Nova the Squirrel

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NovaSquirrel
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by NovaSquirrel »

While there are still a few things I want to add and fix (like a reward for 100%ing the game, and a few minor bugs) the game has been ready for at least a few days now, and the soundtrack is completely finished. However, I've been having problems with getting the soundtrack into the game. I fixed a bug in ft2pently regarding vibrato (some missing break; statements caused vibrato to always be full strength), but I get problems that randomly change every time I run pentlyas on the output that don't seem like they'd be caused by anything in the output.

I'm not really sure how I should proceed; I've spent today trying to figure out what's going on, but I haven't really been able to. I think there might be a bug in Pently, as I'm well below its limits so it shouldn't be messing up. Using a different music engine doesn't seem like an easy solution because the soundtrack uses vibrato, arpeggios, the limited volume column, and duty envelopes, and I don't know of any other music engines with those features. I think I remember a version of the Famitracker music engine with sound effects added in, that could probably work as a temporary solution, but I wasn't able to find it.

I hope to get the game out soon. Worst case scenario, I ship the initial version without sound effects, or without music, but I'd really rather not.
tepples
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by tepples »

NovaSquirrel wrote:I get problems that randomly change every time I run pentlyas on the output that don't seem like they'd be caused by anything in the output.
If they are random, they probably depend on the hash seed. Anything that uses hash values in Python, such as the dict (unordered map) type, could potentially have different results every time a program is run. Hash randomization, which was introduced in Python 3.3, is a measure to make denial-of-service attacks on unordered maps less likely.

I would like to help you troubleshoot the defect leading to this unpredictable behavior. Can you contact me about providing the problematic score?
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NovaSquirrel
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by NovaSquirrel »

tepples wrote:I would like to help you troubleshoot the defect leading to this unpredictable behavior. Can you contact me about providing the problematic score?
I've sent you a copy of all of the relevant files via Discord. The symptoms are that specific, random patterns will play completely incorrectly in a very noticeable way, and every use of the affected patterns sound incorrect. I already checked to see if it's mishandling >128 patterns and it seems to already have a check for that?
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NovaSquirrel
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by NovaSquirrel »

I found and fixed the problem myself, and Nova the Squirrel will be released with Pently as planned. I would expect a release within a week or so!
tepples
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by tepples »

This commit to Pently worked around the hash randomization that mitigates DoS but masked the problem, and this commit fixed the problem itself: a macro was mistakenly truncating pattern ID numbers to 7 bits.
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NovaSquirrel
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Re: Nova the Squirrel

Post by NovaSquirrel »

It's done! I'm gonna keep working on it and doing minor changes, but it's ready for the world to look at it!
Attachments
nova.nes
Build 1075, 6/4/2018
(256.02 KiB) Downloaded 403 times
nova.nsf
(15.89 KiB) Downloaded 399 times
Last edited by NovaSquirrel on Sun Jun 03, 2018 11:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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rainwarrior
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Re: Nova the Squirrel

Post by rainwarrior »

Congrats!
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jack5881
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Re: Nova the Squirrel

Post by jack5881 »

Congrats for the final version,and thanks for your hard work! :) :beer:
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Fisher
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Re: Nova the Squirrel

Post by Fisher »

That's great!!
Me and the kids loved it.
They asked if nova is a new squirrel, because in portuguese nova = the feminine of new. :lol:
zzo38
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Re: Nova the Squirrel

Post by zzo38 »

This is good.
(Free Hero Mesh - FOSS puzzle game engine)
na_th_an
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Re: Nova the Squirrel

Post by na_th_an »

Congratulations for releasing such a great game.
Kudos!
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Krill
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Re: Nova the Squirrel

Post by Krill »

Congratulations!
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: Nova the Squirrel

Post by FrankenGraphics »

This game is knee deep in cool features. Congratulations! :)

I particularily like the drive to experiment with absorbing different abilities and try them out on different situations,, and that that the abilities do have variations built into the control scheme. Also that being without an 'extra' ability still gives you a pretty versatile move anyway.
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NovaSquirrel
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Re: Nova the Squirrel

Post by NovaSquirrel »

Thanks for all the positive feedback!
Fisher wrote:They asked if nova is a new squirrel, because in portuguese nova = the feminine of new. :lol:
I think that name choice actually came from Meteos, but then I later found the Latin meaning (which is also "new") and felt that fit, especially story-wise, since she's an unexpected arrival to the game's world.
FrankenGraphics wrote:Also that being without an 'extra' ability still gives you a pretty versatile move anyway.
Yeah, the stars stun enemies for a lot longer than abilities like Ice or Burger that only stun as a side effect, so it's easy to shoot at enemies and run out of the situation. That's partly why I made sure that shooting after you've maxed out the number of "special" ability projectiles on screen should result in a star, since it's still useful.
Denine
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Re: Nova the Squirrel

Post by Denine »

Excellent. I have been watching this topic for long time, good to see its finished :)
I've played First and Second world I noted some good level design and overall relaxing vibe of the game.
I really enjoyed puzzles in Second world, they scale very nicely in difficulty.
I do have very minor complaints like collisions are kinda wonky, some options(such as shooting while running) are OFF by deafult etc.
But these are minor nitpicks in sea of goodness.
Shame I don't have much time to play games lately. I'll make sure to get back to it when I can :)

btw: how "regular" baloons are different from "automatic" ones?
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