A saurus1

I don't know if anyone's ever heard of this before but I thought it would be interesting to share. People who read lots of comics may notice a pattern in the different styles with which artists draw different portions of their work. Specifically, the difference between the style of their main characters and the style of their background characters and even the scenery itself. Apparently comic artists have long found that by making their main characters rougher and less stylistic they could focus the reader's attention on the character. Readers found it easier to empathize with and project themselves onto the main character if that character was less defined. Blogger and artists Duy Tanno talks about this a bit on his blog, although the original idea was first laid out in words by Scott McCloud. Tanno gives the example of a Tarzan comic, reproduced below:


Young Tarzan is drawn in a relatively plain and unadulterated style, while less important elements (such as the elephant) are more stylized, causing them to become less personal to readers. You can read the whole post here: The Comics Cube!

Anyway, this whole thing boils down to the fact that I've noticed that this same effect, dubbed the "Masking Effect" appears in games as well. For example, in the classic Super Mario game, the main character is relatively plain in terms of style, while the backgrounds and environment tend to be more rounded out in their design. In FPS games, the main character is, for the most part a pair of arms and a gun, creating a very generalized persona onto which the player can project his or her own experiences and feelings.

I'm wondering what you all think about the possible role this effect might play in good game design.

Are any of you experiencing a lot more unexpected errors when you try to test your games in gm8.1 than you did in gm8? I'm getting really fed up with the unexpected errors that keep popping up nearly half time I try to run the game. Sometimes they'll happen in normal mode, but not in debug mode, or vice versa. There are two reasons why I am asking this question here. One is that the bug tracker has not sent me a validation e-mail for the past month, and I have gotten no reply to the email I sent concerning that. The other reason is I want to determine if it is just me that is having this problem (could be caused by old video cards or whatnot), or if this is a more general problem.

So what is your experience?

Okay, so I'm trying to get a view that follows the player something like the view does in this game:
http://gamejolt.com/online/games/other/blastoff-bunnies/4228/
so I've tried multiple different ways to make the view do this, including spring physics and other math-based methods, but to no avail.

Here's the code I've tried (commented code is old code)

/*view_yview[0]+=obj_player.vspeed*(.8+(obj_player.vspeed<0)*-obj_player.vspeed/50);*/
if (instance_exists(obj_player))
{
    if !((obj_player.vspeed > 0) && (obj_player.y > view_yview[0]+view_hview[0]*.56))
    {view_yview[0]+=obj_player.vspeed*median(0,0.4*sqr((obj_player.y-(view_yview[0]+view_hview[0]/2-20))/(view_hview[0]/2-100))+0.6,1);}
    else {view_yview[0]+=obj_player.vspeed*.5;}
    
    if (obj_player.y<view_yview[0]+100) {view_yview[0]+=obj_player.y-obj_player.yprevious;}
}
else 
{
    if (view_yview[0]!=ground_y-404) {view_yview[0]+=((ground_y-404)-view_yview[0])/4;}
}

/*if obj_player.vspeed>0 
then view_yview[0]+=obj_player.vspeed*.5;
else view_yview[0]+=obj_player.vspeed*min(1,(max(.3,-obj_player.vspeed/10+(1-(obj_player.y-view_yview[0])/80))));*/

The problem with the current code is that if the player moves too slowly, the view accelerates ahead of the player. The older code had other problems. If anyone could offer some suggetions on how to improve this, that would be great.

Okay, so the problem is that I have a pretty decent (basic) platform movement engine I've written for my game. It has jumping, walking, and support for ramps with a slope of 1/2. Everything works fine but occasionally when I land on a ramp after jumping, my character gets stuck and won't go up the ramp, although jumping again or moving down the ramp works fine. Here's the code. As you might be able to see , I've already done some things to try and fix the problem but nothing works and I'm trying to stay away from adding more collision checks unless I have to.

