Chris Polus
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« Reply #180 on: February 16, 2014, 12:34:10 PM » |
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The eye tracking device I have to say is pretty cool. Currently, it's a Windows and Linux only device so I cannot use it directly on my Mac but it works beautifully in a VM in Parallels. I calibrated it and played with some tech demos Tobii packages with their drivers and one can clearly see the potential of that thing.
What excites me most about it is that it's very natural to use. It's not like a brain device that you have to train and learn how to use. Just use your eyes like you'd normally do. The accuracy is astounding for a device that was only used in usability testing and marketing labs (how long do people look on advertising) not long ago. These things come to consumer price level now. And a device like that opens a lot of possibilities. Not only in gaming, also for apps. So I'm positively surprised, hadn't thought it works with a relative low level of setup required (basically stick the bar below the screen, calibrate, done). I hope we're allowed to show more in the near future.
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Chris Polus
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« Reply #181 on: February 17, 2014, 07:00:56 AM » |
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We were at Expo Games, a games fair in South Tyrol, Italy. There were tons of people on the weekend and they tested the hell out of what we had (Tutorial, Edge, Wind Temple, Cinder Vally, Fire Temple). We got so much feedback and it was probably the most valuable testing experience we had so far as there were really so many different people (it was a computer and board games fair). - What we're really happy with is that in general people liked the mechanics, the terraforming and telekinesis. People played for 30 minutes, sometimes an hour and didn't want to make room for somebody else.
- Another big win was picking up Sarahul with telekinesis. People loved it, it seems it's a lot of fun.
- Jumping on scarabs to kill them made testers laugh. They liked it very much.
- Also, exploring levels seems to entertain testers. Some looked into every corner.
But we have a nice list of things to improve, too. So here are some lessons learned. - Sometimes telekinesis handling of rocks is not intuitive as you can also shoot backwards.
- For us, fighting a boss is quite manageable, but for everyone it was very very hard. We have to make it easier.
- Wind magic was perceived to be too weak compared to fire magic.
- Same with using telekinesis to bridge gaps. We place a rock and use it to jump over a bigger canyon. Others build solid bridges with multiple rocks, which takes a lot of time and usually doesn't work as well.
- Some puzzles, especially one in the wind temple, is way too hard. It takes 30 minutes to solve, lol! We have to make it waaay easier.
- Fighting shielded warriors is too hard, 2 of them almost certainly kill you. It's too hard grabbing their shield, we will make that easier.
- Testers would like to tear out trees. It was almost expected that one can do that after all the things you are able to pick up with telekinesis.
- Player guidance in level 4 (fire temple) seems suboptimal, we need to make it more clear which doors can be opened with wind magic.
- And many more level design issues where people don't know where to go which is easily solvable if known.
These are all things we can improve quite easily and tweak some parameters, but just getting this stuff was so valuable and great. We're so used to the mechanics and know where we're supposed to go in a level to continue, that we don't notice the small quirks anymore. I can only recommend going to any kind of game fair or game jam and let others play your game and make as many notes as you can.
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Chris Polus
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« Reply #182 on: February 23, 2014, 08:54:54 AM » |
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We give you a sneak peek at our own cutscene editor. And its bugs. - This week: We were at Subotron in Vienna, Austria, talking about our Kickstarter campaign. Then: dialogs, cutscenes, funny bugs in our NPCs and cutscene editor, many new sounds in the Wind Temple, crosshair adjustment and doing a fire burst with a wind push (both based on forum and tester feedback).
- We're especially interested in what you think of the crosshair and the fire burst idea.
- Get into the discussion and leave your comments here, on YouTube, or join our forum at http://forum.sonofnor.com so we can discuss your opinion in our daily team meetings!
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Chris Polus
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« Reply #183 on: March 02, 2014, 09:14:04 AM » |
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FIRST REAL video of our eye-tracking implementation. And the play-feeling is really cool. And as the eye-tracking device is non-intrusive (no glasses you wear, no helmet, nothing, it's under your screen...) it really feels like magic! - So... This week: Valve's Steam integration into Son of Nor, more work on the menu with multiplayer waiting rooms, more work on the triplanar shader, eye-tracking demonstration.
