BrianC, on Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:50 PM, said:
[* ]The bird just keeps taking damage after getting hit with little chance of escape. A short period vulnerability after getting hit should help.
- I noticed sometimes one of the raindrops would turn into a bat. Is this intentional?
- I like how the bird bounces off the ground now. I noticed that sometimes I would take damage and sometimes I wouldn't when touching the ground.
- I'm not sure about the superhero theme, but I like the new sprite much better than the old one.
- I liked the infinite lives/1 hit of the old build, though.
- The old one didn't need a life meter, but with more stuff on screen, it helps (I like going back to base at a loss of a life). However, with the above issue, it's like you still take only one hit.
- Checkpoints and shortcuts back to the base may be helpful depending on the length of the game.
- I don't recommend using the life meter as an excuse for unavoidable hits.
Thanks for all the feedback.
1) The collision routine needs more checks in it to determine proper rebound velocities, right now the values are hard coded and reverse upon impact.
The idea was to bounce you into a safe area and give the player half a second of invulnerability to avoid constant collision. However this backfired and ends up sucking the player into the objects and enemies. I think I have a fix for it, I'll get this working completely like it should in the next release.
2) This shouldn't happen, the bat is supposed to fly in from off the screen however I overlooked which player object I used for the water drop and it's the same as the bat. Which is why the bat spawns out of a droplet. I'll make the needed adjustments so the bat enters the screen properly to chase the player.
3) Touching the ground should never cause damage and the player should always bounce. I need to address comment #1 and see if that solves this issue as well.
4) I wanted to stick with a chicken theme, but this is what I ended up with. I think it works better to be an alien hunting gold eggs instead. A chicken flying into a cave seems like an odd story to explain, so I redesigned the player to accommodate the levels but tried to retain a chicken feeling.
5) I might change it back depending on how the new collisions end up working. Staying alive longer was the goal since I added many new dangers, but if more people agree that a 1hit KO would be a better gameplay mechanic, I'll revert right away.
6) Right now it's set to 255 and halves on each hit. If collisions work properly that should be 8 impacts before you respawn.
7) The game isn't overly long if you know exactly what to do, however once I finish the game it should a bit longer to complete 100%. But I will retain the ability for a short play through with the penalty of a lower score
There should never be any unavoidable hits, the life meter was added so the player doesn't die when touching the walls. I might make enemies kill you in one hit, if that would be a good balance. But only more testing will tell.
jrok, on Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:58 PM, said:
I guess I'm torn about this, because in some ways even a moment or two of invincibility after a hit might spoil the challenge.
Maybe if there was just a little more predictability to what would happen after a hit, so you could take calculated risks (and maybe even calculated bounce damage?) Right now it feels a little bit random in terms of what happens in the wake of a hit.
A design flaw on my end, I have a short period of non-collision after you collide to allow travel away from the collision. I wanted to avoid clipping through the playfield, however the period is too short and you rebound into the wall on next check. The collision code currently checks which direction you were traveling and reverses upon impact, however it's not behaving as intended and will be #1 on my TODO list.
BrianC, on Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:27 PM, said:
Maybe having the bat push you back or an indicator that it needs something to pass it?).
This may sound odd, but I recommend keeping both 2.0 and the newer version up since they play so differently.
Maybe have both styles as an option, if possible?
I noticed the bat doesn't come out if the torch is gone. I like this. However, if I torch gets doused by a drop, sometimes the torch is gone and sometimes it goes back to start, making the bat still come out.
That one flat area on the ground in the cave is where I took damage when touching the ground. Is this supposed to be a pit? Maybe a color change or a change in graphics to indicate this, if possible?
The bat is an entrance guard and keeper of the second egg, in order to collect his egg you must burn it with the torch.
This will show it who's boss and he will then sit quietly. However once you've collected a certain amount of eggs, the other bat will start chasing you upon return. The only method is to avoid this one since you cannot fight it.
If there are major changes to the gameplay I'll leave the older ones for contrast, but I would recommend playing the final products rather than the prototypes. There isn't enough space left for multiple game mechanics, everything left is being occupied by the pitfall minigame. A nice thought though.
The torch should always be at the ship until you use it on the bat...so if it disappears then there is a logic error somewhere I'll need to track down.
As for the last question, I have no clue. All pits are marked by curved walls and all ground should be seen clearly. This was an issue in 2.0 where the ground was one playfield off and hidden behind the score. I've elevated the ground above the playfield to adjust for this, but going along with the collision code fixes, hitting the ground should not cause any damage in the next release.
Thanks for all the feedback and testing.
I'll get the next update out once the pitfall minigame is completed.
Edited by ScumSoft, Tue Aug 16, 2011 3:11 PM.
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