next »

[nanotie]

Jump bug fixed : now I can't fly to the end of the world anymore !


Ok, 45/50 bots saved now :

* 1 left in level 9 : I'll get it soon, no pb.
* 2 left in level 10 : I see how to do it, no pb. (the idea of this level is great)
* 2 left in level 6 : The fish part I can pass but I don't see how I can pass the last two icy platforms with blue tanks without being hit... 

For me, there were a couple hiccups in the difficulty ramp. Level 6 was more difficult for me than 5 or 7, and I found level 9 to be more challenging than level 10. I didn't like level 6 as much as the rest (though it was still good  ), but all the rest of the levels were really fun and varied. 

I second Sparky's comment on level 6 which seems to me the hardest of all levels in term of bringing the bots home.
Question : is there a good timing to pass the last two platforms ? Ice makes you jump at 45° and you can't pass above the tanks without touching them.


About the jumping image :
The booster thing feels right, that's better than before.
But when the robot is falling you get the walking animation ! It looks like the robot is walking in the air... 
I would add a non-animated image for falling (like the original robot sprite)




Finally... do I get a little special screen or something if I get it 100% finished ? That would be nice. 

Also I would add a little screen when you beat level 10 for the first time to tell the player he will be rewarded to bring all the 50 bots home.

You could also add a time challenge like being rewarded for going below 10 minutes total. I don't even know if that's possible because I took my time to complete the levels as nothing encouraged me for speeding up. This game would be suited for speedruns too don't you think ?

[Jonathan Whiting]

* 2 left in level 6 : The fish part I can pass but I don't see how I can pass the last two icy platforms with blue tanks without being hit... 

I second Sparky's comment on level 6 which seems to me the hardest of all levels in term of bringing the bots home.

Question : is there a good timing to pass the last two platforms ? Ice makes you jump at 45° and you can't pass above the tanks without touching them.

As per the section with the fish it's a lot easier to pass if you take it *slow*.  This section does however seem to be causing a lot of problems/irritation, so I suspect it's probably overly difficult for its stage in the game.  Sounds like I maybe need to do some work on tightening up the gameplay of level 6 generally.

About the jumping image :
The booster thing feels right, that's better than before.
But when the robot is falling you get the walking animation ! It looks like the robot is walking in the air... 
I would add a non-animated image for falling (like the original robot sprite)

That's a very sound idea, I should definitely do it, cheers.

Finally... do I get a little special screen or something if I get it 100% finished ? That would be nice. 

Also I would add a little screen when you beat level 10 for the first time to tell the player he will be rewarded to bring all the 50 bots home.

Sadly you wont, not yet at least.

They're both fine ideas, I get the feeling I should spend a little time doing a few (animated?) 'story' style screens.  Maybe one for the start, one after level 5, one after level 10, and one after hitting 100%.  Not the sort of thing I find particularly inspiring to make, but I reckon it would pay off significantly in terms of reward, feedback etc.

You could also add a time challenge like being rewarded for going below 10 minutes total. I don't even know if that's possible because I took my time to complete the levels as nothing encouraged me for speeding up. This game would be suited for speedruns too don't you think ?

Oh yes, it most definitely is.  The reason I put the timer in the game so prominently and maintain scores for best time is to encourage speedrunning the levels.  If I'm going to put reward screens in for other important game completion moments then a speed challenge one would be excellent too.  It's possible to get *way* below 10 mins, check this out:



.. and I'm pretty certain a dedicated, skilled and inventive player could sneak under 06:30:00

You end up having to do some interesting trade-off's with losing and/or missing baby robots in order to complete levels swiftly.  I rather like it anyway.

<edit>I'm going to be away from my computer for about a week now, so please don't be discouraged if you don't hear anything from me for a while, I'll make a point of replying to anything/everything when I get back</edit>

[JasonPickering]

just played it last night and thought it was great. after reading through I had a few comments and suggestions. (not sure if I played the newest build)

1. take a look at deadspace, there is no in game hud and the characters life meter is on his spine. could a meter on the jetpack work to let the player know how they are doing on fuel. very simply. I know the sprites are uber minimalistic so thats why I ask.

2. yes to speed runs. That would be great.

3. will the player get anything when they hit 100 percent. I would suggest looking at rewards other games give for inspiration. Meatboy gives you new player sprites, fez you can get different hats. these are kind of shallow, and just graphical, but its always fun when you can give the main character a tophat, and should be rather simple to add.

4. I agree that the controls need to be a little bit quicker, not sonic level, just sped up a tiny bit.

well i think thats everything for now. keep up the good work.

[Virtanen]

I just wanted to say this game looks really good
and that in the third level, it is possible to get killed by a flying shuriken even after
you've reached the goal and it says 'level complete'. That could be considered either as bug or a feature.

