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[Dualmask]

After showing off a video of my game build on the Art forum, I was advised to post a preliminary, playable build. I figured the Art board wasn't the right place for it so I'm posting it here instead.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/43720602/jet-test.exe

It's just a test environment that wraps around. It has no enemies or obstacles or anything; I slapped it together to test her movement and the like. Controls are explained by hitting the F1 key upon running the executable.

My goal is to make a fast-paced action platformer that has a similar feel to Mega Man X, Rocket Knight Adventures, etc. Fast-paced, tactile combat and platforming, though it's strange to mention the combat part since I'm still trying to work out how to make enemies work.

Character design and animation is all me, as is the music, but the background graphics are placeholders I downloaded years ago and I can't exactly recall where. Not mine, and not in the art direction I want for the game either, but it's better than colored squares.

Looking for feedback on the animation and feel; too fast? Too slow? Suggestions, ideas, critiques and comments are all welcome and appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Seiseki]

I think there needs to be some kind of movement speed acceleration(quick acceleration, to get a feeling of mass when changing direction), and an overall increase in running speed because it's a bit sluggish at the moment.
I do like the feeling of weight when you jump. But the climbing on walls feels quite glitchy.

Also, the animation when you run seems to distort her proportions. Her breasts increase in size and it looks like she becomes shorter but wider.
I also think the idle animation needs more movement, with her entire body moving, like in a fighting game.
And the glowing parts on her armored parts has a glow that makes them look really out of place, art-style wise.

edit: Looks like you've also timed her movement with the animation of her legs which feels and looks really off. Not sure if there are any games that actually do this or if it's even realistic because when you run your speed usually doesn't vary for each step you take once you're in motion.
This further contributes to make movement feel sluggish.

[Dualmask]

Thanks for your feedback. I wasn't happy with the idle animation either, in the end I gave up on trying to come up with a good pose for a while and started focusing on movement, but I will go back to it eventually. I want to make her kind of dance in place after standing still for a while.

I used cutout animation to produce the run (following a Muybridge reference) so the proportions themselves don't change, but I figured since she'd be leaning forward instead of her torso being completely vertical while running, the change in height/width made sense. But that'll be easy to tweak.

You're not the first to suggest she runs too slowly, but I don't want her to run too fast and I don't want to incorporate a Mario-esque run button or a need for a double-tap either. I'm trying to find a balance that looks like a run but doesn't move ultra-fast, like Mega Man's run, or the run speed of the avatar in the PSN/XBLA game Outland. Edit in regards to what you said about the run, all I did was make an 8-frame run cycle and stretched the number of animation frames so that it didn't look jerky or skip frames in Game Maker's engine when running the game at 60fps. It wasn't about timing so much as it was about making sure the run just worked. I'm really trying to get a handle on why it looks/feels so sluggish to others because I'm not personally getting that perception. If others are, I really need to figure out what I can do about it, or if I should just dismiss it as a 'different strokes, different folks' thing. I guess I'm just at an impasse and not seeing it as much of a problem as others are.

As for the wall jumping, I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm thinking of incorporating an animation that vaults her to the top of a platform if her upper body is past a certain point. Maybe I can make a new sprite that makes transitions from jumping to clinging to the wall look more smooth.

The glowing parts are an artistic choice I made for the character long ago and that particular aspect isn't going to change. I can see myself toning it down but definitely not getting rid of it. Generally, it's been very well received.

Thanks again.

[Seiseki]

So is the character actually moving at a persistent regular speed?
Because it seems to me like she slows down/speeds up in intervals timed to each foot..

Also, I like the idea of the glowing boots but not the implementation.
The outerglow effect doesn't fit in and it looks kinda flat.
It also looks way too bright and pixelated compared to the sprite itself.
Having it shift color the way it does sorta cheapens it as well since it reminds me about christmas lights.

[Dualmask]

There is a touch of acceleration in there, but she reaches max speed very quickly and all the animation frames are spread apart evenly. It's eight frames stretched to 48 (each frame duplicated six times) so it moves smoothly at 60 fps. I reduced it to 24 frames but the run looked way too jerky, and with any other number, animation frames get skipped. I did increase her movement speed and the movement speed cap so she runs a little faster, but it's not enough of a change to warrant an update yet; perhaps after I do some tweaking with the wall situation.

