77 replies to this topic

[sub]

i forgot to post feedback on this months ago >_< (i had a text file and everything??)
i didn't mind this game at all, reminded me of ghosts and goblins but the player unit was much smexier
..redownloading

[Viloen]

'Ive a new version of HDSE up, with loads of new stuff added. I'd like to know the communities thoughts on this latest version. Please refer to the 1st post for more details and a download link or you can skip the details and download HERE. Eother way you feedback is appreciated :]

[Viloen]

The demo is back and improved with a video to boot. You can read about all of the improvements and download the demo in the first post..

VIDEO

[Froodjakle]

Oh hell yeah. I've been waiting to an update to this for a looong time. It was great back in the day but it had a lot of issues, I ended up hitting game-breaking bugs every time I tried to play. Now that there's been such a massive update I'll give it another shot. I'll update this post as I go.

-First thing I notice, playing the tutorial, the graphics are even nicer now! They looked great before, but you seriously improved them a lot. I love the huge variation in weapon animations, and I'm glad you added running/crouching. I think it would be pretty awesome if you added crouching attacks, too, though, at least for some weapons like the standard swords. One complaint I do have, though, is that some of the weapons (hammer, katanas, mace, broadsword, spear, and whip) should continue their animation on the ground if you start it in midair. As in, if you start the animation in midair, and then land on the ground before it ends, it's annoying that the animation resets to standing. It might be more mobile that way but certain weapons are pretty much useless because of it (namely hammer and mace.)
-Weird, the sprite for holding the whip out after attacking has different colors, both on Mallia and the whip itself.
-I think the Bow and Blowgun should be able to rapid fire after the initial animation of pulling it out. It's annoying that she pulls the weapon out, then has to put it away before you're allowed to shoot again. They would be a lot more practical if they could. Also, there's a glitch with the bow: Hold the attack button until she's stationary, then jump, and you end up with a floating arrow.
-The dagger animation could be a little faster I think. They don't seem practical at all, unless there's something about them I'm missing.
-In the tutorial, when it's explaining the various status effects and what they do, it would probably help a lot if each status effect was on a new line. It's really jumbled and hard to read. I know you can read it in the F1 menu, but it would still look a lot nicer. A change in color in the F1 menu would be nice too, it's very bright.
-There are a few typos in the intro.
-Would it be too much trouble to add in some horizontal wrapping to the cursor for entering a name? My character name was "Mayami," and I had to go all the way from one side to the other back and forth to enter it, and considering there's no wrapping or hold-key-to-move-faster, it was kind of annoying to do.
-..Holy crap, the background graphics look SO good. You did an amazing job with them. I just looked at a side-by-side of the old graphics of an area compared to the new one, the difference is staggering.
-For some reason, in the chimney room where you pick up the shield and everything, if you pull out the shield, it doesn't show up until the animation for pulling it out is complete. Maybe a layering issue?
-In the cutscene in Granson with Alpha, Gamma, Beta, and whoever else was there, I ended up being in midair the entire time. I just jumped at the wrong moment and was in midair when the actual dialogue popped up. Luckily I didn't end up in a wall or anything, and it didn't make me unable to continue or anything, but still.
-The transforming animal lady monster on the road to Granson ended up running into the right-most wall and being stuck until I killed it.
-I just feel like I should point out that your trees look incredible. They're amazingly well sprited. Although the trees in Granson are missing tiles on the bottom right, it seems.
-I can't jump down through platforms when I'm standing up against a wall. I'm guessing this was a failsafe to avoid getting stuck in the walls?
-The HP and MP bars don't draw above the darkness overlay when you're in a cave. They really should though, it's annoying to not be able to see how you're doing on health without opening the main menu.
-There are some layering issues with the shading on platforms in the Water Temple. The platforms are behind Mallia, but the shading on the edges are in front of her. There's also a platform in the temple that doesn't have a solid object at all, you can't land on it. It doesn't prevent you from continuing or anything, but it's still weird that you can't land on it.
-The little jumping fire guys get stuck on various edges and walls A LOT. Their collision coding seems to be very sketchy.
-There's a random block of water placed in one of the underground cavern rooms in the Water Temple. It's in one of the cavern rooms that used to be filled with water in the older versions of HDSE. Another thing I noticed about the underground caverns, the parallax background seems to be quickly "filled in" from right to left, in a sense. What I mean is that, if you enter a room from the far right, there's a moment where the background is pure black, and the background looks like it flies in from the left side of the screen.

Alright, well I'm kind of lost in the water temple right now, so I'm gonna go ahead and stop playing for now. I'm absolutely loving it so far - Really sorry if the list seems like it's more complaints than anything, I just want to point out the minor things that would help make it even better. For every one thing listed there there were 5 things about it I liked, I assure you! This game is fantastic, I love Metroidvania-styled games, and this one is exceptional. Keep up the good work!

Edited by Froodjakle, 21 March 2012 - 06:41 AM.

