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[baconman]

My first impression was a lot more MegaMan than Contra/Metal Slug, but paced way up so that it's fun and exciting rather than patience-and-precision oriented; but going more Metal Sluggy in it's personality with a bit of Super Metroidlike "ESCAPE RUSH!" presumably going on at the end of every mission, challenging you to find ways back out of the level different than the ones you originally took going in.

(Or you know, intentional breaking points which -could- be exploited both ways, but only with the key precision or maybe knowing in advance about undocumented abilities your characters have and don't "need" until way further in the game. If at all!)

Either way, it does look very exciting, even considering the decisively limited palette - which I think adds more in character (exciting urgency and recklessness!!) than it removes in function. You could always make the shots light blue, unless you're gonna have a really open/outdoorsy field area... which while possible, seems kind of unlikely given the game's context and level design.

[Farmergnome]

I think everyone is going to see different influences from the game, im not really trying to hide anything with it, just going with whatever works good, actually one of the first influences was Megaman (post one I think) but yea, end of the day so long as its fun.  

The escape sequences are only about 1/3 of the planned levels, the rest are infiltration missions and destroy everything type deals, lots of one off scripted levels too are on the cards, so if you want to see all this stuff help back the project, we just cracked $200 thanks to Alex May!  Legend  

http://www.indiegogo.com/RamBros-Indie-Game

[Greg Game Man]

This looks great, i love your artwork and you progress so quickly! RamBros is more interesting to me than under the ocean, so i hope you do work on it more

Personally, i'm hoping you take the game in a more skill based direction than just pure chaos, with maybe one or two hits to kill you- less sfx, more visibility. This could result in moments of great excitement and tension where one of you has died, you're counting on your buddy to finish it, with a great sense of joint accomplishment when you finally beat the stage (maybe minigames every now and again where you play against each other, like in castle crashers?). I think the combat is a bit too side-on; air based enemies might be cool. Those enemy walls/ladders seem like a strange choice because they break up the action and slow things down, but i don't know the direction you're taking the game yet - im looking forward to a playable demo

(is visual flair more important than having more people play the game? If you scale it down and release on flash about 100x more people will play it, and the sponsorship money could cover your $8000 plea)

[Farmergnome]

This looks great, i love your artwork and you progress so quickly! RamBros is more interesting to me than under the ocean, so i hope you do work on it more

Personally, i'm hoping you take the game in a more skill based direction than just pure chaos, with maybe one or two hits to kill you- less sfx, more visibility. This could result in moments of great excitement and tension where one of you has died, you're counting on your buddy to finish it, with a great sense of joint accomplishment when you finally beat the stage (maybe minigames every now and again where you play against each other, like in castle crashers?). I think the combat is a bit too side-on; air based enemies might be cool. Those enemy walls/ladders seem like a strange choice because they break up the action and slow things down, but i don't know the direction you're taking the game yet - im looking forward to a playable demo

(is visual flair more important than having more people play the game? If you scale it down and release on flash about 100x more people will play it, and the sponsorship money could cover your $8000 plea)

There's actually a few flyers in-game currently, bomb drop drones, parachuting soldiers and drones that fire left and right, I just haven't really video-ed them much since they are in levels that have just been boxed out.  

I'm not sure visual flare is more important than people playing it, but Id rather make something that's downloadable, I can make better games in it, games Ive done in flash in the past have always suffered on some technical level because I'm not a programmer, I usually have to rely on a programmer helping me to make it happen.

Actually I was playing with the Health system today and one thing I thought could work is something I was thinking about quite a few pages back, implementing a system similar to Ghosts and Goblins, a 2 hit approach that changes your characters sprite, maybe looses the head band?

[baconman]

Lose the headband? Are you crazy?!

The answer you're looking for is "shades."

[XRA]

haha wow, the logo is awesome with the knife 

[Farmergnome]

Lose the headband? Are you crazy?!

The answer you're looking for is "shades."

OMG THATS FUCKING AWESOME, shades it is. 

haha wow, the logo is awesome with the knife 

Haha I was just joking around putting that in there, it needed some extra cheese, works okay though.

[cactus]

I think the trailer you did for the indiegogo campaign is not doing its job very well. I stumbled upon your campaign when looking into crowd-funding options in europe, and after viewing the trailer I wasn't impressed so I didn't read the description you had written. I then saw the game posted on indiegames, and recognized your name so I took a look at the topic here. The game looks a lot more playable and fun in the videos where you can tell how the gameplay is actually paced.

The trailer makes it look like you run through pretty flat levels not really having to worry about enemies at all, just blowing everything to bits. The scrolling shooter segments look like a mess of randomly generated enemies and particle effects, you don't really see why these bits would be fun to play.

I think you should put up a video that shows a fully designed level, with the nice menu you already have and talk about what you want to do with the game while playing it. Then you can end or start with the trailer you already have as a fun opener/closer. From what I've seen of your previous games, level design has been the only weak aspect, so that might be something you should give an extra push?

