153 replies to this topic

[e1will]

Attached is the latest version, v0.08. I've believe I have fixed all the bugs and eliminated all the screen rolls/jitters. It should hum along at a constant 262 or 312 lines per frame now, no matter what. Please let me know if you see otherwise.

I've also included a PAL-60 version in addition to the PAL-50 version. All 3 versions should look and play identically except for PAL-50 being slightly slower than the other two.

Another change I've made is to enable the Fire button to start a new game even in demo (attract) mode. You can now play game after game without ever having to touch the console (unless you want to pause the game or change the difficulty settings.) At the "select level" screen, you can use the joystick up and down to select the level number (1-9), left and right to turn on or off random mode, and fire to start the game.

I think I'm going to call this "release candidate #1" since there no bugs I'm aware of, I've included all the features I had wanted, and (I think) I've incorporated everyone's suggestions so far.

Let me know what you think... is this ready to go on a cart, or have I missed something?

Thanks,
--Will

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by e1will, Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:13 PM.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Great game. I will give it some more play tomorrow.

A minor comment:
IMO, at the credits screen, "Duck" and "Attack!" should have the same with (like at the title screen). Looks better that way. Also the vertical space between the two words is much bigger at the title screen. It should look identical on both screens.

[rmaerz]

I haven't downloaded this yet and have only looked at the screen shots and manual...

But, this is the craziest game I've ever seen! Holy cow - did I see tanks from Combat and robots from BerZerk?

This one looks like it's right up my alley...

[e1will]

Thomas Jentzsch, on Sat Nov 28, 2009 5:11 PM, said:

Great game. I will give it some more play tomorrow.

A minor comment:
IMO, at the credits screen, "Duck" and "Attack!" should have the same with (like at the title screen). Looks better that way. Also the vertical space between the two words is much bigger at the title screen. It should look identical on both screens.

Good suggestion. I've changed the credits logo to match the title screen's.

v0.09 is attached - the major change to this version is a new "Continue" feature. If you reach level 6 or higher before running out of lives, you can continue the next game at the same level (with score reset to zero) by pressing the fire button before the timer runs out.

To compensate I've cut down the number of levels you can select from the title screen to 5 (from 9). To get to level 9 now you'll need to beat levels 5, 6, 7 and 8 first.

I've got a really neat feature planned for version v0.10, so stay tuned!

--Will

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Edited by e1will, Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:16 PM.

[e1will]

Hello everyone!

Here's the latest version: v0.11.

This has a new feature for AtariVox and SaveKey users (and Stella users too): You can save your game and return to it later. This is handy if you've reached level 14 or so and don't want to lose your place, but need to go do something else. (Like play Juno First for a few hours.) You can load your game exactly where you left off when you return.

To save your game, go to the egg shelf room (screenshot attached) and press the Fire button on the joystick. If the program was able to save the game successfully, it will move you to the score room. If it was unsuccessful, it will move you to the credits room. It will be unsuccessful if you don't have an AtariVox or SaveKey attached (or if you're running in an emulator and don't have the game properties configured to use an AtariVox or SaveKey as the P1 controller.)

To load your game, start a new game, go to the egg shelf room and press Reset on the console. If the program was able to load the game successfully, it will move you to the score room; if not, to the credits room.

Special thanks to stephena and especially cd-w for the help in getting the AtariVox interface working correctly.

There is a known issue where the screen will roll while it's reading from or writing to the save file. That's on the to-fix list.

I've got some more neat stuff on the way for the next version, so stay tuned...

--Will

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by e1will, Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:20 PM.

[KevinMos3]

I think this is one of the strangest games I've ever seen, but I LIKE it. I like your creativity. All these new features sound really cool. Keep up the good work!

[e1will]

KevinMos3, on Tue Dec 8, 2009 10:47 PM, said:

I think this is one of the strangest games I've ever seen, but I LIKE it. I like your creativity. All these new features sound really cool. Keep up the good work!

Thanks!

[TidusRenegade]

Hi,

I actually signed up to the forums just to congratulate you on a cracking game! This game is fantastic and is already one of my favorite 2600 games. The level design is top notch.
The duck can irritate me at times but thats part of the challenge as i see it!
Well done on creating a great game, keep up the good work.

