Author Topic: Axe Contest poll and judging starts  (Read 73330 times)

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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #195 on: September 26, 2010, 02:58:10 pm »
It's up to you really. Personally I decided to make the criticism on each points public (in spoilers) but the scoring/vote remains private for now. It might make it easier to judge IMHO for now.

And nice to hear it's coming along nicely Builderboy. I personally also enjoyed the games I played so far. Even if some had some issues (due to still being developed when they were submitted) I still found them great.

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #196 on: September 27, 2010, 04:54:24 am »
Yeah, I was thinking of that, but he seems like a very busy person to me ;)
Il try to solve it myself first, Quigibo is like my last rescue :P
Btw any luck on this so far? /me wants Splut to be finished ^^

EDIT: ALLRIGHT! I finally finished my portion of judging. Took a total of 8-9 hours I swear, including testing each entries. Maybe more, even.

Below in the spoiler you can find all my reviews for the games I did not judge yet, without the scores again. Lots of great entries people submitted and I am happy to have seen so many people participating. I personally enjoyed pretty much everything I played. Below there are criticism/suggestions of the games that were not reviewed yet by me. I am seriously hoping to see lot of those games getting finished. Note that if a game has a less positive review or if the review mentions some major flaws, it doesn't necessarly mean I disliked the game. In most cases, games had 4 good scores and only one bad score. I may cite LordConiupiter's RPG, as example: a game that has huge potential with amazing graphics and nice idea, but the errors hindered the gameplay a lot. In SirCmpwn's case, imho, it was the controls. Besides that I enjoyed what I saw in those games and the rest. I was forced to find every possible flaws in each entry so they won't all get 100% score, after all, lol. :P A lot of that stuff have potential for ticalc feature and if finished, they'll have a big chance I think. As you could see, one of the entry was featured on ticalc.org already.

Spoiler For Spoiler:
Simul, by Deep Thought
Originality -At first it may just look like swapping between generic calc games clones, but then it gets interesting: You need to play multiple of them at once, like the flash game called Multitask.
Gameplay/Controls - It can be a bit hard to use two directional pads at once and the difficulty starting on level 2 is very high (I never went further). Otherwise they are pretty simple to use and gameplay is fine
Graphics - Kinda simple and the grayscale is pretty random, although they do the job well.
Entertainment factor - Pretty addicting game. You will want to get further and further and will be curious what comes after level 2 and so on.
useability - It is fine aside from the fact one of the game took me a while to figure out (the one with an horizontal or vertical line) and the difficulty settings being reset everytime you die or restart the game was a bit annoying when playing in fast mode. Also it takes a while getting used to multiple controls.

Mansion Impossible, by guy602665
Originality - A very original game for calculators.
Gameplay/Controls - Kinda ok, but key detection appears to be a bit slow
Graphics - Could be a bit better, for in overall, they are well layed out.
Entertainment factor - It is fun for a while, especially if you like reflexion/financial games, but after beating it, the replay value gets lower and lower very quickly. Some difficulty levels might be cool, even thought the original Flash game did not have any.
useability - It can take a while to get used to it, especially if you do not read the readme. Also the text in the game has troubles displaying correctly, but it is not enough to hinder gameplay, to my surprise. I would like to see this finished eventually and maybe with better graphics, closer to the original layout.

Parsec, by _player1537
Originality - A simple shoot-em-up concept, but still kinda original nonetheless
Gameplay/Controls - Pretty good, except that the difficulty is a bit too easy.
Graphics - Pretty simple but looks good and has an old-skool feel. Bullets should probably be a bit larger so they're easier to see.
Entertainment factor - Due to the lack of difficulty increase as game progresses and the easy difficulty to begin with, it gets repetitive after a while, so you may eventually kill yourself in the game and stop playing. Future versions really need difficulty increase, like more ships and bullets appearing at a faster and faster rate.
useability - You might get annoyed at the overheating at first but then you get used to it. There's a bug causing your ship to crash if you move it near the score when your score is 10 pts or higher. Also bullets are hard to see. Besides that, the game is pretty straightforward and has no other bug.

