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[Mothil]

Akiro is now playable through this link (also added in the first post):

http://mothil.itch.io/akiro?secret=ni8mz3YkdyUMFyYtTRiVsraNY

I appreciate any and all feedback.

[Mothil]

I'm playing around with some designs. I've been thinking about the idea of having the player unlock 'skins' as they get points. That would be fun. Here's a blooper inspired one:

[Greipur]

Your control method is a curious one, although I found it frustrating I think you have something good going. After a few seconds I was beginning to think in curves instead of thinking of axes, and that was enjoyable! I suggest that perhaps the avatar should move with smaller increments and/or give the player some kind of arrow to show the direction of where you will swim.

[Mothil]

Thank you for the reply and feedback! A directional arrow sounds reasonable. I will make sure to try add one to see how it works. Originally the radius was a lot smaller, and I got some feedback saying I should increase it. I'm going to experiment a lot with how big the radius will be, but that will come later. I have tons of stuff to fix first.

[JobLeonard]

Unity Web Player is not agreeing with my Linux browsers, sadly.

@Greipur: so it controls like the Slylandro Probe in Star Control 2?

[Mothil]

Playing around with some puffer designs. I felt it needed a small update, as it didn't really fit the game colors. This one is a small nudge in the direction I want, but it still needs work.

[Greipur]

Unity Web Player is not agreeing with my Linux browsers, sadly.

Perhaps this will help you?

@Greipur: so it controls like the Slylandro Probe in Star Control 2?

Haha, It's a reference I actually should understand. I've played SC2 quite a bit, but I never got around to surf around with the Slylandro ship.



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By the way, Mothil. I just remembered Adam Saltsman's game Capsule, I think you'd get some inspiration for your metagame in that one. Of course, the tone is very different, it's a very claustrophobic and creepy game, but I think you'd find it interesting.

[JobLeonard]

Thanks for the tip, I'll have a look at that later today after work.

[Mothil]

Greipur: Indeed it was interesting! I'll have to look more at that later.

EDIT: Currently working on the tiling system. I can't for the life of me get it to work correctly. It's an improvement though, seeing as they now tile three at a time in one direction.

[Mothil]

I got some amazing help from a guy, so I'm now able to tile it correctly. Here it is in action:

[Mothil]

Tiling works perfectly, and I'm redesigning the swordfish. In the gif it's a piranha, but I'm not convinced that's a good choice either.

[teefal]

My daughter (aged 9) is playing your game right now.

* "The pufferfish looks a creeper"

* "I'm orbiting a pufferfish and it's not attacking me!"

* "I'm swimming, I'm swimming, I'm swimming up"

* "The octopus ... NO!"

Lots of yays and no's and "nom, nom, nom".

Been going a full five minutes so far.

[JobLeonard]

Ha, that sounds exactly what Mothil seems to be going for :D

_{Isn't it technically a squid?}

[Mothil]

Awww teefal, you and your daughter just made my morning. Very cute quotes here, and I think it's cool that she found out about that you can orbit certain enemies and not get attacked. This is actually just a flaw, as I have yet to fix that. (The enemies follow the center of the radius Akiro swims around. 

[Mothil]

Semi-quick sketch of a background. I made this palette (This is the first palette I've ever made, by the way).





EDIT: I'm currently reading about pixel art and color theory, so hopefully I will get better the following weeks, so the background is actually pleasing to look at.

[TheWing]

Ooo I like those colors, looking really nice!

Making palettes is a nice thingle, and the thing I'd want to see in these palettes is a bit of a hue shift.. as in, instead of being just one color per gradient, make the color go from say, green into a greenish blue or something like that. Not too much, and I guess just playing around with it will be the best way!

Great work on a simple enough idea o/

[Mothil]

Thank you! I'm going to take your advice later and make a palette with more hue shift.

[Mothil]

Working on the shrimp movement now, and I have to say: The moment I got them to move slightly correctly, the game got a much better feel. It's still buggy, so I'm going to wait with uploading a gif until I've fixed it.

[Mothil]

I really don't want to know how many hours it took me to have a semi-working shrimp movement. Too many hours. Well, at least it works now! Some of it at least. And I also experimented with the background. I don't really like it at all, and I think the game needs a simpler background to fit with the "soul" of the game. What are your thoughts?

[Mothil]

New playable at:

(added old chip music made by myself, blue background)

http://mothil.itch.io/akiro?secret=ni8mz3YkdyUMFyYtTRiVsraNY

This screen space emulates Iphone resolution. Is the width making the game more frustrating?