next »

[eigenbom]

Wow, its so awesome you're still working on this. I think I started moonman at the same time, but you've had soo much more progress. Good on you!

[Ashkin]

On the home stretch now...

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Wow, its so awesome you're still working on this. I think I started moonman at the same time, but you've had soo much more progress. Good on you!

More progress than you? Pft, you've been building an amazing solid engine, while I'm just adding content and pretty (I guess) stuff on top of an engine like jello. Plus, I'm using a much easier language.

[baconman]

On the home stretch now...

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Yeah, April Fools!! >.<

[Ashkin]

HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT.
It's time for a new public demobuild thing! YAAAAAAAAY!
Here is a list of changes.

• Cave-ins!
• A mining laser! (Second tool along)
• New controls!
• More prefabs!
• Prettier prefabs!
• Gold breaks into bits!
• Better map generation!
• New, prettier graphics!
• New movement!
• Textboxes! (Press A for sample text)
• Lava!
• Playersplosion! (Press Q to try, W to respawn)
• Changed menu text!
• The Grand Chest!

Any and all feedback is welcome. I'd especially love it if you guys could tell me about your experience going down to the bottom of the map, retrieving the treasure from the grand chest, and then escaping the planet by flying off the top of the screen, preferably without using the laser to cut right through to the map's bottom. If you run out of battery, press W to refill- tell me how many times you had to refill! Also your score would be nice.
Have fun!

[pluckyporcupine]

I've been following this a while (not sure if I've said anything yet...have I? Not sure), and I just dropped in to say that the mining laser's gotta be broken. I used it, waited for the laser to go away, jumped into the spot where it was and died instantly (happened twice).

On a more positive note, the text boxes are looking good. Gold bits are cool. Never saw a cave-in.

[Ashkin]

Oops, thanks for catching that. It's been fixed now.
To see a cave-in, you'll have to go visit the bottom of the map and open the Grand Chest (big blue one).

[eigenbom]

That mining laser is really big! I got right near the chest but fell in the lava, aww

[rambling]
Ashkin, I'm not up to date with what your plans for the game are, but to be honest -- I'm having real trouble connecting with this game.

Maybe it's the small black window embedded in the middle of a large blue browser window, or lack of sound effects, or tiny (cubist?) character sprite, or tiny light circles, or the fact that you can just press down and x and you'll eventually make it to the bottom .. I'm not sure. I also get confused with the weapons, I never know which one I've got equipped, or why I would use the bombs.

Maybe the addition of quick little instructions with the text panel will make things clearer.
[/rambling]

Edit: Ok, so I went back and played another planet and found a dungeon! I think the little dungeons with impenetrable walls actually makes for a much more interesting experience. I must've missed them the first few play throughs. Also, I think you should open chests automatically when you touch them - it took a little while for me to figure out how to open them.

[pluckyporcupine]

Played a bit more. Played a bit in the past, but didn't really think much about it until now. I don't really know if I'm missing much by not playing one level at a time but if I'm doing the first level over and over and there's a lot more to it later on, I suppose take this with a grain of salt.

I kind of agree with Eigenbom. There's a solid game here, and it is really getting there, but a few comments:

1. It's wayyyyy too easy to just use the mining laser at the beginning, drop down to the big chest, grab the gold bars, and fly straight back up during the cave in (straight up IS the shortest route after all). To my knowledge, that alone absolves you of all debt (I think I had $10k in debt for the first one, and it gave me $10k in gold bars). Even barring the mining laser, it's way too easy to dig straight down, grab it and get out.

2. Bearing that in mind, what exactly is the purpose of collecting gold? Of collecting emeralds? The other chests?

3. I also have to say that I never used the bombs/missiles except when learning what the different settings did.

4. What exactly does time do?

5. Does the Grand Chest always spawn directly under where the player falls initially?

6. I couldn't find a way to go back on the Scores menu. >.>

[Ashkin]

-snip-

By 'having trouble connecting' do you mean it just doesn't hold your interest? I have to say I feel that way too- this has long been missing the 'secret sauce', and I have no idea what to add to help with that. I guess there's nothing I can do but push forward and hope things come together.

