Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

Make games! Discuss those games here.

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TMC
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Post by TMC »

Nathan Karr wrote:- Taking screenshots of every single tutorial textbox, re-importing those as backdrops, and using a script to let players scroll back and forth between them
That gives me an idea... it would be possible to add a feature to the engine to allow going backwards in a textbox chain (eg by pressing left/up/backspace). It seems pretty easy to add, just need to remember the list of textboxes displayed in the current chain, and ignore the conditionals when going backwards. It would probably be an opt-in feature (general preference bit), although "wait for textbox" could continue waiting while you go backwards and forwards until you see a new text box so that 99.9% of scripts continue to work.
Nathan Karr wrote:Personally I also think any time a sprite has been made obsolete but is still good, the old version should probably be in the Sprites folder of the engine's Import folder.
I think Fenrir said that any sprites that are obsolete have been kept in the .rpg file for people to use. But that probably isn't the case for small changes like your example of changing an axe to a hammer.
Last edited by TMC on Wed Aug 19, 2020 2:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Bob the Hamster
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

TMC wrote:It seems pretty easy to add
^ Famous last words

A feature to allow rewinding a textbox chain sounds pretty cool. It would definitely need to be an optional feature that was off by default, since tags can change in a textbox chain and those same tags could cause a textbox chain to happen differently the second time through.

If it was on by default for existing games it would be a Turing-comple explosion of sequence breaks
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Post by Fenrir-Lunaris »

Bob the Hamster wrote:If it was on by default for existing games it would be a Turing-comple explosion of sequence breaks
Wandering Hamster speedrun? :kamina:
TMC
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Post by TMC »

Bob the Hamster wrote:tags can change in a textbox chain and those same tags could cause a textbox chain to happen differently the second time through.
That's why I said it should record the list of textboxes seen, because when replaying you can't recompute the next box in the chain.

I think the only games that would break are those using "current textbox" and those manipulating textbox slices.
But there's not too much reason to want it enabled it in all existing games anyway.

I'm also assuming that if there are any choiceboxes they won't be shown the second time, because that definitely would create a time paradox.
Last edited by TMC on Thu Aug 20, 2020 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Bob the Hamster
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

Oh! I see! You mean like record the visual representation of the chain of text boxes, and have a way to redisplay them, but not to actually rewind the chain?

That is cool, and yes, it could work a lot better.

There are still a lot of edge cases. Like a scripted scene where characters walk around and do stuff while a single chain of text boxes advances, or when a bunch of text boxes are displayed in a row by a script but they are not actually a chain.
TMC
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Post by TMC »

Right; we would still be re-loading each textbox, but without the instead checking.
Oh... but I just realised that text embed codes could expand to something else when rewinding, especially if the party changes. Recording the text instead of reloading it would make it more robust. Ugh, and party-dependent portraits could break too.
And in general if sprite animations can depend on tags or have side-effects, they might appear different or derail things.

I guess you're right about the edge cases :)

A script that shows a sequence of text boxes is probably going to call "suspend box advance", which should also suspend the rewind key. Although I suppose it would be possible to record textbox chains due to calling "show text box" while a textbox is alreadyy showing.
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Bob the Hamster
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

That is a heck of a lot of work for a feature nobody asked for :D

Perhaps a more useful feature would be to just add an optional per-textbox "Back" feature, which would make it easy for someone to set up a reversible chain of textboxes if they needed it, but not try to shoehorn it into a magic layer on top of the existing chaining.
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Post by Feenicks »

[game]False Skies[/game] demo 3A is up.
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RMZ
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Post by RMZ »

In addition to the mouse pad this year, I'll also be shipping the winner of the contest an Axe Cop Villains Christmas mug. I still have a few I didn't sell last year, so I'm adding it to my contributions.
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Pepsi Ranger
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Hey everyone, if you release a game for the Heart of the OHR, please remember to mention it here. This should be obvious, but I still see games popping up on the game list from time to time that may be new, or they may be updates to older games, or they may be small games good for just a few minutes, etc. and no one says anything about them, and I don't know if they're supposed to be in the contest, even though they look like they might be. It'll save me time in December if I know ahead of time which ones are meant for Heart of the OHR and don't have to put on my investigator's hat to get my answers.