[Jonathan Whiting]

just played it last night and thought it was great. after reading through I had a few comments and suggestions. (not sure if I played the newest build)

1. take a look at deadspace, there is no in game hud and the characters life meter is on his spine. could a meter on the jetpack work to let the player know how they are doing on fuel. very simply. I know the sprites are uber minimalistic so thats why I ask.

Hehe, it wasn't *quite* the newest build you played then.  I had just put exactly that sort of feedback in for both the jetpack and the jammer :D

3. will the player get anything when they hit 100 percent. I would suggest looking at rewards other games give for inspiration. Meatboy gives you new player sprites, fez you can get different hats. these are kind of shallow, and just graphical, but its always fun when you can give the main character a tophat, and should be rather simple to add.

They don't at the moment, but they definitely should.  I think I do need to spend some time on shallow-but-cool things in the game, they end up having quite a large impact.

Thanks for your input

I just wanted to say this game looks really good
and that in the third level, it is possible to get killed by a flying shuriken even after
you've reached the goal and it says 'level complete'. That could be considered either as bug or a feature.

I believe I've fixed that bug, although the fix might not be present in the latest download.  It's a good spot anyway, so cheers 

[Loren Schmidt]

This game is a lot of fun. I've got almost all the robots now. I'm only missing a few in level 6.

By the way, thanks for being accommodating about the sawblade idea. I've got them up and running in the game I'm working on, and I'm currently playing with level designs that include them. Actually I may want to go back and retroactively add them to the levels I've already completed.

I wonder if I interpreted the idea accurately, or if I accidentally did them differently? What I did is travel one cell forward, then do a check. They try to find a new destination, checking neighboring cells for obstructions in this order: forward, right, left, back. They then move into the first available cell they found.

I commend your efforts to add a bit of spit and polish to an already fun game.
Cheers!

[laserghost]

It's very fun! I heard about it here: http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2009/01/03/fun-for-free-jed/

I liked how your hp was how many babies you collected. And the music was nice, definitely. I thought the sawblades went too fast, though, because it was hard to outrun them. The background flipping mechanic is awesome. There was this one part that I thought I would run out of jetpack and fall to my death but at the last second I hit a  background switch and saved myself on a platform that appeared under me! It was sweet.

[Jonathan Whiting]

By the way, thanks for being accommodating about the sawblade idea. I've got them up and running in the game I'm working on, and I'm currently playing with level designs that include them. Actually I may want to go back and retroactively add them to the levels I've already completed.

I wonder if I interpreted the idea accurately, or if I accidentally did them differently? What I did is travel one cell forward, then do a check. They try to find a new destination, checking neighboring cells for obstructions in this order: forward, right, left, back. They then move into the first available cell they found.

No problem at all, as before I hardly believe it's my own.

Yep, that behaviour is pretty much exactly how they work in Jed.  Seems to work well for me anyway.

It's very fun! I heard about it here: http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2009/01/03/fun-for-free-jed/

Cheers for the heads up, a friend linked me to this just a short while before I saw your post, but thanks for the thought anyway

I thought the sawblades went too fast, though, because it was hard to outrun them.

As far as I'm concerned they're meant to be *fast*, dealing with them is generally meant to be about timing your dashes between them well.  I fear if I tweaked the speed down it'd make these timing sections too easy, but it is perhaps simply a matter of taste.  Anyone else have any feeling regarding saw blade speed?  If it *is* 'broken' I ought to fix it.

The background flipping mechanic is awesome. There was this one part that I thought I would run out of jetpack and fall to my death but at the last second I hit a  background switch and saved myself on a platform that appeared under me! It was sweet.

I'm really glad you're enjoying it

[JasonPickering]

so have your reached your final version yet.

[AndyWiltshireBPA]

Just played it now, and had to say that I love the switching between foreground and background areas, totally makes the game.

EDIT: Agree with guys above that the Saws/Stars seem a bit fast and I had to turn off the music as it was a bit full on, probably alright at a lower level, so a volume control might be good. Overall a good game, if it was setup with a great retro story then I would have spent more time playing it, as I felt it needed something extra to really draw me in once you get over the novelty factor.

[Jonathan Whiting]

so have your reached your final version yet.

Not yet, real life has been getting in the way, but I'm working on it at the moment.  Fingers crossed I'll have a true proper release this weekend

Vague new feature list should be:

• Unlockables (maybe including a challenge level)
• Storybook
• Primitive Level Editor (well, more like information on how to use the editor)
• Various tweaks to things

So hopefully there's some stuff to look forward too.

EDIT: Agree with guys above that the Saws/Stars seem a bit fast and I had to turn off the music as it was a bit full on, probably alright at a lower level, so a volume control might be good.

