BrineMonkeys - arena shots,.
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this really could be a good sequel for artificial life! ^^
Sorry for not posting in those days guys but I'm really in a mess... Will write more another day!
Sorry for not posting in those days guys but I'm really in a mess... Will write more another day!
In the fall of 1972 President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time a sitting president used the third derivative to advance his case for reelection.
-=Hugo Rossi=-
-=Hugo Rossi=-
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jph_wacheski
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rationalizing,. .
haha, yeah it does seem that I keep remaking the same games over and over,. must be trying to get it right. well, I see lots of differences as well. but yeah, I do have these simple ideas, that I keep re-working in an effort to get to an interesting mix,. . i guess it is just my old arcade influances where many 'new' games where just reworkings of older ones.. , I always wanted those games to be slightly different and now I have the skills and the tech. to make them how i like. so i do.
iterationGAMES.com
the new camera mode needs some more tweaking; the zoom-in is like a hickup, and it's possible to drive out of sight. it also takes a lot getting used to that the mouse crosshair moves with the level instead of moving with the camera (which made me click out of the window a few times). i'm sure these are residues from the previous mechanic... it took me a few games to realise the connection between the zoom and the crystals; with the hickup, i didn't even notice it was zooming in. maybe it's a bit too subtle, but maybe it gets clear when the movement is smoother.
on moving vs static cam in general: i like the overview the fixed cam gave; after all, it's a videogame - not a movie - and it's only fair that it exposes everything it can and leaves the filtering (which is part of the challenge, of course) up to my cognition. on the other hand, i also like the surprise of discovering what has happened 'in that corner over there' while i wasn't looking. that gridwars clone 'geometry wars' (or was it the other way around?) had the option of playfields bigger than the screen, which gave you more space to escape to, but also had an effect of enemy aggregation, leading to frantic battles trying to break even... so i guess i'm saying, if the camera moves, the space could be considerably larger, otherwise i would prefer an old-school static camera.
enemy types: the mine-layers are a bit too numerous & fast in my book, and their minefields get pretty dense at this point. this bothered me more in the first rounds than in the latter ones; after all, the idea of fast mine-layers in a fast arcade game sounds appropriate & challenging. i guess it's a thing best left to tweaking later, when all enemy types are in.
it's nice that the 2nd type of shooters move less player-oriented, it makes up for their more lethal (precision, range) shots. right now the random movement is thrilling, but it can become unfair if it gets too fast & unpredictable. it might be interesting to iterate through some fixed movements (on rails) just to see how it turns out ...
btw, the people over at shmup-dev are also remaking themselves over and over again ;) some of the results are really fine. i can only add that working in constraints is a proper creative technique that yields - surprisingly, in most cases - far more interesting results than working into the blue. if you do it by accident, that's a happy little accident :P
on moving vs static cam in general: i like the overview the fixed cam gave; after all, it's a videogame - not a movie - and it's only fair that it exposes everything it can and leaves the filtering (which is part of the challenge, of course) up to my cognition. on the other hand, i also like the surprise of discovering what has happened 'in that corner over there' while i wasn't looking. that gridwars clone 'geometry wars' (or was it the other way around?) had the option of playfields bigger than the screen, which gave you more space to escape to, but also had an effect of enemy aggregation, leading to frantic battles trying to break even... so i guess i'm saying, if the camera moves, the space could be considerably larger, otherwise i would prefer an old-school static camera.
enemy types: the mine-layers are a bit too numerous & fast in my book, and their minefields get pretty dense at this point. this bothered me more in the first rounds than in the latter ones; after all, the idea of fast mine-layers in a fast arcade game sounds appropriate & challenging. i guess it's a thing best left to tweaking later, when all enemy types are in.
it's nice that the 2nd type of shooters move less player-oriented, it makes up for their more lethal (precision, range) shots. right now the random movement is thrilling, but it can become unfair if it gets too fast & unpredictable. it might be interesting to iterate through some fixed movements (on rails) just to see how it turns out ...
btw, the people over at shmup-dev are also remaking themselves over and over again ;) some of the results are really fine. i can only add that working in constraints is a proper creative technique that yields - surprisingly, in most cases - far more interesting results than working into the blue. if you do it by accident, that's a happy little accident :P
I agree with diki's well-formulated opinions on the zooming in. On one hand I like single-screen action because you always have the whole game situation in front of you and can make strategic decisions as a player, and on the other hand the enemy design is really nice and I would like to zoom in on them to view them a bit more close up.
