19 replies to this topic

[Sinc]

After almost eight months of development, several rounds of beta testing, and tons of bug fixing, I am happy to announce that Commandos: HTML5 is finally complete and ready for the world to see.

This has honestly been one of the toughest projects I have ever taken on by myself. Looking back, I have no idea how I ever came this far. There were so many times I was ready to give up, but then somehow I came back and kept going. In fact, I am amazed that I actually managed to complete this project.

If you are interested in game programming, I wrote about a few of the challenges I faced while developing the game in my article Commandos: BEL – Recreating the classic 2.5D game in the browser. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.

If you would rather just get started playing the game right now, you can use this link to Play Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines - HTML5.

FYI, this game works best on Google Chrome on the desktop. 

Right now, I have the first working mission on there. Once it has been tested and polished, I plan to add more of the single player missions as well as multiplayer using HTML5 Websockets, so you can play multiplayer, in your browser, without requiring any installation...

As a special favor, I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to use the Facebook, Twitter and Google+ share buttons on the game page to share the link with friends who might enjoy the game (after you get to try it, of course).
 

[SirRH]

Very nice! Just completed the first mission, this is a very good remake.

 

1 problem though is that the frame rate seems to be very slow and jerky, I tried in google chrome and IE and both were the same so not sure if it's like this just for me, or for everyone.

The commandos games are usually capped at 25fps I think, so I think that would be best to aim for.

 

Other than that very nice looking forward to more, keep up the good work! 

Edited by robb, 25 January 2016 - 08:32 PM.

[extrano1955]

Great work, I know is not easy work and I congratulate you for got it. I have the same problem as robb, too slow game.

[Salvadorc17]

Interesting, good work, but how do you save game??, if not possible, this will be really hard to play..

[Sinc]

Very nice! Just completed the first mission, this is a very good remake.

 

1 problem though is that the frame rate seems to be very slow and jerky, I tried in google chrome and IE and both were the same so not sure if it's like this just for me, or for everyone.

The commandos games are usually capped at 25fps I think, so I think that would be best to aim for.

 

Other than that very nice looking forward to more, keep up the good work! 

 

I would think the only place you would notice the frame rate is during scrolling. I cap the game at the 10fps tick rate needed for animations. I'll play around with smoothing it over higher frame rates in the future.

 

Great work, I know is not easy work and I congratulate you for got it. I have the same problem as robb, too slow game.

 

Thank you. Glad you liked it...

 

Interesting, good work, but how do you save game??, if not possible, this will be really hard to play..

 

I've finished this level tons of times during testing without requiring saving

 

Having said that, I'll look into adding saving and loading games in future updates.... I know I'll need the code base for saving if I want to do multiplayer....

[Salvadorc17]

I've finished this level tons of times during testing without requiring saving
 
Having said that, I'll look into adding saving and loading games in future updates.... I know I'll need the code base for saving if I want to do multiplayer....

Hope you will also work into bugfixes, i also could give you support, i do know something about HTML and javascript, if that is the language youre using for making the game.

[Lexx2k]

Impressive work. The current fps makes it a tad hard to play, though.

 

Couple of questions:

 

Do you have to recreate the mission files in a specific way or is it just "drag & drop" the existing files / convert them into a slightly different format?

 

Can you do whatever you want with the game? E.g. would it be possible to add new game features? New weapons, enemies & their graphics, etc?

 

If the above question is yes, yes and yes, what about being able to play the game offline / out of browser?

 

What's with the legal issues? As far as I am aware you can't / should not be able to provide all game files pretty much for free?

 

 

I am wondering how hard it would be to make my missions playable with this stuff and if it's possible to add new features such as a bare-bones weather system (for example random weather in a map or rain turning on / off, etc). Also re-adding stuff like the cut content flamethrower (obviously would require some new graphics).

 

Last but not least, can the system be used to do something like Desperados? Not even necessarily the exact same game, but a game that uses these graphics. To be honest, right now I am a little bit dreaming of an old-school roleplaying game in a wild west setting using the Desperados graphics. That would be kinda awesome, though most likely a shitton of work.

Edited by Lexx2k, 18 February 2016 - 07:46 PM.

[SirRH]

Saw this got taken down, that sucks, i'm guessing because pyro are still relying on sales of the game through steam & gog etc

[Sinc]

Saw this got taken down, that sucks, i'm guessing because pyro are still relying on sales of the game through steam & gog etc

 

Probably why.

 

Ironically enough, a demo like mine would actually get more people to buy on steam and gog since they'd feel like playing the game again after seeing my demo level...

 

I think they lost an amazing publicity and marketing opportunity for their games by shutting this project down....

 

Ah well... On to the next project...

 

I wonder if there are artists who want to help create a new game with original artwork based on my game engine code.... Pyro only has a problem with the use of the original art and the Commandos brand. 

[Lexx2k]

Well, the biggest shame is that we now have to stick to the old ass engine with all its limitations. It's really not very fun when you have to wrap every mission idea around the same existing structures.

