Nova the Squirrel

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na_th_an
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by na_th_an »

I'm really looking forward to this game.
Erockbrox
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by Erockbrox »

I played the latest version of the game and did a video for feedback purposes.

Nova Squirrel Video

Some suggestions and notes:

- I had a hard time understanding how powerups worked. Some instructions on how to gain the enemies power and how to use it would be nice.

- Sometimes when I read those signs, the screen it took me to had messed up graphics on them. FYI, I'm playing on real hardware with N-8 Everdrive.

- I really liked those arrow puzzle mechanics.

- I don't think I ever learned how to use that Pizza thing in the menu.

- I swear that there were some platforms where I could manually drop down from them and then others which looked identical which I couldn't.

- The check point could be a little more fancier. Yes, that single star is okay, but I often confuse it with an enemy or something else. If it had a big letter C or S or something else then it might be more obvious what it is.

When you do beta testing let me know.
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NovaSquirrel
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by NovaSquirrel »

Yeah, you're on a very very old ROM (242 days ago!) and the most recent version starts the level select on the first world and first level to make absolutely sure people start on the tutorial level, though I should probably replace it with something like Kirby Super Star has because in my experience people just run past the signs on the tutorial map and then don't know how to do things.

The ROM you played started you on the latest world unlocked, which in this case was world 3, wayyyyy later than I intended the player to start.

Pizza is a health recovery item and if you have full health it will do nothing instead of wasting it.

Because it's such an old ROM (with lots of fixes made in the dialog code since then) and I've never seen graphical problems in dialogues on my PowerPak I don't know whether to investigate that or not.

I still have a long way to go but at least this ROM isn't ancient:
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Erockbrox
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by Erockbrox »

Okay, so I downloaded the latest rom demo that you posted and did another playthrough.

Video of updated Nova

Some notes:

- I can confirm that on the read me signs cut scenes that the graphics are still glitched

- I like how weapons sometimes have different abilities such as pressing up and down to get different effects

- It's actually a very interesting game. Lots of puzzle elements and interesting mechanics such as turning into a block as if it were a literal level editor.

- When I get colored keys, does it ever show on screen what keys I have?

- The sound that the character makes when she hits her head on the ceiling sounds like she is getting hurt and sometimes I think I'm getting hurt when really its just me hitting my head on something. Maybe use a different sound effect for that.

- In the menu sometimes its hard to scroll down the whole inventory list to get something. Maybe if you made it scroll if you hold down on the D-pad or something so that you can scroll quicker down the list.

- I ran across one thing that I think makes no sense. When you are first shown the pushable block mechanic, you then push a block off a ledge and then it falls and lands on something and then you use that as a platform to progress. But when the character falls down in the same spot, she just dies. So what did the pushable block land on is the million dollar question??? (see pic)

Image
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NovaSquirrel
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by NovaSquirrel »

Thank you for playing the updated ROM. I'll watch the video soon (almost two hours and only the first two worlds? I have a feeling that the people that are planning on streaming the entire game when it's completed are ready to sit down for a long time, haha).

I guess I'll play through the game on PowerPak and see what I can reproduce, as far as glitched dialog graphics go. Proooobably not a good idea to do most of my testing in FCEUX.

Keys actually go into your inventory, so you'll see entries for "red key", "green key" etc. I don't think I can really display them on the status since the sprite colors are different from the background colors. (Unless I had like, an "R", "G", "B" in place of actual colored keys? Or use the digits that are already in sprite CHR? "1", "2", "3"? In any case it's on the inventory screen.)

I will add auto-repeat on the inventory screen. One thing you can do is use Select to swap the positions of two things, Pokemon-style. Once upon a time I thought about having some key combination automatically use the item at the top of the inventory, but usually there's multiple items you want anyway.

The bump sound is the same one as in my earlier Sliding Blaster game I think? But I can mess with that. It honestly should not play as often as it does.

