AuthorTopic: A new open world where you create... by pixel drawing  (Read 7316 times)

Offline JPhilipp

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A new open world where you create... by pixel drawing

on: September 25, 2013, 11:53:31 am
We're two indie developers and started a new, shared among everyone world in which you build new things... by drawing them :) We thought this might be something for you here. Please note that the in-world pixel editor might not be as cool as some of the pro stuff you guys may be using... sorry about that and hope you may still enjoy it! The world is at http://manyland.com (note we don't use logins for anything like "posting to your wall/ connecting your friends" kind of things... we just wanted to save the extra step of registering).

Offline Pix3M

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Re: A new open world where you create... by pixel drawing

Reply #1 on: September 26, 2013, 03:44:49 pm
Such a lonely little game.  :(

Offline ptoing

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Re: A new open world where you create... by pixel drawing

Reply #2 on: September 26, 2013, 04:17:04 pm
I for one am not a fan of using Facebook or Google to sign into things which are not directily owned by Facebook or Google.
Might be just me.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline PixelPiledriver

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Re: A new open world where you create... by pixel drawing

Reply #3 on: September 26, 2013, 10:15:10 pm
Messed with this a bit.
Here are my gameplay notes:

- Not sure what some buttons do.

- Tool tips would be nice

- Downvoted someone on accident lol

- Upvoted them to balance it

- Saw about 6 people building stuff.

- Collected some blocks

- I Think the hand and the number is my level?

- Cant use this wearable item?

- Ah it seems like certain item types are locked by player level

- How do I delete a block that I have placed?

- How do I delete a block from my collection?

- Going off to find my own little zone

- Found a place where nobody is

- Built some crappy looking stuff.

- How can I edit a block I've created so that I can improve it?

- How can I duplicate a block I've created so that I can make a variation?

- How to replace a block with another?

- Color picker covers the canvas. Could pop up to the side.

- Wish I could hold Left Click and hover over colors to see the index change on my drawing instead of clicking once and color selector closes.

- Optional RGB and HSL color selection would be nice.

- Pixel selection/move/copy paste would be nice.

- It's difficult to build things because you can't edit the image or replace them with another block after they've been placed. I made some quick temp blocks thinking I would come back to them later and clean them up, but cant seem to do it.

- Got level 2.

- Flagged a block accidentally, unflagged it.

- Not sure what the third tab with the text box is for.

- Went to another tab in my browser, came back, and the connection was lost.

- Can't seem to recconnect. Tried about 5 times.

It's decent fun to run around and check stuff out.
I really like the idea.
In its current state, not able to change/replace blocks, somewhat wonky pixel editor, I find it mostly unusable.
But great work so far.  :y:
« Last Edit: September 27, 2013, 03:44:45 am by PixelPiledriver »
And knowing that it is, we seek what it is... ~ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Chapter 1

Offline JPhilipp

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Re: A new open world where you create... by pixel drawing

Reply #4 on: October 16, 2013, 01:24:16 pm
A big thanks for all this feedback!!

We understand some concerns with Google/ Facebook login. For reference, we only use that for login, we never "post to your wall/ autoconnect your friends".

We're working hard to make the world less lonely, and added some changes the last week to help with meeting people! Please try again if you weren't able to find someone the last time :)

Offline JPhilipp

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Re: A new open world where you create... by pixel drawing

Reply #5 on: October 16, 2013, 01:35:03 pm
(Before I start: Big thanks PixelPiledriver, great detailed feedback. And sorry for my delay in answering!)

> Not sure what some buttons do.

Sorry for that. Godiva made a nice YouTube showing some of the options.


> Tool tips would be nice

Noted, thanks.

> Downvoted someone on accident lol
> Upvoted them to balance it

Yes, that should work :)


> Saw about 6 people building stuff.

Excellent. We know it's still growing and a bit lonely at times, we're hoping some of you can help spread the world, and we did some additional amendments for 'less loneliness' (like a central spawn point along with a new "meet" button in the top left).

> I Think the hand and the number is my level?

Exactly! 1 - 5, whereas 5 is the limit and kind of means 5/5 stars... like a good citizen.

> Cant use this wearable item?

Sorry, once you're at rank 5 it's wearable.

> Ah it seems like certain item types are locked by player level

Yup :)

> How do I delete a block that I have placed?

Ctrl-click it... We now added a helper overlay showing after some time...

> How do I delete a block from my collection?

Ctrl-click it (provided no one's collected it yet -- we may add a kind of autohiding in the future when you ctrl-click in your creations, whether or not someone collected it)

> Going off to find my own little zone

> Found a place where nobody is

> Built some crappy looking stuff.

Haha. Nice :)
Note you can make snapshots with F4 and the + button to later teleport there again, if you wandered off..

> How can I edit a block I've created so that I can improve it?
> How can I duplicate a block I've created so that I can make a variation?

