Whoa, nice to see you again Deep, and this still looks pretty damn awesome !

Also, why does the title screen remind me of 1984

I was just thinking about that!

It was one of the ideas for a storyline, but I scrapped it in favor of something a bit more stupid. It goes something like this:

You find yourself in a mostly empty cell. Turns out it's a prison cell. As you go through the levels you discover there's far more security and booby traps surrounding you than you thought. But why? Why are you stuck in such a high-security zone?

Because you committed tax evasion. (Or some other mundane white-collar crime that definitely doesn't warrant the maximum-security setting.)

EDIT: Some updates on the stats of the project.

Source programs: 44 (!)
Source size: 9.5 KB

The program now loads external level packs correctly \o/

Nice to see this up and running again. I think I'd be a bit surprised if the level editor and the program fit in the 8k limit. :O

I've just folded the level editor into the main program, and the total size is just 8700 bytes, which is still within the limit That actually kinda surprised me.

All that's left is to finish up saving levels, then creating a default level pack, and the project is complete Glad I picked up the project again—it feels great to finish things.

I'm still working on tying the level editor together, but yes, users can create level packs with as much depth as the built-in levels, with full progression and scoring/timing features

Update: fixed a ton of stuff with loading archived levels. I just realized there's more to be implemented than I thought—in particular, how to even work a story into a level-based puzzle platformer. Ideas?

Yeah, the plan was for a combination of cutscenes and subtitles hard-coded into the default levels, but as it is I'm now 800 bytes away from the execution limit. There is a popup routine in place that I could reuse for story, but if it takes too much space I'll have to cut out the story as it's the only thing I can reasonably cut from the program at this point. (The level editor added just around 1 KB of extra memory, reusing a good 2–3 KB of routines from the main program, so I think I'm keeping it in.)

Progression through levels is now fully operational. As I said, it's pushing the limit now—9 KB total, 10 KB in sources.

EDIT: I ended up 200 bytes away from the limit, so I shaved off 400 bytes just by taking out two lines of code (Bitmap and RectI) Should be on track to finish now!

Fresh version with a bunch of bugfixes!

I actually had to tweak some stuff in the core engine to fix some minor issues with collision detection. Debugging comment-less two-year-old Axe code is a lot of fun

The level editor is now basically complete, as it allows you to move levels around in the level pack.

Also started making the actual levels. The first (animated) screenshot isn't so much a level as a demonstration of the physics engine, just for the pretty effects The last two are actual levels.

You can download these levels along with the program here: http://www.omnimaga.org/maximum-security/demos-and-bug-reports-21366/msg391694/#msg391694

I just cleared my memory so I think I'm going to try it.

Thanks!

I'm debating whether I should create that graphical level select menu—it would definitely be pretty but it'd add a good extra kilobyte to the program I think. By that point, and with the extra bulk of a bunch of default levels, I probably might as well compile an app.