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[Wander]

Start them high and then by the time you get to the castle in the sky - where your father, the giant half bear half god, and your mother, the nubile fairy queen who is trapped from sunlight, live.

That way when you rescue your mother and she calls on the power of the clouds to carry you away, you can ride clouds away from your *actual* star throwing father.

-or is that a diffrnt game?-

(^__^)

but seriously, high then they go low.

[I_smell]

I've just realised that clouds on the floor make you feel like you're at absolute ground level and clouds in the sky make you feel like you're just under the cieling.

Like cieling of the world.

It helps convey your altitude in the opposite way I thought it would. So I'm gonna do it exactly how I've done it in those screenshots.

[Wander]

-or- like you're in John Carpenter's THE FOG. :-)

I 100% support you doing what you want to do for at least a trillion reasons. 

Your game is cool so far and if it keeps growing from your head, it will likely stay that way.  You keep doing the steering and we'll keep doing the backseat stuff.   

[I_smell]

http://tombrien.co.uk/Games/BORRIS.html

Level 1 and the halfway boss are done. I deliberately made this boss way smaller than I usually would, cos it's only a sub-boss.

I still think this game's under-achieving. Tell me if you get stuck.
Oh and there's a portal that skips straight to the boss fight on-top of the circus.

[Wander]

i can't get past the mountain portion with the climber.  but something seems wrong on this puter.  at best all i can do is make it into the nook.  am i doing something wrong?  my laser jump doesn't seem to get me more than a bit off the ground. made it to the cavern pool

my laser gets stuck in the "on" position sometimes.  that may be a bug.  conditions for the bug are - running and jumping and using the laser, then laser gets stuck on as I'm depressing the keys to move mid air.  have to reclick to turn it off.

edit: found out what is it - it's when i drag my mouse out of the play area while hilding a button...

would you be apposed to making the ground shake when the bear jumps or hits the ground?  I love that kinda stuff.

also i want an indicator when "batteries are charged"

Meters are so 1990, so what options do you have?  Hmmm - bear glows.  maybe his eyes glow when it's fully charged. maybe when he's charged he starts smoking like lit furrrr.  IDK, just something to chew on.

werd?

[StephenM3]

Since a large part of this game involves shooting downwards to move, I'd like to see more screen space below Borris to make this more practical.  You can't really be that precise with your aim when you're shooting just below his feet.  And during the boss battle, when you want to go from shooting at the boss, to quickly shooting downwards, it's too easy to accidentally move your mouse off the screen.

[I_smell]

I haven't updated for ages cos my game work has sloooowed down.
http://tombrien.t35.com/Games/BORRIS.html

Anyway yeah, I've decided to resize the game's dimensions. I was nervous about it before, I kind of knew that it wasn't a great design choice to have 700x250 and set things up so it'd be an easy fix later. It's cos I'd just played Canabalt and thought it was so damn cool.
The game's now 600x300.

Some graphics have been updated with small details to make it all look a bit more interesting. The dialogue's bin SLIGHTLY altered, adding in that the bear never talks- because that's funny. Level 2 is at a point where I'd just about call it done. Got the skill-based beam jumping in there that I wanted.
The framerate's just about spot on, except for the opening level.
I'm still thinking about some kind of interface to communicate how much beampower you have left. I'm considering using just sound. Like the fading whine that night-vision goggles make when you turn them on, I think, could communicate that your beam is recharging. I don't want to make the bear's eyes glow, cos then they'd be glowing all the time and it subtracts from his indifferent charm.
Oh and I should add in some kind of tiny little cut-scene to connect level 1 to level 2. Right after level 2 is the final boss fight. Then MAYBE a final FINAL boss fight depending on how I feel.

Thinking of renaming the bear. Don't know what to, but Borris is too obvious.

[Wander]

cool.
Playing it on my home comp wasn't doing this justice, cause on my work comp, which i technically SHOULDN'T play on, it runs better and is easier.  I played through this time and it worked well.  How about some levels that are dark that he lights up with his lazer? That would be keen.

the city level looks a little bland/barren.  I would expect helicopters/etc.  maybe some rooftop peeps would be cool. Billboard with stupid product jokes. Anything to break up rooftopness.  The chimneys were good - they looked like cigarettes.

First boss is cool.  I do like that he doesn't talk (the bear).  Borris isn't too bad. I wouldn't beat myself up over the name.  I've always liked the name Baryshnikov (as in the dancer).  And he sort of is a dancing bear... well, a circus one, but you know...

[st33d]

Blur effects are a showing their chug where they're used multiple times. Try to lay off them.

Didn't read what it was about. Played it purely to find out why it merited the name and didn't need the slightest shove in the right direction on how to play. Constant respawn worked well, took me ages to figure out the beam.

Some platforms weren't resisting well enough, but that's never an easy thing to code.

I quite enjoyed it.

[StephenM3]

I think it would help a lot to have more things to shoot at.  The beam feels too much like a weapon to have it be used only as a propulsion device.  The levels play slow enough that you could definitely fill the existing areas with enemies without upping the difficulty too much.

Another side effect of the beam being used only for jumps is that Borris spends the entirety of his adventure with his head at an awkward-looking "my neck is broken" angle.

Unless you were already planning on adding enemies later?