GoldSpace (Working title: Space Pirate)

Bombini

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Thanks guys!
Heavy testing with players who havent seen the game before and they like it a lot.
And funny enough...crashes i have never seen before ;)
Also performance on laptops could be better.

I will share feedback from the tester.
Cheers!

Bombini

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I integrated a system which allways shows the current task, if you fulfilled it and the next tasks in the top UI bar:

Bombini

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Hi guys,
one thing i learned in playtesting was how important "color coding" is.
Very obvious now but i did not spend so much thought on it as it needs.
I changed a lot of colors in the game last week because they were confusing to the player.

Some examples:
  • Stations or bed which would refil your health were red with an orange cross. Players thought it would harm them because of the red color. Changed it to white
  • Harming laser barriers were green. Players thought they would NOT harm them because being green. I changed them to red and added some blood (what i ususally do when you first see a trap).



The Shop:
  • The "shop" was confusing because it has updates for existing weapons, sells new weapons and also has a section where you spend your skillpoints
  • I made the split more clear
  • Added much more feedback for the player
  • Made the costs more clear


Cheers!

« Last Edit: June 04, 2018, 03:36:13 am by Bombini »

mdotedot

  • Posts: 1654
 
Quote
added some blood (what i ususally do when you first see a trap.

These are good pointers to be reminded often! Thanks for that clever blood-thing!

Proud member of the League of Idiotic Stencylers! Doing things in Stencyl that probably shouldn't be done.

Bombini

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Hôla Space Pirates!
I have a question for you regarding how to handle "game state saving".

My current approach:
  • The game saves ALWAYS automatically after finishing a level before starting the next one
  • It is NOT possible to save a level in between because so many parts are destructable and collectbale. It would be too much effort to save all this
  • The game will tell you that the state is NOT saved before you leave the game while playing a level

Is that something you can live with?
Cheers!

JeffreyDriver

  • Posts: 2262
It all depends on how long your levels are, and your target audience. Personally, I'm used to games not saving mid-level.

Someone who wants to pick it up and play for 10 minutes at a time may get frustrated.

NickamonPoppytail

  • Posts: 1141
Hôla Space Pirates!
I have a question for you regarding how to handle "game state saving".

My current approach:
  • The game saves ALWAYS automatically after finishing a level before starting the next one
  • It is NOT possible to save a level in between because so many parts are destructable and collectbale. It would be too much effort to save all this
  • The game will tell you that the state is NOT saved before you leave the game while playing a level

Is that something you can live with?
Cheers!


I have played (and still do sometimes) games with a similar or same approach to saving, and I have no problem or complaint to make about those. Although I guess it would be easier to give a better answer if we knew the approximate average length per level.
Upcoming Projects
Poppytail 5 and Pixeltail: Fifth and sixth main instalments in Poppytail series. A Game About Trimming Hedges: Final Version: An updated version of the original AGATH. One Million: Last-one-standing style small project. The Poppytales: Platformer boss rush with character collecting. Skies n' Fall: Boss rush shooter prequel to Rise n' Brawl. Precious: Weird platformer. Christmas Time 2: Sequel to Christmas Time 1.

Bombini

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Good point!
I am looking at roughly 10 minutes or less per level.
I can obviously use checkpoint in levels but this is weird if you destroy half of the level and start at a checkpoint with the level fully restored again. This leads also to put difficult boss levels at the start of a level.
I could also split longer levels in multiple scenes if i see that this will be an issue.

Cheers!


Bombini

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Hi Space Pirates!

This will be my last post before a long planned vacation which will translate into being offline for 2 weeks.
I made very good progress in the last weeks incorporating a lot feedback from testers. I tested it yesterday with one of the harshest testers i know. One of my sons ;)
He tested with a gamepad because he does not understand the concept of WASD with arrow keys. I do think that this is something from an older generation like me. He said: "Why do you use a keyboard? It does not make sense. Why not touch or a gamepad?" He is right. Well, lucky me that i build the game for gamepad as well.

Its always very insightful to test with someone who is not used to a specific genre and i am happy that he liked it.
One of the best comments: "This monster looks like poop with an eye. Why do you have walking poop?"

I am getting first images for the intro and some few images in between the story.
Take care and talk to you after my vacation!





squeeb

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Awesome!  Have a nice vacation and hope to see you soon!

Love that last image.. howd you make it?

Bombini

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Thank you!
I am back :)

The image is one of some i asked an artist to create based on my briefing.
This is beyond my skillset.

I was working last night on another feature which is based on feedback i got.
The player has by default no weapon because i want the player to actively pick it up and make a decision.

This creates an issue though when a player does not pick up a weapon and stands helpless infront of an enemy.
It does not feel great. It also creates the impression that the "firing" buttons on a gamepad dont do anything at start when you havent picked up a weapon (and some palyers never tried them again). I there for added a fist punch which can be triggered when not carrying a weapon.

I also made the one melee weapon (which is a hammer right now) more powerful to have a better separation between the punch and the hammer (plus the hammer can destroy rock and stuff - the punch does only very small damage to enemies).



I still have to adjust this small pixel gun the player is holding.

Bombini

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Dear Space Pirateros!

Today i have a Stencyl exclusive Windows playable Aplha (including own ship, story level 1 and story level 2) for you.
Its is basically the start of the game with all new features i built over the last months.

DOWNLOAD (from my server)



What is new:
  • A total new experience. So much polish
  • Levels reworked and a ton of content added
  • Dialogue and story system
  • Skillsystem added
  • Reworked explosion system
  • New melee system

Please comment some feedback if you try it:
What do you like?
What do you NOT like?
How is the performance?
Something you would like so see which is missing?
Would you play this game to the end based on what you saw?
 
Controls:
WASD to walk
Arrow keys to shoot
Space to Select/Continue
ESC to Leave screens

Controls can be customized or you could setup a gamepad

Have hopefully fun!







« Last Edit: July 16, 2018, 02:40:07 am by Bombini »

merrak

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Looks like fun :) Wish I could try it out.

Actually, maybe it will run it under Wine. I have a gaming computer with a Steam controller, but I'll need to install Wine on it to give it a try.

Bombini

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Well it could also send you the file and you compile it or?