TR

[e1will]

TidusRenegade, on Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:10 AM, said:

Hi,

I actually signed up to the forums just to congratulate you on a cracking game! This game is fantastic and is already one of my favorite 2600 games. The level design is top notch.
The duck can irritate me at times but thats part of the challenge as i see it!
Well done on creating a great game, keep up the good work.

TR

Thank you very much!

[Jess Ragan]

I just finished playing this. It's brilliant, but more than that, it's a re-imagining of Adventure with better graphics and slightly different play mechanics. There's so much about this game that's reminiscent of Adventure it's nuts, right down to the curlicue dead ends and the level design that defies the laws of space and physics. Look carefully at the mascot, too... underneath him is a simple dot, just like the one in Adventure. It even jitters a bit when you hug walls!

It's really well done, and I imagine these graphics would have been a massive challenge on the Atari 2600 hardware. Kudos!

[e1will]

Jess Ragan, on Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:11 PM, said:

I just finished playing this. It's brilliant, but more than that, it's a re-imagining of Adventure with better graphics and slightly different play mechanics. There's so much about this game that's reminiscent of Adventure it's nuts, right down to the curlicue dead ends and the level design that defies the laws of space and physics. Look carefully at the mascot, too... underneath him is a simple dot, just like the one in Adventure. It even jitters a bit when you hug walls!

It's really well done, and I imagine these graphics would have been a massive challenge on the Atari 2600 hardware. Kudos!

Thanks! Yes, this was very much inspired by Adventure... it's long been my favorite 2600 game and I used to play it so often I'd actually dream about it.

--Will

[Nostalgic]

I played some rounds of Duck Attack over the past couple of weeks. I like the quirky story and characters and my fondness for the original Adventure helps me appreciate this game, its spiritual descendant, or perhaps a second cousin.

Here are some comments about the game. I hope that they help you out in developing future builds.

I like how within a few screens you can create the feeling of a large maze by placing walls strategically. However, the series of rooms with only exits at the top and bottom, doors, and walls that change color between rooms had a disquieting resemblance to Earthworld.

The robot sprite is a well-constructed figure. I like that the antenna, legs, and eyes all change when you change direction. I did notice that the antenna and boots are white during the game but black in the score screen, egg shelf, and credits screens. It took me a little while to figure out that collisions are only focused upon the robot's body. That would be a good tip for newer players.

The duck sprite is also impressive. I noticed there are different-colored ducks - will they have different names and personalities? I do think at times that the ducks are almost too large, since they can fill a quarter of a screen and there are some tight spaces to move through. However, I'm not sure you could shrink them vertically much and still have them look right.

The robot also tends to get overly large when he is carrying two items, stacked one atop another. However, to have them side-by-side on the robot's head would require even more flicker, so I'm not sure if you'd want to do that.

It confused me at first to see walls that change color when the robot moves! I eventually figured out that it's because the missile used as a wall has to be the same color as the player sprite, but someone not versed in 2600 technical issues might not know that. Maybe it can be explained away as a "mirror wall."

On level 1, even if you save yourself from the river, you may be stuck. If you go to the screen with the small river, then let it take you to the medium river, then escape, you're above a screen that has a barrier at the top. You won't be able to pass the barrier. On earlier levels it would be kinder to the player to not make such a deadly trap.

I noticed in some rooms there's a light gray wall where colored barriers might appear, but the light gray wall is still passable. I think it would be better if these matched the color of the floor so that it's immediately apparent the robot can pass through. There shouldn't be a question as to whether you can go on to the next room.

I finished level 2 by having the robot touch the black door with the black egg even though I couldn't move the robot to the door. (This is in the all-purple room with invisible walls.) Is this a good playing technique or something the level design shouldn't have allowed?

I saw that when there are a lot of objects flickering, it looks like the door sprite moves up and down by a pixel or two. I noticed this in a dark room when I wasn't carrying the flashlight and there was a snake and a door both in the room.

When the robot loses a life, it is immediately bounced back to the score screen, and you can start moving immediately after that. It would be better to have a bit of a transition, so the player doesn't start wondering why he is suddenly back at the score screen. Pausing for a couple of seconds on the screen in which the robot loses a life could help that. So could a death animation and having the player press the trigger to go back to the score screen.

When the robot is super-charged and/or shielded, in addition to changing the color of the body, I suggest having an icon at the bottom of the screen. This would make it so a player wouldn't have to remember what color body is associated with super-charging and shielding, as well as having both, and would help in cases in which another object overrides the color of the robot's body.

