2))
   set the bottom of img "BL.png" to the height of stack "BIGNESS"
   set the bottom of img "BR.png" to the height of stack "BIGNESS"
   set the top of img "TL.png" to 0
   set the top of img "TR.png" to 0
   set the left of img "BL.png" to 0
   set the left of img "TL.png" to 0
   set the right of img "BR.png" to the width of stack "BIGNESS"
   set the right of img "TR.png" to the width of stack "BIGNESS"
end openCard

[jacque]

One of my projects had a similar sizing problem on Windows 10. The proper way to fix it is to do some scaling using scalefactor but we were in a hurry and found that compiling the standalone as 32-bit forced Windows to use compatibility mode, which automatically scaled the stack to fit. So now if the user reports a problem we tell them to install the 32-bit version.

It's a kludge but it seems to work.

[SWEdeAndy]

Hey Andreas the game is quite fun. It got me engaged. I managed to finish it one time.

Hi Monox! Wow, that's cool! I haven't had much feedback for quite a while, and never anyone outside the family to make the scoreboard. So congratulations! I appreciate the feedback very much!

Now I wanted to play more rounds, to see if I could get a higher score and sadly there were too many glitches. I couldn't finish it because once glitched, restarting the game wouldn't fix it, they remain permanent. I played in Win 10 x64 machine. They are as follow:

1) My screen monitor is smaller than the resolution of the game. Although most of the times the window loaded fine, and I could move it outside the boundaries to see the rest of the game when I needed, sometimes the windows was locked in a smaller resolution (matching my screen) but cutting the edges and I couldn't see part of the game. Maybe because of this there is no screenshot in my scoreboard.

I'm sorry to hear there were such glitches. I know of some minor bugs, but what you describe is new to me. But I've never played it till the end on Windows, I think, only on Mac. So it is indeed not sufficiently tested on Windows.

Did you try the fullscreen option from the game menu? It should fix the resolution problem, but maybe doesn't on Windows...
It's a pity the snapshot then failed, I would have liked to see your creation!

2) Once in a while the screen freezes and stops updating but I can't notice because it keeps the last rendered image. As I hover around the mouse I can see that individual controls get refreshes. (This is the only one I was able to fix by restarting).
3) I was also rerolling (save at the end of the turn, hit next turn and if I don't like it, quit the game, reload and try again). I noticed the game game sometimes glitched. Different glitches: either docked ships didn't count and I could place new ships on top of them, all/some modules stopped working and the game wasn't recognizing them, and so on.

Overall great experience. It has potential. It's a pity I couldn't finish my next attempts to hit #1 in scoreboard (even with a bit of cheating with rerolling ).

These two issues I don't know what's causing. The save procedure may be incomplete somehow, I'll have to look into that.

Please note that when you start a new game it is assigned a unique token. This token is saved in the scoreboard database along with the score, name and snapshot. So if you save the game some rounds before the end, then win and enter the scoreboard, then go back to the saved game and try to get a higher score by delaying the win and play more rounds, you will not enter the scoreboard at all next time. So this is intentional. (Don't know if you tried that, but just saying...)

Saving and rerolling should be no problem though, so that failing is a bug.

I might find some time to look into the code again and maybe make a new build. But it's many thousand lines of code now, so it's always a challenge to immerse in such a project again. I may end up refactoring the whole thing. As you say, it does have potential. But it's currently not good enough that I would pay for such a game, which is why I've released it for free.

[SWEdeAndy]

Maybe the game needs a set of routines that at the moment the stack is opened resizes it to fit the monitor size
of the host computer.

Indeed, that would be ideal. Now there is a fullscreen mode that the user can select, but the game should adjust to the user's screen already at launch. It's somewhere on my to-do list...

[SWEdeAndy]

One of my projects had a similar sizing problem on Windows 10. The proper way to fix it is to do some scaling using scalefactor but we were in a hurry and found that compiling the standalone as 32-bit forced Windows to use compatibility mode, which automatically scaled the stack to fit. So now if the user reports a problem we tell them to install the 32-bit version.

It's a kludge but it seems to work.

Thanks, Jacque, that's really good to know!

[Monox18]

Hi Monox! Wow, that's cool! I haven't had much feedback for quite a while, and never anyone outside the family to make the scoreboard. So congratulations! I appreciate the feedback very much!

Well then I'm proud to say that I have beat them all and now I'm #1 in the leaderboard. That gives me the bragging rights that there is a game in this world where I'm officially in the top :p.

