Late update
Thursday Mar 30th, '06 @ 1:14am
posted by mike
I don't have a lot of noteworthy news, but I figured I should update since it's been just over a week.
I spent the last week fixing up the various problems remaining in 4-player multiplayer. Recently I took care of the possibility of a 3rd or 4th player attempting to join a game in progress. Obviously, that new player can't just join, so I had to make sure that they sit in the lobby until the current game ends. Meanwhile, the host gets a little note in the lower-right corner alerting them to the new player's presence. I've done other such similar upgrades.
I've been making a couple of new maps, and I changed two of the worlds' backgrounds. Ice world received a great upgrade, and Forest world changes for the better also. I have added a handful of new screenshots in the last week; see the screenshot section for those.
I've also got the website pretty much complete; the right-hand column has links, a multiplayer leaderboard, and even a random screenshot. I still need to add a couple of pages (e.g., the joystick page).
Various Updates
Tuesday Mar 21st, '06 @ 10:55pm
posted by mike
It's been a long time since I updated this site, but now I have a lot of news.
Firstly, I've updated the layout. I went with a simpler look (and removed the frames) to better correlate with the essence of simplicity in Lode Runner. Just like Lode Runner, though, it has a lot of depth underneath its surface (just check the Stats section!).
In game news, I have spent the last week fixing the game to work with 4 players. I had hard-coded the game to only have 2 players, so I had to upgrade a lot of code. I just today finished changing the webstats scripts to understand games with 3/4 players. (Mostly, this involved the head-to-head popup windows which now can have 3 or 4 players' stats displayed within.)
I've added some screenshots in the screenshot section. You'll see the new level loading method there.
I'm working on adding some new elements to the right navigation bar; some of the links aren't available yet, but in the next week I'll have them finished. I think I'll add a random screenshot and some 'top players' section, maybe the 'top 3 players' in multiplayer.
Still here
Wednesday Jan 4th, '06 @ 12:36am
posted by mike
Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about this game.
Small updates
Tuesday Nov 29th, '05 @ 12:43am
posted by mike
Apparently I had a small error in the stats section. Luckily, it was just a scripting error. I wasn't computing the flag time properly (convering from N seconds to min:sec format). I have fixed that now.
I changed up a couple of things in the game in the area of multiplayer. Usually, an enemy will respawn 2 seconds after he is killed. In multiplayer now, though, the enemy will wait 8 seconds. I did this to balance the game a little better; the enemies became a little too much, especially in KOTH mode. I also increased KOTH leave-hill-warning time from 5 to 10 seconds (the time you can be away from the hill before your accumulated time resets). These changes look to have helped the pacing of games (especially KOTH / flag games) considerably.
Replays
Friday Nov 25th, '05 @ 1:40am
posted by mike
I started implementing a replay mode today. It's working to an extent right now. A couple of moving objects (like the ice cubes) don't get recorded, and the enemies are a little off. For the most part, though, it's working pretty well. Flag mode and KOTH mode, on the other hand, are working very well. I tried a mode earlier where the goal was to hold the flag for 2:00 and to get 2 hills captured. It was pretty darned fun.
