TDG Development Diary

headkaze · **Reply #150 on:** September 23, 2009, 06:09:53 am

It is much easier to know where you are with the stylised rooms. I may create a map of some kind although I know the mansion like the back of my hand now.

Okay time for an update... I've added a whole bunch of background effects and started on the inventory system (should get a majority of that finished off today) which allows you to pick up and drop objects from location to location. I spent a tonne of time in the original game examining every item (yawn) so now most items can now be examined although there are a few items I have no idea where they are found or what their discription is so if you find the following please let me know where they are: Broken Glass (*not* Broken Plates), Shredded Paper, Plans, A Piece of Card. I expect some of them would be from using an item with another item.

There is still heaps of ingame stuff to do as well like showing every item to every character (well the obvious ones but I'll know when I have them all from comparing what we have with the text ripped from the game ie. "Ripped_From_Game.txt") and asking about every other character. Once this rather enormous task is done then we can finally move to the event system (which will, in itself, be quite a mission to reverse engineer). Phew!

Lobo · **Reply #151 on:** September 23, 2009, 06:41:31 am

Quote from: headkaze on September 23, 2009, 06:09:53 am

It is much easier to know where you are with the stylised rooms.

Exactly what I was thinking of, just like the map you've sent to me. In map mode you can use stylus or even D-Pad to navigate the map and eventually L/R for Zoom IN/OUT. That way if something happens in say, major's room and you're in the cellar, it's easy to plot your way to that location. Also, just a red dot or something may show your current position.

Now, you mention these items and I've never seen them in game, maybe they were never used (leftovers) or some alternative items (like that 'case of professor' that we spoke of)?

spacefractal · **Reply #152 on:** September 23, 2009, 02:43:46 pm

I gonna think, do you have possible to get some feedback from a played xm (like when a instrument and contain instrument number)?

I got the idea to put in hidden instrument to trigger a ligtning, to make sure some thunder have been activated before a thunder being played after some secs. For best effect, the weather mod should been started in random position.

sverx · **Reply #153 on:** September 23, 2009, 03:05:33 pm

Quote from: spacefractal on September 23, 2009, 02:43:46 pm

I gonna think, do you have possible to get some feedback from a played xm

In MaxMod there's EFx effect 'override', see this: http://www.maxmod.org/ref/functions/mmSetEventHandler.html

spacefractal · **Reply #154 on:** September 23, 2009, 08:09:37 pm

EFx woud been neat to use, I think I add some random patterns to been started, and I make sure there is lightning effect on EF0. But of course sound and ligthning would not been sync like in the real world.

headkaze · **Reply #155 on:** September 23, 2009, 08:19:06 pm

I could just use a sample for the thunder and have it trigger with the lightning but I'm quite happy with the way it is now anyway. I do have the event handler running though. Also the lightning/thunder is actually running all the time with the volume down, so if you enter and exit a room it will never start from the beginning but rather turn up the volume and continue playing.

I've been working quite a bit lately on the inventory system. Still have to implement all the: use item with item, show items to characters, and taking and placing items inside other items. I'm getting there in small increments, and it does take alot of time playing the original. I think going through all the items and showing the characters will be quite a mission. Especially since Dingle is murdered so quickly in the game.

I ended up finding out what those last few items were. The only one left unknown is "Broken Glass" and for the life of me can't figure out how to get it. Tried hitting everything remotely made of glass with the hammer. Oh well I will just have to leave it out.

I've been reading around the web how difficult people find the game including the fact that 4 of the pieces of evidence are not marked with an "E". So I was thinking to make it a bit easier and mark them? Not sure what you guys think about that?

spacefractal · **Reply #156 on:** September 23, 2009, 08:43:20 pm

I have not added any events for the whether mod, just readed about it. I just diddent like I could hear 4-5 thunder without see a ligtning. If you add the first one when you got out side witheen 5 seconds that would propenty been fine too.

