Post by andrewvanbeck on Aug 31, 2016 13:34:41 GMT
I've just really started using the Amstrad version the last few weeks, and now that my project is starting to eat up that memory and I can no longer edit my main events.. so I need to revert to a week ago which sucks because I got most of the levels designed, I think it's good to share some of this experience as a warning to others.
* Much like the Speccy version, save regularly, save a new version each day, more if you get a lot of work done.
* Save a snapshot before trying the game, then reload it afterwards - don't do anything after testing your game or you could easily face problems with corruption.
* The palette can be customised, do that first - press 1 and 2 to change the colour on the palette - The CPC has a decent palette so get your colour selections in little groups, for the sake of your own time - P'ing through the colour palette to find the exact colour you want can be tiresome.
* Avoid editing text, better to know what you need and create new text entries for them, 1 at a time.
* By 1 at a time, I mean select the text option from the menu, press X to create your text, enter it then press escape, then escape back to the main menu. Never add more than 1 text entry at a time.
* Same applies to sound effects, to be on the safe side.
* Avoid spawning items at the start of a level, they leave artifacts - maybe an idea to have a blank image for spawning sprites, then change it in the event.
* Save your snapshot before saving the actual game, when making a GAME.BIN file you have 1 shot - save it out then load the snapshot back in. If you save the GAME.BIN, then you can't save it again later... nobody needs that after all that work... it's the primary reason why I'm reverting back a week and am glad that I can do that.
* Use a variable to signify when the player is pressing fire, so that you can check KEY 4, KEY 5, and KEY 6 - The standard KEY 4 is actually in the middle of the cursor keys and can be real tricky to use, best to have an alternative fire button or two... still need to use KEY 4 though, as that'll be the joystick fire button.
* Don't let things go off screen, much like the Speccy version it's bad news to have sprites drawing over non-screen memory - have a fixed border around each screen, or take extra care to handle the screen bounds.
And finally, give it a shot - I really like the speed it runs on the CPC, and those brick shaped pixels can look really nice, especially when you use a lot of colour. CPC fans don't really get a lot of homebrew, and with AGD you can easily make a fast and fun arcade game that they will appreciate... and dare I say it, will probably be better than 99% of CPC games 