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[oahda]

I wonder if it could be as simple as having doors you can enter be open, and doors you can't enter (but enemies can come out of, with a brief open and close animation) be closed.

[diegzumillo]

I wonder if it could be as simple as having doors you can enter be open, and doors you can't enter (but enemies can come out of, with a brief open and close animation) be closed.

Oh I like that!

[diegzumillo]

I only worked from Friday until now but I got a few things working. That refactor really did help things after all. In this gif, you can see guards coming out of that door and the player going through the opened door that leads to the second floor. No animations to ease these transitions for now so it looks a little weird. Also, the stairway door was improvised with existing tiles.



So this ticks all the boxes I set up to consider the proof of concept* minimally ready. I'm considering making this available for testers to give me feedback. The problem is that it's not a super intuitive game to play and there are no tutorials, so it needs a written manual to go along.

I myself have no idea how this plays anymore. I know the code inside out, I can run circles around the guards and move freely everywhere. I need fresh eyes.

I'm going to set up an itch io page. Stay tuned for a demo this week! 

*proof of concept of a few aspects of the game, like basic controls, combat, stealth, etc, but it still does not test the map structure and other higher-level gameplay elements.

[JobLeonard]

That refactor really did help things after all.

Nice!

[diegzumillo]

Link to the prototype The password is "blastprocessing"

Any feedback would very welcome! all instructions there.

[JobLeonard]

Just gave it a go. The physics is distinctly in the camp of platformers that I didn't play very much when I was younger, so it takes a bit of getting used to. But it already feels quite nice after that initial adjustment. Flows better than how I remember being frustrated with Flashback (not entirely sure about the acceleration/deceleration though, makes the player a bit floaty)

I do feel like sneaking around and exploring the world, so that's a good sign

[diegzumillo]

I do feel like sneaking around and exploring the world, so that's a good sign

Thanks for trying it out! Given the rawness of the demo, I appreciate your effort in seeing what I was trying to accomplish. Pretty much everyone who tried got stuck trying to assault the front door and complained about the combat, which is fair, the combat does suck a salty sausage at the moment. But I wanted more feedback on other aspects besides combat.

This is, of course, expected. I knew the demo was beyond raw and required a lot of imagination, and a lot of mind reading, but I also really needed some fresh eyes on it! It was nice seeing other people play it and share impressions.

Based on my feedback so far, I intend to:
- tweak the inertia a bit. I want him to hit the brakes faster.
- change combat mode to a toggle

If I were basing myself only on feedback I would work on combat and would start replacing temp animations with permanent. But I don't want to focus on that now. I think stealth needs more love now.

- I already have a light and shadow mechanic implemented, but not yet used. It needs to be clearly communicated with the background. So I'll update the demo with that.
- Crouching in mid to low light makes you invisible but guards should still be able to bump into you. Right? hmm.

With these extra refinements, if everything looks good, I will be ready to move onto phase 2: higher level gameplay elements, including non-linear map and, possibly, upgrades.

[diegzumillo]

Here's me going through a pacifist route

[JobLeonard]

Looking good!

[diegzumillo]

Looking good!

I feel like rambling!

Just finished those things on that list. Now what? I said I was going to start testing those other gameplay elements. Get a larger map with different areas that require backtracking and exploring etc.

However, maybe I should slow down on that front and fix some of those temp animations before they become an integral part of the game's visual, and I can't imagine the game without stick figures anymore. Maybe. Just to get it out of my system. Then I'm off to work on a tiny metroid prototype.

[RealScaniX]

Mysterious oracle label knows what you are doing. ^^
 
Looks very nice.

[JobLeonard]

Yoooo... it's RealScaniX! Long time no see man! :D

[RealScaniX]

Yoooo... it's RealScaniX! Long time no see man! :D

Hehe, hi! I hope that I will post in my own thread soon, too.

[diegzumillo]

Scanscan! 

[RealScaniX]

Scanscan! 

Hi!
Good to see that you are still active (more than myself). Will check out your prototype this weekend.

[RealScaniX]

This was interesting. Sure took me back to a time when I played and loved flashback.
I think the controls using my xbox controller are still a bit misconfigured, but in general the controls work nicely.
Jumping in place feels oddly slower than jumping while moving, although the same gravity etc. should apply.
Maybe it is for dramatic purpose or to show that he puts more energy into this jump, but he isn't actually jumping any higher than while running (visually).
Also the crouching state was a bit "sticky". I felt he should stand up and move or crawl instead of doing nothing until I pressed up to make him stand again. But this might just be an intermediate state.
The guards followed me and jumped down to the ground floor. I don't know if they can climb, otherwise they would never be able to get back to me (or their assigned guard position) ever again. ^^
 
Just my random thoughts from a brief playing session.

[diegzumillo]

Thanks for trying it!
I agree with all those comments, these are all things on my list of things to polish eventually.

[bayersglassey]

When I was looking for a job I replaced all the previous commit comments with professional looking ones. But I saved a screenshot

...I feel inspired to attempt to get a PR merged at my day job on Monday with an "asdpoi" commit.

[bayersglassey]

Here's me going through a pacifist route

I really like how the character's current state is displayed, not in a static position e.g. at the top of the screen, but scattered about various "physical" locations in the level... presumably at places where you frequently playtest certain animations.

Also the animation is awesome. That cape... *swiiish*

[diegzumillo]

...I feel inspired to attempt to get a PR merged at my day job on Monday with an "asdpoi" commit.

  Very descriptive and helpful!

Here's me going through a pacifist route

I really like how the character's current state is displayed, not in a static position e.g. at the top of the screen, but scattered about various "physical" locations in the level... presumably at places where you frequently playtest certain animations.

Also the animation is awesome. That cape... *swiiish*

Thanks! :D there's a lot of temp animation mixed in for now.
Those debug statements are floating around because of my laziness and some technicalities. They are written in the same plane as the platform layer but in a 'window pane' thing, which means even though it shares the same layer as tiles that are scrolling, the stuff inside this window pane will stay still. Then I removed the window pane, thinking it was a shortcut to remove all my debug messages, and the debug messages are now moving with the background! but the background keeps loading new tiles as it scrolls to make it look like new terrain, while the text just cycles back into view.