Demo Ring of Despair (2D Platformer)

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Adhiesc

Guest
This game is now in Version 0.4.1 (September 16th, 2018)

The game's details and also download link are available in this itch io link.
https://adhiesc.itch.io/ring-of-despair
But there is a short video here ~ :)

I would love to see any opinions, suggestions, feedback, or even anyone who wants to support me. :D
Thanks before~
 
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Blakkid489

Guest
This is quite interesting. I played for awhile learning the controls. Going down the stairs was a bit trivial due to me not being able to automatically walk down but instead learn the drop down move. (which is nice, letting me figure things out, felt more satisfying)

The story is also interesting and I wanted to learn more play more so very nice.

The combat however was a bit wonky to say the lease. Felt really stiff for the most part. The gun was probably my favorite because of the stiff CQC.

I see it's still in the works so I understand the lack in music and I hope you really choose wisely with that. This game has a unoque charm to it and the music can really be the thing to really bring it home.
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
This is quite interesting. I played for awhile learning the controls. Going down the stairs was a bit trivial due to me not being able to automatically walk down but instead learn the drop down move. (which is nice, letting me figure things out, felt more satisfying)

The story is also interesting and I wanted to learn more play more so very nice.

The combat however was a bit wonky to say the lease. Felt really stiff for the most part. The gun was probably my favorite because of the stiff CQC.

I see it's still in the works so I understand the lack in music and I hope you really choose wisely with that. This game has a unoque charm to it and the music can really be the thing to really bring it home.
Thanks for the feedback :D
By the way, you see a board in front of the house? :p The CQC is actually liven up by combo, not by itself. Preferably, a backdash. imo.

I included a 'cheat' (press F10) to let the player see other Actions I made.
 
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Torball

Guest
This game seems to be coming along nicely! I enjoyed the combo system after playing around with the extra skills, but I think the combat would fare better if Christy wasn't as still while attacking. That aside, I feel like this could be a great game. The tutorial helped out as well, I wouldn't even have known there was a slide lol.
Speaking of slide, I don't know if this was intentional or a bit of a bug, but when you equip the Quartz, Obsidian and/or Agate rings, it takes away your ability to slide.
Other than all of that, I really liked the demo, and hope to see more as it progresses :)
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
This game seems to be coming along nicely! I enjoyed the combo system after playing around with the extra skills, but I think the combat would fare better if Christy wasn't as still while attacking. That aside, I feel like this could be a great game. The tutorial helped out as well, I wouldn't even have known there was a slide lol.
Speaking of slide, I don't know if this was intentional or a bit of a bug, but when you equip the Quartz, Obsidian and/or Agate rings, it takes away your ability to slide.
Other than all of that, I really liked the demo, and hope to see more as it progresses :)
Ah, I see. The stiff part of the combat is that no movement when attacking. :p
Well, for that slide thing, I forgot to re-register speed requirement to slide after equipment's effect. xD my fault.
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
*bump* for attention
and to tell that I will give some update around this February. :D
 
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Sudo_Radish

Guest
I like the style you went for with drawing the protagonist. However I am not sure I like the font used in the first image. Just seems a little jarring compared to the playful look.
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
I like the style you went for with drawing the protagonist. However I am not sure I like the font used in the first image. Just seems a little jarring compared to the playful look.
Oh. that 'pixelated'-like font? Or my logo's font?
 
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Sudo_Radish

Guest
The pixilated font. To me it just doesn't seem to sit right.
 

RangerX

Member
I didn't forget about you, just not finding time much for trying anybody's game.
I will find my way soon about that.
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
The pixilated font. To me it just doesn't seem to sit right.
Oh. well, after a bit of thinking, I think it's right. I will try to change it later. :) thanks.

I didn't forget about you, just not finding time much for trying anybody's game.
I will find my way soon about that.
Don't worry, I haven't managed to try your TLR updated versions yet too. :p
Need to focus since I'm soloing my project. :)

@Blakkid489 @Torball
Here, are what I think I will change later, regarding the "stiff" battle :
- get rid of all the melee actions and assign them like front+attack, down+attack, down+front+attack, up+attack, etc.
- the actual 'dash' with double-tapping direction button or maybe double-tapping the sprint button, instead. but with dodge roll or backdash and can cancel attack. She has no booster like Megaman, so the dash won't be a straight line if midair. lol.
- a damaging slide :) reminds me of a certain Castlevania
Any opinion about this? Thanks before. :D
 
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Blakkid489

Guest
I like the idea and it would help for the visual aspect form making her animation seem more viable. However, I don't think it would decrease her overall feel of stiffness. And personally I think it might be the animation that needs a bit of rework and/or added frames to her attack. Maybe have her lean more in to her melee attacks. You shouldn't have to change any code, rather just added/changed animation
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
I like the idea and it would help for the visual aspect form making her animation seem more viable. However, I don't think it would decrease her overall feel of stiffness. And personally I think it might be the animation that needs a bit of rework and/or added frames to her attack. Maybe have her lean more in to her melee attacks. You shouldn't have to change any code, rather just added/changed animation
Thanks, I will add some frames the animation eventually. Now I'm still focusing on getting the full demo complete first before touching that. :p Since I'm actually a slow artist.
 
