faq.txt - Don Yang (uguu.org)

12/21/00


Q: Why Otika?
A: To recreate that 20 seconds seen in the beginning of episode 5 of the
   Nadesico TV series.

   My apologies to Xebec for using ideas from their anime ^_^;;
   Then again, maybe they would be happy to know that their anime inspired some
   people more than others.

Q: What does Otika mean?  Where did the title screen came from?
A: Otika is Akito backwards.  Go see Nadesico the movie ("The Prince of
   Darkness") to find out why that is meaningful.

Q: Why is the field horizontal and not vertical (like other puzzle games)?
A: Because that's how it was in the original TV episode.

   Also, Otika is a cluster building game.  Since you can't rotate block
   sideways, a horizontal field gives more room for building large clusters.

Q: What does the characters in the tiles mean?
A: See source/images/tiles.txt

Q: Why C++?
A: Yea, I believe C will rule the world too, but designers of DirectDraw don't
   think the same, and it's more work to get Otika working with pure C code.

   Also, C++ has single line comments :)

Q: Why DirectDraw?  Why not OpenGL?  Why not Windows GDI?
A: DirectDraw is the fastest way of drawing under Windows.

   Heck, because I can, that's why.

Q: How much does Otika cost?  Can I distribute Otika?
A: Otika is free.  Please distribute it freely.  Don't ever charge money for
   it, don't let anyone charge you money for it, don't ever patent it.

   See gpl.txt for details.

Q: Programming environment?
A: All text editing was done with VIM 5.7, all drawing was done with
   CorelDraw 9.  All sound was done by sampling/equalizing original Nadesico
   episode, with CoolEdit Pro 1.2.  The executable was compiled and linked with
   MSVC++ 6.0.  I am running all these on Japanese Windows 98, with LiteStep
   0.24.5.

   VIM is the best editor in the world!  Everyone should submit to VIM...

Q: How do you score high points?
A: Lots of leet skillz.  If not that, lots of patience.  Otherwise, read about
   Ruri-ruri mode in source/features.txt

Q: The animated background is more fun than the game!
A: Enter Ruri-ruri mode and enter command "blue screen of death".
   Now you can enjoy it in full speed / full window :)

Q: Otika sucks!
A: Send me your source code...