There's good humor in here, with the punctuation marks above the angry duck and the homages to other games.

Thank you for including a manual with these early builds! For an adventure game this is particularly important, since it lets testers know how to use items, navigate, and so on.

This is a fun game and it will be interesting to see later builds and later levels. Please keep up the good work!

[e1will]

Nostalgic, on Sat Jan 2, 2010 1:52 PM, said:

I played some rounds of Duck Attack over the past couple of weeks. I like the quirky story and characters and my fondness for the original Adventure helps me appreciate this game, its spiritual descendant, or perhaps a second cousin.

Here are some comments about the game. I hope that they help you out in developing future builds.

I like how within a few screens you can create the feeling of a large maze by placing walls strategically. However, the series of rooms with only exits at the top and bottom, doors, and walls that change color between rooms had a disquieting resemblance to Earthworld.

The robot sprite is a well-constructed figure. I like that the antenna, legs, and eyes all change when you change direction. I did notice that the antenna and boots are white during the game but black in the score screen, egg shelf, and credits screens. It took me a little while to figure out that collisions are only focused upon the robot's body. That would be a good tip for newer players.

Thanks for all the feedback! That's a good suggestion about the collision logic... I'll add that info to the manual. I'll also make a note in there that when the robot's antenna and boots are black, that means you're in a safe room, when you can rest without fear of any enemies coming along. (The actual reason they're black is so that I can use an all-black missile sprite on the right side of the screen to make those rooms symmetrical.)

Nostalgic, on Sat Jan 2, 2010 1:52 PM, said:

The duck sprite is also impressive. I noticed there are different-colored ducks - will they have different names and personalities? I do think at times that the ducks are almost too large, since they can fill a quarter of a screen and there are some tight spaces to move through. However, I'm not sure you could shrink them vertically much and still have them look right.

I haven't named them, but they do have different personalities. Aside from having different vertical and horizontal speeds, they actually have different AI logic, although it's hard to notice in the game, since they just seem to come at you. I may add something about their personalities in the manual now that you mention it.

Nostalgic, on Sat Jan 2, 2010 1:52 PM, said:

The robot also tends to get overly large when he is carrying two items, stacked one atop another. However, to have them side-by-side on the robot's head would require even more flicker, so I'm not sure if you'd want to do that.

Yep, they're stacked like that precisely to avoid adding flicker.

Nostalgic, on Sat Jan 2, 2010 1:52 PM, said:

It confused me at first to see walls that change color when the robot moves! I eventually figured out that it's because the missile used as a wall has to be the same color as the player sprite, but someone not versed in 2600 technical issues might not know that. Maybe it can be explained away as a "mirror wall."

Good suggestion! I'm a big fan of fanciful explanations for technical limitations.

Nostalgic, on Sat Jan 2, 2010 1:52 PM, said:

On level 1, even if you save yourself from the river, you may be stuck. If you go to the screen with the small river, then let it take you to the medium river, then escape, you're above a screen that has a barrier at the top. You won't be able to pass the barrier. On earlier levels it would be kinder to the player to not make such a deadly trap.

Yeah, I've gotten stuck there myself a few times. On the other hand, avoiding getting trapped is part of the challenge of the game... maybe I'll just stick a duck in there. I'll have to give that some thought.

Nostalgic, on Sat Jan 2, 2010 1:52 PM, said:

I noticed in some rooms there's a light gray wall where colored barriers might appear, but the light gray wall is still passable. I think it would be better if these matched the color of the floor so that it's immediately apparent the robot can pass through. There shouldn't be a question as to whether you can go on to the next room.

Good suggestion... I may get rid of the light gray walls... they were originally a coding accident that I happened to like the look of, so I kept them, but I may drop them if they're confusing.

Nostalgic, on Sat Jan 2, 2010 1:52 PM, said:

I finished level 2 by having the robot touch the black door with the black egg even though I couldn't move the robot to the door. (This is in the all-purple room with invisible walls.) Is this a good playing technique or something the level design shouldn't have allowed?

Yep, that's by design... I wanted to have it so when the robot held items, it extended its reach. Similarly if you have the zapper and something else, it will let you touch the outlet from a greater distance (at less risk of getting shocked.)

Nostalgic, on Sat Jan 2, 2010 1:52 PM, said:

I saw that when there are a lot of objects flickering, it looks like the door sprite moves up and down by a pixel or two. I noticed this in a dark room when I wasn't carrying the flashlight and there was a snake and a door both in the room.

