oddwarg

That's not exactly what I intended to imply, but it's an interesting interpretation...

@Overbound There's totally no need to ask me for permission to make a lightning effect d00d. The description was a bit sub-standard, but here's the code I used for drawing it. It's not exactly self-documenting but it's fairly straighforward. As Candescence explained, Descent is a game. If you have it then you can use a program called DTX to extract textures and audio. I'm guessing you don't want to do that though.

BUG REPORT Ignore 4 & 5. I did not read your post properly.

@Strife Yeah, I got that. I just decided to explain things properly.

@Strife Yes. Any publicized original work of mine is, unless otherwise is clearly stated, immediately released to the public domain. However, if the work contains elements from other works, then the relevant parts of my work are covered by the laws and liscences which the other works dictate, unless fair use law can be applied. For example, EHF is a derivative work which contains copyrighted material. Therefore EHF is, as a whole, not in the public domain. In fact, the game happens to be illegal because it contains material from which it is illegal to make derivative works. For example, Sega does not give permission to make fangames, and about half of the music is proprietary. I am a criminal and so is everyone who makes a copy(but that is another story). It also contains elements which are legal to use in a derivative work, but not public domain. For example, it contains code written by Mark Overmars because it was created with Game Maker, and therefore you are not allowed to reverse-engineer the executable file. I already gave you the source though, so you probably don't want to do that anyway. However, it contains a lot of original work(like those explosions) which is in the public domain because I created it. Still, please realize that even though I am a proponent of free information, I may still choose to work against you, but only if you use the results of my work for evil purposes. And in that case I can only do so without resorting to copyright rhetorics. For example, if you say that you created a song which I have created, sell copies of it, and then use the money to fund terrorism, then it is likely that I will work against you because Firstly, you are a liar because you did not create the song(note: I only demand that you do not provide false information, not that you credit me. Though I do appreciate that in most situations). Secondly, you are dishonestly taking money for something which is free(note: You may use my work in some money-making scheme, but if it does seems selfish or dishonest then I will simply do my best to inform people about the truth). Thirdly, you should not support terrorism because there will always be opposing wills and if you accept resorting to violence in conflict resolution then you accept that no one will ever be safe. In contrast, I see absolutely no logical explanation for why I should try to stop you from using those explosion sprites for reference. Finally, I also believe that a person has a right for privacy, and therefore I may choose to keep certain pieces of information from the public altogether and I beg you to respect this. But, if I personally post something on a public internet space then this does obviously not apply. If any of this offends you then I apologize. I can't change the law, and the rest is just my current policy on these things.

I'm not so sure what effects you're talking about, but no, I did not use the particle system. I used objects for my particles. GM has crap performance but objects give me much more freedom and control as long as I watch out. Other than that I used some primitives and shapes I guess. The (sparsely used) electric arcs consist of lots of joined line segments that go from one place to another, but have some random movement between. I made these explosion things for the game(so they're public domain) http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/635/explosiong.gif http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/7590/electric.gif http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/2387/nukez.gif most of the others are ripped I think. Descent has some very nice explosions. If you can't afford using lots of particles then you can sometimes improve the performance by using prerecorded animations (this was used for the drill) Make a small test program with the particle effect you need and record it into a sprite. For flashy things you should familliarize yourself with blend modes. Most importantly you should understand add and subtract. This chart can give you some hints with more advanced modes, but you rarely need them and you'll have to test them yourself: http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/6319/blendmodesexperimentv02.png I also used a lot of screen shakes, blending the screen with a color, and there is a system for controlling the time flow. Everything animates according to a global variable which says how fast time should flow. The graphics also rely a lot on stuff blinking at 60Hz =D Proper use of sound effects is also very important. The introduction has a lighting system which uses a drawing surface. The surface has the same size as the screen, and it is initially gray. Darker spots are drawn on the surface on positions according to light sources on the screen. The surface is then drawn to the screen using bm_subtract in order to make the screen darker except for the places where there are lights. There's a link to the source gmk somewhere in this topic. It's messy but if you know what you're looking for then you might find it there. There isn't really much fancy technical programming behind most of the effects; you just have to use your selected devices in a way which gives them impact. If you're curious about some particular graphical element I haven't explained then I'll gladly explain the mechanics though.

