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[Rhatos]

Hey everyone it's been a while since I've been on tigfourms, I've done a lot recently learnt more and etc. I've made a really cool game(I think it's cool  ) It's called Dreamland, I named it after a dream I had of one of my pixel characters, the giant spider thingy. So I made this game for it.

W.I.P Menu image


Giant Spider called the SianBot2000

There's no music atm as I'm waiting for my MIDI Cable so I can plug my keyboard into my computer. I think the game looks really nice. As I've learnt how to make fake light with Game Maker. It really makes a difference, before I added the lights the game looked like **** until I added the lights. It gave the game a really cool feel.


Can you guys beat my highscore?


There's two game modes:

Arena
- Endless Battle

Play
- My testing range
- Also will just be levels

Right now my favorite is the Arena. It's just really fun in my opinion.

I update this game mainly on my website: www.shiny21.net63.net (Warning: Really bad HTML and CSS skills )

Download: http://adf.ly/1HAmHd

Thanks!  

[AllieKmedia]

Hi! I just played your dreamland game! I think that it is a fun game that looks pretty good!

The first thing that i thought of was the start menu. It does nog look very good, and in my mind i was thining "this game will suck". Than I started the game and it was not at al what i was expected. It is probebly the purple colour on tha background that does it.

I liked the gameplay, but i would like some kind of "how to play".

The camera is a problem, it should follow the character better I think, so you can see a bit more in front of you whats happening.

In the play mode, it would be fun to not start with the spider. maybe that you could fight some other enemys before you have to go and kill the spider.

And the little blue fellow that follows you, why is he there? I did not understand what he gave me in the game.

But it was a fun game that looked pretty good!

[Rhatos]

Hi! I just played your dreamland game! I think that it is a fun game that looks pretty good!

The first thing that i thought of was the start menu. It does nog look very good, and in my mind i was thining "this game will suck". Than I started the game and it was not at al what i was expected. It is probebly the purple colour on tha background that does it.

I liked the gameplay, but i would like some kind of "how to play".

The camera is a problem, it should follow the character better I think, so you can see a bit more in front of you whats happening.

In the play mode, it would be fun to not start with the spider. maybe that you could fight some other enemys before you have to go and kill the spider.

And the little blue fellow that follows you, why is he there? I did not understand what he gave me in the game.

But it was a fun game that looked pretty good!

Hey thanks for playing my game. At the moment I'm busy updating the game. Funny enough most of the things you mentioned I've fixed already  But I'll go into detail about some of the things! 

The first thing that i thought of was the start menu. It does nog look very good, and in my mind i was thining "this game will suck". Than I started the game and it was not at al what i was expected. It is probebly the purple colour on tha background that does it.

The start menu was something I whipped up in about 5 mins. It's not very great yet, I suppose I should change it since it made you think the game would suck 

I liked the gameplay, but i would like some kind of "how to play".

I didn't think of this yet, I'll have to add it in the next update.

The camera is a problem, it should follow the character better I think, so you can see a bit more in front of you whats happening.

I fixed the camera issue, believe it or not but it was bugging me the entire night after I uploaded.

In the play mode, it would be fun to not start with the spider. maybe that you could fight some other enemys before you have to go and kill the spider.

I see I need to change the button, as it's really just a testing stage. Where I can test things, right now in the state of the game the Arena mode is the real game.

And the little blue fellow that follows you, why is he there? I did not understand what he gave me in the game.

Ah, he's a companion that follows you. I gave him some powers today, which you'll be able to see in the update. 

But it was a fun game that looked pretty good!

Thanks for playing my game! Come check back later for the next version

[Quicksand-S]

I didn't find it very fun at all, but it was mainly because the boss couldn't deal with the terrain or shoot upward. I just stood on a platform and fired constantly. As more enemies spawned in, it got a little annoying, but I still didn't really have to move much at all. That's easily fixed, though, with some changes to the boss's abilities and some more platforms. The game should force players to move around in order to stay alive.

There are a lot of other issues, but all should be fairly easy to fix.

