Welcome to the Prototype Texture Generator! I don't know how useful this forum is going to be, but feel free to introduce yourself below.
Sharing your work in the forums is welcome, so don't be afraid to start a new thread and show off your creativity. I honestly would love to see how you've put this tool to use in projects you are actively working on. But try not to spam or over-promote yourself. : )
If you come up with an interesting or useful prototype texture, feel free to share them in the forums too for others to make use of. That'd be awesome!
As for myself, I'm a game developer/technical artist, who specializes in streamlining workflows and tool creation to ease production and get things from A to B. I also work on a number of small niche game projects that let me put my skills to use and help keep the lights on.
The Prototype Texture Generator is something I've been working on for several months. Originally it started out as a simple tool for me and my partner to quickly generate new textures for our projects without having to open photoshop. But over the last few months, it has been slowly growing into something I feel like a lot of people can use on their own projects. And now it's here.
I hope you find it useful!
You can find me on Twitter where I don't post much (@VeryThiefLike), or lurking amongst the many Game Developer communities on Discord.
I agree. The input scheme did not help the game at all. That's what I get for going too retro xD. I've recently updated the project version to use mouse input instead with a more traditional stealth FPS control scheme. So I'll be posting that once the Jam rating period is over.
You may be able to teleport past the keys, but you're still going to need a copy of the key when you escape. Meaning your satisfaction was only meant to be temporary. xD
I think the speed is fine, it's more the precision.
Something I use to encounter in old gun-con games on PSX (when you didn't have the Gun-con), or arcade shooters ported to PC, was an additional button to control the speed, kind of like a run button. Some games let the reticle move faster when you pressed it, and others would let you slow down and be more precise when you needed it. I don't know the specifics of your game, but one of those could be a better-balancing alternative.
I've been looking forward to playing this one after watching your progress in Discord, and you did not disappoint! It looks great!
I played it on both Keyboard and Gamepad. The keyboard felt overly sensitive, making it difficult to play. The gamepad was a lot easier, but it still felt like I had to sweep across a spot to hit my targets mainly because I couldn't be as precise as I wanted to. I often felt like the reticle was never where I really wanted to aim.
There were also some sorting issues with the bandits. Some bandits appeared in front of another bandit when they should have been behind them. Nothing major, but it did add to the aim precision issues I felt.
Other than that, the game's fun! The gameplay is nicely balanced between dodging, shooting, and recovering. It's tough but fair. And the bosses are a nice escalation in challenge. Very retro!
The guards aren't very forgiving. I'm actually working on making the Guards a little less THWACK-Y at the moment to tone them down a little. But glad you enjoyed it either way.
It took a few tries to get into, but once I figured it out, it was a lot of fun.
Though, I had to go into the HTML code and modify the resolution. I couldn't play it at the default resolution. The bottom was clipping, and the size made an already overwhelming tutorial extra overwhelming because of the screen space. Halfing it made it manageable.
All the little pixel characters are clear, readable, and look great. The music is amazing! I could have that on in the background all day!
Some of the card UI interactions felt a little clumsy. I often found myself fighting between clicking when I should be dragging, and dragging when I should be clicking.
But overall, very nicely done.
I'm not sure if you remember, but there was a moment in Discord early in the jam where you weren't sure what your core gameplay was going to look like. You had a few ideas about what it might be, but you seemed caught up in the details. I gave you some advice about picking one and going with your gut, and here we are! I'm honestly blown away by how far this game has been taken and how much you've done. You should be really proud!
The winning sound could use a noise pass to soften the distortion and clipping. But other than that, there's not much to say. It's a nice little volleyball game!
I would say remove it because it seems a little arbitrary.
But if the intention is to punish the player, it could be better to set the health to a fixed amount on death, but have more health recovery sources in the dungeon. Those sources could also be limited, so the same original amount of punishment can be dished out, but distributed over a play session. In theory, that could lead to a player optimizing their play as they learn and progress... in theory. xD
(the idea of health recovery flies also popped into my head while writing that, since you are a frog xD)
I really liked the aesthetic. Very good use of a restricted color palette.
Though, one or two more colors could help in conveying additional information. At times it was hard to tell what an item was until you used it. Some more distinct colors in the same tone could help communicate differences in items, and lead to other gameplay benefits (like item prioritization and remembering locations) without changing the overall aesthetic too dramatically.
