Windows 7 + Chrome is fine, as well.

Honestly, the interface is a bit simple. Especially if you're going for an atmospheric look.

The Twitter interface is kind of distracting, takes up space that could be used for the text adventure, and I'm not sure what exactly it would be used for? If it's really all that important, make it so that at certain points, it'll allow you to post the event that happened to Twitter, using a new window, during gameplay.

Otherwise, it sounds interesting.

I really like the colors in this, especially the fist screenshot.  Although I think the color for the grass in the second image looks a bit out of place, but that could just be me.  Also it took me a moment to realize what you mean by a weapon a dog has that only shoots backwards...

Heh, thanks. I needed something a bit quirky, hence why I decided on that. It's actually a laser (queue odd story here).

The grass does look a bit out of place in the second picture, but I don't know if I should change the background color or the grass color.

To be honest, I haven't made any real progress on this beyond the first prototype. I really like the visual style, and the basic idea, but I just didn't have many ideas for making it stand out amongst a whole wide world of top-down shooters so it's stuck in the planning phase atm (a planning phase that happens to include having added stealth mechanics and dynamic sitting positions for the AI >.>).

[Mystical Rug 4/13:]

Mystical Rug 4/13:

Got health and mana bars for castle in.

Video:



EDIT: Video uploaded!

EDIT2: I used CamStudio for the video. Still messing with settings for best quality vs best FPS, but I think that that one turned out alright.

[Mystical Rug 4/12:]

Mystical Rug 4/12:
(putting blog link in the title from now on )



Got worms in and working pretty well.

I also have mana dropping on death for enemies. Adding this seems to have brought back an issue with the balloon AI freezing up.

I've been watching this game for a while. It looks great.

The regular GIFs showing off new features are fun to watch. :D

Saw it a few times, but I finally tried it out. There's a great base there. Can't wait to see when more stuff is added.

Looking really good. It took a minute to grasp the controls, but once I did, it was smooth sailing, well, except for the walls. Seems like it'll demand some real precision movements.

Also, turning feels a bit sluggish, especially for all the precision the game demands sometimes. Maybe not, I feel like I'm adjusting a bit. Depends how level generation ends up being (eg how far apart things are).

Oh, and not sure if it was an intentional obstacle or a bug, but I got what seemed like an impassable obstacle (the thing with the tunnel, only with a giant rock in the tunnel).

Oh, and and, I noticed when I caught a stalagmite surrounded by a cloud-thing the one time, it appears that collision is checked in the cubes right now, as opposed to precisely? What I mean is that I got caught quite a ways off by like the tip of my wing, which wasn't going to collide with it (or maybe my toes, which were also clear). Also had issues flying inside of the tunnel obstacles (literally inside the object).

Looked really cool, but like the others, I just didn't get it. I had the vaguest feeling something was supposed to happen in the center, but it never did.

Also, that sign with the backwards J shape confused me. Since it corresponded with the mini-map, it was almost like I was supposed to visit each of those squares and do something, but one or two of them were empty, so I just ended up discounting it.

[Rabbiteers 4/9:]

Rabbiteers 4/9:



Took a break from the bigger projects to make a small space-bunny related game for Easter (which I ended up being a bit late for...guess that's what I get for starting ON Easter ), and to sort of foray into some lesser forms of procedural level generation.

If people take interest in it, I might polish it a bit more and add sound and whatnot (and maybe sneak in more indie game cameos ). I'm already contemplating having a much better version (Rabbiteers 2?!) ready for next Easter.

More info (and download link) on my blog.

@Eigen: I think it looks fine the way it is. Very retro, and detailed, all the same.

Yes and yes. Though it's on hold until someone fills the role of programmer.

Reading this, and seeing the last date of the update, and seeing that there are still people who really want to work on this, I really would love to get involved somehow.

I'll take a look at it and see if it's on my level. Though I'm not quite "experienced" with GML, so I don't know how much use I'd be in the event that I can work with it at all.

Thanks for the lectures guys, I appreciate your expertise.

I get the feeling that this is sarcasm... If it is, feel free to ignore my advice. I just figure that, since you're posting here, you want opinions and not just praise.

Doesn't feel like sarcasm to me.

I kinda got the feeling of sarcasm too. I also figured the same Ashkin did.

It needs to be taller, but here's my interpretation of your lovely concept artwork in case it proves useful:

This captures the original art so well. Especially liking the muted colors, compared to the bright colors.

