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[io3 creations]

Seems like avoiding those homing missiles is more like a matter of luck rather than skill.  I wonder if the difficulty of setting them up properly might come from the type of game.  In other games where the character doesn't move very fast, the tentacle could target the player, "wind up" and release/charge.  Similar to turrets that have a damping for rotation, the player can still avoid those.  But if the character is moving fast, it might be harder to create a pattern that the player can detect and avoid.  Maybe the good old, time based pattern might work.

Just saw a related trailer: Death's Gambit. There are a few 2d grappling hook scenes near the end (with a colossus and a large "aerial snake"? thing):

[maxl]

Seems like avoiding those homing missiles is more like a matter of luck rather than skill.  I wonder if the difficulty of setting them up properly might come from the type of game.  In other games where the character doesn't move very fast, the tentacle could target the player, "wind up" and release/charge.  Similar to turrets that have a damping for rotation, the player can still avoid those.  But if the character is moving fast, it might be harder to create a pattern that the player can detect and avoid.  Maybe the good old, time based pattern might work.

Just saw a related trailer: Death's Gambit. There are a few 2d grappling hook scenes near the end (with a colossus and a large "aerial snake"? thing):

Yeah, that's more of a techdemo than an actual level for players. And giving the tentacles homing missiles was an experiment I just wanted to try as I was working on these two things recently 

Here's a newer video where the tentacles only shoot regular bullet anymore:

[io3 creations]

Yeah, that's more of a techdemo than an actual level for players. And giving the tentacles homing missiles was an experiment I just wanted to try as I was working on these two things recently 

Here's a newer video where the tentacles only shoot regular bullet anymore:

Yeah, the new video seems more reasonable. 

But you can still have some form of "spring loaded spike action" perhaps.  That would be more useful in areas where the player has to make careful choices as to when to swing - e.g.  in a narrow cave system.

[maxl]

Been working on the dialog system. Its main purpose is to give players who are interested in the story more insight into what's going on:





The game has become so DARK! 

[maxl]

Heya!

I slightly tweaked the dash mechanic. Been wanting to try that out for quite some time now: there's now a charge-up time. It fits the recent theme of the game much better. Charging up and unleashing feels really rewarding. 





Sound effects are still crappy, but at least gives a general feeling.

While this reduces the overall speed-level of the game, I think there's still potential for speedruns that I want to explore. And adding this charge-up makes the decision on when to use a dash more strategic, I hope.

[maxl]

Know what I did? Increased the giant's size by 50% and what can I say... it IS better!





Before, the giant was already cramped full with different things, like weakpoint, hookpoints and the tentacle. Been trying to fit a laser onto it as well. Increasing its size started as a joke, but turned out to be both easy to do and a great fit... I just have to clean up the cutscene cameras and give the now bigger giant a better place to sit!

[maxl]

Lots of things changed since my last update, including:

• flying spider/tick equipped with tentacles
• Giant is now equipped with a laser
• One-way platforms
• Experiments on used color "palette". I felt like the game's too "over the place" with all the green and magenta, and blue, and violet. I'm trying to get it into a more coherent and pleasant look.
• Lots of small gameplay changes, like auto-shortening the rope. Basically stuff to make the game faster and more intense.

Here's a video of the flying spider in action:




 

[Pixel Noise]

Bigger giant is better. Although I kind of don't like the tentacle on him, it just seems out of place to me, unless there's a story reason for it? But I guess he does need some way to attack other than just stomping.

And I like how you've changed the rock/wall colors (at least in the latest video) to the magenta color - it helps offset the character's green a lot more. Though I liked the eclectic use of vibrant colors you had/have going, so I hope you don't confine that TOO much.

[maxl]

It's... been a while!  

I'm not sure what caused me to stop keeping this devlop up in the first place, but whatever... I'm back!  

A LOT has changed since I last posted. Even though I didn't post updates, I DID WORK on the game (that's a plus right?).

