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Post by Peer on Jul 30, 2022 11:11:18 GMT -5
Greetings Visitor,
and welcome to my castle. Come in and enter at your own risk! I am the Count. And I love to count. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Easy, isn’t it? It’s as simple as that. Let us play a little game. We will play for a price. Nothing much, just your soul. All you have to do, is count. Make no mistakes, and you will live. Miscount, and your days are numbered. If you can count all the rooms in my castle, then I will let you go. There are numerous rooms in my castle, and they are not all accounted for. You might encounter strange things on your way, and you must count them all. Don’t be afraid. I am your counterpart, and I will always be close. I only want your best. I have played this game countless times before, and I have never lost count. Now, get ready, and take a bow. After all, I am the Count, and you can always count on me…"
- This project originally started as an educational example for the students of my Vectrex Academy class back in 2017. It somehow grew out of hand and evolved into a fully fledged Vectrex game.
- But then at some point, for various reasons, I grew tired of it and simply could not bring myself to finishing the last 2% of the project (which was basically "just" the definition of the levels and their sequence). So I buried the whole thing in the crypt, locked the basement door, and did not think of it for a long time.
- After years of silence, now every once in a while there was noise coming from the basements again. The creature seemed to be about to weak up. So I have to finally readied myself for a last confrontation and went down and opened up the crypt. The coffin was wide open, and the creature was alive. Beware the rise of ...
- The code of the game was mainly written 5 years ago when I was still learning about Vectrex programming. I have not changed or optimized it according to what I know today about writing games for the Vectrex. There are most likely still bugs in the code, and the 50Hz framerate barrier might be exceeded during gameplay. Please report if you find any issues while playing.
- For the order(s) in which the rooms of the castle are traversed I decided to use random permutations, simply because I was unable to decide on a single good sequence.
- Feedback is very welcome on which room is easier or more difficult than another, which one you like or like not, and on which rooms should come early or later in a sequence with stricly increasing difficulty, as I want to include such a sequence in the final version of the game.
Many Cheers, Peer
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Post by Malban on Aug 2, 2022 8:13:34 GMT -5
Great that you finaly dug that one out. I always liked the game
I see if I can find the time to play the count again - no promises though. It seems I am not able to find any Vectrex time these days.
Malban
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Post by rayxamber on Aug 2, 2022 10:31:14 GMT -5
Thanks to share your game! I have tried it (only in browser) but I can say I really like it. I have just tried the first three waves. I really love the timing to launch the arrow, the variation between levels (numbers not in order), the fact that enemy can kill you or add a number, the fact any mistake forces to start the level entirely, etc. The realization is top notch. Perhaps the intermissions are too long? But the graphics are very good, I love your style. Keep up the good work and the number of new programs each year is just "delicious"  I will try again your game in the next days I think. If I have more remarks to do, I will do! |
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Post by Peer on Aug 3, 2022 0:56:10 GMT -5
Great that you finaly dug that one out. I always liked the game I see if I can find the time to play the count again - no promises though. It seems I am not able to find any Vectrex time these days. Malban And thanks to you for repeatedly insisting that I should finish this one eventually. I dug it out because it had been a weight on my conscience for a much too long a time, and because I suddenly and out of nowhere felt like having a go at it again, which came a bit unexpected. Let's see how long that feeling will last  |
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Post by Peer on Aug 3, 2022 0:58:56 GMT -5
Thanks to share your game! I have tried it (only in browser) but I can say I really like it. I have just tried the first three waves. I really love the timing to launch the arrow, the variation between levels (numbers not in order), the fact that enemy can kill you or add a number, the fact any mistake forces to start the level entirely, etc. The realization is top notch. Perhaps the intermissions are too long? But the graphics are very good, I love your style. Keep up the good work and the number of new programs each year is just "delicious" I will try again your game in the next days I think. If I have more remarks to do, I will do! Thanks a lot for your kind words and for your feedback, rayxamber! Very happy to hear that you like the game |
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Post by Peer on Aug 3, 2022 1:09:15 GMT -5
Also, thanks a lot to VECTREXER and to Alex for sending feedback by email, and for reporting some issues!
