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Legend, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 11:32 PM, said:
Made it to wave 8 this time! I must not be very good.
I think I've just been playing it too much, so my perception of the difficulty ramp is skewed. Although, I wonder if I'm communicating certain things well enough in my instruction docs. One really crucial point is that "pressing" the fire button does not shoot the arrow; it just draws the bow. Releasing the button shoots the arrow. Holding the button down also engages your lance when you reach top speed (by holding left or right for about a second), so I notice I spend far more time holding the fire button down while playing then mashing or pressing it. Don't know if that helps or not.Quote
Any chance of getting the galloping sound fx back? Doesn't seem like it's very important, but I feel it adds a lot to the feeling and excitement when I'm galloping towards the black night or fending off a dragon.
I think I can squeeze it back in. My main problem is making sure it doesn't override other mission-critical sounds (like, for instance, the sound of the dragonfire that is used to gauge the dragon's proximity). I'll experiment and see if I can bring it back in the next build.
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Can anything be done about the dragon sprites disappearing when they get close but not all the way to the side of the screen?
Not sure. I really don't think so. P1 wraps at screen edge in the display kernel I'm using, so if the didn't disappear before the edge they would instead appear at the opposite side of the screen and then disappear. I understand that Batari incorporated some form of sprite masking into his latest display routine, but unfortunately I don't think I can use it with this program (and even if I could, the sprite is resized, which I gather would present other problems)
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In most levels, the wave ends when you kill all dragons. In the ones with the grendel, you have to kill the grendel too before it moves on to the next wave. Is this intentional?
Actually, that's not true. No levels end the instant you kill all dragons. This was a revision in place since my 8/10 build: "New play mechanic: After destroying all air enemies (Dragons, Wizards), player must defeat a road enemy (Knights, Grendels) to advance to next wave." It's not just Grendels; after you clear the sky of enemies, a short tune plays indicating that you need to clear the road to advance to the next stage. I put this mechanic in place to avoid having "cowards" play the entire game while avoiding the road enemies
After you hear the tune, kill whatever creature (Knight/Grendel/Other) remains on the road and you'll reach the next wave. Quote
The little animation when you save the princess is cool.
Thanks! I sort of wanted to expand on it, but I have precious little space left for graphics, and I want to reserve it for a few more bosses and color changes.
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What's the "+W" on the title screen for?
Just a placeholder right now. Eventually it will cycle through game options.
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I wanted to make some comments on the enemies:
I think you have a nice mix of enemies in the game over all.
You have dragons which come in different types and can damage both the player and the castles.
You have the grunts which only damage the castle but still need to be taken out.
You have the knights/grendels which only damage the player and also act as blockers to the player's progress.
Getting rid of the old bats was the right move I think since they really didn't add much to the game over all.
If you were to add another enemy to replace the bats, I think it should be some sort of enemy that lobs some sort of projectile in an arch towards the player. This would make the player a bit more cautious about speeding along too much because the lob could still hit them even if they pass the enemy. And perhaps these lob attacks could also harm the castles.
If you don't add a new enemy, I think the idea of road hazards you mentioned earlier would be a good way to go if they are introduces in the later stages of the game. If there were road hazards to avoid, it would be nice if there was some sort of way to jump. Nice, but not completely necessary.
You mentioned power-ups in an earlier post too. Some ideas that I think could be good for those:
a power up that let you temporarily make straight shots up into the air instead of at an arc. Maybe call it "eagle eye" or something.
A power up that lets you temporarily shoot horizontally to take card of the knights and grendels easier.
The classic temporary invincibility power-up.
A speed power up to make the player move faster.
And one that maybe makes the player's shots/lance do more damage.
Just some ideas.
Still loving the game. (and hoping or the galloping sounds to come back
)
I think you have a nice mix of enemies in the game over all.
You have dragons which come in different types and can damage both the player and the castles.
You have the grunts which only damage the castle but still need to be taken out.
You have the knights/grendels which only damage the player and also act as blockers to the player's progress.
Getting rid of the old bats was the right move I think since they really didn't add much to the game over all.
If you were to add another enemy to replace the bats, I think it should be some sort of enemy that lobs some sort of projectile in an arch towards the player. This would make the player a bit more cautious about speeding along too much because the lob could still hit them even if they pass the enemy. And perhaps these lob attacks could also harm the castles.
If you don't add a new enemy, I think the idea of road hazards you mentioned earlier would be a good way to go if they are introduces in the later stages of the game. If there were road hazards to avoid, it would be nice if there was some sort of way to jump. Nice, but not completely necessary.
You mentioned power-ups in an earlier post too. Some ideas that I think could be good for those:
a power up that let you temporarily make straight shots up into the air instead of at an arc. Maybe call it "eagle eye" or something.
A power up that lets you temporarily shoot horizontally to take card of the knights and grendels easier.
The classic temporary invincibility power-up.
A speed power up to make the player move faster.
And one that maybe makes the player's shots/lance do more damage.
Just some ideas.
Still loving the game. (and hoping or the galloping sounds to come back
)Thanks for the ideas. As far as the "shoot forward/ shoot up" powerup, I need to investigate this further. My problem is that I'm currently trying to play the game with "shoot directly up" in place, and so far I don't really think of that as a powerup. In fact, It actually seems to be hindering my game performance so far, causing me to get hit with far more dragonfire than usual. Maybe this is just a result of me playing the game exclusively with the forward-angle shot up to this point, so I'll play a few more games tonight with the straight shot and see what happens. Meanwhile, I've attached a version of the latest build with straight-shot turned on, so maybe you can do some playtesting of your own and let me know how it affects your own performance, whether positively or negatively.
ChargeDPC_straightshot.bin 32K
26 downloads[EDIT]
Okay, I just completed my first game with "eagle eye" on and I have to say that I SUCK at eagle-eye
. Seriously. Usually, by the time I face the first Wizard boss, I'm usually flying with four reserve lives and fully stocked castles, and I usually more or less cruise through him like a hot knife through butter. This time, I faced him with one life, he massacred one of my castles, and every time he was on the screen I felt like a kamikaze pilot on a suicide mission. And, really, I was, because he finished me off. It was the first time in a very long time that this sucker killed me.BUT... that might just be due to my personal play-style. Now I'm really curious if you are going to cruise through the levels with this experimental build, maybe by playing the game in a very different way. Post scores, levels and pics. I'll keep playing this version for awhile too, to see if you're seeing some unique angle of gameplay that I missed while designing it.
Cheers,
J
Edited by jrok, Sun Sep 4, 2011 8:39 PM.