On another topic I found the problem with the convolution component (just a minor memory bug, nothing to do with floating point operations as I first thought) so it will be fixed in next beta.
On another topic I found the problem with the convolution component (just a minor memory bug, nothing to do with floating point operations as I first thought) so it will be fixed in next beta.
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jph_wacheski
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- Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:10 pm
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diki -thanks for the well thoughtout feedback,.
yes I do tend to agree with what you are saying, it is a tough design desision, and after trying a few things yesterday I belive I have decided to go with a round arena with limited scrolling,. about 2-3 screens worth. I am tempted to add a gravity point in the center,. and probably will try that at some point, (though perhaps thats another game, a Valance remake?!?) but I think the little bit of hidden area, that you have to make the effort to look at, plus as Ville said the fact that the zooming adds both dynamics to the over all look of the game, and highlights the details of the objects,. lead me in this direction. I have changed the zooming to a direct relation to the players health; low health = more zoomed in this creates tension and provides intant feedback i.e. no health meter needed. (so now i need a new use for the green plus/coin pickups,.) I also added a smooth zooming so no more glitch effect,.
This bigger arena, and perhaps some tweeking of the spawn rates, seems to have solved the excessive mines issue,. and like you say everything is in a tweekable state still, so finnal ballancing does require me to commite to a view and arena size/shape. I have to implement the round arena edges,. and have a few tests then I will post that a bit latter. Thanks.
oh, and thinking about the control/shooting/speed balancing, that came up before, I think I will offer 3 different player 'ships' (bugs?) each with different balances of control,. and perhaps some different fireing methods/spreads but we will see..,
yes I do tend to agree with what you are saying, it is a tough design desision, and after trying a few things yesterday I belive I have decided to go with a round arena with limited scrolling,. about 2-3 screens worth. I am tempted to add a gravity point in the center,. and probably will try that at some point, (though perhaps thats another game, a Valance remake?!?) but I think the little bit of hidden area, that you have to make the effort to look at, plus as Ville said the fact that the zooming adds both dynamics to the over all look of the game, and highlights the details of the objects,. lead me in this direction. I have changed the zooming to a direct relation to the players health; low health = more zoomed in this creates tension and provides intant feedback i.e. no health meter needed. (so now i need a new use for the green plus/coin pickups,.) I also added a smooth zooming so no more glitch effect,.
This bigger arena, and perhaps some tweeking of the spawn rates, seems to have solved the excessive mines issue,. and like you say everything is in a tweekable state still, so finnal ballancing does require me to commite to a view and arena size/shape. I have to implement the round arena edges,. and have a few tests then I will post that a bit latter. Thanks.
oh, and thinking about the control/shooting/speed balancing, that came up before, I think I will offer 3 different player 'ships' (bugs?) each with different balances of control,. and perhaps some different fireing methods/spreads but we will see..,
iterationGAMES.com
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jph_wacheski
- Posts: 1005
- Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:10 pm
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ok, here is the current iteration,. . i047.
the curren system has some interesting developments;
-new round arena,. some graphic effects, to show the center and edge.
-camera more close to what it should be,. zoom = life.
-powUPs now grow in size,. creating a new reason to keep them in the center,. building on the ripoff theme. still need to add a reward for growing them bigger,. . ?
-coin collecting needs a reward as well,. .
-game is balanced so it is easy to live endlessly,. and dieing only resets the coin counter,. so the main objective of the game could still be anything..,
the curren system has some interesting developments;
-new round arena,. some graphic effects, to show the center and edge.
-camera more close to what it should be,. zoom = life.
-powUPs now grow in size,. creating a new reason to keep them in the center,. building on the ripoff theme. still need to add a reward for growing them bigger,. . ?
-coin collecting needs a reward as well,. .
-game is balanced so it is easy to live endlessly,. and dieing only resets the coin counter,. so the main objective of the game could still be anything..,
- Attachments
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- BrineMonkeys_047.zip
- l8est,. .
- (92.11 KiB) Downloaded 589 times
iterationGAMES.com
Really like this update.
The round playfield is cool, the zoom-in on health-loss works well. And also now I get constant 60fps in fullscreen, the previous version struggled with this. The explosion-effect is very nice.
