Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

[Indigo]

Hey Howard.  This is looking great.  I have some critique which may be completely irrelevant, but maybe useful none the less.  I've been playing with some overall image processing of your game - much like one would for photography - and I've got some interesting results.

It seems like if you spend some time post-render to really process these assets, you may come up with a really unique and unified look.  Here was one of my tests for example:


(before processing)

[Conceit]

Conceit: Thanks, man. For te record, I've always intended to program this sucker myself. I'm gonna use MMF2 since I'm a klick'nplay user from waay back when, and that cause/effect mentality is one I understand well.

=O hell yes  

PS: I LOVE that caterrpillar, the strangest of places is EXACTLY where to get your inspiration

PS2: (lulz) you're gonna regret not giving the gorilla moving shoulders I tell ya! :p

[Howard Day]

Super Awesome Update time! I've spent the weekend putting together the first run test of the game. And here it is!
http://www.hedfiles.net/AETest.zip (12MB) Unzips into a self-contained EXE.
Things you can do in this demo:
Run around (arrow keys)
Jump - Up arrow, no animation or behaviour for this as of yet, I am currently working on this.
Fire - left mouse button
Watch pretty explosions
Exit using Alt-F4!!

New things in this demo:
PlayApe's got an idle animation now
New animated cursor
New animated Flags
New animated foliage (foreground only, I'd appreciate some feedback on whether or not the background plates need it too)
Assorted other fixes and tweaks.

There's a whole lot missing from this - Enemies, Health, Menus, Save/Load, Dialogs of any sort, and any kinda of actual gameplay. This is only intended to show you that I am indeed working on this, and give a current state of my progress.
Not bad for a couple days in MMF2, huh?
Thoughts?

[Indigo]

holy crap - a way to close the fetching program would have been nice.  even when I alt-tabbed out of the application, my mouse wouldn't move from the center of the screen so I cound't control my task manager.  I tried every button I could imagine to close the program.

[Howard Day]

Alt-F4 should do the trick. The next version will have a menu. Apologies.

[9_6]

Make the next version either windowed or stretch proportionally for people without widescreens too.
Cause it looks terribly squashed over here.

[Konrad]

ALT-F4 works fine. Looks really promising .

[skeme_IN5]

all i can say is...WOW! absolutely amazing.
if this game gets finished it will be effing awesome!
theres a few bugs/glitches i found although i know the real purpose of this demo was just to show the graphics and animation etc.
1) i cant jump straight up in the air, only forwards or backwards(this maybe a problem with my keyboard though)
2) sometimes the animation on the foliage doesnt work.

[Howard Day]

Okay, NOW it's superduper update time.
http://www.hedfiles.net/AEwithmenu.zip 12MB Unzip into directory...
Changes:
Hitting "Esc" now pauses the game and brings up a menu. The options here control the display settings, resume the game, and quit. There's a fourth option for a help menu, but it's non-functional at this time. Click on the ViewMode selector to change your display setting - if it's different than what you already have, when you hit "resume" it will ask you to confirm.
When you're in the game itself I've also enabled a temp shortcut for this, should the menu not function properly (more leftover from my previous bugtesting, as is that little counter in the pause menu) Hitting 1,2,3 will switch between Normal, 2X Zoom, and Fullscreen options.
KNOWN BUGS!
The confirm dialog pop up will not scale properly to other display modes besides "Normal". I am working on this, and I think I have a solution - I just need to get home and try it out.

9_6: it shouldn't be squashed...I look into a proportional fullscreen option.
Konrad: Thanks. You now have a QUIT option as well!
skeme_IN5: Thanks! For the jumping, I'm currently using the out-of-the-box platformer movement that comes with MMF2. This is going to need to change. On the foliage side...out of curiosity, is it the plants on the extreme right of the level? If so, I've simply not gotten there with the plant animations yet. You might have noticed the lack of moving flags as well.

Still looking for feedback on the foliage - do the background plates also need animated foliage?

Alright guys, keep all the awesome feedback coming!

