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[pixelarcstudios]

woah! everything about this is so my jam. how much inspiration are you taking from Strider? and if so, which does it resemble most in terms of gameplay progression: single levels like 1, split into stages like 2?   

Glad that you are excited! There's some inspiration from Strider, but I wouldn't say that is the main influence. As far as gameplay progression is concerned... There is a prologue level. Once that is completed there are 6 levels that you can complete in any order that you choose. Clearing a level grants new abilities. You can revisit levels that you've already completed and gain access to new areas of the level using your upgraded abilities. Once you've cleared the initial 6 levels you unlock the 7th and final level (not including the prologue). So... sort of Mega Man meets Metroid, but with a segmented world  Also, it is possible to complete the game with doing any backtracking or revisiting any previously cleared level. You'll miss out on a bunch of cool stuff if you play through the game that way though!

[joey4track]

BTW after I first saw this post I literally booted up Stryder and it was awesome. I can't wait to play this! I know it will be it's own thing but you guys really did an amazing job of catching the flavor of Stryder, which is great because it is a wonderfully unique game that really hasn't been revisted much in other games that I can think of.

[Superb Joe]

woah! everything about this is so my jam. how much inspiration are you taking from Strider? and if so, which does it resemble most in terms of gameplay progression: single levels like 1, split into stages like 2?   

Glad that you are excited! There's some inspiration from Strider, but I wouldn't say that is the main influence. As far as gameplay progression is concerned... There is a prologue level. Once that is completed there are 6 levels that you can complete in any order that you choose. Clearing a level grants new abilities. You can revisit levels that you've already completed and gain access to new areas of the level using your upgraded abilities. Once you've cleared the initial 6 levels you unlock the 7th and final level (not including the prologue). So... sort of Mega Man meets Metroid, but with a segmented world  Also, it is possible to complete the game with doing any backtracking or revisiting any previously cleared level. You'll miss out on a bunch of cool stuff if you play through the game that way though!

what you are describing is the gg shinobi 1 and 2 which you and every other person on this web site should play

[CosmicCrystal]

Unbelievably good art. Action looks like it will be fluid as hell. Need this injected in my veins nowwww.

[pixelarcstudios]

Thanks, guys! Yes, the gameplay is quite fluid. 60 fps and the engine/code does not introduce any input lag. There is a lot of animation priority (currently only the slide animation can be cancelled), but I've written all of the code so that (valid) input results in a response the same frame that it is registered in all cases 

[pixelarcstudios]

Bushiden forest area:

[Eskema]

This looks damn good. I will be waiting for the release

[pixelarcstudios]

Just wanted to post an update for those interested. We have kind of gone quiet, but we are hard at work on the game. Our timeline has changed (in a good way), so there should be more updates and media coming soon! 

[pixelarcstudios]

We've been busy at work refining combat systems and tweaking combat animations. Here's a look at the Bo Tech Summon attack:

[pixelarcstudios]

Working on finalizing the camera programming and tweaking the parallax layer scroll speeds. I think it's close, but not quite there yet. The camera probably needs to be a bit "smarter" when the player is traversing vertical environments. I think visibility for the y-axis is currently an issue.

[fireboy]

Awesome graphic! I hope the same in the gameplay to buy it ^^
Good job!

[pixelarcstudios]

Awesome graphic! I hope the same in the gameplay to buy it ^^
Good job!

Thanks! We are working hard to make sure it plays as good as it looks

[Superb Joe]

Working on finalizing the camera programming and tweaking the parallax layer scroll speeds. I think it's close, but not quite there yet. The camera probably needs to be a bit "smarter" when the player is traversing vertical environments. I think visibility for the y-axis is currently an issue.

is the movement speed final?

[pixelarcstudios]

Working on finalizing the camera programming and tweaking the parallax layer scroll speeds. I think it's close, but not quite there yet. The camera probably needs to be a bit "smarter" when the player is traversing vertical environments. I think visibility for the y-axis is currently an issue.

is the movement speed final?

It's not. We'd love to hear some feedback if you have any! 

[stewiepixels]

this is goddamn beautiful. oh.

[Superb Joe]

Working on finalizing the camera programming and tweaking the parallax layer scroll speeds. I think it's close, but not quite there yet. The camera probably needs to be a bit "smarter" when the player is traversing vertical environments. I think visibility for the y-axis is currently an issue.

is the movement speed final?

It's not. We'd love to hear some feedback if you have any! 

i know you don't want to lean too heavily on strider, and the kinetics of your run cycle aren't super fast like something like strider 2, but right now it feels a little slow. i would maybe bump your horizontal speed up 25 to 50% to test what feels right

[pixelarcstudios]

Working on finalizing the camera programming and tweaking the parallax layer scroll speeds. I think it's close, but not quite there yet. The camera probably needs to be a bit "smarter" when the player is traversing vertical environments. I think visibility for the y-axis is currently an issue.

is the movement speed final?

It's not. We'd love to hear some feedback if you have any! 

i know you don't want to lean too heavily on strider, and the kinetics of your run cycle aren't super fast like something like strider 2, but right now it feels a little slow. i would maybe bump your horizontal speed up 25 to 50% to test what feels right

Interesting. We can take a look at the movement speed, but the player is already moving around 180 pixels per second. Which is definitely on the higher end of x-axis movement for games of this type. We'll play around with it though and see how things feel

[fskn]

(A little late, but) I would have to agree with Superb Joe. The ninja does seem too slow.
I don't want to ask you to remake his walk (as that could have a huge impact on your development, influencing not just this character), but making shorter (besides faster) steps might help.

I'd expect an overall speed of about as fast as the camera movement in 0:05.

[qMopey]

That run cycle is so crazy people will remember your game by it! Also the jump cycle is pretty darn good. Landing looked a little rough compared to the initial jump frames, but wow 

[pixelarcstudios]

Hey, guys! Thanks for the feedback and the kind words! Do you think the the movement looks slow in the game play video (you can find it in the first post)?