Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

A couple of friends and I have been working on this video game off and on throughout the year called Energy Crisis. We have a shot at making a commercial version for the Nintendo DS, but I wouldn't hold my breath yet. If you want to read a little about the game before playing it, you can see its Independent Games Festival (IGF) entry here. (Yeah, I made a typo in the description there. We never managed to get them to fix it.)

And here is the game itself (Windows). It's still an alpha version... it's the same version that we sent to the IGF except for a little tweak to the keyboard controls so that they respond a bit better.

The game contains the instructions on the main menu. One thing that the instructions don't mention is that you can also play with a gamepad. It's especially good with an analog stick, though some people find the controls kinda slippery. Also, do note that for the keyboard controls, the SHIFT key only controls acceleration, not speed. (I wouldn't be surprised if we change that in the future. It's kinda weird.)

You can also record games, though this function is kinda clunky right now. You have to use record.bat instead of crisis.exe to record, and it'll record to a file called recording.ecr. You then use playback.bat to -- you guessed it -- play it back. If you want to save your recording, just copy the recording.ecr file and rename or copy it back to recording.ecr whenever you want to play it back. There should be no major problems with recording and playback, but it hasn't been tested extensively.

EDIT: Do note that your recording will not be saved if you exit the game before getting game over. And if you record more than one game at once, only the last one will be saved.

There are a couple of minor bugs here and there (for instance, the game still responds to gamepad buttons even when you're working in another program!), and there are definitely some missing features -- most obviously that there is only one power-up, there isn't a complete death animation for the blue ball, and not all of the levels are there -- but the game is still fully playable. My personal record is round 12 with 2415 points, but that was with an earlier version of the game with slightly different rules (including no 2x powerup).

Now PLAY IT!

- Kef

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I like it. Seems like the kind of game you'd find in an arcade.

The controls are a little slippery, You move forward an extra space when you move one space, but I'm sure thats a simple fix.

Other than that, great game, nice concept, and g00d grafix.

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Oh, by the way, never mind that "Coming in Fall 2008" thing after game over. We really have no idea when we're actually going to finish it. It could easily be sooner, but it could just as easily not.

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I have a problem.

Here is my playback if you want to look at it (although you probably record playback by remembering what everything did, not recording what pixel was where and when): http://www.mediafire.com/?fjz1tv2dzed

That's good kef. The only problem is that I'm really bad at it.

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Hey, I didn't know you were in the IGF, Kef! I'm a huge indie gaming fan so I always try to follow it.

I don't have time to try the game right now but I'll check it out later.

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Holy crap! I've never seen anything like that before! Hmm. Can you give me your video card's specs? Is it like that when the game first starts or does something cause it?

Well, if this happens all the time, then there is a workaround. Edit crisis.cfg and change "graphics=opengl" to "graphics=pygame". That basically causes the game not to use your 3D graphics hardware. That will probably fix the problem, but the cute little death animations will be absent.

(By the way, you're right: it only records user input, so the problem doesn't show up in the recording.)



Don't worry, the difficulty level is by far the #1 complaint I get, so there's going to be easier difficulty levels eventually.

- Kef

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The problem is straight from the startup. What's weird is the only things that look weird are the title menu and the game itself.

Aha! Switching opengl to pygame works almost perfectly. When I loose (which happens so easily =[), the game crashes and it gives me this:



Graphics card: ATI Radeon Xpress 1100.

Augh, I knew I didn't test pygame mode enough. FIX'D!

Here ya go (same link as before). You'll have to update the CFG file again 'cause it'll be overwritten with the default. To anyone else: you can update your copy if you want, but there's really no need to unless you need to use pygame mode.

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Hmm. OK, try this. First, make sure it's on opengl mode. Then, change the "no" in "use_npot_textures=no" to "yes". See if that makes any difference. I doubt it'll fix it, but maybe if it behaves differently it'll give me an idea.

- Kef

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Makes no difference.

Best thing happened to me while playing: I had, like, five or six balls that followed a "red, green, red, green" pattern and then a blue ball came out and ruined the fun.

Okay, I tried it.

Diffuculty level is a bit steep, but that's really the only complaint I have. I recommend posting it on the TIGsource forums, they always have good feedback. (plus the people there are awesome)

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The gameplay is great, tho I do think that it starts out extremely difficult . maybe the first level could have only one color ball, then introduce new concepts, like the colors and black balls, in later levels.

I do have a few little technical things tho:

1. It registers a hit for the black ball if it hits the underside of the paddle. I dunno, just annoys me a little.
2. The speed of the guy is all crazy. It should be smoother, imo.
3. The little swirly on the ball shooter could spin, couldn't it? :P

Other than that, it's really fun, especially when you get in the rhythm of it.

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That's on purpose... I'm still debating with myself whether or not that's a good idea. But I've been leaning toward leaving it that way because I think otherwise it'd be a little too easy to dodge it.



Yeah, I know. The keyboard controls have never been that great, partly because I never play with the keyboard so I haven't done a lot of playtesting on it. I have to admit that the acceleration and deceleration code were hastily coded in while I rushed to get the game ready in time for the IGF deadline. (Turned out that we're allowed to submit updates, so I didn't have to rush so much... and yet we're probably not even going to manage to submit one since I'm too busy with other things!)



All in good time, my friend.

- Kef

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BTW, MikeMcG, are you sure your graphics card drivers are up to date? That could easily cause a problem like that. Dunno why it didn't occur to me to suggest this sooner.

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I'm pretty sure. =P I just recently updated them to fix my Team Fortress 2 See Through The Walls problem. I'll check again tonight.

Well, we didn't make the finalists in the IGF. Ah well, I expected that. Anybody still playin' it?

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