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Work in Progress / Doyle 2

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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 23rd Sep 2010 01:59 Edited at: 28th May 2011 21:18
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Update: (May 28)

Current Version: Beta 5

**Check out the Website for more information**




Update: (Feb. 22nd)

The first new graphics-theme is finished - it's a cave theme that will probably be used for the basics campaign:




And don't miss the Video:






- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -




Might I introduce you to Doyle?



There he is. Silly, crazy, and probably on drugs.

In videogames you rarely play characters that are just pure idiots. Or if they are, they are in some way sympathetic. Doyle ist not. He's just stupid and that's what makes him special! ... Something like that.

That might have been the basic character design-concept from the first game, Doyle: http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=110057&b=8
But fortunately Doyle 2 is somehow different. The namegiving character is not even part of the game. This, again, is just another brilliant design concept I've figured out on the toil... I mean.. during development.
Where in Doyle you played Doyle, you can only control a boring stickfigure in Doyle 2. While in Doyle you were being chased by intelligent, incredibly well drawn airplanes, you'll face even more boring stickpotatoes in Doyle 2. In Doyle 2 there aren't even any graphical backgrounds (well, meanwhile there are backgrounds, but anyway). Just the bland and boring looking level and you, the boring stickman.

As you see, everything's gone wrong. None of the cool things (did I mention these intelligent airplanes?) made it into the sequel and all the new ideas are boring or stupid. Or both.

However, that's not the point. The point is: Roughly 3 hours of gameplay, unique puzzles, gravity engineering, portals, weighted storage cubes, unlockables, fully functional leveleditor, recording-function, a "highly complex" yet interesting story, Coopmode, Soundtrack and - I'm sure you didn't see that coming: a menu, with settings and credits and all that important stuff!




...Doyle?



You're fired.



Madness? This is Doyle 2, b1tch!




So, see for yourself if you like Doyle 2 or not. The only thing I can promise: Doyle will under no circumstances be part of that game! Well. Maybe.





**Screenshots**


Player attacked by an armless, running potato:



"Behind the scenes"-footage from the map-editor:



Some... architecture:



Overview of an early level:






**Videos**



Exploring the Cave


Using the Level-Editor:



Soundtrack Slideshow:



Raiders of the Lost Ark - Rolling Stone Bonuslevel:



3D Video:



Gameplay:





**Downloads**



Doyle 2 Beta 5 (05-28-2011)


Beta 4.1 (Feb. 2011)

Beta 4 (Jan. 2011)

Beta 3 (Jan. 2011)

Beta 2 (Sep. 2010)



Feedback in any shape or form is appreciated. Thanks and have fun!

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Dr Tank
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Posted: 23rd Sep 2010 05:16 Edited at: 23rd Sep 2010 05:16
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Dude this is freaking awesome. I wasn't expecting that much given the art style is pretty minimalist (still nice though), but this just kept surprising me. Good mechanics, great level design. I was happy playing this, and it was the right level of frustrating. The learning curve and difficulty is just right - i didn't feel overwhelmed or bored by repetition. Would go into more detail but don't want to spoil it for people.

Nice portal references and humour. A surprising number of features and content too. I completed the beginner levels, but I see there's plenty more that I'll try later. Really well done.
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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 23rd Sep 2010 15:33 Edited at: 23rd Sep 2010 15:34
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"Would go into more detail but don't want to spoil it for people." - you could as well send me an email to mrdoyle/at/web.de, that would be very helpful. I'm especially interested in the humour-aspect, since I never know what's funny and what isn't. People laugh about things I didn't even consider humorous while potentially funny info-signs just confuse them.

I'm glad that you enjoyed playing the game, but I really recommend playing the coop-mode with a friend as well. It just works on a single computer (no network-support so far) but turned out to be the funnest (is that an actual word?) part of the game.

