Feedback Request: Atomixer

[Sharkbait]

I've been meaning to release an early alpha of my game for quite a while now, but I've had to slow down due to wedding preparations, moving to my new place, honeymoon.. the whole works.

Anyway, I'm finally settling down and slowly resuming my indie game work and to this end I would like you to give my first game a try. It is still in alpha stage so it is not as polished as I'd like it to be and obviously not complete.

The game is targetted at a casual audience and is a match-3 (or more) style game played in a hexagonal grid. There are two modes of play: Arcade mode offers open-ended playing getting progressively harder; Puzzle mode offers a seriers of levels that need to be cleared out. For the time being, there are only 13 puzzxle levels - I must admit that coming up with level ideas is proving to be the hardest part of developing the game!

Besides play mode, the games offers 3 levels of difficulty, although they are not currently implemented and I'm probably thinking of allowing difficulty levels only for Arcade mode. Another interesting feature is online hiscores - I am hoping this is will prove to be a good incentive for sales conversion and longevity of the game.

Please give it a shot and let me know what you think.
P.S. Sonicron do your worst :)

Executable:
http://www.sharkbaitgames.com/atomixer/20050710/AtomixerSetup.exe

Screenies:
1 (http://www.sharkbaitgames.com/atomixer/images/Screen001.jpg) 2 (http://www.sharkbaitgames.com/atomixer/images/Screen002.jpg) 3 (http://www.sharkbaitgames.com/atomixer/images/Screen003.jpg) 4 (http://www.sharkbaitgames.com/atomixer/images/Screen004.jpg) 5 (http://www.sharkbaitgames.com/atomixer/images/Screen005.jpg) 6 (http://www.sharkbaitgames.com/atomixer/images/Screen006.jpg)

[Abscissa]

Pros:

Very nice graphics.
Very clean menu design (I always appreciate that).
Very good music. Great job on that!
Love the effect of the wavy letters in the water at the main menu!


Cons:

Please let me Alt-Enter to go fullscreen!
Please let me click to skip the intro. It's nice, but on the tenth time I play it it will get really annoying to have to wait those extra few seconds before getting to the main menu.
During actual gameplay, it runs very slow on my machine (13-24 fps). Too slow to really be any fun. But, my system isn't so low-spec that a game like this should have any problems. My system is:

WinXP Pro
1.2 GHz AMD Athlon T-Bird
Radeon 9200SE (AGP)
512 MB RAM (DDR)


Nitpicky:

The image of the scientist (at least on the main menu) looks somewhat mouse-drawn and might look a lot better created as vector-art. (But he doesn't look bad)
The scientist on the main menu blinks slightly too often. Makes me kinda nervous...


Unfortunately, I can't really comment on the gameplay since the low framerate made it difficult to really try out. :(

[soniCron]

The bad:
The sound clicked a lot, probably because of the...
Incredibly low framerate, even on my P4 2.66GHz.
Music is way too repetitive.
In-game graphics look blurry. Are they stretched?
Losing focus doesn't pause the game.
Ask for player name during first run.
"Give Up" and "Exit" in pause menu are really unclear. "Give Up" and "Exit Game" or "Quit to Windows" are recommended.
Remove difficulty option from "Puzzle Mode".
"Lab Rat" difficulty is definately not easy!!!! "Lab Rat" should be easy, "Professor" should be normal, and "Mad Scientist" should be hard! Don't make up your own definition of "easy". Easy should be easy. Read from here, to the end (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=3540&p=46427#post46427).


The nitpicks:
Game window has no icon.
Music should mute during "Pause".
"How To Play" shows both game modes. Should show whichever we're about to play.
"Restart Level" in pause menu shouldn't be there during arcade mode, since you can't use it.
Ask for permission to connect to the highscore list.
The "Ok" on the "How to Play" screen is too small and difficult to see.


The good:
Love the menu art! (Including the character!)
Nice music (but the repetition made me want to strangle someone)
Really unique gameplay!
Really fun gameplay!
Excellent concept!
Love the way the game "feels".
I love that there are different backgrounds!!


