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Game Discussion => 7DRLs => Topic started by: Maurog on March 05, 2016, 12:45:29 AM

Title: Snial Trial [7DRL 2016 - Success!]
Post by: Maurog on March 05, 2016, 12:45:29 AM
(http://i66.tinypic.com/ekrfk6.png)

You have lost your honor, sir knight. Your family and friends disowned you for your vile misdeeds. The only way to redeem yourself is honorable combat, but even your fellow knights won't fight you. There is only one option left - prepare yourself for SNIAL TRIAL.

(Arena fight with giant snials who are honorable opponents. They leave their shells that become obstacles when they die. This introduces a third dimension. Snials are aligned in political factions and evolve new skills based on them, it's complicated. There is no way I'll finish this in 7 days :D)

Last version (013) download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ne8rkvzoy5umdy/Snial%20Trial%20-%2013.zip?dl=1
Alternative for 64-bit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gdkelcrlu3pjjne/Snial%20Trial%2064.zip?dl=1
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: akeley on March 05, 2016, 12:01:26 PM
 Made me giggle and I wanna hear more about your crazy world. Don`t worry `bout timelines...just finish it plz  ;D
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 05, 2016, 01:21:29 PM
Update 1:
http://imgur.com/5Lp44Zv

What's in:
* Basic SDL capabilities.
* Font wrapper that eats a font png and then allows you to draw chars or strings of any size and color you give it.
* Area class that allows me to cut the screen into chunks (soon to also get mouse events and respond accordingly, for example highlighting the tile the mouse is over and changing the description area to describe what's on it).
* Grid class that holds tile information (currently just a char) and knows to draw it as a grid.

What's not in:
* Everything else

Exposition: Snial politics are a messy and complicated business, centered around ritualized combat. The election requires an impartial outsider champion in an arena, and the various political factions send their own snial champions to battle him. Based on their performance, factions rise and fall out of the race, branch and gain influence, which allows them to equip their champions better. While it's not an official rule that whoever bests the outsider knight wins the election, in reality that's what always happens.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 05, 2016, 05:28:59 PM
Update 2:
http://i.imgur.com/ARVXvyx.gifv

* Elevation levels.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 05, 2016, 07:05:49 PM
Update 3:
http://i.imgur.com/MKtwp6o.gifv

* Player moving around, bumping into obstacles.

Next on the agenda:

* Displaying the feedback on moves and bumps in the actual play window instead of the console window.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 06, 2016, 08:13:06 PM
Update 4:
http://imgur.com/F0pS1Pb

* Basic scrolling message area is go.

Next up:

* Mouse Events.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 07, 2016, 06:59:04 PM
Update 5:
http://i.imgur.com/SZu2Wkf.gifv

* Mouse events are go. (You can't see the actual mouse because of how I make the gifs, but trust me, you move the mouse and it highlights the right squares)

Next:

* Structuring and naming enemy waves.
* Working on a nonstandard hit points system.
* Implementing actual enemies.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: AgingMinotaur on March 07, 2016, 08:58:06 PM
Love the art style. Will every move you make be heralded by such blooming entries in the game log? :)

As always,
Minotauros
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Tzan on March 07, 2016, 09:04:36 PM
AgingMinotaur bravely posts about intepid developer's glorious game log.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: akeley on March 07, 2016, 09:23:01 PM
Well , I was kinda hoping Mouse Events pertain to immediate arrival of vainglorious Rodent Cavalry.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 07, 2016, 10:47:07 PM
Update 6:
http://www.filedropper.com/snialtrial_2

* Compiled release version, and uploaded first prototype.

That's right, I think it's good enough to consider it a prototype, so you can download and run it from the link above. Windows required, apart from that hopefully I gave it all the dlls it needs to run on its own.

Not much to do except walk around and bump into obstacles at this point, but check it out.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: AgingMinotaur on March 08, 2016, 12:13:41 AM
I tried it (Linux/wine worked fine). Unfortunately, I don't have a numpad on my laptop, so I can't move diagonally. Maybe you could include something like numerals for diagonals, or at least vi movement? Click to move would also feel natural at the current point, I think.

