Demo The Life Ruby (metroidvania platformer) -------- Still lives!

RangerX

Member
BTW @RangerX I tried the demo and I was immediately drawn in. Good controls, good story line, good graphics and very addictive music which is still playing in my head. I look forward to update revisions. I think you may have a hit on your hands here. I love the graphical style and use of colors.

Firstly I want to say the non game screens were very nice. The title, the control selection, and even the detail of idling for a few seconds and you tell the player where they can find help or pause. Very thoughtful, and well done. The controls were overall very nice, although I think (just my opinion, take it for what it is), I think when jumping, some folks may like an "extended" jump effect, just slight one even when holding the jump down. Or maybe there is one but too slight for me to notice? I don't know. Also he slides a bit when you move in a direction initially. That part may have been my imagination as I am very tired. Anyway, again, I am very impressed with this work. Thank you for offering the demo.
Thank you Mockgames, you are really encouraging. When I first read your message you actually made my day! :)
The character jumps in full if you really hold the key/button. If you tap it only, you won't make the full jump. The effect is more noticeable when you'll get the high jump though.



Really enjoying the demo. I think the movement feels good. I tried the main game before the tutorial and got a little stuck. . . .but then I suppose that's why there is a tutorial! All became clear after going through the tutorial and found the game really immersive. I felt the tutorial would be a good first 'level' of the game to help ease the player into the game and play around a bit with the mechanics...I understand the point you made earlier though that some people just like to get stuck in, and admittedly its a while since I've played similar games so maybe I'm just rusty ha. The enemies are well animated and think the look of the game hangs together really well. When the player bounces on the spring, could the animation show the character looking upwards? (bit like in sonic?) just a thought. Really looking great!
Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it alot.
I am not a fan of integrated tutorials. I aim at making a game where the player chooses if we wants clear instructions or if he wants to mess around by himself. Its a bit harder to design a game like this but its important to me.
I like your suggestion of bouncing with some "ala Sonic" pose for the character lol. I might implement it along the way in some later polishing phase.



So I realized I never played your latest demo, so I played it today. I defeated the red mage and made it a bit further before dying and come back here to post.

What struck me the most was your attention to detail to all sorts of things. *Lots* of cool animations, like the red mage himself, the shark jumping from the water. Even the sword swing animation was sharp, and I like how you auto-disable it if you're too close to a wall. I found a few secrets which felt great - boy I love secrets in games like this.

As a platformer I wish the controls were tighter. Your horizontal momentum gives you a certain weight, but some of the platforms and obstacles I had to navigate didn't seem tuned to my momentum. Those short stone platform (with the fish?) were pretty hard to land on at times.

Similarly, if I had to guess I'd say your drop speed is a constant change - meaning that no matter how far you fell, you dropped at the same speed. This made it tricky, as a lot of platforms use acceleration-based gravity.

Finally, some of the dialogue wasn't the greatest. Obviously that's not a priority in a metroidvaia, but there was a lot of it. Maybe something to consider.

But beyond those things it's really obvious that what you have already shows a lot of promise.

Thanks again for this precious feedback. I am also deceived that you passed on my thread while the game is still this old version. I worked quite a bit during summer on a new one I hope to post soon. I changed quite alot of things that will influence your opinions up there and maybe change the feel of the game (for the better I hope!!). Amongst other things. I entirely redone the attack system and code making it more fluid, reworked some player collisions and slopes collisions (that are much less janky now). I also had a balancing pass where I made quite a bit of jumps easier, ajusted some ennemies AI and placement.
Lastly, the dialogues are just a first draft. So yeah they probably are quite sucky as english a foreign language to me + its a first draft. I will definetely will have a huge text pass at some point. I know you have great dialogue in your game, I might poke you for help or feedback. I trust the high quality standards you are showing through your own project. Oh and congrats again for the kickstarter going well!! :)
 

RangerX

Member

NEW VERSION UPLOADED!
(50.1)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/1wwcq9gvi8hir06/TLR501.exe

So here's what I've been working on lately or at least a part of it. This update is huge and adds alot of things, fixes a boatload of bugs and stuff. I listen to many comments and tweaked the game too. I hope you guys are still primed to try it and send some feedback. :)

What you can test:
- Menus and options in general
- Tutorial level
- Adventure Mode (2 zones)
- Challenge Mode (6 levels)
- Sword weapon (press 0 to activate)
- Saving

Known issues:
- Sound effects aren't implemented yet
- All text is first draft only
- Most music is placeholder




UPDATE DETAILS

First world of Challenge Mode completed!
There’s 6 unique levels to play in the first Challenge Mode’s World. Have you got what it takes to complete all 3 goals in all the levels? (rewards for completing all the goals not implemented yet)




6 new songs!
The soundtrack is a very long way from being complete. But this update is quite big as you can hear 6 new songs. It’s the first batch of songs that aren’t placeholders!


