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[swipefaststudios]

The gameplay mechanics look really interesting! I haven't seen another game do that kind of thing.
I really like it!
I hope you finish it!

[wizered67]

The new logo looks 100 times better!

[io3 creations]

I'm more aiming for Shadow of the Colossus-style bossfights

That means we'll also have a Flinging Horse!    (or maybe as an April Fools' type joke)

I like the GRAPPLING font but the Fling doesn't have a nice visual "pop" and also somewhat hard to read (easily and quickly).  Here's a quick test.  Show it to people (who know and can read English) for a second and ask them what they saw.  If most can read it then it should be okay.

Have you tried the light streak going through the upper hole in letter "A"?

[maxl]

Thanks a lot! 

Implemented a dash mechanic, that I think works much better than the shotgun as your main offensive tool. Also it feels really nice to dash through an enemy.

Also, I've started to add audio to the game. This will probably be temporary, but it already makes the game feel more alive and like a real game.  

Here's how it looks and sounds:

I like the GRAPPLING font but the Fling doesn't have a nice visual "pop" and also somewhat hard to read (easily and quickly).  Here's a quick test.  Show it to people (who know and can read English) for a second and ask them what they saw.  If most can read it then it should be okay.

I'll try that! And yeah, you're probably right about the "Fling". Will try to make it pop more. The thing is, whenever I see the neon colors, I think of the 80s, then I think of GTA Vice City, then I think of its logo:

That's the main motivation to use such a curly font (apart from it nicely underlining the round, fluid movements of the player characters)

Have you tried the light streak going through the upper hole in letter "A"?

I tried that, but it made the "a" much worse in terms of readability.

[io3 creations]

The thing is, whenever I see the neon colors, I think of the 80s, then I think of GTA Vice City, then I think of its logo:

That's the main motivation to use such a curly font (apart from it nicely underlining the round, fluid movements of the player characters)

Yes, in that case it works ... because of the contrast.  White font with either black or pink outline pops well.  However, in your logo, for Fling and it's shadow glow, the colors are very similar and almost blend into each other and make it a bit more difficult to distinguish quickly.  Another aspect is that GRAPPLING uses bold fonts and there the glow works but Fling uses a narrower type font and shadow is almost the same size.  If you use white font or white glow (or similar idea) and/or thicker/bolder font style then that should help.

[maxl]

Yes, in that case it works ... because of the contrast.  White font with either black or pink outline pops well.  However, in your logo, for Fling and it's shadow glow, the colors are very similar and almost blend into each other and make it a bit more difficult to distinguish quickly.  Another aspect is that GRAPPLING uses bold fonts and there the glow works but Fling uses a narrower type font and shadow is almost the same size.  If you use white font or white glow (or similar idea) and/or thicker/bolder font style then that should help.

True! Gotta improve readability of the "fling"

In the meantime, I've started to experiment how bigger enemies would fit into the game. The biggies will probably be solid structures that you can't go through. Also, your dash attack is reflected:




I call this enemy the "punching bag"! Just kidding of course, that's only a test how these mechanics feel gameplay wise.

[maxl]

Working on a ground walking enemy. Looks pretty comical now as it's just walking around, ignoring you while you repeatedly dash into his head:





I envision this to be a medium sized enemy. There will be much bigger ones too. But big enemies are HARD to make. Designing, animating and programming wise. Hope it pays off in the end!

[wizered67]

Wow, I absolutely love the dash as an attack mechanic!

[maxl]

Wow, I absolutely love the dash as an attack mechanic!

Thank you! I'm really happy with it... took many iterations to arrive at this solution, which maybe seems like an obvious choice to many, but wasn't for me! 

[maxl]

The dude is starting to take shape and can now do a ground stomp... too bad that I'm in the air most of the time anyway





More abilities will come soon, like different arm swings to hit you. The thing should generally react more to what you do. Right now you can literally grapple his head and just dash him repeatedly. You can even stand on his head and he can't do a thing   

Also not happy with the way he looks visually, but that can only develop in a lot of iterations, I'm afraid.