Closing comments: There is definately something solid about this game. The concept is fun, a great twist on the old match-3 idea, and is very well presented. Unfortunately, a lot of the experience is ruined due to inadequate frame rates. The easy mode is far from easy and leaves me feeling like I'm about to die half the time, which is nice, but I picked easy, so it should be. The music, while very creative and high quality, repeats so often that I'd rather pop in a scratched copy of "Oops, I Did It Again!" than listen to the same melody repeat every 2 seconds. And finally, even though this game is clearly targetting a more hardcore-casual gamer, the gamers are casual nonetheless, which bodes poorly for the almost 13MB download. It seems there is something not quite right with the amount of content that I see during the game and the size of the download. Despite these shortcomings, there is some very unique gameplay which is accented by an otherwise very nicely wrapped package.

The run-down:
Pre-install: mild
Presentation: medium
Graphics: hot!
Sound: mild
Music: mild
Gameplay: hot!
Originality: hot!
Entertainment: medium
Overall: medium


My recommendation: Definately worth a shot, once the framerate issues have been resolved.

[C_Coder]

OK. My turn.

FPS was not a problem for me. 50FPS all the way ;)

Put download size lower, more than 5MB is overkill.
Casual gamers will be annoyed waiting to download a 12MB game.
Installation should enable create desktop icon by default.

I would like to have the sfx a bit more 'agressive'
The block turning should be faster. It is too slow at the moment in my opinion.
Try to reduce the difficulty of lab rat. For me it was difficult at first but on the other hand I'm not into puzzles much.
Make the balls more shiny, it should attract more girls :D

I had an error blitting image followed by run-time error when the system was checking for online scores and I have a firewall that asked me if to allow the game to access the net. I tried to Alt-tab and then it happened. IMO it should ask the user if to connect to the net.

Overall quite a nice game which will keep you going for a while.

[Liquid-Nitrogen]

I downloaded the game which took quite a while. Installed it and ran it and got this error (http://www.liquidnitrogen.org/temp/atomixer_error.jpg)

[Sharkbait]

Guys, thanks for the recommendations.. you are great! :)

Abscissa:
- Alt-Enter to toggle fullscreen: agreed, at the moment you can only do it from the options screen.
- Click to skip intro: agreed, for now you can hit Esc, but that's not casual friendly enough

Sonicron:
- Sound clicking: Will have to wait to see if this problem crops up more often, but as you said, could be due to slow frame rate
- Repetitive music: I know it can get repetitive - my musician has attempted to alleviate this by altering the mood twice - still, it will get repetitive after a while. I really don't know how I can remedy for this without adding more music or lengthening the score. However, this conflicts with download size. Anyway, this is a subjective area, so I'll wait for more feedback on this.
- Blurry graphics: The game runs at a resolution of 640x480. Does it look blurry in fullscreen mode only? What about windowed mode?
- Loosing focus doesn't pause the game: very good point, I'll implement that asap
- ask for player name on first run: agreed, and I should probably create a simple dialog to ask for the user name only, popping up the Options menu is probably too 'kludgy'
- Give Up / Exit: I am trying to keep the menu items short, but it shouldn't be a problem to change 'Exit' to 'Exit Game' to make it more obvious
- Remove Difficulty Level from Puzzle mode: Agreed -My other option is to provide three different sets of puzzle levels for each difficulty level. Since it is already hard to devise one set, let alone three, I'll be keeping difficulty levels only for Arcade mode
- Difficulty Levels: Basically, difficulty levels are not implemented yet. I would rate the current ramp-up as normal (Scientist). However, I am aware that my percpetion is flawed due to the fact that I've played the game to death!
- game window has no icon: agreed, that's in my to do list
- music mute during pause: good point, I'll add that. coupled with pausing on lost focus, it makes a decent Boss Mode
- How To Play for each game mode: makes sense I suppose - I could keep the common instructions in both pages and add the specific instructuons for each game mode at the end of each page. Anyone else found the How To Play page inadequate?
- Restart Level option in arcade mode: to keep my in-game menu code simple, I chose to simply disable the option (dimmed) in Arcade Mode. Do you think this is unacceptable? I'd rather do this than create a 3-button version of the menu as it wouldn't help download size.
- online hiscore: I'm torn on this one, as on one hand I'd like to surprise the player by telling him/her that he made it to the global hiscore list. On the other hand, I don't wish to upset the more security-conscious users. At present, the game automatically checks if the player is eligible for the online hiscore, and will only then prompt the user to actually submit the score. The problem with this is that the game application has already connected without asking the player first. I'd really like to get a better feel on this issue before I change anything.
- OK button on hiscore list: The button is in the same font size as all other buttons for the sake of consistency. Perhaps I could make an exception to this rule in this particular case. Alternatively, what do you think about moving the mouse button automatically over the OK button on entering the screen?

