This game really captured the addictiveness of Nethack, I've been playing too much!

One thing I still don't understand is the rules for what items you bring with you to the next level. Sometimes I grab a weapon or object and drop it and then start the next level with this object, but other times it doesn't work like that and I start empty handed even though I had used a weapon in the previous level... I'm kind of confused really...

Also, I'm not sure if it's a feature because I don't really understand what happens: if you enter the water with a flare and then get out and press 'C' 3 times, you'll get the flare back and it will be lit, is that supposed to happen? Also sometimes I have the pickaxe and I break it, but then I switch my objects around and I get a new pickaxe for some reason? I couldn't get this to work more than 2 times though so I'm not sure...

[Batmanifestdestiny:]

Thank you 

Batmanifestdestiny: Unfortunately the lovebird doesn't do anything really, it just stands there in an attempt to creep the player out and to SPOILER.
Its face is also supposed to look like Lovecraft, although that's really not obvious...

Woah, I really like what you did with the music and rhythm in this, very compelling!

CRTs hurt the eyes at 60hz because they flash light slow enough for it to be noticeable.
If you increase the refresh rate, then you get blurring and "shadows" because the signal bounces around in the cable and doesn't have time to disappear completely between each refresh. LCD screens emit light more or less continuously, so they're a lot easier on the eyes, and don't really need more that 60 frames per second.

The cool thing with CRTs though is that they emit a lot of light compared to LCD screen, this is nice because you can use them in sunlight and still see stuff. LCDs don't emit a lot of light, so the amount they reflect from the environment is significant and that's why the colors look "washed out" if you have other sources of light around. Gloss LCD screens kind of make it less worse because you get local reflections on the screen instead of overall washed-out-ness.

The thing that I really hate with LCDs is that graphics cards do not preserve aspect ratio on a widescreen LCD by default. So everybody is running around playing games and stuff on a distorted display. And they probably think that it's better this way because it's "widescreen". This makes me so ANGRY!!!    ARRRGHHH!!!

Personally I'm waiting for cheap projectors (best solution in total darkness) and cheap electronic paper (best solution in sunlight, since the colors work by reflecting light instead of emitting it).

Congratulations everybody! Great games, great competition, lots of fun!

I just realized the server I'm hosting the game on is offline for maintenance until the 23rd 

Here's a mirror!


Edit: nevermind it's back up now.

This is soooo cool!
I also love how you can throw the girl at ennemies to kill them...

"If the player doesn't see it, it doesn't exist"

Funny, I'm designing a whole game around this concept.

"The Truman game"?

 

I'm having this problem right now. I'm working on a project with an unusual mechanic, and I'm not sure how to introduce it. I can't put it in some kind of instruction manual, because it is a 'secret' mechanic, but I don't want to have a big flashing sign saying "PRESS SHIFT OR BUTTON 3 ON YOUR JOYSTICK IN ORDER TO DO SOMETHING FANCY."

I know I just liked to Daniel Cook earlier in this thread but this presentation by him is very relevant to tutorials in particular.
It's a presentation he gave to application makers about how to make apps more easy to learn and use by making them more like games.

One of the examples he gives could I think be particularly useful to you, Cake: In super metroid, the wall jump is a "secret" move in the sense that it's not in the manual and that you start with it at the start of the game without knowing.
The way it's taught to you is that the game makes you fall into a pit, and the only way to get out is to use that mechanic. That would be frustrating if it weren't for the little creatures that you can see wall-jumping out of the pit. This gives you a clear indication as to what it is that you must do to get out, and you eventually learn to wall jump by trial and error, without the need for a tutorial or manual.

That presentation is based on the same idea as Raph Koster's theory of fun (an idea that goes back to way before the invention of video games): That the "fun" in playing games is in the learning. That games are only fun as long as you keep learning new skills and discovering new things about them. The reasons tutorials and manuals are boring to most players is that they are forms of "rote" learning: A much less efficient way to learn than games themselves are.

So in a sense I guess the whole game should be your tutorial. The problem then is that some games assume that the players knows a lot of stuff before playing, which might not necessarily be true for newcomers to the genre. Then they get stuck on the first challenge because these basic mechanics are not properly introduced in the game (in a way that experienced players could easily pass and move on to more complicated challenges).


I also agree that stuff going on without the player knowing is not necessarily a bad thing. I think I'd enjoy dwarf fortress a lot less if it weren't for the whole simulated world that goes on behind the scenes, where the personal history of each individual is fleshed out in a consistent way even before the game begins. That stuff has basically 0 effect on gameplay. But when you see some guy with a missing foot or enter an elf town that has goblin architecture, you know there's an actual complex simulated story behind it and to me that's a lot more enjoyable than the kind of solipsism that you get in most games. Spore was a huge disappointment in part for this reason, I think. The first Fable was guilty of pretty much the same thing, if I remember correctly...

I think in games such as Dwarf Fortress or the Paradox Interactive games it's probably a mix of not really caring and of aiming for a demographic of players who have more patience (and more gaming experience) than the average 12 year old?
Also, maybe it's satisfying to some players to not be treated like an idiot and to not be held by the hand all the time? To have to figure stuff out by themselves?
It's still probably laziness in most cases though...

I'm having some problems eliminating the mirrored symmetry in a frontal view such as this. :/ Any tips?

Right now your light source appears to be right in the center, have you tried shading as if light was coming from a different angle?

[Here are the instructions for the map editor.Note that custom maps will only work if you have the latest version with editor.]

Here are the instructions for the map editor.
Note that custom maps will only work if you have the latest version with editor.

HOW TO USE THE LOST IN ELDRITCH EDITOR:

- Make a backup of the "data" folder located in the Eldritch folder.
- Extract ElEditor.exe from the ElEditor.zip file and put it in the same folder as Eldritch.exe.


