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[György Straub]

very fun game.

bugreport: I have beaten it in 2 seconds by clicking real fast repeatedly on level 1's correct answer.

[HybridMind]

Thanks for trying it out! Glad people are finding it fun so far...

Also thanks a bunch for that bug report. I'll take care of that issue--good catch!

[HybridMind]

6/30: v0.1.1 posted! (menu should read v0.1.1 or later or refresh your cache!)

PLAY IN YOUR BROWSER HERE

• Added minute long random color transformations to creatures and background to add visual change while playing
• Added screen pan and zoom onto found twin at end of each level for fun effect
• Added a disintegrate effect when you click on the wrong creature. Since you are penalized (10 seconds currently) for clicking on the wrong creature I figured I might as well clear the playing field of them in case you are doing it to reduce the options and just move onto the next level (at quite a time cost though...)
• Horizontal scale flipping now randomly occurs as well to add visual variety (the twin and goal will always be flipped the same way though!)
• BUGFIX: Fixed text wrap problem on game over screen where time would be cut off sometimes
• BUGFIX: Fixed problem that let you click a ton to advance / cheat (thanks György Straub)

v0.1.1 screenshot


Next up: More creatures and other art!

[compositeredfox]

Very good, the characters are funny as hell. Although I don't quite like the change of colors throughout the levels (specially the blueish against the gray background), I think the palette should be consistent. Also, in the first levels, the scaled up characters look quite bad when pixelated.
Great work!

[HybridMind]

Very good, the characters are funny as hell. Although I don't quite like the change of colors throughout the levels (specially the blueish against the gray background), I think the palette should be consistent. Also, in the first levels, the scaled up characters look quite bad when pixelated.
Great work!

Thanks for the feedback! Perhaps I'll try going back to keeping the background white only and not mess with it's color. I have picked 6 colors that I fade the creatures too though but I'll keep aesthetic considerations to palettes in mind as I continue to work on this. I also didn't like the blue (or purple) combo with the dark grey (once enough time had passed.)

As far as scaling issues... yeah I wish flash had better PNG scaling. I want to build all these creatures in photoshop with my tablet... but maybe I should vector trace them to allow for smooth scaling.  Since this game shouldn't be too performance intensive I can get away with a lot of vector data perhaps...

[Snow]

Screw photoshop! If you have a tablet, use MyPaint. You can get some interesting lines that will scale well. Try using one of the charcoal brushes and draw large images, then scale them down to the largest size you will be using in game. Then when you scale them even smaller they will still look very decent. The only problem with MyPaint is that you can't animate. So I'll also suggest my 2 other tools I love to use: Pencil Animation and ChaosCrystal. Here is a link to the description of all the tools, plus links to their websites. http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=66.msg396917#msg396917In Pencil, the lines are actually quite nice if you want a sketchy quality. Both MyPaint and Pencil can export PNG's.

[HybridMind]

Screw photoshop! If you have a tablet, use MyPaint. You can get some interesting lines that will scale well. Try using one of the charcoal brushes and draw large images, then scale them down to the largest size you will be using in game. Then when you scale them even smaller they will still look very decent. The only problem with MyPaint is that you can't animate. So I'll also suggest my 2 other tools I love to use: Pencil Animation and ChaosCrystal. Here is a link to the description of all the tools, plus links to their websites. http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=66.msg396917#msg396917In Pencil, the lines are actually quite nice if you want a sketchy quality. Both MyPaint and Pencil can export PNG's.

Hey thanks a lot for this info! I've never heard of or used any of those tools so I'll have to check them out.

[HybridMind]

PLAY IT ON WEBZ

6/30: v0.1.2 posted!

• Removed background fade to gray.
• Added SWFStats to gather useful play analytics data to study gameplay and improve it!

[HybridMind]

PLAY HERE WITH SOUNDS

6/30: v0.1.3 posted!

• Added a bunch of initial sound effects to the game
• Added Audio controls to allow mute/unmute

[LiquidAsh]

Looking good.  I like the level progression, and hope the metrics you are capturing help filter some of the "too similar" issues.  Looking forward/hoping to see more variety in creatures, and walking around (fingers crossed).  Actually if they do walk around, this game might become very similar to the spy vs sniper entry's gameplay(?).  I'd really love to see them walk though.  Keep up the great work.

[s0]

This is such a fun, charming little game. I can't decide whether the creatures look cute or creepy. 

Are you planning on adding any other game mechanics?

[reetva]

The creatures need to all cheer when you find the correct one.  I would also like them to be a bit more animated, with each type having a distinct personality.  I might be asking for a bit much, I guess, but I really do think this could make the game that much better.

Also, I love this game.  I didn't mention that but it is the most true.

[HybridMind]

Looking good.  I like the level progression, and hope the metrics you are capturing help filter some of the "too similar" issues.  Looking forward/hoping to see more variety in creatures, and walking around (fingers crossed).  Actually if they do walk around, this game might become very similar to the spy vs sniper entry's gameplay(?).  I'd really love to see them walk though.  Keep up the great work.

Thanks. More creatures are on the way! As far as similarity issues go I have been enjoying the challenge of the current version. I think it is a fine line between too hard and too easy (and one that depends on the players visual sorting ability of course to draw that line!)

Yeah still deciding about movement...

I'll have to check out 'spy vs sniper' (sounds like that is an entry here?) and see what you mean!

This is such a fun, charming little game. I can't decide whether the creatures look cute or creepy. 

Are you planning on adding any other game mechanics?

Thanks! The creatures are sort of in an uncanny valley huh? Heh. They are starting to grow on me as I've come up with mnemonic names for them all.

