Platform Masters development (Sep 12, 2009) - overworld simulation

Since about September 5, 2009, I resumed working on Platform Masters. A lot of progress has been made since the update. The overworld is almost complete, but complete enough for another simulation screenshot. This video explains the basics of the overworld, along with changes to the game's design. From 15 worlds to 18 worlds and from 21 levels per world to 15 (16 sort of). A few of the hazards are done as well - the TNT barrel is my favorite one (I haven't made the explosion effect yet). I've come up with icon for 1 of the onscreen info elements for sure as well. The heart for HP and coin for score are questionable and not confirmed yet. The coin comes from thinking of those arcade games, particularly pinball - you get a free game with enough points (which doesn't apply to this game).

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Platform
• Masters
• game
• development
• overworld
• over
• world
• creation
• simulation
• screenshot
• progress

[johnabutts]

Yo Uli! The Microsoft XNA Game Studio framework allows you to publish games to the 360 cheaply, and I mean CHEAP. Ever wonder what the advantages of a C-like language with managed memory allocation so you don't have to worry about malloc() are?

[superfatdoe]

haha what reason is that, i agree with you btw people here are dumb

[MarioMastar]

@ulillillia Ah yeah. I just meant in reference to the fact that your game saves high scores for each stage. I know score goes up forever though, but that's just the over all score.

[ulillillia]

Since score can accumulate indefinitely, you're otherwise going to need several exabytes of data to store all that video information, even with a rather terrible 256 Kbps bit rate. Score maxes out at 9 2/9 quintillion, of which takes over 700 years to do at the fastest scoring I'm aware of. HP takes even longer to max out.  Lives is the easiest to max out.

[MarioMastar]

@ulillillia You could do what I plan to do and have someone host video proof of their time, then test to see if that time by their method is actually plausable. It's probably the most accurate way to keep track of authentic high scores becuase I know all too well that people hack their scores, which makes online games terrible to even bother with that feature. Most advanced sites require video proof of a time or they won't accept it, even if it's a fraction of a second faster.

[ulillillia]

I don't know what an MD5 hash is other than it being used to validate a file's integrity. I have no idea how to generate one either.

[g0twav]

@ulillillia

Generate a MD5 hash of the screenshot and imbed it in the image, stenography.

[ulillillia]

This really wouldn't work. What if someone fakes the screenshot (this shouldn't be too difficult) or, for more advanced users, hack their save file. Likewise the same can be done on every element, including best times. With 300 levels, a list of the best (first place only) would be rather lengthy. For the most part, much above about 400 HP really isn't necessary. As a side note, score maxes at an incomprehensibly high 9,223,372,036,854,775,807, but takes ~2250 years at best to do it....

[ManfredMitchum]

Haha, you could have a day-by-day high score list of who has the highest HP, as you can just keep going up!

[ulillillia]

In my other videos of PM, I've stated that it is possible to increase maximum HP. How this is done is currently classified. I can say, however, that there is no limit as to how high HP can go, at least, you won't be able to reach it within your life time (can you live for thousands of years?). HP starts at 20 but officially maxes at 999,999,999. Lives maxes at 999,999,999 as well (that'll take thousands of years too). The same goes for the score. Speed is sooner, but getting the height....

[ManfredMitchum]

Will you be able to level up certain things like HP and other skills in this game? I think that would be a fun aspect that would add tons of replay value.

[AstonishingAce]

It's really fascinating to listen to your opinions on other games, as with your Bubsy and Sonic videos.

I really look forward to playing your game and seeing how the game reflects your earlier videos. I have high hopes!