Other with that, it works awesome with both xm played same time :-D

Lobo · **Reply #157 on:** September 23, 2009, 11:19:40 pm

Broken glass, well you do break that jar thing but it might not be that. As for the evidence thing, dunno really. The fact that you can put any item in the evidence envelope means that authors probably wanted you to guess if some items are connected with the murder. Also, if you know the password for the safe, you can skip several items which can be used as evidence methinks, so probably just keep the main ones marked with 'E' and the rest for the brainstorming?

headkaze · **Reply #158 on:** September 25, 2009, 02:05:20 am

Okay time for an update. A big chunk of the inventory and item management system is done. You can pick up objects, examine them, put items in other items etc. Some items you can use with other items. Main things to check out in this update are using the keyboard in the library, you can turn green by taking the pills, ask characters questions (although correct answers haven't been put in yet) and just added a few of the new animations (more to come like rats and drips in the utility room). Anyway will be sending a demo out soon.

Lobo · **Reply #159 on:** September 25, 2009, 04:09:40 am

Sweeet, can't wait to try that one out, especially ask a few questions around, hehehe.

Lobo · **Reply #160 on:** September 25, 2009, 10:27:28 pm

Man, great progress. It's pretty damn smooth and collisions are almost perfect (you can sorta walk over the kitchen sink a bit). Inventory system works great, I've picked up a bunch of stuff and tried to mix them and drop, all good. I'm pretty certain you know all these details but just to mention some that needs tweaking.

Items that you pick are not destroyed yet, right? Also, you can get the FB without opening cabinet in utility room and such. In the same room, the light above the door is obfuscated by the actual door, as the layer is probably behind. The icon (arrow) goes below the actual frame, pretty sure you know this one too. What's left is to make sure the text also fits the characters as Gabriel and Cook are referred to as 'He'.

All in all, it's really smooth and already fairly complex, gonna be a great one. Need to play more tonight as I've only visited half of the mansion.

spacefractal · **Reply #161 on:** September 25, 2009, 10:55:41 pm

Tried this little bit, but do a more in-depth tomorrow. Here is what I think:

1. Should Snide could past trough other people when moving up/down? Should stop at some points?

2. Would been nice to move arrow by touching on the screen as well using joypad. The interface could been invoked by touching on the bottom screen as well bottom (I cant see a problem by use styles even the arrow are shown)?

3. Collision is no problem anymore, that you see in kithen (as Lobo wrote) is very very minor and is none annoying at all.

4. I LOVE that animation clock room (how many do actuelly have a old wall clocks shown in seconds?). Only needing some ticks sound :-D.

5. The onscreen keyboard in the library llok very nice. would been nice to use joypad as well (due the rest actuelly use joypad and buttons). What do that use for? (mightbeen its a part later in the gameplay? So I gonna recheck it again later).

I work more on the weater xm and jingles in weekend or next one. Is seen Flash game is much more complete, and need to do the 3 movie songs finished, but is still not important by now.

Lobo · **Reply #162 on:** September 25, 2009, 11:10:07 pm

Hmm...not so sure about collisions with others, might slow you down unintentionally and create problems with calculating their position vs yours. As for the arrow, yep that one will be quite swell.

Btw, music is from Halloween..I mean, some remix you did there? It's great, I mean bloody scary but you can definitely tell it's 'almost' a theme from HW OST. Not so sure about one thing though, in HW movie, this tempo is used for really heart pumping moments such as Myers chasing someone with a 17" blade and so on. Is it possible maybe to experiment with slightly slower tempo but in the same vein (dramatic)?

spacefractal · **Reply #163 on:** September 25, 2009, 11:17:40 pm

Yes HeadKaze shown me a movie earlier in this (Reply #106) and have I let me inspirated by that, but is not a 100% direct remix at all, but more a 90% inspirated of that tune or some there as well.

Paino do play a bit different and is not 100% replicate, strings is not used, but added some notes as the original TDG theme instead.

I can also try to do a slowdown version? The tune might been bigger, but let see what I can get out when I rework the piano patch which is recorded as a loop for each note...

