Week #13 update

What I've done this week##

Quite a bit! A lot more polishing of the game menus, bug fixes, gameplay tweaks and high score tables.

Editor

• improved the copy+paste+move functions
• fixed the 'double-undo' bug

Game

• fixed bug that stopped players from falling when a phase block collapsed under them
• monks drop any gold they have when caught in a snare trap
• tweaked the monk animation for climbing a ladder
• tweaked and fixed some inconsistencies with monks eating heroes;
• monks would occasionally skip back a smidge before eating a hero, giving the hero a chance to escape
• monks would occasionally get up after eating a hero and leap away
• I also unified being eaten more. In the original Mad Monks' Revenge, the monk would eat the player if he was touching him, half over him or completely over him. No two were the same. I've done it so the monk will eat the hero when the monk is approx. 25% over the hero.
• monk AI;
• fixed quirk that caused monks to avoid phase blocks
• fixed bug that caused monks to ignore adjacent blasted hole they are climbing out of and walk over them
• made changes to the configuration XML file that is created
• added the message box prompt on exiting of a game;
• instead of asking if you want to quit, it now asks if you want to save before quitting - makes much more sense
• save currently does nothing
• the background audio track now plays if it is not already playing
• I still haven't quite worked out how the original works in regards to music

General

• tweaked the options dialog to work with the new UI;
• all dialogs have now been converted to the new UI system
• turning off music will pause it rather than stop and resume when toggled again. This is smoother than starting and stopping the options audio track.
• the local game interfaces are in and running perfectly. These are the single and head-to-head game modes.

My brother and I have been discussing what we can do with the modem play button on the main menu. Why? You don't need it as all the modern game types are covered: single, two player on the same PC and networking. We've come up with moving the editor icon to the modem spot and making it bigger, moving the settings button to the old editor button and putting in an exit button in its place.

The end result will look something like this:

Work-in-progress. The editor icon needs a lot more work.

New this week is the high score screen on the main menu with the original checkerboard transition effect.

The end result is pretty much the same as the original. I say "pretty much" because mine works at random whereas the original does the same checkered squares at the same time every time.

What I'll probably do next week

• monk AI; this key to making the game as close as possible to the original
• clear some odds and ends from my TODO list
• save game format worked out
• make a demo
• this is already under way and I'll post it Tuesday