39 replies to this topic

[King_Bowser]

Introduction:

Purple is a platform game, similar to Super Mario World.
Explore varied levels filled with secrets and bonuses, while
smashing blocks and enemies with your frisbee.

After two years of development, it's finally done!
There are over 25 different levels (in 6 worlds) and over 10 special weapons.

<Download Purple (12.7 MB)> <Mirror 1> <Mirror 2 (YoYoGames)>



<Visit the game's site for more screenshots!>


System Requirements:

• Windows 2000/XP/Vista
• At least 1 GB RAM
• At least 128 MB video memory
• A video card that supports Game Maker surfaces
• (there may be graphic bugs with some newer nVidia cards)

Special thanks:

I want to thank:

• Martin Rijks - for the JBFmod library, which was used
  for playing MOD music in-game.
• Denis Zhekov (Snooby) and Filip Slavov (DeadMeat) for betatesting, ideas and critique.
  Without them, the game wouldn't be the same!

Known issues:

If you get "Unexpected error when running the game." or a black screen when starting Purple -
it's most likely a video card incompatibility. I'm sorry.
Also, the game will probably not run under Wine and other Windows emulators.

If you're experiencing slowdown, try closing some heavier things like internet browsers, chat windows
and BitTorrent clients.
Pressing F7 shows the FPS counter, if it often falls under 65/70, the game is running slowly.

Sometimes (but rarely) the game will crash when you go to a map screen from the main menu.

If the game window starts minimized, the music may not load properly.

(!!!) The water level effect doesn't appear properly on some computers.
If there are graphic problems with a water level (2-2 for example), press F9 to disable the effect.
I hope that fixes the problem...

If you find any bugs/issues, please tell me!
I hope you enjoy it

Edited by King_Bowser, 14 August 2009 - 09:59 AM.

[death-droid]

Awesome this has finally being released!
Can't wait to try this out my internet is running at dial up speeds so its going to take awhile to download.

[runbeanyrun]

Hey, I was wondering if you want to put this game on my blog. The game looks cool, and I thought I could do a little reveiw for it. My blogs at www.runbeanyrun.blogspot.com if yor interested.

[stevobread]

Awesome! I was really anxious for the finished version of this game.
The only problem is that when I was in the second level of the second world, after going through the first two doors, the game was zoomed in so I could see only the top-left corner of it.

[IceMetalPunk]

It doesn't even run for me. I double-click and Vista asks me if I want to allow it or not. I click Allow, then nothing. It doesn't even show up in the Task Manager Process list...

Any reason it's a self-extracting ZIP? Why not just post a regular ZIP?

-IMP

Edited by IceMetalPunk, 06 August 2009 - 07:02 AM.

[King_Bowser]

I'm sorry about all the issues. I relied too much on GM surfaces, which don't always work.

Awesome! I was really anxious for the finished version of this game.
The only problem is that when I was in the second level of the second world, after going through the first two doors, the game was zoomed in so I could see only the top-left corner of it.

I uploaded a new version in which you can disable the effect by pressing F9.
I'm not sure why that happens, maybe something with your video card?

It doesn't even run for me. I double-click and Vista asks me if I want to allow it or not. I click Allow, then nothing. It doesn't even show up in the Task Manager Process list...

That's weird, no idea why is happens. I tested it on Vista, so it shouldn't be because of that :?

Any reason it's a self-extracting ZIP? Why not just post a regular ZIP?

Many tried to play the demo version without unzipping it, which doesn't work, so I figured it would be easier that way.
Is it a problem?

Edited by King_Bowser, 06 August 2009 - 07:27 AM.

[death-droid]

IceMetalPunk for me it just created the folder nothing opened up/no GUI.
Anyway awesome game King_Bowser tho i think the main menu needs more life in it like the background could be moving.

Edited by death-droid, 06 August 2009 - 07:38 AM.

[King_Bowser]

EDIT: I reuploaded it as a normal ZIP

Edited by King_Bowser, 06 August 2009 - 11:56 AM.

[aznmonk]

do you think you could add a version without the music? i have really slow internet and my speakers are crap...please?

[thetagames]

It's good to see this game finally finished - I remember playing a very early demo awhile ago.

I'll post a full review once I finish it, but so far, it looks great. I always liked the sinusoidal death effect, although now it appears a little buggy (once it appears, some of the objects in the game seem to lose their transparency, and become squares).

[slayer 64]

this is a really cool game, i like the hammer. i think you should give the player more health, 3 hits isn't enough for me. is there a save? i got a game over and realized i had to play from the beginning again. great graphics and sound. good job.

[King_Bowser]

@aznmonk
The music is under a MB.

@thetagames
That's because of Game Maker's surfaces. It doesn't glitch on my video card :?

@slayer 64
The game is saved after you beat each world.
Maybe I should make a "Continue" option?

EDIT: Added infinite continues.

Edited by King_Bowser, 07 August 2009 - 08:15 AM.

[thetagames]

@thetagames
That's because of Game Maker's surfaces. It doesn't glitch on my video card :?

Okay, I'm assuming this is due to my laptop's video card. It didn't happen on my desktop computer.

[Rainsong]

The game is good, but there is one MAJOR annoyance.

Namely the 'have to complete an entire world to save' thing. WHY?! This is tedious and irritating, doesn't add a drop of real difficulty, and has no real reason to be. Make it save when an individual stage is completed instead of forcing us to 'go through the motions' again. I could see this being relevant with finite continues (or none), but since we can try all we want at a level, no matter how often we die, there's no point.

