Blastaway, a new game for AmigaOS 4 (?)

Wow, just tried it - works like a charm on my X5000 and OS4.1FE, really nice work!

Thanks, Tohe!
I appreciate that you used your first post for my game :)
(Plus, Oulu! As already mentioned, I lived there! Nice memories...)

@saimo

Oh, Oulu - how that I missed that :)

I was so excited to try to game after reading the whole story and noticed that you're the author of one other game that I own (https://www.dropbox.com/s/hndu1eyi8g0ku0o/20190728_222730.jpg?dl=0 ).

As the others suggest - if you're going commercial, why not try AMIStore - it surely needs some fresh quality software.

@Tohe

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Ah, yes, the original BOH. Thanks for buying that :)
(I hope you have downloaded the latest version, BOH ADVANCE. If you don't have an itch.io key yet, you can retrieve one by entering here the original code you got with the game. Also, if you want, check out my other games at https://www.retream.com)

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Please see my answer in post #6.

@all

Several people in several places told me that they'd happily buy the game (and a couple of them, whom I can never thank enough, even donated me very generous amounts of money): while such intention is much appreciated, at the moment sales are *not* what I'm after! As explained, the game might even be free (and currently it is). The best support right now consists in letting people outside of the Amiga community know about the game. "Outside" because of two reasons: many/most of the fellow Amigans already know by now, and those who don't know yet will sooner or later; the Amiga community is (sadly) very small, so it doesn't make a real commercial difference.
The indie scene has become an ocean and an industry, so it's extremely unlikely to reach a significant success without important connections and massive investments in marketing; still, word of mouth might help the game hit the right spot at the right time... sure, almost impossible... but not completely impossible
So, if you feel like, just let your friends/connections know: that's the best form of support the game can get. Thanks in advance!

By the way, of course many thanks to who already helped with spreading the word and, in particular, to these blogs and the authors of the respective articles (in alphabetical order):
* Amiga.gr, https://amiga.gr/2019/07/925/blastaway
* AmigaGuru Gamerblog, https://blog.amigaguru.com/a-first-look-at-blastaway/
* Epsilon's Amiga Blog, http://amigax1000.blogspot.com/2019/0 ... way-preview-on-x5000.html
(If I missed any, please let me know.)

Improved looks: this update mostly brings cool enhancements to the graphics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAMsUkUEGIg

CHANGELOG
* Redrawn wor kill animation (and changed associated sound effect accordingly).
* Improved graphics of tiles, destroyable objects explosion, blast mark, and bonuses orbs.
* Made a couple of other internal improvements/bugfixes.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

@Tohe

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I also suggest you try out Huenison, it's got a very addictive gameplay, and can keep me hooked for hours

@trixie

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This is wonderful to hear!

@saimo

I haven't yet had a chance to try it but based on the video it looks and sounds great! Dat atmosphere...

@Capehill

Thanks! I hope that when you'll try your first impression will be confirmed.

@saimo

Tested quickly now (Win archive is missing the .dll, please consider bundling it?) on X5000, very smooth and immediate flashback to the 80s. My friend had Wizard of Wor on some console or computer.

@Capehill

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Thanks for reporting this! The DLLs were indeed included in the archive until a few releases ago then... I changed the way the archive gets created and forgot to include the DLLs :p

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Yeah, it was an arcade game that got ported to multiple platforms. I used to play it on the C64.

A brand-new stage and tons of other improvements! Finally Blastaway has more than one stage (i.e. setting), which means more graphics to enjoy, greater sense of progression (as the stages change every 10 arenas), and more arenas to play (20 in all now, but they will be 50 when, in the end, all the 5 planned stages are done).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGKcM1W8kL0