Lobo · **Reply #164 on:** September 25, 2009, 11:34:07 pm

Yeah, I can hear the other stuff as well but it's definitely HW, I got soundtrack and to anyone ever seeing the movie it's fairly recognizable tune. Nothing bad about it though, just maybe a slower tempo as this one sounds more for the 'OhNo..someone is chasing me..with a pair of toe cutters' kinda action.

EDIT: One more thing about the game. Bentley, when he walks to the right, he might look better by using his 'walk left' animation, just flipped, instead of using the (currently) those last three frames which are more suitable for diagonal walk. I think this might apply well to the rest of the characters?

spacefractal · **Reply #165 on:** September 26, 2009, 12:07:23 am

If I slowdown from 135bpm (which its now) down to around 126bpm, the piano does not work anymore (which sound too bright now), so I need to change the patch (I for now trying in FL-Studio) as migtbeen some others (but let see)....

HeadKaze do liked the ingame as well.

Lobo · **Reply #166 on:** September 26, 2009, 12:13:06 am

Oh, yeah, I definitely love the tune but am so familiar with it that I can only recognize HW stuff and hear a bits of pieces from Detective tune in there. I only thing that tempo might be slower to give you some dread effect and then maybe use this current tempo once the murder happens or something generally important.

spacefractal · **Reply #167 on:** September 26, 2009, 12:16:51 am

its was originally meant the tune first to been played after the death body have been found and Snilde have leave the room and then played one or two times (not whole time I guess).... Also NOT before the murder.

Headkaze have just played the tune as it are for the ingame test as long with the weather mod, I do experiment with a slower version and few changes to the instruments.

Lobo · **Reply #168 on:** September 26, 2009, 12:56:02 am

Something along the line of this tempo, couldn't find more suitable stuff but this might illustrate what I mean by slower, dread tempo that is not too intrusive. Just the first minute of the tune, the rest goes crazy-

-choonz-

spacefractal · **Reply #169 on:** September 26, 2009, 01:18:05 am

I gonna think I have a idea to a another ingame tune which could been played until the murder (which also not a replacemant of the another HW ingame, which might require some piano work)......

godnight, bedtime.

sverx · **Reply #170 on:** September 26, 2009, 10:48:02 am

Doesn't work on my NDSLite/R4 ... gets stuck after title screen. Draws the room, the clock, doesn't draw arrows and characters, question marks don't move in the lower screen

But it seems to work ok on no$gba...

headkaze · **Reply #171 on:** September 26, 2009, 03:08:20 pm

I didn't test the last demo on hardware sorry (gotta do that more often). Just checked and there were a few initialization problems (have to set everything to NULL for hardware). So just got it running okay on hardware but didn't have a problem with the sprites. Hopefully that won't be a problem in the latest release. I have a DSLite and R4 so you should see what I see. I will re-send it to you soon.

Some great ideas and suggestions there. I have already added Lobo's suggestion of flipping the characters when moving right. Looks alot better that way too.

As for the sprites not being able to walk through other sprites, I'm not sure of that as it could be annoying if a character blocks your way somehow. But just incase it does work better that way I have already got the code in place to deal with character collisions so I might just see if it works well or not. Definately a good suggestion though.

I just removed the seconds hand to the clock. And I agree about the onscreen keyboard allowing keypad control. Will just need to create a box sprite that you can move around the keyboard. Also you will definately be able to envoke the menu system by hitting the menu area with the pen.

I also agree that the ingame music is more suited to play when you find evidence or something. I guess we need a slower background type of music for the ingame (that maybe even has a very long pause between replaying).

sverx · **Reply #172 on:** September 26, 2009, 03:46:09 pm

Quote from: headkaze on September 26, 2009, 03:08:20 pm

I didn't test the last demo on hardware sorry (gotta do that more often). Just checked and there were a few initialization problems (have to set everything to NULL for hardware). So just got it running okay on hardware but didn't have a problem with the sprites. Hopefully that won't be a problem in the latest release. I have a DSLite and R4 so you should see what I see.

mmm... it depends. What colour is yours?

Joking

Waiting next beta, then.

Bye!

spacefractal · **Reply #173 on:** September 26, 2009, 03:48:04 pm

Why not just use the arrow for the keyboard as same way for the interface?

