Hi guys, here's my new piece of work. It still be in a wip status but completely playable.
It's not a shmup but it's quite full of bullets however.
I've tried to put together the overwhelming chaos of bangai-o, the gravity force switches of VVVVVV and a some sort of metroidvania exploration.
You can play it even with an emulator or, if you can, the best choice is with a flash card on a real GBA.
I watched a video of it when you released Holy Hell final version. Looked a bit like one of my "dream games" actually. Will check it out for sure.
P.S. Okay, some remarks:
- Play Baraduke (if you haven't yet). Just one button and eight directional controls, but what a game. Unfortunately on MAME, last time I checked, the input lag was horrible. Namco Museum 5 for the PSX is the way to go.
- The spikes should be more visible.
- Pressing up and down should move the werewolf up and down along the walls, just the way left and right work on the floor and ceiling. I understand that the transition between horizontal and vertical movement should be immediate, but once I want to change a direction, I expect left for left, up for up and so on. Instead of both triggers doing the same, one could do what up does right now. I have some issues with switching the floor/ceiling directions, but it feels even less intuitive on the walls.
- The stereophony is just odd. Monophonic music on the left, other sounds on the right? With earphones it sounds plain wrong (so does Mars Matrix on MAME).
In a nutshell, the controls are not intuitive enough for my liking.
The rear gate is closed down
The way out is cut off
A lot of people told me about controls that are at first unintuitive. By now i think they're hard to get in but i need to keep D-pad free for combo moves that you'll collect along the game(up+b, down+b...).
Also, using only 2 directions give you the possibility to get around a room without never leave your finger from the d-pad and it's really useful to chain and to speedrun the game when you get used to them.
Do you think they are really bad or something to get used to?
Music at this moment aren't well developed, i'll fix all the stuff in the final release.
Thanks for the headup on Baraduke, i've heard of it but never played. i'll do soon. thanks
I liked it, agree with Obi's critiques esp the spikes and keeping an absolute frame of reference for movement direction.
A way to scroll or view the whole level would be super as well, but that may be a tall order - lots of blind jumps, although the general level design teaches you to just not chance it, usually.
The movement physics could use some tweaking. A (very) little inertia is generally good in platformers - right now zipping about without a care feels a little sloppy.
Lastly the hit detection could be more intuitive. I have trouble telling when my punches are going to outreach the enemies.
I'm slowly getting used to the controls, but the keyword is "slowly". I'm afraid you won't get many people to give your game a chance...
What you did there is VERY unusual. As a rule of thumb, we expect our onscreen dudes to go to where we press the controller. The exception being "tank controls" in Assault, GTA 1&2, Resident Evil and whatnot, as well as games about moving the very environment around (Super Monkey Ball and Cameltry come to mind).
Imagine playing a typical action game on a monitor put on its side or turned upside down.
If you are certain the controls can't be radically tweaked without diluting the original concept, prepare yourself for many people not getting what's the point. Even Capcom, oddly faithful to old-fashioned "tank controls" (which I don't have any problem with) let folks play Onimusha 3 "normally".
At least there's no pressing up for jump in A Werewolf Tale. Manfred Trenz himself shunned it once given two buttons, no less, in Super Turrican for the NES.
P.S. I sort of got the hang of dashing. Now it feels even more like that dream game of mine. This, ladies and gentlemen, is as close to 3D Shinobi (the PS2 game: dash, dash, dash, jump, dash, dash...) as I've seen in 2D, with a hint of Rocket Knight Adventures. Nothing seems to be wrong with the physics and collision detection to me.
I suggest to implement a neat attract sequence (not a superplay video, mind you; leave spoiling games on YouTube to the gamers) to give lads and gals out there better idea of the pacing.
The rear gate is closed down
The way out is cut off
@obiwanshinobi:
I'm really glad to read your last ps. i agree that this kind of controls need great attention at first but if you are always dashing and jumping you're on the right way to perfectly understand how i meant gameplay.
I agree with you about putting a new video online with no spoiling to give a better idea of the pacing. I'll do it very soon.Thanks!
@Moniker: I'm developing now the pause status of the game, in which you'll be able to scroll around the whole level.
About the movement physics, how do you think should i put in a bit of inertia? I'm trying to give a better control on small movements around the corner, to avoid slipping to soon on another wall. is that what you mean?
Totally agree with collision detection. It's on my working plan to fix it, but at this time, even if it's not the best, i'm keeping it to focus on other stuff like powerups.
genecyst wrote:
About the movement physics, how do you think should i put in a bit of inertia? I'm trying to give a better control on small movements around the corner, to avoid slipping to soon on another wall. is that what you mean?
Yup, exactly. Just enough to give a little feeling of weight and make fine adjustments, so you feel a little more connected to the floor. Doesn't have to be much or anything that would compromise the manic flow/pace.