To be clear, I'm not asking which game you plan to release for HotOHR. I'm asking you which game(s) you've already released for HotOHR.

Thanks. Hope your entries are going well.

I'm still finalizing the Convenience Functions pack I've been promising since this summer. But every time I think I'm ready or close to it, I notice something else is missing that should be present, so I go back and add it in. My latest additions have brought the pack to just about 400 functions.

If you don't know anything about the Convenience Functions pack, it's essentially a series of commands commonly used together rolled up into singular functions. So, for example, instead of writing:

Code: Select all

show text box (text)
wait for text box (text)
You'll be able to write:

Code: Select all

basic text (text)
and accomplish the same thing.

Likewise, instead of writing:

Code: Select all

walk hero (0, east, 3)
wait for hero (0)
You'll be able to write:

Code: Select all

walk hero and wait (0, east, 3)
And so on. It'll also have a few complicated actions made simpler, like moonwalking, having more realistic npc conversations, adjusting the values of many functions at once (like stopping a list of timers, sound effects, walking a certain distance, etc.), and so on. But its purpose is to condense code while speeding up the design process. You know, the kind of thing that would've been more useful back in May.

But really, it's almost done. I'm pretty sure.

Finally, if you've lost track of time, there's about three months left to get your entries finished.
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kylekrack
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Post by kylekrack »

I don't know if I explicitly stated that I will be submitting Katja's Abyss: Tactics into this year's hotohr. I've uploaded versions of it here, but I'm still working on it. I was planning on posting here when I uploaded the final version. I'd be content submitting the current version, but I have 3 months, don't I? Might as well use em.
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Matokage
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Post by Matokage »

Just a heads up that I will be submitting SlimesWorld as my game on this contest. Hope I can get the 30mins of content on time.
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Post by kylekrack »

Katja's Abyss version 1.7 is uploaded on the games page https://www.slimesalad.com/forum/viewgame.php?p=136956

I've gotten some great playtesting already, so I'm already starting to work on lots of bug fixes and balance tweaks. Some fairly major. That being said, more playtesting would be appreciated!
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Pepsi Ranger
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Hey everyone,

We've got just under two months to go. How's it going so far?

A couple of nights ago, I finished going through a premium book cover design course and decided to put what I learned to good use. So I updated the book covers for my A Modern-day Fantasy series, also known as the Powerstick Man novelizations, and they're now live on Smashwords (with the other retailers following suit soon).

Traditionally, I put these up for free during Heart of the OHR season. Now that we're nearing crunch time, I thought I'd go ahead and post the links to the Smashwords Editions and generate their free coupon.

Here are the new covers:

Image

And here are the store links:

Cannonball City

Superheroes Anonymous

To get them free, make sure you use this coupon code at checkout: HP99Z

The coupon is good until January 31, 2021. It'll save you $13 if you use it.

If you already have a copy of either, you do not need to buy it again. Just go to your library and download the latest version. It'll have the new cover inside.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Don't forget that my offer to entrants is a copy of any of my e-books on Smashwords for free, so if you see anything else that you want, send me a PM, and I'll send you a coupon code.

Good luck on the final stretch, everyone.

Note: You do not need to participate in Heart of the OHR to get these two particular books free. I'm offering them to anyone who views this post. Just use the code at checkout. It should work on both books. Let me know if it doesn't. To get my other books free, you have to participate.
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Feenicks
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Post by Feenicks »

I put up an altered version of demo 3 that has a bunch of the features I've been putting in since September that are relevant to the first chunk of the game [the world map, new save menu, and a revised second main dungeon].

As usual, let me know if things break.
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Also these name plates, but I've shown them off already.
Also these name plates, but I've shown them off already.
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