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[sidbarnhoorn]

This looks excellent! Reminds me of Solar Jetman and Solar Winds. Two games I loved playing as a kid. Good luck with the development! 

[KPas]

Other than that, it looks really good and it seems to get better with every update.

Ok, this was a pleasant surprise. You made my day! 

One thing that bothers me is that the ship propulsion jets look like glowing plastic things glued to the ship instead of glowing particles ejected with high speed. It would look much better if you either made the streams much shorter or simulated the streams as particles.

Yeah, the jets aren't final. But they are visible all the time, so I probably should put them further up on the list.

On this occasion I want to show some proof of addiction to your great game.

This looks excellent! Reminds me of Solar Jetman and Solar Winds. Two games I loved playing as a kid. Good luck with the development! 

Thanks!

By the way, I'm working on AI at the moment. Current step: Causing the vessels to evade the bigger obstacles in a somewhat good looking way ...

[KPas]

I totally reworked the desgin of the void. The edges weren't rounded enough, and the transparent blue wasn't threatening at all.



Now the void is opaque black. It has a small edge, which is disturbed and rippled depending on the tension of the force field: the higher the tension the smoother the ripple. The edge is transparent in order to ensure contrast and it's colored blue & red.
I also reworked the way things are swallowed up by the void. Now there are rounded wave peaks and troughs.
The player learns to read the waves. But he can't trust the void, and unless he knows what he is doing he better keeps his distance.

[KPas]

I made an up-to-date version of the gameplay video.
Now there is sound  ... but you can look at it as placeholder noise.





Further I created an itch.io-page in order to handle the demo downloads at least.

[-Ross]

Hmm . . . why did you make the void black? It's almost invisible against the black & dark brown background. Given that it kills you instantly, don't you think you should be able to see it?

[freank]

what's the engine used? Can I find an online version on indiexpo? It looks great!

[KPas]

Hmm . . . why did you make the void black? It's almost invisible against the black & dark brown background. Given that it kills you instantly, don't you think you should be able to see it?

I did that for a good reason. I think this video was a trigger:




It reminded me of the feelings of intense threat I had/have when playing Teleglitch.
That transparent blue wasn't threatening. The black void does a far more better job I think.
Yes, there are a few moments when the player has to keep a sharp lookout for the void, and I think some threat comes from there.

Nevertheless the player should be able to see the void almost all the time and therefor I gave it a small contrasting edge. Probably I have to iterate that.

what's the engine used? Can I find an online version on indiexpo? It looks great!

Thanks! Sorry, no browser version, but you can download from itch.io.
It's a self-made engine and uses SDL2, OpenGL and OpenAL.

[io3 creations]

I also wonder about the black color for the void.  In Teleglitch it seems to work because there is a good contrast between the floor color and the black.  But in your game, the brownish background doesn't provide enough contrast and can make it harder to read/see the black void.  Especially, in tense moments when you have to look out for the attacking enemy ships as well.  Perhaps, adding something to the edge of the void (e.g. "shimmering sparkles") could make it look more obvious.

[KPas]

I also wonder about the black color for the void.  In Teleglitch it seems to work because there is a good contrast between the floor color and the black.  But in your game, the brownish background doesn't provide enough contrast and can make it harder to read/see the black void.  Especially, in tense moments when you have to look out for the attacking enemy ships as well.  Perhaps, adding something to the edge of the void (e.g. "shimmering sparkles") could make it look more obvious.

Thanks for your point of view! Yeah, I'll intensify the edge's halo effect. No sparkles, but more shimmering.

[KPas]

I increased the visibility of the edge by intensifying the halo effect.

No, it's far away from Christmas tree illuminations.
Now it should nearly be impossible to overlook the edge except in very rare situations, but when the time has come, the player will know it ...

[KPas]

On re-entering the cycle of the year I wanted a more atmospheric title screen, so I glued together some asteroid debris ...

[io3 creations]

I increased the visibility of the edge by intensifying the halo effect.

No, it's far away from Christmas tree illuminations.
Now it should nearly be impossible to overlook the edge except in very rare situations, but when the time has come, the player will know it ...

Hmm ... when I first saw the image I thought you were kidding because I couldn't see anything from the halo effect.  Then later, I saw a slight version of it.  The difference was that the first time it was sunny in the room and everything was bright.  Later, at night the screen was more visible, but I'd say that the effect could use more brightness.  The space rocks were visible in both situations.  Something nearly bright could work.

[KPas]

Hmm ... when I first saw the image I thought you were kidding because I couldn't see anything from the halo effect.  Then later, I saw a slight version of it.  The difference was that the first time it was sunny in the room and everything was bright.  Later, at night the screen was more visible, but I'd say that the effect could use more brightness.  The space rocks were visible in both situations.  Something nearly bright could work.

Thanks for your feedback!
You are right. I thought about it, and I guess the real problem is the GIF here. I shouldn't have posted it as an argument or proof, because it does a bad job, sorry.

Viewing the GIF is like being in a bright room and looking out of the window into the starry sky: the GIF is dark but the remaining screen is bright, and so the contrast obstructs your view. In-game everything is fine (to me) because the hole screen is dark or even black. I mean it's like being outside in the dark and watching the stars.

