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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsMatter [PRE-ALPHA DEMO] [PC adventure platformer pixel-art]
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Author Topic: Matter [PRE-ALPHA DEMO] [PC adventure platformer pixel-art]  (Read 10151 times)
haks109
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« Reply #20 on: January 18, 2017, 06:28:14 PM »

Hello there

I have posted a youtube video showing the progress I have on HUD, mechanics and aesthetics overall.





PS: If you saw a previous post posting an incorrect video, my apologies, I was testing how to embed videos here
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« Reply #21 on: January 20, 2017, 05:26:30 AM »

That looks pretty cool! And regarding your comments that sounds indeed like a right thing to do for a game with this kind of weapon.
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« Reply #22 on: January 22, 2017, 02:53:56 AM »

Great work on the video!

The moving tiles (AKA the "crossair") looks fabulous in motion.
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« Reply #23 on: February 08, 2017, 04:56:00 PM »

It's coming along really well, keep it up! Also, have you made any considerations for the music/sound yet?
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haks109
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Juan Barba


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« Reply #24 on: September 04, 2018, 05:40:48 PM »

"Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days."
Yes TIGForums, I know I didn't post any update for more than a year, do not reproach me man!


Ok so...

I'M BACK!

I know it's been a while, I had some obstacles that severally slowed down the progress of Matter, my colleague was not feeling he had enough experience to keep helping me at the pace I would like him to, so he quit, after that, due to my own inexperience, I had to do a lot of refactoring, and since that, I wasn't able to post anything visual here or at Twitter. But even after that, I haven't done any significant progress, since I wasn't sure about the orientation this game should take until now (hopefully :D )

As a reminder for anyone seeing this game for first time (I made some updates to the main page), Matter is a pixel-art adventure game when you have to survive with no weapons, just a single device that generates matter so you can move, explore, protect yourself, solve puzzles and also look for device enhancements.



Right now I'm trying to move forward on level design, developing the first levels. I made some players to play a demo I posted on itch.io and right now the core mechanics has 2 things that players are not noticing with the game
  • You can push balls with just moving towards them, they will rotate, I'm not sure why this isn't obvious to any of the people that tested my game, maybe I have to think out of the box to make them know that with only level design, maybe somehow I can just force them to push the ball, since there is nothing else to do
  • You can press and drag the cursor to create matter, this also applies to destroy matter, this also is not obvious for people, this one is understandable, however I'm not sure what to do to tell the player he can do that without explicitly telling so in a message.
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haks109
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« Reply #25 on: September 05, 2018, 04:08:59 PM »

Update  Hand Any Key



Working on buttons based on weight. This mechanism requires a certain weight over the button (for some of those, it could be the player, others require heavier objects like that ball) to activate stuff like doors, platforms, etc. I also was thinking about using multiple buttons that require to be pressed, to trigger actions

I need to work on a better animation for him when he is pushing the ball  Shrug but first I will work on the button mechanics itself, the graphics, animation and well... find some SFX to fit the art
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haks109
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« Reply #26 on: September 07, 2018, 08:34:26 AM »

Update  Hand Any Key

Not too much since my last update, still working on buttons, those kinda look better than a single box, as shown in the latest GIF :D also I was planning about how to extend the trigger system so various triggers together can activate one trigger (eg: I press 2 buttons to open a door, press a button and kill an enemy to get something moving to stop), I reckon there might be a trigger system ready to use at the asset store already, but lots of the things I made for this game were made by hand for me to learn about games rather than to get the game itself (another reason why Matter has been taking so long)

In some other updates I'll be posting about things I already have ready, but I've never spoke about, like platforms, matter blockers, matter powerups, UI menu, some of these things can be tested already  Well, hello there!
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« Reply #27 on: September 07, 2018, 10:17:29 AM »

I played the demo to the end and I really like the atmosphere on this! Despite the simple graphics it feels right. The shooting mechanics, the animation to it, it was perfect! A lot of potential here!

I know it's in early development but I think it's important to point out a real villain that almost made me give up going forward...
There was no lag on my PC, the running and aiming response was ok. It looked as if the game was running 60fps or close to it. But for some reason, the jump input was bad! there's some delay from the moment you press the key to the actual action. I'm pretty sure it's not the game being sluggish or anything, like I said, everything else was running fluidly!
And for a game with a lot of platforming, that's a serious problem. I'd focus on fixing that!

Also, when you're trying to jump while you're already running against a wall or matter, he jumps lower and has problems moving forward which makes it frustrating to jump on the higher grounds/matters.

All little things I'm sure you'll fix over time but I just wanted to let you know it was the biggest downer!

