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[tieTYT]

I have some new features to show off in one gif. 

• Now there is a delay after you win so that you have enough time to get the last drop(s)
• The progress bar fills up past 100% if you gain a level
• The progress bar shows you what level you're at and what levels you gain (if any)
• The right hand side shows you what you've gained from leveling.  EG: +1 Strength and +3 Health

[Munkyman587]

Hey, sorry for the delay.  I'd be happy to clarify:

I actually ended up playing a bunch after the post.  Just got pulled away for day-to-day stuff.

1)  Ok, interesting note on that being DPS.  I am still a bit confused on the speed stat then.  I might just be slow though

2) Awesome, saves would be great!

3) Thanks, I see you did this already!

4)

5) Another thing you already got to, thanks!

I will try the most recent version and let you know if I find anything else of note.  Good work!

[CookieEngine]

I just played your game. I think the concept is very interesting.

Maybe it would add to fun, if the player could trigger the weapons by pressing the space(?)
Pushing a fire button is always fun. :-))

It would be also cool to see the weapon cooldown times for characters.

Do you have supporter characters too? Something like a priest, which is healing the chain members?

I also think, it could be more fun to have to collect the chain members through the level (more like the classic snake) instead of buying it via gold.
In this case some more puzzles could be added, like for instance having to run over two switches at the same time. But in order to be able to do that, you need a minimum length of the chain (something like that).

[tieTYT]

I actually ended up playing a bunch after the post.  Just got pulled away for day-to-day stuff.

That's good to hear.  From most people I get the impression that it's an *interesting* idea, but it's hard for me to tell if it's fun.

1)  Ok, interesting note on that being DPS.  I am still a bit confused on the speed stat then.  I might just be slow though

I think I'm just explaining it poorly.  In summary, pretend that "Damage:" label really says, "DPS:".  I'll have to rename that label eventually.  I'm just afraid most people out there don't know what "DPS" stands for and I don't think "Damage Per Second" will fit in that box.  

3) Thanks, I see you did this already!

Yeah I created both an Auto-Equip and an Auto-Sell button.  Hopefully they both do what you'd expect!

5) Another thing you already got to, thanks!

Yep!  In the end, I plan for all Psychics to be female, but for now I think it would be weird for a dude with a beard to be named "Cynthia".

I will try the most recent version and let you know if I find anything else of note.  Good work!

If you haven't tried it yet you may want to wait until tomorrow, I'm going to do a big update then.    But if you have tried it, I'd love to know what you thought.  Thanks and sorry for the late reply!

I just played your game. I think the concept is very interesting.

Thanks for giving it a try, I appreciate that.

Maybe it would add to fun, if the player could trigger the weapons by pressing the space(?)
Pushing a fire button is always fun. :-))

This is an frequently requested feature.  I'm trying to avoid it because I like the simplicity of ONLY using directions to control the game.  The longer I resist adding buttons, the better the game will feel on touch devices.  At least that's my theory.

But! my friend proposed something interesting that would still be in the spirit of direction-only controls: When you're moving UP, pressing UP or DOWN has no effect.  I could make it so that pressing in the direction you're already moving does a special attack instead of nothing.  

What do you think about that idea?  

It would be also cool to see the weapon cooldown times for characters.

Yeah I can see that being useful.  Out of curiosity, what happened in-game that made you request this feature?  Perhaps it went like this?: "I equipped the mini-nuke and I thought it was going to fire soon but in actuality it had 5 seconds to go.  Due to not knowing, I was hanging around enemies taking damage because I thought it was going to fire.  With a visible cooldown, I wouldn't have been hit so much."?

Do you have supporter characters too? Something like a priest, which is healing the chain members?

Right now that's kind of all over the place.  I'd like to think that the Psychic is kind of a futuristic magic user, but there's nothing class specific s/he has that's in the game yet.  

On the other hand, there are skill gems that regenerate your HP every second and another skill gem that gives you HP every time you kill a bad guy.  But, it doesn't really help out your team, just yourself.  And any character can equip them.

Based on your question, I think I'll implement a Psychic only weapon that "attacks" your teammates and if it hits them, it gives them HP back.  In other words, using JRPGs as an analogy, I should give the Psychic a Cure spell you can equip.  Thanks for the idea  

I also think, it could be more fun to have to collect the chain members through the level (more like the classic snake) instead of buying it via gold.

I also don't like buying them with gold for a different reason: It's a nightmare to balance the game.  Technically, you could get to level 5 and have 10 people in your chain or 3 people.  The game would end up being ridiculously easy or ridiculously hard, respectively, and I have very little control over these bad experiences.  