[Zeddy]

• Xbox controller not recognized. Didn't attempt using the other one this time. Got by with Xpadder
• Unarmed attacks make no sound.
• When moving forward, there's more screen behind me than in front of me. It feels pretty claustrophobic.
• "but she threatnd me", old man in the cottage
• When in caves, the darkness effect will hide the HUD.
• When entering a room and holding to the side, I'll always walk, even if I entered the room running.
• If I press Enter in the middle of the conversation I can enter the menu. Leave the menu and I can walk around while the other guy is talking.
• I have to jump to get over the top of a slope when underwater.
• Jellyfish tentacles do not reliably disappear when the jellyfish dies.
• I would like some kind of function for switching between weapons on the fly. Perhaps something like the two weapon sets seen in later Castlevanias. Switching away from the flame sword due to a fire zombie is kind of a chore.
• In the water temple, if you go down the second hole from the entrance and go back up you emerge from the first hole. Bug or ancient magic?
• I would like Mallia's hitbox to be reduced a little. Too often does it feel like I collide with an enemy without actually touching them.

• ERROR inaction number 1of  Step Eventfor object ObjKillerRoot:Error in code at line 46:              DamageID.Value = max(MasWeapon.DMG - DEF,1);                                             ^at position 44: Unknown variable DMG

  It happened when I used the blowgun on the tentacle-things by the cottage.
• Nothing seems to prevent me from attacking shield knights from the front
• In the boss room at the water temple, it's possible to simply walk off the screen to the right and fall off.
• "We'll I can't answer for that", whatsherface after the dragon
• Nice graphics!

Edited by zeddidragon, 21 March 2012 - 12:29 PM.

[DonnieM]

I like the retro look. Nice story and I like the music.

[Viloen]

I'd like to thank Froodjackle & Zeddidragon for testing and reporting in what they found. It's amazing what others dig up when they test your demos. In any case I've been working on most of the issues they've reported and fixed about a third of them[not yet in the current build] but there were a few things which I'd like to keep on the table.

FROODJAKLE
One complaint I do have, though, is that some of the weapons (hammer, katanas, mace, broadsword, spear, and whip) should continue their animation on the ground if you start it in midair. As in, if you start the animation in midair, and then land on the ground before it ends, it's annoying that the animation resets to standing. It might be more mobile that way but certain weapons are pretty much useless because of it (namely hammer and mace.)

The idea of resetting the animation when you hit the ground is to allow a jump-in combos there's an undocumented feature [Currently on the Flame Saber, and the Dragon Sword] a Special 3-hit combo attack can be performed if a QCF[Hadoken motion] is input before the attack.
this can make the slashing swords combo for more hits. For example.

0. Mallia jumps and lands an air flame saber slash on an enemy. [1-hit]
1. Mallia hits the ground and a ground-cancel occurs.
2. Mallia performs a ground slash on the enemy. [2-hits]
3. Mallia performs the special attack, the previous attack is canceled and the special attack lands [5-hits]

The point is, having the weapons ground-cancel opens up freer gameplay and makes the jump attack a powerful tool. The heavier weapons like Maces and Hammers aren't designed for quick air strikes. I want to disuade the player from using them for jump in attacks[although its still kinda possible with the hammer] because of their range an power. The mace is almost completely useless in the air, but can hit up to four times on the ground and attacks on both sides with destructive[except there's a bug] power. I want each weapon to have a +/- situation for its usefulness.

I think the Bow and Blowgun should be able to rapid fire after the initial animation of pulling it out.
These are single shot weapons which must have a reload time. otherwise they 'd have to be severely nerfed or the enemies wouldn't stand a chance. The guns can fire more rapidly and they're powerful, but I intend to include an 8 shot count, with a lengthy clip reload time to keep them from being too powerful. I might even require that a clip be equipped in the right hand too to prevent blocking and magic. I fought the dragon with the gun and shot him to death in like 20 seconds.



ZEDIDRAGON
When moving forward, there's more screen behind me than in front of me. It feels pretty claustrophobic.
The screen runs a little close butI want to keep an action vibe going. I think the distance is perfect so that new enemies dont appear to early,especially when running. I could move it, back, but not by more than 4-8 pixels.

When entering a room and holding to the side, I'll always walk, even if I entered the room running.
This is an old homage to River City Ransom which gave me the ided to ad the running, but more importantly you take heavier damage when running... nothing worse than running tintoa new area and getting killed right off the bat. So I make the player decide in each area whether to run or not.

Jellyfish tentacles do not reliably disappear when the jellyfish dies.
This is purposeful, its a phonomena of jellyfish,a dead one can still sting. In fact in the game youcan chop off the tentacles without killing the creature.

In the water temple, if you go down the second hole from the entrance and go back up you emerge from the first hole. Bug or ancient magic?
Both! Initially a bug, I grew to like it and added the magic phrase to the title, to explain it.

Edited by Viloen, 22 March 2012 - 04:48 PM.

