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[diegzumillo]

Hi all!

I'm making a game temporarily called Apple and worm. I have a devlog for it here but I decided to create this new topic strictly for gathering feedback on the gameplay.

Here's something other than text:


The game is a platformer in a space with curved regions. Since the player has his own personal gravity direction it's perfectly plausible that you start in a place and then return to this same place upside down after going through some curved part. It's hard to explain but easy to understand once you start playing.

So far there is no attack and no ememies, and I'm still not sure if there will ever be. So the gameplay elements are: maze (find the right path) and puzzles (with buttons, boxes etc) and some mild platforming every now and then.

For more information on the game visit its devlog, but this should be enough


*** Click here to play pre-Alpha demo v 0.1 ***
*** Click here to play pre-Alpha demo v 0.11 ***
*** Click here to play pre-Alpha demo v 0.12 ***
*** Alpha demo v 0.13 webplayer and standalone ***
Controls: arrow keys and space bar if you are on a keyboard. D-pad and A if you have an xbox controller. And R to restart if you got yourself stuck (not supposed to though).

It has three five levels. The first and second are a gentle introduction to curves and controls. The second is maze-like, you have to find the right path to the end. The third has puzzle elements involving physics objects. And the last one introduces a new rotating block with a challenging puzzle.

Feedback I'm looking for this version:

• FUN. Did you have fun playing? yes/no? why?
• The curved regions, are they still a mystery after playing the first and second levels? Do you know what they do? Can you tell if a region is curved without stepping into them?
• Aything else you want to share :D

Things I know:

• I know the visuals look a bit empty at the moment so try to ignore the graphics, but feel free to give suggestions and advices.
• The controls are bugged, I know. It will get fixed. Just so you know, you can get stuck on pointy surfaces and the behavior on steep surfaces is odd.
• Moving fast through curved regions are extremely ugly, as the character and camera jiggles and shakes a lot. This is caused because of a bug in the current version of unity, it's beyond my control, but it's supposed to be fixed in the next public release (of unity).

If you are having difficulty beating the demo, see the walkthrough:

[jgrams]

I think it was fun, but the curved regions seem extremely buggy, so it was hard to tell.

In the first level, if you die jumping over the gap under the spikes (and you have to jump really low to avoid it), then sometimes the gravity is squiffy on the first straight stretch (tilts up and tries to dump you off when you run left, and flattens out again when you run right).

Then in the second level I actually got stuck and had to reload the whole thing. I was standing under the curved ladder thing, and it would not rotate the gravity at all. I forget how I died that I ended up there. But then there seemed to be nothing I could do. I could drop into the spikes or off the edge of the world, and then you respawn at the tree (sideways) and drop straight into the spikes repeatedly. You can make the edge if you try, but I still couldn't get the gravity to turn. And I got stuck down the long curved jump with the mushroom in that level as well. I managed to get out of that one, but couldn't tell...I think it was a bug, but maybe you designed it that way? Yeah...the second level seemed really glitchy.

The third level worked OK. It wasn't entirely clear without trying it what would happen with the box's gravity (so I guess that answers your "can you tell if a region is curved" question in the negative), but pushing it was the only thing to do, so that's OK.

Basically it seemed really interesting and probably fun and I'd love to see it taken further, but I couldn't tell which things were designed in and which were just bugs with the gravity rotating when it shouldn't, or not rotating when it should.

--Josh

[Udderdude]

There's some serious bugs with the camera when you die and hold down the arrow keys/jump, the camera just starts going crazy as soon as you respawn. 

[diegzumillo]

I wasn't expecting bugs to be reported other than iffy controls occasionally but, holy crap, that's a game breaker I completely overlooked! I know it's a little jumpy, but it should always work. It's fixed now, thanks for pointing it out

There's some serious bugs with the camera when you die and hold down the arrow keys/jump, the camera just starts going crazy as soon as you respawn. 

I couldn't reproduce this one. Maybe the camera bug you mention is the same as jgrams' bug? in that case it's not the camera that freaks out, it's the whole character that rotates.

Then in the second level I actually got stuck and had to reload the whole thing. I was standing under the curved ladder thing, and it would not rotate the gravity at all. I forget how I died that I ended up there. But then there seemed to be nothing I could do.

It's probably the same bug as the first one, I couldn't reproduce it though. But I also have to fix the position of that checkpoint, so players can't activate it in the wrong orientation, causing the death loop you experienced.

Thanks again, guys. I'll upload a fixed version ASAP.

[diegzumillo]

Updated pre alpha 

[collider]

Hey - wanted to drop in and tell ya I love the game idea. I'm going to try to give my impressions as I play...

