How many years have you already spent on polishing the controls? It clearly can be seen that most of the effort so far went into the player controller and it shows. Responsive and slick, just the way I like it.
That being said I dont understand the implementation of the roll. Why it was necessary to have 2 separate buttons, why not just have single roll button that applies roll depending on the direction player is facing? I never encountered a moment in the demo where it would be crucial to have 2 separate buttons for 2 separate movement directions of roll. Not I can see how it is more useful and handy than classic approach. If you are so adamant on keeping it -at least give player a choice to set up alternative in controls.
Another thing worth noting is that I'm not sold on such deliberate walljump mechanic. I think it is way too cluttered - why the requirement to press down, why not just make walljump when player holds any direction (left/right) and just down-jump when no particular direction is being held?
And finally, thing that struck me very odd is when you skate you already move at max speed yet you STILL require player to hold "Run" so you can do long jump at the end - that seems unnecessary.
I'm not gonna provide any feedback on specific level design since I assume they are all playground and placeholders. However, my question is: do you really want it to me SMB clone when you already have bunch of complex moves and mechanics in place that do not particularly suit game of such genre (IWBTB, SMB, TEisN). If it is planned to be something else then I'm confused why make such playground that is not hugely relevant?
Thanks! Basically I stuck these demo levels together quickly using what limited things I have done so far, so my friends would have something somewhat fun to do when they played it. The actual level design will be very different. I'm not sure how long I've spent on the controls. I learned how to program in 2015. Took a break for a year because of tafe and rewrote the engine in 2017. I probably fiddled around with them the most that year. making smaller adjustments in 2018. I'm glad you found them responsive.
I have a combat & gadget system in the works that will use the rest of the buttons on the controller so I just put the roll on the right analogue stick. I think it will make more sense with proper combat in the game. The player will definitely be able to customise the gamepad (and keyboard) controls eventually. I know a lot of people would prefer to use a shoulder button to roll.
I find that when people wall jump they want to go up from the wall by default. so asking for a deliberate down input helps avoid mistakes. a lot of people don't hold away from the wall until after they've jumped or they don't hold a direction at all if the walls are close together. so I tried to play it safe & make room for that.
when you're grinding you're meant to be able to slow down and speed up. but for this demo I took that out and made you accelerate to max speed even if you're holding backwards to make it more challenging and also because of missing animations. that's probably why the need to still hold forwards after you jump feels jarring. for more challenging rail sections in the future i'm thinking of making special boost rails that will keep you moving at max speed in 1 direction until you land on something else.
Also thanks for the screenshots. I'm aware of those collision glitches they're on my long list of things to fix ;)
Wow this was great. REALLY smooth movement, super impressive. Everything felt great. Cute sprites and music too. Honestly dont have much feedback, looking forward to more content.
Comments
How many years have you already spent on polishing the controls? It clearly can be seen that most of the effort so far went into the player controller and it shows. Responsive and slick, just the way I like it.
That being said I dont understand the implementation of the roll. Why it was necessary to have 2 separate buttons, why not just have single roll button that applies roll depending on the direction player is facing? I never encountered a moment in the demo where it would be crucial to have 2 separate buttons for 2 separate movement directions of roll. Not I can see how it is more useful and handy than classic approach. If you are so adamant on keeping it -at least give player a choice to set up alternative in controls.
Another thing worth noting is that I'm not sold on such deliberate walljump mechanic. I think it is way too cluttered - why the requirement to press down, why not just make walljump when player holds any direction (left/right) and just down-jump when no particular direction is being held?
And finally, thing that struck me very odd is when you skate you already move at max speed yet you STILL require player to hold "Run" so you can do long jump at the end - that seems unnecessary.
I'm not gonna provide any feedback on specific level design since I assume they are all playground and placeholders. However, my question is: do you really want it to me SMB clone when you already have bunch of complex moves and mechanics in place that do not particularly suit game of such genre (IWBTB, SMB, TEisN). If it is planned to be something else then I'm confused why make such playground that is not hugely relevant?
Overall it was super-fun so far.
Attached few small things I found:
Thanks! Basically I stuck these demo levels together quickly using what limited things I have done so far, so my friends would have something somewhat fun to do when they played it. The actual level design will be very different. I'm not sure how long I've spent on the controls. I learned how to program in 2015. Took a break for a year because of tafe and rewrote the engine in 2017. I probably fiddled around with them the most that year. making smaller adjustments in 2018. I'm glad you found them responsive.
I have a combat & gadget system in the works that will use the rest of the buttons on the controller so I just put the roll on the right analogue stick. I think it will make more sense with proper combat in the game. The player will definitely be able to customise the gamepad (and keyboard) controls eventually. I know a lot of people would prefer to use a shoulder button to roll.
I find that when people wall jump they want to go up from the wall by default. so asking for a deliberate down input helps avoid mistakes. a lot of people don't hold away from the wall until after they've jumped or they don't hold a direction at all if the walls are close together. so I tried to play it safe & make room for that.
when you're grinding you're meant to be able to slow down and speed up. but for this demo I took that out and made you accelerate to max speed even if you're holding backwards to make it more challenging and also because of missing animations. that's probably why the need to still hold forwards after you jump feels jarring. for more challenging rail sections in the future i'm thinking of making special boost rails that will keep you moving at max speed in 1 direction until you land on something else.
Also thanks for the screenshots. I'm aware of those collision glitches they're on my long list of things to fix ;)
Wow this was great. REALLY smooth movement, super impressive. Everything felt great. Cute sprites and music too. Honestly dont have much feedback, looking forward to more content.
Thanks man! (I can only take credit for arrangement on the pizza theme tho. the rest of the tracks are placeholders made by users on newgrounds)
Here you go