Manic Person is finally released!

[jetsetdanny]

AI can do marvels these days. Have a look at this 😮. 

[IRF]

1 hour ago, jetsetdanny said:

AI can do marvels these days. Have a look at this 😮. 

Yes, I saw that the other day. Fascinating stuff.

[IRF]

I just made a new observation about the Manic Miner game engine, whilst playing around in one of the caverns of Manic Person.

When Willy dies by falling from a great height, or by hitting a Fire cell or a guardian, then during the brief flash of the screen as he dies, the portal is not drawn.

However, in contrast, if Willy dies because the air supply runs out, then the portal does get drawn in that brief instant.

This observation proved to be quite useful in solving part of the cavern's puzzle.  However, I won't say which Manic Person cavern it is yet, as I don't want to provide a spoiler so soon after the release of the game.

However, I will add another cryptic comment - there's another part of the puzzle in this cavern which wouldn't work so well in the JSW game engine as it does in a MM game.

I will reveal all in time...

Edited October 25, 2023 by IRF

[MtM]

Sendy, only just got around to downloading this, excellent work as ever you and Danny! You are top! Happy Christmas!

[IRF]

On 10/25/2023 at 4:32 PM, IRF said:

However, I will add another cryptic comment - there's another part of the puzzle in this cavern which wouldn't work so well in the JSW game engine as it does in a MM game.

I will reveal all in time...

I've just noticed that cryptic comment of mine from a couple of months ago, and I'm trying to remember what I was referring to!

I think it was something to do with the way that items are drawn in the moment of Willy losing a life. From memory, I think there's a slight difference in the sequence of when an item is drawn in the main loop? Or maybe it's to do with the fact that each item is assigned its own PAPER setting in MM, as well as its own INK setting (which cycles through a palette of colours) - whereas in JSW, the INK colour cycles through the palette but that is then superimposed on the PAPER colour of the air cells for the host room.

Anyway, the net effect was that I was able to solve more easily the puzzle in the cavern in question, in Manic Person, because... 

 

one of the cavern's invisible items revealed its location to me during the brief screen flash when Willy lost a life!

That cavern's hidden portal also revealed its location in that moment, due to the sequence of when the portal is drawn during the main loop in the MM game engine.

I think if the JSW game engine was operating, the

invisible item

would have remained

invisible!

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by IRF

[IRF]

Further to my previous post, I've refreshed my memory of the cavern layout (thanks to the screenshot on JSW Central, an ever-useful resource!), and it was the following aspect of the game engine that helped me to solve the cavern:

1 hour ago, IRF said:

Or maybe it's to do with the fact that each item is assigned its own PAPER setting in MM, as well as its own INK setting (which cycles through a palette of colours) - whereas in JSW, the INK colour cycles through the palette but that is then superimposed on the PAPER colour of the air cells for the host room.

Because... 

 

one of the invisible items in the Hard version of the cavern is disguised as a water cell (by using a white PAPER setting; all the other invisible items have blue PAPER to match the air cells; the colour-cycling INK can't be seen because the items don't have any infilled pixels). So when Willy jumps up and passes through the pseudo-water cell (as he has to do incidentally, in order to avoid other obstacles), the invisible item is collected and the white background of that cell turns blue (to match the air cells). That noticeable visual change helps you to realise that the items are invisible. (It doesn't help you to find the other items, but if you've already completed the Easy variant of that cavern then you will know where to "not look"!)

This design was only possible with the MM game engine. In the JSW engine, it isn't possible to have different background colour settings for different items within the same room, so either no visual clue as I described for the invisible items would have been possible, or else all five items would have had a white background (and given the context of some of their locations, they then wouldn't have been 'invisible' any more - still no infilled pixels, but their cell background colours would have stuck out like a sore thumb!)

P. S. The portal in the Hard variant of this cavern is also invisible, but it briefly makes its location known by disappearing during the screen effect whenever Willy loses a life (Unless he dies because the air supply runs out - which was my very first observation above a couple of months ago!)

