The Interguild http://www.interguild.org http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Interguild.org Aeon Demo 4 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1326308183
This is mostly a technical demo, as opposed to a gameplay demo. While you can mess around with the level code to make interesting things, you can't win or lose yet. The main focus of this demo will be to test the usability of the styles customization interface.

I'm going to write a guide soon on how to make your own levels and how to use with the styles system, but in the meantime, try and see how much of it you can figure out on your own.

Click here to play Aeon

EDIT: Click here for a guide on how to edit the level code.
EDIT: Click here for a guide on how the styles system works.

Here's a list of what's changed since the last demo:
  • The game has been almost completely rewritten from the ground up. Seriously, the old code was just terrible.

  • More polished menu designs.

  • You can load and play levels directly from the level database.

  • You can load and play levels stored on your local computer.

  • Super fast load times!

  • Even faster reload times!

  • There is no level editor. The previous level editor was written to be thrown away, and its main purpose was to compress your level codes because the loading times were so slow. But now you can definitely get away with using CSD's CaveMaker to make levels, as long as you map the right object id's to the tiles that you're using.

  • The Jump-To-Start Screen no longer shows you a fake preview image of the level, which only really just made loading times slower. So now it shows you the full level, and in a future update, you'll be able to set it so that your level is zoomed out during this screen, effectively making a preview. In this demo, you can set objects to have a different appearance during preview.

  • Accurate collision detection!

  • If you've been following my daily updates, you've probably heard about this mysterious new interface for editing deep customization options, called the styles system, also known as Cascading Tile Sheets.

  • A very useful pause menu, which allows you to edit your level code and test changes right away.

  • You can load in images from the internet and use them in your levels. You can even load in big sprite sheets and use only segments from them. But these images must already be transparent. For example, if you take a style sheet that has substituted the color orange, in place of transparency, right now the game doesn't support that kind of pixel filtering. Although, I imagine it wouldn't be a very hard feature to implement.

  • You can manipulate the images you loaded in from the internet in a variety of ways such as applying color tints, rotations, scaling, stretching, transparency. You can also draw your own shapes, including circles, rectangles, and rounded rectangles. Although I must admit that the current interface for doing all these things isn't complete yet, and so using it can be pretty frustrating and annoying.

  • You can change which keys map to which actions.

  • You can make animations by linking images together. This system is tied with the image-manipulation options, which like I said, are pretty annoying to use right now.

  • Platforms don't have that "grab" effect yet. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that even though you see platforms in the game, they haven't really been added to the game yet, if that makes any sense. The platforms you see in the demo are just manipulations that came out of what the styles system can currently do.

  • Added ladders.

  • The player can climb ladders!

  • I haven't really added water yet, but by manipulating a certain collision option, you can make one big tile that tells the player that its underwater.

  • The player can swim!

  • The player can crawl! But I have yet to fix the auto-crawl feature, which is meant to prevent some of the weird glitches that happen when you let go of the crawl button under a block. Actually, I just realized that my demo level doesn't even support crawling. Oh well, you guys should be able to add the feature yourselves using the styles system.

  • The background doesn't move based on the camera anymore. Actually, the real backgrounds feature hasn't even been added yet. This feature was added very crudely at the last minute so that you wouldn't have to play with a gray background.



LIST OF BUGS
  • You can't load images from other websites! But if you play the game locally (by saving the swf file and running it yourself), it works.

  • No auto-crawl.

  • Bounce effects should apply to non-solid borders, too.

  • Loading times are much slower when the game is out of focus.

  • Loading invalid level codes cause runtime errors that break the game.

  • Player should not be able to stand on bouncing blocks.


LIST OF COMPLAINTS
  • Why do you have to set the level size? Why can't it just detect it automatically?

  • You can't filter colors out of sprites, which prevents you from using non-transparent sprite sheets.

  • The sprite customization and animation options are a pain to use.

  • The advanced customization options are intimidating to learn.

