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A short game i made in 3 days...


Download Links:
SendSpace
MediaFire
DeviantArt

Feature Links: (Update 022309)
My Blog (Yikes)
TGC Newsletter 73 (Thank you Steve Vink for the little interview!)
DarkBasicGames.com (Thanks, DarkBasicGames!)
Forums.TIGSource.com (Thanks KniteBlargh/knitetgantt for posting it!)
IndieGames.com
Kotaku.com
RockPaperShotgun.com
Gamasutra.com

Notes:
It's synced to 60 fps. If u want it to sync to 0, hold right-mouse button...
If you have pixel shader 2.0 and above, it will use a fullscreen shader for (slightly) better visuals...

Plugins used:
Sparky's Collision 2.04b
Enhanced Audio Plugin 1.55
Enhancements Expansion Pack

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Very nice, one of the best looking games I've seen on TGC.

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Very nice, runs perfectly smoothly and looks very good on my laptop too. What are you meant to do on it? I just wander around and go into the circles and then change the environment - is there an actual goal or something you're meant to do?
Robin

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Wow, pretty amazing, music is fitting, graphics are amazing. Only thing is, the music almost put me to sleep!! Good one the less.

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Hmmm...so I guess you're meant to get to the balloon lol (just been playing this again )
I can see when you're on mode 1 there's a path to the balloon, but I can never seem to get onto that side of the maze...was trying to work out some sequence which would get me there but then I gave up and started randomly picking modes whenever I got to a column - I'm guessing the direction with which you approach a column effects the map which appears?
Any hints/tips ?

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@Zuka: Thanks!
@Maindric: Thanks! Glad my bgms went ok...
@Robin: Thank you! There are 4 different mazes and 4 columns to stay and change... Try picking a column and figure out your way to get there through the 4 mazes...

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Awesome graphics, wonderfull atmosphere.

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First "How" and now "Where". What`s next? "What"? "Who"?

I love your games!

TheComet

EDIT: This game is fantastic! What is the goal of it? How can I get to that pillar with the balloon above it?

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good stuff. just wish it had full screen mode.

@others,

game is win-able. here's a hint:

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Now THAT, is a great hint... How on earth did you get there? The balloon is always covered in walls with me...

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the hint is that you access the balloon on the first level... (there are balloons on every level). heh. how i 'won' is terribly difficult! :

super complicated spoiler:
+ Code Snippet

complete each level sequentially.
after lvl 4, return to lvl 1 and balloon is available.

so, another hint, incase you didn't read the spoiler:

you can STAY on current level by entering that level number (instead of 1 of the 3 options displayed). ie, you're on lvl 2 and move to the original pillar. game shows "choose 1,3,4". hitting "2" will allow you to go back into the current level maze.

i wonder if you can access other balloons, somehow... ah, replay value!

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YES!!! I solved it! Your screenshot helped me!

How (spoiler, if you get it...):

+ Code Snippet

I noticed that in the black level 4 only 2 diagonal ports
were connected, and that the port that will access the balloon on
level 1 is not connected anywhere except to the diagonal port,
which can be accessed through level 4. Level 3 accesses the port
diagonally from the port that will access the balloon from the
right, and level 2 accesses that port diagonally, and that is
where you start.

Does anyone get that?

@ Mike

This game is fantastic! I am REALLY looking forward to more of these types!

TheComet

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@Quadrazar: Thanks!
@TheComet: Hopefully, 'When'...
@Virtual Nomad: Nah, just the white room, nowhere else...

Glad you guys like it!

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Very striking visual style you have here. Good job!

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I love the particles in level 4. How did you do them?

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@Dar13: Thank you!
@TheComet: Scaling the particles larger, then smaller, then larger again, and so on...

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Looks nice. Game crashed on loading. I tried running the dxwebsetup, but it failed because of cabinet files or something. Ho hum. Looks pretty sweet anyway.

