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[poe]

Why not a lantern flashlight combo? It would make it easier to use I think. Anyways looks great!

[SolarLune]

Just an extra upgrade to the lantern, I think - something to drive players to want a little bit more range / usefulness out of their lantern. I'll have to see if it's worth implementing, though. And thanks.

[SolarLune]

Okay, so I've worked a bit on this today and added pick-ups - now you can pick up hearts and ammo refills dropped by enemies when they get destroyed. I still want to add something to make it worth destroying enemies, but it's not a big deal. For now, I need to keep working on the gameplay.



Also, this is all of the sprites that I've made so far implemented into the BGE. Each sprite's a plane, which has a normal, common orientation (each sprite faces directly upwards). The sprite for any object is rotated to face the camera. When the sprite object replaces its sprite with any of the 'stock' sprites, the mesh is replaced, but the object keeps its orientation. So, all of the sprites face the correct direction.



Someone over at the BlenderArtists forum made a good suggestion of having the lantern not be an in-game object, but rather be an object that you physically carry, which, to me, sounds like a good idea.

I think that the actual mechanic for picking up an object in-game could be a bit tough to implement, but it would be worth it in the end. The advantage of the lantern mechanic is that it brings a bit more to puzzle-solving. It takes something conventional (a gate-key puzzle) and can make even a simple puzzle a bit more complex (how can I turn this switch if I can't see it? I have to place the lantern somewhere that allows me to see my environment and the switch at the same time). Anyway, it's food for thought.

EDIT: Looking back on this thread, I'm glad I made so much progress. I miss my dark Blender skin, though. I've gotta find it again.

[SolarLune]

More work today included improving the graphics for the maps a bit by making them look more 'solid' on the front and sides of them.



I also implemented heart containers. Heart Containers will raise your health maximum by 20 points each. Each container also will replenish your health by 20 points, though maybe it should replenish all of your health...



Also, huzzah for dark Blender skins!

[SolarLune]

Worked on this a bit more. I've got dust popping out when the blocks fall, and made some sounds for cranks and blocks.



Also redesigned the explosion sound, using SunVox. It sounds pretty good, I think.

[SolarLune]

Hey. So, I've finally gotten around to making a demo of the current progress made on Soldier Of. It's pretty crude - there's not that much to see right now, but hopefully if there are any bugs or issues, they can be resolved.

So, use the arrow keys to move, and X and C to use your primary and secondary items. Press the Enter key to open your menu to equip yourself, as well. Press the secondary key (C) to make selections in the menus. You can also use a gamepad to control the game. With a standard PS2 controller connected via USB, the Cross and Square buttons are the primary and secondary item buttons. You have all of the items except for the jump boots - you'll have to find those to use them.

It takes 7-Zip to un-zip the archive file. Anyway, hopefully you'll have fun with my demo. Thanks!

DOWNLOAD HERE

[IndieGamesDig]

I had trouble with the current demo build, after starting the .exe file, i just saw the screen in your previous post pop up, but I couldn't do anything with any button on my keyboard or mouse.

I apologize if it's something you've already explained, it's 2:43 AM for me right now...going to sleep...

[SolarLune]

Crud, I thought I didn't miss anything. Hold on...

EDIT: Hm. I'm not sure where the issue is...

EDIT 2: Ah, same problem that I had with Sparky. Fixed it. Uploading now...

EDIT 3: Fixed. Check the download link again.

[johnki]

My thoughts:

- The style and attention to detail with the graphics is overall really good. The music is also really nice. The only thing that I really had an issue with is that the "destroyed ground tile", I think you called it (the black one with blue speckles) comes off more as a tile I'd expect to be a hole into space rather than destroyed ground.

- The text is a really jarring disconnection from the style you're trying (and doing a really good job with) to uphold. I also don't like that a lot of Simon's text seemed needlessly all-caps, especially when the enemies talked in normal case.

EDIT: I'm confused. The more recent screenshots seem to have a more 8-bit looking font, but the one in the demo is clearly not 8-bit at all.

- I get that it's supposed to be simple gameplay, but the gameplay seems to consist entirely of:

1. Shoot at enemy, enemy shoots back.
2. Just keep firing and hope enemy dies first.
3. Hope enemy drops a heart.

I saw that there's a roll option, but to be honest, when using the roll, I lost more health on average than when I just stood still and traded fire with the opposition.