The 'pressing down and x' thing is especially frustrating and I'm not sure how to fix that. I'm still considering adding dense rock here and there that can't be dug through, so you'd have to find a way to get around when you encounter any. MAYBE I COULD REMOVE THE DRILL ENTIRELY AND MAKE YOU GO THROUGH THE CAVERNS (hahaha).

Instructions through the textbox is how the player will learn- they'll walk up to a chest and if it's their first time seeing it the guide will explain what it is and what it does. Stuff like that.

Thanks for the feedback.

-snip-

1. Yeah, the mining laser will be changed (or removed). At first, it was just a way to get down to the nearest cavern- but that's not really needed anymore, as there are always several open caves on the surface.

2. More gold means more money which gets rid of debt. I'll have to rebalance the debt/gold/grand treasure dynamic. The 'emeralds' are energy crystals that give you more batteries.

3. I'll probably remove bombs and missiles. I have no idea what made me add all this extra stuff in the first place- I'll probably strip it down and leave you with just a drill and a simple explosive charge that can be placed to get through stronger walls.

4. Time does nothing. I'll probably replace that space on the HUD with a depth meter.

[SolarLune]

Hey, I'm going to try it out (I guess the demo's on the front page?), but as a preliminary suggestion, you could try making some (or most) caverns have lava in them. This way, if the player digs straight down, he could easily fall into a lava filled cavern, so you would have to play smarter than that. In MineCraft and Terraria, for example, there's falling damage, so digging straight down is a bad idea.

[pluckyporcupine]

In MineCraft and Terraria, for example, there's falling damage, so digging straight down is a bad idea.

Part of the issue with that is that you start with a "jetpack" type thing, since you are in a drilling machine, and half of each level is getting back up.

It'd be kinda like if your character in Terraria started with the Rocket Boots...and they never ran out of energy (well, "never").

In other words, it would be too easy to just adjust to avoiding it.

-cut-

1. Gotcha. Yeah, it's just too all-powerful of a method to get to the bottom. Why use ANYTHING else if you can just press X once and get to the bottom?

2. As far as I can tell, after getting there once, I was totally absolved of debt. I went back and checked. $0 of debt. No idea how to incur more and whatnot, but that was it. Just between that and all planets seemingly being unlocked at the beginning, after one planet, I was kind of left with a feeling of "well...what now?"

3. Well, if bombs (or missiles. At this point, they're almost interchangeable besides their movement behavior) are the only way to get through "dungeon walls", then that'd give them purpose at least.

4. Sounds good. Especially coming back up, one of my biggest concerns (remember, I just drilled a hole in the world with the giant laser) was "how much longer do I have to fly straight up?" heh.

[eigenbom]

By 'having trouble connecting' do you mean it just doesn't hold your interest? I have to say I feel that way too- this has long been missing the 'secret sauce', and I have no idea what to add to help with that. I guess there's nothing I can do but push forward and hope things come together.

Yes exactly .. well it doesn't grab my interest, let alone hold it. If I were you I'd fork it, strip it back, and try to find the special sauce without all the extra bits and pieces getting in the way. I think that without all the extra stuff (animations, particles, lighting, sprites(!) ...) it'll be a lot easier to try to explore some game-play ideas.

> .. but as a preliminary suggestion, you could try making some (or most) caverns have lava in them...

This is a great suggestion. But each planet should have its own twist and obstacles. Lava, spikes, gravity wells, cave-ins, blocks that explode when mined, etc ...

You don't even need to do lava simulation, just surround the lava with impenetrable rock..

[pluckyporcupine]

This is a great suggestion. But each planet should have its own twist and obstacles. Lava, spikes, gravity wells, cave-ins, blocks that explode when mined, etc ...

Ooo, yeah, definitely.

Maybe a big part of the problem is that there's not enough challenge.

Hell, you could have an ancient race of aliens that are hiding underground in a temple on one planet that will jump out and latch on to your craft until you smash into a wall and kill them.