My solution to this was going to be, "events unlock heroes".  As an example, you start with 2, but you get a 3rd for beating the first boss.  You get a 4th for beating the 5th level.  etc.

It sounds like you've got a slightly different idea in mind, though.  Are you saying the player should start with a chain of one character at the beginning of every level?  Or were you thinking something else?

In this case some more puzzles could be added, like for instance having to run over two switches at the same time. But in order to be able to do that, you need a minimum length of the chain (something like that).

That's a really cool idea.  For a long time I've planned on having a map screen ala super mario world/super meat boy/shovel knight.  It'd be really cool if there were parts of the map you couldn't unlock until your chain was long enough to run over the switches.  

I envision playing an earlier level and thinking, "I wonder what those things on the ground are for?"  And then later realizing you now have enough characters in your chain to unlock a secret world.  

Great idea!  Thanks for the feedback.  

Out of curiosity, what level did you stop playing at and what made you decide to stop playing?  

[tieTYT]

I added a lot of minor but significant features:

1) Now there is a difference between common and rare weapons.  When rare weapons drop, they are the color purple.  Here's a comparison between them both:



The rare weapons are the class specific weapons that already used to drop, but now the common weapons are twice as likely to drop as the rare weapons.  

I plan to make "Legendary" weapons in the future that are like class-specific weapons++.  As an example, instead of a Tri-shot, a Legendary version will be a 5-shot gun.

2) I changed all the "Skill Gems" to now be "Accessories".  I think that's a better name for them based off of what they do.  I also changed the icon of them to be a ring instead of a gem because gems usually mean "money" to people.  But a ring is a kind of equipment.  People are used to equipping rings in video games, but not gems.  In the future, I will have different kinds of accessories like necklaces, amulets and rosaries.



3) Accessories are 3 times less likely to drop, now.

4) I created a new kind of Accessory named "Resurrection Ring".  



This is the first accessory I've created that has limited uses (one, in this case).  This specific accessory was very annoying to create as it introduced a few unexpected bugs.  The first is under certain situations, you'd permanently lose characters   The second is if the last guy alive died and was wearing a resurrection ring, when he resurrected he'd teleport to where characters go at the start of the level.  I believe I fixed both of these bugs, but let me know if you discover any bugs when using this item.

5) I changed the look of the protection loot from a halo to armor.  Everyone thought the halo was a ring anyway so I can re-purpose the halo to be an accessory.  Here's what the armor looks like:



6) I changed the logic behind the "You Win!" text.  Now it only shows up after you killed everyone and all the loot is gone.

[Vallar]

This game is really interesting. It reminded me of Nimble Quest but without the wrong monetization system

Gotta say it was really fun playing the game. I like the fact that I can customize the load out before I enter a level and I liked the idea of a boss as well as the fact that I didn't have to start from level 1 when I die :D

The game gets progressively harder which is something good although sometimes there are a few things that are a bit weird:
1- The first 3 levels I heard no music then around level 4 or 5 there was this soundtrack that played but it didn't loop correctly. It would stop after it finished then after about 15-20 seconds it would play again then stop in the middle. At level 7 or 8 the music loops wrong again and I found that it is as if you had 2 tracks playing on top of each other at the same time.

2- In the upgrade window the amount of gold you have isn't quite obvious had to scour the screen for a long time until I found it.

3- I am guessing here, but when one my team dies, does he get send to the back for a while to "refresh" then if he dies a second time he is then scrapped off completely? I didn't have a ring of resurrection equipped when this happened.

4- Since I came from Nimble Quest, I thought that the shield acts the same way until I saw in the upgrade screen that is it s reduced damage % rather than a total shield. Might want to state that somewhere.

5- The drop rate of the weapons is quite high, I end up selling them all every run. But I guess it balances the slope of price increase. But it feels a bit demoralizing when I want to buy a $2 upgrade and I can't afford it but I guess the fact that I am just out of prison makes that OK.

6- Some of the levels are hard to navigate, specially when there are a ton of enemies spawning. I think it was level 8 or 9 when I spawned in the middle of a horizontally oriented square? Then all of a sudden I find about 10-12 mobs spawning and shooting which makes me locked into this 128x128 square going around myself absorbing every hit they shoot. I guess what I am trying to say the level design along with the balance of enemy spawns needs a little work still.

7- This game is really fun.

8- This game is really fun x2.

