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Post Oekaki

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Strife Administrator Der Dairy Crick Registered 21/11/2002 Points 2305	15th September, 2009 at 08:03:38 - I'm not sure whether or not this is in the right section of the forums, but hopefully it is. ;; Anyway, i've recently come across an issue in one of the games i'm working on. In this game, i've challenged myself by making the interface almost completely invisible - in other words, there are no permanent health bars, status indicators, scores, or anything else displayed on the screen. For example, instead of a health bar, the player must gauge how much health their character has by the expression on their face, the noises they make, and the sound of their heartbeat (although a beating heart does appear above the character if they are seriously wounded, in the event that the character is in an animation that doesn't portray how hurt they are). While i've been able to successfully design an invisible health indicator, i'm struggling to find a way to show how many coins they've collected. I could possibly have their coin count appear if they stand still for a few seconds, but that doesn't help when the player wants to check in the middle of a battle or if they're falling or something. Another option is to have a drop-down menu appear by pressing a certain key, but since this is a game with plenty of action, i'd want to freeze the game until the player has done their menu business, and at this point in development, it would be very difficult to pause everything while still keeping the menu functional. So as you can see, there's pros and cons to every option i've considered, and I think i'm going to need some outside opinions on this one. Any more ideas about how I could make an "invisible" coin indicator that feels natural in an action platformer?
MrMcFlurry Registered 03/08/2009 Points 89	15th September, 2009 at 12:53:24 - well, you seem to be wanting to go for realism,most going for minimal interfaces do....so would your character really be able to (or even want to) check his pocket change when in the middle of a fight, or diving off a cliff? though you could tie it to something like weight for money + items. more he collects, slower he moves etc. n/a
Sketchy Cornwall UK Registered 06/11/2004 Points 1971	15th September, 2009 at 12:55:33 - I can't think of any way to have an invisible coin indicator - short of giving the character loads of bling, or a business suit & briefcase, when he's really rich Or maybe in the way NPCs react to you - if you're really poor they kick you and spit on you, but if you're rich they follow you around, and all the cute female ones want to marry you... Those are both dumb suggestions, I know. I just don't think it's going to be possible - it's not like health, which is basically just a percentage - there's too much potential variation. However, you could use a subapp for the drop down menu - set it to "modal" and it will pause the main frame automatically. Alternatively, just shove all actions not relating to the menu, in one big group, and deactivate it when the menu is opened. That part is not hard at all. Btw: Why would a player ever want to know how much moeny they have "in the middle of a battle, or if they're falling"? I actually think it's sufficient to show the player how much money they have, only when they have the opportunity to spend some - ie. in shops, when you meet a merchant, etc. That used to be pretty common in old games. n/a
Strife Administrator Der Dairy Crick Registered 21/11/2002 Points 2305	15th September, 2009 at 14:46:03 - Thanks for the replies, guys. Firstly, the reason i'd want the player to be able to see their coin amount on the fly is because they don't buy things from shops - instead, they buy things from a menu and it instantly appears in front of their character, ready to pick up. Think of it as being similar to the Sega Genesis version of Sparkster. In that particular game, when you collect 10 crystals, a slot machine selects a random item for you, and that particular item will fall to the ground from the top of the screen. My game will be similar, but I want the player to have a lot more control over the items they get. As for realism... heh. This game is more like Mega Man than anything. My main reason for wanting an invisible interface is to help the player immerse themselves in the action a little more, and to force them to think more carefully about their current situation instead of looking at the game in terms of raw numbers. Subapps might work for the menu, but when it pauses the game, does it display that "Application Paused" window? If it does, i'm not sure if I want to go for that. As for stuffing everything into a group, it would work with enough time and effort, but i've gotten far enough into the game's development where such a task would take days of code rearranging, and i'm not confident that it'll make things easier for me in the long run. Are there any extensions out there for MMF 1.5 that might make freezing the action a little easier?
Sketchy Cornwall UK Registered 06/11/2004 Points 1971	15th September, 2009 at 15:25:26 - No, subapps don't show any "application paused" window. Putting everything into a group wouldn't take days of code rearranging - you just create a group, select everything in the event list, and then cut & paste it into the new group. There's no reason you should need to change the order of any events at all. It should literally take seconds. Anyway, since the menu is such an important part of the game, you don't have a lot of choice. Perhaps you could just show the player how much money he has every time he collects some more? Eg. When you find a money bag, you'd be told "You now have 100g" rather than "You just found 25g". The player should be able to remember roughly how much they have. Edited by Sketchy n/a
Strife Administrator Der Dairy Crick Registered 21/11/2002 Points 2305	15th September, 2009 at 16:02:37 - Well, the rearranging would work okay if everything wasn't already in groups. I've tried having groups within groups before and it usually leads to MMF crashing on me. ; Disabling all of the groups one-by-one would work, as long as I update it for every level of the game. Since running a subapp would properly freeze the program, that method might work as well. I'd need to look up different ways to have the subapp communicate with the main program. That money trick could work. Whenever the player picks up a coin, I could have a number jump onto the screen and then quickly disappear. There's enough coins littered around the level that there shouldn't be much of a pause between collectings, so it'd be easy enough to remember until the player accesses the item menu.
Devernath Registered 04/12/2004 Points 54	16th September, 2009 at 05:23:30 - You could have a button which makes the character check his wallet. n/a
DeadmanDines Best Article Writer Registered 27/04/2006 Points 4758	17th September, 2009 at 06:52:21 - Give him a money bag by his side or on his belt and make it grow depending on how much money he has? No money = belt dissappears completely. 191 / 9999 * 7 + 191 * 7
Silveraura God's God Registered 08/08/2002 Points 6747	17th September, 2009 at 22:10:33 - Originally Posted by Strife Well, the rearranging would work okay if everything wasn't already in groups. I've tried having groups within groups before and it usually leads to MMF crashing on me. ; Disabling all of the groups one-by-one would work, as long as I update it for every level of the game. Since running a subapp would properly freeze the program, that method might work as well. I'd need to look up different ways to have the subapp communicate with the main program. That money trick could work. Whenever the player picks up a coin, I could have a number jump onto the screen and then quickly disappear. There's enough coins littered around the level that there shouldn't be much of a pause between collectings, so it'd be easy enough to remember until the player accesses the item menu. You can make subapps share global values with the main frame. I found this to be the best way to have them communicate with the main game. http://www.facebook.com/truediamondgame
A Yip Registered 01/09/2009 Points 6	19th September, 2009 at 00:08:21 - You have to go to the bank and check your current balance, however if it's not a working day or after 6pm, then it'll only show the cleared balance and may not be up to date n/a
Strife Administrator Der Dairy Crick Registered 21/11/2002 Points 2305	19th September, 2009 at 17:44:03 - Thanks for the suggestions, folks. I contemplated using subapps for a while, but I want to keep things relatively simple this time around. Sooo, i've made it so that a number appears above the player's head whenever they pick up a coin, and instead of a pause menu, I made a "quick select" menu that's accessed by holding the Q key. This will cause a ring of items to appear around the character, and by holding a certain arrow key and releasing, different items can be used. Think of it as being similar to the quick menu from the Ratchet and Clank series, except with 4 possible choices instead of 8. Unfortunately, this method doesn't pause the game, but I don't think it will be much of a problem. It's easy enough to hide in a safe spot away from hazards and use the menu, and if the player happens to be in the middle of a fight (i.e. a boss), they can easily bring up the menu and use an item in less than a second.

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