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[John Nesky]

This is my 1000th post.

I am going to make a game. But first I'm going to make an offline prototype, in case it turns out to be a terrible idea.

The offline prototype will simulate latency. If it seems fun, then the final game will embrace latency.

P.S. I'm moving to a different city and starting a new job in a few days. This is going to be... interesting...  

[Melly]

SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK AND THE DEAD

Good luck

[John Nesky]

A quick but terrible prototype later, I've decided that latency really does ruin platformer controls even if you're doing it deliberately. Back to the drawing board.

[Melly]

If you're trying to do online platforming, you should try asynchronous netcode. For the player himself, the controls work perfectly like he was offline. The other player is just receiving the somewhat delayed actions of his opponent. Of course, if you want the two players to interact directly with eachother (and I imagine you do), that can get complicated.

[John Nesky]

Of course, if you want the two players to interact directly with eachother (and I imagine you do), that can get complicated.

Yeah, that was the plan. Don't worry, I already have another idea: Competitive Ikaruga. You spawn bullet patterns on one side of the screen while dodging the opponent's patterns, and by the time the opponent's bullets reach your side of the screen the latency shouldn't be a problem.

I guess it's sort of like a symmetric Boss Rush, but I wanna see if I can work Ikaruga's polarity thing in there.

[John Nesky]

Alright! So today I had a chance to implement a non-networked prototype of the Ikaruga idea. Both players have 3 attack, a polarity switch, and four directionals.

http://johnnesky.com/Shrike_v_0_0_1.swf

Player 1: ASD, F, YHGJ
Player 2: M Comma Period, Slash, Arrows

I kinda like it so far, but at the same time I'm embarrassed at how derivative it is. Hmm.

Also the keyboard can't always keep up with all the buttons being pressed at the same time, but it will work better when the players aren't sitting at the same keyboard.