• Hey Guest! Ever feel like entering a Game Jam, but the time limit is always too much pressure? We get it... You lead a hectic life and dedicating 3 whole days to make a game just doesn't work for you! So, why not enter the GMC SLOW JAM? Take your time! Kick back and make your game over 4 months! Interested? Then just click here!

 BIG UPDATE - Metroidvania - please test my engine!

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nlolotte

Guest
Hello all!

So recently I've been working on a metroidvania style game in which the player will have to navigate countless rooms, level up, kill bosses etc... I don't have any story or anything like that planned at the moment but I do have a general direction I'm aiming for.

I need you guys to give me your honest opinion of my engine so far. At the moment it is VERY basic but I need feed back on how it controls, any bugs, general feel etc....

They keyboard layout isn't permanent, I know its fairly clustered together but its just for the time being ;) Also, the graphics are place holders at the moment!

Controls:
Z - Attack/Cancel/Back
A -Magic
X - Jump (hold to hover whilst falling, press again to double jump) /Use/ Equip
S - Dash (Press left/right to dash in that direction, a single press will do a back dash)
W - Use item
Enter - Menu
Direction Keys - Move/ enter/ climb etc...
X + Up - Perform a super jump
X + Down - Jump down through a platform

Debug:
F5 - Restart (in case you get stuck :p hopefully not!)

LATEST VERSION: http://www.filedropper.com/prjgame_1
(If you have issues running on Win 8+, click run anyway!)

Please let me know what you think below! Once again guys thanks for all the feedback previously! All the help and support has been great! :)

Got a load more features planned so stay tuned!

Custom sprites are in development




 
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Morumotto

Guest
Keep up the good work! Can't wait to see what you whip up!
 
O

omar_almighty

Guest
Does feel pretty good :) I like it man, can't wait to see what you do with this!
 
N

nlolotte

Guest
omar_almighty said:
Does feel pretty good :) I like it man, can't wait to see what you do with this!
Click to expand...
Thanks buddy! Do you feel there is anything else I can add to the controls? Or is there any other mechanics you may like to see in this type of game?
 
RangerX

RangerX

Member
Ok I tried it tonight and it generally felt pretty good. I mean, the only things I wouldn't like perfectly are personal preferences. Per example, I'd like the character to move a little less while "in-air".
There's also something about the ladders. I was expecting lateral movement in them.
 
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JCJ

Guest
Like what RangerX said, I feel the same about movement in the air. One other minor thing I'd say though, and it's probably just me, I would make him stop moving when both left and right is pressed. Everything else seems fine, the ability to change weapons is nice :p
 
N

nlolotte

Guest
RangerX said:
Ok I tried it tonight and it generally felt pretty good. I mean, the only things I wouldn't like perfectly are personal preferences. Per example, I'd like the character to move a little less while "in-air".
There's also something about the ladders. I was expecting lateral movement in them.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I'll play with the jumping tonight. The hover mechanism was added in case I plan any future upgrades like a cape that allows floating etc....
As for the ladders, I certainly can see if it feels better with lateral movement, at the moment they do feel rather stiff as they snap the player in place.

JJcupcake said:
Like what RangerX said, I feel the same about movement in the air. One other minor thing I'd say though, and it's probably just me, I would make him stop moving when both left and right is pressed. Everything else seems fine, the ability to change weapons is nice :p
Click to expand...
Can do! Thank you very much :)
 
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omar_almighty

Guest
Not sure if you're planning to go in this direction, but, some kind of grapple hook would be cool! :)
 
RangerX

RangerX

Member
About that ladder comment of mine...
I might add that I think lateral movement would be better because sometimes you should want to "walk out of the ladder" on the side and not jump.
 
N

nlolotte

Guest
RangerX said:
About that ladder comment of mine...
I might add that I think lateral movement would be better because sometimes you should want to "walk out of the ladder" on the side and not jump.
Click to expand...
No worries my friend. All done! I also added an alarm so the player can't just "glitch" up the ladder. Now the player will have some "drop time" before being able to grab hold again. Keep the suggestions coming guys!
 
RangerX

RangerX

Member
Good stuff. I'll poke you when I have a thread up for The Life Ruby. I'd be happy to have your opinion on how my character feels too.
I am preparing quite a huge update, should be ready by September (or so I hope)
 
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nlolotte

Guest
RangerX said:
Good stuff. I'll poke you when I have a thread up for The Life Ruby. I'd be happy to have your opinion on how my character feels too.
I am preparing quite a huge update, should be ready by September (or so I hope)
Click to expand...
Looking forward to it dude, please do! I've been very busy last few nights this feedback has been so helpful. Should have a an update out soon also, so keep checking!
 