-The camera's already been mentioned (I guess the fixed version isn't uploaded yet?). I'd say either the camera should follow the cursor to some degree, or the player should be centered at all times (or a mix of both camera styles).

-I hated the jumping because of the high gravity. It's such a fast motion that I often end up bouncing a second time when I use it. Luckily, I almost never had to use it. This is just a personal-preference thing, though. If you really like it how it is, don't let me pressure you into changing it.

-The ladders are very un-ladder-like and I didn't like using them at all. They also have weird issues, like if you hit your head while flying up one, then you stop on the ladder and can't continue up once you move out from under the ceiling.

-The pickups sink halfway into the ground. I didn't even realize what they were until I accidentally touched one. Also, when hearts are picked up they don't disappear from the ground.

-As mentioned, the menu needs work. I think the main thing is just to align the elements nicely.

-The combination of a bunch of different-resolution sprites looks really ugly to me, even if they look fine on their own. I kinda like the spider design.

-A few times, my bullets went straight through enemies (right through the center) rather than hitting them.


I think the best part of the game at the moment is the difficulty curve. It doesn't affect much, since you don't have to move, but it still requires you to aim quickly and figure out the best times to hit the boss.

[Rhatos]

I didn't find it very fun at all, but it was mainly because the boss couldn't deal with the terrain or shoot upward. I just stood on a platform and fired constantly. As more enemies spawned in, it got a little annoying, but I still didn't really have to move much at all. That's easily fixed, though, with some changes to the boss's abilities and some more platforms. The game should force players to move around in order to stay alive.

There are a lot of other issues, but all should be fairly easy to fix.

-The camera's already been mentioned (I guess the fixed version isn't uploaded yet?). I'd say either the camera should follow the cursor to some degree, or the player should be centered at all times (or a mix of both camera styles).

-I hated the jumping because of the high gravity. It's such a fast motion that I often end up bouncing a second time when I use it. Luckily, I almost never had to use it. This is just a personal-preference thing, though. If you really like it how it is, don't let me pressure you into changing it.

-The ladders are very un-ladder-like and I didn't like using them at all. They also have weird issues, like if you hit your head while flying up one, then you stop on the ladder and can't continue up once you move out from under the ceiling.

-The pickups sink halfway into the ground. I didn't even realize what they were until I accidentally touched one. Also, when hearts are picked up they don't disappear from the ground.

-As mentioned, the menu needs work. I think the main thing is just to align the elements nicely.

-The combination of a bunch of different-resolution sprites looks really ugly to me, even if they look fine on their own. I kinda like the spider design.

-A few times, my bullets went straight through enemies (right through the center) rather than hitting them.


I think the best part of the game at the moment is the difficulty curve. It doesn't affect much, since you don't have to move, but it still requires you to aim quickly and figure out the best times to hit the boss.

Thanks Quicksand-S for playing my game. I do believe that some of it was maybe a bit rushed  My friend kept on pressuring me to get him a copy. That's why most of the game is a glitchy thing. But I'll still go into detail on everything!

I didn't find it very fun at all, but it was mainly because the boss couldn't deal with the terrain or shoot upward. I just stood on a platform and fired constantly. As more enemies spawned in, it got a little annoying, but I still didn't really have to move much at all. That's easily fixed, though, with some changes to the boss's abilities and some more platforms. The game should force players to move around in order to stay alive

Unfortunately I've been away from Game Maker for awhile, so this was the first game I've made in at least a couple of months. But here I go on and on with excuses 

-The camera's already been mentioned (I guess the fixed version isn't uploaded yet?). I'd say either the camera should follow the cursor to some degree, or the player should be centered at all times (or a mix of both camera styles).

I really like this idea, also the new version hasn't been updated yet. But in all honesty I think it could be quite cool for the camera to follow your cursor to some degree.

-I hated the jumping because of the high gravity. It's such a fast motion that I often end up bouncing a second time when I use it. Luckily, I almost never had to use it. This is just a personal-preference thing, though. If you really like it how it is, don't let me pressure you into changing it.

