Finally 1CC'ed Hellsinker after a solid two weeks of practice! (Minogame — Kareidoscope end, if anyone cares)

You should play Hellsinker too. It is a really great game.
...and it was made by one person...up yours, cave story.

It's a neat tech demo...I guess...

Honestly, there's not much to say. The music is technically well made, though I've never been able to get into the whole "epic orchestral" vibe that's been plaguing the film industry for decades (and has begun to spread its cancerous roots to VGM too). It fits the levels rather well too, and it's interesting to see how the music changes based on which actions you take. In that regard, you did a very good job, and should be incredibly proud of your accomplishments.

The gameplay, however, could definitely use some work. While the analogue, "sticky" controls feel really wonderful at the first few power levels, later on the physics become more of a distraction than a boon. To exacerbate the problem,  the level design starts to focus on precision platforming around that time. Cue jumps that fall short due to not having enough momentum. Then a subsequent jump that overshoots that same target.

I did like how the clef physics worked, however, and I kinda wish they would've made a return appearance later in the game.

Also, when I see mercy invincibility, I expect that it will make me invincible for a short period of time. Not render me still susceptible to knockback from attacks that hit within the invincibility period, essentially keeping me immobilized in a multi-hit combo that ends with me landing far away from where I want to be. This is slightly annoying the first time. I openly wept upon the eleventh time.

Anyway, that's what I thought about the game. To be honest I'm probably phrasing things more negatively than I should be, and for that I am sorry. I'm sure that, from an objective standpoint, this is a good game with some great music.

...Besides, what do I know. To be honest, if I had my way I'd probably do something stupid like rework the bee boss to use the Buck Bumble theme... >_>

Immersion in Video Games: An Abridged History

[D-D-D-D-D-D-DARIUS!!]

*for best results, imagine the following spoken in an 80s game-commercial narrator voice*

Hey punk! You think Galaga's hardcore? Try Darius!!

D-D-D-D-D-D-DARIUS!!

*end transmission*

Yeah, screen size is important I guess, but I think it's more worthwhile to achieve a balance between sprite size and screen size. After all, nowadays everything can be rescaled, so really it's up to you to decide what resolution to natively strive for, and then scale up/down from there.

That being said, I'd really like to see some people experiment with breaking out of the 4:3 box; see what cool things you can do with really thin/wide screen sizes. Maybe even throw the box model out altogether and design for circular/polygonal/horseshoe displays...

[immortal Ninja Spirit!!]

There's a problem among one-button games. While many tend to tout their simplicity as their selling point, few admit that behind that so-called simplicity is a dearth of depth. As a result, most of these one-button games end up feeling rather mindless. And, I'll admit, that's exactly how I felt for the first few minutes of playing this game.

Then I fell into a hole for the first time.

"Daaaang..." I thought. "I haven't seen this kind of terminal velocity since...wait...could it be?!" Indeed, it only took a few milliseconds to make the connection. Ninja Gaiden. Ryu Hayabusa, heir to the Dragon Sword. He had that same terminal velocity. Therefore, it would only make sense that this game's protagonist is the son of Ryu Hayabusa, member of the Dragon Ninja clan and wielder of immortal Ninja Spirit!!

So Irene lived after all...

I continued playing, making my way through the first world, the second world, the third world. Neither stiff controls nor unintuitive physics nor fluctuating difficulty curves could stop the immortal Ninja Spirit of our hero, the great FRED HAYABUSA!!

Unfortunately, immortal Ninja Spirit was the only thing Fred Hayabusa had going for him. The combination of slippery physics (which I do like) and a relatively long jump even during short button taps meant that he would sometimes get stuck in a position where the shortest jump would careen him into a pit and the longest jump would still make him fall short of that pit. Also, unlike his father Ryu, Fred has horrible fashion sense. Due to immortal Ninja Stupidity or whatnot, he decided to wear mittens to the mission, meaning that not only did walljumps have no auditory feedback, but all friction that the wall would've had was nullified. He just fell straight down the wall, in no way near true Ninja fashion.

Using the power imbued in him by the Dragon Ninja clan and by jumping as hard as he could, Fred Hayabusa made his way to the fourth and final world within the HOPS universe. There he came across his mortal enemy, the dreaded OSCILLATING SPIKE BALLS. Fred had experience with these during his days of training under the Dragon Ninja clan, which had also taught him that they were not really spike balls, but merely symbols representing timing-oriented gameplay. Fred acted instinctively upon seeing the spike balls, and took the correct course of action...

He closed the browser window. Or rather I did. When faced with such an object, and when your first experience with them is trying to thread through the narrow gap via a terminal-velocity walljump, and where you are faced with a five second wait and a boot to the beginning of the level upon each and every failure, many would take the course of action that he (and I) have chosen. Because, let's face it, nothing can alleviate the frustration that comes with timing-oriented gameplay.

