Vectrex Academy 2023 - final releases available

[hcmffm]

And here are some drafts for "Fly High" which show walls with some 3D effect (as mentioned above):

Fly High - original:



Fly High - Shadow 1:


Fly High - Shadow 2:


Please note that shadow 1 would still work well with straight vertical scrolling while shadow 2 would require scrolling both vertical and horizontal - I guess.

[Peer]

May 2, 2023 14:53:58 GMT -5 hcmffm said:

For VecDrift I've fiddled around a bit with the design of the racing car....

Thanks a lot for your great suggestions and your artwork, Helmut! I will happily pass this on to the student As always, your feedback and thoughts are highly appreciated.

A more general remark regarding the "look" of objects in our games: Very often the simple explanation for chosing a rather minimalistic design is that fact that we are programming in C, with the C compiler introducing some amount of computational overhead. So far us performance aspects are a bit more critical compared to working directly in assembly language. Drawing each vector costs time. An designing an object that looks nicer, but consists of some n more vectors, easily costs some more 500s to 1000s of CPU cycles.

The best way I found to draw your new car design is with 24 vectors (invisible moves of the beam must also be counted), while the original design uses 18 vectors. I am just mentioning this so that you are not disappointed in case your new design does not get chosen

Many Cheers,

Peer

[hcmffm]

Thank you, Peer, for your comments and hint. All my suggestions are just suggestions and sure enough there can be numerous reasons why a developer doesn't implement a suggestion. This is not a problem for me because I'm well aware that it's the students first project which can be a big challenge. Sure enough I'm happy if my suggestions are helpful and do improve a game. But it's all on a volunteer basis and I'm fine with games and their authors regardless whether they have taken my suggestions into account or not. And I much appreciate everyones effort. So no disappointment from my side, but appreciation and thankfulness. And extra joy and a smile on my face when developers polish and refine their game and walk the extra miles like they did in Floor is Lava, Asteroid Cowboy or Save the Planet for example.

[Peer]

... and again the not-so-weekly news-flash:

Latest modifications and change log:

• Earls alpha release candidate of project "Get in Shape" uploaded on 05/15/2023 at 14:00
• New screenshots of project "VecVenture" added on 05/10/2023 at 16:00
• New screenshots and brandnew video of project "Happy Bird" added on 05/09/2023 at 08:40
• Overlay artwork of project "Tank Master" updated on 05/05/2023 at 13:00
• Overlay artwork of project "1024" updated on 05/01/2023 at 10:00
• Once more, a new demo video of project "Wetcat" uploaded on 05/01/2023 at 10:00, featuring more animations
• New screenshot of project "VecDrift" added on 05/01/2023 at 10:00

What is great this year is that some projects are already near an early alpha release status. Emphasis on "early", and there are still features to be implemented, but those students are brave, and they voiced their interest in getting some "early" feedback. Project "Get in Shape" dared to make the first move and provided an alpha binary for evaluation. Likely, projects "Wetcat" and "Happy Bird" will soon be next. So, playtesters wanted! Any type of comment is highly appreciated.

Many Cheers,

Peer

[hcmffm]

Thank you for updating the Vectrex Academy 2023 Project Gallery, Peer. Great, that an alpha version of "Get in Shape" is available.

Thursday is a public holiday, here, so I think I'll find time to get in shape and write up some feedback. Sure enough, feedback from playtesters other than me is also most welcome.

[Peer]

May 16, 2023 16:27:10 GMT -5 hcmffm said:

... Thursday is a public holiday, here, so I think I'll find time to get in shape and write up some feedback. Sure enough, feedback from playtesters other than me is also most welcome.

Thanks a lot, dear and constant tester hcmffm!

Just a small note to you and to any other welcome volunteer: This is an alpha. There is no need to write an extensive report. Any short comment or any kind of quick motivational feedback is highly appreciated

[Peer]

... here is the next one:

• Early alpha release candidate of project "Happy Bird" uploaded on 05/18/2023 at 09:30

Many Cheers,

Peer

[rayxamber]

This gallery 2023 seems very great!
I will try to make some beta-tests but I will have enough spare time only end of next week. For when do you want some feedbacks? Is there a time limit?

[VectorX]

^No, they can be done just whenever.

[Peer]

May 18, 2023 12:49:09 GMT -5 VectorX said:

^No, they can be done just whenever.

