Thanks! I'm not shitposting, I swear, I'm just naturally ridiculous.
>But please let me resist more than 3 hits
That might happen in the future, but right now I'm trying to see if I can't get the game to feel fair in spite of the player's fragility. Some of the systems for getting back from a bad situation aren't quite properly implemented yet, like rolling out of the way of attacks when knocked down.
>for some reason 90% of the times I KO an enemy he always gets up again
There's no random factor to it - I don't explain it very well in the game, but when you kill an enemy, it's always because you hit them with a sufficiently strong attack in a vulnerable state. This can mean stomping on them when they're knocked down, but it also means situations like hitting them with a strong attack while they're already stunned from two quick attacks, juggling them into the air and punching them as they come down, or hitting them with a strong attack in the middle of their own attack. There's a different sound effect for a KO and a knockdown.
It's intended to make more difficult combos more effective for quickly dealing with enemies than just mashing quick attack or heavy attack.
>he
Damn, I knew I shoulda made the boobs bigger.
>While in air I almost always get the juggle, then the guillotine kick.
Do you mean the backflip launcher juggle?
From what I can tell it works as intended - if you're still ascending or holding the jump button when you hit the strong attack button you get the launcher, if not you get the guillotine kick. Are you sure you're letting go of the jump button first? But it wouldn't be the only bug that's been found with the jump launcher in this demo.
>orb do a circuit around the map?
Like a predefined path? I'd like to have it go through procedurally generated levels eventually, but I'm still a little vague about some of the fine details.
Currently, this prototype is very funny. It's way funnier than most games that try to be funny, and even most full games that are popular for being funny. It seems that might not have been what you were originally going for, but it's worth considering embracing that direction and incorporating it into your vision somehow instead of trying to get rid of it, because it's genuinely unique.
I see what you mean. I shouldn't reject the idea out of hand. It sure seems like it's a lot closer to being a funny ha-ha game than a serious action game.
But the problem, aside from my wounded pride, is that since I'm not trying to be funny, I don't really understand what people are laughing at. I seriously doubt I can do it reliably. Like, I've never heard of something that managed to be so bad it's good on purpose, y'know?
>I see what you mean. I shouldn't reject the idea out of hand. It sure seems like it's a lot closer to being a funny ha-ha game than a serious action game.
The two are not mutually exclusive.
>But the problem, aside from my wounded pride, is that since I'm not trying to be funny, I don't really understand what people are laughing at. I seriously doubt I can do it reliably. There's nothing to be wounded about. And happy design accidents happen. Once it's there, you can look at what makes it good to try to understand it. Or really, here, I think all you need to do is develop the gameplay properly and model the game's aesthetics around the inherently over-the-top exaggeration it entails. Maybe something Jojo-ish?
>Like, I've never heard of something that managed to be so bad it's good on purpose, y'know?
IIRC Five Nights at Freddy's was made because the developer had been making games with models that were supposed to be appealing, but found by players to be off-putting
Are they not? I think I'm back to the part where I don't really get what people are finding so funny. I get the impression it's mainly the silly/bad animations and lifeless characters, and I don't see how I could improve the quality without moving away from that kind of jank.
Like, I can't have the enemies menacingly t-pose at the player while also being lively, characterful and otherwise well animated.
>Or really, here, I think all you need to do is develop the gameplay properly and model the game's aesthetics around the inherently over-the-top exaggeration it entails.
I'm not sure what you mean.
>Five Night's at Freddy's
FNaF isn't trying to be so bad it's good, though, it's just trying its best to be good horror (I think, I've never played the games). Cawthon didn't try to make models that were trying to be appealing but failing for FNaF, he just tried to make them scary.
I'm also not sure what works for horror will work for comedy - when horror fails it can still be funny, but funny gone wrong is just awful.
Though the animation is rough as understandable this early. The gameplay is fairly smooth and fun, I played a few waves fighting against the player.
Even though I'm not one for beat-em-ups/fighters I do like the flying kick you can do from a sprint and the attacks being assigned to the bumper and triggers
The camera kinda freaks out if you go between it and an obstacle like a pillar.
The lighting is a bit odd and harsh. from one side of the orb the lighting/shadow is so harsh that the player character might as well be a silhouette at times, which kind of defeats the purpose of them running around with huge tits and ass on show,.
Thanks for giving it a shot. Glad it's not all bad.
I'll have to take a look at the camera. It's due for a refactoring anyway.
One thing I'm happy to hear you not mention is the controls, which means I didn't mess up implementing the game pad.
The harsh lighting is sort of intentional? The game isn't gonna be all about the T&A and I was trying to make some stylistic contrast. But with everything else being a broken mess it ended up looking pretty bad.
FINALLY someone using physics engines for what they were built to do!
But even huge bouncing bozongos aside, I found the fighting gameplay in this game to be very juicy, mowing down enemies like a berserker with punches while running, finishing them off with dropkicks and the occasional kick-combo that sends enemies flying feel super fun and satisfying to use. I also felt the balancing was very nice, I usually played against five enemies at once and I never felt like I was overpowered or underpowered, it felt both fair and challenging at all times.
Sound effects are juicy too, I like the death sound effect and how it sounds when they flop down.
There is a lot of fun in here already, I think this is a good base to build more gameplay or more modes on! (Also just found out you can turn off the black boxes while reading these comments, good stuff man!)
I had fun playing for quite a bit in randomized waves! Looks like a good game for a starting beat em up.