All the sounds are cute and great. xD
My health didn't fully recover after death, which I felt was a little strange. I kept getting destroyed in combat, especially when I'm attempting to cancel the enemy's attack. xD
Either way, it was a lot of fun. I would love to see more to this!
Yeah, I agree. The keyboard "retro" input scheme doesn't help the difficulty at all. I'm working on replacing that with a more modern Mouse Keyboard input scheme post-jam, hopefully that will take away some of the technical difficulties while keeping the game challenging.
"I feel these controls would be better for a horror game, as opposed to a stealth game."
Oddly enough you aren't wrong. The input was based on a retro horror game I was working on for last year's jam, but didn't get a chance to finish. Solid observation there. XD
Thanks for the feedback, I'll be putting it to good use! : )
Ey, glad you enjoyed it. And thanks for the feedback!
I forgot to list that you can hold shift to run in the inputs list. That will double your movement speed including turning (sorry bout that v_v"). But the current controls are definitely not helping in a game that is already difficult. xD I'll be replacing the keyboard controls with a more modern FPS Mouse Keyboard scheme in a post-jam version.
The art style is great. And the platforming that's there is nice, fast, and pretty easy to get into.
I had a few problems with jumping on the creatures though. Sometimes it would let me jump, and other times it wouldn't. I'm guessing there's a specific way to jump on them that works which I might have figured out, but I'm not entirely sure if it's intended or a bug.
I honestly would love to see more of this (like more levels, sounds, and UI). But overall, a solid fast-paced platformer.
After watching you work with people and go through so much in the Jam's Discord, I really wanted to play it. xD
It reminds me of old NES exploration adventures games, especially the music (very nice btw!). Once you get going and figure out what you're looking for, it's pretty fun.
Though I was getting a little confused with the "required item" popup, thinking I already had the item, even though I didn't. And some of the collisions are a little janky (but I think you already knew that).
But overall very charming and cute, especially the elevator transition (really fun xD).
Very frantic once you get to 5 stars, which certainly made me worried about getting fired. Maybe a tiny bit too frantic, but it didn't detract from the experience.
Nice job on the pixel art. Very colorful! And the music really puts you into the right rhythm.
Overall, a challenging, funny, and fun little game.
Being able to drive into a sign after your ball lands into a sand trap. Perfection!
Swimming could be a little faster.
But everything is else is just joyful. The art style, the music, and being able to express yourself with the cart. I played with a smile on my face all the whole time.
I actually had it that way originally, but the physics system went a little crazy. And trying to hit a small moving objects was incredibly tedious, but... it does give me an idea for a "Golden Snitch". : )
I agree, there are definitely way to many sounds at the same time, which I'm looking to optimize post jam. The visual clutter does need a little more control especially with the randomized movements at the start. I wanted to encourage curiosity, not overwhelm you! xD
But I'm glad you enjoyed it despite those issues, and thanks for the feedback! : )
The coins do need a lot more juice, and the sounds also need some work to make it a lot more clear about what's going on. I'm hoping to fix that post jam.
And haha, thanks. I wanted to save myself some obvious feedback with the Look controls, so I'm glad you found it useful.
Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! : )
The puzzles are really fun. But the camera was frustrating.
I had to leave the camera in "Free move" because it was the easier to focus on the puzzle.
The rotation motion with the center position moving wasn't helpful. I had to constantly re-adjust the camera to concentrate on the puzzle.
But everything else about it was great. I really love the walls opening up and wind particle effects. And the mechanic itself it simple but incredibly challenging.
And I wouldn't scrap the 45 degree rotation. I found it very useful in examining the play space which gave me a sense of control that I wouldn't have otherwise. I hope that's helpful.
Either way, nice work! Would love to see more to this!
A fun restaurant game, with wacky physics. Very nice!
Though it didn't make run around and panic as much as I'd like too. And I wanted to panic!
I would of liked more "number of" customers and more frequent customer demands. Each time I played I only ever had a max of 2 customers and they would only order something every 3-4 hours. And it didn't feel like I had to rush.
Also nothing caught fire for me. Not sure why, but please make sure things catch fire. xD
