First MistressV Test Release (Warning: Wall of Text)
Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 8:01 pm
Hey guys so here's the deal. I've run into a bit of a technical problem making the game an executable, which would make it much easier for everyone to run. Unfortunately, the way that I wrote it combined with the amount of user customization wanted, is a bit beyond my programming capabilities right now. Note that this has no affect on the game itself, just the manner in which you will have to run it. The game is written in Java, which requires the Java JDK (Java Development Kit) in order to run and compile Java programs. It may sound complicated, but I promise it will take no longer than 5 minutes to do and I will provide step-by-step instructions on exactly what you need to do to run the game. Note that you will only need to do this once for each computer you'd like to run the game on. After that, you simply need to run one command from the terminal when you'd like to play. I realize that this is not the ideal way to distribute software, but this was a rather large project for me and I did the best I could. So for anyone who is still interested, these are the steps you will need to take to play the game.
One more quick note about the game itself. I wrote the "rules" screen prior to adding any of the customization, so it is probably no longer necessary and I might just end up removing it. I'll just leave it for now. The "Rewards" screen is only complete graphically. I need some ideas on what to include for each reward. The reward buttons will simply deduct a certain amount of tokens from the total. This is extremely simple to implement, but coming up with ideas has proven difficult. The rewards are not really something I would be able to make customizable, so I will have to do that when I have enough ideas. Aside from that, all you need to do is press play and the rest is automated. So here are the steps you will need to take if you would like to try it.
1. Download/Install the Java JDK from here http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/ ... index.html
-Make sure you get the JDK, not the JRE. The JRE would only work if it was an executable (.jar) file.
2. This part is probably the trickiest, but it's honestly not difficult. In order to run java files from the command line, you need to update the path variable in your windows Environment Variables. In order to do this, you need to copy the full file path of the "bin" folder located in the JDK you just downloaded. The bin folder contains the java application which will run the program. If you do not perform this step correctly, the command terminal will tell you that it cannot find the command "java", which is used to run java programs. For example, the location of the bin folder on my computer would be "C:Program Files (x86)Javajdk1.7.0in". I'm on windows 7, but your file path should look very similar if not identical. Now all you have to do is copy the path into your environment variables.
3. To update your environment variables (on windows 7/vista), go to start>(view by category)System and Security>System>Advanced system settings>Advanced Tab>Environment Variables
4. Now you should see two different windows. Use the scroll bar in the bottom window and locate the variable "Path" (not PATHEXT). Double click anywhere on the same line as "Path" and a new window should appear. We are only changing the "Variable value" field. Delete anything that is currently in the field (this will not affect your computer in any way, don't worry) and replace it with path of the "bin" folder you recently copied. Again, it should look something like "C:Program Files (x86)Javajdk1.7.0in". Once that is done, all you have to do is hit OK and you can close all of the windows.
5. All that's left to do now is download/run the game. You can download it from mediafire here: http://www.mediafire.com/?q75oa7u4iljed3x
**Once you have completed the above steps, you will never have to repeat them to run the game from now on.**
Edit: I just realized I forgot to set the tokens to 0 when I uploaded the game files. Simply locate the data.txt file and change the value to 0. Sorry about that!
Edit 2: I must have lost my mind while typing this up and I deleted the random repeated text. No idea how that happened. (Sorry) The game download link is now actually there!
6. Open up a command terminal by typing "cmd" in the search bar of your start menu. If you have never accessed files through a command prompt before, here is a quick list of commands that you can execute:
cd : changes the current directory you are in. This is just the text-based equivalent of going into or exiting a folder. For example, if you are on the desktop and want to access your MistressV folder, you would simply type "cd MistressV". One cool shortcut you can use while browsing through files in command prompt is if you type a letter and press "tab", it will cycle through all files/folders beginning with that letter in the current directory.
cd.. : this command simply takes you back one step in the current directory. I.E. if you were in the MistressV folder, it would take you back to the desktop.
dir : this command just displays a list of all of the files/folders located in the current directory.
cls : just clears all of the text in the command prompt.
java [java file name goes here] : executes a java file.
7. Now that you know how to navigate in command prompt (if you didn't already) all you have to do is navigate to the location of your "MistressV" folder, and then into that folder. For example, say the MistressV folder is on my desktop on the C drive. By default, command prompt usually starts at the current user's directory, so I would just type "cd desktop", and it would take me to the desktop. Now I just type "cd MistressV" to open up the MistressV folder, which contains the program. Finally, type "java Game" which will run the program file that handles the execution of the game. The MistressV GUI should display and you are ready to play the game!
