The Daily Click

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Author:	Regiwi	Submitted:	13th March, 2007	Favourites:	0
Genre:	Adventure	Downloads:	239
Rated:

Edited By Regiwi on 3/17/2007

EDIT- I've decided to try to remake this game with less buggy movement and try to get rid of glitches, I'll be using the same backgrounds however.

This game was created using the Games Factory-32 bit. I made this game a while ago, but I've been going back to improved it for years.

Captain N The Games Master is based on an old tv series of the same name. It requires basic knowledge of other games for certain parts (eg. pushing up in Mario games opens doors.)

The controls are- arrow keys to move and ctrl to jump, also space bar allows your friend character to use thier power.

In this game you play the role of Captain N who in the storyline gets sucked into the gaming universe by his tv. Faced with the challenge of fighting through his favourite gaming worlds in the flesh, Captain N has a difficult fight ahead of him.

Edits (yeah, I've already changed a couple of things)
- Bowser Boss music different.
- P+ctrl is pause (as P alone conflicted with a password entry)
- Instructions on installation included.

This game is difficult I've been told by others, so expect a challenge. Finally I made this game for fun, so the presentations not consistant and the spellings not always right. This is the first in a series. The beta version of number two is viewable on my blog. It will be ready hopefully shortly, I'll release it here then. Well, I hope you enjoy the game. Good luck.

Review This Download

http://h1.ripway.com/Regiwi/CaptainN.zip (6.49 mkb )

Posted by The Chris Street

13th March, 2007

Please submit a better description and working screenshots before we accept this game.

Posted by steve

15th March, 2007

I havent downloaded yet, does it use default movement system? (I have an allergy to it - and no amount of anti-histamines can control it)

Posted by Regiwi

15th March, 2007

Fraid so, sorry about that, I've really not used any advanced techniques in this game, so most of it's default, that's what I meant about the presentation not being great in this game.

Posted by steve

15th March, 2007

ah, no problem

i'm sure others will enjoy it still (i'm just very fussy over that kind of thing)

Posted by

16th March, 2007

Reminds me of some of the first games I made in TGF x)
Thumbs up for the effort, still :]

Posted by Regiwi

16th March, 2007

So other than the fact it was made using gfact, is it ok? I'm just curious as I would like to hear about problems with it and how it could be improved? Anyway thanks for the comment.

Posted by

17th March, 2007

Well the truth is, due to all bugs and the very evil default platform movement, the game is pretty much unplayable. >_> lol
But I can see the concept is good, so just work a bit more on the gameplay and coding next time.

Posted by Regiwi

17th March, 2007

Ok, fair enough, well I've got a few tips from a friend and, although it's going to be a lengthy task, I think I'll go back and start this game over. I'm going to use the same maps and sprites etc, but I'll change movement etc. Just wondering, if you could give me a couple of tips on things you think I could improve upon, since I need to hear what others think. Well thanks for the critique.

Posted by -Liam-

17th March, 2007

Instead of resizing object, how about just placing more down? It looks far nicer that way. Nice effort, look forward to the update!

Posted by Regiwi

18th March, 2007

I get slightly irritated by small sprites, I agree they do vary in size a bit too much but I'm hoping to fix that. The update will take a very long time, I'm trying to make it on a trial version of MMF, so it'll probably only see the light of day in a couple of months if I'm lucky and get the full version. Thanks for the comment.

Posted by DS Strider

18th March, 2007

Let's see.. Badly resized, dithered, and editted graphics. (Captain N is a clear edit of Mario). Game's engine is full of bugs and annoyances while moving around. And the overall fun factor is absolute 0.

Sorry, but this is just like many of the other fan based games I've tried in my time. No effort made to make the game fun.

Posted by Regiwi

19th March, 2007

Well I'm sorry if the game wasn't to your liking Strider. I've not made many games before and my previous games have been FAR worse. I would criticize you for not playing through the game fully and yet still making a review but meh, who am I to say. Anyway, I've just got MMF and I'm starting from scratch with the game. I did however put a lot of effort into this game though, so excuse me if I sound a bit bitter. Anyway, your criticisms are duely noted and I'll take them into account in the MMF game. I'm using a different gravity engine for the new game and I've also decided to add a couple of weapons which really Captain N should have from the start. Anyway, this was a game I made in my spare time, and despite some fair points you made I feel you took great pleasure in unnecessarily criticizing my game to an extent that wasn't truly constructive, but rather rude imho. Well thankyou for the critique anyway

Posted by DaVince

19th March, 2007

Oh no, a setup program! Seriously, just a zip with cncs32.dll included would have been enough... Ah well.

Okay, first off, some resizing tips.
When you resize an image:
- DON'T resize the width more than the height, and vice versa. Resize the whole of it at the same scale.
- DON'T take an "in-between" resize, unless you use a filter. With in-between I mean 1.3x, 2.8x, 0.7x etcetera.
- do resize in multiplications. 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x etcetera.

Keep the main menu clear, everything is scattered about and such, which isn't that good of a gameplay experience. You can't "press start" quickly.

The graphics aren't too good. Not only do your style and that of the other things clash, but they are also at different resolutions (some stuff is resized, where your own graphics are not). Some colours are way too bright too, steer clear from full red, full green, full blue etcetera. Pick colours that match the rest of the game's style.

Try not to base all your characters of one, especially when you leave specific features in all of them (big belly, big nose...) so they basically look like differently dressed up clones.

Don't make the user switch between keyboard and mouse so much. Stick with either one, it's easier for the user.

