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[Gabs]

PLAY ME AT KONGREGATE!
http://www.kongregate.com/games/NeonPotion/hex-rush-ultra

PLAY ME AT NEWGROUNDS!

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/656217

April 2014 I told myself that I'm gonna do something with the stuff I learned from tinkering with Unity for around 3 years. With that came a long cycle of starting a game idea, It falling apart, and then starting another game idea. January came and I had 3 unfinished games. This made me very depressed, demoralized, and frustrated until one day I woke up and told myself “you know what I’m gonna start a game and finish it and be done with it”. Now I have Hex Rush Ultra.

Hex Rush Ultra is an fast arcade platformer game about collecting as much floating yellow hexes as you can before the timer gets you. It’s like a time attack Super Mario/ Meat Boy.

• Quick and frantic gameplay
  
• 50 levels of spikes, sawblades and platforms!

The game is being developed in Unity and will be released on Kongregate, Newgrounds and Itch.io.

Right now the game is 90%* complete!

^{*I’m bad at estimation}

You can follow me on twitter if you want mini blogs of this game's davelopment
twitter : @Gabottles

[Daze Hill]

Always in for a platformer! As a big fan of Super Meat Boy, it looks fun to me! I agree with you, the palette is not the most pleasing, but somehow I would not stray too far from it, I think it gives the game some character, like an old atari game. Maybe I'd assume this style and get rid of these tubular edges on the colliders.

[Gabs]

Gameplay Video here!

Hex Rush Ultra DevLog #2

             Whew! What a week. So as you can see I revamped the graphics to make it look brighter and more neon (Dad’s suggestion). This turned out to be a good decision performance wise because it has reduced the tris count by more than 50%!  IDK if it looks good though because I’ve been staring at this game for days. Thoughts? I also removed the particle effects on the player because I felt like it doesn’t look good while running around. I made the particle effects of the hexes to appear only when it is taken. It feels really good when you take it and it pops and you hear sfx! Speaking of sounds, I found some really cool BGM by Matthew Pablo. You should check out his site for awesome music.
 http://www.matthewpablo.com/

             I was planning on doing some play testing but I found bugs in the code that didn’t let me finish in time.
Let’s have a break down on the bugs that I managed to squish!


1     Input does not get detected at high frame rates:

            This one isn’t really a fix but rather a work around. I had to cap the FPS at around 30 because at high framerates the input gets ignored. I blame unity! haha! There’s a much better fix to this by caching the input and then running through it on the next frame. Here’s a good explanation by Sophie Houlden http://www.sophiehoulden.com/super-fast-input-in-unity/ .
Maybe I will implement this after release (my target date is April 6) ^{didn't reach this goal}.

2    Improper UI switching when starting a new game

             This one was an easy fix. This was caused by the UI switching having a delay before showing the Game Over Screen. So when I spam space to retry after a game, the player would spawn, game would start then the game over screen would show up. The fix was by adding a flag checking if the game over screen is shown before switching game states. Hurray for flagging!

3    Massive lag spike during the first play session

 

            I had no clue what was causing this until yesterday when i tried to build a standalone version. Thank god to the profiler for helping me with this one. The culprit was dynamic fonts. Unity caches fonts as it uses them so when you use a font (either two fonts or 1 font with different styles eg. bold, italic, underline) you get massive lag spikes as it tries to cache the font.
The fix was caching the font at startup so the lag happen during loading (Ez).

             That’s it for Hex Rush Ultra DevLog #2. I hope I was informative and not boring
Oh! Also I will do some playtesting this week as soon as I get the web version on itch working so look out for it

Thanks for reading!

Task List


+Moar Code Optimization
+10/50 levels complete
+Tutorial level
+Kongregate API
+Level Backgrounds
+Improve BGM/SFX


Completed Tasks
-BGM/SFX
-Improve graphix ^{(Happy with what it turned out now so this is done unless I get bad feedback)}

fun fact: I have consumed 164 cups of coffee creating this game  

[Daze Hill]

I think it looks better, indeed   For input not detected, do you do "OnButtonDown()" in a FixedUpdate? I've had problems with that.

