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Author Topic: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run  (Read 123557 times)

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Nexus

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #75 on: May 13, 2015, 02:49:28 pm »
Your video is great, thanks a lot! :D

Haha, I know that spot in 2-3. Formerly, it was not a problem for me, but during testing, I also died the first time because I wasn't used to the acceleration. I think I could make it a bit more forgiving (either longer rope or with a saving platform beneath).

"While you are reading this, a rock strikes you". Seriously, stop that. ;)
;D
Okay, I admit this one is mean. Were you struck? :P But most signposts contain quite useful information, even though you sometimes have to read between the lines.

But that means you've made it past that point in 2-3, congratulations! 8)
« Last Edit: May 13, 2015, 02:57:49 pm by Nexus »
Zloxx II: action platformer
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Tank

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #76 on: May 13, 2015, 03:08:50 pm »
Quote
either longer rope or with a saving platform beneath
The puzzle itself is nice! So I guess a saving platform might be a good idea. By the way: I simply oriented myself to the next coin to the left: Just move Zloxx' eye right below it, and the jump will succeed. lol (I've done that several times already in the game, as some kind of marker.)

Quote
Okay, I admit this one is mean. Were you struck?
Well, I had one battery charge left, and one life. So guess how happy I was. ;) The joke was alright, but maybe give the player a charge before you show him your humor. :D

Quote
But most signposts contain quite useful information, even though you sometimes have to read between the lines.
Indeed, most of them are very useful. After the "trick" I always look up before going to one, though. Bitten dog.

One question though: In 2-1, if I remember correctly, there was a sign that said "It's not the first time you see the red thing. What did it mean last time?". I absolutely don't know what it meant, and given that I discovered that triangle some more times, I'd like to know what it's all about. :)

Nexus

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #77 on: May 13, 2015, 03:54:21 pm »
Well, I had one battery charge left, and one life. So guess how happy I was. ;)
Really? :D
I honestly didn't expect anyone to really die there, let alone be game over! But apart from needing to redo the level, you have to admit it was a bit funny :P but sorry!

One question though: In 2-1, if I remember correctly, there was a sign that said "It's not the first time you see the red thing. What did it mean last time?". I absolutely don't know what it meant, and given that I discovered that triangle some more times, I'd like to know what it's all about. :)
Yes, nobody who played the game has really noticed or understood that, I need to make it more prominent or relevant somehow. It's not spectacular...
(click to show/hide)

There are also some other subtle hints in the environment (e.g. one in the 1-3 labyrinth), but I don't want to spoil too much here ;)
This definitely has still a lot of potential, I think I could give a more "adventurous" feeling with such symbols.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2015, 03:56:36 pm by Nexus »
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eXpl0it3r

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #78 on: May 13, 2015, 04:47:13 pm »
Here's my 52min gameplay from start to 2-3. I seem to get some odd behavior while recording, especially with VSync enabled the movement got really sluggish and without it, I got a bit of tearing.



Here are the issues I ran into, some of which you will also find in the video:

If you start the game and quit it directly, the background thread will block the closing of the application and the application seems to freeze.

Not really a bug, but it's really sad that the only way to get a highscore registered is to "properly" exit to the menu. Can you just save highscores when finishing a level?

Keybindings are broken in multiple ways. When I tried to assign the Escape key to the Pause menu, it just didn't work and I assumed that the Escape key can't be bound. But then when I got the jetpack for the first time, the default key for it was suddenly "Escape" even though I had no chance at setting the key before, thus I assume when I tried to assign it to the Pause menu action it actually assigned it to the jetpack action.

zsbzsb said on IRC that you can assign the same key to multiple actions but if you do that, then the key simply doesn't do anything anymore. I believe this might have also happened to me at the end, because the Escape key didn't bring up the Pause menu. If there's an additional key after the jetpack, it might have also gotten the Escape key assign (see bug above) and thus Escape was bound to two actions and simply stopped working.

In addition to what I said about the spikes not staying down long enough, another major issue is that the player doesn't lose the inertia when running/jumping into a wall. So you can jump into a wall, land and then out of nowhere just move forward (into the spikes). This might only be useful when trying to jump onto a platform, but I've never seen a platformer that does this. If you jump into a wall you lose all your speed an inertia.

I think 2-3 is hard enough, making the platform move under the rope in the beginning wouldn't hurt the game.

Maybe I missed something, but you should find it in the video. ;)
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Nexus

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #79 on: May 13, 2015, 06:53:07 pm »
Also a very cool video! You guys are amazing, I really appreciate your feedback! :)
Thanks for taking the time!