Micah_DS

Micah_DS

Member
Since the GMC game jam is finally over, I was able to try this out. Seems pretty solid. Nice work. I've only got two things to point out that I think could be improved upon:
  • When pushing a block, the guy jitters back and forth a little. I know it's a small detail, but it'd look much better if he always moved perfectly along with the block.
  • The second thing is probably just my own personal preferences, but the screen transitions feel a bit weird and "loose". It seems you were going for a less intrusive style of transition, without locking the player's movement at all, which is nice, and it feels good for the most part, but at the same time, it feels a little sloppy to me in its current way of working. Fluidness is great, but I tend to find games that are both fluid and tight as the really professional ones. All that said, I'm not sure what to suggest to improve it, other than to say you could probably find a better solution through a close study of how various 2D Metroid games deal with screen transitions. But, as I said, I'm really just saying this based off of my own personal preferences, and I'm pretty picky sometimes, which you have probably noticed...:p
It's nice to see that you care about the control and feel of the basic engine, etc. I think sometimes people forget how important it is to get the basic stuff done as solidly as possible, because everything else essentially builds off of and branches off of the basic engine, so if it's rushed or not thought out properly, everything else will likely have problems as well.
 
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nlolotte

Guest
K-BitCRUSH said:
Since the GMC game jam is finally over, I was able to try this out. Seems pretty solid. Nice work. I've only got two things to point out that I think could be improved upon:
  • When pushing a block, the guy jitters back and forth a little. I know it's a small detail, but it'd look much better if he always moved perfectly along with the block.
  • The second thing is probably just my own personal preferences, but the screen transitions feel a bit weird and "loose". It seems you were going for a less intrusive style of transition, without locking the player's movement at all, which is nice, and it feels good for the most part, but at the same time, it feels a little sloppy to me in its current way of working. Fluidness is great, but I tend to find games that are both fluid and tight as the really professional ones. All that said, I'm not sure what to suggest to improve it, other than to say you could probably find a better solution through a close study of how various 2D Metroid games deal with screen transitions. But, as I said, I'm really just saying this based off of my own personal preferences, and I'm pretty picky sometimes, which you have probably noticed...:p
It's nice to see that you care about the control and feel of the basic engine, etc. I think sometimes people forget how important it is to get the basic stuff done as solidly as possible, because everything else essentially builds off of and branches off of the basic engine, so if it's rushed or not thought out properly, everything else will likely have problems as well.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your feedback. I have since fixed the push glitch so ill let you know when I upload a new version. I'm going to remove the view transition for now as you've cleaned up my second thoughts I was having that it interrupts game play a bit. I may remove and save for entrance only to boss rooms.

Thanks again for your feedback!
 
Micah_DS

Micah_DS

Member
Downloaded the new demo. I noticed something weird when dropping down from platforms. Sometimes it takes longer than other times to drop down from a platform while holding the down key. And when tapping down, sometimes it won't drop at all, but I'm not sure what your code is intending to do. I mean, is it supposed to check for the user holding the down button for a certain amount of time or something? Whatever the case, something is a bit odd and inconsistent with it.
I doubt that you have your room speed low enough that it's just not detecting input often enough, but it really is acting like the room speed is too low, however, the graphics seem too smooth, indicating it's not room speed that's causing it (but I might be wrong?), so I'm wondering, are you using some sort of constantly repeating timer that only checks for drop down input when the timer goes off or something? But don't feel like you need to show me your code or anything. I'm just curious over why it's a little inconsistent with the drop down timing, and just wanted to point it out.

But anyway, that's all I noticed so far, but I probably shouldn't test much more because I should be doing work on my own projects. The engine seems pretty solid though. I didn't test the moving platforms a lot, but I messed with them a little and they appear to work very nicely. Good work. I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this project.
 
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nlolotte

Guest
K-BitCRUSH said:
Downloaded the new demo. I noticed something weird when dropping down from platforms. Sometimes it takes longer than other times to drop down from a platform while holding the down key. And when tapping down, sometimes it won't drop at all, but I'm not sure what your code is intending to do. I mean, is it supposed to check for the user holding the down button for a certain amount of time or something? Whatever the case, something is a bit odd and inconsistent with it.
I doubt that you have your room speed low enough that it's just not detecting input often enough, but it really is acting like the room speed is too low, however, the graphics seem too smooth, indicating it's not room speed that's causing it (but I might be wrong?), so I'm wondering, are you using some sort of constantly repeating timer that only checks for drop down input when the timer goes off or something? But don't feel like you need to show me your code or anything. I'm just curious over why it's a little inconsistent with the drop down timing, and just wanted to point it out.

But anyway, that's all I noticed so far, but I probably shouldn't test much more because I should be doing work on my own projects. The engine seems pretty solid though. I didn't test the moving platforms a lot, but I messed with them a little and they appear to work very nicely. Good work. I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this project.
Click to expand...
Thank you for testing and bringing this to my attention, I have looked into this and realized it was a glitch checking for a ladder beneath the player. All fixed now! I really appreciate your help finding these bugs, do let me know when you post your projects on here and i'll return the favor. :)
 
stainedofmind

stainedofmind

Member
Could be just me, but double jumping seems to be very finicky in this version. Like, sometimes it works just fine, but most of the time, it seems like I have to be standing still for it to work. Ended up getting spiked many times because of it. Not sure exactly what's causing it. Other then that, so far, so good.
 
