Hype Up Your Game Thread

Make games! Discuss those games here.

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Nathan Karr
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Post by Nathan Karr »

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Eonhetwo
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Post by Eonhetwo »

Hey there!

So, having entered my game, Gay Savage And The Enigma Rip, into the hotohr contest, I've gotten a good chance to get plenty of feedback. Thanks to you fine people, since entry I've fixed many bugs and have been adding new content almost daily!

Here's the thing; The people have spoken.

"I think just looking at the game will tell you what's wrong with it more than I ever could"
-baconlabs

"It looks like a dumpster fire."
-rmz

"I can't even tell what anything is. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone."
-spoonweaver, probably.

The game looks like crap... UNTIL NOW!

That's correct, I am as of now systematically redrawing EVERY single sprite, map tile, attack and background, so that I can deliver a game that people will actually be excited to play, or at least not be instantly averse.

This game started as a joke for my friends and family and a means to learn the inns and outs of the ohr engine, in preparation for my true attempt at making a game. Now, this IS my main project.

It is taking me soooo long to do this.. but check this neato comparison!

Thanks to everyone who has played and commented on this game so far, you are all amazing!
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Post by kylekrack »

Oh... wow. The difference is stunning. In reality, you were using only 20% of your power, so that we'd all be blown away when you revealed your true potential. Very anime move.
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RMZ
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Post by RMZ »

I miss it being a dumpster fire though.
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Post by Eonhetwo »

RedMaverickZero wrote:I miss it being a dumpster fire though.
Ha! One of my fam said the same thing. Not to worry though! I'll keep the O.G. demo in it's place. I very much appreciate your feedback, though I had to watch the video in full after the stream 'cause I kept lagging.

Unrelated question; How'd you cheat the encounters like that?! Is it because of debug mode being enabled?
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

I'm with RMZ on this. While I think it's definitely worth having a version that doesn't make our eyes bleed, the eye-bleed version's eye-bleedingness is much of what makes the game so delightfully absurd. Maybe have two versions, one nice for casual gamers and one necessarily horrifying for purists? I think you could post both versions on the same game page.
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Bird
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Post by Bird »

The child drawn paint graphics underlinded the unpolished life, that Miss Savage lives. So the poor graphics improved the atmosphere of the game actually! You would have gotten three points less from me in the current HotOHR contest, if the new graphics were in place (I estimate).
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Post by Baconlabs »

Baconlabs wrote:"I think just looking at the game will tell you what's wrong with it more than I ever could"
Was that from my livestream, I don't remember saying that, haha

I wasn't expecting a redoubled effort to be given to this game, of all games, but I respect it. I'll try to refine my thoughts in review form shortly after I cast my vote (no idea when that'll be), but something that's important to me when I play games - solo efforts especially - is a sense of purpose, a special spark of creativity. I want to get into the same groove as the author and get an idea of what experience they wanted me to have, or what story they wanted me to hear. I never want to play a slapdash jumble of assets that feels like it exists for no reason. If it means nothing to the author, then it means less than nothing to me and is a huge waste of time. And I definitely felt that sense of purpose with Gay Savage - in fact, I'm probably reading into it way too much! The maps completely disregard consistency and perspective, and that honestly resonates really well with the characters and how they talk/behave. I feel like this game is an extension of the author and their worldview, and I was given an opportunity to experience a part of it.

So, there's nothing wrong with giving your game a fresh coat of paint, but it would be a shame if some of the game's artistic identity got lost in the process. I think it's too early to tell whether that's the case with the new graphics you just posted, so just consider it as food for thought and nothing more. (As an example of what I'm talking about, wouldn't it look weird, almost wrong, if a South Park game had realistic light and shadows?)
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Post by Eonhetwo »

Dang you guys!! Y'all are making me seriously reconsider going through with this re-graphic..izing.

@baconlabs I think I might have paraphrased you a bit there, and spoonweaver too, for comedic effect. Me and my fam though love love loved watching both your and rmz's video, it brought them great laughter lol.

I think the limit to what the crappy graphics add to the experience has been reached. I mean I get it, you boot the game, and it elicits a reaction that astounds the player in a sense, who just when they think they've made sense of the thing, you're picking up a turd and throwing it at an ant hill, or a middle aged janitor.

It definitely IS an extension of my personality, in the sense that I am incredibly lazy by all metrics. But it also sort of puts me in a box having the graphics that low quality. Y'all gotta understand, the OG look is what happens when I literally put no effort into scribbling something in MSPaint. For the rooms I just take a 320*200 paint canvas, draw like four lines for walls/ceiling and color it at random. This is why it's impossible to get good wallmapping with the rooms.

Anyways, I really appreciate y'alls input here, which is mostly in line with all the other input I'm getting.. but I'm going to proceed with the new graphics, and at least keep the old demo available, if not MAYBE keep it going as well like @pepsi ranger suggested.