Not really a bug, but it's really sad that the only way to get a highscore registered is to "properly" exit to the menu. Can you just save highscores when finishing a level?
Do you mean savegames? The idea was that you can use the transitions between levels to decide whether you want to continue playing or have a break, and continue later. Do you think you should be able to restart the level with the previously saved attributes? Then, the final highscore when beating all levels would not make sense anymore...

zsbzsb said on IRC that you can assign the same key to multiple actions but if you do that, then the key simply doesn't do anything anymore.
Yes, I should explicitly forbid that, and also add a few more checks to prevent the strange situations you've described.

In addition to what I said about the spikes not staying down long enough, another major issue is that the player doesn't lose the inertia when running/jumping into a wall.
Totally. I completely missed that when testing, and I re-played all levels for v2.3. Should be easy to fix ;)

I think 2-3 is hard enough, making the platform move under the rope in the beginning wouldn't hurt the game.
Hm... It's really a challenge, but you're warned twice (you have to look for the warnings, there's not a lot to see at the beginning of 2-3). Since it's at the very beginning, you can usually restart the level, but yes, you lose a few weapons. Maybe providing a reference point as you said in the video would also simplify it.

Some remarks:
  • The archer guy "caught" in the lattice in 1-3 can be killed with any weapon, either horizontally with a rocket or from above with a mine or rolling bomb. I never explicitly tell that weapons go through lattice, I though people would experiment a bit ;) and the fact that the arrow does so indicates it.
  • You say that one should collect coins prior to enabling the checkpoint, so that one would not have to do it again. Actually, the opposite is true: if you activate the checkpoint first, you can collect them twice (you only lose a life when dying, everything else is retained). This is even more important for items and hearts.
  • Some enemies indeed spawn a bit late. You're right that surprise can be nice, but the effect may be overused. I think especially the flying dinosaurs in the volcano levels are annoying.
  • There were some very cool situations :D once at the end of 1-3, you killed the enemies near the end and were almost there, and then jumped right into an arrow. Saying "jetpack fun" and jumping straight into lava looked also hilarious :) I only realized the key binding bug later.
Zloxx II: action platformer
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Tank

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #80 on: May 13, 2015, 10:02:48 pm »
Nexus, it was funny until I got killed. :D No really, it was amusing. Thanks for the red triangle hints - too bad, I expected something special. ;)

Regarding the lattice: I found that out relatively quickly, I guess it's really okay to let the player experiment.

Actually I really enjoy the difficulty of Zloxx, it's like in the good old days without health regeneration etc. Yes, the game pissed me off a lot, but in a challenging way. I have always had to come back to it and try again. If hard situations are predictable I'm fine with them. And hey, it gives an extreme good feeling when you master another !#*@%& situation. :)

eXpl0it3r

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #81 on: May 13, 2015, 10:17:09 pm »
Do you mean savegames? The idea was that you can use the transitions between levels to decide whether you want to continue playing or have a break, and continue later. Do you think you should be able to restart the level with the previously saved attributes? Then, the final highscore when beating all levels would not make sense anymore...
Ah well I just had a different highscore system in mind. Guess the current system is just fine. ;)

I re-played all levels for v2.3. Should be easy to fix ;)
Yay!

Hm... It's really a challenge, but you're warned twice (you have to look for the warnings, there's not a lot to see at the beginning of 2-3). Since it's at the very beginning, you can usually restart the level, but yes, you lose a few weapons. Maybe providing a reference point as you said in the video would also simplify it.
Well, I just don't see any use in it other to frustrate people. In my opinion the first action in a level should be easy doable, so you already get some satisfaction in progression, instead of "Yes! A new level!" - "Hahahaha, you can't even move a few tiles from the spawn, you're so bad at this!". ;)

You say that one should collect coins prior to enabling the checkpoint, so that one would not have to do it again. Actually, the opposite is true: if you activate the checkpoint first, you can collect them twice (you only lose a life when dying, everything else is retained). This is even more important for items and hearts.
Well that's one view. I usually like to collect everything I see and progress. If I get to a difficult part and respawn 3 times, it's really boring have to spend the first minute of the respawn collecting the same items over and over again. I guess if you're playing it for the highscore your strategy might be better.