Your opinion about the glow is noted. Like I said, feedback from other sources was strong, so at best I'd consider toning it down, maybe getting rid of the white 'core' of the glow, but definitely sticking to the color shifting. It's just a quirky touch that I like. Perhaps illustrations of the character http://dualmask.deviantart.com/gallery/35785004 will help show the look I was going for and perhaps I can find a better way to implement that look in a moving sprite.

[Seiseki]

I'm not talking about the animation, I'm talking about how the actual in-game entity moves.
It might be possible that it's caused by frame rate issues.

Also, I really like your artwork on deviant art, but in comparison the sprite is quite plain and the contrast is quite low. I think you could make it pop out more with some well placed highlights. (like in the hair)
I'd also recommend drawing it at double resolution, because it's usually more comfortable and in case you need to resize it.
Also, her body shape is a bit biased in size towards her legs, it makes the head appear extremely small. It's not a look I prefer personally, but that might have been a conscious decision?

[Dualmask]

I'm not talking about the animation, I'm talking about how the actual in-game entity moves.
It might be possible that it's caused by frame rate issues.

Edit You're referring to the actual pacing of the run. Let's see...she runs at about three pixels per step but 1 pixel of friction is applied per step (this is after adjusting), so I guess the actual move speed does change over time, but it's not timed per se, I was just changing the numbers around until I found a comfortable feel. I suppose it's possible that the speed of the run combined with the frame rate and the animation might cause some harm to the flow of the run, but I'm not sure how to fix that.

I want to move forward with creating some actual gameplay, something to test these issues against to see if it's something that will affect the big picture; whether the game is fun to play or not. If the player isn't slipping off of platforms they shouldn't be and if the controls are reacting the way they're supposed to be, I can live with less-than-perfect animation and move speed.

--

Adding highlights to the hair sounds like a good idea, the costume too. At this stage I would have to redo a great deal of animations to change the resolution--something I should have thought of in advance--because I've already made dozens of sprite poses and strips. But it wouldn't be terribly hard (tedious, yes, but not hard) to add some highlights to make her pop more. It's going to be annoying to do without a graphics tablet, but I can make it work.

Maybe I should lose the glow effect itself and simply change the color of the pixels in that area to some highly saturated colors. Probably wasn't for the best making the glow on the sprite using the same exact method that I use to make it on illustrations.

She is leg-biased. That's kind of how I draw; I like to emphasize the lower body and her whole MO revolves around kicks and jumping. I wasn't worried about her facial detail in the game because I figured a humanoid sprite that's not going to be of the cartoonish variety wouldn't have a lot of facial detail, if any, kind of like the average Castlevania game sprite with a virtually nondescript face.

But maybe a total overhaul of the sprite's appearance will be in order for a future game/sequel if I ever get this to work.

[Seiseki]

I was kinda curious and went to check the sprite on a pixel level..
Hope you don't mind but I made some rough edits, not sure if it's an improvement or not, actually I'm pretty certain some the changes aren't.
I think I'm biased a bit towards anime style proportions too.
I thought background hair sorta blended with her neck, so I tried removing it to get a better silhouette.
But looking at the sprites again, that hair bit adds up to a kind of trademark look, removing it would be problematic..

Anyways, maybe this is helpful.



Also, I checked the movement of the game entity again.
There's definitely some slow downs going on that makes it look and feel odd. Can't tell if it's the FPS that drops.
Also the in-game graphics looks distorted and not at a 1:1 pixel ratio.

[Dualmask]

The look of the sprite came across because I made the sprite by rasterizing Flash vector graphics, not hand drawing directly, but I never really went back and added any postwork to the sprite except for the glow effect. But you did inspire me to give it a shot. Possibly while you were working on my sprite, I made some changes as well:



(By the way, I don't want her feet to bend the way you depicted because the boots are actually armor and aren't flexible in the slightest. The rigid look of the feet is intentional.)

