Monday 7 December 2009

Whir on GameJolt and Softpedia!

Now you can download the game from Softpedia or GameJolt. You can rate the game and leave comments on both sites. User feedback is greatly appreciated, it helps a lot.


Whir received the 100% FREE AWARD of Softpedia. That means that "it does not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors."

...and the usual screenshot-of-the-post

Saturday 5 December 2009

Whir: FAQ

...and another screenshot!

Gameplay related questions:

Q: Whir is a...
A: Puzzle game!

Q: Why isn't the Esc key taking me out of the game?
A: The only keys you need for winning the game or navigating through the menus are the Arrow Keys and the Spacebar.

Q: I get stuck after I choose the [Play] option from the main menu. What should I do?
A: The play option will send you to the "World Map". You should position yourself on a desired level (the weird blocks with tiny blue lights who are definitely not green like the rest) and hit the Spacebar to enter that level.

Development related questions:

Q: What did you use to create Whir?
A: The Whir game engine was made in AutoIt v3, a general purpose scripting language. I personally do not like any game making software.

Q: For how long have you been working on the game?
A: It took me exactly 11 days to create the engine - it has about 1500 lines of code. The bitmaps, however, were already created for another project (I hope to see it finished someday). To create them I used MS Paint and the Softglow effect from GIMP. Oh, and the icon was created in Greenfish Icon Editor.

Q: How about the soundtrack?
A: I got the soundtrack from NewGrounds.com - it's composed by ectsoman, Gillenium and ObsidianSnow - many thanks to them.

Q: ...and the font?
A: I got the font from dafont.com; it's creator is Bruno Herfst many thanks to him as well.

Miscellaneous:

Q: Who are you?
A: Adrian Toncean (madflame991).

Q: Why did you make this game?
A: It was on my "Things to do before I turn 20" list.

Q: Are you planning to release a sequel or another game?
A: Yes and yes.

Friday 4 December 2009

Whir released!

Finally! Whir is out!
What's Whir? A game, an abstract puzzle with procedurally generated levels. There are over 3000 different levels that can be generated. Your goal is to carefully navigate your way to the exit block without falling into the blue abyss and without leaving any removable blocks behind.

I will update this post once I finish submitting the game to a couple of indie gaming sites.
Untill then you can download the game from FileFront - link
Update: Just submitted the game to GameJolt. It was easy - too easy. Link!


Monday 9 March 2009

Are these safe?

Making programs using a freeware tool has some drawbacks... McAfee or NOD detect DrawAid or any other program written in AutoIt as "malicious". They're actually false positives; the AV companies don't really care about freeware tools. At least Softpedia guarantees that DrawAid and Universal Screenmate are 100% CLEAN, making them a more reliable source.
Read this topic: http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=34658
That should clear it up.

100% CLEAN certificate for DrawAid: http://www.softpedia.com/progClean/DrawAid-Clean-121229.html
100% CLEAN certificare for the Universal Screenmate: http://www.softpedia.com/progClean/Universal-ScreenMate-Clean-117063.html

Saturday 14 February 2009

DrawAid - semitransparent on top image to ease drawing

There are a lot of people who just can't draw with the mouse (I can't). That's why I've created DrawAid. It's a simple yet very useful program. It allows you to load an image, adjust its transparency, zoom it, move it... Once it's set you can use any painting tool from MS Paint to GIMP or Photoshop to draw - the on top image "ignores clicks"; it passes them to the application behind.



Or download the portable version for Windows Live from this link: http://sites.google.com/site/xenodesystems/drawaid-siv
...Yes DrawAid is now portable thanks to James Berry from Xenode Systems - be sure to visit his website at http://www.blogxenode.tk/

Sunday 4 January 2009

Tutorial: how to create your own screenmate

What you need:
Imagination
The Universal Screenmate 4.0 (can be downloaded from the softpedia download button in the right)
The character's frames for animations (walking, jumping...); they must be of the same size (height and width) and must be PNG images with an alpha channel
Optional: Projectile frames (yes, PNG only with the same size)

Part 1:
Open the editor
Enter the directory where you want the screenmate data files to be stored; the full address will be like in the example in the image.
Then complete the rest of the fields, they are all mandatory.
If you want an example you can load a prebuilt character by clicking the [Load] button

Part 2:
A new interface will appear if the data was correct
Navigate through the tabs to configure the screenmate.
Click the big squared buttons to load your character's frames.

General tab:
From the General tab you can edit its name, load the idle frames (what your screenmate will look like when idling) and set its moods (your character must have at least one mood).
After completing the mood fields click the [Refresh moods] button

Moods tab:
These are all the actions your mate is able to do. Set the probability of them happening by filling the fields.
If you don't want an action to happen set it to 0.
If you want it to happen often set it to 1,2,3 (the bigger the number the least probable it will be)
If you want it to happen rare set it around 20

Walking tab:
From here you can configure your mate's walking animation, the distance and delay between frames

Jumping tab:
As you can see there are 4 frames for jumping in each direction and one for 'returning'.
'prejumping' occurs when your character prepares for the jump; then there's the ascending frame (that's mandatory because there's no jump without at least that frame)
The 'fall' frame is what your screenmate looks like when it's falling; same for the 'land' frame
The 'returning' id displayed when your character is walking/running and decides to change direction
Experiment with the jumping forces to get the desired result

Throwing tab:
Throwing frames is what you screenmate looks like when throwing stuff (simple!).
The rest is pretty self explanatory

Animations tab:
5 custom animations are available from here. For example: Waving like the blob 4 times like in the image, walking in any direction (not just horizontal) and anything your imagination might cook up

Quotes 1 tab:
Here's where you write what your mate will tell according to its mood

Quotes 2 tab:
Self explanatory (look at the image, focus, become the image)