Did you try the fullscreen option from the game menu? It should fix the resolution problem, but maybe doesn't on Windows...
It's a pity the snapshot then failed, I would have liked to see your creation!

This time I tried fullscreen. Most of the time it works. The snapshot failed again so I'm uploading it here this time. If you closely analyze it you will see a couple of issues. Not at alliances are shown in the diplomatic relations. Not all Workshops are shown in the Workshop Activity. And the huge amount of money... well I got an unlimited money glitch somehow. As more modules and ships come with each turn, the animations downgrade a lot. At the beginning I can see smooth animations, but at the end I barely can see any ship moving.

I have only 2 guess of what could explain the lack of people making it to the scoreboard. All those glitches prevents any sane gamer from beating it, at least on Windows. And second when I first started the game, I started playing right away and by turn 5 or so I was lost without any idea what to do. Eventually got pissed off and closed it. But then I realized I couldn't get past on turn 5 in a free game... shame on me. So I gave it a second try, this time I forced me to read the instructions. After that, the game became clear to me. The writing style and jokes in the instructions is quite engaging. I felt more connected to the game. It was good. The problem is people don't read instructions. So, having a kind of tutorial where you guide the player the first 10 turns would be quite useful for those that don't read and skip right into the action.

I might find some time to look into the code again and maybe make a new build. But it's many thousand lines of code now, so it's always a challenge to immerse in such a project again. I may end up refactoring the whole thing. As you say, it does have potential. But it's currently not good enough that I would pay for such a game, which is why I've released it for free.

Anyway, and most importantly, time is money. If you are not planning to sell this game, upload it to any PC store, implementing micro transactions or whatever... maybe is not worth investing the time to fix it. The game surely helps to build your portfolio as well as a great showcase in your website. As long as you are busy with other projects then that's good!

[SWEdeAndy]

Well then I'm proud to say that I have beat them all and now I'm #1 in the leaderboard. That gives me the bragging rights that there is a game in this world where I'm officially in the top :p.

Haha, indeed, well done!

This time I tried fullscreen. Most of the time it works. The snapshot failed again so I'm uploading it here this time. If you closely analyze it you will see a couple of issues. Not at alliances are shown in the diplomatic relations. Not all Workshops are shown in the Workshop Activity.

I'm guessing these issues have to do with saving/reloading bugs. It loses track of some things, it seems. When playing one game through without save/reload I've never seen this happen.

And the huge amount of money... well I got an unlimited money glitch somehow.

Maybe. But having several D5-R5 combos and docking many ships at them can earn you quite bit, so it's not necessarily a bug. A bit unbalanced though...

As more modules and ships come with each turn, the animations downgrade a lot. At the beginning I can see smooth animations, but at the end I barely can see any ship moving.

Yep, that's the main problem, and the origin of this thread. I'll need to find a different technique to fix that, I think.

I have only 2 guess of what could explain the lack of people making it to the scoreboard. All those glitches prevents any sane gamer from beating it, at least on Windows. And second when I first started the game, I started playing right away and by turn 5 or so I was lost without any idea what to do. Eventually got pissed off and closed it. But then I realized I couldn't get past on turn 5 in a free game... shame on me. So I gave it a second try, this time I forced me to read the instructions. After that, the game became clear to me. The writing style and jokes in the instructions is quite engaging. I felt more connected to the game. It was good.

Yay, I'm happy you say that, that's what I was aiming for when I wrote them! I find it in line with the retro style, and old classics like SpaceQuest etc.

The problem is people don't read instructions.

Indeed, I know! You are so right. And I have to accept that and adapt to it.

So, having a kind of tutorial where you guide the player the first 10 turns would be quite useful for those that don't read and skip right into the action.

Absolutely! I went a little bit towards that by making the video that's on the download page. But it's not enough of course. It has to be in-game and interactive.

Anyway, and most importantly, time is money. If you are not planning to sell this game, upload it to any PC store, implementing micro transactions or whatever... maybe is not worth investing the time to fix it. The game surely helps to build your portfolio as well as a great showcase in your website. As long as you are busy with other projects then that's good!

Indeed! I think I'll get around to it eventually, simply because it's enjoyable, and I would like a better showcase, and possibly a saleable product.
I hope I can sign you up as a tester for the next version, whenever it comes?!

[Monox18]

Yeah sure. Just post back here announcing that a release candidate is up for testing. I will get the notification.

I'm glad that you find my feedback useful. Good luck!

[jacque]

The problem is people don't read instructions.

Indeed, I know! You are so right. And I have to accept that and adapt to it.

It's a universal problem.