Not even immortal Ninja Spirit.

Oh man, I take back all the skepticism I posted in your devlog. I have seen the light, and have become enlightened. After finishing the game and viewing the ending, I now know what you truly meant by the phrase: "the butts are everything, and everything is butts." Needless to say, all my original questions have been answered, yet in those answers I find more questions to be answered. However, those questions are the questions that can only be answered through introspection, reasoning, and shooting more butts.

I could probably write an entire essay on the usage and juxtaposition of the various symbolic elements of this game, but out of respect for spoilers I fear I must refrain. Still, I must applaud you for making a game that is both enjoyable on a surface-level, yet containing enough depth to confound and intrigue those who want a little more out their games.

I some what disagree since I believe that good chip music doesn't require good sound tech. With most basic chip sounds you can make great pieces. It is about using the given soundwaves interestingly, and more importantly, laying down compositions that have something in them.

Er, so sometimes I phrase my points awkwardly, but I think that might be the first time I've left out my point entirely... But yeah, what you wrote is what I meant by differentiation; the ability to push out something unique using common sounds. Sometimes this means finding ways to push the chip to the limit, sometimes not.

I think this is where modern chiptune fails. Now we're 20 years past the days of the SID and 2A03, and since modern DAWs and trackers can render dozens of channels with no lag, people today are no longer constricted to these artificial limitations. So we get a bunch of people trying to brute-force their way to a full sound, which almost always leads to a stuffy and lopsided mix. But that's just personal opinion.

[Tone Awareness.]

Oh man, this thread could turn out to be pretty brutal. Talkin' about it, this forum is loaded with examples of semi-par chiptune, and it's gonna be super-easy to throw our fellow man under the bus. So I'm not sure if it's wise to limit the discussion to just indie music here.

To tell the truth, I've been thinking about this for quite a while. Initially I chalked it up to just pure subjectivity, and figured that indies go gaga over mediocre chiptune in the name way that the Newgrounds-ites drool over mediocre techno. But then I started experimenting with chiptune, and found that it is ridiculously difficult to make something good. Like, even though it's rather easy to make something passable, the difficulty curve from "passable" to "good" is nigh-clifflike.

Therefore, I'll give some examples of what the good chiptunes do to scale that wall:

1. Tone Awareness. Just like voices, waveforms also have a power range. To illustrate, listen to Okkusenman and notice how each waveform is used in regards to pitch. In contrast, listen to this excerpt from a true Classics of Game. While it has some neat compositional ideas, the instrumentation is doing its gosh-darned best to shoot the song right in the foot.

2. Differentiation. Let's face it, there are only so many sounds you can pull out of a chip. So unless you have a super-unique compositional style or are willing to buy your advantage, it's likely that your music will just sound just like all the other bad chiptunes. I think this is super egregious with SID music, which despite having one of the most flexible sound chips ever, has a music library which consists of everyone pretty much using the same freaking sounds and techniques. But I know you know a lot more about that scene than I do, so feel free to provide examples of good SID music (one good one I'm thinking about is "Disno" by Peet; sadly unavailable outside of the HVSC...and also some mortimer t stuff)

3. On Chiptune Elements. I mention this because I see way too many people trying to "enhance" their mixes with a few pulse waves in order to spruce up the action. I know. I'm guilty of it myself. Now while there's no problem with this innately, the real trouble comes during the mixing phase. You gotta believe, waveforms cut through the mix like microfilament, and trying to get a smooth blend between them and your other instruments is a headache beyond headaches. Honestly I'd just say that unless your name is Anamanaguchi or Ninomojo, you're better off just avoiding chipwaves in your normal music altogether.

OK, so in the end I ended up ranting about good chiptune instead of bad. But honestly, a lot of bad chipmusic suffers from most of the flaws that normally-bad music suffers from (poor mixing, no flow, etc.), so I figured I might as well focus on issues specific to chiptune...

http://insomnia.ac/commentary/arcade_culture/

Yes, yes, but. Read it. It's rather good.

And besides, you really only have to scroll one page down before you get to the meat. To tl;dr: Players invest little up-front in an arcade game. If they find it boring, they leave. Therefore, the burden is on the developer to assault them junk-first with as much action and fun as the player can handle. Constantly. Otherwise they leave.

It's really all about streamlining. Taking out the filler. Shoving fistfuls of fun into the player's face. Muttering that they like it.

