Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure II: The Humanizer Thread

Anything related to Keen Modding.
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T-Squared
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Post by T-Squared »

The thing is, I wish people would take more of an interest in it. I'm having problems trying to figure out a segue between episode 2's ending and episode 3's gameplay.
spikey
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Post by spikey »

Happy to help with plot, ideas, etc as well as music. Just want to see some new Apogee games out there, since noone else is doing it. Yours seems a great effort, let's make it happen.

As far as people taking an interest, I think it's out there, i think they just want to see more progress to the finish line, I know real life gets in the way but this project has stalled for.. a year, right? But anyway, that's in the past, you control the future. I think you have a great idea; let's not waste it. Happy to help if and as much as I can.
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Post by levellass »

It's the eternal problem, there is never enough interest.
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troublesomekeen
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Post by troublesomekeen »

Argh. I haven't given Cosmo a good play-through yet. *starts it up* What memorable music! It's like... Keen, Duke, and Mario all in one! ...I am most ignorant. Modding a game like this... I'm starting to get interested.
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T-Squared
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Post by T-Squared »

OK, here's the segue between episode 2 and 3 so far:

Episode 2 ending:
Cosmo, having returned with the fuel that he and the rest of the alien children need for their ships, is caught by the scientist who transformed them. The scientist then proceeds to throw Cosmo into a Stargate-like device, sending him to the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

Episode 3 Intro:
Cosmo ends up on a far-off planet.

[This portion is pretty thin at this point. Need some GOOD padding here to make the story work over 6 story screens, and by good padding, I'm talking about something that doesn't make the story seem boring or making stuff up.]

Cosmo finds another one of the Stargate-like rings, heading off to another planet to try to get back to Earth to rescue the children.
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T-Squared
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Post by T-Squared »

The reason why I haven't really started any graphics for the game is I need to have a context for each level. (Then I can make a determination about what graphics to make overall for the episode.)

The story also needs some help with reformatting. I can go into the executable with a hex editor, but I know nothing about how to make a line return (next line), or placement of the text to make room for story graphics.
Dr. Kylstein
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Post by Dr. Kylstein »

I haven't looked at it, but usually 0x0D 0x0A starts a new line.
levellass
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Post by levellass »

* New lines are started with $0A.

* Story graphics are placed on the screen as [graphic] [h location] [v location]; text auto-wraps around this. It is similar to how Keen 4\5 help text screens work.
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T-Squared
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Post by T-Squared »

Is there any way to remove the line spacing in the story? I need to be able to pack more text in those spaces than there is currently available.
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T-Squared
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Post by T-Squared »

Ok, I've posted the story up on my Modding Wiki talk page, along with the list of music I've composed. (Will come soon.)

(BE WARNED. THE STORY HAS SPOILERS IN IT. DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU WISH TO HELP WITH IT.)


http://www.shikadi.net/moddingwiki/User:T-Squared
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T-Squared
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Post by T-Squared »

I feel like I will get more help if I posted the art I have so far onto my Modding Wiki account, so I'm posting all the fullscreen art I've up to this point there. (Even rough drafts)
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Post by levellass »

What exactly do you mean by 'line spacing'?
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T-Squared
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Post by T-Squared »

Well, in certain places in the story, the lines of text are separated vertically by empty 8-pixel blocks. In other areas of text, the lines have no separation.

(Also, I can't find any $0A bytes in the story section of the executable. It doesn't seem to use them.)
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troublesomekeen
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Post by troublesomekeen »

Wow. There's a ton of space in between all the lines:

Image
Dr. Kylstein
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Post by Dr. Kylstein »

Ok, it looks like the lines are separated by 0x00s. This suggests that each line is handled as a separate string, and the pointers to those strings may be hardcoded, which means you can't change the line lengths without knowing where those pointers are. The spacing is probably also hardcoded, so we would need to find the code that makes it skip a line after each string and bypass or modify it. It may not be feasible to fit more text in that space, given the other limitations.
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