Drag the creation over the Create button and save the copy. You can then delete your old one if you like.
(Direct editing of existing blocks is not possible atm, we wanted to avoid changes to something after it's been spread in the world/ been collected by others)

> Color picker covers the canvas. Could pop up to the side.

Yes, we added this feature in the meantime :) You can now color pick from the world.

> Wish I could hold Left Click and hover over colors to see the index change on my drawing instead of clicking once and color selector closes.

Do you mean in the color selection subdialog that pops up, or when picknig from the canvas?

> Optional RGB and HSL color selection would be nice.

Interesting. For what it's worth we now added a way to change the Hue/ saturation of just a single color, please see the updated Creator menu (top left of the creator).

> Pixel selection/move/copy paste would be nice.

You can use ctrl+c/ v to copy and paste, and ctrl+arrow to move something around. Sorry, no sub-selection yet within the canvas, but good point about that!


> Flagged a block accidentally, unflagged it.

That undoes it :)

> Not sure what the third tab with the text box is for.

It's a search box, you'll unlock it at rank 5. (Note no grinding/ elaborate placing is needed to uprank to 5, it should happen automatically, but might require some getting to know of others in the community... try the Meet button to meet some of us near the grassy mountains.)

> Can't seem to recconnect. Tried about 5 times.

Oops. Hope this is fixed by now. We worked hard the recent weeks on speed and memory optimizations. It's up to twice as fast now for bigger structures. If you get repeated connection problems pls drop me an email at philipp@manyland.com

> It's decent fun to run around and check stuff out.
> I really like the idea.

Excellent, thanks! Hope to see you in the world!

Offline JPhilipp

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Re: A new open world where you create... by pixel drawing

Reply #6 on: September 19, 2014, 09:57:08 pm
A big update: Manyland is now open for exploring without having to login first! To start drawing and placing blocks, you still need to login, but we hope this helps.

Feedback welcome!

Offline surt

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Re: A new open world where you create... by pixel drawing

Reply #7 on: September 20, 2014, 12:49:51 am
I tried it and tried mounting a skateboard and immediately died. Restart on top of the skateboard and immiediately die again. Repeat.

Offline JPhilipp

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Re: A new open world where you create... by pixel drawing

Reply #8 on: September 20, 2014, 07:19:41 am
Sorry for that. I have a suspicion what it could be, and we'll try to fix it. Hope you can enjoy some of the other things in Manyland in the meantime. Did you try to draw a block?

Offline Groggeneral

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Re: A new open world where you create... by pixel drawing

Reply #9 on: September 26, 2014, 02:17:25 pm
Pro:
- the basic idea has potential and I can see how it can appeal especially to younger audiences. Drawing an own character, making a house and furniture, chatting with people.
- I talked to some children playing and they genuinely enjoyed building their houses and showing each other cool stuff. There is a lot to explore. It seems to be a very family-friendly experience so far - big plus!
- the game encourages using one's own drawing skills compared to other sandbox games and give creativity more room that way. That's really cool :)
- flying, changing characters, custom animations.. there are a many fun things to explore.
- as far as i can tell people can create their own worlds and visit each other.
- the community seems nice so far.

Cons:
- I tried for half an hour to figure out how to place blocks. There is no information on these limitations ingame. still don't know how to do it but that might be because of the next -->
- I share ptoings notion: I don't want third party companies to use my google or fb account as my login. That's a clear no go for me. Also, people without these are forced into creating one then.
- seems like people can place blocks in your homeworld too? heard someone complaining about that
- There is literally no instruction on any function. Where can I access my inventory? Where is any menu at all? It's user-unfriendly this way, so tool tips and a beginners tutorial would be superb.
- the starting character looks.. scary

Further suggestions:
- The world lacks an opportunity for orientation. Maybe having some kind of mock-up "worldmap" where the "standardmap" is in the middle and usermaps are locations spread around? Anything to give an idea of the scope of the game would be neat
- unregistered users don't have many things, but there is no information on that. Show me the menus but leave them greyed out so that I see that there is more once I registered
- Own useraccounts. Logging in with amazon, google or fb is a no-go for many.
- for my taste, the text disappears too quickly and the space for text is too small before it is force-sent. A chatlog that can be toggled and that only shows the chat from players in line of sight would definately be an improvement.
- The piano music function is fun - I wish it could be accessed by keys instead of by mouseclicks. That would make playing melodies easier.
- You have said nothing about the goal of the game or you as developers so far. As I see it, you want to make a game that revolves around creating one's own experience? Nontheless, creating an optimal starting experience should be important. Maybe let people start in a starter-room where they can immediately pick a nice charactersprite they can identify with. Also explain to them how things work there. make sure they like what they see at the start and make sure they feel welcome. How about you have two charactersprites of the developer (or a fictional "representative") at the start, telling that people can create their own world and that you are happy that they're around? Something like that maybe. dunno.