CCCCCCCCCC

[Whirligig]

CCCCCCCCCC

By Whirligig

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?okwmtn1dwmw
Mirror: http://rapidshare.com/files/394458788/CCCCCCCCCC.zip

This is my demake of/sequel to VVVVVV, inspired by YYYYYY, which was in turn inspired by VVVV, etc. (Yeah, it's kinda convoluted )

The plot is an original expansion on the original VVVVVV plot, and the game takes place pretty much immediately after VVVVVV.

The soundtrack is (mostly) original (there's one remix of a VVVVVV tune and a tribute to Michael Jackson). All of the music is included with the game as .ogg files, but if you want to add the music to a library or MP3 player, the soundtrack is being released separately, as FFFFFFFFFF. It can be downloaded at http://www.mediafire.com/?z5tnqyzkfmr or http://rapidshare.com/files/394458789/FFFFFFFFFF.zip.

[Terry]

This is really really cool I'm about five levels in right now. I'll post it to the blog later!

[Whirligig]

Also, there's no Mac support and probably never will be, but keep in mind that the game works *almost* perfectly under WINE (the main difference is that the graphics kinda suck).

[Robson]

Wow this is awesome!

Would you like suggestions? (warning: I like to talk!)

I could probably modify the YYYYYY level editor to handle these levels, which would be more user-friendly than a text editor. For example, I quickly hacked in support and here's me editing the tutorial. With a few hours work I could make it handle your levels a lot better. Would you like that?

[Mushyrulez]

That's a lot of (C(C(((CC(((cc(cCs you have there

[Whirligig]

@Robson: O_o That would be great! (Honestly, I didn't really realize YYYYYY had a graphical editor -- I thought it was just more convoluted text editing) Just make sure you know enough about the CCCCCCCCCC format. If you have any questions, I don't mind if you post them here.

[Robson]

Excellent! I'll probably do that on the weekend, although I've been ill since Friday, so not entirely sure I'll be well enough to do any programming

Also, you didn't say you wanted any suggestions, so I've started burning the twelve-hundred pages of suggestions that I scribbled down. This is going to keep us warm for the next few years!! Oooo now I set fire to a hoop and the cat is jumping through it...

Edit:

Been poking around and discovered loads more awesome stuff! Is it possible for us to make campaigns link to other campaigns, like yours? I see you have letters as teleports, but how does the game know that "a" relates to a certain file?

I'm *so* making a campaign for this, once I've figured out how it all works

[arcticwolf15]

I want to try it, but the file is too big. It will make my crappy computer even crappier. Sorry.

[Whirligig]

The actual program is only 100 kb -- it's the music files, most of which are 1-2 MB each. 

[The Brass]

What exactly do you have against safe checkpoints and safe room entries?

[Whirligig]

I dunno, I guess it never occured to me.

[Shasharala]

So far, a great game overall.  I am really enjoying the tracks and the gameplay.  The story is intriguing. (I havn't finished yet)
I will be writing back about a few bugs I've noticed, but for now all I have to say is that it works very smoothly for coming out of the blue like it did.

[Robson]

I can't figure out if you want suggestions, so I'll just post a small number:

• Intro sequence - Would be nice to have skip option, for replaying.
• Intro sequence - Putting the character names before their messages would make it easier to understand.
• I accidentally dismissed most of the first messages when entering rooms, because I wasn't sure when to expect them and they are dismissed via left/right/etc.
• There's a pause between messages, which often led me to accidentally dismiss messages, because I assumed the conversation was over.
• There's no way to skip sets of messages?
• The timer isn't paused during messages or the intro sequence.
• The messages seem to be hard-coded?
• Sometimes the game thinks left/right is being held down, but it's not. Only seems to happen when I enter a room with messages. This causes the player to rush off uncontrollably in one direction.
• The messages on the screen "Deaths: 0 (119)" "Time..." constantly flicker.
• There's a very large amount of unfair deaths in the game. e.g. Places where you do nothing wrong, but can't avoid dying. Places where you must die to get a rhombus. Unsafe entrances to rooms. Many checkpoints aren't safe. Places where you can't possibly predict the location of objects in the next room.
• If I go down into a conveyer belt, Viridian goes in the direction before touching the belt. This can be a bit surprising, especially if I wanted something in that space.
• You can often pass through X's by moving into them. This is especially easy to see on "Corner Cut Again".
• If you're on the left edge of a platform and the platform hits a wall, you get pushed to the right. That doesn't really seem to make sense. A similar issue occurs if you're on the right side of a platform, except that you get thrown off.
• Map?
• For me the game runs very quickly (probably I'm getting old). Any chance the game could have configurable speed?
• The file size is rather massive (over 30mb) and 99% of that is music. I think it would be worth providing a version without the music. This would be useful for dialup users and people with older computers. The massive file size could put a lot of people off downloading. People could always upgrade to the music version at a later date.
• In the level files the walls are saved as various characters (+-|). You could save time by using one character, then write some code that determines the correct wall character at run-time. You can do the same thing with spikes.
• Is there a way to turn off the music? The music is excellent, but I often like to play my own music instead.
• It's difficult to see the player character when they're on a tile with a green background.
• If you invert gravity in a tunnel you often hit the ground and then go up again. Cuidado is a good example of this.
• I think it would be good to change the appearance of the checkpoint tile when it's activated, so the player knows which checkpoint is active.
• Rhombus's seem to be fixed at 10? That seems odd. When YYYYYY opens a campaign it looks through all the maps and counts the number of souvenirs. That way the player can be told how many there are and it's possible to have any amount in a campaign. Perhaps it would be good to do that here as well?
• Your campaign links to other campaigns, but there doesn't seem to be a way for us to do that?
• I completed a bunch of campaigns, then quit the game and came back later, but the game didn't remember my progress. So now I have to start all over again.

[arcticwolf15]

Small?

[Shasharala]

Haha! I've seen longer dialogues about small issues within a game, articwolf15.
I have to say... Robson seems to have covered most everything I had to say myself.  All I have to add is:
1. I don't have the saving error like Robson.  The game just makes a save file in the same folder it's played in.
2. I notice Virdian can pass through spikes the same was Robson mentioned x's can be passed through.  It's just a little tougher.  You need an angle, somewhat.
3. I'm pretty sure the flickering of the time and deaths is because it is a constantly refreshing portion of the screen.  This game appears to be running in the command prompt and therefore it has to refresh itself all the time to show new data.  The entire line where the time and deaths are displayed then must refresh every time the timer increments.  Am I correct in thinking this?
4. The game does run a bit fast.  In fact, I almost want to say it runs even faster, the faster Viridian is moving. IE. conveyor belts or just running around, it appears x's move faster.
5. I notice that when I bounce on a bounce line or I flip through space across that green background at the end of the level then a small, vertical black line shows where I was previously.  It's like space and time is getting shredded by my flipping.  Does anyone understand what I'm saying?  I can provide a screen shot.  This also happens in other areas of the game as well, but I can't remember them.

I still havn't finished the game, but boy does it get harder!
The story is pretty cool so far.  I'm up to level 5 now.