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[Folmer]

VERY HELLO!

OUT,TH is a platforming game about Daughter, who is a ballerina I think. She's a very nice person.

One day, something happens. It's probably something bad, because Daughter gets all steamed up and runs around a lot while jumping and wall-jumping. She does this for about 40 levels throughout 4 different locations or chapters, and then I guess the world is saved maybe?

HERE I AM MAKING THE ACTION OF OBSERVE.

I have a lil' demo that I'd love to have people play around with! And if you do, please let me know what you think. I'm specifically interested in how the controls feel, and whether or not the instructions are easy to read / understand, but feel free to tear the dang thing apart
Note: The demo is a bunch of stuff I threw into a level so people can get an idea of what the game plays like, it's not meant to be indicative of the final game.

I'm mainly doing this because I'm interested in seeing if I can even be disciplined enough to keep a devlog, so please bear with me here!

YOUR DEPARTURE IS MY UNDO.  

[Udderdude]

Well, it worked.  That's one hell of an introductory level with teeny platforms that fall when you land on them and precarious walljumping over spikes.  Typically an introduction level that shows the control has little to no stuff that can kill the player.  I didn't see any major problems with the controls.

As an aside, you might want to host on something besides SWFcabin.  The site was very slow to load, timed out repeatedly, and showed a bunch of shady looking advertisements near the bottom of the page when I finally got it to load.

[Folmer]

Well, it worked.  That's one hell of an introductory level with teeny platforms that fall when you land on them and precarious walljumping over spikes.  Typically an introduction level that shows the control has little to no stuff that can kill the player.  I didn't see any major problems with the controls.

As an aside, you might want to host on something besides SWFcabin.  The site was very slow to load, timed out repeatedly, and showed a bunch of shady looking advertisements near the bottom of the page when I finally got it to load.

Oh I should've mentioned that, I threw the demo level together as a thing people can check out, it's not supposed to be the game's introductory level or anything.

Any suggestions on where to host it?  

[flavio]

Hi, it is so nice! Controls feel correctly: I've played it and haven't noticed anything odd. About instructions, maybe it would be better if you placed the "X" for the jump on the player's path, *before* the jump. Anyway, congratulations, it is very good so far!

[PompiPompi]

Nice.
Those stripes effect are a bit too eye straining, especielly because they just blink. Maybe you can do a more smooth "blinking" with alpha blending...
The noise might work well though.

[Franklin's Ghost]

Plays really nice and like the look you have going on. Did notice at the start if I ran into the left wall and then away it seemed to get stuck against the wall for a second before moving away.

Also really like the death animations.

[Folmer]

Flavio: Thanks! I'm not sure about having the "X for jump" sign on the same path as the "Arrow keys to move" sign, but I'll play around with it. Actually, maybe place them together so players know instantly what they can do?

PompiPompi: I'll mess around with the blinkiness of the scanlines, might tone it down a notch or two. Thanks for that.

Franklins Ghost: Dang I hadn't even noticed that delay when turning from a corner! I have a couple of levels where the player needs to do a quick skid on top of falling blocks and there's some issues with that as well, I'll see what I can do about this. Merci!

[PompiPompi]

Oh yea, I also didn't notice the jump sign at first... Might want to put it just infront of the spikes?

[Folmer]

Well, the levels for chapter 1 are finished, which means it's time for...

Originally I was thinking that every chapter would simply introduce new kinds of obstacles to overcome while sticking with the basic jump + wall-jump abilities, but since it's set in space I messed around with having the gravity reversed, and it makes for a neat challenge when you have to wall-jump downwards. It also kinda fits because the visual style is all about perspective, so flipping the character vertically makes for some pretty sweet animations.

Which got me thinking that it might be more interesting if every chapter introduced a new type of jumping ability! The next logical step would be having a double jump in chapter 3, but I have no idea yet what the final chapter could add. More powerful wall-jump? Stick to walls? We'll see!

Also I won't have much time to work on this the next few days, I'll most likely bang it out next week. If I get a chance though I'll throw up a test room with the reversed gravity later tonight.