[skeme_IN5]

Okay, NOW it's superduper update time.
http://www.hedfiles.net/AEwithmenu.zip 12MB Unzip into directory...
Changes:
Hitting "Esc" now pauses the game and brings up a menu. The options here control the display settings, resume the game, and quit. There's a fourth option for a help menu, but it's non-functional at this time. Click on the ViewMode selector to change your display setting - if it's different than what you already have, when you hit "resume" it will ask you to confirm.
When you're in the game itself I've also enabled a temp shortcut for this, should the menu not function properly (more leftover from my previous bugtesting, as is that little counter in the pause menu) Hitting 1,2,3 will switch between Normal, 2X Zoom, and Fullscreen options.
KNOWN BUGS!
The confirm dialog pop up will not scale properly to other display modes besides "Normal". I am working on this, and I think I have a solution - I just need to get home and try it out.

9_6: it shouldn't be squashed...I look into a proportional fullscreen option.
Konrad: Thanks. You now have a QUIT option as well!
skeme_IN5: Thanks! For the jumping, I'm currently using the out-of-the-box platformer movement that comes with MMF2. This is going to need to change. On the foliage side...out of curiosity, is it the plants on the extreme right of the level? If so, I've simply not gotten there with the plant animations yet. You might have noticed the lack of moving flags as well.

Still looking for feedback on the foliage - do the background plates also need animated foliage?

Alright guys, keep all the awesome feedback coming!

yeah, its just at the end of the level.  i should have realized lol
about the background foliage - i thinks its ok as it is now as it kind of makes the background look farther back. i think adding animation may give an undesired illusion of the background looking closer.
its hard to tell really. it'd be better if you just did another demo WITH the animated background foliage just to be sure. it may end up looking better.
ok, im off to check the demo.

[Howard Day]

Well, I finally worked all the bugs in the menus out - should work flawlessly at all resolutions. I also did a bunch of polish work, cursors, animations, that sort of thing.
http://www.hedfiles.net/AEupdate.zip 13.85MB
Updated in this version:
Movement keys changed to WASD
Updated menus
Volume control
Enhanced flash effects on the weapons and explosions

Next up on the list:
Correct movement animations for the main character.
First enemy type: The RollyPollyBot.
Correct spawning behaviour
Visible In-game HUD with health, score, and heat monitors.
Intro, Main menu.

In that order... I think.
Thoughts?

[Conceit]

man, in motion it looks mighty great....specially the paralax in the background gains a whole lot more life

The gun and the shots also look great, I think the explosion might be a bit much for this? I think u should go for something that keeps the same size the bullet had....might get confusing in practice with all those explosions.

Also, are you settling with fullscreen or windowed? fullscreen the fuzzy parts are more visible and all the shifting pixelsl in the gorilla's fur gets a bit distracting, and I still think the gorilla looks cluttered, it's more visible up close like that.

If you're planning to fix the animations, I really really reccomend you make the shoulders quite moveable, a gorilla has a LOT of movement there, not only when he walks but when he jumps and when he does anything.

Gameplaywise, is the gorilla going to stomp the enemies he lands on? because if he's not it might be annoying to jump and not be able to aim downwards.

keep it up, amazing progress!

[Jad]

I feel that the bullets have too much .. form and definition? I want to see them as BLURS OF POWER that just zoom into their target for DEADLY DAMAGE DESTRUCTIONS

the sorta zigzaggy quality they have .. If I were to hand-animate a bullet flying somewhere I wouldn't draw it with that kind of shape. It .. slows it down and makes it feel strobey - something that can be offset by just streamlining the bullet more with the direction it's travelling ...

I think? I'm trying to describe a stomach feeling here @ D @;

[Howard Day]

Conceit: Well, that gun is one of the very best weapons in the game - It's meant to feel EXTREMELY powerful, and a little bit of confusion isn't too much to ask for that level of firepower if you ask me. As for the resolution, the target platform is the PSP.  So Normal mode on a standard 1650x1080 wide-screen is about the pixel density I'm looking for. I agree that the monkey needs work. I'll definitely be putting in some shoulder movement, and probably toning down some of the detail on him.  Less furry sparkle, and I need to re-do his face to be completely animated. As it stands it's...not. Also, when in mid-air, you'll have the option of double-jumping, or doing a ground pound that throws up some AOE damage.
Jad: MOTION BLUR! Yes! Good call. I'll put that in tonight.

[Howard Day]

Well, I lied. I wound up fleshing out the animated background, taking some of Indigo's Crits and trying to separate the foreground and background more - I went warmer in tone than what he did, but it did end up fairly close.
http://www.hedfiles.net/AEupdate2.zip 13.25MB
Updated in this version:
Updated menus with Bugs
New weapon fire - with motion blur.
Fleshed out all the animated foliage.
Added bugs around the flowers
Update the flags.

