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[Hempuli‽]

Can you zoom in? I can't imagine designing levels using 8x8 tiles without zooming in.

I can't. I've thought of maybe adding some kind of a 'lens' that follows the mouse to resize the tiles, but all in all I haven't really had problems

[Hempuli‽]

I've decided to change my plans regarding the powerup you get from this plant boss. It was supposed to be a bomb-type weapon, but after actually implementing it I realized that it had several problems:

1) The bomb was ridiculously powerful. Now then, this could be balanced, but in the end a weapon that damaged every enemy in an area would always be much more useful than weapons that only hit one enemy at a time.
2) The bomb had really no other functions than to damage enemies and destroy certain blocks. This isn't that bad considering how powerups work in your average metroidvania, but it's still a bit annoying. I had originally planned that the explosion could be used to travel jump higher, but with the hookshot and the double jump that function becomes quite useless.
3) Last but not least, I had planned that the bombs would work like missiles in Metroid, i.e. that you'd have a limited amount of ammunition. However, this would directly clash with the fact that the game has no random health or other drops. It'd be kind of silly to have bombs drop from dead enemies while nothing else dropped.

However, it did look quite nice:


I already have a plan on how to replace it. However, now I have to think of how to replace the "bomb tank" upgrades that gave you more bombs... Maybe just more power to the new weapon?

[John Hutchinson]

  SO AWESOME!!!! 

[Lynx]

Dunno, it doesn't seem excessive if you balance fire rate.  For instance, if you can fire a gun 20 times in the amount of time you can launch one bomb that could take out 10 enemies if you're lucky...

[Xion]

you could just let there be two or three places in the whole station that let you refill your  bombs. In this way they become a kind if powerful scarcity, and you have to weigh each situation as a kind of: do I really want to risk using up all my bombs this soon and either be under-equipped when it really matters later or have to make the trek all the way to the nearest bomb station to refill? This would maybe fix 1 and 3.

You could also let the bomb jump launch you much higher than the other jump upgrades at the expense of dealing some damage to you? Could make for some fun maneuvering: bomb jump up a high tunnel and then double jump to be able to just reach the hookshot grapple spot, and jump off and bomb jump further up in mid-air to reach a seeecrett leddgee or something.

but you said you know how to replace it so oh well.

[SolarLune]

1) The bomb was ridiculously powerful. Now then, this could be balanced, but in the end a weapon that damaged every enemy in an area would always be much more useful than weapons that only hit one enemy at a time.
2) The bomb had really no other functions than to damage enemies and destroy certain blocks. This isn't that bad considering how powerups work in your average metroidvania, but it's still a bit annoying. I had originally planned that the explosion could be used to travel jump higher, but with the hookshot and the double jump that function becomes quite useless.
3) Last but not least, I had planned that the bombs would work like missiles in Metroid, i.e. that you'd have a limited amount of ammunition. However, this would directly clash with the fact that the game has no random health or other drops. It'd be kind of silly to have bombs drop from dead enemies while nothing else dropped.

1) It wouldn't be useful against a single enemy, since you probably could deal more damage to it individually with a gun than with bombs.
2) The explosion's timed, though, which can be pretty important. You might need to time a jump somehow...?
3. I agree with Xion's idea of bomb stations.

I really like the way the bomb looks and bounces - awesome job! You obviously know what you're doing if you take it out, but still... It's awesome!

[sergiocornaga]

It does look cool, but it sounds like removing it is the right thing to do. Strive for perfection!

[Conker534]

How have I not seen this yet. I love the gif images a lot on the first post.
This game looks awesome.

[Hempuli‽]

Back to work on this after No More Sweden! 

After some finishing touches in the jungle, I'll start planning the next area, the sand temple thing. My original plans for it were really boring, so I've decided to make the whole area one big puzzle (not a block-pushing one!).

Here's a crude (and severely edited) map of the game world, and where the temple is:


The Red/Brown areas are those that have already been finished (to some extent), and the blinking area marks the temple.

