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i know in the very beginning i had the same question: HOW DO I CREATE THE WAVES?

i guess first one has to forget any own imagination how it could be,
it's such easy to do...
a picture or two and the apropriate project should clarify this, i guess.

the project "Kit-Man" is ment as a sort of tutorial,
i used in this little game far less sprites and animations as i usually do.
thus one can concentrate on things like attack waves when examining the project in the editor.

i combined three typical scroll modes in one game:

vertical "automatic" scrolling (for a typical shoot 'em up, i.e. "1941")
horizontally "push" scrolling with gravity (for a typical jump 'n run)
static screen (for a classic shoot 'em up, i.e. "Invaders")

all three have own characteristics which are to respect when creating a attack wave,
but in general it's always the same procedure.

the picture below shows the first wave in the first level which is a vertical scrolling screen.
i started the wave in the lower left as you can see and simply made a zig zag course
almost over the complete length of the level. while the screen scrolls downwards this "alien"
will move slowly upwards, scroll speed and speed of the attacker must be in tune of course,
this needs a little experience until you know how fast a attacker can move at a certain scrollspeed,
though he won't move out the screen on top or bottom (which happens occasionally to some aliens in this demo).
the blue crosses you can see are the spawn positions, that means for this attacker it will appear three times,
one after the other depending on scrollspeed.
the first spawn positions is a little outside of the screens initial size, in this case 10x10 blocks,
it's ment that the attacker shouldn't appear in the very first moment when the level starts.




a different movement, this alien will first attack downwards from the right to the left turns at the "bottom" the direction to upwards and
moves out of the screen. in this case he will repeat this path until he's shot (set "repeat path" in "details").
with a moderate scroll speed this attacker will repeat it's path often until he vanishes at the bottom.
it's of course possible to let him perform the path only one time (disable "repeat path" in "details"),
therefore a attacker has to be moved best left or right of the screens border and then complete the path to underneath the bottom
(or bottom line of actual visible blocks).




finally the static screen which is really different to handle, because the screen didn't scrolls.
all spawn positions are in the screen from strat on, if i would simply create the path over the screen
all attacker would appear at the same time, of course we don't like this.
thus you have to use up the time until the attacker should appear from any of the screens borders.
in other words, simply use a long path outside the screen, how you do this, in zig zag or moving around the screen
is up to you, it needs experience and not for every enemy is the same method useful.
of course each enemy must be placed seperately, each has only one spawn position.
as you can see for every following enemy the path is one block shorter, this means the last one in row
will be the first which appears on the screen.




i guess this should cover most of the questions.
for horizontally (auto)scrolling screens it's mostly the same as for vertically, only turned by 90°.


in scroll mode "push" you can set spawn positions in a way that the attacker appears lately.
means, start the path early but set the spawn position late.
if you would set the spawn position more to the right as in this picture shown (right in front of the map editor),
the attacker would appear if you passed his position, such can be used for a sort of trap.



i attached the little tutorial "Kit-Man", if you examine it in GACK you will certainly quickly understand how it works.

(there is a issue with this project, if you test the game level2 won't start, i have no idea why and it only happens
in the new releases of GACK. but if you distribute the game it works as it's ment to be)

sorry, i really missed the "select" button in the sprites and background editor, my fault 

it's just good that i opened my tutorial game "kit-man".
smaller game with less things, you can concentrate on what matters.

I don't like to argue (much) about the new layout of the editor, i expect it's done to make it work with a touchscreen.
but personally i guess you can never be really productive with a touchscreen, but well i have no tablet and won't get no.
to me it's a bit like i would wearing gloves and like to solve a puzzle...

i really can't imagine to make such sprites without a precise control like a mouse.



i miss also the possibility to show the sprites/bg-tiles library as shown above,
it will be very hard to make backgrounds from a photograph or a similar large sheet
without a overview to all available cards ( "cards").



now to the real review of the features,

good is that you can determine the starting position now,
also i like "player power up" feature, that was a good idea.
i can see on your demo browser game that you have revived the keyboard controls, that's NICE
(unfortunately i still have to fumble around with the virtual stick in my GACK to test the games).
of course it's great that one can (could) now create standalones for various platforms.
one of the best features seems to me the possibility to publish them as a browser game,
i would find it extremely  to play once one of my games with a buddy online...