Heroes of Might & Magic, by LordConiupiter
Originality - Amazing RPG idea with a style not explored so far on calc.
Gameplay/Controls - In general it is easy to control, except that it would be nice to be able to cancel on menus and if battle movement was faster-paced.
Graphics - Awesome, although battles could use more details. Display glitches occured in battles as well.
Entertainment factor - Due to the useability issues (see below), this kills the game entertainment value in its current state. I simply stopped playing after 10 minutes of trying to beat a monster, missing every single hit. The reason why the score will not be extremly low either is because it supports external levels, although the map editor is not provided, due to not being eligible for the contest (the editor is not written in Axe language).
Useability - This is the major problem of the game. Attacks against enemies would miss 99% of the time so winning battles was pretty much impossible. A lot of bugs also occured, causing data to frequently get corrupted and other issues in general made the game nearly impossible to use for a decent period of time. Once the problems and useability issues are solved, this could become a major title for TI calculators.

Axe Platformer, by tloz128
Originality - A platformer with scrolling in both directions and complex physics. It is an idea that has not been explored a lot for calculators.
Gameplay/Controls - Although a bit hard to control at times (the character is kinda slippy, making it easy to fall in the pit), the controls are nice and the physic is simply amazing, despite a minor issue when changing direction.
Graphics - Very nice sprites and tiles for monochrome graphics
Entertainment factor - Unfortunately, the game did not get close to be finished or in beta status when the contest ended, thus, there are no enemies/challenges and only one room to explore, where you can try to jump around and avoid falling into the pit. Due to coding issues that occured near the contest end (bugs), there is nothing else to do in this contest-submitted version, which is why it only gets this score. I hope this project gets completed eventually because it has a lot of potential for a ticalc.org hit..
Useability - Easy to get used to and no real bug hinders the gameplay. Maybe have the character so when you change direction, it slows gown, then gradually starts moving to the opposite direction, instead of instantly changing direction.

Advance Wars TI, by SirCmpwn
Originality - A clone of a classic GBA turn-based strategy game.
Gameplay/Controls - Slow key detection at times, especially when selecting units/buildings on the map and it would be better if controls did not kept alternating between 2nd and ENTER. Also it is a bit annoying to scroll around the map because the cursor won't scroll the map when moving it outside the screen. You have to use the numpad instead.
Graphics - Very nice for monochrome graphics
Entertainment factor - Due to the nature of strategy games, this game can have a high replay value, like board games. It would be even better with fog of war, though, and maybe an AI mode. Fixing a few game issues would make this game a masterpiece when it gets finished.
Useability - Can take a while to get used to and it is impossible to have units remain at their current position if you want them to attack. You have to move them one spot.

Space Dash, by squidgetx
Originality - Nice idea of space shooter, where instead of a flying ship, the ship moves on the floor and you have to jump on platforms
Gameplay/Controls - Great controls, although jumping can be a bit akward and makes the game very hard at times.
Graphics - Excellent grayscale graphics with parralax scrolling and nicely made sprites.
Entertainment factor - Very addicting and entertaining.
Useability - A small bug can make gameplay easier or cause you to not be able to start playing (I'm glad it was fixed in the ticalc.org release), but other than that, the game is perfect.

