Knightly in the Dark Forest demo is ready for playtesting...

mobichan · Post by **mobichan** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 2:20 pm

HI All,

I just finished my first game called Knightly in the Dark Forest. It is inspired by lots of modern and clasic shooters. Only the first level is complete for the demo, but I am aiming to give a good middle slice of the game's difficulty with it. So, in the final game with all the levels, I expect the game to be easier at the beginning and harder at the end.

The scoring system uses a shield that you can place on the screen. It absorbs enemy bullets and increases a score multiplier. Enemy point values are multiplied by the shield multiplier allowing for lots of room to play with where and when to use the shield. Also, the shield's lifespan is controlled by a meter that is replenished by killing enemies.

The official site is here: http://www.pixellicker.com/games.html

Feedback and suggestions are welcome.

Mobichan

Bootaaay · Post by **Bootaaay** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 2:37 pm

Really like the art style and the music, plus the shield mechanics pretty interesting. Only gripe I have is with the speed of the little dude, but I think that might be more of a personal preference rather than a real negative. Anyways, congrats on getting this out - seems like a very cool little shooter and really impressive for your first game, I shall eagerly be awaiting the full version

worstplayer · Post by **worstplayer** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 2:47 pm

Plays well, everything works like it should.
And graphics are simply amazing. I've never seen such beautiful backgrounds in a freeware game. Keep it up.

Only problem: difficulty. It's just too easy. This should be first level.

t0yrobo · Post by **t0yrobo** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:15 pm

"Cannot load joystick2.mfx. This object might need an external program or library not yet installed."

I haven't tried it on my other pc yet, but that's all I get. I really like the art style though.

mobichan · Post by **mobichan** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 1:58 am

Sorry. That error means you don't have the proper Direct X installed. You need to have Direct X 9c or later.

t0yrobo · Post by **t0yrobo** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 5:12 am

Damn I shouldn't thought of that myself. This computer got reformatted recently and I haven't gotten around to installing any games yet. I like it so far. I think a bit more shot patterns would go nicely with all the sorta homing shots. More animation on Knightly would be nice also. I really like the look you've got going, kudos for that.

Udderdude · Post by **Udderdude** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 7:49 am

For a first game, this is really impressive.

Ravid · Post by **Ravid** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:14 am

I like this game. The graphical style is nice, the theme is novel, and the shield mechanics are simple and intuitive.

A few things I would suggest:
- I agree about the little guy's speed. At the moment the game seems like it's in slooow-mo, so maybe speed him up or add an option to have a higher speed. An accompanying increase in bullet speed wouldn't hurt either.

- It's easy. Probably about right for a first level, I wouldn't be inclined to make it any easier. Again, you might add a harder difficulty setting if you want to keep the current balance.

- Button 3 full-auto?

- Minor graphical thing; when the boss appears you can fly behind the cauldron and the witch, but in front of the thing she's standing on. It looks weird. I suggest layering the guy above them instead of behind.

- Boss flies around doing nothing for quite a while before it starts shooting.

- It's quite easy to hit the multiplier maximum. I don't know if this was deliberate for balance reasons or what, though, so I'll trust your judgement on that.

Sorry if I sound negative, this is for the most part really good work and I would totally play this (I wouldn't bother commenting if it wasn't).

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:57 am

Your artwork is really really nice. Do I see inspiration from Capcom's AD&D games in some places?

Zebra Airforce · Post by **Zebra Airforce** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 4:40 pm

My issues so far

-character is very slow
-definitely needs a full auto button
-I was able to get about 4,000,000 points just from defeating the boss with a high multiplier. You may want to reduce its value or increase the value of enemies during tha level, as the huge bonus just defeats the purpose of trying to score high during the level.
-The hitbox feels rally peculiar, because the corners stick out past the shape of a heart on his chest.

However, the presentation is fantastic. The graphics are very nice, and the music too. I'm excited to see this project grow.

320x240 · Post by **320x240** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 1:37 pm

Inspiring graphics. Simple and effective presentation. I wish more games would be like this.

One gripe I have is the time it takes between the Cauldron Boss is airborne until it starts shooting back. I prefer that the end of level boss 'activates' imediately. It's a choice between presentation and flow I guess.

mobichan · Post by **mobichan** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:41 pm

Thnaks for all the great feedback! To address some of the suggestions:

- Full auto didn't seem like a necessity at first, but the more I play, I tend to use normal shot for most of the level and held shot for the boss. I've noticed a few people playing with normal shot as well, so I think there is enough need for it now. Next release should have it.

- Character speed is a tough one. I tend to play faster characters, but I wanted the speed to be kind of average considering the size of the sprite relative to the whole screen. Also, the enemy formations are tuned to the current player speed, so changing that (even a little) could disrupt the game's challenge. Ultimately, I wanted to have multiple characters, each with different attributes. But for now, I might just implement a speed control setting (slow, medium, fast).

- Boss intro lag is a product of trying to get the foreground graphics to scroll out of the way before the fight. I kind of like that the boss gives you some "free hits" before combat begins, but I can see how it might feel like too much of a pause in the action. I'll look into tightening that up.