Falling damage gameplay
If you drop yourself from roughly a screen high, the little will look stunned/dizzy for a second and then comeback to himself. If you fall from higher than a screen high, you’re gonna hurt. The higher you drop, the more you hurt. This means a long fall could now be deadly.




New weapon + critical hit gameplay
The sword is giving the player a better range when attacking. While its doing the same damage as the knife, the sword can pull a critical hit that doubles the damage.


Shallow water gameplay
You can mess with this in the fifth Challenge Mode level. The player will walk a bit slower but you can make water splashes when attacking. Could those water splashed be useful now…?




Attacking code completely redone
Now you can slash in the walls all you want. Please report any problem you might find with the attacks.


Graphical improvements
The title screen as been made more beautiful (or so I like to think). There has been multiple other tweaks too, the message boxes are appearing smoothly now, its cursor animates, there’s fog over water, the boat moves, etc


Gamepad support update
Xinput controllers supported as Xbox controllers and Dinput controllers supported as PS controllers.


------------------------------------------------ TEST 50.1 -----------------------------------------------------

[Add] Xinput controllers considered Xbox, Dinput controllers considered PS

[Mod] Disabled the automatic performance adjustements until better solution
[Mod] NPCs are using mob zones now
[Mod] Escargots and Rhino Bugs are using the mob zones
[Mod] Fishes are using mob zones

[Fix] Pluging/Unpluging controller causing slowdown in key config menu
[Fix] Can open the Help and start Credits while in Key Config menu

------------------------------------------------ TEST 50.0 -----------------------------------------------------

[Add] Falling damage gameplay (with new animations and all)
[Add] New Mob - Rhino Bug
[Add] New Weapon (sword)
[Add] Critical Hit gameplay (for sword)
[Add] Shallow water gameplay
[Add] Challenge Mode Level 1-5
[Add] Challenge Mode Level 1-6
[Add] New song - Titlescreen (not final)
[Add] New song - Tutorial (not final)
[Add] New song - Intro Cut-scene (not final)
[Add] New song - Village (not final)
[Add] New song - Red Mage (not final)
[Add] New song - Ezuma's Temple (not final)
[Add] Disable application surface script
[Add] Game can start in French
[Add] Fog effects
[Add] Animated cursor on text boxes when the player can proceed/skip
[Add] Depth Changer object for hidden passages

[Mod] Attacking code completely redone!
[Mod] Now can shoot underwater with the Yuree's suit
[Mod] Slopes code improved (no more player jittering)
[Mod] Redone the "Secret Detector" power-up
[Mod] Weapon swaping function redone
[Mod] Slimes are using the new Mob Zones
[Mod] Made the sound test up to date
[Mod] Rewoved built in friction
[Mod] Corrected some errors in sprite behavior
[Mod] Improved gamepad detection by using the system event for gamepads
[Mod] Pause menu can also be closed by Pause button
[Mod] Changed hero and some objects' depth
[Mod] Made the titlescreen a tad more beautiful (or so I hope!)
[Mod] Power's icons now moves in the text box that appears when you collect them
[Mod] Help message takes longer to appear and can now appear when HUD is permanent
[Mod] Text reformatted! (discovery of the "w" argument in "draw_text_ext" function lol)
[Mod] Text boxes appear smoothly now
[Mod] The boat now moves

