Hi, im' using WinXP, python2.5, pygame1.7 around 4-5 games have crashed while running with the Segfault message. Does anybody else face this problem? ill' post the names of the games which crashed a little later.

This was already there, but hidden in a comment, so just making sure it's seen:

I've fixed a rather bad performance problem in the later game stages with a 1 line fix that I wouldn't want to withhold from anyone. Add a line saying "leak.clear_ode()" just below line 78 in src/dambuilder/dam.py (in the "if leak.rate

This was already there, but hidden in a comment, so just making sure it's seen:

I've fixed a rather bad performance problem in the later game stages with a 1 line fix that I wouldn't want to withhold from anyone. Add a line saying "leak.clear_ode()" just below line 78 in src/dambuilder/dam.py (in the "if leak.rate

The object is not to ride the bubbles up and shoot the boss, but to hit it with the bubbles. On stage one the bubble will rise to the cthulhu in the amount of time it takes for the cthulhu to cross one screen. So, if you shoot a fireball in the middle while the cthulhu is in the middle, it will likely be a hit. If you shoot one on the edge while the cthulhu is on the opposite edge, it will likely hit. In stage 2, the boss will cross a screen-and-a-half before the bubble reaches it's level. So, shoot the fireballs on the edge while the cthulhu is in the middle headed towards the opposite edge. Shoot the ones in the middle while it is on either edge. Beyond that, it's just a matter of dodging fireballs. Stay behind the boss, and try to cross under immediatly after it shoots a fireball. As for the other levels, don't touch the baddies, don't fall below the screen, jump at the right time, and remember that it's often advantageous to take bubbles rather than platforms.

I'm working on polishing up Bubble Kong for a deluxe release sometime next week. The main thing our team wants to get into the deluxe version is really nice levels. If anyone wants to help out and design some new levels for the game:

• check out svn://www.imitationpickles.org/pyweek4/trunk
• read LEVELS.txt
• examine a few existing levels, to see how we've put them together
• join us on #toba for help & to submit levels

Sometime next week we'll vote on which are our favorite levels and then do final bug testing and cleanup of those levels. I'll also put together win32 and macosx binaries once it's all done :)

Hi!

As some of you know, I messed up compatibility by choosing Curses for my entry.

I've now implemented a Pygame emulation for the Curses classes and functions I'm using. The new version has Pygame as its only dependency and should work on more platforms than the original. The gameplay in both is identical.

Hey all!

It seems that I'm not the only one who ran into trouble trying to package the Skellington into an executable with py2exe. The main problem seemed to be with the way the Skellington loaded the lib directory, and it had trouble finding the required modules once packaged up.

So thanks to some help by many other people, I've been able to create a Python script that will package up your game.

Here is the setup script. Extract this zip file into your Skellington game's lib directory, then execute the script. Give it the name of the final EXE that you want to create, and then tell it if you want it to be a console or Windows app. It will take care of the rest, and place the results in the /dist directory, ready for you to rename, zip up, and upload to your favorite host.

It's still in the early alpha version, but I hope it's helpful to you, and the code is released into the public domain (there's not much to it).

This script worked for me, and allowed me to finally create an EXE package of my game, Slacker.

Please place any feedback or questions as comments here, or feel free to e-mail me at hanclinto at gmail dot com.

Thanks!

--clint

(Top note for those not wanting to read through the entire post, there is a updated version of my game Slacker, where it now offers continuous play rather than quitting after every play)

Right after I finished creating my game, I was pretty happy with everything and couldn't think of anything that I didn't like about the project.

However, after playing through around half of the other games, I've realized just how good the other games are, and how little my game brings to the table.

So even though I'm pretty pleased with being able to create the game, there are some things I would have liked to change to make it better.

• I would have liked to package it for Mac and Windows, so that users don't need to have Python and Pygame installed.
• I would have liked to add some sound to engage the player and make it easier to time your key hits.
• I would have liked to make it so that the game doesn't exit when you lose, but rather restarts so that you can try again. That would help make it easier to play and deal with the frustration of the high difficulty level.
• I would have liked to add a more interesting reward for winning the game -- right now it feels kindof flat.
• It might have been nice to add different difficulty levels, but the way it runs right now feels *very* close to the real arcade game.