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mazimadu

Guest
Despite there not much in the game I like how solid if feels. I would like to see you focus more on the level design so we can get more things to explore. I would suggest you look up Konjak's game Iconoclast to get an idea of how to add level variety to a demo.

Also, what platform engine did you use. I am looking for one that is as smooth as yours.
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
Despite there not much in the game I like how solid if feels. I would like to see you focus more on the level design so we can get more things to explore. I would suggest you look up Konjak's game Iconoclast to get an idea of how to add level variety to a demo.

Also, what platform engine did you use. I am looking for one that is as smooth as yours.
I made my own engine. :) But at first I just looked up at Shaun Spalding's tutorial a bit.
 
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mazimadu

Guest
I made my own engine. :) But at first I just looked up at Shaun Spalding's tutorial a bit.
Same here, but my engine has room for improvement. I have been working on it since Game Maker 8 and it is a bit bloated. I am looking at Shaun's tutorials and will streamline my current code.
 
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Torball

Guest
I like the sound of the way you're planning on improving the combat, especially the damaging slide. Combos using the directional inputs sound more satisfying to me. The dodge, roll and backdash cancel sounds like it'll fix the stiff feeling, too.
 
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mazimadu

Guest
:(
Wow, this game has some of the worst controls I have seen in a while. Not bad, horrible!

There is no dedicated cancel button when remapping controls. And enter seems hard coded into one of the options. After 5 minutes of frustration I gave up and used the default controls. Then nearly got stuck at the narrow bit where you have to crouch in mid air to crawl through a hole? After dying several times at the first few enemies I gave up.

The games controls are too complicated and it wants you to do too much early on. It is better to design the first levels off of simple mechanics while the player gets used to the moveset/controls. If it is this frustrating early on I don't want to know how later levels play like.

Simplify the controls and streamline the early parts. This would make the game more fun to play.:(
 

RangerX

Member
So I finally tried your game, thanks to your thread popping back! There's something solid going on here but I couldn't test the game much. I been stuck right at the start :(
Here's some deconstructed thoughts anyways:

- Graphics are "doing the job". I am sure you can improve it over time. I am not convinced on certain choices of colors either.
- The options menu is pretty good and fills the job. Thanks for having a key config menu!
- This said, I feel there's a bit too many controls. Any way to streamline this?
- Music is so-so, but that's very subjective.
- When you change a key in the key configuration menu, the new key you choose is also executed wich is wierd. (per example, set the "up" key and you find yourself at the bottom of the menu)
- Never could pass the second screen. I see 2 holes (in which I threw bombs) but I die if I fall there. Then there's a place I can wall up to the top of the screen but I couldn't get out. Lastly, there's a gap on the right and I found no way of going there. Am confused.
- Seeing the "map off" on screen all the time is not useful and annoying
- When you throw a bomb at a bottomless pit it would be cool that the bomb exit the screen without exploding. Because else you think there's something you can land on.
- The jump feels wierd because its like you accelerate in the second half the jump while doing air time.

You game is having its share of problems and the project is ambitious. Continue to work on it and I'll be curious to see how it improves because there's alot of things you are doing right in there.
Also, can you tell dumb me how to pass the second screen??
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
:(

Wow, this game has some of the worst controls I have seen in a while. Not bad, horrible!

There is no dedicated cancel button when remapping controls. And enter seems hard coded into one of the options. After 5 minutes of frustration I gave up and used the default controls. Then nearly got stuck at the narrow bit where you have to crouch in mid air to crawl through a hole? After dying several times at the first few enemies I gave up.

The games controls are too complicated and it wants you to do too much early on. It is better to design the first levels off of simple mechanics while the player gets used to the moveset/controls. If it is this frustrating early on I don't want to know how later levels play like.