As to a previous post you mention players not noticing some things, I did easily realize on my own I could make the balls roll by pushing or walking over them and also drag the cursor to make matters before I read the post. But I'm a long time platformer player so that may not be a good parameter. You should definitely introduce these things by some forced level design and clues I don't know...

Anyway, great job so far man! Looking forward for this game in its final version!
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haks109
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« Reply #28 on: September 07, 2018, 12:00:32 PM »

for some reason, the jump input was bad! there's some delay from the moment you press the key to the actual action. I'm pretty sure it's not the game being sluggish or anything, like I said, everything else was running fluidly!
And for a game with a lot of platforming, that's a serious problem. I'd focus on fixing that!
Thanks a lot for your output, I really appreciate this! Man... that jump mechanics has been a total pain! As same as a cook might stop feeling differences in the flavor of its own food due to tasting it too many times, I cannot feel if I'm done balancing the jump parameters due to testing the game so many times that I just got accustomed to my flawed mechanics and I just jump without problems, and that prevents me to find the correct balance, What I would have to do is just to reduce the hold time (I cannot totally remove it, otherwise, by some reason the character accumulates... inertia? and the next jump he goes straight up to the space!) and hope it works correctly and the next tester doesn't feel this, bc I already received this feedback regarding the jump
Also, when you're trying to jump while you're already running against a wall or matter, he jumps lower and has problems moving forward which makes it frustrating to jump on the higher grounds/matters.
That one is kinda new, I think I can increase the jump force and that should solve it  Grin
You should definitely introduce these things by some forced level design and clues I don't know...
About the rolling ball, I was thinking that maybe the first level that has a ball, the ball comes rolling towards the player (not in a dangerous or intimidating way), so if the ball touches the player he sees it doesn't harm in any way, and hopefully in that way, I make the inception in player's mind that he can push the ball  Wizard
About the fact that you can drag the mouse to place matter... Still got to figure that out
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haks109
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« Reply #29 on: September 08, 2018, 03:04:54 PM »

Update   Hand Any Key

As told in the previous comment, I cannot continue having issues on the jump logic, its too basic, yet critical for a platformer, so I'm doing some debugging and research on why some bugs are happening



In theory I can reduce or even disable the time it holds the jump before actually executing it, I had to put this time, otherwise the physics start to accumulate inertia, this shouldn't be happening but I found that as a workaround, but I should rather find why that's happening instead.

That line is a really basic trail renderer, that helped me to confirm another bug I was felling: I call it superjump, it seems that the matter units are not completely a box or hexagonal, they have this weird shape



Its a bundle of triggers and colliders, and it seems to be working (in previous versions it was a single true hexagon, but it was causing some weird issues like player being trapped between matter units), however it seems that for slopes, it kinda accumulates inertia and makes the player to jump higher, it seems I might have to remove all the inertia at the very moment the player collider touches anything, but I feel that's not the right thing to do, so I might have to do more tests.

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haks109
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« Reply #30 on: September 11, 2018, 07:24:26 PM »

Update Hand Any Key

Nothing very noticeable in terms of level, art, or new mechanics, however I did a huge refactor for the jump system, it seems I've been misunderstanding how Update() and FixedUpdate() works in Unity, maybe even now I still could be misunderstanding it, but it seems everything that has to do with the physics engine (raycasts, velocity, force, etc) must be placed at FixedUpdate(), while key inputs at Update(), the rest I think its not relevant (as I said I might be wrong), but it seems to be working... tho this time I'd really appreciate some testing and feedback (I uploaded a Windows build on itch.io)
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« Reply #31 on: September 12, 2018, 11:23:05 AM »

I just want to say:

WELCOME BACK! I’m sorry you experienced some hitched along the way. But, what matters is that you’re back in action!
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haks109
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« Reply #32 on: September 12, 2018, 01:50:57 PM »

I just want to say:

WELCOME BACK! I’m sorry you experienced some hitched along the way. But, what matters is that you’re back in action!

