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[Raku]

Haha, well I appreciate it regardless

[BMF54123]

Great demo as always, but sadly a few more bugs to report.



In certain areas like this one, where there is a one-block gap that Jack cannot pass through, Jack will get stuck in place and "vibrate" as though he's landing from a jump every frame (notice the dust clouds around his feet). You have to hold left and jump to get him unstuck. This behavior also occurred when I clipped into the edge of a two-block-tall post in another level.



This poor guy still refuses to die sometimes. It's like his normal death animation gets interrupted when he hits the ceiling or something.



I managed to get this guy stuck here twice in a row. He'll stick there for about 10 seconds or so before shooting off the bottom of the screen at ludicrous speed.

I've also discovered that I need to turn off audio acceleration on my laptop, otherwise sound effects will frequently crackle and/or play much later than they're supposed to. Research indicates that this may be an internal GameMaker problem, though, so I doubt anything can be done about it short of switching to an external audio DLL.

[Raku]

Thank you! I'll fix these to the best of my ability.
1. Can you tell me any other places you've gotten stuck like that top screenshot? It's a place-specific problem that I have to go in and fix manually.
2. This is odd, because nothing (that I can see) in his programming should even allow him to do that anymore, but I'll look over it all again and find out what the problem is.
3. Sometimes these characters get stuck on corners when they're flying like that. I have an idea of how to fix this though.
4. That's unfortunate about the sound, but it's not too bad I suppose.

Also I've been seeing a lot of people's screenshots that look very blurry. I don't have pixel smoothing turned on, so it shouldnt look like that, but from my own experience, if "Aero" is turned off on windows, it makes the game look blurry like this. I'd rather it doesn't look blurry like that at all, though.

[Bass-Windu]

Looks pretty cool! The aesthetic of it is pleasing too.

[Raku]

Thank you very much!

[BMF54123]

1. Can you tell me any other places you've gotten stuck like that top screenshot? It's a place-specific problem that I have to go in and fix manually.

Ah, nuts! I'll be sure to carefully note any other places I get stuck next time I play the game.

Also I've been seeing a lot of people's screenshots that look very blurry. I don't have pixel smoothing turned on, so it shouldnt look like that, but from my own experience, if "Aero" is turned off on windows, it makes the game look blurry like this. I'd rather it doesn't look blurry like that at all, though.

I still use Windows XP on my laptop most of the time, and it's always blurry like this (many emulators are the same way). I believe it's a difference in DirectX implementations between XP and newer versions. It looks sharp as intended if I play the game in Windows 7, but then I get those weird scaling issues I mentioned in one of my previous posts.

[Raku]

I'd appreciate it!
And I understand. Oddly, I seem to have found a fix for that scaling issue just recently. It turns out that if I add a single layer of pixels around a sprite that's doing that, it fixes it entirely. A lot of Jack's bullet attacks had this problem, I added an extra pixel to the width and height of the sprite to "buffer" it, and the problem disappeared...

[Quicksand-T]

That mushroom is just the best.

[afilionComposer]

Amazing game!   
Just wondering, who is your composer?  The music fits the game like a glove. 

[Storsorgen]

Raku is the composer himself, and the tracks are absolutley top notch!

[Raku]

@Quicksand-T Thank you!

and @afilionComposer, Storsorgen is right, I'm making the music for my game, which is probably why it fits so well!
Being a one-person team, I dont have to worry about differing ideals or anything, so I think generally everything fits well together.

and thanks @Storsorgen!

[superflat]

this has come a long way, congratulations for keeping at it, best of luck on the final stretch

[Raku]

Thank you! I'm doing my best to work on it any chance I can get!

[darkhog]

Great game. Perhaps you could set up GameJolt page for it (unless it's there)? That would raise awareness of your project.

For the record, I still think you should release game at least in pay-what-you-want model, it's so great in quality that anyone who'd decide to pay wouldn't have any second thoughts about it.

[quan]

Been following this for a while now but I wanted to post just to keep up to date with this devlog. This game looks so cute and I'm surprised at how much gameplay there is in the demo haha. I've said it before but keep up the great work dude.

[Raku]

@darkhog, I don't think it's on GameJolt, this is the first hearing of that site. I could do that.
the game is already technically pay-what-you-want because I accept donations if people choose.

@AnalCentipede, thank you very much! I recognize your username. Thank you for your ongoing support!

[Raku]

So, I finally put in mid-stage checkpoints!
Once you pass a big blue gravestone in a stage, if you die you can re-enter the stage and touch the being that came out. Which stage currently has that being is shown on the map, and goes away if you enter another stage (but stays if you go into the shop).

My problem now is that since I know the game too well, I don't know specifically which stages would be best to have these checkpoints.
To those who have played the current demo, what are some stage suggestions that should use checkpoints? If you dont know the stage names specifically, a descriptor of the stage will work. Where to put the checkpoint in the stage would be helpful too. I've already put several checkpoints in the first few stages before the first main boss, one of which is right before Berserker Poinsetta.

[NinjAttack81]

Hey Rakugaki-Otoko!  Still loving this game and looking forward to its completion!  You're doing great!

So, checkpoints, eh?  Nice addition!  Methinks "Doggy Paddle" would benefit from having one, as the first half can be quite tough without the right gear. Placing a checkpoint right after that paddlin' would be sweet, since there is still more stage, followed by a boss fight afterwards.  Love that boss, by the way. 

Anyway, that's the only one I can think of off top so far! :D     

[Raku]

Thank you! that's a good contribution, very helpful, and you even explained why there would be a good reason to put a checkpoint there!

[NinjAttack81]

^_^ You're welcome!  Glad to have helped you out!