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[Vallar]

Hello everyone,

Latest update:

The game has been overhauled and a new link and gameplay is available. You can check it out here. The below is just for reference.


Background:

So I have been working on a few prototypes and this little game shaped up during development of one of them. I have been working on it for a few weeks now and I am planning to release it commercially and this where you come in.

I am looking for feedback on a few things and I have created a survey (you are free to fill it or just throw the feedback in a comment below the way you want) that won't take you more than 5 minutes to finish.

How to play is just below the game's window but for a quick read here it is:

- You are the white square and your movement is your attack.
- While moving you are invulnerable and can kill anything you collide with (enemies are red dots).
- While stationary you are vulnerable and you lose 1 of 3 lives.
- Enemies drop yellow squares called resources (for now) that you collect to power your passive abilities (not in game yet).

Game Link and Survey:

EDIT: Changed this section and am going to fill it with the builds as they are released so it is easy to find the post with the latest build and its changelog.

Changelog1 and build's link
Changelog2 and build's link
Changelog3 and build's link

Here is also the 5 minutes survey if you wish to fill it and help me out. It is completely anonymous and I don't collect any data you don't fill or choose yourself.



What is planned for this game (subject to change):

1- You have passive abilities (such as slowing enemies on screen, regeneration, every X kill all enemies of type Y, etc...) that gets powered by resources and work automatically. You have to have enough resources for the power up to work and you can choose which ones to keep active (can't have more than 2 active at a time for now). Done!

2- Shifting level. There are no levels, but after X amount of waves things get harder as walls close in or pillars spawn from the ground or tiles fall off. Done!

3- Bosses that you'll need to figure their mechanic as you play. Done!

4- More enemy types. WIP

5- Adding art. WIP


Thank you very much for reading, trying out the game and sharing your opinion. This greatly helps me out figure many things and get the game just right .

[AlanGD]

Oh Hai .

Interesting simplistic gameplay, I have a few recommendations though:

1-This could be a major one depending on how much of the game mechanics is done, but I'd consider going with a turn-based approach, so the enemies only move after you click the mouse (which would be a 'turn'), in practice since the enemies move as they will, it ended up being a button masher for me.

2-Advanced behaviors. Use something like UnitySteer for flocking and other collective behaviors. After a while most enemies are all overlapping and that feels really cheap. Plus some squad formations and stuff would be cool as heck . This could also help gameplay since the enemies could organize into 'lines' you could easily 'jump over' instead of a single blob of mess .

Other than that the concept is really interesting. Needs lots of contents though, including varied enemies and maybe powerups and whatnot .

[Vallar]

Oh Hai .

Interesting simplistic gameplay, I have a few recommendations though:

I hope you liked it though .

1-This could be a major one depending on how much of the game mechanics is done, but I'd consider going with a turn-based approach, so the enemies only move after you click the mouse (which would be a 'turn'), in practice since the enemies move as they will, it ended up being a button masher for me.

You know I actually thought about this before but I wasn't too sure if it will keep its "interesting" level or fun factor when it has slowed down.

In terms of development, for what I want for this game (something small that you can play on mobile or so -- similar to Alto's Adventure in terms of pickup-n-play and I can finish in a month's time), I would say I am almost done (just the few things I put up in the original post). However, I don't mind redoing a few things if that would make it more fun and more enjoyable. Plus I was looking for ways to make it appeal to everyone... right now I feel it is mostly guys and younger audience (only a guess. I am hoping the survey will shed some light on that matter though).

2-Advanced behaviors. Use something like UnitySteer for flocking and other collective behaviors. After a while most enemies are all overlapping and that feels really cheap. Plus some squad formations and stuff would be cool as heck . This could also help gameplay since the enemies could organize into 'lines' you could easily 'jump over' instead of a single blob of mess .

Hmm... that sounds really cool, I agree. However, I haven't implemented AI THAT advanced before. Most of the other games' AI were not "team workers" and just went about their way individually. I am worried though of technical difficulty and time it would take to implement such advanced behaviors. Have you played around with these things before? Any idea how hard these would be for an intermediate programmer?