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Dr Tank
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Posted: 25th Sep 2010 04:12
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Been playing this some more. Done most of "think". got to last storymode level. Is it impossible? Playing co-op with myself. With WASD and arrows it's hard but kind of doable.
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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 25th Sep 2010 22:55 Edited at: 29th Sep 2010 01:29
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The fifth storymode-level is impossible indeed. I've finished the fifth level and began working on the 6th today, but won't be uploading it until the complete story-campaign is finished, which will be in approximately a few days or weeks.
Playing coop on your own is obviously possible (and sometimes even easier), but still not half as fun as playing together with a friend. So if anybody is able to do so, I highly recommend that... again.

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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 27th Sep 2010 00:46
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Well, I finally found a reason to upload another video. While the second and third video were actually pretty senseless since they didn't really show anything new, this one does. It's the first real 3D-Video of a 2D game that has ever been shown to public audiences (by me)!

So, if you've got any 3D-Glasses or are good at cross-eying, lean back and enjoy the show. Otherwise, lean back and enjoy the colorful ms paint-backgrounds.

Doyle 2 in 3D

As a sidenote: This feature will not be part of the actual game. It's just one possible way to render an ingame-recording.

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thenerd
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Posted: 2nd Oct 2010 16:28
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Wow. This one of the highest quality db games I've seen... the gameplay is smooth and hilarious. The menu is very well done. I haven't played the entire game yet, but I absolutely love it...my only real critisism is that the graphics are a bit bland, but maybe that's the style you want.

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bergice
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Posted: 2nd Oct 2010 19:19
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Wow that video is really high quality.

51fa1db0ec7c4af52d93a6f5d0e86bc5
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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 2nd Oct 2010 20:24
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bergice: I hope you actually mean that.

thenerd: muchas gracias señor. The graphical style is totally not what I want, I had to draw all the sprites myself despite my lack of talent (and software). I'd really like to have a more unique and fitting style, I am just still looking for somebody to help me out.

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CocaCola
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Posted: 12th Oct 2010 06:01 Edited at: 12th Oct 2010 06:02
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won't the mods be mad that you swore?

I want coke, not Pepsi!
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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 8th Jan 2011 01:31
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Well, whatever, happy new year and a small update, or actually.. yet another video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YmK8TkJdmU

It's a small homage to a movie you (hopefully) all know - Raiders of the Lost Ark, also known as The first Indiana Jones.

Furthermore I worked on the storymode and finished another two (indeed very storydriven) levels. Now I hope that's enough to generate some more attention, we will see.

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Dr Tank
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Posted: 8th Jan 2011 03:13
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Looks sweet. Are you updating the beta in the first post?
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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 8th Jan 2011 10:25
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Not yet, I first need to finish the bonuslevels to be selectable from within the main menu, and just 7 of 10 story-levels are finished. Some more weeks, and the Beta might be an actual Beta, since the last Beta was more of an alpha version.

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The Slayer
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Posted: 8th Jan 2011 14:12
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Looks like megafun to play, Mr Kohlenstoff! I would like to try this out, but it seems that the download link doesn't work anymore? Any idea why?

Cheers

SLAYER RULES! YEAH, MAN!!
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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 8th Jan 2011 15:32
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Oh, right, I fixed that (for the next 10 downloads at least) in the original post. Does anybody know a better file hoster I could use?

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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 13th Jan 2011 00:07 Edited at: 13th Jan 2011 10:12
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Finally more or less all known bugs are fixed, furthermore I improved the camera (which now can be adjusted in the settings-menu), added "tooltips" for the menu, a soundtrack, credits and several other things.

I'd be glad to get more feedback, since I've worked on this game for more than half a year now. And maybe 10 people played it. That's totally not what I was aiming at.

**Download Beta 4**

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thenerd
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Posted: 13th Jan 2011 00:51 Edited at: 13th Jan 2011 00:52
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Downloading it now... By the way, you might want to upload it to a different site. The website is in German, and also keeps popping up with porn ads.

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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 13th Jan 2011 10:27 Edited at: 13th Jan 2011 10:28
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Sorry for that, I didn't realize either of that due to AdBlock and many international websites talking to me in German anyway. However, it should be fixed now, mediafire seems to be English at least.