[Fix] Crash when opening/closing the pause menu extremely fast
[Fix] Infinite jump when jumping after unpausing while touching water pond bottom
[Fix] Pausing/Unpausing gives infinite air
[Fix] Changing weapons rapidly messes up weapon toggle
[Fix] Deceleration wasn't considering the gamepad and therefore was slowing it down
[Fix] Player can glide then jump then double jump
[Fix] Player can move after alt-tabbing in the Pause, Help, Map or Stats menu
[Fix] "ScalingOnLoad" that would actually mess up with saving crazy
[Fix] Gamepad support: "Anykey" not working when coming back from an Alt+Tab
[Fix] Statues not sending the cam at the right node sometimes
[Fix] Volume return to 100% after a transition regardless the user setting
[Fix] "Quit game" function not stopping music properly
[Fix] Score from previously erased game is kept and transfered to Challenge Mode until new game is saved
[Fix] In water when dying while swimming up, movement wasn't cancelled
[Fix] Rosettas not appearing if they were seen but in a secret area
[Fix] View following the player instead of cam in the Challenge Mode's levels
[Fix] AutoText killing textboxes the Rosetta was already killing
[Fix] Mobs dropping Pearls in Challenge Mode
[Fix] Spawn objects, nodes, statues and teleporters not deactivating properly
[Fix] Pause menu can be opened and giving problems during transitions
[Fix] Game Stats error regarding Rosettas and Items
[Fix] Exit signs appearing over the text box for a couple of frames
 
Last edited:
A

APigeon

Guest
Hey RangerX, it's been a while :).
The Life Ruby is so fun to play, glad to see an update to it.
I haven't even lost the feels I had in the previous demo as well !

Falling damage gameplay
If you drop yourself from roughly a screen high, the little will look stunned/dizzy for a second and then comeback to himself. If you fall from higher than a screen high, you’re gonna hurt. The higher you drop, the more you hurt. This means a long fall could now be deadly.
I was surprised at first, but in the end, it's cute and fun to watch the character panicking as the fall gets longer and longer (even though it hurts of course).
It seems that you lose more hearts if it goes on for too long as well (two hearts for the longer ones so far).

I do think that the dizzyness is well implemented since sometimes we have to act quickly when we land on certain platforms.
It's even possible on the 3rd challenge level (but with a slower pace and very tight timing) to be dizzy and do the time challenge here !

The 2nd time challenge is also a bit more fair and you can take very small breaks to do it unlike before (with 17 or 17.5 I think it was).

Besides that, the challenges aren't extremely hard and seem fair on my end, even the 5th level, because I didn't know how to use that new mechanic but it's possible to do the time achievement without it (It's harder though).

However if you "jump-slash" (use jump + attack at the same time) on the top wall above the red statue, you can go forever out of bounds by going too much on the left.
glitch.png


Yet there doesn't seem to be any "jump-slashable" walls in the adventure mode.

On level 6 or level 8 ;) , the achievements don't seem to show up on the level's name, as well as doing the three challenges (not all at once of course) won't make the portal turn green.
Also, will there be different kinds of springboards in the adventure ? I have higher jumps in level 6 for most of them.


- You can now exit the screen after the teleporter has been activated

-Pausing and unpausing underwater won't refill your air meter, because of that however:
I don't know if pausing on ground underwater and jumping will make you fly to the ceiling again, it doesn't work with level 5's ponds though.
-Unpausing still makes you start 1 pixel lower (I think it's on purpose though).

-Sometimes you have invincibility frames while slashing, especially with the fireballs.

-The secrets discovered disappear on "EzumasTemple" 's map (I guess you are still working on it as well).
-Since the rest of the temple isn't complete, I guess it's still normal that we still don't know how many objects and secrets you can find in the temple.

-The Stones, whether you have read them or not, will reappear as "!" on the map if you re-enter a screen.
-If you don't have the exact same screen configuration after loading a game, it won't resize itself, especially if you play with "scale: off and windowed mode".

I think that's all, I'll try to look into it a bit more later :).

Good luck RangerX !
 

RangerX

Member
However if you "jump-slash" (use jump + attack at the same time) on the top wall above the red statue, you can go forever out of bounds by going too much on the left.
Nice find!! Theorically its doable everywhere since the walls are identical. I now made my wall collision check one pixel further and you will not be able to do it anymore :D :D :D
Thanks alot for the feedback, you always bring good stuff. I will investigate on the Rosetta thing and the screen resize 'cause those are bugs too.

I'm going to play this but I have a question about that jitter in the camera right after you land in the gif image... What's that about?
When the player look like he's hurting or when he's truly hurting from a fall, there's a little camera shake. Since the gif cuts multiple frames, it doesn't look super good.
 