On a related note, I wonder whether these cutesy domain purchases actually have a measurably positive effect on a country's economy...I mean, they usually make you pay through the nose for one if you're not a citizen, and given how everyone who's anyone in the 2.0 craze has one, I'd assume that these countries are raking in the sweet cash from vanity superstars...

Hey, thanks for trying out my game! I'm glad that you found it at least somewhat interesting. :-)

Now back on topic, what do you suppose composers could do to further this goal? Audio programming is just as tricky as graphics programming, but unlike the latter audio programming hasn't really been elevated too much since we hit the days of redbook streaming.

One one hand, there's simple stuff like instrument swapping. That isn't hard to do, and modern computers can handle the burden of decompressing and mixing multiple audio streams rather easily. It also isn't too hard to apply simple FX, and there's more than a few audio libraries that support just that. But the interesting stuff, like realtime synthesis and whatnot, is not only painful to implement but also difficult to find libraries for. I mean, the most feature-complete realtime synth engine I know of is Cosyne, and that looks like it only implements up to the FM era of synthesis. But on the plus side, that was just one person's hobby project, so it's likely that a dedicated team could pull together something pretty neato.

I guess in conclusion, it really depends on what you want to do. I can understand why there aren't many dynamic frameworks out there, because each composer's demands are so varied that it'd be nearly impossible to make a one-size-fits-all solution. However, as long as you stick to simple stuff it really isn't too bad to rig up the framework that you want.

(hmm, maybe this is just the kick in the pants i need to actually get up and program that loop-chaining music engine idea i've been kicking around...)

To me, I feel like this video raises more questions than it answers.

Firstly, it would be worthwhile to examine the relationship between men and butts. Is it along the lines of a class struggle? An infestation? A feud between warring factions? Remember that the light in which this relationship is portrayed will affect how the player views the actions they perform, which in this case seem to be both extermination of opposing butts and claiming their property, which in this case is fruit.

Additionally, you seem to throw around the concept of human purpose and the meaning of actions and existential satisfaction without clarifying your particular viewpoints. In the video you seem to imply that, by shooting all the butts, you are bringing about a positive change. Is causing this change indicative of personal worth; as in, a human's purpose is to bring about positive change, which in this game is portrayed as shooting butts? Or is one shooting the butts in order to restore the status quo? Is social stagnation a viable solution if it brings about personal or collective happiness?

However, one could make the case that this game holds the believe that human happiness and fulfillment comes solely from fulfilling the orders given by others. A strong case for this belief system is proposed within the video, where the player avatar is commanded to shoot butts via a message sent from an unrecognizable source. Is this source supposed to be indicative of a higher power? Or is it representative of the humanity's internal yearning to shoot butts? If so, is this desire innate and fixed upon conception, or is it a desire that is socially reinforced within the culture surrounding the player avatar?

These are important philosophical questions to consider and I hope you take the time to provide a satisfactory answer.

I wish I could record improv properly, but currently my setup just doesn't work for it. Right now, the computer I use for recording only has one audio input, so I can either capture only the line-in audio from the keyboard, or only the microphone audio of me slapping myself when I hit a note that I don't like.

I think both are necessary for making an honest improv, but that's just my opinion.

I remember back when the board had like 50,000 members...Man, that was the life. Me and all these buddies would just chill out on the board, kick back, and talk about the ZANIEST things. It was cool, don't get me wrong, yet I felt kinda distant. Like I'd be all like "hey man have you played trio the punch?" and they would just say "click the link for cheap car insurance!" They didn't even respond to the question. Maybe it was just me, but I couldn't get into that kind of scene.

(unrelated: has anyone else noticed that the people who introduce themselves in the proper thread almost never make it to level 1, but quite a few of our most active posters have never made an introductory post?)

Heh, believe it or not, I'm actually a huge fan of this kind of thing, and have really been experimenting with it as of late. In fact, I even made something like that for a game I threw together not too long ago. Granted, it's pretty primitive for what it is (the soundtrack is rhythmless ambient, and most of the triggers are proximity based), but I like to think it still counts as a dynamic soundtrack.

Honestly, though, from what I've seen in the indie world it seems like nobody really does too much with dynamic music. And I think part of the reason as to this is because audio programming scene is ridiculously underdeveloped compared to what people are doing with graphics. As such, the only audio libraries that are free for commercial use are usually those that come with whatever graphics lib you're using, and typically offer little more than file loading, playback, and a hook to load your own data into the buffer. So, to do anything beyond that, you need to roll your own code, which isn't usually something most game makers get excited about. Heck, to even do what I did in the game above I had to pretty much cut up and glue back together parts of SFML, all for the sake of seamless intro/loop audio looping. And that concept has existed since 1985!