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I downloaded the game and played it.

My reaction before:
"Hmm, it doesn't look very appealing, I can't see anything other than squares."

My reaction during play:
"Ahh, wut the heck am I sposed to be doing here? <Runs around aimlessly>"

My reaction after accidently getting to the end after realising level 4 is out to get you:
"That was pretty cool actually, but I feel it fits into the games-as-an-art-from category."

(No idea if this was the reaction you wanted, but it was still good in my overall opinion.)

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Looks sweet but it crashes for me too.

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nice work..

galing mo

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C0wbox: Yes, thank you...

Mr Tank / DB PROgrammer: Hmmmm... I get 'crashed' feedbacks from Deviantart too... Is there by any chance the crash note was "This application has failed because MFC7.DLL was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem."?

marlou: Thanks, parehas tayong upuan, a, heheh...

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I beat it. It's a nice game. You are very talented.

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Great game, I wish I had the 3d glasses to make use of that effect. I love the surrealism.

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Very very very cool game, congrats!!! Like COwbox said, it's "art" and I like that. The only thing I don't get, is the start where you're in the middle of nothing walking to the strange "!" thing and when near going through the walls.... (or maybe a bug?).

[edit] No, that's how the game start, good idea

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I really liked that. Still haven't beaten it yet, but I really like the mood of it all. Reminded a lot of the Kingdom Heart themes. Great job.

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This is a very cool game, very smooth and the music fits perfectly! It looks and feels like a production based game!

Well done dude.

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My CPU doesn't support SSE2 instructions, and so crashes on startup.

This is probably the same problem that Mr Tank and DB PROgrammer have.

Please fix this because I really want to play

edit:
It is the advanced audio plugin which is using the SSE2 extensions, so you'll have to make a version using the built in audio or another plugin if you want to solve this problem

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heh i remember trying to play this before and it not working on my old machine. Spent 500 pound on a completely new tower, yay played it. Sadly i couldn't complete it it's just like the cake i couldn't get it either.... lol..

edit oh yea... had to download 2 seperate dll files to play this game... I think someone's already posted about this.

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@Bad Monkey: Thank you

@draknir_: Nawww, it's just a visual effect i usually see in hd vids, not really meant for 3d glasses...

@French gui: Thanks

@dab: Yeah, it's pretty similar to KH style of colors, especially the no light technique...

@Bradster_: Thank you! Glad the music fits in...

@Diggsey: Oh! I didn't know that... Maybe i'll try making a "less plugin" version then... Thanks for finding that out!

@Dragon Knight: Wow, i don't even know downloading dlls will work... And yes, i'll look on it...

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For people without SSE2 extensions, I made this replacement dll for the extended audio plugin. You won't get any sound, but it's better than nothing

Just place it in the Where folder, and run the exe again.

edit:
Solved it

I'm not exactly sure what I did but I managed to get to the ballon lol

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wow, great graphics, great sound and great atmosphere
so polished, love it. I didnt know that stuff like this is possible with dbp, i mean it runs so smooth with so many objects on screen. Thats really impressing

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Interesting game, even if I don't understand what to do

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Here's the promised version... I re-rendered the bgm files to mp3 and used dbpro's music commands instead of EAP...
Hopefully, this will resolve the issue for those who have computers that can't support SSE2...
If this works, i might as well reupload the attached file on the original post above. (And the DeviantArt one)

I've also updated the original post with links to sites that featured the short-game. Many thanks to these sites!

@Diggsey: Please see if this new version works now...

@Valle: Thanks! I used instanced objects to increase performance...

@Jeku: Thank you!

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Put it up on http://www.gametorpedo.com/

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Awesome! New version works fine on my computer. Looks and sounds lovely. Movement mechanics are nice too. Great use of shaders. Nice subtle fisheye effect.

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Good Job! Veryyyyy..... Relaxing.....

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Hmmmm... very nice.

I love the simplicity.