Summer-cleaning the frontend


As the keen-eyed amongst you might have spotted, I've updated the project page with some newer images for the game's menu screens.  Originally I was trying to stick to the template used by the isometric Ultimate Play The Game titles - having a full border around the options and such like - but they never had the option to redefine the keys, and it always irked me that the name of the game was displayed simply in text, a travesty given how beautiful the game logos are.

So, as a first step of getting back into this whole project after my hiatus I decided to start with refreshing those screens.  The first thing to go was the full-screen surround, and the memory saved by removing the code & graphics for that allowed me to safely add the full graphical logo for the game.  It loses a little of it's beauty by being a single colour, but I think it really improves the main menu.  Removing the border has also had the effect of 'freeing' the various elements - they no longer appear as boxed-in as they once were.

The same theory was then applied to the character select screen - separate because each of the four characters has a wonderful little back-story which I felt had to be included in my version as well.  Again, not having the full-screen surround make it all appear much less cramped, and giving the selected character a highlighted background improves the visibility of the state (you can't see it in the grab, but the selected character also animates)

So there, I've made a start on the code again, and things are beginning to progress.  In my recent playing of the game I also spotted that the game map was incorrect - there was a sequence of rooms which the player couldn't get out of - so a quick check against the PC version indicated that I'd managed to swap a standard door for one which required a key, so a quick fix.  The map has undergone so many changes since the development started that I'm not surprised that there's errors with it, but hopefully not too many.  It also serves to remind me just how much play-testing this is going to need!

Comments

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Great news!! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for reading!

hi bobs , i am Wayne Robbins and am trying to get in contact ,and wood love to represent an old game that you have ,on the next crash cover tape ,my email is acewayne27@live.co.uk , i feel that your work in the game you make is  fantastic , and wood love to show off an old game that is fun ,as well as a link where they might buy your new games on the loading screen of something , love to put a playable demo of a game that you may be releasing in the future on a future cover tape , and a full game for the next one , i have 2 so far full games and one demo. lee and rich have sent me full games to promote the games they do , it a Nostalgia thing , as it been 30years since any magazine did cover tapes ,so as i am in  charge of  fusion retro books ( CRASH mag cover tapes ), and will not let my love of the spectrum be out dun by that Zzap team lol who have no problem getting files for there cover tapes (commodore stuff )   so effectively i love to put a older full game that you did on my next cover tape called factory daze if  possible ,and bring your game to a whole new audience , that will see your work ,there only ever be tween 150 to 200 tape  Released ,and so i've been told by people that it has help to sell there next project ,ask lee chops ,he did the mr hair games , also said he was proud to see his game on the cover tape ,bless him a lovey man. i di this as a passion project at my expense for the spectrum mag crash and it readers as well as a bit of fun ,your sincerely Wayne Robbins  or youtube RetroRobbins show.....

This is looking great - I can't wait to see it running on my ZX Next! Keep up the great work - happy to do some testing if you need any volunteers

Thanks!  There's a dedicated Next version of the game in development as well, which should look a lot nicer and be much smoother to play.  Testers will definitely be required at some point - hopefully this year.