Honestly, this game is simple, fun and elegant. With some polish I can see it overthrowing Nimble Quest easily, specially when you can customize your heroes' load out. If you are after art, there is this website or if you need an artist and can afford a similar cash amount (at least I think that would be the rate), I know someone I used to work with he is really a talented artist but specializes in pixel art only, let me know and I can tell him about this.

Good luck and good work :D

[tieTYT]

Wow thanks for all the kind words, Vallar.  

1. Those music looping bugs are very concerning.  Which browser/OS are you using?  I think the song is over two minutes, I'm surprised it's possible for a level to even last that long.  I have a feeling this might be a bug related to Pausing the game.  Were you ever pausing while you played?  I'll try to reproduce this at home ASAP and fix it.

2. Good point, I'll try to think of something.

3. What's supposed to happen is if he dies, he disappears and gets put in a reserve.  You can then get a one-up and bring him back to life (at the back).  Are you saying you permanently lost a hero while you were playing?  They should come back when the level's over whether you won or lost.  If you lost someone permanently, that's a serious bug!  

4. Yeah I can see how that's unexpected.  I'll try to think of something for that, too.

5. I'm not exactly sure how to interpret this.  Are you saying I should multiply all the numbers by 100 to make things seem more valuable?  Also, are you saying I should drop weapons less frequently?

6. Ah, ok.  I thought feeling a little claustrophobic might make certain levels more fun, but I guess it had the opposite effect.  Thanks for the descriptive feedback, I know which levels you're talking about.  Now what I've gotta think about is do I make the level bigger, or (and?) have a slower spawn rate..  Food for thought.

7 & 8: Wow, thanks a lot for the kind words, I really appreciate it.  

About your artist friend, I'd definitely be interested.  Send me a PM or something (or whatever's appropriate).  It may be a while before I contact him because I'd like to improve my own pixel art chops, too.  I'm sure I'll eventually give up my dreams of being a decent artist, but I haven't hit rock bottom yet

Thanks again!

[Vallar]

I am using Google Chrome and Windows 7 Ultimate and I never paused the game at all. I kept playing from start to finish only pausing on the load out screen between missions/levels.

I didn't lose someone permanently, no. I just thought it was weird that the person I lost was immediately sent to the end of the line and was "see-through?" and then active but I wasn't wearing the ring at the time. I didn't pick a 1-up either.

For weapons, I was trying to portray my feelings when playing so you can evaluate the situation. On one hand, the guns drop a lot, but then again the coins don't drop much so it balances the issue of gaining money. But the costs like 2 gold or something felt really uncomfortable when I could barely buy 1-2 upgrades per level, like it was contradicting to real life. But then again, it is the reality of the game - prisoners and what they can find, they don't have the luxury of money. So it depends which "feeling" you'd like to keep while your players play the game. That said, I am only one person, another might have a completely different experience/feelings. Perhaps wait for more feedback on the issue, if there are none and you think it is worth it, I'd say a x10 is just about right. But that is again my own perspective, others may disagree.

As for the levels, the feeling of narrow spaces (I tend to misspell the word ) was there and I did feel it. You got me panicking XD if that was what you are after :D

[tieTYT]

I am using Google Chrome and Windows 7 Ultimate and I never paused the game at all. I kept playing from start to finish only pausing on the load out screen between missions/levels.

Weird, I haven't been able to reproduce this yet, but if I do I'll be sure to fix it. 

I didn't lose someone permanently, no. I just thought it was weird that the person I lost was immediately sent to the end of the line and was "see-through?" and then active but I wasn't wearing the ring at the time. I didn't pick a 1-up either.

Here's what probably happened: You bumped into an enemy killing both you and him.  He dropped a one-up which the next guy picked up so fast you couldn't see it, and that revived a dead hero to the back.  At least, that's my theory.

As for the levels, the feeling of narrow spaces (I tend to misspell the word ) was there and I did feel it. You got me panicking XD if that was what you are after :D

Hm, I like that, but only if it's fun.  If it's not fun I'll change the levels. 

Thanks again for the feedback!

[tieTYT]

I've added a bunch of new features! 

1. I changed the armor image into a DEF-UP image. 



I was getting a lot of feedback that the armor made people think they were getting an item they would be able to equip later instead of a temporary power up.  I'm hoping the new DEF-UP image gives the right impression, now.  It's a shame because I liked the way the armor looked.  Maybe I can reuse it for something later. 

2. There's a new weapon named Miracle that psychics can equip.  Rather than attacking enemies, this weapon lets you heal yourself and others. 



