Pyskool 0.2.3 is out. Visit the ever-present download page to get your copy.

Besides a few minor bugfixes, 0.2.3 contains a new example ini file: ezad_looks.ini. To try it out, double-click ezad_looks.py or run it from the command line thus:

$ ./ezad_looks.py -c

Once you’re over the initial disorientation, let me know if you spot anything wrong with it. For your playtesting convenience, here are the cheat keys (enabled by that ‘-c’ option) for Skool Daze mode:

• Tab - proceed to the next lesson
• 1 - flash all but one shield
• 2 - unflash all but one shield
• 3 - prevent teachers from giving lines
• 4 - add a random number to the lines total
• 5 - reset the lines total to zero
• 6 - reveal the safe combination and the year of CREAK’s birth

Back to Skool mode could still do with some playtesting too, if you are so inclined. The cheat keys for Back to Skool were listed in an earlier post.

Thanks to playtesters Alex and Ben for giving 0.2.3beta a run-through, by the way.

Nuf evah!

Pyskool 0.2.2 is ready. Visit the download page to grab a copy.

Version 0.2.2 contains several bugfixes and new features, and is a highly recommended upgrade. Chief among the new features are:

• Eric is paralysed and expelled after jumping out of the top-floor window
• Albert alerts Mr Wacker if he spots Eric trying to escape
• Mr Wacker shadows Eric after being alerted by Albert
• Mr Withit does assembly duty
• Miss Take chases Eric out of the girls’ skool if she spots him there when it’s not playtime

These things add up to make Back to Skool mode functionally complete. I think. I encourage everyone to try it out and see if they can spot anything I’ve missed.

So if Back to Skool mode really is done, what’s next? From an end-user perspective, mostly boring stuff, probably. Tidying up the code. Documenting the code. Moving what data is currently embedded in the code out into the ini files (where it should be, so you can easily change it). Optimising the code (especially the sprite-drawing routines). Oh, and fixing bugs found along the way, of course.

I do also have a couple of ideas for simple ready-made example customisations; they might find their way into the next release, or possibly the one after. I am also considering adding features such as an in-game menu, a demo mode, and the ability to save and restore games, but that stuff could be a long time coming. If you have any interesting new feature ideas, let me know.

For now, please put Back to Skool mode through its paces and smoke out the bugs. (The cheat keys are still operational, by the way; see the previous post for details.) Let’s make Pyskool a solid platform for developing new Skool-based games!

It’s Pyskool release time again. Pop over to the download page to grab version 0.2.1.

As explained in the previous post, the goal of the Pyskool 0.2.x series of releases is to implement all the game elements that are specific to Back to Skool mode. In the approach towards that goal, 0.2.1 contains the following new features:

• Eric can release mice
• The girls and Miss Take will jump up and down or stand on a chair if they spot a mouse nearby
• Eric can kiss (or try to kiss) Hayley
• Eric can open desks and collect the water pistol or stinkbombs
• Eric can drop stinkbombs
• Mr Wacker will open a nearby window if he smells a stinkbomb
• Eric can fire the water pistol
• Eric can fill the water pistol with sherry
• Eric can throw away the water pistol
• Cups can be filled with water or sherry
• Plants grow when watered
• Eric can stand on plant pots
• Eric is lifted by a growing plant
• Eric can step off a fully grown plant through an open window
• Eric can step off a fully grown plant over the skool gate
• Drops of water or sherry can be knocked out of a cup with a catapult pellet
• Teachers reveal bike combination digits when hit by a drop of water
• Eric can unchain the bike by writing the combination on a blackboard
• Eric can ride the bike
• Eric can stand on the saddle of the bike
• Eric can jump off the saddle of the bike
• Eric is launched over the closed skool gate if he hits it while standing on the saddle of the bike
• Teachers reveal storeroom combination letters when hit by a drop of sherry
• Eric can get the storeroom key (and hence the frog) by writing the combination on a blackboard
• Conker falls from the tree when hit by a catapult pellet
• Falling conker can knock people out
• Eric can place the frog in a cup
• Eric can get the safe key by knocking the frog from a cup onto Miss Take’s head
• Eric can open the safe by jumping up to it when he has the key

These new features are sufficient, I think, to make the game finishable (i.e. to enable Eric to open the safe in the head’s study without cheating). That said, the TODO list for Back to Skool mode still contains quite a few items. See the Pyskool documentation (included in the tarball/zip archive) for more details.

In addition, one serious long-standing bug has been fixed: the game should no longer crash when a character is chasing or looking for Eric while Eric is on a staircase or jumping.

OK, enough of that. Pyskool 0.2.1 needs playtesting! In order to encourage (and make it easier to get started with) playtesting, I shall now document the hitherto undocumented cheat keys that are most useful in Back to Skool mode:

• Tab - proceed to the next lesson
• 3 - prevent teachers from giving lines
• 4 - add a random number to the lines total
• 5 - reset the lines total to zero
• 6 - reveal the bike and storeroom combinations, and the locations of the water pistol and stinkbombs
• 7 - give Eric 8 mice, fill his inventory, and unchain the bike
• 8 - toggle between a water-filled and a sherry-filled pistol
• Page Up - open all the doors and windows
• Page Down - close all the doors and windows

To enable these cheat keys, you must start Pyskool with the --cheat (or -c) option:

$ ./bts.py --cheat

So playtest. Use the cheat keys. Report bugs. And have fun.