Wow, thanks! Take this http://hemmamann.deviantart.com/art/InstantSonic-196233016

Hi I played this game a while back. I got it in an email for my birthday after randomly watching your first video. It was scary. It is very much like their old series penumbra, but they dropped the combat system(which happened the worst combat system ever designed) this time. I've only played overture though, so I don't know so much about the two others. What I know is that even though overture was very nice, Amnesia scared me a lot more. I spent 2 days just manning up halfway through. k thanks bye

Nah. The story is concluded and I don't want to. Someone else could do it.

Aw thanks you guys. I've fixed a lot of bugs since last time I posted, but there's no new content. I'm starting to feel like this game is behind me now, but I still don't have any major new project going on. It was fun, and the overall response has exceeded my expectations. Generally, people are cooler than I thought. This topic should have died by now.

I got some markers and a fake dollar in a pirate piggy bank. And a woolen shirt. Happy new year to you people.

@MegaDash I am almost certain that it has to do the video card hardware. But the game would not run properly on a system with 1.6GHz. Pentium 4 could be almost anything though. I'd estimate that 2GHz is a minimum requirement for this game. There is little or no multithreading so a greater number of processor cores will not give much speedup. There is a small chance that optimizing video memory usage would get rid of the error on some systems, but I cannot test it and it would most likely be unplayable on such hardware anyway due to low framerate. In the next version the game will display a warning and then continue running with missing graphics instead of repeating the error. This way it will not go undetected if the game actually runs fine apart from the presence of the error on some systems, and people might stop reporting the error in the other case. To anyone curious about their specifications, Start Menu -> Run -> dxdiag will yield some basic system information in Windows. Also, I made a small test program which might reveal some truth if it is run by someone who experiences the problem. Zodick... wut EDIT: I updated the file with the promised changes.

@MegaDash I haven't heard any other attempts at interpretations, no. If the music really gives that sort of impression, then it's honestly more than I could have hoped for... xD But I can talk about it: You do actually regain control over Sonic for a few seconds before Eggman fires his laser, and I originally intended to make it possible to avoid his attacks for a short amount of time, but for some reason that didn't happen. It is unlikely that I will perform such changes at this time. I've seen other people mention that scene you mentioned at the end of your post, and I do think the idea is a bit intriguing myself. @Lumpy Space DW My previous game had a warning which told the user that they could die if they played the game. But I think perhaps I will take my chances on this one. Excuse me if I am mistaken, but I think perhaps there is something wrong with your computer. Make sure they use the wrist strap.

@LakeFeperd I am mad scientist But seriously, I do not mean any harm. I do, however, mean to leave an impression. @leocartoon1yt If you are interested then I can help you troubleshoot this issue, but it would be best to do it over email or PM as I do not want to clutter this forum any more. Also note that it will take some time to figure things out, and that it is somewhat unlikely that I can fix the problem even if the cause is discovered. @MegaDash You might be interested in this feature: http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/8388/spoilertag.png. If you are aware of it then I shall respect your reasons for not using it. You will risk getting surface errors if your video memory gets cleaned up, for example when your computer goes into sleep mode or when you change your resolution. That is my best guess as to what brought forth the error in your case. I attempted to make it appear as though the ages of the protagonists have evened out, and I believe you understand my most important reason for doing this. I have to admit that you have seen right through the disguises of the poem. Your interpretation corresponds to my thoughts on the day that I wrote it; There isn't much more to it than what you have said. And in case you are wondering, the filtered voice was just another device of obfuscation, it doesn't have any impact on the meaning. I do, of course, welcome other interpretations if someone manages to come up with one that makes sense. The music for the credits wasn't originally created for that purpose, it is just something I made one day, for no particular reason. I used those voice samples because they happened to be in a folder I looked in and I thought it would be funny or something. I don't even know why I ended up using it in the game, but I think it does a satisfactory job of making fun of the whole event. It doesn't have a greater meaning. About Eggman's fall; This may seem too simple, but he ran out of rings, much like you can run out of rings when you are Super Sonic. The one over his head symbolizes the last one. I might add a sort of counter or something in the next update since this isn't clear. It bothers me a bit, and I feel that it is unnecessary to mystify this. And no, there are no plans for a sequel, and I lack a good reason to make one. I'll keep making games though, and it is not unlikely that some future project will be remotely similar.

