Ocean's Heart

[Max]

Thanks llamazing! I took care of all of the typos and mistakes, so now I'll just have to figure that pause menu thing out.

I did some testing. One- you can force the hero to throw the object if you swing your sword, which fixes the problem too and your action button is re-enabled. Two, I think I've traced the problem to game:set_paused(false)

I think the issue is here because if I take the "continue, save, pause" dialog out of the pause menu so it's just D to pause and D to unpause and it shows the quest log, there's no problems, you can still throw the object. Also, I can force the player into a dialog with choices while carrying an object, and there's no problem, you can throw it afterwards without issue. So if the problem isn't with the dialog box, and the problem isn't with displaying the images on my menu, literally the only other thing my script does is call game:set_paused(false)

Is there any chance that the game:set_paused() method automatically returns the hero to a like "idle" state instead of whatever state they were in when they paused (ie, the "carrying" state)? Has anyone else seen this problem using game:set_paused(false)? This is basically the way Christopho's tutorials explain to make a save option on the pause screen.


Here's my pause menu script:

Code (lua) Select Expand


function game:on_paused()

  require("scripts/menus/pause_infra")
  pause_infra:update_game(game)
  sol.menu.start(game, pause_infra)

  --save dialog
  game:start_dialog("_game.pause", function(answer)

    if answer == 1 then
      game:set_paused(false)
    elseif answer == 2 then
      game:save()
      sol.audio.play_sound("elixer_upgrade")
      game:set_paused(false)
    elseif answer == 3 then
      sol.main.exit()
    end

  end)

end





Oh, and one last thing! Thanks for playing! Are you having fun with the game?

[llamazing]

Yes, I have been enjoying it. The graphics are gorgeous, there's a decent balance between dialog and exploration, and there's a certain charm to the overall plot.

[Diarandor]

Apart from the map mentioned before, I would add some "hint-NPC" who tells you where to go next (I hope that is planned for later versions). I was lost during most part of my gameplay, without knowing where to go, and having boats that take you to some unknown location in the world (because there is no map yet). Then I got a bit frustrated/overwhelmed of being lost in that huge world and so I rage-quitted my computer and kicked all my cats (just joking!). I think I didn't find dungeon 1, which made me sad, because I wanted to test dungeons with puzzles and nice battles. I like small (but very dense) overworlds, but this is just my personal preference. The game looks incredibly promising and it has the best graphics on a project made by someone of this community. But gameplay quality (I mean, innovative battles and original puzzles) should not be forgotten. This should be no problem since the project is still at a very early stage of development.

EDIT: Do not worry about my cats. They are really fine. Seriusly.

[Max]

Haha, I'm glad your cats are fine. People being lost has been my biggest worry, I think it's much harder than I thought to build a well-designed overworld that is easy to understand but still fun to explore. It's especially difficult since, as the designer, you can't help but know where things are. I try to forget but I have the maps in my brain : /

I'm starting work on making it so pressing M opens a map of the island you're currently on. It's going well, I've just got to actually make the maps, which which llamazing's amazing mapping script will help with a ton!

I'm also thinking about putting telephones around the world where you can call your sister, who will provide hints. It'll take a bit longer to implement that one though, and I'm not 100% sure what more that would do than the quest log. Perhaps since she'd be able to go into more detail than the quest log can, it might be more of a "cheating" thing, where she'd tell you exactly where to go. I'll think about it a bit more.

[Max]

Here's the first map I've gotten done- any feedback on it? I'm going for something that will give you a general direction without telling you exactly how to get there.

[Diarandor]

Here's the first map I've gotten done- any feedback on it? I'm going for something that will give you a general direction without telling you exactly how to get there.

Awesome!! That map is perfect for that purpose. Thanks!

[Max]

Excellent. Here's the other one, still have to do the starting island but I updated the link in the first post to the current build of the game, so if you run that one, a map should pop up when you press M.

[wizard_wizzle (aka ZeldaHistorian)]

Finally got the chance to sit down and play this, and it's a really great start! I especially love the original graphic style, the music, and the humorous dialog. A couple of things I noticed - nitpicks really, since the game is so good!