HOW TO LOAD A USER MAP:

- Make a backup of the "data" folder located in the Eldritch folder.
- Replace the "objects" and "world.tga" files in the "data" folder with the user-made versions


EDITOR CONTROLS:

- Press 'TAB' to toggle between game mode and edit mode.
   In game mode you can move the character normally, but cannot eat fruits.
   In edit mode, you can move the screen around the map.
   Hold 'A' to move the screen slowly.

- Press 'S' to save map to "data" folder.
   WARNING: THIS WILL OVERWRITE THE OLD MAP WITHOUT ASKING!
   You should make backups frequently if you are working on a map.
   When you load the map, the character will start where he was when you saved.

- Press the '1', '2' and '3' keys in edit mode to choose a type of tile to paint.
   Left click paints the foreground version,
   Middle click paints the background version.
   Right click erases the tile.
   Hold 'A' to paint a larger area.

- Press the 'F1' to 'F10' keys to place the ten fruits.

- Press 'B' to place the Lovebird.


HOW TO EDIT THE MAP IMAGE:

The image is saved as a tga file, which you can open using an image editor tool such as the GIMP.
This is useful if you want to move large portions of the map around intact for example.
When you save the tga file:
   - Compression must be disabled.
   - The image should not be resized.
   - No alpha channel should be added to the image.
   - Only the pixel colors used in the original map should be used.
      (So you should disable pressure sensivity or anti-aliasing.)

[Synnah]

Thanks, Synnah: I didn't bother to release the map editor because I didn't think people would be interested. Also, the fruits' positions were hard-coded instead of being loaded from the image file.

...But!
Your comment made me change my mind, I just uploaded a new version that includes the editor. The fruits, the Lovebird and the player starting position are also now editable.

You better make some awesome custom maps now! I'll add them to the OP if anyone makes one.

I found this article, by Danc from Lost Garden to be a very interesting attempt at creating "rules" for game design.

haaaard

And for all the wrong reasons too!
True story: the reason you die in one hit is that I didn't get the time to implement a health bar before the deadline.

Corpus, I completely agree.

I'm sorry because realize now that I wasn't clear at all in my post, but I didn't give these examples to try to show that art was some predominantly logical and theoretical thing to do: that would be an extremely silly thing to argue!! I was just trying to show WhiteEyes that art could be understood in such a way, because I'd hate to see people feel like their potential is limited only because they buy into that artistic vs logical brain stuff.

As I said, I'd think probably a majority of the most talented artists do not think about the theory behind what they do. Their knowledge is "implicit" because of the years of practice they have. (I still think having access to the theory can be really useful anyone learning, though.)

This is true for anything, really. The more you acquire expertise at something, the more you gain an intuition or "feel" for it, and are able to do things or make judgments that you cannot explicitly explain, whether it be art, basketball, cooking or programming. I'd say this is not exclusive to art in any way, unless you have an especially broad definition of what art is, of course!

Tim Schafer and Jack Black are my two favourite things.

As everyone has said, it's probably a good idea to learn traditional art (as in on a paper) if you want to do good pixel art.

I'm not really sure how to say that without sounding a bit like an asshole (especially since I haven't shown any of my work off), but in my own humble opinion that whole "logical mind" vs "artistic mind" dichotomy is utter bullshit. It's attractive and comfortable bullshit for the people who need an excuse for never straying from their own narrow little areas of interest, and it probably sells a lot of popular psychology books, but it's still bullshit

What I'm trying to say is: don't let concepts like that discourage you from learning and improving yourself. Art can in fact be very "logical":
When you shade a painting your brain is actually doing applied optical physics and computing the interactions of light with different surfaces.
When you try to give a special feel or invoke some idea in a piece, or when you use optical illusions and composition tricks to make certain things stand out more, you are actually doing applied cognitive psychology and programming the mind of the person who will experience your work.
When you are drawing people or animals, you are applying your advanced knowledge of anatomy: bone and muscle structure, etc... Drawing is actually how these rather "scientific" subjects are taught most of the time.

Of course, a lot of artists do not really think about these things even though they do them. (And this is why it's sometimes very hard to be taught by some artists even though they can be extremely skillfull). But the reason they are able to do it is not because of some secret talent, it's because they spent a lot of time practicing and learned to do these things intuitively through practice.

The advice that I think is most useful in order to learn "art" is to experience a lot of it so you can judge your own work and know what is wrong with it. This is the only way you're going to improve. Having someone else telling you something doesn't work is not always enough because you need to understand why it is so. Of course that also mean letting go of your ego and being able to admit that your stuff can be improved.

I'd also like to recommend Arne's excellent art tutorial. It really taught me a lot:
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
It's really really REALLY good (and explained in a "logical" way).

[JLJac:]

So... I did listen to the feedback in this thread and ended up using a more traditional control scheme for the new platformer I started working on:
http://www.retroremakes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=12408
 


Knytt, Metroid and and Sonic are other influences I forgot to mention. In Sonic I really liked the feel of gaining momentum and trying to keep it throughout the level.

JLJac: You don't really have to back off from an obstacle to jump over it, though I did not make this clear at all: if you hold the key before jumping against the obstacle you'll actually end up above it even though you started right against it (I added this in once I found out I wouldn't have time to add ledge climbing). This changes nothing to your argument though and you're still absolutely right.

I think that even if the character did not change his direction of movement instantly, having the sprite change the way it's facing as soon as you press the button would do a lot to make the controls feel more responsive.


I haven't given up on this though, I still think it's possible to make this kind of jumping gameplay work well enough for a nice game with the proper additions and tweaks like those I mentioned earlier in the thread...