I added highlights (tried to avoid the pillow shaded look) and I made some subtle changes to the glow, eliminating it from extending beyond the silhouette of the sprite itself. To me, it certainly looked better in action and I intend to apply the same approach to the other sprites.

As for the resolution, that's the problem with making a computer game like this; I based the Game Maker views settings on the resolution provided in some tutorial I read, though my own monitor is a widescreen one. It ends up looking different on different displays. I've already changed it to match the resolution of my own monitor since uploading that executable, but that doesn't mean it'll work on other displays as effectively.

As for the slowdown, I'm not seeing it on my end at all, no significant slowdown when I run the game; the character is fast and responsive. I guess it's possible that it could be your machine. I don't know what I can change to speed it up, so I guess I'll have to move on from it for now, rather than allow it to be a debilitating obstacle.

By the way, I really do appreciate your time and attention here. You're giving me a great deal to think about. I have other game ideas, and even if I don't implement every suggestion with this game concept, I will definitely have some new ideas to consider for other ones.

[Dualmask]

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/43720602/jet-test2.exe Updated executable with modified movement speed and enhanced sprite (run cycle only--haven't gotten around to redoing the other sprites yet). I've run it and I don't get any slowdown on my end.

[Seiseki]

Yeah, the sprite pops out a lot more now, gj!

As for the feet, the just look like some kind of triangle, pyramid thing.
I tried adding perspective or something, but since it's seen from a side view that doesn't really make sense..
But the shape/shading reads as very flat, I looked at your concept art and the shape of the shoes is much better and clear, but that's also in a different perspective.
Also, realistically shoes need to bend for you to be able to walk and not to mention run properly.
But that's function and not necessarily form.

Tried the new .exe and I still get those slowdowns, they're not super noticeable, but they're there.

Another thing I should criticize are the level tiles.
Are you going for a retro tilebased approach or are they placeholders?

Because I think, judging by your style and the theme, it would make more sense to go with a limbo-like approach where you draw pretty clear and contrasting background, foreground, etc.
Obviously not in black and white, I'm just refering to the construction, with larger seamless chunks and such, It doesn't have to be super detailed, it just needs to have depth. (especially if you're going for fast gameplay where you go quickly through each area)

Especially since your drawings seems to place the character in a city landscape and a classic super hero settings, and a night map would really bring out those flashing lights on her boots and gloves.
Right now the character looks quite out of place in this retro platformer landscape..

[Dualmask]

Thanks for encouraging me to enhance the look of the sprites, it was definitely a needed change.

As for the boots and feet, all I can say is, imagine if they were the lower legs of a Gundam or some other kind of bipedal mech. That's the closest comparison I can come up with and why I went with the rigid approach. Her boots are meant to kick through tanks, giant robots and buildings. They would probably look better in 3D and I could certainly tweak the perspective here and there on certain poses if I wanted to (might prove necessary once I start creating more kick attacks), but for a side scroller, the look isn't a deal breaker at this stage.

I guess I did forget to mention that the background tiles are placeholder graphics I downloaded from somewhere, can't remember where. My goal is to make the art of the game look similar to my drawing style, but I have no experience making tilesets so I'm still working on how exactly I'm going to pull it off. The plan is to go for a muted aesthetic to contrast the character (and the enemies) and I'm experimenting with various ways to make the background graphics. To be honest I'm sick of looking at the tileset because it's so out of place, but I don't want to jump the gun and start working on the background before I'm content with the player avatar.

[Seiseki]

Well I think it's good to switch back and forth instead of finalizing everything individually one after another. Especially since if you leave something for later you get a fresh look at it when you come back.
And it's easier to see the whole picture.
You don't want to finalize the sprites and then start designing the fore/backgrounds and realize that the character is too bright or something like that.

Try just making placeholder shapes or sketches, just to get a feel for the scale, what works and what shapes look interesting as foreground or background objects.

Also, I'm not sure how to make it work technically if you design in larger chunks.
You might still have to split it up, although if you're using photoshop I'd recommend the slice tool and save-for-web.