Wriggle v.0.65 pv 18
readme file
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Hello. Do you like snakes? Well, it doesn't really matter, 'cause Howard is really a lovable character despite his reptile origins. You might (or might not, if you are into oldschool arcade games) wonder what is a snake doing in a computer game. Simple: he is eating fruit. Loads of fruit. And he is always hungry. Now it is your task to guide him through several levels full of walls and other hazards and save Howard from breaking his jaw on some hard brick. Good luck!
REQUIREMENTS
These are only rough calculations, I hadn't the occasion to actually test the game on so many machines I could tell any of this for sure :).
- Something 'round PIII 733 MHz ;).
- An OpenGL compatible graphics card, able of displaying at least 640x480x16
- A sound card (any, really :)
- Windows 95 or a newer version :P.
INSTALLATION
Easy. Just unpack the archive you downloaded (or run "setup.exe", if you chose the installer). After this, the game is up'n'ready.
Installing music
The current version of Wriggle is able of playing music, although it ISN'T shipped with music. You can use a music file of your own, providing it's in one of the following formats: "mod", "s3m", "it", "xm". Just put it in the "sound/" directory and call it "music.xm", "music.mod", "music.s3m" or "music.it", depending on the format. Wriggle will load it and play throughout the game. On some modules you will get an "Unknown file format" error. That's probably because your modules are packed with some music-packer. MOD players understand this packed format, FMOD doesn't, sorry.
THE MENU SYSTEM
The menus are quite easy to handle. If you're having any problems, try reading the captions in the bottom of the screen, they're often helpful.
THE GAME
Movement and controls
As a good snake, Howard moves in a standard zig-zag snake-ish fashion. The controls are somewhat affected by this fact. When you press the "turn left" key (left arrow by default) the snake starts turning left, and does that until you press the "turn right" key (right arrow by default). Forward movement is constant.
The controls may take a while to get used to, but once you master them, they become natural :).
If you have your phone ringing all the time, or simply have to go to the toilet, you can press the ESC key for pause.
Fruit and power-ups
There are two types of food waiting to be swallowed by Howard. One of them is fruit. All fruit have two things in common: they make Howard longer (snakes grow when fed :P), and add some points to the score. Each fruit has its own score value. Apples are worth 15, oranges - 25, and finally, pears are scored 40. The more points you get for a fruit, the more it adds to Howard's length. The red arrow floating over Howard always points to the nearest fruit.
The second type of food is power-up food. These snacks don't add anything to the score, but they have special features making Howard's life easier. Currently, there are only two kinds of power-up: the scissors and the coin. The former reduce Howard's length by 15%, the latter provides with a point bonus (without length increase).
Power-ups appear randomly, about one for every 30 seconds of play. After this, you have 8 seconds to collect them, otherwise they disappear in a puff of black smoke. But be aware, that power-ups appear only when you are eating fruit. If you wait for them idly, they don't. To help you find power-ups when they appear, there is a blue arrow pointing at them.
Survival mode
Survival mode is the basic form of play available now. Currently there is only one level to play on, in the future you will be able to select one freely from the ones you completed in the arcade mode.
The aim in this mode is scoring as high as possible, before eventually biting your own tail or a brick wall. If you are good enough, you'll have the chance of having an entry in the highscores.
Arcade mode
Arcade mode is not yet completed, the below description refers to the features planned for it.
In arcade mode, every level has its own so-called "score limit". This limit tells you, how much score you have to accumulate before exiting the level. After achieving the needed score, a floating ring appears somewhere on the map. If it is not visible, a yellow arrow pointing at it will be shown.
After completing a level, it is unlocked for use with the other modes. Also, the next level is unlocked to play in arcade.
CREDITS
"Wriggle" is currently a two-man project. Mark Oates is in charge of the music department, so, although in this release we still don't have any music, we are likely to have some in the next. I, Jakub Wasilewski, am in charge of about everything else :). In the future we may also recruit a GFX artist.
Here are some details about us:
THANKS LIST
Read on and be surprised seeing your name on it :).
| Viccini | for testing full of sacrifices |
| Developers of Allegro, AllegroGL, FMOD, PQP | for making their libs free to freeware developers |
| Allegro.cc people | for their help in solving some of the problems and for the support |
| My brother | for providing me with a computer |
| Goodbytes | for his Speedhack entry 'Wormhole', source code of which showed me how simple OpenGL is |
| Angelika Bielanska | for her lack of faith in the project :P |
KNOWN BUGS
There are currently some issues that I haven't yet dealt with, or which are undealable in any way :). Here's a list of them:
- Game works wrong on some older ATI cards (Rage series, for example). The screen is very dark and you get something round 3 fps. That's a problem with OpenGL support on these cards. Try downloading new drivers from ATI's website, sometimes it helps.
- Game refuses to switch resolutions or bit depths on some machines. That should not happen anymore, but I believe someone recently mailed me this bug again.
CONTACT AND WEBSITE
If you enjoy the game, you can drop us a line at krajzega@meditech.pl. If you don't enjoy it or even hate it, you can drop us a line anyway :).
The current website URL is http://wriggle.meditech.pl.
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