You Could Have It So Much Better

Published August 16, 2009
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Here is the final demo for Escape from Space-Prison Lambda! (EDIT:Link fixed). Please play it and tell me what you think [wink]. Too easy? Too hard?

The controls are LEFT/RIGHT to move left and right and SPACE to fire your weapon. It's got 10 levels, mostly placeholder art and all placeholder sound effects. There will be some music in the final release but it was causing the game to pause between gamestates. There is also a slight delay between the weapon firing and the sound effect sounding so I may have to use something other than SDL_mixer for sound [rolleyes].

Now, I am going into the lengthy process of sprucing up the graphics and getting some nice sound effects for the final release. I have no idea how long this will take me [rolleyes].

While, I'm doing this I will start to think about my next project (a Pac-Man clone according to my original plan but it may be something else) and start getting some real, detailed plans down. However, with uni starting again in about a month's time and having a really busy first term it won't be finished (or maybe even started) by christmas. Oh well...

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the game
-AEdmonds
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0 likes 3 comments

Comments

Staffan E
Tried it. It ran fine for me. Good job. [smile]

It felt a bit unfair that the gray enemies could grab on to your corner without you having any means to shoot back at them. I lost several times because of this. Maybe it's a bit harsh to lose right away from being captured, a hefty health loss might seem more fair.

I did like the pulling enemies though. They added more dimension to the gameplay than simply having enemies with guns.

If this is a release version of the game you should really remove the PDB file (Visual Studio Program Debug Database) from the distribution. It's big and completely useless to the end user. Either you just remember to remove it yourself or you can adjust the Release build settings in Visual Studio to not generate debug info.

Also, the game depends on the Visual Studio runtime, specifically the files MSVCP90.DLL and MSVCR90.DLL, but you don't provide them. Either you need to supply them with you distribution or turn off their use in the VS project settings (Look for Runtime Library under C/C++). I could run it because I have VS90 installed but most users won't.
August 17, 2009 05:50 PM
AEdmonds
Thanks for playing, staaf [smile]. I was also a bit worried that enemies can grab your corner because it *is* possible to move but not very freely so if you are grabbed on the corner then it's hard to get in line to fire at the enemy. I'll look into it and see whether I can get them to give up if they are going to grab their corner or I will just give the player a hefty health loss like you suggest.

I will also remember to remove the PDB file and the need for those .dlls tonight when I will (hopefully) release an updated version of the final demo with sound working properly.
August 18, 2009 03:23 AM
Staffan E
Another option could be to extend the hit box of the grabbing enemy so that once you're grabbed all shots will hit no matter how you aim. Then, the player would go "Oh crap I'm being grabbed! I'll have to hammer down on the fire button before I get pulled out of view!" Simple, but engaging.

Oh and I forgot to tell you. You forgot an "http://" in the file URL so the link is broken.
August 18, 2009 04:07 AM
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