Next up on the list:
Correct movement animations for the main character.
First enemy type: The RollyPollyBot.
Correct spawning behaviour
Visible In-game HUD with health, score, and heat monitors.
Intro, Main menu.

This time I promise.
Any thoughts?

[sculptedpixel]

NICE UPDATE!    I really dig the fireflies in the menu.  The - butterflies?  - magenta/purple flying thingies in level - I think they work pretty well but I think you have too many in each little flock.  Everything else looks good, looks like it's coming along.  Nice!

re:  I asked you what AA, you said Blackman at twice res then re-sized - what do you do the scaling in, max (ie, video post) or photoshop or?  Thanks!

[Indigo]

You know, in all honesty I think the small canvas size is holding the quality of this game back.  games at this res in full screen look good when they've been pixel-pushed - but to make high-res graphics, scale them down, then scale it up again to be full screen - where is the sense in that?  I feel you may as well do a high-res game with this art.  I think it feels much too messy/jaggy at such a small res.  Would it be too much to ask you to throw together a mockup with high-res assets so I can evaluate?

[Howard Day]

sculptedpixel: Thanks. Good call on the butterflies. they are indeed overboard. The newest update fixes that, and also makes the little buggers stay around the flowers. For the re-scale, I use a batch action in photoshop. I export all my outputs from MAX into a "convert" directory, then tell Photoshop to do it's thing on everything in that directory. Pretty quick, actually!
Indigo: Well, like I said, this is designed for the PSP. Those various viewing modes are for PC users only. As for putting together a highres version? That's unlikely. I'd pretty much have to re-do a hue amount of work, and I really doubt it would look as good when I finished. I've been carefully tailoring the level of detail for the half-res end result.

This is the latest version!
http://www.hedfiles.net/AEupdate3.zip 13.25MB

Known issues:
There's nothing to shoot at quite yet.
The GunApe doesn't animate properly when jumping, runnning backwards, or doing anything other than standing still or running forwards.
The Menu options "Credits" and "How to Play" do nothing.

Updated in this version:
Fixed the butterfly motion and behaviour.
New camera system, has some ease-in-ease-out. Much easier on the eyes.
New intro
If you stand idle for too long, a GO! prompt pops up!
Fixed a bunch of haze effect problems.

Currently working on: The GunApe's animations, model.

Next up on the list:
First enemy type: The RollyPollyBot.
Correct spawning behaviour
Visible In-game HUD with health, score, and heat monitors.
Intro, Main menu.

Any thoughts?

[twodayslate]

I really like when you shoot the bugs they disappear. You probably won't notice this in game but it is the little things that add up! Good job!

[Howard Day]

Twodayslate: Thanks. It's my hope that eventually, *all* the bugs will disappear when you shoot them

http://www.hedfiles.net/AEUpdate5.exe
Known issues:
The GunApe doesn't animate properly when jumping, running backwards, or doing anything other than standing still or running forwards.
The Menu options "Credits" and "How to Play" do nothing.
Some framerate issues - odd, since they don't seem to be related directly to the new enemies...

Updated in this version:
Fixed the butterfly motion and behaviour.
New camera system, has some ease-in-ease-out. Much easier on the eyes.
New intro
If you stand idle for too long, a GO! prompt pops up!
Fixed a bunch of haze effect problems.
First Enemy type, the rollypollyBOT has been implemented!
Player health has been added
Lots of other tweaks...

Currently working on: The GunApe's animations, model. Sorta stalled on the new face model. I get the feeling that's gonna take a while to get right.

Next up on the list:
Complete the visible In-game HUD with health, score, and heat monitors.
Intro, Main menu.

Any thoughts?

[Ninja Crow]

Hi HD!

I was linked here from http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9818 on the Pixel Joint forums, and just about had a heart attack!  I don't know if I've just been leading a sheltered life, or what, but this is probably the most impressive stuff I've ever seen.  Without the probably.

I didn't even notice the link to the movie clip that inspired this until after I had fallen into complete love with this project.  Thus, I have no qualms whatsoever with any of the conceptual decisions you've made.  I instantly read the environment as a colony on an alien world and was rather gobsmacked by the visually arresting look of the orange and white concrete and paint style, garnished so well with the great foliage.

