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[Thecoolestnerdguy]

I genuinely LOL'd at that gif! :loli:
And the music is great!

[Savick]

Your sense of humor combined with smooth animation and likable characters makes me smile. 

[diegzumillo]

Turns out the first iteration of the alpha demo is hard as nails. Jeez, designing levels is really tough. I thought I designed a gentle introduction to the concepts of the game with some simple puzzles but nope.

[diegzumillo]

All right, this version is not something I would like everyone to play as it is so rough, it might pass the wrong idea about the game But if anyone who follows this thread wants to give me some feedback, I created a thread just for that in the playtesting forums here's the link to the topic:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=39123.0

And to the pre-alpha demo V 0.1:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8011761/AlphaDemoV0.1/AlphaDemoV0.1.html
(check the thread for updated versions)

[DarthBenedict]

The demo was pretty promising, but the camera movement felt a bit jerky. Maybe interpolate its position + rotation to smooth it out a bit?

[diegzumillo]

I have plans to make the camera a little smarter than simply glue to the player and never let go. But the movement needs to be quantized to the apple's pixel grid, otherwise it completely mangles the sprite. Not on my priority list though, is it game breaking in your opinion?

Did you play the whole thing?

[DarthBenedict]

I have plans to make the camera a little smarter than simply glue to the player and never let go. But the movement needs to be quantized to the apple's pixel grid, otherwise it completely mangles the sprite. Not on my priority list though, is it game breaking in your opinion?

Did you play the whole thing?

I think so (Does it go back to the first level at the end? I stopped after getting to a level that looked pretty familiar)

The jerky camera isn't gamebreaking or anything like that, but smoothing it out seems like a way to make the game more fun with very little effort.

[diegzumillo]

Yeah, that's the whole demo, it returns to the first level. Knowing that you finished the thing is a relief, pretty much everyone I showed this demo got stuck on the second level. It wasn't meant to be that hard.

All right, thanks for the feedback!

[jgrams]

Knowing that you finished the thing is a relief, pretty much everyone I showed this demo got stuck on the second level. It wasn't meant to be that hard.

It did take me a bit to realize that gravity would change falling around the outside of the curvy mushroom bounce in the second level. I initially just thought going out there would result in "falling off the end of the world" (though of course there's no warning sign). But I figured it out after a couple times around (it was the only place left to go that I hadn't tried).

Maybe you could add something in an early level where you fall around the outside of something instead of just walking around? With a big arrow to show "drop off here"? I think my problem was that I associated the gravity changing with walking around something rather than moving through a space. So if you show that mechanic first... Or maybe there could be a subtle sky texture which would warp around to show where the gravity changes?

Edit: maybe a very minimal level like this?



--Josh

[diegzumillo]

That's a nice idea. I tried to "fix" this part by adding welcoming grass and flowers... "it's ok, you can jump. Look. Fowers" but yeah, I think another level with an inevitable fall should help illustrate another scenario with curves.

Leaps of faith are rarely good in these games. I think that even after showing him that he can fall in some places, some falls, like on the second level, need a sign or something.

[diegzumillo]

Knowing that you finished the thing is a relief, pretty much everyone I showed this demo got stuck on the second level. It wasn't meant to be that hard.

It did take me a bit to realize that gravity would change falling around the outside of the curvy mushroom bounce in the second level. I initially just thought going out there would result in "falling off the end of the world" (though of course there's no warning sign). But I figured it out after a couple times around (it was the only place left to go that I hadn't tried).

Maybe you could add something in an early level where you fall around the outside of something instead of just walking around? With a big arrow to show "drop off here"? I think my problem was that I associated the gravity changing with walking around something rather than moving through a space. So if you show that mechanic first... Or maybe there could be a subtle sky texture which would warp around to show where the gravity changes?

Edit: maybe a very minimal level like this?



--Josh

I didn't see your edit before. Cool idea  I'll go with something simple like that where the only choice at the beginning of the level is jumping.

[diegzumillo]

It's been a while without an actual log entry.

I'm currently trying to decide on whether physics objects should be affected by curved regions or not.