I know this seems like a lot of work to just play a simple game, but realistically it should only take 5-10 minutes not including download times. One other important note is your screen resolution should be set to 1920x1080 for best image re-sizing.
**How to customize the game**
There are several different text files in the MistressV folder that allow you to customize different aspects of the game.
activities.txt: This text file contains all of the different randomized activities. There are 15 lines of activities. If you go under 15 lines, the program will generate an error and you will not be able to play. Any text beyond 15 lines will simply not be included. This is because if you add any additional activities, you would have to re-write the section of code that determines the probability of each activity occurring. If you have any programming experience, by all means, have at it. If you desperately want to add more than 15 activities for some reason, PM me and I'll see what we can do. The first 5 lines of activities have a 10% chance of occurring, while the last 10 have a 5% chance. Note that the last 2 activities are designated "chance to cum" activities, and will display a slightly different dialog box after each image.
activityValues.txt: This text file contains the corresponding token value to each activity. The first line of the activities.txt file will be given the value of the first line of this file and so on.
data.txt: This text file is simply a way to save the number of tokens you have earned. Obviously, you could just change the value and cheat, but I don't know what the point of that would be. I feel it is important to note because if for some reason your tokens are lost or incorrect, you can always adjust them to their previous value.
imageDelay.txt: This text file contains the minimum and maximum amount of time (in seconds) that each image is displayed for (default 30-60s). Simply change the first value to the minimum amount of time you want an image to be displayed, and the second value to the maximum amount of time. A random duration between those two numbers will be generated for each image.
TL;DR : A very brief version of the above (unless you have experience with java you probably won't find this very useful)
1. Download/Install JDK: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/ ... index.html
2. Replace "Path" windows environment variable with file path of "bin" folder of JDK
3. Game download: http://www.mediafire.com/?q75oa7u4iljed3x
4. Image folder path: C:Program Files (x86)GameImages
5. Screen Resolution: 1920x1080
I apologize for not having a better way for you guys to play my game, but it is the only way I know of to allow for the customization that everyone seems to want. Hopefully you are able to get it working (again, it's really not difficult). I hope you have some fun with it and please give me as much feedback as possible. I am eager to know what everyone thinks of it. It is still very much a work-in-progress and I hope to make a lot more improvements as time goes on. I desperately need ideas for rewards! If you have any questions don't hesitate to leave a comment or PM me, I'll do my best to help you out. Enjoy and have fun.
One more quick note about the game itself. I wrote the "rules" screen prior to adding any of the customization, so it is probably no longer necessary and I might just end up removing it. I'll just leave it for now. The "Rewards" screen is only complete graphically. I need some ideas on what to include for each reward. The reward buttons will simply deduct a certain amount of tokens from the total. This is extremely simple to implement, but coming up with ideas has proven difficult. The rewards are not really something I would be able to make customizable, so I will have to do that when I have enough ideas. Aside from that, all you need to do is press play and the rest is automated. So here are the steps you will need to take if you would like to try it.
1. Download/Install the Java JDK from here http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/ ... index.html
-Make sure you get the JDK, not the JRE. The JRE would only work if it was an executable (.jar) file.
2. This part is probably the trickiest, but it's honestly not difficult. In order to run java files from the command line, you need to update the path variable in your windows Environment Variables. In order to do this, you need to copy the full file path of the "bin" folder located in the JDK you just downloaded. The bin folder contains the java application which will run the program. If you do not perform this step correctly, the command terminal will tell you that it cannot find the command "java", which is used to run java programs. For example, the location of the bin folder on my computer would be "C:Program Files (x86)Javajdk1.7.0in". I'm on windows 7, but your file path should look very similar if not identical. Now all you have to do is copy the path into your environment variables.
3. To update your environment variables (on windows 7/vista), go to start>(view by category)System and Security>System>Advanced system settings>Advanced Tab>Environment Variables
4. Now you should see two different windows. Use the scroll bar in the bottom window and locate the variable "Path" (not PATHEXT). Double click anywhere on the same line as "Path" and a new window should appear. We are only changing the "Variable value" field. Delete anything that is currently in the field (this will not affect your computer in any way, don't worry) and replace it with path of the "bin" folder you recently copied. Again, it should look something like "C:Program Files (x86)Javajdk1.7.0in". Once that is done, all you have to do is hit OK and you can close all of the windows.
