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[The-Imp]

Real fun dude. My only complaints:

-When you're fallin of a ledge, FAAAAAASSSSSSSSTTTTTTTT.
-The red dudes with guns, make them take more hits, if not, place more of them throughout the stages.
-When you get back from a checkpoint and die, when you come out, I jump and land in lava, or an enemy, my wanna give the players a second or two to respawn.

I'm gonna see if my brother can upload a video, on Youtube, of him playing!
 

[jwaap]

-The red dudes with guns, make them take more hits, if not, place more of them throughout the stages.

Nooo

When you get back from a checkpoint and die, when you come out, I jump and land in lava, or an enemy, my wanna give the players a second or two to respawn.

nooooooooo keep fast respawns

[cactus]

I'd be glad to be a tester

[michael]

i think the ledge drop is a really good idea and, in my opinion, is a greater advantage than a disadvantage


the game is superb! i love the use of colors, the animations, and the over all solidity that the game exudes.

[Tanner]

how many testers did he accept?

[Loren Schmidt]

Thank you, there are now enough testers for this round. There will be more testing in the future. Those of you who have already done some testing found many things I didn't even know were issues, and helped me re-prioritize. Now I'm going to buckle down and work on the game for a while.

For fun, I'm posting the rules for this project.

Rules:
12x12 sprites, one sprite sheet
minimal palette (RGB, secondaries, black, white).
6ish frames per character, mirrored (spaceman excepted)
one platform type (I broke this rule- there are two)
7-10 simple levels, linear
keep it simple
set short term goals
no trig.

[Aaron P]

 
After playing, i'd say the game is pretty well put together thus far. My biggest problem the whole experience was with the AI of the survivors you come across.

At least three of the times i played through, they would either not follow me correctly, or commit suicide by running into enemies. Funny, but kinda irritating.

I have mixed feelings about the widescreen presentation, given the minimalist design graphically but, admittedly, it gives the game character.

I'm interested in much more. I have the video ready, do you want the file or upload via youtube?

[SpaceBrance]

My brother(The-Imp) asked me to record, and am uploading as I post this.

My only concern(which has been mentioned) is falling off of ledges to quickly, which can prove to actually be a problem because I glitched through a ledge(it's near the end of the video near the end of the 3rd level) and died. Said glitch is around 3:40-3:44

However, this game is splendid, and I cannot wait for it to be released, and would love to do a Let's Play on it, when it IS released.

Link:

[salade]

Well this is awesome, extremely awesome. i have to say first good job!

I 100% completely disagree with The-Imp, although glitching though the floor does warrant some sort of fix. As for the little red dudes being harder, that should be saved for later levels. Or maybe I'm just not skilled...

I also agree that the friendly AI leaves a bit to be desired. They really worked during one of my play throughs, and the feeling of being a part of a large battle was pretty sensational. Maybe another level in the game eh?

As for things that have not been mentioned yet, part of me wants to say "take away the rapid fire and make it harder to shoot rapidly by mashing the button." It would feel more like a game from the era it is imitating, and would capture that feeling of carefully planning a shot. You might have to rebalance the enemies with this in mind, and it may just more of a personal thing to me. any one else want to share their thoughts on the rapid fire?

The presentation is excellent as far, and the sound definitely is the sweet icing to drive it home. The one tiny nitpick as far as that goes is the lava sound. Although providing an appropriate hiss, feels a bit out of place compared to the rest of the effects.

So overall, excellent game, a blast to playthrough, a few minor nitpicks, +1000 awesomeness since it is in flash and could be theoretically be played on a browser.

cheers!
*edit* one more thing, not really a complaint: it would be pretty boss if you had had a boss. Something big you know, like something that you would get from Dr. Wiley.

[Loren Schmidt]

-When you get back from a checkpoint and die, when you come out, I jump and land in lava, or an enemy, my wanna give the players a second or two to respawn.

Running into lava or dying instantly on respawn is a serious danger. I've considered several ways of cleaning this up.

• Designing levels so checkpoints are safe from attack, and protected from immediate hazards. (The lava pit checkpoint in WhiteEyes' video is a good counterexample of this.)
• Adding a slight delay before respawning (I like the instant respawn, personally, and would prefer not to do this).
• On dying, wait for keys to be released before taking new input.
• Have a 'press X to continue' dialog. This still allows instant respawn if x is pressed immediately, but it's interruptive.

On a related note I think there should be some sort of quiet visual effect for respawning.

I glitched through a ledge(it's near the end of the video near the end of the 3rd level) and died. Said glitch is around 3:40-3:44
Link:

Sorry about that. Do you recall if the framerate was low around the time this happened? It's possible that this is a case of there not being enough safeguards in place to prevent the spaceman moving too far in one update.

I have mixed feelings about the widescreen presentation, given the minimalist design graphically

It's funny that you mention the aspect ratio. I'm pretty anti-widescreen on general principle. It's a very specialized screen shape that, in my opinion, shouldn't be the default. The game actually started out in 4:3, but it was gradually widened so we can see further ahead and engage in longer range firefights. I regret that that makes the screen have this shape, I'd prefer a 4:3 or a square.

... the lava sound ...

You're totally right. I hate that sound .

[SpaceBrance]

-When you get back from a checkpoint and die, when you come out, I jump and land in lava, or an enemy, my wanna give the players a second or two to respawn.

Running into lava or dying instantly on respawn is a serious danger. I've considered several ways of cleaning this up.

• Designing levels so checkpoints are safe from attack, and protected from immediate hazards. (The lava pit checkpoint in WhiteEyes' video is a good counterexample of this.)
• Adding a slight delay before respawning (I like the instant respawn, personally, and would prefer not to do this).
• On dying, wait for keys to be released before taking new input.
• Have a 'press X to continue' dialog. This still allows instant respawn if x is pressed immediately, but it's interruptive.

On a related note I think there should be some sort of quiet visual effect for respawning.

I glitched through a ledge(it's near the end of the video near the end of the 3rd level) and died. Said glitch is around 3:40-3:44
Link:

Sorry about that. Do you recall if the framerate was low around the time this happened? It's possible that this is a case of there not being enough safeguards in place to prevent the spaceman moving too far in one update.

I have mixed feelings about the widescreen presentation, given the minimalist design graphically

It's funny that you mention the aspect ratio. I'm pretty anti-widescreen on general principle. It's a very specialized screen shape that, in my opinion, shouldn't be the default. The game actually started out in 4:3, but it was gradually widened so we can see further ahead and engage in longer range firefights. I regret that that makes the screen have this shape, I'd prefer a 4:3 or a square.

... the lava sound ...

You're totally right. I hate that sound .

The framerate was perfect(and if it matters, the quality on high)

Also, I'd go with the 'wait for key release' idea if you want to keep the instant respawn.

[Loren Schmidt]

Hi folks, this is just a quick update to confirm that things are progressing.


The game now tracks highscores for each level independently. We can play through the levels in order, or begin at a level of our choice instead of starting at the beginning, and our score for each level will be recorded regardless. Next up is recording time and kill count, and contriving an elegant way to display the scores. The above is the current score table.


The computer controlled spacemen are getting some more attention. They will be featured prominently in the early levels of the game. Due to an extensive regimen of aversion therapy, they are gradually becoming less prone to suicide. It must, however, be confessed that they still jump headlong into aliens from time to time. Another new behavior is that they avoid straying too far off of the screen. They are independent, and will fire at targets off screen, but they won't travel very far on their own.


The large red enemies also received a few behavior tweaks and bug fixes. They deal with ledges a bit better now. And if you shoot a few and wait around for too long, you may find they aren't as dead as they look...

[Gainsworthy]

The Green Dudes are getting more attention? Wonderful! They were pretty great to fight alongside. Surprisingly competent on level ground, and I was somewhat surprised to note very few other sidescrollers (none?) had done this before.

New high score and Zomboids also look cool. Great to see progress.

 

[Tanner]

man, i wish i could play this
so bad

it looks absolutely amazing so far!

[The-Imp]

man, i wish i could play this
so bad

it looks absolutely amazing so far!

Sorry you missed the beta, it was fun!
 

[Tanner]

i think it was because the identity stealing got a little confusing.

[Loren Schmidt]

i think it was because the identity stealing got a little confusing.

True! I thought you were Benzido. I'd be happy to have you on board in the next round of tests.

[Tanner]

thanks!
yeah, i'm done with that identity switching confusion stuff





for now 

[Lazycow]

Download available soon.

Quite some time has passed so far... What about that download link, where is it?   

[Loren Schmidt]

Don't worry, I'm still working! I wouldn't want to tarnish the name of TIGSource by churning out a slapped together second-rate release.