Up until now I've had two functionalities regarding dynamic objects. The first is regular dynamic object (which is not affected by curves) the second is a special circumstance (range, basically) in which the object becomes linked with the apple and changes his gravity according to the apple's gravity. The linked object can be manipulated by the player by simply looking for curved regions and making the object fall etc. I haven't implemented the linked object, but here's a gif showing what happens when pushing a regular object into a curved region:



But now I'm starting to wonder if regular dynamic objects would be more interesting if they reacted to the curved regions just like the apple. On one hand I think it's fun to push a box until reaching a curve and seeing the box starting to lift from the ground, and it's useful for designing puzzles. On the other hand if the box follows the curves I think it would also be useful in designing puzzles and might seem less arbitrary to the player that the curved regions are not specific to the player.

Then there's the alpha demo. I have a pre-alpha being tested in the playtesting forum. I really want this alpha demo to be enjoyable, so it's my priority right now. I have 4 levels done (one is not in the pre alpha I posted) and I think I'll add one more. After that it only needs sound effects, an intro and a closing screen, then the alpha demo is done. It shouldn't take long now.

I discovered the source of jerkiness when going through loops, it's a bug in the current version of unity. There's a function called OnTriggerStay2D that should be called every frame but it does not, whenever the function isn't called the next time it is called it has to correct for a larger displacement unaccounted for, and that creates jerky movements. This bug will be fixed in the upcoming unity updates.

[migrafael]

Adorable! The link for the demo on the first page is 404 unfortunatly.

[jgrams]

Adorable! The link for the demo on the first page is 404 unfortunatly.

The current one is linked from the playtesting thread:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=39123.0

[diegzumillo]

Ops. I'll update the first post with that.

[diegzumillo]

Alpha demo is moving along nicely. The next update will probably be final.
Things left to do:

• Finish intro and ending message screens.
• Get sound effects working.
• Just a few more visual effects and decorations. Not trivial ones, I think a decoration that bends helps the player to read curved regions.
  

Not sure if I'll do it for the alpha demo, but the game really needs fuller backgrounds. Clouds and islands in the distance etc.

Added some rudimentary light and shadow decoration (and dust particles).
~

The intro screen without the text yet:

[diegzumillo]

Big news!

I'm calling the alpha demo "done", as much as an alpha demo can be called done. Play it in your browser or download the standalone version. The browser player cuts some of the view area, I don't know how I didn't notice that before. It's totally playable but I recommend the standalone. Some things, like starting the level with the end in sight, was made using the standalone resolution in mind.

If anyone knows of a better way to do this without using dropbox, let me know. I know nothing about hosting things online.

Musician on board: Raoul Hamilton. Check out his work here.

That's it for now. I'll be taking a vacation from this project, I can't stand that happy grin any more! Also, I'm stumped on some important design choices to be made, and some time off will probably clear my ideas.

And... there was something else I wanted to say. I always forget what it was only to later remember and edit the post. So, see you on the next edit 

[diegzumillo]

Since some people can't finish the demo, I decided to get a walkthrough up on youtube. Here's the link

[diegzumillo]

Well, long time since I did this but here I am. Almost a year. Project's not dead, I just have less free time since I started my PhD.

Here's the situation: fixed most of the movement bugs. Now I'm experimenting with visual clues for the curved regions. My original idea was to have patches of textures curved, like grass and fauna, cave walls etc. In the demo and screenshots I took so far you can see grass doing that, that was the intention. In practice this seems too subtle to be noticeable. Most people (all of them probably) didn't even notice grass was only curved in the curved regions. The situation could be different if I made more textures other than that puny grass layer, but I don't know.

But this is a puzzle game, information has to be clear. I think it's worth compromising aesthetics for that so I'm trying this now:



Not subtle at all. Too ugly? but does it work at least? let me know your thoughts

[crusty]

It's back!  I think the grid looks good -- makes me think of those space-time grids that show the pull of gravity around a planet.

Have you considered trying some kind of unobtrusive background particles that always fell downwards?