New level: Duels of fate

As the predicted hiatus is near its end, let me post a new level.

It is just a level in which you have to deal with monsters. However, there is the added twist of taking advantage of the new purple timers. The last battle requires some scheming and reflexes.

Xye level - Duels of fate.zip.

Skins: Classic Kye and Xmas Kye appearance

These skins used to be included in the game's distribution but not anymore in an effort to keep the main package completely free. They are skins that make the game look more like the original Kye versions.

Classic skin


The classic skin imitates Kye 2.0 as much as it can. Of course, new sprites had to be added but I tried to keep the style.
Xye skin - classic Kye.zip

Xmas Kye and Xmas Kye Jr skins

These skins are mostly the work of Justin De Lucia getting the sprites from those games and adapting them to make a Xye skin that looks as close as possible. Of course, there have to be exceptions because although the Xye equivalent of Kye Jr.'s ice block are yellow objects, we couldn't just rename yellow into ice for gameplay reasons. (Or could we?). Anyway, here is :
XMASKYESKIN.zip

How to install new skins.
You gotta find your personal res folder.
- In Windows, the res folder is just a subfolder of the one in which Xye.exe is.
- In Linux and similar, head to /home/yourusername/.xye/res

Extract the zips to the res folder. (The files themselves should be located in res, not in a subfolder of res.)

The future
Speaking of custom skins, take a look to this:

Xye 0.12.0

Yes, really. Head to the download area to get it.

Major gameplay changes:
- A new block has been added, purple.
- Purple arrows and dot blocks are as fast as red arrows.
- Purple pushers are twice as fast as yellow pushers and bounce differently.
- Purple timers are like a mix between the green and red ones, explode a time after Xye activates them.
- Purple surprise blocks teleport Xye to their location if pushed.
- Purple gems do not exist, instead purple gem blocks are activated once you get all the stars in the level.

Other features:
- The listbox control has been made closer to the familiar idea in usual GUI environments. For example, it supports the mouse wheel and can have a scroll bar if necessary.
- Xye's default color has been changed to a less saturated green tone.

Official levels:
- Added two new tutorials.
- Updated the order of some of the levels.
- New levels: Complexity, puzzle, Chekhov's brick, Robot bot trouble and Swing bridge.

Updates to other level files:
- Phipps.xye: Changed the color scheme for the levels from problem.kye.

New editor features:
- Slightly more compatibility with level features.
-

Bug fixes:
- Fixed the bug that made .Kye levels in the editor load with black walls, background and earth.
- Fixed bugs related to not being able to play the level's solution / a replay file in the first attempt when there is a saved game for that level.
- Other minor features and bug fixes.


The bad news are that I removed the classic and xmas skins as they were based on the skins from the non-open source games. They will both be uploaded soon to the website as a separate download.

New level: Enough with the magnets!

It is time for a new level. I think. This level is about magnets, albeit mostly anti-magnets. Note however, that I think it is of the hard variety.

nuffmagnets.zip

New level: Pyramid treasure

Another level pack by Aoitenshi. This is the pyramid pack. It has a history and a txt file with some subtle hints about what to do in the levels. It includes 8 levels.

As with action replay, the levels tend to require quick reflexes. Get ready to avoid plenty of fire balls. But they also have some puzzles. Some levels are mazes that you have to finish under a time limit.

Xye levels - Pyramid treasure.zip

New level: Avoid the fire and the flood

It is new level time. This time we have a more arcade level in which you have to battle against the elements (after solving a small puzzle). If you press a switch, you risk getting shot by fire. If you do not, you risk becoming the victim of a flood. You will have to alternate the moves.

afirflood.zip

Xye 0.11.2 Released

Xye 0.11.2 has been released. Find it in the download area.

Updates to the official levels:
- Firestrikers: It is no longer impossible to get the gems after the star.
- Added new levels, for example: "Turn around", "Savage stuff", "So typical", "4x4-4" and more.
- Added a new tutorial.
- In total we now have 26 tutorials and 60 official levels.
- Removed kyeclone.xye. Instead Phipps.xye was added, which includes 44 many great Kye levels.

New editor features:
- Can place ground hints.
- Undo button is no longer disabled when recording a solution.
- It is now possible to change wall, earth and floor colors in a level.

Bug fixes:
- Fix compatibility with OS/X line breaks in xsb level files.
- Fix the bug that made the editor load teleporters as doors in .kye files.
- Fixed a bug that was causing random editor crashes.
- Fixed a bug that could make the game hang if a level was modified and saved data was incompatible.
- Fixed a crash that could happen when trying to respawn Xye in a full level. If that situation happens, you will lose the game, however.


There were tweaks and fixes to the skins. A 30x30 of the clean skin was also added.

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The way the editor can customize the level's color theme is precarious right now, but still easier than editing the XML directly. You will be asked to enter the color number in the hexadecimal format that is used in many places like HTML. There are whole sites dedicated to hex color codes, like this one: http://www.color-hex.com/ . And many painting programs will show you the hex code of the color you are picking. The next versions will improve the interface.

Note that the next version is likely to come much later in the year, unlike these last three updates that were close together and I think it will focus on aspects related to the level browser and a better interface for saving games.