henke on 22/5/2019 at 09:56
Yup, much better. Not entirely sure how the scoring works, but if you haven't you should implement some sorta combo-system. String attacks together fast enough to keep a score-multiplier going.
Pyrian on 22/5/2019 at 22:24
Thanks, guys! C-C-C-Combo, eh? I was actually thinking about removing scoring altogether in favor of mission objectives. I'll play with it.
Pyrian on 23/5/2019 at 22:45
I setup a Kickstarter in hope of having a higher score in Ludum Dare than I actually got. Top 10% in Fun isn't
bad per se but it's not great. (I am vaguely offended by how terrible some of the games that beat mine are, though, lol.)
After due consideration ("What does this cost me
if when it fails? Oh, right, basically nothing.") I went ahead and launched it anyway. So, if you're interested in Cyborg Highway becoming a full game, maybe toss a pledge my way, probably won't cost you anything but gets you my thanks!
(
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dranamic/cyborg-highway)
#hownottomarketwithconfidence
demagogue on 26/5/2019 at 10:27
Alright amigos. This is a screenshot of my chat bot saying its first word, well, not the very first, but the first where the muscle instructions are coming in from the server (Python code) over a websocket to be triggered in the client webpage vocal tract sim (in Javascript, an app called Pink Trombone made by Neil Thapen). It is at this point that I can finally start on the actual AI speech engine in Python! For the last 3 months I've just been setting up the base architecture mostly in the Javascript.
For this early stage, I'm just inputting the muscle instructions by hand to make sure it all works.
I was trying to get it to say "hello", but I ended up with "aye-loh". Eh, good enough for now.
It's still pretty buggy and unstable, but it works! I thought it was a cool milestone.
Edit: You can actually see the tongue hitting the "L", still in the "Yee" position. In another beat the shape will slide over to "Oh".
Inline Image:
http://i63.tinypic.com/2ez46x1.jpg
Pyrian on 26/5/2019 at 17:05
Now teach it to perform oral sex and hook it up to one of those real dolls, and you'll make a fortune from this.
Sulphur on 27/5/2019 at 04:14
I think that's pretty cool, dema! Is the voicebox control for the amount of vibration being produced?
Also, won't it need two lips to shape the airflow for an 'oh', (not to mention the bilabial consonants)? Or more probably the diagram is a functional cross-section instead of a detailed articulator map.
(edit: ah, you have the upper lip towards the palate arch. I'd have assumed the lower lip goes below the alveolar ridge in the diagram, but functionally it wouldn't matter.)
demagogue on 27/5/2019 at 05:04
Thanks!
I could have posted another thing. The sim part of it is already online now, and you can play around with it yourself to see how it works and probably answer your questions better than I could explain it.
Here it is: (
https://dood.al/pinktrombone/)
I basically just lifted this part whole cloth and changed the color.
There are a number of issues: There aren't teeth, there isn't a clear line between lips and palate... I don't know how to make a th/sh/ch on it, if it's possible at all. I don't know how to deal with loudness apart from vocalization (e.g., to whisper loudly or voice softly). It's hard in the original form to see how these functionally matter as you have to do it by mouse/finger touches, which is kind of unwieldy for answering questions like that.
What I've added so far is a command system to moves what's already there now by plugging in all the numbers, and with this version I've hooked that up to a Python-run server.
It was sort of the path of least resistance to get to the part I care about, which is an AI engine on the server side for moving the articulators.
I might add the missing things on my own at some point, once I've got the engine up and running, but what's there now is enough for me to get started.
Just as a learning project it's great. Just making the thing, you get a good idea of all the parts that go into it.
But like I can start to answer questions like how the lip/teeth/palate transitions matter by just asking the bot to say words that touch the tongue around those areas and see how it sounds.
Pyrian on 1/6/2019 at 07:43
Added brake lights and turn signals. Cars actually using their turn signals feels unrealistic to me.
(
https://imgur.com/Wx4aw2F)
Inline Image:
http://i.imgur.com/Wx4aw2F.gifA bunch of tuning and the traffic is still not as convenient to navigate as the original version, where every adjacent lane was always going in the opposite direction. I have, however, dramatically improved the enemy spawning to the point where it's actually a bit scary when you trigger a new wave, and enemies that go off the screen are "respawned" almost immediately so they won't stay off screen.
Anyway, it's back to being fun enough to share, so I updated the beta with the changes:
(
https://pyrian.itch.io/chb-jepr0563)
henke on 2/6/2019 at 15:46
Went to my first gaming expo this past week, Nordsken, in nothern Sweden. I even had the chance to exhibit my game in a booth, as part of a game dev accelerator program I'm in. Stilt Fella drew quite a bit of attention! :D Genuinely heartwarming to see people of all ages laughing as they flailed around trying to keep the fella on the stilts. Few made it past the first level, but some people it seemed to click with right away. At one point I returned to the booth to find this 8-year old boy who had stilt walked like a pro all the way to level 9!
Also interesting to see where people get stuck, and which specific issues they have with the controls. I have an idea for a better tutorial now. On the boat back I also started thinking about how I could do a level editor, but at the same time I'm wary of feature creep, and thinking I should probably focus on getting the main campaign done first.