And then, to add to this feast, came that wonderful player character!  A vision in blue and white to perfectly complement the red enemies.  How did you know that the gorilla was my favourite primate?  They have such power, grace, and soul - and are far more lovable and sympathetic than, say, chimps, even though they aren't as closely related to us.  And decked out in that full rig of armour - I tell you it's hard to come across something that really stands out when you get bombarded daily with countless amounts of visual information online, but your PlayApe stopped me cold, cleared my buffers, and made me take notice.  (though I really miss the shoulder armour that balanced the design style, and helped the character read as some kind of transorganic living vehicle - there's just not enough blue and white on the body without it!)

I love how the rendering, and resolution, give this all the charm of a classic sidescroller (I'm a SNES and Mega Drive guy, I have to admit, and pine for the 'glory days' of pixelled gaming) but with the eye-popping benefits of modern 3-D graphics (though having to chase down those dratted orbs every time they pop is a little annoying...).

Most of all I'm impressed by how quickly the project has advanced, and the dedication you've shown to it (I'm all too familiar with the endless stream of unfinished mockups posted all over online that never even progress to a playable demo).

My only regret is that I'm not yet accomplished enough for my praise to be as significant as I want it to be!  I'm just a writer, artist, and game designer trying to learn pixelling so I can branch into making my own games - but now I know it's people like you I'm trying to become as good as!

Love love love this!
Please please please keep it coming!

Hotly Anticipating in Eagerville,
JD

[Howard Day]

Ninja Crow: Thanks for the enthusiasm, man - I'm really happy people are getting a kick out of this. It's a lot of fun on my end, and it's good to know that's coming though.

Tasty, Tasty Update time!
http://www.hedfiles.net/AEUpdate6.exe -15.5MB
Known issues:
The GunApe doesn't animate properly when jumping, running backwards, or doing anything other than standing still or running forwards.
The Menu options "Credits" and "How to Play" do nothing.
Some framerate issues...not as bad as they have been, tracking them down further.

Updated in this version:
BumbleBot Added! HE LIVES!
New intro logo...mebe temporary, but I kinda like it...
Lots of other tweaks...

Currently working on: The GunApe's animations, model. Sorta stalled on the new face model. I get the feeling that's gonna take a while to get right.

Next up on the list:
Complete the visible In-game HUD with health, score, and heat monitors.
Intro, Main menu.

I should mention that I got levels of difficulty working - it's currently hard-coded to the hardest, but it's in there and it works!
Thoughts?

[twodayslate]

I like the firefly intro. Just need to clean it up a bit perhaps but I love the idea.

I think you need an alternative explosion for the flying things. The same one repeating over and over again gets kinda boring.

What do you think of when the flying things explode on the ground that they kill the rollie guys? Or hurts them a little at least.

[Jad]

<MUCH TEXT AND LOVE>

Love love love this!
Please please please keep it coming!

Hotly Anticipating in Eagerville,
JD

Haha, this is fantastic! You know how us mods enforce a sorta fuzzy 'no asspats'-rule? THIS IS SUCH AN EXPLOSIVE EXCEPTION

is people were this detailed with their 'asspats' then that rule would be turned completely obsolete. Haha

[Ninja Crow]

Jad:  Thank you

Howard Day:  The new intro rocks (love that developer name) and the idea of the floating fireflies is also nice (you see, it's thoughtful details like this that convince me our relationship will be a good one!) but I couldn't tell whether they were being sucked into the words or being bug-zapped on them.

Bumblebot is such an awesome creation - a triumph of design and animation - and he's way fun to obliterate, too!  I just noticed, though, when you're shooting at enemies that those amazing explosions are too big against their bodies, and should be smaller so you can see what's going on - until they blow up, of course, which requires the biggest bang you can find!  (oops, it's only for large groups - when they're on their own there is actually an awesome-looking pulse for hitting them.  Sorry, man!  )

I don't know if you noticed, but the 'T' key makes an explosion under the reticle.

These observations are mostly just to show I'm paying careful attention - they're certainly not show-stoppers - so please ignore them if you think they'll get in the way of your momentum.  Just about any tiny detail can be fixed in 'post' after the rapid prototyping stage where enough work is done that no one doubts it can be wrapped up easily (I wish Christmas presents wrapped up easily...).

Speaking of the game, I hope you keep a PC version, because I don't have a PSP!