- The multiplier will max out at x50, but I rarely can reach it during the level for any effective period of time (I can maintain it maybe once for about 5 seconds). It is possible to get it to x50 on the boss during a few of the firing patterns, but it won't rack up too many points. Killing the boss is where the real boost in points occurs for me, since he is worth 100,000 (so 5,000,000 if you can get the multiplier to max before killing him). I guess I didn't think it was all that weird that his point value offset the level in terms of earning points. But I can see the logic in wanting the level's scoring to be on par with the boss. I will look into making enemies worth more (and the boss maybe worth less

) to even it out a bit. Thanks for pointing it out.

Just out of curiosity, can you guys let me know if you are playing with a keyboard or gamepad? And also what kinds of scores you are getting? I was just curious.

Thanks again for all the feedback. Please keep it coming.

Mobichan

Shion · Post by **Shion** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 4:25 pm

Fun game, especially the graphics are very neat and professional looking!

I tried playing it with my HRAP3 (Arcade style stick), and movement didn't work (shooting did). So I switched to keyboard which worked fine.

I got around 600k points in the demo level (I didn't get a multiplier on the boss however).

One thing that annoyed me was the huge hitbox the boss seemed to have. I tried getting close to him, but I died before I actually touched the sprite.
Furthermore, I'd prefer a faster character, but I suppose it works alright as it is.

Keep up the good work Mobi!

mobichan · Post by **mobichan** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:21 pm

Shion: The boss has pixel accurate collision, so I'm not sure how close you were to get killed by touching him. The player hitbox is around the heart (which you can see when you use the held shot). As for the joystick support, as long as windows recognizes it, it should work. If you are running it through a keyboard controller (like a hotrod stick) then you might try configuring the keyboard keys to the keys your stick uses (although I imagine that isn't the problem).

Thanks for the kind words. And keep an eye out for new releases of Knightly.

Zebra Airforce · Post by **Zebra Airforce** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 7:15 pm

Keyboard, 4.3 million.

D · Post by D » Thu Aug 21, 2008 10:31 am

-Keyboard

Wow, awesome work! I can see this ported to the DS or psp.
I have some possible improvements, to make it even better, well at least for my personal taste. It's really great if you could adjust it to my personal needs, but offcourse more people and yourself should like it.

-The speed really has to go up. to go from top to bottom takes way too long. And if it gets too easy maybe have the bullets go faster too to balance the difficulty back too.

-let the enemies shoot bullets less frequent. It can be bullet hell, but then the enemies should shoot several bullets at the same time, like you already have other enemies doing.

-The enemy bullets need a little work, they need more flashyness, there looking a bit stale now.

-pressing X should let you leave the option screen.

-The explosion animation could animate a bit slower.
Also the explosions could be a bit more unpredictable like Battle Garegga's explosions, with sometimes going a big sparkle in a certain direction.

-The explosion sounds could use a bit more bass and little less treble to make them sound a bit more fierce

It's easy to judge your work, because I feel like it's almost finished. It already looks very polished. Great job.

Matsunaga · Post by **Matsunaga** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:45 am

Definately not bad, my controller wouldn't work, and I suck trying to play with a keyboard, so I didn't get too far. I think the character speed is way too slow, other than that I enjoyed it.

mobichan · Post by **mobichan** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:43 am

FYI, you need to enable gamepad in the options screen. I allow the gamepad to work in the menus without activating it. Looking back, I might have made it more confusing by doing that. ^_^' The next version may default to keyboard only.

Matsunaga · Post by **Matsunaga** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:59 am

My gamepad wouldn't work for anything, I tried enabling it, not sure what the problem is. Anways, I'll be looking forward to more of this game.

rtw · Post by **rtw** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 10:43 pm

Fantastic effort, love the artwork. I got a capcom/compile feeling with a little trouble witches thrown in. The lighting effect in the woods was brilliant.

The music suited the cause very well...

The initial introduction reminded me of the animation on the legendary Discworld adventure game.

Sadly I could not get the gamepad to work. I verified that the gamepad was functional for other games.

rtw

ChurchOfSolipsism · Post by **ChurchOfSolipsism** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 11:06 pm

Checked it out, can't really say anything that hasn't been said before. Fantastic graphics (if you tweak the animations a bit the game will look absolutely professional), your ship/ knight moves a little slow, the bullets might be improved, and you need more/ faster enemies and bullets. And yeah, the boss should start firing bullets right away, the break is just too long.

But "still" a damn impressive feat! I'm really looking forward to playing the whole game!

AuthenticKaizen · Post by **AuthenticKaizen** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 12:16 pm

thats a good game...great graphics.

here a few suggesstions:

-increase the moving sped of the knightly
(bit too slow paced)

-collecting power ups would be great.

-balancing dificutly cause its very easy

-the boss just flies there straight doing nothing for a while in the beginning and you can shoot him pretty long that he loses about 1/6 of his energy...
well not bad for the player but it seems that he is paralyzed