next »

[marcgfx]

Did you play the browser version? I made it with a smaller field of view than the standalone so it would fit on all browsers. But ended up designing levels thinking about the standalone resolution only  If you are playing the standalone though, I have to seriously review these levels.

yeah, I played the web-demo. maybe you can zoom to fit?

[diegzumillo]

I changed the last version to fit better in the browser. It's a little crammed though.

In other news, I just found out this exists. Airscape. It's... almost identical to my game. The mechanics seems slightly different. It's like the floor is magnetized or something, instead of the space being curved. But it's pretty damn similar. The art style is similar. The story is similar.

Sigh. My biggest drive to develop the game was doing something new and interesting. Now I have to think about things  

[siskavard]

I came here to ask if you'd seen that game, because yes, the mechanics are basically the same.

However, I hope you decide to continue this game.

[diegzumillo]

Well, the mechanics is actually different. Not much, but it is. But it doesn't look different, and that bothers me. And everything else is similar, which also bothers me.

I'll likely abandon this project. Man, I'm actually sad. I put so much into this 

[Zorg]

I don't think it's too similar.

You could send them an e-mail, explain your situation and ask what they think about it.

[diegzumillo]

Thanks Zorg I'm glad you can tell the difference. I'm afraid most people without playing will dismiss my game as unimaginative just trying to catch the last trend.

I do, however, have another card up my sleeve. It takes the current mechanic and pushes it a step further. It's essentially the same thing: curved space. But I take it more literally, with metric and scale playing the role they would if this were a mathematically consistent world. The curves are not simply curves anymore but whole distortions on space and can also compress or expand the player. I was keeping this for later, possibly for a sequel or expansion, because it does make the game dramatically more complex, both for me as game/level designer and for the player. But now it might make sense to put it in the game.

On the other hand, implementing it would require making quite a lot of new code.

I have to think more about this. But adding this mechanic I was saving for later does make me slightly more interested in working on the game again.

[siskavard]

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound dismissive by suggesting the mechanics are the same 

I personally would rather play this sort of game with your style & humor than the one you posted, which, no offense to the devs, doesn't seem to have a ton of style, is visually bland.

Do what you must, but the 'world-rotating' mechanics combined with vibrant, fun visuals & tons of personality would be a game I'd really enjoy playing.

[diegzumillo]

No worries! I know you didn't mean to sound dismissive And thank you for the kind words.

I'm feeling more positive now, warming up to the new ideas.

[marcgfx]

at first glance it might look similar, but its actually totally different. in your game, when you rotate the world, it stays that way. the game is puzzle focused I assume? in airscape you get glued to the next surface or so it seems, the rotation is not under player control. it also seems to be highly action focused. so besides the world rotating a little it really is a totally different game. not everyone will have played airscape that will play your game.

the distortion mechanics sound interesting, maybe you could introduce this in later levels? you can still finish your game the way it is now, just focus on clever puzzles. don't give up!

[diegzumillo]

You guys should work on those suicide prevention thing. You're very good at it! "step away from the ledge! the mechanics are not the same!"

Seriously though, I really appreciate the support! I don't plan on giving up on this just yet.

[EnragedCoder]

Please don't give up on this, I downloaded the demo and my 5 year old son loves it("Daddy, can we play the apple game?")

Also, while maybe similar in terms of mechanics, I think your style looks quite different from the Airscape game.

[diegzumillo]

Please don't give up on this, I downloaded the demo and my 5 year old son loves it("Daddy, can we play the apple game?")

Also, while maybe similar in terms of mechanics, I think your style looks quite different from the Airscape game.

aaaawwwww!

[diegzumillo]

Insomnia again. So I decided to throw a quick test together.



This is just using the current rotator system to see part of the idea in motion. If I choose to follow through with this mechanic I'll have to recreate the whole system in order to take advantage of this, so the grid will have all kinds of deformations. But regardless, what we see here would happen in the final version as well. The fact that you can alter your scale by entering and leaving a region with a curve (while jumping) bothers me a little. Seems like it takes the challenge away from manipulating your scale. I could always block the path with solids like I did in this example though.

But anyway, this is a just quick insomnia test. Soon I'll have this stuff all worked out and I'll write a huge devlog post about it.

[Juskelis]

I feel like that mechanic is going to be hard as nails to convey/understand. Having a hard time understanding whats happening when I watch that, but that might be late night madness for me too 

Regardless, I think that the stuff you were doing before was just fine! Using similar mechanics to other games doesn't detract from this one, and gives you a good platform for seeing what designs work/dont without wasting time developing them! Win/win!

[diegzumillo]

I feel like that mechanic is going to be hard as nails to convey/understand. Having a hard time understanding whats happening when I watch that, but that might be late night madness for me too 

Ah yes, that is a fact. Just the rotation was nightmare on itself. Took me a long while to figure out how to make the curves intuitive (that green grid helps a lot I think). Making this scale thing clear will be an even greater challenge. I can only imagine the green grid will have to be all over the place, so you can see how space itself behaves and what's gonna happen to you if you move through it.

Regardless, I think that the stuff you were doing before was just fine! Using similar mechanics to other games doesn't detract from this one, and gives you a good platform for seeing what designs work/dont without wasting time developing them! Win/win!

I know. I'm still considering whether I want to introduce the new mechanic or keep the way things were.

[Zorg]

I don't think conveying the idea is the problem:


But it definitely is another level of complicated. You could introduce it to the player at a time the rotation is completely understood. Personally i'd rather add new mechanics based on the rotation. For example carrying objects, which are not affected by the rotation and 'fall' sidewards or upwards when released after a rotation.

[Juskelis]

carrying objects, which are not affected by the rotation and 'fall' sidewards or upwards when released after a rotation.

That could offer enough for a full experience in of itself, imo. Having things that don't rotate, things that rotate at different rates to the actual (2x, -1x, etc) and things that force world rotation can make devilishly complicated puzzles.

I think my main difficulty with understanding the scaling mechanic was that it wasn't immediately obvious that it only applies when airborne. If that was made more obvious through some feedback (glowing, sound effect) I think it would work out pretty well. There are certainly some puzzles that can be really easy to convey the use of that mechanic, like the shrinking to fit in some gap. What I'm interested in seeing is what other ways resizing can be used, such as lengthening to scale a gap or to hit two things at once.

[diegzumillo]

That is a great idea. One thing will definitely appear later are things that become connected to apple. So it follows apple's gravity, wherever it is on the map. Using this with the physics system I could make trap doors that only open in one orientation, bridges that fall into place after a specific path etc.

Then to make it more interesting I could give the power to choose what object to be connected for the final levels.

[EnragedCoder]

Please don't give up on this, I downloaded the demo and my 5 year old son loves it("Daddy, can we play the apple game?")

Also, while maybe similar in terms of mechanics, I think your style looks quite different from the Airscape game.

aaaawwwww!

 

[stringkiller]

Man I love the surrealism in every pixel of this!
I'll keep an eye on this project to see how it turns out, nobody could make roaches seem funny and interesting to me XD.