BYZANTINE EMPIRE

[koala]

Hi, everyone!
This is my second game, called Byzantine Empire.

Move the crown using mouse and collect Byzantine insignia.
Spread the Byzantine empire and keep an eye on sword. It is a life bar and it loses a piece
every time you miss an insignia.
To catch insignia, it must hit the top of the crown.

GOOD LUCK!



Here's the link to ged and data files (complete game source):
http://www.mediafire.com/download/kdlypl5d2p9iyxg/Byzantine+Empire.zip
Link to the game, executable file:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/qcm0fzwep9tlt7m/Byzantine+Empire+Game.zip

[bat78]

One of the few game types I ever liked. Playing it is imminent.

UPDATE:
Quite impressive for a first game (Is it your first game?). Also relatively educational. I don't believe we have any closer educational games. (Do we?)
Do you want a review or you plan to work on another more serious game, now as you are more experienced ?

UPDATE:
This is your second game as it appears.

[koala]

Hi, bat78!

I am glad you like my second game. Thanks!

I know C very well and this is simple game, so it wasn't that hard to make it. And there are already games of this type. Map is not 100% accurate. This is Byzantine Empire at its peak, under Justinian the Great :



but it is close enough.

I would like a review and I am planing to do more games. I'll post them in Game Development, as you've suggested me.
And if you could tell me can I use any sound or picture, borrowed from other resources?

Salute!

[bat78]

COPYRIGHT
Game editor takes no responsibility for possible copyright commotions.
When you are using external sources make sure they are copyright-free and/or free to share (as long as you agree with their terms).
An example of that would be GPL/LGPL (when it comes to software) and CC (Creative Commons) for common items.
If you download something from a site for media sharing (for e.g imageshack) don't worry (as long as it doesn't provide the author - in this case you do that too (credit him/her)).

GRAPHICS
Most of them are fine, except not yours. The map quality is bad, which is understandable for it is .JPG that increases size vs quality.
You can use .PNG not only it supports 4nd channel (usually transparency) but it is still compressed but with LDC (Lossless Data Compression).
Why don't you animate your sword instead of having it on pieces? This is interesting kind of HP decreasing mechanism.
When my project is done you'll be able to manipulate images at runtime which will allow you to establish exactly the same effect, only with a set of function call(s).

SOUND
There is no sound. A quiet game has several advantages but certainly not more than the one that has sound and a mute option for these with sensitive ears or refined taste of music. Thought in that case either the BGM and the SFX are missing.

GAMEPLAY
Highscore is missing. People like to compete and/or keep track of their highscore (which you can achieve with saveVars. Level of complexity gains out of nowhere. It will be good if player gets announced of it.
Hopeless gaming for these who are dying. It will be good if you put some HP-ups in a specified random occasion.
For this kind of games you can't do much for the diversity. A several ides after all:
- Maplighting
- Power-up: slow down flow (tendency)
- Power-up: Destroy all on screen (bomb)
- Power-up: larger crown lol
- Power-down: Smaller crown (offensive)
- Power-down: Faster flow (rampage)

SCRIPT
You said you are good in C, which is great. gE uses a dedicated emulation of C89. Take advantage of this and "scriptize" your games.

CONTROLS
Controls are a bit ordinary. You can have more exotic controls just remove the follow mouse and put this in draw actor instead:

Code: Select all

angle = direction(xscreen, 0, xmouse, 0);
directional_velocity = distance(xscreen, 0, xmouse, 0) / 4;

(adapted it to relate only for horizontals).

I don't know what to suggest more in such circumstance. Just keep it up, because you have the full potential of making implicit games.

[koala]

WOW, thank you very much for elaborate and detailed review and support. I'll listen to your advice, for sure. I want to do some other projects, not so big, and then I'll go back to this game, and the first one, and improve them.

Greets!

