The Binary Zoo Bog

[fog]

Where were we.....proper logo added, help buttons all in place and half the help screens now finished.

Never underestimate how long the final touches take to a project if you want to do it properly.  I've finished a few projects now yet it still surprises me.

With the 360 version there's the added job of having to handle XBox specific scenarios like what to do when someone signs out, what happens if someone pulls out a memory card, checking account privileges and allowing the user to buy the full game etc etc.  As I've mentioned elsewhere, it's the one area of XNA which really is unnecessarily overcomplicated.

At least you only ever have to write these routines once as you can reuse them in future, however a lot of it shouldn't be necessary IMO.

[SiN]

What did we decide to do for the trial version then?

Mo

[fog]

What did we decide to do for the trial version then?

Currently I only have the main Echoes mode unlocked.  The plan was to also allow access to Classic mode up to level 5, but I'm now seriously thinking of allowing access to Classic, Asteroid Belt and Meteor Storm each capped at 3 minutes. (leaving Time Attack and Survivor locked for obvious reasons)

I just need to do some tests to decide whether 3 minutes is enough time to get a proper flavour of each game mode or whether it could actually give a detrimental impression.

Those modes all offer reasonably different gameplay or at least require a slightly different approach from the player, so I'd like to give limited access to them in some way if possible.

And of course no hiscores or Zoot progress is saved in the Trial for any game mode.

[Flame]

Glad it is almost here.... I await it eagerly.

[SiN]

I approve of your demo ideas. Perhaps pull one more mode out? That way you'd be giving away 3, and locking out 3?
Cheers,
Mo

[TheKhakinator]

3 minutes sounds a lil' long here.

[fog]

I approve of your demo ideas. Perhaps pull one more mode out? That way you'd be giving away 3, and locking out 3?

3 minutes sounds a lil' long here.

Having done some tests, 3 minutes is too long for the Asteroid Belt mode so, just to keep things simple I'll drop that from the Trial (changing to a shorter Trial just for that mode is just going to confuse the crap out of everyone)

[fog]

A pic of the new logo approved by the playtesters graphics police  .  (it's actually a scaled down in-game screenshot so it might not be the best quality)

[JDog053]

Its looking good, especially with the fade out in the background. Very nice

Edit: MS points on standby!

[Flame]

It looks good, especially the colouring. Gimp on standby.

[The_Masked_Coder]

Yeh, i agree, nice and colorful.

So, Echoes + is the new official name ?

TMC

[fog]

So, Echoes + is the new official name ?

Yeah.  As mentioned earlier, SiN suggested it and it effectively sums up exactly what this is. 

[Daniel James]

Wait was I supposed to have done some music on this?

xD

Dan

[fog]

Wait was I supposed to have done some music on this?

Well all 3 of you were at some point.  Maybe you H2 chaps need to speak to each other about it?

[fog]

Just 2 help screens left to create out of the 10 needed.

I had all the text prepared in advance in Notepad, but when it came down to sticking it on a help screen you suddenly realise that it's just too  much.  There's nothing that's likely to stop people reading instructions than a wall of text which is self defeating, so a  rewrite was required.

I've reduced everything down to the minimum amount of text and broken it up where possible with screenshots, icons etc.  It's meant the whole thing has spread over a couple more screens than planned, but it's more readable and less intimidating.

Note to self:  Never code a complicated game because you'll need to spend a lifetime writing instructions