Download here I wasn't planning on releasing a beta this early, but SYN7HOR convinced me to. There are some places that are a bit rough around the edges still, but the gameplay should be good. Feedback is greatly appreciated. Enjoy.
If you run into any trouble with the program, please run the "Jester-Console.exe" version and copy/paste the results here. You'll have to run it from cmd.exe. For *nix and OSX users, running Jester.sh or `java -Djava.library.path="lib" -jar Jester.jar` should do the trick, but I haven't personally been able to test this on those systems.
It started for me on Mac OS X. I was able to set my controls, but I had to restart before I could use them.
That is really strange. I can't imagine how that could happen. I'll have to borrow a friend's mac and see what's up. How did it run otherwise?
downloading now..... EDIT: pretty smooth gameplay things to consider - Add line clear animation? customizable somehow? have a sprite or such that spawns? Hmmm :/ - Add TGM3? Most people who want to play TGM1 and TGM2 will be using mame. The main audience for this game i'd assume would want to play TGM3 modes - Same as above, but now u'd need SRS rotation tables - Is tehre joystick support?
Yeah, it's actually a little confusing to have a TGM3-style border and 3 previews but not be able to use hold or floorkicks. I find it interesting that you chose to include TGM2 modes. As far as I know, most people only care about TAP. I'm not saying you should remove them, just that it seems a little strange. The first thing I noticed was that I didn't perceive any input lag. That's pretty awesome. I wonder why NullpoMino can't achieve that.
Try the Survival - Death mode. It's 20g immediately, but it has all of the buttons enabled (including my addition of sonic-left and sonic-right) The game is fully skinable, and I'm going to allow the level system to specify the skin, so in the future it will automatically change to a TGM1 skin if you're doing TGM1 emulation. Line clear animations are definitely on my to-do list. I'm not a graphics guy, so it's a little difficult to get moving on those, but they're coming. TGM3 gameplay can be done in a level system perfectly right now. The only things that I can't immediately do are M-Roll requirements and the scoring. It will show the M-Roll every time and the scoring will still be TGM2. I'll put up a LevelSystem file once I have a chance. The improved scoring is a lower priority for me, but it's definitely coming. SRS rotation is programmed in. If you wanna try it, go into any level system (Jester_beta/rules/) and change the specified rotation system to "SRS". The whole tag will be: <rotation>SRS</rotation> I think there is joystick support. I'll have to borrow one from a friend to be sure. If not, it's definitely something that can be added relatively easily.
I'm really glad that it runs well on OSX. I hadn't had a chance to test it there. I wonder how *nix will be. Apparently OpenGL is a mess in that environment. I'll try to pin down that key config problem. It strikes me as really strange that that happens. Are you able to duplicate the effect? If you have a minute and you don't mind, outline exactly what steps you take and what happens as you do.
Yea, slick is amazing. I went through about 3 different rendering engine rewrites before finding slick and falling in love. It's a tiny 2D graphics engine for java, but it packs a whollop.
It also has a really strict input paradigm. The first inclination of a game might be to process a key input right when a button is pressed. I found I could get a tighter gameloop and the appearance of higher response by noting that a key was pressed whenever it is, but then processing that keypress at the same time in the gameloop each time through. It allows for more predicable behavior, easier game-replays (coming soon), and I think it's partially why the game seems very responsive.
Err, I was saying that was why Nullpo *couldn't* achieve the same sort of repsonsiveness. It runs very well under Swing, which is strange, but whatever. NullpoMino works on the same input paradigm you've described as well Unless, perhaps, NullpoMino's issue is display lag rather than input lag.
I was able to duplicate it, and even narrow it down a bit more. The game became unresponsive after I opened and closed the sound config window as well. It seems as though each time an extra window is opened no more input will be accepted until restarting. Also, there seems to be a problem with DAS. Pieces will start to move quickly, then pause briefly, and then resume at full speed.
Try clicking on the inside of the game window after closing whichever config window. Do the keys work now? If so, it's a focus issue i think I can fix with the next version. My algorithm for shifting looks something like this: Shift the frame the key is pressed. while the key is held down { Skip X frames, where X is the DAS setting Shift (or attempt to shift) every frame thereafter until the key is released } Is that correct?
That's what I have to do when the game first starts, but it doesn't work after closing the outside windows. If you you don't have pre-charged DAS that sounds about right. But I was noticing pauses even when I came out of ARE already holding a direction.
Hrm. Hit F2, it will enable frame-by-frame stepping. Press F1 to step frame by frame. I just tried it on my system, the block spawns and the block moves each and every frame after spawning. Let me know if you have the same results, if not I'll have to really dig into it. (Hitting F2 again will turn framestep mode off).
Hmm, perhaps it's only my imagination then. It's just that it looked like the pieces were moving more than one space before the pause. Maybe it's because of the smooth animation? Or maybe I was wrong about there being no input lag.
This is as smooth as a silk sheet, pretty sick. The six letter name made me want to do this, I hope nobody minds. If ever there can be more of a C&D bullseye painted on a clone than just the modes and tetrominos in general, its this maybe, lol, but Illustrator exercise is always good though, no worries. Thanks for the game so far, seems like a successful recipe for responsive gameplay, although I'm really only judging that on playing with a mirrored keyboard layout compared to what I am used to (this games original key settings, didn't bother changing) with which I perform horribly.
Synth suggested that the I-piece floor kicks are a little funky. I'm going to dig into that issue tomorrow night and see if I can pin down the problem. Is anyone else seeing that as well?
