[Blog Post] Upcoming WP8 / W8 RPG - Demon's Bane

[WaveLightGames]

Nerf those rat men who shoot through walls��

Yeah, that's a tough one ... it's an issue with the underlying tile code. I've been trying to figure out why it happens but it's got me completely stumped.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Graphics looks great, I hope to play it soon

Great ... did you send me your Microsoft ID via PM? If not, do that and I'll add you to the next release as a playtester.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Were you able to test it on a 512MB device? Anyone else tried yet?

 

[WaveLightGames]

Got some great feedback on a GUI scale issue that seems to occur on WVGA resolution phones only like the Lumia 820. I'm working on a fix. Many thanks for bringing it to my notice.

Has anyone tried the update on a 512MB device yet? I'm really anxious to know ... thanks.

 

[Usama Jawad96]

Got some great feedback on a GUI scale issue that seems to occur on WVGA resolution phones only like the Lumia 820. I'm working on a fix. Many thanks for bringing it to my notice.

Has anyone tried the update on a 512MB device yet? I'm really anxious to know ... thanks.

Downloading the update right now on my 512mb ram Lumia 620, sorry for the delay, couldn't get WiFi but downloading now

 

[WaveLightGames]

Cool ... many thanks!

 

[Usama Jawad96]

Cool ... many thanks!

So I installed the game again on my 512mb ram Lumia 620 and there's this weird problem I'm facing.I think it's coding related.
The same screen which is shown after you choose your save file, the one with the demon with the wings, there are two arrows at the bottom of the screen. When I press the arrow on the right(to go forward), nothing happens but when I press the arrow on the left(to go to main menu), it exits to the main menu as it should which leads me to think that the backward button was coded correctly while the forward button was either coded incorrectly or wasn't coded. Not sure if anyone else is facing the same problem though.

 

[WaveLightGames]

That's probably a coding issue ... it's supposed to check the system memory and if less than 600MB, it should take you to a character selection screen optimized for low memory devices and if not, it takes you to the normal character selection screen. I'll look into it and fix.

Thanks,

 

[WaveLightGames]

Found the bug .... I'll submit an updated version now. Sorry for that ... very careless mistake on my part.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Okay ... I think I"m about 90% through updating the GUI screens and menus for mobile compatibility. Horribly boring and frustrating task but pretty much done. Will refine other bits and pieces as I go forward.

Working on the inventory / magic item system now. At the moment, there's a bug where the inventory isn't saved / loaded properly in between levels so will try to fix that first and then look at further refinements such as restricting inventory items to a particular class and (possibly) having the character's appearance change when they equip different items and weapons. The reason I say possibly is that doing this is going to be a hit for mobile performance and I'm not sure the feature is really worth it. Let me know your thoughts.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Hey guys ... just a quick heads up. I'll be posting an updated version today and will also include links to all new playtesters. Menu's are mostly done now. Should be functional on all Windows 8 phones and all current resolutions. Working on fixing some bugs in the load / save functionality right now. Both level progress and inventory save / load have bugs. I'll try to fix what I can before the update but I suspect those areas will still have issues.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Uploading the next version now. I think I squashed the inventory load / save bug ... but I'm not sure. The code for creating / saving / loading magic items is so very complex. Look for an email with a download link soon.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Emails sent out. Especially eager to hear from someone with a 520 or similar 512MB device to let me know if the out of memory crashes are resolved or not. Thanks!

Also, let me know the direction you want me to take now...

1 - Get the Shop / Vendor working to allow for buying / selling magic items.
2 - Add loads of magic items to stress test the inventory system.
3 - Add more characters and character abilities.
4 - Add more levels.
5 - Work on the divine blessings which are abilities that the player can call down during the battle that have an effect on the entire battlefield. Players will be able to donate gold at the shrine to receive points to spend on divine blessings.

 

[Usama Jawad96]

Emails sent out. Especially eager to hear from someone with a 520 or similar 512MB device to let me know if the out of memory crashes are resolved or not. Thanks!

Also, let me know the direction you want me to take now...

1 - Get the Shop / Vendor working to allow for buying / selling magic items.
2 - Add loads of magic items to stress test the inventory system.
3 - Add more characters and character abilities.
4 - Add more levels.
5 - Work on the divine blessings which are abilities that the player can call down during the battle that have an effect on the entire battlefield. Players will be able to donate gold at the shrine to receive points to spend on divine blessings.

Downloading the update now on my 620, I'll let you know by tomorrow probably. Owing to the slow WiFi in Pakistan, it'll take me an hour to download the game and its already 1am so I'll probably be asleep by the time there game gets updated. Sorry

 

[WaveLightGames]

Thanks so much.

 

[Usama Jawad96]

Downloaded the update and tried the game 3 times now on my 512mb ram Lumia 620
First time, it crashed at the loading bar which appears after "Wavelight Games" logo.
The other two times, it crashed on the loading bar which comes after you press the forward arrow on the demon with wings screen.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Thanks for the info ... looks like I need to do a lot more to get it working on low memory devices. I'm going to try and do some research and figure out what I can do about it. I might try to get a 520 from somewhere so that I don't force you guys to download a large file just so I can test something that may or may not work.

 

[WaveLightGames]

I'm working on compressing audio clips and having them all stream from disk rather than memory. Hopefully should reduce memory size. Hopefully, the compression doesn't negatively affect the music and SFX too much but we'll see how it goes. If that doesn't work, I'm going to really have to do some research on what I can do to make it work. Compressing textures further would probably do it but if I compress too much, the text becomes unreadable since the text is also displayed via a big texture file that gets blurry if compressed too much.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Compressed all the audio files and I think I found a couple more areas where I can reduce memory usage in the code. Trying that now ... this game is so much harder to sqeeze into the 180MB limit of low memory devices than my previous game, Gun Frenzy. :unhappysweat:

 

[WaveLightGames]

Okay, looks like it actually made a big difference according to my testing tools. However, I still don't know if it's enough to allow it to run on 512MB devices. I'll send out an updated version today with these memory tweaks.

If this doesn't work, I may have to move on and limit this game to 1GB and above devices. I can't think of any other memory optimization that wouldn't negatively affect the experience for 1 GB / 2 GB device users. If that's the case, I'll use the same core game code and make a separate game that is a "light version" that has fewer characters after the release.