Axe Cop

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Bob the Hamster
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

That is great! :)
TMC
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Post by TMC »

(Whoops, my first reply attempt got lost)

Cool, and another nice minigame. You really have this game packed full of entertaining things.
So, how are you going to promote teamwork while using the hero's special abilities? What do you mean by that? I think that it's hard to prevent special abilities from feeling like a gimmick if you have to use them to access something, and you clearly know when you need them so just swap to the right hero when that is. On the other hand being forced to make a decision ahead of time as to which ability you can use isn't teamwork. Ah, but you said that you have to pick which 4 heroes to go on a mission, because you can't change mid-mission easily. So is that selection of four abilities what you mean by teamwork?
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Post by RMZ »

TMC wrote:(Whoops, my first reply attempt got lost)

Cool, and another nice minigame. You really have this game packed full of entertaining things.
So, how are you going to promote teamwork while using the hero's special abilities? What do you mean by that? I think that it's hard to prevent special abilities from feeling like a gimmick if you have to use them to access something, and you clearly know when you need them so just swap to the right hero when that is. On the other hand being forced to make a decision ahead of time as to which ability you can use isn't teamwork. Ah, but you said that you have to pick which 4 heroes to go on a mission, because you can't change mid-mission easily. So is that selection of four abilities what you mean by teamwork?
There have been strong arguments presented to me on both ends for this and it might need to be one of those things I try out and see what feels the best for the game. Personally, I like in the Lego games before you get to Free Play mode when you only have certain story characters so revisiting the old area later in free play opens up exploration, but at the same time, that can be obnoxious. I think ultimately I'll need to include this feature in a future demo and see how the feedback comes back. But based on the way the game is currently laid out... You won't have more than 4 characters in your roster (even though lots will be introduced) until halfway through Mission 4 (currently Mission 2 is in development) and then the entire game won't be affected by party swapping until Mission 6 for the rest of the game. So for 5 total missions this really isn't a big deal. Like I said, I'll need to see how it feels and make a choice based on how it compliments the game the best.

<img src="https://www.redtrianglegames.com/img/de ... op_bwm.gif">
In other news, this week, thanks to James Paige and Worthy, I finished the ability for a Mission 5 character (demo testers will see in Demo 3 why I had to make him now). You'd never think it, but the part I struggled at and needed their help the most was the return of the chain! It's essentially the hookshot from Zelda. I figure since Bat Warthog Man is based around Batman, his out of battle ability should be something Batman-esque, and the use of a grapple gun seems good. The thing I am particularly excited about with this is that the ability for Sockarang is a remote controlled boomerang. You use it to fetch items or hit switches but that's it. With BWM you can do that in a straight path and also advance through certain paths. They're both useful in the same but different ways and I think that's what makes them fun.
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Post by RMZ »

<img src="https://www.redtrianglegames.com/img/de ... tamins.gif">

So in the Snow Planet, there's a lot going on, and this is the first time I've played the game where I feel like I need to start leveling up other stats besides the dominant ones I have been for characters. So I've designed these vitamins that you can take to permanently boost your stats. In Pokemon, I think the most recent game is the same, you take an item similar to this and it doesn't show you what the potential growth is or how it affects your character which is why I made a growth pattern like you see here. Pretty pleased with this overall. My only gripe is I had to run a text box from an item and not run a script, but it's not a big deal really. Still looks good.
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Post by TMC »

But the stat growth is deterministic? Unlike Pokemon?
Showing a full preview is definitely nice; yet another thing that would be neat to have builtin...

You can set a "run script instead" conditional on the textbox linked to the item, so it's not necessary to show a textbox. Yes, it's awkward.
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RMZ
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Post by RMZ »

TMC wrote:But the stat growth is deterministic? Unlike Pokemon?
Showing a full preview is definitely nice; yet another thing that would be neat to have builtin...

You can set a "run script instead" conditional on the textbox linked to the item, so it's not necessary to show a textbox. Yes, it's awkward.
As you may remember from the demo, each character has different growth patterns for level up. Like Axe Cop can get a higher stat increase than Flute Cop. The vitamins are a way to break away from that for a small instance and allow common growth. I think it will be another fun way for players to customize the growth of their characters. I have it programmed in for the level to find vitamins that boost HP and MP to help with people who maybe focused on offensive stats and still need the support of those stats. I know it's tough to deviate from Axe Cop's +5 power every other level up and it makes it hard for him to get an opportunity to get MP so this might help it out a little bit.
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Post by TMC »

Ah, yes, that definitely sounds like a good idea. In fact, I think I'll make use of that myself. In so many games where you can decide the stat growth of your characters it ends up being more a way to screw up by deviating from the optimal path than a way to actually customise your characters.
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Post by RMZ »

<img src="https://www.redtrianglegames.com/img/de ... tajail.png">

Been a busy couple of weeks. Over the last couple of weeks I'm incredibly near the end of my portion for the 3rd demo. Because of the nature of how each demo ends, it will set it up for the next mission. I'm discussing with Soda to maybe cut the ending of the demo in half (as it introduces the new mission and characters associated with them) and that would shave a month off from battle sprites and art.

I wanted to end 2017 with the demo done, or at least super close to being done and it seems to be the latter which is good with me.
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Post by RMZ »

Been a while since I've posted. We've been struggling to get the battle art done so we hired Pheonix to come in and help knock out a large chunk of the attack graphics. We've got a big trailer coming out on Saturday for the 8th anniversary of when the Axe Cop comic went viral which the co-creator has named the Axe-iversary. I'll definitely share that here then.

<img src="https://www.redtrianglegames.com/img/de ... arboss.png">
This is the bear mid-boss of the Snow Planet we recently finished the art for. I think Soda totally killed it with the art.

<img src="https://www.redtrianglegames.com/img/de ... acheal.gif"> <img src="https://www.redtrianglegames.com/img/de ... orwind.gif">
Here's some of the awesome attacks Pheonix has been churning out for us. I think his style was perfect to try and match Soda's for the supplemental assistance we needed to keep the project on schedule.
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Post by sheamkennedy »

That's a good looking bear!
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RMZ
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Post by RMZ »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z_Y0feyUhU

For anybody interested, that's the link to Soda Piggy and mine's trailer for the Axe-iversary. No pressure or anything, but we got two years from today to have the game done.
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

This is definitely one of the better OHR trailers I've seen. Good job. The game is shaping up nicely (no Mr. Triangle puns intended).
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Post by RMZ »

<img src="https://www.redtrianglegames.com/img/de ... eserve.gif">

Did something I thought I would dread doing but turned out to not be so bad. Made a custom party reserve system for swapping out heroes not in the active party. I still have a little more to do, but it's something I may or may not do soon. Pretty pleased with how this came together and how it works overall.

I am not planning on allowing the player to swap out characters to make a party less than 4.

EDIT: Finished the scrolling for large reserves. Overall this little feature rules I think.

<img src="https://www.redtrianglegames.com/img/de ... serve2.gif">
Last edited by RMZ on Thu Feb 01, 2018 9:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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guo
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Post by guo »

Really impressive stuff. Can Axe Cop himself be swapped out, or is he mandatory?
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Post by RMZ »

<img src="https://www.redtrianglegames.com/img/de ... serve3.png">

Axe Cop works the "Always Shift" so he will always have to be a part of the party in some way. It's his game after all. This text box was Soda's idea to kinda hit the joke home continuously.
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