sad is mostly what i described already at front of this post.
the drawing tools & palette aren't no more on one single tab and that makes working periculous imo
(but i really see this as a convention to the possibilty to use the editor with a tablet.
personally i would think: "isn't it already good to publish them for a tablet, i assume not many will use it to edit a project").

cards and sprites are limited now to a size of 48x48, many projects i made with 64x64 background cards, they will get
loaded properly but i can't do such anymore(?). it was handy to fill a background quickly or to use pictures as background,
even when the sprites was sized 32x32 like for i.e. "Pixel Attack".

screen size is very small and it's sad that lower resolution won't be stretched anymore, right when i started to make such
lo-res projects this spring as "Galactic Invasion" or the even smaller "Pixel Attack"
(i already used for the former GACK release a low resolution on my PC to have a better view on what i work,
fullscreen was handy but it also stood in the way when you switch often between GACK and a paint prog.
or whatever you like to use along with GACK to manage the sprites/cards).

to get to the point:
i can set now the screen size only in blocks, this not only limits some of my projects, it simply destroys them.
already "Galactic Invasion" has a screen of only 4x5 blocks this undermines by far the 8x8 minimum we have now,
again not to guess of "Pixel Attack" which is even smaller.
if one asks now why i use such small screens, i'm a lazy dude 
and well, the fun to shoot some aliens out of space is the same, i would say even better in lower resolutions,
it's more "authentic".

besides some games like "adventure" or what i newly started "Castle of Doom"
need a limited view to a large playfield, this is the tricky thing with them,
you won't see far and enemies appear suddenly.

i kow certain issues come from my behave to have no project shedule, i usually start with a idea and see how it works out.



nonetheless, i examined the various releases and stumbled over a possibility to publish a old .seuck project...
but also i was surprised that it won't work with a .gack project saved with GACK v1.018 (build24).
this leads to a small issue, because the "power up" sprites aren't present in a .seuck project
thus player2 appears after the first hit the same as player1.

es funktioniert!
zumindest der build welchen du mir zukommen liesst, über den mac build welcher sich bei mir weigert mach dir keine sorgen
ich bin mir das von unserem macbook gewohnt, GACK funktioniert recht gut im Wine wrapper.
ich kann ich meine alten projekte laden und bearbeiten, das ist schon viel wert.
auch sehe ich wenig probleme mit der "aufgebohrten" palette, auch die lassen sich problemlos laden.
die animationen muss man neu sichten, aber in der regel ist alles gut.
ich habe gesehen dass du die steuerung etwas geändert hast, denn als ich das erste mal den link zu "riva raid"
öffnete musste man mit der maus den virtuellen stick bewegen, jetzt geht das mit der tastatur, guter entschluss.
ich habe bei eninigen meiner projekte schon mühe mit einem joypad (bis anhin mit emulierten keystrokes)
vernünftige resultate zu erzielen.

a path can be a path and a animation can be simply some moving extremeties,
but it gets really cool if they work together 

the animation can be part of the enemy, his strength and weakness.
by simply defining a certain section of a "level boss" as "hitting zone" (eyes on a monster i.e.),
by use of the animation to let something vanish for a certain time (use that i.e. on the "hitting zone" of a boss),
by joining path and animation to a conjunct movement like in the clip below.

---

"how i made Cyrapi" (in general)

attached are some tutorial projects i made while i made the clips.
videos i have a few more, but i will have to cut & annotate them first.

but i expect a close look at the material should help already.

Draw a background, draw some sprites, give them paths and loops, shoot them...

true yes, but like any "tool" it's only as good as the one who works with it...

for the lazy ones i gathered a lot of sprites to a little archive (.png images), feel free to use it.
all contained material belongs to me and you can do with it what you like  .

unfortunately it's a bit large, you will have to download it from my skydrive

http://sdrv.ms/1aZCRDe


the small difference 

es wäre zu erwägen... 

eines habe ich noch nicht überwunden, dass ich vor 25jahren auf jeden gehört habe ausser auf mich selbst.

what if i have no web 

i guess i got stucked with it... 

i already have collected a couple of clips and like i said in the other thread some tutorial projects are in the zip file.
yes, there is a doc along with gack, but even i needed a liitle time to understand how to work with it, thus i understand if someone
gets a little confused maybe. one thinks it's self explanatory, for the next it's a riddle.

one could also say, take your time and you will find out...

i can upload the clips already, i'm only not sure about how to use them, personally i would prefere a scripted tutorial and the clips should only show certain procedures.

i would like it that way, because you can refere easier to text as to a certain position in a clip.
video tutorials are good to show how, but if you like to know (only) a specific thing they get cumbersome.

