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[melos]

Demo from one month ago has been pulled for the time being since I don't feel it accurately reflects the current state of the game, given development since then - music, art, story, and so forth as been very much fleshed out. A new, identical build will be posted when we get around to polishing the beginning.

Anodyne is a topdown, 2-D Zelda/Yume-Nikki like action/adventure game, where you explore a variety of places. It's developed using the Flixel AS3 framework.

(the name has been changed from Intra as it better reflects the game, we feel)

TIGSource Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=26260

[michaelplzno]

Cool game so far. Tried to beat the first dungeon and I got trapped in a room. It seems like keys don't respawn after dying. Also I had trouble opening chests after I died once in the dungeon. Also you can just hold down the action button and walk into stuff rather than pressing x repeatedly. Not sure if you want that?

Art:
Just to be sure I looked it up in your write up, this is a game about sweeping, excellent. Its a little hard to tell the broom is a broom. At first I thought it was a wand of some sort. The backgrounds were probably the strongest part of the art. Also, I had no clue what those big  things you can only hit from the top are.

Sound:
I thought it was fine. It was a bit loud when I got the broom, but it might have been b/c I had the speakers too loud.

Design:
Everything flowed smoothly until I got stuck. I was confused about the light going on and off. That may also be a tech issue, but depending on the order I went into the rooms I would or would not have light, as if the "isLit" variable carried over from certain rooms. I wasn't sure why it did that. The control info is fine and intuitive, but I'm a zelda player so I kind of knew what to expect. The shadowy guys were a nice touch, though I had no idea what they meant yet it did spark my curiosity. I tried to sweep them, or him?, to no avail.

I'll give it another go if you fix the key respawn thing, or at least tell me how to get out of the room I'm stuck in!

[melos]

Cool game so far. Tried to beat the first dungeon and I got trapped in a room. It seems like keys don't respawn after dying. Also I had trouble opening chests after I died once in the dungeon. Also you can just hold down the action button and walk into stuff rather than pressing x repeatedly. Not sure if you want that?

I removed that broom behavior, and keys now respawn after dying. I can't reproduce the problem with the treasure chests, though.

Everything flowed smoothly until I got stuck. I was confused about the light going on and off.

Those are some inconsistencies on my part in placing event triggers.

The shadowy guys were a nice touch, though I had no idea what they meant yet it did spark my curiosity. I tried to sweep them, or him?, to no avail.

IT'S A SEEEEECRET



As for being stuck, if you saved after that key dropped then I'm afraid you're stuck (sorry! your suffering will benefit the sanity of players to come), because the state of the monster that drops the key is permanent (so it being dead gets saved, and it will never respawn). 

Thanks for the compliments overall, and the help with the bugs!

[melos]

The game has made a lot of progress in the past two weeks, but I still think it would be useful to get more feedback (which is why I'm bumping this - I think two weeks is an okay interval for reviving this feedback topic).

Not entirely sure how to go about playtesting the game as it gains more and more content. I think if I can glean enough from this demo then I should be able to continue building the rest alongside the artist I'm now working with.

I mean, maybe.

[louisdeb]

Really nice art style, music, and design. To start I'll talk about bugs I've found (a.k.a stuff you should listen to as opposed to my opinion).

1) Health orb drops can be dropped outside the play zone (happened when I killed a bat in the Illuminati style dungeon).
2) If you walk into a laser, sometimes you can't walk back out, and it keeps sucking you in.
3) If I fill a hole with dust I still fall down it, maybe this is intended? Anyway if it is, I think it should be made clearer.

Still haven't completed the game, but here's my opinion on the rest of it.
I thought it was very confusing; so first off I didn't realise that was a brush, I thought it was a torch. Also what are these white squares that come out of chests? Are those what I'm meant to be collecting? Also the key to the inventory should be on the menu screen. And finally I had no idea what was going on, I suddenly went from some dark scary place with a ghost chasing me (?) to a beach, then an Illuminati dungeon; all in all I was totally lost, although I had fun doing it :D I look forward to updates, because the game itself was a lot of fun.

Oh and please release the music if you haven't already, really liked it.

Thanks, Louis.

[melos]

Really nice art style, music, and design. To start I'll talk about bugs I've found (a.k.a stuff you should listen to as opposed to my opinion).

