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sunnder
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« Reply #560 on: May 29, 2013, 07:41:19 PM »

Well, today I learned that I'm not as good at platformers as I thought I would be. The controls felt great and the graphics were wonderful - a good mixture of cute and not-too-cute. Thought I'd check it out for 5 minutes and it turned into 30, so I guess that's a good sign.
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"In any case you mustn't confuse a single failure with a final defeat." - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Raku
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« Reply #561 on: May 29, 2013, 07:46:46 PM »

Well, it seems that way, doesn't it.
And yes, I've had one other person mention to me just today about the music problem. Please re-download it from the first page of this thread, I've fixed it by adding in the two necessary dlls included for the music to work.

-Occasionally, loot may become trapped in a corner wall. Jack can enter this miniscule space by falling forward into the wall, but not running against it.

Hm, doesnt sound like too big of a problem, what do you mean when you say a "corner wall"?

-On Easy Mode, beating certain levels will trigger the autosave for the level ahead of it, as well. Two flashing "SAVE" icons will appear, and beating the subsequent stage will not trigger another save, forcing me to replay that stage if I Game Over or reset the game. This happens during the following stages...

Ah! I keep forgetting to fix this bug. It should be a simple thing to fix, thanks for pointing that out.

-When the enclosed mushroom enemy in Lion's Den is killed, its loot explodes through the terrain. Not sure if intentional.

Whoops, that's because there's no floor in that little nook, I guess I forgot to put any solid ground in there, since Jack can never get there. Fixed now.

-The rapid jump/land glitch from last demo is back, but this time I found that you can replicate it...

Hmm, I see. I'll have to take a closer look at this stage and what causes that, in order to fix it.

-The cat enemy can become trapped in midair if blocked mid-pounce with a Shield power.

Hmm, seems like an easy fix.

-In the obelisk levels, the drill demons on isolated platforms will turn around prematurely and jiggle when they reach the left ledge, making their patrol patterns unpredictable and virtually impossible to avoid.

Ah, that's another oversight on my part. I assume it has something to do with their hitbox going where it shouldn't. another easy fix.

-Scrolling the screen up and down is a great addition, but doing so on Riverbank Stomp causes the screen to lock in place, preventing the current from pushing you past its border even if there's space beyond.

Wow, that's a problem, I can fix that one easily as well. Nice find.

-When running from one screen to another mid-level, Jack will stop moving, requiring me to release and press the arrow key again to continue forward. This is a very minor point.

Hm, yes, it is minor, but annoying nonetheless. I think I know of a way to fix that, I'll work on a

-The new mid-level Shield tutorial is very clever and charming. It'd be great to have that kind of signposting for Bullet, to teach the player about diagonal shooting. A single, otherwise-untouchable enemy would do.

Ah, do you mean a literal signpost with a painting of an up arrow on it or something? That's very do-able.

-Onward and Upward is WAY too long, considering how much of it is single-tile platforming while under fire and over bottomless abyss.

Hm, I'll see what I can do to make this stage more tolerable, in that case.

-In Room With A View, having bullet moths shooting at you the instant you spawn into the level and the instant you exit the miniboss room is pretty obnoxious.. In general, Bullet moths and appear far too often, and in excessive force...

I understand. Those were one of the first enemies I made for the game, and I had placed a lot of them everywhere because of that. I guess over time I didn't remove them or replace any of them with anything different. I'll make them less frequent (and remove the two that you mentioned in particular) and replace many of them with a new enemy that hovers but only shoots either horizontal or vertical, if that sounds good. I'm always up for excuses to put more unique enemies into this game, anyway.

-Drill demons on narrow platforms are impossible to bypass. As I noted in the Bugs section, they tend to turn around prematurely (before reaching the right edge of the platform) and get stuck jiggling around on the left side, so that there's never enough time to land on their platform, then jump over them without taking damage...

Noted, I'll fix the way they're placed so that they're not as impassable.

-I'm still not a fan of the new Bomb + Laser animation. The effect is neat, but it looks like summoning pillars of Jell-O instead of a trail of explosions. A small explosion animation beneath each pillar would go a long way.

First off, I'm glad to see that you got that combo in this demo, considering it's only available from two or specific places so far. I understand what you mean, but I don't want it to be an explosion, I really prefer it to look like pillars of energy instead.

-In Activation, it's aggravating that no matter how quickly you move forward, the Kero-robot will rubber-band forward to keep you in center screen, essentially limiting you to 25% of the entire window with which to react to the single-tile platforming. Just treat it like Let's Run!, and present the player with a constant, fair scrolling speed, letting them get up to the left side of the screen if they're good enough.