Other than that the concept is really interesting. Needs lots of contents though, including varied enemies and maybe powerups and whatnot .

Thank you very much, glad it was interesting. At the moment close to 7 enemies and a few bosses planned. I wasn't going to add power ups because I don't believe it will feel good on mobile to have to tap on a power up to activate it (that is why I was talking about passive power ups in the original post). However, if I go through with turn based... then that will definitely be feasible.

[Quicksand-S]

Personally, I like the real-time gameplay. It feels like it could get quite frantic if enemies were more threatening.

I wish the play area captured the mouse. I kept clicking outside of it.

It might be nice if there was an indicator of how far the "character" will move when you click. Sometimes I felt like I was in range to attack but ended up right beside the enemy instead.

Do enemies do any damage yet? I got hit a bunch but never died. I feel like this would maybe work better as a die-in-one-hit sort of game.

Maybe energy pickups should flash or something when they're about to disappear. It was unclear how long they lasted and I sometimes went to pick them up only to have them disappear as I approached.

A relatively simple way to implement some sort of "group" movement would be to have enemies choose a "master". They would head for a specific point relative to the master entity (ex. direction of last movement plus 40 degrees, 32px away), so it would look like they're trying to group together even though there's little strategy or anything involved. This isn't necessarily as good as flocking behavior, but you can do some interesting things easily. For example, if you make the target point change over time, you could have one enemy try to constantly circle another. You can have all enemies follow one master, or create a lot of smaller groups without too much trouble. I'm not sure if it would add much to the game, but it could be worth trying out some form of grouping behavior like AlanGD suggested.

Have you tested this on mobile devices yet? Sometimes touch controls aren't very precise. You might tap in one spot and the screen thinks the side of your finger is where you were trying to tap. It might make sense to add a small amount of aiming assistance to guide the player "character" toward any enemy that is near the tap location.

[Vallar]

First off, welcome back!

Personally, I like the real-time gameplay. It feels like it could get quite frantic if enemies were more threatening.

That was the feeling I was aiming for... having to watch out for enemies and move in locations that would allows you to dodge but at the same time attack. I agree enemies aren't threatening and that is by design. They are the first enemy you encounter and designed to just teach you the game. Other enemies grouped with this one will make it a bit more threatening . They are in the game but I don't recall if I activated their spawning yet.

I wish the play area captured the mouse. I kept clicking outside of it.

I am not sure what do you mean by that? Can you explain further? Perhaps a screenshot?

It might be nice if there was an indicator of how far the "character" will move when you click. Sometimes I felt like I was in range to attack but ended up right beside the enemy instead.

Hmm... interesting idea. I wasn't going to do that and was hoping that after a while the player will come to "gauge" the movement and will guess well enough. I'll see what I can do to make it less "guessy".

Do enemies do any damage yet? I got hit a bunch but never died. I feel like this would maybe work better as a die-in-one-hit sort of game.

They do! If you notice the three squares on the top left they are your lives. Albeit there is no game over yet. As for one-hit die. That was my initial design but then I felt it might be too "Flappy Birds". So I made it easier. I am toying with the idea of making more lives an upgrade that you get or perhaps a shield upgrade that recharges over time and uses resources. Since you mentioned the 1-hit-die thing I might actually go ahead with that and have lives something you upgrade into.

Maybe energy pickups should flash or something when they're about to disappear. It was unclear how long they lasted and I sometimes went to pick them up only to have them disappear as I approached.

Good catch! That is something I'll probably throw out till later when I put in art as depending on the art direction I could do flashing or something else (if it won't take too much effort).

A relatively simple way to implement some sort of "group" movement would be to have enemies choose a "master". They would head for a specific point relative to the master entity (ex. direction of last movement plus 40 degrees, 32px away), so it would look like they're trying to group together even though there's little strategy or anything involved. This isn't necessarily as good as flocking behavior, but you can do some interesting things easily. For example, if you make the target point change over time, you could have one enemy try to constantly circle another. You can have all enemies follow one master, or create a lot of smaller groups without too much trouble. I'm not sure if it would add much to the game, but it could be worth trying out some form of grouping behavior like AlanGD suggested.