Correct. There is no obligation to do anything. Please, everyone, consider this just as an invitation to try out the current state of the projects. Of course we would we happy to learn your thoughts and maybe get some feedback, but on a voluntary basis, and no need for extensive reports. Any short one-liner comment is welcome.

In the past years, we used to upload game binaries when they were in beta RC status. Beta RC means that the project is almost finished, features are frozen, only fine-tuning and bug hunting left. This was usually at the end of the semester. So, even if the testers suggested many great and interesting feature enhancements or modifications, there was hardly any time left to implement them.

This time we try to have a little more time to react to external feedback by already providing some alpha RCs. Alpha RC means that the game is essentially playable, but some features may still be missing, and certain design decisions might still be open. Development is still going on.

[hcmffm]

Before posting my feedback for "Get in Shape" I'd like to share some thoughts on testing students' games.

Alpha release - Great!
It's really cool that first alpha releases are avaible, already. This allows students to react on feedback and make both minor and even major changes. Personally, I don't recommend implementing major changes because schedule is tight, already. But perhaps suggestions can be considered as additional increments which can be implemented towards the end of the term given that there is time after implementing all other (planned) increments.

Short or long feedback?
Often, my feedback is long and much into detail. Sure enough I could write short feedback but I think my detailed feedback is appreciated and gives developers support and ideas. My feedback is sometimes demanding and might cause even negative feelings - but this is not my intention at all. Please consider my feedback as some honour for your development work and possible ways to improve your game. You may implement none or all suggestion, this is all fine for me. As written in a previous post above: No disappointment from my side, but appreciation and thankfulness for all your students work, effort and time you put into your games!

Feedback and comments from many people

Unfortunately, during past years often I was the only person who had provided feedback. Christopher (Malban) also wrote up some feedback which was quite refreshing. I'm not quite sure why there's very little feedback - I guess there are two reasons:

First, a lot of activity is concentrated in facebook group "Vectrex Fans Unite!", and second my long feedback might keep other people from providing feedback and/or short comments. People might think: "OMG, this "hcmffm" guy writes really long feedback. No need for me to write a short feedback or comment on a game.". As written by Peer, the more people provide more feedback the better. Why? Because feedback and comments are signs of appreciations - sure enough comments and feedback from many people is more encouraging than feedback from just a few or even a single person. So: Short comment for just one game? Perfect! Short comment for several games? Also perfect! It's all about interaction and any interaction is better than no interaction at all. rayxamber, Chainsaw, nexus6, and others: Feel free to write up something - firing up a game in webbrowser and having a look at it is so simple - you don't even need a Vectrex.

- o -

[Chainsaw]

OK... Will have a look from time to time (as usual), and will use the feedback link (e-mail) on the website if I see something important to report. But I had a look for example at Happy Bird now, I already like the alpha version, but I will not report or answer already now, because I see in the concept is written, that increasing the difficulty during the gameplay is already planned, but not yet implemented. So I wait for a later release for more testing. What I like: It is in this alpha version actually the least frustrating version of all existing "Happy Bird" game variations :-) But sure, the increasing of the difficulty will change this and make the game more exciting.

Edit: Yeah, very great to be able to have a first look at the games in the browser and emulator, but for longer playing, I will take the time to copy it to my Vecflash to play it on the real Vectrex :-)

[hcmffm]

Get in Shape

This review is for "Get in Shape" designed and developed by "0xC001D00D". Alpha version can be played online in browser or downloaded and played in emulator or real hardware, see Vectrex project gallery.

· GENERAL NOTES

When I had read the game concept of Get in Shape I thought of other brain trainings (see above). Now, few weeks later when looking at Get in Shape other things came to my mind: Symbols remind me of PS2 controller. Screen layout reminds me of Guitar Hero. But "Get in Shape" has little to do with PS2 and is no music game but an action puzzle game: You have to press appropriate button whenever a shape matches. And make sure not to press a button if shape doesn't match. If you miss to press a button or you press a button for a non-matching shape, you'll lose one of three lives. Zero lives means "Game over". I've played "Get in Shape" on a real Vectrex for about 15 minutes. My maximum score was 26.

· WHAT I LIKE

+ Title screen with brain graphic

+ Custom font used in title screen

+ Simple game concept

+ Health aspect

· BUGS

Note: This is an alpha release so it doesn't make too much sense to report bugs.

