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[noah!]

It's a neat tech demo...I guess...

Honestly, there's not much to say. The music is technically well made, though I've never been able to get into the whole "epic orchestral" vibe that's been plaguing the film industry for decades (and has begun to spread its cancerous roots to VGM too). It fits the levels rather well too, and it's interesting to see how the music changes based on which actions you take. In that regard, you did a very good job, and should be incredibly proud of your accomplishments.

The gameplay, however, could definitely use some work. While the analogue, "sticky" controls feel really wonderful at the first few power levels, later on the physics become more of a distraction than a boon. To exacerbate the problem,  the level design starts to focus on precision platforming around that time. Cue jumps that fall short due to not having enough momentum. Then a subsequent jump that overshoots that same target.

I did like how the clef physics worked, however, and I kinda wish they would've made a return appearance later in the game.

Also, when I see mercy invincibility, I expect that it will make me invincible for a short period of time. Not render me still susceptible to knockback from attacks that hit within the invincibility period, essentially keeping me immobilized in a multi-hit combo that ends with me landing far away from where I want to be. This is slightly annoying the first time. I openly wept upon the eleventh time.

Anyway, that's what I thought about the game. To be honest I'm probably phrasing things more negatively than I should be, and for that I am sorry. I'm sure that, from an objective standpoint, this is a good game with some great music.

...Besides, what do I know. To be honest, if I had my way I'd probably do something stupid like rework the bee boss to use

... >_>

[Kejero]

I figure you have to time the jumps right so the balls bounce off the other side of the wall while stunning him.

Yep. There are two ways to achieve this. I find that the easiest way to do it, is to stand still in the middle, and just before he spits his fireballs jump and fly up, then buttstomp him, and quickly fly out of the way so the bounced fireballs hit him instead of you.
The other way is to hover in front of him at the height of his head, then right before he spits fly up and buttstomp.

I designed this final battle to be a bit challenging since this is the last thing in the game. The goal of the project is to show the player the music system, and when they've reached this point in the game, they've seen everything I want them to see. I've never really had much trouble defeating the dragon myself, but I'm not much of a reference of course

Do you think that making the dragon wait a little bit longer after he spits his fireballs and before he moves away again, so you have more time to buttstomp him, would be better? Or is the problem rather getting him to spit in the right direction?

[Kejero]

Care to share the music system or are you going to keep the sources closed?
I'm interested in the system since I almost have no idea how to sync music to change from one loop to the other.

I haven't really figured out what I'm gonna be doing with the code. Either way it also needs quite some cleaning up, AND currently it's still in Actionscript 2 (and I assume most people are developing in Actionscript 3 these days). So for now I'm going to keep them closed.

But I'll be glad to help you out with your syncing problem. Shoot me an email at "music at kejero dot com" if you like! (or maybe create a new topic on these forums and point me to it )

[Kejero]

Or at a minimum, write up an article about how you did it and the challenges you faced. 

There will be an interview at a new audio website in the near future. Not sure how technical they want me to get, but I'll keep you posted

[Kejero]

While the analogue, "sticky" controls feel really wonderful at the first few power levels, later on the physics become more of a distraction than a boon.

It's funny... I've had some people tell me the opposite: they felt that the controls were much better at the later levels, less restricted. I'm not sure what to say about it, I think it's a matter of getting used to it. I actually find it very easy to jump and land exactly where I want to, without exception. Of course, again, I'm no reference, but you're the first person to tell me they had problems with the jumping... 

I'm assuming that you're mostly referring to the "Timed Door" level? If so, how did you approach this level? Did you try to race to the door, ignoring the laser beams, or did you take your time and make use of the camouflage to avoid them? Although it's possible to time it right and race to the door and still finish with about 38 seconds left on the timer, the level is designed for the camouflage features, and it's much easier to complete it that way.

Also, when I see mercy invincibility, I expect that it will make me invincible for a short period of time. Not render me still susceptible to knockback from attacks that hit within the invincibility period, essentially keeping me immobilized in a multi-hit combo that ends with me landing far away from where I want to be. This is slightly annoying the first time. I openly wept upon the eleventh time.

