Blog

Vessel

On releasing Vessel.

• Editor throws exception when in pos 255 because bg data is only 224 in size.
• Add the background
  • Add a thunder / lightning effect with flash on windows
  • Light up bg bricks when lightning
  • Rain that falls onto blocks from an external block should show "hit" particles.
  • Improve window locations (rectangles only? Max size?)
  • Add thunder sound effect
  • Add rain loop (bit crush white noise).

Background steps done:

• Background bug - placed blocks are invisible when placed over bg tile
• Fix not clearing block when in certain scroll positions...
  • Draw green wherever blank space (as initial step)
  • Rain animation block
  • Castle brick 1 and 2
• Leaderboards
  • Store top 5 scores
  • On lose, if score in top 5 then player can set initials (3 chars) and save
  • Flash score on game over menu when it's high score?
  • Add to main page - BEST: SPL 558833
  • Add leaderboards page - in main menu
  • redesign main menu to fit new Leaderboards entry
• Add sound effects
  • Raining
  • Thunder
  • ka-ching for money getting
  • popping for spawning hearts
  • meteor detroys block
• Stop replay file skipping straight to after first move
  • Is this already done?
• Add level names
• Fix bronze / silver / gold lines in levels
• General QA
• Animation when meteor destroys a block
• Intro sequence.
  • Plumber goes to big castle
  • Thunder + lightning
  • Meets vampire at door
  • They exchange hearts and money particles
  • Both go into castle
  • (level start)
• Scoring sequence.
  • Show vampire + plumber on screen during scoring
  • Spawn money + hearts as score is added
  • For gold bonus, more spawns etc.
• Game over sequence (win)
  • When the final level is complete, there should be a splash page art piece
  • When final level is complete, go to game over screen. Then show splash art.
• Create gif of a level playthrough (using replay system?)
  • Auto save to folder

Done:

• Don't allow upward movement in non-editor mode
• Good rotate button
• Don't scroll past a level's bounds
• Don't allow blocks placed on start position (e.g. 0100 block)
• Don't play rotate sound for blocks that don't rotate
• Render bug on second level (when screen width is too small? 10 or 12 vs. 16?)
• On next level, scroll immediately to correct initial position
• Add meteor special block for destroying block
  • Recalculate open connections correctly
  • Update multiplier block data in current level
• Fix ugly bg tiles (background shading)
• Lose game when place incorrectly (restart the level)
• Game over menu
• Update score on hud while scanning blocks
• Updated scoreboard graphic
• Add font for scoreboard
• Show numbers on scoreboard
  • Show score
  • Show level name
  • Show multiplier
• Store name in each level
• Fix level 2 render bug with silver line
• Main menu
  • New Game
  • Load Game
  • Instructions
  • Quit Game
  • Volume control (just mute / unmute)
• Add graphics to main menu (some blocks at bottom of screen)
• Working mute button
• Replay system
  • User input 60 times per second
  • Forced Down is considered user action
  • Rotate is one of 4 user actions
  • Watching a replay is an alternative launch mode
  • (meteors, crosses etc. all work fine)
  • All level replays are saved automatically
  • Store in appdata folder with index name and timestamp
  • when running with -replay, check in appdata folder and working directory
  • On game load, immediately play replay.
  • User can still return to the main menu and play the game (returning to main menu disables replay mode)
  • Controls need to still work (don't disable left / right / rotate). Probably improve how replays work when doing this?
  • Do we want to store failed run attempts as a replay? Yes
  • Fix dot block problem (not save game related)
• Refactor Board into Level and SaveGame.
• Save game functionality (store current level data in level 32)
• Load an in-progress game
  • Including current block + position
  • and score and multiplier
  • Need to handle original open pipe graphics. They should be left alone on level load even if they're now fully connected.
  • Need to think how to handle mid-level saving.
    • Current block in current position
    • Replay in an incomplete state, reopened to complete.
• Make all the levels
• Don't move block down from user input (down) if gravity moved the block down within the last .X seconds (avoid unintentional double move)
  • Something like a 0.2 second delay after an automatic DOWN, where DOWN input isn't accepted from user.
• Make sure level 32 doesn't exist (and can't be changed in editor)
• Don't allow player input while watching replay.
• Problem with replay file playback?
• "Consume" save file once loaded - should only be used to continue a play, not to retry a failed attempt.
• If press retry, warn that this will reset current multiplier.
• If press save and quit, warn that this will override the save.
• In replay mode, don't show "save and exit", "retry" (should be "replay").
• Fix up font rendering by adding kerning for specific cases
• Improve instructions screen
• Only draw bonus lines on internal blocks.
  • Remove old "Is this after a non-empty block" logic