Stroll Wars - Rumble in the Woods

DomDom

@toxibunny Just wondering are you happy with the 8 direction movement and shooting given that the Switch has analogue sticks which would make it simple enough to allow for 360 degrees of motion. But maybe the 8 direitions is a design choice, if so fair enough. I was just wondering because somewhere I've got a similar project based on Tron Deadly DIscs which does have full 360 movement/aiming and I think that to a degree this feature would help a bit with the problem of button mashing whenever something crosses the line of sight because this way all directions are potentially hittable,

spikey

Thank you, this was very helpful feedback. When I get back to my switch I do some tests, maybe I release it first. The only 8 direction movement is probably something that hinders the player. Sadly the characters graphics are limited, but maybe i can still allow the movement.
...and with the other ideas i can enrich the gameplay afterwards, like npc or items.
@toxibunny with pugs you mean the dog? Or is this slang for npcs?

PickleCatStars

Yep, the dog. I think they’re hilarious :)

spikey

The list of todo's finally shrinked to two: highscores (yay! @vinicity I guess I can also use the planned version with multiple game modes ;-)) and rounds, because revenge is sweet, I guess?

The keyboard controls (I know for a 5 player game, its an overkill, but I will update Smack Man afterwards) are a bit tricky:
When holding down a key, the key appears once in the buffer and disappears afterwards for 0.5 seconds, so I automatically re-apply the last key after 0.5 seconds, for one more time (because after that 0.5 seconds the key is reappearing every frame again in the key buffer. Problem left: diagonal movement, when pressing two keys at the same time are currently jumpy. Maybe its not possible to do keyboard control anymore, if I try the free-direction movement idea.

vinicity

@spikey If you are doing "wasd" type keyboard controls, can't you use separate keys for diagonals, like "q" for up/left, "e" for up/right, etc.?

spikey

@vinicity thank you for your comment. The diagonal movement can be handled, because the buffer will just contain "aw" if both keys are pressed. But I think the player with the keyboard has a disadvantage because somebody controlling the character with the analog stick will be able to move in other directions as 0, 45, 90, 135, 180, etc. e.g. 60 degrees. With the keyboard I can only stick with multiples of 45 degrees. So, currently I will restrict the analog stick control. But thinking about why it was done like this in the early days, brought me to the point, that it was just not possible with the joysticks from C64 or Amiga (yes, in the arcade games, it probably was). So, I guess there is no reason to stick with this limitation if I not for the retro-style reason. The priority for this game is: max out the fun for a simple idea and adding later additional things (to extend the fun) like items or extra power, like all these cool suggestions above (thanks a lot by the way!), when it works.

The alternative way, would be to not directly use the input to move the character, but to move a direction pointer around the character and just move on a button press into this direction. But this hinders when shooting at the same time.

spikey

So many times, you think its almost done, and then you find a 5 things that don't work. But I got only 2 things, now, so, I guess, I am as close as I have never been. Well, thats probably always equal true.

DomDom

It's like that loading progress bar that goes up to 99% pretty quickly then stays there for about an hour. Good luck with the last "2" things.

spikey

ID: NXKL3XCHN8
(I add the controls help screen later)

vinicity

Looks great! Will try it with the kids tonight!

spikey

Added the controls help screen. And the help text caused a crash by a memory leak, when using the strReplace() function in a loop. I removed it now.
(committed it but its pending)

spikey

I tried to reproduce the crash with strReplace() with a more simplified code, but failed. Basically it was appearing when the input and output parameter of the function were the same. Looks like there is a relation with the post from @Discostew . But for me, I guess the problem came from the arryay-elements I passed as the parameter. I will try again next time to figure it out.

spikey

Final update done. 😅

switching (> 20 times, every second) between the controls screen and the menu and between the high score screen and the menu caused a crash after 20 seconds: it was related to the use of the strReplace(), passing the output to the next string replace function as an input. It was confirmed that is fixed in the next FUZE version 👍
crashs were happening when undocked: I am not 100% sure how this got away, I just started to define a setMode(1920, 1080) in the beginning and checked all scaling related stuff.
the touch keyboard was only giving me numbers instead of letters, when undocked: I had to call the setMode(1280,720) explicitly, when undocked, before calling input(). If you do not use setMode() at all, the keyboard will work docked and undocked.

Hope you enjoy, I will still have a look at @xevdev s suggestion with the free movement and drop the keyboard control.
And yeah, 10 high score tables and a reset high score function for game parties ;-)

spikey

I am working on navigation improvements, and I think this was a major game flow blocker. To get that properly tested I need a proper training area 😂 but I definitely underestimated the time it takes to find style matching bushes and stones. 🧐

waldron

@spikey this has lots of potential to add in different arenas and game modes like capture the flag, iv got some self drawn assets that would suit your game and being the same size tile it's fairly fast to patch a map together. could have rooms and different areas so the player could take advantage of environmental effects pits,windy,icey ect, probably getting carried away sorry.

spikey

@waldron I would love to use your graphics, especially if I start extending (see below) the concept after the first release (some of the ideas, I would drop, without help, especially with the graphics). And yes, I know exactly what you mean: the hardest part right now, for me is to get not carried away (yet!). I could not resist with the training arena. So, my goal right now is: navigation with high usability, simple map (no extra interaction yet), and AI players. Done by 80%, 70%, 60%.I want to complete this version as a full game. And then get wild with Stroll Wars 2: by playing the first version and gathering feedback I will decide on:

multi arena style or scroller
co op or vs
special charge shot / shield / self healing
items to pick up: health, special power, speed
seasons: snow, forrest, country side, desert
game modes: capture flag, capture zone, king of the hill, aim against time, together towards one big guy, gold rush, bonus levels

So, for now, I got my stone, but I d love to take this further.👍😎

waldron

@spikey sounds like a sensible plan to release as is then when the time comes then update it, for now it's inspiring to see like all programs on Fuze.

octolingYT

@spikey cant wait till i can play this!

spikey

Found some animated torches, (the Finalbossblues/torch was in the wrong order), and tinkered with the hit sound. Getting the sound right, was hard. I miss an option to play audio with an offset (meaning: having a parameter for the start second and the duration). After having the logic ready, I can probably complete it quite fast, just by using the map editor for the rest of the level.