Hm, I'm not sure about this suggestion. If I did that, you wouldn't be able to get a good view of the image, or see it gaining on you. If I had it as another autoscroller, it would seem to me that it's not moving independently, like it's stuck on rails or something. I'll consider it, but I'm not sure. If anything, I can try and make the platforming itself a bit more lenient, seeing as it's got a very small margin for error. at least the stage itself is short, right?

-There is a visual miscommunication on barriers pictured below. They are impassable, but appear on the same plane as background objects. The only clue is their thickness, which is not consistent with the rest of the game.

Ah wow, another big oversight by me there. I should have realized that inconsistency, and I appreciate you pointing this out to me. Making some edits to show that those impassable pillars are on the same plane as Jack should fix that illusion.

-The solidity of the circular wooden stumps (those with the wooden whorls facing the camera) is inconsistent. In Machine Gun Foliage, Jack can jump through them from below, but not in Sharpened Sticks.

Hm, that was just me forgetting to make the rest of them pass-through-able. I'll get that fixed as well.

Once again, thank you very much for the detailed bug report and feedback. Without comments like these, this game wouldn't be where it is today, and I wouldn't have realized half of these obvious mistakes. I appreciate your playtesting through this flawed game in order to find these.

Well, today I learned that I'm not as good at platformers as I thought I would be. The controls felt great and the graphics were wonderful - a good mixture of cute and not-too-cute. Thought I'd check it out for 5 minutes and it turned into 30, so I guess that's a good sign.

Haha, thank you very much. To be honest, the same happens to me when I'm testing it myself. I'm glad!
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ashpd
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« Reply #562 on: May 29, 2013, 11:37:04 PM »

New levels are great! Glad that Eclipsus can be useful in levels too.
Umm... There is another bug in "Gearhead Central" - trolleys are moving completely random. Sometimes there are three trolleys in a row, sometimes they change direction and it's impossible to avoid. Well, I stuck in this level.
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godsavant
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« Reply #563 on: May 30, 2013, 11:53:16 AM »

-Occasionally, loot may become trapped in a corner wall. Jack can enter this miniscule space by falling forward into the wall, but not running against it.
Hm, doesnt sound like too big of a problem, what do you mean when you say a "corner wall"?

When Jack runs up against a wall, his hitbox pushes up against it, as you might expect. However, if you jump up onto a ledge and just barely slip off it, Jack will phase several pixels into the terrain, like so:


-The new mid-level Shield tutorial is very clever and charming. It'd be great to have that kind of signposting for Bullet, to teach the player about diagonal shooting. A single, otherwise-untouchable enemy would do.
Ah, do you mean a literal signpost with a painting of an up arrow on it or something? That's very do-able.

I meant more of a Super Metroid, "you're trapped until you learn this technique" scenario, like you did with the Speed and Shield powers. Say, a door control tucked into a ceiling alcove that you can't hit by normal jump-shooting, but can using Bullet's diagonal shots. And a Bullet soul dispenser, of course.

-I'm still not a fan of the new Bomb + Laser animation. The effect is neat, but it looks like summoning pillars of Jell-O instead of a trail of explosions. A small explosion animation beneath each pillar would go a long way.
First off, I'm glad to see that you got that combo in this demo, considering it's only available from two or specific places so far. I understand what you mean, but I don't want it to be an explosion, I really prefer it to look like pillars of energy instead.

Yes, whenever I get the Laser power, I tend to hold onto it however I can.

I think the visual mismatch is how the pillars look and behave like solid objects. They're glossy and shiny, have distinct edges, and lower/rise out of the ground, instead of fading away like energy beams would. At the very least, the top of each pillar could fade into translucence, to communicate that, yes, this is light, not matter.

-In Activation, it's aggravating that no matter how quickly you move forward, the Kero-robot will rubber-band forward to keep you in center screen, essentially limiting you to 25% of the entire window with which to react to the single-tile platforming. Just treat it like Let's Run!, and present the player with a constant, fair scrolling speed, letting them get up to the left side of the screen if they're good enough.
Hm, I'm not sure about this suggestion. If I did that, you wouldn't be able to get a good view of the image, or see it gaining on you. If I had it as another autoscroller, it would seem to me that it's not moving independently, like it's stuck on rails or something. I'll consider it, but I'm not sure. If anything, I can try and make the platforming itself a bit more lenient, seeing as it's got a very small margin for error. at least the stage itself is short, right?

Tethering the robot to Jack's speed communicates independent movement even less. It eliminates any satisfaction from skilled play. If anything, turning it into an autoscroller would give a better sense of the level and pursuer, as the player is promised a consistent, manageable pace rather than saying "nuh-uh" and speeding up the pursuer because the player's doing too well. As it is right now, "Activation" amounts to a chase scene filmed on a treadmill, with canvas scenery scrolling in the background. 

I will be playing further today. Expect another report soon!