Will you add a story mode? I'm thinking that the movement controller still needs some adjustments so that movement for running feels a bit more smooth. I'm unsure what mechanism your character uses to move but it seems some kind of animator with events. Additionally, I got wasted by the NPCS at first but then I quickly got out by spamming combo attacks. Looking forward for more and hopefully less black boxes :^)
Yeah, I have some ideas for a story mode. More of a roguelike thing than a linear story, with repeating runs slowly unlocking the circumstances of what's going on. But that's a pretty distant stretch goal atm.
You can turn off the black boxes in the menu under audio/video. I'd leave them off by default but I'd hate to have a streamer play it by accident and risk a ban.
I can't move to the HowToPlay Sections from the BeginPractice Option. Pressing down when in Options moves Cursor to Quit Game.
I'm also not going to memorize any of the Combos mentioned, I suck at fighting Games and similar Stuff anyway, I'm just going to buttonmash. Sorry.
Don't animate Hair fully, only animate the Tip. Yours clips horribly through the Skull.
Shadows get messed up when you jump into the Orb, Lightsource also follows the Orb too closely, causing fast moving Playershadow. consider smoothing its movement out, having the Orb jump with you/move away when you jump, so you don't jump into the Lightsource, or having actual Leveldesign with proper Lighting instead of a nearly empty Void with a single Orb.
Camera on Lock-On zooms in too much for my personal Tastes. But Lock-on seems to be working.
Your Animations and Models are horrid, but you know that, I'm assuming Placeholders.
The Wind is incredibly strong. It works well for a "pulled into the Abyss" kind of Feel, alongside the Map being limited by Darkness, but it could be done better. Wind focusing in Strength on when you're standing on top of Pillars/etc, more piping when in a Walkway, less when in open Fields, wind-affected Doodads like torn flags/cloth, grass etc. depending on what Setting you're aiming at. As for the Darkness, just fading out on light distance like currently works but again, could be better. Some Particles at the Border slowly bleeding ink-like blobs into the Middle and fading out or something could work, it generally sticking more unnaturally to the Surface of Things. On that Node, same with the Characters. I know I said they're obviously Placeholders, but I think theres still a lot you could do without giving them actual clothing, depending on if they're warped Perspectives of yourself, Shadowbeings from the Place you're in, etc.
A lot can be masked with proper Animations, but it still feels pretty clunky trying to do any combo. The selection makes Sense, but i.e. if I'm sliding and pressing Kick during it, I should still do a slidekick, not just being forced to kick and then slide. Same on jump+kick etc, a bit more leway(?) on when to press for a certain combo might be better. Seeing as you can only really combo kicks together, light attack also feels a lot more useless. And it phased through the Enemy once, but only once, and no Idea why. Sorry.
Camera loves to go low to the Ground when near an Obstacle, ruining any Vision. Should go above the Player instead I think.
Orb also likes to just not do what its told, set it to follow the Player, didn't do so, defensively didn't work aswell. Fixed itself when changing enemies back to punching Bags. And it could, just as the rest, use a redesign. Just a floating ball of Light doesn't make a lot of Sense, something thats actually integrated into the World and Lore, to help you ward of the Darkness creeping in works a lot better. You need some background Lore on this, to make the Designs coherent and work better with each other, as it is right now, its just a punching bag simulator with poor Placeholder Animations and bad Hairphysics.
Enemies seem to spawn in varying Sizes, had one spawn so small I punched above them initially, until the Playercharacter decided to adjust her Hands for whatever Reason. Could also walk up onto them due to being so small. And noticed everyone is floating above the Ground quite a bit. If after walking up you jump to fully land on Top, you glitch out.
Tried to fall off, realized your World looped, nice I guess?
Played on Controller, which I wouldn't know how to do better, Controls work fine. Running is an exception tho, maybe its me, or my Controller, but pressing left Joystick feels too hard, and pressing right facebutton blocks me from rotating the Camera. Wouldn't know how to do it better tho, maybe press down Camera joystick, even tho that'd be as hard as the other one, and wouldn't make much Sense?
Lockon also doesn't lock on to closest enemy, but to whoever the Character, not the Camera, is facing most closely, and doesn't allow me to cycle between targets, so it can become really tough to control and get the right target.
After a while my Foot got stuck in the Ground or something, essentially one leg stopped working and just jiggled in Place. But seeing as all your Animations are just Placeholders, that's not really going to be an issue I guess.
Watching them just slide over the Corpses off their Comrades and fling themselves into the Invulnerable Orb endlessly is probably the most Fun I had with this Game. I could see this being potentially Fun as a 'protect your follower' kind of DMC-like Beatemup or whatever its called, while you travel through some weird Dark Abyss full of creepy deformed Clones trying to find a Way out, or a Cure for those Clones, or the Cause or whatever, but as it is currently, its just missing too much.
And if you're keeping Physics and collision and everything on the Corpses, and are planning on enough Enemies to result in big Piles of Corpses, having that actually be useable for some Form of Gameplay could be nice. Maybe use the Corpses as Props to kick into other Enemies or something, I don't know.
You can also jump ontop of your Orb and get stuck there, nice. Why does it have Playercollision? Resulted in me finding an Enemy just at the Edge of Vissionrange on the Stairs unable to move tho, so probably stuck in them somewhere? Orb coudnd't move over them when set to follow earlier aswell.
Seemed to stop other Enemies from spawning, so I'll end here. The Quit-Game zoom out is a bit long but nice.
My reply to your points is mostly "noted, thanks, that's a good point" so I'll only respond to the ones where I have questions etc.
