Chains the puzzle game

[Borsty]

Getting a "Scripts/input_field.lua:355: attempt to concatenate local 'c' (a nil value)" error when trying to use backspace at the name field at the options.

-Edit-
Ok 2nd time it worked, when I click on a level it displays it and keep saying "Clear 200" and nothing happens...

[rude]

Hey Ivan. I've been wondering when you would release a demo of this game.

I'm having several issues, though:

1. When starting level 1, I get a black screen with "quit" in the top-right corner.
2. If I resize the window to some other resolution and start level 1, it says "Clear 200", and never proceeds.
3. A 1px blue-ish border to the left and to the top of the screen, in both windowed and fullscreen.
4. If the window is resized, it loses its black background color.

EDIT:

Windows XP
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
2 GB RAM
GeForce 9800 GTX+
ForceWare: 178.24 (downloaded yesterday)

[ivan]

Thanks a lot for the feedback, that's exactly what I was looking for.

rude and u9_, certain video cards have problems with the way either alpha blending or render stages are set up in the graphics plugin. We are trying to get the plugin fixed asap. rude, it seems likely that the other problems you've mentioned are related to that same bug.

Borsty, I couldn't replicate the bug that you got, but I added a nil check which should prevent it from ocurring again.

[rude]

That's odd. Is everyone in the Agen2D team using ATI, then? I added my computer specs in my previous post, btw.

EDIT: I'm getting the same on my laptop with ATI Radeon X1250.

[qubodup]

Hello,

I tried the game using wine-1.0.1-174-gc4039bd and it started.

• Full-screen should not be forced (nor default, at least IMHO). Especially in small games, people might want to watch a movie at the same time.
• Sometimes it froze for 10-20 seconds. No idea how to reproduce. The attached screen shows such a situation (when it's frozen)
• I don't like the shaded inner border of the balls. The outer border at the same time has a hard edge. A problem with png alpha?
• Level 3: "Match the given amount in one chain" - um come again? Oh, I get it. The number at the bottom right..

Man, level 4 is darn creative! I think it could be effectively used for hitting on persons that have a biology-related profession or discipline. Association: blood vessels.

I love how connecting two balls also physically connects them. I think this might be the problem though. I connected a rolling ball in level two to one that was falling and when the falling one fell down (on the one it was connected to), the lagging began.

ballss.png (35.58 KiB) Viewed 4515 times

I'll recommend it to a fried, who doesn't care about open source and will never not be using Windows anyways.

I don't see how it fits into this sub-forum however, as it's not pony- nor pun-related and it's not a general gamedev talk.

PS: However, my interpretation of a 'general' forum is very different from for example the one on the TIG Forums, where "General" means "Off-Topic"

[Kaze]

That's odd. Is everyone in the Agen2D team using ATI, then? I added my computer specs in my previous post, btw.

EDIT: I'm getting the same on my laptop with ATI Radeon X1250.

Works fine for me, on nVIDIA (8500 GT).

[farvardin]

It is Not in LÖVE => Not for Linux => Not Free => I'm Never gonna play it.

Sorry

sorry especially for you, because it's a great, clever game with a great concept!
You can also play it with wine. I'm sure, it won't taint your computer and your OS!

I especially like the fact every level goal is different from the previous.

By the way, if anybody wants to become a beta tester let me know and I'll send you a link to the full version.
But then you have to be willing to complete the game and give me feedback.

I'd like to if you don't mind. I'll give you my feedback as a linux user. I hope you'll release the game engine on Linux too.

As far as I've played, I agree with qubodup:

> Full-screen should not be forced

I don't like too when a game start full screen for the first time. Hopefull, with wine I can run any game within a window

> Sometimes it froze for 10-20 seconds. No idea how to reproduce.

I experienced this too.
Also it's moderately smooth at the beginning, but on the second and 4th level it begins to be slow when there are many balls. On the second level, I couldn't wait enough to get a big "combo" because I feared I couldn't click quick enough because of slowness.
(my computer is AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+ with 2 Gb ram)

> I don't like the shaded inner border of the balls. The outer border at the same time has a hard edge.

neither do I. Generally, while I enjoy the backgrounds of your game, I don't find the balls very attractive, and they even give me sore eyes because of the contrasts. I think I'd prefer balls more like the one from http://www.openalchemist.com/ (or at least allow more themes)

-> it seems it doesn't save the unlocked levels when you quit.
-> a separate score systeme with higher score when you get more 'combos' (high number of connections) could be attractive too.
-> user defined puzzles / game editor would be cool too.

I generally prefer open source games, but for such a great game concept and to support independent game compagny, if (when) this game will be linux native, and for a decent fair price, I'd buy it gladly.
What I call a fair price: I bought Gish for 20 $, and I bought Eschalon book 1 for 20 $ too. Both are high quality indy games with attractive graphics and an interesting gameplay.

[ivan]

Regarding the bug where everything is black - it turns out that it might be connected with the way timers are implemented althouth it's still not quite clear. This would aslo explain why the game freezes up as some people like qubodup have noticed. We're still investigating this issue.

Edit: Btw, why is the engine not for linux also, it seems like there is no real reason not to have it for all the platforms?

I've been working for 2-3 months on this title and I want to earn something back. A Linux port of the engine wouldn't be a worthwhile investment of my time.

I don't like the shaded inner border of the balls

A few people have complained about this. Personally I like them the way they are, but alright I'm willing to try a different style.

Level 3: "Match the given amount in one chain" - um come again? Oh, I get it. The number at the bottom left..

Yeah, maybe level 3 should be moved up to the later stages of the game. I wanted to have some strategy in the demo.
Thanks for the feedback, qubodup, I appreciate it.

Wow, farvardin, I'm honored by your comments.

it seems it doesn't save the unlocked levels when you quit

Really? 'Scripts/save.lua' is supposed to be generated when you close the game

user defined puzzles / game editor would be cool too.

There is an editor for the levels, but the problem would be defining the level goals without actually hand-scripting in Lua.

a separate score systeme with higher score when you get more 'combos' (high number of connections) could be attractive too

Yeah, I was also thinking about having some sort of leaderboards or something.

I generally prefer open source games, but for such a great game concept and to support independent game compagny, if (when) this game will be linux native, and for a decent fair price, I'd buy it gladly.
What I call a fair price: I bought Gish for 20 $, and I bought Eschalon book 1 for 20 $ too. Both are high quality indy games with attractive graphics and an interesting gameplay.

Thanks man, we're not really a company, the game is a one-man effort. I drew, designed and scripted everything. My partner worked on the engine part-time. $20 might be a bit too much for such a short game, maybe more like $10-15.

[qubodup]

About publishing on Linux OSs: Is it your knowledge/experience, that GNU/Linux users don't pay for games, or is it assumption?

I found two links regarding commercial games for GNU/Linux sytems: Linux Game Publishing and Tux Games.

[rude]

I've been working for 2-3 months on this title and I want to earn something back. A Linux port of the engine wouldn't be a worthwhile investment of my time.

I whish I had 2-3 months to work on a game title. You are officially envied.

About publishing on Linux OSs: Is it your knowledge/experience, that GNU/Linux users don't pay for games, or is it assumption?I found two links regarding commercial games for GNU/Linux sytems: Linux Game Publishing and Tux Games.

Both links you posted link to Tux Games.

Also, I don't think it matters whether Linux users pay for games (I'm sure they do), it's the small user size compared to Windows that makes it "fruitless".