"Willy's New Mansion" Special Edition

[jetsetdanny]

This is just a quick note to let you know that I am working on the Special Edition of my first JSW game "Willy's New Mansion". If all goes well, it will be released on 10 May, eleven and a half years after the release of the original edition.

 

It will feature two new rooms and a lot of other enhancements (custom loader and loading screen, "advanced" title screen, a lot of patch vectors, teleportation, several in-game tunes, a serious challenge concerning the time limit, two separate Game Over screens [one for losing all lives, the other for running out of time] and other elements), including some things which have never been seen, TTBOMK, in any JSW game before.

 

The download link will be announced in this thread on the release day  :) .

[jetsetdanny]

Twenty days before the planned release of the Special Edition of "Willy's New Mansion", I am pleased to confirm that the game should indeed be released on 10th May 2016, as scheduled.

 

A Release Candidate is currently undergoing playtesting and the main task which remains to be done is finishing the Readme file  :) .

[jetsetdanny]

I have to inform everyone interested that the release of the Special Edition of "Willy's New Mansion" will be delayed a little bit. There are two reasons I have not been able to keep my self-imposed deadline:

 

1. The workload related to creating and playtesting the game and writing and proofreading the Readme file has proved to be excessive in relation to the spare time allowed by real life.

 

2. Some more bytes have been freed up thanks to optimisations suggested by friendly contributors at this forum, especially Ian Rushforth (IRF), and some new elements have been and will still be introduced in the game. This will enrich it, but, logically, requires more time.

 

I do not want to rush the release in any way. The quality of the game and its being a final, definitive product are the most important. Therefore, I will not set any new release date for the moment other than to declare that ideally I would like to postpone the release not more than a few weeks. Both the game file and the Readme are in its final stages, so it should not be too long now before they are ready.

 

I am sorry to disappoint the thousands of aficionados who have been waiting eagerly for today  ;) . I trust that the quality of the game will fully compensate you for your prolonged wait. So watch out for the release announcement coming to these page soon!  :)

[Spider]

As they say "all good things come to those who wait" :)

[jetsetdanny]

 I am pleased to report that the release of the Special Edition of "Willy's New Mansion" will happen soon, certainly not later than the twelfth anniversary of the release of the original edition (10th November), quite possibly earlier than that :) . The game file itself is finished, most of the playtesting is over and some finishing touches are now being given to the Readme.

 

Meanwhile, you can have a look at screenshots of all the rooms of the game here.

 

I would like to mention the fact that the game has been enriched significantly since the version that existed when message #2 above was posted. Ian Rushforth (IRF) has provided tremendous input in the form of pointing to unused space, suggesting possibilities for optimising the code in order to squeeze in more things, spotting some issues and suggesting improvements and offering one PV that he created. He also playtested the whole game and RZX-recorded the playtest for me. Andy Ford (Spider), in turn, has made a valuable contribution regarding building the final file, and has taken care of testing the game on real hardware (it works!) and on the Vega (results to be confirmed). Specific credits are given to them and to others in the Readme, but I don't want to miss any opportunity to acknowledge the valuable involvement of these two Gentlemen  :) .

Edited September 14, 2016 by jetsetdanny

[jetsetdanny]

On the twelfth anniversary of the release of my first Jet Set Willy (JSW) game, "Willy's New Mansion", I am pleased to present the Special Edition (SE) of this game.

 

The general ethos of my work on the SE was not to take anything away from the Original Edition (OE), only to add to it. Therefore, the SE is everything that the OE was, and MUCH more.