- Your Animations and Models are horrid
Damn, I actually thought I'd managed to make a pretty decent model aside from the hair. Any specific issues there?
- Could also walk up onto them due to being so small. ... If after walking up you jump to fully land on Top, you glitch out.
Glitch out how? Enemies are supposed to get stunned and pushed aside if you land on them.
- Tried to fall off, realized your World looped, nice I guess?
It took four months but thank god someone finally noticed :D
- Running is an exception tho, maybe its me, or my Controller, but pressing left Joystick feels too hard, and pressing right facebutton blocks me from rotating the Camera. Wouldn't know how to do it better tho, maybe press down Camera joystick, even tho that'd be as hard as the other one, and wouldn't make much Sense?
I think I'm gonna try making it a toggle, so you click the stick or button while moving to start sprinting and click again or let go of the stick briefly to stop.
- Lockon also doesn't lock on to closest enemy, but to whoever the Character, not the Camera, is facing most closely, and doesn't allow me to cycle between targets, so it can become really tough to control and get the right target.
Yeah, it's kind of a mess right now. I was pretty stumped on how to let the player easily change lock-on without removing the ability to rotate the camera to look around during lock-on, so I just copied the attack autotargeting algorithm. but I think I've got some ideas now.
- Orb also likes to just not do what its told, set it to follow the Player, didn't do so, defensively didn't work aswell.
Damn, I really thought I'd gotten all the kinks worked out with that. What did it do when you put it in follow or defensive? Just to be sure, were you in "randomized" enemy mode? That makes the orb change mode every wave, but I probably made that information easy to miss.
- I could see this being potentially Fun as a 'protect your follower' kind of DMC-like Beatemup or whatever its called, while you travel through some weird Dark Abyss full of creepy deformed Clones trying to find a Way out
I'm glad you think so, because that's basically the idea. Hopefully I can realize it.
- You can also jump ontop of your Orb and get stuck there, nice. Why does it have Playercollision?
Cuz it's using a playerController component to move around and those come with a collider as standard. I figure there's no harm in letting the player jump up on it if they really want to.
- Resulted in me finding an Enemy just at the Edge of Vissionrange on the Stairs unable to move tho, so probably stuck in them somewhere?
Huh. You mean the stairs next to the building with walls and the square with pillars on it? Did you by chance notice whether the enemy's eyes were blinking? I haven't seen them get stuck recently except for when they were routing at the end of a wave.
Again, thanks for playing and thanks so much for the feedback. I really appreciate you taking the time to write all this.
Talking solely about the Model, since the Animations are obvious, the Hair has issues, yes. Overall it's on the 'trying to be realistic but not quite there yet' Area, its not bad from a Quality level, but has a lot of small Mistakes that add up. Certain proportions are exaggerated in a bad Way, the waist is too thin compared to the Butt and Chest in a sideview, and moving way too far forward, leading to a very unnatural looking Pose. The front isn't curved nicely, leading to a very flat looking Abdomen, with Abdominal Muscles jutting outwards too far. Also Thighs exaggerate outwards to far aswell, probably because it looked unnatural otherwise thanks to the huge (second?) Butt. ( It seems like your Thigs have a second Butt under the normal one, thats way too low, and doesn't match with actual Thigh-musculature. Upper and lower Arms seem to bend the wrong way around, Knees are pretty big and lower Legs don't bend backwards enough right below them. Musculature on the upper Leg when viewed from the Sides should extend towards the knee but bends in too early, giving it a weird bumpy look. Same with the Butt, judgjing from the extension on the Back, it extends up to the middle of the upper Leg roughly, instead of dropping off where it should. (The afforementioned second Butt). With how the Boobs fall, the general upper body seems to jutt out forward up until roughly the middle of the Abdomen, then immediately take a drastic turn and jump inwards heavily, with the Collarbone jitting out twice its thickness over the actual body, same with where the Arms are placed. Try removing the Boobs completely, and connecting it flat together, it should still have enough room to properly contain a Ribcage and all these Organs. at the Moment it looks like you have a weird dent under the Boobs and then Jam the Lungs and stuff in there. You don't really have Shoulderblades, your Muscles there should extend and fall over the Shoulders basically, but instead bend inwards, causing the Arms to jump over the Part where the big flat Bones at the back of the Shoulders should be, not the otherway around. The Face feels like a generic Ark Female Character face taken and stapled on, the Waist bends in and out too quickly for a natural Wasteline.
Overall as I said on the beginning of this, its just littered with small mistakes here and there, that, thanks to the attempt at realism, make it overall look much worse then it might be. The more realistic and away from stylization you go, the more small mistakes and slight weirdnesses like these become glaring Problems, as you're just falling slightly short of making it look realistic. Keep in mind tho, I can only look at it ingame, with poor Lighting and weird Animations/Poses, so it might look worse then it actually is. However, I recommend looking at more references, especially at the Muscles itself in Diagrams where you can see how they flow, where they start and end, not only at real Photographs of nude Women.
>Glitch out
Enemy might've gotten stunned, I was on Punchbag mode, so they didn't do anything regardless. But she definetly didn't get pushed around, so I just kept falling into her and being pushed back up onto her.
>Orb
not in randomized, just in attack-player. Orb just did nothing.
>Stairs
Yes, the Stairs to the Pillar building, and no, no blinking. But no Body, only Eyes/Face/Halo/Censorbars.
Thanks, that's gonna be a big help. I'll need to redo the rig for fixing the animations, so I was gonna take the opportunity to fix a few mistakes on the model I'd noticed myself and make her less stylized. Having a bigger list of things to fix now will save me a lot of headache down the line. At least the worst thing you had to say about the face was "generic" - I was pretty proud of it.
