Betrayed Alliance 2 Development Journal

[doomlazer]

I'm slowly playing through Betrayed Alliance 1. These games seem very ambitious and well executed. The art is great and BA2 looks even better! I like the mini-games and the attention to detail is very high. I can tell you've put a lot of effort into these.

I didn't know it was possible to mouse look in SCI0. Is that something you hacked in?

One suggestion, I needed to switch to a PC to use the installer. An alternate download for Mac/Linux users with just the resources, etc. would be a convenient addition for BA2.

[Doan Sephim]

I'm slowly playing through Betrayed Alliance 1. These games seem very ambitious and well executed. The art is great and BA2 looks even better! I like the mini-games and the attention to detail is very high. I can tell you've put a lot of effort into these.

I didn't know it was possible to mouse look in SCI0. Is that something you hacked in?

One suggestion, I needed to switch to a PC to use the installer. An alternate download for Mac/Linux users with just the resources, etc. would be a convenient addition for BA2.

Thanks for giving the game a spin. Did you download the one from this website or from the SCIWiki page? I know that people have played it on Mac/Linux and the major problem is that the music program doesn't work on those platforms.

Thanks for the kind words about the art. I'm trying to outdo my efforts moving from the first book to the second and I'm glad it seems to be paying off.

As far as the minigames go, Gumby is responsible for getting the darts game up and running and Cloudee1 did the code for the door puzzle of the scientist. I definitely want to give credit where it's due! It was clearly too ambitious a project, which explains why I broke it up into 3 books.

Right-click look is used in Quest for Glory 1 and was a feature I always loved. It's not too complicated to get running either. Something like:

Code: [Select]

(method (handleEvent pEvent)
(super handleEvent: pEvent)
(if (== (pEvent type?) evMOUSEBUTTON)
(if (& (pEvent modifiers?) emRIGHT_BUTTON)
(if
(and
(> (pEvent x?) 47)    ; Draw a box around the area you want to check
(< (pEvent x?) 72)
(> (pEvent y?) 105)
(< (pEvent y?) 121)
)
(PrintSomething)
)
)
)
)You can also do this with control colors and views too.

[doomlazer]

I downloaded it from this site. I didn't think about unarchiving the installer .exe at the time, which gives access to the game files easily enough.

Cool that other people contributed. I was lumping the chess puzzle with the mini-games because I didn't seem to get an item from it. I thought it was interesting how you implemented that one.

That mouse look function is pretty simple. Could I replace the x and y checks with something like:

Code: [Select]

(if (pEvent inRect: 47 105 72 121)
I have fat fingers so the less typing the better.

[EricOakford]

Another way of doing right-click look is to add a mouseDown event handler to your game. My SCI0 and SCI01 templates have this all set up in the main script. It's implemented in the same way as QFG1EGA and QFG2, respectively. See my decompilation of QFG1EGA for examples.

[Collector]

The right-click look is in many Sierra SCI0 games, such as TCB, Camelot, Iceman, KQ1SCI and others.

[doomlazer]

So it's a feature in all the games I didn't play growing up!

[Doan Sephim]

The most recent version of Betrayed Alliance is on the SCI Wiki page. I can't speak to the version on this site as I don't remember when or if I've ever patched it here.

I'm glad to hear there are better ways of implementing Right-click-look. I'll have to look into that.

[Doan Sephim]

Big news!
I'm Kickstarting Betrayed Alliance and if everything goes according to plan, I'll be teaming up with Musically Inspired to produce a soundtrack for Book 2.
I've never crowdfunded before, and trying to play publicist isn't in my natural comfort zone, but I'm doing my best.

The Kickstarter goes live tomorrow, (Tuesday, Nov 16th)

At this point, I'm very pleased with the asset creation I've been doing for the last two years or so. I think my skill is growing on the artwork side of things, too. Aside from getting the KS up and running, I'm focused on trying to get a playable demo out hopefully by March. There's a lot to do, but with each animation or new background, it's moving from a bunch of unconnected assets to a game.

I've attached some of the more recent backgrounds I've been working on.

[gumby]

Nice!  I'll back it.

EDIT: Backed.

Doan: Thank you so much! I am still thankful for the countless hours you put into helping me finalize book 1. A true Godsend!

[doomlazer]

Backed. There just isn't enough music being written for the PC speaker these days!

[Doan Sephim]

Backed. There just isn't enough music being written for the PC speaker these days!

Thanks! When I put the question out there (on Twitter and Facebook) which sound player people preferred, there was a larger number of PC Speaker lovers out there than I would have guessed. Clearly Musically knows his audience!

[doomlazer]

Well, those sound cards were expensive back in the day.

Congrats on getting funded so quickly!

[Doan Sephim]

Well, those sound cards were expensive back in the day.

Congrats on getting funded so quickly!

lol! That's a very good point! and thanks for the support and for the congrats! Now the pressure's on to deliver!

[MusicallyInspired]

Haha I'm as surprised as you that so many were nostalgic for the PC Speaker. I like the phrase "Choose your nostalgia!" a whole lot now.

[Doan Sephim]

Hey everyone, just wanted to post a quick update here. The Kickstarter was successful and even the stretch goal was reached, so now Brandon and I will be updating the artwork and music assets for Book 1. I say Brandon and I, but a friend of mine, Karl Dupere-Richer is also helping with a lot of the backgrounds for Book 1, two of which I attached to this post. In those pictures, you can see his reworking of the Dock house and the Scientist's house, both of which are beautiful upgrades, but also fit into the world much better.

I've also posted a couple of new backgrounds I've worked on since the KS finished. I'm currently working on getting the rooms up and running with puzzles, text, and animations.

All in all, things are going well. Slowly, of course...but I do a little bit of work each day and over time it adds up!