I strongly believe that the new world will still be cartoony enough to allow for the crude and goofy events within it, while also hopefully providing a stark enough juxtaposition with those elements, that the shock of experiencing them for the first time will be even greater! (E.g. happy tree friends or something)

And then when the story begins to diverge into it's more serious tone, which will happen eventually, then the graphics hopefully won't get in the way of being taken seriously when it needs to be.
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Still keeping the crude look of the NPCs
Still keeping the crude look of the NPCs
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RMZ
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Post by RMZ »

Hey man, as long as you're having fun that's what matters.
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

I have an idea for you. This could even work within the context of your story.

The game begins ugly in the way we all know and understand it.

Then Gay Savage begins to see things more clearly as the plot progresses.

Suddenly we get the new graphics. Maybe they keep getting better and more serious as the plot thickens (within your artistic ability, of course).

They'd have some kind of narrative hook so that the player doesn't think your game is inconsistent.

How about that?
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Post by kylekrack »

Idontknow pointed out that since this game plays more like an adventure game, the pre-rendered background look really played into that. It made it feel like playing monkey island or something. Maps drawn as one full image can still look good, and it'd keep that uniqueness in every scene. Then again, what RMZ said.
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Post by Eonhetwo »

Pepsi Ranger wrote:
How about that?
Insanely enough, I did have something like that in mind for when the character eventually takes LSD. This is tied to the as of yet useless "Insight" stat that I have lying around, that can be increased through various means. If you've played Bloodborne, my intent was similar to that, where you see more weird stuff the more insight you have.

This would actually solve all my problems, and it would mean I wouldn't have to make the entire game in eye-bleed mode, cause eventually the story goes off in a way that precludes the crude ignorance associated with the crap graphix.

The issue is though.. I can easily see the whole thing going the OTHER way around as well.. The cleaner look corresponds to a more rigid, catagorized perspective with clear cut boundaries. The crudeness associated with the content of the early game juxtoposed with this perception could relate a sense of cognitive dissonance, which is more akin to what is experienced in a life with no insight. Insight could open it up into the more ambiguous, nebulous, gritty perception where borders are more difficult to distinguish, and things have to be studied in their proper contexts to even determine what they might be.

These are definitely the sort of topics I want to delve into with this game, so thanks for offering that suggestion!
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Post by Nathan Karr »

Oh no, too many games on my "I'm working on it shelf!" At least this is me dusting off a game from a few years ago which was on hold instead of making a new one.

Actively working on:
- Nathan Warrior
- No Text RPG

Doing graphical work for:
- Studded brick toy RPG
- Karrible 2*
* Working title, won't be actual sequel. Spiritual successor

Basically, as funny as it was to try to get the engine not to eat itself with a smaller screen than 320x200, the engine just really, really works the best at its original resolution. So I'm going to need to redo my backdrops for this particular game, but its menus/shops aren't going to be a complete visual mess anymore.

I tried cycling through a few different versions of different accuracy settings (percentile, classic with the 23 AIM/22 DOG setup borrowed from Puckamon) but then in the end decided to completely revamp and address one of the complaints I saw often out of people unfamiliar with the engine Let's Playing Megaman Sprite Game: That the animations/sounds for attacks always show the attack connect and make the impact sound even if they miss.

So I'm doing attack-by-attack hardcoded accuracy; every single attack Never Misses, internally, but ones named "Miss" here do no damage and play sounds like Soft Airy Swish.ogg, and chain something like 80-99% of the time to the next step in the chain, a pretty bog-standard attack with a 1-25% chance to chain to the critical hit version, which will have a fancier/larger animation and more impactful sound effect (like Thunder Magic or Small Explosion instead of Crush or Slash). Attacks made for Bad Guys to use on Good Guys never get critical hits.
On most weapons: 95% chance to hit instead of miss, 5% chance of said hit to become critical instead
When swinging an axe: 90% chance to hit, 1% chance of critical hit for far more damage than most weapons
Kusarigama: 80% chance to hit, 25% chance for said hit to be critical
Most Bad Guy attacks: 90% chance to hit, 0 critical hit, maybe an "after-chain" for inflicting Poison or Stun.

To work around the absolute headache of how the Defend command worked in AAA and some of my unreleased games, I'm just re-purposing the Mute status for that. I'm also not giving it to Bad Guys even if they're clearly drawn with a shield, especially not random encounters. If an attack can be blocked or dodged by being aware of it and acting accordingly, it will Fail if Target is Muted. Some attacks will simply bypass it; most spells, strong or otherwise.

And on the whole, I'm going to adhere strongly to the philosophy of "keep it simple" - no spell-learning items, no throwing weapons as consumables/spells, and so forth. I work at my best in a limited design space.
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An example of favoring the player: Some enemies will have flavor-driven taunts like this to waste their turn.
An example of favoring the player: Some enemies will have flavor-driven taunts like this to waste their turn.
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Needs a little more work still, particularly in box layout now that I've expanded the screen size.
Needs a little more work still, particularly in box layout now that I've expanded the screen size.
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Post by Feenicks »

A few .gifs.
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One-way slopes!
One-way slopes!
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Ice tiles!
Ice tiles!
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Another train!
Another train!
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Overlays for walking through swamps and forests!
Overlays for walking through swamps and forests!
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