A minor visual update, added a small ghost-motion trail effect to weapon swings to give them hopefully a less static feel.



Also finished implementing moving platforms, so I'll likely have another build with some of that integrated into the prototype gameplay.

Thanks for the feedback! Here are a few thoughts to address the points you bring up:

- Controls will be custom-bindable soon, so I don't want to put too much effort into documenting control schemes when that is in the near future!

- Weapon speeds and trajectories do need some adjusting, but all weapons definitely aren't the same speed. For example, the short sword is twice as fast as the next fastest weapon, and the staff and mace are very slow. The trajectories are indeed all identical for every weapon except the spear, though, which may add to the appearance of similar speeds. All the code is in-place for giving different weapons unique trajectories and speeds during all three "phases" of the attack, it's just a matter of tweaking numbers, which I will probably spend some time messing around with soon.

- Enemy attacks are exactly the same speed as player attacks; the only factor in attack speed is currently the weapon being used. It may appear that enemies attack more quickly because their AI is clever enough to start the attack a little before they are in range, so they "predict" your movement to some extent. I like the idea of artifically slowing down attack speed to reduce difficulty, though, and it's certainly possible that lower-level enemies will at some point have reduced attack speed to make them easier marks as the player is learning the game.

Currently almost done implementing moving blocks, led to the capture of this gif, thought it was kind of funny:

Hey, thanks for the reply!

1) Staff is definitely much stronger than others, that's why I have it off in its own little section on the side. The staff is really only there for fun right now, it's not meant to be balanced with the other weapons.

2) I could add some sort of full screen damage effect to indicate when the player is hit, I suppose, but between knockback and the blue blood droplets I'm not sure how much more I can do with this. When I start putting in sound effects it will probably help, too.

3) Difficulty is really high right now, handling multiple enemies is tough even for me, and I've played this game more than anyone! I'll work on balancing this out later, probably with higher health amounts for the player and more options for dealing damage.

4) You can definitely outrun enemies and reach the end of the prototype. Once I start adding in win conditions and goals aside from simply "reach the end" this will hopefully be less of a problem. I have plans for more interesting systems of character progression, and enemies will drop cool items so hopefully the player won't want to skip them and rush to the end

Yeah, unfortunately I think the standalone executables that GameMaker produces get locked to 64-bit. They're nice because I can just distribute one file and people don't have to do any extracting, but they do have a problem running on 32-bit Windows. Here's a link to a zipped version of the game:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ctlid6lhd2jy97z/HackJumpSlash-12.zip

Does this work on 32-bit? I haven't had a chance to try it out, but I think it should work around the problems with the standalone exe.

e: Looks like the zipped one will work on 32-bit Windows, but it runs kind of buggily. Something I'll have to look into later.

I think I'm finished with the enemy AI overhaul for now. Enemies are... really, really deadly now. I've played this game more times than I can count and am really familiar with the controls, but I still have a really tough time with this latest build.

The better AI just makes the game a LOT more challenging. I'll probably have to tweak player HP or rate of health pickup drops to balance it out at some point, but at this point I'm just really proud of how the AI works. It does a lot of stuff like leap attacks, jump-dodges, etc., that make it a lot more interesting.

Here's the new build: https://www.dropbox.com/s/b4y140c6cmmricw/Casey-HackJumpSlash-Final.exe

And here's a video of it in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPqlZts7uzw (do 1080p if possible, otherwise it looks pretty crap)

And a bonus video of WIZARD MODE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWz6InMYV9M

Next I'll probably work on the dash/sprint system while it's fresh in my mind. But seriously, if anyone can beat this latest build with any weapon other than the wizard staff (which is technically "cheating") I'll be seriously impressed. It's tough.

edit: or maybe the mace wouldn't be too hard, that's pretty strong too.

Thanks for the feedback!

I like the idea of adding a sprint or dash of some kind, I really want to incentivize jumping and midair movement too -- so I might integrate this sort of thing with enhanced "leap attacks," or maybe rebounding off walls/ceilings allows the player to move faster and deal more damage. I was also thinking of almost Mount&Blade/Chivalry sort of system where weapon damage scales with player momentum, so moving faster while attacking is very effective.

If you were trying to reflect attacks with the short sword or spear it's definitely a little difficult, especially more difficult since I sped up the attack speeds. With all the other weapons it's very easy, though, and I'm okay with some weapons being easier to reflect with than others. You still don't have to reflect, you can do a simple block which is an instant action and always avoids the damage. Trying to reflect should be a risk/reward tradeoff, since if you hit it's a bonus and if you miss you take damage.