I wanna kick off by showcasing a short speedrun level:




As you can see, the game's got a lot faster and IMHO more fun and action-packed. My interest for shaders also took off and the style developed strongly into an 80's neon future aestethic, which I really dig myself. This also sets the course for the game in terms of setting and music, where I totally was lacking direction and ideas before.

There's a lot more that I added than the short video above, but I wanna reveal that bit by bit. The name will also change, I don't yet have a good one I like, but it's definitely not going to be "Grappling Fling"... I hate that name now.  

I'm positive that I can push this game into a good direction!

[Darion]

This looks like a lot of fun, digging the aesthetic.

[maxl]

This looks like a lot of fun, digging the aesthetic.

Thank you very much!

I started working on something I've been putting off for a long time: a proper horizon. Here's what I have so far:



Still got some polishing to do, but I like the general direction this is going

[quantumpotato]

"Movement is #1 in games" - Messhof
Movement looks fantastic here. Rarely do I see a game where I immediately think "I want to play that" just because of how the player moves. You're onto something here!

Please include gamepad support!
I noticed the Green rocks in the later videos were very distracting compared to the Pink rocks in the first video because your character is green. Remember that N started with a very simple pallette!

[maxl]

"Movement is #1 in games" - Messhof
Movement looks fantastic here. Rarely do I see a game where I immediately think "I want to play that" just because of how the player moves. You're onto something here!

Wow! I did what feels like 100s of iterations on player-movement. If it invokes that feeling in you, I must have done something right in the end, so thanks a TON!

Speaking of iterations: I improved the player character's motions. It now does a backflip after letting go from the hook. Looks like this and is supposed to make the movement feel more fluid:

Please include gamepad support!
I noticed the Green rocks in the later videos were very distracting compared to the Pink rocks in the first video because your character is green. Remember that N started with a very simple pallette!

Gamepad support is in! It's IMHO not as exact to control as with mouse and keyboard, but it's definitely playable. 

Green rocks? Maybe you looked at some of the older videos. There are no green rocks anymore in the game. As you said, they were too distracting and I lost an important color, which I can now use for signaling player related, very important stuff like the dash points and the player character's trail.

[Rarykos]

Let me just chip in and congratulate you on making a fun-looking game!
I rarely see games focused on momentum and it's super rare when any of them seem fun.
But yours looks like a very enjoyable time, good job! :D

I'd love to see what comes out of it and I hope you don't stop on a simple prototype!

[Eluardian]

Super enjoyable devlog. This has evolved so much into something great.

[quantumpotato]

Cool. Love airdash mechanics in games. Looking nice!

[maxl]

@quantumpotato: Thanks a lot!

@Eluardian: it's been a tough road to get to this point. I'm glad it shows  

@Rarykos: nah, this is going to be a full-fletched game... that's the plan at least

Work on the background continues:



I don't know why, but I find floating rocks to be such a cool and interesting set-piece. I turned the background rocks into proper 3D models that slowly spin and move. Also pimped the RGB split postprocessing effect. Hope it's not too much and looks better in motion.

Also revamped the visuals of the map-borders that you can see on the left and right in the screenshot. They move to reveal or cut off certain parts of the map, which enables me to create battle-arenas in which you have to kill all enemies before advancing on.

[io3 creations]

The updated version is looking good.  I like the backflip when the character releases the rope.  Seems like in the video that not all releases are followed up with a backflip (e.g. if the rope is vertical) which would make sense.

I think I just realized why it's called a "retro/futuristic" game now.  If you reach 88mph, you can travel back or forward in time.   And the 1.21 jigawatts will likely come from the giant or other energy source.

[maxl]

@io3 creations: Thanks man!

Another fast-paced speedrun segment:





I'm currently considering whether and how much of the game I should put the player on a time limit. An extreme idea: I could give players a limited amount of time to complete a level, while giving them mechanics to increase this time: collectibles, dashing through enemies, hooking stuff, ... Obvious reference is the N++ series. But I don't know if that scares a lot of players off who want to learn and play the game at their own pace. So many options...  

[Anton]

this game looks so interesting.
I realy like the hook / dash mechanic. and the visual are new and cool to me !