[Mura v0.2.1] Release of my unfinished mods - "Botafloria" and "Mura"

[Quillax]

Why hasn't anyone replied to this? Mura may be incomplete, but it's a very good mod that offers an experience like very few other Keen mods. This one actually had me unnerved at times! I don't want to spoil much (and I already provided lots of feedback to Nospike via PM), so I encourage you to try it out and experience for yourself! It's too bad that it won't be finished, as I can see this being a great adventure horror game. The ideas Nospike listed above are seriously mind-blowing!

For those who don't want to download from the Google Drive for some reason, you can also get Mura from KeenWiki: https://files.shikadi.net/keenwiki/mods ... -12-05.zip

P.S. I forgot to tell you this, Nospike, but it annoys me how Tikk will sometimes gain sudden bursts of speed while airborne, which has caused me quite a few deaths. I assume this is a side effect from patching that needs to be resolved. If it's there for added horror value, I guess I could see it, but I find it more annoying than scary. If this project got picked back up again, it'd be nice if that quirk could be fixed.

[Nospike]

P.S. I forgot to tell you this, Nospike, but it annoys me how Tikk will sometimes gain sudden bursts of speed while airborne, which has caused me quite a few deaths. I assume this is a side effect from patching that needs to be resolved. If it's there for added horror value, I guess I could see it, but I find it more annoying than scary. If this project got picked back up again, it'd be nice if that quirk could be fixed.

I know exactly what you're talking about. I looked at this problem and it happens the moment Keen changes from the "jumping" behavior to the "falling" behavior which is a quirk of Vorticons jumping physics. The "falling" behavior isn't well documented on Keenwiki so I never patched it when I first changed the physics, and even now that I actually understand some x86 machine code I still can't figure out how the procedure really works. It might be as simple as patching a velocity value somewhere but I don't know where.

Edit: I found one more speed-related thing I hadn't patched. It's hard to quantify what difference it makes exactly, but with this patch jumping feels less "slippery" but also a bit less responsive. Try adding this to the patch file.

Code: Select all

#Jumping right speed
%patch $3BEF $20 $7E #If <= to...
%patch $3BF6 $0020W #Set to
#Jumping left speed
%patch $3C0B $E0 $7D #If <= to...
%patch $3C12 $FFE0W #Set to

Edit 2: You know what this is a lot better. A few places in levels are now harder to get to but I'll tweak them and put up a patched version in a bit.

[Nospike]

I've updated the thread with the patched version. A few areas in some levels have been tweaked to compensate for the change in jumping physics.

[Quillax]

Cool! I just updated the KeenWiki article to include the new download!

I tried out the update for a little bit to see how the jumping feels. Quite an improvement, I say! At first, I wasn't sure if fixing the problem would take away from the horror feel, but as I played through the feel is still in tact! In some ways, Tikk's slow speed and inability to go fast while airborne actually adds to the tension! You are not a brave kid who's quick and nimble, you are a scared girl who feels restrained by an unknown fear.

I forgot to tell you this earlier, but I like the new sound effects this mod has! They really complement the atmosphere! Some of them, such as the door unlock, remind me of the Atari 2600 game Haunted House. That death sound is particularly well done, it sounds very much like a screaming girl, and can be a bit chilling to hear!

I didn't play the new update all the way through (I usually don't replay mods just because an update came out), but I've updated the maps for the levels that got modified. I looked at the map for Scholar's Manor and noticed you added something pretty interesting at the end. The red sparkles seem to suggest that the flower is a negative symbol, though I can't imagine why...

[Nospike]

Nah of course not. If anything I think unfair deaths heavily detract from the overall experience. There's only so many times you can go through a mysterious level before it stops feeling mysterious, or anything else besides frustrating. I think the tweaked physics are more predictable and easier to pick up which makes it a clear improvement.

The door open sound is heavily inspired by Secret Agent but more like a real wooden door moving, the key pickup sound mimics the sound of jingling keys, the walking sound aims to sound like real footsteps, etc. Realism and minimalism was the direction behind the sound design wherever it made sense. I'm pretty proud of how that turned out, wrangling PC speaker beeps into something listenable is always a challenge but the original sound effects are one of my pet peeves with Keen Vorticons and it isn't that hard to improve on them.