3. I added a new Healer enemy that will heal other bad guys.  Here he is in action, notice the red star at the top:



4. The game should look much more crisp.  I figured out how to stop the canvas from smoothing the pixel art when scaling.

5. Fixed this bug: Unequipping accessories destroys them. It should put them back in the inventory when you unequip an accessory.

6. Fixed an annoying UI issue: The scrollbars now save their position when you change dialogs and go back to that position next time.  For example, if you scroll to the right to change the equipment of hero #10, when you go back to that dialog, it will still be scrolled so the 10th hero is in view. 



7. Now when a hero dies, he turns into a tombstone.  It also plays an ominous chime.



8. It plays a sound when you pick up loot

9. Now there are bosses and more (but not new) enemy types past level 10.  Before, it was always the same type of bad guy after level 10

[tieTYT]

1. I have balanced the bosses a bit.  I gave them more range and now their HP scales with the level.  I hope that they are difficult enough now, people were complaining they were too easy.

There are two things to show in this GIF:



2. The first is that there's a new boss who shoots a spread shot.

3. The second is that there's a shotgun weapon now.  You have to get very close to the enemy to use it, but it does a lot of damage.



4. I gave the Def UP image an outline.  Honestly, I think it looks worse, but it's better in that it's now readable.  It blended into the background before and was difficult to read.  If anyone has any suggestions, even for a different icon, I'm open to ideas.




5. Rarer weapons sell for more money than regular weapons


This isn't a big update and the reason is because I seem to be the first person to discover a new bug with audio in Firefox 31.0.  Its eaten up a lot of my time trying to figure out how to reproduce it, but I finally did.  Here's the issue I created if anyone is interested.  https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1047179

[Jesse Ko]

Hey TieTYT! I played your game again. Very fun as always. I liked the tombstones you added in when a hero dies.

Do the defense power ups increase the defense of the whole party? At first I thought they acted as a shield that absorbed the next attack, but then I noticed it always disappeared after a short time. So I take it that it is a static defense power up that reduces the damage of future hits?

[Savick]

Played some. Here's what I think.

Overall I didn't find much challenge to it. I circled around enemies and watched them die. I found it annoying that I couldn't go back the way I came and kept doing it on accident with the controls, so maybe make that more clear. I think the clarity in the menus could be adjusted, the text in the boxes is a little dark in comparison to the color of the background they're on. Also make it clear that you die once you hit the edge. That surprised me. I honestly forgot what exactly a snake game meant, though I had some rough idea.

Maybe get together with an artist if you can't make the graphics better yourself?

[tieTYT]

Do the defense power ups increase the defense of the whole party?

Thanks Sensual!  Nice to see you on here.

The defense only works on the front hero and it only lasts a certain amount of time.  Also, it's not perfect protection: It'll reduce the damage you take by a %.  The duration and protection % are upgradeable in the Upgrades tab.  How I could explain all those details to the player without boring them seems really difficult.  It's not so important it should be explained in a tutorial, IMO.  A loading screen tool-tip would probably be best I think?

I plan to make it possible to cover multiple heroes in the future, probably with an accessory. 

Played some. Here's what I think.

Overall I didn't find much challenge to it. I circled around enemies and watched them die.

Out of curiosity, what stage did you play to?  It gets more difficult as you progress. 

I found it annoying that I couldn't go back the way I came and kept doing it on accident with the controls, so maybe make that more clear.

Yeah that could definitely be annoying before you get used to it.  What do you mean by "make it more clear"?  Are you saying I should have a tutorial that explains it better?

I think the clarity in the menus could be adjusted, the text in the boxes is a little dark in comparison to the color of the background they're on.

I tried to work on this.  Is this better?

Maybe get together with an artist if you can't make the graphics better yourself?

Yeah this is a good point.  I think I'm going to focus on making the game look better / cooler in the foreseeable future. 

Thanks a lot for the feedback, Savick.  Out of curiosity, what is it that made you decide to stop playing?


WHAT'S NEW

1. I changed the look of the health "potions" to be more futuristic (big thanks to eigenbom's advice on how to improve my shitty version): 



2. Now it's possible to have more than 2-3 stages in levels.  The later levels will be as much as 8 stages.  I'm very apprehensive about this change as I think it will really throw off the balance and make the game way easier.  I took the same number of enemies per level and divided them evenly per stage.  As a result, the "hordes" are probably pretty thin compared to before.  I hope I didn't make the game less fun 

3. Now you can see what stage you're on as you're playing:



4. I doubled the range of all bosses

5. As I said above, more contrast between the text color and button background color.

[tieTYT]

Minor addition: Now nukes and explosions make an exploding sound effect.

