[Kde-games-devel] granatier

[Mathias Kraus]

Arturo Silva schrieb am Freitag 11 September 2009:
> Thank you, Mathias.  ^^
> 
> Although as you know, thanks to your help, I did manage to build Gluon
> and Granatier.  Admittedly there were a few problems doing this, since
> a lot of the cmake files were referencing to the wrong headers, but
> hopefully this will be a thing of the past once the underlying Gluon
> code stabilizes.

me too :)

> Also, remember I am not a coder, I'm not quite sure if this is
> currently in its alpha or beta stage, and also can't say if this is
> the honest-to-goodness current version of your game (or whether you're
> working on improved graphics/sounds in private).  So forgive me if I
> point things out unfairly, since I am only writing this feedback from
> the POV of an artist and user.

I would consider it as alpha feature wise but I always try to keep it very stable, so there shouldn't be any chrashes hopefully.

> To make this easier to read, I'm presenting my analysis in a PROs,
> CONs and WISHes list, followed by bullet points:
> 
> PROs
> =====
> 
> - Although I've seen this with all the dev games tested so far, I'm
> glad to see the polish of the build implementation.  Meaning the game
> already sets itself correctly in the Games menu (with bomb icon, which
> is neat), and already has all the Main Menu fields established with
> default field entries.  In essence, it already feels like it can be
> include in KDE just be outright appearance.
> 
> - The graphics, though simple, are as you said quite complete, and the
> game itself is in a playable state.

thanks

> - The addition of sounds was a great touch that adds an admirable
> level of polish, and while they do seem a bit rough for the context (I
> kind of expect the balls to squeak painfully when blown up, not yell
> like a dead FPS character), at least they are in place.  It would
> simply be a matter of changing them based on the theme if possible.

actually it's kind of a joke. look for the "wilhelm scream"

> - Though the sprites themselves have no animation, the clever
> "wobbling" of the goo balls as they walk, or the expansion/contraction
> of the bombs as they get set is a quite clever and charming way to
> compensate.
> 
> - Pausing when removing focus from the game is also a good addition,
> although I still wonder if the same holds true during a multiplayer
> match if later supported.

I'n not sure either

> 
> CONs
> =====
> 
> - There is no Help file yet.  Obviously might be too early in the
> stage for this, but we have to make sure one is ready by October.  Of
> course I can help with this. ^__~

yes, it's too early in the development, but I would appreciate any help in that field when it's in a more advanced state.

> - There is no AI.  Again, likely too early in the stage for that, but
> without another player it got pretty boring blasting things by myself
> while the little red blob just sat there waiting to get blown up.  :P

I think there won't be any AI for 4.4. only local multiplayer. have you tried to move the second player with W,A,S,D and putting the bomb with Q. the third player is I, J, K, L and SPACE and the fourth player R, T, Z, G and C.
I need to make it configurable though.

> - The two add-ons, one to increase speed, the other to increase range,
> took me a while to understand what they do.  Either this will have to
> be explained in the future help documentation, or we can look into
> making their icons a bit clearer (such as the speed icon can be a pair
> of shoes instead).

this is all work in progress from a coder with little to medium artistic skills.

> - Unlike the bomberman games I played, the movement is not restricted
> to the tiles (even thoug bomb and explosion placement is).  While this
> allows for much smoother movement, this ironically cuts down in the
> polish of the game because the movement around the corridors ands up
> looking a bit awkward (like you press down near the corner of a wall,
> and the whole blob just shifts over to the next panel).  Worse yet, if
> you're in an open area and try to evade a bomb, you don't have to
> switch over to a different tile -- simply nudging the blob a little to
> the left or right will avoid the explosion, even if the blob is still
> visibly within the outline of the explosion.

this is similar to clanbomber, except the explosion, that's kind of a bug :)
I'm not sure if the player also should die if he get's only a little bit hit by the explosion.

> - The configuration screen is a bit sparse and also has the same icon
> for Theme and Arena, and currently theme only changes the bomb type,
> not the graphical theme of the map.  Then again, this is something I
> can help with (graphically).  :)

the icons are now changed. the map was just a quick copy and paste to test the theming.

> 
> WISHes
> ======
> 
> - Hopefully more add-ons that allow the player to do different things
> (such as create walls or set traps or make the bombs homing or explode
> more in a single direction..

it's already on my TODO

> - A little scorekeeper somewhere on the map view itself would help, as
> there's not much movement on screen aside from the activity of the
> blobs

also on my TODO

> - Additional difficulties only decrease the speed of the blobs.  But
> the starting speed in Level 0 does seem a bit slow -- perhaps raising
> this a little will help make the game more fast-paced.  Also,
> introducing other handicaps such as being able to use a finite level
> of bombs (when you run out, it takes 6 seconds to generate a new one,
> unless you can find a cache of bombs in one of the blocks) can also
> lead to more gameplay challenges.  :)

handicaps are also on my TODO like them from clanbomber

> - I know we talked about animation before, but this is very important
> and can allow for an unparalleled level of polish if implemented
> properly.  I still don't know why few of the KDE games use animated
> sprites (KGoldRunner is the only one that comes to mind, because even
> KSpaceDuel just moves shapes around which is different), and I worry
> the reason is technical since this will limit the ability to make
> really eye-catching games.  Not to say we can't work with a static
> environment, but if at all possible this really should be something to
> look at seriously.  Granatier has many places where animation can be
> used to make the gameplay more lively and exciting (and I've already
> mentioned a few to you).  As I look into contributing some artwork to
> this, I'll see if maybe I can help discover the mystery behind
> animated sprites in QT4.  ;)

for the first release their won't be much more animations. I try to animate the explosion a bit, but beside that there won't be anything I thing, at least for the moment.

> 
> And that should be all I have for you today.
> Thank you for walking me through how I can start changing some of the
> artwork.  I'm interested in creating a Konqi theme, with two dragons
> duking it out and laying rotten dinosaur eggs as the bombs.  I'll also
> have to play clanbomber to get an idea of what your inspiration was,
> as I admit I didn't play it much myself for XYZ reasons.  ;)

would be fantastic. an idea would also be to use konqi, tux, the BSD beastie etc.
my plan is to separate the player from the theme, so that they don't have to be redone for every theme.

> Hopefully the feedback is useful.  If you have any questions about it,
> let me know.
> 
> Thanks again for your help and your work with Granatier!

thanks for taking time for testing granatier

> 
> --Arturo "C-quel" Silva
>