So yeah. It was a very fun exercise to write a complete game in just a few hours, but it was only possible by choosing such a well-scoped project. It's nice to take my own advice every once in a while though, and start small before working one's way up (after all, up is the only way ;) ).

I took a little bit of time to add one of the features that I've been wanting, which is continuous play that doesn't quit when you lose. You can download the updated version here.

P.S. -- I would appreciate it if anyone could give me tips on packaging the Skellington with py2exe and py2app -- I haven't been able to write setup.py scripts that recognized the required modules -- anyone have tips in this regard? Thanks!

A couple of entries missed being included in the torrent file. Please ensure you check the Entry Listing page to make sure you've rated all the games listed there, rather than relying on just the contents of the torrent.

The game will crash whenever you move into a room in the same column as the cavern exit. The ability to actually finish a game was hacked in at the last minute, and not tested at all; clearly this sucks. :(

Open up "src/spGame.py" and change "self.__pmazeY" to "self.pmazey" on line 353. Then, it is actually possible to finish the game.

The final line should read:

if (self.__pmazex == self.__exitX and self.__pmazey == globals.gMazeH - 1 and 3 in self.__player.heldKeys):

At some point in the distant future, I will have to actually finish a game within the week.

For the first challenge, I bit off a bit more than I could chew, and feel that I did quite well under the circumstances: using a programming language I wasn't familiar with; making the decision to go 3D despite having previously never done much more than the odd rotating cube where OpenGL was concerned. I made something playable within the week, but it wasn't polished, and had a couple of reasonably major flaws given the game type - both aiming and collision detection were awful at high speeds, which is kinda fundamental for a high speed shooting game. How I placed second in the individuals is beyond me.

For the second challenge, I stuck with a 2D game and no dependencies beyond PyGame, but actually managed to do considerably worse in my opinion. In retrospect I should have been less strict in my determination to do everything myself; using an existing isometric map engine might have saved a lot of time. I ended up backtracking a lot and spending so much time getting something working at all that I never had time to make it actually feel like a game. To be honest, I'm surprised I placed only one lower than in the first challenge.

This time round, I think I did OK. I kept my expectations low at first: 2D game, non isometric, screen-by-screen progression instead of scrolling landscape, heavy use of randomisation instead of having to design levels. My use of PyGame was better, in the sense that I actually made proper use of SpriteGroups and the built-in collision tests instead of rolling my own. The biggest issue I faced was circumstances; specifically, the fact that I wasn't going to be anywhere near a computer on the last 2 days. Fortunately it only ended up being the last day, but by then my expectations had grown and my time hadn't all been spent productively.

It's really disappointing to know that I've uploaded something that isn't polished. One more day would have meant the third boss was implemented, even if not as elaborately as intended (the second boss is already more basic than originally imagined); sound could have been added; high scores might have appeared, and saved games if I really pushed myself, but probably not. There's code in there to disable various bits of the game logic, intending to have a more pure maze game as a second game mode, but I never had time to test it so it wasn't made accessible from the starting screen. The ship would REALLY benefit from some kind of graphical effect on the thrusters, since at the moment it just drifts around on what might as well be a strong breeze.

The fact of the matter is, I haven't actually played a Super Spelunker game to completion. If you go through the trouble of getting all three keys and the artifact, then get to the last room, for all I know the game crashes. Even if it works, all you'll get is some lame "congratulations" screen knocked up in all of 2 minutes. The maze size has been picked with little thought. I also have a sneaking suspicion that I might not have completely squashed the bug which leads one or more of the keycards sometimes not actually being on the map. The game description also mentions puzzles: I won't even go into what I had planned at one point, because I was living in cloud cuckoo land thinking it was possible during a working week.

On the plus side, the explosion graphics don't suck as much as I thought they would after I originally drew them. The bosses blow up in a very satisfying retro style, and to a large extent I did actually make the game I wanted to make in terms of look and feel, excepting some tweaking of difficulty levels. Ship control is dead on, and I like the way it bounces (and the fact that I haven't been able to make it get stuck inside any walls; very important!).

In summary, I feel happier than at the end of the second challenge, but something about the feel of what I ended up with has me thinking that I won't place as highly. After the second challenge, I was so disheartened that I didn't enter the third (even after placing third in the individuals - I'm such a perfectionist). This time I'm looking forward to doing it again, but only if I can have the whole week. :)