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nlolotte

Guest
stainedofmind said:
Could be just me, but double jumping seems to be very finicky in this version. Like, sometimes it works just fine, but most of the time, it seems like I have to be standing still for it to work. Ended up getting spiked many times because of it. Not sure exactly what's causing it. Other then that, so far, so good.
Click to expand...
Thank you for testing! I have changed this. originally I had it so that you can only double jump seconds after a normal jump. Judging form your feedback this feels glitchy so i changed it back to being able to perform it anytime.
 
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McWolke

Guest
hey, just tried your engine and found a bug, maybe it's intended, but who knows.
when double jumping and grabbing a ladder, then letting go of it by walking sideways, you are not able to jump mid-air.
but when only jumping once and grabbing the ladder, you can still jump once mid-air after letting go.
 
N

nlolotte

Guest
McWolke said:
hey, just tried your engine and found a bug, maybe it's intended, but who knows.
when double jumping and grabbing a ladder, then letting go of it by walking sideways, you are not able to jump mid-air.
but when only jumping once and grabbing the ladder, you can still jump once mid-air after letting go.
Click to expand...
Thank you for testing! what did you think? I see what you mean about the double jump, i'll fix this by resetting double jump when you enter climbing state, thank you!
 
Bluetail7

Bluetail7

Member
Things I noticed :p

Variable jumping, this is a nice feature!
The character's max jump height is 2.5 blocks.
Vertical blocks, they don't stop moving before changing directions, and most of them are placed 2.5 blocks above of the character. Which makes it harder, since you have to sync the jump with the block, in an almost perfect timing.
The double jump makes the max jump go to 7.5 blocks (or somewhere closer), maybe 5.5 would be fine, I don't know.

I can't use the main weapon when the instance for the subweapon exists, this may be challenging at some point.
for example: I place a bomb, and on the other side I have an enemy (but this can be solved by the level design, as long as I have space: I can jump and avoid them).

This is more like a visual bug (too detailed) related to the mask: when a block is placed next to a spike: the character can walk above of them.

Cheers! the game is functional and looking good!
 
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nlolotte

Guest
Bluetail7 said:
Things I noticed :p

Variable jumping, this is a nice feature!
The character's max jump height is 2.5 blocks.
Vertical blocks, they don't stop moving before changing directions, and most of them are placed 2.5 blocks above of the character. Which makes it harder, since you have to sync the jump with the block, in an almost perfect timing.
The double jump makes the max jump go to 7.5 blocks (or somewhere closer), maybe 5.5 would be fine, I don't know.

I can't use the main weapon when the instance for the subweapon exists, this may be challenging at some point.
for example: I place a bomb, and on the other side I have an enemy (but this can be solved by the level design, as long as I have space: I can jump and avoid them).

This is more like a visual bug (too detailed) related to the mask: when a block is placed next to a spike: the character can walk above of them.

Cheers! the game is functional and looking good!
Click to expand...
Thank you for trying this out :)
I have changed the players jump height to 3 blocks exactly so that they may jump on the big push blocks. Double jump has been toned down to 7 blocks this is increased due to plans with future level design. I have fixed the main weapon glitch! I spent so long testing sub weapons I didn't check to see if they worked at the same time! Thank you. blocks above spikes is one of my ideas to cross long spiky paths, when i actually make proper levels in the game i plan to use blocks to crease a "bridge" almost?

Thank you for testing :)
 
Bluetail7

Bluetail7

Member
nlolotte said:
Thank you for trying this out :)
Thank you. blocks above spikes is one of my ideas to cross long spiky paths, when i actually make proper levels in the game i plan to use blocks to crease a "bridge" almost?

Thank you for testing :)
Click to expand...
oh yup! I was speaking about this.
 
T

THTerra

Guest
The Controls are very strange. And the Textures are very simple.
 
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JCJ

Guest
I don't know if it's just me, but I can't seem to double jump at all in version 3. lol it is just "X" key in mid-air right?

Also, with spikes involved in this level, I find the movement a little too fast and twitchy for that. I can't find the double-jump to adjust myself.
 
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McWolke

Guest
JJcupcake said:
I don't know if it's just me, but I can't seem to double jump at all in version 3. lol it is just "X" key in mid-air right?

Also, with spikes involved in this level, I find the movement a little too fast and twitchy for that. I can't find the double-jump to adjust myself.
Click to expand...
you have to equip the wings first with the numpad
 
N

nlolotte

Guest
Huge update released! This project is officially a month old!
 
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