[d]

The game looks really good but (this is just my opinion) the name seems a little overly verbose. It's almost scary how well a short, vivid name can evoke a game's overall atmosphere and gameplay through nothing more than a single word. For this, something like "Biosphere" comes to mind as immediately evocative of the tone and visual style of the game.

[Hempuli‽]

Yes, the name is really bad, isn't it? I've been trying to think of a better one, but most of the names I come up with are those horrible cheesy pseudo-latin ones. You know, the ones where you start with an English word and add '-us' or '-um' or such.

STATIONUM

METROIDIUM

SPACE ADVENTURORIUM

I've been considering giving it a Finnish name, but the problem is that every single Finnish word sounds hilariously dumb to my own ears.

[d]

I don't speak Finnish but Google Translate claims "reviiri" can mean preserve (as in, a nature preserve). That seems like a pretty interesting and unique name.

[SolarLune]

E
S
α
?

αlpha? (Greek Alpha symbol.)

σlpha? (Sigma symbol.)

[GCshepard]

I don't speak Finnish but Google Translate claims "reviiri" can mean preserve (as in, a nature preserve). That seems like a pretty interesting and unique name.

Pseudo-Finnishlatin: Reviirium. I like it. The preserve thingy... or something like that. Whatever meaning the -um suffix adds.

E
S
α
?

αlpha? (Greek Alpha symbol.)
σlpha? (Sigma symbol.)

Sounds GLaDOS-esque, just more passive and less out-to-muder-you. I do like it, though.

Honestly, I kept revisiting this page because Environmental Station Alpha sounds so mysterious... like there's something to explore. It may not be a good name, though, because even though I clicked on Environmental Station Alpha, I was unable to make a link with what the game was; not very memorable... to broad.

Sorry, but no name suggestions from me...

[Hempuli‽]

I absolutely loathe pseudo-latin, if my earlier post didn't indicate that.  

As for 'reviiri', it actually means one's living territory. It's used to describe for example the area certain animals (wolves etc) mark for themselves. Nature preserve would be 'luonnonsuojelualue' in Finnish, which is quite a mouthful!

Some Finnish names I've considered have been 'unohtunut'/'unohdettu' or 'kadonnut'/'kadotettu', the former of which means "forgotten" and the latter "lost". A name I want to use someday but that doesn't quite fit the themes of the game would be 'hukkatie', that is something akin to "lost errand" or a way that leads to getting lost. It's kind of hard to describe, actually.

[sergiocornaga]

I don't have a problem with 'Environmental Station Alpha', but it's definitely not catchy. I think d has the right idea, a single made-up term along the lines of 'Metroid' probably communicates what the game is about best. 'Biosphere' is good, other variations you could consider are 'Biodome' or my personal favourite, 'Biodrome', which is surprisingly fitting given the 'drome' suffix suggests a course for running around in.

[Sean Hogan (seagaia)]

I absolutely loathe pseudo-latin, if my earlier post didn't indicate that.  

As for 'reviiri', it actually means one's living territory. It's used to describe for example the area certain animals (wolves etc) mark for themselves. Nature preserve would be 'luonnonsuojelualue' in Finnish, which is quite a mouthful!

Some Finnish names I've considered have been 'unohtunut'/'unohdettu' or 'kadonnut'/'kadotettu', the former of which means "forgotten" and the latter "lost". A name I want to use someday but that doesn't quite fit the themes of the game would be 'hukkatie', that is something akin to "lost errand" or a way that leads to getting lost. It's kind of hard to describe, actually.

I think Reviiri is pretty neat. Or you could shorten luonnonsuojelualue to something??

[Hempuli‽]

Alas, but both words are used in a context that isn't related to ESA in any way. I don't think there's a word that'd really mean the same as "environmental station" or such without resorting to umlauts (ä & ö). For example, "environment" = 'ympäristö'.

I wonder if most English names sound as inherently silly to native speakers as Finnish names do to me.

[rek]

I keep coming back to the word PRESERVATION.

But I think ESA is a fine name – it's technical, which suits the scifi, neutral until you learn what the game is about, then it's ominous.

[pen]

nice game bro!