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[_Rob_]

The last few weeks have been spent polishing up and finishing the majority of Clive 'N' Wrench's 1930's level, Cajun Mob Bog. It's been an interesting world to design as it sees a mashup of stereotypical 1930's gangsters in a New York style section with a Cajun style bayou. However what has resulted is a really unique feeling level with lots of room for surprises, references and most importantly puns!

[oahda]

<3

why are the numbers mirrored tho (00:20)

[_Rob_]

  Ah, well when you collect a Watch the number value spawns and immediately starts spinning and jumping. In this case it just happened to spawn mid rotation!

[oahda]

Ooh. Maybe you could start them off always facing the camera?

[_Rob_]

Yeah, that's a fair shout. I will put it on my ever growing to-do list!

[oahda]

sorry! ;o; again, lots of love for this game!

[_Rob_]

No need to apologise, it makes my day when people care enough about the game to give constructive criticism!

[Polygonzo]

This game has come a long way, great work! Really digging the lighting and vibe on this new level.

[_Rob_]

Thanks Polygonzo, watching your progress on Happy Hell has been great for me too!

[io3 creations]

I haven't played Yooka-Laylee, but saw that many people have complained about control issues.  Could that be an issue for your game or is that "part" of the 3d platformer games.

[_Rob_]

It's difficult to say really, I've strived to make the controls as tight and natural as possible. They've been tweaked throughout development and are at a point where new people can pick it up and fall right into playing without issues.

Bad controls are certainly not an unavoidable part of 3D platformers, play something like Mario Galaxy or Jak & Daxter and you'd see what I mean!

[RobertGameDev]

Giving my 2 cents on the last video (I obviously know that this is WIP, just giving general feedback):
- The text box background is bringing the whole thing down, look into making it a bit better. (Actually the whole HUD needs a bit more polish in my opinion)
- The camera change when blowing up the wall is confusing, look at how Zelda does it: https://youtu.be/ix2W3-Bc71o?t=4m2s
- The video's fps is pretty low and makes the whole thing look choppy.
- The car audio sounds weird, maybe the sound of the car while idle is not as high as the turning sound?
- The music between areas changes too fast and it's a bit jarring, maybe having 5 seconds between the fade off of the previous music track and the fade in of the next one would make it better.

Overall the game looks great, keep up the good work!

[_Rob_]

The comments on the HUD are fair, that text box is definitely a place-holder! The camera definitely needs work, it's a constant battle to get right; no wonder so many 3D games end up with poor cameras, they are a difficult thing to get right!

The video frame rate is definitely an issue, the problem is my PC just struggles with running anything alongside screen recording software.

I appreciate all the feedback, thank you!


I've spent this weekend gone working to improve the overall character animation. Bringing it's cartoony qualities up to par with the cutscenes, really aiming for a Tex Avery feeling. The beauty is that this has drastically improved the overall feeling of control too, animation is do darn important!

[jctwood]

I still cannot get over how great the jumping animations are.

[TonyManfredonia]

I was just about to say; the "springy" quality to the jumping animations have me thinking *boing* in my head.

Great job on those! I'm by no means an animator, but I can see that a lot of time was spent into animating this fine duo!

[j-swan]

Going to echo the previous comments, that jumping animation is stellar. Thought it was a AAA game until I saw the comment.

[_Rob_]

Excellent, I'm really glad they're getting such a positive reception!

Having said that, I still wasn't 100% happy until now. Just a few more tweaks to the jumping animation and I think I'm finally comfortable with it, again I'm amazed just how much of an impact a simple tweak to the jump animation can make to the "feel" of the leap (especially when using Wrench as the secondary to the main jump arc)!



Along with that, I've also been working to improve their spin attack. It now has a nice tail-off tween that helps give a bit more weight to the attack as well as reinforcing the Tex Avery cartoon style I strive for (again, with Wrench as a secondary tool which is much inspired by Abu from Aladdin and Daxter).


Lastly I'm now working on the "Daucus Industries Mining Operation" section of "The Chimp, the Bag and the Bunny". Should provide plenty of opportunities for platforming challenges with moving parts!

[Zorg]

Out of curiosity: Did you play Yooka-Laylee? Do you think the critics were fair?

[_Rob_]

I did, and I do to a certain extent. I think some of the issues were down to expectations, mine were definitely too high. I'm very interested to see what Playtonic do next though!

[_Rob_]

I've spent a few days working on a horse that can serve as both an animated "prop" for the main level as well as the boss' (Annie Oaktree's)steed! Trying to go cartoony to fit in to CnW's world but also keep the twitch movement that a real horse makes.