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[Raku]

Aa, yes.
But I've put an anti spam guard into the game, so that you can't immediately fire another one too quickly.
I put in the stun effect pretty recently, actually, after one of my game testers complained that there was no way to know when you were actually harming enemies. without the stun, it feels as if you're fighting a statue. you seem to have only played a short while into the game. later on, there are more enemies, and you can't just concentrate on just one. much like the gameplay in Dig Dug when you get surrounded, you have to spread the damage.

[AndrewFM]

This is coming out really good so far! It's challenging, yet very enjoyable; feels like the type of game that I wouldn't mind playing through multiple times. I got Game Over before I reached the end of the demo, but I plan to give it another shot later. For now, I'll at least critique the parts that I managed to get up to so far... which happens to be a lot of critiquing. Don't be scared

In General...

• Don't start the game in full screen. The full screen scales up using a bicubic filter, which makes your beautiful sprites look blurry and messy. I recommend starting in Windowed mode, and then scaling the game up to 2x or 3x zoom by adjusting the viewport.
• Perhaps you should make the bosses into checkpoints. Having to restart the entire game after losing seems a little harsh (not sure if you were planning on adding save files in the future or not). I think it'd be a little less frustrating on the player if they could restart from the previous boss, rather than the start of the game.
• Can you exit the player to the map when they die? (though, not sure how this would work on the two-part levels... perhaps it just remembers where you left off) Currently when you die, you lose your souls upon restarting the level. This can be quite a burden, especially if you die during a boss battle. It'd be nice to have the option to go back to a previous level to recollect souls from enemies.

Specific Nitpicking...

• First boss was a little too easy (predictable), even for a first boss. Maybe give her one extra attack, to switch things up.
• The second boss on the other hand, seemed a little too hard . I think the main culprit of the difficulty was his first phase. The second phase seemed like a reasonable difficulty for a second boss. But the first phase required quick, successive, pixel-perfect jumps, and it was really hard to hit the foe using your short range sickle attacks.
• In Canopy Hopping, it introduced bottomless pits for the first time, but they were introduced off-screen! Taking the upper path, you're completely unaware that there's nothing below you, until you fall to your death. You should force the player to start the level off taking a low-lying path. Then when a bottomless pit is introduced, perhaps have some kind of warning sign to alert the player that it's a death trap.
• In Let's Run, the rockets at the end of the level are a bit of a nasty set-up. The impatient player would tend to stay fairly close to the front-edge of the screen, to make sure they don't ever get left behind. However, they're then greeted by an unexpected bombardment of offscreen projectiles, from the rockets. I experienced a similar issue in the stage right after the second boss. Right at the beginning, there's an enemy that starts shooting at you from off-screen. I think it'd be best if you made it so that off-screen enemies aren't able to attack, and also make it so that you can't harm off-screen enemies either.
• In the screenshot below, the log I'm standing on is a solid object in the foreground, but it looks like it's a non-solid object in the background.
  
  
  
  
• This platform can easily be mistaken for another solid platform, but it's not. Even worse, if you do try to stand on it, it kills you instantly by dropping you into a bottomless pit
  
  
  
  
• The first upper path on this level leads you into the following predicament:
  
  
  
  If you had taken the bottom path, you'd know it's safe to jump. However, if you take the upper path, you aren't ever able to see what's down below, and you're forced to take a leap of faith into what could possibly be a bottomless pit (it isn't, but the first time player doesn't know that)

Glitches...

I only found one glitch, and it's pretty specific, and not very major. It requires you to have the shield soul. When a moving enemy is about to hit you, if you dodge with C, and then switch directions so that you're shielding against them, they'll walk through you. If you're next to a solid object, it'll also cause them to walk through/into that object:

[Konidias]

I honestly can't get past the slime level... I consider myself above average at platformers, and this one is just tough for me.

How do you get past the 2 slimes jumping right next to eachother without getting hit? I tried running under them, I tried jumping over them... both result in me almost getting past but not quite.

Is there a way to beat the slime? I'm assuming no.

Overall though, the game seems pretty nice so far. I think the controls are a bit too spastic... I mean, at least on the level I was dying a lot on (the slime level). Might have had something to do with the speed booster thing, but I felt like I had very little precision control. Even when I managed to get to the second level of the slime level, I'd end up falling at the spot with all the individual log platforms... back down to the seemingly impossible side by side slimes that would take a life point from me no matter what I try.

I'm really hoping this game will be good when it's finished. It's looking like a lot of fun and it's definitely my type of game.

[Conker534]

I really enjoyed the look of this game. I will deffinitly be finishing it when it comes out!

Good luck!
Awesome pixel art.

[Raku]

Wow, I got feedback!
Ok, to answer you first, AndrewFM

In General...

-I have noticed that some of the graphics are kind of smashed up when I play the game. is there a way that I can make every room automatically change the viewport? there are 63 rooms so far, and I really do not want to have to go into each and every one of them to change that number. Also, I liked it in fullscreen, though. is there a way to keep it fullscreen while still fixing this problem?
-Yes, right now there is no saving and continuing, but eventually each stage you beat will save the game. You can continue from the last stage you finished.
-Maybe I can make a pause function where you can "Exit to Map". I just need to learn how to make a pause function first.

Specific Nitpicking...

-"Her"? you must be talking about the first miniboss you encounter. I'm going to add in an extra attack, though. she is a little too easy, I guess.
-By "first phase" I assume you mean the dog. yes, I have been wondering about what to do with that. I think I'll make him sit still while shooting progectiles instead. the current fight with it is dumb.
-Changed the stage so that you start lower and immediately see a pit with a little "!" sign next to it.
-Fixed: took the rockets out, changed it to some platforms. as for the other level, I fixed it so that the enemy wont shoot at you at the beginning. I've tried to use the "outside view" thing to make enemies deactivate, but I couldn't get that to work right, so Jack actually has a large screen-sized area around him that activates enemies.
-Fixed: Made the top of the pillar brighter.
-Fixed: Non-touchable pillars now have a jagged top.
-Fixed: added more platforms that you can see on screen to jump down to.
-agh, I have that problem sometimes, too. I'm trying to fix it, but it's not looking good.

Thank you very much for the critique, AndrewFM. I appreciate the help it's given me, and I'm glad it's let me fix several problems.

as for Konidias,

Slime level... slime level... are you talking about "First Tree"? I'm not sure what to tell you here. The two slimes next to eachother can be passed in a simple way: run under/jump over the first one, wait in between them both, then pass the second one.
The slimes should be easily passed by either jumping over them right as they land, or running under them right as they jump. I gave the speed-up ability in that stage so you could do this much easier.

No, the slimes are invulnerable obstacles.

wait, second level of the slime level? Maybe I'm thinking of a different stage. Telling me the actual stage name would be very helpful.

[mokesmoe]

(I assume you are using gamemaker)
Go to the global game settings, change the scaling to "Fixed scale" and set the scale to what you want. (Probably 200%) You can keep it full screen with a black border, but I would suggest having it default to windowed, and have it toggleable.

[Raku]

Gamemaker, yes.
Ok, when I do that, it's still a little too small for my tastes. 300% almost fills my screen, though. would that be fine?

[AndrewFM]

Nice job! You really dealt with those problems swiftly  

is there a way that I can make every room automatically change the viewport? there are 63 rooms so far, and I really do not want to have to go into each and every one of them to change that number.

You can set the view of an external room using room_set_view(...). So, at the start of the game, you could run a code like this:

for(i = room_first; i != -1; i = room_next(i)) //Loop through all rooms in the game
{
     room_set_view(i,...);
}

Though, once again, that will only work on external rooms, not the room you are currently in. You could make an extra room at the start of the game that runs this script, and then immediately moves to the title screen room. Also, note, that there's some nasty graphical issues that can occur by scaling the game up using the viewport, such as tiny 1-pixel seams appearing between your tiles and objects. This post explains how to fix that problem.

Also, I liked it in fullscreen, though. is there a way to keep it fullscreen while still fixing this problem?

Well, you could have scaled it up using the aforementioned method, and then changed the screen resolution to match accordingly. However, your game's screen size (256x208 ?) doesn't scale evenly into any standard screen resolution, so that kind of creates some issues with that method. I'd recommend just sticking with mokesmoe's method, for fullscreen

I just need to learn how to make a pause function first.

Create an object which controls everything in the pause menu. When that object is created, do instance_deactivate_all(true), which will deactivate all objects in the room except for the pause-menu object. When the pause-menu object is destroyed, do instance_activate_all(), which will bring all the objects back, in the exact same state they were in right before you deactivated them. Note that when you deactivate an object, it stops drawing the object, too. So, if you want the pause menu to still show the level, you should take a snapshot of it right before deactivating it. Then draw that snapshot to the screen. The background_create_from_screen() or sprite_create_from_screen() function should do the trick.

[Raku]

Ahh, thank you once again for your help.
I think I'll stick with the 300% view for now. I'm not so good with coding, and that other thing looks really complicated.
Thank you for telling me how to pause! I did what you said and it worked like a charm. the "draw background" things didnt work, though, so I found my way around it. The pause screen will look something like the Pause screen in Yoshi's Island.

and
Here's a little something I made a few minutes ago for the game. obviously, it was before I thought I could pause the game.
Obviously, I'm sticking with the SNES/SFC feel

The pause Key is Q, now. sound good to everyone?