Guess my bughunting's not gonna have an easy solution.
Gave this a whirl for the first time. I had fun, but I'm not sure if I was playing the "right" way, since I wound up dying within a few minutes of each run (that is to say, I suck.) I appreciate you having a "how to play" button. I'm super ADHD/low IQ so I usually wind up forgetting everything unless there's a hands-on tutorial. The animations had me cracking up and I had fun with it, though. I definitely see a lot of potential.
Dying within a few minutes is pretty expected so don't feel too bad. I'm supposedly playing the right way, and I regularly get my ass whupped within the first couple waves (I forgot to give the enemies any chill).
I'm glad someone found a use for the How To Play menu, and I'm glad you had fun. Hopefully some of that potential you see will end up realized.
Messed around for a bit. Video (I hope youtube doesnt take it down, fingers crossed):
I enjoyed messing around, punching people and creating a mountain of bodies. The lock on system is nice, but what gets targeted wasn't very clear. The unlimited jump was holding spacebar while spamming mouse1.
This was some silly fun. I wish I could pile up more bodies without killing my PC.
The lock on is currently using the player's directional input and the character's facing. It probably should be based on the camera direction, but I got a bit lazy while implementing it and just reused the algorithm for the player's aim assist.
The infinite jump is a new one, and I see you ran into a few old bugs I thought I'd squashed as well, like getting stuck in the falling kick and the walk animation disabling.
i played through OBF while looking at the long notes i took from last playthrough. i'll try and compare my current experience with these notes both to point out what improvements are made and to know what not to bring up again.
back then, i mentioned that the camera was fighting against me while playing, which made the game awkward and weird to control. i did not have this issue this time at all. i was able to orient myself and aim properly without hassle. i think this change alone increased my fun factor by a large amount, since i could focus on playing the game instead of trying to figure out optimal movements. i sincerely can't tell what's changed (if anything?), perhaps i simply got used to how your game controls? no idea, either way the outcome is that i've had fun playing.
most of my current feedback is not very significant, but i consider them small changes with large consequences so i'll list them anyway
>enemies run away in fear often. this is fun, but the map design doesn't lend itself to this. for example, an enemy approaches myself and the orb. i walk up, they run away in fear. my instinct tells me to chase them. woops, wrong move! enemy #2 snuck up on the orb, -1 life. ok so, same encounter, enemy runs away. i don't chase this time, and stand my ground. enemy then re-approaches, but then runs away in fear again! the issue here is that this ends up being unintentional player-baiting, which is tricky in a protect-the-location type of game. you could still use this mechanic, but it would make more sense if it was player controlled (player uses ability, enemies run away? or player kills big enemy, all small enemies run away, etc). with how unpredictable the current effect is, it feels more liker a nuisance.
>enemy attack prediction is really cool. if i walk up to an enemy, before i am in attack range (or so i think?) an enemy charges up an attack so that it reaches me as soon as i get closer. i think stuff like that is great and makes the enemies feel really smart. i don't know if this is some behavior i'm misinterpreting but you should expand this, it's a lot of fun even when i get punished for not reacting to it.
>enemies can chain attacks to your death. this is noticeable if a big enemy slaps you down, they'll just combo you as you're on the ground until you die.
>dying then resetting doesn't reset your animation until you regain control of your character. breaks immersion a bit
>eyes indicating next action. this is cool, but could be expanded. perhaps once the enemies have walking animations and so on, their posture/stance can also indicate their next intended moves?
>distant enemies don't render, but their eye particles are still glowing. meaning i see floating eyes that become enemies later on.
as stated, keep up the good work. i know you were quite busy with the collage, and i'm eager to see what else you'll add for next DD now that you don't need to make 90 drawings again.
Thanks for playing! Glad to hear my hard work's paying off :)
The camera has indeed been reined in. Literally! It used to be very loosely tethered to its target (inspired by arcade beat-em-up side scrollers), but now it defaults to a new "tight camera" mode where its max horizontal tether distance is zero. Good to know it had the intended effect.
Running away needs to be less random, yeah. Right now it's literally a random check if an enemy tries to defend or attack when the player gets too close (with some limitations on how many enemies can attack at once), but something more predictable would definitely be better.
I'm really happy you noticed the attack prediction. It was a lot of work to set up, and yeah, it works exactly like you think. You can even bait out attacks when you're out of range by walking towards an enemy and stopping.
Regarding getting chained to death, do you mean it's impossible to dodge or block their follow up? Enemies are meant to stay on the offensive if they manage to get a hit in, but I'll admit the ground dodging is still pretty jank.
Posture and stance helping to predict would be cool, but I'm a pretty terrible animator so I'm scared to promise anything in that regard right now. I'll see what I can figure out.
Comments
It still seems a shitpost game, but for some reason I believe in it.
Randomized play is indeed the game. Following the orb while killing/surviving is great. But please let me resist more than 3 hits.
For some reason 90% of the times I KO an enemy he always gets up again. Right now I just do a guillotine kick to finish them off.
There is some conflict between juggle move and guillotine activation. While in air I almost always get the juggle, then the guillotine kick.
Have you tried to make the orb do a circuit around the map? Adding hazards?
Dunno what's your plan but GL.
>for some reason I believe in it.
Thanks! I'm not shitposting, I swear, I'm just naturally ridiculous.
>But please let me resist more than 3 hits
That might happen in the future, but right now I'm trying to see if I can't get the game to feel fair in spite of the player's fragility. Some of the systems for getting back from a bad situation aren't quite properly implemented yet, like rolling out of the way of attacks when knocked down.
