Post by BurakCZ in Kill The K.O.T.H. comments

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Really well made game, although maybe a little bit boring at times. The controls are nice and responsive and the short story with a dark twist is a nice addition.

I would maybe like to see more puzzle-like climbing - at the time you mostly just climb up, maybe some not so linear paths would be awesome for future game. Also is the fog effect intentional or as an optimisation? Because I think the game would look stunning without it.

Overall, short and sweet game, perfect for couple of free minutes in the evening. <3

EditDotEXE4 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

I noticed that at the top the fog is reduced by a lot, so I'm guessing it's to fit with the atmosphere, but I agree it would look pretty cool if it cleared a bit earlier.

"maybe some not so linear paths"
There is actually at least one part where there are two ways to go up, near the top you can either go up the island that leads to the grassy slide or directly up that goes past the "unwisely spent" paper and a dead tree. But yeah it would be cool to see more.

What would be really cool is if he made an open world type game with the same climbing mechanic, maybe even using pecdural generation for some of the land and a "puzzle piece" generation for climbable structures where some of them are harder to climb than others (have it so climbs for harder ones have a smaller room for error and less obvious paths) and some kind of reward at the top of each one that scales well with being able to repeat this.

Edit: the idea of this game but open world makes me think of Shadow of the Colossus in a way, just with structures instead of colossi and more of them (potential infinte if done well enough).

Rubeki4 years ago(+2)

I am exploring the idea of an open world game with this mechanic. Where you have to progressively climb more trecherous towers to kill more Tyranous kings.

An alternative is a level based one with a central hub (like Doom) + a level editor and ranks like Mario maker

Or perhaps something where you have to keep going higher to more difficult climbs, and somebody holds the world record as the king of the hill (or tower in this case...)

I have some thinking to do...

BurakCZ4 years ago(+2)

Amazing! Definitely will look into that once it is finished. Keep up the good work!

EditDotEXE4 years ago

Personally think the open world type works the best (totally unbias here) with the king of the tower one in second place (though you have to deal with the fact that it would probably be hard to deal with people cheating to become the K.O.T.T) and I think the level based one with hub would lose part of the charm that games you make like this have of being very real, though a level editor does sound rad.

"to kill more Tyranous kings." I don't know about that, at least if that is the only thing you do. What I think might be cool is that this world is pretty dim and dry like the lower part of "KtK.O.T.H." but after you get to the top of a tower you can let out the life giving water at the top (might be hard to have it pour water of the sides depending on how the tower is made though) and with it life returns to the land around it (and the fog/dust ,if there is any in the area, clears, though as Burace has said the fog kind of stops the player from seeing how cool the area is)

Maybe the area is overcast to start with and you can't see past the cloud layer that the towers go through, so you can still see a lot, but it's dim and you can't see all of the tower till you clear it. Just imagine getting to the half way point, maybe two thirds up, and passing the cloud layer to see a bright clear sky, and once you clear the whole tower you can see that bright sky from the ground around the tower.

Rubeki4 years ago(+1)

Hmmm. You've given me a lot to think about... I like the shadow of collosus + restoring water to the land that was horded by a tyrant idea. It's a simple reason to build many levels, but around an overworld map. Might be a bit ambitious though - since an open world demands a lot more tech, and I am one person.

Also just FYI, the killing of the king is supposed to be like the flag at the end of old mario levels. Just a satisfying finish-line ritual - but everyone was expecting a boss fight it seems :P

EditDotEXE4 years ago (1 edit)

Oh I wasn't expecting a boss fight, since there wasn't any combat anywhere else in the game.

Since it just felt a bit less polished since the platforms look a lot better than the sprite stuff and with the more shadow of collosus aspect it feels like a more lonely world (no kings, just towers) would fit better. Also a cool sequence of gears or mechanical parts moving to release the water could also be really satifying and a bit cinematic too.

EditDotEXE4 years ago

Oh also it seems the game Hatch he made has a lot less fog, haven't played it since it costs three dollars but I think it just depends on the situation if he does fog or not.

Rubeki4 years ago

Fog is just atmospheric as Edit pointed out, I kept it to obfuscate the fact that there isn't much terrain besides what you interact with :P

I'm exploring the idea of making a puzzle-like climbing game. Ripe for speed-running and all. Definitely will build on this mechanic, since it's near and dear to me.

If you want a bit more of a challenge, you can hunt the 4 notes. They are in harder to reach areas :)

EditDotEXE4 years ago

I just realized that the fog also helps to hide the notes too, you have to really pay attention to any odd cliff you don't remember climbing to to find one of the notes, but very satisfying to find it.

EditDotEXE4 years ago

Oh and I think you miss counted the number of notes. ;)

itch.io

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