1) Health orb drops can be dropped outside the play zone (happened when I killed a bat in the Illuminati style dungeon).
2) If you walk into a laser, sometimes you can't walk back out, and it keeps sucking you in.
3) If I fill a hole with dust I still fall down it, maybe this is intended? Anyway if it is, I think it should be made clearer.

Still haven't completed the game, but here's my opinion on the rest of it.
I thought it was very confusing; so first off I didn't realise that was a brush, I thought it was a torch. Also what are these white squares that come out of chests? Are those what I'm meant to be collecting? Also the key to the inventory should be on the menu screen. And finally I had no idea what was going on, I suddenly went from some dark scary place with a ghost chasing me (?) to a beach, then an Illuminati dungeon; all in all I was totally lost, although I had fun doing it :D I look forward to updates, because the game itself was a lot of fun.

Oh and please release the music if you haven't already, really liked it.

Thanks, Louis.

First I had a question - could you be more specific on what you mean by

"Also the key to the inventory should be on the menu screen." ?  Seems like it could be a user interface issue that I'd like to take care of.




Besides that, thanks for pointing out those three bugs. Those are small things I had forgotten to get around to (this game has the tendency to generate massive numbers of small bugs...kind of what comes with larger scale I guess), will fix.

Also thanks for the compliments. Especially on the music. I'll probably make a soundcloud set as I decide a track is 'done', but lots of songs are prone to small changes as the game gets closer to completion - the art style is becoming more cohesive, and of course I will be adapting the music to that. Sometimes on my soundcloud I put up drafts so you can check that out if interested. (Probably throw all of it on bandcamp for free when it's all said and done.)

In the final version, there will be more structure (this demo is a bit rushed for initial feedback). Ultimately, the squares are what you will collect. That forms part of the game. The use will be made obvious and there will be some nice animations Also, I plan on adding in more structure so you're not totally confused from the get go.

I'm working with an artist now. He's doing a really great job with the art so far, so that broom will definitely look like a broom in the future!

Glad you had fun, and thanks again.

[louisdeb]

Well, the screen where you get the broom and then select it on your hot bar (I may have totally missed what had happened so tell me if I have, and then ignore my comments on the inventory :D ) I felt like I wanted to bring that screen back up to check stuff out because I was stuck at the time. But I didn't pay attention to what key brought up the inventory screen (sorry!) and there wasn't a key for it shown on the menu screen (i.e. the screen brought up by ESC).

Anyhow, on the topic of keys, the controls and movement felt really fluid, nice work on that.

Good luck with the development, will check back on new updates in the future

[theweirdn8]

Hey newgrounds is blocked on my network. Can you upload it to somewhere else? I will really like to play this masterpiece.

[melos]

Hey newgrounds is blocked on my network. Can you upload it to somewhere else? I will really like to play this masterpiece.

yeah dood. here you go:


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/53835171/game/intra6-16-demo-secure.swf

Well, the screen where you get the broom and then select it on your hot bar (I may have totally missed what had happened so tell me if I have, and then ignore my comments on the inventory :D ) I felt like I wanted to bring that screen back up to check stuff out because I was stuck at the time. But I didn't pay attention to what key brought up the inventory screen (sorry!) and there wasn't a key for it shown on the menu screen (i.e. the screen brought up by ESC).

Anyhow, on the topic of keys, the controls and movement felt really fluid, nice work on that.

Good luck with the development, will check back on new updates in the future

Ah I see. I (wrongly) assumed that people would understand pause to mean the menu - I renamed the "pause" to menu in the controls-setting-popup. Thanks a lot - that's actually super important! (nothing for you to be sorry for, it's my fault).

[Tosahri]

Great game. The tutorial felt a bit out of place though. The graphics fit very well with the Link's Awakening style gameplay.

[louisdeb]

Ah I see. I (wrongly) assumed that people would understand pause to mean the menu - I renamed the "pause" to menu in the controls-setting-popup. Thanks a lot - that's actually super important! (nothing for you to be sorry for, it's my fault).

I'm getting pretty confused, but glad I could help :D

[melos]

Great game. The tutorial felt a bit out of place though. The graphics fit very well with the Link's Awakening style gameplay.

What specifically felt out of place about the tutorial? The initial "set yr controls" thing? the awkward computer thing? or the mini dungeon after? etc etc.

Thanks for thinking my graphics fit   - i'm working with an artist now, and the game looks a lot better and reflective of the intended aesthetics, so they will be better next time around.