[WIP] Arcade Academy

[Stefano]

Since it's a partial inlay, one might think (as I did  ) that it's some kind of liquid or jelly filling the inside of the helmet.
Although now I see what you meant to represent, I can totally see a playable alien ally race, native to a red liquid environment, wearing this type of helmet to "breathe".

[nizzate]

looks great but the one thing that bothers me is the acid gun shooting.  It looks like liquid at first but then it looks like its a rope.  You made the liquid all stay together too much the whole way through. There are a few things i noticed that were strange about it.  The last drops of the acid fall behind the gun. Unless there was a strong wind blowing that couldn't happen.  The last drops have almost no thrust at all. and i don't think the stream should fall backwards. it should reach its maximum distance and fall forward constantly to the ground  I think i would make the last of the stream shoot out a little further or make it separate into smaller drips and and fall on the ground. I still think it just needs some randomness in it.  Try to look at every few pixels and clump them in your mind as single drops and think how where they would go. Thats my advice but nobody else seemed to mention anything about it.  Great work keep going!

[robotacon]

I'm still working on my space-man game. I currently have a build that reads maps and I have a couple of token monsters that you can run around and shoot. The protoype looks pretty much like the last mock-up I did.

I'm having trouble with the crawling animation though because it should really be some Z-axis movement in there but I'm trying to "cheat" that by moving the limbs along the X-axis only. Anyone have an idea for a better approach?

I also had to create some aming frames so that I could shoot down all the monsters (not so many) I've created. . The one aiming up needs to lean forward that much so that you can shoot along walls when you stand close to them. I know the back legs look a littte awkward.

I'm also experimenting with vehicles at the moment. I'd really like some C&C on this one. and this one .

Finally, I "had" to create a plug-in for Pro Motion to create map files for the game since I use images at 1/8-size for maps. I'm having no trouble pulling information from Pro Motion and storing the results in a new file. What I would like to do is write the result back to Pro Motion but all I get is an empty gray frame. I think it has to do with the fact that I'm not creating a true 8-bit DIB. If someone has done something like this in C# please let me know.

/Robo

[robotacon]

Here's a screenshot from the latest build. It's not tileing correctly because I have some issues with my map generator plug-in for Pro Motion but since I'm shading the background tiles in real-time it's still playable. The only creatures you can play against are stupid gel-blobs that mimic metroid zoomers by crawling around on the walls.

The reason I'm showing you this screenshot is to get some feedback on the border around the player and creatures. The border is drawn with a slight opacity which might feel blasphemous for some pixelators.



I'd also like some feedback on this climbing animation:

[BlueCheer]

hmm would you have to jump up to the top to climb it and the items should be more then just 1 color with a darker outline (talking bout those green things.)

[ndchristie]

i don't know about other people, but when i jump a fence I jump(/climb if it's a high one) to grab the top then pull with my arms and shoot up to get one foot on (then I turn around, dangle off, and let go when im close to the ground...but that's specifically fences).  this guy almost looks like he's got a fishing line in his mouth and is being dragged up and over.

[Arachne]

What happened to the darker blue background? It made everything much easier to see.

Your power-ups are difficult to spot, even with a darker background. I suggest making them bigger or adding a bright outline or both.

I like the first vehicle, but the second seems awkward to me. I've seen people ride bicycles like that, and it makes me shudder. I don't know what the idea behind a design like that is, but I think you'll have a lot more control with the balance point placed higher up.

Your space man is not jumping quite high enough to be able to grab onto the ledge. He should also start reaching before he grabs on. Next, while he kicks off with his leg, he should use his arms to push his torso up from the platform so that he can get his knee onto it. Then he can push himself up to get on his feet.

[Bouzolf]

This might help for the climb: http://youtube.com/watch?v=OcOyjr2ahGI.

[robotacon]

BlueCheer:
You don't have to jump up on things to climb them I guess. I've already got a thing implemented so that you'll automatically do a little jump/skip when you run against things that are one block/tile high. This would work for things that are two tiles high or eight tiles if you jump for it. I'm sorry for the green and yellow blobs, they are placeholders that most likely won't be in the game in their current for because they are too hard to hit. You have to lay down on the ground to aim at them.

Adarias, Arachne, Bouzolf:
I've tried to summarize all your different feedback and made this new climb.
.

Arachne:
The motorcycle looks a little dull. It would need to be a sports bike but perhaps I could sci-fi-ify it somehow.

[Souly]

I think you should still have the jump to the wall.
I don't like the feel of him stopping at the bottom and then climbing it.