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[Quicksand-S]

For level info, how about a button you press to listen to a small hand held radio, or something? It would play a report about how far the player's gone, how many people he's killed, etc., without breaking the immersion with a big clunky HUD.

And, yeah, some ways to cause more damage to the terrain would be cool. Bomb powerups?

The radio idea actually sounds pretty good. I think we could make it work, but I'll have to talk to my dev partner about it.

Not sure about bomb powerups. I'll see about adding some more explosive/destructive weapons, though.

[Theon]

I finally saw "One soldier takes on 79 enemies" :D

_{Also just noticed a "President promises to pull out in 2011", followed later on that round by "President promises to pull out in 2013"!!}

I like the idea of both "The year in review" and a radio button, but more than that I'd just like to have a end score after you die; preferably written in the same kind of style as the headlines (Ex. "Veteran returning in a coffin after X years in the field and killing X enemies on the frontlines" Followed by the "Be a hero like he was"  )

[SteGriff]

Fair enough re: HUD. I admire the style of the game thus far.

As for the C4, sometimes it makes it easier to drop an attack on a group of enemies if you open up a part of the floor. For example, if an enemy is on a length of 3 blocks, and your only entrance is in the middle, you stand a bad chance of being shot a lot, so i'd give myself a more tactical drop position.

I look forward to the next build.

P.s. Gotta find a mask; masks heal eeeevvverything.

[Theon]

P.s. Gotta find a mask; masks heal eeeevvverything.

Wut? Doesn't masks only fix your armor?^^;

[SteGriff]

P.s. Gotta find a mask; masks heal eeeevvverything.

Wut? Doesn't masks only fix your armor?^^;

Yes, but armour is always hit before wounds. If you are maskless and have maximum wounds, having a mask gives almost half your life back.

[Curseman]

I think instead of having the news reports be words floating through the air, it'd be better if they were on either the bottom or the top of the screen and scrolled horizontally like in the bottom of this picture: http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/24n.jpg

[SteGriff]

I think instead of having the news reports be words floating through the air, it'd be better if they were on either the bottom or the top of the screen and scrolled horizontally like in the bottom of this picture: http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/24n.jpg

I disagree. I don't think that that fits with the game's 'sparse, isolating' dynamic. They shouldn't be set in Arial though.

[Theon]

I think instead of having the news reports be words floating through the air, it'd be better if they were on either the bottom or the top of the screen and scrolled horizontally like in the bottom of this picture: http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/24n.jpg

I disagree. I don't think that that fits with the game's 'sparse, isolating' dynamic. They shouldn't be set in Arial though.

Yup, that was a bad idea:P Sorry.

[Quicksand-T]

Here's a funny anecdote about the floating headlines, to hopefully expand on the idea behind them without over-explaining the game.

Most of the headlines in the game are exaggerations or extrapolations based on real news stories, or on concepts that our culture likes to entangle with war. One particular headline, "HEROES OF STYLE: How the war is changing the fashion industry", wasn't based on anything real. I just made it up to follow the trend of the others.

So we added the headlines to the game. A few days later I happen upon a discarded Globe and Mail (Canadian newspaper). At the back of the Lifestyle section was the article "Afghan Wraps? Current conflict lacks impact on fashion, experts say", bemoaning the missed opportunity for designers to capitalize on the "War on Terror". This paper was from the same day (August 1st) that two Canadian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

I think directly juxtaposing the headlines with the combat captures the absurdity of the situation better than relegating them to the bottom of the screen.

[Kegluneq]

Do all of the headlines have an equal chance of appearing? 'Cause I feel like I'm seeing some waaaay more often than others. (Sorry, can't remember which ones, haven't played yet today)

[Quicksand-S]

Do all of the headlines have an equal chance of appearing? 'Cause I feel like I'm seeing some waaaay more often than others. (Sorry, can't remember which ones, haven't played yet today)

Yep. All the normal ones have an equal chance of appearing. By "normal", I mean the ones that don't tell you how many kills you have. Those kill-count ones have a slightly better chance of showing up.

We have sixty unique headlines at the moment. It's too bad that computerized "randomness" isn't always as random as we'd hope. I might have to do something about that.

[vdgmprgrmr]

This game is awesome!

I have a few suggestions, though:
Level generator variety... basically, beyond the way it currently is (which appears very, very random), a few less random things would really add to the experience. Things like enemy bases or guard outposts or maybe even oppressed civilians to liberate from enemy soldiers might go a long way to make this game more fun. They'd have to be a bit more challenging than the standard level section, since there'd be more enemy soldiers in these areas than other areas, and they'd have to have a reward at the end for successfully taking them on.