There were some very cool situations :D once at the end of 1-3, you killed the enemies near the end and were almost there, and then jumped right into an arrow. Saying "jetpack fun" and jumping straight into lava looked also hilarious :) I only realized the key binding bug later.
Well maybe cool for YOU! :P

I guess, I could record my future attempts, so you can laugh a bit more at my failures. ;D
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Nexus

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #82 on: May 14, 2015, 01:47:26 pm »
Well, I just don't see any use in it other to frustrate people. In my opinion the first action in a level should be easy doable, so you already get some satisfaction in progression, instead of "Yes! A new level!" - "Hahahaha, you can't even move a few tiles from the spawn, you're so bad at this!". ;)
That's not really my intention ;)
But it makes people realize that they can't just run through levels, they have to be careful -- and read the signposts, trying to truly understand them. If you take your time to observe the lift, you'll see that it doesn't come very close to the rope, and can plan accordingly.
Besides, I think having it at the beginning of the level is far less frustrating because you can restart at any time with 3 lives. If it were immediately before the end, and you'd have to redo the whole level, it would be much worse.

Well that's one view. I usually like to collect everything I see and progress. If I get to a difficult part and respawn 3 times, it's really boring have to spend the first minute of the respawn collecting the same items over and over again. I guess if you're playing it for the highscore your strategy might be better.
The result is the same if you collect - save - continue or save - collect - continue. In the second case, you additionally have the option of collecting things a second time. This can be (literally) a life-saver ;)

Well maybe cool for YOU! :P
No, really -- it's very interesting to see others play your own game, especially if they comment about what you think. There's a lot of things that one doesn't realize as a developer, that's why I find it so valuable :)

Actually I really enjoy the difficulty of Zloxx, it's like in the good old days without health regeneration etc. Yes, the game pissed me off a lot, but in a challenging way. I have always had to come back to it and try again. If hard situations are predictable I'm fine with them. And hey, it gives an extreme good feeling when you master another !#*@%& situation.
Cool to hear that :)

And I just saw your video at Twitch -- it's absolutely great, thanks a lot! 8)

About the signpost with "but always consider that the way behind you can be interesting as well": it's not meaningless. Signposts never are ;) and except for the few ones that obviously mislead you ("a rock strikes you"), reading them carefully and thinking about what I may have meant with them will help you in the level. Sometimes it's crucial to understand the game's mechanics or dangers, sometimes it can earn you nice bonuses.

Something I don't quite get though is that you both save your weapons until you die and can't use them anymore. And I think nobody ever used a mine... Tank, the section in 3-4 where you died a lot would also equip you with 3 additional rockets each time (the [?] box is right above the falling spikes) ;)

Also, I noticed that the background was not seamless when repeating. Strange, this didn't occur at me...

I'll give my best to fix some severe bugs until tomorrow... If you have the patience, you can play the rest of the game in an improved v2.3.2! :)
« Last Edit: May 14, 2015, 04:30:37 pm by Nexus »
Zloxx II: action platformer
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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #83 on: May 15, 2015, 10:13:58 am »
Haha, I can imagine that watching the video as the game's developer is indeed funny. I also watched it again and I'm impressed by my failure ratio. Disclaimer: It was really late. ;)

It's also interesting to see how fast one "learns" to solve the harder spots. At first you are all like "No, this is impossible to do.", but with 1-2 lives of practice, it usually works. I even am fine with the frustration I get, but at some spots there could be more checkpoints. Going through a tough puzzle is challenging already, but having to go through 2 puzzles again after dying is sometimes annoying.

About the signs: Absolutely, and I guess I should just have went through the teleporter again to go back further. But like I said multiple times in the video: I don't plan to violate the no. 1 rule of Zloxx gameplay: Don't care of the special boxes or coins if that means leaving the main path -- you might regret it. :P

I personally save the weapons out of 2 reasons: 1) I forget about them, because most situations are perfectly solvable by jumping on enemies. 2) I want to save them for really hard situations. I play like that in all games, though, meaning I usually only rarely spend earned power-ups/extras/weapons.

The background tiling "bug" is one I wanted to report, I just forgot about it. If there's anything valuable you need for solving it, feel free to ask. GPU is an NVIDIA GTX 660 Ti.

I'll wait for 2.3.2 then before continuing. Thanks :-)

eXpl0it3r

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #84 on: May 15, 2015, 10:59:45 am »
I really don't know what it is and whether it's because of my PC, but loading resources takes quite some time. So if I start the game, click through the menu and load a level, the game might freeze for another 30s or so. Do you experience something similar? Are you certain the resource loading is not doing too much work somewhere?

Also if I switch away from game while it's in a "frozen" state, it fails to switch to the pause menu. Since you use SFML 2.3 you could check the focus explicitly again before a level starts.

While trying out some speed running, I came across a bug (or is it a feature?) that lets you circumvent one of the enemy spawn triggers. If you just as the green arrow in the picture blow shows, the two running enemies don't spawn where Zloxx stands.