As always,
Minotauros
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 08, 2016, 06:53:59 AM
Update 7:
http://www.filedropper.com/snialtrial_3

* Diaglock for laptops

When on a laptop without numpad, hold control to diaglock. This will prevent you from moving into cardinal directions, but allow you to combine them into diagonals.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: akeley on March 08, 2016, 10:24:27 PM
Map legend explaining elevation colours could be useful to have somewhere on the side. Yep, having to remember 3 different ones or having to reach for the mouse is definitely challenging (#1stwrldprblm)
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 09, 2016, 05:53:37 PM
Eh, it's pretty straightforward, the coloration is relative to your current height, darker is down, lighter is up, you can move at most one up and at most two down, all of those are gray. Orange and brown is too high, black is too low.

Anyway, it will be self-explanatory in the game I think, because you start with an empty arena and build your way up on your own.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 10, 2016, 08:02:01 PM
Update 8:
http://www.filedropper.com/snialtrial_5

* Basic Snial generation is in
* Snial movement and stacking is in

Note that combat is not in yet, so all you can do is muck around the arena as unending hordes of Snials try to surround you and climb on you.
Tomorrow is gonna be the last day, oh my!
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: AgingMinotaur on March 10, 2016, 08:28:12 PM
Woohoo! Good luck.

As always,
Minotauros
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 11, 2016, 03:35:08 PM
Update 9:
http://www.filedropper.com/snialtrial

* Attacking is in, on both sides
* Defeating Snials is in

At this point the knight is completely impervious to attacks though.
Some notes: You can attack an enemy near you, but only if it's on your level, or one above or one below. If it's two or more levels above or below it's outside your reach. If it's exactly two levels below, you move and drop on them instead of attacking. This is totally allowed, try it.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 11, 2016, 09:45:25 PM
Update 10 and final:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/khw3j85mq07eyyo/Snial%20Trial.rar?dl=1
http://i.imgur.com/GWSip0Z.gif

* Added armor which serves as hp (sort of)
* Fix armor with space/Num5
* Added win condition (actually lose condition, but the Snials win, amirite)
* Can see armor status with mouseover
* Can scroll combat log with mousewheel

Well what can I say, it doesn't have a lot of the features I planned, but it's totally playable.
Some less than obvious features:
- You can climb 1 step up, but never more than 1.
- You can climb 2 steps down but never more than 2.
- You can attack 1 up or 1 down, but not more than that.
- You can jump on top of a Snial if it's exactly 2 down.
- Snials can climb on other Snials whenever they want.
- They can drop on your head from above too.
- Being attacked from above or below affects what armor parts can be hit.
- Snials move slowly but attack just fine

I marked the game as finished. Have fun, and I hope it's not too boring.
Features that didn't make it to the current version.
* There was supposed to be clear progression of waves.
* Snials were supposed to evolve new abilities the more of them you defeat.
* You were supposed to level and get new skills too.
* There were supposed to be different weapons and some sort of inventory.
* Music and sound could be nice, eh.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: akeley on March 12, 2016, 10:56:21 AM
Unsurprisingly, quite brilliant. And that`s just simple-but-deep gameplay, however the real highlight for me is the game`s vibe and humour - qualities so rare to find these days in an unforced state or propped up by pop-referencing. I`d like to think Mr Cervantes would love it too ;)

And this is just genius:
(http://i66.tinypic.com/ekrfk6.png)

You should, like, make a big game. Or something. Got a feeling it would be fun (loads of).
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 12, 2016, 11:16:19 AM
The title page and the concept of the game are actually a pop reference, but so ancient that nobody is sure exactly what it is about at this point:
http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/09/knight-v-snail.html

Just in case you were wondering where the inspiration comes from (and the images, I used actual medieval ones).
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: akeley on March 12, 2016, 11:47:33 AM
Mind, blown. These images...and "Knight v Snail V:  Revenge of the Snail"...oh-my-word. Made my Saturday ;)

Not sure if this counts as "pop" culture...well, at least not as trite as we know it. But it`s always good to be reminded/enlightened that the medieval folk had peculiar sense of humour too and didn`t take the world too seriously. The conventional wisdom of super serious knights and times needs this injection for sure.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Avagart on March 12, 2016, 01:31:30 PM
Great entry! But I'm affraid I have question. So, every time after some turns I'm unable to move. Game doesn't freeze, player character just doesn't move and/or repair armor. It's about mechanics? Or it is bug? I think that first option is more probably, but I didn't see information of my death / unabling to move / whatever in log :( But screen doesn't fit to my laptopot (so, 768px height is too small) and maybe this message is outside of my screen.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 12, 2016, 01:39:09 PM
Ow, I assumed everyone have over 820 pixels height now. My mistake.