Game resets when button 4 isn't pressed in time

On title screen it says "Press button 4 to enter gym". Currently, if you don't press button 4 in time, game resets. (Game reset is very noticeable when playing "Get in Shape" on a multicartridge because you're back in the menu of the multicartridge)

· SUGGESTIONS

Flicker on title screen

Currently, title screen flickers quite a bit.

Suggestion: Perhaps some vectors can be removed so that flicker is reduced. E.g. it could say "PRESS 4 TO ENTER GYM" (without "BUTTON").

Points for non-matching shapes

Currently, if a non-matching shape passes, you don't get any points. This means that one may play for a while without scoring at all until a matching shape appears.

Suggestion: Non-matching shapes should also increase score. Score for a non-matching shape could be less points than a matching shape with button pressed, e.g. 2 points for a wrong shape while a correct shape scores 10 points.

Random shapes vs. calculated shapes

Currently, shapes seem to appear in random order. This results in periods which don't require any interaction by the player.

Suggestion: Shapes could be calculated or semi-calculated in a way that at least every third shape is a matching shape which requires interaction.

Graphics: Horizontal line and hiding shapes

Currently, there is a horizontal line at the bottom. All shapes disappear right above this horizontal line

Suggestion: Remove horizontal line. Let shapes that (currently) cost a life pass vertically while all shapes identified properly by the players hide/"explode" and non-matching shapes. This way a player can see whether he/she did right or wrong without looking up to the score or life indicator.

Ramping up difficulty
Currently, difficulty ramps up very quickly by increasing speed of incoming shapes significantly(!).

Suggestion: Apart from speed there could be various other means to increase difficulty:

- Frequency of shapes could increase (i.e. pause between two shapes)
- Number of shapes at a time could increase (e.g. at first one shape at a time, only. Later on, up to four shapes can appear at once.)

- Ratio of number of matching shapes vs. number of non-matching shapes (see previous suggestion)
- Appearance of incoming shapes could become more difficult (e.g. at first: fixed size, no rotation. Later on: small and larger and larger till full size is achieved. Horizontal shape dimension: from flat line to horizontal full expanded shape. Rotating shapes, ...). See marathon mode of "In the Groove" for more examples and ideas.

Target of game

Currently, in "Get in Shape" you have three lives. If you lose your last live game ends.

Idea/Suggestion: "Get in Shape" could be a game of concentration which requires a long time (1-2 minutes) of concentration. Playing should be encouraging and not frustrating. Some ideas and possible ways to achieve this:

• No lives but fixed playing time, e.g. 60, 120, or 180 seconds (perhaps duration could be chosen or perhaps there could be three units of 60 seconds with a short pause in-between)
• Automatic difficulty adjustment, i.e. if player presses a correct button combination, difficulty increases a bit. When player misses a shape difficulty decreases a bit. --> Player cannot lose a game but have a higher or lower score at the end of a game.
• Score helps to measure and compare brain fitness with other players. In addition to a score there could be encouraging sentences like "You rock." or "Great play!". Or you could introduce (funny) ranks.
  
• Statistics: At the end of game some statistics could be shown, e.g. number of shapes in total, number of non-matching shapes, number of matching shapes, number of "identified" matching shapes, ...
  

So much for now. Sure enough there are various things to implement like sound effects - but this is an alpha version and it's understandable that various things are still missing at this early stage. I much hope that my suggestions and ideas are helpful and encouraging. Thank you, 0xC001D00D, for this alpha version of "Get in Shape". I much look forward to testing a beta version - without any expectations for sure.

BTW: What are "REPS"? Does "REPS" stand for "REPETITIONS"? (I never visited a fitness gym - this is why I'm asking.)

- o -

[hcmffm]

May 20, 2023 10:45:31 GMT -5 Chainsaw said:

OK... Will have a look from time to time (as usual), and will use the feedback link (e-mail) on the website if I see something important to report. But I had a look for example at Happy Bird now, ...

Great that you might provide feedback, too, Stefan. You can either use the mail address provided in the Vectrex Academy 2023 Project Gallery or post here. I guess for Peer both is fine - when posting here more people can read it.

[VectorX]

May 20, 2023 11:26:39 GMT -5 hcmffm said:

BTW: What are "REPS"? Does "REPS" stand for "REPETITIONS"? (I never visited a fitness gym - this is why I'm asking.)

- o -

Yes. If you use weights you can have a certain amount of "reps" per exercise routine if you keep count or set a goal with "currently I'm doing x amount of reps with ____ (whatever exercise with weights you're doing) but hopefully I'll soon be able to increase my routine to y amount of reps".