I'd back this project if my creditcard hadn't expired which means I don't have access to my paypal account at the moment. If I can get that sorted soon enough I'll remember to slip you something though

Hope this gets made. Good luck!

[Farmergnome]

Good call bro, I was thinking about doing exactly that sometime next week (along with talking to the camera about the project, etc), though my thoughts right now are maybe just get a playable demo out?  I don't know, I think it might be easier if I just let people play something some time in the near future, maybe a few weeks or so.  Ill figure it out over the weekend I guess, it pretty much means voiding the fundraising thing and just focusing on the game.  Ill definitely put some extra effort into the level design, thanks for the good feedback  

[medikohl]

I would suggest, this just being my opinion, you take a camera out into the woods, put some camo on your face, wear a headband etc, and just basically tell people what you have planned for the game, and to give you money.

[Farmergnome]

I would suggest, this just being my opinion, you take a camera out into the woods, put some camo on your face, wear a headband etc, and just basically tell people what you have planned for the game, and to give you money.

I think at this stage im just going to focus on making the game with the little time outside of work, id rather not waste another week or two on something that looks like it wont reach its goal, at least I could have something playable this way in... some time.

[Marc Wilhelm]

Just never give up, I love this game, I just donated what I could! Do what you have to do to survive, but keep your dream alive, you have a really cool game. I just made a blog entry about passion and perseverance.

http://www.freshaces.com/blog/2012/3/22/what-passion-gets-you-1.html

[Farmergnome]

Just never give up, I love this game, I just donated what I could! Do what you have to do to survive, but keep your dream alive, you have a really cool game. I just made a blog entry about passion and perseverance.

http://www.freshaces.com/blog/2012/3/22/what-passion-gets-you-1.html

Thanks bro, I'd be lying if I wasn't a little down about the whole thing right now, but I'll get back into it soon.  I appreciate the support from you, and the others who have supported me also.

[Marc Wilhelm]

Just never give up, I love this game, I just donated what I could! Do what you have to do to survive, but keep your dream alive, you have a really cool game. I just made a blog entry about passion and perseverance.

http://www.freshaces.com/blog/2012/3/22/what-passion-gets-you-1.html

Thanks bro, I'd be lying if I wasn't a little down about the whole thing right now, but I'll get back into it soon.  I appreciate the support from you, and the others who have supported me also.

Keep your head up you have a great concept, just keep focused until it is done. Make some sacrifices elsewhere if you need to, but don't lose focus over a slow fundraising effort (My kickstarter is stalling out at 14% but whether I make it or not I'll keep pluggin away everyday until it's done.)

[Marc Wilhelm]

Hey, I stumbled upon some pretty epic, patriotic, royalty free music that might come in handy for you. It's like $75 but that's cheaper than a composer and musicians.

http://www.royaltyfreekings.com/store/newest-releases/epic-patriotic-1/

[medikohl]

I'm just saying the majority of projects of this nature that receive funding tend to have more than just a gameplay trailer. they have the creator explaining the plan, or more text outlining the features that are planned for implementation in bite sized chunks.

[hyperduck]

Hey, I stumbled upon some pretty epic, patriotic, royalty free music that might come in handy for you. It's like $75 but that's cheaper than a composer and musicians.

http://www.royaltyfreekings.com/store/newest-releases/epic-patriotic-1/

I'm doing the music for this buddy pal, and i'm much cheaper than those guys least for this project.

[owendeery]

I think he's saying you aren't patriotic enough.

[Farmergnome]

I'm just saying the majority of projects of this nature that receive funding tend to have more than just a gameplay trailer. they have the creator explaining the plan, or more text outlining the features that are planned for implementation in bite sized chunks.

Fuck it, I decided about a week ago that Im just going to focus on the game, thanks to the people who have supported it so far and I will throw a little extra in just for you guys, Im totally downed about the whole IndieGOGO thing right now that I'm just going to ignore it and get back to making the game in my spare time, its not even worth the time it takes to think about it.

I think he's saying you aren't patriotic enough.

Haha, Chris and I are getting super patriotic, and we going to be honorary US citizens after this games release.

So... after much rejigging the levels and taking a second look at the level layouts (Im looking at you Cactus   ), I have reshuffled some of the story/events of the game to start off with a bit more of a bang.  In the first two minutes you gun down Hitler, end world war 2 and set the events of the game in motion.

Oh Ive also been working on the two hit system (I went with the bandana falling off after all, as its more iconic) as you can see above, also Ive added 3 more enemies ingame (wall lazer mounts, rocket trucks, infantry trucks), more to come.

[Franklin's Ghost]

I have reshuffled some of the story/events of the game to start off with a bit more of a bang.  In the first two minutes you gun down Hitler, end world war 2 and set the events of the game in motion.

That sounds brilliant