Simplify the controls and streamline the early parts. This would make the game more fun to play.:(
Thanks for the tips! Yes, I kinda tried a bit too hard and it results on making the first stage too hard. :D Will remake things to better soon. :)

So I finally tried your game, thanks to your thread popping back! There's something solid going on here but I couldn't test the game much. I been stuck right at the start :(
Here's some deconstructed thoughts anyways:

- Graphics are "doing the job". I am sure you can improve it over time. I am not convinced on certain choices of colors either.
- The options menu is pretty good and fills the job. Thanks for having a key config menu!
- This said, I feel there's a bit too many controls. Any way to streamline this?
- Music is so-so, but that's very subjective.
- When you change a key in the key configuration menu, the new key you choose is also executed wich is wierd. (per example, set the "up" key and you find yourself at the bottom of the menu)
- Never could pass the second screen. I see 2 holes (in which I threw bombs) but I die if I fall there. Then there's a place I can wall up to the top of the screen but I couldn't get out. Lastly, there's a gap on the right and I found no way of going there. Am confused.
- Seeing the "map off" on screen all the time is not useful and annoying
- When you throw a bomb at a bottomless pit it would be cool that the bomb exit the screen without exploding. Because else you think there's something you can land on.
- The jump feels wierd because its like you accelerate in the second half the jump while doing air time.

You game is having its share of problems and the project is ambitious. Continue to work on it and I'll be curious to see how it improves because there's alot of things you are doing right in there.
Also, can you tell dumb me how to pass the second screen??
Ah. yes. I forgot about the bomb exiting the screen and explodes instead. :p
do 'evade' midair to go through small gap so you can advance there. by default control, it's S on keyboard.
And I'm still somewhat fixing how the jumping speed works actually. I know it's strange to accelerate on air. :(
 

RangerX

Member
More streamlined here I would mean easier, simpler but more in a effective and elegant way.
I see that I have been catch here with your "evade" move. Nothing tells me its this move I should use (or I missed it) its not a move that my gaming culture made me understand by default either.
When you set it in the control configuration (the only place I heard of it) I thought it would probably be a combat secondary move I'd eventually learn or something. I'll go try the game again.

EDIT:
- I am in the control config trying to remap my controller. Go on "jump" and press A to put a new button. Press A again (like you choose button A) and tadam!! you're stuck.
- I think the walling is hard for no good reason (for the keyboard at least). I think sliding the wall slower could benefit the game.
- The story seems to be one of your focus and you seem to want to have a nice story when you tell about it. Well, lets be honest, the "ok there's demons/darkness/evil suddendly making trouble in this world and please someone save us" has been used MILLION times as a story premise. Right now it doesn't scream at all like a game that is going to have a good story :(
- Beheading the parents? That feels hard in a yet cartoonish game. Are you sure its the best motivation the little girl needs? And how is she not traumatised severely by this happening?
- I would simply push the boxes by walking instead of having to "hit" them.
- Hit ranges from 1 to 7. I think its very big for a range. I mean, look at this on a percentage perspective and its all over the place. I should be hitting the wood box like 5,6 or 7. That type of difference. Hitting "1" is wierd after hitting 7.
- When you hit the grey box with a small box on top, the small box moves. I'd have prefered it would not. It would be just frustrating having to hit the small box again to replace it properly and having it destroyed because of that (and then resetting the room again!).
- The weapons aren't effected by water while I would have expected them to.
- The disappearing eye is a HARD mob for a first level. I fully expect most player to give up right there. Think about it. What I did is I stayed at the top of the screen and took time to kill it before going any further. It takes precision and patience.
- I forgot tell you that the "don't have to redo the puzzle" feature is good!
- I feel (given the difficulty) that there miss a bit of checkpoints. Maybe we could start again at each room, part of level?

All in all, I like the game. Enough to at least follow it while you continue to make/improve/balance it. Keep up with your work! No great results happens without it afterall! :)
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
More streamlined here I would mean easier, simpler but more in a effective and elegant way.
I see that I have been catch here with your "evade" move. Nothing tells me its this move I should use (or I missed it) its not a move that my gaming culture made me understand by default either.
When you set it in the control configuration (the only place I heard of it) I thought it would probably be a combat secondary move I'd eventually learn or something. I'll go try the game again.
You missed the tutorial message on lower-left part. :)
Hehe. sorry, my game is not 'streamlined' enough for most players to play. This is the first game I've been making seriously ever. Never thought it becomes too hard on early part.
 

