The Field of Kings JOURNAL

[Verdite]

Can i ask, will there be any weapons and armour in the game and any plans for different damage types?

[Hguols]

Unfortunately, no....

The software used is designed to create point-n-click games.  Exploration is the key, as there isn't really any way to customize or build your character.  There's no way to design character menus, and the game actually uses the PSPs browser engine to run, so there's not even the option to have sound or save the game. :(

The only benefit for killing an enemy is not dying yourself.  :P

There's a lot of variety, and the game is far from tedious to play....  however, it doesn't have the same reward system as games where you can level up, gain experience, use different weapons.  The sky's the limit as far as what I can display - I could display with an animated gif a level up, a score system, but there would be no internal clockwork to make it legitimate. 

Actually, I'm switching gears a little bit to see if I can find a way to at least play a song while the game is going.....  and try to do so without too much external software...

[Hguols]

I just stumbled upon a great discovery! For clarification, I found a way to play music with your adventuremaker game WITHOUT USING CUSTOM PSP FIRMWARE!!!!

"The Field of Kings", the game I'm working on now, was originally supposed to be the 3rd game I created using the Sword of Moonlight software. I made a few songs for an original soundtrack, and now it looks like I'll get to use this original soundtrack with The Field of Kings adventure maker game!

The way the PSP works, you cannot utilize the system's music/MP3 player and the browser at the same time. It probably uses too many resources. However, the PSP browser does work with SWF files (SWF files, used for flash movies, do support sound.) Being that the PSP is capable of browsing with multiple tabs, all you'd have to do is open the music in one tab, and the game in the other.

I have tried and tested this and it works!

1] Download an MP3 to SWF converter. There's one at CNET.com by hootech for free download. The trial version only allows 60% of the MP3 to be converted, but if you have audio editing software (like I do) you can simply add 40% of the song time dead air to bypass the song cropping. Razz The SWF can be set to loop as well for a constant soundtrack!

You'll want to go with the lowest audio quality because anything more will be too much for the PSP cache, and the game won't load.

2] Put the freshly made .SWF on your PSP. I put it in INSTALLED_SOFTWARE with my game

3] Open PSP internet browser. Hit triangle to bring up the browser menu.

4] Type in the browser address bar the location of the SWF on you PSP's memory stick. file://INSTALLED_SOFTWARE/thefieldofkings.swf (or load a custom made bookmark, that'll be quicker)

5] Click "yes" to allow/run Embedded software.

6] When the music begins to play, you'll still be in the browser menu. Select "file" (far left button) and then select "Next Tab"

7] Open the bookmark of your PSP Adventure Maker Game and play it. The music will still be going!

8] ???????

9] PROFIT

( ^ - ^)♪♫♫♪♫♪♪♫
I'm so excited to have discovered this! The Field of Kings game will have the ability to have an original soundtrack - which is 16:08 in running time. A SWF file with that long of a song (at the lowest quality for the sake of memory) is still under 2MB....

...and still sounds pretty good mind you!

The only downfall is that its a bit on the tedious side to get everything up and running.

I'm currently looking to see how I can open multiple tabs in the PSP with one bookmark link... and also, how to edit the setup.exe to also include said music bookmark link...

[Guyra]

That's a pretty nice discovery! :D

Makes me wonder, does the PSP support frames? If so, you could have the game in one frame and the music in another. No idea if this is doable, though, as I have no experience at all with the software you're using. ;)

[TheSpaceBetween]

This would be neat,  I admit I never got the chance to actually try Kingsfield Additional on the PSP.  I just watched some of it on youtube, and it felt like an old game for the turbo duo.

I am surely interested ":}

[Hguols]

@Guyra, the PSP does not support frames, but does have 3 tabs.

Thanks to a little bit of Javascript (and the PSP's compatibility with it), I can open the music in one tab and the game in another - in one click!

Unfortunately, this rules out using the game's setup EXE, but that's ok.  Now its just a matter of determining whether I want to include a custom bookmark HTML file, or instructions to put the URL in manually...

Realistically, I'll probably do both...

[Hguols]

Actually, now that I think of it, if I provide a bookmark, it will overwrite whatever bookmarks someone has on their PSP.
On a good note, its possible to have a easy to access custom folder.

For the time being, I have it set up that when I go to:
file:/thefield/ofkings.htm
...it pulls up the beginning page with the link to load the music and game.