- It's not always clear where you can/can't go in the level.

- I didn't like that I couldn't press fire to advance text. It confused me at first.

- The shoot to open thing was really neat, and the smoothness of the doors' animations was also neat, but I ended up not getting there in time and when the door fell on me, I was stuck in it with no escape but to quit the game.

EDIT: - Especially seeing it in motion, the plain white interface could use a bit more detail (or maybe just a color change or something). I feel like it stands out a bit too much, and a few times, I found it drawing my attention away from the action.

[SolarLune]

My thoughts:

- The style and attention to detail with the graphics is overall really good. The music is also really nice. The only thing that I really had an issue with is that the "destroyed ground tile", I think you called it (the black one with blue speckles) comes off more as a tile I'd expect to be a hole into space rather than destroyed ground.

- The text is a really jarring disconnection from the style you're trying (and doing a really good job with) to uphold. I also don't like that a lot of Simon's text seemed needlessly all-caps.

- I get that it's supposed to be simple gameplay, but the gameplay seems to consist entirely of:

1. Shoot at enemy, enemy shoots back.
2. Just keep firing and hope enemy dies first.
3. Hope enemy drops a heart.

I saw that there's a roll option, but to be honest, when using the roll, I lost more health on average than when I just stood still and traded fire with the opposition.

- It's not always clear where you can/can't go in the level.

- The shoot to open thing was really neat, and the smoothness of the doors' animations was also neat, but I ended up not getting there in time and when the door fell on me, I was stuck in it with no escape but to quit the game.

1. The ground tile could most definitely use some work - maybe I'll work on that soon.

2. The text is jarring how? Too large and pixelly? I thought that it would make sense that dialog is in caps, but maybe everything should be displayed normally.

3. Simply standing there will get you killed. Rolling helps, and strafing helps, as well. It's really easy to take enemies down with the targeting system - I thought they were too easy!

4. Not every path is finished yet - I mentioned that the demo was crude. But, everywhere that has a path leading off of the map is or will be an entrance or exit. Did you ever see somewhere that looked like an exit but wasn't one?

5. Yeah, I haven't implemented everything yet - getting caught under a falling block will kill you instantly (or at least, that's my idea for it).

Thanks a lot for your feedback and for playing it!

[johnki]

1. The ground tile could most definitely use some work - maybe I'll work on that soon.
2. The text is jarring how? Too large and pixelly? I thought that it would make sense that dialog is in caps, but maybe everything should be displayed normally.
3. Simply standing there will get you killed. Rolling helps, and strafing helps, as well. It's really easy to take enemies down with the targeting system - I thought they were too easy!
4. Not every path is finished yet, but everywhere that has a path leading off is an entrance or exit. Did you ever see somewhere that looked like an exit but wasn't one?
5. Yeah, I haven't implemented everything yet - getting caught under the door will kill you instantly (or at least, that's my idea for it).

Thanks a lot for your feedback and for playing it!

2. I edited in that the font seemed a lot different than the one in the screenshots. Maybe I don't have the font or something similar is at play?

3. Well, I found myself losing health more when rolling due to having to re-position myself and readjust my aim, giving them time to shoot me while I was doing so (since they don't ever stop shooting), in comparison to just standing there and shooting them outright.

And oh, wow, don't know how I missed the ability to strafe. Yeah, that would have helped a lot, heh.

4. A few times. Most noticeable was the staircase that lead to a dead end.

5. Sounds good. Getting stuck was just kind of aggravating. >.>

Oh, I also edited in something about the interface.

And no problem.

[SolarLune]

Wait, I think I packed the font in... Odd. Gimme a sec...

[johnki]

Yeah, I found "gamefont.ttf" in there. Was I supposed to install it? EDIT: Nevermind, installing it did nothing.

Otherwise, here's the pic of what I'm getting (just the interface but the rest is the same):



Oh, also, there doesn't seem to be any real indication that you're getting hit other than health dropping?

[SolarLune]

No, no - turned out to totally be my fault. Sorry about that. It's kinda difficult to test and debug stuff on your development machine - absolute paths don't make themselves apparent... Anyway, I think I fixed it.

[johnki]

No, no - turned out to totally be my fault. Sorry about that. It's kinda difficult to test and debug stuff on your development machine - absolute paths don't make themselves apparent... Anyway, I think I fixed it.

No problem. Glad you got it fixed.