ANN: Nikwi :-)

[Bad Sector]

Finally my first non-free game is finished! It was hard to make it, especially these last days where i had to do a lot of stuff. It is 2:13 after midnight and i've just finished setting up the sites, etc. I was working on the game since yesterday... i assume that i was working on it for around 30 or more hours straight, leaving the computer only to eat (which wasn't much of a move... the computer currently is on the kitchen table :-P). Yesterday i only slept around 5 hours.

But i liked it. The process of having a complete game made by yourself cannot be compared with anything. Although this is my first commercial game, i've made some free games at the past and every time i like it. But this time is a bit different too: i had a deadline (set by myself and by some... events) and i had to make it as good as i could. Also it's different to make a free game and a commercial game: in the free case, people get it for free and their criticism is easier. In the latter case, people have to judge if the game deserves their money (something hard if they don't already have the game in order to judge it).

I decided to give the first 10 levels of the 30 in the shareware version. I hope that this was a good decision. The first levels are easy, with the last three or four being somewhat harder.

My only problem about this game is the extremelly limited resources i had (heck, i even wrote the program that produces the sound effects...) and the limited time to do it. But at the end i think that Nikwi is a very fun and entertaining game. I know because i spend a large part of it's development playing it :-).

Screenshots from the game: 1 (http://www.slashstone.com/images/nikwi1.png) 2 (http://www.slashstone.com/images/nikwi3.png) 3 (http://www.slashstone.com/images/nikwi2.png) 4 (http://www.slashstone.com/images/nikwixshot2.png) title (http://www.slashstone.com/images/nikwixshot1.png) died (http://www.slashstone.com/images/nikwixshot3.png)
Trial download: clicky (http://www.slashstone.com/files/nikwisharewaresetup.exe) (it's around 803KB).
Direct purchase from Plimus (seemed popular, it was fully automated, so i thought that it was a good choice): Here (https://www.plimus.com/jsp/buynow.jsp?contractId=1655065)

I would love to hear your comments, good or bad (mostly good, but i think i can handle the bad too :-P).

[David De Candia]

Well done!

Is it just me, or is that death sound distinctly Paradroid? :)

It all looks good and ran without a hitch.

In a couple of spots the text came very close to the screen edge. The title and the "get the icecream" message both did this.

David

[Bad Sector]

Well done!

Thank you! :-)

Is it just me, or is that death sound distinctly Paradroid? :)

Possibly... i used sines, squares and frequency envelopes in my tool (soon to be released) to generate the sounds. But if it's similar, it wasn't intentionally :-).

It all looks good and ran without a hitch.

That's nice! I was afraid that something disasterous would slip, but some people who tested it said it's ok.

In a couple of spots the text came very close to the screen edge. The title and the "get the icecream" message both did this.

You have a TFT or CRT?

[janwinnicki]

hey! funny-non puzle game :). But why I cant decrease height of the jump? Cannons shots me very often...

And why do you install your game on my c:/ drive? I don't like it....


anyway - I think it needs music. If you like, you can use one of my very old tunes (http://nusic.pl/getfile.php?file=grogon-mieszka_w_nim_eskimos(mod).zip&type=music-modules) ;). It was used in one Polish demoscene mag few years ago... for free. (But don't feel compelled) :)

[David De Candia]

You have a TFT or CRT?

TFT, the icecream message was well over the edge

[Bad Sector]

TFT, the icecream message was well over the edge

Ah. I know why then: your monitor probably haven't used the mode Nikwi uses (640x480x16bit). I had the same problem with my TFT: every time i used a resolution for the first time, the image was a bit "out". My TFT has an "auto configure" button, which -once pressed- puts the image in the borders. Yours may have a similar button too: just press it with Nikwi running and all will be fine.

Personally i wrote a small utility that changed to resolutions from 320x200 to 1024x768 in 8bit, 16bit and 24bit, just to configure my TFT :-P.

By using a CRT monitor i had no problems (except that some monitors are misconfigured too - but that's rare with CRT monitors).

Generally, it's a monitor configuration problem that could happen with any program or game, not just Nikwi. I don't know why TFT manufacturers don't properly configure their monitors - some users may not know how to do it manually, or think that it's "a bad idea to mess with the screen's settings" :-/.

@janwinnicki:
Thank you! :-)
I will listen the tune in my home (where i have speakers). I don't know if i'll use it, though - the last time i tried to write a MOD player ended... bad (MODs have a weird timing scheme, based on the Amiga screen's frequency which complicates some things). I could use MikMod, though (it's LGPL), but i don't know if it's compilable under Win32. Well, i'm gonna download MikMod right now and see what i can do :-).

[janwinnicki]

I'm not sure, if this makes any difference, but it can be converted to xm (for example). It is funny, but after conversion to xm and zipping again you can gain allmost 3KB of archive ;)

[David De Candia]

Ah. I know why then: your monitor probably haven't used the mode Nikwi uses (640x480x16bit). I had the same problem with my TFT: every time i used a resolution for the first time, the image was a bit "out". My TFT has an "auto configure" button, which -once pressed- puts the image in the borders. Yours may have a similar button too: just press it with Nikwi running and all will be fine.

Ah thanks, right you are indeed. All looks fine once I reset the monitor display.