[Gabs]

I think it looks better, indeed   For input not detected, do you do "OnButtonDown()" in a FixedUpdate? I've had problems with that.

All my input is in Update() though.

[Zorg]

Which resolution does the game use?

[Gabs]

Which resolution does the game use?

4:3 800 x 600

[Gabs]

void LateUpdate(){

I lost my internet for a day and I couldn't really work on the game until today. It's the holy week which means a week long holiday in the Philippines so I had to spend sometime with my family. This also means my internet will most likely be down for long periods of time because of congestion  . Anyway I'm looking forward to the next DevLog! 

}

-Gabs

[Zorg]

Hey, i like your game, but some points caught my eye.

I asked for the resolution, because your game looks like vector graphics, but you are pushing it towards a "wrong" pixel style with a low resolution, the pixel font for the logo, low res sawblade sprite and square particle effects. It looks inconsistent, in my eyes. I think you should aim for a flat vector look in combination with gradients. I created some mockups:

You could increase the resolution and use a regular, anti-aliased font. I liked the gradient in the logo and pushed the hexagon towards shininess with a complementary glow. The hexagon should look very valueable and "majestic".



The color palette looks very similar to VVVVVV, especially the spikes in that washed out red tone. You could use a red with a portion of yellow. You could vary the level colors (although, VVVVVV did the same). Detailed saw blades and slopes would be cool to get rid of stairs at the ceiling and push the look more towards vector art.



I'd remove the rotation wiggle effect from the hexagons and slow down the levitation animation to give the impression that they are more heavy, not too lightweight. The particle effect on collection looks like the hexagons pop like a ballon. Maybe you could tweak the effect towards "beaming up".

Level-wise i recommend to drop the extra screen for picking up the time bonus, because the player is stopped and needs to accelerate again at the same moment the new screen and obstacles show up. You could simply extend your levels to the left (respawn point) and put the time bonus at the end of the level. This way, the player gains some time to anticipate the obstacles which enter the screen from the right.



I hope i was constructive and you liked some of my thoughts and mockups.

[Gabs]

Hex Rush Ultra DevLog #3

This update took a while because I had fun playtesting and designing levels.

So obviously I missed my April 6 release target. Part of me says that I should focus on releasing this early but I feel like I should polish the game more.

Some local publishers here in the Philippines has taken interest in an android version of the game suggesting that I monetize it through Ads. Their target audience is SEA. Anyone here has any experience with mobile games that monetize through Ads? Any input on this?
I still feel indifferent about this though.

So I tested the game with a few friends. This is the first game that I’ve tried to playtest so I was very nervous but hearing them react the way I wanted them to react while playing the game was pretty vindicating. 10/10 would playtest again.




Here are the common responses I got while playtesting:

• Game was too hard
• Players noticed the timer too late. Players die before noticing that there is a timer
• Players focused on collecting hexes
• Movement feels too heavy

Playtest Changes

• Game is too hard

    To be fair, I playtested with medium difficulty levels so this was to be expected. My solution to this is to have the first few levels very easy (no hazards, < 3 seconds to finish) and then slowly move the difficulty up ( introduce static hazards > moving hazards > and then have challenging levels) every 3 dwor 8 stages. Hopefully the first few levels will make the players conditioned to the movement and feel of the game.

• Players die before noticing the timer

      So I found that the UI doesn’t really give much feedback when getting hexes and TimeUps. It also quite hard to notice the Little clock box that gives +5 seconds.

      I made the UI bigger and made the icons bob* (idk the right word to use) whenever the player gets a hex and clock. I made the hexes and diamonds leave trails as they move to their respective UI to lead a first time player’s eye to it. I also changed the clock into a simple yellow diamond so it’s noticeable.

      I added a countdown warning in the middle of the screen whenever the timer reaches 10s or there is <3s remaining.