By the way, to give you a few hints about the Beta:
-Pressing the N-key will toggle NoClip-Mode
-Pressing G will bring you directly to the next level of the current campaign
-Pressing M lets you insert the name of any map (search the Map-directory if you want to) and play it directly, without unlocking it and all that (for example you could start 'Sticky Water' or 'Cave Escape', two of the more interesting bonus levels)
-When ending the program (or after finishing a campaign) the game will save the recording of your previous session to your hard disk, this might take several minutes. If you don't want your game to be recorded, you can select "Stop Recording" in the Record-Section of the Ingame-Menu, or simply use Alt+F4 to end the game (Note however, that I't be very helpful to me if you saved your recordings and packed them to send them do mrDoyle@web.de; this is arguably the best way for me to work out what parts of the game work well and which don't)


In case you want to use the map-editor, be aware of the fact that it's not well explained and mostly keyboard-based. I'm gonna write a small readme/tutorial at some point, but for now I'll keep it simple:
-S/L/N-Keys for Saving/Loading/New Map
-F1-F6 to select tile-categories
-1-9 to select tiles
-Leftclick to place a tile
-Rightclick to remove it
-Mousewheel to rotate the cursor, control+mousewheel to rotate already placed tiles
-C to change tile-attributes
-P for start-, T for end-tile
-Y for level-dependant settings (background, gravity...)
-R->leftclick to define dependencies (e.g. a Gravity-Arrow might refer to a switch, in this case you'll need the switch to activate the gravity-tile); R->Control+Leftclick to define target (needed for portal-navigation, is used as second refer-pointer of logical binary-operators and for several other things)

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The Slayer
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Posted: 13th Jan 2011 13:32
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This is really a cool game, Mr Kohlenstoff!! The interaction is really well done, the puzzles are well thought of and have the right amount of difficulty from beginner to more experienced player, and I like it very much! There's also that sweet little touch of humor, which more games should have IMO.
The only things so far that 'bug' me, are the menues which are not allways that (visable) readable, the graphics could be improved (although this might be your style?), and I also think that the game could use some nice music.
Other than that, I like it! I'll do some more testing and play with your addictive sweet little game.

Cheers

SLAYER RULES! YEAH, MAN!!
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baxslash
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Posted: 13th Jan 2011 13:44
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This looks very well done. Downloading...

Nice work!

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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 14th Jan 2011 00:24 Edited at: 25th Jan 2011 11:33
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I am not that sure what you mean, regarding the menu, TheSlayer. Is the text to small? It is indeed not looking that great, but it never occured to me that it might be hard to read. But I guess I'm going to change that later, when I've decided which way to go with the text (d3d func-DLL I guess, as far as I know it supports anti-aliased text, doesn't it?).

I agree that the graphics might need some improvement, but I'm not capable of creating better sprites. Would be cool if somebody could help me out, it shouldn't even be that much work, since there are about 20-30 tiles of 40x40px (although some of them are animated).

The current version already includes music (can be turned on in the settings-menu, or in the upper right corner of the menu-screen), so you may have downloaded the previous version, or just haven't seen it in the menu. It should be played automatically though, I kind of forgot that.

Oh, and Belgium has indeed pretty good fries. And thanks for your post.

Thank you too, baxslash, and have fun!

Edit: There's a new video introducing the soundtrack for a not yet released bonus level.

**Soundtrack Montage**

- - - - - - -

I just finished working on a better background - with little contrast to avoid distraction, but still an interestint structure. I think it does indeed look interestig enough, but not that great though. I'll see if I can do better.



The blue LCD-things you see there are timers, a new puzzle-element.

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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 27th Jan 2011 14:17
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Small Update: I recordet yet another video. This time, however, it's comparably useful.

**Using the Level-Editor**

Comments would be nice.

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Game King
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Posted: 17th Feb 2011 06:00
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...Surprise!!!

