First impression was very nice. The controls feel great and intuitive for the most part, and I love how the main character is animated and how he changes expressions when doing stuff like jumping or walking slow.
Played with autocam. Didn't have any major trouble with it besides getting stuck a few times, but that only happened when I was actually trying to get it stuck.
Since the controls underwater are inverted by default, everytime I ran into a body of water while running I would instantly dive to the bottom. I was playing with run toggle off because that seemed more natural to me, but it caused that issue (for me). Changing it to not-inverted fixed the issue.
Also, I wasn't able to get the hang of wall-running for the life of me in TTC, but I did manage it on Mt. Energy without too much trouble. Still, I'd suggest a little tutorial for that, didn't feel intuitive at first.
Some things I loved:
The level design of My. Energy. Spaced enough to allow me to run, explore and experiment with the moveset, but not spaced enough to make it feel empty.
Being able to do air dashes. That's always fun.
The way the MC comes out of the water like a dolphin.
Platform challenges are varied and FUN.
Suggestions:
Send enemies flying when they die. Right now kill them is not satisfying.
When landing on a body of water, don't set the vertical velocity to 0 but instead make the player keep some of that momentum as it goes underwater and float back up. Would feel much more natural and satisfying.
Ledge grabbing seems to have a delay between grabbing the ledge and being able to climb at. This kills the pace a bit when climbing boxes in TTC, for example.
Things I've missed:
A switch to fullscreen mode.
Enemies whenever you make me wait for some platform to come, like in the Energy Plant on those lava geisers. Waiting for platforms is always boring, and having a few enemies on those could help with that.
Bugs?
The "Goal get!" jingle seems to not be related to the Music Volume slider. That almost blew up my eardrums, but I was happy for having got a goal so it compensates. :)
When dashing mid air, the collision on some wall failed and I glitched through the scenario. Ended up here, and I was stuck so I had to restart the level.
And this is the wall I went through by air dashing into it:
Also clipped through this little limiter and ended up here:
Game ran perfectly the whole time and, while some aspects like me not knowing how to properly wall run at first frustrated me a bit, I still had a lot of fun with the Energy Plant being my favorite part by far. The responsiveness of the character controller is great and the music is catchy, specially inside the power plant where I had to turn the volume up again lol. I got 4 Goals on TTC (I saw a 5th one but didn't know how to get it) and 11 in Mt. Energy. Missed the one that seems related to invisible walls and platforms, didn't figure that one out.
I'm itching to see where you take this. The core is fun for sure, and I'd say I had a great time while playing your game. Keep at it, and good job man!
First off, thank you for taking the time to give such a thorough and insightful review, TintoDev. You make very good points.
-I am glad you were okay with the Guided Cam. I have gotten a lot of complaints on it, which i have worked on, so for someone to say it's okay is a complement ha ha.
-So, I feel like the issue with the swim controls thing is that I equate that dolphin swim with a run, meaning if you were holding run, it would just dolphin swim. So, to fix your issue that bothered other people as well, I change the dolphin swim to the Dash button, instead of run. I tested it, and it feels much more intuitive to control, especially when you get in and out of the water.
-I plan on making a tutorial level. See the signs I have at the beginning telling you to go up the wall? I didn't have those in the original Demo, so several people didn't go up the wall and quit after not getting anywhere in the game. You're right in that it might not be intuitive at first, but I think that it becomes second nature after the initial two walls, because it's the point of the game, you know? It's more "Fast Mario who can run up walls" than it is "Sonic", at least in level design.
-"Send enemies flying when they die" That does sound better. I'll probably implement this.
-You're not the first person to complain about specifically the ledge grabbing. I'll work on it.
-I'm glad you had fun! Also, the lava section's music is my favorite as well. I thought the guitar/harmonica was a weird combo with the lava, but it worked.
I will try to implement some of the changes you suggest. Thanks!
Sorry man, but I didn't figure out the wallrun. I did find the invisible platforms, but I find them annoying in general (in most platforms).
Other than that - it works. Movement seems fine, and automatic camera works well for the most time.
