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[brog]

Hm, a lot of complaints about the controls.  I've posted a version with slightly higher sensitivity for turning, but since the deadline's past I've left the final before-deadline version as well.  I actually had this sensitivity much higher before, and I kept turning when I didn't mean to; I guess I overcompensated for that.

Updated Version

This is a ridiculously minor change, just changing one constant in the code.  It does reduce the difficulty a bit, but I think that's okay though because it's still quite hard towards the end.
Of course, how it feels is going to depend on what sensitivity you have your mouse at in the first place.  I find it completely unplayable on my laptop touchpad.

Also, the Blue Beast? Brilliant! Is it a creature of your own creation, Brog?

I did indeed create it, it is called Smestorp and it has attained quite a mythology among my friends and my university.  It tends to make an appearance in all of my games, usually as an end boss or similar, though there can be considerable variation in appearance.  The Smestorp Graphic Novel might help to enlighten you, or it might not.

[Melly]

I got to the first lighthouse, and then I was like "OHSHITWTFAARGHHAHAHA"

 

[deadeye]

I like the rowing controls.  They're very intuitive, but even with the updated version it's still kind of hard to escape the blue monster.  Is there an invisible boundary that I'm running into at the edge of the world?  Because it seems like I'm rowing frantically but not getting anywhere.

Also, the sound is horribly unbalanced.  The music is very quiet, so I turned the volume way up to hear it.  Then the first time the monster ate me it almost blew out my speakers because it was so loud.

Nice atmosphere though.

[agj]

Yeah, I'll bitch a bit about how hard it is to get away from Smestorp, too! Also, turning is way hard, maybe the horizontal distance that the mouse has to travel should not be that great?

Enjoyed it otherwise!

[Soulliard]

The first spoiler was certainly unexpected. After that, though, the difficult controls became too annoying, so I didn't progress much farther.

[Fluroarmadillo]

Wait, you can turn??

I just got stuck with giant baby heads bouncing me everywhere which scared the crap out of me

[brog]

Is there an invisible boundary that I'm running into at the edge of the world?  Because it seems like I'm rowing frantically but not getting anywhere.

Yes, there is.  Maybe I need to make that more clear?

Also, the sound is horribly unbalanced.  The music is very quiet, so I turned the volume way up to hear it.  Then the first time the monster ate me it almost blew out my speakers because it was so loud.

Hm, I should have realised something like that might happen.  See, the growling noise that Smestorp makes is divided by the distance between you and it to make it louder as it gets closer.  So when this distance approaches zero, you get a horrible distorted noise.  This was a bug that became a feature - I thought it was good to have the noise when you get eaten.  But I didn't really consider that it might get ridiculously loud on speakers other than mine.  I guess I should fix this.

And about the controls being difficult: I guess what I ought to do is add a control to configure the sensitivity.  I've got it so it's quite comfortable to use with my mouse settings, but of course people are going to have different settings.  (Of course, it's impossible with my laptop touchpad.  Use a mouse.)
Why I didn't do this in the first place is that I wanted movement to require sweeping rowing motions, and if people could turn up the sensitivity as high as they like, they would naturally configure it so that they can move with barely any effort, which would weaken the feel I had intended for the game.

Ok, if I have some time later I'll sort out these issues and post a new version.

I just got stuck with giant baby heads bouncing me everywhere which scared the crap out of me

I'm satisfied with this.

[Melly]

Hideous' ugly baby head should be a secret boss in every game.

[brog]

Ok, if I have some time later I'll sort out these issues and post a new version.

Done.

Changes:
- use mouse scroll wheel to change sensitivity
- sounds should be a bit safer for speakers
- invisible boundaries are no longer invisible
- fiddled a bit with parameters for rowing controls

Probably these make things easier, but if they also make it more playable I guess that's okay.

[Gainsworthy]

I did indeed create it, it is called Smestorp and it has attained quite a mythology among my friends and my university.  It tends to make an appearance in all of my games, usually as an end boss or similar, though there can be considerable variation in appearance.  The Smestorp Graphic Novel might help to enlighten you, or it might not.

Wow. Laughed out Loud for real that time. SMESTORP resources ahoy. Draw Your Own Smestorp Here. You should create an Infocational Pamphlet.

Really did you, uh, create that Novel all on your own? Any help? Or hallucinogens? Personally, I feel ill. But it's a good ill.

[brog]

Really did you, uh, create that Novel all on your own? Any help? Or hallucinogens? Personally, I feel ill. But it's a good ill.

Thanks.
Yeah, it's all my own work, apart from a couple of Escher prints I stole from on one page, and a couple of photos by other people that I used.  It's based on a dream I had; I'm not sure if that counts as a hallucinogen, but it was definitely pretty weird.
I was thinking of making a game that followed on from it, the comic would be the backstory for the game, but this hasn't happened yet.