Things to do before V0.3

[Edward_Lii]

Hello all,

The current svn is already a lot better than 0.2 and contains some big changes/improvements.
That's why I think it's best to start working on a release, by listing the tasks that need to be done we'll get an overview of the work.


Must be done

- Update the version strings, and let it point to a new addons list on the server.
- The trailer (obviously this should be done before the release ) (link)
- Bugfixing (#1 #2)
- Update the packages for the new version.
- If you press restart in interlevel screen and player in replay is currently moving, the movement will continue after restart. I think that the problem lies in the way the replay sends events to player. The movement will stop if any key is pressed. (Fixed in rev. 281 by acme_pjz)
- In level editor if delete tool is selected and then the level is tested and quit back to editor, it's going to delete blocks under mouse if it's moved. This can be stopped by pressing mouse. (Fixed svn rev. 282)
- Assign the enter, space, jump key and activate key to next level in the inter-level popup (and the escape key to menu) (Fixed in svn rev 282)
- Description of a levelpack should also be displayed when the levelpack has no levels (couldn't reproduce?).
- Custom levelpacks crashes when only one level in it. (Fixed in svn rev. 282)
- When the lastlevelpack setting points to a non existing levelpack the game will crash when entering the levelselect screen. (Fixed in svn rev. 282)
- The game crashes when there are no levels in the levelpack. (Fixed in svn rev. 283)

Should be done

- Have at least one more music track. (Making it one for the menu and one for in-game).
- Add cmake options that enable/disable PICTURE_RECORD and replay debug info instead of (un)commenting in the source.
- More levels, although the game improved a lot, the content hasn't grown that much since 0.2 (Castle Rescure)
- Add content to the Media and About pages of the site.
- Better (disabled) replay button in the LevelSelect screen. (Included in svn rev. 286)
- Better button layout in the options menu more like the Map Editor. <-- Lower them? (Done in svn rev. 287)
- Simplify/shorten the tutorial levelpack.

Optional

- Create a better interface for the key configuration menu.
- Description and congratulation text should have a max. length.
- Fix the font(s) (link)
- Expand the wiki.
- Make a list of all contributors. This could be in wiki and also come with source tarball

Note that we'll first release a release candidate, between the RC and the official release things like the trailer and more levels can still be done.

If there's anything missing feel free to say.

[acme_pjz]

Hi,

As for the replay bug (bug #2) after some fixing now there is no further bug report anymore... so I think it's already fixed.

[odamite]

Hello all,

First thanks for the list Edward_Lii!

Hi,

As for the replay bug (bug #2) after some fixing now there is no further bug report anymore... so I think it's already fixed.

I think so too. I've experienced this bug myself once in the past but not recently.

But there're couple of bugs I've encounter:

• If you press restart in interlevel screen and player in replay is currently moving, the movement will continue after restart. I think that the problem lies in the way the replay sends events to player. The movement will stop if any key is pressed.
• In level editor if delete tool is selected and then the level is tested and quit back to editor, it's going to delete blocks under mouse if it's moved. This can be stopped by pressing mouse.

I'm not sure how to fix these bugs . Also I think that it isn't necessary now to file them in tracker because here someone can pick them up.

[Edward_Lii]

Hello all,

As for the replay bug (bug #2) after some fixing now there is no further bug report anymore... so I think it's already fixed.

That's great news, I must say I didn't encounter it recently.

If you press restart in interlevel screen and player in replay is currently moving, the movement will continue after restart. I think that the problem lies in the way the replay sends events to player. The movement will stop if any key is pressed.

I noticed it too, and you got the exact same thought as my, just after the restart (or just before) a key event is "replayed".

In level editor if delete tool is selected and then the level is tested and quit back to editor, it's going to delete blocks under mouse if it's moved. This can be stopped by pressing mouse.

Haven't noticed this, I'll see if I can reproduce this.

I'm not sure how to fix these bugs . Also I think that it isn't necessary now to file them in tracker because here someone can pick them up.

I'll create tickets for them on the bug tracker ASAP.

[MCMic]

Also, is it normal there is no key that allow to go to next level without using the mouse?

Now that levels are not playing automatically one after the other, the tutorial seems to have really too much level, a lot of them are useless (I can make you a list with explanation)
But for instance the one before the last is just here for the notif dialog, and having after that a replay and a pop-up seems crazy. If you want to keep this "level", put it in the last one with a teleport instead of the exit.

[Edward_Lii]

Hello MCMic,

Also, is it normal there is no key that allow to go to next level without using the mouse?

Valid point, not sure which key(s) should be used for this.
I was thinking about the "Enter" key, but perhaps it should be almost every key, except 'R' (restart) and Escape (back to menu)?

Now that levels are not playing automatically one after the other, the tutorial seems to have really too much level, a lot of them are useless (I can make you a list with explanation)
But for instance the one before the last is just here for the notif dialog, and having after that a replay and a pop-up seems crazy. If you want to keep this "level", put it in the last one with a teleport instead of the exit.