  • You can't do Ctrl+F with Flash's text boxes.

  • A solid collision-edge setting that doesn't trigger standing events.

  • The game no longer automatically pauses when out of focus
]]> Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1326308183 Best of 2010 Results http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1325394000
Yes! That's right! What better time to release the best of 2010 results than New Years Day? I mean sure, maybe it would have made more sense if we did it New Years Day, 2011, but hey, at least we got the results out.

Well, you've been waiting long enough, so lets just get down to business:


Most Creative Level
        For Seasons
            By Ckjr

Most Fun Level
        Funx
            By Harumbai

Most Creative Level
        For Seasons
            By Ckjr

Most Interesting Concept
        CHEAT
            By Teo_pl

Best Visual Style
        Cause and Effect
            By Dando

Best Easy Level
        Quiescence
            By Harumbai

Best Walkthrough
        Get to Da Choppa
            By Yaya

Biggest Success
        The Interguild Comic
            By GF4

Biggest Failure
        Thomas


Ckjr and Harumbai won 2 awards each, Ckjr's both from the same cave, For Seasons. GF4 won the Biggest Success of 2010 with the Interguild Comic, and Thomas brought up the rear (Biggest Failure) with himself.

Trophies have been awarded.

Congratulations to all who have won, and even those of you who fell a little bit short in the polls. We look forward to getting the best of 2011 started soon. ]]> Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1325394000 Weekly Update - Dec 9 2011 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1323486737
Thomas continues to write our weekly updates:

You may have expected an average, slow week on the Interguild, but history was made this week!

Last week, some people found that HATPC would sometimes not work, even with Livio's cache. So I tried to get the Chrome cache into Safari. I was looking in Chrome cache and trying to figure out how to get the cache to Safari when I found this file. From there, I was able to play HATPC from Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. It didn't work for me in internet explorer but others have reported interent explorer working with the game. Now, many people who had trouble getting HATPC to work in the past can play it again. But, it gets better. I also posted a potential way to bypass the uploader glitch. About a day and a half later, based on what I posted earlier about bypassing neopets, CSD found a way to load levels without the cave uploader page on neopets. This means you can enjoy caves like Bribe and Massacre or Opposites Attract once again! There's now an official guide explaing how to load any HAtPC level.

Isa is encouraging people to break rules!? Well actually, it's a new HATPC competition. We're still waiting for the judges to judge those other 2 competitions...

CSD's cavemaker was updated after HATPC was cracked so some limitations on the cavemaker were removed.

The one post topic just reached 1111 replies! I don't know why people still play that game...

Interguild Mafia Game #4 is looking for more players!

Four new levels since last week:
- Mirrorflipper (EB2)
- Construction Site (HATPC)
- Area 4 (HATPC)
- '''Faliure''' (HATPC)

Post of the Week!
How to make HATPC work.

Fail of the Week!
There was only 2-3 minus rates this week because everybody was positive and not negative, but, Shavey Dave got the fail last week so the trend continued this week.

Dud of the Week!
The world isn't coming to Quebec.

Well even though history was made, not much else really happened. The winter break is coming soon to the northern hemisphere though so the activity level will increase. ]]> Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1323486737 A new competition appears! http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1323147600
For the first time since...long, a new competition is to be held! This time, it'll be a HatPC only competition in honor of the newly found ability to bypass the Shockwave Error - link - and upload all kinds of levels - link - and with that in mind, the theme is to BREAK THE RULES!

The guidelines are as following: You have to make a level that somehow involves breaking any kind of rule. The easiest one is the Uploader glitch - you can make a level that's uploader glitched and submit it to this competition, and it'll be 100% OK. However you can also go further, and make a 100*100 level if you so wish. You don't even need to make it related to the new bypass - as long as your level breaks some kind of rule, and you can motivate why, it should be good. The possibilities are, while not endless, still enormous.

The deadline for this competition is in 2½ weeks, on Christmas Eve. I figure you won't make a lot of levels on Christmas Day, at least you shouldn't...

