AMCOG Games : Beta testing

Hi.

My Zombie first person shooter should be ready for beta testing around Monday next week.

If anyone has time to try it out (up to 4 beta testers), please either drop me a line via www.amcog-games.co.uk/about.htm or reply here.

Minimum hardware is expected to be a Raspberry Pi 1.

Thanks,

Tony
www.amcog-games.co.uk

You know my email :)

Same here. I’ve been waiting for the zombie one for quite a while. ;-)

@Rick.
Would your testing be done on a low or high vector ROM?

I wasn’t aware that AMCog games fell into that hole, being written in BASIC with his impressive games toolkit; however I can give it a try on either. Low vector by default as that’s the one I built myself a while back and haven’t built a more recent version (yet). Can also give it a roll on a recent nightly on the Beagle (that’ll be high) now I have a display that works with it (that’ll be interesting as the Beagle’s GPU is…a bit naff compared to the Pi).
But, as I said, pure BASIC doesn’t tend to suffer from the sorts of problems that affect C programs (and to a degree, assembler).

@Rick,
Test with both then :-)

If anyone has time to try it out

That’s unfortunate timing because (as you know) I feel I really, really should be testing this – but it’s in the few days running up to a show. :(

Thanks guys.

On game music – here is a track from my friend & collaborator Sim which I am going to incorporate into the game:
https://soundcloud.com/preverb/durator

Hi,

I would be ready to test your game on an OpenPandora.
My RPi’s do not have sound, my OpenPandora well :)

Regards

Thanks François.

Regarding the OpenPandora, my games are currently using a 800×600 resolution. I understand that the Pandora is 800×480 and therefore is it the case that some of the play area may not be visible?

Hi Anthony,

Indeed, the OPenPandor has a screen resoltion of 800×480... and I guess this will be an issue for your game :/

Regards

François

That’s correct. It seems I currently don’t support the Pandora. But I might be able to add support it later this year by scaling the screen.

I’m a little behind. But not that far… I have a few bugs to fix before I send it out for testing.

I’m going to be selling an early(ish) version at Wakefield, much like I did with Protector and to a lesser extent, Legends of Magic. I think the full version is probably around a week away.

The beta testing version is going out this weekend.

This is my first full 3D game and it was harder than I expected…. Sorry about the delay :-(

Preview:

It looked really good on display at Wakefield.

Here’s my own zombie impression:

And they’re famously not good at riding bicycles.

Rick said

Brainssssss

Thanks Mark. Hope your wrist gets better soon Rick & thanks for the detailed beta feedback.

François Vanzeveren – please would you drop me an email to info at amcog – games dot co dot uk so I can add you to the beta e-mail thread.

Thanks,

Tony

Just got the full 360 degree motion working properly so that the player can walk and shoot in any direction (not just in 8 directions). There is now a lot less code too.

I’m a little behind as I was a bit zombified myself and needed to sleep… Nearly done.

Latest version sent out to the testers. I will be uploading to the Plingstore on the bank holiday weekend.

I have added:

• Full directional movement (all angles)
• Keyboard control for rotation and firing (ZX & Space)
• Improved wall collision detection
• Map edits
• An angle indicator
• Zombie fear and attack mode – which makes them harder to kill
• Better increasing level difficulty
• Map fixes
• Various bug fixes

Outstanding issues:

• Zombie wall collision detection is imperfect
• Some further object collision detection (e.g. cans) could be improved
• At least 3 more maps
• Maybe some more objects to collect

Future improvements

• Optimised BASIC VFP version needs to be investigated
• Some simple stenciling is required rather than a straight painters algorithm.

Current full & PlingStore upload target is the bank holiday weekend

Best Wishes,

Tony
www.amcog-games.co.uk

RC4 sent out for testing.

• New level map added
• Various bug fixes (including much improved Zombie wall collision detection)
• GPS map coordinates displayed.
• Limited ammunition and ammo clips to collect.
• Better gun sprite / bullet alignment
• Fixed master mode.

Some proposed features by the beta testers will be deferred to the Second Edition later this year.

If this version passes beta, I will upload it to the PlingStore.

Best Regards,

Tony
www.amcog-games.co.uk

RC5 sent out for testing:

Many fixes are related to calibration. Some new features/refinements have gone in based on recommendations from beta testers to improve game play.

Additions include (but are not limited to):
1) A plane cockpit screen between levels.
2) Maximum ammo of 255.
3) Level code support.
4) 8 level maps.
5) Gun angles are calibrated via a 360 degree array lookup that handles angle corrections.
6) Wall collision detection for the player is improved. Hopefully to an acceptable level.
7) Zombie wall collision detection is improved.
8) Game objects now sit on the centre of the tiles.
9) Plane take off sound added.
10) Not possible to pick up first aid packs whilst health = 100%

Full RC is expected to be RC6 later this week, pending approval from beta testers.

Best Regards,

Tony
www.amcog-games.co.uk

RC6 sent out for testing:

Notable fixes:

• 1 tile mis-alignment in the X plane for Zombie graphic versus the actual map position that then caused them to appear to walk through walls
• Zombie’s not changing direction often enough making them a bit too passive
• Made Zombie’s more deadly during master mode
• Fixed Zombie kill range versus the player.

Added:

• Zombies now crumble to dust when they die
• Final scene after level 8

Moved:

• Level 4 to level 7

Please let me know if you have time to try this out and whether its good-to-go.

Cheers,

Tony
www.amcog-games.co.uk

RC 7 has now been sent out.

Fixes:

• Intermittent crash on escape fixed and checked 50 times to be sure.
• Replaced deck image with better image supplied by Vince.
• Made text on ‘won’ screen 3D for clarity.
• Moved the buttons around on the introduction screen.
• Added real level codes.
• Fixed incorrect inter-level messages

I will be releasing this to the PlingStore tomorrow.

Thanks for all the feedback. I think this has been the most involved beta since Legends of Magic.

Best Regards,

Tony