The image tutorial does not stick to memory - maybe you could explain it better with some sort of environmental tutorial or something? I felt that every time I tried looking at that tutorial - I got more confused at what can and cannot be done.
Amazing progress Osh! I loved the new level. Your level design is really great!
I was able to find 12 goals, and beat the boss. I didn't picked up all the yellow coins. So maybe there was an extra goal for 100 coins? Let me know how far I was from 100%.
Things that you are probably aware: The camera is still a bit jittery, and geting stuck on things ocasionally.
I had a bit of trouble with the yellow bounce pads. The air control is, how can I put it, the character needs to go forward to turn, like a car or a plane. Maybe increase the rotation speed in the air a bit to make it easier.
Also, the game needs Coyote Time. The hability to jump a couple of frames after starting to fall, to make jumps more lenient, especially since Osh can move so fast when you tap the (on PS4) square button.
It means a lot to me for you to comment on the level design. It's all I've been working on the last couple months, so it's nice to hear my hard work has paid off.
You got 100% because I messed up and made two of the goals have the same ID, so getting one deletes the other lol. Oops.
I believe the gameplay styles I am trying to merge are at odds, here, as the momentum based gameplay I am trying to make seems to be fighting with the traditional platforming. It's a real balancing act. I think the right solution here is that I've made it so that the Bounce pads now stop your forward momentum. This will help a lot because at 0 "forward" speed, you have instant turning radius, and you accelerate quite quickly, so it won't kill your gameplay too much.
I will work on adding Coyote Time. It's difficult with how I programmed the game, but I will try.
I found 10 goals, beat the boss and I had fun in the place with lava. Very solid gameplay, there are some bugs like: when you are in a moving platform, is the movement it's upward, jumps can glitch/cancel themself.
By the way, I was always curious from the webms if a 2D head really worked well with a 3D body, now that I played the game myself for the first time I see that it works well because you made many angles to those faces, that's nice. I saw there is a NPC inside the windmill, are you gonna make the same for them? (2D faces with 3D bodies)
Excellent! I am happy you had fun. The boss was done in the last two weeks and had very little big testing, so hopefully that went well. Thank you very much for playing!
It's good you found those. It's my fault for not explicitly stating it, but the central gimmick of the game is the you can run up slopes and walls. The wall next to the bounce goal can be ran up, which brings you to the rest of the stage. I thought the level design led to that, but sadly you are now the second person of two who was confused by that, which is my fault.
Comments
Finally got to try your game!
First impression was very nice. The controls feel great and intuitive for the most part, and I love how the main character is animated and how he changes expressions when doing stuff like jumping or walking slow.
Played with autocam. Didn't have any major trouble with it besides getting stuck a few times, but that only happened when I was actually trying to get it stuck.
Since the controls underwater are inverted by default, everytime I ran into a body of water while running I would instantly dive to the bottom. I was playing with run toggle off because that seemed more natural to me, but it caused that issue (for me). Changing it to not-inverted fixed the issue.
Also, I wasn't able to get the hang of wall-running for the life of me in TTC, but I did manage it on Mt. Energy without too much trouble. Still, I'd suggest a little tutorial for that, didn't feel intuitive at first.
Some things I loved:
Suggestions:
Things I've missed:
Bugs?
Also clipped through this little limiter and ended up here:
Game ran perfectly the whole time and, while some aspects like me not knowing how to properly wall run at first frustrated me a bit, I still had a lot of fun with the Energy Plant being my favorite part by far. The responsiveness of the character controller is great and the music is catchy, specially inside the power plant where I had to turn the volume up again lol. I got 4 Goals on TTC (I saw a 5th one but didn't know how to get it) and 11 in Mt. Energy. Missed the one that seems related to invisible walls and platforms, didn't figure that one out.
I'm itching to see where you take this. The core is fun for sure, and I'd say I had a great time while playing your game. Keep at it, and good job man!
First off, thank you for taking the time to give such a thorough and insightful review, TintoDev. You make very good points.
-I am glad you were okay with the Guided Cam. I have gotten a lot of complaints on it, which i have worked on, so for someone to say it's okay is a complement ha ha.