I'm excited to announce there's now infinitely more screen shake (because there was none before):



I've only put it on the grenade launcher and the homing nuke so far, where else should I put this effect?  I think when the shotgun shoots it should have it.  Should the screen shake when one of your characters die?  When an enemy dies?  When you hit an enemy?  I'm not sure how far to ab(use) this effect.  Looking for advice.

[Vallar]

Have you checked out the talk from Vlambeer's JW about The Art of Screenshake?

On the other hand, I'd say it might get people "sick" or "annoyed" from it easily so I'd restrict it to important events. Maybe like you losing one of the team members (accentuated here) while perhaps, if you kill an enemy it would be a slight shake something that is barely noticeable. Perhaps even when one of your members uses a significant type of weapon (like a special attack or something).

[tieTYT]

Have you checked out the talk from Vlambeer's JW about The Art of Screenshake?

Yeah I watched that a long time ago and probably need to rewatch it as I've forgotten most of the points.  Thanks for the reminder! I've yet to watch "Juice it or lose it" but that's on my todo list.

Thanks for the advice.  It's on point. 

[AidenBainsGames]

I really enjoyed this game. I postponed my own game dev activities and played this for waaaaay longer than I should have (getting to dungeon 25). The snake concept works really well, and it surprised me just how long it kept my interest.

I do have a bit of feedback if you care to listen:

• I feel like the upgrade selection could be larger - have you thought of perhaps adding a "% Chance of 1UP spawning" upgrade, for instance?
• I found all the psychic weapons difficult to understand (I'm still not sure what Miracle really does)
• I hate to be that guy, but would it kill ya to have some female characters? I mean, considering the gender is completely token, it would be nice to have a couple of female sprites on the team

All that said, I did enjoy the game and will be watching this to see it progress

[ASnogarD]

Since you are making a Snake type game (it is a lot different but has some similarities) you do need to think, how would the screen shaking effect the player... is it meant to be a negative effect ? Can they avoid it ? if not I would say the player is getting penalised in this type of game if the screen shakes so avoid using it on a player doing something positive... like hitting an enemy for example.
If the player lets something happen to them that they could of reasonably avoided....shake away bro.

[tieTYT]

I would say the player is getting penalised in this type of game if the screen shakes so avoid using it on a player doing something positive...

Hi ASnogarD, thanks for the comment but I think I disagree with this.  I don't think screen shake has a positive/negative connotation, I think it just adds emphasis to events.  EG: the screen shake on the GIF doesn't imply something bad happened, just that something powerful happened.  At least IMHO.

I really enjoyed this game. I postponed my own game dev activities and played this for waaaaay longer than I should have (getting to dungeon 25). The snake concept works really well, and it surprised me just how long it kept my interest.

I love hearing that!  It keeps me motivated to keep working.  So thanks a lot for the feedback.  Out of curiosity, what made you stop playing?  What do you think would have kept you going?

I feel like the upgrade selection could be larger - have you thought of perhaps adding a "% Chance of 1UP spawning" upgrade, for instance?

Actually, I'm thinking of retiring that tab completely and replacing it with an unrelated "shop" where you can buy unique accessories and weapons. 

1. I don't want to let the player "buy" new heroes for their chain because it make the game a nightmare to balance.  One player could have 6 Heroes in his chain at level 10, another could have 12.  They will have two very different gameplay experiences and it will be difficult to balance for both.  Instead, I want to make it so new heroes are unlocked at certain checkpoints (eg: once you beat level 5 you get a new hero).
2. Instead of buying upgrades to increase the protection drop, I think I will create accessories that make the protection drop better.  I like the idea of choosing which characters will be for "support" and which will be for "tanking".  If a character is for "support" then you would give them an accessory to make protection better, as an example.

What do you think about that idea?

I found all the psychic weapons difficult to understand (I'm still not sure what Miracle really does)

Ah, great feedback.  Miracle heals your teammates.  Maybe I'll just freaking rename it to "Heal". 

I hate to be that guy, but would it kill ya to have some female characters? I mean, considering the gender is completely token, it would be nice to have a couple of female sprites on the team

I completely agree.  Even before I was using sprites I planned to have females in it.  I plan to make every psychic a female, but it seemed weird to name a dude with a beard "Jessica" when I was giving the heroes names so I just decided to temporarily give them male names.  I should just spend the extra time to swap out the place holder art.