I will try to collect and list all issues reported in a list in this thread. So far, those are:
Issue list as of 08/03/2022
- Sometimes, sounds are not correctly started and played. There seems to be a slight bug in the sound-priority handling (which sounds are supposed to interrupt and cancel out other sounds). I will have a look at this once I have returned from my current travels.
- There was an outdated and obsolete page at the end of the pdf manual (a clear copy-paste mistake of mine). That page as been removed and I have already uploaded a new version of the manual. The good thing is that I now know that at least one person actually read the manual
Many thanks and many Cheers, Peer
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Post by Peer on Aug 3, 2022 1:17:14 GMT -5
What I probably should have mentioned here explicitly:
Hint for all who have a go at the beta RC
- If you want to see more of the variety of the levels of the game, just start it with a different "GAME" setting in the initial options menu. There are 13 different sequences (pseudo random permutations) of all levels / rooms available. They all start with the same introductory room, but after that they all differ from each other. So, e.g. in one setting you will see certain rooms much earlier that will come at a later point in other settings.
Many Cheers, Peer
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Post by Peer on Aug 17, 2022 7:42:37 GMT -5
Interlude - Cabinet Artwork
This was sent to me by a talented and lovely young artist, who has an interest in Game Design, and who felt inspired by the Vectrex system to create some arcade-cabinet artwork for this game:
Many thanks, Marinka, keep up your awsome work!
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Post by D-Type on Aug 17, 2022 8:08:43 GMT -5
Looks great! Reminds me of Forbidden Forest on the C64.
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Post by Peer on Aug 19, 2022 6:00:25 GMT -5
Looks great! Reminds me of Forbidden Forest on the C64. Thanks a lot for voicing your thoughts here, D-Type . I will relay your words to the artist. I know that your comments will mean a lot to her and will add to her encouragement! |
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Post by VectorX on Aug 19, 2022 12:29:08 GMT -5
^She should be encouraged. I like her interpretation of the game.
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Post by Peer on Sept 12, 2023 7:09:34 GMT -5
Just wanted to let you all know that I am currently preparing a new Beta RC 2.0 of The Count. That version - modulo potential bugfixes - then is finally meant to be the final release of this game
Many Cheers, Peer
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Post by Peer on Sept 14, 2023 10:39:27 GMT -5
Cool overlays! I would post them in an own thread, so they don't stay hidden in “The Count”-thread. Yes, good idea. The creators are invited to start a new separate thread on homemade overlays. |
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Post by VectorX on Sept 14, 2023 13:39:47 GMT -5
^Several posts were moved.
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Post by Peer on Sept 15, 2023 2:01:42 GMT -5
Ok, back on topic. Here is a short list of what I did so far preparing Beta RC 2.0:
- Played all levels, removed some, added some new, and decided on a "final" sequence of levels with some hopefully slight and appropriate increase of difficulty. This is a bit fuzzy, as there is a lot of variation in the levels and in the strategies that are required to beat them. Following strategy A might seem easier than following strategy B to some players while I deem it the opposite way, so all I can do is hope that my choice provides some nice fun and challenge.
- Introduced a new feature which gives the castle a certain layout and gives the player a limited choice of how to traverse the rooms of the castle. Some routes may be easier or more difficult than others. Same choices always result in the same route, so players have a way to figure out a route that suites them best.
- Improved the handling of the bow and the means to control the speed of the arrows. Basically, there are two different ways to shoot an arrow, and there are levels in which either way is more advantagous.
- Threw out one of the existing enemy types, introduced a new one, and modified another one.
- Made the game-over screen tournament-friendly.
- Polished some graphics.
Still on my todo-list:
- Some more minor (but time-consuming) tweaking of certain levels.
- Some more minor performance fixes.
- Bugfixes if any are reported.
- Unexspected things that might come up...
Many Cheers, Peer
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