[flavio]

Actually, maybe place them together so players know instantly what they can do?

Imho in your case it's good: the player must immediately use the jump key... It would be different if the jump were used later (then the cognitive load would be greater).

[Eendhoorn]

I'm loving the style, but for the love of god, remove the flashing. I liked the game but wanted to quit because of the flash.
Are you planning on using color later on? I think it would look pretty sweet.

Only thing that could use some work otherwise is the wall jumping, jumping outwards is hard to do and doesn't really feel like a wall jump, it's not powerfull enough.

Good job!

[Folmer]

omgnoseat: Noted! I'll either turn it down or remove the flashing altogether, not sure yet.

Flavio and PompiPompi: Yeah, I moved the signs next to each other in the game's actual tutorial level and it totally works, so we're sticking with that
 

Anyway, I'm mad tired but I wanted to do this anyway: Test room with reversed gravity. You can reset the level by pressing R after you make it to the exit thingy.

(sticking with swfcabin until I can find a better place to put these)

Controls aren't properly tweaked to feel as smooth as the regular ones do -jumping feels off to me right now- but I think the upside down wall jumping could be quite fun?

[flavio]

Yep, it would be fun in a "real" level, this is too simple (ok, it is a *test* room ).

Anyway I agree with omgnoseat, you'd better improve the wall jump... Specifically, it works, but maybe a more convincing animation may improve the feelings (imho).

[Folmer]

Regarding the wall jump, it goes straight up by choice, the levels are designed to not require an angled jump. I'm curious as to why you feel it should be? Like when I tell you that none of the levels will require outwards jumps, do you still think the wall jump needs to be bigger?

(Man that paragraph reads like I'm being all defensive about my design choices but I'm honestly just curious)

[flavio]

Oh, I badly write my thought (I'm not an english native speaker), sorry... I was focused on the "visual feedback": as instance, if you look at Dustforce, the main sprite "changes" when it is on a wall, so the player has a "feeling" that he is on a wall and can do a wall jump. I am sorry, I can't explain it better. Anyway, it is just a feedback from me as a player.

[Folmer]

Oh, I badly write my thought (I'm not an english native speaker), sorry... I was focused on the "visual feedback": as instance, if you look at Dustforce, the main sprite "changes" when it is on a wall, so the player has a "feeling" that he is on a wall and can do a wall jump. I am sorry, I can't explain it better. Anyway, it is just a feedback from me as a player.

Hey no worries dude, I totally get what you're saying now. It's a good point, too

[Squid Party]

Awesome game! the controls are really tight I am loving the art style, the graphics are cute.My Only reservation is that when you jump, the character sprite doesn't change into an appropriate jumping stance, Can't wait for the full game!!!

[Folmer]

Awesome game! the controls are really tight I am loving the art style, the graphics are cute.My Only reservation is that when you jump, the character sprite doesn't change into an appropriate jumping stance, Can't wait for the full game!!!

Thanks! I'll see what I can come up with for both a jump animation and a when-on-wall anim.

[Squid Party]

Awesome game! the controls are really tight I am loving the art style, the graphics are cute.My Only reservation is that when you jump, the character sprite doesn't change into an appropriate jumping stance, Can't wait for the full game!!!

Thanks! I'll see what I can come up with for both a jump animation and a when-on-wall anim.

That would make it even better!   

[Folmer]

I managed to do a couple of small things today that are only worth mentioning because they mostly came from suggestions in this thread:

- Made a jump animation
- Made a when-on-wall animation
- killed the blinking scanlines. Turns out no matter how much you tune that stuff down, some people still go nuts over the flashing.

Oh and one last thing, the idea of gaining jump abilities in each chapter has now turned into "every chapter has elements that influence the jumps" rather than changing the character's abilities altogether. The gravity switching in chapter 2, for example, will be triggered by switches throughout the levels. It'll have to be done that way because otherwise we're going to end up with an extremely complicated character to control.