• I can swim through the boat that's at the dock south of the tavern (over it - some other boats you can swim under but I feel like there should be a blocker somewhere).
• The player walks over the tall yellow plants instead of under them. You can probably fix this by setting draw_in_y_order
• I like that the player character actually speaks in this (very un-Zelda-like), but it should be more clear who's talking - either have some sort of face pic or maybe alternate the positioning of the dialog box when different characters speak.
• It might have just been in the initial (testing?) area, but I got the treasure message repeatedly even if I had already gotten that kind of treasure. No one wants to be like Skyward Sword :p
• The music died and sound effects kicked in right as I left the whisky cave (best place in the game!) but I didn't know what was going on until I got back to the village. I'd use a sensor to change the music/sounds later, and maybe even fade out/in.
• Quest Log: "Investigat[e] the Sodden Cormorant Tavern" is missing the "e"
• Having some sort of "action" HUD would be very helpful. Took me a bit to even realize you have to hit the action key to open doors!

[Max]

Super helpful critique,thanks! Also curious, how far did you get, and were you bored any of the time?

I'm aware of a couple of these and working on fixes long-term. I'm planning on using a dialog system where I turn the font blue when Tilia is speaking, I've had some help on that and just haven't gotten around to implimentation.

For the actionkey, I'm trying to just train the player to investigate everything using dialog feedback as reward. I've tried to provide descriptions of all the books and notes laying around.


The tall yellow plants (forsythia) are something I don't know how to fix. If the whole sprite is drawn above the hero in y-order, wouldn't her head go under the plant when you walk south of it? I had figured that destructables would be like enemies, would have their 16x16 hitbox drawn below the hero, and above that would display above the hero if they're to the South of her, or below the hero if the plant is to the north of her. But they don't seem to work like enemy sprites in this regard...

[Diarandor]

If you gave more info (and even a screenshot), someone could give you a solution for the yellow plants issue.

[Christopho]

Hey Max, I want to play your game in a live-streaming soon. Can I use the current version linked in the first post?

[Max]

Thanks Christopho! I've gone ahead and uploaded a slightly newer version to the first post, I fixed just a couple bugs, there's still a few I'm aware of that I haven't had time to fix yet (the yellow plants thing, you can jump through a few of the ships still, etc.). But as far as I'm aware, you can progress through the main story all the way up to the city of Oakhaven (you can get it, but it's unfinished), and any sidequests you can find should all work.

Here's a link to the newer version here also:
Ocean's Heart 0.1.3

Have fun!




Diarandor, regarding the flowers, I attached a screenshot to this post-
the problem is that the plants I'm using have a 16x16 hitbox, but are approximately 16x24 sprites. When this is the case with say, a 16x32 NPC, what happens is the player can walk "in front of" and "behind" them. When you're "in front of" an npc, that is, your Y coordinate is higher, then the player is drawn above the npc. When you're "behind" the npc, or your Y coordinate is lower, the player is drawn behind the NPC.
My problem is that this isn't the case with destructibles, such as a bush. The player is drawn above the bush no matter their Y coordinate, making it impossible to walk "behind" a bush. If you've only got 16x16 destructibles, this is't a problem, but I have a couple that are 16x24, and I was anticipating they've behave like NPC sprites.

[Diarandor]

Ok. The only solution I find is to replace plants with custom entities, or ask Chris to allow drawing destructibles (and other entities) in Y-order.

[Max]

And of course, you have the work arounds of placing all plants taller than 16x16 just south of a tree or wall, or avoiding the issue altogether by not creating destructables larger than 16x16, which seems right now like a better solution than all the coding of replacing bushes with custom entities.

Just curious, is there a reason destructables are like this, or did we just not think we might want some larger than 16x16 because Link to the Past only had 16x16, so it just wasn't considered?

[Christopho]

Here is episode 1 of my let's play!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfx6ei9CyxQ

The game really has professional quality, which is amazing. I am so proud that Solarus can be used to make such great projects Keep up the great work!

About destructibles size and drawing mode, there are like this for historical reasons. For 1.6 I will add set_drawn_in_y_order() to them. Later they will be able to have different sizes than 16x16. It is already possible to simulate larger destructibles using custom entities, we do that in other projects already.