C_Coder:
- download size: I would have to trade off with the content somhow, probably by removing backgrounds, reducing music quality etc. I am biased towards a larger setup file but I will try to get a feel on this. My impression is that download size is becoming less of an issue and the 5MB limit for a Casual Game is becoming outdated.
- SFX more agressive: I'm going for casual audience, that is, people who go 'ooh' and 'aah' for colourful graphics and cute sound effects. So far it worked with my mother, my wife, and my mother in law :)
- blit error: I am aware of the problem - in my case it happens if I am running the game in fullscreen mode with a firewall enabled. The firewall software forces a screen mode toggle that the game application finds unpleasant, resulting in a crash. I'll need to find a work-around for this.

Abscissa, Sonicron:
- Speed issue: I'm aware of it - I am trying to get the game to do graphics in software mode only but it runs slowly on medium to low-end machines. The SDL hardware mode did not prove very fast for some reason so I'm considering doing 2D blitting with OpenGL via SDL. Although this may take a while to implement I think it is worth the investment if I want to cater for my target market!

P.S. The Scientist character was actually hand-drawn by myself, scanned in and coloured. Good to know my programmer doodling isn't half bad :)

Once again, thanks for the valuable feedback! Looking forward to hear more!

[mooktown]

I like this game, but I agree that the game is a little fast for labrat, I didnt dare try the other difficulties ;)
Nice music and sfx, with some real nice gfx on display at an fps of 32ish so no probs there :)

some things to consider:

perhaps the outline of 3 atoms could be onscreen at all times as it was a little tricky aiming the mouse sometimes
speed up the rotation a little
change the gfx of the beakers etc to the right so they look more shiny
an indicator as to how many more atoms are needed to finish the lvl would be nice, perhaps the beaker to the right could fill up as you go like in chuzzle



also, im not sure on this but perhaps make sure you have the rights to use, in a commercial product, pictures taken by the HST, which i noticed a couple of in the bg's, such as the one from the Eagle Nebula (M16) known as 'Pillars of Creation'

[soniCron]

also, im not sure on this but perhaps make sure you have the rights to use, in a commercial product, pictures taken by the HST, which i noticed a couple of in the bg's, such as the one from the Eagle Nebula (M16) known as 'Pillars of Creation' Perhaps this (http://www.uni-hohenheim.de/dienste/planeten/hubble/Copyright.html) will clear things up?

[mooktown]

well thats pretty cool then isnt it? :)

[Abscissa]

What format are you storing the graphics and music in?

[1EyedJack]

- Speed issue: I'm aware of it - I am trying to get the game to do graphics in software mode only but it runs slowly on medium to low-end machines. The SDL hardware mode did not prove very fast for some reason so I'm considering doing 2D blitting with OpenGL via SDL. Although this may take a while to implement I think it is worth the investment if I want to cater for my target market!


Why not do software blitting through SDL and implement Dirty Rects, that
should give you a considerable boost in FPS as long you do not do any
scrolling of the screen. James C. Smith used Dirty Rects in Big Kahuna Reef see:

http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=2504

...for more info. There's also links to other "Dirty Rect"-threads in that thread. I implemented Dirty Rects in my gameengine and went from running at 30FPS on my Athlon 2200+Radeon9600Pro, to running at 110 FPS on my moms old PII 450Mhz+S3Virge(4Mb).

[Sharkbait]

Liquid Nitrogen:
- Missing MSVCP71.dll: I'm using version 7 of the runtime libraries, and I'm linking dynamically as this is the simplest (only?) way to avoid linker problems. This is a common MS DLL but it may not be avaialble on all systems. Suggestions anyone? (adding it to the download will not help in the file size department :) )

Mooktown:
- the outline of 3 atoms could be onscreen at all times: Can you please elaborate on this? At present, any 3 atoms can be selected by moving the mouse in their middle - visualise a circular area with a diameter equal to any side of the containing hexagons - any other point away from these areas, notably towards the centre of individual atoms, are dead spots. This could be remedied by changing the hotspot areas to equilateral triangles whose vertices are at the centre of every atom tripple. I think it's worth looking into this.
- rotation speed: 2nd remark on this, I guess I should speed it up then
- shinier beakers: I know they look a little flat - on the other hand, I'd rather not have them interfere with the scores and other game stats
- level completion indicator: good idea.. I'll add this to my todo list. obviously this only applies to Arcade mode

mooktown, sonicron:
- space images: I assumed those were pretty much PD. Rather than putting credit info in every HST background image I'd rather ditch them and keep the ones I synthesised myself

abscissa:
- image format: PNGs stored in my own custom archive format

1EyedJAc:
- dirty rects: an excellent solution in theory, but hard to implement in practice - the simplest approach would be to treat all atoms (and effects) as sprites (that is, restoring the background beneath them). However, there may be a large number of atoms on screen and most of them aren't moving, so ideally those should be composited with the background until they start moving again. I'll give this some consideration. Anyway, James' implementation for BKR is quite sophisiticated and it seems to have payed off despite the complexity.