Could you elaborate further on this master thing? The way I understand it (and I am not sure if I do) is that you have a hidden object called master and he is the one that moves towards the target first perhaps then every other object (enemy) follows it but within a circle of small diameter around that master, right? If that is the case, then they'll never hit the player.

One thing I was debating is that I'd leave all "minions" (i.e. non-boss enemies) as dumb as you saw and all the "intelligence" would be reserved for bosses. Since bosses will introduce mostly new mechanics into the game. I am not so sure though if that is a good idea. Crowd AI is something I have never done in Unity (or anywhere else) so I am looking for materials that caters to beginners on the subject. Will see what I can do.

Have you tested this on mobile devices yet? Sometimes touch controls aren't very precise. You might tap in one spot and the screen thinks the side of your finger is where you were trying to tap. It might make sense to add a small amount of aiming assistance to guide the player "character" toward any enemy that is near the tap location.

Not yet, but you raise a very good point about taping producing weird results. Luckily Unity treats touches as an array rather than a single event. Right now I am picking the first touch in the list (so once your finger touches the phone). Shouldn't pose a problem I think. But will test just in case -- thanks for the heads up I wasn't thinking of that at all.

[AlanGD]

Regarding the real-time gameplay, I agree with Quicksand-S that some kind of indication on where you're aiming at and how far the character will move would be beneficial... maybe when you click an arrow of sorts appear and when you release then the character moves.

Oh Hai .

Interesting simplistic gameplay, I have a few recommendations though:

I hope you liked it though .

Yeah, sure. The mechanics I've seen are solid. The only real issue I had was that after some time it ended up being a button-masher, maybe autoclicking or something could help with that.

Hmm... that sounds really cool, I agree. However, I haven't implemented AI THAT advanced before. Most of the other games' AI were not "team workers" and just went about their way individually. I am worried though of technical difficulty and time it would take to implement such advanced behaviors. Have you played around with these things before? Any idea how hard these would be for an intermediate programmer?

Well, I wouldn't call OpenSteer/UnitySteer "advanced", but UnitySteer is very easy to use, and most importantly, very easy to extend, you just have to subclass the Steering class and implement/override the CalculateForce method. However, for your needs I think UnitySteer provides everything you need outta the box, it has separation and following behaviors, both take advantage of prediction and you also have fully configurable autonomous vehicles you could use for different enemies very easily with accelerion/turn speed/max vel variations, in my opinion it's really worth to use UnitySteer and it's also great knowledge if you plan to develop games for a living because steering is very important in game development.

Thank you very much, glad it was interesting. At the moment close to 7 enemies and a few bosses planned. I wasn't going to add power ups because I don't believe it will feel good on mobile to have to tap on a power up to activate it (that is why I was talking about passive power ups in the original post). However, if I go through with turn based... then that will definitely be feasible.

Glad I could help. I think you can make it work without going turn-based, but in any case you'll surely need plenty of contents to add variety to the gameplay, powerups are just a way to do that.

[Vallar]

Regarding the real-time gameplay, I agree with Quicksand-S that some kind of indication on where you're aiming at and how far the character will move would be beneficial... maybe when you click an arrow of sorts appear and when you release then the character moves.


Yeah, sure. The mechanics I've seen are solid. The only real issue I had was that after some time it ended up being a button-masher, maybe autoclicking or something could help with that.

I was thinking just that... some kind of arrow or something similar to a "faded out" sprite at the maximum distance you can reach (and it moves with the mouse/tap) if it is closer than max distance.

That said, regarding the real time vs turn based, I think I found an idea that is in between both. Basically once you tap/click and hold time is slowed down to about 0.25 - 0.15 and once you release timeScale goes back to 1. That way it feels kinda slow enough for you not to mash all the time and you have time to think where you are going. For those that dislike that approach a single tap will do too since they wouldn't feel the difference in time.

