Middle-Earth Dizzy v1.12 [DOWNLOADABLE]

Hi there everyone!

I just discovered this site (and DizzyAGE!) a couple weeks ago, and had to dive right in and create a game for myself, to see how this all works.

Rather than start with a five-room game or something boring (what wasted effort learning to create a game with the result being something neither you nor anyone else would want to play!) I went a little bigger. It's not massive, nor is it too taxing (I'm a beginner) but I myself have found it quite enjoyable.

Now, I am not submitting it to the DizzyAGE site until it's been tested by folks other than myself, but I will offer it up to you good folks to either Beta-test, or just to enjoy.

Thanks to everyone who made DizzyAGE happen - you're going to make my life very busy for a little while!

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https://yolkfolk.com/games/middle-earth-dizzy/
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Please let me know what you think (and any bugs you find!) and thanks again everyone.

Welcome to the Dizzy Community Humbert :smile:

I'm sorry to say that link doesn't work for me, it either redirects me to this thread or say page not found from freewebs. :sad: Freewebs has always been a pain when it comes to posting links.

If you want, you can Email the game to me and I'll upload it onto Yolkfolk's server :smile:

doesn't work for me either :cry:

I gotta start work on my new game for easter soon, i know i said i was gonna make a start in sep LOL gonna have to hang on till after Christmas once the bulk of my short film has been shot.
But the story/puzzle ideas are increasing.. :teethy:

sorry dude, not working here either.

may i suggest uploading it to http://www.filefactory.com/ instead? that's what i used for TLoD.

Hello Humbert,

Welcome to DizzyAGE development.
We're all happy to hear of new Dizzy games, so we'll be downloading as soon as you fix the link.

If you need technical help you can post in the DizzyAGE help forum, or you can email me anytime.

And I hope you know about the annual Easter competition too :smile:

Alex

Guess I was a little premature with that "Now Available" heading! LOL

All right, sorry about that folks! I spotted the problem right before heading off to work and then there was no time to fix it.

Now I'm back (and my car just blew something or other so I have no idea how I'm getting to work from now on!) so here's a fixed link (on a very old website of mine that is inexplicably still there):


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http://cordeliac.tripod.com/middleearthdizzy.zip
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So everyone, please ignore the first post which is too old for me to now edit.

At least I'm glad people are interested!!!

Note that I have not yet included a readme.txt file, and there's no save game feature, until I learn how to tell it what static brushes need to be saved! (The real Dizzy games didn't let you save, anyway...)

I hope someone finds something to enjoy here.


P.S. As for the Easter compo, I severely doubt I will enter, as I couldn't possibly go up against the guys we have on here. I might, however, if I have a particularly strong idea around that time. I already know what I'm doing for my next one - just not when I'm doing it...

Just had a quick go, I must admit you've done a good job :smile: Plus, I have a few suggestions.

:egg: The room from "Outside the Dead Woods" onwards, The dark red grounds and caves I can't see very well because I have an old monitor, would it OK to brighten the area up so I can see where where I'm heading?

:egg: In the room "Murky Caverns" well when I walk to the far right from where the Shark Repellant is, I get stuck and I can't move at all.

I will be honest though, The puzzles and story is nicely thought up :smile: Best of luck with DizzyAGE :tup:

[quote data-userid="208" data-postid="62433"]

P.S. As for the Easter compo, I severely doubt I will enter, as I couldn’t possibly go up against the guys we have on here. I might, however, if I have a particularly strong idea around that time. I already know what I’m doing for my next one – just not when I’m doing it…

[/quote]

Usually the competition has many prizes and everyone might win something. If you're not very technical with DizzyAGE yet, you can still make a very good game if you're strong on the story and puzzles. The games are voted for how fun are they, not for how technical.

About the game, it's looking good!
And I have to say I'm a fan of Lord of the Rings too :smile:

Here is some advice:

1. Try to avoid scaling the brushes. They look out of the pixel-art style. When the game screen is scaled up (x2 or x4), all pixels will have the same big size, except those from the scaled brushes. It's better to redraw the tile at the size you need. More work but definitely worth it.

2. Make sure all items are in front of other background brushes. If you drop an item you don't want to loose it behind a tree or so. And for a "state of art" style, you can use the alpha channel of the tiles and have them with an opaque mask and a 1 pixel black border (see The Other Side items).

3. Enable the save/load feature. Most of today players really need it. All static brushes with ids (that you can change from script) are automated saved by in the default template, so there isn't much more to do. Unless you want some items or room to have different names, depending on the state of some properties.

4. There are some suggestions for final releases, like how the dizzy.ini file should be set by default, readme.txt info, and stuff like that. Search it in the docs and in the articles page ( https://www.yolkfolk.com/dizzyage/articles.html )

5. It's really worth it to polish your game as well as you can even if it's a "first try". I haven't finished it yet, so I can't say anything about the story or the puzzles right now, but the rest of it looks promissing.

That's it for now. When you're ready with another version, you can post it here and ask for more beta testing. And when you think it's ready for release, let me know and I'll add it to the DizzyAGE games page.

Alex

[quote data-userid="208" data-postid="62433"]

until I learn how to tell it what static brushes need to be saved! (The real Dizzy games didn’t let you save, anyway…)

[/quote]

all versions of dizzyAGE from v2.0 onwards will automatically work out which static brushes should be saved. it's a lot easier than using the older versions, where you had to tell the engine which ones to save.

P.S. As for the Easter compo, I severely doubt I will enter, as I couldn't possibly go up against the guys we have on here. I might, however, if I have a particularly strong idea around that time. I already know what I'm doing for my next one - just not when I'm doing it... never think you can't produce a good game! just because you've not used it for long doesn't mean you can't produce a good game.

My first game was for the 2007 comp, and Colins first game actually WON the 2008 comp! What matters is the gameplay, and the puzzles. if those are good, then you'll have as good a chance as anyone else.

and as Alex says, there's normally enough prizes for everyone anyway! :smile:

I'll write suggestions and notes here as i play it:

--i like the main screen art, not often we see that in fan games, so it's good to see when it is done, and especially when it's done well.
--when characters are talking, try to put the speech marks (") around the works. you need to use backslashes before them to tell the engine that it's text, not code, so no dizzy would be "no dizzy" in the code. This helps to distinguish between narrative and speech. it's a small detail, but the devil is in the detail.
--try to ensure the text doesn't make the speech boxes wider than the screen. use more lines, or if necessary, more boxes.
--i like the humour
--pressing 's' in the editor will turn 'snap to grid' off and on, allowing you to position things like rocks etc closer together, and in less of a 'grid' style.
--not sure 'mended' is a word...
--i couldn't pick up the leaf under the sun because i was holding too much, but the trolls turned to stone anyway.
--some of your items - for example the bucket of water - are see through

gahh i died in a very light snowstorm! i'll go back to it later.

first impressions are very good, you seem to have got pretty much all the basics figured out, and it's an intriguing little game. It's also good that you're seeking impressions of it before releasing it fully.

you'll find that the more you use the program, the more familiar with it you'll become, and soon you'll find it's easy to do things that you'd have thought almost impossible when you first started using it. :smile:

and don't forget that every previous DizzyAGE game can be unpaked for you to delve into and see how certain things are done!

  {yolkfolk}:clap: {yolkfolk}:clap:  

Thanks everyone for their comments so far.

[quote data-userid="17" data-postid="62436"]

About the game, it’s looking good!
And I have to say I’m a fan of Lord of the Rings too :smile:

Here is some advice:

1. Try to avoid scaling the brushes. They look out of the pixel-art style. When the game screen is scaled up (x2 or x4), all pixels will have the same big size, except those from the scaled brushes. It’s better to redraw the tile at the size you need. More work but definitely worth it.

[/quote]

I know. There are fewer scaled brushes as you go along, but it did happen a bit. I'm really rubbish at pixel art so redrawing my tiles is not on the top of my list of favorite things to be doing! But I might give it a go. (In the beginning I was creating the new tiles from scratch, instead of drawing over an existing tile - the latter forces it to the correct resolution, or whatever, which I was getting way wrong initially.)