The previous versions of this game felt similar to some of your other zge-games but now it is definitely getting it's own character! Some very good game design work done here.
The round playfield is cool, the zoom-in on health-loss works well. And also now I get constant 60fps in fullscreen, the previous version struggled with this. The explosion-effect is very nice.
The previous versions of this game felt similar to some of your other zge-games but now it is definitely getting it's own character! Some very good game design work done here.
Cool sounds!
suggestions -
1) How about limiting the distance the targeting cross hair can move away from the monkey? I keep losing it in the midst of the melee.
2) How about giving the final outer boundary a bit of colour so we know where the fence line for visibility is?
Otherwise, I think it's great.
suggestions -
1) How about limiting the distance the targeting cross hair can move away from the monkey? I keep losing it in the midst of the melee.
2) How about giving the final outer boundary a bit of colour so we know where the fence line for visibility is?
Otherwise, I think it's great.
"great expectations"
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jph_wacheski
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- Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:10 pm
- Location: Canada
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y offs et- try this one. I had not updated the mouse aiming, as that is my least fav. control., 
I am trying what you said limiting the rectial postition to near the player, and now it toggles on if you press the LMB one time,. .
Instead of adding color to the darkness I just tinted the deep background a little,. as outside the light is darkness.
Ville- i reduced the max numbers for most of the objects a bit more,. in an attept to help with speed,. there are likely many optomizations I can make later,. when I get happerier with the gameplay,. as that is my first priorety.
I think it is getting better, at least now I am commited to an arena/camera setup,. I have changed the spawning positions to be round as well,. so its a bit different. and gives me many more ideas,. however I am making an attempt to NOT add too much to this, and try to keep it simple,. I suck at that though.
I am trying what you said limiting the rectial postition to near the player, and now it toggles on if you press the LMB one time,. . Instead of adding color to the darkness I just tinted the deep background a little,. as outside the light is darkness.
Ville- i reduced the max numbers for most of the objects a bit more,. in an attept to help with speed,. there are likely many optomizations I can make later,. when I get happerier with the gameplay,. as that is my first priorety.
I think it is getting better, at least now I am commited to an arena/camera setup,. I have changed the spawning positions to be round as well,. so its a bit different. and gives me many more ideas,. however I am making an attempt to NOT add too much to this, and try to keep it simple,. I suck at that though.
- Attachments
-
- BrineMonkeys_048.zip
- i048
- (92.06 KiB) Downloaded 621 times
iterationGAMES.com
Well, I agree that the mouse aiming is difficult.
Why, because we have to pilot two vehicles PLUS avoid predators with only one of them PLUS aim and fire, all at the same time. I lose track of which hand is doing what.
I can see a programmed AI accomplishing this feat, but not us single-minded humans with limited attention spans.
In the real world, insects can't fire accurately from 360 degrees unless they fire in all directions at once or randomly.
If the monkey stayed in the center of the screen and the panorama parallaxed ( is that the right word and term? ) on the keypresses then it might be a little easier. Don't know. Probably a computational nightmare.
Another idea, if the cross hair was confined to a set orbit distance around the monkey, then left / right arrows could rotate clockwise / counter and up arrow could fire. Or left / right mouseB and space. Whatever.
If you reverted to the one gun firing forward setup, most people could understand that.
You know, that is a cool screen saver. I found myself just watching a lot.
That "rap" sound seems to be unrelated to any visual activity?
Why, because we have to pilot two vehicles PLUS avoid predators with only one of them PLUS aim and fire, all at the same time. I lose track of which hand is doing what.
I can see a programmed AI accomplishing this feat, but not us single-minded humans with limited attention spans.
In the real world, insects can't fire accurately from 360 degrees unless they fire in all directions at once or randomly.
If the monkey stayed in the center of the screen and the panorama parallaxed ( is that the right word and term? ) on the keypresses then it might be a little easier. Don't know. Probably a computational nightmare.
Another idea, if the cross hair was confined to a set orbit distance around the monkey, then left / right arrows could rotate clockwise / counter and up arrow could fire. Or left / right mouseB and space. Whatever.
If you reverted to the one gun firing forward setup, most people could understand that.
You know, that is a cool screen saver. I found myself just watching a lot.
That "rap" sound seems to be unrelated to any visual activity?
"great expectations"