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[McMutton]

Ye gods, man, that's some incredible improvement!

[SolarLune]

Indeed. It might be irritating, but it might be cool if the sunshine moved (even in a circular, cyclic pattern?) Anyway, it's looking awesome!

[Rykuth]

What you've got going on now is worlds better than where you started at and a pretty huge improvement over the last iteration you posted. The contrast between the characters and background is still kinda close in the city area but I think it's good enough that once things are in motion you won't have any issues. The readability is great for the meadow area but the background hills look a little weird. The background-most layer of hills is significantly taller and a little brighter than the layers in front of it. As you go further back the terrain should be less dramatic because the same size hills will appear much smaller and the color should appear closer to the background color. So basically make the hills and the trees significantly smaller on the background layer and make them more blue.

[Dave_C]

urrrgghhhh virtual buttons

Is there a movement against touch screen buttons? I think they are a necessary evil if you want to make a retro platformer for smart phones.. If you're referring to how ugly they look.. thats ok.. XD they're holding a place for nicer looking buttons in the future ^_^

[Fallsburg]

Is there a movement against touch screen buttons? I think they are a necessary evil if you want to make a retro platformer for smart phones.. If you're referring to how ugly they look.. thats ok.. XD they're holding a place for nicer looking buttons in the future ^_^

Here's a hint:
If you are making a game for a smartphone that needs virtual buttons, you are doing it wrong. 

Smart phones have entirely different control systems in place, and you need to design for those. Instead of coming up with a shitty (because yes, onscreen buttons are shitty) stopgap solution, make a game that utilizes the unique control systems.  I wouldn't design a game that requires a faked version of multitouch on a console, so why would I used faked buttons on a smart phone.

[Medevenx]

thanks for the criticism! Hope it's better..

The sunshine would probably have to be animated along with the screen panning. Anyway

Congratulations Flame! Your improvement after all these years has been jawdropping. It's incredible and I still remember when you first came here with that box of chocolates and now it's getting there! Although I might suggest, removing the gradient on the choco guys would probably make them look more blocky. Also, make the farthest trees less saturated maybe?

[HernanZh]

The green of the girl's room feels a little odd, like it was actually pink, but got inverted or something.

Hmm, I don't understand what you mean by that (possibly due to colorblindess)

[Manuel Magalhães]

thanks for the criticism! Hope it's better..

It sure is a lot better, congratulations.

[greenlig]

Hey guys, I've been lurking for a while, and posting a bit of art here and there. Just wanted to join in with the fun here. This image is from a proof-of-concept thing, kind of like an animated concept called "After the Robots".



Cheers,
Greenlig

[Dave_C]

Is there a movement against touch screen buttons? I think they are a necessary evil if you want to make a retro platformer for smart phones.. If you're referring to how ugly they look.. thats ok.. XD they're holding a place for nicer looking buttons in the future ^_^

Here's a hint:
If you are making a game for a smartphone that needs virtual buttons, you are doing it wrong. 

Smart phones have entirely different control systems in place, and you need to design for those. Instead of coming up with a shitty (because yes, onscreen buttons are shitty) stopgap solution, make a game that utilizes the unique control systems.  I wouldn't design a game that requires a faked version of multitouch on a console, so why would I used faked buttons on a smart phone.

I see, I see.. maybe you've had some bad experiences with touch controls.. in my (very humble) opinion the controls for my game are as perfect as can be on a touch screen (better than any ioS/android platformer I've played), the player responds and handles better than a lot of console games (with their awkward controls rather than awkward inputs). But each to his own of course.. maybe I can sway you to my side, or maybe I'll end up despising virtual buttons... 

[JMickle]

why not make your retro platformer for pc instead? just makes more sense since physical controls are essential for reactional games like platformers.

Super crate box is cited as a "perfect" example of touch screen virtual controls but i (and other people) found them still unweildy and horrible to use compared to the pc version. i dont think anyone could say they are even close to as good at the PC ones.

[Dave_C]

why not make your retro platformer for pc instead? just makes more sense since physical controls are essential for reactional games like platformers.

Super crate box is cited as a "perfect" example of touch screen virtual controls but i (and other people) found them still unweildy and horrible to use compared to the pc version. i dont think anyone could say they are even close to as good at the PC ones.

When take the train to work I always wish there were games other than "angry birds" or "plants vs zombies" clones that I could play on my phone.. I have more fun playing around with my own unfinished engine than I do playing these full fledged games where you touch/tilt/swipe etc.. so I guess the reason I'm making this for iPhone/Android is because it's something I want to play.. so maybe there are other people who also want games like this.. (maybe not, hah), there really doesn't seem to be any games that have done it right. (if anyone knows any good smart phone platformers please point me in their direction, the morning commute is so painful >_<!!)

As for a PC release, there is a 99% chance I'll be releasing this for PC as well, for FREE! with full joypad support!  It may have fewer levels though. There's no better advertising than a good free game, especially when your advertising budget is around $0.

[Geti]

The issue with phones and response time based specific control games is that touch interfaces are straight up not compatible with them. You can have response time based games that don't require specific control (eg canabalt and many other one button games) or games that require specific control without time pressure (eg angry birds), but once you have a game that requires a heap of actions in a short amount of time, you get a gigantic wall of fake difficulty because you just cant interact with the interface correctly.

Because of this, you kinda have to design around the restriction rather than just flaunting it. Never underestimate how cripplingly lazy most of your players will be. Tooltip hovering in front of your face explaining how to use the catapult? 30% of complaints ingame related to catapult are "how to use" related.

Re: your specific controls - Left Right A B can work on screens with good, precise, fast touch response, but all that kinda falls to hell when you're on a bus, getting bumped around by corners, the road and the creepy guy beside you, or if your phone has even a few MS of lag.

Feel free to keep on keeping on in the face of this, but there's a reason simpler games are more popular on phones: they're the only thing that works 100% of the time, and to lose your last life in a quick platformer game vs the final boss because you got bumped on the bus sucks major dick.

[barbiturates]

so maybe there are other people who also want games like this..

yeah there are

and thats why they play games on handhelds and not phones

[rek]

This should be moved to a thread in Design, perhaps?

I have no problem with virtual buttons, but you have to design the game with their limitations in mind.