Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

[CrazyMLC]

The overheating bar takes up too much space on the screen in my opinion. I'd love to be able to see the health bar even when it isn't going down.

I think you should start thinking about music and sound effects.

[Konrad]

Really nice, it's coming together .
A little criticism:
- the heat gauge is too big and doesn't fit the rest of the hud, IMO you should think about a redesign
- make energy bar and heat gauge always visible

And a suggestion :
- I'm a fan of Walker for Amiga. I like it that you can't fire when the guns overheat.

[Ninja Crow]

This is darn sweet.

But I need a health refill item to make it to the end of the level!  (a 'mission complete' when you reach the end would also be fun.)

If you walk off the left edge of the screen, you can't walk back (this is probably just a nitpick that doesn't need immediate addressing).

I'm also interested in your thoughts behind the jumping - what is the philosophy behind speed/gravity/height, &c.  What drives the 'feel' of the jump?

[sculptedpixel]

Cool stuff Howard.  I'm a big fan of the gameplay concept that the heat-meter provides, but I gotta say, the 'oven-burner-meter' thingy isn't working for me.  It's very hard to estimate, as the meter approaches full, how many shots = a rotation around the curve, and how quickly it dissipates / cools down;  something easier to read would work better imho.  Love the details, love the intro-screen, keep it coming.

[Howard Day]

CrazyMLC: Yeah, that heat gauge looked waay better in my head. I've updated it. I've been talking to the Hyperduck guys about sound effects and music - I dunno if that's gonna go anywhere, but it's a start, at least.
Konrad: Fixed, and It was a total pain in the ass to get those two little bastards to go away when not being used...but I can see where you're coming from. I'll take that out. And the guns should be disabled when overheated. Check.
Ninja Crow: Thanks! Try jumping around like a retarded weasel. That seems to help. I'll be fixing the myriad of collision issues this weekend, and that includes putting in a Success! screen. Stats and the like.
As for the jumping, I've not really tweaked it much. I was content just to get it triggering properly at this point! But there will definitely be some major tweaking there.
sculptedpixel:Thanks, and that should be fixed in the latest.



http://www.hedfiles.net/AEUpdate10.exe - 20MB!
Updated in this version:
Added New Heat Gauge - matches the rest of the UI...
Lots of minor under-the-hood tweaks.

Currently working on: The player model and movement in general.
Next up on the list:
Complete the visible In-game HUD with the score and life counters
Intro, Main menu.

I'm going to really try and get the player re-animated this weekend, I want to go into Monday with that friggen GunApe working properly.

Thoughts?

[Ninja Crow]

The new heat HUD is awesome, and really goes with the style, and really gives a feel for how much is left before meltdown!  I also am looking forward to seeing if an always-on HUD is better (the fade in/out was a little distracting).

Let me just say immediately here that this time playing through the level, it wasn't just a salivary visual tour, I was having a blast!  And, since the addition of bumblebot, it's the first time I've made it to the end of the level, so I'm building up playskill for the game, and that's always a rush - I'm grateful!  (Danc from http://lostgarden.com/ commented on the fun of learning game skills in a post on 'Soul Bubbles')

I love how the clusters of bumblebots ambush you.  BTW, do you have a name for your rolly-polly-bug-bot yet?  May I suggest pillbot?

I love the ground level change midway, and I love that plank you walk over at the end - it may not require any special balance, but it activated the same thrill areas of my brain anyway.  Sweet.  In fact, I was hoping to mention that I want to jump up onto things, but wasn't sure if it would be appropriate - now I just can't help but hope for small buildings and scaffolding platforms (&c) to be in my way!

[Jad]

I don't like how the hud conforms to the style of the game so much. Or rather the style of the backgrounds.

It makes it seem like it's all a puppet show, and that both the concrete and abstract parts of the game are of equal substantial value in the gameverse. Thus puppet show.

I want my abstraction abstract and my concret..tion concrete.

See what I'm getting at? Not that I demand you adopt to my views or anything.

[Larwick]

If you are to keep the current HUD, I would suggest making it blue rather than orange (the outer embellishment colours) - not only so that it separates from the background, but so that it's more easily relative to the main character.

EDIT: Although saying that now after reading Jad's comment, maybe that would be worse - by making it seem like some kind of thing that actually hovers over the protagonists head in the actual world. Hmm.

[Howard Day]

Ninja Crow: Glad you like it...And for those of you curious, there will be 4 difficulty levels - the game is currently stuck on level 3 - "Really Damn Hard". There's one more, and the count of enemies is truly redonkulous. As for the rollypolly - I just call him rolly-polly. I suppose I could switch, but I don't know how important that might be... And I do plan on adding more terrain variation - building height changes, that sort of thing. Make it more dynamic and interesting.
Jad: Hmm. That's a pretty fair criticism, and definitely one I had thought of myself...though I'm not certain why I didn't do anything about it. My initial thought is to make them some sort of holographic representation, though, like Larwick said, that might make it worse... I'm not certain what I'll do at this point. I sort of like how they look, specially now that they're blue like Larwick suggested. Regardless, it's a good point.
Larwick: And I did so, and it looks much better now. Still has the issue that Jad mentioned, though. I might just have to make a version that's obviously UI in nature. I have some thoughts down that path, actually...Hmm.

[Jad]

Holographic is ok; I think what I want is for the GUI to just feel different from the play field, material-wise or whatever.

Difference in essence, just that - contrast. It shouldn't be lit in the same way as the world, shouldn't share the exact colours

shouldn't share the reality, so to say. Thus holographic is cool. You can interpret it as part of the gaming world if you want - but at least that takes some interpretation, you don't initially suppose it's part of the game world.

What you've got going on now will require the brain to separate the GUI from the background by analyzing behavior and symbolic value of different game elements; not bad per se, but you've got the power to provide more clarity and contrast, so please do think about it