It would be nice if we could keep feedback and discussion about the whip and related mechanics mostly in this thread. :)
Explore an vast and treacherous temple in room-scale VR · By
Whip is pretty cool overall.
Of the two levers that require a whip outside the temple, the second one was intuitive and felt great. It was just the right distance away, and at just the right angle--I grabbed it and pulled it with the whip in a single try.
The first switch didn't work so well for me. It was close enough that I could almost knock it around with my rolled-up whip, so I tried to do that, but it ended up sticking to the lever and didn't really pull it. I did end up whipping it with a fully extended whip, but it took probably 5-10 tries to do this at the right angle, secure it, have it stick, and then pull it before it became unstuck. Disclaimer: I have never used a whip in real life, I've only seen one used on TV.
As for the general mechanics of swinging the whip, it felt pretty cool and what I imagine a whip is like.
Half-joking tiny criticism: I'm afraid of snakes, and the whip reminded me a little bit of a snake. I'm not sure that's avoidable with a whip. Anyway, if you get other users who are afraid of snakes, maybe they can confirm, but you should probably just ignore me. It was playable; I just tried not to do the coil motion too much, 'cause it freaked me out a little.
Glad to hear you liked the whip!
The first switch didn't work so well for me. It was close enough that I could almost knock it around with my rolled-up whip, so I tried to do that, but it ended up sticking to the lever and didn't really pull it.
Ah. I intended for the first one to be easy to just switch with the torch or rolled up whip, but it may be just a tad too far away. I don't know if I can move it closer (the level design is quite dictated by a grid like layout) but I'll at least try to make the rolled up whip better at "pushing" things instead of getting stuck.
At first I didn't know what to do with those flying scarab beetles and so it took me 2 tries to kill them. I figured it out, though.
Do you have any thoughts on if there's anything that could make this encounter more interesting? Less confusing? Better?
Half-joking tiny criticism: I'm afraid of snakes, and the whip reminded me a little bit of a snake. I'm not sure that's avoidable with a whip. Anyway, if you get other users who are afraid of snakes, maybe they can confirm, but you should probably just ignore me. It was playable; I just tried not to do the coil motion too much, 'cause it freaked me out a little.
Uh-oh, I'm not sure if I should tell you then I have an item on my todo-list to investigate creating a room where there's snakes on the floor. (You know, as a homage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTHKIbyoi_w)
>Do you have any thoughts on if there's anything that could make this encounter more interesting? Less confusing? Better?
As I think someone else mentioned, I wasn't sure I was damaging them. Maybe some indication of that, like if they flashed red when I scored a hit. As it is now, it kinda just felt like I was pushing them away but not making progress. A health bar or something would work but I could understand that would ruin the immersion quite a bit. Also, I wasn't sure if I should be trying to use torch or whip for them, so some kind of indication (whip hits turn them red for a second, torch hits don't? torch actually lights them on fire and then they die?) might help, too.
>Ah. I intended for the first one to be easy to just switch with the torch or rolled up whip, but it may be just a tad too far away. I don't know if I can move it closer (the level design is quite dictated by a grid like layout) but I'll at least try to make the rolled up whip better at "pushing" things instead of getting stuck.
Oh! I didn't even think to use the torch. I was so excited to try the whip mechanics...
>an item on my todo-list to investigate creating a room where there's snakes on the floor.
Lol, comes with the territory, I guess! :)
>Do you have any thoughts on if there's anything that could make this encounter more interesting? Less confusing? Better?
I have a tiny comment about this. When i first beat them one fell down on the path of the rolling platform. It would have been immensely satisfying if the rolling platform actually crushed the scarab, instead of clipping through. Maybe this could even be a mechanic later in the game, to actively need to whip some enemies into paths of platforms.
sorry for the delay but I finally got around to testing it last night. Played the whole game from beginning to end. It’s really cool, the whip feels great but I wish it had more use than just the beginning part. I really like the third person camera but I found while watching my son play that the camera would randomly go outside the temple while he was inside. I suggest making the part where you beat the boss and go up and over the temple to move a bit faster. I found that part on both times to be long and boring while you slowly move to where your supposed to go afterwards. The music was really cool and made the scene much more intense. I think the game needs a bit more parts like that to improve the pacing of the game or at least add music to the rest of the game. One suggestion i request is because this is inspired by Indiana Jones is to have a part we can roll under a closing door or a really low door we could crawl under like in the movies
Just did a playthrough, regarding the whip. I really like how physical it feels, it behaves like something in the real world to me.
I had some issues getting it to catch on to the levers, but then I am an inexperienced whip wielder so a bit hard to say if it's just me or not ;) But probably. I noticed that it seemed to stick to the lever, like it was made out of sticky goop like those things you could get in a plastic egg from a vending machine at the grocery store when I was a kid.
One thing that is a bit freaky is the roll-up :D It makes it feel like I'm actually holding a live snake or a huge worm! I kind of expected to find eyes on the whip if I took a closer look xD
But yeah, all in all it feels very physical and is kind of neat to carry around even if I didn't use it throughout the level (as you mentioned). If nothing else it can be used to fish gems out of the air.
I noticed that it seemed to stick to the lever, like it was made out of sticky goop like those things you could get in a plastic egg from a vending machine at the grocery store when I was a kid.
Indeed. :) The whip doesn't have any animation and is fully simulated, so when it curls around the lever it's due to physics. I do have to slightly "help" it happen though, by making the lever sticky under certain conditions. It's meant to only happen when you don't notice it, but sometimes my heuristic fails and it looks a bit odd...
One thing that is a bit freaky is the roll-up :D It makes it feel like I'm actually holding a live snake or a huge worm! I kind of expected to find eyes on the whip if I took a closer look xDHaha, right! :D I'm not exactly sure how I could design the roll-up in a way that doesn't have this issue.