RangerX

Member
Its not easy to teach the player by the level design. That's why even pro games sometimes having crappy level design after all.
But nothing is out of creative range if you really want it. You can study the question alot thanks to the internet and you can focus on putting yourself in the player's place, ask yourself what does every single piece of your level can give of a message to someone new that never played. It is an exercise of the mind that is great to practice. One classic piece they even show in school to develop this attitude is the first 2 mins of the Super Mario Bros. Before arriving at the first set of pipes you can already learn alot about the game:

- You need to go right
- You need to jump (or get killed by the first goomba)
- You can stomp ennemies (generally happening by mistakenly trying to jump over the first goomba)
- You can pop bricks
- ? blocks contain something important
- Schrooms react to the environement (they change direction on the pipe)
- That schroom is not an ennemy and touching it makes you better
- The subsequent sets of pipes is there to "test" some basic navigation stuff you just learned. You have to do 2-3 different types of jumps to cross them.
- Same for goombas, the game shows its easier to attack them from above and that they can come in pairs!

and so on...
By developing this mindset you will become "a level designer". Its about creating an environement where the player can learn as naturally as possible, where the difficulty will be gradual and where YOU, the level designer is supposed to know the meaning/purpose of the placement of every single block/ingredient in your level.
And don't be too hard on yourself or discouraging yourself. You first game cannot be a masterpiece like games made by geniuses like Shigeru Miyamoto and that's perfectly fine!
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
Its not easy to teach the player by the level design. That's why even pro games sometimes having crappy level design after all.
But nothing is out of creative range if you really want it. You can study the question alot thanks to the internet and you can focus on putting yourself in the player's place, ask yourself what does every single piece of your level can give of a message to someone new that never played. It is an exercise of the mind that is great to practice. One classic piece they even show in school to develop this attitude is the first 2 mins of the Super Mario Bros. Before arriving at the first set of pipes you can already learn alot about the game:

- You need to go right
- You need to jump (or get killed by the first goomba)
- You can stomp ennemies (generally happening by mistakenly trying to jump over the first goomba)
- You can pop bricks
- ? blocks contain something important
- Schrooms react to the environement (they change direction on the pipe)
- That schroom is not an ennemy and touching it makes you better
- The subsequent sets of pipes is there to "test" some basic navigation stuff you just learned. You have to do 2-3 different types of jumps to cross them.
- Same for goombas, the game shows its easier to attack them from above and that they can come in pairs!

and so on...
By developing this mindset you will become "a level designer". Its about creating an environement where the player can learn as naturally as possible, where the difficulty will be gradual and where YOU, the level designer is supposed to know the meaning/purpose of the placement of every single block/ingredient in your level.
And don't be too hard on yourself or discouraging yourself. You first game cannot be a masterpiece like games made by geniuses like Shigeru Miyamoto and that's perfectly fine!
I feel I find my missing blessing now (I forgot about the feeling when I played Super Mario Bros in my childhood)
You are really helpful, buddy. :D Thanks a bunch~!
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
game is nice but too hard in the beginning.
Yes. < this try-hard developer tried too hard and made the game too hard with hard effort and hard brain so hard and hardly thinking about hardness of hardy hard games. enough with hard jokes. xD
 
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Blakkid489

Guest
Yes. < this try-hard developer tried too hard and made the game too hard with hard effort and hard brain so hard and hardly thinking about hardness of hardy hard games. enough with hard jokes. xD
lmao game is looking better though from when I first played it
 
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Blakkid489

Guest
So I spent about 26 minutes trying to get over this hill with the metal crate and gave up. I . . . .I REALLY hate feeling stupid but I gotta learn from my mistakes which apparently I'm horrible at. SO. . . .

what am I doing wrong?
 
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mazimadu

Guest
So I spent about 26 minutes trying to get over this hill with the metal crate and gave up. I . . . .I REALLY hate feeling stupid but I gotta learn from my mistakes which apparently I'm horrible at. SO. . . .

what am I doing wrong?
Yeah, I think the players jump height is a little too small. The game seems to be littered with areas the player cannot reach.
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
So I spent about 26 minutes trying to get over this hill with the metal crate and gave up. I . . . .I REALLY hate feeling stupid but I gotta learn from my mistakes which apparently I'm horrible at. SO. . . .

what am I doing wrong?
Yeah, I think the players jump height is a little too small. The game seems to be littered with areas the player cannot reach.
 

Ladi_Pix3l

Member
Wow. . .big smack in the throat from the developer. He basically just said "get good" lol

A little rude but fair in a sense. I too had issues with this part and gave up after a few tries. However, I then decided to play the game as a "tester" rather another developer. Got used to the stiff controls and adjusted to the chunkiness of the platform mechanics and made it over the hill. It wasn't easy but he is right. it is doable.