I have it where pushable blocks are stopped by anything that isn't air (whether or not it's solid), OR the bottom of the level. I can put a background tile down there for the block to be pushed onto, no problem.

Image
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NovaSquirrel
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by NovaSquirrel »

I got around to watching the second video (still haven't watched the first) and made lots of little subtle level changes as I went along. Some thoughts:

The block placing mechanic was inspired by Donkey Kong for Game Boy, and I was surprised to see that Gruniożerca 2 has it too, as its main mechanic. I feel like maybe the puzzle of figuring out where to place them might be too hard? But at the same time I want it to be an actual puzzle. I should probably have puzzle solutions available online for the final game.

I don't really make enough of a distinction between the "barrier" arrows and the arrows that just indicate that the top/bottom edge of the screen is linked. I don't really have spare CHR though, and I already feel like I have way too many mechanics to explain. I think this game will reaaaaally benefit from a manual that just has like, a list of everything in picture-form. It could also have a list of all of the copyable enemies and the abilities you get from them.

I noticed none of my cutscenes got played because I wasn't clear enough about how you can move up with the cursor and choose to watch them, maybe I should have the cursor start up there and have you move down, or I should move it down so it looks like a menu option. Probably a good thing though because my plot is super convoluted and silly, but at the same time I wanted to have it.

I think I need to actually replace the per-level inventory thing with something that's actually labeled as a per-level stock that's shown alongside your inventory? And things like keys could go into there, and that would completely avoid the problem where you can't pick up keys because you have too much stuff.

Dialog graphics are not glitched on the PowerPak at all, so I think maybe the Everdrive messes up OAM somehow? It would help if someone else who has an Everdrive could try and verify that?

I think I miiiiiight have put a little too much of a requirement on being familiar with Chip's Challenge, with 2-5 requiring you to know to collect all the chips and with some of 2-6's gameplay. I do put a sign at the start of 2-5 but a lot of signs get skipped, so that'd be better in the pre-level text. On that note, maybe I need to replace the tutorial map entirely with a more direct tutorial like Kirby Super Star has. I think it'd also be cool if I could make text appear on the screen during gameplay with button hints though that'd be tricky. Unless I just make it so that text appears above you when you're standing in a certain area?

I'm surprised you barely ever use springs on 2-5. When I play through it I just use them a whole bunch because it's the easiest way to launch myself up.

The video cuts out at almost the very start of 2-7 so if there was more after that I didn't see it.
Erockbrox
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by Erockbrox »

I got around to watching the second video
Great. I'm trying to play peoples demos and such here to give feedback directly to the developers. I believe that it provides invaluable feedback to the creator of the game.
I don't really make enough of a distinction between the "barrier" arrows and the arrows that just indicate that the top/bottom edge of the screen is linked.
Wow, I thought that all of these arrow blocks were barrier blocks or one way blocks the whole time.
I noticed none of my cutscenes got played
You mean there are cut scenes? I had no idea that this even existed. Now I want to go try one out.
Dialog graphics are not glitched on the PowerPak at all, so I think maybe the Everdrive messes up OAM somehow? It would help if someone else who has an Everdrive could try and verify that?
You could also burn the roms on a cart and see what the result is when played on real hardware.
The video cuts out at almost the very start of 2-7 so if there was more after that I didn't see it.
That was the end of the video. If the game automatically saves I might start again where I left off. Just looking at all of the worlds that you have available in your game... it looks like it could be a really long game. This one was really interesting to play.
tepples
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by tepples »

NovaSquirrel wrote:I don't really make enough of a distinction between the "barrier" arrows and the arrows that just indicate that the top/bottom edge of the screen is linked. I don't really have spare CHR though, and I already feel like I have way too many mechanics to explain. I think this game will reaaaaally benefit from a manual that just has like, a list of everything in picture-form. It could also have a list of all of the copyable enemies and the abilities you get from them.
Would it be worthwhile to fill the extra banks with a program to display such a digital manual?
NovaSquirrel wrote:I think it'd also be cool if I could make text appear on the screen during gameplay with button hints though that'd be tricky. Unless I just make it so that text appears above you when you're standing in a certain area?
Something like the speaker blocks from Super Mario World perhaps?
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NovaSquirrel
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by NovaSquirrel »

