New Game: Heart Stealer 2

Timmy · October 2013

Heart Stealer 2 is finally here! Took me a while to make but that's mainly because of real life problems. Even my normal computer broke down and I'm finishing the game on a very old computer. But anyway:

Our hero is back again to collect hearts.

This time, our hero only needs 6 hearts to finish the game, but this time they are located all over.

Beware of the spikes! These pointy things are the only dangerous things in the game.

To make it easier, you also have infinite lives, with checkpoints all over.

The challenge is not only to complete the game, but also try to finish the game quickly.

This game is a remake (or demake, depends on how you look at it) of a game called VVVV, which was written for the Java4k 2010 compo (www.java4k.com). By a guy called Markus 'Notch' Persson (you might have heard of him). Of course, VVVV is based on VVVVVV.

This version is a bit larger than the original 4K version. The screens in this version are larger than the original 19x11, also I still need to look up on compression techniques on the Spectrum, so no real compression is used in this version.

Also, including 2 songs from our 1-bit music maestro Mister Beep. How he does it, I don't know, but they are brilliant, as usual.

Download here: http://mister_beep.republika.pl/HS2.zip

Have fun!

p13z · October 2013

Nice work. Really nice game.
Thankyou.

Alessandro Grussu · October 2013

Sorry to hear about your probs mate, hope it's all behind you now.

I quite liked the first instalment; I see this one is simpler - no enemies, only spikes, and infinite lives. I'd only have put some more variety in the tiles and/or environment, but apart from that it's a worthwhile addition to this year's crop.

utz · October 2013

Lovely game, but daaaaaammmnnn is it hard. Nevermind infy lives, but dying every few seconds (sometimes less) in certain spots can get pretty annoying ;) But somehow it's addictive enough to make me want to give it a go again - and I'm certainly not a big fan of trick jump'n'runs.
Also, awesome music :)

Timmy · October 2013

Alessandro Grussu wrote: »

I'd only have put some more variety in the tiles and/or environment, but apart from that it's a worthwhile addition to this year's crop.

I have some more graphics inside the game unused right now. I could see if I can update it later with a bit more colours and other unused tiles. But that could take a while (weeks probably) so I decided to release it for now.

Thanks.

Yoshiatom · October 2013

Nice little demake you have there. (Yes I have played the original level.) :-)
I didn't play much of it since the emulator I used (Qaop) doesn't have joystick support, and the keyboard controls are frustrating for me.
In other words, I think this game would be better with redefinable keys.
(You may also want to make the checkpoints more obvious...)

oblo · October 2013

Wow, it's f*** awesome! :-o What a great game, thanks for your work! :-)

Cheers

Timmy · October 2013

Yoshiatom wrote: »

I didn't play much of it since the emulator I used (Qaop) doesn't have joystick support, and the keyboard controls are frustrating for me.
In other words, I think this game would be better with redefinable keys.
(You may also want to make the checkpoints more obvious...)

I don't know how to code redefinable keys. But I could ask people here or on the z88dk forums, but this could take a while.

But if OPM is too frustrating, maybe you could try the sinclair joysticks in the meantime. Sinclair joysticks use keys 6/7/0, or 1/2/5, for left/right/fire.

As for the checkpoints, I don't know what you mean. I can't make them larger, if that's what you're suggesting.

DeusX · October 2013

RZX available here:

http://www.rzxarchive.co.uk/h.php#heartstealer2

Yoshiatom · October 2013

Timmy wrote: »

As for the checkpoints, I don't know what you mean. I can't make them larger, if that's what you're suggesting.

What I'm saying is that I didn't quickly realise they were checkpoints, thats all.

gabriele amore · October 2013

what an interesting game....! very much so!

Ivanzx · October 2013

Yoshiatom wrote: »

Nice little demake you have there. (Yes I have played the original level.) :-)
I didn't play much of it since the emulator I used (Qaop) doesn't have joystick support, and the keyboard controls are frustrating for me.
In other words, I think this game would be better with redefinable keys.
(You may also want to make the checkpoints more obvious...)

For 95% of the Spectrum games, QAOP is the standard mode of control, so its the best way most of the peope feel comfortable with the game ;)
I guess maybe you are coming from C64 or MSX scene? :)

I tried the game yesterday, barely 5 mins, and its an interesting idea not done a lot of times in the speccy, but quite hard too!

Yoshiatom · October 2013

Ivanzx wrote: »

I guess maybe you are coming from C64 or MSX scene? :)

No, I just find M for fire difficult, maybe space would be a better fire key?

Ralf · October 2013

Nice but really hard.

Timmy · October 2013

Yoshiatom wrote: »

What I'm saying is that I didn't quickly realise they were checkpoints, thats all.

Yeah, it wasn't clear in the original either then, as they look identical of the ones in the original VVVV game. (and you said you have played that one as well)

Yoshiatom wrote: »

No, I just find M for fire difficult, maybe space would be a better fire key?

Well, after extensive testing I can tell you that the answer to that question is "no". The space bar would have caused more lag than an ordinary key.

Pavero · October 2013

http://maps.speccy.cz/map.php?id=HeartStealer2

Timmy · October 2013

Pavero wrote: »

http://maps.speccy.cz/map.php?id=HeartStealer2

Thanks.

It's sad you left out the stars and the checkpoints, but I can understand that.

On the other hand, if you had left the stars in the screens you would have seen that there's a big black rectangle in the center of the map.

na_th_an · October 2013

This game is awesome. So, so well crafted. It plays great, it got me hooked quite a while. Being an avid fan of the original VVVVVV I got all I expected.

Great job!

Sokurah · October 2013

It's hard, but it's fun. :) Very polished too.
Love it. It's got that "just one more try" factor. :)

Timmy · October 2013

na_th_an wrote: »

This game is awesome. So, so well crafted.

Sokurah wrote: »

Very polished too.

Thanks for the comments! To be honest I thought I've spent way too much time polishing this. Next time I will try to make a game in much shorter time. :lol:

Pavero · October 2013

Timmy wrote: »

Thanks.

It's sad you left out the stars and the checkpoints, but I can understand that.

On the other hand, if you had left the stars in the screens you would have seen that there's a big black rectangle in the center of the map.

GoodBoy will maybe update his map ;-).

New Game: Heart Stealer 2

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