Hey Mr.Koh! You are doing an incredible job on this game forreal!!! I downloaded the BETA, and it blew my mind. Doyle 2 > Doyle no doubt. The level design is genius, and the controls are real smooth. I'm glad you're still programming, you're doing a great job.

I would love to work with you again if that's possible
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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 17th Feb 2011 11:03 Edited at: 18th Feb 2011 16:09
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Quote: "I would love to work with you again if that's possible "


Allrighty. Nice to see you, I thought you left DBP behind you and already lost all my hope to ever see you again. Anyway, I dropped you an email.

Just a quick Update:

1. Beta 5 is downloadable, see attachement - however, it's been a while since I compiled this version, so I can't remember if there were any significant changes. So if you've already played Doyle 2, there's probably no need to download Beta 5, but if you haven't, it is the most recent version.

2. One thing I worked on after Beta5 was to polish the graphics a bit. To be more precise, I made the stickman darker and smoothed the block-sprites, as well as spikes, to make everything look a bit less edgy. It now looks like this:



3. Game King is helping me out with some sprites. I'm totally looking forward to present the game in its all new outfit, but that might take some days.

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Game King
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2011 06:49 Edited at: 22nd Feb 2011 06:50
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- Update (@ALL)
Get ready for the new graphics!!!
Mr.Koh will be the one posting
the new screenshots/video footage though,
I'm just letting yall know that we're ready
to share our progress

Quote: "3. Game King is helping me out with some sprites. I'm totally looking forward to present the game in its all new outfit, but that might take some days. "


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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2011 11:14
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Here's a screenshot we made a few days ago, showing the new tileset:




And I uploaded another Video featuring a new cave-level, the new background and a simple timer-puzzle.

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ThoughtWire Software
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2011 14:36
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I love the minimalistic style. The most awesome thing I have seen so far is the armless running potato. It may have just replaced the Wall Nut from plants v zombies as my favourite 2d game character.

Truly epic stuff!

ThoughtWire Software -

www.thoughtwire.co.uk
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Satchmo
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2011 22:59
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Looks sweet, new style really spruces it up. Can't wait to try the final version.

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Ermes
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2011 23:54
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played, game is well crafted, smooth, and nice.
but i would ask you if it is ok i died about 30 times during the very first tutorial level, always on those spikes. (i haven't completed it BTW)

if the first level is like that, i don't want to think about the higher ones! and the char moves too fast.
let me say, it starts with a high difficulty level and this make me stop playing. no fun to dye 100 times in 5 minutes!

or maybe i'm too old and slow to play these games!

maybe some more sandbox level in the first campaign.

Great potential, for sure.


Ciao facce da sedere!
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Game King
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Posted: 23rd Feb 2011 03:24 Edited at: 23rd Feb 2011 03:28
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- Update (@ALL)
You guys haven't seen anything yet!
That was just a small graphical update.
We will be:
*Polishing - A Whola Lotta Graphics
*Fixing - Any bugs (If you find any, let us know!)
*Adding - New features to improve gameplay/gamefeel

Game Testing:
After some game testing, and feedback, we decided to do the following:
1. Adding Walk/Run command.
2. Adding Level Info (ex. 3/5 Secrets Found!)
3. Removing spacebar action, so it doesn't pause game.
4. Adding option to change "Grab" key (CTRL) to spacebar.
5. Adding option to record, so it wont take forever to exit.
6. Fixing Walking "Alignment" (By adding Walk/Run command)
7. Adding "Message History" incase you missed something.
8. Adding "Stick-Reactions"- Displays "?" or "!" in moments.
9. Adding "Profile-Pics"- Displays avatars in message box.

That's some of the main things we're gonna be working on.
More little updates will be coming along with those.

Thanks for your support! Check back for more updates!
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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 23rd Feb 2011 11:47 Edited at: 23rd Feb 2011 11:48
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Come on, Game King, some of these things could have been a nice surprise.
Anyway, most of these points were indeed added to the todo-list.


Quote: "The most awesome thing I have seen so far is the armless running potato. It may have just replaced the Wall Nut from plants v zombies as my favourite 2d game character."