Erockbrox wrote:You mean there are cut scenes? I had no idea that this even existed. Now I want to go try one out.
Yeah but aside from the one on the first level with most of the story it's not great. I still need to replace a lot of cutscenes with fancy illustrated ones. Or maybe even animated ones?
Image
Erockbrox wrote:If the game automatically saves I might start again where I left off. Just looking at all of the worlds that you have available in your game... it looks like it could be a really long game.
Better than that, the ROM starts out with almost all of the levels unlocked from the start and you can press up/down to switch between worlds in the level select. It IS super long (33 levels and 7 bosses planned, though that's in comparison to SMB3's 90 levels), though if you know what you're doing I imagine you could run through it in like 45 minutes. I noticed a lot of the video length was getting stuck (with things I've now tweaked a little to try and fix that in the future), and a big chunk was being AFK.
tepples wrote:Would it be worthwhile to fill the extra banks with a program to display such a digital manual?
I could probably do that. I know a lot of arcade style games have a screen that displays all the elements and what they do, too. I could have some sort of glossary accessible through the pause menu.
tepples wrote:Something like the speaker blocks from Super Mario World perhaps?
That would be functionally equivalent to the signs, which get skipped.
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NovaSquirrel
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by NovaSquirrel »

I guess I'll post updates here too instead of just Twitter.

Image
Prelevel screen reworked to have the cutscene/"intro" option included inside the box, which is automatically initially selected if the level has a cutscene and the level has not already been completed.

Image
Now instead of stars slowly dropping down into cannons to show that the cannon is about to fire, I use a much clearer numerical countdown. I dunno if I like it as much so it's just an .if switch to choose either one.

Image
I have sort of a level ending transition now? I kinda want to rework it using a raster effect and maybe the grayscale bit but that probably wouldn't look very good on some screens.
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tokumaru
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by tokumaru »

NovaSquirrel wrote:Image
I have sort of a level ending transition now? I kinda want to rework it using a raster effect and maybe the grayscale bit but that probably wouldn't look very good on some screens.
Reminds me of Kid Chameleon on the Genesis. Is this by any chance inspired by that?
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NovaSquirrel
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by NovaSquirrel »

tokumaru wrote:Reminds me of Kid Chameleon on the Genesis. Is this by any chance inspired by that?
I've never played it. That actually came about because I thought it'd be cool to do a sliding fade-to-white, since the prelevel screen is white, but I didn't bother to change attribute bytes when testing to see how it'd look and I thought it looked neat.
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tokumaru
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by tokumaru »

In Kid Chameleon, levels are part of a virtual world, and when you reach the end, the "textures" of the level are removed, revealing the virtual world underneath.
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NovaSquirrel
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by NovaSquirrel »

Finally, an answer to the question everyone's been asking, "Where the hell did my inventory go on level 2-5?"

Image
Now if a level gives you a preset list of items to use, it goes on a second page and you can still use items from the first one. Items like keys and suction boots go into the second page too, so it doesn't matter if your first inventory is completely full, you can still complete levels that require you to pick up items just fine!
Myask wrote:Did you forget to implement the actual counter for chips remaining? There's a chip by the HUD but no number. (or is that "regular inventory is disallowed"? guess it's the latter.)
Image
Tadaa! I guess now that I'm removing the concept of "regular inventory is disallowed" I might as well use that chip icon for its expected purpose.
zzo38
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Re: Nova the Squirrel (WIP)

Post by zzo38 »

Please supply the ability to skip cutscenes. I find cutscenes annoying and you can just put everything in the book anyways.
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