Airplyr Update


Alex.

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airplyrss2.png

Download entire game: Airplyr.zip
Download the patch only: Airplyr-patch.zip

I fixed the launcher script, so now it should work properly for everyone. I also had it sync after each write (thanks nickspoon!), and added a little icon for the GPE.
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If you already downloaded the game from the GP2X Community Contest Entries page, then simply download the patch and extract the three files in the Airplyr folder, overwriting the existing files Airplyr.gpe and airplyr-dat1.dat.

Thanks for downloading and happy playing!

- Alex

Edit: changed link to game download to the GP2X Archive.
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Thanks Alex, I finally got to try some of the entries and yours is definitely one of my favourites. I remember a while back when the other air hockey game was being made and you announced yours. That seems like an eternity ago now.

I do have a couple of suggestions that you might consider:

1 - I seem to keep the X key pressed permanently. I might be the only one but I'd love to have an option to keep the paddle at fullspeed without having to press the button.

2 - I actually dove straight into the tournament first time I fired up the game and won without conceeding a single goal. I'm definitely not a particularly skilled gamer so perhaps the difficulty could be raised a little.

3 - I had to keep the volume quite low when I played so I may be wrong here but I didn't notice a sound effects. If so then I think that awesome sound of the puck being smashed in real air hockey would be the icing on the cake here. I assume you already thought of this though and it was just too difficult to find the appropriate sample.

Thanks again for a very professional and polished game.
 
subcon959 posted on Dec 20 2006 at 06:37 PM said:
1 - I seem to keep the X key pressed permanently. I might be the only one but I'd love to have an option to keep the paddle at fullspeed without having to press the button.
How about holding the X button pressed for 1 second, and then the paddle becomes permanently full-speed? There'd be an icon on the screen indicating that it's fullspeed, and then you could hold it pressed for one more second to revert to the slower speed. During that 1 second, you would still be able to move the paddle fast, as in the current game. Please let me know your ideas about this, I didn't really think this through, just ideas that came to me while I was typing this.

subcon959 posted on Dec 20 2006 at 06:37 PM said:
2 - I actually dove straight into the tournament first time I fired up the game and won without conceeding a single goal. I'm definitely not a particularly skilled gamer so perhaps the difficulty could be raised a little.
I'll look into it, although I was under the impression that it's pretty hard, especially starting at the Normal difficulty, when the AI has faster reflexes. Did you win the whole tournament on the first go, or just the first game? If you actually won the whole thing, try again and be surprised ;) I'll be honest and admit that I have no desire whatsoever to alter the AI code right now. Little gameplay tweaks are another thing, but for now I want to focus on my next game which I hope to release a demo of this weekend. That's not to say I won't come back to Airplyr, as I already optimized some parts of it, and I plan on refining the tournament mode.

subcon959 posted on Dec 20 2006 at 06:37 PM said:
3 - I had to keep the volume quite low when I played so I may be wrong here but I didn't notice a sound effects. If so then I think that awesome sound of the puck being smashed in real air hockey would be the icing on the cake here. I assume you already thought of this though and it was just too difficult to find the appropriate sample.
The thing is, the puck gets smacked quite often, and I find repeated sound effects frustrating. At a certain point I had them playing, as well as little beeps each time you roll-over a menu button, but that got on my nerves rather quickly :lol: On the other hand, there's a sound effect playing each time a goal is scored and the puck falls into the table.

Thanks for your thorough feedback!

- Alex
 
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Alex. posted on Dec 21 2006 at 08:02 AM said:
How about holding the X button pressed for 1 second, and then the paddle becomes permanently full-speed? There'd be an icon on the screen indicating that it's fullspeed, and then you could hold it pressed for one more second to revert to the slower speed. During that 1 second, you would still be able to move the paddle fast, as in the current game. Please let me know your ideas about this, I didn't really think this through, just ideas that came to me while I was typing this.
I like the idea of having the button pressed for 1 second to revert to the high speed, but I think that you should only have to tap it to get back to the slow speed. Any longer than that and you will have passed the time that was necessary to have it slower (I usually have the x-button pressed for most of the time, but sometimes I don't want to overshoot the puck when defending my net and release the x-button in that case) This is a game of reflexes so I think it's important to be able to have all of your controls/options available to you instantly.
I was under the impression that it's pretty hard, especially starting at the Normal difficulty, when the AI has faster reflexes. Did you win the whole tournament on the first go, or just the first game? If you actually won the whole thing, try again and be surprised ;)
I agree with you, Alex, that the game is pretty hard in the hard mode. I like the AI just as it is. :) Oh and I have to say that I tested out the old trick (that I used to use on my old air hockey table at home) of guarding the centre of the net - on Airplyr, and I love how you can't cover all of the net at once. It saves people guarding once they're up a goal.

