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[gunswordfist]

@gunswordfist, Ahh, that's that's a pesky bug that I can immediately understand. What's happening is that Jack is being revived after being killed on the burning energy below, and he's being put back down below them. With nothing down below the screen to actually kill Jack again, he's left to sit there as the screen continues to scroll. This was an oversight with the Ophan helper that I've been meaning to fix (I just now finished fixing this in my copy and it should be better next demo) It shouldn't ever revive Jack when he touches an instant-death obstacle or falls down a pit since that wouldn't make much sense and it would just make him die immediately again afterwards, and also because it's purely for reviving Jack after being damaged to death from enemies (and the cherub is purely for rescuing from pits.) thanks for the feedback!

You're welcome! I'm glad it's getting fixed. Also, the music is not playing for me during the Baleen level that's right after Under Attack. Edit: Also, I downloaded the other music you posted and so far Baleen's the first stage I've encountered where the music is not there.

[Glyph]

Thanks for getting back to me, Rakugaki.

I was playing a new game all the way through.

As for weapon balance, I'd try beating a boss with gas+boomerang and shield+boomerang and make sure it can be done faster (but in a riskier manner due to range) with the latter. If not, then there's probably some tweaking to do. I just tried it on Samuel and I can get 1/4 of his health bar in one go with gas+boomerang (the normal shot, thrown so that it's kinda turning around at his head), and maybe only half that with all my effort on shield+boomerang.

I agree that gun+boomerang does have some use now, but its power feels a bit on the weak side for being a combo ability, and I find myself always preferring one of two very useful abilities that went into it instead.

Anyway, it's probably nitpicky, but sometimes the difficulty can make such things problematic. That makes it all the better when it's all balanced, though!

[Raku]

no problem!

Maybe the saves are a little messed up just due to it being the demo, with several functions disabled, perhaps something bugged. I just played through and beat a stage, then came back and got the checkpoint again and it works fine.

Sword is definitely getting a power boost. I tested it out on various enemies and bosses earlier and was shocked to see how weak it was. I definitely entered some variable incorrectly and just never seemed to notice it.
-Also... Im not sure why I'm only now realizing this, but I should make boss attacks blockable with the shield. Attacks that should be logical to block at least, like the second boss's lunge.

[BGM123]

I found a little exploit where you can put your old demo's save file into the new one and start from where you last left off. Though, if you do this, you will get error messages. But, you can power through them by pressing (I)or (Ignore).

[darkhog]

Could you make 1080p wallpaper?

[Diabetes Forecast]

I found a little exploit where you can put your old demo's save file into the new one and start from where you last left off. Though, if you do this, you will get error messages. But, you can power through them by pressing (I)or (Ignore).

Dont do dis it breaks way too much stuff.

For those complaining about shield+boomerang combo not being balanced, I suggest you watch my pro strats video to show how to use it effectively. Pro MLG players ONLY




(it does take awhile on most enemies though)

[Raku]

Could you make 1080p wallpaper?

... of what?

I found a little exploit where you can put your old demo's save file into the new one and start from where you last left off. Though, if you do this, you will get error messages. But, you can power through them by pressing (I)or (Ignore).

Dont do dis it breaks way too much stuff.

exactly, please do not use outdated save files. I've tried to take precautions to not let players use old save files because it causes many bugs in the game that wont normally be there in a normal play, and it's not a good representation of the actual game, since I worked hard to fix all of these bugs since that last save.

Also, with that video clip you posted, I wasn't sure if you were joking or not, but that is actually how you use the sword and shield ability. In fact I beat that very same boss with the ability using the same technique. This isnt to say I'm not still going to make it's damage a bit higher though, especially with enemies.

[Diabetes Forecast]

I kinda figured that's how it was supposed to work, I get alot of mileage out of that particular combo. I just thought it would be funny, haha.

[dreeeaam]

Hello,

I would love to be able to play this but for some reason the mediafire link is not working for me? I click download on mediafire and the page just goes blank and nothing downloads

[darkhog]

Could you make 1080p wallpaper?

... of what?

Game characters? Dunno, anything Jack-related that can put on my computer desktop.

[gunswordfist]

I beat the facecrab stage (I love it's music so much! Made me want the stage to be longer) and got to Dead Heat earlier. I didn't even know it was a new stage until I saw the bikers and instantly recognized the bikers in the cutscene thanks to pics in this thread. The first 2 or so times I played the level, I got slaughtered at the beginning. But then I got into the rhythm of the stage and understood how to dodge everything better and it got music easier. Then I beat the rest of the stage the first time I got that far (mini-boss and beyond). I was like, "Whoa, so PoiPoi gets the machinegun from this mini-boss?" and she did? I'm not sure if the game would have automatically given it to you but I ran straight over it to get it. I love the face/temple, whatever you call it, the rock ramps and the sparkly grass. Such a beautiful stage. I got to the boss and me and PoiPoi were beating the crap out of it. It was surprisingly easy since I just spammed the chain blade right in front of it and it was impossible for the spikes to hit me since most of them went up to the top. I doubt anyone would actually go or stay up that high in the stage. Oh yeah, I loved the bosses' intro cutscene you made based off of a fan in here's suggestion. That was a nice touch. Overall, the stage was fun and easy on the eyes. Thank God we didn't get a bike stage as horrid as the ones in Streets Of Rage Remake. Edit: And after that, PoiPoi's my favorite female in the genre

[Diabetes Forecast]

yeah I still don't understand how to fight the dragon, I always get stuck at this point cuz I can't ever figure out how you're meant to dodge the charge without getting hit.