I just noticed that it's somewhat strange that it's named armless potato. I mean, that's like saying "Your character is a stickman without second head". Anyway, the potatoes were indeed inspired by PvZ's Tall Nut.

Quote: "Looks sweet, new style really spruces it up. Can't wait to try the final version."


Final? Depends on how you define final. I mean, the game is kinda in its final state, it might just get a bit more final over time. But I have to admit that the game might seem much closer to final when more themes are added and also applied in the game (which is not the case yet). So even though I hate to predict things, because it very rarely works out, this state could be reached by the end of march, given that Game King has enough time as well.


Ermes:
You are talking about the very first Level of the Basics campaign? The one that only contains spikes and no further gameplay elements? If so, that's a bit weird. I watched around 10 people play through the complete Basics campaign, and everyone completed the first few levels without real problems. It would be fantastic if you could zip the whole Record folder and send it to me, so I could investigate the case. Maybe it's just a bug or a misunderstanding, because I'm a bit terrified of the idea that the very first level might be too hard for anyone to finish. It was playtested quite much, for my standards at least, and I thought the game was balanced rather well.
I'm really sorry to be responsible for the frustration Doyle2 might have caused, and hope that we will find a solution.


- - - - - - -


To everyone:

Does anybody else have the problem that the main menu-background sometimes runs extremely fast? This strange behaviour occurs here every now and then and I have absolutely no idea what the cause might be. Debugging is not easy because it happens so relatively rarely and I haven't found out yet under which circumstances that's the case.
If other people noticed that too, I will have to work on that bug, but who knows, maybe it's simply due to my hardware or something.

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Ermes
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Posted: 23rd Feb 2011 14:46
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Quote: "I'm really sorry to be responsible for the frustration Doyle2 might have caused, and hope that we will find a solution."


oh don't worry about this, i'm not so good at platform games, i must say i'm slow and always be killed from every thing can harm you in these games.

watched videos of Doyle 2, great game, really little (for the graphics) but great game!


Ciao facce da sedere!
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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 26th Feb 2011 00:59
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Time for another update - a new feature is born. I'm talking about Sprites. Pretty unspectacular, but very useful. Just think about the possibilities - adding trees, arrows, walls, graffitis and all that to the game, or even bigger objects, like cars. Now I have to admit that cars don't quite fit the game's setting. But anyway, I threw together a small "proof of concept"... not that there was anything to prove in the first place, but still.
I apologize for the horrible, horrible sprites not even a three year-old would consider to be "good" by any definition, but honestly, that's all I could come up with.



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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 6th May 2011 23:55 Edited at: 6th May 2011 23:59
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Hello there.

After several weeks of nothingness, I continued working a few days ago. There are new features and announcements, so here we go.

- Sprites, as mentioned in the previous post, are working flawlessly (even though not optimized yet) and can even be bound to elevators, allowing such things as automatic vehicles, or, well, something like that:



- new tiles have been added - they are, however, invisible for the player and are working in the background; while they cannot be seen they enhance the leveldesign possibilities even more, making the editor quite powerful despite not supporting actual scripting

- the coop mode is being reworked and extended right now due to partly rather uninspired level design as well as several not yet used features such as portals, timers and enemies

- the old story mode will complelety vanish from the upcoming Betas, because it was, frankly, horrible. If anyone disagrees, please speak now, but I doubt it. It lacked focus and an actual story (some kind of plot started in level 8, up until then it was just superficial wannabe-Portal without actual substance). I've got several new story ideas, better dialogues, and some pretty spectacular yet probably realizable plans, as well as a worthy intro sequence


I think that's it for the moment.

