Rock Jockey 2.0 is ready for action

[NakedApe]

Hey @nakedape I haven't had a chance to check after you told me the right way to use the mouse. I'll check it again.

I have plans to review it in a YouTube video too.

Just need to find time and ambition at once

Thanks vm @grymmjack. Sounds great! I found your first impressions of the game from June here (#4) and you liked it a lot back then. Make sure to set the game difficulty to Easy since you're a Rock Jockey rookie.    And good luck finding that time and ambition. 

I'll post a slightly updated version of the game that gives a message if you try to steer wrong by moving the mouse up and down - not side to side - and sets the default difficulty to easy (since some find it hard to play).

EDIT: Added the new zipped folder below.

[a740g]

I had better luck landing the ship in v2 than I did in v1. 

QQ: What did you use to generate the VOs?

[NakedApe]

Excellent, a740g, I'm glad it worked for you - and nice flying!

MacOS has a built-in speech synthesizer, and I used a free, little app called "Speech" from the Mac App Store. The voice is US female "Samantha." Type in what you want her to say and save to file. Then I used WavePad Masters Edition to edit the VOs and all the other sound files...  It was a fun project and I learned a lot!

[madscijr]

And now, just in time for X-Mas fun, here's my space game. I posted version one of this arcade-style game as a WIP six months ago. Now I think it's done - I think I've actually finished writing a computer game - omg! Many thanks to Terry Ritchie, MasterGy, bplus and Amazing Steve for the routines I stole - and attributed to them. 

Thanks for sharing this! 

I finally got around to running it, didn't have a ton of time to go too deep, but here is some initial feedback, if it helps? 

•   This is a great looking game!
  
•   The different screens / chapters are very interesting looking and have me very curious to try. I don't know if the ones that show the planet's surface use different game mechanics (ie the game changes to a Lunar Lander or Gravitar type rules) but if it did that would be cool. 
  
•  The idea for the controls is original, but for a game like this, I really think just stick to the tried and true Asteroids / Spacewar! model, where left/right = rotate, up = thrust, down = other action, and the ship builds momentum. Having to deal with new/awkward controls, where the ship moves this slowly, just adds frustration for me. 
  
• I haven't looked at the code yet, but if this can be tweaked to be configurable to be a sort of Asteroids / Spacewar / Lunar Lander / Gravitar construction set, that would be absolutely killer (for me at least)! 
  

I'll definitely play with it as I get time. I have a Spacewar game in the works that stalled a while back, and your game really inspires me to go back and finally finish it!

Thanks again and keep up the good work!

[NakedApe]

Hey @madscijr. Thanks for downloading, playing and commenting! I'm glad you mostly like it. Without getting defensive or anything, lemme respond. 

> I tried using the arrow keys for this at first, but found them too limiting and clunky. It's hard for me to switch from the up key to the down key in real time, whereas the mouse is adjustable in sensitivity and (I think) more natural for this kind of play - your mileage may vary. You might benefit from trying a practice round to get a feel for the controls.

> Not sure why you think the ship moves slowly, but I realize these are your initial reactions. The ship in deep space mode (no gravity) can go from -1 to 6 pixels per cycle, which is way faster than needed. The left and right mouse buttons control the thrusters. This game is about accurate maneuvering much of the time so high speed isn't really that useful - unless you're trying to break out of the force field cage! Hint, hint.

> The game does go into lunar lander mode once you grab a rock and make it through the comets and rock field. It was fun trying to recreate one of my favorite games from 1982.

> I'm not a very advanced programmer, though I'm tenacious and learning more all the time thanks to this forum.   The code may not lend itself to modding very easily, but it's well documented so maybe. I tried to prevent spaghetti coding, still there sure are a lot of events and variables to track in this wacky, multi-chapter game.

Give it another try if you find the time please. And good luck finishing your Spacewar game! I wanna play.

[madscijr]

Hey @madscijr. Thanks for downloading, playing and commenting! I'm glad you mostly like it. Without getting defensive or anything, lemme respond. 

> I tried using the arrow keys for this at first, but found them too limiting and clunky. It's hard for me to switch from the up key to the down key in real time, whereas the mouse is adjustable in sensitivity and (I think) more natural for this kind of play - your mileage may vary. You might benefit from trying a practice round to get a feel for the controls.

> Not sure why you think the ship moves slowly, but I realize these are your initial reactions. The ship in deep space mode (no gravity) can go from -1 to 6 pixels per cycle, which is way faster than needed. The left and right mouse buttons control the thrusters. This game is about accurate maneuvering much of the time so high speed isn't really that useful - unless you're trying to break out of the force field cage! Hint, hint.

> The game does go into lunar lander mode once you grab a rock and make it through the comets and rock field. It was fun trying to recreate one of my favorite games from 1982.

> I'm not a very advanced programmer, though I'm tenacious and learning more all the time thanks to this forum.   The code may not lend itself to modding very easily, but it's well documented so maybe. I tried to prevent spaghetti coding, still there sure are a lot of events and variables to track in this wacky, multi-chapter game.

Give it another try if you find the time please. And good luck finishing your Spacewar game! I wanna play.

Thanks NakedApe for explaining all that, I'll definitely give it a more thorough play-through when I have some time to dedicate to it. Maybe I'm "doing it wrong" with the controls and didn't know how to speed up? I'll definitely try again. Perhaps building in some control options so people who prefer to use just the keyboard or just the mouse or gamepad will open it up to more players? Anyway, you've done some very inpressive work for someone not advanced! Being tenacious is a very good trait or approach for this kind of thing - keep it up and you'll go far. Cheers!

[NakedApe]

madscijr: "Perhaps building in some control options so people who prefer to use just the keyboard or just the mouse or gamepad will open it up to more players?"

That's a good idea. I could easily have the arrow keys *and* the mouse do what you're saying and then leave the side thruster controls for the letters 'a' and 'd'. But then I'd have to update the directions. Yawn... No, I like the idea and will make the changes. 

Thanks for the kind words too.

[madscijr]

madscijr: "Perhaps building in some control options so people who prefer to use just the keyboard or just the mouse or gamepad will open it up to more players?"

That's a good idea. I could easily have the arrow keys *and* the mouse do what you're saying and then leave the side thruster controls for the letters 'a' and 'd'. But then I'd have to update the directions. Yawn... No, I like the idea and will make the changes. 

Thanks for the kind words too.

Better yet, give the user the option to map their own keys for each function. Don't like 'a' and 'd'? No problem! Choose whichever keys you want! 

If you need help with that, I could dig up some code, or you can search the forums or at qb64.com, it's a common practice.

[NakedApe]

Since you're kind enough to offer, sure, @madscijr, I'd take a look at your key mapping code. Thanks vm!