This is really fantastic. I had fun playing. The game looks great and all the visual polish really comes together. Feels great to hit stuff. Few thoughts
Really wish I could use my controller. That alone would make the game twice as fun.
Got a lot of drops, but didn't really know what any of them did. Some more messaging around that might help
Except the gun. Was wishing that ammo was a bit more plentiful. I'm still a noob at the game, but it felt great to get a gun. But then I would run out of ammo almost immediately. A really weak/short range default gun might work, with infinite ammo.
Tutorial felt a bit incoherent. I was usually just running past all the control indicators without being forced to learn the move.
Again, the look of the game is really great. You better take this project to the finish line.
The movement mechanics and feel are very good, but I think they could be tightened up and improved in a few areas.
The wall jump mechanics feel too easy. That is, you can just be as dumb as possible and still get the best result. Adding in some finesse to the process would really elevate the mechanic. I think cribbing from Mega Man X would be very appropriate here. Players tend to want to climb straight up a wall. In MMX it is natural and feels good to do so. Here, it works and you can do it, but it doesn't feel good, it feels like you fucked up. In MMX, you can dash away from the wall if you time your jump with the dash button. It feels great to master this and get those big huge jumps. Here, you automatically do the biggest jump when jumping off a wall.
Acceleration feels a bit too slow and uneven, max speed too high, and I think you slide a bit too much when stopping.
Moving fast does feel good though, and I'm getting into a really nice flow state. Have you considered a "vaulting" mechanic, where jumping right after grabbing a ledge will restore your X velocity? That could help things feel more smooth and preserve that flow state.
Anyway, overall this project has massive potential. Keep it up.
Hey wow, thanks for the feedback, this is really good!!! I'm glad you enjoyed playing!
Controllers DO work (except stick) in the rebind menu, in config. If not, its a bug :|
Def agree about the drops, SOMETHING should tell you what everything is, but right now you just kinda guess.
You get way more ammo now and you start with the pistol too, shotgun got buffed. There's more of a gameplay loop around ammo now.
Tutorial is super WIP, thanks for the feedback on that!
Thanks!!!
And super thanks for this movement feedback, we probably tweak it every day
Thanks for this!!! We were debating keeping in the Megaman style wall climbs for Demoday, because they were unintentional. But after watching enough people play, they really do not belong in this game. The dash jump idea sounds pretty cool! We'll think of a cool way to make walljumps more skillful.
Thanks! Player slides less for now, and we'll keep smoothing things out.
I'm glad you could "feel the flow" lol. Yeah, making our player 2 tiles high might've been a mistake, he keeps hitting his knees on everything. First solution we tried was for the player to "crouch jump" everywhere like it was Half Life, but thats weird. Vaulting sounds like a much better solution! I def agree ledges eat all of your momentum and they shouldn't be doing that.
Anyway, thanks for all the feedback! I'll try to leave you some feedback too, someone had mentioned that our game was a clone of yours, so I've had your tumblr open for a few days now lol. Again, this is some great feedback!
I couldn't get my controller working. It's a knockoff USB SNES style jobby. I will try with a PS/XB controller later. Really want to try this game with one.
I also forgot to mention one thing in the movement section. A grace period after you fall off a ledge in which you can jump is very, very nice. Players often try to hit the jump button right before they jump off a ledge, but hit it right after. A window in which the jump still works is really useful. Mario invented this way back when, and is a gold standard technique for platformers now. Eliminates so many frustrating moments.
Hmm, the controller thing could just be Gamemaker being trash, I'm using a Gamespot 360 controller and it just works. I'll make another controller pass sometime and fix whatever bugs are left.
Good tip! I'll put it on the TODO list!
Thanks again for this feedback dude! I've been kinda busy past couple of days, but I'll try and leave you some feedback tonight.
Pitfall Harry Abuses Animals seems a lot less jank and a lot better flowing since last time I played it (dd12 or so?), but other than some Tonami bumper tier breakbeat music for the tutorial and the removal of the dos prompt (rip) there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of new content. That's kind of a bummer too, because with the controls set up as they are some actualy designed levels with good flow would be a lot of fun instead of tight procgen corridors.
Thanks for playing dude! DOS prompt is bound to ~ nowadays, just like in my favorite engine. But yeah most of what we've been focusing on is getting everything feeling simple and smooth, glad ya liked that at least. A few different people have mentioned dropping the procgen meme. Ideally we'd have procgen that makes good flowy levels with interesting shit going on, each being fresh and different enough, but we'll see!
A great experience, with a tiny exception of movement, every time you land, you're sliding and every time you swing you're sliding, and it's constantly feeling like you're sliding.
Hitting things is extremely satisfying, and the aesthetics are nice. Honestly, i liked it a lot, even with the skatey movement.
Hope you'll do some hand-crafted levels or something, those are always better.
Trying to open "database" in the menu straight up crashed me
Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it. For next demo say, we plan on refining the feel of platforming. Others have said that it feels slippery too.
Comments
This is really fantastic. I had fun playing. The game looks great and all the visual polish really comes together. Feels great to hit stuff. Few thoughts
The movement mechanics and feel are very good, but I think they could be tightened up and improved in a few areas.
Anyway, overall this project has massive potential. Keep it up.
Hey wow, thanks for the feedback, this is really good!!! I'm glad you enjoyed playing!
And super thanks for this movement feedback, we probably tweak it every day
Anyway, thanks for all the feedback! I'll try to leave you some feedback too, someone had mentioned that our game was a clone of yours, so I've had your tumblr open for a few days now lol. Again, this is some great feedback!
I couldn't get my controller working. It's a knockoff USB SNES style jobby. I will try with a PS/XB controller later. Really want to try this game with one.
I also forgot to mention one thing in the movement section. A grace period after you fall off a ledge in which you can jump is very, very nice. Players often try to hit the jump button right before they jump off a ledge, but hit it right after. A window in which the jump still works is really useful. Mario invented this way back when, and is a gold standard technique for platformers now. Eliminates so many frustrating moments.
Hmm, the controller thing could just be Gamemaker being trash, I'm using a Gamespot 360 controller and it just works. I'll make another controller pass sometime and fix whatever bugs are left.
Good tip! I'll put it on the TODO list!
Thanks again for this feedback dude! I've been kinda busy past couple of days, but I'll try and leave you some feedback tonight.
Pitfall Harry Abuses Animals seems a lot less jank and a lot better flowing since last time I played it (dd12 or so?), but other than some Tonami bumper tier breakbeat music for the tutorial and the removal of the dos prompt (rip) there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of new content. That's kind of a bummer too, because with the controls set up as they are some actualy designed levels with good flow would be a lot of fun instead of tight procgen corridors.
Thanks for playing dude! DOS prompt is bound to ~ nowadays, just like in my favorite engine. But yeah most of what we've been focusing on is getting everything feeling simple and smooth, glad ya liked that at least. A few different people have mentioned dropping the procgen meme. Ideally we'd have procgen that makes good flowy levels with interesting shit going on, each being fresh and different enough, but we'll see!
Thanks for pointing out that bug, it's a new one to us. and I don't see why we couldn't add an option for alternate slidekick and divekick controls.
A great experience, with a tiny exception of movement, every time you land, you're sliding and every time you swing you're sliding, and it's constantly feeling like you're sliding.
Hitting things is extremely satisfying, and the aesthetics are nice. Honestly, i liked it a lot, even with the skatey movement.
Hope you'll do some hand-crafted levels or something, those are always better.
Trying to open "database" in the menu straight up crashed me
Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it. For next demo say, we plan on refining the feel of platforming. Others have said that it feels slippery too.