Tilly's Rose Garden - Changes and Developmental Possibilies

As some may know, Tilly's Rose Garden has been my primary project. In fact it's the first project I've ever started! It's been ongoing for almost 2 years now, the longest amount of time I've ever put in to a project. Of course there has been gaps in time do to life such as it is, and other smaller projects. Anyways, the reason for this post isn't to bore you to tears so I'm going to get to the point.

Tilly's Rose Garden, as I have stated in the past has been very repeative, this is going to change!
Though the gameplay in general will be the same there will be some major changes. If the feed-back is good some I'll keep them, if some of them aren't good they might go back the old way or in  a new direction.

Main Changes:

I will label each change with a status.

1. No longer resetting points when you die. - ( Feature In Development)

In the past if you hit an enemy that restarts the level all the points come-back. That was okay, but it's not really "cheat"proof". Now when you die you will not be able to pick-up all the points again. Bonuses, enemies, and point-drainers will be excluded from this. They will be able to stay even after the room restarts. 

2. Diagonal and Animated Sprites - (A Possibility)

Current Sprite

In the next version of Tilly's Rose Garden (Seasons: Spring) there might be animated sprites for Tilly and there might be new additional sprites for moving diagonally. - I'm probably going to do this but I'm not totally sure yet.

3. Lives/Game-Over System - (Possible Development)

I'm seriously considering making this a reality. In the past you can go on forever until you finish the game. That's "fine" but I think it would be a more fun game if you were actually competing against something instead of having no real challenge. I don't know how many lives, what they'd take the form of or anything else. I do know that it would be the same basic thing as in Blox. The lives being gone and then you get a game-over menu.

4. Technical changes - (More coding, cleaner development style)

This will be the stuff that nobody "sees" but will make a world of difference. I'm right now learning how to code things and that will make the game work smoother. This though, will slow me down because I'm learning brand new things with this. I'm getting it though, slowly but I'm getting it!


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This should give you an idea of where this is heading, at least for now!
I hope to do weekly or bi-weekly posts for updates, like I had with Blox but we'll see what happens!



~ God Bless ~


~ Firefly

Thank you for the sucess of -Blox, Demo- !

I worked hard on this project, and I'm really pleased to say that it was a well worth effort!

After Approx 2.5 months of hard work, countless hours of work, graphic designing, writing, planning and everything else that goes with it, my release was a rousing success!

After my one week campaign I gained almost 450 views and 10 [+1] between two posts!

Other Realivant Posts:

A Few General Approaches - Things I'm Going To Be Changing With my Game-Development!
Blox [Demo] has been released, so what's next? - Where I'm Going From Here.
{Game Demo} Blox - Release - Download and Information
 Promo Vid for Blox  - Video Trailer

{Game Release} Blox Official Demo

It's finally here, the demo you've all been waiting for! With 5 levels, 60 fps mobility, and colorful 2D graphics. Introducing....

Download

Bugs:

1.  Sometimes the ball gets stuck going in a certain direction and you can't stop it. This can happen going from the bar to the wall or between walls/blocks. If from the wall to the bar is the case just let the ball die or try to manipulate it (it is possible almost every time). If it gets really bad you can reset the ball by pressing “Enter”, this will act as if you died only you don't lose a life but you do lose the 100 points.

Programs and Tools Used:

• GameMaker 8.0, 8.1 - Putting the game together, minor graphics
• GIMP - All major graphics, images for the manual
• Sony Acid (Free Version) - Sounds
• Goldwave - Volume adjustment, sound editing/mixing, format conversion.
• Word Pad - To make a check list
• Opened Office Writer /Opened Office Draw - Making the Manual
• Calculator - Coordinates, any math needed
• Sketch Book - Concept work
• Markers - Concept Work
• Internet -  References/ Tutorials.
• Snipper Tool - Graphic help, screen-shots
• Mp3 Compressor - Compress music size

Special Thanks:

1. W.Card - Bug Fixes, advice, overall help.
2. K. McKlutz - Grammar Checking
3. Eric Skiff - Music

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Comments welcomed!

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I hope you enjoy my game!

~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Polishing Stage - Initiated!

So...I have all the framework in place and lots of bugs are being fixed now I'm up to the polishing stage where graphics are fixed up and things are tested, as well as the final touches. As of now it's "almost" done but anything can happen. I have a long to do list, and things come up that aren't even on the list.  I highlight what I got done. It helps keep me sane.

Okay some updates.

One, I have "moved" to GameMaker 8.1, I might go between 8.1 and 8.0 but I will be using 8.1 for sure in level building. The new room creator was made by the hands of angels guided by Jesus himself. For real I love it.

Secondly, lives and a game-over menu have been added. I am right now saying there are 5 lives then game-over but anything can happen and I might up it to seven. There will the option to replay the level or play the game over again....how many points I take away if you repeat level I haven't decided yet, I might make it a flat rate of you restart to get a flat number no matter how many points you received (500-1000 sounds fair to me but I don't know yet).


Also to add, I have updated some of the graphics and made the game much smoother, how? Simple, my Gamemaker mentor schooled me on how to use the parenting feature more efficiently. As well as helped me with other things. Some things I've done won't mean a thing to you because you never knew there was a problem, but lots of bugs/badly created stuff and other things have been resolved!

In a previous post I mentioned some effects I've added using one of the DnD options, now I think would be a nice time to see those. There are sounds that go with them but that's a surprise for when people download the game!

I'm yet to get music, my reasoning is that all the music I've liked by Jason Shaw has been under 3 minutes and I read somewhere that an average level can take 7 minutes, some people don't like looping music so I would like a song at least 3.5 minutes long. So far, I haven't found that. I really want to keep using his music and support him with credit but I might have to find another source for music that has creators commons license.


Last thing, I've made the basic menu and the base for the how to play page. Still have much to do!

I hope this makes you as excited as I am if not more!




~ God Bless ~



~ Firefly