Good observation! Yep, that's because the object display logic cycles the player sprites as robot/snake, robot/door, door/snake. I may reverse that so that it's the snake that wiggles and not the door.

Nostalgic, on Sat Jan 2, 2010 1:52 PM, said:

When the robot loses a life, it is immediately bounced back to the score screen, and you can start moving immediately after that. It would be better to have a bit of a transition, so the player doesn't start wondering why he is suddenly back at the score screen. Pausing for a couple of seconds on the screen in which the robot loses a life could help that. So could a death animation and having the player press the trigger to go back to the score screen.

I had originally designed a complicated "death animation" where the duck ate and swallowed the robot, but thought that it would irritate the player having to wait for it, so I dropped it. I know in (for example) arcade Donkey Kong, it is extremely frustrating for me whenever I lose a life because it won't let me jump back in there immediately.

Nostalgic, on Sat Jan 2, 2010 1:52 PM, said:

When the robot is super-charged and/or shielded, in addition to changing the color of the body, I suggest having an icon at the bottom of the screen. This would make it so a player wouldn't have to remember what color body is associated with super-charging and shielding, as well as having both, and would help in cases in which another object overrides the color of the robot's body.

Interesting idea... unfortunately I probably don't have enough ROM left to squeeze that in.

Nostalgic, on Sat Jan 2, 2010 1:52 PM, said:

There's good humor in here, with the punctuation marks above the angry duck and the homages to other games.

Thank you for including a manual with these early builds! For an adventure game this is particularly important, since it lets testers know how to use items, navigate, and so on.

This is a fun game and it will be interesting to see later builds and later levels. Please keep up the good work!

Thanks again for your feedback, you've given me a lot to consider!

--Will

[e1will]

Hello everyone!

Here's the latest version: v0.12.

This version has another feature for SaveKey and AtariVox users: a high score table. Now, whenever you finish a game, your score is automatically added to the high score table (if it's good enough, of course) and saved to the SaveKey or AtariVox. The high score screen appears after a game (once the "game over" screen disappears).

You can clear the high scores by holding the joystick "up" and pressing Reset while the high score screen is being displayed.

When a game is not being played, the program will loop through Title Screen > Demo > Game Over screen (last game's score and level reached) > High Score Screen > Title Screen. If you don't have a SaveKey or AtariVox, the High Score Screen will be skipped.

Another SaveKey-related change: the "save game state" feature is now invoked when you press the fire button in the credits room (previously it was the egg shelf room). Similarly, to load a saved game, press "reset" in the credits room. If the save or load is successful, you will be moved to the score room, if unsuccessful you will be moved to the egg shelf room.

In addition, all the game/score save/load screen rolls should be fixed: there shouldn't be a frame in the game that's not a constant 262 or 312 scanlines. Please let me know if you see otherwise.

I have a couple more tweaks and minor bug fixes to make, but that's probably it as far as major features are concerned. I have almost completely filled all 8 banks of the 32k, with just a handful of bytes free, and the remaining tweaks and fixes will probably use up the rest.

Enjoy! Let me know if you notice any bugs or have any other questions/comments.

Thanks,
--Will

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Edited by e1will, Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:28 PM.

[gambler172]

Hi Will
What should i say?It is just great.....
greetings Walter

[Shannon]

This is a neat little game. Like the large sprites. In some ways the graphics look like they were drawn with a crayon, but that is part of the charm. I'll have to play some more.

[Nathan Strum]

I finally found the flashlight in level 3. That's fun!

Is it possible to throw the zapper up and down, in addition to just left and right? Also, can you make it so that the zapper doesn't get trapped irretrievably inside of walls? That gets pretty frustrating.

[e1will]

Nathan Strum, on Fri Jan 8, 2010 6:11 PM, said:

I finally found the flashlight in level 3. That's fun!

Is it possible to throw the zapper up and down, in addition to just left and right?

Right now it's just left or right. Would adding up and down be a useful feature?

Nathan Strum, on Fri Jan 8, 2010 6:11 PM, said:

Also, can you make it so that the zapper doesn't get trapped irretrievably inside of walls? That gets pretty frustrating.

Yes. Stay tuned...

