Espitene

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FrankenGraphics
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Re: Espitene

Post by FrankenGraphics »

This was pretty fun! I haven't played much sonic at all so i can't comment on the likeness in gameplay. I like the cute music, it helps putting me in a good mood for playing this sort of game. For the graphics, i can see you wanted it to look like the source of inspiration and that it is a playful reference justified neatly by the story, but at the same time i'm left wanting just a little bit more of the atmospheric highlighting/shading and bold pencil strokes that is a hallmark of your previous games in the solid group. I hope that carries over as the compliment i intend it to be.

Some remarks:
Sometimes the spikes feel a bit too generous with their hit detecton but you can only do so much if hits always are at 16x16 (assumingly) and you might not want to open a sub-grid routine to check for a lower hit "roof".*

Something happened once when i died - after losing a life, the character fell through two screens down before the timer set me back to a new try. I wasn't paying attention when it happened but i think it might happen if you die close to the bottom of the screen, like if there's only one block of ground beneath you maybe.


*While doing further level design for project blue, after last compo, i've felt blessed that attributes are decided on a per tile-basis for that game. I decided to unflag the lethality of the "top" tiles of acid pools, spikes etc which felt more natural/less unfair. Now blue must actually fall into the toxic waste or get visually stabbed by spikes to lose a life. Plus you are forgiven for jumping somewhat diagonally over protruding spikes so you don't get killed by "air" pixels as much.
WhiteHat94
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Re: Espitene

Post by WhiteHat94 »

At the start of the first boss fight level you can easily go over the left wall, going to a glitched screen that takes you back a stage if you die or kill the ghost there.
Denine
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Re: Espitene

Post by Denine »

I was about to reply with more glitch reports, but my keyboard broke down, lol
I downloaded new version and found new stuff:
-At start, Boss 1 moves fast while on top of the screen....he moves slow after a single loop...seems inconsistent...but is intended?
-If you hold any button during cutscene, game will fade out into black and wont come back until you let go of the button you hold.
-Player still, sometimes have idle animation while jumping.
-Death animation, while nice to have, is glitched. Player will continue falling while in said animation until he reaches last screen on the bottom of the map. In other words, he will pass other screens on his way down.
Espinete the hedgehog (note: different syllable order) was the main character in the Spanish version of Sesame Street from 1983 to 1988. Last year, news broke that the original costume (built by Jim Henson's puppet maker Kermit Love) was found abandoned in a junkyard (which was rather sad, considering the quality of the work and how popular the character was among Spanish children who grew up in the 80s). This gave us the idea for the game: Cheril finds the puppet and the "soul" of the character commands her to wear it and fulfill a task.
Thats both sad(for how Espinete ended) and cool (as for backstory of the game). I like how characters look in cutscenes(Cherils cute!).
na_th_an
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Re: Espitene

Post by na_th_an »

@Frankengraphics: Everything you comment about my graphic work is always taken as a compliment for the only reason that you are an incredibly talented artist who always spends time in sharing your knowledge. I always learn from your posts. I know the style is quite different to what I usually do, but I had to cram six different world themes into just one pattern table, plus I wanted to somehow mimmick the style of the original. The space limitation also meant that I needed to create screens which compressed well so I could stuff 18 levels in the game, that's why everything is kept so simple.

The engine is also pretty simple (it is designed to be). Remember that this game doesn't use a dedicated engine, but is intended to showcase what AGNES can be put to perform. While it may seem odd, I've been struggling to implement decent spikes since I began making games... I think it's about time I open a discussion in the dev forums about how you guys implement spikes and spiky objects, and how you make interact actors with them, 'cause I never seem to get them 100% right.

It seems I introduced a bug in the dying sequence. I had to code it during a break at work and should've tested it more thoroughly. Sorry for that. I'll try and take care of all the bugs for next release, specially that one which makes Espitene jump "standing".

Thanks everyone.
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: Espitene

Post by FrankenGraphics »

18 levels is pretty huge, with the compo restrictions and all! I didn't get as far on my first. Well done sharing a single tileset between them! :beer:
na_th_an
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Re: Espitene

Post by na_th_an »

More map glitches found & corrected, death bug corrected, standing jump bug corrected, cutscene keypress glitch corrected, inconsistent speed for boss 1 (and 5!) corrected.

Updated first post.

If no more map bugs appear, the only thing to do is change the music for world 4.
WhiteHat94
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Re: Espitene

Post by WhiteHat94 »

No title screen music in beta4? Will play thru again to see if I can find anything else
na_th_an
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Re: Espitene

Post by na_th_an »

I have to reshash the music so music is a placeholder until next version. Cutscene and title music are gone for the moment.
na_th_an
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Re: Espitene

Post by na_th_an »

I finally changed the music and restored title and cutscene tracks. Everything should be complete now, so I updated the first post. I'll keep testing until the deadline in case I find more bugs.

Thanks everybody who tried the game and reported glitches and bugs.
WhiteHat94
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Re: Espitene

Post by WhiteHat94 »

Found a couple of things in Beta 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TnnTw1OWpk
na_th_an
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Re: Espitene

Post by na_th_an »

Thank you, I'll get them sorted out today :)
na_th_an
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Re: Espitene

Post by na_th_an »

Bugs fixed. They were related to the fact that actors could collide with the main character in "dead" state, which has been solved. Also, I added a new "hook" to the engine so you can inject code when bg tiles are "broken", and that allowed me to add animation to collapsing bridge bits. Updated the first post.

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tokumaru
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Re: Espitene

Post by tokumaru »

I really like the concept of this project (a "minified" version of Sonic), and the result is pretty cool. I did find the physics quite frustrating though... It's way too slippery I guess.
WhiteHat94
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Re: Espitene

Post by WhiteHat94 »

I have a few more things I noticed. The waterfall thing I noticed forever ago but I finally just made a clip of it.

I don't know if it's intended that if you collect all 6 emeralds that it skips the final boss, but that happened to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPbcCA3VcbE
na_th_an
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Re: Espitene

Post by na_th_an »

@Tokumaru: maybe the fact that there's no scroll exacervates the slippery feeling - admittedly, it's been a while since I played Sonic. I'll think about it.

@WhiteHat94: Thanks for the report

- Waterfall - I completely missed it. I'll check the frame counters, I'm sure you've hit a edge case and the ntsc frameskip counter is interfering.
- Conveyors - Same thing, exactly the same snippet of code.
- Final boss missing - Heh - I guess I mistyped the level number when detecting the end of game condition ^_^u easy to solve.
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