[quote data-userid="17" data-postid="62436"]

2. Make sure all items are in front of other background brushes. If you drop an item you don’t want to loose it behind a tree or so. And for a “state of art” style, you can use the alpha channel of the tiles and have them with an opaque mask and a 1 pixel black border (see The Other Side items).

[/quote]

Please let me know of any items you find that are on the wrong layer. I will research myself, but if I have missed anything important I would love to hear about it! (I found myself early on putting everything on the wrong layers, and I never stopped doing that entirely!)

[quote data-userid="17" data-postid="62436"]

3. Enable the save/load feature. Most of today players really need it. All static brushes with ids (that you can change from script) are automated saved by in the default template, so there isn’t much more to do. Unless you want some items or room to have different names, depending on the state of some properties.

[/quote]

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62439"]

all versions of dizzyAGE from v2.0 onwards will automatically work out which static brushes should be saved. it’s a lot easier than using the older versions, where you had to tell the engine which ones to save.

[/quote]

Well that part is good to hear. I do need to work out how to save changed room names, however, before I can do the final version. But at least the engine works out the static brushes itself now - the thread on here I read about the subject must have been from a v1.x

(BTW, the room-name thing isn't vital to the gameplay - just a slight bit of window-dressing on one screen only. But I'd like to keep it anyway.)

[quote data-userid="17" data-postid="62436"]

5. It’s really worth it to polish your game as well as you can even if it’s a “first try”. I haven’t finished it yet, so I can’t say anything about the story or the puzzles right now, but the rest of it looks promissing.

[/quote]

Unfortunately, this is as polished as I get! {yolkfolk}:delight:

I hope to make the next game at least more colorful.

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62439"]

never think you can’t produce a good game! just because you’ve not used it for long doesn’t mean you can’t produce a good game.

My first game was for the 2007 comp, and Colins first game actually WON the 2008 comp! What matters is the gameplay, and the puzzles. if those are good, then you’ll have as good a chance as anyone else.

[/quote]

Ah, but I know from experience that I can't make good games. {yolkfolk}:tongue:

Not good enough to compete, anyway. I wouldn't want to be arrogant enough to think that my silly games can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you guys'. I don't mind making them available for others to play, but trying to claim they're in the same league as "Magic Star Dizzy" or something, well...

[quote data-userid="3" data-postid="62434"]

Just had a quick go, I must admit you’ve done a good job :smile: Plus, I have a few suggestions.

:egg: The room from “Outside the Dead Woods” onwards, The dark red grounds and caves I can’t see very well because I have an old monitor, would it OK to brighten the area up so I can see where where I’m heading?

:egg: In the room “Murky Caverns” well when I walk to the far right from where the Shark Repellant is, I get stuck and I can’t move at all.

[/quote]

As far as the 'stuck' bit goes, I'll have that fixed for the next edition (along with some other bits and bobs).

I admit that I really don't want to have to change the shade of red for the rocks - since I used it all throughout the game(!!!) but I'll look into it. I was trying to stick to the basic colors (even if I did cheat and use extra shades - especially of gray) and brighter reds just looked wrong for the feel of this game. But probably it'll seem more "Dizzy-like" if I do what you say. (Sigh.)

[quote data-userid="3" data-postid="62434"]

I will be honest though, The puzzles and story is nicely thought up :smile:  Best of luck with DizzyAGE :tup:

[/quote]

Thanks!

You've already solved the more fun puzzles, however! After this it's more walking that puzzle-solving (although hopefully one or two will still tax the brain cells just a little).

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62440"]

I’ll write suggestions and notes here as i play it:

–i like the main screen art, not often we see that in fan games, so it’s good to see when it is done, and especially when it’s done well.

[/quote]

Even when I steal part of it from someone else, as here? :surprise:

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62440"]

–when characters are talking, try to put the speech marks (“) around the works. you need to use backslashes before them to tell the engine that it’s text, not code, so no dizzy would be “no dizzy” in the code. This helps to distinguish between narrative and speech. it’s a small detail, but the devil is in the detail.
–try to ensure the text doesn’t make the speech boxes wider than the screen. use more lines, or if necessary, more boxes.

[/quote]

Yeah, I guess you're right. I tried to keep the red border for narrative, but you're probably right.

And I thought I'd got the text boxes down to size. If you remember where they were over, please drop me a line. (I'll have a look myself, of course, when I have a minute.)

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62440"]

–i like the humour

[/quote]

Precious little of it from here on out, mate.

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62440"]

–pressing ‘s’ in the editor will turn ‘snap to grid’ off and on, allowing you to position things like rocks etc closer together, and in less of a ‘grid’ style.

[/quote]

Yeah, I know. Prolly should go back and redo some of those earlier screens, huh?

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62440"]

–not sure ‘mended’ is a word…

[/quote]

It is.

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62440"]

–i couldn’t pick up the leaf under the sun because i was holding too much, but the trolls turned to stone anyway.

[/quote]

Oops. I have now fixed this, and one other place where this will be an issue. which will make it into the second "beta" version (to be uploaded whenever I figure out how to get the "save" feature working properly).

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62440"]

–some of your items – for example the bucket of water – are see through

[/quote]

Some of them I didn't mind this on, though the bucket was supposed to be opaque. Looks like I'll need to go through that map again...

Thanks again, everyone, and keep that feedback coming! (If and when you have time, that is, and the inclination.)

Well that part is good to hear. I do need to work out how to save changed room names, however, before I can do the final version. But at least the engine works out the static brushes itself now - the thread on here I read about the subject must have been from a v1.x

(BTW, the room-name thing isn't vital to the gameplay - just a slight bit of window-dressing on one screen only. But I'd like to keep it anyway.)
what i do with things like that (and if i've changed an item name too) is use a variable to save the status of the room/item etc. then write the code to save/load that variable in the save game (i say 'write' when i actually mean i nick the bit of coding from a previous game!). alternatively you can define a new game variable (e.g. G_ROOM1) that will be saved and loaded automatically. For both of these, once the game has loaded, you need to do something like:

if(GameGet(G_ROOM1)==1) { RoomSetName( 0,0, "THIS IS THE NEW ROOM NAME" ); }

where 0,0 is the room coordinates.

I don't mind making them available for others to play, but trying to claim they're in the same league as "Magic Star Dizzy" or something, well...don't forget that MSD was my 6th game! as i say, the more you use DizzyAGE, the more you find out about it, the more you learn, and the more technically sophisticated your games will become. As has been said before tho, it doesn't need to be technically sophisticated to be a great game!

I tend to use a notepad document or two to note down all the puzzles and in which order they are done, so that i can see more easily if there are any 'logic' errors (e.g. give water to dozy to get a pillow. Give pillow to dora to get water), and also to help me work out where the player will be up to in the map at any given point.

Don't ever forget that all of us started at a stage where we considered our games to be 'silly' :tongue:
Even when I steal part of it from someone else, as here? :surprise:
yup, don't worry about it. i can see you used some bits, but it's obvious you've drawn other bits too.
And I thought I'd got the text boxes down to size. If you remember where they were over, please drop me a line. (I'll have a look myself, of course, when I have a minute.)

ermmm as far as i can remember, it was in the first convo with Theo.

  {yolkfolk}:music:

more notes and suggestions:

--possibly make it so that you can't exit the house until you've spoken to Theo?
-- i like the 'sun' tile
--every time you pick the leaf up, it say the trolls turn to stone.
--it's just the bucket of water that blends with the background, not the empty bucket.
--in 'business district' room, you seem to have used the ground tile repeatedly for the ground at the bottom of the screen, but also including the 'edge' part of that tile, making the edge repeat itself.
--in 'hidden treasures' i can't get along to the gem. not sure if i'll be able to later or not.
--cavesquid??

died again, those mines are dangerous!

You can use the select feature of the editor to select all the items and then deselect these from the right layer. You will be left with any brushes from wrong layers (use F3 to go to them). The find and change features are very useful when you need to adjust lots of similar objects.

And just to be clear, all games that are fully playable (that can be finished without major bugs) and in which the author put effort, they are all totally worthy to stay in the DizzyAGE games list. And they'll probably make a lot of Dizzy fans very happy. So there isn't really any point in comparing the games from the quality stand.

What doesn't stay in the DizzyAGE games list are tech demos (without a real gameplay purpose or a story) - but these can stay in the tech demos list, or in the articles pages if useful for other developers. And of course unfinished tests that are not brought to the state of fully playable games, or that are too buggy to play and would just annoy players.

As for improving your skills a thing that is proved true, is that creativity comes when you work it. The more you work on your game, the more idea you get to extend it. Of course you must know when to stop, or you'll never finish anything :smile:

I also find the game design study a very enjoyable process. There are some very good books about adventure games design, writing, and story telling.

For example, being a non-native English speaker, one thing I hit my head with for the dialogs in the "Other Side" was "The Elements of Style" book by William Strunk . And I still have to hit it a few more times :smile:

Now, since I got into this kind of talk, here is an awesome article for all adventure developers:

"What Is an Ideal Adventure?" by David Tanguay
http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/features/105/

Alex

Not to clog my own thread with more talk from me, but...
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62443"]

more notes and suggestions:

–possibly make it so that you can’t exit the house until you’ve spoken to Theo?

[/quote]

I thought about this before, but there's no logical reason for it. And frankly, if you don't talk to the wizard in your living room to find out what's up, that's your own problem, surely?

(Still of two minds on this, though...)
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62443"]

–every time you pick the leaf up, it say the trolls turn to stone.

[/quote]

D'oh! Another major goof!

I think this came about when I changed the way this implementation worked, and I must have accidentally got rid of the status check.
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62443"]

–it’s just the bucket of water that blends with the background, not the empty bucket.

[/quote]

Actually, it was opaque - just on the wrong layer! So it often hid behind parts of the scenery...

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62443"]

–in ‘business district’ room, you seem to have used the ground tile repeatedly for the ground at the bottom of the screen, but also including the ‘edge’ part of that tile, making the edge repeat itself.

[/quote]

And I tried so hard to not do that all the time...

I have fixed this and several other (minor) ground issues. Not but I'm sure there are many more to cover...
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62443"]

–in ‘hidden treasures’ i can’t get along to the gem. not sure if i’ll be able to later or not

[/quote]

I will say only that not everyplace you see is someplace you need to be...

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62443"]

–cavesquid??

[/quote]

{yolkfolk}:tongue:

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62443"]

died again, those mines are dangerous!

[/quote]

And that's the "cleaned-up" version. Right up until I was ready to post the game the first time, all the bats and spiders in the mines were instantly deadly. I decided to ease up on this and make them "hurt" class. (Which negates the need for the respawn code I used in "Spider's Hole", but that's okay - I learned something from implementing it that may come in handy again later.)

Thanks once again, everybody (that link was very interesting, xelanoimis).
A revised (still beta, natch) version is up at the same address:

http://cordeliac.tripod.com/middleearthdizzy.zip

which now includes "Save Game" feature, some redrawn tiles to avoid scaling (still not done the roof, which doesn't bother me so much, but I changed the woodcutter and Zaks - with mixed results), no more trapped Dizzy in the Murky Cavern, some coding issues resolved (including a few no one reported but I caught myself) - and one thing unchanged that I thought was going to need altering, but I tested the scenario which I hadn't thought of and there was no problem (whew).

Congrats Humbert,

This is a really enjoyable game!! Dizzy & LOTR all in one game - what could be better? It even follows the story fairly well.
This is certainly on my list of '10 things to do before I die'.

Ive completed this game now - the last item/action isnt at all obvious if you dont know the story already tho.
When I finished I had lots of items that I never used and saw a few places that I hadnt explored/got into - is this ok?
for example, i dont know how to get on the cave below the pub or couldnt explore all the ledges/clouds in the Yellow trees bit.

I loved the visual joke with the red herring - anyone that does use this item deserves to lose a life

I hope that you expand this game as id love to be able to explore more of Middle Earth and to find a use for some of the unused items such as Boromirs Horn and the wizards hat. It would be interesting to find out what the thinking was behind the hot dog stand - im not sure Tolkien had one of those in mind when he penned his classic...

all in all good stuff - Im just surprised that noones come up with a LOTR Dizzy parody sooner - I hope it isnt too long before we see a Dizzy Star Wars game as that would certainly make my day also.

  {yolkfolk}:clap: {yolkfolk}:clap:

more notes and suggestions:

--the room above 'Village Square' isn't named.
--both leaf bugs are fixed
--the room above 'the road goes ever on' doesn't have a name
--i like the red herring :tongue:
--it seems to be impossible to jump over some of the flames without getting slightly hurt
--should the lines 'alive without death' and 'as cold as breath' actually read 'alive without breath' and 'as cold as death'?
--if you exit the inventory when the puzzle dude asks you for an item, he still says 'nope that isn't it'
--the room above 'holly grove' isn't named
--it simply isn't possible to get across to the Gorlab (that i can see, and i can't see anything in the coding either). I used dev mode to get across to be able to continue
--in 'egde of the elf wood' and 'the jaundiced woods' rooms, you walk on top of the grass...
there are a few deaths that the player simply isn't warned about beforehand, just as the jagged rocks on the way to RedRum. you have to jump to get into that screen, and immediately die. It may be better to just be able to walk into the screen so that the player has the choice of whether to brave the spikes or not.
--oh and that deadly switch is just plain EVIL dude! have SOME warning, even if just in the room title!
--oh and come on! the chasm of despair kills you without warning too! :sad: not having fun here dude, you're too eager to kill the little dude.
--the collision detection for the final puzzle is waaaay too close to the edge! you almost risk going over!
--there's rather a lot of items that i haven't used....!

all in all it's a pretty decent little game! You seem to have grasped the basics of coding it pretty well.

Well done! {yolkfolk}:clap: {yolkfolk}:clap:

[quote data-userid="150" data-postid="62447"]

saw a few places that I hadnt explored/got into – is this ok?

[/quote]

he's put a few places in there that you can't get to.

oh and Colin, how the hell did you get onto the ledge just before that green monster?

I know, I know. I just can't resist posting...

[quote data-userid="150" data-postid="62447"]

This is a really enjoyable game!! Dizzy & LOTR all in one game – what could be better? It even follows the story fairly well.
This is certainly on my list of ’10 things to do before I die’.

[/quote]

Thanks, DFUK!

[quote data-userid="150" data-postid="62447"]

Ive completed this game now – the last item/action isnt at all obvious if you dont know the story already tho.

[/quote]

I admit, this surprises me. Theo tells you to toss the ring into the Chasm of Despair, and I can't think of how else a player might expect to toss the ring in there. {yolkfolk}:scratch:
[quote data-userid="150" data-postid="62447"]

When I finished I had lots of items that I never used and saw a few places that I hadnt explored/got into – is this ok?
for example, i dont know how to get on the cave below the pub or couldnt explore all the ledges/clouds in the Yellow trees bit.

[/quote]

Yes, this is normal. While the cave below the pub has no purpose (I accidentally designed the hill with a screen that was 98% ground, but as I was getting ready to restructure, I suddenly found it amusing to put a useless room in the scenery) some of the other unreachables have a purpose. (In the Jaundiced Woods, I didn't want the path to Emmanuelle's flet to be too obvious; the dungeon below Zaks' tower is supposed to fool you into thinking there's a way in somehow underground - to slightly distract from the real solution.)

And I did litter the game with red herrings - although most of them were there as "pick-uppable" decorations, rather than red herrings per se.