[Froodjakle]

I figured out the QCF motion (which, by the way, you can just hold down and right to use, you don't have to input the actual command,) and that's why I specified which weapons I think should keep their animation on landing. The weapons I mentioned are much less useful because of the cancel, they almost always cancel before their real attack goes off, and I end up losing tons of damage because of it. I like to use jump attacks as a form of mobility, so I tend to use them much more often than ground attacks, but they get canceled before they really deal any damage. Too many of the enemies require mobility for effective fighting, or attack too rapidly, for maces and hammers to be any kind of useful whatsoever. They're extremely unsafe, and they simply don't do enough damage to offset their lack of safety, they're literally useless right now in my opinion. Look at Castlevania games like Aria of Sorrow - Certain weapons (the slower ones) don't reset the animation when they land, and they're actually useful because of it. It's more than just an aesthetic thing, although that also plays a part, a giant swing with a hammer or mace canceling when you touch the ground feels weird.

As for the blowgun and bow.. Perhaps Bow could have a charge up meter that increases it's damage and range the longer you hold the arrow taught? Perhaps just have a full charge deal the same damage and travel the same distance an arrow does right now, but uncharged arrows would deal much less damage and travel shorter distances. That would be a much better system to me than putting the bow away after every shot, at least it doesn't feel like you're wasting time and your character doesn't know how to use a bow properly. As for blowguns, maybe make a slightly shorter animation of the blowgun being reloaded, instead of having to redo the entirety of the animation for pulling it out. Or just nerf the damage they do a bit. A blowgun doesn't seem like it would be all that powerful to begin with.

Edited by Froodjakle, 23 March 2012 - 08:55 PM.

[GStick]

I'm just now starting to play it, and I don't know if anyone has said this or not, but in the tutorial there are some walls/blocks without any graphics in one of the tutorial areas. I would check which one, but when I tried to go back I got stuck in a blue wall...

[metalhead_]

I'm impressed by these graphics, and it looks like an overall wicked game...

[SuperBlackMan]

when I play te game it slows down really bad. Is my computer bad or something

pc specs

-Intel i3 core
-64 bit Windows 7
- 4GB of ram

[Viloen]

when I play te game it slows down really bad. Is my computer bad or something

pc specs

-Intel i3 core
-64 bit Windows 7
- 4GB of ram

Yeah the game runs inexplicitly slow on some systems; including my own at times. Its weird but if I plug in my USB wireless mouse it runs slowly, if i unplug it it runs at normal speed, if I plug it back in... Slow again. This continues until a restart is performed. Seems like a GM issue.

In any case I do use some slightly heavy processing to render the scanlines that requires 240 horizontal pseudo scanlines to be drawn over everything else that is copied to a surface for each frame. Then the surface is drawn to screen. This might run slowly if you system doesn't have a dedicated graphics card. Especially when you consider double buffering, which can half your frame rate if your system can't handle the load.

If I could only do "clean" viewport stretching I wouldn't need the surfaces and a speed up would occur, but until then if ever. The only thing I can do is program a toggle for the effect [in progress] or change the native resolution of the PC while the game is running.

Ill also consider a 30fps mode but that'll require a major rewrite. As I was lazy and tied in all of the speed related operations to 60 fps.

[SuperBlackMan]

hmmm weird. I unplugg my usb mouse and it work. . . . .lol thats weird

[Zeddy]

If I could only do "clean" viewport stretching I wouldn't need the surfaces and a speed up would occur, but until then if ever.

I had a discussion today about this very issue. Apparently you achieve proper viewport stretching IFF all sprites/backgrounds are square and have dimensions to the power of two.

[GStick]

If I could only do "clean" viewport stretching I wouldn't need the surfaces and a speed up would occur, but until then if ever. The only thing I can do is program a toggle for the effect [in progress] or change the native resolution of the PC while the game is running.

It would be nice if you included this option to turn the scanlines off, like you are saying. My computer scales up GM games perfectly smooth, so it would be a nice option to have.

[Viloen]

If I could only do "clean" viewport stretching I wouldn't need the surfaces and a speed up would occur, but until then if ever.

I had a discussion today about this very issue. Apparently you achieve proper viewport stretching IFF all sprites/backgrounds are square and have dimensions to the power of two.

Yeah I noticed that a while ago, but that would include resizing hundreds of frames of animation and backgrounds which have been cropped to reduce space. They're so many things I hope the next version of GM attends to.

[Viloen]

This project aint dead yet

I'm doing a rewrite to port to GM:Studio as it looks like GM9 is a ways off or may not even happen [I'm betting on the latter]. Unfortunately I took advantage of features in GM8 which have been dropped in GM studio, and on top of that an import causes inexplicable errors [likely due to the size of the game] making the port a slow [manual] process.

In the meantime I'll work on the old GM8 version. The engine's pretty solid now and I've been working on the next segment of the story. I'm really going to try to upload an new demo version by the end of next week. So If you've yet to try the game and/or are new to the community... give it a go.

[Zeddy]

Heaven Demon Slayer: Studio just doesn't have the same ring to it.