I think the combat timing is something you warm up to as you familiarize yourself with the various weapons and their speeds. I've been trying to ramp up the feedback with facial animations, quicker attacks and knockback on hit. If you have more ideas about how combat might be more "feedbacky" I'd love to hear them, though -- this would be really helpful.

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Thanks again for the feedback everyone, this is really helpful. I don't really have any outlet for organized playtesting yet, so for any ideas or comments I get here, there's a good chance I'll have them implemented and ready to test out within a day or two. So if anyone wants to see their feedback made flesh, post it here and there's a pretty good chance it'll happen fast.

Made some updates with a new build, available for download here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b4y140c6cmmricw/Casey-HackJumpSlash-Final.exe

Summary of changes:
* Separated "outfit" graphic from base creature graphic, so now helmet/cloak/etc can be worn by any creature dynamically. Move right towards "instructions" arrow to choose an outfit (or cheat and use the wizard's staff for overpowered-ness)
* Added new graphics for a bunch of outfits
* Currently outfits/helmets are purely visual, but will have gameplay effects soon
* Added new weapons, axe and mace. Maces are super-effective against skeletons, but fairly slow. Axes are just really good all-around, maybe too good.
* Added facial animations for taking damage, blinking, getting stunned, etc.
* Attacks no longer slow your movement speed if you're in midair, which makes "leaping" attacks extremely powerful

Things coming soon:
* enemy AI overhaul
* more platforming elements (environmental hazards, moving blocks, and more)
* inventory & belt system for picking up usable items, swapping weapons and outfits, etc
* More interesting, procedural levels

Yes, I will definitely need some sort of integrated tutorial. I am thinking on how to accomplish this, I don't want to frustrate players the moment they try to play the way they naturally assume and things don't go as plannned

And yes, reflecting fireballs is indeed much easier with the longsword, and much harder with the spear! I may have a bit of polishing up to do with reflecting, it should only reflect during the downward arc of the attack, but currently any collision with the weapon during an attack seems to do the trick. But overall, it is intended that certain weapons will be easier to reflect with than others. It's part of the asymmetry that makes choosing a different weapon a more interesting choice than simply "more damage" vs "less damage", I hope. I would like weapons to feel and play differently.

Thanks for the continued feedback, it's really great -- I could try speeding up attacks, but you're right that I really don't want to lose the ability for players to block and dodge. Also, I want to keep attack speed dependent on weapons -- the longsword is intentionally very slow, for example.

And it's funny that you mention the short blade being useless, since in my own testing, knowing the game as well as I do, it actually seems to be the strongest weapon since you can attack more quickly and then get out of range. The video in the original post sort of demonstrates this. Either way, I plan on including a wide variety of weapons so that everyone will be able to choose one with the combination of speed/range that suits the way they want to play.

The AI thing is less of a bug and more of a limit of quickly prototyped AI -- enemy logic is very simple, and this is one of the things I am actively working to redo, it just takes some time since that's one of the more complex systems.

I'll try making all the weapons faster across the board and post a build later to see how it feels. Thanks!

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EDIT: New build with weapon attack speeds increased significantly across the board. Would be interested to know if this feels better: https://www.dropbox.com/s/b4y140c6cmmricw/Casey-HackJumpSlash-Final.exe (also updated in original post)

Sorry for doublepost, but the executable in the original post now links to a new build. I added X and Z for attack and block respectively so you can play with directional keys and XZ, and also added a small knockback to all attacks to give a little bit more "feedback." Hopefully that feels a little bit better.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b4y140c6cmmricw/Casey-HackJumpSlash-Final.exe

Well if that is your strategy of game then yeah I would say you need to explain it better and incentivize it more as most players will just run right up to the player and attack. I would say give the game a playtest and see how it goes, you'll be surprised in what you pick up in those.

I completely agree. The fact that I have to explain it at all proves that it needs to be better-presented in the game; now I just have to think of a good way to do that. I'd prefer to explain the strategy of play without presenting a heavy-handed in-game tutorial and I'm just having trouble thinking of a good way to do that.

You're absolutely right that the first thing a new player does will be to just run up to an enemy and start attacking, that's basic stuff. I need to use that moment as a hook to teach the player how to play somehow.

Again, thanks for the feedback -- it really helps, posting it around forums is kind of my first attempt at playtesting. I'll probably try adding a knockback to attacks just to see how it feels and post a new build soon.

So in your game when an enemy gets hit or the player gets hit neither of them are actually stop which makes the game devolve down to a rush in tactic for both the player and the enemy which in turn kills the tension.

Thanks, I wasn't quite getting you before, this explains it better. Yeah, currently I handle this by keeping attack animations slow enough that unless you are literally pressed up against an enemy, if you see an attack animation start you have time to dodge by either backing up, jumping out of the way, or blocking. It's not really a "rushdown" since the basic strategy is dodge-attack-dodge-attack and the player isn't intended to just stand in front of the enemy's face trading blows, they would ideally be blocking or dodging in some manner during enemy attacks.