[koala]

CONTROLS
Controls are a bit ordinary. You can have more exotic controls just remove the follow mouse and put this in draw actor instead:

Code: Select all

angle = direction(xscreen, 0, xmouse, 0);
directional_velocity = distance(xscreen, 0, xmouse, 0) / 4;

(adapted it to relate only for horizontals).

I don't know what to suggest more in such circumstance. Just keep it up, because you have the full potential of making implicit games.

I've analyzed this code just an hour ago and I like it very much. And the actor is moving so smoothly. First I had no idea what it is doing, but then I've looked at Game Editor Documentation, and I can tell you this is great!

[bat78]

CONTROLS
Controls are a bit ordinary. You can have more exotic controls just remove the follow mouse and put this in draw actor instead:

Code: Select all

angle = direction(xscreen, 0, xmouse, 0);
directional_velocity = distance(xscreen, 0, xmouse, 0) / 4;

(adapted it to relate only for horizontals).

I don't know what to suggest more in such circumstance. Just keep it up, because you have the full potential of making implicit games.

I've analyzed this code just an hour ago and I like it very much. And the actor is moving so smoothly. First I had no idea what it is doing, but then I've looked at Game Editor Documentation, and I can tell you this is great!

direction and distances function along the angle and directional_velocity variable could be very useful in variety of different game types.

[Zivouhr]

Byzantine Empire starts off easy, but gets very tough further into the game as more tiles fall. Eventually, the tiles hit at the same time in two different spots, resulting in the sword health bar loss. Challenging game in the style of Pong or Centipede with the main character, in this case being a Crown and responding to the items falling his way.

You may already know this, but if you're looking to add sound to your games quickly and easily, for an awesome free sound editor that will allow you to quickly create .wav sound effect files and ogg vorbis music files with a microphone that are compatible for Game Editor, Audacity is a great tool to use.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

[koala]

Byzantine Empire starts off easy, but gets very tough further into the game as more tiles fall. Eventually, the tiles hit at the same time in two different spots, resulting in the sword health bar loss. Challenging game in the style of Pong or Centipede with the main character, in this case being a Crown and responding to the items falling his way.

You may already know this, but if you're looking to add sound to your games quickly and easily, for an awesome free sound editor that will allow you to quickly create .wav sound effect files and ogg vorbis music files with a microphone that are compatible for Game Editor, Audacity is a great tool to use.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Yeah, there are a lot of games like this.

Hey, thanks! I'll use Audacity for my new game.

[bat78]

Byzantine Empire starts off easy, but gets very tough further into the game as more tiles fall. Eventually, the tiles hit at the same time in two different spots, resulting in the sword health bar loss. Challenging game in the style of Pong or Centipede with the main character, in this case being a Crown and responding to the items falling his way.

You may already know this, but if you're looking to add sound to your games quickly and easily, for an awesome free sound editor that will allow you to quickly create .wav sound effect files and ogg vorbis music files with a microphone that are compatible for Game Editor, Audacity is a great tool to use.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Two or more tiles in the same horizontal might look suspicious.. but it's not problematic. by my estimation It simply requires more skills, which only makes it more entertaining.

[koala]

I didn't beat this game. I was trying a couple of times. But I like it that way.

Here's the game with sounds, which are not mine.
-game:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/bgjguh2vv1kbod6/Byzanitine_Empire_with_sounds_Game.zip
-ged and data files:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/l3cso77pe9m817a/Byzantine_Empire_with_sounds_GED.zip

I have changed names of .wav files.
http://robertwinter.com/pinball/mm/official/mm_sounds.html
- beginning = "I'll show you why I am the King of Payne!"
- the end = "We eat you for lunch !"
- victory = Replay fanfare
- weenies = "The castle burns ... get the weenies !"
http://soundbible.com/tags-medieval.html
- dragon = Dragon Roaring

I have not yet implemented the algorithm bat78 showed me, but I will, it's so smooth.

I am not sure why the game is so big, almost 10 MB, probably because of a lot of actors at sword bar and 30 .jpg pictures in background (every map is single picture).