CHANGELOG
* Defined the setting of the stages and gave them names (THE CAVES, THE OUTER WALLS, THE CELLARS, THE CHAMBERS, THE LABS).
* Added a new stage (THE CAVES).
* Changed naming scheme of arenas.
* Extended handling of arena clearing: now an arena will be declared cleared only after also all the keys have been picked up (before, killing the Exxwor immediately ended the action and thus the player could miss the keys not picked up yet, which could make facing the following arenas impossible).
* Recalibrated bonuses distribution.
* Made killing the Dmewor easier.
* Made picking up keys easier.
* Improved Exxwor's AI a little bit.
* Halved wors speed increase between arenas.
* Prevented entrance doors from closing if any wor is in the entrance area (otherwise, a wor might get stuck there, thus becoming unreachable by the active soldier inside the arena, which could well lead to a situation where it was impossible clear the arena and continue the game).
* Adapted/improved/fixed some arenas.
* Adapted/improved/extended manual.
* Made various other improvements/bugfixes.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

@saimo

I've put your link to the lataest YouTube vid on my fb page. If everyone could do that, you would get plenty of coverage, fairly quickly

@OldAmigan

That's cool, thank you so much :)

A new stage and ten new arenas to enjoy!
This build represents a major step as it adds lots of content and brings quite a number of additional improvements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laaQkxxjfl4

CHANGELOG
* Added stage THE WAREHOUSE (previously THE CELLARS/JAILS).
* Added 8 arenas.
* Added milestone bonus (a soldier is awarded every 20000 points).
* Reduced number of wors to kill per stage.
* Refined rendering of blast marks, so that they follow the irregular borders of the nearby vertical tiles.
* Reduced shadows to 2 bits to make them sharper and stay more faithful to 16 bit machines.
* Touched up / redrawn a few tiles.
* Updated/improved manual.
* Made a couple of minor bugfixes.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

A small but key change: the soldier weapon is now centered relatively to his body, so it is easier to hit wors especially when the soldier is pointing west/east. Also, the HUD should be less intrusive and more readable now.







CHANGELOG
* Centered weapon with respect to the soldier body, so that it is easier to aim.
* Made HUD smaller and easier to read.
* Optimized tiles coordinates handling.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

Gameplay improvements: this update improves some key gameplay aspects and, in particular, fixes the bug that made beams pass through fast-moving wors without killing them (the so-called "tunneling bug").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6SdYd0MUTo

CHANGELOG
* Fixed tunneling bug.
* Increased maximum soldiers (i.e. lives) number to 7.
* Changed a parameter in the Exxwor AI.
* Touched up some graphics.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

Wizard of Wor, the game Blastaway inspires to, has a DOUBLE SCORE bonus: if the player manages to kill the Worluk before it flees, the next dungeon will award a double score. Blastaway just had to have something similar: it has it now, and it has even a TRIPLE SCORE bonus! If the player kills the Dmewor and Exxwor with the first shot, he achieves, respectively, the DOUBLE and TRIPLE SCORE bonuses, which, as their names suggest, double or triple the current arena score.



CHANGELOG
* Extended arena end screen report.
* Added DOUBLE and TRIPLE SCORE bonuses.
* Reduced wors speed increase.
* Added specific tune during the fight against the Dmewor.
* Added 5 arenas.
* Updated manual.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

I've been asked by email, on itch.io, on YouTube, and on various forums to port Blastaway to other platforms, and I've also read some misinformation somewhere, so I thought I'd better give a complete and clear answer everywhere.

I'm not going to port Blastaway to any other platform.

In general, other platforms won't be considered because:
* I can't take the burden of adapting the game and then of offering (future) support (two platforms are already demanding, and with BOH I've learned that increasing the number of supported systems beyond two is insane);
* porting is boring;
* help offers aren't of any help (terrible pun intended) because also collaborating, for several reasons, takes time and energies;
* I don't own all the machines I'm being / I will be asked to port the game to, and for money and logistical reasons I can't get more;
* I have many other projects (for classic Amiga and Commodore 64) waiting to be resumed, and time and energies are limited.

In particular, a classic Amiga version won't happen because:
* it couldn't be identical;
* it would require a huge development effort, as no direct port is possible: the code would have to be written from scratch and the data would have to be adapted;
* it would require an additional effort for testing, given the variety of hardware configurations;
* it would require again a big effort in case of updates (if any).