I had considered causing attacks to be interrupted when you take damage, but then it really does devolve into a rushdown since the best strategy is to simply get the first hit then continue to hit the enemy repeatedly so they never get off a full attack without being interrupted. Does that make any sense?

Essentially, if you dodge or block an enemy attack this should give you enough time to counterattack safely. That's kind of the strategy I was going for. The video I posted in the original post kind of shows this.

I could certainly try adding attack interrupts and see how it feels, or do you just think the game needs to do a better job of explaining strategy?

I made enter attack out of convenience for being able to move/jump with WAD while attacking at the same time with the other side of the keyboard. You don't want to have to take your fingers off WAD and move down to ZX all the time. A lot of my personal experience comes from FPS engines where "E" is the standard "use" key, and it also happens to be easy to reach while WASD'ing, which is why it doubles as block.

Eventually of course I will implement control binding so the player can bind anything they want to any key. For now, leftclick also doubles as attack and the arrow keys work for movement, spacebar for jump just to give a little variety.

I've gotten the suggestion about more hit reactions before. Sound is definitely in the works, and I have considered adding a built-in "knockback" to attacks to provide more feedback. Is that the sort of thing you had in mind? I could also have more feedback in the form of facial animations, etc., but I'd prefer to put time into mechanical feedback rather than art polish since I am not an artist and consider most of what I have now placeholder-ish.

Thanks again for the feedback, it's really helpful!

[Controls:]

Hi everyone,

I've been working on a prototype for an as-of-yet untitled hack-and-slash platformer. Although my background is in programming, I've been using GameMaker for its quick iteration ability.

So far, I've only got a few example levels put together. I've been focusing on getting really solid core combat mechanics, which consist primarily of attacking, dodging, and blocking enemy attacks. I'm looking for some feedback on the core mechanics -- movement, attacks, etc., but really any feedback or ideas are appreciated, harsh commentary included, and even welcomed. I'm trying to decide where to move next with this prototype and really take it to the next step, pushing forward the parts that work and moving past the ones that don't.

Keep in mind this is a very early stage prototype, not a full playable game -- meant to be more of a solid, working demo of core combat mechanics and general ideas. I certainly have ideas about how I want to further develop this game, but I'd prefer not to mention those here because I'm afraid they might "pollute" responses I get. I want fresh commentary since I've been tunnel visioning this thing for long enough to start losing perspective! So with that said, here are some visuals, an older video (apologize for poor quality), and a download link to the current playable build:

High res versions of some assets: (Click for big version)


The player reflecting a fireball back at a ranged enemy with a well-timed attack: (Click for big version)


Funny gif of testing out moving blocks:


Video link:
Latest with updated AI (YouTube, do 1080p or it looks awful)

Download link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b4y140c6cmmricw/Casey-HackJumpSlash-Final.exe (Windows only, standalone executable)

Controls:

• WAD to move and jump
• ENTER to attack
• E to block
• F to toggle fullscreen
• ESC to pause
• F5 to restart from main menu

Other things to keep in mind:

• Starts up straight into playable game, no "menu"
• Jump on enemy heads to stun them briefly and get a free attack
• Blocking an enemy attack with 'E' with precise timing will also stun an enemy
• Longpress jump for a full jump, tap to hop
• Projectiles from ranged enemies can either be simply blocked with 'E' or reflected back with a well-timed attack
  

I saw a reference to this posted on another forum I follow earlier, and all I have to say is that it looks amazing. You've really nailed the voxel-world aesthetic in a way very similar to 3D Dot Game Heroes. Keep up the good work, I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this.

Hi everyone,

My names Chris Casey and I'm a mobile programmer (both Android and iOS) working for a small company, university student, and aspiring games developer! I have a number of finished apps in my portfolio, but woefully none of these are (yet) games.

I've recently been involved in a university class that focused on rapidly prototyping 8 games over the course of a semester, and I am currently looking to build on this experience by continuing work on one of my favorite prototypes and (hopefully, someday!) achieving a releasable product. To this end, I look forward to posting here and being inspired by the great stuff everyone else is working on, and hopefully at some point getting some feedback on my own project.

Here's a quick screenshot of the prototype I'm currently working on, showing the player reflecting a fireball back at a ranged enemy with a well-timed attack:



Although my background is in programming and I have a history with tools such as Unity, I'm currently in a love-hate relationship with GameMaker thanks to its great rapid prototyping ability. I hope to keep using it as long as possible, and hopefully won't regret the choice too much in the long run!