Also a question, and one of the reasons for my complaint. World 2-5. I need the yellow switch pressed to get ANYWHERE in this building, and I need the red screwdriver (at least it looks that way) to get something to press it with. Said screwdriver... well... where is it? If it's somewhere on the 4th floor, how do I get there? No matter what I do, the door to the 3rd stays shut (and it seems like the only way up unless... well... yellow switch. ;p ) Feels like there's something obvious, but what the heck am I missing?

[King_Bowser]

Hint: stand on the green switch to open the path for the frisbee.

I realize the problem with the save system, but it's too late for it to be fixed. I just shouldn't have started the game this way.
So the infinite continues are the only "fix" I can do for now that doesn't require major rewriting of the game.

Now I just want to move on and start working on something new, now that I know Purple's flaws.

Edited by King_Bowser, 09 August 2009 - 07:29 AM.

[farik]

great game. really good balance between puzzles and platforming. not saving after every level is really annoying though. aside from that, its fantastic.

[Rainsong]

Havn't completed the game yet (and at this point it'd take me a lot of patience to do so), but well in enough to give it a review.

Graphics: 8/10.
Well done for the type of game. Nothing too flashy or detailed, but everything fits the style perfectly. You were able to hide the homebrew aspect quite well -- it looks commercial-quality while keeping its own style. Also, major props for using the particle effects in a way that doesn't SCREAM 'game maker project'.

Sounds: 9/10
The 8-bit and chiptune stuff all fits exactly where it's supposed to. The music's bloody catchy, too. Not much to say about this except awesome.

Gameplay: 6/10
This is a little two-faced. The game itself is awesome. Tight movement, no unfair collisions, epic level design... and a couple flaws that make it a little hackle-raising despite. It actually feels like a kirby game in many ways, what with the frisbees, etc. and the puzzles. The difficulty curve goes steadily from gentle tutorial to nintendo-hard, which fits. Still, that save thing is a bit infuriating, especially when the biggest potential for trouble is at the end of a world, and there's other bugs that make one either laugh or raise an eyebrow in confusion. The things like score seem pointless and odd, but don't really detract.

Overall: 7/10
I can see why it was featured by the staff. This is the closest thing to a commercial-quality platformer I've seen in a long time. Could EASILY be better with a couple fixes, though.

----

Anyway, are you sure we can't talk you into 'plugging the leaks' before moving on to the next project? I say that, having had the game freeze on me early on in 6-7. Obviously I havn't seen your code, but I'd imagine the save thing would be a relatively easy fix. It's not like you'd have to completely re-do half the game from scratch.

Also, a couple other bugs I've seen that are comical at best, mildly annoying at worst.
1. The underwater bubbles. After the 3rd boss's special attack, for the remainder of that battle, Purple is still breathing them. Amusing, but probably not supposed to be there. ;p
2. Something in the movement engine, maybe? Whenever Purple or any enemy gets stuck, it gets shunted to the right until not colliding with anything else. Got me out of a couple jams, but also landed him on the outside of a boss room, looking in. Lucky that 'restart level' button is there, or we could...
3. Literally leave the room itself and fall to our deaths! There's a couple places I've seen this happen, but the one that comes to mind is the first part of 4-2. You can scale the black blocks and leave the room to the right. Doesn't seem like it should be intentional in this case... I was thinking 'Mario-style secret passage like with the warp zones?' at first.
4. If you try to 'restart' a secret level (well... at least 'night'), you wind up in world 7. Going back to world 6, I STILL would have to clear those levels again... and furthermore don't see any way to get back there. ;p The '7' platform does not exist. I can get into the boss level of world 7 now... and I'm really not sure I'm supposed to. ;p

Edited by Rainsong, 10 August 2009 - 01:58 AM.

[King_Bowser]

The save system will be quite a hard fix, trust me :<
I may try looking into it though.

And wow, I wasn't aware of most of these bugs
They'll be fixed in the next version, except maybe the thing with the movement engine, which I know about, but couldn't fix.
It happens rarely, so I can't even test it
I doubt I can trace that game-freezing problem in 6-7 too, but due to the game being quite heavy - it may not have anything to do with my code.

Thanks for the review! Now that I finished Purple (in one way or another at least), I think I can do much better design, programming and make better gameplay decisions. I really think of it as a "training project", as it was the first game of its kind that I made.
Now I feel kinda uneasy with all the publicity and the people expecting much more of the game.
But I've learned my lessons at least, I guess

Edited by King_Bowser, 10 August 2009 - 06:55 AM.

[Wolf017]

This game is not getting enough attention, really. The graphics are pleasing, and the music is amazing.

The only issue I'm having is with some of the puzzles, I was stuck at the one in the second castle for (well, the timer ran out. Three times.)
Now I've gotten past that, and now I'm stuck at a puzzle in world 4. Its in a building in a block level. I can't figure it out for the life of me.

Ever consider posting a walk through or somthing..?

[Rainsong]

Ehh, think of the high expectations as a good thing. The popularity and attention are a sign of skill (maybe not JUST in game making, but still) -- we don't often see clunky, bug-riddled stick figure projects getting many (if any) comments, after all. ^_~

Also, you might wanna include a short page of hints, maybe in the help screen? ESPECIALLY the frisbee puzzle in 2-5 and the block/electricity puzzle in 4-2. And... maybe 4-3 as a whole, but the entire purpose of that level is to be a confusing annoyance. ;p I see I'm not the only one who got confused by those first 2.

Decided to give 6-7 another crack... and SWEET ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE ON TV! Looks like I wasn't kidding about the nintendo-hard part. I've gotten as far as the 3rd... floor? area? What do those numbers even symbolize? Is there even a checkpoint in that deathtrap? And for that matter, is there any way past that blasted lightning thing with the 4 green blocks that DOESN'T require ridiculously good timing?

Edited by Rainsong, 12 August 2009 - 04:58 AM.