---

yes, i would say it's easy as 1,2,3... 

"beihnahe schluss", wenn die backround tiles alle auch "vorbei" sind erscheinen die sprites wieder 
aber es geht grad noch, oder ich hab's mir so eingerichted (alles unnötige entfernt und den rest "zusammengeschoben")
und mehr fällt auch mir nicht mehr ein, ist ja schon alles da, fliegerli, schiffchen, häuschen, bähnchen...
der verschleiss an sprites ist ungewöhnlich hoch für "Spitfire"...

das mit der e-mail lässt sich einrichten

should i guess, you would have to try to find out.

since i only hacked the project file and not the software i expect it should work.
i stumbled over this possibility when i tried to find out if i can use a different palette ("import" a given palette).
makes life a bit easier 

the "Game" (Cyrapi) is a stage or two longer (but both unfinished) as shown in the clip.
but somehow i lost interest?
i know i invested a lot of time in the alien, but to "copy" the whole game isn't possible anyway.
there are some limits, that's also why i moved the alien from level 1 to level 2, the level 2 boss is impossible to recreate already, i can't have a hierarchy of compounds, only one (also what is level 1 boss now didn't works as the original).
it was a sort of experiment to see what can be done (and how), i didn't had to paint the sprites myself, which saved me some time.

a result of the experiences is to see in "Galactic Invasion" (3:33)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cKiEEeKTwE

which is also a clone of many classic space shooters without to copy them simply.
also because a exact copy isn't possible, but something similar.

i like this one better as "Cyrapi", that's why it's finished and playable.

it also drove my to start a new one called "Pixel Attack", but i delayed it for "Spitfire".
something i learned:
it's ok to start a new project with the first level, sometimes you really need to see if the result pleases you.
but if you have a plan it's better to start with the last level.
that's simply because you can't shift levels, neither you can determine at which to start for a test, but attack waves have to be tested often, and after level 3 it get's obviously boring, even if i "rush" through the levels, (if that's possible, "push" takes always as long as it takes to reach the end) and turn off existing bosses.

i started a sort of "moon patrol", but it's one of those ideas which totally failed in gameplay finally, it's not good to play, imo.
(the problem is a bit the behave of directional shooting in jump & run games, which fails a bit in conjunction with gravity. it's very hard to fire in the desired direction, if you use additionally a given scroll speed it get's periculous).
while "Gunner" was only a experiment, of course it's somehow stupid to create more levels for this tiny game, but it's fun to play.

"Castle of Doom" (Venture -> Castle -> Minotaur, while Minotaur failed somehow, but check it out) is some sort of "Kit in the Kit", it's easy to create new levels with the existing stuff.

the attached zip file contains all the "junk" and some tutorial stuff i started because one asked on youtube "how i made those epic games"
which was the reason for this "second session" with gack.


i nearly forgot,
if you load a project and the level boss(es) didn't wortk as expected or vice versa compounds appear as bosses, just save and reload the project.
unfortunately these settings get mixed up each time you save a loaded project.
if this issue is unattended and you create new waves, you get a real mess in return (i.e i load a project, in level1 all compounds are turned bosses, assumed i don't notice this and create in level2 new compounds...).

often i simply counteracted to this by setting all compounds to bosses to or vice versa any boss is a compound if it's true or not.
but that didn't works for all games.

in advance: certain projects need >40 secs to get loaded!
either they have such a high amount of sprites (Spitfire) or many sound waves are to generate (i had the idea to setup a default project with "some" useful sfx, it takes aeons to load. as a hint, it can be useful to "export" some settings for a later re-use, or refere to a project by copy-paste the stuff with a hex-editor. actually i re-used a lot of sfx, saves a lot of time, it can take up to 30 mins until i'm satisfied with one. BUT i like the way it's gettin' done, in the beginning i missed the possibility to load a wave file, but first it prevents from simple ripping and second it's unique).