One more suggestion I have is that I think that Overtime should be sudden death (or at least an option for that). I've run into a few instances where goals are scored in OT and after each OT period, it's still tied! (also it really sucks to get that first goal, only to squander it later) ;)

All in all, it's a fantastic game. Thanks again!
 
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I agree with both of your ideas. You'll revert to slow speed as soon as you press X, that makes more sense than having to wait for it. Overtime will definitely be sudden death (I considered this, but had no time left to implement it). Both of these features will be included in the next release, hopefully by the end of the year.

Cheers!

- Alex
 
Alex. posted on Dec 21 2006 at 04:02 PM said:
How about holding the X button pressed for 1 second, and then the paddle becomes permanently full-speed? There'd be an icon on the screen indicating that it's fullspeed, and then you could hold it pressed for one more second to revert to the slower speed. During that 1 second, you would still be able to move the paddle fast, as in the current game. Please let me know your ideas about this, I didn't really think this through, just ideas that came to me while I was typing this.
That is one possibility but I wonder if in such a fast paced game the player would have the time to do such things. I think a simple reversal may be the best option. So the paddle is normally full speed but holding X slows it down.

If you actually won the whole thing, try again and be surprised ;)
You are quite right, I must have totally fluked my first tournament win because the AI seemed much better the next few times.

The thing is, the puck gets smacked quite often, and I find repeated sound effects frustrating. At a certain point I had them playing, as well as little beeps each time you roll-over a menu button, but that got on my nerves rather quickly :lol: On the other hand, there's a sound effect playing each time a goal is scored and the puck falls into the table.
Yeah, I can see how some people would get annoyed by that. In that case, perhaps have options to disable music and/or sound effects so there's a choice. It's not something that's needed at all though really.
 
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jbrodack posted on Dec 21 2006 at 10:10 PM said:
i agree with subcon in that simply reversing it would be the best way to control it. i only seem to use the slower movement occasionally but use the faster speed with x pressed much more often.
yeah, this is probably better.
 
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therealadmin posted on Dec 26 2006 at 01:00 AM said:
I tried this game the other day and it is really good. Thanks for the great game Alex.
Great to hear, comments like these really brighten my day :)

On a related note, I'll release the final update to this game (at least for a long while) sometime around New Year's. The update will fix the colour banding that is currently seen on some of the backgrounds, make the paddle go fast by default and slow it down by pressing X, and make tournament overtimes sudden death.

- Alex
 
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Alex. posted on Dec 21 2006 at 11:02 AM said:
The thing is, the puck gets smacked quite often, and I find repeated sound effects frustrating. At a certain point I had them playing, as well as little beeps each time you roll-over a menu button, but that got on my nerves rather quickly :lol: On the other hand, there's a sound effect playing each time a goal is scored and the puck falls into the table.
- Alex

i wonder if it would be less annoying with some more variation or realism. for instance: two different effects, with the one for the computer player being a little deeper and more echoed. then play them at a volume that's proportional to the angle between the puck vector and player vector?

just brainstorming. not a feature request or anything. airplyr is great though, nice job with it, alex.
 
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Sorry for the grave dig; I'm plowing my way through the to-do list, and came across something:

Are differences in paddle speed really that important, or do they over-complicate an otherwise simple game? My plan was to assign the action buttons as an alternative to the stick for paddle movement. I could change the music changer to Select, and use L and R to alter paddle speed. Like I said though I'm thinking of getting rid of different speeds altogether and just keep the high one. Any thoughts?

- Alex
 
I kind of like having the two paddle speeds.

A better idea would be just to make the high speed the default, and hit R to make it move slower, instead of the other way around (if I'm remembering correctly).
 
Ok cool, I'll make the shoulder triggers move the paddle slower.

Thanks for the input :)

- Alex
 
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