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I hate those kind of jump games.
the game is awesome, I am having a lot of fun :-)
They're a lot tighter than in most straight-forward platformers, in order to allow plenty of fast-fingered manoeuverability in the kind of unexpected situations that spring from randomised levels.
I don't find the game very manoeuverable right now, take for instance when you jump and then umbrella-jump and touch a block on your right.. no matter how higher the umbrella-jump goes, you can't anymore lean right.. your flight is gonna be vertical. That's the sort of stuff I'm talking about.
The game is a little bit too hard at the moment.. unless it's your intention to keep it Nintendo-hard.
Traits cost too much.. every baloon only gives 1 star, I never managed to collect 100 of them in order to get a trait.
And fixing/replacing the balloon is very expensive.. can't think that everytime I get hit I have to pay 200 coins to repair it. And no balloon pretty much means game over.
This is a very fun game! Right up my alley. Challenging, unfair, and keeps you coming back for more.
I do have the requisite observations and stray suggestions, if of interest:
2) I would like to be able to collect coins midair, especially because they often sink into lava otherwise.
3) Searching for hidden doors might be more fun if instead of hitting ESC, selecting an option, and hitting enter, you could just hit a single key while playing. Searching for hidden doors is currently an instantaneous action from the gameplay perspective. What if, instead, searching "froze" your character for a few seconds? I see problems with mid-air searches, but regardless, I don't see a reason to penalize the player with extra keystrokes that interrupt the frenetic action of the game.
4) I like the lore and want more. It would be nice to know what items do before you use them... but there is also something to be said for experimentation.
5) I've gotten as far as the Dark Future Zone and it seems like most monsters have an essentially random movement pattern. I'd like to see more behavioral variety. As it is, combat is like playing Street Fighter II versus a 5 year old child - they have no idea what they're doing, but occasionally they get a hit in because they are so unpredictable.
6) The child of a plumber and a hedgehog? Genius!
Just tried the game for the first time. I've been playing for an hour or two now, and having a lot of fun.
-The tutorial was nice, although I didn't feel ready to handle enemies when I first encountered them in the real game.
-The most difficult part of the controls so far has been throwing bombs from the balloon.
-In the trait screen, left arrow could collapse the current branch in addition to right arrow expanding it.
-The trait branches could be colored to indicate whether you can afford anything in that branch.
-Some quick-start options would be very helpful: A way to skip the pre-level chats, and maybe a "Try again with the same item" choice.
-If the engine allows, a way to change keybindings in-game would be great.
That's all for now. I'm going right back to the game - I really am having fun with this. Thanks!
-I found what seemed to be an area I couldn't escape. I jumped down without a balloon, tried max-height jumps, tried searching in several spots, and didn't find a way out.
I don't know exactly how searching works - I didn't think it was directional. I assumed it covered the entire visible screen.)
Am I supposed to figure out what the items do myself?
I still like the music.
-The score tally should be skippable, too.
-There's a typo in one of the death messages: despatched -> dispatched.
-More minor stuff: You could have a "submit personal bests only" option.
-I found what seemed to be an area I couldn't escape. I jumped down without a balloon, tried max-height jumps, tried searching in several spots, and didn't find a way out.
For several reasons, it's always possible (though not especially common in earlier levels) to find places which are escapable only with some manner of flight (or other transportation...), so it's a good idea always to keep your balloon nearby if you don't have another item/skill allowing you to fly/levitate/teleport etc. - and there are also some places you can encounter which are deliberate traps, and several ways to maroon yourself through bad forward-planning. ;)
This is a good time to use the "Abort Mission" option in the in-game menu, which lets you fail the current mission with your life intact, and without needing to restart the whole adventure (just so long as your good reputation with the Brotherhood permits it...)
-The score tally should be skippable, too.
You can hold down the return key (or your jump/attack keys) to speed through the countup more quickly. :)
-There's a typo in one of the death messages: despatched -> dispatched.
Actually, both spellings are correct, to the best of my knowledge. :)
(I tend to prefer the former when using it - as in this case - in the terminal sense, for some reason...)
Ryan
I gave it a try. It could be faster. (like, instant)
Also, I found what seems to be a bug: If you've used all of your various jumps, double jumps, and umbrella jumps, you can't grab hold of a ladder as you're falling. (Might only happen once you're fully in the 'falling' animation.) This has killed me a few times now.
It would be really nice to be able to Look Around quickly, too - just let me wrap around that menu to the bottom so I don't have to scroll past the items. It gets worse as you get more items.