--Will

[Nathan Strum]

e1will, on Fri Jan 8, 2010 6:51 PM, said:

Nathan Strum, on Fri Jan 8, 2010 6:11 PM, said:

Is it possible to throw the zapper up and down, in addition to just left and right?

Right now it's just left or right. Would adding up and down be a useful feature?

I think so... quite often there's a duck above or below me that I'd like to zap, and can't.

[e1will]

New version, v0.13, attached.

Just some minor tweaks in this version:
1. Per Nostalgic's request, I have made it possible to escape the "wide" river room in Level 1. There is now a door in that room that you can use to exit if you get stuck there (see screenshot).

2. Per Nostalgic's request (and a poll which seems to confirm this would be a popular change), I have removed the light gray bars from the top and bottom of rooms.

3. Per Nathan Strum's comment that the zapper was getting stuck in walls, I have moved the location of the magnet so that it now appears starting in Level 2. The magnet can fish just about anything out of walls.

Keep the feedback coming!

Thanks,
--Will

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Edited by e1will, Fri Jan 15, 2010 6:46 PM.

[e1will]

Nathan Strum, on Fri Jan 8, 2010 7:02 PM, said:

e1will, on Fri Jan 8, 2010 6:51 PM, said:

Nathan Strum, on Fri Jan 8, 2010 6:11 PM, said:

Is it possible to throw the zapper up and down, in addition to just left and right?

Right now it's just left or right. Would adding up and down be a useful feature?

I think so... quite often there's a duck above or below me that I'd like to zap, and can't.

OK, I wasn't sure if I could find enough spare ROM bytes to pull this off, but somehow I did.

Version v0.14 attached: the zapper can now be thrown up (there's probably a better way to phrase that) or down.

--Will

Edited by e1will, Fri Jan 15, 2010 6:45 PM.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

e1will, on Sat Jan 9, 2010 1:14 AM, said:

OK, I wasn't sure if I could find enough spare ROM bytes to pull this off, but somehow I did.

Rule #1: There is always free ROM to be found.
Rule #2: There is ALWAYS free ROM to be found!!!
Rule #3: Ask me!

[e1will]

Hello all,

New version attached: v0.15.

The biggest change in this version is that it is MUCH easier. Specifically:
* The ducks appear more gradually: only 1 duck in Level 1, 2 ducks in Level 2, etc.
* The recharging station is now available starting in Level 1.
* The blue balloon is now available starting in Level 2.
* The game no longer speeds up both the ducks and projectiles (fireballs, tanks, etc.) on Level 13; now the projectiles speed up on Level 28 but the ducks do not.

To compensate I've changed the right difficulty switch to control the speed of the ducks: Set to B for normal-speed ducks, set to A for fast ducks. This difficulty switch previously controlled whether you could successfully struggle against the current in a river. The "yes, you can struggle" setting is now permanently on.

I've also added an idle/screensaver mode. If you don't move the joystick for about 8 minutes, the screen will turn off. To turn it back on just move the joystick.

I've also implemented Nostalgic's suggestion to pause after losing a life before the game returns you to the score room. Now when you lose a life, the screen will stay up for about a second and a half before switching to the score room.

Enjoy! Please keep the comments and suggestions coming!

--Will

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by e1will, Fri Jan 15, 2010 6:48 PM.

[Nathan Strum]

e1will, on Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:16 AM, said:

The biggest change in this version is that it is MUCH easier. Specifically:
* The ducks appear more gradually: only 1 duck in Level 1, 2 ducks in Level 2, etc.

I think level 1 is too easy now. I miss seeing the duck in the maze.

e1will, on Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:16 AM, said:

I've also implemented Nostalgic's suggestion to pause after losing a life before the game returns you to the score room. Now when you lose a life, the screen will stay up for about a second and a half before switching to the score room.

I like this. The death was so quickly before I wasn't sure it was a death or a glitch. A further suggestion - making the robot flicker-out when dying, rather than just vanishing. It wouldn't take much, just some visual cue that something bad happened to the robot.

[e1will]

Nathan Strum, on Thu Jan 14, 2010 3:21 AM, said:

I like this. The death was so quickly before I wasn't sure it was a death or a glitch. A further suggestion - making the robot flicker-out when dying, rather than just vanishing. It wouldn't take much, just some visual cue that something bad happened to the robot.

Something like one of these? I tried a few different animations (well, just color changes) but I'm not sure which of these I like. What do you think?

--Will

Edited by e1will, Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:32 PM.