I do hope to add some other mechanics as well yes. First order is adding a whole slew of creatures today and seeing what that feels like before adding other elements (like other non-creature objects (for distraction/entertainment) or background elements (like little streets or rivers etc...)  All would be wiggling me thinks (to greater or lesser extents.  I can't wait to compose some loops for this to match up with their craziness.

The creatures need to all cheer when you find the correct one.  I would also like them to be a bit more animated, with each type having a distinct personality.  I might be asking for a bit much, I guess, but I really do think this could make the game that much better.

Also, I love this game.  I didn't mention that but it is the most true.

I've been pondering other animation states for sure.  Right now there is a sweet disintegration noise that plays when you hit the wrong one (or hit them on purpose out of frustration) and I want everyone to cower when that occurs (and sfx) so I think cheering when the correct twin is found makes sense.  I'll have to see how much animation I have to do if I have like 6-8 types of twins, with 6 sub types of each.. well that is like 30-40 twins already..... so we'll see what I have time/energy/inspiration for on that end.  Glad you dig the game though--thanks for playing!

[HybridMind]

PLAY HERE IN BROWSER

7/1: v0.1.4 posted!

• Changed the way the zoom in transition works when you find the twin
• Made graphics a bit smoother and scale better
• Added animations for Smiling and Frowning
• Made creatures smile, jump and squeak when you find the twin
• Made creatures shake and frown when you pick the wrong one
• Made elapsed time flash the spot color (in case sound is muted) to indicate the interval has gone by (currently 10 seconds) which just helps the user subtly track time passing
• Added 'R' key for Restarting game
• Got depth by Y position sorting working so that the depth of field looks correct when they jump and shake
• BUGFIX: You can no longer kill creatures once you've found the twin during transition

v0.1.4 screenshot

[Melly]

Haha, that's a charming little game, and more than a bit creepy when you make a mistake.

[HybridMind]

Haha, that's a charming little game, and more than a bit creepy when you make a mistake.

Thanks.. and yeah I'm going for some mixed / odd emotions with this one for sure.

[HybridMind]

PLAY v0.1.7 HERE IN BROWSER

7/1: v0.1.7 posted!

• Added 6 more creatures of a second twin type (now there are 2 types, with 6 subtypes each...)
• Re-did all creatures as optimized vector graphics so they will scale good
• Did a bunch of memory leak profiling and fixing
• Currently each level can pick one of two types, still 10 levels

v0.1.7 screenshot


So did a ton of work today but a lot of the hours didn't lead to any major changes besides the 2nd twin type now being added (so there are 6 new creatures (12 total) )

I spent a lot of time profiling memory leaks / cleanup issues to make sure all was well on that front.

I spent a lot of time re-doing the graphics in photoshop... only to find that when I traced them in flash to vectors they became thousands of curves and bogged everything down.  There were too many curves to do 'smooth' functions.

SO.. I re-did all the graphics a SECOND time all in flash this time and smoothed/optimized them down to nice ~80 curve creatures and it runs all fast again (even on my dinosaur test laptop...)

At least now I understand my content procedure now and should be able to rock some more creature subtypes out tomorrow morning!

[Pocketninja]

haha love it man! nice simple game. I played like the first 5 or 6 -- i think you should defiantly throw in some twists of change ups. Idn; like people moving and what not. (aside from just adding more) Maybe you did throw in some neat stuff I didn't get to, but I need to go to bed! 

Looks good so far man! 

[Jonathan Whiting]

Just realised I haven't left a note on this despite following it eagerly.

This is cute quick and compelling, perfect flash game fodder really.  The new creature types are good (I was worried having more might dilute the experience, but thankfully not), as are the slicker graphics.

I'm sure you know this already but it could really do with a decent sountrack.  Also, sound wise I noticed occasional bleeps, that I *think* had something to do with my elapsed time, but I've no idea what.  Mostly they just distracted me.

[HybridMind]

haha love it man! nice simple game. I played like the first 5 or 6 -- i think you should defiantly throw in some twists of change ups. Idn; like people moving and what not. (aside from just adding more) Maybe you did throw in some neat stuff I didn't get to, but I need to go to bed!  

Looks good so far man!  

Thanks! I have various ideas I've been thinking on for other mechanics but I haven't decided anything for sure.  With these simple games I've found you have to be very careful about what you add as it can easily remove the compelling elegance that was so enticing before.

I'm waiting until I get at least 5 creature types total (at least) and there are 2 currently.  Now that I've solved my content creation issues I should be able to make good progress on that and in fact am about to try to bust out 3 more creature types here (18 more total creatures.)

Just realised I haven't left a note on this despite following it eagerly.

This is cute quick and compelling, perfect flash game fodder really.  The new creature types are good (I was worried having more might dilute the experience, but thankfully not), as are the slicker graphics.

I'm sure you know this already but it could really do with a decent sountrack.  Also, sound wise I noticed occasional bleeps, that I *think* had something to do with my elapsed time, but I've no idea what.  Mostly they just distracted me.

Thank you for your feedback. I am glad you found the extra creature type added to the experience. I was hoping and thinking it would but it is good to hear from others that this may be the case as well.  

Making the music for this game has been something I've been looking forward too but waiting until I get the creature types in. I hope to consider doing small loops for each creature type so that when each randomly appears not only do you get the visual reward and familiarity but you will also hear a familiar musical theme play for each type.  They would be short loops and likely I'd only have to write like 5 or so.

As far as the interval noise you hear--yes that is a 10 second reminder tone. It is something that went in sorta early and I've forgotten about honestly.  You are right that it distracts me too.  I think I will likely remove it.  My intention was to help the player mark time without having to look but it ends up causing stress.  I guess I had an initial "ramp up the tension" kind of idea with it but I guess I'm on the fence on whether it is a negative reward or evil fun...