5. All that's left to do now is download/run the game. You can download it from mediafire here: http://www.mediafire.com/?q75oa7u4iljed3x
**Once you have completed the above steps, you will never have to repeat them to run the game from now on.**
Edit: I just realized I forgot to set the tokens to 0 when I uploaded the game files. Simply locate the data.txt file and change the value to 0. Sorry about that!
Edit 2: I must have lost my mind while typing this up and I deleted the random repeated text. No idea how that happened. (Sorry) The game download link is now actually there!
6. Open up a command terminal by typing "cmd" in the search bar of your start menu. If you have never accessed files through a command prompt before, here is a quick list of commands that you can execute:
cd : changes the current directory you are in. This is just the text-based equivalent of going into or exiting a folder. For example, if you are on the desktop and want to access your MistressV folder, you would simply type "cd MistressV". One cool shortcut you can use while browsing through files in command prompt is if you type a letter and press "tab", it will cycle through all files/folders beginning with that letter in the current directory.
cd.. : this command simply takes you back one step in the current directory. I.E. if you were in the MistressV folder, it would take you back to the desktop.
dir : this command just displays a list of all of the files/folders located in the current directory.
cls : just clears all of the text in the command prompt.
java [java file name goes here] : executes a java file.
7. Now that you know how to navigate in command prompt (if you didn't already) all you have to do is navigate to the location of your "MistressV" folder, and then into that folder. For example, say the MistressV folder is on my desktop on the C drive. By default, command prompt usually starts at the current user's directory, so I would just type "cd desktop", and it would take me to the desktop. Now I just type "cd MistressV" to open up the MistressV folder, which contains the program. Finally, type "java Game" which will run the program file that handles the execution of the game. The MistressV GUI should display and you are ready to play the game!
I know this seems like a lot of work to just play a simple game, but realistically it should only take 5-10 minutes not including download times. One other important note is your screen resolution should be set to 1920x1080 for best image re-sizing.
**How to customize the game**
There are several different text files in the MistressV folder that allow you to customize different aspects of the game.
activities.txt: This text file contains all of the different randomized activities. There are 15 lines of activities. If you go under 15 lines, the program will generate an error and you will not be able to play. Any text beyond 15 lines will simply not be included. This is because if you add any additional activities, you would have to re-write the section of code that determines the probability of each activity occurring. If you have any programming experience, by all means, have at it. If you desperately want to add more than 15 activities for some reason, PM me and I'll see what we can do. The first 5 lines of activities have a 10% chance of occurring, while the last 10 have a 5% chance. Note that the last 2 activities are designated "chance to cum" activities, and will display a slightly different dialog box after each image.
activityValues.txt: This text file contains the corresponding token value to each activity. The first line of the activities.txt file will be given the value of the first line of this file and so on.
data.txt: This text file is simply a way to save the number of tokens you have earned. Obviously, you could just change the value and cheat, but I don't know what the point of that would be. I feel it is important to note because if for some reason your tokens are lost or incorrect, you can always adjust them to their previous value.
imageDelay.txt: This text file contains the minimum and maximum amount of time (in seconds) that each image is displayed for (default 30-60s). Simply change the first value to the minimum amount of time you want an image to be displayed, and the second value to the maximum amount of time. A random duration between those two numbers will be generated for each image.
TL;DR : A very brief version of the above (unless you have experience with java you probably won't find this very useful)
1. Download/Install JDK: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/ ... index.html
2. Replace "Path" windows environment variable with file path of "bin" folder of JDK
3. Game download: http://www.mediafire.com/?q75oa7u4iljed3x
4. Image folder path: C:Program Files (x86)GameImages
5. Screen Resolution: 1920x1080
I apologize for not having a better way for you guys to play my game, but it is the only way I know of to allow for the customization that everyone seems to want. Hopefully you are able to get it working (again, it's really not difficult). I hope you have some fun with it and please give me as much feedback as possible. I am eager to know what everyone thinks of it. It is still very much a work-in-progress and I hope to make a lot more improvements as time goes on. I desperately need ideas for rewards! If you have any questions don't hesitate to leave a comment or PM me, I'll do my best to help you out. Enjoy and have fun.