itch.io

Yes, this is all very useful. Thank you. I will probably end up using zazz for animated sprites (unless I end up needing non-looping sprites, or fancy events that report when animations end, and things like that). But it's very useful to be able to understand the subtleties of working with contraptions. Decker is awesome, but a bit overwhelming at the beginning.

Is it possible for a contraption to change its own size? I'm creating an animated sprite contraption that gets the sprite width and height from its attributes, and then shows an animation taken from a sprite sheet card.

I tried to do

me.size:(sprite_width.text,sprite_height.text)

on the view event, but it doesn't do anything when the contraption is running on a card (it does change its size when running inside the prototype view). I'm saving the state in hidden fields inside the prototype. Here's the whole script:

on get_spritesheet do sprite_sheet_card.text end
on set_spritesheet x do sprite_sheet_card.text: x end
on get_frames do frames.text+0 end
on set_frames x do frames.text:x end
on get_sprite_width do sprite_width.text+0 end
on set_sprite_width x do sprite_width.text:x end
on get_sprite_height do sprite_height.text+0 end
on set_sprite_height x do sprite_height.text:x end
on get_fps do fps.text+0 end
on set_fps x do fps.text:x end
on get_loop do loop.text+0 end
on set_loop x do loop.text:x end
on get_current_frame do current_frame.text+0 end
on set_current_frame x do current_frame.text:x end
on view do
 me.size:(sprite_width.text,sprite_height.text)
 c:deck.cards[sprite_sheet_card.text]
 w:c.image.size[0]
 h:c.image.size[1]
 f:current_frame.text
 i:c.image
 me.image.paste[i.copy[(w%sprite_width.text*floor f,floor sprite_width.text*floor f / w) (sprite_width.text,sprite_height.text)]]
 current_frame.text:frames.text%f+fps.text*1/60
end

The only thing I'm missing is for the contraption to resize itself to fit the configured sprite size.

EDIT: I made the prototype resizable, and it's working now. The problem is that the state is shared between different instances of the same prototype, so I'm obviously doing something very wrong here.

As someone whose whole programming career got started with HyperCard, I don't know if you can imagine how much it means to see its spirit revived in such a glorious manner. Thank you.

I made it past the first level and then the emulator crashed when it tried to speak. I've used text to speech without issues in the past, so the problem might be related to the following.

After I downloaded your stack I found you uploaded it as is, without compressing it or anything. Old Mac programs and documents had a thing called "resource fork" that is unique to the old Macintosh file system and it gets lost whenever you store the file in a different file system, such as essentially any modern one.

Long story short, you should use DropStuff* to package it before uploading it so that the resource fork is preserved. Either that or sharing the disk image (.dsk or .img) containing the stack instead of the stack document directly.

If you don't have the original, you can fix the stack you download from this page by opening it in ResEdit and editting the file's type and creator to STAK and WILD respectively. Just open it in ResEdit and choose "Get info" from the File menu.

It was cool to see people trying out good old HyperCard. Especially people who weren't even born back then!

* You might need this to be able to uncompress the applications you download.

I can finally replace Aseprite as my sprite animation tool. Thank you!

Thank you for such a detailed comment. Yeah, as you have noticed this is mostly a tech demo right now, but I will note everything you mentioned. 

I had some issues trying to play it. I had a controller connected and the camera went nuts as soon as the game started. I had to quit, unplug, and open it again.

Then for the life of me I couldn't figure out the controls. I got as far as taking out my sword and switching weapons. I missed having some prompts to know what to press.

Love the concept and presentation. It reminded me of the style of BLENDO Games a bit. Very nice. The dream sequence got a smile from me even though I didn't understand what was happening. I would love to learn more of the lore of this world as I progress.

Thank you for checking it out nevertheless. I really wanted to get it out there.

Thank you for checking it out! I spent so much time trying to get walking feel right, but it's not there yet.

Sick music. Good gameplay. Interesting graphics and concepts. Well paced. Everything is very professionally put together. There is not much to add. It's very good.

Well, I get what you're going for. It needs to be slow. To feel "poised". It just isn't easy to nail that feeling.

I really like the aesthetics in this. It's unique. And the menu UI is a joy to interact with. The only gripe I have is that the movement lacks a bit of "weight" (for my taste), but the gameplay is solid, the ambience is great, and the enemies and the world feel really interesting. I've wishlisted it as well, but I'm going to keep playing this demo for a while.

It’s not as mature as Aseprite yet. But Aseprite is not open source anymore (although the developers still take advantage of the open source community to make a profit) and we really need an alternative. 

I’d like to second the suggestion about zooming. Yesterday I was trying to find a way to have the preview window at 200% and I didn’t find a way. It’s very easy to set it at weird zoom levels that produce pixel artifacts.

Thank you for the effort you make in replying to so many comments. 

That would be massively epic.

Thank you for creating this tool. It's an excellent open source alternative to Aseprite.

Thanks! Yeah, you’re right. It gets repetitive quickly. I should’ve come up with some sort of variation mid-game. 

This game has a very polished feel. You did a great job! Although I too missed a way to wait out one turn and have the enemy get closer before attacking.

Thank you!

Thanks!

Absolutely professional feel. This could be a full-length game. I loved the sound design and the attention to detail in the graphics. The gameplay mechanics could be a bit more polished if you had had more time for testing and iterating it, but overall, hats off!

I had fun playing this one. And I think it's the one I played the longest so far. Very nice sprite work and design. Extra points for the reference. I enjoyed being assistant regional monster.

Stunning art and very good music. It has a very professional feel.

Very polished game. I found the menu music to be very engaging right off the bat. And everything feels very well put together. The only gripe I had is that I found the controls a bit challenging.

The art is very nice and moody. I found the game a little too easy during the first stage, and then it suddenly got too difficult for me. But overall it was very enjoyable. I liked that you included upgrades.

Thank you for your kind words.

I'm a sucker for pico-8 games. The music was SLAMMIN', and the gato sprite was just sublime. Very nice execution, albeit a bit short. Short but sweet.

The level design was solid. The character design was great. And the music choice was excellent!

I really enjoyed messing around with the main menu, too. Very polished experience overall.

That difficulty curve is REAL! I had a lot of fun playing this, but since the two first phases were so easy, I was a bit too unprepared for the real deal in the final one. That's were I had the most fun, however.

I loved the music, too. The only gripe I have is (besides it being too short) that it took me a while to realise I couldn't hurt the little guys.

The graphics are lovely, and I found the concept interesting and intriguing. However, for some reason I couldn't hear any audio in Safari (macOS). I tried toggling sound/music, to no avail!

Ah, yes. The grim reality of corporate servitude.

I really liked the art and how polished the game is overall.

What an excellent player animation! I really liked the sprites. And the approach to music is frankly refreshing. I liked it.

I missed some complexity in the boss itself and a little feedback regarding the combat, since it was not clear when I was going to get too close to it and get hurt.

Graphics, sound design and overall polish are excellent. The only critique I have is that I didn't have a clear sense of what was happening or what I could do at a given time, especially in "evil defeats good" mode.

But nevertheless, the game had a very polished feel. Very, very nice.

Thank you very much! To be honest throughout development I was constantly nagged by the feeling that it wasn’t obvious enough that the player was the boss, and I was afraid it would feel like I hadn’t really used the jam limitation. But I was too committed to go back. 

Of course feel free to feature the game in your video. I’m honored, really. 

Lots of fun. I somehow kept clicking outside the window even with the cursor confined.

I loved it! At first I felt a bit lazy about gathering everything, but I got sucked into it fast, and the atmosphere is great. The end was a nice touch. I wish it was a full game!