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[Bennett]

I'm totally new to game development, and this is my first try at making a game, so I hope people don't mind indulging me with this. It's a homage both to Archer Maclean and to the rubber shuriken which was supposed to be in my 'Last Ninja 2' box, but wasn't.

It's super-rough at the moment, and kind of unfair, but playable, and I'd love to get any comments or advice on the gameplay, art, etc. My top score is 40.

The game is playable at this link: http://www.foddy.net/temp/test.html.
Use the arrow keys to play - you have to hold them down, tapping them won't work.

[Derek]

hahaha, I like this.  The graphics colors you chose are a bit "barfy" (sorry I couldn't think of a more polite way of putting it) but I actually really dig 'em.  The main character's animations are great!

The biggest problem right now is that the controls are wonky.  I'll get "stuck" a lot in certain positions.  You kind of have to recalibrate by letting go of all the keys sometimes.  It'd be much nicer if I could just smoothly move from arrow key to arrow key without any hiccups.

The other thing I would suggest is having up arrow and down arrow do something (even if it's ineffective gameplay-wise).  I want to be able to rotate the sword all around and it would help make the controls feel more fluid, too.

I haven't gotten more than like 16 points so far, but you got something good here.  I actually love throwing my sword up and missing and seeing the blood spurt out while I remain in my attack position... you got that samurai duel feel in there!  Just fix the controls up.

Also, I don't know what any of the ranks are past "Squire," but that one seems out of place.  Here are the ranks they use in Nethack when you play as a samurai, and maybe one of these will suit the game better:

Hatamoto
Ronin
Ninja
Joshu
Ryoshu
Kokushu
Daimyo
Kuge
Shogun

[Derek]

Okay, 29... I'm getting better at this!  Although I'm not sure there was any way to survive when you're getting attacked from left and right at the exact same time! :D

[Derek]

Benzido, I just noticed that Tim posted the game on the front page... is this alright?  For future reference, editors, make sure you ask the authors before you front page their WIP work.

EDIT: I took the post down.  I don't think it's a good idea.  Sorry, Tim!

[Bennett]

Thanks for the comments. The colours are kind of barfy - the plan was to make it so it looks reminiscent of ZX Spectrum graphics but without the attribute clash, and without the restricted palette.

I'll tweak the controls and see if I can't get them to work right. Maybe I'm just stupid, but it's not as simple of an algorithm as I thought it would be.

And wouldn't mind about it being posted, only it's nowhere near polished enough. The inspiration - the ball minigame from IK+ - was completely flawless.

[fish]

oh man, i love the look of this.
i could just throw you back what you said about my game.
lets say i did.

i agree with derek, i should be able to swing the sword all around.

but as i was playing it (didnt get very far), i was thinking: hey, this would make a great rythm game! mind you, i say that about almost anything.

but hear me out, if the attack patter of the ninjas had a certain rythm to them, and that attacking the different threats (throwing stars, ninjas) made different sounds....you could arrange the enemies to create a little beat. and those sounds sound pretty cool. shling shling clank! shling shling clank! and then the background music builds itself as you kill more and more ninjas

it would really alter the actual gameplay in any way but would make for a completely difference experience.

but yeah, i love the look of this.

[ravuya]

What is this?

You can never have too many ninjas. Ever.

[Bennett]

Thanks! It's so flattering to get compliments from such talented people. 

Funnily enough, it was my original idea to make a rhythm game out of it. You would make it so that if you hit a ninja on the beat of the music, your combo meter would go up. So you'd be forced to choose between saving yourself and saving your combo.

I'd originally written the music in separate channels, so that it could be made to play faster as the game got faster.

Unfortunately, doing this in actionscript 2.0 was beyond me, since you don't have any kind of control over sounds and mixing and timing. I gather it's a bit better in AS 3.0 but then I would need to convert the whole project over to the new language.

In about 15 minutes I'll upload a new version which has a crouch control. It probably makes it a whole lot easier.

[Bennett]

Ok, new version up, now the up and down keys make you crouch and cover your head. I haven't tried yet, hopefully you can't get a score of a zillion just by crouching the whole time.

But I think I agree it makes it feel much more interactive. Now to fix the other control issues...

(incidentally, does anyone know how to get Firefox to force-reload a flash movie?)

[fish]

oh dude, you should totally make it a rhythm game then!
i think it would be worth the effort!
it would like something you could find in rhythm tengoku or something like that.

[Bennett]

Ok the control issues are better, but still not perfect.

Apparently, there is a difference between 'if' and 'else if'. Who knew?

I don't think sane people would try to do a rhythm game in flash. What do you guys use for pixel games? SDL?

[Derek]

...i was thinking: hey, this would make a great rythm game! mind you, i say that about almost anything.

But especially about this:



Feels better!  I'm getting better, too - I switched up my playstyle so that instead of holding my sword out all the time I swing it just enough to hit whatever's coming at me.  The response is much better that way.  34 points.  The controls still stick a little bit.

Might be cool to have it slowly turn to night as you're playing!

[handCraftedRadio]

Too many ninjas? Ha! Not enough ninjas is what I say. I was cutting through ninjas like there was no tomorrow. Until I got 24 points and died. This game is really fun. You should get an online scoreboard up so we can compete against eachother. Then we can hold a tigsource Too Many Ninjas tournament!

This game is also very realistic and I learned some valuable lessons from it: if ninjas start attacking you stand in one spot with a samurai sword, block their throwing stars, and hold it down until they slide into it. Come to think of it, I think it was on my Worst Case Scenario calendar once.

[EDIT]
32 points.

[Xion]

I had an enemy land right next to me, like, overlapping the player sprite, almost, but when I swung I couldn't hit it. Then it (inevitably) killed me.
Cool though...I feel I've played something like this before...

[Outer God]

pretty cool little game you got there.  are you planning on adding sound effects, cos that'd rock!!  perhaps add different levels of difficulty or checkpoints when you reach a certain score, cos i really wanna take on (or have the option of taking on) tons of ninjas at once from the start without having to wait and build up my score with one or two to begin with.

still, looking good.

[Bennett]

Thanks! But it already has sound effects! And it gets harder every 10 points you get (though nothing seriously different ever happens). It would definitely benefit from a few different enemy types and patterns.

[Derek]

 

[Bennett]

I'm flattered and impressed. And totally ashamed that I still can't clear 40 at my own game! 

Sadly I don't think I can do a proper hi-score table. You need PHP, ASP or MySQL, don't you? Maybe I should upgrade my server...

[Steve Swink]

ha ha...oh man, why is this so fun?  I've played waaay too much of this. When I first glanced over the thread I thought the numbers people were posting were the level they'd reached, so I was upset I could only get to level 5 .

I have only two suggestions, because I think this is a perfect example of a delightfully simple but patently addictive nugget of gameplay (so don't mess with it too much - it's rad!):

1.  Recognize key-release state changes other than 'all keys released.'  If I'm holding Up+Left and release Up, my stance should switch to Left, not stay Up+Left until I release both keys.

2.  I want the ninja stars I knock away to hit guys in the air. 

That's all! 

This is super, super enjoyable for what it is...have you looked to find it a home on Kongregate or the like?  I can see this doing quite well.

-Steve

[fucker]

 

 :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D