• Players focused on collecting hexes

     I think this goes side by side with the players not noticing the timer. I hope my the UI fix would make a difference for this. If not, I will try placing the diamond at the last part of each level as Zorg suggested.

• Movement feels too heavy

     I will try removing walking and making it run as a default. I really feel conflicted about this because early in development I have designed levels with walking in mind. If this change turns out to be for the better then I will stick to it.

Other Changes

• Changed the color of the hazards from washed out pink to a more violent orange. as suggested by zorg. I think this made the hazards pop out more as it complements the Teal* environment.
• Added slants on corners that point down as Zorg suggested.
• 40/50 levels complete. I’m slow on this one because I’m running out of ideas.
• Added some sort of glow to the exit of the level
• Removed the shaking on the hexes as suggested by zorg.

Task List

• Change the hexagon on the title image to reflect the hexagons in game.
• Finish the remaining levels (40/50 completed)
• Add a GUI that says how much time is added
• Add GUI that says “Go ->” on the exit and another GUI that says “X” on the entrance of every level.
• Implement a scoring system that scores how much hexes was collected and how many levels was finished.
• Update Game Over screen to better reflect the previous score changes.
• Web Portal API integration
• Level Backgrounds

   
fun fact: I have consumed 185 cups of coffee creating this game  

[Zorg]

Looks good!

Why did you erase the clock symbol from the square and made it yellow? I think white was good.

If you do not want the clock hand (because of flat design), you could switch to an hourglass symbol:

[Gabs]

Looks good!

Why did you erase the clock symbol from the square and made it yellow? I think white was good.

If you do not want the clock hand (because of flat design), you could switch to an hourglass symbol:

I was thinking it would make the colors more uniform. Like Teal for walls, Yellow for items, Orange for Hazards, White for text. I'm gonna go and experiment with a yellow hourglass thanks for the suggestions

[lobstersteve]

Interesting read of your first game-making journey
I like how you talk about the small "stupid" problems, like the UI switching. It's mostly stuff like that, that costs the most time and is rarely talked about in game development. Stay open about the development  
I like the overall style. I've already seen some effects in other games (the coins flying to the counter after getting them..), but everything combined - the colors, UI, player feedback - is quite an eye catcher.

PS: yeah, make a yellow hourglass symbol 

[Gabs]

I don't wanna double post so I'll post a reply and mini DevLog here.

Mini Update

 So an acquaintance of mine told me that I should put this game up for bidding. I spent the day reading about publishers and stuff like that and I'm a bit interested. It would be nice if I could make a little cash  .

Interesting read of your first game-making journey
I like how you talk about the small "stupid" problems, like the UI switching. It's mostly stuff like that, that costs the most time and is rarely talked about in game development. Stay open about the development 
I like the overall style. I've already seen some effects in other games (the coins flying to the counter after getting them..), but everything combined - the colors, UI, player feedback - is quite an eye catcher.

PS: yeah, make a yellow hourglass symbol 

Thank you! It's comments like this that keep me going. Yeah the art style took 3 revisions and starting this DevLog finalized it's current style.

[Gabs]

Hex Rush Ultra DevLog #4

I’m so excited! I’m expecting to release within 24 hours! yeaaaaaaah (unless I fall asleep and forget to upload haha! )

I spent this week mostly on playtesting, experimenting with mechanics, and UX.

Thoughts on sponsorship and publishers
I have decided to not worry about sponsorships and just publish the game on my own on kongregate/newgrounds. I have realized that putting this game up for bidding will further delay it’s release which will further demotivate me from working on this game. I started this game under the assumption that I will finish it in less that two months. I am already 2 weeks late from that self imposed deadline.

Thoughts on gameplay mechanic
I started experimenting on a mechanic that removes the time limit and gives the player 1 life. It was ok when I playtested but it went against the feeling of rush and adrenaline that I wanted to impose on the players.

