spies

by Suicide Shifter
spies
Take on the responsibilities of an espionage agent and help your organization retrieve vital intelligence.

Taking care of business

ID:107221
 
Jan 17 2011, 8:58 pm (Edited on Jan 17 2011, 9:39 pm)
I have been more motivated to continue spies lately, and I've been getting a lot done. After struggling all day (with keeping on-task) I have finally finished my dynamic bubble text for spies.

I am a little foggy as to add this into the game, below you can see a screenshot:



I have played many a games on BYOND and find it especially annoying when a situation like this occurs. There will be 3+ people on your screen, all looking the same. When someone talks, you see their name and what they said in a text box screen but you still have no idea who is who on the map, and where the person who just spoke even is.

Anyways I'm still debating if I should in fact keep this, my main concerns are - is the text too big? Does it take away from the aesthetics of the game?

It does however clear up a lot of possible confusion, and if you notice it doesn't say a name in the text box. Different gadgets will be able to hide the name from the bubble and also the text box screen. If you also notice I've added a border to the map (lower right).

Tell me what you think about the bubble/border?

Moving on, this screen shot is part of the first tutorial the spy goes through. When this tutorial is complete I plan on opening up a test version for download. What the tutorial will include:

inventory cycling/basic interaction
grab/knockout enemies from behind (also stun)
looting
pulling/hiding bodies
sneaking/using shadows
shooting/electrically switching off lights
different kinds of security
rooftops
sniping
making explosives
smoke bombs

So far the tutorial includes grabbing/knocking out enemies from behind and a short 'movie' sequence. I don't want to give too much away, so I will end this post now. Again ~ tell me what you think about the bubble text.

Jan 17 2011, 9:27 pm
The bubble seems ok, only problem I see is multiple people standing near each other talking...Wont it clog together?

++ For the border -D I like it.
Jan 17 2011, 9:38 pm
I've already coded around that, each bubble 'detects' other bubbles and will shift themselves to where they won't clog together.

http://i52.tinypic.com/2ez4715.png
Jan 17 2011, 9:40 pm
Wow! Smart bubbles, yeah they don't take away from the illusion of being a spy at all. Makes it more so that they cant find your name in the bubble =D So you're more of a spy.
Jan 18 2011, 7:41 am
Sounds pretty good, The border's a great idea, i cant wait to see it fully when you are in a large section of the map,
Also i like the speech bubble, I also like how it's a smart bubble, It doesn't really look too big.
I like all the spy features and i think this looks like a promising game, if it has some inspiration from assassins creed then woo lol, but if not then i applaud you, but you still could research that for a few more things to think about adding, not that you don't seem to have plenty planned already!

Jan 18 2011, 2:57 pm
Ive heard of the game, never played it though but I've always wanted to check it out. Thanks for the feedback! I've got much more to do to finish up this tutorial and get you guys playing, and i've got very limited graphics to work with but that's on my lower priorities.

What always seems to pull me away from getting content down is my interest in some sort of fully functional, lag-less gradiented shadow system. I've had many attempts with many different styles, but I always end up only making one light gradiented. My main problem is combining two light sources' gradients to make a new ... ah I'm rambling.

Thanks again for your feedback!
Feb 4 2011, 6:14 am
Have you considered a fix for that speech wrap though?
Feb 10 2011, 10:19 am
I have something planned, it can look pretty ugly and confusing at times. Its not on my top priorities though, I need to focus on the tutorial first.