By the way, did anybody play Portal 2 already? Great game. Guess I have to add some more references here and there.
(minor spoilers regarding brown tuberous food ahead)




Oh, wow, I nearly forgot. Most importantly, I might be looking for someone to help me out with level design. I'm not yet completely sure, but it would probably be pretty cool to have somebody working on challenge and coop maps.
I have to admit that the editor is pretty, umm, counter-intuitiv. It's nearly completely keyboard-controlled (apart from placing and selecting tiles on the map), making it necessary to know all the shortcuts. Anyway, I might write a short readme explaining everything to a reasonable extend. Getting used to the editor is probably a matter of 30-90 minutes - I guess - but should be totally worth it, because, if you ask me, it's really a lot of fun to mess around with it.
Am I talking too much? ... if you consider yourself a more or less talented and motivated level designer, feel free to tell me. There's no contract, I don't expect anything apart from maybe a map every few days or even weeks. It's not that I'd demand anything. More an invitation to spend some time supporting me.

Thanks in advance and have a nice weekend
- Mr Kohlenstoff

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Cliff Mellangard 3DEGS
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Posted: 7th May 2011 12:01
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Extremely cool game !
Release it and you will probably win a few indie developer prizes
My only tip is that you try to keep the grafix very minimal and not so much patterns?
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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 8th May 2011 18:40
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Thanks Cliff.

Quote: "My only tip is that you try to keep the grafix very minimal and not so much patterns?"


I spent much time thinking about the graphical style, and I completely agree that it should stay simple. Natural textures (as the cave theme for example) are certainly more interesting visually, but distracting as well when it comes to puzzle solving. Hence I'm probably gonna use them here and there to grade the look up a bit, but mainly stay with the clean, simple grey theme.

On top of that I just added ramps to the game. From now on it's not necessary anymore to jump everytime you want to get up somewhere. Which makes playing more comfortable, I think.



As you see they aren't looking too good due to their shading being messed up as soon as they're rotated, but still, mechanically they are working. I'll see if I can include them into the Basics campaign.


Quote: "Release it and you will probably win a few indie developer prizes"


The release will take some more months. I've got some detailled plans on what needs to be done until then, and it's not that much.
If (and that's a big if) I keep working on it as much as I do now, a first release version might be ready in 6-8 weeks. At least that's what my ToDO-list sais. But I will make sure to upload at least one new version in between.

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tiresius
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Posted: 9th May 2011 06:29 Edited at: 9th May 2011 06:30
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I played the Basics campaign a bit, and this is really well done. I'll need to play it some more before I offer any constructive criticism, but so far everything is great.

I know the stick-dude has a certain style, but I think if you tighten up the tile graphics and have David Gervais help you animate your protagonist sprite, you could put this on AppUp and make some serious $.

Don't get me wrong, as it is now it is highly playable, I'm just speaking to the masses who care about such things.
[EDIT] And have wallets.


A 3D marble platformer using Newton physics.
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Butter fingers
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Posted: 9th May 2011 13:04
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Quote: "you could put this on AppUp and make some serious $."

really? Is there anyone making any $$ off appup?

Sleep is over-rated.
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baxslash
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Posted: 9th May 2011 13:30
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Quote: "really? Is there anyone making any $$ off appup?"

I'm making around £30-40 a month from one game and it's increasing...

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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 9th May 2011 20:05
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I actually wanted it to be freeware. Sure, earning some money would be nice. But I'm of the opinion that publishing your work for free is the better way to go. As cheesy as it sounds, I already feel quite rewarded when people enjoy playing my games.
I could, however, release a couple of 15$ map packs sooner or later. What do you think?

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baxslash
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Posted: 10th May 2011 10:43
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Quote: "I actually wanted it to be freeware. Sure, earning some money would be nice. But I'm of the opinion that publishing your work for free is the better way to go. As cheesy as it sounds, I already feel quite rewarded when people enjoy playing my games."

Me too actually. I'm giving away free versions all the time. I just need to justify my time 'playing' on the computer to my wife really...

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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 13th May 2011 12:06 Edited at: 16th May 2011 11:17
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OK, whatever my final decision on the game's price will be (even though I'm almost 98.62% sure that it will stay freeware), that question doesn't have to be answered right now.