And yeah, if you want to capture emotion, generally I'd think it would be done in character portraits. The best example I can think of is RPGs. Tiny characters/character sprites that may not have a wide range of emotions, but they'll have dialogue with interchangeable sprites that show off different emotions as they're talking.

...I tried to stop it by making it boring digging that much...

I might be missing something, but I don't quite see how. When there's nothing to explore before reaching the bottom (barring slightly more gold/energy, but realistically, the amount of time you have based on your energy to explore all that is kinda low), then digging down and straight up again is the least boring route, arguably. One way or another, at the end, you'll be trying to fly straight back up. It's the fastest way out. Digging down is just doing that in reverse.

Obstacles will go a long way in fixing that. Making it so it's not such a straight back and forth road, and making it a bit more challenging to get back up in the end. But they don't cure the feeling that there should be more to explore.

EDIT: Wait, you wanted to make it sort of like a tower-climbing platformer, only both ways? Maybe I've got an odd viewpoint then. >.>

Here's the way I see the competitive digger thing:

It begs asking for a multiplayer mode.

Energy does add a bit of tension, but if you dig straight down, fly straight up, you average 3 bars left, and if you don't do that, there's like no way to survive without intentionally detouring a LOT to get more energy, which I get is the point, but again, if you can just dig straight down, fly straight up, why bother taking the longer route?

Not sure how a timer would fit in a way that the energy doesn't really fit right now. The energy is pretty much a replenish-able timer. Maybe gold medal runs?

Growing threat is really the only thing I can see that would really make sense out of that list.

emergency temporal pixelation

I chuckled at that. Nice. :D

This is a great suggestion. But each planet should have its own twist and obstacles. Lava, spikes, gravity wells, cave-ins, blocks that explode when mined, etc ...

Ooo, yeah, definitely.

Maybe a big part of the problem is that there's not enough challenge.

Hell, you could have an ancient race of aliens that are hiding underground in a temple on one planet that will jump out and latch on to your craft until you smash into a wall and kill them.

I think it just needs to be a little less "dig straight down, fly straight back up" and a little more "OMGWTFJUSTHAPPENEDWHYDIDIEXPLODEALLIDIDWASDIGSTRAIGHTDOWNGRAAAAAHHHH!!!"

In MineCraft and Terraria, for example, there's falling damage, so digging straight down is a bad idea.

Part of the issue with that is that you start with a "jetpack" type thing, since you are in a drilling machine, and half of each level is getting back up.

It'd be kinda like if your character in Terraria started with the Rocket Boots...and they never ran out of energy (well, "never").

In other words, it would be too easy to just adjust to avoiding it.

-cut-

1. Gotcha. Yeah, it's just too all-powerful of a method to get to the bottom. Why use ANYTHING else if you can just press X once and get to the bottom?

2. As far as I can tell, after getting there once, I was totally absolved of debt. I went back and checked. $0 of debt. No idea how to incur more and whatnot, but that was it. Just between that and all planets seemingly being unlocked at the beginning, after one planet, I was kind of left with a feeling of "well...what now?"

3. Well, if bombs (or missiles. At this point, they're almost interchangeable besides their movement behavior) are the only way to get through "dungeon walls", then that'd give them purpose at least.

4. Sounds good. Especially coming back up, one of my biggest concerns (remember, I just drilled a hole in the world with the giant laser) was "how much longer do I have to fly straight up?" heh.

Played a bit more. Played a bit in the past, but didn't really think much about it until now. I don't really know if I'm missing much by not playing one level at a time but if I'm doing the first level over and over and there's a lot more to it later on, I suppose take this with a grain of salt.

I kind of agree with Eigenbom. There's a solid game here, and it is really getting there, but a few comments:

1. It's wayyyyy too easy to just use the mining laser at the beginning, drop down to the big chest, grab the gold bars, and fly straight back up during the cave in (straight up IS the shortest route after all). To my knowledge, that alone absolves you of all debt (I think I had $10k in debt for the first one, and it gave me $10k in gold bars). Even barring the mining laser, it's way too easy to dig straight down, grab it and get out.

2. Bearing that in mind, what exactly is the purpose of collecting gold? Of collecting emeralds? The other chests?

3. I also have to say that I never used the bombs/missiles except when learning what the different settings did.

4. What exactly does time do?

5. Does the Grand Chest always spawn directly under where the player falls initially?

6. I couldn't find a way to go back on the Scores menu. >.>