Please examine my program!

[Snario]

Hello! Me and some friends in my Grade 11 computers class have been working on this platform game project sine January 3rd and are nearing completion on it. There are a few bugs and not everyone is perfect yet but I'd just like to get some outside opinion on the game. Please let me know how the game looks when running and in the code. How can I make it more efficient, user-friendly, more fun? also what should I name it? :p

Features that will be added:

- Music (Where can I find some good ones?)
- More levels
- Credits screen
- Level colors editor

Thanks!

[TokenHerbz]

Okay, So I'll give you my opinions, Starting with the GAME Itself. I'm very impressed with the first level, and the menu. The ability to color your guy and choose him is awesome. (Mind you I had to increase the delay speed in your main loop for my PC to run it platformer speed + 500%) (my pc is too fast lol) --> But I would give level 1 and the "look and feel" of this game A+, impressive. However, Level 2, I can't beat it?! Or is that the end of the game. (which would be weird seeing as you have 5 levels created?) None the less, Add a few more levels and make them work like level 1, Superb.

You have identical repeated code (copy paste style) in viewinglevels.t and maintun.t, which defeats the point if including files. (why include something you already have right). Also not a huge fan of the way you use the include files, but it works..
in all of your 6 coding files, its lacking comments, you should explain in a few words (maybe sentances) expalining what that code does (PROCS ESP) so the readers (like your teacher) knows stright up wtf is going on. A strong example is when i loaded up your colors.t file and starting reading the code, I was like, what...the... Ofcourse i know that its for selecting your char colors and positioning of these colors, But you should have this info inside the files. Its really easy to comment, and doesn't need an essay either, simple and stright to the point.
I would give you a 1/10 on commenting on your game. Your colors.t file also, should be set up with a type, since you have so many vars of the same freaking thing, and you know how to use them as i've seen them used with the barriers.
A little less hard coding to (because its less work on the future) if you plan on continuing your game.

A few programming flaws but nothing game breaking, so add those comments, take out doubled codes, perhaps make a few things more efficient, and you got yourself a great mark in your class

If you'd like some tips/assistance, feel free to post it again, It's good to see people work hard to make a great potential game

[Snario]

TokenHerbz @ Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:25 am wrote:

Okay, So I'll give you my opinions, Starting with the GAME Itself. I'm very impressed with the first level, and the menu. The ability to color your guy and choose him is awesome. (Mind you I had to increase the delay speed in your main loop for my PC to run it platformer speed + 500%) (my pc is too fast lol) --> But I would give level 1 and the "look and feel" of this game A+, impressive. However, Level 2, I can't beat it?! Or is that the end of the game. (which would be weird seeing as you have 5 levels created?) None the less, Add a few more levels and make them work like level 1, Superb.

You have identical repeated code (copy paste style) in viewinglevels.t and maintun.t, which defeats the point if including files. (why include something you already have right). Also not a huge fan of the way you use the include files, but it works..
in all of your 6 coding files, its lacking comments, you should explain in a few words (maybe sentances) expalining what that code does (PROCS ESP) so the readers (like your teacher) knows stright up wtf is going on. A strong example is when i loaded up your colors.t file and starting reading the code, I was like, what...the... Ofcourse i know that its for selecting your char colors and positioning of these colors, But you should have this info inside the files. Its really easy to comment, and doesn't need an essay either, simple and stright to the point.
I would give you a 1/10 on commenting on your game. Your colors.t file also, should be set up with a type, since you have so many vars of the same freaking thing, and you know how to use them as i've seen them used with the barriers.
A little less hard coding to (because its less work on the future) if you plan on continuing your game.

A few programming flaws but nothing game breaking, so add those comments, take out doubled codes, perhaps make a few things more efficient, and you got yourself a great mark in your class

If you'd like some tips/assistance, feel free to post it again, It's good to see people work hard to make a great potential game

Alright, thanks a lot for posting! I'm not sure which part of level 2 you're having trouble with but I can only assume it's one of the following:

a) You don't know that you can crouch through platforms by holding 's'. A controls screen will be added in the future.
b) You can't make the jump through the moving platforms. This is actually somewhat challenging but it is quite possible.

As for the commenting, I'll be sure to go through the file and add some green text before it's handed in. Also I'll try to go through the colors file and work on adding types.
I'd also like to know if there is a way to make the drop down menu for choose characters a little more "user-friendly" because as I'm sure you've seen, it's really buggy.

Thanks again for your critique!

[TokenHerbz]

I would keep a backup file before you re-do it just incase you mess it up or run short of time, so you could revert back to it in a heart beat.

I didn't know about the crouch button, and when i increase the delay a bit, i can make all the jumps But i'm going to play the rest of the levels shortly here too!...

I don't think i ran into any bugs yet, what are some that occur (i dont feel like testing for them)

[TerranceN]

Change your delay to Time.DelaySinceLast(delayAmount : int), this will prevent your program from running too fast (but will not prevent running too slow, which doesn't seem to be a problem anyways). Because of the delay issue, when I first tried playing it a single tap of an arrow key would move me from too far left of a platform to too far right of a platform. Very frustrating. Also, on the level with a bunch of moving platforms at the beginning, there is a U-shaped area that you cannot jump out of and the platform is too thick to fall through (you just flash for a split second).

Other than that it's really good.

[Snario]

TerranceN @ Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:30 pm wrote:

Change your delay to Time.DelaySinceLast(delayAmount : int), this will prevent your program from running too fast (but will not prevent running too slow, which doesn't seem to be a problem anyways). Because of the delay issue, when I first tried playing it a single tap of an arrow key would move me from too far left of a platform to too far right of a platform. Very frustrating. Also, on the level with a bunch of moving platforms at the beginning, there is a U-shaped area that you cannot jump out of and the platform is too thick to fall through (you just flash for a split second).

Other than that it's really good.

Yeah that level isn't really a level but something that's there just for the sake of it, if you notice, it spells, "YOU WIN". I'm probably going to change it up so it works morel like a regular level. As of right now, to get out of the 'U' area, just press 'r' which resets the level. I've changed the delay to Time.DelaySinceLast and it works nicely, thanks!

TokenHerbz @ Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:13 pm wrote:

I would keep a backup file before you re-do it just incase you mess it up or run short of time, so you could revert back to it in a heart beat.

I didn't know about the crouch button, and when i increase the delay a bit, i can make all the jumps But i'm going to play the rest of the levels shortly here too!...

I don't think i ran into any bugs yet, what are some that occur (i dont feel like testing for them)

The bug I was referring to was the dropdown menu one where if you hold down the button while hovering over the 'CHOOSE CHARACTER' text, the game freaks out and sometimes the menu won't work properly. I know why it's happening but I'm not sure if there is a module or trick in Turing that I can use to make it more responsive (click on, click off).

Oh yeah, and if neither of you noticed, if you press 'ESC' while in-game, you open the menu and can change the colors of your character and resume. If you change the character, you can't resume but you have to start a new game.

[Snario]

UPDATED.

[ProgrammingFun]

This is one of the best Turing games/apps which I have tried in a long time. I haven't paid particular attention to the code but here are my general thoughts:
- The main menu looks a lot like Windows Phone 7 / ZUNE (just a random comment )
- I love the ability to change player types and colours
- It would be better if the game scrolls up as the player moves up instead of just switching to the higher scene...this helps the player to anticipate and plan for the approach.