EDIT: Er, never mind, I won't be playing further, because the demo was still supposed to end at Sharpened Sticks. Whoops.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2013, 01:46:42 PM by godsavant » Logged

Raku
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« Reply #564 on: May 30, 2013, 04:12:20 PM »

Ah... how stressful.
The demo should have stopped letting you advance at the same spot as last time, "Sharpened Sticks". I don't understand how it's letting players go past that point, since I deleted the pathway that allows them to go past it. As a hint, any stage lacking music and giving out an error once entered shouldn't be able to be entered.
I really didn't want any of those later stages to be seen yet.

Are some of you still using old save files from previous builds?
Because that could cause this problem, and many more. I implore you all to NOT press continue on the start screen after getting an updated demo. It loads the old save with a lot of the old bugs and problems in it, and allows you past the part of the game that you should be able to go to, causing even more problems.

I guess I made a mistake somewhere.

anyway,
New levels are great! Glad that Eclipsus can be useful in levels too.
Umm... There is another bug in "Gearhead Central" - trolleys are moving completely random. Sometimes there are three trolleys in a row, sometimes they change direction and it's impossible to avoid. Well, I stuck in this level.
I see. Well, you shouldn't be able to get that far in the demo, so those stages are still obviously still under construction. The trolleys... did you mean the minecarts? they shouldn't be moving at random. They will always head to the left, and once they go off the left side of the screen, they come out of the right side of the screen. So it's a pattern.

and, godsavant, your answers are noted as well. I'll take those into consideration, too.
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ashpd
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« Reply #565 on: May 30, 2013, 11:37:22 PM »

Quote
Well, you shouldn't be able to get that far in the demo
Hmm... That's strange. I was just playing on easy-mode.
Quote
did you mean the minecarts?
Yes, minecarts. Actually they are moving to the certain point and then change direction. It's, like, there are some limiters or something. Not the best screenshot, but anyway:

They are moving to the right corner and then moving to the left. Really strange.
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« Reply #566 on: May 31, 2013, 12:58:37 AM »

Ah... how stressful.
The demo should have stopped letting you advance at the same spot as last time, "Sharpened Sticks". I don't understand how it's letting players go past that point, since I deleted the pathway that allows them to go past it. As a hint, any stage lacking music and giving out an error once entered shouldn't be able to be entered.
I really didn't want any of those later stages to be seen yet.

Are some of you still using old save files from previous builds?
Because that could cause this problem, and many more. I implore you all to NOT press continue on the start screen after getting an updated demo. It loads the old save with a lot of the old bugs and problems in it, and allows you past the part of the game that you should be able to go to, causing even more problems.

I guess I made a mistake somewhere.

oh I was doing this to see how well the game could handle old save files(stress testing if you will), also saving me time from Having to beat the game multiple times. I'd stop after some time when the save(s) crash the game completely around june 2012 when I ported one of my Multi-soul saves over to the game that removed them.(since then I was playing the game over and over normally.) Though you could store your save files in a folder to be able to replay bonus levels. edit: Sorry.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2013, 10:37:17 AM by Rumrusher » Logged
Raku
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« Reply #567 on: May 31, 2013, 03:46:55 AM »

@ashpd
Ahh, I see what the problem is, now. It's an easy fix, just a silly oversight on my part. Thank you for bringing that up. As I said, that part of the game and onward is still very unfinished and unpolished so far, so there will likely be a lot of problems there.

@Rumrusher
I can't say how upset this is making me. What you're doing has point or usefulness. "Stress testing" the game by loading older saves in order to break it isn't helpful at all. You seem to keep coming back with more and more ways to try and break the game, even though in the final build, none of these breaks will exist. I'm just not sure what to say here. I specifically changed the name of the save file to attempt to stop this from happening, but here you are telling everyone how to bypass this.

If I could find a way to make it so you absolutely could not cause these glitches, I would do so, but it seems that you'll keep finding more and more ways around them. In fact, from what I remember, you never even respond when I bring up that these glitches you're finding are not supposed to exist, and that I'm trying to kill them.

The only option I can think of is to stop releasing updates to the demo altogether, and start only letting a few trusted people test the game at various intervals. I'll still post to this thread regularly (screenshots, updates, etc), just not the demo itself.
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« Reply #568 on: May 31, 2013, 10:28:04 AM »


@Rumrusher
I can't say how upset this is making me. What you're doing has point or usefulness. "Stress testing" the game by loading older saves in order to break it isn't helpful at all. You seem to keep coming back with more and more ways to try and break the game, even though in the final build, none of these breaks will exist. I'm just not sure what to say here. I specifically changed the name of the save file to attempt to stop this from happening, but here you are telling everyone how to bypass this.

If I could find a way to make it so you absolutely could not cause these glitches, I would do so, but it seems that you'll keep finding more and more ways around them. In fact, from what I remember, you never even respond when I bring up that these glitches you're finding are not supposed to exist, and that I'm trying to kill them.