So lets talk about something different - dialogue, for example. While I decided to work on the story mode later on, I'm already writing potentially humouristic lines that might get used there.
It is important, however, that they are funny to a certain extend. Or at least mildly amusing. The worst case obviously is that they are boring and don't carry any information. They really need to be of value to the player, preferably entertainmentwise.
Hence I do my best to avoid writing bad dialogue, but that's impossible without feedback by other people. I'm simply not able to judge my own lines.
So here we go. A small excerpt that completely stands for itself and has no real connection to the rest of the story.

It'd be cool if you could tell me if it has the intended effect.

The situation is that the player just entered some sort of vent, that wasn't actually meant to be entered by him.
Since the game is in many ways inspired by Portal, there's someone watching the player and commenting on his progress. In this case he tries to stop the player from going further into this vent.

Every few meters one of these lines will show up

Quote: "
"Oh. No, not this way. Turn around"
"Go back, and you will be heavily rewarded."
"Heavily!"
"You really 'stick' to your decision to ignore my orders, don't you?"
"Stop it!"
"This is you last chance. Return to the test now."
"You know what? There's nothing in there. You won't find what you're looking for. Whatever it is, it's not there. But I'm quite certain that it might be in the next test chamber. You should return to the test quickly, so that it's still there when you are back."
"To be honest I have no idea what you'll find at the end of this vent. And I don't wanna know either. Please respect my lack of curiousity."
"Do you even listen?"
"You ignorant, little... man! I'll give you another last chance. Take it!"
"Isn't it strange that you're so far into the vent, and yet there hasn't been anything interesting so far? NO! It's a vent! Get over it! It doesn't contain anything interesting, and it certainly doesn't lead to anything interesting!"
"Do you have any idea how stupid you will feel once you realize that this is a dead end?"
"Oh, I suddenly remember exactly how this shaft came into existence. I said to myself 'Hey, I need a dead endly vent right here!' so I built it."
"Seriously, you will have to walk the whole way back."
"You really ask for punishment don't you? OK then. I will tell all your brothers about this incident. How you walked into this vent, thinking you could trick me somehow. But in the end you just look like a clown who needlessly explored this empty vent. Naive little stickman. Prepare for being ashamed of your completely inappropriate stubbornness."

[After the player reaches the completely empty end of the vent]
"Uh- yeah... See?! Exactly as I told you. Now look at you. Looking quite stupid, don't you think? I hope that teached you a lesson. Because, I'll never give you another last chance. Now return to the test."
"


And now be brutally honest please. If it's not funny, I'll need to change it. And if this kind of humor just doesn't work at all, I will have to revise the whole story idea, which wouldn't even be a problem because I haven't started executing it yet.
I just need to know to avoid any waste of time I might commit otherwise.

Now feel free to tear the dialogue into pieces. Politeness doesn't help me here.

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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 21st May 2011 00:07 Edited at: 21st May 2011 00:09
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I think I'll just leave that open for a while.

The last week was mostly spent on a simple website, that can be found here. I'll see if I can get a better domain, but for now I just go with that. As you might notice, the site's content is not complete, but it should still be informative enough.

Feel free to comment on the website, the game itself or the dialogue from the previous post, you can as well use the feedback form on the site.

I think I'll just post all the news there and update this thread every now and then, when a new version of the game is online.


One more question though - would anybody volunteer to do some serious playtesting? The "you'll totally be mentioned in the credits" kind of playtesting, you know.
A handful of people already played through the complete game and gave me some great feedback, but the more the better. I'd especially like to get feedback from people without major gaming experience.
If you are such a person, or know somebody who is, don't hesitate. It's for the greater good!

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thenerd
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Posted: 21st May 2011 15:17
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Quote: "
One more question though - would anybody volunteer to do some serious playtesting? The "you'll totally be mentioned in the credits" kind of playtesting, you know.
A handful of people already played through the complete game and gave me some great feedback, but the more the better. I'd especially like to get feedback from people without major gaming experience.
If you are such a person, or know somebody who is, don't hesitate. It's for the greater good!"

I would definitely, the first time I downloaded and played it I had a lot of fun.