Hey Tony!
Thank you man, hopefully this time I won't be that disconnected as I was since the half of last year Coffee

Update  Hand Any Key

While I was waiting for some tasks at my day time job as a web developer, I was able to implement the basics of the button trigger: now if you place a rock (or yourself) over this button, you can open doors, remove the weight and it will close. Now I'm thinking about giving these features to the buttons
- Timed buttons: let's say a button opens a door that is a bit far from the button, once you press the button, whatever the door activated will be deactivated in some some seconds, in this case, the door will be closed again soon, if you're not fast enough to reach the door, you would have to go back and press the button
- Buttons with custom weight: for some buttons, more weight might be needed to trigger them, like sphere rocks, bombs or maybe some heavy enemies (this one is kind of done, I just have to play with some parameters)
- Perpetual buttons: once you push them, it doesn't matter if you remove the weight over the button, whatever this button activated will remain activated forever
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haks109
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« Reply #33 on: September 14, 2018, 06:25:37 PM »

Update  Hand Any Key

Making some art for the button, I'm not sure if this looks like something the player would jump over and press, I guess it still needs some testing, but for now I'll leave this functionality at this point and start working on serious level design

This is the button so far
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haks109
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« Reply #34 on: September 16, 2018, 06:57:22 AM »

Update Hand Any Key



Game design! Yesterday I spend almost all day watching videos and reading tuts about level design, game progression and game learning process about your own game (including watching again the very excelent and hilarious Sequelitis - Mega Man Classic vs. Mega Man X episode) and started making some drafts (I know with all the power Unity has to develop prototypes inmediately on the editor, I might have been doing there, however I found that I prefer to do it on paper, as doing in the game engine makes me iterate over the level way too much - AKA I play too much my own game and loose time and momentum  Facepalm)

Right now I have 4 new levels and I didn't even finsihed doing all the mechanics and used all the ones I already have... I guess I have a lot of work to do, which is awesome!
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haks109
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« Reply #35 on: September 19, 2018, 05:00:04 AM »

Update Hand Any Key

Yesterday I got some time to finish the last level, but instead of that, I choose to make a more precise way to handle explosions, so if a bomb explodes due to a hard impact on a wall (there are cannons that can shoot bombs), the explosion generates on the correct collision point, and direction rotation





This one took time, not because it were dificult, but because I didn't know Unity enough to find that there is a function that given an start vector, and an end vector, it will give an angle (the function is Quaternion.FromToRotation())... I was reading how inverse trigonometric functions, so I can get an angle using arctan.... I guess the knowledge stays in exchange of the time spent in knowing this  Shrug


However, the sprite still doesn't look right when it happens over little colllders like... me, the player!



In theory the player has a collider, the bomb exploded over a collider, therefore that's its explosion origin, however it just doesn't look right... I'll leave it as its now anyway, why? because with this way of placing and rotating explosions I can refactor the explosion in the future to make it work not as a single sprite but as a particle system, making debris and fire more realistic ... tho I would need to see how to make not to loose too much pixel art.

What I would do in the meantime is to improve the explosions I have, right now I have 2 animation sprites for explosions: one for explosion on floor (now it applies for walls, this is the one on the screenshots), and explosion in the air... I would take the explosion in the air for small colliders, and use the other for the rest.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2018, 05:13:52 AM by haks109 » Logged

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haks109
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« Reply #36 on: September 24, 2018, 02:13:20 PM »

Update Hand Any Key

More level design, I think I will do only 6 levels for now, I will need sort of a MVP to show the game, after that I plan to design more levels (levels are not that long, its the first time I work on level aesthetics since I refactored Matter levels and lighting system last time)



These are 2 levels, but only one is new, the first one is level 3, I did a bit more stuff, as I feel this level is kinda easy (tho it might need more testing)

Those "phi" symbols are... turrets... yep... all of them firing to you when they see you  Evil Cheesy
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« Reply #37 on: September 25, 2018, 12:04:04 PM »





I just have to say that this type of stuff blows my mind. Being so clear on what you want, regarding visuals and exploration, is just incredible.

I love seeing into the minds of developers like yourself!

P.S. - I think the big button for timed events looks great! It is a little big. Would you have to jump on it? Shoot it?
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« Reply #38 on: September 25, 2018, 11:07:43 PM »

do you make it using game maker studio?
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haks109
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« Reply #39 on: September 26, 2018, 06:27:14 AM »


I just have to say that this type of stuff blows my mind. Being so clear on what you want, regarding visuals and exploration, is just incredible.

I love seeing into the minds of developers like yourself!

P.S. - I think the big button for timed events looks great! It is a little big. Would you have to jump on it? Shoot it?

Thanks dude, doing this in draft and good old paper makes things way clearer than if I went straight to Unity to do this

About visuals....  Durr...? I'm still checking for more options about visuals, I do have an idea of what do I want to show, however sometimes its not clear how, in a nutshell I want to show an abandoned citadel, this city has technology (like the matter device), but things seems to be magic (tho they aren't)

Button is big, indeed, you gotta jump over it to press (in theory you can place matter over it as well), I did it that big to make the impression of devices the main character is not familiar with, since he is an alien in this abandoned citadel

do you make it using game maker studio?

Hello there
Nope, I'm using Unity for this project
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