Break the Rules
This comp has already ended.
Start Date: Tuesday, Dec 6, 2011
End Date: Sunday, Dec 25, 2011
Game: Only HATPC content is allowed

Competition Rules:
No old levels.

Break one rule, at minimum. Rules in this post are to be followed, however.

Deadline on Christmas Eve.

Submitted Entries:
1) '''Faliure''' - sup_mus
2) It's Been Awhile - Bmwsu
3) Eye Strain - soccerboy13542
4) Dacia - Darvince
5) Broken Beyond Repair - Thomas
]]> Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1323147600 Weekly Update: Dec 3, 2011 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1322950416
(This week's update is brought to you by Thomas!) I'm trying to learn more about SEO (search engine optimization) and apparently it's good to write in the first paragraph of your blog post what you're writing about because a robot like Googlebot for example will see that first. So, in this week's month's update: Aeon progress, Halloween was late, new featured content, mafia game 3.5 over, 3000 levels in the level database, Livio's 9000th post, and more!

November started off with a new topic by Livio about Aeon Tutorial Levels. I haven't really read much of it but perhaps more replies will help Aeon be released faster so go reply to the topic guys.

On November 7th, the site celebrated Halloween and it was a week late. I honestly forget what even happened so it must have been a pretty lame celebration. I'm pretty sure the homepage showed some Halloween related image, though.

Why welcome a member who never posted?

This didn't make it into the weekly monthly update a month ago, but, Super Mario Flash 2 and Electric Box 2 were added to the games system on October 30th. Super Mario Flash 2 still doesn't have any levels so somebody should probably make some levels. Canvas Rider was added on November 23rd and it looks like a ripoff of Free Rider 2.

Livio updated the static minecraft server map. The next day, he found a way to create a dynamic map which automatically updates in real time.

Brohoster, the old host for the minecraft server apparently opened again and there's discussion about restoring the old world because it was apparently better so if you have minecraft then go post your thoughts about that.

Mafia Game 3.5 ended in a TOWN WIN, and for the first time in history, Silver was town-aligned.

On Sunday, November 27th, the 3000th level was added to the level database.

Livio made his post #9000 a few days ago. I don't understand why it got so much karma... Well I just did a Google search for that image and apparently it means something is over 9000 but that isn't true. He made that as post number 9000 but that image guy was for something over 9000.
Code:
if(9000 > 9000)

	echo "true";

else

	echo "false";

I ran the above code and PHP returned "false" so that makes Livio's post #9000 a FAIL!

Yaya made it past 400 karma a few days ago and Isa is almost at 500 karma.

Did Chrome stop supporting Hannah and the Pirate Caves?

Oh and we're still waiting for the judges to judge the competitions.

A total of 29 levels were added since the last update:
- rundownup (HATPC)
- secrets (HATPC)
- Waterhaven (HATPC)
- Oubliettes (HATPC)
- Cat (Demo) (Knytt Stories)
- The Interslide (Minecraft)
- gowiththeflow (HATPC)
- Spikeyswimming (HATPC)
- Red Flyers (Red Remover)
- Red Flyers 2 (Red Remover)
- UpandDown (HATPC)
- Oxi (Knytt Stories)
- Squeezer (Super Stacker 2)
- Empty Spaces (Red Remover)
- Use Your Enemies (Red Remover)
- Systemically2 (EB2)
- Flora Caverns (HATPC)
- KroCity Hotel (Minecraft)
- SD park road (IHT)
- Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Red Remover)
- Squished Cave (HATPC)
- Longman (Red Remover)
- MIS496A HW5 (CR)
- Krotomo's Summer House (Minecraft)
- Krotomo's House (North Krocity) (Minecraft)
- Huge City Arena (Minecraft)
- Circuiting (EB2)
- Birchwood Manor (Minecraft)
- Akolenal (HATPC)

Post of the Week Month!
Not Livio.