One thing to remember @Adhiesc is when you're testing your own mechanics over and over again, you get used to the game's feel. This makes it hard to find bugs and other unintentional errors. So I'm sure the reason @Blakkid489 had a hard time with that part was due to him not adapting to your game's controls. And since the game itself doesn't have too much immersion, he probably wasn't gonna dedicate a lot of time trying to figure them out. I forget this logic a lot when making games so you're not alone. My GMC Jam 6 entry was entirely too hard. I thought it was easy because I spent (x)hours testing levels out

Not saying your game is bad. (Although it might seem that way in my previous comment) It's actually quite good for what it is. But obviously it still needs some polishing to really give players that push to continue playing.
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
Not saying your game is bad. (Although it might seem that way in my previous comment) It's actually quite good for what it is. But obviously it still needs some polishing to really give players that push to continue playing.
Thanks for your comment. :)
I do think that I need to give some kind of hint or remove some useless boxes to give the hint indirectly...
Honestly, I'm kinda sad that people often stopped playing my game too early just because of a small puzzle that's not very hard to solve if the player knows what to do.. most players don't know what to do and they :
- blame the wooden boxes for being too easy to break
- not enough jump height
- the small box moves off when it's moved by the big box below (it's intentional)
- can't reach a certain area, insisting on trying, but failed, then give up playing the whole game. (when it's totally optional and you may be able to reach it later in game, there are a lot of games like that)
:(
 
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Thunder Lion

Guest
I'm downloading now, I'll update after say a half hour!
My computer is freaking out now!

Okay played it for a bit more than 30 minutes, I failed a lot at the first box stack puzzle, because my sister was "helping" me play lol. Ok so the basic concept I got is that I like the over-all play, I wonder though about the attacks, I feel the sword should stun minor enemies longer to allow a second strike, how do you feel about this otherwise, under normal conditions, the time you hit the eye ball "while in facing you" you get off one swing, I found that if i shoot then slash it works, also I feel the "phantom" eye ball should be more obvious the first time you come into contact with it, maybe have it floating visibly in the air then fade away, at least for the first eye ball.
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
I'm downloading now, I'll update after say a half hour!
My computer is freaking out now!

Okay played it for a bit more than 30 minutes, I failed a lot at the first box stack puzzle, because my sister was "helping" me play lol. Ok so the basic concept I got is that I like the over-all play, I wonder though about the attacks, I feel the sword should stun minor enemies longer to allow a second strike, how do you feel about this otherwise, under normal conditions, the time you hit the eye ball "while in facing you" you get off one swing, I found that if i shoot then slash it works, also I feel the "phantom" eye ball should be more obvious the first time you come into contact with it, maybe have it floating visibly in the air then fade away, at least for the first eye ball.
Ah yes, thanks for the comment, I will add some kind of "Warning" for that particular ambushing eyeball later. xD
 
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Thunder Lion

Guest
Can I also recommend someone to proof read your script for errors? The way things are written at times I feel it is very "non-English", I'd be happy to help for a free full version of the game :D
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
Can I also recommend someone to proof read your script for errors? The way things are written at times I feel it is very "non-English", I'd be happy to help for a free full version of the game :D
Well yeah, thanks~ I noticed it myself too, that I'm not so good at making the story texts, but I'm learning. Although if my game at full version still has bad texts, I might ask for help. :)
 
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Thunder Lion

Guest
Well yeah, thanks~ I noticed it myself too, that I'm not so good at making the story texts, but I'm learning. Although if my game at full version still has bad texts, I might ask for help. :)
Definitely! I will try the demo out again later on and get a refreshed idea about it sense I better comprehend it.

GRAPHICAL RECOMMENDATIONS: the corners of tiles like for example ledges, should be smoothed out to not be so pointy unless it is appropriate for the area (metal edges, perfectly shaped stone stuff like that) otherwise a rounded edge would work for most areas.

Question: Will there be other guns?
 
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Adhiesc

Guest
Definitely! I will try the demo out again later on and get a refreshed idea about it sense I better comprehend it.

GRAPHICAL RECOMMENDATIONS: the corners of tiles like for example ledges, should be smoothed out to not be so pointy unless it is appropriate for the area (metal edges, perfectly shaped stone stuff like that) otherwise a rounded edge would work for most areas.

Question: Will there be other guns?
I will add some animated grasses later for those green-green-tiles instead.
And for 'other guns', you can visit Extra > Test Features in the game, and you may be able to see nearly-everything I planned for the game. Well, only things that has been made for later unlocks though.
 
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Torball

Guest
I haven't been on here in a while. Looks like you added a lot since I last played. I'll give it a try soon.
 
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