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[EvanGibbs]

Hello!

The game can be found here:

http://evanegibbs.com/bigpig

This is an early build of the newest game I’ve been working on! It’s a story of a hungry piggy trying to eat all the food she can (but not the vegetables of course!)

When the game loads (You might have to press the download “here” to play it, but it should play in the browser) you will be taken to the level select screen. If it’s the first time you can click on level one! Right now you can jump to any level that you want.

The stars are placeholders for optional collectible items in the game!

Keep in mind there is no sound at the moment, a couple of bugs, and a lot of placeholder art!

Thanks for taking the time to look at the game! I’d love any and all feedback that you have.

[Quicksand-S]

Did you have a prototype here before? I remember a game like this where you had to eat junk and avoid veggies, but I don't know what it was.

Anyway, I was surprised by the animation of the pig. I really liked it. It did seem a little jerky sometimes when I jumped, but it was mostly good.

If you press against a wall, you keep running even though you're not moving.

If you run off a ledge and there's a wall right in front of you, you hover in mid-air rather than just falling into the hole between the ledge and the wall.

The platforms that you can jump through didn't look like platforms at first. They're thin enough that they look like cables/wires/paths/whatever (like the lines in Super Mario World that platforms move along).

The level design seemed all right. My only real issue with the levels I played was the ease with which I could get into unwinnable states and have to restart. That was a little annoying, but not too terrible.

The "Grape shot" thing was unclear at first. Maybe it would be a good idea to force the player to shoot at a distance. I got through the first level without realizing the grape was a projectile, because I used it while right beside the blocks. I figured it out quickly next time I got it, but it was a bit weird to win a level and not realize exactly what I'd done.

Jumping bugged me a bit. I would've liked at least a little bit of control in the air.

Coffee made turning around on tiny platforms annoying because the pig would go flying even if I just tapped a key.

The falling blocks, when they've fallen, sometimes seem to get their collision boundaries messed up. The pig stood halfway inside them when on top. It's pretty inconsistent. In level 35, only one block had that issue.

"Sticky" is awesome. Loved it. That first level with it was a really nice intro to that mechanic too. Nice work.

I wasn't a fan of the donut power at all, and the early levels using it were full of easy ways to get stuck and have to reset.

The image for "heavy" looks like it's spraying blood.

"Float" is pretty cool, but some of the jumps seemed to be almost pixel-perfect. It'd be nice if the pig floated just a tiny bit more.

At one point, at the bottom of level 24 while heavy, I let go of a direction key and then when I pressed it again, the pig just ran in place. I had to jump in order to move again.

Bouncing in level 25, I was just under the edge of the ledge near the doorway and when the pig's head hit it, she turned left and flew in that direction for some reason. It was easily reproduced but seemed too weird to be intentional. Sometimes similar things happened when landing on yellow-coated ground.

Pressing against a wall with the jello power sometimes caused it to be placed inside the wall.

I could jump while running against the side of a brown block, as if I was on a ledge. I used that twice in level 32 and it almost seemed necessary (I got a triple-jump out of it). It was the only way I managed to beat level 35 as well.

Why can't the pig fall into one-block wide pits? Level 34 just shows off weirdness in the game mechanics and doesn't actually have any challenge. I wasn't a fan of it.

The camera couldn't keep up with caffeine+ice.

Sometimes the ice power fails to cover ground.

I got some crazy slowdown in levels 31 and 35.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. The variety of powers was great, and the level design was good, apart from the ease with which levels can become unwinnable. I played through the entire game in one shot (except level 27, which I didn't manage to beat, and level 31 where slowdown made it pretty much impossible to finish). I think some of the later levels could be made trickier. The difficulty curve kinda gets strange near the end, but it never got really bad. For the most part, I liked this a lot. Nice work.

[EvanGibbs]

Wow, thank you so much for the feedback! That is so incredibly helpful. I remember you!! You gave me feedback on a game like a year ago! That is so cool that you so consistently give such great feedback! Seriously thank you so much.