Once again, thanks for the feedback.. my To Do list is growing! :)

[soniCron]

...I'm linking dynamically as this is the simplest (only?) way to avoid linker problems. ... Suggestions anyone? Maybe I'm missing something, but statically linking will give you 0 linker problems every time. (Unless, I guess, you're talking about compile-time linker problems.) Of course, that'll increase the size too much. Only suggestion I could offer would be compiling the release with MinGW (http://www.mingw.org/). I keep my engine codebase compatible with MinGW, MSVC++, and Borland (and preparations for Mac as well) and it's not too much work. I prefer using MinGW to release files because I'm confident that it's not doing anything I'm not expecting. Either way, the runtime libraries are itsy bitsy.

image format: PNGs stored in my own custom archive format Well, that's your problem. You can store the backgrounds as JPG and save a ton of space.

[Abscissa]

abscissa:
- image format: PNGs stored in my own custom archive formatWhat about the music? If you're using wav or mp3, than that's your filesize problem right there: try ogg vorbis. If you're already using ogg vorbis (or another better-than-mp3 equivilant like wma or aac), then see if you can get the music in one of the MOD-style formats that uses OGG-compressed samples.

EDIT: Also, if you're using wav for sound effects, you shouldn't be. MP3 would be a little better, but you really should be using ogg vorbis.

I'm linking dynamically as this is the simplest (only?) way to avoid linker problems You really shouldn't be getting any problems by linking statically. What problems are you getting by doing that?

About the mentions of blurryness: The balls themselves were fairly blurry-looking to me, but I didn't notice anything else blurry.

[Sharkbait]

Maybe I'm missing something, but statically linking will give you 0 linker problems every time. (Unless, I guess, you're talking about compile-time linker problems.) Of course, that'll increase the size too much.


I'm talking compile-time here. Basically, the compiler doesn't like it when I have my own (static) library using static runtime, that is in turn linked to my main exe project using the same runtime - it complains that I am linking the same stuff multiple times. Anyway, this is a more techie / noob issue and OOT but if anyone's willing to point me to a solution I'd be glad!

Only suggestion I could offer would be compiling the release with MinGW (http://www.mingw.org/). I keep my engine codebase compatible with MinGW, MSVC++, and Borland (and preparations for Mac as well) and it's not too much work. I prefer using MinGW to release files because I'm confident that it's not doing anything I'm not expecting. Either way, the runtime libraries are itsy bitsy.

Not sure how that would solve the problem.. care to elaborate?

Well, that's your problem. You can store the backgrounds as JPG and save a ton of space.
Except that I'd have to live with image quality loss. :( But I would be willing to cut down on the number of backgrounds. Another area with potential for economy is music. The stuff is essentially midi / MOD quality but is encoded as OGG - I might be able to save some space switching to an instrument-based format. However, with SDL I had problems controlling overall music volume when using MIDI files, so I am not too keen about them. Again, if anyone has experience on this, I'm all ears.

[soniCron]

Not sure how that would solve the problem.. care to elaborate? Well, now that I know the problem you are having, it sounds like you're not "extern"ing things.


Except that I'd have to live with image quality loss. :( Have you tried? You can get a smaller JPG of equvalent quality to that of a PNG. Only if you highly compress a JPG are there artifacts. I promise it's worth your while to explore this option. One of the things I loved the most was that there are so many backgrounds! It adds a lot of variety that most puzzle games on the indie market just don't have.


I might be able to save some space switching to an instrument-based format. However, with SDL I had problems controlling overall music volume when using MIDI files, so I am not too keen about them. Again, if anyone has experience on this, I'm all ears. Don't do MIDI!!! :) Mod-based or OGG, but not MIDI!