[sculptedpixel]

Holy crap that's great Howard!  It's really coming together.  What's next on your list - enemies, player character animations?  You're building this for psp distro - is there a marketplace for indy dev on psp via psn?

I actually have hacked up pspdisp on an old psp to test games built / prototyped in flash - in usb mode it works pretty well. 

Every time I come through this thread I'm blown away.  Keep it up.

[Howard Day]

twodayslate: Thanks. Both of those suggestions are in - variation for the explosions, and splash damage when they hit the ground bots...
Jad: Exuberance!
Ninja Crow: Thanks again! When the sound is added, it'll be clear that the bugs are getting zapped. The "T" key is an outdated  test key to try out alternative explosions anywhere on the screen. I'll remove it in the next release. At this point I have no solid plans for a PSP release - It's more of a personal arbitrary choice and imitation.
sculptedpixel: Mainly player animations. The goal is to eventually release on the PSP - the road to that is extremely long and unlikely, though.

Super Succulent Update time!
http://www.hedfiles.net/AEUpdate8 -40MB - BROKEN LINK CRASH BUG
Known issues:
The GunApe doesn't animate properly when jumping, running backwards, or doing anything other than standing still or running forwards.
The Menu options "Credits" and "How to Play" do nothing.
Jump is disabled...for the time being.

Updated in this version:
updated intro logo...cleaned up a bit
Inserted temp intro video - accounts for much of the 40mb file size. Future example releases will not include this.
Added Heat Gauge - your gun now heats you up - overuse it, and you'll cause damage to yourself.
Hugely updated the background art - lots more variation.
The health and heat gauges fade out when not in use
Adjusted firepower ratios for the DualShok Cannon
Lots of minor under-the-hood tweaks.

Currently working on: The player model and movement in general. I just can't seem to wrap my head around the monkey - I'm having a lot of trouble getting into doing a relatively complete remodel...

Next up on the list:
Complete the visible In-game HUD with the score and life counters
Intro, Main menu.

Thoughts?

[Ninja Crow]

Oh man, a broken link!  (and I been starvin' myself all week so I could splurge)

If you don't mind something fiddly, I noticed in the previous build that the exclaimer in the 'Mission Start!' is hard to read, because the diagonal stripes hide the break between the bar and the dot.

Can you specify a bit more about your troubles with the monkey?  Is it how to animate (as in, where should the arms be in each frame) or a technical issue (something in your 3-D modelling programme) or is it design (legs aren't the right length/shape/colour/whatever) or what, exactly?  Is it the face?  That monkey face is pretty small - I don't think you could read its expression unless it was exaggerated like a Mario character anyway - the devil is in the details, and this would bedevil me if I didn't save it for last.  How explosive are you imagining the final movement abilities of the monkey?  Can he leap around like in a comic book?  Yeah, I guess you could say I'm really interested.

Speaking of jumping, I'm also interested in how that will work.  Will there be a variable jump height?  Air friction?  Air drift?  When he reverses direction will there be turn friction?  (I consider these things to be the essential platformer elements, and demand them for platformer engines, but I don't know how much of a platformer you're looking at this being.)

Thanks.
[chants 'fix link, fix link!']

[Howard Day]

Thanks, Ninja. So the link is broken for a reason - if you don't have some obscure version of Quicktime installed it crashes. Thanks MMF2! For the troubles on the monkey - I need to re-make the face to be more expressive, animated, and generally better. The monkey himself also needs modifications for animation (mostly done) and alter the model to have a visible radiator on the back (like a backpack) to represent the heat sinks... For the movements, he will be able to jump around quite a bit, double-jumping and ground-pounds and the like, but I'm not going to get too crazy...
I'll re-export the game with no intro tonight, that should fix all the many issues.

[Howard Day]

http://www.hedfiles.net/AEUpdate9.exe - 20MB!
Updated in this version:
updated intro logo...cleaned up a bit
Added Heat Gauge - your gun now heats you up - overuse it, and you'll cause damage to yourself.
Hugely updated the background art - lots more variation.
The health and heat gauges fade out when not in use
Adjusted firepower ratios for the DualShok Cannon
Lots of minor under-the-hood tweaks.
Non-moving vertical jump now works perfectly.

Currently working on: The player model and movement in general.
Next up on the list:
Complete the visible In-game HUD with the score and life counters
Intro, Main menu.