The only option I can think of is to stop releasing updates to the demo altogether, and start only letting a few trusted people test the game at various intervals. I'll still post to this thread regularly (screenshots, updates, etc), just not the demo itself.
Oh my... If you want to me not do that I will. I just want to improve the game by testing if there no possible way for someone to crash the game in any means possible. I am wrong on thinking that loading up old saves will help with that. Edit: I just removed the the way to bypass from the original post hope that helps. I really don't want to set back everyone over my actions.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2013, 11:16:06 AM by Rumrusher » Logged
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« Reply #569 on: May 31, 2013, 08:24:31 PM »

A heads up, the souls on the shop are accesible even if they appear as locked, also if Jack turns twice too fast sometimes it starts to head-bop while running, I know it shouldn't happen but it's too amusing and I hope this actually doesn't get removed.
It's interesting how much the game has changed, I just hope the last level prior to the boss is not as ridiculously frustrating as it was on the last beta from 2012 and, funny enough, that the man in the moon final boss stage got harder since it felt like a let down after going though the hell from the prior stage in the version I mentioned.
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Raku
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« Reply #570 on: May 31, 2013, 08:53:29 PM »

@Rumrusher It's alright. I forgive you, I shouldn't have been so stern. I'm getting some help about the save file exploit, and I think I've gotten it fixed already. Posting updates to the demo isn't out of the question.

@Buster Ah, that's odd. I'll have to fix that too. And as I've said to the other people in this thread, that part of the game should not actually have been accessible in this current demo, so I'm not sure how you got there. In any case, it's not supposed to be accessible because I haven't refined that part of the game yet, it's all incomplete for now. The demo should have stopped letting you progress around the stage 'sharpened sticks'.
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« Reply #571 on: May 31, 2013, 09:13:26 PM »

This versiĆ³n, yeah it stops at slightly bumpy actually, but I have an old beta you released in 2012 and that goes all the way up to man in the moon with a few bonus stages available aswell. That's about it.
Oh also the enemy that drops the "moving" soul on slightly bumpy has a chance of not showing up sometimes.
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Raku
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« Reply #572 on: May 31, 2013, 09:32:33 PM »

Ahh, I see. And yes, the enemy that drops that soul has a chance of not showing up. He's rare to come by.
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« Reply #573 on: June 01, 2013, 01:39:32 PM »

Hi, just posting to say that this is awesome and really inspiring.

I love platformers, even if I'm not so good at them. So to me is a love/hate (frustration, really) relationship, and already have this feeling with your demo after playing it for a few hours =)

Maybe later I can give some better feedback but for now just an observation:

I had some trouble at first figuring out how to pass the "mimic" enemy (am stoopid), and one thing I tried is to throw the boomerang past the enemy so it could hit him in the back when coming back. I did it, but nothing happened (not hit on collision). Seeing how the boomerang enemy can hit you in this fashion I think it can be another logical approach, but of course this would make the mimic guy "beatable"... (Sorry if this is not useful at all, I just love to think about gameplay logic and mechanics Tongue)

Anyway, you're doing a really good job and it shows how much you're putting into it.
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« Reply #574 on: June 03, 2013, 04:21:16 PM »

I also just copied over the old demo with the new demo, and it let me go much farther than Sharpened Sticks. 

Overall, the updated demo from the previous has been an improvement.  The levels play out much smoother, and the learning curve is more enjoyable.  I will also say that going through a 2nd playtrough for the first levels is almost a different experience.  I felt much more "pro" now that I'm comfortable with the controls.
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Raku
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« Reply #575 on: June 04, 2013, 02:39:50 AM »

@martind
Thank you for the compliments and advice. Here's a hint for you, to get past the mimic enemy (If the "mimic" you're referring to is the block of concrete with a hand on the front), all you have to do is distract it. Notice that it clasps it's hand whenever you hit it with anything, and maybe you can figure out how to get past it.

@TheMightyDefault
Ah, I see. I guess that's another way as well. Once again, that's something that shouldn't happen.
Thanks! I'm glad you think so.
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Raku
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« Reply #576 on: June 13, 2013, 10:31:45 PM »

I'm still around, working hard on the game every single day. I got sick due to allergies being really bad this season, but I'm better now.
There's still a lot to do, but I'm getting it all done bit by bit.

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Raku
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« Reply #577 on: June 20, 2013, 10:18:07 PM »

Some new concept sketches of an upcoming miniboss, why not.

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« Reply #578 on: June 20, 2013, 10:24:53 PM »

The "final attack" is pretty cute Smiley
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« Reply #579 on: June 20, 2013, 10:26:57 PM »

I love looking at your sketches man
« Last Edit: June 20, 2013, 10:35:19 PM by Conker » Logged
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