So, hopefully I don't appear as obstinate, but I suppose everybody is able to see the edge in-game.

[io3 creations]

Hmm ... when I first saw the image I thought you were kidding because I couldn't see anything from the halo effect.  Then later, I saw a slight version of it.  The difference was that the first time it was sunny in the room and everything was bright.  Later, at night the screen was more visible, but I'd say that the effect could use more brightness.  The space rocks were visible in both situations.  Something nearly bright could work.

Thanks for your feedback!
You are right. I thought about it, and I guess the real problem is the GIF here. I shouldn't have posted it as an argument or proof, because it does a bad job, sorry.

Viewing the GIF is like being in a bright room and looking out of the window into the starry sky: the GIF is dark but the remaining screen is bright, and so the contrast obstructs your view. In-game everything is fine (to me) because the hole screen is dark or even black. I mean it's like being outside in the dark and watching the stars.

So, hopefully I don't appear as obstinate, but I suppose everybody is able to see the edge in-game.

Based on my experience of having to crank up the brightness on dark-ish games in fullscreen mode when it was bright in the room, the same issue will remain.  The issue isn't the area around the gif but the monitor acts like a mirror and reflects the environment i.e. adds brightness to everything on screen. 

Just to check, I viewed your gif in full screen in a bright room ... and had the same issue.  Couldn't see the halo at all.  Even on the brightest display setting.

[KPas]

Ok, apparently one is caught up in one's habits. When you spoke of a "sunny room" I simply thought of my usual diffuse winterly daylight, and not really of the sun. Sorry for misunderstanding.
When it really happens that the bare sun is shining through the window, I'm also unable to see most of the screen.
Then, in order to watch a movie or to play a game, I have to let down the shutters partially. In summertime these are normal conditions to me.

Yeah, therefore I have to admit, that my game requires a partially dimmed environment; dimmed by hand or dimmed by nature. It is more or less intended for this kind of environment, and some elements are just fitted to it including the edge's halo. But I don't want to exclude any further adjusting.

[io3 creations]

Overall, I agree that games that have a lot of dark areas are best enjoyed in dimmed environment and you'll miss out on certain aspects (mainly visuals).  Having said that, there were a few that I still played in "less than optimal" conditions.  But at least that didn't affect the gameplay experience since I knew that was happening. 

Interestingly, in Savage Vessels I could see the ships and other environmental objects (?asteroids) that had bright areas.  So, here's another reason for increasing the brightness of the halo: visual consistency.  Everything that can harm you should be similarly visible under the same conditions.

[KPas]

What you say makes sense. But I think this is going academic ... Since you are already spending your time in dealing with my project -- -- I have to ask: Is your PC/laptop running Windows? Could you give the demo a try sometime?
I guess it would be helpful and revealing to gain knowledge of your real in-game experience, particulary regarding this visibility issue.
Thanks for your time anyway!

[io3 creations]

You're right!  Actual game experience may vary.


Unfortunately, looks like I can't play the game.

At first I got:

The code execution cannot proceed because openal32.dll was not found.  Reinstalling the program may fix this problem.

But after looking it up, I found on https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-fix-openal32-dll-not-found-or-missing-errors-2623883  that I have to install OpenAl.

Then I wondered that should've been mentioned in a readme file but I didn't see such a file when I first opened the game folder and quickly scanned it.  However, this time I looked more carefully and did find the readme.txt file. :|   Interestingly, I was expecting to see the filename capital letters (i.e.) README.txt  and that's why I missed it.

Installion of OpanAl was fine.

Then the came the show-stopper:

opengl version 2.0 not supported

I'm guessing I get the error message because my laptop doesn't have a gfx card or something isn't supported.  Could there be other reasons that could be resolved?

[KPas]

First of all thanks for your try!

Too bad. I suppose this is a driver issue, but I don't know for sure. At least nobody told me of this issue before, and I know that my graphics framework has been running on many systems.
There seem to be rumors about a "dialog" between Microsoft and Intel regarding issues related to older graphics hardware and newer Windows versions -- Perhaps there are already better drivers available, or it's just a matter of time.

I know, playing a demo is always like taking a hurdle. But perhaps someone else will try out and tell something.
In any case I will experiment with more brightness.

[io3 creations]

First of all thanks for your try!

Too bad. I suppose this is a driver issue, but I don't know for sure. At least nobody told me of this issue before, and I know that my graphics framework has been running on many systems.
There seem to be rumors about a "dialog" between Microsoft and Intel regarding issues related to older graphics hardware and newer Windows versions -- Perhaps there are already better drivers available, or it's just a matter of time.

I know, playing a demo is always like taking a hurdle. But perhaps someone else will try out and tell something.
In any case I will experiment with more brightness.

Yeah, it's unfortunate.  I do intend to upgrade "soon" and hopefully can give feedback, but first things first.  Luckily, at least it can run Unity games since I'm using that to make games.  But games made with other engines sometimes run, sometimes don't.

On a similar note, the forecast for the next week is overcast ... so I might not have been able to test the sunny room for a while either.