P. P. S. I haven't revealed which cavern I'm referring to, but the cavern's name is a big clue! 

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by IRF

[jetsetdanny]

Thanks for your detailed and very interesting analysis, Ian! 👍

The fact that the location of the portal can be seen when Willy loses a life is also very helpful in

Spoiler

"Crash Test Dummy", which is a great room in terms of misleading design and in terms of what the player has to do in order to solve it successfully.

  

On 12/29/2023 at 3:22 PM, IRF said:

Further to my previous post, I've refreshed my memory of the cavern layout (thanks to the screenshot on JSW Central, an ever-useful resource!), and it was the following aspect of the game engine that helped me to solve the cavern:

It's great to know that JSW Central can be useful! 😁Providing screenshots of every single room of every single new game (and of every single room of every single minor version of MM and JSW provided it is worth it, i.e. 'different enough' from the original) is one of my eventual goals for the website. They way I do it (taking every screenshot from a game actually being played or from its RZX recording being played after the game had been played and recorded) is a very time-consuming and, to be honest, a very arduous process. So it will take time before that goal is accomplished, but I definitely want to get there some day.

My current priority for JSW Central is, apart from adding new released games and versions, enriching the games' individual pages with embedded walkthroughs from the JSW Central YouTube channel. This, of course, presupposes creating these videos in the first place, which also means playing and recording them (or re-recording, if I'm not satisfied with the quality of a recording I once made).

I am planning to focus on creating the videos first, but once this stage is finished, I will devote more time to adding screenshot galleries wherever they're missing. Obviously, the videos will be very helpful in this process as a lot of the screenshots will be taken from the RZX recordings used to create the videos - there's a nice synergy between both processes 🙂 .

[IRF]

4 hours ago, jetsetdanny said:

It's great to know that JSW Central can be useful! 😁Providing screenshots of every single room of every single new game (and of every single room of every single minor version of MM and JSW provided it is worth it, i.e. 'different enough' from the original) is one of my eventual goals for the website.

On that note, I recall that I was a bit precious about 'spoilers' immediately after the release of some of the games I was involved in a few years back. But I'd be happy for JSW Central to include screenshots of all the rooms in Jet Set Mini, Manic Mixup, etc, at a time of your convenience. (If they're not already there.) 

Edited December 30, 2023 by IRF

[IRF]

4 hours ago, jetsetdanny said:

The fact that the location of the portal can be seen when Willy loses a life is also very helpful in

  Reveal hidden contents

"Crash Test Dummy", which is a great room in terms of misleading design and in terms of what the player has to do in order to solve it successfully.

  

I don't believe the portal in that cavern reveals itself during the 'lose a life' screen flash effect, although there is another visual effect during gameplay which helps you to locate the portal (which is at different position in the easy and hard variants!) - and having done that, Willy ends up in a position where there is no way out other than by sacrificing a life. 

Edited December 30, 2023 by IRF

[jetsetdanny]

18 hours ago, IRF said:

On that note, I recall that I was a bit precious about 'spoilers' immediately after the release of some of the games I was involved in a few years back. But I'd be happy for JSW Central to include screenshots of all the rooms in Jet Set Mini, Manic Mixup, etc, at a time of your convenience. (If they're not already there.) 

Thanks, Ian!

I usually give it at least half a year now since the release of a new game before publishing any visual materials related to it apart from the few initial screenshots which are also used to advertise the launch. In fact, it will be longer in many cases, because I may be into other things before thinking of adding screenshots to the (relatively) new releases.

In any case, as mentioned before, I do intend to ultimately provide complete screenshot galleries for each game, so this will also include all of the projects you've been involved in so far*. Of the ones you've specifically mentioned, "Jet Set Mini" already has a full screenshot gallery, while "Manic Mixup" is still waiting for one.

* I look forward to your future projects! 😉