Ladi_Pix3l

Member
Oh okay make sense.
So I played this. I'm mad that I got to the end in 22 minutes of exploring lol meaning this needs to be finished Mr.
I did find something interesting...

The animation the slash gets a bit stuck in the walls when jumping.... Probably found this by being goofy with the controls. (why is the xinput controls all over the place. B is accept, LB for map, etc)

Also I wasn't sure if I was supposed to fall here or not so. . . .leap of faith I guess lol
Other than those things I liked the game. 8/10 so far (btw I found a way to cheese the boss, I'll PM you later)
 

RangerX

Member
- Scaling bug when loadging a game -- fixed!
- Rosettas going back to being "Points of interest" -- fixed!
- Weapon animation not in synch with player when jumping high or using trampolines -- fixed!

Ladi, you did find a bug without knowing... that blue Yuree in your gif up there, he wasn't supposed to cross the gap lol. So I fixed that too.
 
T

Tonydaderp

Guest
sweet new demo! I just have one suggestion: to make the sword swing in an arc, as it is kinda awkward to have the sword poke forwards to hit an enemy. Great work!
 
A

ajan-ko

Guest
I already play the game, twice.

Here's my input:
1. It was little flat at the begining,
but the moment you get the blue shoes, it ramp up.

Yes, I know you have Map and Hidden treasure in between starting village and blue shoes,
but in order to give player sense of progress make map easier to reach. (your first map item kind of hard to get because of those vines)

2. I play alot of NES, but precision jumping is just frustating. Those precission jump in temple.

3. There's a bug, when you get red shoes items, and then press B button (xbox controller) and move away from the item, you get the item ability, but the item won't disapear.

4. I don't know, but when I get the red statue, I seems can't get the yellow book, so it will locked? It's by design or a glitch?

5. Those spike gaps before you get red statue, those are kind of... well... confusing?
At first, I think I can jump over those gap without speed shoes, but not.
I think making the gap wider and the celling higher so you can tell people "you can't jump here before getting red shoes".

6. Make the statue fireball more slower, or just make the statue fireball interval more longer. (maybe because the precision jumping made it bad, but I don't know)

7. Flying enemy should be killed in 1 hit, before you get some projectile attack / upwards attack. Those enemy easy to kill, but annoying...

8. After killing the red mage, you should give checkpoint, I just have only 2 health to survive on those parts.
 
A

APigeon

Guest
3. There's a bug, when you get red shoes items, and then press B button (xbox controller) and move away from the item, you get the item ability, but the item won't disapear.
It also happened to me in the tutorial but I didn't have to push anything in particular, but once you go near them again they disappear.
At the very least you still have the power-up.

4. I don't know, but when I get the red statue, I seems can't get the yellow book, so it will locked? It's by design or a glitch?
Even if you got the red statue before the book, I think you could reach the platform when the parachute will be implemented.
It seems we can only wait on this one.

8. After killing the red mage, you should give checkpoint, I just have only 2 health to survive on those parts.
You restart at the beginning of the temple if you die after having killed the red mage and entered the temple.
 

RangerX

Member
I already play the game, twice.

Here's my input:
1. It was little flat at the begining,
but the moment you get the blue shoes, it ramp up.

Yes, I know you have Map and Hidden treasure in between starting village and blue shoes,
but in order to give player sense of progress make map easier to reach. (your first map item kind of hard to get because of those vines)

2. I play alot of NES, but precision jumping is just frustating. Those precission jump in temple.

3. There's a bug, when you get red shoes items, and then press B button (xbox controller) and move away from the item, you get the item ability, but the item won't disapear.

4. I don't know, but when I get the red statue, I seems can't get the yellow book, so it will locked? It's by design or a glitch?

5. Those spike gaps before you get red statue, those are kind of... well... confusing?
At first, I think I can jump over those gap without speed shoes, but not.
I think making the gap wider and the celling higher so you can tell people "you can't jump here before getting red shoes".

6. Make the statue fireball more slower, or just make the statue fireball interval more longer. (maybe because the precision jumping made it bad, but I don't know)

7. Flying enemy should be killed in 1 hit, before you get some projectile attack / upwards attack. Those enemy easy to kill, but annoying...