I take it that you're mostly referring to the hedgehogs here? I agree that these can be annoying, especially near the end. I originally had an actual mercy invincibility but I found that the game became far too easy this way...
Anyway, I'll see if I can come up with a better compromise, because what you're saying is absolutely right: because of the flashing it appear like mercy invincibility, but it really isn't...

Thanks!

[zovirl]

Wow the music is really well done in this.

I think there are a couple gameplay elements that hold it back though.

1. Don't take control away from the player. Example:
At the very start, it says "What's adaptive music? Time to find out. Proceed to the right" but then the player can't move for several more seconds.  This happens a lot, especially when I got to the water. It felt like I was getting blocked every 15 minutes to read some prompt. As a counter-example, I really like how Braid basically never took control from the player and embedded instructions in the world.

2. Edit for brevity. Example:
"This little notebook will pop up automatically during the game to elaborate on
the music. If this is your first time playing, I recommend to DISABLE these
notes and let the music speak for itself"

could instead be:
"Director's notes on the music. Try playing without these notes the first time through."

[nebuch]

really great adaptive gameplay. i like and share in my connections to understading "adaptive music experience" thank for it.

[BlackBulletIV]

Wow, from what I've seen so far, the music is amazing, I love what you've done with it. On the gameplay side...

I quit after spending ages trying to get past the second lot of bees; I kept falling down, they kept trapping me, and because they move so slow, I had to wait a while before I could try again. Aaaaaah! Could you post a walkthrough video or something? I'd really like to see all of the music of it.

In other things, the camera moves far too slow in my opinion, and I really don't like the "floaty" feel to the player's physics (I guess it's a preference thing). As others have mentioned, taking the player's control away isn't necessary at times, and the guide doesn't really need to point out the music's adaptiveness.

Nevertheless, this is a show of adaptive music, and that's really well done. I'll see if I can play some more later.

[Mickelukas]

The music is very nice, although, from the point of view that it's more of a demonstration than a game I wouldn't mind if the alterations of adaptive music were even bigger. It indeed gets darker music when you go down the water, but not dark enough if you know what I mean.

Other than that, cute game, hate the bees!

Mike

[Cheezmeister]

Love it. I'm also quite interested in dynamic audio and it's exciting to see it becoming more viable every day!

Some nitpicks--the key bindings seemed kind of arbitrarily chosen; would have liked to be able to choose WASD, Q, E instead of Arrows, T, C, for example. I also got frustrated with the physics of the controls, the unforgiving level design, and a few places where block silhouettes didn't match up with the collision mask and I kept trying to platform onto a block that wasn't there.

Since this is a demo, you probably want to make the gameplay as easy and unimposing as possible, even if it becomes more shallow as a result--the musical experience is the main focus anyway. I don't have the patience to progress past the first couple of letters (maybe later, though)

[JOBA]

From the first 5 minutes with the game:
Dear kameleon, shut the fuck up, dude, seriously.
I'm trying to play here, enjoying the superb atmospheric music and immerse, but you fucker have to pop up and break the flow of the game ALL the fucking time. Seriously. Go away.

It feels like the game assumes i'm a COMPLETE RETARD.

[harkme]

The music is absolutely beautiful. The music made the experience engaging and kept me playing even though the game itself was so basic. It does get very frustrating at parts, though. Maybe the bees would be less annoying if they moved back to their original position after chasing you for a certain distance. The self destruct sequence was really annoying since I could not see far enough ahead and that really messed me up with the long pit vs short pit jumps. The hedgehogs really need to be toned down because by the end they were almost impossible to dodge. I could feel the struggle of the main character, but it quickly got irritating and almost put me off the game. Ultimately, I reached the last battle, had no idea what to do, and gave up since I felt I already got out of the experience what I wanted.

I thought the pop-up messages were okay since I was treating this as an educational experience. The effect of music/sound design on a game is a great one and is often under-appreciated. These messages often point out the obvious, but they're great for keeping the player thinking about the music consciously rather than subconsciously.

[Kejero]

1. Don't take control away from the player.

Yeah, I'm removing all these instances wherever possible. I've often been disabling this "feature" through cheatcodes during testing, but I never stopped to realize that it might be really, really annoying for the player as well.

2. Edit for brevity. Example:
"This little notebook will pop up automatically during the game to elaborate on
the music. If this is your first time playing, I recommend to DISABLE these
notes and let the music speak for itself"

could instead be:
"Director's notes on the music. Try playing without these notes the first time through."