 

The SE uses the JSW48 game engine (the one used by the original "JSW") with many enhancements, including some absolute technical novelties. The highlights of the SE include:

 

- two additional rooms (66 in total, i.e. 10% more than in the original "JSW");

 

- five in-game tunes (the in-game tune is set individually in each room);

 

- colourful arrows, including arrows that change colour in mid-flight;

 

- "Global Seamlessness" of the screens: in every room the PAPER colour of the top two thirds of the screen (the playing area), the lower third (the status bar) and the border is the same;

 

- time limit as a real factor which may prevent the player from completing the game successfully (unlike in the original "JSW" or the OE); the player has to choose one of four time challenge levels after the game has loaded (even the "Easy" level provides more of a time constraint than the OE or the original "JSW"!);

 

- two separate Game Over screens: one for losing all lives, the other one for running out of time, each with a corresponding Final Screen with an appropriate text message, an animated decorative guardian and some music;

 

- Patch Vectors (PVs) - chunks of code which produce special effects beyond what the game engine can do - applied in EVERY SINGLE ROOM of the game, producing a lot of interesting and, in many cases, never-before-seen effects, inter alia: various Screen Flash and Coloured Screen effects, a range of sound and border effects, various kinds of messages (signboards) and guardians printed on the screen, Shimmering Willy, Willy's Colour Changed on Entrance to the Room, Time Trap, the change of the in-game tune in mid-room, Swooshing Arrow & Flashing Border / Status Bar effect, Intermittent Fire Cell, numerous colour-changing guardians, killer squares flying across the screen, a moving platform which can carry Willy over obstacles, periodic reversal of the direction of the conveyor, gaps opening in walls and ramps going in both directions;

 

- teleportation;

 

- special effects after Willy has collected the last item, during the "toilet run", and once the game has been completed;

 

- an "advanced" title screen;

 

- a loading screen;

 

- available space used virtually to the last byte;

 

- a 130-page-long Readme file discussing various aspects of the game, including disassemblies and detailed descriptions of the Patch Vectors and the modifications applied to the game engine;

 

- the game being Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega/Vega+ ready (thanks to a ZXK file mapping the Vega control buttons to the ZX Spectrum keys used by the game, included in the release ZIP).

 

The SE features also many improvements over the weak points of the OE. All unfair (and many fair) infinite-death scenarios have been eliminated, some sprites have been improved, and small modifications have been applied to room layouts, cell patterns and item distribution, both for aesthetic and functional reasons.

 

As a result, the SE is fairer to the player, albeit somewhat more difficult than the OE. It is still far away from the most difficult games of the genre, though, and it is meant to be enjoyable to most players.

 

The Special Edition of "Willy's New Mansion" uses various elements created by other people. Please see the "Acknowledgements and thanks" section in the Readme for details. At this point I would like to highlight my special gratitude to:

 

- Matthew Smith, for starting it all;

 

- John Elliott, for his excellent JSW Editor (JSWED), which was the main tool I used to create the game;

 

- Geoff Eddy, for the PVs he created and used in his games - many of which I applied in "WNM SE", and for their disassemblies - which got me started in designing my own PVs;

 

- Ian Rushforth (IRF) and Andy Ford (Spider) - well known on this forum - for prioritising "WNM SE" over the other projects they were working on together and for all the assistance they have given me; in particular:

 

- Ian Rushforth for his deep, meticulous, proactive, time-consuming and wonderfully efficient involvement with the project; the final shape of the game would not be what it is without Ian's multiple contributions; even a cursory glance at the Readme will reveal the extent of Ian's involvement;

 

- Andy Ford for his very helpful suggestions on creating the BASIC loader and the final TAP and TZX files, and for making the game Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega-ready.

 

The Special Edition of "Willy's New Mansion" can be downloaded from JSW Central, where you can also see the screenshots of all rooms in the game.

 

Please download, enjoy, and send me - or post here - any comments you may have, or just let us know that you have played the game!

 

Daniel Gromann

[IRF]

Congratulations to Danny!  And good luck to Willy!!  :lol:

[Spider]

Congrats :) :) A few screenshots here would be an idea ;) :D

[jetsetdanny]

Some screenshots from the game:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Metalmickey]

Ah, just what i've been waiting for .. looks very different will look forward to playing, hope it's not too difficult!