When you die, the game revokes all your options except q/esc but allows you to look around, so it's probably this. Look at your armor, if you see any part as "exposed" (also bright red in the bar), chances are they got you.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Avagart on March 12, 2016, 01:51:24 PM
Yup, this. Thanks for clarification.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: AgingMinotaur on March 12, 2016, 02:22:15 PM
Well done! I just gave it a go, and see how this can be quite fun, actually. You should definitely consider continuing development a bit, adding some of those features you mentioned. For instance, there surely must be some free-to-use cheesy lute music lying about? I might come back with more (actual) comments once I played it a bit more.

As always,
Minotauros

PS.Many thanks, also, for the "Knight v. Snail" article. I especially enjoyed the fact that one of the first to research the field was called "Comte de Bastard" :D And this pic, the epitome of overkill, poor snail, but then again, it's posing so defiantly that I get the impression it may actually be about to win the fight:
(http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/.a/6a00d8341c464853ef019aff97efdf970b-500wi)
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 12, 2016, 02:47:42 PM
I'm not completely sure it's really fun, to be honest, because there were no extra features and combat is almost deterministic, so I cranked the difficulty way up. Since every two turns a new Snial drops in, you're under a constraint to kill one every two turns which is inherently impossible. You can defeat about 100 of them, but with the timer ticking and the need to repair armor and the obstacles mounting, you have no chance to keep it up.

Maybe I can make a version which drops one every three turns, which will also make them all move at once instead of of having different phases. That will probably make it too easy. Or drop once every three turns, but deliberately mix their phases. Or keep it the way it is but at least somehow signal to the player when each is about to move.
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 13, 2016, 08:37:43 PM
Update 11 - Beyond 7drl:

* Added music, courtesy of the patron saint of indie game music, Kevin MacLeod
* Better indication of stacked Snials
* Snial drop rate reduced slightly to lull the player into false sense of insecurity
* Fixing armor has a small chance to critically fail

There you go, AgingMinotaur, there's that lute music you ordered. Also everything should be easier now, but I doubt anyone can defeat 1000 Snials (if you defeat 1000 Snials in one go, totally take a screenshot and post it here).

Next up:

* Self-resizing for smaller screens
Title: Re: Snial Trial
Post by: Maurog on March 13, 2016, 11:47:27 PM
Update 12:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wkfl8krhi4wnu03/Snial%20Trial%20-%2012.zip?dl=1

* Small Screen Mode

The game will now automatically downsize itself to support smaller screens if needed (into a 854x492 window).
Title: Re: Snial Trial [7DRL 2016 - Success!]
Post by: Avagart on March 14, 2016, 01:20:36 AM
Great, thank you so much! :)
Title: Re: Snial Trial [7DRL 2016 - Success!]
Post by: Maurog on March 19, 2016, 12:54:55 PM
Rogueliker recorded a nice Let's Play video of my silly game, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoD13mdFc_I

And yeah, he mispronounced the name, but we will not hold it against him.
Title: Re: Snial Trial [7DRL 2016 - Success!]
Post by: Rogueliker on March 19, 2016, 07:15:29 PM
Dangit. Which name? Yours or the game?
Title: Re: Snial Trial [7DRL 2016 - Success!]
Post by: Maurog on March 19, 2016, 07:55:35 PM
The game. It's Snial Trial, not Snail Trial, even though we all know Snials are pretty much giant snails that just happen to fight knights in arenas.
Title: Re: Snial Trial [7DRL 2016 - Success!]
Post by: Maurog on March 20, 2016, 09:54:29 PM
Update 13:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ne8rkvzoy5umdy/Snial%20Trial%20-%2013.zip?dl=1

*Some sounds are in. Check them out