Yeah, I don't think I'll change it, as I think it's fine.

-The ladders are very un-ladder-like and I didn't like using them at all. They also have weird issues, like if you hit your head while flying up one, then you stop on the ladder and can't continue up once you move out from under the ceiling.

The ladders I must admit I messed up quite badly. I'll have to fix it.

-The pickups sink halfway into the ground. I didn't even realize what they were until I accidentally touched one. Also, when hearts are picked up they don't disappear from the ground.

Pickups I'll fix, the hearts, that's quite odd? I must have fixed it by accident when working on the new version.

-The combination of a bunch of different-resolution sprites looks really ugly to me, even if they look fine on their own. I kinda like the spider design.

I don't really understand this, I don't know much about sprites that much, I mean I don't think I can have the spider the same size as the player in the sprite editor? Because then in the game it would be tiny? If you could explain this to me or point a link or something, I'll be able to learn something new.

-A few times, my bullets went straight through enemies (right through the center) rather than hitting them.

This was fixed in the new version.

Thanks for playing my game. I now realized that I needed someone to point out all the errors. So thank you. Also I think I'll delay the new version for a later time until I fix most of these problems other wise the game is pretty bad.   

[Quicksand-S]

-The combination of a bunch of different-resolution sprites looks really ugly to me, even if they look fine on their own. I kinda like the spider design.

I don't really understand this, I don't know much about sprites that much, I mean I don't think I can have the spider the same size as the player in the sprite editor? Because then in the game it would be tiny? If you could explain this to me or point a link or something, I'll be able to learn something new.

I'm essentially talking about the size of the pixels in each sprite. The pixels should be the same size throughout your game (except in rare cases where the game is meant to look wrong for whatever artsy reason).

In this case, that means either adding detail to the spider (because its pixels are the largest, so it needs smaller details in order to match the rest), or decrease the detail in the other sprites and make them look blockier. Don't forget about your text either. Since it's a pixel font, it needs to match too.

Another way to put it is that rather than enlarging everything different amounts, you should be drawing each sprite at the size it's meant to be in-game.


I hope that made sense. If not, I'm sure I can make/find an image to demonstrate it.

[Rhatos]

I'm essentially talking about the size of the pixels in each sprite. The pixels should be the same size throughout your game (except in rare cases where the game is meant to look wrong for whatever artsy reason).

In this case, that means either adding detail to the spider (because its pixels are the largest, so it needs smaller details in order to match the rest), or decrease the detail in the other sprites and make them look blockier. Don't forget about your text either. Since it's a pixel font, it needs to match too.

Another way to put it is that rather than enlarging everything different amounts, you should be drawing each sprite at the size it's meant to be in-game.


I hope that made sense. If not, I'm sure I can make/find an image to demonstrate it.

I think I understand I'm going to try it now. Also wow quite a fast reply.

[Rhatos]

I'm essentially talking about the size of the pixels in each sprite. The pixels should be the same size throughout your game (except in rare cases where the game is meant to look wrong for whatever artsy reason).

In this case, that means either adding detail to the spider (because its pixels are the largest, so it needs smaller details in order to match the rest), or decrease the detail in the other sprites and make them look blockier. Don't forget about your text either. Since it's a pixel font, it needs to match too.

Another way to put it is that rather than enlarging everything different amounts, you should be drawing each sprite at the size it's meant to be in-game.


I hope that made sense. If not, I'm sure I can make/find an image to demonstrate it.

I think I understand I'm going to try it now. Also wow quite a fast reply.

Okay I think I need an image to demonstrate it 

[Quicksand-S]

Ok. This image http://www.rpgfan.com/news/pictures2010/disgaea4_comparison1.png (Not embedded because I don't want to use all their bandwidth) shows two versions of almost the same sprite. The right is higher-resolution, but it's not any bigger. It was just drawn at the final size rather than being drawn small and then enlarged like the one on the left.