>for some reason 90% of the times I KO an enemy he always gets up again
There's no random factor to it - I don't explain it very well in the game, but when you kill an enemy, it's always because you hit them with a sufficiently strong attack in a vulnerable state. This can mean stomping on them when they're knocked down, but it also means situations like hitting them with a strong attack while they're already stunned from two quick attacks, juggling them into the air and punching them as they come down, or hitting them with a strong attack in the middle of their own attack. There's a different sound effect for a KO and a knockdown.
It's intended to make more difficult combos more effective for quickly dealing with enemies than just mashing quick attack or heavy attack.
>he
Damn, I knew I shoulda made the boobs bigger.
>While in air I almost always get the juggle, then the guillotine kick.
Do you mean the backflip launcher juggle?
From what I can tell it works as intended - if you're still ascending or holding the jump button when you hit the strong attack button you get the launcher, if not you get the guillotine kick. Are you sure you're letting go of the jump button first? But it wouldn't be the only bug that's been found with the jump launcher in this demo.
>orb do a circuit around the map?
Like a predefined path? I'd like to have it go through procedurally generated levels eventually, but I'm still a little vague about some of the fine details.
>Adding hazards
It'd be cool but I have no concrete plans yet.
>GL
Thanks!
I recorded playing games with commentary, and your game is one of them.
Here's the link to the whole DD50 folder:
https://mega.nz/folder/GclCXISL#gwE9S1kRTbe6amYLH2RiYA
Now that I am passed the laughing stage, I can actually comment more on gameplay.
Currently, this prototype is very funny. It's way funnier than most games that try to be funny, and even most full games that are popular for being funny. It seems that might not have been what you were originally going for, but it's worth considering embracing that direction and incorporating it into your vision somehow instead of trying to get rid of it, because it's genuinely unique.
I see what you mean. I shouldn't reject the idea out of hand. It sure seems like it's a lot closer to being a funny ha-ha game than a serious action game.
But the problem, aside from my wounded pride, is that since I'm not trying to be funny, I don't really understand what people are laughing at. I seriously doubt I can do it reliably. Like, I've never heard of something that managed to be so bad it's good on purpose, y'know?
>I see what you mean. I shouldn't reject the idea out of hand. It sure seems like it's a lot closer to being a funny ha-ha game than a serious action game.
The two are not mutually exclusive.
>But the problem, aside from my wounded pride, is that since I'm not trying to be funny, I don't really understand what people are laughing at. I seriously doubt I can do it reliably.
There's nothing to be wounded about. And happy design accidents happen. Once it's there, you can look at what makes it good to try to understand it. Or really, here, I think all you need to do is develop the gameplay properly and model the game's aesthetics around the inherently over-the-top exaggeration it entails. Maybe something Jojo-ish?
>Like, I've never heard of something that managed to be so bad it's good on purpose, y'know?
IIRC Five Nights at Freddy's was made because the developer had been making games with models that were supposed to be appealing, but found by players to be off-putting
>The two are not mutually exclusive
Are they not? I think I'm back to the part where I don't really get what people are finding so funny. I get the impression it's mainly the silly/bad animations and lifeless characters, and I don't see how I could improve the quality without moving away from that kind of jank.
Like, I can't have the enemies menacingly t-pose at the player while also being lively, characterful and otherwise well animated.
>Or really, here, I think all you need to do is develop the gameplay properly and model the game's aesthetics around the inherently over-the-top exaggeration it entails.
I'm not sure what you mean.
>Five Night's at Freddy's
FNaF isn't trying to be so bad it's good, though, it's just trying its best to be good horror (I think, I've never played the games). Cawthon didn't try to make models that were trying to be appealing but failing for FNaF, he just tried to make them scary.
I'm also not sure what works for horror will work for comedy - when horror fails it can still be funny, but funny gone wrong is just awful.
Gave it a play.
Though the animation is rough as understandable this early. The gameplay is fairly smooth and fun, I played a few waves fighting against the player.
Even though I'm not one for beat-em-ups/fighters I do like the flying kick you can do from a sprint and the attacks being assigned to the bumper and triggers
The camera kinda freaks out if you go between it and an obstacle like a pillar.
The lighting is a bit odd and harsh. from one side of the orb the lighting/shadow is so harsh that the player character might as well be a silhouette at times, which kind of defeats the purpose of them running around with huge tits and ass on show,.
Thanks for giving it a shot. Glad it's not all bad.
I'll have to take a look at the camera. It's due for a refactoring anyway.
One thing I'm happy to hear you not mention is the controls, which means I didn't mess up implementing the game pad.
The harsh lighting is sort of intentional? The game isn't gonna be all about the T&A and I was trying to make some stylistic contrast. But with everything else being a broken mess it ended up looking pretty bad.
FINALLY someone using physics engines for what they were built to do!
But even huge bouncing bozongos aside, I found the fighting gameplay in this game to be very juicy, mowing down enemies like a berserker with punches while running, finishing them off with dropkicks and the occasional kick-combo that sends enemies flying feel super fun and satisfying to use. I also felt the balancing was very nice, I usually played against five enemies at once and I never felt like I was overpowered or underpowered, it felt both fair and challenging at all times.
Sound effects are juicy too, I like the death sound effect and how it sounds when they flop down.
There is a lot of fun in here already, I think this is a good base to build more gameplay or more modes on! (Also just found out you can turn off the black boxes while reading these comments, good stuff man!)
Oh jeez man, I don't think I know how to handle straight praise like that.
Thank you for taking the time to check it out, and I'm really happy you like it. I'll try my best to have something even better for you next time.
I had fun playing for quite a bit in randomized waves! Looks like a good game for a starting beat em up.
Will you add a story mode? I'm thinking that the movement controller still needs some adjustments so that movement for running feels a bit more smooth. I'm unsure what mechanism your character uses to move but it seems some kind of animator with events. Additionally, I got wasted by the NPCS at first but then I quickly got out by spamming combo attacks. Looking forward for more and hopefully less black boxes :^)
Thanks for playing!
Yeah, I have some ideas for a story mode. More of a roguelike thing than a linear story, with repeating runs slowly unlocking the circumstances of what's going on. But that's a pretty distant stretch goal atm.
You can turn off the black boxes in the menu under audio/video. I'd leave them off by default but I'd hate to have a streamer play it by accident and risk a ban.
I can't move to the HowToPlay Sections from the BeginPractice Option. Pressing down when in Options moves Cursor to Quit Game.
I'm also not going to memorize any of the Combos mentioned, I suck at fighting Games and similar Stuff anyway, I'm just going to buttonmash. Sorry.
Don't animate Hair fully, only animate the Tip. Yours clips horribly through the Skull.
Shadows get messed up when you jump into the Orb, Lightsource also follows the Orb too closely, causing fast moving Playershadow. consider smoothing its movement out, having the Orb jump with you/move away when you jump, so you don't jump into the Lightsource, or having actual Leveldesign with proper Lighting instead of a nearly empty Void with a single Orb.
Camera on Lock-On zooms in too much for my personal Tastes. But Lock-on seems to be working.
Your Animations and Models are horrid, but you know that, I'm assuming Placeholders.
The Wind is incredibly strong. It works well for a "pulled into the Abyss" kind of Feel, alongside the Map being limited by Darkness, but it could be done better. Wind focusing in Strength on when you're standing on top of Pillars/etc, more piping when in a Walkway, less when in open Fields, wind-affected Doodads like torn flags/cloth, grass etc. depending on what Setting you're aiming at. As for the Darkness, just fading out on light distance like currently works but again, could be better. Some Particles at the Border slowly bleeding ink-like blobs into the Middle and fading out or something could work, it generally sticking more unnaturally to the Surface of Things. On that Node, same with the Characters. I know I said they're obviously Placeholders, but I think theres still a lot you could do without giving them actual clothing, depending on if they're warped Perspectives of yourself, Shadowbeings from the Place you're in, etc.
A lot can be masked with proper Animations, but it still feels pretty clunky trying to do any combo. The selection makes Sense, but i.e. if I'm sliding and pressing Kick during it, I should still do a slidekick, not just being forced to kick and then slide. Same on jump+kick etc, a bit more leway(?) on when to press for a certain combo might be better. Seeing as you can only really combo kicks together, light attack also feels a lot more useless. And it phased through the Enemy once, but only once, and no Idea why. Sorry.
Camera loves to go low to the Ground when near an Obstacle, ruining any Vision. Should go above the Player instead I think.
Orb also likes to just not do what its told, set it to follow the Player, didn't do so, defensively didn't work aswell. Fixed itself when changing enemies back to punching Bags. And it could, just as the rest, use a redesign. Just a floating ball of Light doesn't make a lot of Sense, something thats actually integrated into the World and Lore, to help you ward of the Darkness creeping in works a lot better. You need some background Lore on this, to make the Designs coherent and work better with each other, as it is right now, its just a punching bag simulator with poor Placeholder Animations and bad Hairphysics.
Enemies seem to spawn in varying Sizes, had one spawn so small I punched above them initially, until the Playercharacter decided to adjust her Hands for whatever Reason. Could also walk up onto them due to being so small. And noticed everyone is floating above the Ground quite a bit. If after walking up you jump to fully land on Top, you glitch out.
Tried to fall off, realized your World looped, nice I guess?
Played on Controller, which I wouldn't know how to do better, Controls work fine. Running is an exception tho, maybe its me, or my Controller, but pressing left Joystick feels too hard, and pressing right facebutton blocks me from rotating the Camera. Wouldn't know how to do it better tho, maybe press down Camera joystick, even tho that'd be as hard as the other one, and wouldn't make much Sense?
Lockon also doesn't lock on to closest enemy, but to whoever the Character, not the Camera, is facing most closely, and doesn't allow me to cycle between targets, so it can become really tough to control and get the right target.
After a while my Foot got stuck in the Ground or something, essentially one leg stopped working and just jiggled in Place. But seeing as all your Animations are just Placeholders, that's not really going to be an issue I guess.
Watching them just slide over the Corpses off their Comrades and fling themselves into the Invulnerable Orb endlessly is probably the most Fun I had with this Game. I could see this being potentially Fun as a 'protect your follower' kind of DMC-like Beatemup or whatever its called, while you travel through some weird Dark Abyss full of creepy deformed Clones trying to find a Way out, or a Cure for those Clones, or the Cause or whatever, but as it is currently, its just missing too much.
And if you're keeping Physics and collision and everything on the Corpses, and are planning on enough Enemies to result in big Piles of Corpses, having that actually be useable for some Form of Gameplay could be nice. Maybe use the Corpses as Props to kick into other Enemies or something, I don't know.
You can also jump ontop of your Orb and get stuck there, nice. Why does it have Playercollision? Resulted in me finding an Enemy just at the Edge of Vissionrange on the Stairs unable to move tho, so probably stuck in them somewhere? Orb coudnd't move over them when set to follow earlier aswell.
Seemed to stop other Enemies from spawning, so I'll end here. The Quit-Game zoom out is a bit long but nice.
Whoa. Thanks a lot for the feedback.
My reply to your points is mostly "noted, thanks, that's a good point" so I'll only respond to the ones where I have questions etc.
- Your Animations and Models are horrid
Damn, I actually thought I'd managed to make a pretty decent model aside from the hair. Any specific issues there?
- Could also walk up onto them due to being so small. ... If after walking up you jump to fully land on Top, you glitch out.
Glitch out how? Enemies are supposed to get stunned and pushed aside if you land on them.
- Tried to fall off, realized your World looped, nice I guess?
It took four months but thank god someone finally noticed :D
- Running is an exception tho, maybe its me, or my Controller, but pressing left Joystick feels too hard, and pressing right facebutton blocks me from rotating the Camera. Wouldn't know how to do it better tho, maybe press down Camera joystick, even tho that'd be as hard as the other one, and wouldn't make much Sense?
I think I'm gonna try making it a toggle, so you click the stick or button while moving to start sprinting and click again or let go of the stick briefly to stop.
- Lockon also doesn't lock on to closest enemy, but to whoever the Character, not the Camera, is facing most closely, and doesn't allow me to cycle between targets, so it can become really tough to control and get the right target.
Yeah, it's kind of a mess right now. I was pretty stumped on how to let the player easily change lock-on without removing the ability to rotate the camera to look around during lock-on, so I just copied the attack autotargeting algorithm. but I think I've got some ideas now.
- Orb also likes to just not do what its told, set it to follow the Player, didn't do so, defensively didn't work aswell.
Damn, I really thought I'd gotten all the kinks worked out with that. What did it do when you put it in follow or defensive? Just to be sure, were you in "randomized" enemy mode? That makes the orb change mode every wave, but I probably made that information easy to miss.
- I could see this being potentially Fun as a 'protect your follower' kind of DMC-like Beatemup or whatever its called, while you travel through some weird Dark Abyss full of creepy deformed Clones trying to find a Way out
I'm glad you think so, because that's basically the idea. Hopefully I can realize it.
- You can also jump ontop of your Orb and get stuck there, nice. Why does it have Playercollision?
Cuz it's using a playerController component to move around and those come with a collider as standard. I figure there's no harm in letting the player jump up on it if they really want to.
- Resulted in me finding an Enemy just at the Edge of Vissionrange on the Stairs unable to move tho, so probably stuck in them somewhere?
Huh. You mean the stairs next to the building with walls and the square with pillars on it? Did you by chance notice whether the enemy's eyes were blinking? I haven't seen them get stuck recently except for when they were routing at the end of a wave.
Again, thanks for playing and thanks so much for the feedback. I really appreciate you taking the time to write all this.
> Animations and Models
Talking solely about the Model, since the Animations are obvious, the Hair has issues, yes. Overall it's on the 'trying to be realistic but not quite there yet' Area, its not bad from a Quality level, but has a lot of small Mistakes that add up. Certain proportions are exaggerated in a bad Way, the waist is too thin compared to the Butt and Chest in a sideview, and moving way too far forward, leading to a very unnatural looking Pose. The front isn't curved nicely, leading to a very flat looking Abdomen, with Abdominal Muscles jutting outwards too far. Also Thighs exaggerate outwards to far aswell, probably because it looked unnatural otherwise thanks to the huge (second?) Butt. ( It seems like your Thigs have a second Butt under the normal one, thats way too low, and doesn't match with actual Thigh-musculature. Upper and lower Arms seem to bend the wrong way around, Knees are pretty big and lower Legs don't bend backwards enough right below them. Musculature on the upper Leg when viewed from the Sides should extend towards the knee but bends in too early, giving it a weird bumpy look. Same with the Butt, judgjing from the extension on the Back, it extends up to the middle of the upper Leg roughly, instead of dropping off where it should. (The afforementioned second Butt). With how the Boobs fall, the general upper body seems to jutt out forward up until roughly the middle of the Abdomen, then immediately take a drastic turn and jump inwards heavily, with the Collarbone jitting out twice its thickness over the actual body, same with where the Arms are placed. Try removing the Boobs completely, and connecting it flat together, it should still have enough room to properly contain a Ribcage and all these Organs. at the Moment it looks like you have a weird dent under the Boobs and then Jam the Lungs and stuff in there. You don't really have Shoulderblades, your Muscles there should extend and fall over the Shoulders basically, but instead bend inwards, causing the Arms to jump over the Part where the big flat Bones at the back of the Shoulders should be, not the otherway around. The Face feels like a generic Ark Female Character face taken and stapled on, the Waist bends in and out too quickly for a natural Wasteline.
Overall as I said on the beginning of this, its just littered with small mistakes here and there, that, thanks to the attempt at realism, make it overall look much worse then it might be. The more realistic and away from stylization you go, the more small mistakes and slight weirdnesses like these become glaring Problems, as you're just falling slightly short of making it look realistic. Keep in mind tho, I can only look at it ingame, with poor Lighting and weird Animations/Poses, so it might look worse then it actually is. However, I recommend looking at more references, especially at the Muscles itself in Diagrams where you can see how they flow, where they start and end, not only at real Photographs of nude Women.
>Glitch out
Enemy might've gotten stunned, I was on Punchbag mode, so they didn't do anything regardless. But she definetly didn't get pushed around, so I just kept falling into her and being pushed back up onto her.
>Orb
not in randomized, just in attack-player. Orb just did nothing.
>Stairs
Yes, the Stairs to the Pillar building, and no, no blinking. But no Body, only Eyes/Face/Halo/Censorbars.
Thanks, that's gonna be a big help. I'll need to redo the rig for fixing the animations, so I was gonna take the opportunity to fix a few mistakes on the model I'd noticed myself and make her less stylized. Having a bigger list of things to fix now will save me a lot of headache down the line. At least the worst thing you had to say about the face was "generic" - I was pretty proud of it.
Guess my bughunting's not gonna have an easy solution.
Thanks again.
Gave this a whirl for the first time. I had fun, but I'm not sure if I was playing the "right" way, since I wound up dying within a few minutes of each run (that is to say, I suck.) I appreciate you having a "how to play" button. I'm super ADHD/low IQ so I usually wind up forgetting everything unless there's a hands-on tutorial. The animations had me cracking up and I had fun with it, though. I definitely see a lot of potential.
Thanks for trying it!
Dying within a few minutes is pretty expected so don't feel too bad. I'm supposedly playing the right way, and I regularly get my ass whupped within the first couple waves (I forgot to give the enemies any chill).
I'm glad someone found a use for the How To Play menu, and I'm glad you had fun. Hopefully some of that potential you see will end up realized.
nice axe kick
Thanks! Enjoy it while it lasts - hopefully I'll be showing off some less terrible animations next DD.
Messed around for a bit. Video (I hope youtube doesnt take it down, fingers crossed):
I enjoyed messing around, punching people and creating a mountain of bodies. The lock on system is nice, but what gets targeted wasn't very clear. The unlimited jump was holding spacebar while spamming mouse1.
This was some silly fun. I wish I could pile up more bodies without killing my PC.
Thanks for the video!
The lock on is currently using the player's directional input and the character's facing. It probably should be based on the camera direction, but I got a bit lazy while implementing it and just reused the algorithm for the player's aim assist.
The infinite jump is a new one, and I see you ran into a few old bugs I thought I'd squashed as well, like getting stuck in the falling kick and the walk animation disabling.
Glad you had fun despite everything.
ahoy
i played through OBF while looking at the long notes i took from last playthrough. i'll try and compare my current experience with these notes both to point out what improvements are made and to know what not to bring up again.
back then, i mentioned that the camera was fighting against me while playing, which made the game awkward and weird to control. i did not have this issue this time at all. i was able to orient myself and aim properly without hassle. i think this change alone increased my fun factor by a large amount, since i could focus on playing the game instead of trying to figure out optimal movements. i sincerely can't tell what's changed (if anything?), perhaps i simply got used to how your game controls? no idea, either way the outcome is that i've had fun playing.
most of my current feedback is not very significant, but i consider them small changes with large consequences so i'll list them anyway
>enemies run away in fear often. this is fun, but the map design doesn't lend itself to this. for example, an enemy approaches myself and the orb. i walk up, they run away in fear. my instinct tells me to chase them. woops, wrong move! enemy #2 snuck up on the orb, -1 life. ok so, same encounter, enemy runs away. i don't chase this time, and stand my ground. enemy then re-approaches, but then runs away in fear again! the issue here is that this ends up being unintentional player-baiting, which is tricky in a protect-the-location type of game. you could still use this mechanic, but it would make more sense if it was player controlled (player uses ability, enemies run away? or player kills big enemy, all small enemies run away, etc). with how unpredictable the current effect is, it feels more liker a nuisance.
>enemy attack prediction is really cool. if i walk up to an enemy, before i am in attack range (or so i think?) an enemy charges up an attack so that it reaches me as soon as i get closer. i think stuff like that is great and makes the enemies feel really smart. i don't know if this is some behavior i'm misinterpreting but you should expand this, it's a lot of fun even when i get punished for not reacting to it.
>enemies can chain attacks to your death. this is noticeable if a big enemy slaps you down, they'll just combo you as you're on the ground until you die.
>dying then resetting doesn't reset your animation until you regain control of your character. breaks immersion a bit
>eyes indicating next action. this is cool, but could be expanded. perhaps once the enemies have walking animations and so on, their posture/stance can also indicate their next intended moves?
>distant enemies don't render, but their eye particles are still glowing. meaning i see floating eyes that become enemies later on.
as stated, keep up the good work. i know you were quite busy with the collage, and i'm eager to see what else you'll add for next DD now that you don't need to make 90 drawings again.
Thanks for playing! Glad to hear my hard work's paying off :)
The camera has indeed been reined in. Literally! It used to be very loosely tethered to its target (inspired by arcade beat-em-up side scrollers), but now it defaults to a new "tight camera" mode where its max horizontal tether distance is zero. Good to know it had the intended effect.
Running away needs to be less random, yeah. Right now it's literally a random check if an enemy tries to defend or attack when the player gets too close (with some limitations on how many enemies can attack at once), but something more predictable would definitely be better.
I'm really happy you noticed the attack prediction. It was a lot of work to set up, and yeah, it works exactly like you think. You can even bait out attacks when you're out of range by walking towards an enemy and stopping.
Regarding getting chained to death, do you mean it's impossible to dodge or block their follow up? Enemies are meant to stay on the offensive if they manage to get a hit in, but I'll admit the ground dodging is still pretty jank.
Posture and stance helping to predict would be cool, but I'm a pretty terrible animator so I'm scared to promise anything in that regard right now. I'll see what I can figure out.
I'll take a look at the bugs.
Cheers.