Did you have a prototype here before? I remember a game like this where you had to eat junk and avoid veggies, but I don't know what it was.

Haha I was going to write 'no that wasn't me' then I remembered that I did post a prototype like that! It was this one: http://evanegibbs.com/post/94558294211/my-first-platformer
That is so cool that you remembered that!

Anyway, I was surprised by the animation of the pig. I really liked it. It did seem a little jerky sometimes when I jumped, but it was mostly good.

Thanks!! I'll look into the jumping animation.

If you press against a wall, you keep running even though you're not moving.

Yeah, that's a problem in some spots because of how the blocks are set up. I plan on fixing that once I've finished designing all of the levels. I think that caused a lot of the problems in your playtesting unfortunately. I didn't realize it would be so exploitable! I'll definitely fix that by the next build I put online.

If you run off a ledge and there's a wall right in front of you, you hover in mid-air rather than just falling into the hole between the ledge and the wall.

Good catch.

The platforms that you can jump through didn't look like platforms at first. They're thin enough that they look like cables/wires/paths/whatever (like the lines in Super Mario World that platforms move along).

Yeah that is definitely placeholder art. I should have made the placeholder at least a little more readable! Will definitely fix that.

The level design seemed all right. My only real issue with the levels I played was the ease with which I could get into unwinnable states and have to restart. That was a little annoying, but not too terrible.

I've been worried about this concept, even asked people about it on twitter. I'm still struggling with it. I can't think of a more elegant solution because it's a puzzle game. I know that was a big criticism of escape goat 2, but that never really bugged me about that game. I tried to make it as easy and quick to restart as possible to alleviate that.

The "Grape shot" thing was unclear at first. Maybe it would be a good idea to force the player to shoot at a distance. I got through the first level without realizing the grape was a projectile, because I used it while right beside the blocks. I figured it out quickly next time I got it, but it was a bit weird to win a level and not realize exactly what I'd done.

Makes sense. I'll see if I can help that, but I don't think I can force the player away from the blocks before shooting... I'll see what I can do though!

Jumping bugged me a bit. I would've liked at least a little bit of control in the air.

Coffee made turning around on tiny platforms annoying because the pig would go flying even if I just tapped a key.

I can try to play with the feel a little bit, but all the levels are designed around how she controls so I don't know how much I can change her actual trajectory.

The falling blocks, when they've fallen, sometimes seem to get their collision boundaries messed up. The pig stood halfway inside them when on top. It's pretty inconsistent. In level 35, only one block had that issue.

Nice catch! I can fix that.

"Sticky" is awesome. Loved it. That first level with it was a really nice intro to that mechanic too. Nice work.

Thanks!! :D

The image for "heavy" looks like it's spraying blood.

Uh oh :O

"Float" is pretty cool, but some of the jumps seemed to be almost pixel-perfect. It'd be nice if the pig floated just a tiny bit more.

Actually, I think that's a perfect solution.

Bouncing in level 25, I was just under the edge of the ledge near the doorway and when the pig's head hit it, she turned left and flew in that direction for some reason. It was easily reproduced but seemed too weird to be intentional. Sometimes similar things happened when landing on yellow-coated ground.

Thanks, I'll try that.

Pressing against a wall with the jello power sometimes caused it to be placed inside the wall.

This will get fixed with the whole block layout thing I mentioned at the beginning, so that's good.

I could jump while running against the side of a brown block, as if I was on a ledge. I used that twice in level 32 and it almost seemed necessary (I got a triple-jump out of it). It was the only way I managed to beat level 35 as well.

Oh no! That's not how you're supposed to beat those levels. Will definitely need to fix that! (would have fixed it anyways, but that is some serious incentive. Those two levels are probably the hardest puzzles and I'll try to make them last.)

Why can't the pig fall into one-block wide pits? Level 34 just shows off weirdness in the game mechanics and doesn't actually have any challenge. I wasn't a fan of it.