8. After killing the red mage, you should give checkpoint, I just have only 2 health to survive on those parts.
Thanks for this precious feedback my friend. Again the type of feedback that is super useful !!

2 - Am interested to know which particular jump was frustrating. There's one jump questioning right now and that is the one for the first statue in the temple. I'll give you a hint though, the jump is a bit like in Donkey Kong Country, its forgiving in the sense that you can jump from a platform so late you're visually not touching it anymore. So don't fear jumping at the last moment. Its not a gameplay feature (so it will never be explained in the game) but more a "user friendly safeguard".

3 - Nice little bug. Indeed the reward was given and everything (because I do it right away when you touch the item) and the B button is for skipping the message. There was a couple of frames you could have triggered the message the skip message but would not touch the item anymore in order to trigger its visual disappearance. So now I also triggered its disappearance in the skipping message code. :)

4 - This is by design. Someone can miss the red key and get the running shoes. That person won't be able to proceed further in another temple area (coming soon! :D) but could grab the book of reading a bit a earlier than other players, which is cool trade off for someone who will have to backtrack for the red key. Else in the "normal walkthrough", you will make it through this gap and get the book easily when you'll have the double jump and/or parachute.

5 - You mean you grabbed the red key then you did backtrack to the beginning in order to break the red blocks? Being blocked by the spike is intended behavior there, this path leads to the next section right away, just like the whole long way all across the temple to get the running shoes. Later when you will backtrack, comeback for the blue blocks or just explore for secrets, this path will be useful to like skip this whole temple section in no time.

6 - Didn't you discover you can deflect the fireballs?

7 - Here again, deflect their dart towards them and its a one hit kill.

8 - Changing zones saves the game but doesn't give back your hearts indeed. Only checkpoints are giving back up to 4 hearts and when you're in low health (hearts staying on screen and animating), you have MUCH more chance for breakables to drop an heart or mobs to also drop an heart. There's a possibility though that I might make so bosses replenish your hearts when you kill them. It would feel unusual or too easy since this is a behavior seen in many games. But changing zones itself will never give health. This is far too much exploitable by the player.

thanks again for playing/helping :)


sweet new demo! I just have one suggestion: to make the sword swing in an arc, as it is kinda awkward to have the sword poke forwards to hit an enemy. Great work!
Actually its intended. In the game there won't be many weapons ('cause I don't want the game to focus/depend on that) so I am very careful to create weapons with advantages and disadvantages so the player doesn't feel too much like the next weapon necessarily replaces the previous one. I'd like the player to use the weapon swapping function.

The knife is the basic weapon. Its weak (1 damage) but it's arc let's the player attack over his head and in front, at short range. It also slices through certain things (like vines in the beginning of the game)

The sword is also weak (1 damage) but there's a 15% chance of critical hit. This does 2 damage when it happens. It also gives a better range in front for the attack. The only drawback here is you sacrifice slashing over your head.

The whip will be a very strong weapon for the scale of the game. It's slower than the knife and sword but it does 4 of damage. You also slash over your head and in front, like the knife and with a range similar to the sword. The drawback is that its just a bit slow and it doesn't slice through things like the knife and sword.

The suit will be a magical Yuree's suit that protect from extremes (heat and cold) and let's you use basic magic. The player will throw magic bullets (megaman style). The bullets are weak (0.5 damage) but you can shoot many of them. Their range is also extremely long and you can shoot underwater. So the drawback here is the weakness of the bullets (might not be good for fast bosses) and the bullet doesn't necessarily pass through breakables things. Anyhow, the suit is particular as it will greatly influence the attack gameplay AND navigation at the same time. I want to suit to be the player's favorite for exploring and returning back into previous areas.
 
Last edited:
F

Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
Hey, just played your game!
This is not the kind of game that i usually play, but i must say that i played almost 1 hour straight! I was really curious about what was going to happens next.

The atmosphere really catchs and the introduction was great.

The game already looks very solid and i did not noticed any major bugs or flaws during my gameplay.

Keep going!
 
A

ajan-ko

Guest
2. I kidda forget but there's 2 or 3 precise jumps on the temple.

