Arena.Xlsm Version 1.1 Preview
First and foremost, thank you all so much for the feedback and bug reports! It really helps me nail down issues.
Here are the following top 3 items I’m looking to address in version 1.1.
- The dreaded 1004 run time error. This only appears to impact Excel 2007: Student Edition users (EDIT: not just the student edition but also not all of the editions… thanks for the bug reports, this one is complicated!). I’ve found out what is causing the bug but there is also a cosmetic problem of the blood counter not updating properly for these users in the spreadsheet (it updates fine in the spellbook). This is my top priority so that everyone can play and enjoy the game. To help me with this, I am recruiting tester volunteers who have the Excel 2007: Student Edition (Edit: I am happy to accept volunteer testers with any version of Excel, but please let me know which version you have before you apply). Please send me an e-mail or leave a comment below if you wish to volunteer.
- Alec Trevelyan glitch – There is currently a glitch on this encounter where if you exhaust the boss it will continue to respawn indefinitely.
- “Of Draining” items are currently overpowered and will be rebalanced. The current plan is to change it from a passive ability to an on-hit ability to bring its power more in-line with other comparable items.
Anyways, that’s what is in the works! I hope to get this out this weekend. Please feel free to post your opinions or suggestions in the comments or you can reach me on twitter @CaryWalkin or by e-mail.
Thanks!
Edited: More bug reports indicated that this may be more widespread than initially thought
Cary Walkin.CA 
I will happily test the 1.1 Version the error is the disappointment of my day haha
Thanks so much, you should receive an e-mail from me by the weekend.
I’ve got the same run time error. I’m using Office Excel 2007 but its not student. I’d be happy to test it for you. Feel free to contact me.
Thanks! I’ll be contacting you in a few days! 🙂
I am also using Excel 2k7, with SP3, but it is not the student edition. Part of Microsoft Office Professional Plus.
I would not mind helping test either, if you are still looking for people.
Awesome! I will contact you in a few days! 🙂
Hi.. Saw this place mentioned on the BBC News Website and thought I’d check it out.
So.. I’m a professional VBA specialist developer and have a couple of observations for you.
Your runtime 1004 error could be due to a number of reasons, and you’ll need to isolate the issue. What I would normally look at is the precise version of Excel 2007 that people reporting the bug are running. So, how to find out…
From the Office button, hit ‘Excel Options’ and then select the ‘Resources’ tab. You’ll see the version number at the bottom, for example 12.0.4518.1014 on this test PC. There are some BIG issues caused by some security updates, so getting the version number is critical. You may find that bug reports are all above (or below) a certain number, and you can then build up a test environment to replicate (and investigate) the bug.
The other thing I’d be looking at is libraries. Did you manually add references to any libraries, or are you just using defaults for the version you built it on?
There are other factors, but those are the two I’d look at first. I think you have my email from this post if you need it…
Wow thanks John! I’ve been able to isolate the code internally, it’s just a matter of testing it to verify that it actually is fixed for all of the various version numbers of excel 2007 (which is way more than I thought before I released this game!)
Here is an article about your game in one of the biggest german weekly news magazin: http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/games/arena-xlsm-ein-rollenspiel-in-excel-a-891197.html
I’ll be more than happy to help with testing this one.
i have Excel student edition and i would love to beta test for you
Would love to test this game, I’m hooked already. I just wanna get past the first dude! – good to see Excel put to good use for once 🙂
Hey Cary, came across your game and immediately it looked a fun platform to wile away the hours in work. Sadly I use Office 2007 and that runtime 04 message is horrible. Please feel free to contact me to bug fix. Thanks
Cary, articles about your game appeared in almost all Russian & Ukrainian biggest media! Great Job man! I’ll be happy to help you with testing!
I can see a few areas in your code where a bit of refactoring might help you nail some of the issues…
You may find a book called ‘VB and VBA in a Nutshell’ by Paul Lomax to be quite useful. It’s old (1998), but still totally relevant to VBA and you’ll probably find it on eBay for next to nothing now.
Before I kill any monster the game stop and there is appear Run-time error “1004”: Method “Range” of object “_Global” failed.
I have an Excel 2007
Please, make a corrected version of the game!
Sorry for so bad English. I live in Belarus and I’m only twelve years old. 😦
The game is really great, i’m very sad that i can’t continue since i got the Alec problem… Is there a way to fix it while waiting for the next version ? How can i test next Version ?
Thanks FD, I think I may have enough testers for now. just a few more days until 1.1! 🙂
EDIT: I’ve added you to the list for the future. Thanks!
Count me among the people with the dreaded 1004
My version is 2007(12.0.6425.1000) SP2 MSO (12.0.6425.1000)
If you’d like me to test it, send me an email.
Kudos on the excellent job.
Will happily assist in testing the game, I have Excel 2007, 2010 and 2013 available – this game for me is a throwback to the original unix games of rogue and hack and would love to part of the development here.
Keep on plugging away.
Awesome! I’m adding you to the tester list. Thanks!
EDIT: Colin, I can’t seem to access your e-mail. Please send me an e-mail. Thanks!
I will happily test the 1.1 too, i’m on Excel 2007 Enterprise edition, and Office 2010 (I think) Professionnal edition for Mac OS X 🙂
You’re awesome, continue like this ! 🙂
Hello there,
I am running Excel 2010 in 64-bit Windows 8, when I attempt to open the file I am greeted by an error that reads: “Excel found unreadable content in ‘v1-0-arena.xlsm’. Do you want to recover the contents of this workbook? If you trust the source of this workbook, click Yes.” And when I click Yes, I receive another dialogue box telling me that Excel was able to open the file by removing unreadable content. Removed part: /xl/vbaProject.bin. After this I am finally at the Excel screen and the game does not run. Not sure if this is a bug with the game or maybe just something wrong on my end as I haven’t seen anyone else make note of this problem.
Thanks in advance,
Jonathan
This is definitely the first time I’ve heard of this problem, I also don’t really know how to replicate it. I’ll keep an eye out for this though. I’m about to upload v1.1 so let me know if the problem is still occurring with the new workbook.
Thanks!
Are you running the 32-Bit or 64-Bit version of Office 2010? Either will run on 64-bit Windows. Go to File > Help and then you’ll see the full version number, followed by (64 Bit) or (32 Bit).
If it’s the 64-Bit version, then unless you have a really good reason for using it, you may be better off trying with the 32-Bit version if you have access to it. Trust me on that one… A lot of VBA apps run into trouble on 64-Bit Office.