Thoughts?

[CrazyMLC]

The overheating bar takes up too much space on the screen in my opinion. I'd love to be able to see the health bar even when it isn't going down.

I think you should start thinking about music and sound effects.

[Konrad]

Really nice, it's coming together .
A little criticism:
- the heat gauge is too big and doesn't fit the rest of the hud, IMO you should think about a redesign
- make energy bar and heat gauge always visible

And a suggestion :
- I'm a fan of Walker for Amiga. I like it that you can't fire when the guns overheat.

[Ninja Crow]

This is darn sweet.

But I need a health refill item to make it to the end of the level!  (a 'mission complete' when you reach the end would also be fun.)

If you walk off the left edge of the screen, you can't walk back (this is probably just a nitpick that doesn't need immediate addressing).

I'm also interested in your thoughts behind the jumping - what is the philosophy behind speed/gravity/height, &c.  What drives the 'feel' of the jump?

[sculptedpixel]

Cool stuff Howard.  I'm a big fan of the gameplay concept that the heat-meter provides, but I gotta say, the 'oven-burner-meter' thingy isn't working for me.  It's very hard to estimate, as the meter approaches full, how many shots = a rotation around the curve, and how quickly it dissipates / cools down;  something easier to read would work better imho.  Love the details, love the intro-screen, keep it coming.

[Howard Day]

CrazyMLC: Yeah, that heat gauge looked waay better in my head. I've updated it. I've been talking to the Hyperduck guys about sound effects and music - I dunno if that's gonna go anywhere, but it's a start, at least.
Konrad: Fixed, and It was a total pain in the ass to get those two little bastards to go away when not being used...but I can see where you're coming from. I'll take that out. And the guns should be disabled when overheated. Check.
Ninja Crow: Thanks! Try jumping around like a retarded weasel. That seems to help. I'll be fixing the myriad of collision issues this weekend, and that includes putting in a Success! screen. Stats and the like.
As for the jumping, I've not really tweaked it much. I was content just to get it triggering properly at this point! But there will definitely be some major tweaking there.
sculptedpixel:Thanks, and that should be fixed in the latest.



http://www.hedfiles.net/AEUpdate10.exe - 20MB!
Updated in this version:
Added New Heat Gauge - matches the rest of the UI...
Lots of minor under-the-hood tweaks.

Currently working on: The player model and movement in general.
Next up on the list:
Complete the visible In-game HUD with the score and life counters
Intro, Main menu.

I'm going to really try and get the player re-animated this weekend, I want to go into Monday with that friggen GunApe working properly.

Thoughts?

[Ninja Crow]

The new heat HUD is awesome, and really goes with the style, and really gives a feel for how much is left before meltdown!  I also am looking forward to seeing if an always-on HUD is better (the fade in/out was a little distracting).

Let me just say immediately here that this time playing through the level, it wasn't just a salivary visual tour, I was having a blast!  And, since the addition of bumblebot, it's the first time I've made it to the end of the level, so I'm building up playskill for the game, and that's always a rush - I'm grateful!  (Danc from http://lostgarden.com/ commented on the fun of learning game skills in a post on 'Soul Bubbles')

I love how the clusters of bumblebots ambush you.  BTW, do you have a name for your rolly-polly-bug-bot yet?  May I suggest pillbot?

I love the ground level change midway, and I love that plank you walk over at the end - it may not require any special balance, but it activated the same thrill areas of my brain anyway.  Sweet.  In fact, I was hoping to mention that I want to jump up onto things, but wasn't sure if it would be appropriate - now I just can't help but hope for small buildings and scaffolding platforms (&c) to be in my way!

[Jad]

I don't like how the hud conforms to the style of the game so much. Or rather the style of the backgrounds.

It makes it seem like it's all a puppet show, and that both the concrete and abstract parts of the game are of equal substantial value in the gameverse. Thus puppet show.

I want my abstraction abstract and my concret..tion concrete.

See what I'm getting at? Not that I demand you adopt to my views or anything.

[Larwick]

If you are to keep the current HUD, I would suggest making it blue rather than orange (the outer embellishment colours) - not only so that it separates from the background, but so that it's more easily relative to the main character.

EDIT: Although saying that now after reading Jad's comment, maybe that would be worse - by making it seem like some kind of thing that actually hovers over the protagonists head in the actual world. Hmm.