Level 1 - the good: (this goes for the whole thing) - love the animation. It looks like you have a ways to go with the art, but I can see this looking great. You got a pretty decent character controller with Unity physics, the weight of the character feels pretty good. Not sure if you know of this guy's controller, but may be worth a look if you're still having issues:  http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/223395-WIP-Platformer-Pro

the not so good: This is just my opinion, but way too many leaps of faith. I would love to see levels designed around being able to see where you're going to land so the game is figuring out the maze/puzzles without dying to do it (unless you deserve it). It sucks killing yourself multiple times just to find the correct path.
The jump where your head hits the spikes is annoying... you have to stand in EXACTLY the right spot to get under it.
It seems like you get stuck in the angles that are a little bit past 90 degrees (like the little stair at the exit).

Level 2 I just fell pretty much into the exit hole.

Level 3 Another leap of faith fest. I also couldn't get past this, as I got stuck in a loop after I fell of the right hand side - It dropped me into the spikes in an endless loop.

FUN. Did you have fun playing? yes/no? why?
I can definitely see the promise of fun. Keep with it, this will be great!

The curved regions, are they still a mystery after playing the first and second levels? Do you know what they do? Can you tell if a region is curved without stepping into them?
The third level was a little bit weird on the J section where you could jump down (mushroom is on wall to the right), but couldn't rotate the world back and use the mushroom to get back up. You pretty much had to commit suicide. My feeling is there should always be a way out. Otherwise, it was pretty understandable that the world turns...

Aything else you want to share :D
Nope, hope this helps, can't wait to see more progress!

[diegzumillo]

Hi, collider. Thanks for the detailed feedback! I'm craving for feedback at this stage, I really appreciate you taking the time.

Leaps of faith have to go away forever. I just need to find them first. See, level design is definitely not my strong point and most of these issues are related to how I designed these levels.

On the first stage, where do you say there's a leap of faith? I designed this to be linear. That low jump part is there to teach to art of tapping the jump button (there will be on screen instructions eventually) but seems a bit harsh for a first level, a lot of people complained about it. I'll lift that ceiling a bit.

The third level has an infinite death loop. I thought I fixed this before but apparently it's still there  I'll add some arrows in this level. The idea of arrows here isn't to handhold the player through the maze and puzzles, but to assure him that it's safe to go that way. The way to beat this level is to jump over that "fence" with tiny spikes on it. But it's a long fall, it seems deadly. Actually, the second level was added to show that you can fall into curved regions (in the first level you walked through these regions) just to make this jump a little less scary.

About dead ends. It's possible to get stuck in some areas. Designing a level which that doesn't happen is quite difficult, but worth striving for though. I added a menu option to restart from the last checkpoint in any case.

The next update will be ready in a couple of days. Probably

[collider]

Yep - 1st level = no LOF (leaps of faith).
I noticed no difference between a long tap and a short tap... he seems to jump the same no matter the tap speed. That would definitely make a difference there.
Not sure that arrows are the answer... maybe if used sparsely...
I wonder if you gave the player the ability to see the whole map before they start would take care of some of it? (Don't know if you've ever played Krashlander, but that has a pinch/zoom thing before you start a level - I'm sure there are many other examples).

Anyway, I'll try to keep an eye out on the development on this, and pitch in when I can.

[diegzumillo]

I noticed no difference between a long tap and a short tap... he seems to jump the same no matter the tap speed. That would definitely make a difference there.

Ai ai ai. That doesn't sound right. Could be a bug or maybe the effect is too subtle. In my system I can jump over that gap back and forth. (But the ceiling is higher in the latest not-yet-uploaded version anyway)

Not sure that arrows are the answer... maybe if used sparsely...
I wonder if you gave the player the ability to see the whole map before they start would take care of some of it? (Don't know if you've ever played Krashlander, but that has a pinch/zoom thing before you start a level - I'm sure there are many other examples).

I actually prefer scarce arrows. Not to show the way but to ensure the player that that way is safe, getting rid of leaps of faith. But I agree with allowing the player to scan the surroundings to be a good idea. Right now the camera is as simple as it can get because I still need to wrap my head around how to move the camera so that the apple sprite's pixel grid is never misaligned with the screen. This is the kind of problem I didn't predict when starting to work on a 2d game. But eventually I'll make a smarter camera that will make the game more fun in several aspects.

Anyway, I'll try to keep an eye out on the development on this, and pitch in when I can.

Much appreciated The devlog is updated more frequently though, this topic is exclusive to test the alpha demo.

[diegzumillo]

Updated the demo. It's pretty much finished now. It showcases the main ideas of the game, and I can move on to work on the full version. I'll keep updating this one occasionally though.

[diegzumillo]

Made a walkthrough

:D