Flame the Dragon (Demo released!)

[dsc]

Not to mention it had barely any use in Castlevania II except to annoy you. Wario Land 3 did it right by shifting the time of day when you went to the map screen.

i didn't find it annoying, i find it cool that at night in castlevania 2 the enemies became stronger, i found that cool and challenging

[smbmaster99]

(click to show/hide)

Hey everypony. Work is still going on getting a demo of this game out before New Year's (and Christmas if possible), and I'm near completion of a basic test of the main parts of the demo (a playthrough of the first 3 dungeons and stuff), and have fixed a good number of glitches. Also I'm working on making village residents seem more alive.

Up until now, they've done no more than stand around until night time, well now some of them actually walk around and leave the village and come back. I've also made some houses enterable (if that's even a word ) to make the villages seem less dead.

Among all this, there is a small HUGE problem. The save system is glitched and I have no idea what is wrong with it. I'm sure none will play through the entire demo in one sitting, so I was hoping to get the save system done along with the rest and release the demo, but with this problem, that's probably not gonna happen until it gets fixed. Or, I could ditch the save system for the demo and hope that everyone has enough time and patience on their hands to play the full demo.

TL; DR version:

Lots of news. Bad glitch. Save system not working now. Can't seem to fix it. Need help.

I made a topic on the GMC to see if anyone would help me there. So far, only 2 replies (minus my posts), and only one of those two has tried to offer help.
Here's a copy/paste of the first post:

(click to show/hide)

I sent Revel a PM about this error, but over the course of 16 days, he has not yet responded. I really need someone to help me out here, as this is what I'm using as an alternative save system (and I have been unable to find another alternative that works as simple as this)

Here's what my PM said, concerning the problem:

When the game starts, the ini dll is initiated, and I have it set so that all global variables are set to their default values (in case the player wants to start a new game). In-game, the player can save if, when, and wherever they want to. When they do, I have it set so that the game writes all the global variables to the ini file. The [color="#0000FF"]saving[/color] code looks like this:

Code: [Select]

ini = Rini_Open("savefile.ini","password")
Rini_Write_Real(ini,"Progress","mission",global.mission)
Rini_Close(ini)and so on.

When I try to load the save data (this can only be done through the title screen), the ini file's size cuts down to 0, the game goes to the glitch fail-safe room I created in case there's an error, and nothing happens. When I open the ini file to see if anything happened, all that was written in the ini file is gone, as though the file was opened and had all its contents deleted.

I found this extremely odd, especially since there is no code in any of the objects to delete lines and etc. The [color="#0000FF"]loading[/color] code looks like this:

Code: [Select]

ini = Rini_Open("savefile.ini","password")
global.mission = Rini_Read_Real(ini,"Progress","mission",0)
Rini_Close(ini)and so on.

If anyone can help me, please do so. I REALLY need this thing to work.

EDIT: I've used this before as a save-system for another project and it worked perfectly. But this time, it just doesn't want to work.

[smbmaster99]

Demo ready! Check the first post.

[dsc]

ugh... i can't download from mediafire... can u plz upload it to sendspace or megaupload?

[smbmaster99]

Okie dokes. Megaupload link should be up now ^^

[dsc]

thxs! now i can play yer demo!

[Magnemania]

ELIXER OF LIFE?

I believe the item in the shop is an ELIXIR OF LIFE, yes?

[smbmaster99]

ELIXER OF LIFE?

I believe the item in the shop is an ELIXIR OF LIFE, yes?

Lol, I thought I'd fixed that. Oh well XP

[Rockman]

Alright. Feedback time...
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This is a little poor for a demo. I like the way it looks, don't get me wrong but.. still.
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Red squares of nothing litter the scenery.

No music plays in any of the rooms I've been in [Town / Forest / Swamp ]

Only sound effects that seem to work at the Heart Get / Enemy Destroy / Falling / Door Open and Close / Shop Purchase sound.

Bug with the water [I'll assume all] If you get hit you cannot escape the water and are stuck, unable to move] happened in the green water and poison water of the swamp]

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Is the room at the end of the swamp [Portal Taken] supposed to be pitch black ? [if so just hit me]
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Game Over Screen is pitch black, unable to see options save for a brown line. When you come back you die instantly to only then come back and be able to use your person.

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I like the Pause menu. The "Map" function.. It doesn't do much except show the current spot you are in without the fog background [or the dark overlay] not sure if you can move it around with WASD or not.
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Move the Text boxes to be over the overlay as it is tough to read 'em [the beginning bit] and lose that sound that plays when the text is being displayed, that or speed up text display so it doesn't get grating]
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No real sense of direction [from the opening] you pretty much wander until you find the town or happen to find the key to the swamp.
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Is the entire game supposed to be dark ? The overlay is on everything.

Do keep up the good work and I hope to see this flourish

[smbmaster99]

Bug with the water [I'll assume all] If you get hit you cannot escape the water and are stuck, unable to move] happened in the green water and poison water of the swamp]

Yeah that's a bug I forgot to fix >< I'll definitely work on that when I pick this back up

the overlay as it is tough to read 'em [the beginning bit] and lose that sound that plays when the text is being displayed, that or speed up text display so it doesn't get grating]
Is the entire game supposed to be dark ? The overlay is on everything.

I'll see what I can do about the first one. As for your second question, the game starts off dark, cuz it's night time. After the second dungeon, it's daytime.

Is the room at the end of the swamp [Portal Taken] supposed to be pitch black ? [if so just hit me]

last room of the swamp as in where you enter the first dungeon? or like somewhere else?

Red squares of nothing litter the scenery.

No music plays in any of the rooms I've been in [Town / Forest / Swamp ]

Only sound effects that seem to work at the Heart Get / Enemy Destroy / Falling / Door Open and Close / Shop Purchase sound.

Game Over Screen is pitch black, unable to see options save for a brown line. When you come back you die instantly to only then come back and be able to use your person.

This sounds like you didn't extract the game's files, or if you did, they're not all in the same folder. (cuz the game shouldn't be able to start without the DLLs)

Did you try extracting them again? I'll download it for myself to see if I get the same result.

Edit: I tried it. I didn't get any of those latter problems you mentioned (red squares, no music, invisible game over screen, or dying instantly when you come back) I'm not sure what to say about that. Maybe your computer just happens to be one of those that don't like GM? I know my old PC was like that.

[dsc]

actually..... i died instantly once... only once, this when i switched back from crystal she was still standing the with flame behind her.

[smbmaster99]

actually..... i died instantly once... only once, this when i switched back from crystal she was still standing the with flame behind her.

That's so weird... None of this ever happened to me o_0 Have you been experiencing some of the issues Rockman has encountered too? I need to know if more than one person is having this kind of trouble.

[dsc]

the dying part yes, i haven't gotten to the dungeon yet..... gotta find the key x.x, also the game works perfectly, just after every game over, when i click continue, it instantly kills me, losing 1 of my lives x.x

[Rockman]

last room of the swamp as in where you enter the first dungeon? or like somewhere else?

No. Not the dungeon door. There is another one you can go in and when you do .. it's pitch black. I'll need to find it and try to take a screen shot.

Also I'll re-extract the stuff to see if that fixes it

[dsc]

beaten the 1st dungeon, i had 2 problems, the room before going into the ruins where the boss is..... i couldn't see a thing, had to guess where the door is...... 2nd, the same thing that happened to rockman, getting hit in the water and not able to get out, u gotta go to the bottom of the water, then u can get out.....