Not sure if a bug or a feature, but if you die and restart the level the music will start again from where you left off before dying. Shouldn't it fully reset?

Also when only having VSync active, do you still do some odd calculations? Because on my desktop as well as my notebook I get very sluggish movement with VSync active.

Movements that can be limiting:
  • When on a rope and you're going up (pressing UP) and then want to jump left or right and press JUMP + LEFT/RIGHT while accidentally still holding the UP key, Zloxx will just jump a bit higher on the rope and not go left or right.
  • Holding the JUMP key won't repeat the jumping, as such if you press the JUMP key a few milliseconds before Zloxx really landed, the jump won't register. If instead a jump were to be triggered when in contact with the ground and the JUMP key is pressed, jumping would be less of a millisecond precision act. Same goes for jump + holding on enemy for a higher jump.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2015, 12:01:27 pm by eXpl0it3r »
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Nexus

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #85 on: May 15, 2015, 12:58:06 pm »
I really don't know what it is and whether it's because of my PC, but loading resources takes quite some time. So if I start the game, click through the menu and load a level, the game might freeze for another 30s or so. Do you experience something similar?
Yes, but not that long, usually only a few seconds. I'm loading all the sound effects in one thread as soon as the game starts, and I join the thread when the level starts, to make sure they're loaded when needed. The problem is, I don't really know how I can avoid resource loading taking time. Even if I parallelize it further, the hard disk will be the bottleneck. There are the following trade-offs, and neither is optimal:
  • Load on-demand, interruption of game flow -> bad
  • Load at startup in loading screen -> user has to wait while doing nothing -> bad
  • Load in background in menu -> user can navigate in the meantime, but has to wait in the level -> less bad
The only thing I could imagine is to make a smart analysis of the level and determine which sound effects are used, and when. Then I could load further during the level. The "when" part however is close to impossible, as there would be a deep analysis of all possible paths Zloxx can take and the sounds he can trigger on the way. With teleports and remote triggers, the computing time for such an algorithm itself will explode ;)

What I can do is have another look at the loading with a profiler, and see if there's optimization potential.

While trying out some speed running, I came across a bug (or is it a feature?) that lets you circumvent one of the enemy spawn triggers.
There are a few ones where it's indeed intended, but yours isn't one of them. Thanks!

Not sure if a bug or a feature, but if you die and restart the level the music will start again from where you left off before dying. Shouldn't it fully reset?
I did this to reduce the annoyance, letting the player hear different parts of the theme, not always the beginning. But yes, it may appear strange, I could restart it indeed.

Also when only having VSync active, do you still do some odd calculations? Because on my desktop as well as my notebook I get very sluggish movement with VSync active.
I have to revisit this code. The whole frame time computation is a bit limited because when I started to develop Zloxx half a decade ago, I didn't use separate graphics and logic ticks, and several parts in the code rely on that. I'm not even sure if providing VSync at all is a good idea under these circumstances. I'll see what I can do :)

When on a rope and you're going up (pressing UP) and then want to jump left or right and press JUMP + LEFT/RIGHT while accidentally still holding the UP key, Zloxx will just jump a bit higher on the rope and not go left or right.
I never encountered this... You don't need to hold the up key to hold on to the rope, so you can release it long before. Since up is needed to cling to a rope, I can't just disable it, because it's very well possible that one jumps even to grab the same rope again.

Holding the JUMP key won't repeat the jumping, as such if you press the JUMP key a few milliseconds before Zloxx really landed, the jump won't register. If instead a jump were to be triggered when in contact with the ground and the JUMP key is pressed, jumping would be less of a millisecond precision act.
Yes, as explained here, this is intentional ;)
I really think this is part of the challenge, just holding the jump key to jump again would be too easy.

Same goes for jump + holding on enemy for a higher jump.
No, here you can hold the key before landing on an enemy. There's no other possibility, because the time you actually touch the enemy is just one frame, which is impossible to hit.

I guess with all those things I won't be finished with the next version today :D
« Last Edit: May 15, 2015, 01:03:36 pm by Nexus »
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eXpl0it3r

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #86 on: May 15, 2015, 02:55:28 pm »
Yes, but not that long, usually only a few seconds.
I don't really know what it is either. I just takes way too long and my SSD isn't the limiting factor here either. Tank said it works fine for him...

The problem is, I don't really know how I can avoid resource loading taking time. Even if I parallelize it further, the hard disk will be the bottleneck.
Pre-loading is fine. If it turns out to really just be a long loading time, you could think about not directly joining the thread, but instead have some flags to check if the loading is finished and if not, keep displaying some text showing "loading resources" or whatever.

