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[:^)]

supa cool. those guys are scary as heck.

Are you going to eventually be using another font for the options in the menu?

[JLJac]

Hm... I've been pondering on that and think I'll actually not. I think there's some interesting graphical contrast between the crazyness of the title script and the strictness of the menu texts. Something like this works well, according to me.



The title here is of course not supposed to be "rain world", but a name of a game type instead.

EDIT: And this is when I realize that I've based my menu layout on a 600x800 canvas while my actual game is 1024x768. Well, I'll have to scale it I guess. The proportions should be the same.

[Chromanoid]

just a random opinion: I love the style of the game, but for me, this fancy graffiti stuff  doesn't play well with the rest. It looks too cute and curly to me. That said, I will play the game (and pay for it?) anyway  

suggestions: streetsigns as logo/captions inspiration or maybe arrows and stuff around the graffiti

[JLJac]

Wow, that video was really cool!
As for the graffiti, I'm still kind of searching for my style... I knew from the start that I wanted the interface to have some sort of black and white graffiti, but I didn't know exactly what it would look like - that's what I'm trying to nail down now. I don't want it to be "cute and curly", rather I think what I'm going for could be summed up as "stange". We'll see how I'll get there.

As for the  I plan to release the game for free - that way no one can complain about it being buggy and unplayable hehe! I might put up a donation page though.

Update 140
I'm sorry for not writing here very often these days. It's for your own safety though, as you could easily die from boredom if I put all the things I'm currently doing up here. I'm doing... interface stuff -.- So, basically, I've been implementing stuff like sliders for sound and music volume, different kinds of buttons, frameworks for how buttons will handle highlighting, checking if the pointer is above them, and so on and so on.

The main reason why this is so time consuming is that I'm making the entire interface accessable through both mouse and keyboard. I think that will be a really nice feature in the end, especially for those players who prefer to use a controller (which reminds me that I probably should add joystick input too... but that'll go under the keyboard framework).

[happymonster]

For some reason, for the title font and the idea of rain I'm going with almost diagonal line to emphasise the rain /// - Perhaps an italic kind of font?

[Chromanoid]

Wow, that video was really cool!

If you are unfamiliar with the demoscene...you can download the exe here http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=27003 one of my favorites http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=31571

As for the graffiti, I'm still kind of searching for my style... I knew from the start that I wanted the interface to have some sort of black and white graffiti, but I didn't know exactly what it would look like - that's what I'm trying to nail down now. I don't want it to be "cute and curly", rather I think what I'm going for could be summed up as "stange". We'll see how I'll get there.

I see I am really curious what you will come up with.

I think you should at least make it pay what you want - to make the donating more part of the download process .

[jamesprimate]

I think you should at least make it pay what you want - to make the donating more part of the download process .

listen to this man Joar. Its time you embraced commerce.

embrace it.

and embrace gamepad support.

[JLJac]

...embrace commerce...

Hahaha
It's just that there's this really annoying bug where the player suddenly falls of a ledge at the speed of light, which leads to some really unfair deaths, and which I don't at all feel like tracking down and fixing ~ And that makes releasing the game for free the logical conclusion, as no-one can say anything as long as they didn't pay for it...

[Chromanoid]

"Hey, this game is pay what you want! You should know I spent much time on making this game. Unfortunately there are a few bugs I cannot fix (see here). If you don't want to pay for a game with some bugs, just pay 0$...or maybe 10ct? "

[jamesprimate]

in a game where you die 10,000,00 times during NORMAL play, you think that an occasional bugged death breaks the game?? Hardly. I've logged in probably 20 hrs of RW and haven't encountered it once.

also, it's not like games are released as some perfect ideal of coding perfection. every single one of them has flaws and unfix able things, but that doesn't stop them from being released and people enjoying them. Fez was for some people an unplayable mess: http://www.bitloaders.com/2012/07/19/fez-developers-will-not-be-fixing-game-breaking-bug-in-patch-re-release/ but that doesn't take away anything from its "worth". It's just a part of what game development is. everybody who buys games understands that. I can't even count how many huge budget AAA games I own that are buggy fuckups, I'm sure that people will understand when you, a lone game dev working in macromedia director, have a few rough edges.

plus, why not just release it, then do a patch or an update when you feel like sifting through? or hell, just get someone to do it for you (I know 10 programmer friends that would do it in a heartbeat!)

you've spent a huge amount of time on a really really awesome game and you are in the final stretch of the race. it's worth it! go all the way!

[JLJac]

Hehe thank you James! 

There's another argument against the "pay whatever you want" idea though - it requires people to have paypal or something. For me, the first objective is very clear: I want people to play my game. If I can collect some change in the process that's fine, money is fun. It's just that I don't think it's worth it if there are people out there who go "oh, you have to have a paypal account... nevermind then". I know I would. In that case I get neither money nor a player :/ It all comes down to the golden rule, I think. Do I like it when people charge me for their games? No. Or actually, I feel completely indifferent about it, because I won't even play the game. I haven't payed for (or illegaly downloaded) a game in something like five years - the few hours of playing games I've had during those years are all from the ever depleting pool of "download for free indie" games.

And on top of this I don't even know if it's possible to legally purchase the software I'm developing this on any more.

And And I have no idea about how to implement some kind of copy protection, neither am I very interested in it as I view that kind of programming as counter-productive. Who wants to sit down for 36 hours and code a device that keeps people from enjoyment?

What it all comes down to is that if I use myself as a template for my audience, paying makes the entire difference between actually playing the game and not playing it. Put that next to my priority list - players over money - and the outcome seems clear.

That's my logic, at least. I don't know if it makes sense to anyone else?

Update 141
More menu stuff. Made the game smarter in some regards - for example now it doesn't keep an entire world map in memory while playing a custom game, and it doesn't keep a custom game handler in memory when playing the campaign.

Also the pause menu is now working properly, and I have the framework for a game over menu. Oh, and the game now supports game pad for the menu, if player 1 is set to game pad. Basically the menu can always be controlled by arrow keys and space/enter, but it can also be controlled by whatever input player 1 has set up.



Noticed a bug where when a croc picks up a spear the spear will be displayed above both its upper and lower jaw, making it look like it's just kind of... glued to the side of its head. The correct way for this to be is that the spear should be above the lower jaw but behind the upper jaw, making it look like the lizard is pinching it in its mouth. This has to do with me changing the spawn order of lizards and spears a while back, so I'll just have to go take a look at that.

[Rat Casket]

You can use Paypal to take donations, and the person paying can just run their credit card info through Paypal. They dont actually have to have an account.

[SolarLune]

I would also assume that if you set it up to be pay what you want, a player could just set 0 as the price and download the game for free with no issues.

Would you really worry about copy-protection? It's up to you, but it never really works, anyway. Someone'll hack it open and then distribute it, so why add it in at all? You can keep the game DRM-free and still sell it.

Anywho, the game's looking pretty slick!

[:^)]

Gumroad seems like it would be a p tight option for you as far as distribution.

They have a pay-what-you-want option too. so. like. hey.

let me buy your game. I wont play this unless you let me buy it. 

muahahahhahahaahahah

[tchassin]

Gumroad seems like it would be a p tight option for you as far as distribution.

They have a pay-what-you-want option too. so. like. hey.

let me buy your game. I wont play this unless you let me buy it. 

muahahahhahahaahahah

What villainy!
That being said, I would mind throwing some monies at you either

[JLJac]

Hahaha never in my life would I suspect so many people would ask to pay for something!
What about kids without credit cards, then? Or maybe stuff has changed since I was a kid, I guess these days they get their weekly allowance in bitcoins or whatever.

Perhaps I could make the game accessable in two ways: either you pay what you want (even 0), or (if you're a kid, or flat broke) you can send an email explaining why you can't pay for the game, and I'll send an email back saying "no worries buddy" and the game attatched.

[Rat Casket]

If you can pay 0 then why would they need to email you? :l

I want to give you a million dollars for this game.

[jamesprimate]

there was a time when the novelty of getting everything for free was a big deal, but I definitely think that the current culture of the indie games scene (and indeed a lot of other artistic scenes) has moved past that. people want to show their support. they ENJOY it, it makes them feel like part of the process, champions of their preferred art form, and that is important to them.. the insane success (and excess!) of kickstarter funding is vibrant proof of this. every day my twitter feed is assaulted by hundreds of my friends rallying around one new project or another. it means something real to them.

think of it this way: for a normal person who enjoys videogames, how else would you be able to influence what sort of games come out? they're not paying out of some sort of charity! they are paying because they enjoy it and want the developer to make more games, perhaps in that style or with that unique aesthetic. and fellow creatives want to celebrate their fellow developers successes as well, much like you would buy a friend or colleague a beer or cake for their birthday or some special occasion. as is evidenced by this thread, your friends want to take you out for a beer, let them 

[JLJac]

If that's the case, then that's amazing! I guess you're right in that the gaming world, especially the indie one, is very different today.

And if it's like you say, that people want to give money to the projects they enjoy, then I'd certainly enjoy recieving some of that money. If not for anything else, at least because it would be proof that people enjoyed my work

Still, I remember when I was a kid and me and my friends used to play games during lunch break - if you had to pay, or if there was any kind of hassle, we would simply treat that game as non-existent. We played only stuff like Liero, that you could download in less than a minute and be playing in less than two.

I don't know... In the end, I'm pretty much decided in that there will be a way to download and play the game for free. But if there are people who want to give me some money, there should definitely be some way for that to happen too.

James, you and I have been talking about this before, but I don't remember what we settled on? Donations?

Update 142
Made it possible to re-map the keyboard controls. The excitement! Still it's cool to see how these things are coming together. I could make my way through the menues with the mouse, change the controls for player 1, make my way back with those new controls, start up a custom game, hit esc, see how the menu reacted to player input, go back to the menu, etc. It's a flow of... working stuff, which seems awesome in comparison to the separate shards this project has been up until now.

[Rat Casket]

I wanted to play the movement prototype but its gone. ):