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[travisswain]

UPDATE 9/25/09:

added check points to balance out the difficulty. press down when standing over the check points to save your current location.

UPDATE:

so i've got tons of projects that are backed up because i've been messing around with this game. i've been learning as i go along so it's been a slow a process...

i decided to release a 3-level early version of 'eustace' so i can get back to work on a few other things without disappointing my friends about making a game.

download can be found here:

eustace.rar

i'd love to hear some personal opinions, found bugs or... if the damn thing even works at all. 

- travis
www.travispendlebury.com



ORIGINAL POST:

'ello!

my name is travis and this is my first attempt at making a game.
its a basic platformer with a focus on enemy interaction to reach your goal.
magic shooting wizardry! 



i'm far from done with this project(because i suck at programming)but i felt like sharing what i've managed to accomplish so far to see what people think.

when i feel like it's decent enough, i'll post a download on my site www.travispendlebury.com

- travis

[Aquin]

Holy smokes!  Me want!

Geebs, I really hope you see this through to the end! 

[Tanner]

POST IN THE MANCRIB FOR YOUR SECOND POST. IT IS YOUR ONLY CHANCE. MAKE IT GOOD.

Hot dang this game looks good. I await it eagerly.

[Quicksand-S]

Nice. I love the look of the game. Not a huge fan of the player sprite, but the enemy designs are great and the environment looks good.

I like that the gameplay is fairly unique, or at least it's got a different focus than most platformers. Is this going to be a sort of a puzzle-platformer (using enemies to solve puzzles that gradually get harder), or is it pretty much a normal platformer (level variety, but no really tough problems to solve)? It seems like as a puzzle game it could be amazing using the abilities the player shows in that video...but I guess you'd have to come up with a lot of good puzzles, which might be tough.

[Loren Schmidt]

Oh, this is neat looking. I'm curious to see what new enemy types you have up your sleeves. That teleport-swap enemy is pretty spiffy.

(By the way, people around here like to vicariously live other people's lives get to know new members via an introductory post here.)

[george]

That horned thing is adorable.

welcome to the forums  , and like Sparky said don't forget the introduction thread (for your third post  )

[Mr. Yes]

Looks really interesting! The graphics are great, as is the music (though I especially like that "teleportation" sound at the end - that's motivation enough to get through a stage!) I wish the player character moved a little more, otherwise I think he looks kind of neat.

Really nice for your first game. Can't wait to try it out.

[Ryan J. Bury]

Looks cool, and pretty original in terms of both the gameplay premise and the graphical style.  Looking forward to playing it!

[ThetaGames]

I like the limited colors - it will be just cyan, magenta, black, white, and grey, right?

[Zaknafein]

I love the palette and style! Looking forward to playing it.

[Quicksand-T]

Wow, I really like the graphics/visual style.

[CK]

i love you

[tim_the_tam]

im really liking it..
the gameplay looks like it has lots of depth with a ability to teleport or freze and i liked how you have to use your enermies in a way to complete the level.

im not sure about the graphics. i mean i dont hate it and in fact i do like the trippy look and feel. but.. i dont know.. maybe it was the low quality video.. but yeah..

same feeling goes to the sound effects. it sounds like it will get repetitive and annoying but at the same time i dont hate it..

keep up the good work ill be looking forward to playing the game

[Dom2D]

Really great style.
I hope you'll post it soon!

[Topher]

Very nice aesthetic, I look forward to playing it.

[travisswain]

  UPDATE BUMP

[v21]

It's a good game. It's a good concept. I like it. Your art style is fantastic: it's distinctive and well done. You want some criticisms?

- It's quite unforgiving. Once I'd got the hang, and got to the winged deflecty creatures and accidentally died, and was warped back to the start... Well, i sighed slightly and was tempted to give up. You make a single mistake, you die and go back to the start. Unforgiving games are fine, but ... that has to be what you're going for. I suspect you have fallen into the trap of judging difficulty yourself, which is a bugger, because you're currently the leading expert on playing Eustace. I mean the length of the first caves are perfectly judged the first time: just enough time to get used to moving, jumping. But the 5th time: they're just a pain in the arse. Might want to make the first jump over a gap not coincide with the first enemy. (and with that: the placement of that cloud? It's the same colour as the platform! And your first encounter with it? I died jumping onto it. And the fiddly step down just before hand is a bad idea, too. Obviously these bits are minor, but.)