The first one at the begining of the temple stage. I died so many times on that part, because I only have 2 lives, and those jumps just annoying.
upload_2017-9-28_15-33-27.png

3. ok
4. ok

5. I will explain it with picture
upload_2017-9-28_15-31-11.png

6. Yes I know I can deflect fireballs.
7. I didn't know that I can deflect darts, and bats don't have any projectile.
 
T

Tonydaderp

Guest
I think precise jumps are a good way to test the player's control over the player. You know what i mean? I dont think they are as bad as people say, but you might wanna put the tricky jumps later on in the game.
 

RangerX

Member
I think precise jumps are a good way to test the player's control over the player. You know what i mean? I dont think they are as bad as people say, but you might wanna put the tricky jumps later on in the game.
I agree with you. I think a just gonna re-draw the spitting statues. They not up to the standard I want. And they should be at least a character wide when you step on them, it makes more sense. I will change that.
 
F

FROGANUS

Guest
yoyo i ran through it again. great progress its looking great running smooth.

yeah as far as that spitting statue- yes a wider sprite would help or if you make the top of it appear a little highlighted to indicate that you can step on it (I think i remember first time trying that part puzzled me for a moment). might also just be because you're having to dodge/deflect the balls and figure this out at the same time too..

i think i mentioned before, I'm not a huge fan of rotating/scaling pixels when its not consistent and obvious but I think you've added that effect throughout a little bit more so it looks nice, However, I must say I'm still not crazy about player death animation. I don't know if you'd consider something else (i dunno what comes to mind is like a mario effect where players and enemies fall off the bottom of the screen when killed, or something..) I just think the player flattening and also the enemy energy disintegration thing, neither totally fit in with the style of the rest of the game imho..

also the slime guy has a cool 1 sprite design, but could use a couple animated sprites in addition to the simple scale wobble effect you have. (like maybe he wobbles AND bubbles a little bit out left and right here and there..)

the long jumps that I saw more comments about- maybe you could keep it as it is, but just add some little blurb in the tutorial or early game hinting towards that last second jump technique.. sorry if i missed it if you do have something like that..

can't think of much else other than it's looking great. I'll let you know if I catch any more tidbits worth mentioning.
keep it up!
 

RangerX

Member
Thanks for you encouraging feedback Froganus.
I have quite alot of fun in the graphical department of things. As you have seemed to figure out, that slime is a trip of mine where I was like "ok, I want to do a mob with no animations". I think it ended up pretty cool. Only code and one image.
On the rotating stuff department, I don't like the hardware rotations either, although it doesn't necessarily look bad. Only the swirl gates for entering levels in the challenge mode are doing it and I think, if I remember right lol, the Red Mage's magic projectiles. Anyhow, speaking of graphics, you did pinpoint another thing I am not 100% convinced about and that's my death animation for the Hero. But honestly right now its the best I have. It might change down the road. I know I reserve another big polishing phase later in development when am practically done with level design. I might get tired of that animation by then :p
 
Last edited:
F

FROGANUS

Guest
also btw its still totally missing something- what style of sound fx did you have in mind? do you wanna hire a sfx designer? >:D *vigorously spams mutate button in sfxr*
 

RangerX

Member
That's an excellent question my friend. I am waiting on a batch of sound effects from my brother right now (who's also doing the music). Sound effects are important for me but am useless at creating them. Still.
 
D

davoid

Guest
Heya! I've been playing the demo, and am currently just past the first boss.

Loving this so far, I can feel a lot of passion has gone into the development of it, and it's impressively far along!

I think I'd only have 2 suggestions/questions:

Maybe some of the earlier platforming could be a bit more forgiving? I found some sections took me quite a long time to get through, but, perhaps that's the charm of it and the intended focus is on the platforming, so it's fine.

I see controller support listed, but I never quite got it working correctly. Maybe it's my controller though, I'll test with it some more. EDIT: Nope! I'm just an idiot and my controller usb needed to be replaced.

Great work man, I've been keeping an eye on this one for awhile!
 
Last edited by a moderator:

RangerX

Member
Can you elaborate on the gamepad issue?
Was the pad working at all? Was the game giving you Xbox button names or Sony buttons names?
 
D

davoid

Guest
Works now, I went and replaced my USB chord. I find this is solving my other issue as well, just because I'm so used to controllers as my main input device.

Actually that's one thing I might pick your brain about. Differentiating between sony and xbox controllers.
 
N

Noba

Guest
Looks good, as always!

