next »

[andrewjb]

Love the character designs. It's very charming.

[Raku]

Finished with those. They really make it more legitimate looking, I think!
(They're not as abundant as these screenshots may make it seem, I just went around to various places where they are)

[Raku]

An updated demo is coming very soon.
I promised myself I'd finish boss #4 before releasing the next update, and it's almost done.

The thing that's taking me a long time is that I've been busy with personal matters and I haven't had the time or energy to work on the game. That's all over now. Right now, my hurdle is getting this boss to be as amazing as he was in my mind. I'm having trouble organizing my thoughts in regards to it, and it's slowing progress down a lot. I'm going to have to draw some more concepts before I can finalize him.

Here's a taste


The background is black at first, then the darkness fades out to show the real backdrop. I have that part done already.

[Raku]

Alright. I've posted an updated demo. check the first post again to download it. I finally finished the 4th boss and I'm happy with where the development is at the moment. As always, I would appreciate it if you report any bugs.
The new permanent ability does not do anything yet. bear with me, please.

Changes to this update:

• added something different to the cave part of the map
• new cave stages
• new miniboss in the cave stages
• 4th boss

Before you say anything about it- I don't have any intention of changing the difficulty. the cave stages and 4th boss are the hardest in the game so far, and it's going to stay that way.

I'm sorry it took so long to finish the caves and the boss. I've been working through the last few nights and I'm exhausted. I'm going to rest for a few days now to get my health back.

[godsavant]

You know what? I thought I would hate the cave levels the most, but they're actually shaping up to be one of my favorite environments (though that doesn't mean I'm any better at them)! You really did a super job with the making the environment feel authentic, beyond just darkening the palette and adding torches all over the place. A pity we don't see more of this kind of dedication.

[cough][/cough]

Still haven't made it to that boss yet, but judging from the game's standard difficulty, he's going to be hard as hell. Is he, like, Jack's dad or someone?

[Raku]

Thank you both.

And, Atlas is not related to Jack. He's just another of the pareidolia of the moon's surface that I've chosen to model the bosses after. These bosses aren't just random creatures.

And yes, even I have trouble beating Atlas, so I wish you luck.

[Inanimate]

DELICIOUS UPDATES.

I will have to try to make time to play this soon!

[godsavant]

And yes, even I have trouble beating Atlas, so I wish you luck.

Okay, I just got to him today, and WTF. I mean, the fight's design is absolutely great (really reminiscent of Sigma), and I ALMOST beat him once  , but I raged so hard. I'll leave it for a few days, and see if I can one-shot it once I come back later. First time I fought him, I died b/c I was just staring at the art.

By the way, is there a name for this phenomenon where you have a lot of trouble with some part of a game one time, then leave it for a while and beat it easily once you come back? I'm gong with "Repetitive trauma successmosis".

[Raku]

Well, I'm flattered my art was good enough to distract you.
You almost beat him? how far did you get in the boss battle?

Successmosis... it sounds like you're absorbing skill.

[Raku]

Alright, I've found the time to do something I've been wanting to do for weeks now: make a trailer
Behold~





And as you can see here, I've started out strong on the cliff stages! I'm nearing the final stretch of the main game!

[Inanimate]

Ah, what an amazing trailer! I better get onto playing this, pronto!

[godsavant]

Ah, what an amazing trailer! I better get onto playing this, pronto!

Still...? 

[Superb Joe]

i think you really need some acceleration and deceleration in the movement because it kind of looks like one of those weird 90s platformers i used to buy on floppy disks

[sergiocornaga]

i think you really need some acceleration and deceleration in the movement because it kind of looks like one of those weird 90s platformers i used to buy on floppy disks

This comment made me download the demo. I love weird 90s DOS platformers!

After playing it, I don't have an issue with the movement, but I don't think adding acceleration and deceleration could make it worse. Being able to hold down arrow keys to move quickly on the map screen would be nice, too.

[swordpond]

That trailer sure looks good, although I have to agree here - making the movement a bit more fluid would help the feel of the game a lot.

[Raku]

i think you really need some acceleration and deceleration in the movement because it kind of looks like one of those weird 90s platformers i used to buy on floppy disks

You mean in the video, right?
That was actually caused by Camstudio, which sometimes makes the game run slow when I'm recording it. The only video-editing software I have is Windows Movie Maker (yeeay *WMM crashes*) and the only thing you can do to change the speed of videos in that is either speed up 2x or slow down 2x, which would have made the video look akward at times.

[godsavant]

i think you really need some acceleration and deceleration in the movement because it kind of looks like one of those weird 90s platformers i used to buy on floppy disks

You mean in the video, right?
That was actually caused by Camstudio, which sometimes makes the game run slow when I'm recording it. The only video-editing software I have is Windows Movie Maker (yeeay *WMM crashes*) and the only thing you can do to change the speed of videos in that is either speed up 2x or slow down 2x, which would have made the video look akward at times.

I'm interpreting his comment more in relation to the floatier, maneuverable jump physics more akin to Mario Bros. or Cave Story, as opposed to Jack's, which maintains a constant speed in both jumps and falls. It would be an interesting experiment, certainly (I feel it would make some of the more meticulate platforming sections a bit easier), but the mid-air dodge typically gives me enough time to control my jumps as it is.

Wait, did I just take Super Joe seriously?

[Raku]

er, wait. I may be misunderstanding this.
So what you're saying is that you want Jack to be a little more, hn... realistic-moving, right? So, when you release the left or right key, he would continue to move a couple more frames and decelerate like in Mario, Sonic, Kirby, etc.
This is a good idea, but it would make the platforming sections harder instead of easier. right now, you have exact control of Jack, but I've already gotten some complaints that the platform parts are difficult to navigate.
I don't know yet. I'll keep this idea in mind for now.

And godsavant, if you mean vertically, then I don't know what you're talking about. I've actually spent a lot of time making sure his jumps decelerate at the top in a smooth arc. Jack travels in the exact same speed upward as he does downward.

as for the map screen navigation being slow, I apologize. I'm aware of this too, but it's not very high on my list of priorities. Eventually, I will make it so that you won't have to go through so many points. You will be able to press a direction to go right across a whole line.

[godsavant]

Hmm, perhaps that was the wrong vocabulary. What I originally meant was that in Cave Story, Quote's jump had a significant 'hang time', like he was in low gravity, and allowed for more maneuverable platforming. However, I'm not quite sure it would fit here, since Jack's jump is nowhere near as high as Quote's (not to mention that the **** powerup pretty much serves the same purpose).

[Superb Joe]

it just looks weird having him go from 0-60 in 1 frame