I think I agree with that. I'll play around with it and probably end up removing it.

I got some crazy slowdown in levels 31 and 35.

Did you try changing the quality? If it still has slowdown I will certainly work on that.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. The variety of powers was great, and the level design was good, apart from the ease with which levels can become unwinnable. I played through the entire game in one shot (except level 27, which I didn't manage to beat, and level 31 where slowdown made it pretty much impossible to finish). I think some of the later levels could be made trickier. The difficulty curve kinda gets strange near the end, but it never got really bad. For the most part, I liked this a lot. Nice work.

Thanks so much! I'm definitely planning an re-ordering the levels, especially at the end. Thanks so much again for the feedback, I can't tell you how much it's helped me! Seriously it means a lot that you took the time to play it, and made such comprehensive and well thought out notes!

[Quicksand-S]

Ah, so that WAS you. I thought it seemed a bit weird that you'd copy such specific things from another game.

I tried to make it as easy and quick to restart as possible to alleviate that.

Yeah, and that's good. A lot of people won't mind at all, so I don't think you have to worry too much about it, but there are things you might want to consider doing.

-Set up "rules" for each puzzle, behind-the-scenes. If the player does something that goes against the rules, then give them a prompt to restart (because they've made the puzzle un-winnable). For most levels, this sort of thing could be as simple as making sure the player uses one power before another. You might still want a slight delay in case players realize on their own, because it wouldn't be great to basically say "YOU FAIL" instantly whenever a player picks up the wrong thing.

-Keep back-and-forth to a minimum. At least a few levels seem to require players to get a power, then go to the other end of the level using it to grab another power, then go all the way back to the start for a third. It's not too bad to do once, but not much fun if you fall off a platform and have no way to get back to what you were doing. Level 32 was like that for me. Maybe I was doing it wrong, but any other order I try doesn't work. I end up having to use the dash to cross the entire level in the air. Then I smash a bunch of blocks, but sometimes the controls don't respond right away and I fall to the bottom and have to start over.

Actually, did I forget to mention the control responsiveness? I had some issues last time where the pig wouldn't always jump when I pressed the button. It might be a case of the pig looking like it's on the ground a moment before the game actually realizes it is and allows jumping. I don't know.

Did you try changing the quality?

No. I honestly didn't think of it, but I can't see any reason for slowdown to occur when playing a game like this on my computer. There's just not that much to draw or compute, and my computer has no trouble with much more CPU- and graphics-intensive games.

Anyway, there's no slowdown now so maybe my computer was doing something in the background last time that it didn't tell me about.

When I went back to check the slowdown just now, I noticed a bug in level 35. Here's how to find it (I checked that it was possible to reproduce):

-Jump over the fourth block so it doesn't fall (Maybe it works with any. I don't know.)
-Go all the way to the end, then go back and grab the donut.
-Roll/jump over to the right side of the empty space where the block didn't fall.
-Roll left toward the pit then roll right before going over the ledge.
-If you did it right, you'll seem to hit an invisible wall once you reach the center of the block you're on, and you won't be able to move right at all anymore until you do something else. It might take a few tries going back and forth. I'm not sure if it has to do with your speed or just your position.

Also note that block #3 is the one that has messed up collisions.

Seriously it means a lot that you took the time to play it, and made such comprehensive and well thought out notes!

Happy to help.

[dphsw]

The second level confused me because food had been a collectible in the first level, and I assumed it was still collectible, but now it was deadly.

I get a lot of slowdown whenever the screen is scrolling.  (In Unity that would be likely to be caused by moving a bunch of static objects instead of just moving the camera, I don't know if a similar problem could be the cause in Flash?)

Controls aren't very responsive either.  It's particularly noticeable on level 4 where you have to jump and shoot - I can't shoot by just tapping 'X' briefly, I have to hold it for about half a second.  That was a problem when jumping across gaps too actually - controls don't seem to take effect until about half a second after pressing them.