Fail of the Week Month!
There was a tie between Shavey Dave's spam post and KoolerTheLast's post.


Dud of the Week Month!
Shos.

Level of the Week Month!
Krotomo's House

]]> Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1322950416 Weekly Update - Oct 30 2011 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1319952399
This week's update is once again brought to you by Thomas. His efforts are definitely worthy of karma.

Last weekend started off with Shavey Dave attempting to start a new forum game. The topic was locked pretty quickly though (by jellsprout of course) because it encouraged short posts and no conversation.

FlashMarsh made some topic called World Okapi Day and then some troll who didn't agree with it minus rated a bunch of posts in the topic. I don't really get this Okapi thing so I just ignore it.

Apparently there's an interesting discussion here about games and level editors but I can't tell you much about that because that is outside the scope of my interests.

Quirvy got a new avatar!

I don't usually cover Minecraft updates but this is probably important. On Monday, Livio made a huge map of the Interguild's minecraft server and uploaded it to the site so people without Minecraft can sort of see what the whole world looks like. More Information >>

Yaya tried to go as long as possible without going on IG. On the fourth day, he logged on and found he missed World Okapi Day. Four days without IG is pretty bad, I went almost 5 months early last year without logging in here.

There was some off-topic discussion in the Bug Reports thread but it doesn't look very interesting so I won't bother linking to it.

A new competition started on Thursday and unlike the other ongoing competition, this one is not a DDA comp so go read the rules and enter your Knytt Stories level/story.

Nobody got the close encounter award for a while and it was not because Haily never came on, rather, everybody already had it and now even Shos has it.

The Art Thread is back. I see no new art though.

Isn't this getting old?

Mafia game #3.5 is starting to start but if you haven't signed up and you are interested in playing then be sure to sign up as a replacement and maybe you will be able to play. Apparently game #4 will be starting sometime in November though.

A total of 7 levels were added this week:
- Flying away. (FR2)
- Aroundtheround (HATPC)
- A Nice Cup of Java (HATPC)
- payback (HATPC)
- level six reborn (HATPC)
- Quick_speed10 (HATPC)
- aroundtheround v2 (HATPC)

Post of the Week!
Soccerboy13542 and Yaya.

Fail of the Week!
Who else?

Dud of the Week!
I don't understand why this topic was minus rated. Some troll minus rated a lot of posts in this topic as well but the first topic is the official dud.

I was recently looking at how amazing HTML5 is and then I started playing around with CSS and I have redesigned the important notice box.

Important Notice From Livio!

"In Aeon, we have a class called KeyMan (Key Manager) who efficiently handles and customizes keyboard presses. This is a screenshot of KeyMan's code if you zoom out far enough."


Important Notice From Thomas!

On October 31st, IceCaves will return from the dead so everybody should go make an account and bring activity back!


I wonder if anything will happen to IG this year similar to what happened last year... ]]> Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1319952399 KS Comp - Knytt Stories for beginners http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1319688000
Want to try Knytt Stories but think it is all just too complicated? Then this comp is for you! Get to know the game by making a small story and perhaps we can finally complete that ICP thingy.

Knytt Stories for beginners
This comp has already ended.
Start Date: Thursday, Oct 27, 2011
End Date: Sunday, Nov 20, 2011
Game: Only Knytt Stories content is allowed

Competition Rules:
Make a Knytt Stories level containing at most 20 screens. All usual rules still apply.

Submitted Entries:
1) Cat (Demo) - Silver
2) Oxi - Harumbai
]]> Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1319688000 Weekly Update - October 22 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1319348825
This week's update is once again brought to you by Thomas:

I made this deal with Livio so now I have to write a weekly update this week and next week.

Minecraft has taken over all site activity so to protest, upload a level for a game that isn't minecraft.

Go choose a new avatar for Quirvy!

Bmwsu has a blog.

I don't read the joke thread but it's been active for a few days so maybe there's some good jokes.

Livio finally completed part 3 of the Interguild history so go read it and comment.

Apparently Jazz is hosting mafia game #3.5 so go /in!

Only 3 new levels this week:
- Squash (Red Remover)
- secret there and back (secret climb) (HATPC)
- level twenty uploader fixed (HATPC)

Post of the Week!
There was a tie here but I don't know why Livio's post got karma so I guess that makes jell's post the post of the week.

Fail of the Week!
Shos was spam rated. Jell started it so everybody should minus rate him and once his karma gets to the lowest possible value for a 32-bit signed integer (−2147483648) his karma should wrap around and go into positives, lol.

Dud of the Week!
Just like the post of the week, there was a tie but Darvince's post was more spammy than Captain Oblivious' so it's all yours CO/Quirvy. ]]> Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1319348825 Weekly Update by Thomas http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1318732661
This week's update is brought to you by Thomas:

This is the first weekly monthly update in a month because people are lazy/busy. The featured content hasn't been updated in over 3 months as well. That's 1/4 of the year!!!

Kooler made the last post in the last post wins game.

After more than 2 months of waiting, the Interguild Mafia Game #3 has begun. The game is now over with a town win (and a staff member was lynched) but rumor has it that Typho will start the next game in November.

Livio has a blog and he wants people to comment on it.

Yaya made a walkthrough for Quirvy's (Which still needs a preview image.)

On September 27th, the Interguild turned 5 years old so in celebration, Livio wrote 2 blog posts about the history of the site. Apparently there's a part 3 coming but that should have happened last week. Anyway, you can find part 1 here and part 2 can be found here. Shos also made this forum topic where you can discuss memories from the old Interguild.

When did the hangman thread become the Martial arts discussion thread discussion thread? EDIT BY LIVIO: This is when

Jazz wants to please Isa.

A Minecraft competition started last week, and no, it's not a DDA comp so read the rules and enter your Minecraft level.

Guyguy changed his username to FlashMarsh and it seems to have started a new trend because now others have requested name changes. Oh and KoolerTheFirst is now called Kooler.

Most of the newest levels were made by sup_mus.

Post of the Week Month!
Thomas' post #1000. But Kooler came close here and Yaya came close as well.

Fail of the Week Month!
Silver got pwned.

Dud of the Week Month!
Shos is against activity on the site!

Important Notice from Livio!


??? Maybe that can somehow be decoded...
]]> Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1318732661 Minecraft Comp #2: Interguild Theme http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1318132800
  
Minecraft Comp #2: Interguild Theme
This comp has already ended.
Start Date: Sunday, Oct 9, 2011
End Date: Sunday, Nov 6, 2011
Game: Only Minecraft content is allowed

Competition Rules:
Finally a new comp! This one is brought to you by Bmw:

Bmwsu said:
"O! hey, can you see, in the internet's great might,
The Interguild's awesomeness, banner's are a'streamin',
Whose database and video archive shows in the night,
In the chat box, we cheered, banners flying with high esteem?
And KarmaBot's nuke cloud, always without a care,
Gave us hope, that one day, we'd be in the air!
O!, stay down and you won't go down to the grave,
Look in awe, you dumb fool, upon our epic caves."

Proudly display the colors of the Interguild in the comp!  Make something related to the Interguild, whether it be Hannah, the "logo", D52, etc.  Be as original as you can!

1) No copying ideas from other stuff already built on the server.
2) Remember to be creative, yet still keep it looking nice, and pay attention to details.  Sloppiness will result on
an unsatisfactory mark on your official building record.

Competition ends on November 6th.
This comp is going to run for a month, mainly because of how busy everyone's been lately. Also, unlike the last comp, collabs are allowed.

I might make a video of all the entries when it's done, so if you don't have Minecraft, feel free to sign up as a judge.

Let's start filling up the new server with awesome projects!

Submitted Entries:
1) The Interslide - krotomo
]]> Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500 http://www.interguild.org/news.php?id=1318132800