Thoughts on the code
My code is spaghetti-ish. I haven’t written code for about 5 months before I started writing code for Hex Rush Ultra. It gets better as I write more code though. code code code.

Thoughts on marketing
I want to market this game so bad. I want to make people play the game so I get more feedback but my social insecurities and the nagging feeling that my game isn’t good enough for people to play is getting the better of me. It’s funny because I’m fine with people that deconstruct/critique my game in front of me yet I’m scared of people in the internet. I guess it’s because it’s the internet.


Anyway here is a rundown of the changes I did this week.



UI for time

I changed the time symbol from a yellow diamond to a yellow hourglass. I like how it represents time well but I feel like the symbol seems out of place.
I also added a pop up that tells how much time is added whenever the player collects an hourglass.

Backgrounds

I finished all of the backgrounds of all the levels. Kinda tiresome and boring but meh. I wanted to make some elements of the background shake with the beat of the music but as I read about audio and stuff I realized that this will take more than a week which I no longer want to spend.



Task List

• Finish the remaining levels (40/50 completed)
• Add GUI that says “Go ->” on the exit and another GUI that says “X” on the entrance of every level.
• Implement a scoring system that scores how much hexes was collected and how many levels was finished.
• Update Game Over screen to better reflect the previous score changes.
• Web Portal API integration

fun facts:

• coffee consumed: 206 
• Listening to: Tone Control 

[lobstersteve]

I'm looking forward to play it  

Some thoughts on your last post: I think it's a good decision to not sponsor your first game. Sponsoring the game is not a fun process. It often takes a lot of time until someone bids a fair amount, then comes the tedious communication over e-mail and sometimes sponsors ask to do small game changes. (nothing game changing, but stuff like a "sound-off button").

Don't worry about spaghetti-ish code. I'm programming since 6 years and my code is still often spaghetti-ish when i want to get things done quickly. I sometimes clean the code up afterwards, but sometimes it's better for me to get an idea off my head and make things work first.

I think your game will be well received   I can only talk about visuals and stuff like player feedback for now, but i think you got this things right. (So, first impression on the internet will be good and that counts already a lot). The only thing is, that i wouldn't expect too much attention, unless you get frontpaged on some of the websites. If not, you can promote it further on twitter, or even write the folks on newgrounds an e-mail, because sometimes the better games are overlooked, if you think it doesn't get the deserved attention.

[Gabs]

I finally managed to upload the game on Kongregate (yey!) for the 11th time >.> Internet in the Philippines sucks. Anyway. The game is done! Yey!
 I managed to finish  ^{*at least managed to make it in an acceptable form} a game! :DD

I will still be updating this thread for further updates.

Kongregate Link!http://www.kongregate.com/games/NeonPotion/hex-rush-ultra
NewGrounds Link! Coming Soon!
itch.io Link! Coming Soon!

I'd like to thank everyone who followed and gave feedback!

Dads,
Zorg,
LobsterSteve

I love you guys!  No homo

[lobstersteve]

I hope you read this quick and can make changes: the visuals and music are good as i expected, BUT there is something very wrong with the controls. The friction is waaaay too high (the part that makes the character slippery on the floor and hard to change direction in the air). It made me die on places where i had the feeling i absolutely didn't deserve it, because pressing the button to change directions didn't do much. After some time i got used to it, because i played the game a lot, but it still didn't feel good. I understand that games like super meat boy are also very floaty, but meat boy can stop immediatly on the floor if you stop running and is jumping arcs, but he also controls differently in the air.

That guy summarized it quite well: http://zackbellgames.com/2014/10/27/how-to-make-a-platformer-feel-good/


I would highly recommend to work on it a bit, because your game is good in the other departments, but the controls are kind of a game stopper.

ps: love you too 

[lobstersteve]

Maybe it has also something to do with the acceleration, not just friction..i don't know.. but something's not right

[Gabs]

I changed the controls so that it walks as a default. Now you need to hold Shift to run.
Care to test again?

I really appreciate your feedback lobstersteve!