What I can do is have another look at the loading with a profiler, and see if there's optimization potential.
If it doesn't happen on your system you could create a debug build which I could try and profile it and provide you that data. Maybe it's just my system after all?

I did this to reduce the annoyance, letting the player hear different parts of the theme, not always the beginning. But yes, it may appear strange, I could restart it indeed.
It doesn't really matter, I'd have just expect the music to start from the beginning again, since the full level reset.

I never encountered this... You don't need to hold the up key to hold on to the rope, so you can release it long before. Since up is needed to cling to a rope, I can't just disable it, because it's very well possible that one jumps even to grab the same rope again.
Really? I guess you're just used to it then.

I'm trying to gain height to jump to the coins, but while still (accidentally) pressing up, I want to jump to the left, but all the jump does is grab the rope again. Here is an examples from my video. It's hard to spot, but you see me "jump-move" on the rope slightly: https://youtu.be/3uiP8feDmu8?t=455

I just tried Commander Keen and there's a noticeable delay before holding the UP key while jumping grabs the rope again. So like you jump and 0.5s or so he grabs the "rope" again. With Zloxx you sometimes don't even notice the the jump key was pressed and it feels more like glitch.

Yes, as explained here, this is intentional ;)
I really think this is part of the challenge, just holding the jump key to jump again would be too easy.
As I said a looked a bit at Commander Keen and they implemented the jumping, that when you hold the key nothing happens, but when you repress the key in mid-air and keep it holding, the jump will get triggered again once on the ground. As such it's not senseless repeated jumping, but your input will get processed. Then again I guess this all a matter of taste. I'd just like it if Zloxx was a bit more forgiving.
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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #87 on: May 15, 2015, 03:05:45 pm »
The problem is, I don't really know how I can avoid resource loading taking time. Even if I parallelize it further, the hard disk will be the bottleneck.
Pre-loading is fine. If it turns out to really just be a long loading time, you could think about not directly joining the thread, but instead have some flags to check if the loading is finished and if not, keep displaying some text showing "loading resources" or whatever.
Just a suggestion but I've noticed that a technique which I think is really effective is to design a small, simple mini-game that barely takes any sprites/sounds so doesn't take long to load that can then be played in a separate thread so as to keep the user entertained while loading the resources for the main game. Examples would be the nintendo eShop with their little roulette game and splatoon which has a very basic upward scrolling platformer.

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #88 on: May 15, 2015, 04:03:41 pm »
The rope controls were no problem in my case, but it would be nice if you could jump away while still holding UP. eXpl0it3r's Commander Keen example is a good way, I think.

The same applies to the jump action: I don't want to have repeatable jumps, that would be kinda lame. But some more forgiving controls would be awesome, like: If you press the jump key some milliseconds before you reach the floor, Zloxx could activate the jump as soon as you hit the ground.

As for resource loading: Just show a progress bar when the player selects the level and resource loading is not complete. Nothing you can do against it.

Now to the interesting part: I finished the game! Yay. ;) You can watch it here: http://www.twitch.tv/tankbo/b/659327914. Might show you again some spots that are not so optimal, at least for me. ;) But yeah, I really enjoyed playing Zloxx 2 and hope that there will be another version some time. So thanks for making it and providing it for free.

Can we create levels ourselves? I would like to create a "Tank's payback" map pack. ;)

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Re: Zloxx II - An action Jump'n'Run
« Reply #89 on: May 15, 2015, 04:14:10 pm »
Thanks again to all your feedback! I might reconsider the controls ;) but I definitely don't want to make it too easy. Timing is an important part in this platformer... In general, ideal would be that the platforming is difficult and you can get really good at controlling Zloxx with enough experience, however it shouldn't be frustrating for skilled people.

Tank, too bad you already played the end, I've already begun to make it much more spectacular. Maybe one day you'll feel like going through level 2-4 again :D

Quote
Can we do levels ourselves? I would like to create a "Tank's payback" map pack. ;)
This is planned for version 2.4! The editor is already functional, but needs some bugfixes and instructions. I also have to implement a whole system to name/store custom levels. And there are so many other things to fix... So that may take a while.

Considering that the game jam theme "From the end to the beginning" is once more quite generic and the in my opinion cool ones like "Minerals" or "Limited resource management" were not chosen, I might invest some time into improving Zloxx instead of the jam. Not sure yet though.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2015, 04:17:41 pm by Nexus »
Zloxx II: action platformer
Thor Library: particle systems, animations, dot products, ...
SFML Game Development: