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La_Fafafa1 year ago (1 edit)
  • My headcanon lore is toads partied hard, and kept fairies from sleeping. Fairies are just taking revenge on them by keeping toads awake.

Lol nice.

  • Characters get snapped to grid, but their animations,especially movement are not snapped to grid. Alternatively you could just make the whole game grid based. I am going to be looking forward to see what kind of solution you implement.

Changing the control scheme is not simple, but I did give many things a try. Grid movement feels like the movement is stiff and unresponsive. Having free movement but always finishing on the grid also felt weird. I made fairies go to the nearest grid position when stopping and sometimes that meant walking back, which means changing directions and facing the other way. I can modify the movement system to allow walking backwards but still it doesn't remove the weirdness.

The thing is that at its very core poke all toads is an action game, with several layers of puzzle elements on top of it. And puzzle controls are really awkward and uncomfortable for action games. So if I want the game to feel good it must use action controls and deal with the imperfections in other ways.

Also tried snapping the strong fairy to the grid at the moment of throwing. It is unnoticeable 95% of the time and was quite happy with it, but at one point I tried a throw very close to a launchpad and the fairy snapped onto it, launching her into the air. So now I'm not sure about this.

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WebCough1 year ago(+1)

I made fairies go to the nearest grid position when stopping and sometimes that meant walking back, which means changing directions and facing the other way.
Just have them jump while still facing the direction they were moving before the jump. That way fairies would always jump snap to grid at the end of movement.

The thing is that at its very core poke all toads is an action game, with several layers of puzzle elements on top of it.

I always thought it was a puzzle game first. The only time it felt more like an action game were the more intricate bonus stages.

By the way, I remember buff fairy being able to be slightly pushed by blue fairy. It's like her collider was reacting to blue fairies' unlike the busy fairies'.

It is unnoticeable 95% of the time and was quite happy with it, but at one point I tried a throw very close to a launchpad and the fairy snapped onto it, launching her into the air.

Maybe you could just check if the tile is of a launchpad, and not snap fairies when that's the case.

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La_Fafafa1 year ago
Just have them jump while still facing the direction they were moving before the jump. That way fairies would always jump snap to grid at the end of movement.

It still would feel weird. It is hard to describe with words, but it is immediately noticeable when trying to use the control scheme. Maybe I can make a demo so you can experience it later.

I always thought it was a puzzle game first. The only time it felt more like an action game were the more intricate bonus stages.

Poke all toads is a puzzle game and was designed as a puzzle game. Is that its core is of an action game. Thats because the movement, the way the toads shoot at you with their tongues, the timing and manual dexterity required for puzzles is intrinsic to action games. Puzzle game work more with untimed puzzles, rigid controls and positions, and no manual dexterity involved. To make a comparison, "Portal" is also a puzzle game but at its core it is a first person platformer game with puzzle elements on top of it. All its controls aim to have a better platformer experience.

By the way, I remember buff fairy being able to be slightly pushed by blue fairy. It's like her collider was reacting to blue fairies' unlike the busy fairies'.

Thats intended so you don't have two fairies exactly in the same place. They push each other so the player can notice there are 2 of them. Busy fairies cannot be moved because it is expected to only move them with strong fairies (imagine a player slowly pushing them with a blue fairy across the entire level to cheat puzzles).

Maybe you could just check if the tile is of a launchpad, and not snap fairies when that's the case.

Yeah, but then the system would be inconsistent. I would also need to test for buttons, what if the fairy is on a button and it is moved outside said button? I also found other issues with throwing fairies next to walls and toads, snapping to cumbersome positions. 

I'm trying to think it from another point of view now. The reason why you got stuck there was that you didn't notice the trayectory was against a wall. I believe I should improve the throw indication system, so a player knows when a trayectory is stopped by something. Or make throws follow the grid, but that has its issues too. 

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WebCough1 year ago(+1)

I am sure you are going to figure something out. You can always test out different solutions on DD, because that's what they are for after all.

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