- We're going to be at GDC! You will be able to test out Son of Nor with eye-tracking there! Contact us if you'll be around.
- We're especially interested in what you think of the eye-tracking.
- Get into the discussion and leave your comments here, on YouTube, or join our forum at http://forum.sonofnor.com so we can discuss your opinion in our daily team meetings!
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Chris Polus
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« Reply #185 on: March 16, 2014, 09:55:06 AM » |
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We have destroyable barrels in the game. And they're not empty. - This week: More work on Yant'shaza, our fire effect, fire burst effect, fire tornado effect, a lot of cluttering in level 00 tutorial, destroyable barrels with contents, Sarahul dancing bug.
- We're going to be at GDC! You'll be able to test Son of Nor WITH eye-tracking there! Look for the Tobii eye-tracking booth!
- Get into the discussion and leave your comments here, on YouTube, or join our forum at http://forum.sonofnor.com so we can discuss your opinion in our daily team meetings!
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Chris Polus
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« Reply #187 on: March 30, 2014, 10:27:31 AM » |
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Lots of testing this week. We also show how we do sounds in Son of Nor and how our staged testing approach looks like. - This week: We added more atmo (haze, steam) to the Fire Temple, new enemy in the fire temple, sounds for this new enemy (no spoilers but you can hear the sound), I discovered a very old piece of coder art while testing, some pillars of a temple try to escape when destroyed, playtesting Yant'shaza a lot, sounds for the scorpion enemy and behind the scenes of making these sounds.
- We're especially interested in what you think of the different ways you can take in a level. Do you prefer options or super linear gameplay?
- Get into the discussion and leave your comments here, on YouTube, or join our forum at http://forum.sonofnor.com so we can discuss YOUR opinion in our daily team meetings!
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Chris Polus
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« Reply #188 on: April 01, 2014, 03:34:55 AM » |
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This has been a long time in the making. We've completely overhauled basic game mechanics in Son of Nor. Today, we're introducing a new praying system and in-app purchases. We've prepared a blog post that explains the new mechanics in detail: READ HERE.
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Christian
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« Reply #189 on: April 01, 2014, 04:11:33 AM » |
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Wow, this looks great. I love the style, the look of the mechanics. Probably the coolest use of terraforming since Fracture or Red Faction. Will definitely be following this project now
But what the hell, why is no one else posting here? I hate seeing threads where it's just the dev posting for months.
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Chris Polus
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« Reply #190 on: April 01, 2014, 04:16:37 AM » |
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Nobody is interested in this project
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Franklin's Ghost
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« Reply #191 on: April 02, 2014, 08:11:13 PM » |
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I'm definitely interested. Think you guys are doing an amazing job, just have horrible internet usually so don't get the chance to watch the videos. Might be good to try and post some short gifs sometimes. But great job and been following this for awhile now.
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Chris Polus
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« Reply #192 on: April 06, 2014, 12:15:27 PM » |
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Thanks Franklin's Ghost Always appreciated! Hmm, animated GIF, I'll check if any of my programs can export that. Thanks for the idea.
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Chris Polus
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« Reply #194 on: April 13, 2014, 10:35:21 AM » |
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Chris Polus
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« Reply #195 on: April 20, 2014, 07:44:51 AM » |
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Chris Polus
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« Reply #197 on: May 04, 2014, 11:46:19 AM » |
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This week there's progress on a level we showed some time back as well as the last temple, the essence temple. - Our last story time dev diary was well received and we reached rank 7 on IndieDB, which is always a nice feeling.
- We showed you a timelapse video of a dripstone cave blockout a while back. It didn't look much like a cave then but we made progress in this area we'd like to show. Take a look and listen.
- In this level, too, players can choose among several paths, depending on their playing style.
- Don't break the eggs. Other than that there is fun to be had with them.
- The essence temple with dragonlings that are immune to damage (at first), some puzzles, Indiana Jones style abysses and leaps of faith and more.
- Some infos about the Essence spell.
- Get into the discussion and leave your comments here, on YouTube, or join our forum at http://forum.sonofnor.com so we can discuss your opinion in our daily team meetings!
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