[Salvadorc17]

Ironically enough, a demo like mine would actually get more people to buy on steam and gog since they'd feel like playing the game again after seeing my demo level...

I think they lost an amazing publicity and marketing opportunity for their games by shutting this project down....

Ah well... On to the next project...

I wonder if there are artists who want to help create a new game with original artwork based on my game engine code.... Pyro only has a problem with the use of the original art and the Commandos brand.

You dont need to shutdown project, the problem here is distribution, you can even still continue game developtment and only share by private, each one can test it locally as html resource, even that way, i dont think it will allow expand game engine so much, because there are limitations by using html5 in game rendering..

Edited by Salvadorc17, 07 March 2016 - 09:32 PM.

[Jeroen]

It's really not very fun when you have to wrap every mission idea around the same existing structures.

What do you mean by structures? The buildings (structures) and other tiles? The behavior of elements in the game?

[Lexx2k]

The mission framework. You can only do what has been done in the vanilla missions. For example, if you want your specific commandos to enter a train which then starts a cutscene to end the mission... Well, sux to be you, that's not possible unless you also want boat or truck sounds at the same time.

Also in BCD you can script the telephone in, but not have the flashing light (and I think sound, but don't remember exactly) on the telephone pole.

Also the wrench and fence cutter from the sapper are not really usable.

Stuff like that is very limiting when it comes to designing new, unique missions.

[SirRH]

The mission framework. You can only do what has been done in the vanilla missions. For example, if you want your specific commandos to enter a train which then starts a cutscene to end the mission... Well, sux to be you, that's not possible unless you also want boat or truck sounds at the same time.

Also in BCD you can script the telephone in, but not have the flashing light (and I think sound, but don't remember exactly) on the telephone pole.

Also the wrench and fence cutter from the sapper are not really usable.

Stuff like that is very limiting when it comes to designing new, unique missions.

That's true, have you tried changing any of the .mac files? that does allow a few new things, for example in one of my modified BEL 4 mission i modified the unused tanquette.mac (same could be done with the tanks) to have a walking sergeant who walks in and out and then drives it again (replaced it with the truck on mission 4 in BEL)

 

It would be so much easier for me if it wasn't all in Spanish because I don't speak spanish so is extremely hard for me to figure what each line does unless I look up guides online or ask someone who speaks spanish, some lines I can luckily use google translate but others I can't, and even then google translate is shit and gets half of it wrong

 

Wasn't the sappers fence cutter only used in 1 or 2 missions too?

Edited by robb, 09 March 2016 - 04:02 PM.

[Lexx2k]

No, because I didn't want to break the existing BCD missions while my mod is installed. I could do more if I would overwrite more original files, but then it needs to be "stand alone" (players have to make a custom installation just for the mod). Not sure if I really want to go that way.

 

BEL offers more possibilities in some cases (mission ending states, etc), but also less in others (available items). Also - imo - modding for BCD is a tad easier due to the latest debug tools.

Edited by Lexx2k, 09 March 2016 - 07:11 PM.

[SirRH]

No, because I didn't want to break the existing BCD missions while my mod is installed. I could do more if I would overwrite more original files, but then it needs to be "stand alone" (players have to make a custom installation just for the mod). Not sure if I really want to go that way.

 

BEL offers more possibilities in some cases (mission ending states, etc), but also less in others (available items). Also - imo - modding for BCD is a tad easier due to the latest debug tools.

 

You don't have to overwrite the .mac file, you can just copy it with another name so that the original is still fine

[Lexx2k]

It's not about the mac files but the hardcodet things like sound fx, etc. Believe me, you can only do so much till you hit a wall in this engine unless you go full backer-mode on it, which is what the least people can do.

[Salvadorc17]

It's not about the mac files but the hardcodet things like sound fx, etc. Believe me, you can only do so much till you hit a wall in this engine unless you go full backer-mode on it, which is what the least people can do.

All this could be solved, it this guy Sync share with us the engine used in this HTML version, so now he cannot distribute to public, but still can share with us for private, and that way we can help him expand engine and add new features..

[SirRH]

 

It's not about the mac files but the hardcodet things like sound fx, etc. Believe me, you can only do so much till you hit a wall in this engine unless you go full backer-mode on it, which is what the least people can do.

All this could be solved, it this guy Sync share with us the engine used in this HTML version, so now he cannot distribute to public, but still can share with us for private, and that way we can help him expand engine and add new features..

 

It says on his page "I also do not plan on sharing or distributing or selling the source code please don't contact me for this" so I'm not sure that would happen, but he said pyro only have problem with him using art from commandos and the brand, so could be possible to make another game similar to commandos, maybe desperado's or robin hood or even a new game similar to commandos but with different art/name could be a good project so the code doesn't go to waste

Edited by robb, 15 March 2016 - 10:02 PM.

[LWD5099]

who have this game.