und bin an die Grenzen gestossen 

nach 1024 sprites "ist der Ofen aus", nicht ganz aber so in etwa.
(genauer, dann werd im editor der Background angezeigt, die "Bildchen" sind zwar vorhanden, man sieht bloss das falsche).
macht aber nichts, es wird trotzdem fertig.
Und irgendwie bin ich vielleicht wirklich etwas zu weit gegangen.
dafür kann man bei den meisten Gegnern ungehindert durch die Explosionen Feuern, etwas Aufwendiger aber es lohnt sich.

gestohlen hab' ich auch noch

aber auch mal was ausprobiert

to sad i have only access to a macbook by now, my pc is broken into pieces  and i can't work on the g.a.c.k projects anymore (or won't, it runs under wine, but i have no proper joystick support, means one direction isn't recognized by the game then, even the keys i have to remap because i have no "right CTRL" key on the macbook.

so all is delayed now, but i really would like to finish them, even if it's only for my own pleasure.
my personal favorite is "Froggy", did i said already that it was planned as a "childfriendly" game?
it turned out to be much harder as i expected it, catching insects with a tongue is anything else then easy, especially when they can fight back.
i planned the ants in the game as "easy" (jump on them), but they make you a hard life in the game.
i know i overused the capabilities of the g.a.c.k a bit with the photographic backgrounds.
a reason why i started to create repetively to use painted ones for the following "Copter" (radar's nightmare ), where i would like to have something else as only a extra life for hitting a "powerup", in this case saving a injured soldier.
it would be very difficult then... they shoot and you can't fire back, get life(s) only when reaching the end (the tent).
actually it's a "walk through" because you get rewarded with to many lifes.
further for such games it could be interesting to shoot enemies with enemy fire, leading them to the "wrong" target (e.g. in old "Fantasy" jump 'n' run, where you "control" in one level a gun (pointing at you) with your ballon, to shoot at the enemy helicopters).
b.t.w, "Fantasy" was the first coinop i remember where you could insert additional credits to go on. it drained your wallet  (one of the hardest to get rom images for mame or mess)

---

oh yes, a experience with the G.A.C.K, the pixel exact collision checking can be a real handicap in jump 'n' run games like "Adventure" or "Froggy".
in "Froggy" it's possible you get clamped by the foreground (i really did my best to avoid it, it happens foremost if you slip or jump under a shape which hasn't straight boundaries) and in both it's possible to move the "dead" player in similar situations and you can't escape except to restart the game (while in "froggy" you can wait for a shooting bee or ant to "free" you, if some are left of them), i could fix this with a different animation, but i would prefere something else (not moveable when dead? same collision boundaries as the "alive" player?).

really, old school polygons?

then you might like this,
my first transcription, yes a true transcription of FE2 geometry (thanks to theunis de jong, jongware)


and of course the classic eagle followed

it's from a "downgraded" pioneer without textures
the ships of course have slight additions, like "modern" radar dishes or the nazelles needed to properly reflect all thruster directions.
but i know, for today you need some textures, you won't attract many without them.

like tomm, i love i.e. the "xref_flat(6*lod, v(0,1,0), {v2}, {v14}, {v6}, {v8, v10, v0})" (vectors are defined on top of the script)
this builds the top of the eagle, single vectors are straight lines, the coupled are a cubic bezier quad.
there is only one difference between that and what is in FE2, FE2 is lefthanded pioneer is righthanded, so i had to inverse the shit.
and that the left side is not done with a mirroring of the final geometry (xref), in FE2 the vectors get mirrored by default.
phew, building the left side (instead to mirror it) has gave me a lot of problems, i would have liked because of texturing.
but because of winding order it's not possible to do in the same way and the shape becomes different.
later tomm added a "insideout(boolean)" to counter such.
remarkable is that there are not many, even devs, who understand it (or stated, are you really willing to do this?)
i mean i was asking once on gamedev.net what i have to do if a geometry is smaller then 1 and how i can calculate the proper texture projection for it, i'm still waiting for a answer you can say (i would say now, draw the geometry bigger texture it and size it down later).

i have one follower from the states, who stated once: "great i enter a few lines of text (code) and get a model afterwards".
and again "merci ms. descartez"


but now i guess i have to stop, or else i might get banned for trolling