To me it seems quite ridiculous. Here in the indie scene we have hundreds of programmers writing and releasing their own engines. They all have the same features, the same goals, the same paradigms, and sometimes even the same target platforms. Hundreds of developers writing and rewriting animation classes, implementing efficient tiling algorithms, porting A* to every language on the planet.

And not one is willing to write a good audio library.

Dang, that sucks. I'm not even gonna try to give any advice about the situation, because to me you did a splendid job of handling it, and within those time restraints you can't really do much but just do, and outside of professional stunt drivers who spend years training their responses to knee-jerk stimuli, I'd be safe to say that you did the best that could really be done.

But you know that already.

So instead I'd like to just send out a hug to ya, if that's alright. Guilt and regret sucks, even more so when you know it's somewhat irrational. But I wish you the best of luck in getting through it. (hug!)

Started working on this, but then stopped...and I don't think I'll start again. So consider it done!

(i don't know if it's me, but i find chiptune to be exhausting to make. like, you have to work at a really micro level in order to even have a chance of breaking past mediocrity, and i just absolutely hate working at that level)

I stopped at the ending. It took an hour or so, but I made it through somehow (and with one of the secrets to boot!).

Honestly, I'm not sure what to say about this one. I mean, I sorta get why you'd want to limit players from restarting on a per-stage level, but on the other hand you've steered the gameplay toward that kind of old-school "difficulty through memorization," and then added a layer of randomness on top to add difficulty via, well, being screwed over by the RNG mostly. Which means that near the end you're just kinda yawning your way through the first two minutes of the song, then seeing if you can overcome the next challenge in the one try you're given every two minutes.

But I can see this as being intended as an "experience" rather than a "game," and thankfully it pulls that part off well. The graphics are really neat (even by cactus standards!) and the music fits the experience rather uncannily. And I enjoyed the song itself, even after listening to the first half a few dozen times. :-)

Overall, it makes me wonder, though. While I like the idea, I wonder if such a traditional game format is suited for conveying that idea. I mean, nobody listens to a small clip of a song multiple times until they "get it" (well, except for crazy musicians like me...), so it seems like a bit of a turn-off to be handed an "interactive music video" only to have it rewind itself when you fail to perform to its standards. But that idea of "do it until you do it right" is one of the core pillars of game design, is it not? Yet what else can the designer do to force the player to do what is necessary in a given situation?

But that's just my rambling. Despite how I may come off in the above paragraphs, I genuinely enjoyed playing this game.

After years of having my fetish remained uncared for, I decided to take the plunge and start a website featuring emotion porn. The idea was simple: the site would show people comforting other people during the dark times of their lives, but in a variety of different positions.

Within a few months the site went down as quickly as it started. While I could blame the lack of prior reference material as the reason, the truth is that it's just my own fault. I had decided to stick with the traditional format of pornography as my model, where ladies with big hair would open the door to a muscular man, who brought his acoustic guitar to let the healing begin. But such a format fell right between the target markets: the ones who watched soap operas for that very reason, and the ones who just wanted closeups of guys whispering the right words at the right time into their partner's ear.

(anyway, straight in theory but with a variety of emotional hangups that shut down any possible form of intimacy)

About a few months ago I decided to teach my baby sis how to play Metal Slug. She's seven. So I decided that maybe a little run 'n gun action would be the perfect thing to push her into the realm of Real Gaming (whatever that is). I showed her how to start the game, showed her which buttons did what, and let her loose. My gamble paid off. She loves it. Sometimes I'll come home and see her credit-feeding her way through Metal Slug. It's kinda cute.

And honestly, I think that this is the perfect game for her. See, she's one of those kids that really hates to lose, so much so that she won't even try something if there's a chance of failure. But with Metal Slug she gets a challenging game that demands skill to complete, but still has on-the-spot continues so she isn't threatened with permanent failure. And hey, every minute playing Metal Slug means she's spending one less minute trapped in the Zynga-sponsored skinner boxes. Even if she is credit-feeding.

Anyway, I think that the most valuable thing we (as indies) can do is to make games that are fun for everyone, and possibly even appropriate for everyone too. As a kid my favorite game was Crash Bandicoot 2, partly because it was fun to play, but mostly because it was fun to play with my dad. I enjoyed it. He enjoyed it. We took turns clearing levels, eventually 100%ing the game together. And through it we proved that, hey, maybe video games can bring a family together instead of tearing it apart!

So what makes a good kids' game? Well, what makes a good game? Even though kids are more vulnerable to the aforementioned skinner traps and have less tolerance for games that demand ridiculous skill, they still enjoy quality gameplay just like we do. And I think we, as indies, have a moral obligation to give our players the best darned game we can give 'em, with the hope that both old and young can enjoy them alike. 'Cause remember: A person's a person...no matter how small.