Well, I wouldn't call OpenSteer/UnitySteer "advanced", but UnitySteer is very easy to use, and most importantly, very easy to extend, you just have to subclass the Steering class and implement/override the CalculateForce method. However, for your needs I think UnitySteer provides everything you need outta the box, it has separation and following behaviors, both take advantage of prediction and you also have fully configurable autonomous vehicles you could use for different enemies very easily with accelerion/turn speed/max vel variations, in my opinion it's really worth to use UnitySteer and it's also great knowledge if you plan to develop games for a living because steering is very important in game development.

The reason I am saying advanced is that there are no tutorials. Yes, there are examples and you can look at and see how something is done but I don't usually learn very well using that approach. I'll give it a go though, from what you are saying it seems easy to integrate it. We'll see how it goes . Thanks for the recommendation.

Glad I could help. I think you can make it work without going turn-based, but in any case you'll surely need plenty of contents to add variety to the gameplay, powerups are just a way to do that.

Yeah, one thing with these type of games is that after a while it gets stale if there is nothing new. It is one of the reasons I am thinking of integrating leaderboards at some point -- give its life's length a push. I think I have an idea that might suit mobile and other platforms quite well

[Quicksand-S]

I am not sure what do you mean by that? Can you explain further? Perhaps a screenshot?

By "capture the mouse", I mean that the game should stop the cursor from leaving its borders. Most decent web games these days will capture the mouse when clicked on and a message will come up saying something like "Press Esc to free the mouse". I know you plan to make this a mobile game, but for testing on a desktop PC it would be nice if this were implemented.

Could you elaborate further on this master thing? The way I understand it (and I am not sure if I do) is that you have a hidden object called master and he is the one that moves towards the target first perhaps then every other object (enemy) follows it but within a circle of small diameter around that master, right? If that is the case, then they'll never hit the player.

I was thinking more along the lines of one "minion" picking another "minion" as their master and moving based on its position.  That way, everything will still be moving in the general direction of the player. You could even have it that once they're within a certain range of the player, they break formation and head straight for it. You could do it with an invisible object as well, but using other minions doesn't require another object and you can do interesting things like have enemies switch master when they get closer to a different minion, or have them switch on a timer. Again, I don't know if this would make gameplay more enjoyable. I'm just throwing out ideas.

[Vallar]

By "capture the mouse", I mean that the game should stop the cursor from leaving its borders. Most decent web games these days will capture the mouse when clicked on and a message will come up saying something like "Press Esc to free the mouse". I know you plan to make this a mobile game, but for testing on a desktop PC it would be nice if this were implemented.

Ahh, I see. OK, sure will look into it

I was thinking more along the lines of one "minion" picking another "minion" as their master and moving based on its position.  That way, everything will still be moving in the general direction of the player. You could even have it that once they're within a certain range of the player, they break formation and head straight for it. You could do it with an invisible object as well, but using other minions doesn't require another object and you can do interesting things like have enemies switch master when they get closer to a different minion, or have them switch on a timer. Again, I don't know if this would make gameplay more enjoyable. I'm just throwing out ideas.

I see what do you mean. Hmm... interesting idea. I'll see if I can first implement UnitySteer supposedly it has crowd formations. If not then I'll look into this method.

[Vallar]

This is probably going to sound weird and stupid but a good soul played the game and submitted the form and since I don't track data I don't know who they are so whoever played, thanks a lot for trying it out. That said, here are a few comments based on your feedback:

The timer between waves is too long. Actually, is there a need for waves at all? You could just increase the difficulty as you go.

This is by design. For now, you don't see any of it, but later there will be some use for that timer and you'll see why it is long. I might throw in part of it when I upload the next version which is quite soon (TM).

It is not clear how far you will move, it is not clear when the enemies are going to move.

Agreed, there is now an indication of where you'll move. Enemies' "tell" will be implemented with art that is why I didn't bother with it in this version. In a couple of versions I'll post on Reddit and such to look for an artist. There is a specific style on my mind and hopefully it will allow for some nice stuff.

I feel it would be more fun to have more enemies and these indicators rather than having to guess how far you will move and when enemies will attack.