The pistol should be weaker, I think. As is, it's insanely powerful.

The player's collision box should be smaller. It's really hard to drop down a one-square-wide hole if there's not a wall on one side of it, and you can just walk over them currently, which doesn't make much sense.

Better enemy AI would make the game WAY more fun, since you'd have to strategize more.
You should be able to aim with all weapons, I think...

[Quicksand-S]

The player's collision box should be smaller. It's really hard to drop down a one-square-wide hole if there's not a wall on one side of it, and you can just walk over them currently, which doesn't make much sense.

This was done on purpose. I hated walking along, falling into most of the holes I came across (since you can't always jump over them), so I made it that as long as you're moving you won't fall into those holes.

There's code in place to help you fall through holes like that, though. If you're standing still directly over a hole you should get "pushed" into it. As it is now, I think you can be two or three pixels off-center and still fall through.

[Kegluneq]

There's code in place to help you fall through holes like that, though. If you're standing still directly over a hole you should get "pushed" into it. As it is now, I think you can be two or three pixels off-center and still fall through.

Already or in the next version? Because it certainly doesn't do that at the moment.

On randomness: perhaps you could take (another) idea from Spelunky in that there are actually a large amount of pre-defined "rooms" that are randomly put together instead of just pure randomness.

[Devylon]

Kinda feels like 'survival game' is an excuse to throw out any sort objective.

[Quicksand-S]

Already or in the next version? Because it certainly doesn't do that at the moment.

It's in the released version. Just pause over the hole. It shouldn't take much to make yourself fall through it. I'll see about making it even easier, though. In a game where you're always supposed to be moving downward, we don't want people to have trouble doing that.


EDIT: I just added a feature to the next version. You can now press DOWN while standing atop a hole and it'll center you so that you fall through.

[tim_the_tam]

it needs a lot of work imho

let start with what i like before i totally destroy the game. =]
i liked the fact that no two levels are the same and the anti war message your sending is straight to the point and works well with the game.

now heres what i dont like.
the music is definitely not atmospheric. its terribly produced as is sounds too.. whats the word.. homemade? i guess... and when it loops it doesn't connect or properly. sorry for the bad music terminology i know nothing about music.. all i know is that i had to turn the music down because it got really annoying and repetitive.

the character movement has some issues. it was too slow and it had problems moving down one block holes with walls beside it. speed up the character movements and fix that bug.

the gameplay it lacked depth. its repetitive, its not rewarding and you dont need a strategy of any sort. i know there a variety of different guns but it need more depth than that.

while i liked how the levels are completely different they dont do much for the gameplay. they do nothing more than have a place for you to stand up. its ironically repetitive.

i got a question though. is this a art game right?
if so i can see how these gameplay dynamics paint a negative picture of war. so are these "flaws" intentional? if so then keep them. but its not as fun as it can be.

[Kegluneq]

Oh yea, I hate dark levels. Can't see a thing. It's not good when the player has to squint.

[Quicksand-S]

the music is definitely not atmospheric. its terribly produced as is sounds too.. whats the word.. homemade? i guess... and when it loops it doesn't connect or properly. sorry for the bad music terminology i know nothing about music.. all i know is that i had to turn the music down because it got really annoying and repetitive.

Did you download the music pack? The music that's stored in the game is in MIDI format, so it's not nearly as good. It sounds different on different sound cards, and it doesn't fade or loop properly. That's the reason for the music pack. I made it a separate download so that people can check out the gameplay before deciding whether or not to get the better music files. If you did download the music pack and put it in the right folder, then I'm not sure what's going on with the looping.

Also, the music is home-made. It's also all digital, because I have yet to find a good way to record my keyboard, guitar and drums without sound distortion and a huge amount of white noise in the background. The MIDI stuff isn't ideal, but it's the best I can do at the moment.

As for everything else you said, well, there are reasons for everything we've done (music style, movement speed, etc.) because it is partly an "art game". We care a lot about gameplay, but every element of the gameplay still has to fit with our idea of what the game is supposed to say.

Just so you know, the game does have more variety than just weapons. Things change and are introduced the deeper you go, and in the next version there will be a lot more. We'll probably make some things show up a little earlier too.

I'm not sure about the problems "moving down one block holes with walls beside it". That's never happened to me in all my hours with the game. Any idea how I can reproduce it?

Oh yea, I hate dark levels. Can't see a thing. It's not good when the player has to squint.

Dark levels? Interesting. I wonder how different your monitor settings are from mine, because nothing ever gets very dark for me. I think I'll add a config option to keep the sprites from being affected by "lighting", though. That should make things easier on your eyes.

[Kegluneq]

The parts where it rains, I mean.