I like this.

It definitely feels slow at first. Partly, I think it's just due to the mechanics; having multiple weak attacks, and the high number of abilities your units can use each turn. But once I got used to it, I started to like the feel of the system. The high amount of actions per turn, but the limit on how many times you can use an action, helps encourage the use of the full range of your units' abilities, which is nice.

The levels do ramp up a little slowly, though. I haven't played through all the levels yet, but they are getting more interesting. I guess I'm not really out of the tutorial levels yet (I'm at level 9), because so far I've always had a serious advantage over the enemies (I'm playing on Advanced and decided to play through the unit introduction levels). It might be worthwhile to introduce an element of challenge earlier. I figure the player will still be able to learn new elements while being presented with something that's not so easy. Bringing a bit of difficulty into the game sooner, I think, might make the earlier levels more interesting and engaging.

I think it's too difficult to tell if a unit is on a Field right now, and when they are on a Field there's no way to tell what sort of Field it is. Unless you've memorized the unit's basic stats I guess. Also, the little circular auras under each unit make it look a little like they're always standing on a Field. It might be enough to list the type of field the unit is standing on in their display of buffs/debuffs.

Adding (approximately) the base stats of the monster at each level up seems like a rather steep power increase to me.

In particular, there is a huge increase in power between level 1 and level 2, because all the stats double.

Now, maybe you want this. The reasoning being that a level 2 monster is twice the level of a level 1 monster, so it should be twice as powerful. And a level 20 monster should be twice as powerful (twice the stats) of a level 10 monster.

On the other hand, it's only a single level between level 1 and 2. Maybe gaining a single level shouldn't result in such a huge increase in power.

It really all depends on what sort of feel you're going for with your leveling system. With such high relative increases in power, I would worry that there would be too much emphasis on level. As in, the only way to not be mauled by your opponents would be to make sure you're at the same level as them (or higher if you want to be the one doing the mauling).

With an increase in power that wasn't so steep I think there would be more opportunity for good tactics and smart use of skills to make a difference. It would allow a monster to stand a fair chance of winning against another monster that is only, say, a single level above them.

Writing your ideas and all is good, but remember that implementation is the hard part. You need to learn the basics. Having ideas won't do much for you if you can't do anything with them.

I will be the unoriginal echo here and reiterate what others have said. Start small, start simple. If you have big expectations for your first games you're only going to be disappointed; don't expect your first output to be very good while you're still learning.

Also, as far as software is concerned, like Dacke, I recommend using free software. There's plenty of it available. Also, if you are a student then you can probably acquire some commercial software cheap or for free through your post-secondary institution, so that might be something to look into.

[2Cosr]

2Cosr

Unless the intent was to make the character look like they're inside a stuffed teddy bear, rather than wearing bear pajamas

Yes, I really made it as actual bear pelage, not pijamas

Well, that's ok then. I guess because I like bear pajamas I must have hoped that was what they were, or something. That and I think I made a connection between the character wearing pajamas and being a dreamer in a strange land.

As regards lack of hard action, it's may be because first I tried to make pure puzzler, but later I decided to add more action. Also, I tried to avoid making of a hardcore game, so maybe, I overdid with this

Lack of action, or lack of hard action isn't necessarily a bad thing. But with the boss fights, the length and lack of difficulty made them, for me, seem to just sort of drag on too long.

Well, I'm a fan of the backwards ones, so let's do this one straight backwards. If someone goes out of order, I guess you'll have to lynch them or something.

The close mist helps to create a very oppressive atmosphere, with a good sense of foreboding. I really liked the crackling, static noise; it's a nice sound to listen to and worked well with the visual noise.

I only found two endings, 'Indecision' and 'Acceptance', unless you count 'Falling', the failure ending, as a third. I think my biggest complaint with the game was that the endings didn't really feel any different from each other. Sure, they were found different ways, but what you find is pretty well the same in both cases. Personally, I didn't feel like I was being indecisive or accepting anything when I found them, though I'm not really sure how you would go about improving this, particularly when it's such a short narrative you're working with.

You managed the atmosphere really well, and I liked the game, but I guess the narrative didn't really create much of an emotional attachment with me.

I did notice a few grammatical errors, but I forgot you asked for corrections at the time, so I didn't take note. I may go through again later and take a look, but no promises though.

When I first reached the level 'Avoiding Meeting' the game started lagging pretty badly...I stuck with it, though, and it stopped after I died a few times. Not sure if you have some memory leak, or if it was something on my end, or what. Just thought I would mention it.

As awesome as bear pajamas are (pretty bloody awesome), I didn't really like the look of the main character. It looks more like their head is in the bear's neck (ie, with the bear head filled by something other than the character's head) rather than the head being the pajama hood (and the character's head being in the mouth). Unless the intent was to make the character look like they're inside a stuffed teddy bear, rather than wearing bear pajamas. This stands out because some of the other art (particularly the bosses) is quite nice.