I completely agree that some levels in the tutorial levelpack are quite useless.
But that's from our perspective, it's hard to think how a new user would experience these levels.

[MCMic]

Even a new user will understand he can jump with only one level, right now there is 3 for that, one with a block, one with holes, and one with spikes, and they are three in a row.
The one with the spike is sufficient "Ok, if I hit a spike I die, I need to jump above it". You should only keep the one with the spikes and add a hole to it if you which.

About the pop-menu, enter, space, jump key and activate key should go to the next menu IMO

[Tedium]

I've made a list with things that I would like to see fixed/improved:

Levelselect
• Better (disabled) replay button

Option
• Better button layout like the Map Editor. <-- Lower them?

Map Editor
• Description of a levelpack should also be displayed when the levelpack has no levels.
• Description and congratulation text should have a max. length.
• Custom levelpacks crash:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

User preferences will be fetched from: /home/tedium/.config/meandmyshadow/
User data will be fetched from: /home/tedium/.local/share/meandmyshadow/
Data files will be fetched from: ./data/
ERROR: Unable to open music list file ./data/music/default.list
ERROR: Unable to open music list file ./data/music/default.list
Segmentation fault

Addons
• Needs to be improved <-- Not sure how...

[odamite]

Hello everyone,

@Tedium,
Great list, I think we can improve those things too. But could you describe some of the things more like how to make replay button better and what's with the custom level back crash. Thanks!

@everyone,
Some more things:

• As I mentioned on trailer thread we should make a list of all contributors. This could be in wiki and also come with source tarball
• I've tested to create a PPA for Me & My Shadow on launchpad.net. PPA means Personal Package Archive and it's quite popular way to distribute software on Ubuntu. Basically it's a personal apt repository which every Ubuntu user can add by just one line. This way we can release our game to Ubuntu users easily.

[Tedium]

@Tedium,
Great list, I think we can improve those things too. But could you describe some of the things more like how to make replay button better and what's with the custom level back crash. Thanks!

• Better (disabled) replay button

I didn't like the Block backgrounds of the buttons.

I think this looks better.

• Better button layout like the Map Editor. <-- Lower them?

• Custom levelpacks crash

It crashes when I make a levelpack (containing 1 level) and finish it. I don't know why.
Making, playing and deleting a levelpack followed by restarting the game results in a crash, because the game is probably trying to load a removed file.

[acme_pjz]

Hi,

If you press restart in interlevel screen and player in replay is currently moving, the movement will continue after restart. I think that the problem lies in the way the replay sends events to player. The movement will stop if any key is pressed.

This is fixed in SVN r281. Please test it. PS: someone should update trac ticket, too

[acme_pjz]

• Custom levelpacks crash

It crashes when I make a levelpack (containing 1 level) and finish it. I don't know why.
Making, playing and deleting a levelpack followed by restarting the game results in a crash, because the game is probably trying to load a removed file.

I don't know why, but I can't reproduce this bug PS: I use some text editor to create level pack manually Maybe you can open your custom level pack using text editor and see if there is anything wrong...

[Edward_Lii]

Hello all,

I've fixed some bugs, the fixes are in svn rev. 282.

I've tested to create a PPA for Me & My Shadow on launchpad.net. PPA means Personal Package Archive and it's quite popular way to distribute software on Ubuntu. Basically it's a personal apt repository which every Ubuntu user can add by just one line. This way we can release our game to Ubuntu users easily.

That's great, we should really try to get V0.3 on as much Linux distributions as possible.
I contacted the packman repository (<- very popular openSUSE repository) and they suggested trying the package in the openSUSE Game repository.
I didn't continue because V0.2 contained non-free music, but I'll definitely do my best to get it in this time.

I didn't like the Block backgrounds of the buttons.
...
I think this looks better.

Could you post the new replay button image?

This is fixed in SVN r281. Please test it. PS: someone should update trac ticket, too

It seems to be fixed, I can't reproduce it anymore.

I don't know why, but I can't reproduce this bug PS: I use some text editor to create level pack manually Maybe you can open your custom level pack using text editor and see if there is anything wrong...

I've fixed those bugs, it were actually two.
One was that a levelpack with one level would crash the game and the other that if "lastlevelpack" pointed to a non-existing levelpack the game would crash.
But for some reason it crashes when a levelpack is empty, I'll look into that.

[Tedium]

Hello everyone,

I think you fixed those bugs, because I can't reproduced them any more .

Could you post the new replay button image?

Here you go:

playbutton.png (304 Bytes) Viewed 8101 times

[Edward_Lii]

Hello all,

I think we should release V0.3rc1 as soon as possible.
There aren't any (big) tasks left and when the release candidate is released we can still do some minor fixes/improvements.

Any suggestions on what must be done before 0.3?

[acme_pjz]

A minor question: Should we enable game record debug in released binary?

[Edward_Lii]

Hello acme_pjz,

A minor question: Should we enable game record debug in released binary?

Well it could be useful but I think it's better if the release is without any debugging stuff enabled.