//this script handles motion on land, with gravity.
//args: speed, jump
xmove = 0;
//handle keypresses
if (keyboard_check(vk_right)) {xmove += argument0;}
if (keyboard_check(vk_left)) {xmove -= argument0;}
if (keyboard_check(vk_up)) 
{
    if (place_meeting(x,y+1,obj_block))
    {
        vspeed=-argument1;
        gravity=.1;
        displayAngle=0;
    }
}
else if keyboard_check_released(vk_up) && (vspeed < 0) {vspeed=max(vspeed,-1);}
if keyboard_check_pressed(vk_down) {if place_meeting(x,y,obj_block) {y+=1;}} //move outside block if stuck
//handle vertical collision
if (vspeed != 0)
{
    if place_meeting(x,y+vspeed,obj_block) //jumping
    {   
        x=round(xprevious/2)*2; //try and remedy the landing on the ramp problem
        xprevious=x; //set this because we don't want to change our facing direction

        if (vspeed>0) {y=floor(yprevious);} 
        else {y=ceil(yprevious);} //move outside block if we're hitting the top
        with (obj_block) {solid=true;}
        move_contact_solid(180+90*sign(vspeed),12);
        with (obj_block) {solid=false;}
        if (vspeed > 0) {gravity=0;} //if we were falling, set gravity to 0
        vspeed=0;
        //handle image angle
        if (argument2)
        {
            var blockBeneath;
            blockBeneath=instance_place(x,y+1,obj_rampParent);
            if (blockBeneath > 0)
            {
                switch (blockBeneath.object_index)
                {
                    case obj_Lramp: displayAngle=30; break;
                    case obj_Rramp: displayAngle=330; break;
                }
            }
        }
    }
    else {gravity=.1;}
}
else if (!place_meeting(x,y+1,obj_block)) {gravity=.1;}

//handle horizontal collision/motion
if xmove!=0
{ 
    if (!place_meeting(x + xmove, y, obj_block)) //check for block in my way
    {
         displayAngle=0;
         x += xmove;
         if (!place_meeting(x,y+abs(xmove)/2,obj_block)) 
         {
             if (place_meeting(x,y+abs(xmove),obj_block))
             {
                y += abs(xmove)/2; //move down ramp
                if (argument2) {displayAngle=(360-30*sign(xmove)) mod 360;}
             }
         }
    }
    else if (!place_meeting(x + xmove, y - abs(xmove)/2, obj_block)) //check for free space upwards
    {
         x += xmove;
         y -= abs(xmove)/2; //move up ramp
         if (argument2) {displayAngle=(360+30*sign(xmove)) mod 360;}
    }
    else
    {
        x=xprevious;
         with (obj_block) {solid = true;}
         if (sign(xmove) == 1)
         {
           move_contact_solid(0, abs(xmove));
         }
         else if (sign(xmove) == -1)
         {
           move_contact_solid(180, abs(xmove));
         }
         with (obj_block) {solid = false;}
    }
}

The ramps have a slope of 2 to 1, and the player moves at a speed of 2. The problem only occurs sometimes, and I suspect it's because the player is somehow coming down "inbetween" the small 'flats' that make up the ramp.

Another problem I'm also having is that the player gets stuck in vertical walls sometimes when he lands too close to them after jumping. I suspect it's related to the 'fixes' I put in my jumping code to try and fix the first problem.

Any help would be appreciated.

Neuculi is a fast-paced arcade shooter where you must try and survive increasingly difficult waves of enemies and bosses. Kill enemies to collect upgrade points which offer you ways to boost your firepower or health. 3d graphics, online highscores, and awesome gameplay make this a shooter you don’t want to miss.

• Game Name: Neuculi
• Category: Shooter
• File Size: 7.5 MB
• GM Version: GM8
• Vista Compatible: Yes
• Screen Resolution: 480 x 272
• Changes Screen Resolution: no
• Mulitplayer: no
• Download Link: YoYoGames | GameJolt
• Screenshots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DePTIJolxmo