The bosses are definitely interesting visually, but really rather dull to fight. The basic enemies are not very threatening (though one of the leaping rat things did knock me into a laser once). Neither are the bosses, with the easy access to healing. I think the only time I actually felt threatened was in the levels with Hunter. Even the end boss felt more like a tedious annoyance than a threat.

A lot of the environments seem very samey, and not very interesting. A little too big and empty perhaps, in a boring sort of way. The only two levels that stand out to me are 'The Saw', because of the centerpiece, and the level with the phallic things that have opening and closing mouths in the background. Also, the levels with the bosses, which mostly only stand out because of the bosses, though.

I liked the visual noise and the ambient music. They helped to start building a sort of dark, maybe foreboding atmosphere, but the game didn't really grab me enough for the atmosphere to develop.

The final level with Hunter was well done, except beating him and getting him as a weapon seemed rather gamey. As did jumping on enemies. You might consider forcing the player to avoid them or crush them with blocks, as I think that would work much better from an immersion/atmospheric stand point.

As far as the story is concerned I never felt that the end boss had manipulated me, partially because I didn't remember what he had said to me earlier by that point. He really wasn't present enough throughout the game to feel like he had been using me.

I too prefer the comics when they're done in a more coherent order (either straight first panel to last, or last to first). But, and here's the important part, since this is all for fun, I really think people should just do whatever the hell they want and not give a toss if things go all to crap (because, really, isn't that part of the point?).

Anyways, moving on. Here's comic.



Hopefully people can read my attempt at writing with a mouse.

Edit: Some of the out-of-order comics actually turned out pretty well I think. I'm a fan of the cricket match, 8-ball attack, hanging one myself.

 

We probably bought the nukes off the Americans, so you brought this on yourselves, really. Rioters we got, though, so that's topical.

Another yes to the survival sim. Not that bloodfests can't be fun, but there's probably enough of them.

Personally, I tend to get excited at the prospect of survival horror games that promise to actually be about survival (and horror, as opposed to just being an action game with jump scares; the horror of survival?). Not that zombie games are necessarily survival horror.

Well, it's only taken me four weeks to get around to it, but I've gone and done a small update to how to be a girl. I have no excuse for why it took me so long to get around to it; I haven't been that busy and it only took me less than a day to actually make the update.

You can play the new version here, until I decide to just replace the old version with it:
http://www.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~jflsempl/girl/girl_wip.html
(Edit July 6, 2011: Replaced old version with update)

I reworked how interruptions are handled, so they should now be less frequent and you'll only encounter about five of them before the end. Hopefully they still cause frustration, but hopefully now it's better directed. I'm a bad judge at the frustration the game causes, because it's gotten to the point where I'm basically numbed to it.

The girl's movement speed is increased a little after each interruption. You can also skip through any non-interruption dialogue by pressing the space bar (can't skip interruptions, that would be against the point).

I was considering adding a couple more endings as a way of having consequences to exploring the rest of the environment (rather than just the wasteland ending in the ruins). I haven't done this, and I don't think I will now. I've gone and let this sit too long, and now my enthusiasm has waned slightly. It's time for me to focus on other projects, I think.

That's looking very lovely.

Dynamic camera zoom would be great. It would make sense to pull it closer for enclosed areas; it would make it feel a little more claustrophobic. Or pull it close for action. But watching the video full screen, I really liked how small the character was in the first area. Having the camera that far back gives a great sense of scale, particularly just how colossal those wonderful totems are.

Can't wait to play this.

I like, though, how having both writers and artists on board lets people who are interested in writing comics, but not so good on the art side, get involved and have it look good in the end. Or just lets people focus more on the one aspect.

For a choose-your-own comic you would need an awful lot of writers and artists if every page is a branch, unless you had people working on more than one page.

A bunch of vignettes, each done by one writer/artist team would be pretty sweet.

The faces of your ladies always seemed sufficiently feminine to me.

The screenshots are quite nice, but is the brick going to be red/earth-toned eventually?

I hope not, I really like the white. I think it's appropriately Victorian in appearance, and creates a nice, sorta muted, palette. White's good as a gentle dominant colour for the environment, in this case.

You're a kitty! And there's nothing you can do about it!

The proportions, or something, on that cat look far too odd to me.

Sounds ambitious, but I'm loving the premise. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

And I agree that there is something vaguely Pathologicy about this. Not a bad thing, though.

Those graphics effects are looking excellent in motion.
And good job reaching the Indiecade deadline. Hope that goes well for you.

Oh, this looks exciting. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this; hoping for some good turn based tactics. I think I'll have to give Vae Victis Lacrimosa a try sometime soon.

I hope you guys are still going, getting this done, despite all the hiccups. And I hope comicompo 5 happens so I can get in on it. I loves me some comics writing, and I sadly don't do enough of it.

I'm liking the roll when you fall far enough...I managed to do this neat looking tumble down the two-block stairs on the far right.

I'm probably just being juvenile, but this is a rather unfortunate line-break:


Really, though, you might want to think about adding dashes when a word wraps around to the next line; I think doing so can help readability in general.