That's easy enough, isn't it?
I'll have to change the credits too.... to include music. :) ♪♫
_____________

Random thought here.... Does anyone have a Vita? I'd like to know if these games would work on the new PSP.

I honestly don't see why not... they would probably just be loaded with the Vita browser.
I don't know if the screen size would be different or not or if the mouseovers still act the same.  :/

[Hguols]

Well, I'm trying to track down someone who has a Vita to see how playable this game would be on that system....  I'm hoping it works relatively well, but until then, I'm still trying to find someone that has one, and see if they're willing to test the game... 

I'm hoping to get my foot in the door in what could be the first Vita homebrew game!

I have the 2nd part of the Valley done.  It was pretty small, just 67 images, but then again, it is half of a total area.  I have a few images taken for the first part of The Valley - I'm hoping to be done with this area, maybe by this weekend.

Its official, I'm more than half of the game completed.  About time!  ...since I started working on this late January.  ( ° - °)

I went ahead and setup the web domain for the game.  There's not much there, but then again, the site will just feature the game download... Maps, FAQs....  a few other things if I can think of them.

http://www.thefieldofkings.com

Hey Todd - any chance I could get my own forum section for this game please?  (and this thread moved there?)
It would definitely be more relevant, and I'd greatly appreciate it.

[Hguols]

Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing at this time the level of compatibility with the Vita and this game.  The 7-10 people I've contacted that have Vita's, who agreed to test the game's level of compatibility, turned out to be almost completely worthless.

Half of them downloaded the game and disappeared.  The rest corresponded for a while, to report the problem with "installing the game", then disappeared when I presented a non-download online version of the game.  Had one poor fellow, apparently confused...  I asked him to help me test the game on the Vita, and he wrote back telling me how compatible the game is with Firefox.

I have a friend with an android, and my brother has an iphone4....  So far, the compatibility isn't there.  (it just loads a black screen)  I'll probably have to export the game as a landscape iphone game to get results, but I won't mess with that until I finish the game.

I'm not going to stop progress just to mess around with getting the game on iphone as well, which may or may not even be playable.

The Valley images are complete and put together - now I just have to apply them and the hotboxes in the Adventure Maker program... 

That leaves 4 areas left to complete.  Moving on up!

[Hguols]

After weeding out quite a few prospects that were no help at all, I finally do have some results as far as this game on the Vita. Thanks to the hard work of a few gents, I've gotten some answers, but I'd still like to have a few more... I'm afraid their willingness to help me further has tapered off. I don't blame them - its tedious to test games. 

Until we can find a way around the Vita's content manager only allowing certain file types (unless there's a folder like the PSP "COMMONS" on the Vita we don't know about) the game will have to be online.

Not a problem. That's what I have the thefieldofkings.com domain for.

Since the resolution is geared toward the PSP, when the game is loaded on the Vita, you have to do the screen stretch thing like you would on a smart phone, to view the game full screen.

None of the buttons work at all on the game, but its fine because EVERYTHING is touchscreen. Since this is a point and click game, no problems there.

Through a little research (I know I'm probably behind on this) but I figured out that the Vita does not use any Flash. That's a bummer because that's how I have the soundtrack setup on the PSP.

I know the Vita is compatible with some HTML5, so I made some changes on my end to the online Vita version of the game in hopes that I can get the game and soundtrack working simultaneously.

Worse case scenario, (if no one helps me further), Vita users will be playing a silent game. (or not playing it, depends on how you look at it)
_______________

Well, progress is coming along on the game. I still haven't coded all of The Valley yet, but that should be done today. I have my first NPC type character with conversations. (the two other NPCs only say one thing which is easy)

Its through text displaying at the bottom and layer after layer of hitboxes that have variables. (like hotbox1 only displays when x=0, but when its clicked it changes to x=1, hotbox2 only displays when x2=0, but when its clicked it changes to x2=1, etc. 12 of them stacked like hotcakes with the last hotbox enabling all the others to 0 for repeated conversation.

More specifically, Magi Magus in the tower says which enemies need to be defeated to reach the last boss who is The Ineffable King Edward.

"The Dread Knight of Earth in the Courtyard
The Hidden War Demon in the Lower Courtyard
The Damned Angel twins in the Forest
The Widowess in the Garden Labyrinth
The Arachness and Cerberus in the Valley
The Ebony Knight of Flame in the Cavern
The Hallow Mage in the Dungeon Temple
and Lord Necron in the Blood Palace."