[Abscissa]

I'm talking compile-time here. Basically, the compiler doesn't like it when I have my own (static) library using static runtime, that is in turn linked to my main exe project using the same runtime - it complains that I am linking the same stuff multiple times. Anyway, this is a more techie / noob issue and OOT but if anyone's willing to point me to a solution I'd be glad! That means you're including some headers incorrectly. The C/C++ header system is far more convoluted (and downright broken, imo) than any of the C/C++ books let on. You can sidestep the whole issue by using the linker option "/FORCE:MULTIPLE". It's not the "correct" solution, but it should work fine.

EDIT: If all of the "multiple defined" errors are from your own code, then soniCron's exactly right: you're missing some "extern"'s that you should have in there. But if you're getting it on anything in the standard C/C++ libraries or DirectX, etc., then *my* recomendation is to use "/FORCE:MULTIPLE" and be done with it. Unless you want to do it correct and enter "header hell" (Which is fine, if you're up to it).

EDIT: I'm also assuming you're using a Microsoft compiler. Is this right? Otherwise you just want whatever linker option is "Force Multiple Definitions".

Except that I'd have to live with image quality loss. :( But I would be willing to cut down on the number of backgrounds. Another area with potential for economy is music. The stuff is essentially midi / MOD quality but is encoded as OGG - I might be able to save some space switching to an instrument-based format. However, with SDL I had problems controlling overall music volume when using MIDI files, so I am not too keen about them. Again, if anyone has experience on this, I'm all ears.
For the backgrounds: If you use maximum quality on the JPEG settings, than the user will not notice a difference (especially since it's just the background). I wouldn't use JPEG on sprites and such, but on backgrounds like that, you wouldn't notice a difference even without anything else on the screen. Try compressing them at JPEG's maximun quality/minimum compression and see if it takes up less space.

For music: Try using the MO3 format (http://www.un4seen.com/). It's like MOD, but uses ogg-encoded samples.

[soniCron]

For music: Try using the MO3 format (http://www.un4seen.com/). It's like MOD, but uses ogg-encoded samples. There is an open source MOD playback library that plays OGG encoded samples, but every time I go to look for it, I have the damndest time. It does exist, but you'll have a time finding it. I don't know why I don't just bookmark it. ;) Either way (and completely unrelated), I found this (http://xtremods.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=6463) while searching. What a hoot! :D

[Abscissa]

I found this (http://xtremods.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=6463) while searching. What a hoot! :DYou do know there is a video portion to Ogg, right? Ogg is really more of a container of sorts. Technically, the audio portion of Ogg is called "Vorbis". But a lot of people (incorrectly) use "Ogg Vorbis" and "Ogg" interchangably.

http://www.vorbis.com/faq.psp#names

There is an open source MOD playback library that plays OGG encoded samples, but every time I go to look for it, I have the damndest time. It does exist, but you'll have a time finding it. I don't know why I don't just bookmark it. ;)Do you mean MO3 or something else? (I have no idea of MO3 is open-source or not.)

[soniCron]

You do know there is a video portion to Ogg, right? Ogg is really more of a container of sorts. Yes, I understand how it works. But the guy clearly had an OGG audio stream in his video, and people were saying things like "I think it's Quicktime" and "Did you try the XVid codec?" and the like. Silly stuff! ;)

Do you mean MO3 or something else? (I have no idea of MO3 is open-source or not.) I'm not sure if it was MO3 or not, though I think not. It was something like, XMOgg or OGGXM, XMVorbis, or something. Either way, it doesn't matter if MO3 is open source or not. It's merely a file format, and as far as I can tell, only storing the sample data as MP3 or OGG in the place it normally stores the samples, with a little bit of extra info.

EDIT: That said, I do remember that it could play OGG compressed MO3, however.

[mooktown]

Can you please elaborate on this? At present, any 3 atoms can be selected by moving the mouse in their middle - visualise a circular area with a diameter equal to any side of the containing hexagons - any other point away from these areas, notably towards the centre of individual atoms, are dead spots. This could be remedied by changing the hotspot areas to equilateral triangles whose vertices are at the centre of every atom tripple. I think it's worth looking into this.


thats exactly what i was meaning, the deadzone areas are a little large i feel and sometimes i had a bit of trouble (until i got used to it) clicking in the right places


- shinier beakers: I know they look a little flat - on the other hand, I'd rather not have them interfere with the scores and other game stats


im glad you mentioned this, as i had forgoten to say, the game stats are way too small, I had a little bit of trouble reading them

also trouble with blurry gfx i think seems to be the alpha map used for the balls being too blurry around the edges

regards
mook

[Sharkbait]