If you'd like, I can link you to a few artists who will do you soundtracks for free, granted you're not going to sell the game.
 
D

davoid

Guest
One small design thing: Before the first boss, there is a platform you can reach which, now that fall damage is included in the game, kinda forces the player into taking damage should they explore it?

Another is: the heads that shoot reflective balls at you just before and after the first boss: I assume the 2nd one has a low ceiling to force you to use the ball reflection technique, whereas the first allows you to jump over them, but, maybe have the balls fire a bit closer to the ground so they are a bit easier to strike? Just a small thing.
 

Attachments

RangerX

Member
One small design thing: Before the first boss, there is a platform you can reach which, now that fall damage is included in the game, kinda forces the player into taking damage should they explore it?

Another is: the heads that shoot reflective balls at you just before and after the first boss: I assume the 2nd one has a low ceiling to force you to use the ball reflection technique, whereas the first allows you to jump over them, but, maybe have the balls fire a bit closer to the ground so they are a bit easier to strike? Just a small thing.
Thanks, good catch. I will make so you can jump back up. I don't like to force a player to take damage and all the other falls are fine (as far as I know). I made so there's a couple of falls that are really tight though --- so you can see the little "am dizzy" animation. ;)

And yeah the time there's fireballs, you can jump over them if you're good but I want player to slash them out of the way. Can't really make it more forgiving though. I'll see. ;)

Oh alright then!
Well anyway, if you're still interested they're here;
http://freesound.org/people/eardeer/ (This one is making the ost for my game ;))
https://soundcloud.com/joshualfmitchell
Thanks for the links buddy.
 
D

davoid

Guest
Thanks, good catch. I will make so you can jump back up. I don't like to force a player to take damage and all the other falls are fine (as far as I know). I made so there's a couple of falls that are really tight though --- so you can see the little "am dizzy" animation. ;)

And yeah the time there's fireballs, you can jump over them if you're good but I want player to slash them out of the way. Can't really make it more forgiving though. I'll see. ;)
Ha ha yea, I died in the temple a few times by failing at jumps that cost me 1 heart per failure. I did look out for other situations like that.

I think... hn.. maybe offer an hp refill after the boss is defeated? Unless I missed it, I went after crates, but it was a really close call getting to the next save spot. Does it save after the boss is defeated?
 

RangerX

Member
Yes it does save. I've been debating about giving back hearts after a boss dies. That's what I might do instead of moving the next checkpoint.
 
D

davoid

Guest
Yea, I think that feels fair. After I beat the boss, I was at 2 hearts, which went down to 1 pretty quickly meeting a new enemy, which made the fireball gauntlet feel like a large difficulty spike considering I wasn't sure if had saved or not.

Maybe yea, give all hp back because the game language is "saving = heal"
 
F

FROGANUS

Guest
I felt the same strangeness in the new area after the boss, not having saved, then worrying about losing progress to some goomba, though of course its fine since you just restart room. however, i do think some sort of tranquil post-boss spot would be nice, also maybe an opportune moment for any scripted story or instructional stuff since you really have player's attention.

also btw was checking in to try a run on my 32 bit laptop but it wont run. :(
(i believe an earlier version ran on this, albeit a bit slow..)
 

RangerX

Member
I felt the same strangeness in the new area after the boss, not having saved, then worrying about losing progress to some goomba, though of course its fine since you just restart room. however, i do think some sort of tranquil post-boss spot would be nice, also maybe an opportune moment for any scripted story or instructional stuff since you really have player's attention.

also btw was checking in to try a run on my 32 bit laptop but it wont run. :(
(i believe an earlier version ran on this, albeit a bit slow..)
I would be curious to know what are the specs of that machine?
 
F

FROGANUS

Guest
well its a potatoe, lol. lenovo windows xp laptop- i wouldn't fret about it not running as its very lofi machine..
 
Wow... just wow. I have been following your thread for awhile and always admired the artwork. But, I finally played it today... it is really amazing!! The artwork, the controls, the level design (so far, I am on the stage after the Red Mage, so not that far), the music and sounds. Very fun to play. The first boss fight was great!