[JoGribbs]

I love this. Looks great and plays great. Got a bit hard for me near the end but me likey

[paste]

I really enjoyed the demo so far, too.  Great visuals.  I felt a little out of control with the speed thing, but I probably shouldn't have been using the keyboard 

[AndrewFM]

I made videos








And yeah, I'm going to have to have to second the comment about feeling out of control with the speed soul. You'll notice that it quickly turns into my worst nightmare at the end of that first video...

Also, I found another minor glitch. If you're running to the right, turn around to the left, and then immediately turn right again, you'll start moon-walking to the right. If you have the shield soul, this even lets you run with your shield in front of you, instead of behind you  

[Konidias]

Well I got past the slimes... I just kept the boomerang the entire time I played and it makes things a lot easier. The turbo run powerup doesn't seem to be anywhere near as useful... But I figured it would be best because usually powerups are introduced when they would be beneficial to the player... But introducing them in the slime level is not beneficial at all... Because it requires good precision to dodge stuff and you just lose that precision with the speed boost.

As for the two slimes next to eachother, yeah I finally realized you could stand between them without getting hurt. A bit odd though, because I was under the assumption that you couldn't touch the slime at all, yet you've allowed a bit of overlap, so collisions aren't pixel perfect... which is kind of weird to me.

But I still can't get past the level. I make it to the first boss (who you say is too easy) and I get smoked every time. The dodge technique doesn't really seem to help me avoid getting shot, and the projectiles get just low enough to graze my head when I think they are going to miss.

I really feel like this is a case of the developer having playtested their own game so much that they aren't aware of how difficult some stuff might be to newcomers. Which I guess that's what a beta is all about.

[Raku]

AndrewFM:
Woah... please tell me you sped up that video! Why is the game going so fast!?!?
That's probably the reason you're having trouble with the speed-up!

Also, the moonwalking glitch has been known to me for a while now. I just can't figure out how to fix it.

Konidias:
yes, there is a hitbox system, not pixel perfect. Once again, I will state that this game is based on SNES games, which did the same thing.

uh... how does the dodge not help you dodge the gas projectiles? you dodge before they hit you, and there should be no problem. If you watch the video that Andrew FM just put the link to, you can see how he passes those places, too.

[AndrewFM]

Woah... please tell me you sped up that video! Why is the game going so fast!?!?
That's probably the reason you're having trouble with the speed-up!

Nope, I didn't speed it up at all. Double check the fps on your computer... perhaps it had been lagging on your computer this whole time? Might explain why the game is so hard for us

uh... how does the dodge not help you dodge the gas projectiles? you dodge before they hit you, and there should be no problem.

The problem with the gas projectiles is the way they travel. They seem to move fast, then slow down, and linger in one spot before fading. If you're standing in the spot which they're going to wind up settling at, and try to dodge, your dodge usually doesn't last long enough to avoid the attack. You need to stay close to her, and dodge the gas when it still has its fast initial movement.

When I initially said that she was too easy, I had been using the shield powerup (which does make the fight nauseatingly easy). I tried fighting her without it, and she actually is a pretty tricky miniboss.

[Konidias]

Yeah, what Andrew said. Right now the game difficult ramps to crazy levels depending on what powerup you're using... and considering you can't just swap powerups whenever you feel they would be most beneficial, this is a problem.

Right now it seems like the boomerang is good in 80% of the situations you're in... the speed powerup... not really sure what it's good for yet... and the shield powerup, well I haven't used it yet, but I'm assuming it would make that boss fight a whole lot easier.

[mokesmoe]

I entered the mini-boss with 1 hit left and died almost immediately. I then found her incredibly difficult with no powerups, ran out of lives and died.

My game does not run as fast as the video.

[Konidias]

Kay I made it all the way to Guutara (sp?) this time. Game is a lot of fun once you know what powerups work best in which situation... But I think you might want to work on it so that it's not so much trial and error for the player. I think after the first few levels, it would be incredibly hard to beat a level without any powerups... Especially the bosses. Considering you're usually going to lose the first time you fight a boss, you're going to be at a severe disadvantage since you lose your powerup when you die. I can see that being really frustrating for people.

But overall I feel like I'm getting hooked on this game. If I could continue where I ran out of lives, I'd still be playing it right now.

[Raku]

Interesting feedback I'm getting here.

Hmm, is there a way to make it so that the game runs at a certain fps on every computer? maybe I should set the game process priority to high or highest. Would that fix this problem?
Ooh, even better-
When I make the title screen, I'll put in an options menu, and have you be able to make the game either slower or normal speed for you folks that seem to be able to play it in turbo mode.

Anyway, yes, I've added a pause function, and then ability to return to the map at any time.

In the final build, a game over will simply mean that you're sent to the Title screen. you can continue off from the last stage you've beaten.

[mokesmoe]

Could you record a video so we can see what normal speed is?