I think it just needs to be a little less "dig straight down, fly straight back up" and a little more "OMGWTFJUSTHAPPENEDWHYDIDIEXPLODEALLIDIDWASDIGSTRAIGHTDOWNGRAAAAAHHHH!!!"

[Ashkin]

Hey, I'm going to try it out (I guess the demo's on the front page?), but as a preliminary suggestion, you could try making some (or most) caverns have lava in them. This way, if the player digs straight down, he could easily fall into a lava filled cavern, so you would have to play smarter than that. In MineCraft and Terraria, for example, there's falling damage, so digging straight down is a bad idea.

Lava is a good idea- just water would be harmful to a robot. Only problem is, I am terrible at programming. Any implementation of water I can think of would probably be laggy and terrible.

You don't even need to do lava simulation, just surround the lava with impenetrable rock..

THIS IS A COPOUT

If I were you I'd fork it, strip it back, and try to find the special sauce without all the extra bits and pieces getting in the way. I think that without all the extra stuff (animations, particles, lighting, sprites(!) ...) it'll be a lot easier to try to explore some game-play ideas.

This... is an interesting idea. Perhaps it would be best to strip it back to its base elements and rework some things from there... Only problem is, I doubt I'm a very good senser of that secret sauce/fun. So I guess you might have to expect a lot of demos in the future.

I think it just needs to be a little less "dig straight down, fly straight back up" and a little more "OMGWTFJUSTHAPPENEDWHYDIDIEXPLODEALLIDIDWASDIGSTRAIGHTDOWNGRAAAAAHHHH!!!"

This. This specifically is what I am looking for. I'll probably take elements from roguelikes- I want the player to be confused and surprised by new things constantly. I want to keep things interesting.
Man I suck at nailing down a stable design philosophy

[eigenbom]

Its not a cop out at all, its a compromise

[Franklin's Ghost]

Just tried the new version and after digging into a red circle there was an explosion and now I'm stuck in the floor digging and nothing is occuring.

Maybe adding a competitive digger would increase the tension by making you have to rush and plan your trip down to the treasure before they get there. Or keeping the timer but making it a countdown before the planet explodes would also help increase the tension because you have to make it down and still have enough time to go back up before the time runs out and the planet explodes. Also like the lava suggestion people have made.

[SolarLune]

Wow, what if the competitive digger got the treasure first and you had to hit him to knock the treasure out of his hands, AS WELL as escape? That would be pretty hectic. :D

[James Rossi]

Have you ever played Motherload? The games feel really similar. Motherload is not quite as polished as I recall when I first played it years back, but there is much to be learned from it.

[Ashkin]

Just tried the new version and after digging into a red circle there was an explosion and now I'm stuck in the floor digging and nothing is occuring.

Maybe adding a competitive digger would increase the tension by making you have to rush and plan your trip down to the treasure before they get there. Or keeping the timer but making it a countdown before the planet explodes would also help increase the tension because you have to make it down and still have enough time to go back up before the time runs out and the planet explodes. Also like the lava suggestion people have made.

The explosion probably killed the last of your batteries.

A competitive digger? Aw man, please don't make me code AI for this game :c I agree that there needs to be some kind of tension- energy was the original idea for that, but I guess it's not working...
As I see it, these are the ways to increase tension:

• A timer
• Competition
• Growing threat

I'll have to think this over for a while.

Have you ever played Motherload? The games feel really similar. Motherload is not quite as polished as I recall when I first played it years back, but there is much to be learned from it.

I've played Motherload. It's not really an inspiration or anything for me, but maybe it's subconsciously affecting this game- after all, there's only so much you can do with digging games.

[pluckyporcupine]

Here's the way I see the competitive digger thing:

It begs asking for a multiplayer mode.

Energy does add a bit of tension, but if you dig straight down, fly straight up, you average 3 bars left, and if you don't do that, there's like no way to survive without intentionally detouring a LOT to get more energy, which I get is the point, but again, if you can just dig straight down, fly straight up, why bother taking the longer route?

Not sure how a timer would fit in a way that the energy doesn't really fit right now. The energy is pretty much a replenish-able timer. Maybe gold medal runs?

Growing threat is really the only thing I can see that would really make sense out of that list.