Completely agreed and I'll get to it as mentioned .

[Quicksand-S]

Enemies' "tell" will be implemented with art that is why I didn't bother with it in this version.

If you're getting feedback on gameplay, I'd say it's probably a good idea to include things like that which are important to the gameplay. Just make the "tell" a quick flash or a shape change or something. This also allows for you to prepare your code for the future art, so you don't need to change things too drastically when it comes time to add animations.

[Vallar]

Enemies' "tell" will be implemented with art that is why I didn't bother with it in this version.

If you're getting feedback on gameplay, I'd say it's probably a good idea to include things like that which are important to the gameplay. Just make the "tell" a quick flash or a shape change or something. This also allows for you to prepare your code for the future art, so you don't need to change things too drastically when it comes time to add animations.

*Nods*

Can't argue with good reason . It has been implemented hopefully you can see it in the next version.

[Vallar]

So I thought it is time to throw in a new version and see if you guys like it and if I am heading down the right direction (loads of stuff changed). You'll still have to excuse the lack of art -- I definitely need to find an artist soon.

Anyway without further ado here is the link to the web build and the change notes below:

The web build link

Changelog:

• Changed how the player moves now, if you hold LMB time will slow down and a line will be drawn to show you the distance you'll travel and direction. Note that if you click LMB fast you won't see anything.
• Now enemies have a tell before they attack, they'll turn grey just before attacking, be careful!
• The waves now increment and you'll see 3 new enemy types.
• The purpose of waves is now revealed. The implementation isn't literal and I am still working on making the writing actually feels like someone older than a 7 year old wrote it. What do you think?
• Enemies now swarm you rather than clamor over your head.
• Introduced a random ability system, there are 5 abilities in total -- unfortunately at the moment you can't tell which ability is this. That is still WIP. However they are in effect and look like green orbs. Their drop rate is 20% of the time.
   Just walk over the ability like resources and its effect will trigger immediately. Similar to how you pick up powerups in Breakout.
• Fixed a bug with enemies not colliding with walls.

Hopefully you feel the direction I am heading towards is good and you like it. Like always, looking forward to your feedback (and massacring the game) and thank you very much in advance!

[Quicksand-S]

The movement indicator is really helpful. I like the changes, although I still didn't feel like I had any sense of what the challenge was supposed to be. I got hit a bunch of times and nothing bad happened.

Slow-motion is a bit choppy. Rather than reducing the frame-rate, as it seems you have somehow, maybe just multiply all speeds by a certain amount?

An obvious tell before enemies fire projectiles could be a good idea.

Maybe enemies should avoid spawning right in front of the player or within a certain distance.

I played five or six waves and never saw any power-ups, so I can't comment on them, but it didn't seem like there was a 20% drop rate.

[Vallar]

Before addressing the feedback, I'd love to get everyone's opinion on the name I chose for the game -- it is more akin to the story than gameplay:

I am thinking of going with Of Hope or A Case of Hope or maybe something like a reference like The Curious Case of Hope. I feel the latter though is too long and people may not catch the reference. Specially when the reference is only for the sake of reference and nothing beyond that

The movement indicator is really helpful. I like the changes, although I still didn't feel like I had any sense of what the challenge was supposed to be. I got hit a bunch of times and nothing bad happened.

Glad to hear that you liked the changes and they are going down the right path. Sorry about the lack of challenge. I haven't yet included Game Over as I keep forgetting (focusing on other things in the game). Next update will have a lose scenario with Game Over . Hopefully that will present the challenge.

Slow-motion is a bit choppy. Rather than reducing the frame-rate, as it seems you have somehow, maybe just multiply all speeds by a certain amount?

Ah, I hadn't noticed that, thanks for pointing it out. Added to bug fix.

An obvious tell before enemies fire projectiles could be a good idea.

Interesting... I saw them turn grey before firing in the Unity Editor, don't they do that? Or do they do it too late?

Maybe enemies should avoid spawning right in front of the player or within a certain distance.

Good catch, added to bug fixing.

