Rocks'n'Diamonds

I think it could be a good idea to add envelopes to the Mirror Magic game engine, also openable by clicking them.
The reason is that I was thinking that it could be a good idea for MM to have a tutorial levelset (like RnD has for RnD engine elements). It could be a bit difficult to explain the elements in-game without something like an envelope object.

That's a really good idea (even though envelopes are currently only available for the main R'n'D game engine, but not for the native Emerald Mine, Supaplex and Mirror Magic game engines)!

When I read the post topic yesterday in the "new topic" notification mail, I only thought about "opening" the envelopes by hitting them with the laser beam, but you are absolutely right that in a mouse based game engine like the MM engine, it should be possible to simply click on the envelopes to open them!

What do you think? Should envelopes only be opened by a mouse click (while pointing the laser beam towards them could either do nothing or cause them to explode), or should they also be opened by hitting them with the laser beam?

Here's my take on how messages could be shown to you in MM: instead of envelopes (or along with them, as separate elements), it's platforms with little colored lightbulbs which you need to point your beam at for a short time before it fades out and opens the respective envelope. After closing the message, the bulb keeps being gray and only lights up again after you take the beam off it.

My idea of it lighting up several times is here just so you could double check the message without restarting the level. And, to not make it annoying as it gets in your way, have a delay for envelope opening, much like with amoeba walls and magic balls.

Here's my lazy take on how they would maybe look like (to be honest, they look like elements more for DF than for MM)

What do you think? Should envelopes only be opened by a mouse click (while pointing the laser beam towards them could either do nothing or cause them to explode), or should they also be opened by hitting them with the laser beam?

I think it makes sense for them to be opened both by clicking and hitting them with the laser beam, the latter one sounds intuitive enough for a regular player to do too.

My idea of it lighting up several times is here just so you could double check the message without restarting the level. And, to not make it annoying as it gets in your way, have a delay for envelope opening, much like with amoeba walls and magic balls.

R'n'D already has a similar issue where you have to restart if you want to read a message from an envelope again, without using CEs, so I'm not too bothered about this (not saying it wouldn't be a good idea though, I like it).

Eizzoux wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 1:06 pm Here's my lazy take on how they would maybe look like (to be honest, they look like elements more for DF than for MM)
infobulbanim.gif

maybe that could be the deflektor version and the mindbender version could be like the book on the level select screen of MM that shows you the story when it's clicked (which is basically the mirror magic equivalent of the red envelope)

Just added support for the usual four envelopes per level, which could either be clicked or hit by the beam.

Did not add any graphical customizations for the Mirror Magic or Deflektor graphical theme, but just used the same graphics as known from R'n'D, so most people should immediately know what these are good for.

As the existing level sets do not use envelopes anyway, this should not be a problem. A newly created tutorial levelset (or Eizzoux' "Reflektor" project) could then add custom envelope graphics anyway. But maybe I will take some extra time to create some nice new graphics for them... not sure yet.