@alastair: Thanks a lot! And you are right: If you catch everything one by one, most levels aren't hard at all, and there except "get a high score" there is no compelling reason to try harder.
Having a certain amount of nets per level is an intriguing idea. I'll try it soon to see if it works out! As I imagine it right now, there'd be mostly levels where your net count is limited - and some levels which are more about figuring out your enemy and not dying.
I could also easily use that for different difficulty settings to provide further challenge down the line.
Woah, thanks a lot for the feature - and the praise in it! Made me happy to read it
I do have a Twitter page, but I hardly ever write there.
I just realized that I forgot to mention this, but there's another thing that played a really big role in how enjoyable it was: All the new possibilities I got thanks to Unity3D.
So there's another question for you: Are you excited about all the new possibilities the new target language/engine will give you? Will it benefit your game?
Since half of the thread is about rewriting games, I thought I'd share my experiences there. I've tried rewriting a game for two times now.
The first one (Python/Box2D to Unity3D/Farseer) totally failed, as I couldn't get the physics to behave the same way. It also felt really boring as I was mostly reproducing what I already had.
The second one is the one in my signature, and that was one of the best decisions I ever made. The original started in 2009 as a Java/Processing game, and I worked on/off it for about 3 years. I still liked it, but I worked on it less and less, having performance problems and being a bit fed up with the code. In those 4 1/2 years I learnt Unity though, so 5 months ago I decided to rewrite it. Not even a month later it was better than ever before and I'm still having fun with it!
So I think the main questions to ask are: Will it be hard to rewrite it in the new language/engine? Will it be an enjoyable experience? Do I feel comfortable in the new language/engine?
In the end though, rewriting it might be hard and sometimes frustrating, but probably not as frustrating as always thinking that you're current environment is hindering your process. Just choose a good new target language.
Yeah, the music is great, *especially* the Night Life track. I don't really think that's the reason why he stopped communicating.
Apropos communication, a tip for you to minimize the risk: If you don't have a contract and there isn't a solid reason to behave otherwise, communicate more. Don't just finish 3 tracks - finish a draft of one track, ask for feedback. Wait. If he answers, cool, go on. If he doesn't, at least you didn't lose much time.
Game's definitely an interesting concept, but when I did well, I kinda felt like I just got lucky. I know there's definitely some amount of skill to it, but a couple of times I just went into clicky clicky mode and ended up catching a slew of the hard enemies in my net all at once, particularly toward the end of the second sector. Not sure how to resolve that, might just be the nature of the beast.
Other than that, I love the enemy diversity...nicely fleshed out design!
Aw - sorry to hear that. I really wonder how you're doing random captures though, I've never seen that before. I mean sometimes you get lucky by getting *just* the right timeframe, but pure dumb luck? Either I don't have enough imagination for that, or you're playing better than you're giving yourself credit for!
Those orange enemies that home in on you and "stick" to you, are really annoying. I was thinking it would be better if they acted like magnets, like the closer you get, the more they get attracted to you, rather than instantly rushing you.
Oh yeah, Moons are super annoying buggers and testers wildely disagree on them, with one telling me he's the one enemy he would love to see removed, while another said that I should definitely leave him in for the pure satisfaction after beating him.
Buzzwerd explains pretty well what Moon's point is though - and Moon is the first enemy where you actually really have to *think* about his behaviour to catch him reliably. (Yep, there is a method to catching him. I'll think about how to make it a bit more obvious.)
Making trap-like enemies like him is a great idea though, thank you! (Oh, and I can already think of other traps. I think I'll have a lot of fun with that. )
I kind of liked that they made you deal with them before you could move on. Though I think the magnet enemies could be something else entirely and wouldn't really overlap too badly.
I'm really enjoying this game, you've given yourself so much room to explore with the enemy designs. It's really exciting.
Yeah, definitely! And I'm glad you like it. Welcome to the journey - because I still have ideas for a LOT more enemies.
Hey oleomingus! I finally got around to playing your game. And since nobody here commented on the build at all (and that's a damn shame), I thought I'd try to make amends for that by giving you
. Sorry if I sound a little emotionsless and tightlipped, I'm tired - and playing and reading and talking at the same time is surprisingly hard, haha. Not sure if the video is any good, it's my first time doing that. Maybe it's useful for you. Maybe a little. Anyway...
I liked the game a lot, even if that's not coming across in my audio commentary! A short self-contained story featuring it's own author AND how the story came to be? Clever. I mean, your descriptions kind of prepared me for it, but "experiencing" it is a different beast. The architecture is strange and intriguing (albeit at places a little bit too minimalistic for my taste) and the dialogue is lovely. Will there be choices later on? And it's such a pity there likely won't be any voiceover, this being no-budget indie and all.
(And I just checked out your release notes. If I still had the microphone on, you'd hear more laughter :D)
Do you guys have no projects you can work on in the meantime and relax until a good idea comes your way? That's what I usually do. (Although I never really have less than two projects running, so it's kind of easy for me...)
Gameplay: Great, that was what I was hoping for! It's so hard to ascertain when you've been playing your own game so often.
Thinking in fishing terms might really be a good idea for the name - I didn't think about that yet. And I probably shouldn't be surprised that this type of net actually exists, haha. Thanks a lot for the suggestions/inspiration! (I briefly entertained the thought of "Starfisher" until I actually googled it.)
idk, I like the name. Then again, I really like simple minimalist titles. Catcher perfectly describes the gameplay. You evade and catch enemies to destroy them
It describes the basic gameplay mechanic quite well, that's true - but the game is also about flow and elegant movement, about discovering new enemies and figuring out their behaviour, and the name doesn't even allude to that. It's also hard to search for and extremely bland. And it doesn't even sound good.
Also I think I have a cool and accessible game, but I hardly get many responses here. I think I need name that better alludes to the feeling of the game and sounds more interesting might help with that.
Just played the browser version of your wonderful game.
The controls seem fluid and well crafted, and it is fascinating to see the variety of enemies you can create, within a game with such simple game play.
I did find the text gui during the game, a little jarring. Given that the text notifications like collision or combination moves are not numerous, you might consider turning them into simple symbols/glyphs ? That might help keep your minimal pallet clean.
Thanks a lot! Do you think the game play might be a bit too simplistic and samey over time?
I definitely agree about the texts, but I think they are needed for beginners. Once I have particle effects and sound effects for everything, I'll probably allow to turn them totally off in the options.
Yeah, the "different enemies" thing works really well. The enemies almost design themselves - I currently have 30 different types (not counting enemies that do the same with higher speed/difficulty) and a lot more ideas for new ones!
By the way, if anybody feels inspired: "Catcher" really needs a new name. I'm super picky, but thankful for suggestions!
Everything about this is absolutely and utterly fantastic. I wish I had time to play your build now - but since I haven't, it'll have to wait for one of the next days. Hopefully tomorrow. Brace for feedback.
there are stranger places than this room, and this room is not a strangers place, I leave for places stranger still though strange enough I find this space.
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