I played five or six waves and never saw any power-ups, so I can't comment on them, but it didn't seem like there was a 20% drop rate.

After reading this line, I waded through the code and seems I caught a case of me not instantiating them into the pool which they get "spawned" from. Glad the game didn't crash when enemies died though :D. Will be fixed next update.

Thank you very much for the feedback -- it is definitely quite helpful.

[Quicksand-S]

An obvious tell before enemies fire projectiles could be a good idea.

Interesting... I saw them turn grey before firing in the Unity Editor, don't they do that? Or do they do it too late?

They do, but I almost never noticed it. I'm thinking it may just be a case of things not being obvious enough. You kind of have to be looking directly at an enemy in order to see them turn grey, and when you're surrounded there are bound to be enemies that you don't see fire. Personally, I would prefer a flash of white or something that would let me see something out of the corner of my eye and react.

Bug report: If you hold the mouse button down while the next wave is loading, it slows time for the countdown. I also see a text-selection cursor when holding the button instead of a normal arrow cursor for some reason.

[Vallar]

Right, I was going to dedicate a post for this but I hate spam so I was thinking of a name for the game and here is what I came up with so far:

• Of Hope
• A Case of Hope
• The Curious Case of Hope
• Ever Vigilant

I'd appreciate your help with picking a name. If you really don't like any of the above names (or think you can come up with a better one), please feel free to suggest one.

Another person has posted to the survey and I'd like to thank them very much.

They do, but I almost never noticed it. I'm thinking it may just be a case of things not being obvious enough. You kind of have to be looking directly at an enemy in order to see them turn grey, and when you're surrounded there are bound to be enemies that you don't see fire. Personally, I would prefer a flash of white or something that would let me see something out of the corner of my eye and react.

I agree it isn't the best thing ever. I have made it slightly different now but nothing major though. Hopefully with the next update it will feel better. I didn't give it too much attention though at the moment since it will be handled differently later on which will not use the same code at all (gotta remove 90% of the current one).

Bug report: If you hold the mouse button down while the next wave is loading, it slows time for the countdown.

Yeah I noticed that bug when trying the game a couple of days ago and fixed it for next update.

I also see a text-selection cursor when holding the button instead of a normal arrow cursor for some reason.

This is the most strange... I can't seem to get it to show up in my editor so I could track down the specific issue. I am not using any GUI that changes the mouse sprite. Can I ask you if this is consistent or a one time thing? Does it happen when you are moving while the next wave counter is active only? Or does it happen with the Resources Label at the top too? Is this on Chrome? Does it happen in Firefox too?

[Quicksand-S]

Well, I don't know what to say about the titles since I'm not sure what the game has to do with any of them yet. Purely from the sounds of them, I like "A Case of Hope" best as a title, but "Ever Vigilant" is kind of cool even though it doesn't sound so "title-like".

As for the cursor bug, I see the text-selection cursor any time I click, hold the button and move the cursor in any direction. As soon as I move it even one pixel, it changes to text-select mode.

It seems to only be happening in Chrome for me.

[Vallar]

Well, I don't know what to say about the titles since I'm not sure what the game has to do with any of them yet. Purely from the sounds of them, I like "A Case of Hope" best as a title, but "Ever Vigilant" is kind of cool even though it doesn't sound so "title-like".

The game will have a storyline similar to that of Thomas Was Alone and it is related to hope . Thanks for choosing though will add it to Twitter's poll and we'll see how it pans out

As for the cursor bug, I see the text-selection cursor any time I click, hold the button and move the cursor in any direction. As soon as I move it even one pixel, it changes to text-select mode.

It seems to only be happening in Chrome for me.

Interesting, now this is annoying definitely... will see if there anything I can do to fix it. Thanks for checking it out though

[Vallar]

No new build yet but there are two announcements to make that I am absolutely excited about:

1- The game now has a name; A Curious Case of Hope. I had a poll on Twitter and the results were really surprising.

2- I am no longer alone on this project and an artist joined me. "We" are now working on bringing in art to the game. Except a new update soon (may not have art still).

Thanks everyone for your feedback and for reading .