-So, I feel like the issue with the swim controls thing is that I equate that dolphin swim with a run, meaning if you were holding run, it would just dolphin swim. So, to fix your issue that bothered other people as well, I change the dolphin swim to the Dash button, instead of run. I tested it, and it feels much more intuitive to control, especially when you get in and out of the water.
-I plan on making a tutorial level. See the signs I have at the beginning telling you to go up the wall? I didn't have those in the original Demo, so several people didn't go up the wall and quit after not getting anywhere in the game. You're right in that it might not be intuitive at first, but I think that it becomes second nature after the initial two walls, because it's the point of the game, you know? It's more "Fast Mario who can run up walls" than it is "Sonic", at least in level design.
-"Send enemies flying when they die" That does sound better. I'll probably implement this.
-You're not the first person to complain about specifically the ledge grabbing. I'll work on it.
-I'm glad you had fun! Also, the lava section's music is my favorite as well. I thought the guitar/harmonica was a weird combo with the lava, but it worked.
I will try to implement some of the changes you suggest. Thanks!
Sorry man, but I didn't figure out the wallrun. I did find the invisible platforms, but I find them annoying in general (in most platforms).
Other than that - it works. Movement seems fine, and automatic camera works well for the most time.
The image tutorial does not stick to memory - maybe you could explain it better with some sort of environmental tutorial or something? I felt that every time I tried looking at that tutorial - I got more confused at what can and cannot be done.
Amazing progress Osh! I loved the new level. Your level design is really great!
I was able to find 12 goals, and beat the boss. I didn't picked up all the yellow coins. So maybe there was an extra goal for 100 coins? Let me know how far I was from 100%.
Things that you are probably aware: The camera is still a bit jittery, and geting stuck on things ocasionally.
I had a bit of trouble with the yellow bounce pads. The air control is, how can I put it, the character needs to go forward to turn, like a car or a plane. Maybe increase the rotation speed in the air a bit to make it easier.
Also, the game needs Coyote Time. The hability to jump a couple of frames after starting to fall, to make jumps more lenient, especially since Osh can move so fast when you tap the (on PS4) square button.
Those are mine 2 cents! Keep up the great work!
It means a lot to me for you to comment on the level design. It's all I've been working on the last couple months, so it's nice to hear my hard work has paid off.
You got 100% because I messed up and made two of the goals have the same ID, so getting one deletes the other lol. Oops.
I believe the gameplay styles I am trying to merge are at odds, here, as the momentum based gameplay I am trying to make seems to be fighting with the traditional platforming. It's a real balancing act. I think the right solution here is that I've made it so that the Bounce pads now stop your forward momentum. This will help a lot because at 0 "forward" speed, you have instant turning radius, and you accelerate quite quickly, so it won't kill your gameplay too much.
I will work on adding Coyote Time. It's difficult with how I programmed the game, but I will try.
Thanks for playing my game, Mel!
I found 10 goals, beat the boss and I had fun in the place with lava. Very solid gameplay, there are some bugs like: when you are in a moving platform, is the movement it's upward, jumps can glitch/cancel themself.
By the way, I was always curious from the webms if a 2D head really worked well with a 3D body, now that I played the game myself for the first time I see that it works well because you made many angles to those faces, that's nice. I saw there is a NPC inside the windmill, are you gonna make the same for them? (2D faces with 3D bodies)
Anyways, good demo, keep the good work.
Excellent! I am happy you had fun. The boss was done in the last two weeks and had very little big testing, so hopefully that went well. Thank you very much for playing!
I should have patented baseball bats earlier.
I watched your video. I really enjoyed the part where you beat the boss and proceeded to T-bag ha ha. Thanks for playing!
It's good you found those. It's my fault for not explicitly stating it, but the central gimmick of the game is the you can run up slopes and walls. The wall next to the bounce goal can be ran up, which brings you to the rest of the stage. I thought the level design led to that, but sadly you are now the second person of two who was confused by that, which is my fault.
I kept thinking, "charge in place" move would shoot me up the wall like a sonic charge. but it wasn't how it works I guess.