The default platform movement is generally no good, try making your own custom movement. If you're using it anyway, make sure there's some kind of hidden square object that takes care of it to minimize the amount of character "bobbing" and bugs in the movement.

Some levels had extra sound while others had not (like the jump sound). Stay consistent.

That's it for now, hope to see your game improve in the future.

Posted by DaVince

19th March, 2007

Ok, more criticism:

It's hard to play. I got hit by an enemy once because Mario-- oops, I mean Captain N-- didn't give the behaviour I thought it would: jump back up once done stomping on an enemy.

Jump heights are inconsistent.

Koopa shells did nothing at all.

Koopa's move off their platforms. Use custom movement for them instead and use some special hidden objects to reverse their directions when neccesary.

I didn't die when hit by Koopas, but I had to restart the game when hit by Goombas? Ummmmm... Inconsistent again!

In the town, I restarted at the starting spot after having left the general store, instead of appearing next to the general store.

The jump sound played on a keypress rather than if the person was really jumping. Same for shooting with Mario.

I must say, the Mario thing is a nice idea. Too bad he doesn't fire very well, and him following you is a bit dodgy.

After a while in the first level with Mario, I went game over for I don't know what reason.

Ok, I think that's all of it. You have lots to improve on...

Posted by DaVince

19th March, 2007

Oh, and don't use path movement, in fact, don't use ANY default movement.

Posted by DS Strider

19th March, 2007

Rude, maybe. Honest and to the point, definitely. I've reviewed many games before this one. And yours is probably the nicest review I've done in a while. Lol. But, my reviews aren't meant to be rude or criticizing. No offense to Clickteam, as they've made it easy for people like us to make games, but they've kinda imprinted into our minds (IMHO) that with their products you can "make great games easily!" without a second word about the amount of work it takes to make a game GOOD. (Which I've dubbed "Clickteam Syndrome").

Now, there are a few articles on what you should do and look into before starting your game. And you should definitely read those, and keep in mind the things I pointed out in my review (It may sound harsh, but if you cleaned up the things I pointed out, you'd have an OK game), and in DaVince's comments. Clean up the problems, resubmit and see what happens.

Posted by DaVince

20th March, 2007

About your music part of the review, FZStrider, there's always DMC2.

Posted by Regiwi

20th March, 2007

@ DaVince
K, in the MMF version I'm not gonna resize graphics but do you know how you can make the game full screen as that would fix the sprites being too small without making them out of proportion I believe.

The main menu I don't feel is too bad, there are extras there but the start will be moved to the center therefore simpler to locate and press in the MMF version.

I'm slightly confused about the comment about the backgrounds as I've used sprites of practically all the backgrounds from the games. The only things I can think of are like those wheelbarrows etc in the Town.

The idea of using a Mario edit was simply to show that he's been taken to a game world, therefore showing that he looks Mario styled. I agree it's not great so I'm changing parts to make him look less clone like (as u said, belly, nose etc.)

The mouse and keyboard thing was basically an issue I had to use it for at the time, and I forgot to go back and repair it so that'll be gone in the MMF version.

Yeah, I've created a new gravity system in MMF, should be much better now.

The enemies are also being improved.

Now the reason for this was that when you enter a gaming world, you get the sound effects from that world. So that's why the Mushroom Kingdom had Mario sounds whereas the other area didn't.

Now the bouncing is because the button needs to be held down to bounce up. I'll probably change that.

The jump point is a kinda plot hole ^^; as I originally intended for him to get the powerpad in this game so that's why his jump becomes higher, but I didn't add it to the game. So this will be changed in the MMF version. (I'm gonna give him the power pad, Zapper etc from the start.)

Koopa shells were meant to be just a dead body, rather than them simply popping out of existence (I didn't have a clue back then how to make it Shell like)

That's because I used animations as I was using default movement. Will be fixed.

K the town part was a problem with my gfact, it just kept crashing no matter what other events I changed, in the end I had to delete it to get it to stop crashing.

Yeah, basically I had inexperience with gfact back when I made this. Again will be fixed in MMF.

Mario will be fixed in MMF.

K. Well I have no idea why that happened. I mean were u attacking an enemy or just standing in an empty field? Anyway, will be fixed.

K well thanks for the critique, I'm getting help from a friend who's much better presentation wise with the MMF version so hopefully it'll be improved greatly on the full version.

Posted by DaVince

20th March, 2007

Good to hear you're going to try to improve this.

Hm, I didn't make a comment about the background, however, I did make a comment about your graphics style and the ripped graphics style, and that they don't fit together well. When you make custom graphics, holding onto a predetermined colour palette might help.

Try learning to improve your graphical skills, maybe try making stuff pixel-by-pixel. It will take a while to make graphics that way, but oh boy the results will be so much better, especially if you take that effort towards the sprites.

If you want to keep the game windowed but still have everything bigger, I suggest you do this:
- Make your game something like 320x240.
- Turn on the "resize display to fit current window size" option on in the game settings.
- Put the Window Control object in the first frame (level).
- Add these events:
On start of level & window width < 640:
* Set window width to window width * 2
* Set window height to window height * 2

This resizes everything at a perfect 200% rate.

To use fullscreen, just turn on the "Change resolution mode" option in MMF.

Posted by Regiwi

21st March, 2007

Cool, ok thanks for the comments guys. I'm now going to radically change the game, it'll have a better platform engine, and after seeing many more proper episodes of the show. (not that season 3 rubbish (cept the castlevania and Mega Man 3 ones)) I've decided to change the villains to a more intrusive group and overall tone to the more lighthearted shows storylines.

Posted by DaVince

28th March, 2007

Good to hear, good luck.