Quote from: Lionel Debroux on January 15, 2017, 07:52:13 AM
Qt isn't perfect, but over time it's become the way to make cross-platform C/C++ GUI programs
It can be used for non-GUI programs as well, though in this case, special care needs to be taken not to over-use it.

I got it installed yesterday but then went out for dinner. So I'll experiment with it today. Given that it's C/C++ based I should pick it up fine, and I'm always up for learning new development skills

Quote from: aeTIos on January 15, 2017, 08:08:25 AM
I only just noticed this thread, I really like the aesthetic of the game. I was just wondering if you noticed that the first level says 'briefing' instead of 'briefing'? Or is that something in the level itself?

Voicing my support for a cross-platform level editor.

Quote from: p2 on January 15, 2017, 09:54:32 PM
You should start reading ALL threads so there is no unread content left by the end of every week ^^
you put the same string 'briefing' twice

Heh he did, but aeTIos is right that "briefing" is spelt incorrectly (as "breifing") on the first level. How did I never notice this? Once I get the world editor up and running, I'll fix this up

Update: I've been putting together a World Editor (in C# for Windows at this stage, but I've also started messing about with Qt for a cross-platform editor down the track). It's been progressing slowly now that I'm back at work, but over the last couple of nights I've written an implementation of the Huffman compression algorithm that's compatible with Jimmy Mardell's TI implementation, so worlds can be loaded and saved nicely.

The plan is to get the World Editor to at least enough of a working point that I can put together some extra levels, then I'll be releasing the game, and following up with the Editor shortly after

I can't wait for the level editor and the game. Glad this is coming along nicely . Will the editor be able to import levels from the TI-86 version?

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on January 25, 2017, 05:45:54 AM
I can't wait for the level editor and the game. Glad this is coming along nicely . Will the editor be able to import levels from the TI-86 version?

Yes it will The game on the calculator will recognise either .8xp program or .8xv appvar World files, and the World Editor will be able to open .83p, .8xp, .8xv and .86s World files (which it will then save as .8xv appvars).

Awesome. Are you still considering supporting levels with higher height by the way? For importing old levels you would probably just need to add a few extra empty rows at the top or just render them with 8 blocks height.

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on January 28, 2017, 05:50:23 AM
Awesome. Are you still considering supporting levels with higher height by the way? For importing old levels you would probably just need to add a few extra empty rows at the top or just render them with 8 blocks height.

I decided to stick with the 8 tile height. Adding extra height changes the gameplay of the original worlds created for the TI-85, 86, 83, etc. Eg. If the top-most tile is solid, you can't jump over it, so if I extended the level height, I'd need to add more solid tiles above any existing solid tiles on the current top-most row to prevent cheating by skipping over the top of levels, and then this is just going to result in some weird looking levels.

Similar could be said for extending the play area width from 15 tiles to 20 - it would affect the spawn times of enemies as well as the mechanic of making sure the screen doesn't scroll past paths that you need to use, etc.

So yeah, given that my original intention was to simply port Jimmy's TI-85/86 version, and taking into account the above, I've decided to stick with the 15x8 tile play area for the v1.0.0 release (which isn't far off!). I want to finish this and move back on to other projects.

Of course in the future I might come back to this and add in the option to play "new format" levels with a larger play area, but no promises. I have other games I want to work on in the meantime

Wait..JamesV is making new and cool TI-84+ CE stuff? Has he finished Alien Breed? I'm so lost now that I disappeared once again from this place on account of having no graphing calc and finding a social life and discovering decent video games on the PC(League of Legends). 

Quote from: Jkolade936 on January 30, 2017, 03:29:40 AM
Wait..JamesV is making new and cool TI-84+ CE stuff? Has he finished Alien Breed? I'm so lost now that I disappeared once again from this place on account of having no graphing calc and finding a social life and discovering decent video games on the PC(League of Legends). 

Alien Breed for the TI-84+CE isn't finished, but it's not been forgotten about. I've had a bunch of ideas for it whilst working on this project, so I'll be getting back on to it shortly!

Sqrxz update: I'm very close to releasing this now. The last few days or so I've finished off the Windows version of the World Editor and put together a single level "Tutorial World" as well as a new 3 level "Sqrxz World Part IV". So the game will come with 16 levels in total, as well as being able to play .8xp world files from the 83+/84+ archives on ticalc.org.

Additionally, the World Editor can open .83p and .86s World Files as well, and then save them as .8xv appvars for the TI-84+CE.

Right now I'm just finishing off the game by adding in a Teacher Key (quick quit to homescreen and resume game next time the game gets run), and then I'll be uploading to the archives, hopefully end of this week

Sqrxz CE v1.0.0 is now released! You can grab it over on Cemetech

The World Editor isn't far off either. It's Windows only at this stage, but I'd like to work on a cross platform version as well once have more time to spend with Qt.

Woohoo , congrats JamesV. I'm glad to see another such great project come to fruition. You should put a download link in the first post too, if not done already.

Good job

So @JamesV I just tried this and I am amazed at how smooth the game is. My only complaint, though, is about the camera: You can barely see anything in front of you. Would it be possible to make the character so that he's centered or invert the camera so that we can see more stuff in front of us than on the back when walking forward? Or was the original game intended that way in order to increase the difficulty? I can't even get past  the first tutorial stage because I never have time to react to anything popping up in front of me, not to mention the blind jumps due to the camera.

I think it's because the camera scrolls by 1px at a time so it has to catch up to the player after a long move?

Still a slick looking engine!

Yeah but it stops moving at about 30% of ahead screen view. Hence why I was wondering. And yeah I agree. It's so smooth.

@DJ Omnimaga I think it was designed that way (keeping in mind that I've just ported Jimmy's TI-85/86 engine without making any changes to the gameplay). One of the aspects of the gameplay is that you can't scroll back in the level, only forwards. In some cases you need to walk back left to get through tunnels, but you need to do it without the screen scrolling too far, otherwise you're stuck and keep to lose your life (press [DEL]) to try again. I agree it does make it difficult with enemies coming in from the right of screen, but I believe that may be intended as well. The original PC game is quite honest about it's difficulty, and it's intended that you need to really learn the levels, so it takes time and practice to become proficient at them.

The screen only scrolls every 2nd frame, except if you're close to the right edge of screen - then it will scroll every frame to keep up with Sqrxz.

The World Editor is now also available for download here

Ah right, the lack of left scrolling might be problematic if the camera movement is altered. D:

Gonna download the world editor soon. Can levels made with it be played on the TI-83+ version if small enough?