Hi dudes, Here's my remake of loderunner. I've spent 6 years on it, so it's pretty tidy, the goal was to make the best LR, i.e. alot better than the XLBA version. Have I succeeded? You decide! download page http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jmqznd3eajz website http://www.geocities.com/meemoe_uk/ Hope there's no bugs. Enjoy! Feedback appreciated!
wow, I forgot about this game. Looking good. How many here remember or played? Its a classic, our whole family used to play.
Well, the visuals are certainly retro. If the action is faithful... it sort of invites the question: why not just play the original? Loved this game on the Apple 2e, so I guess that answers that question.
It has a 1992 Windows look to it. And I can't say I mean that as a compliment... I think a few years earlier (8bit) retro version of Lode Runner would look much, much better. Have you played the Super Granny series? They "casualized" Lode Runner and I have to say they're quite fun to play through. Especially if you like cats.
"I've spent 6 years on it.." Then you deserve honest feedback. Get an artist on board quickly and redo the graphics.
Brings back memories... back on the C64... Even worked on an Amiga port - had it all up and running but Broderbund decided to put a stop on it - they never developed it on the Amiga as far as I recall... Loved the game... and I have agree with JGOware - a minor art update would have been nice - just a touch too retro for my liking...
>why not just play the original? My version's better! >Graphics What with megaman 9 leading a new wave of retro graphics, I think I'll leave them as they are. They are good enough not to detract from the gameplay. I'd rather spend time improving the gameplay. If anything, the most likely revision of graphics will be the shift to multi colour actors. Then the graphics will look like benefactor - amiga. >Super granny Yes I played it along with many other LR games. I was searching for a version of LR better than retrorunner. I wasn't impressed with SG, and I didn't find one. Seems like you lot are too busy to play it. I'm looking for a indie game review site, but game tunnel will be reluctant to review this because it's the free\shareware version.
I can understand the focus on gameplay - but at the same time, presentation IS important, as it is a major factor in getting people to try it out. Presentation doesn't mean you need advanced graphics technologies, but it does mean that things need to look nice, neat and coherent, even if you're going for a simpler retro look (which I know a lot of people like). If you want more people to try it out and get hooked on your great gameplay, I think you'd be wise to see if you can tidy up the visuals - even if it isn't strictly needed from a gameplay point of view. Also, one thing that is often forgotten when it comes to retro graphics, is that back in the old days, games was both played and developed on crappy TVs and CRTs - which would produce blurring and bleeding, which the artists of those days took advantage of. You don't get that these days, so retro art and emulated games tend to look worse these days then they used to (at least IMO) I've been playing around with a realtime filter attempting to reproduce the old TV look, and this image shows an example of what I mean by the blur and bleed (this is a screenshot from the HeroQuest game on AtariST, showing emulator screenshot to the left, and my TV filter to the right) (more info here should anyone care) So I think it is important to do a nice presentation, especially when going for the retro look, as I believe it can actually make the look even harder to get right...
>6 years is a typo, right ? Surely you mean days ? My minimalist graphics approach is going to decieve a few, especially 'screenshot reviewers'. The idea that a developer will spend 6 years ( part time ) on a project and it not have impressive graphics is an alien concept these days. The decision process used many times during dev which'as led to this is simple: 'should I now spend a month working on the gfx? -> No! Instead spend it on refining the gameplay'. Even if it's not something you'd do, be glad of it. You can use RR to measure how well a good game fares without the gfx to back it. RR does contain the 'mistake' where I spent far too long doing a variety of end of level gfx. So complete a few levels and you'll get your icecream. Good principle and nice blur effect Matt. I wouldn't invest time doing one myself, but if it was easy and free to implement someone elses, I could go for it.
I decided to actually play it. The colours hurt my eyes, my character got stuck upon touching the first sign. I understand you're trying to replicate the retro experience, but you've gone too far. If a remake doesn't at least improve on something then I have to ask, what's the point? We have emulators. Seems like a terrible waste of 6 years. If you had of answered 'yes' you would probably convince 10x to 100x more people to play this game. As it stands you'd be lucky to get anyone to play it for more than 5 minutes. No, it's really not.
I just downloaded this. There is a spelling mistake in the start up screen. The menu has a continue option despite their being no previous game In-game, the dialog box flickers Looks to not be frame-locked in anyway. Geezer crossed the screen in seconds At that point I deleted the game. This is actually one of the poorest loderunner rips I've seen. You need at least another 6 years on this one, sorry.
I can deal with the other probs but this >Geezer crossed the screen in seconds Can you be more specific? >The colours hurt my eyes, Upon loading most apps I need to adjust the media things, text size, brightness, sound volume etc. Did the volume hurt your ears BTW? Feel free to turn down the brightness and contrast on your monitor. >frame locking At 1st I was worrying vertical tearing would spoil the game, so it was in. But after a while I realised it didn't matter to the gameplay. In fact taking it out improves it because the game can deal with lag better. Most gamers I know tick the 'no Vsynch' box when given the option.
>my character got stuck upon touching the first sign. Mario, zelda, final fantasy and hundreds of other games 'get stuck' when read signs\talk text pops up. Can you figure out why?
I've tried it too now, and I must say that this is NOT a "good game without gfx to back it". It's a poor game with poor gfx - it just feels awkward and clunky. "Not nearly finished yet" sums it up pretty well. The comments made by people here are not about you - they are about your game. You can decide to take them in, or decide to ignore them, but it is rude to argue with people spending their time helping you out! I release all my sourcecode/technology to public domain, for what it's worth. So yeah, if you have use for it, help yourself to it.
>but it is rude to argue with people spending their time helping you out! I'm a noob to this forum. I was suprised when I was welcomed on board with this... >6 years is a typo, right ? >Surely you mean days ? I don't know what's considered rude or what isn't here, but I'm willing to adjust my own calibration to fit in with you lot. OK, new rule based on applewood example : unprovoked slighting unobjective insults on peoples games is ok. Would you spec which sentance I made that constituted an insult, so I know not to do it again? [edit] hang on ! rude to argue with people spending their time helping you out! ??? It's called talking and rationalising. Arguing is also the technically word correct, but the word has been stimatised with the the pattern of idiots yelling and threatening violence to each other. That's not what I want to do here. I make no excuse for 'arguing' in the first definition.
After reading the sign (the popup was gone) I could no longer move. No amount of monitor adjustment is going to fix your terrible colour scheme. Clearly you think I'm stupid. Funny that, considering I've developed 12 commercial titles (that made money) in the time it took you to cobble together this monstrosity. If I was going to do a loderunner clone it would be finished in 2 weeks, would look better, would play better and I could guarantee that 100x more people would play it.
Why? So you can argue with that as well? I'll give you this free advice though: Write the following down and place near your computer "Thank you for taking the time to comment on my game". That's all you need to write, really.
I haven't played his game yet and I can understand being honest because I pride myself in being a straight shooter, but some of you guy's comments are a bit too far. You are bordering on ass hole territory. There is a difference between being honest and being mean.
I've always perceived these forums as a place where people post polished games for honest feedback, accepting it gracefully. If someone comes on with something which looks sub-par, with high claims of how good it is, and then throws comments back at people - well, they sort of set themselves up for a bit of bashing, in a way... (but that's just my personal opinion, and, as usual, probably doesn't reflect the opinion of most people on here)