[io3 creations]

I'm seeing a user interaction issue with the big dude.  Why can you pass by one part of him and not another that looks "exactly" like it?  I'm referring to being able to grab onto and hit his head but pass "through" his body.  It's similar to some games where you can walk "through" certain walls and not others that look the same (or very slightly different).

There are some 2.5 games that make certain parts of similarly large enemies farther away and it's obvious which parts are close and in your "plane" and can either hurt you or you can hit it. 

I know, it's a tricky issue.

[maxl]

I'm seeing a user interaction issue with the big dude.  Why can you pass by one part of him and not another that looks "exactly" like it?  I'm referring to being able to grab onto and hit his head but pass "through" his body.  It's similar to some games where you can walk "through" certain walls and not others that look the same (or very slightly different).

There are some 2.5 games that make certain parts of similarly large enemies farther away and it's obvious which parts are close and in your "plane" and can either hurt you or you can hit it. 

I know, it's a tricky issue.

Very true! Readability is something I haven't yet gotten around to working on. I'm leaning towards marking important areas of the giants, like walkable/hookable with a halo or a completely different style. Not sure yet how, but I definitely know that it has to be done.

In the meantime, I added stomping sound effects and scaled it 2x, which made the giant much more menacing!

[wizered67]

Wow, that giant is terrifying! Looks like this is coming along well, nice work!

[maxl]

Wow, that giant is terrifying! Looks like this is coming along well, nice work!

Thank you! Terrifying is what I'm going for  

The giant is a huge timesink, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. It's my first time using Spine and keyframe animation in general, so I'm learning a lot while doing it. Thanks to inverse kinematics, the walk and stomp animations look better now and the feet moonwalk much less, but it's still not perfect. The arm swing animation however still looks pretty silly, not really badass... it might not even make it into the game. Got lots of other ideas for the giants offensive potential, including homing missiles and lasers  

Currently it looks like this:

[maxl]

The game's getting serious:



 

A story's brewing in my head 

[Pixel Noise]

Wow, with the addition of the giant, the whole tone of the game changes quite a bit! That is, if you are thinking of going down that route, creating a story for him, and possibly other large enemies, etc? Honestly that could be very cool - give it a sort of cross-genre depth. If you could manage to keep the speed-running/purely platformer elements, and add some story/direction to it, that would be quite an interesting final product.

[maxl]

Wow, with the addition of the giant, the whole tone of the game changes quite a bit! That is, if you are thinking of going down that route, creating a story for him, and possibly other large enemies, etc? Honestly that could be very cool - give it a sort of cross-genre depth. If you could manage to keep the speed-running/purely platformer elements, and add some story/direction to it, that would be quite an interesting final product.

Yeah, I'm getting into a much more serious mood with the game. Story-wise, I've become really inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion and Attack on Titan and the game iteratively becomes more and more serious. I think a name-change is also in order. 

I've done further work on the giant. For example, it now stomps at the place it thinks you are, not just one position anymore. Was quite tricky, but with a bit of inverse kinematics, I got it to work Here's how that looks:





Also: SCREEEENNSHAAAKKEEE! 

 

[maxl]

Working on the giant's death sequence. The general idea is that you dash into his weak spots to crack him open. In the end it literally explodes with light coming from within 

[io3 creations]

NGE is one of my favorite anime series.    I've seen a few other ones with giant robots but the way that series showed human/"giant" scale aspect was well done and truly memorable.  There was a game called Shogo (that also came out in the late nighties) with giant robots that also had quite a few scenes where you could really feel that you were in a giant robot fighting tiny humans and vice versa.

Working on the giant's death sequence. The general idea is that you dash into his weak spots to crack him open. In the end it literally explodes with light coming from within 

A "stone" giant made of light?   IMPOSSIBURUUUUUU!!!   

[maxl]

It's the Day of the Tentacle! And after trying unsuccessfully to make them into good melee fighters, I decided to equip them with homing missiles and make your day even more miserable: