Post by Sidremus in 2020: Urgh Odyssey jam comments

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Thank you very much for the great feedback! The lack of damage feedback on the boss (and regular enemies too) was still on the to-do list when the time ran out. It's going to be in there for the 1.1 version, after the jam rating period is over.

What do you think, flashing when they take damage and a healthbar for the boss?

Also, if we overshot the quality of the GameBoy, we'll just take it as a compliment! XD
I remember being quite unsure about limiting the visual fidelity more to get a more authentic feel or to do everything the jam rules allowed for. It's a tough one, really. On the original GameBoy, even if it was nominally running at 60fps, had most games run quite a bit slower. And things like dynamic particle effects and accurate physics were really a no show. Instead everything would have been done with sprite sheets and a bit of in engine animations. Flexible Frosty is more on the original side of things in this regard (https://itch.io/jam/gbjam-8/rate/751190).

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Herresy3 years ago (1 edit)

I totally understand. When there's an imposing time limit, somethings need to have higher priorities and such :p

I mean, that decision is ultimately up to you, especially depending on how you want your game to feel, I've seen both styles done with very good success. If I were to take a guess, I might go with having a flashing overlay on top of the boss sprite too, in lieu of a healthbar. That would give more than enough feedback for the player. One of the beautifies of SHUMPS is the tension that kind of builds during a scene. So like, for example: if a player is in a boss encounter who happens to have really erratic patterns, or launches a lot of projectiles, without a health bar, every hit of damage the player throws out leaves this looming feeling of "how much longer do I have to go?" . It forces them to have to remain on their guard instead of falling into a reactive lull.

That's how I see it / my two cents anyways! Hahaha!

Yeah, you have a good point. Heck, this whole jam taught me a lot about the original hardware of the GB. It really gave me a whole new appreciation for the things people have made on it, both officially and unofficially given its limitations!

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