Thanks for reading. (I've almost reached the 2nd boss now.)
-Is it by design that you lose all your jumps when hit by an enemy?
The one thing (besides the gold tally) that I'm missing is the ability to wrap to Look Around.
-I think the "no secret passages" message box suffers from a combination of being too big and lasting too long. Sometimes a monster flies in suddenly and you can't see where you are.
-Escape might work for the end-of-adventure count, but it doesn't work for the much slower end-of-level count.
-I like the new shop and earlier access. It'd be nice if your current gold updated onscreen after each purchase.
-I think I'm glad for the slight speed reduction. Those wraiths still move plenty fast for me.
-I wonder if any of the hidden items or abilities lets you re-deploy the umbrella to float after closing it. (like mario's cape)
Anyway, thanks! I'll probably play more sometime this week.
-Is it by design that you lose all your jumps when hit by an enemy?
Yep - once you've been hit, you need to land before making any further actions, which does sometimes lead to nasty situations (such as being knocked off the edge of something and then falling far enough to take fall damage as well!)
The one thing (besides the gold tally) that I'm missing is the ability to wrap to Look Around.
Ah, yes - I ended up deciding to leave it as it is after playing with it. The reason is that I quite like the fact that it feels like a natural disadvantage of carrying lots of equipment that it's slightly more awkward to change weapons quickly in the heat of combat. I imagine Rickard rapidly trying to rifle through a backpack looking for a timebomb as he dodges incoming fire. :)
And this is also the reason for...-I think the "no secret passages" message box suffers from a combination of being too big and lasting too long. Sometimes a monster flies in suddenly and you can't see where you are.
...This. I think that "looking around" is something that would sensibly only be done when not surrounded by enemies, as carefully examining nearby walls would naturally take Rickard's attention away from possible threats. The box covers a large part of the middle of the screen, which is a little like Rickard being temporarily limited to peripheral vision while his attention is focused elsewhere. ;)
-Time bonus seems to vary a lot. Is it based on the estimated difficulty or level size? I completed a level in under 45 seconds and the bonus was only 30, while I often get 90-120 for taking 2-2.5 minutes.
-I don't think I mentioned this before, but the particles being drawn to the portal is just perfect. No explanation needed, no blinking arrow on the HUD.
-Finally, I encountered a strange bug, or pair of bugs. I found a chest generated directly above a pipe, so I couldn't use that entrance at all. I wanted to look for another entrance and see what would happen if I exited from that pipe. I found another pipe. (It had 3 skulls on it, if that matters.) I went down the pipe and the screen started scrolling, all the way to the bottom of the screen. When I reached the bottom of the level, I died.
-I unlocked the target tower and finally got to one of the world leaderboards. (5th place!) The music is great.
-Finally, I encountered a strange bug, or pair of bugs. I found a chest generated directly above a pipe, so I couldn't use that entrance at all. I wanted to look for another entrance and see what would happen if I exited from that pipe. I found another pipe. (It had 3 skulls on it, if that matters.) I went down the pipe and the screen started scrolling, all the way to the bottom of the screen. When I reached the bottom of the level, I died.
Ah, now this is definitely some kind of bug! :P
If you could provide me with the Story Code for the level in question, that would be helpful (the game stores logs of all your adventures in the "Adventure Logs" folder, which list the Story Codes for all of the levels you've played - good for replaying levels, but also quite handy for me in tracking down these kinds of undesirable features in the generation algorithms!)
BEKEKBKBKCKAKBKCIFDGLBHHHDEDHF is the code. (I didn't know that Win7 would actually save files that couldn't be written this way)
What I didn't understand is why Choose Act requires a story code if it's just starting you off on a more advanced stage. (But, if Choose Act is really more like Load Game, then it all makes sense.)
-You can abuse The Last Stand mode to get a top score: You can hover over fire, put something heavy on the umbrella key, and wait for the score you want.
-Found a silver whistle. Didn't do anything. If there was a wiki, this is when I'd be looking for spoilers. (I had some sort of ice shield aura too, but didn't try running into fire or anything.)
-Stan idol levels sometimes take a much longer time to generate than others. After noticing that it seemed to always be the idols, I had a level that took about 20 seconds to generate. I thought "this must be the idols." It was.
BEKEKBKBKCKAKBKCIFDGLBHHHDEDHF is the code. (I didn't know that Win7 would actually save files that couldn't be written this way)
Ah, that's great - thanks. I'll look into it. :)
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