Am are doing a slower version which would been song 4 on the same XM which play at much slower speed.... By now no new patches is needed, so it wont extend the xm very much (even I still have comply of memory left). I can trying to do a 8 bit version (converted by Milky Tracker) and see how much diffecent its is. I do keep the HW tune as it are (just piano is played at bit diffecent).

I have sent a very early version to Lobo, but I send to you too, so you have hear what I'm doing and in style.

Lobo · **Reply #174 on:** September 26, 2009, 09:47:23 pm

I like the latest tune better in terms of tempo plus its not exclusively on the 'Halloween side' as it was before (was waiting for Michael Myers to come out the door any minute)

. Most of the game you walk around searching for clues and thinking about what to do next, if you have an audio tour de force ringing in your ears all the time it might really mess up with the pace and make ye nervous...and ye don't wanna be nervous while on the mission.

headkaze · **Reply #175 on:** October 04, 2009, 12:39:47 am

The new slower tune is better suited ingame. I will need to get SF to modify the songs a bit for example the titlescreen tune does not loop back to the start but instead goes onto the next tune. It needs to loop.

Yes it seems like development has slowed down quite a bit but I can assure you I have been working on this. I have gone through and now have the dialog of all characters asking about each other, Angus and every object. I cheated a little bit by using the text I ripped from the game so I only had to find which object and characters responded based on the ripped dialog. The rest are either random or standard replies.

Again frustratingly I can't find what two objects these are in response to:

1. "IT'S NOT ONE OF MINE"
2. "I..ER..DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT"

And I still don't know where "BROKEN GLASS" comes from. But anyway rather than wasting any more time playing the original for hours I'm going to move onto the next part of the game.

Currently I have implemented the main titlescreen and you can now solve Lobo's puzzle and apart from the two answers above the question system is fully working as well as inventory and item management.

Really the only thing left now is the "objective system" where each character has a bunch of objectives to complete and then finally the event system. Getting there!

Oh and I haven't bothered sending out demo's for a while as I don't see the point really. There is not much to test until I get the last two systems in place.

Lobo · **Reply #176 on:** October 04, 2009, 12:52:08 am

Oooh..sounds great! Well, actually that sounds as if all the major aspects (and most boring ones) are already there!

As for these two answers
1. "IT'S NOT ONE OF MINE"
2. "I..ER..DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT"

I think they say this to anything really, I remember asking randomly about items and getting these answers (No.2 more than No.1). The best bet is to simply use that text which tells you for which objects characters respond in certain way. I mean if you ask the Cook about the Gun/Bullets-I would expect any of those two answers, you know.
As for the Broken Glass, beats me..I do know that it's not important to solve the game so maybe just ignore it?

headkaze · **Reply #177 on:** October 04, 2009, 01:42:30 am

I know the "DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT" is a standard reply that Dingle gives about most objects, but it's the "I..ER.." at the start that I'm curious about. It does point towards an object to ask Dingle about but you only get the key to his briefcase after he's murdered, and I believe the study can't be unlocked until after he's murdered either. I won't worry about these for now but it is a little annoying.

Lobo · **Reply #178 on:** October 04, 2009, 03:15:45 am

I know that his room can't be unlocked after the murder, could be study as well.
Dingle usually responds with "Don't know anything.." except he comments on both wills in case you have them before he's murdered.

spacefractal · **Reply #179 on:** October 04, 2009, 07:06:59 am

Yes its have slowdown a bit, but I still in this game :-D. I guess Manic Miner should been finished first which its does soon, and let TDG got released soon then I have a lots of time for music on this game (which contian less music than the other game)....

With the music, you might need to enable loop, elsewise it just play to the next song (and jump first pattern over). I look on it why the title song dosent loop.

[EDIT]
Look like F00 does not supported by the MaxMod Player, which normally should stop the tune, but instead it just ignore it. That hence it began to play next tune, I fix it and add loop command instead.

I have just sendt fixed tunes (I hope) per email in 16 and 8 bit versions. 2 tunes did not loop propenty as they should.