[Kde-games-devel] KDE/kdegames/kgoldrunner

[Ian Wadham]

On Thu, 5 Apr 2007 01:24 pm, Mauricio Piacentini wrote:
> I think letting the artist draw the variations opens up opportunities
> for different solutions, tied to the theme. Maybe someone writes an
> underwater-type theme, and in this case the bricks could disappear as
> little bubbles, or any other crazy idea like that.
>
Good point.  I will set the brick-blaster idea aside for now.

> In the case of the "computer world" theme Johann was imagining we
> could have the bricks disappearing with a static blast, and materializing
> again after the time elapses.
>
You mean the animation frames, brick_1 to brick_9, would be all blank?
That might have gameplay problems in some levels, where you have to
wait for a brick to re-form just as you dig another one.  Even the fraction
of a second "cue" of the brick starting to reappear might be needed
sub-consciously by the player.  See Challenge, level 15, Hair's Breadth
Timing, for a particularly tricky example ... ;-)

> What I think we can focus on is maybe allow more types of bricks and
> concretes to be used for the playfield, so the artist will provide maybe
> 5 variations of bricks and 5 concretes, and there will be an algorithm
> in the code that combines these when assembling the level, depending on
> the proximity of stairs and other elements. This is relatively easy to
> implement for the artist, at least compared with the 108 frames
> necessary for the runners! And it would instantly provide a richer
> playfield, visually. I know we talked about this briefly before, just
> something to keep in mind.
>
I like that idea, but I don't think I'll be able to take it on before June,
because I have non-KDE commitments to fulfil.  BTW, 5 bricks with 9
blasting frames each makes for 45 extra frames, so it would be getting
up there ... unless you use some kind of set of 9 masks for every brick.

> Another item is maybe a "dead" position or animated sequence for the
> runner. Sometimes the enemies catch him in midair ...
>
That's an excellent idea.  At present there is a 1.5 second timer setup called
finalBreath, to let you see how you died before the level is re-loaded.  It 
would be "dead" easy to switch to frame 37 for that time.

In the original game there was a short animation.  A circle of darkness closed
in from the corners of the screen and then opened up again to show the new
level - or the start position of the level you were on.  I've never managed to
work out how to do that in Qt graphics.

> Thank you for maintaining the game alive, bug fixes and hundreds of levels.
>
Well you were the one who kept it alive through the port to KDE4 and the 
replacement of QCanvas, Mauricio, not to mention the the conversion to SVG.
I will never forget that ... :-)

Talking of levels, wait till you see what's coming ... heh, heh, heh ... ;-)

All the best, Ian W.