[quote data-userid="150" data-postid="62447"]

I loved the visual joke with the red herring – anyone that does use this item deserves to lose a life

[/quote]

Do you speak from experience? {yolkfolk}:delight:

It would be interesting to find out what the thinking was behind the hot dog stand - im not sure Tolkien had one of those in mind when he penned his classic...

Honestly? That's the only thinking behind it at all. It just seemed delightfully incongruous. (I was probably inspired by Falafel in "Hercules: the Legendary Journeys".)

[quote data-userid="150" data-postid="62447"]

I hope it isnt too long before we see a Dizzy Star Wars game as that would certainly make my day also.

[/quote]

Someone should definitely do that!

My next project (somewhere in time and space, anyway) is a somewhat Star Trekkian journey through the universe.
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62448"]

more notes and suggestions:

–the room above ‘Village Square’ isn’t named.
–the room above ‘the road goes ever on’ doesn’t have a name
–the room above ‘holly grove’ isn’t named

[/quote]

There were some rooms I never thought people would be jumping into. Thanks for the tip, and I'll do something about those...
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62448"]

–it seems to be impossible to jump over some of the flames without getting slightly hurt

[/quote]

Indeed it does. {yolkfolk}:tongue:
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62448"]

–should the lines ‘alive without death’ and ‘as cold as breath’ actually read ‘alive without breath’ and ‘as cold as death’?

[/quote]

*facepalm* D'oh!

I swear to God, I really did proofread this stuff.
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62448"]

–if you exit the inventory when the puzzle dude asks you for an item, he still says ‘nope that isn’t it’

[/quote]

"String. Or nothing."

[DizzyFanUK will know what I mean...]
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62448"]

–it simply isn’t possible to get across to the Gorlab (that i can see, and i can’t see anything in the coding either). I used dev mode to get across to be able to continue

[/quote]

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62449"]

oh and Colin, how the hell did you get onto the ledge just before that green monster?

[/quote]

Step up to the edge of your side of the bridge - touching, but not on, the lip. The crack in the stone should be between Dizzy's feet.

Now jump to the right. (I jump straight up once, then hold 'right', since otherwise I have a tendency to step right just before jumping.)
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62448"]

–in ‘egde of the elf wood’ and ‘the jaundiced woods’ rooms, you walk on top of the grass…

[/quote]

For some reason I did this on purpose, though God knows what it was. I noticed when I was doing it, however, definitely...

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62448"]

there are a few deaths that the player simply isn’t warned about beforehand, just as the jagged rocks on the way to RedRum. you have to jump to get into that screen, and immediately die. It may be better to just be able to walk into the screen so that the player has the choice of whether to brave the spikes or not.

[/quote]

I'll think about what to do here.

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62448"]

–oh and that deadly switch is just plain EVIL dude! have SOME warning, even if just in the room title!

[/quote]

Mwa-ha-ha-ha! Zaks is evil - what do you expect in his tower, fluffy bunnies to pop out?

  {yolkfolk}:tongue:

[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62448"]

–oh and come on! the chasm of despair kills you without warning too! :sad:  not having fun here dude, you’re too eager to kill the little dude.

[/quote]

It's the ****ing Chasm of Despair. Anyone stepping or jumping into this deserves their fate, IMHO.

Seriously, however, I will raise the lava up so it can be seen.
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62448"]

–the collision detection for the final puzzle is waaaay too close to the edge! you almost risk going over!

[/quote]

Exactly. You're tossing the ring in, not placing it gently somewhere in the vicinity of the edge. There's no real risk of falling in by accident.
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62448"]

–there’s rather a lot of items that i haven’t used….!

[/quote]

As above, many of them were sort of 'collectable decorations' - like the anvil, or the abandoned Dwarven mining equipment. Some were red herrings, though only one or two deliberate ones.
[quote data-userid="23" data-postid="62448"]

all in all it’s a pretty decent little game! You seem to have grasped the basics of coding it pretty well.

[/quote]

Thanks muchly, Delta. I know it's not a groundbreaking game (and, for the record, no game I make will be that!) but it was fun learning the process, and I hope to be able to do another one before too very long.