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[Svetlana]

yo this looks SUPER RAD and i want to play it

[SolarLune]

I love the art style, but

1) The colors are a bit too bright, I think. It kind of feels like "too much".
2) The cars look great, too, but seem a bit too detailed. The metallic objects (like the poles and cars) seem to be a bit too shiny. It might be fine to just make the fire hydrant shiny, I guess? The poles being outlined is a bit odd, too.

Eh, these are minor nitpicks, though. Still looks pretty great.

[snackycactus]

Thanks for the feedback!
Right now things are very early so I'm gonna keep moving forward without worrying too much about colors and such, but I may revisit the art later once the level is more complete.

[snackycactus]

Hey folks,
I just finished my enemy waypoint system that I'll be using for complex enemy movements.

When I first started to tackle this, my original attempt was to make waypoints and build a bezier curve function to connect them. However, once I had it in place, it really cluttered up the screen with debug points and felt super over-the-top and unnecessary so I scrapped it and build a WAY simpler system that just uses SmoothDamp to control how quickly the enemy can change direction as they progress to the next waypoint. I'm MUCH happier with this simpler approach. (Simpler is pretty much ALWAYS better)

Here's a little demo of it in action:

[snackycactus]

Waypoint update!
I've got my skateboarder enemy in-game, and I've also added the ability to set certain waypoints to be 'special', which in this case causes the enemy to jump.
Check it out!

[SolarLune]

Hah, that's really cool. Nice work.

[Pixel Noise]

Said it on Twitter and I'll say it again here - I don't know how you go from a dark/gritty project like your last one, to cuteness overload on this one, but well done. Everything you've posted from this has been A+. It's definitely not a style for everyone - but I'd encourage you to stick with it and keep it mostly as is, because it's really unique, and I think a lot of people will respond to it.

[snackycactus]

Hey folks!

Barkopolis is coming along slowly but surely.
The exciting thing is I'm really to share a short gameplay video of the first part of the level!  Whoo!

Here's the vid, hope ya'll like it!

[Svetlana]

holy shit??? that's looking SO CUTE

this better have a killer FM soundtrack

[snackycactus]

Thanks!
Yah, I'll definitely want a cool soundtrack eventually, but I generally prefer to start sound work much later in the game

[snackycactus]

Something I noticed when playing over the content I've made so far is that my spaces are a bit too wide open, so I'm going to be re-working the levels to have a more 'channeled', classic scrolling-arcade feel to them. For the most part this just means tightening up the level's width, and in general, trying to keep the levels from allowing any horizontal scrolling (when the main travel direction is vertical) and not allowing any vertical scroll (when the main direction your going is horizontal).

I think that in addition to this making the combat experience a bit more arcady, it'll also help make the level's visuals and complement my simple & bright art style.

I will still have some levels that are designed with full camera movement in mind, but I want to be a little stricter with the design philosophy of the game, and only allow such things when it is specifically warranted by the concept I'm going for.

Maybe when I'm done I'll post a new video of the same content after being 'tightened' would this be interesting to anyone to see the before / after, or should I not go through the bother?

[snackycactus]

Inventory system a-la Secret of Mana!

Just finished the inventory system! Now all I have to do is make enemies drop items :D

- if you watch closely in the gif, you can actually see an item bouncin' around on the ground just WAITING to be picked up!


You can also see that I've finally added a HUD for your health.

[Nana]

I really dig this style! Amazing colour pallete! The only problem I have is that if the bright colours are on the floor, it hurts my eyes a bit. I think it's best if the brighter colours remains on buildings and details (or in the characters itself), as the attention of the player will be focused on the floor. Some times the character has the same colour as the floor as well. Other than that, the game is amazing as it is, I'm really looking forward to playing it!

[snackycactus]

Thanks for the feedback, I'll keep that in mind!
Right now the gifs & youtube videos are actually distorting / brightening the colors quite a bit (I'm not sure why), so the street color isn't nearly as bright as it appears in what I've been posting. I'll definitely keep an eye on it though, and will probably do another color pass later on to fix visibility stuff like that.

[snackycactus]

Oh man, it's been a while since my last update!

I'm here with some pretty big stuff. While I've been silent I've been making a ton of progress on the game. I nearly have one entire level playable, and have started work on the boss battle at the end!

Here's a brand-new gameplay video showing off most of what I have so far:




One big thing that it is missing is a cut scene before the boss battle. Because of this, I'll likely be working on tools to make dialogue and events next.

The level still has a ton of polish and tweaks needed, but I'd love any feedback anyone can give. The boss is in a TOTALLY not done state, so please be kind about that part!

[SolarLune]

Hah, this is lookin' pretty slick!

- The signals seem to give you not too much time before the cars resume crossing the street - a bit more time might be nice.

- There seems to be a bit of trouble in firing in multiple directions - is there?

- I would create a new type of barrier that is invulnerable, and auto-destructs on defeat of a mini-boss or boss, of course.

This all looks pretty good - the only feedback I can give is kind of obvious things. Great work, dude. What is "Kudamono", BTW? "______ thing" in Japanese?

EDIT: Ah, "Fruit".

[snackycactus]

Thanks!
So currently how shooting works is everyone in your parry shoots in the direction you are moving, unless you are holding down a 'lock' key that keeps them firing in whatever direction they are facing. It works great when you are charging forward or strafing, but switching directions can be finicky, so I might experiment with some other options further down the road.

[thomf00]

AWESOME iteration! I was most excited by the cars mixed with normal mobs in between. This part looked pretty challenging without being unpredictable.  I love the traffic lights, very cute.

[Superb Joe]

the planting system and the traffic lights are wonderful

[Pixel Noise]

Really like the planting mechanic for power-ups, etc - and the little nod to Frogger