THEaxeGAMEpack, by shmibs (note, due to contest theme, the total score of this entry will be the average of all 4 games)
1-StarCatch
Originality - Simple but interesting game concept
Gameplay/Controls - Not bad but very hard. Also continuing when you die is kinda akward as you need to press Y or N letters instead of being able to select Yes or No in a menu or 2nd/ENTER for yes and CLEAR/DEL/MODE for no.
Graphics - Simple, but do the job very well
Entertainment factor - Very addicting, although it can get a bit frustrating after a while so you may want to stop playing for some periods of time.
Useability - Easy to use, although it would be nice if the character started further from the projectile so you won't die instantly if you jump at the start. Also it took me a bit to figure out how to continue on the game over screen, as it is not common to use Y/N keys to confirm/cancel.
2-M.O.D
Originality - A tunnel clone, but the way the difficulty increase (a lines background creating a lightspeed effect that goes lighter and lighter as game progresses) is original.
Gameplay/Controls - Quite good, although a bit slow-paced in normal mode and a bit too fast in turbo mode.
Graphics - Very great for a racing tunnel and amazing special effects
Entertainment factor - Addicting and entertaining, although the slowly increasingly difficulty might bore certain people after a bit. Might be good to make the difficulty increase faster.
Useability - Same except for the projectile. In this game case, moving out of the screen at the beginning is possible. Might want to fix that.
3-Swap!
Originality - A fall down clone, but the blocked paths + swapping floors together adds a twist to the game.
Gameplay/Controls - Nicely chosen controls, although very hard
Graphics - Does the job well
Entertainment factor - Addicting and entertaining, although it might get a bit confusing at times for some people and it is very hard. Good entertainment value in overall.
Useability - Took a bit long to get used to and same control issues. other than that, great.
4-PingPangPong
Originality - 3D pong and unlike many pong clones, the AI can actually lose.
Gameplay/Controls - Nice controls, although unless you pay attention to the gauge to the right of the screen, it is hard to know when the ball has reached you.
Graphics - Simple graphics, but the ball 3D effect looks great.
Entertainment factor - Entertaining, although I would say the other games got a better replay value in general.
Useability - easy to use, but same control issues and it is hard to figure out when the ball is reaching you without looking at the gauge and looking at both the game area and the gauge at once makes it a bit hard to concentrate.
(average of all 4 games, due to contest rules being based on single game entries)
I am going to bed, now. Sorry I did not feel like formatting my reviews with bold text and everything :P. Tomorrow, if I get some free time, there are many of those entries that are returning on my calc immediately so I can play them again ;D
« Last Edit: September 27, 2010, 04:57:13 am by DJ Omnimaga »

Offline Ikkerens

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #197 on: September 27, 2010, 11:42:13 am »
Btw any luck on this so far? /me wants Splut to be finished ^^

Nope. Still having the closing issue (although its a bit better now, just a bit tho).
I still have 1 more level to implement.

Mainly I am waiting for extra app pages for data storage.
You'd be suprised if you saw the 18-22 A4's full of storyline/documentation/level design.
But can't implement all that without extra pages.

Speaking of which, any news on that being implemented soon, or is that idea not possible?

EDIT: I found it! The ramclear/strange things when closing is caused by the difficulty part. (I tested it by putting it inside a If 1=2 block)
Now to find out WHAT exactly is wrong with it ;)
EDIT 2: Fixed, no more closing errors ;)
Now to actually finish the game and find the double block error. (And some other ones you guys haven't figured out yet)
EDIT 3: Rewrote the block spawning code. Double block (and the other ones) have been fixed as far as I can test.
Should any1 encounter more bugs, please tell me ;)
EDIT 4: Allright, recieved some bugs from classmates, those are fixed now too (level 15 being uncompletable, my mistake, clouds taking away freeram from the level itself :P)
Now to import 2 more levels and then... HALLELUJA :)
« Last Edit: September 27, 2010, 01:12:14 pm by Ikkerens »

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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #198 on: September 27, 2010, 02:51:44 pm »
Sadly this will not happen in a long while (december at the very best), if at all. I don't think it's a good idea for people to rely on extra APP pages to finish their project, else many projects may die due to extended wait. Instead it might be best that you rely on APPVARS to store your data if 16 KB is not enough. Also a lot of people probably want this released soon anyway (like me ;D)

Good luck with the bugs!

Offline FinaleTI

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #199 on: September 27, 2010, 02:57:12 pm »
I can't wait for a bug fixed Splut either.

If it wasn't for the exit bug, I would put this on my calc right now.


Spoiler For Projects:

My projects haven't been worked on in a while, so they're all on hiatus for the time being. I do hope to eventually return to them in some form or another...

Spoiler For Pokemon TI:
Axe port of Pokemon Red/Blue to the 83+/84+ family. On hold.

Spoiler For Nostalgia:
My big personal project, an original RPG about dimensional travel and a few heroes tasked with saving the world.
Coding-wise, on hold, but I am re-working the story.

Spoiler For Finale's Super Insane Tunnel Pack of Doom:
I will be combining Blur and Collision Course into a single gamepack. On hold.

Spoiler For Nostalgia Origins: Sky's Story:
Prequel to Nostalgia. On hold, especially while the story is re-worked.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #200 on: September 27, 2010, 03:08:41 pm »
My guess about the bug is that some important stuff in memory is overwritten so it might be a good idea to check where you store your data and the like so it isn't stored out of range. (eg: {L1+3837}

Offline Ikkerens

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #201 on: September 27, 2010, 04:56:51 pm »
As I said in my edits, I found a bug, which I never thought of.
It is, when setting a value in the freeram, and you don't close it, it may cause unstability.
For ex.
Unstable:
Code: [Select]
25->{97+L2}->{98+L2

Stable:
Code: [Select]
25->{97+L2}->{98+L2}

As soon as I fixed that, it worked.
Dj, am i allowed to upload a fixed version here?
Or just redirect ppl to ticalc?
« Last Edit: September 27, 2010, 05:13:09 pm by Ikkerens »

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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #202 on: September 27, 2010, 05:33:39 pm »
Oh right, I see now. Glad it's fixed :)

For now you can upload here and eventually in the Omni download section that is still under development, but you can also upload on ticalc.org as well. Just make sure to include instructions on how to play.

Offline ztrumpet

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #203 on: September 27, 2010, 05:38:43 pm »
I can't wait for a bug fixed Splut either.

If it wasn't for the exit bug, I would put this on my calc right now.
Same here.

EDIT: I found it! The ramclear/strange things when closing is caused by the difficulty part. (I tested it by putting it inside a If 1=2 block)
Now to find out WHAT exactly is wrong with it ;)
EDIT 2: Fixed, no more closing errors ;)
Awesome!  I can't wait for a version that I trust on my calc. :)

Offline Ikkerens

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #204 on: September 28, 2010, 10:31:27 am »
Well, for those interested.
I have just submitted Splut to ticalc.org and do not know when it shows up.
So I am also uploading it here.
This version has been tested quite well by 10 people that are addicted and have not encountered any ramclears/other errors so far.

The documentation is included, have fun ;)
@DJ, you were saying something about a key detection issue.
Could you please specify what exactly is wrong with it? (And in what phase, menu, game itself etc etc)

Edit: Another animated screenshot, this time using game gray :)
« Last Edit: September 28, 2010, 11:06:43 am by Ikkerens »

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Offline Raylin

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #205 on: September 28, 2010, 11:43:48 am »
Very nice, Ikkerens. I liked Splut a lot!
Was this an original idea?
Bug me about my book.

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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #206 on: September 28, 2010, 11:45:33 am »
Awesome! Ticalc generally takes between 12 and 72 hours to approve the files actually so it should show up soon. As for key detection issue, I mean it detects keypresses way too fast. If I want to choose level 2, for example, and level 1 is currently selected, if I press the right arrow for about 0.25 seconds, the selection will already have reached level 10. I have to press the keys so quickly to select stuff or move around that I have no time to react. In-game, you move so incredibly fast that sometimes you want to move one step and end up accidentally moving 2 or 3 steps further. Other than that, game seemed pretty fine and I enjoyed it a lot :).
« Last Edit: September 28, 2010, 11:48:07 am by DJ Omnimaga »

Offline Ikkerens

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #207 on: September 28, 2010, 11:47:45 am »
The original idea was just blocks, but levels couldn't be made complicated enough.
So it was Jeroen's idea to implement portals, even scripted portals.
And thus, Splut was born.

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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #208 on: September 28, 2010, 11:48:23 am »
By the way, the Omni download section is now up. You are free to upload your game through Downloads > User-Contributed TI Calculator Games & Development Tools > TI-83 Plus, 84 Plus & Silver Edition > 83+/84+ Games (Puzzle/Reflex). Just make sure to check the rules there :)

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Re: Axe Contest poll and judging starts
« Reply #209 on: September 28, 2010, 11:48:37 am »
Wait, whut?
There are portals in there?! o.o
Bug me about my book.

Sarah: TI-83 Plus Silver Edition [OS 1.19]
Cassie: TI-86 [OS 1.XX]
Elizabeth: TI-81 [OS 1.XX]
Jehuty: TI-83 Plus Silver Edition [OS 1.19]
Tesla: CASIO Prizm