Hmm, it might be worth me just knocking down the volume globaly too, it is a bit loud.

Overall a good game, if it was setup with a great retro story then I would have spent more time playing it, as I felt it needed something extra to really draw me in once you get over the novelty factor.

Actually one of the things I've been working in for the final release is a storybook.  It couldn't be considered a 'great retro story', but it should be better than nothing.

Cheers for the interest guys

[increpare]

I haven't finished this yet.  I do quite like it; I think that...more than one music track would be good - I find the current one very lovely indeed, but a bit hard going to listen to over and over for an extended period of time.  I like the platforming feel as well.  The graphics are lovely, and the transition between back/front is weel done, I think.  It's also hard, but I guess I can deal with that...

[nanotie]

Vague new feature list should be:

• Unlockables (maybe including a challenge level)
• Storybook
• Primitive Level Editor (well, more like information on how to use the editor)
• Various tweaks to things

So hopefully there's some stuff to look forward too.

That's all good news ! 

I almost forgot to tell you I had (and still have) this statistic bug :
 

I was going for a speedrun and then my stats were all mixed up. 
I don't know what triggered it though.

As suggested above it would be nice to have a different song for level 5 and 10 as they both feature a boss inducing a different kind of mood.

[Jonathan Whiting]

I almost forgot to tell you I had (and still have) this statistic bug :

I was going for a speedrun and then my stats were all mixed up. 
I don't know what triggered it though.

Oooh urr that's not good!  I've never seen anything like that happen before, and also, annoyingly it's the sort of thing that'll be incredible tough to debug without knowing a way to reproduce it. Eep.

more than one music track would be good - I find the current one very lovely indeed, but a bit hard going to listen to over and over for an extended period of time.

As suggested above it would be nice to have a different song for level 5 and 10 as they both feature a boss inducing a different kind of mood.

Interestingly something I accidently missed off the features list was adding more music.  My brother is *very* good at music stuff (unlike me), and he's said I can use some of his tracks in the game, so that'll be ace.  Haven't quite decided how/where I'm going to use the tracks yet though.. Watch this space I guess.

[Jonathan Whiting]

Firstly, please excuse the double posting, I wouldn't usually, however:

Jed v1.00 is released!

There's lots of new stuff (unlockables, better music, loads of tweaks etc. etc.)  So yeah, check it out and tell me what you think

http://jwhiting.nfshost.com/coding/jed_1_00.zip

[JasonPickering]

looking great. couple of things though.

there is sound when you jump, shoot, and collect stuff but no sound when you use the jetpack.

second in level 4 I jumped from a platform to another platform in the background, I hit the switcher in midair. I did not make the jump though and landed in the water. normally I would be sent back to the last platform I was on, but it was in the foreground now, so I just kind of stayed in the water until I ran out of guys and died.

overall the music is cool, and I got my first unlockable. WOOO.

[Loren Schmidt]

I finally got 100%! Yay!

I still haven't got all the unlockables, though!
This game is great.

I noticed you took an axe to the end of stage 6. I almost want to go back and try to get all the robots in it in one of the old builds now.

Cheers for 1.0!

[Jonathan Whiting]

looking great. couple of things though.

there is sound when you jump, shoot, and collect stuff but no sound when you use the jetpack.

That is true.. I'd thought about putting a jetpack sound in, but wrote it off thinking that it'd just be too damn annoying to have something playing continually.  Perhaps though I could get away with just announcing boost starts (and ends?) with sfx.

second in level 4 I jumped from a platform to another platform in the background, I hit the switcher in midair. I did not make the jump though and landed in the water. normally I would be sent back to the last platform I was on, but it was in the foreground now, so I just kind of stayed in the water until I ran out of guys and died.

Ahhhh, that's how that bug still happens for people sometimes, that makes a lot of sense.  Will definitely fix this, major thanks for the informative write up!

I finally got 100%! Yay!

Congrats! :D

I noticed you took an axe to the end of stage 6. I almost want to go back and try to get all the robots in it in one of the old builds now.

Yep, it was almost universally complained about, so I thought I'd better nerf it a little (to be fair the blue robots on the ice at the end were rather harsh).

Cheers 

[eddietree]

Really cool game. And for some reason, games in SDL are extra awesome..  :D

However, not sure if it's been said, but the jumping feels a bit off..

[Binarynova]

Hi! Just wanted to say I'm loving the game!

I am having an interesting issue though. I don't know if it's the game or my laptop (none of the other games I have on here do it) but after I play Jed everything is fine until I reboot my laptop. After rebooting Vista's resolution is set to the resolution I last played Jed at. I don't know if this is related, but every time I play I need to tell the game to go fullscreen.

Anyway, those might just be little nitpicky things. I love the game though. Keep up the good work!