Pixel Poppy Pong! 0.97.0

I've taken this project way further than I ever expected to. But there were still some things about the competition release that bugged me, so I've been trying to basically reach 1.0. I'll leave it here for now, maybe come back to it again if I get bored...

• Added missing "Continue" music when you die in story mode
• Re-balanced the difficulty (easy should be uh, easier, hard should be possible)
• Fixed a bug where half the script was missing in story mode
• Finalized the story mode script - the earlier one was basically a rough draft
• Fixed typos and formatting errors
• Added a new unlockable - "boss mode"
• Added new way to unlock the special characters
• Add a couple new special "time of year" modes. There are a total of 12 "seasons", based on the RTC, with various costume and background changes.
• New graphics to go with the additional seasons and special fx.
• Made it so that items will regenerate when you collect them (should make the game play faster, but watch out for bombs!)
• Detect if the CD tray is open (no homebrew does this!?!)
• Various bug-fixes

Main updates:

• Ported from Jo-Engine to SRL
• Particle system
• Pixel-Art redrawn from scratch
• Completed "story mode"
• Enhanced gameplay
• New music
• Faster Loading time
• Uses RTC to change game assets (try messing with the clock!)
• Lots of easter eggs

I didn't intend to release another version, but I found some game breaking bugs in battle mode.

1. it was possible for multiple people to select the same side
2. sometimes the AI player didn't initialize properly (making it so you couldn't win)
3. the counter for the number of players could keep incrementing after everyone is in a "ready" state
4. the order of the player's selecting start/teams mattered (it shouldn't)
5. the order of the controller port IDs mattered (it shouldn't)

These have all mostly been fixed - there is one case where if a player starts selecting their character/team, and hits B to cancel, multiple times in a row - that will cause the player counter to be wrong. I will fix that later though - just don't do that. 😉

This is for the 30th annual game competition livestream - but it is also the latest version, and maybe the last for a while.

I spent most of the time here cleaning up and organizing code, in order to eliminate bugs. There's still some I know of, but they are rare and not game breaking.

Otherwise, I have mostly improved the presentation of story & battle modes.

1. dead players in battle mode are drawn with an X over them (instead of just disappearing)
2. when you die, your goal explodes
3. when a goal is scored, the goal that was scored on flashes
4. very slight tweaks in gameplay/difficulty
5. removed unnecessary assets

I did work on the background a bit, I wanted to experiment with adjusting the time of day (between the 4 current day cycles), add a moon/sun cycle, and twinkling stars. But, I just don't have the motivation to finish that right now, so I left it out.

Will update this more later, but basically, the 3-4 player battle mode works (with a multitap and analog or digital controllers), you can win, you can play against the computer, or you can play against your friends!

Additionally, there have been gameplay tweaks - to prevent cheesing the game by just spamming the shield from the center of the field, there are a few changes:

1. You can't go to the center of the field until the ball is active
2. Your power meter has 3 recharge zones: full recharge speed is in your goal, slow recharge speed is just outside your goal, and your power meter doesn't recharge at all if you are in the middle of the field.
3. Big Head mode is now an unlockable rather than being the default in Easy mode
4. Bombs are a lot more likely to appear - and they can pop in right under you. So if you want to risk starting the round out in the field, go ahead! 😀

Additionally, the scoring mechanic has been updated. Now, for ever 1 million points at the end of a round, you will gain an extra life. Also, the extra time you get at the end of the round is either a default value (like 20 seconds), or your current touch multiplier, whichever is greater. That should encourage building up points and the touch counter to finish the game.

Also, you must play in at least medium difficulty to unlock the extra characters (and big head mode). There are other ways to unlock Garfield and Craig Stadler, but you'll have to figure those out on your own 😉

In this version, of course there are some bug fixes (I broke the mosaic on the title menu in 0.66).

But mainly, I have incorporated items into the gameplay loop - not completely done, but enough for it to be a fun addition.

Besides that, I've added a bunch if sound effects, and also a couple more options.

WARNING: the save game is not compatible with previous versions. please delete your save game before running this version.

Here's a video showing the new options, sounds, and campaign gameplay loop:

The biggest changes here are bug fixes and game balancing tweaks. Also, characters are unlockable (you have to play story mode). And there are sound effects!

I've turned off 3-4 player in battle mode since that isn't finished. Story mode is maybe 50% done. Items are not enabled but I made some progress there too.

The UI has been improved a little to show your score multiplier. If you can keep it at *99 (the max), you can definitely place #1 on the scoreboard in story mode, but it is difficult to do so..

There is one bug I haven't fixed and I think it mainly affects analog controllers - basically, the collision detection goes crazy if you play the game for a long time. pressing pause or changing the analog controller switch to digital and back seemed to fix it. please let me know if you hit this bug!

In my haste (and exhaustion from travelling) I missed other states where the player could cheat by hitting the ball before the game starts. that should be fixed in all cases now.

Tails of Saturn immediately broke the game in his youtube video, by timing the attack/shield just right when the ball is dropped (immediately scoring, and thus winning without actually playing).

this release fixes that bug. no other changes/updates (yet)

I'll update this later, but basically it's around 60% complete - playable, but not finished.

The focus is on the story mode, and 2 player battle. The rest of Story mode and 3-4 player battle will be worked on after the competition deadline.

issues:

• items are not implemented
• 3-4 player battle mode "works" but you can't finish (2 player is fine)
• some placeholder music (and missing music)
• placeholder sound effects