HeffMoney
Level 0
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« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2022, 07:18:13 PM » |
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Thanks for the detailed review. I wasn't expecting a full video yet, so this is above and beyond.
One thing I wanted to do with this game is make the starting level later in development. The first level is the first impression, so it should be the most polished. Unfortunately that means at pre-completion, it feels like you were dropped in the middle of things, because you were. In the future, after I finish "Dick Tower", I'll start "Parking Lot of Destiny" which will be the easy level the player has to beat, and get used to the game, before gaining access to 4 of the other 5 levels.
Regarding the key mapping:
Spacebar is the bomb. I initially wanted to make bomb right click. But, the player character can unlock alternate costumes with abilities. If you beat the Mall of Ninja's mid-boss you unlock the ninja costume which has a still-in-development sword attack. (Works, isn't animated yet) Thus melee attack became right click and bomb had to be moved to space bar. That's a decision I question since this character has 5 forms and only 1 of them even has a melee attack. (Though super-long term I plan on adding more melee attacks - though 'super long term' is if I can manage expansions and sequels.)
Shift puts you in "aim mode", which slows the character down, and puts a bright red dot on them to show the hurtbox (exactly like Touhou - the hurtbox is actually a small circle)
Regarding the difficulty:
I swear I can beat these levels in the two lives provided, even when intoxicated. If I'm having a good run I can do it without dying at all. Is that a fair standard?
The problem is I know where all the enemies spawn from and can cheese them. For example spam shooting the right staircase at the start of "Manor of Wrath" will kill all the enemies before they can even shoot at you. In general, standing in one corners and spam shooting at another corner will hit everything that spawns from an entire side of the screen. The fairies are very vulnerable to being clotheslined - also, trust me, once you figure out their weakness, they're trivial.
The solution to cheese was to spawn twice as many enemies from two different directions. Though this has the side effect of stomping people who are on their first run.
While stats can be carried over from level to level, they can also be reset. In the final version I plan to have normal mode be where you try to clear a level with the 2(3) lives provided, and if you do it's cleared forever. So the difficulty I'm going for is 'if you can beat a level once, you've beaten it'. There will be an 'iron man' mode for people who want to follow the story and clear all the levels sequentially, but that's for the masochists.
The 'P' boxes (yes, I'm ripping off Touhou a lot, deliberately) increase the player's energy bar, on the top of the screen. It's a combined health and ammo pool that regenerates, so if you're in a tight spot you can stop shooting for a few seconds and then maybe tank a hit. An issue I've had with this is it sort of makes the latter half of a level easier than the first half. You start off with 25 points, the cap is 100 points (corresponding to a 'power level' of 4...after that point P boxes are indeed just good for score), and most enemy bullets are 40 points. So once you're past about 2.5 power-ish if you're conserving energy you'll take a hit, get a loud 'pank' sound, panic, stop shooting, regenerate, and recover. Though before that point a hit will straight up kill you.
I guess since one of my goals is "respect the player's time", upfronting the difficulty might not be a bad thing.
Regarding the Art:
Main Title Screen: Yep that was ass and a placeholder. I've already half replaced it in my development version. Final goal is to have a background of a blacked out city skyline with night sky in the background, character portrait in the foreground, with the title of the game as text.
Stage Select Screen: It's farther along but also needs replacing. Eventually what I want to go for is to make it look like a tourist map. Supposing a convention center had a map placard showing visitors where all the supporting businesses were. And then one of the bad guys came along with a marker and changed all the names. (That being said I may not be up to the task artistically) Your reaction was about what I wanted considering it's half-finished.
The Music: Youfulca's music is great and underrated in my opinion. It's free and is sort of what RPGMaker game makers use when they realize they need to deviate from the default material but aren't quite at the stage to commission their own art. In fact part of the inspiration of this game is I feel his music deserves to be in a genre that makes the player listen to it. I want to make a game worthy of the music. (That being said at the moment I need something better for 'Rosetta Stoned' - I don't even know where to find appropriate 'psychedelic boss music')
Why it's dark: Well I did want the bullets to stand out. Also story-wise it's night time and the electricity is out.
What's going on when the enemies die: The plot is an evil wizard attacked an anime convention and turned all the various merchandise into evil magical girls. So when you defeat an enemy it reverts to whatever inanimate object it was before.
The Mall of Ninjas: Sadly, it's full of mall ninjas, not real ninjas. The girls came out looking a little more Chinese than Japanese and I decided to roll with it. And dolls and fairies are kind of the default enemies and thus spawn everywhere.
My take-aways from your video:
1) I should make the characters and collide-able parts of the environment brighter for mechanical reasons. Collide-able parts of the environment should be 50% brighter, and the player character and enemies 100$ brighter.
2) It's imperative when I make the tutorial level, that the player knows where the bomb key and aim mode key are before they pass it. That being said, I also know players who are struggling with later levels will need to farm it for Power/Bombs, so I really don't want to put annoying 'press shift to aim' menus up or *force* the player to expend one of their limited bombs.
3) Also that tutorial level needs to be on-point.
4) Make sure the art is good
In conclusion, thanks for the video. You made my whole week worth living.
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