[Howard Day]

Ninja Crow: Glad you like it...And for those of you curious, there will be 4 difficulty levels - the game is currently stuck on level 3 - "Really Damn Hard". There's one more, and the count of enemies is truly redonkulous. As for the rollypolly - I just call him rolly-polly. I suppose I could switch, but I don't know how important that might be... And I do plan on adding more terrain variation - building height changes, that sort of thing. Make it more dynamic and interesting.
Jad: Hmm. That's a pretty fair criticism, and definitely one I had thought of myself...though I'm not certain why I didn't do anything about it. My initial thought is to make them some sort of holographic representation, though, like Larwick said, that might make it worse... I'm not certain what I'll do at this point. I sort of like how they look, specially now that they're blue like Larwick suggested. Regardless, it's a good point.
Larwick: And I did so, and it looks much better now. Still has the issue that Jad mentioned, though. I might just have to make a version that's obviously UI in nature. I have some thoughts down that path, actually...Hmm.

[Jad]

Holographic is ok; I think what I want is for the GUI to just feel different from the play field, material-wise or whatever.

Difference in essence, just that - contrast. It shouldn't be lit in the same way as the world, shouldn't share the exact colours

shouldn't share the reality, so to say. Thus holographic is cool. You can interpret it as part of the gaming world if you want - but at least that takes some interpretation, you don't initially suppose it's part of the game world.

What you've got going on now will require the brain to separate the GUI from the background by analyzing behavior and symbolic value of different game elements; not bad per se, but you've got the power to provide more clarity and contrast, so please do think about it

[sculptedpixel]

steller howard.  that's much better.  It's nearly impossible to read 'critical' when it's going critical but the meter conveys the situation fine  

How are you rigging (biped?) him and what kind of animation style do you want to use?  Is he like kong, or just a large silverback with blasters (heh)?   I'd love to see a melee attack - like in metal slug how you'll knife someone immediately in front, it would be awesome to see him toss enemies up for his guns or squash them with his giant hands. 

Will the main weapon will be upgradeable? 

[Mike]

I feel like the main mechanic of the gun overheating is really limiting what seems to be the core gampeplay and thats shooting.  This is a similar idea to what Vanillaware did with their game Odin's sphere.  In the game there was a power meter that would limit you to how much you could attack at one time.  So lets say you are just furiously attacking an enemy each time you hit them with your sword your power bar meter will go down by 1 or sometimes more and you only have like 10 bars and when it reaches zero you can't attack until it cools off.  I imagine it was for eliminating button mashing and trying to increase the strategic element of combat.   However for me it just kinda made the game feel like it was taking away control pointlessly because if you used all the Power you couldn't attack and it would have a cool down phase which would make you wait until you could attack again and your only option is to run away.  Basically they were punishing you for attacking consecutively which is weird because you have a 3-4 hit combo on some characters built right in. 

Thankfully in their next game Muramasa Demon blade the power meter made more sense.  Instead of being some arbitrary number/bar it was linked to the swords actual health so if you were blocking a lot then the sword itself takes damage and if it takes too much damage it breaks and while you can still use it to fight it will only do meager damage and the way to heal it is by switching to another sword.  Fortunately you don't just carry one sword you carry three.  Three swords which you can switch between in real time with one press of a button.  While you are using one sword the other 2 swords are healing themselves over time.  It's a lot like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2's Allie system.

I'm not suggesting you do anything like that but that is one way to do it and make it feel more apart of the game.

The way I feel about your game right now is this. 

1.I'm blown away by the prerendered graphics, takes me back to FFVII, Abe's Odyssey/Exodus, Skull Monkeys, Heart of Darkness etc basically it takes me back to the PS1 days.
2.The controls themselves are pretty decent.  Immediately I felt connecting to the shooting...once I figured out you use the mouse.  When I knew that it was pretty smooth sailing
3.Awesome I'm shooting things, killing stuff shooting, shooting, shooting and I'm dead...
4.Oooooh the gun overheated and blew me to hell and back.  I see.
5.Awesome I'm shooting things, shooting, shooting, dodging stuff and waiting for gun to cool down...waiting...waiting.  Ok I'm shooting, shooting, shooting, dodging stuff and waiting...etc  While I'm waiting I'm itching to shoot some stuff.  I feel like it's unnecessary downtime.
6.And demo over, not bad overall

Please stop me if I am way off base.  I don't have a clue as to what you will do with this game lol but I just want to point it out.  Also even if you include things to refill the gauge like for example after you kill bugs a powerup will pop out that will cool down your gun I feel like you might as well not have a heat up gauge at all.  Reason being you are always going to be killing things thus always refilling your heat gauge.

