Quark Robot dev blog

May 2016 update now ready!

Quark Robot -

The May 2016 is now up and ready to download! This month sees a whole whack of new features, a working lobby, stability fixes, further gamepad support and improvements, along with lodes of fixes to further match this game to the Original.

The main focus this month was on LAN. As it turns out, the month had the least amount of overall fixes (~25) which I'm very happy with.

This monthly post covers the highlighs from the last month of work. If you like to read the weekly update posts featured in this build, you can find them here: weeks #18, #19, #20 and #21

What are you waiting for? Head on over to the downloads page page and get a copy!

Special thanks for this build go to Leandro, Howie, Jeffrey, Jared, Jayde, Paige, Alexis, Jim, Patrick, Antoine and Jarett. 90% of all bug fixes were found by testers which is terrific - thanks to all of you who took the time to give me feedback or just say hello.

If you find anything at all that is wrong with the game so far or have any ideas or suggestions, please get in touch with me. Your feedback is very important to making this project as good as it can possibly be.

Continue reading for a summary of all the fixes, improvements and new features in the May update.

Editor

  • 1 new feature, 1 bugs fixed, 2 improvements
  • improved tooltips when selecting the background world
  • numerous tweaks and fixes
  • the default filename when saving new puzzle sets will now show how many runners can play


Saving a puzzle set with 1 runner

Game

  • 16 bugs fixed, 5 improvements
  • game mode is now determined per puzzle regardless of game type selected on the main menu - this matches the Original
  • monks now eat runners as close to how the Original does
  • monks no longer chase runners who are entering a puzzle
  • several fixes to scoring system
  • tools carried by a runner on death will now return to the starting position (if possible) - this matches the Original
  • UI tweaks
  • fixed bug that would not prompt a game to save correctly
  • fixed crash in two-player games when one runner is out of lives
  • improved handling of runner entering a puzzle
  • fixed bug with monk attempting to drop gold onto gold
  • monks now drop gold when falling vertically the same as the Original
  • monks can now eat runners when waiting on other monks - this matches the Original
  • fixed issues with gamepad movement
  • improved force feedback for gamepads

LAN

I'd like to give a big thankyou to Ethan Lee - the developer of FNA - for helping me to fix the Mono Framework problem for OS X and Linux.


Windows + Mac playing nicely


This is the new network game lobby

The lobby is nearly complete. The May build will allow you to host games or find and join them on your network. There are a few little issues that need taking care of but I'd slap "90% complete" on it happily. The 1st thing you see in the above screenshot that it is nothing like the Original - this was by design as the Original is too old fashioned, cannot really be adapted for web games later one and is no longer intuitive after 21 years. I've tried to keep the same overall style but not overwhelm the user with 6.7million options.

The lobby is a cross between Microsoft Age of Empires II and Blizzard's StarCraft: Brood War.

  • ability to host a game or discover games on your local network
  • when hosting;
  • can toggle Quirks Mode and cheats
  • choose a puzzle set to play
  • can kick a player out of the lobby
  • chat (limited to 140 characters) - (note: no word-wrapping as yet)
  • when starting a game, the puzzle set is transferred to clients
  • gamers can rename their default gamertag (default is name of the OS logged in user)

General

  • 2 new features, 6 bugs fixed, 10 improvements
  • FNA engine update
  • puzzle viewer updated so blocks properly match the Original
  • fixes to tooltip positioning
  • the default gamepad binding to drop a bomb is now Y


Basic rich-test support added

  • several usability enhancements to the file dialog;
  • dialog will now scroll to renamed files, copied files or to the nearest deleted file
  • fixed support for non-Windows file-systems
  • deeper integration of gamepads (eg. can be used to dismiss prompts, access menus, etc.)
  • fixed crash when an invalid screen resolution is chosen
  • scoreboard changes;
  • points use digit grouping, making them far easier to read
  • two extra boards added - these are dedicated to custom puzzle sets
  • updates to the shader effect


Easier to read points

*Bragging rights*
  • improved the post-game credits;
  • you can read a full post here
  • spacebar key will now skip to 1st section of credits with subsequent presses speeding up the credit roll - these match the Original
  • Jake now runs to the top
  • lift structure extended to the top of the movie
*Updated post-game credits*