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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 28th May 2011 18:44
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So there it is - Beta 5.

I've spent most time on fixing bugs, rearranging the bonus campaigns and adding a few new tiles.
Furthermore the game now runs in widescreen.

The complete changelog can be found in the website's news section.

Feedback is appreciated as always.

According to my plans there will be just two more Betas before the game's final release: One with finished game mechanics and most of the content, and anotherone including the complete story mode. As consequence there (probably) won't be another version for at least 6 weeks (unless I cannot wait that long, we'll see).
Time for you all to test the hell out of it.

By the way, is anybody interested in playing around with the Editor? If so, I'd write a small tutorial on how to use it, because it's totally not self-explanatory.


Now thanks for your interest and have fun playing!

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tiresius
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Posted: 1st Jun 2011 07:28
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I played through the Simple campaign, and it was really well done. I'm still stuck on the Basics campaign level 9. I think I have to time a reverse-o fall to the edge of a spike tile?

You have a really good eye for level design. Each level has one or two tricks the player needs in order to complete the level. I think the switches and reverse gravity are a lot of fun. I may look into your editor to see how things are done. You have been hinting at writing up the manual for it a couple times, you should just do it so people can jump in.


A 3D marble platformer using Newton physics.
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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 1st Jun 2011 12:00
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Oh, finally. Thanks for your feedback!

Quote: "I played through the Simple campaign, and it was really well done."


Are you referring to an older version of the game? Because the current version should not include a Simple campaign anymore.

Quote: "I'm still stuck on the Basics campaign level 9. I think I have to time a reverse-o fall to the edge of a spike tile?"


I'm not sure where exactly you're stuck. As far as I remember Level 9 is the one containing boxes and buttons, and there are probably two rather hard spots in it.
At one point you have to throw a box onto a button that's several blocks away, and then later in the level there's a small puzzle where you're standing at the ceiling and got a box as well as a button. I presume that's where you are - in this case, the solution should more or less be hinted at by the info sign left to you. Otherwise, take this spoiler!





Quote: "You have a really good eye for level design. Each level has one or two tricks the player needs in order to complete the level. I think the switches and reverse gravity are a lot of fun. I may look into your editor to see how things are done. You have been hinting at writing up the manual for it a couple times, you should just do it so people can jump in."


Thank you! I'm glad the effort I put into the campaign pays off.
And you're right, I'll just make that tutorial. I yet have to figure out whether a simple txt file, html, pdf, videos or even an interactive tutorial inside the editor is the best choice.
I guess I'll start with a temporary, very basic text file. I mean, it's not that important after all, right now.

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tiresius
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Posted: 1st Jun 2011 20:36
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I think I just installed over the old one. Deleted the old directory and installed fresh. I'll try it out again. Yes I was stuck in the area you describe (upside down button, box and redirection arrow). I'll try it again.


A 3D marble platformer using Newton physics.
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Qqite
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Posted: 2nd Jun 2011 15:15
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Quote: "I could, however, release a couple of 15$ map packs sooner or later. What do you think?"

Maybe, but NOT for 15$. 5$ is more reasonable, if that.

Btw, I think the potatoes are freaking amazing! Please, do not change them!

Ventures of the worlds around us are limited only by our imagination.
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Mr Kohlenstoff
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Posted: 2nd Jun 2011 16:50
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@tiresius - I think I'll just change that puzzle somehow for the next Version. You're not the first one to be irritated.


Quote: "Maybe, but NOT for 15$. 5$ is more reasonable, if that."


Well, 15$ was more of a joke (you have no idea how much I hate it when publishers try to get as much money out of their product as possible by releasing map packs that are absolutely not worth the money they cost ).
I think even 5$ would be too much. I'm pretty sure that I'll just keep everything free. The only other option I personally see would be to let the customer define the price himself. Not sure how hard that would be to realize, but if it was possible, I'm sure some people would pay half a dollar for a campaign. But then again, I'm probably just keeping it completely free. I doubt it would even be worth the effort.


And what's so amazing about the potatoes?

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