The only small things I could immediately:
  • Consider bringing the music volume down just a bit, it is very in your face, very strong sounding. Not a ton, just a bit lower. It is great music though...
  • There seems like there would be some times to use the W button to advance text or close dialog boxes instead of the Enter key (only because my hand is already on the WASD and having to move my right hand to the Enter key seems extraneous). I'd have to go back and play again to confirm when it happens, it was just a small mental note when I was playing. I am actually going to hook up a controller for future play, as it definitely is more suited for that.
Anyways - awesome work, I am very much a fan!
 

RangerX

Member
Wow... just wow. I have been following your thread for awhile and always admired the artwork. But, I finally played it today... it is really amazing!! The artwork, the controls, the level design (so far, I am on the stage after the Red Mage, so not that far), the music and sounds. Very fun to play. The first boss fight was great!

The only small things I could immediately:
  • Consider bringing the music volume down just a bit, it is very in your face, very strong sounding. Not a ton, just a bit lower. It is great music though...
  • There seems like there would be some times to use the W button to advance text or close dialog boxes instead of the Enter key (only because my hand is already on the WASD and having to move my right hand to the Enter key seems extraneous). I'd have to go back and play again to confirm when it happens, it was just a small mental note when I was playing. I am actually going to hook up a controller for future play, as it definitely is more suited for that.
Anyways - awesome work, I am very much a fan!
Wow, always make my day when someone like it that much! :D
As for skipping/proceeding to next message, you can use "Enter" for convenience but it's also W (up).
 

RangerX

Member
Hi all,
There are some changes I've been undertaking while I am quite full time in level design process lately. I thought I'd share since those changes are definetely according your feedback.


1) Defeating a boss will give back 4 hearts, just like a checkpoint.
I thought this was really fair because after all, those battles will be more demanding than others and since there's a room change after most bosses, the game will save itself. Sucks to save with one heart and I don't want to put cheesy checkpoints right beside room changes. And to make the save process more clear on top of that, it brings the second point:


2) When the game saves, there will be a message on screen.
I don't know if that message is in its final form or will become some icon in the future but the decision was to make a visual confirmation the game saved. So basically you will notice the game saves at only 2 times: On checkpoints and on zone change. I am yet undecided if I am gonna put the message in the Challenge Mode though. Its pretty obvious the game saves after your complete a level.




3) New Spitter statues!
The statues were itching me since a little while. Also, most people playing the game has been commenting them so I thought I should fix that for good. Now the spitting statues are a bit larger, easier to step on their heads and they fit more gracefully with the environement. There will be multiple versions of it throughout the game but this gives an example of how they are now.




So that's all for now folks. I guess I will be a little while in the dark before updating this demo.
Right now I am drawing and designing the next zone "Ezuma's Temple - Main Chambers" and its going pretty well. Its fun to see how the game evolves even from my original plans because my own ability to make good level design improves over time and the more I dance with this game. Am super happy you guys are having fun playing this project but you can be sure as hell I have an incredible time creating it! :)

see y'all soon,
 
F

flaame1979

Guest
I can't even install it.... Windows is giving me an incompatibility error. Is this set to somehow not run on 64-bit windows? I wouldn't think it owuld matter so much on smaller programs...
 

RangerX

Member
Dying Silence, can you give me the details of your setup? (win version, hardware, graphic card, memory, etc)
You can pm me that if you want. I'm curious what might cause this, its like the textures pages are messed up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 607
E

elsi11

Guest
Hey, man!

I tried to break your game again, but it didn't take much work. Hopefully noone already posted about this :p
Whenever I have my generic controller plugged in, and try to pick up an item (worked with both yellow and red idols in training level, as well as the map item in the story)

############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object obj_AutoText:
Variable obj_AutoText.Joystick_Dinput(100602, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_AutoText_Draw_
############################################################################################

Maybe you can figure out the problem.

Also, your story intro has a couple of small grammatical mistakes. I can try to fix them for you if you send me the text.
Also, in the credits, there are "people that are important TO you".
But it's kind of endearing, having a few mistakes. Maybe you should leave it like that.

I'll report back when I retrace my steps with the keyboard :p
 

RangerX

Member
Hey! Thanks alot Elsi11 :)
Its a good crash because I just had redone the gamepad support and looks like I made a mistake in the object that is managing text boxes. Easy to fix but very important.
For the text I will have a pass at some point, fixing it all at once or almost all at once. I might need help though since English is only my second language.
 
Top