@LakeFeperd I believe your facial expressions would have constituted valuable research data, but I think I can imagine the approximate emotion behind them. I am jubilated that you played and enjoyed the game. Yes, because Eggman is a member of the European General Galvanizers Association. I am not really associated with them though, so I hope that they are not offended. @Lumpy Space DW Batshit nutterballs is definitely something I strive for. Your approval is very much appreciated.

I actually saw that topic yesterday, and it was a rather interesting read. It doesn't seem to have died yet either. I like how they're trying to figure out the poem. I can't reveal too much on that one though, it would ruin the scheme. Thanks again for the compliment, by the way. =D

Yes, something like that. Also, I like the look of the mockup, even though I do not know what you intend to do with it. It does look a bit like he's running up a road into space though, which would be a very long road.

Just played through the latest build, and I rather enjoyed it. Personally I think the levels look nice, even though this sort of thing looks a bit out of place. Maybe add some roughness to it, like rocks sticking up in a similar fashion as the one in the right side of the picture. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I really like the backgrounds, but I'd give the waterfall a 2-frame animation if that's doable. I should also mention that I did not experience lag, but I do have a relatively modern computer. The level design is unpredictable, but it's perfectly manageable and I like that sort of thing anyway. Another detail is that the music doesn't loop very well(except in the hilltop place), and that really bothers me for some reason. I don't like how they fade out and then start over.

However, while it can certainly be looked upon as a joke, I would like to point out that there are several serious intentions behind it as well. I encourage the meditative to ponder what I might mean by that, on several levels. Oh, and about that highly hypothetical reversal,

@LakeFeperd: I also love your background effects. Yes, your objective is to knock his teeth out while the background flashes violently.

That is a great attitude, I love it. The peculiar level numbering is due to technical details... Yes, this will always be possible as long as I don't state otherwise.

@Cstyler I actually noticed some of your posts there earlier, and was quite surprised. I think it's excellent that people want to support the game like this. I do not understand the language though. I could use a translator but I'm probably better off not knowing the exact wording. I made yet another minor update today. There is one area in the "Drill" boss which is a bit more lenient now, and I added a sort of indicator which makes it easier to spot the pattern of the lasers of the "Egg" boss. The links are the same.

Oh my

Good day. I feel obligated to make a statement regarding the review of my game at "Destructoid". I do not enjoy talking lowly of other people or their works, but this man has misinterpreted my work as a whole, and I do not want anyone to think otherwise. I shall try to be brief. The review expresses shallowness and an inability to spot any humorous, emotional, or philosophical aspects I attempted to include in this game. It only emphasizes the mindless and violent parts of the game, and even fails to see the ambiguous and satirical nature of these segments. Also, it is disrespectful and insulting that the reviewer not only misinterprets and rejects the very morale, but encourages others to do the same. It could, of course, be that I have failed at conveying the message, but I know that many people understand at least some of it. In any case, the point of this post is merely to say this and to leave no doubt about it: I hereby express my disapproval of the views expressed in this review. I must, however, appreciate the publicity even though this is the last way I would want people to get introduced to the project. In the end I am grateful, make no mistake about it. The pack of nonthinking commenters is a natural internet phenomenon and is to some degree excusable, so please do not get caught up in their behaviour.

Many thanks for the feature. It would be interesting if this project actually got some popularity. I feel that the music which played during "Dream" accurately represents the mood of the sequence. It is not supposed to be a very pleasant dream. However, I have received multiple complaints directly aimed at this specific piece, and I do not want to scare people away at such an early time. Under much doubt, I have replaced it with a new composition which has the same feel, but it is a lot less perturbing. @Jwiwo The wall-running feature is a byproduct of this particular way of designing a game engine, so that I would actually have needed to write additional code in order to disable it. I have not seen another Sonic game with this particular form of wall-running though, and that puzzles me a bit since it seems rather natural for such a character. I appreciate that you reccommended the game to another person. That is probably the best possible form of advertisement. But, it seems I have seeded a false idea in your head. I shall compose and send you a personal message as soon as possible. It is very good to see that people like the update with the new areas. I was a bit uncertain about it, but it seems like it was a success. The files have been updated with a different music file for the "Dream" level and a new easter egg. This is an insignificant update as there are no bugfixes nor new gameplay features. It is worth mentioning that your save file is called "dat.dat" and it is currently compatible with all versions of the game. It only needs to be present in the game directory when you start the game.