Thanks, that is much better. I'm taking st33d's advice in removing as much text as possible.

[Kejero]

I quit after spending ages trying to get past the second lot of bees;

Thanks. We definitely don't want that. I've made this part a bit easier by making some platforms a bit larger, after seeing a player during in-house testing having huge problems getting on that first platform. I'll see if I can make those bees a bit less annoying too.

I'd really like to see all of the music of it.

I'll be releasing the full soundtrack for free once the game is released. I've also got a small gameplay video ready, for those people who'd like to see some of it, but can't be bother spending too much time on it.

Thanks!

[Kejero]

I wouldn't mind if the alterations of adaptive music were even bigger.

Well my theory is that if the changes are too obvious, then the music takes center stage. And that, in most instances, defies the purpose of adaptive music. I'd rather keep the score subtle, like I would in an actual game, and simply draw attention to it by that annoying chameleon

Thanks for the feedback!

[Kejero]

I would have liked to be able to choose WASD, Q, E instead of Arrows, T, C, for example.

That's not a bad suggestion. I'll see if I can squeeze that in.

the unforgiving level design

I'm making them more forgiving

and a few places where block silhouettes didn't match up with the collision mask

And I'm fixing those.

Since this is a demo, you probably want to make the gameplay as easy and unimposing as possible, even if it becomes more shallow as a result

Agreed, and working on it

[Kejero]

From the first 5 minutes with the game:
Dear kameleon, shut the fuck up, dude, seriously.
I'm trying to play here, enjoying the superb atmospheric music and immerse, but you fucker have to pop up and break the flow of the game ALL the fucking time. Seriously. Go away.

It feels like the game assumes i'm a COMPLETE RETARD.

Yeah, I'm toning him down. He's an ass anyway. Thanks!

[Kejero]

The music is absolutely beautiful. The music made the experience engaging and kept me playing even though the game itself was so basic. It does get very frustrating at parts, though. Maybe the bees would be less annoying if they moved back to their original position after chasing you for a certain distance. The self destruct sequence was really annoying since I could not see far enough ahead and that really messed me up with the long pit vs short pit jumps. The hedgehogs really need to be toned down because by the end they were almost impossible to dodge. I could feel the struggle of the main character, but it quickly got irritating and almost put me off the game. Ultimately, I reached the last battle, had no idea what to do, and gave up since I felt I already got out of the experience what I wanted.

Thanks, all noted!

One thing I'm a bit worried about is that I gave the option to load any chapter in the game, even if you haven't finished a previous part, in the main menu. So when you get stuck in a certain level, or just want to give up, you could just jump to the next chapter. No one seems to realize this though.
I'm considering simply putting the "Pick chapter" button (and/or a "Skip this level" button) in the Pause Menu for this reason. Or does anyone have a better idea?

[Kejero]

Hey guys,

So it's been a while since I've posted this game, and a lot has been playtested and changed by now. There are still a few minor bugs in there, and I wasn't able to improve the camera much, but I think I've got a version now that I'm happy to release officially.

-> www.kejero.com/kameleon

Any feedback very welcome! Especially if I somehow broke the game for you with this latest build...




A quick overview of the things I've addressed since version 0.3.1:

- Much less text, overall. The chameleon still talks, but you can keep playing in most instances. I've also implemented the "Yoshi" system on several occasions, so you can avoid him all together.
- Platforms have been made much easier. Less bees now, and they fly away scared for a while when they have hit you. They fly slower when you're in the water, which makes the bee boss easier too.
- The game now watches your progress, and if you spend a lot of time fighting a boss for instance, it'll give hints.
- The dragon boss now gives you more time to buttstomp him in the second part of the battle.
- The "timed door" level now shows you a shortcut after a few failed attempts.
- Mercy invincibility has been implemented properly.
- Less hedgehogs near the end. As bigger hedgehogs appear, some of the small ones disappear now.
- Progress is now saved, so you can pick up where you left after you quit the game.

[mihai]

Since this is more of a demo reel for music and sound design, I focused on that more than the gameplay which seems pretty basic, and the music and sounds are exceptional. The game becomes many times more "alive" because of it.