Wow that was a lot to type hope I didn't offend or anything.  Good luck and great work!  I aspire to have your drive, passion, focus and ability to get things done.

[PypeBros]

I feel like the main mechanic of the gun overheating is really limiting what seems to be the core gampeplay and thats shooting. 
(...)
5.Awesome I'm shooting things, shooting, shooting, dodging stuff and waiting for gun to cool down...waiting...waiting.  Ok I'm shooting, shooting, shooting, dodging stuff and waiting...etc  While I'm waiting I'm itching to shoot some stuff.  I feel like it's unnecessary downtime.
6.And demo over, not bad overall

Which I'm reading as a pray for a "quick cooldown bonus dropped by some shot monsters", personnally.

[Mike]

I already went over that.

Also even if you include things to refill the gauge like for example after you kill bugs a powerup will pop out that will cool down your gun I feel like you might as well not have a heat up gauge at all.  Reason being you are always going to be killing things thus always refilling your heat gauge.

[Jon]

First I want to say, this looks really awesome. I'm really loving the HUD.

But... I don't know what engine you are using, so it may be too hard, but is it possible to make a mac version?

[ndchristie]

I already went over that.

It's not a contest, dude.

Anyway, the game looks nice, but I find a few things a bit off :

1 - choppy, low-res 3D means I can't fullscreen without it looking like shite and if I can't fullscreen I at least have rouble seeing the playfield.  I have to blow it up to what I'd call pixel-level detail, and since you're not giving this pixel-level attention, the results of the zoom are lackluster at best.  An HD version would be a good start...as currently a lot of your work goes to waste on being too far zoomed or too small to see.
2 - doubleshot action looks great but it's slow, confusing (as it follows the cursor), and is just another hiccough in the gameplay, which makes my gun feel both jumpy and unresponsive (neither is a great feeling).
3 - heat gauge remains ugly and unreadable.  It needs to move in one direction and one direction only, because I don't intend to spend my game watching the HUD, i plan to spend it shooting.
4 - character is massive for the playfield and slow; the jump in particular is like hopping on the moon.  result is that dodging is nearly impossible and in this level it means you die or play parthian.  I think you would benefit from having more aggressive/nimble movements (I'm thinking specifically a forward charge to get out from under bullets).  Even if more nimble I think you need a smaller main guy unless he can take way more punishment than you're offering, or have tactics (such as power/heat/movement-based shields) that eneable him to.
5 - We need animation for the unreachable angles or to CLEARLY not make them shootable (change cursor color, some kind of "warning")

I think that's about it...

Edit - no wait, why do i lose a quarter of my health before I'm giving control of my character? that's crap!

[Mike]

oh so you can give him advice but I can't.

Did you happen to miss the large amount of praise I gave him as well?

(edit) sorry, I was a bit too passionate about my critique.  Carry on 

[Howard Day]

Yikes. Let's keep it civil, folks - It's been nothing but quality criticism so far, let's try and keep it at that high level of awesomeness. So, I'll address the individual points in more detail with my next full update, but for a quicky status check, here goes:
I've been working on adding sound effects to the game, and also been playing with the HUD design and "feel". As many have pointed out, having the hud in the same style as the level itself, while kinda cool looking, does make it hard to differentiate what exactly is going on.  It's a valid concern, and one I am striving to fix. Something else I've found - adding a progressively more insistent warning klaxon as the heat level increase helps greatly in adding to your awareness of that hud element. If I could pipe the smell of burning rhesus monkeys into your computer's smell 'o vision, I would. Mmmm. Burning Monkey.
So that's pretty much where I'm at, the implementation of some of these sound effects is a bit, wonky...but I'm slowly figuring out a solid method of getting the results I want. Sorta.
And I'm using MMF2 DEV for the PC. I have no idea if it can build a Mac program. I sort of doubt it. :/
 

[alspal]

It can build a Mac application using the java runtime, however Clickteam are working on an iphone/OSX version too.

[Mike]

Soon clickteam will release the flash compiler which should maximize your audience.