E: WOW OKAY I figured it out literally 5 minutes later!

[Raku]

Hello,

I would love to be able to play this but for some reason the mediafire link is not working for me? I click download on mediafire and the page just goes blank and nothing downloads

Hm, this is the first I've heard of this problem. Are you using some sort of adblocker or noscript or something?

@darkhog, I could try! I've been very busy working on the game and juggling work and sleep, but if I do make a wallpaper, I'll post it in this thread for sure.

@Gunswordfist, it's funny, everyone I've seen has referred to those enemies as crabs, but they were meant to be armored fish, it's all good though. I'm glad you liked the music. Dead Heat is definitely a stage I need to work on a bit more and make it feel and play a bit better, I've noticed I stupidly made tracking enemies move toward Jack's body rather than his placement on the ground, so jumping makes homing enemies move upward. That gun-holding enemy can also cause a few problems if you dont kill it before the ramp comes along, whoops! Im glad you liked the bike stage, and PoiPoi!

@Diabetes Forecast, glad you figured it out! I'm working on making it so that you can block his bites with the shield, since it makes sense for that to work that way, but I also need to make sure I dont make shield break the boss entirely.

[Grog]

I played it for the first time yesterday after following this thread for some time. I recorded me and a friend playing through it. I'm using your game to test out recording / editing video. I'll upload it eventually (when I learn how to get it setup).

In the meantime I just wanted to say I enjoyed it quite a bit.

You mentioned the shield completely breaking the boss, and to be honest it already does. At least the shield cannon (I believe it was the shield + finger gun).

You can crouch and avoid every attack other than the lunge. You just stand in the middle and crouch, and when he lunges you step back a step and shoot him, and repeat. We struggled with so many combos (it's a tough boss as your attacks don't do a lot) and when we found this combo the boss became laughably easy.

If I get a chance to I'll sum up the rest of my play experience, is there anything specifically you want people to test for? Or just the general play experience of the game as a whole?

[gunswordfist]

@Gunswordfist, it's funny, everyone I've seen has referred to those enemies as crabs, but they were meant to be armored fish, it's all good though. I'm glad you liked the music. Dead Heat is definitely a stage I need to work on a bit more and make it feel and play a bit better, I've noticed I stupidly made tracking enemies move toward Jack's body rather than his placement on the ground, so jumping makes homing enemies move upward. That gun-holding enemy can also cause a few problems if you dont kill it before the ramp comes along, whoops! Im glad you liked the bike stage, and PoiPoi!

Heh, well at least they aren't facecrabs. And I love the music.

Heh, I saw both the downfalls of the enemies not following Jack's shadow and the machinegun mini-boss. Good luck on those. And of course I like PoiPoi.

[Raku]

@Grog, thanks for playing it so far! Maybe you're right about the shield and the boss. I want the shield to be able to block his lunge, but at the same time he needs something that the shield cant beat, I'll think on this.

As for what I'm looking for in testing, nothing in particular, just general feedback, what people like when playing, what people dont like, etc. Was this a fun stage, was this a fair enemy, was this a good challenge, etc.
Being the person making the game, I have a bias toward it, and sometimes I need an outsider's word on things so I can see problems when I normally wouldn't.

@Gunswordfist, thanks again!

[Grog]

@Grog, thanks for playing it so far! Maybe you're right about the shield and the boss. I want the shield to be able to block his lunge, but at the same time he needs something that the shield cant beat, I'll think on this.

As for what I'm looking for in testing, nothing in particular, just general feedback, what people like when playing, what people dont like, etc. Was this a fun stage, was this a fair enemy, was this a good challenge, etc.
Being the person making the game, I have a bias toward it, and sometimes I need an outsider's word on things so I can see problems when I normally wouldn't.

I'll try to get some video uploaded as soon as possible, as it was me and my friends first time playing, me having read a fair bit of this devlog, and my friend going in 100% blind.

But to put my play experience into writing... Overall gameplay was great. Tight controls, solid pacing.

Positives that stood out:
- Graphics are top notch
- Enemies were awesome. Unique and interesting designs, but more importantly, they were challenging. I liked that enemies often had an attack on death, or interesting patterns. Mix n match enemies, and you have some interesting scenarios.
- Enemy skills are fun
- Platforming was tight, despite jack being lower on the mobility end of platformers.

Negatives that stood out:
- Lack of gamepad support built in. You use GM right? Studio? This is really easy to add in. I downloaded J2K just to play your game.
- The level where you are going up the purple tower (auto scroller) I believe is your introduction to that tileset and well... That tileset is fairly busy. I would consider toning down the tile set, or introducing a short, non scrolling segment/level to let the player get used to the busy tileset.
- That's it, actually. Not to say there weren't any negatives, just nothing major or something that broke my enjoyment. As I go through the video file and remember specific moments I'm sure some will come to mind.

[gunswordfist]

Ah sweet, it's Grog.

I beat the stone multi-eyes boss...the one at the end of the falling bridge/flying rocks level earlier. The gas + blue shooting combo proved to be very underrated. It cut through the boss pretty face.

I really really love the music to Spike Walker. I saved some time after this.

Even though this is a demo, it's one of my absolute favorite indie games.

[Grog]

Ah sweet, it's Grog.

I'm not sure what this means!

[gunswordfist]

I mean, I'm glad to see you. I was on my way to your devlog.