  - Oh, and is it not possible to get stuck if you don't get high enough early on on the first bit? Don't let me get stuck!

- Similarly, i'm not sure the pacing is quite there. The concepts are in vaguely the right order, but it doesn't ramp up, built on your previous knowledge quite right. It all feels a bit vague and unfocused.

- Random thought about the ease of dying. Maybe when the freezy things unthaw they push you back? Enough to give you a moment of "ahh!" I know they flash, but. Hmm, might make it too easy to re-stun them...

- As actionbutton.net goes on about: "The genius of Mario is that jumping is really fun. He moves in a perfectly judged way." You don't quite, while jumping has nothing wrong with it, neither does moving. It's just a bit slidey? And the legs should move a bit more. Just to improve the feeling of motion. But that might conflict with your art style. As always, it's up to you.

- Oh, an actual glitch. Stand on a platform, you'll move with it. But when it bounces, you stay still. And can safely walk about at that level? Oh, and move a frozen thing over you and you float up to the platform above? The enemies have a hanbit of getting stuck in stuff...

- Oh, and you should make the arrow keys work, too. They might not be as comfortable, but you'll surely receive a "THa KEYS DUNT wORK" email otherwise. Wait, what? The arrow keys control the frozen ones? That's entirely different. There should be some clue as to that. A "controls.txt" file ain't enough. Who reads the manual? Um, anyway, I might have issues with a game mechanic that involves moving your hand from keyboard to mouse every few seconds. Why not make the main controls switch?

Um, but yes: don't be disheartened by my list of criticisms: you have a neat concept and gorgeous original art. You're on the right track!

[Edited to add: fuck yeah pipe smoking bubbles! that's fucking charm, right there.]

[travisswain]

thanks v21 for taking your time to type me out some feedback.

- first off, that thing about controlling the frozen enemies with the arrow keys was totally a surprise for me. i had no idea you could do that.  i had some fun playing around with it before i removed the control. i actually like the concept and might INTENTIONALLY use it in the future. thanks for finding that.

- also, i like to be a bit unforgiving.    i was going for the idea that beating a level means mastering all of it at once, no check points. i understand that going through the first parts of the level for the 100th time can be frustrating, but so was my childhood playing nintendo. maybe i could make a 'game genie' mode?

- i changed the color of the clouds so they aren't the same color as the platforms.

as for everything else, i'll look it over.

thanks again!

[tim_the_tam]

i completely agree with v21's criticism. but especially the unforgiving nature of the game and i would like to digress on it.

it one thing to be unforgiving and another thing to be extremely cheap. your game is very strict on how to complete a level as in there only one way and that alright if you want to make the game that way. however if a player makes a unintentional mistake dont make the stages impossible to backtrack without the result of death. this was the reason why i quit the game at level two because most of the time you have to guess which path to take, usually with leaps of faiths, and there no way to tell if you chose the right path until you find out you cant progress. this would have been acceptable if there was a way to backtrack. but backtracking is usually impossible without the result of death because of the way you designed your levels. ceiling might be too low to jump back or enemies are placed in instant death positions. so please work on the levels.

also add checkpoints they dont take away from a games difficulty as long as there placed in good positions. take i want to be the guy for example it still retains its harsh difficulty curve without you start the level again (if you havent played it, then play it i sure you'll love it since the unforgivable of unforgivable games heres the link http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/)

but other than that you have a great artsyle and a good gameplay mechanic so please redesign the levels and get this tested heaps to make the difficulty just right. good luck

[Zapparo]

I think i'm the only one who doesn't like the art and the look of the game so far, not big on the movement animations either, but the real thing that i don't like is the box collision detection, i can just hang there on the edge with just a pixel of the player sprite touching the platform (sometimes it looks like he is floating) or push the player against a wall and he still looks like he is running  .