If you had both of those resolutions in a game, it'd look weird, because some things would be smooth/round and some would be pixelated, so it's good to avoid mixing things like that.


Let's say you have a sprite that's 100px wide, but you want it to be 500px wide on-screen. You can either increase the size of the sprite and fill in the details to make it look less chunky at the new size, or you can just draw it 5x bigger in the game. If you do draw it 5x bigger, then every other sprite in the game should also have pixels that are scaled by that same amount.

Sorry if I'm still not making sense. I'd make an example with your actual sprite, but I'm low on time at the moment. Hopefully this is enough to help.

[Rhatos]

Ok. This image http://www.rpgfan.com/news/pictures2010/disgaea4_comparison1.png (Not embedded because I don't want to use all their bandwidth) shows two versions of almost the same sprite. The right is higher-resolution, but it's not any bigger. It was just drawn at the final size rather than being drawn small and then enlarged like the one on the left.

If you had both of those resolutions in a game, it'd look weird, because some things would be smooth/round and some would be pixelated, so it's good to avoid mixing things like that.


Let's say you have a sprite that's 100px wide, but you want it to be 500px wide on-screen. You can either increase the size of the sprite and fill in the details to make it look less chunky at the new size, or you can just draw it 5x bigger in the game. If you do draw it 5x bigger, then every other sprite in the game should also have pixels that are scaled by that same amount.

Sorry if I'm still not making sense. I'd make an example with your actual sprite, but I'm low on time at the moment. Hopefully this is enough to help.

I think I understand but how would I do it with the spider for an example, since the spider's legs only have one color unless I suppose I add more detail and a black outline?  Anyway I'll have to try tomorrow because its 11:52 and my fingers are getting so cold it's hard to type.

[Quicksand-S]

If you want to increase resolution, you add detail while putting it on-screen at the same size. If you want to decrease resolution, you remove detail (again, not changing how big it is on-screen in the game). Colors don't matter and skinny legs on the spider don't matter either.

Maybe this'll help:



I imagine the second option would stick closer to your original vision of the spider, but either style would work, or you could go somewhere in between with medium-sized pixels (but then you'd have to change every single sprite instead of just some of them).

[Rhatos]

If you want to increase resolution, you add detail while putting it on-screen at the same size. If you want to decrease resolution, you remove detail (again, not changing how big it is on-screen in the game). Colors don't matter and skinny legs on the spider don't matter either.

Maybe this'll help:



I imagine the second option would stick closer to your original vision of the spider, but either style would work, or you could go somewhere in between with medium-sized pixels (but then you'd have to change every single sprite instead of just some of them).

So would something like this work?

[Quicksand-S]

So would something like this work?

Anything will work as long as the size of the pixels matches the other sprites in the game when drawn on the screen. That version, for example, looks like it might match the hearts and coins fairly well but the ground is higher-resolution.

I feel like I'm missing some important info here, which is making it harder to describe what I mean. Hmm...are you using code or drag-and-drop actions to scale and display the sprites on-screen? Actually, if you're ok with sending me a link to an exported GMZ file, I could take a look at it to get a better idea of what's going on.

[Rhatos]

So would something like this work?

Anything will work as long as the size of the pixels matches the other sprites in the game when drawn on the screen. That version, for example, looks like it might match the hearts and coins fairly well but the ground is higher-resolution.

I feel like I'm missing some important info here, which is making it harder to describe what I mean. Hmm...are you using code or drag-and-drop actions to scale and display the sprites on-screen? Actually, if you're ok with sending me a link to an exported GMZ file, I could take a look at it to get a better idea of what's going on.

Okay I'll pm you now, but beware! It's very messy

[Quicksand-S]

Okay I'll pm you now, but beware! It's very messy

Wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be when you said that. Anyway, I replied in a PM (Thought I'd mention it in case you don't get notifications either).

[Rhatos]

Okay I'll pm you now, but beware! It's very messy

Wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be when you said that. Anyway, I replied in a PM (Thought I'd mention it in case you don't get notifications either).

I've replied