Hey everyone. Here I am again, posting yet ANOTHER thread for my puzzle game. Well, obviously from the title of this thread, you can tell it's got a name. Yep, it's called "Zep's Dreamland".

Anyways, there's a new version of the game out (test version 3) to be exact. I've fixed up a lot of bugs, played around with the levels - and removed some (thus requiring me to add some), and most of all: it has the new graphics included. Now everything looks spiffy diffy, and a lot of things are animated, too. I tweaked the controls also. Now you can quickly tap left or right to turn Zep around while standing still on the same tile. You guys requested it -> you got it!

Alright, so since I've finally got a name for it, the game has also been added to the depot, so there won't be any direct links to the download of the game from here. Go ahead and grab it at the depot page: Zep's Dreamland.

As usual, I would like any of your comments, suggestions, critiques. I have implemented a working teleporting system and the ability to have those blue blocks pre-built into a map. Both of these features are unavailable in this demo at this time. Look for them in a bit. They'll be included once I've got some more levels layed out. On the note of levels, the demo only has a total of ten levels, just like before. Beat the 10th level and you'll be zapped back to the first level. These 10 levels represent one "world": the forest world.

I've also included the option to save/load your progress, and a nifty title screen and all that jazz.

Again, thanks for your time!

Editor will be released upon completion, yes. And it's very easy to use

sweet dude... that is a very nice demo, nice graphics, gameplay, and music. Too bad I have an EXAM tomorrow... just spent all my study time playing your game too bad it's addictive. I beat it though, some puzzles were tough, but I managed them, oddly though it got progressively harder, then all teh sudden the levels went to extremely easy, then it repeated... oh well though I love the game. The only things I can see you doing is making more levels and a story line, then it will be complete

Hey guys. Thanks for the awesome comments. I'm glad you like it. !

Now to answer some questions/comments.

Yes. Johan has taken over the whole graphical part of the game. As for little things like whipping up a title screen, and altering some other animations he has done I have contributed a little bit to the art, but he's mostly done everything.

As long as you know how to use grabber, you can add your own tiles easily. The editor has support for a "growing" tile datafile: that is, if you add tiles to the datafile, the editor will compensate and allow you to use those new tiles. Changing the tiles for the block creation/deletion is a little more difficult, but that can still be done with ease as well! So, once the full game is out - if you feel like making the game represent your OWN world and have the time to make your own graphics, it would be a simple task!

Also, as for your wanting to do some graphics -- I'm not completely opposed to it. The only problem I see is the fact that your art might not play nice with Johan's art. If they end up in the same playful/cartoonish style, then it's a possiblity. If you have the time and don't care about the fact that I may say "no" to your graphics, go ahead by all means. I would never turn down help!

Well, more levels, of course. There will also be more than just more levels - there will be new elements, like as I said: teleporting and having to remove blocks that are already placed on the map. I also have some other ideas.

Well, I'm glad to know that you kept on hoping for more. This is a good sign!

All in all, thanks for the awesome comments. I'm surprised to see that I didn't receive anything negative this time! Does this mean that you're all happy? I mean, seriously, didn't anyone find any flaws or any bugs?

A lot of people comment on the music. I made sure to mention in the readme file that the music is not mine. I did not make it (nor did Johan). It's all just music from existing video-games and/or free domain stuff. I guess maybe you're commenting on how it fits the theme of the game? Either way, I just wanted to set it straight that I am not the creator of the music - so save that credit for the people who actually made it!

This is really really good.

It has a wonderful abstract feel to it with JP's gfx and the superb music. I got stuck though (I'm not a puzzler!)

A few things I'd suggest:

As well as adding a few more gameplay elements, I think the clouds would look a bit better if they were scrolling a little slower and if you had more animated tiles that would look good too.

Keep the surreal high in the sky feel!!

That would be kind of weird, actually. In theory I think that would be kind of hard to attain. I mean, sure, I could have this sprite of the sun rising or falling in accordance with whatever time it was - but the effect this would have on the other tiles would be nothing. It would seem kind of out of place if the tiles didn't get darker as the sun went down, etc. You know what I mean? It would be a pain to draw and implement if you wanted the sun's rising/setting to affect how everything looked.

That is the problem -> there's no pallete usage!

Not 8-bit?

That would explain why I never got more than 25fps then!

I just kept it at a higher depth because if I was going to be doing all the graphics, it sure wouldn't be using palletes.

I've never tried using palletes before, to tell you the truth. I never wanted to have to deal with them. It's possible I could change it to 8-bit, but the game runs fine at about 30fps, imo.

I get 45 fps. Totally playable; no need for 8-bit. Though you may want to consider porting it to 8-bit when it's finished for people with low-end (read: crappy) computers. And the sunset stuff is still a cool idea

That's basically the point... unless you need high-colour, it's just needless overhead to draw with it compared to 8-bit. 45fps is OK, but 100 is nicer. 8-bit isn't hard at all to use, in fact you can auto-convert your high-colour images when you load them easily enough. If you make a screenshot or mock-up with all of your various graphics on it, you can reduce it to 8-bit to get a usable palette.

i didnt bother to read most of the other posts in this thread, but who did the music for the game? its really very nice. maybe whoever wrote that could help me make music with my game?

You could have realtime water falls and stuff

Or maybe a space level set with flaming meteors blazing past...

anyway btw 23 is it just me or are your beards getting smaller?

Marcello