Abscissa:
Music-wise, I'll have to go for one of the SDL supported formats, such as MOD, assuming my musician can do them.. I'll have to check with him.
As for sound, the trouble with SDL (SDL_MIXER) is that it treats OGG as a music format and hence allows only one track at a time. Anyway, my sound assets are not really taking that much space.
As for blurrines, I'll have to check the gem's alpha mask.. it should be a perfect anti-aliased sphere but I may have altered accidentally.
As for the linker problem, it does not seem to be related to headers.. everything uses '#pragma once' to ensure this doesn't happen.Anyway, I'll look into the Force Multiple option.

soniCron:
externing.. I'll look into that! Of course, this will likely increase the size of the executable but as far as I know it will only include the runtime stuff I am using.
Using JPGs might also be an issue due to licensing.. well.. then again it might not since everything is conveniently tucked away in my custom archive format ;) I'll give it a shot

mooktown:
stat display: I'm constrained by font size due to the UI design. I'll see if I can do anything about this.

So much to do, so little time! Thanks guys.. your feedback is really helping me work in the right direction. My impression is that the game's core mechanic is fun and interesting.. the only thing missing are Zuma-style swirling paths.. these things are appearing everywhere these days!

[Abscissa]

As for the linker problem, it does not seem to be related to headers.. everything uses '#pragma once' to ensure this doesn't happen.Anyway, I'll look into the Force Multiple option.
I've run into this exact problem many times myself, and I've spent a lot of time wrestling with it. Believe me, if any of the multiple definitions are coming from symbols in library code, then it is related to the way headers are being included. Unless I'm mistaken, "#pragma once" is identical to the "#ifndef _MY_H_ #define _MY_H_ #endif" trick, which, contrary to what most documentation on C/C++ states, is not a fix-all solution to header problems. Those directives do prevent the compiler from seeing a declaration twice, but it's still being erroneously stored in more than one object file, thus the linker is still seeing multiple copies of it. (There's a lot of obscure gotchas with include files, although it's been long enough since I used C/C++ that I don't remember many specifics.) But, suffice it to say, there *is* a way you can solve that by doing some crazy pain-in-the-ass "#include" shuffling (Which I figured out once, though I can't remember off the top of my head). But regardless, "Force Multiple" is much easier.

But, like I've said before, if your multiple definitions are coming from *your* symbols and not library code, than you're missing some "extern"s and need to do that instead of the force multiple. Force multiple should really only be used to resolve this problem on symbols outside of your own code (ie libraries).

EDIT: This just occured to me: Are you directly compiling in the SDL source code (ie, the actual *.c files and not just the header) and linking in those object files and linking in the pre-built SDL libraries (*.lib files) as well? If you are, then that's your problem, you need to either link in just the *.libs or just the object files resulting from SDL's *.c sources. (But then again, if you're doing that, then I don't know why the problem would go away when you link dynamically.)

[Sharkbait]

I eventually solved the linker issues neatly and thought it would benefit to post the solution here. I am basically telling the linker to ignore the runtimes of projects already using libraries that are themselves linked to the runtime. My current executable size is 540,672 byes if anyone cares to compare with the one in the demo.. I cannot remember the old filesize but I'm expecting the new file to be larger due to static linking.

The SDL stuff is still dynamically linked as this is a licensing requirement. So, although my 'game engine' library is static, it still uses DLLs for SDL, ZLIB etc.

Anyway, I'm also tackling the the other items on my to-do list. I'll release another update once I'm done.


LiquidMetal (et al): The updated executable for the game is here (http://www.sharkbaitgames.com/atomixer/20050710/Atomixer.exe) if you care to give it another go. Simply download it and overwrite the original exe file.

[mooktown]

the previous exe was 487,424b :)

[soniCron]

Using JPGs might also be an issue due to licensing.. well.. then again it might not since everything is conveniently tucked away in my custom archive format ;) I'll give it a shot What licensing issue are you talking about? There's no problem with JPG licencing. If you use a free JPG library (libjpeg (http://www.ijg.org/)), then you don't even have to think about licencing the code either.

[Sharkbait]

What licensing issue are you talking about? There's no problem with JPG licencing. If you use a free JPG library (libjpeg (http://www.ijg.org/)), then you don't even have to think about licencing the code either.

My bad.. I must have got mixed up with MP3 licensing!

[Sharkbait]

(moved to own thread)