Done streaming

Well then, that was...exhausting..

For some reason there's something about streaming that makes doing pixel art a bit more difficult. Mostly because you feel obligated to do something interesting, rather than make corrections for an hour -__-

I may do more, but certainly not on a weekly basis. Takes a lot out of you to draw for four hours straight with an audience. Perhaps I'll just have the streaming window somewhere on the main page, and do it whenever I feel like it.

Anyhow, thanks to those of you who tuned in. It was fun.

First Stream

Starting the actual stream soon. For now I'm just doing a little setup, but feel free to use the chat in the meantime.

http://www.twitch.tv/kyrieru

(I'm basically just waiting a bit since the actual stream time wan't really clear -__-)

Will be doing a livestream

Well, I just got Twitch all set up, so I'll be giving it a shot sometime tomorrow, doing some pixel art. ( about 21 hours from the time of this post.)

I might start doing some streams here and there. Of course, the only thing holding me back from making it a weekly thing is that it would be a bit of a spoiler if you were seeing a bunch of things that were going to be in the game. Though I suppose I don't necessarily have to work on stuff for the game every time.

Let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to see. (can't be pornographic, though, because of twitch.)

Controls

If there's one thing that can ruin any platformer, it's bad controls. 

The most common problem I run into is that developers divide up the player's actions between too many keys. At most, you should only have to concern yourself with three "action" keys. (non-directional keys that are easily accessible and consistently used during gameplay) Any more than that and the player will either have to use their pinky finger, or move their hand around the keyboard, which can easily lead to missed keystrokes.

Keeping in mind that the jump key should almost never be assigned to pressing "up", this means that you only really have two "action" keys to work with if you want to keep the player's left hand stationary. (And accurate)

In Kurovadis, for instance, melee and ranged attacks were assigned to the two action buttons, rolling was assigned to up and down (which each behaved differently), both ranged and melee attacks had a charged version, and you could do a downward punch by pressing down and attack. In total, that's 7 actions on two action keys, 8 if you count the fact that holding the ranged attack button makes you strafe.

Now imagine if there was a button for melee, a button for stronger melee, a button for a downward attack, a button for ranged, a button for a stronger ranged attack, a button that toggled strafing, and a button for rolling, 7 keys keys all on the left side of the keyboard. As you can imagine, it would get tiring pretty quick, and chances are you would only use the normal melee and ranged attacks, because the other buttons would be too out of the way. Hell, I've seen games where there are five action keys lined up horizontally. It's as bad as it sounds.

Of course, this is all because of the keyboard. With a controller you can get away with a lot more buttons, but there's something to be said for simple and intuitive controls, and for someone like me, I generally need to optimize the control scheme for PC anyway.

This game's controls..

Which brings me to my current game and it's controls. The player has three actions they can perform.
-Weapon 1 (can assign any weapon or spell)
-Weapon 2 (can assign any weapon or spell)
-Back dash

The problem comes with the back-dash. With the two "action keys" taken up by the two attacks, I need to apply it to something else. Here are the options..

-Back-dash by pressing up. (up is not used by anything)
-Back dash by pressing down and jump (will remove the ability to jump while holding down, forcing the player to release down just before jumping)
-Replace one of the action keys with the back-dash, assigning the second attack to up+attack (removes the ability to use this attack while crouching, on controllers)
-In an X,C,V setup, assign back-dash to the spacebar. (won't interfere with finger placement as much because it uses the thumb, but may not be as comfortable for some people.)
-Another option would be to double tap jump. (sort of like Castlevania X/Rondo of blood)

Looking at the options, the up key seems like the most sensible choice, since it doesn't really interfere with anything important (Unless you're using a joystick, maybe). I would have used the up-key to activate objects or enter rooms, but something like that can be assigned to a less important button, such as enter. I suppose I'll see which I prefer as development goes on.


Baaack to work...Currently animating an enemy per-day.

Text engine, 3d sounds

So, updates

I Finished re-implementing the text engine that I had originally made for Crimson Brave. Actually turned out to work in the new GM without much modification. 

I initially planned on having fullscreen character images, but then I remembered that the player might be able to change costumes, so I decided on simple mugshots instead.

Right now I'm working on the intro to the game, which includes a couple cutscenes and a few basic sections before the player reaches the actual map. The good thing about this as a goal is that it includes pretty much every aspect of the game, so once it's finished I can move on to the rest of the game with the entire engine already in place.

Other than that, the game will now also have 3d sounds. Meaning I can have certain background sounds that are louder or quieter and pan based on your location. Neat stuff. 

Other stuff 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightyno9/mighty-no-9

First of all, I'm pretty sure this is the coolest damn thing ever.

For someone like me who is pretty cynical when it comes to the mainstream games industry, this is exactly the kind of development I want to see. Game designers who made classic games working on projects they care about, free from the financial influence of publishers? Yes please. To be honest, I'm more excited about the prospects of something like this happening more often than I am about the actual game.

Also, just thought I'd give a shout out to CashireCat, who recently finished an adult platformer. Check it out if you have the time.

http://dreamingofcheshirecat.blogspot.ca/