The ShadowLight Kingdom, my first playable demo

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#61

Hey Dani,

Communicating something but without saying exactly what, just to have the player more aware that something is happening and keeping the mystery. I think it’s a great idea!

Yeah, about like working around issue of falling off the map and so on, little subtleties which help effectively teach the player about the game, having wobbled on the edge a few times they’ll avoid the edges… having heard something subtle perhaps about “Ooooh goodie, more skeletons!” they’ll soon learn that these are little clues to the next wave but without you having to stamp “WAVE 51 COMPLETE” all over it :slight_smile:

Although, the survival mode could be fun! :wink:

Thanks so much for taking the time and always giving so good feedback!

You are, of course, very welcome - do be sure to tell me to shut up though, I don’t want to stiffle ideas/suggestions from other people, in fact quite the opposite. Sometimes people don’t want to be the first to reply but once someone else has been they can feel more at ease in putting stuff forward.

That’s very kind of you to say, and very unnecessary, but thank you and I will certainly bear the offer in mind - thanks :slight_smile:

1 Like
#62

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Are you ready to fight some skeletons?

Today I’m very excited because finally my demo is ready for some testing!
This demo will be the first level but a tutorial as well, where you will learn the basics of the game, and keep learning as the game progresses. There is no story nor menus yet, this is a demo straight to playgame.

Please be aware the game is not meant to be played on a browser, but I wanted to do a WebGL version for testing and sharing. I recommend to use Chrome, I saw some random problems with Firefox that have been already reported to Unity. It doesn’t work on Safari, and no idea about Explorer or PC browsers. It can take a long time to load (4-5 minutes depending on the connection).

As last note, the game is meant to be played on IOS, so I just created a basic input manager for the WebGL, please use the arrow keys for movement, space for actions, and the mouse for the UI.

Turn up your speakers :slight_smile: …

DEMO: http://www.cbtsdesign.com/TheFiveWeb/

Hope you enjoy it!

Feel free to share your thoughts and feedback. I’m really looking forward what you think guys, I really appreciate it!

2 Likes
#63

Hi guys,
Hope you had Merry Christmas! Here is another little update.

Now that my first level is almost done (Please play the DEMO: http://www.cbtsdesign.com/TheFiveWeb/ if you didn’t have the chance yet), I’m thinking about how to go thru scenes, keep all the information from the levels to the new levels, etc.

I decided to create an Info Panel to show some player’ statistics, progression and spells. I was thinking to make this panel accessible during gameplay, this way you will be able to switch your spells. About the spells, I wanted to show the spells you already have, the most immediate spell you will get once you reach certain level, and show with less information other spells you can get later, I think this way I encourage the player to get to those levels to see what he gets. I’m showing only 4 spells now, but I plan to add some kind of scroll to have more spells :slight_smile:

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The player has a camera that renders him in the UI, so he moves in the UI as a 3D object. I learnt this technique by mixing different ideas I saw by Googleling and think it works pretty nice.

Please ket me know what you think and if you would add any other information.

Thanks so much!

2 Likes
#64

Love it :slight_smile: . But i got stuck when i attacked the fire archers, my character can turn around but can’t move away from the spot. Maybe you must check the walkable path. After you implemeent the controls ui, to tell the player how to move and attack etc. this will be a great game :slight_smile: :+1:

2 Likes
#65

Thanks @Manu_Scheller, can you explain a little bit further? The Player doesn’t use a navigation agent, so he should be able to walk anywhere. I think that issue is related to an animation, but I thought I already fixed it.
I will try again see if I can reproduce it. Thanks so much for giving it a try and your kind words.

1 Like
#66

@CreativebytheSea
I’ve got this error at the end of the first level:

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1 Like
#67

@Maxim_Inozemtsev Thanks, yes, that’s the bug has been reported to Unity. For some reason it randomly happens, unfortunately it looks there is no fix yet, I published my demo as WebGL to be able to share it and test it, this issue doesn’t happen in Desktop or IOS version. There is no other way than reload the game if you want to keep playing. Sorry about that. Thanks for playing it!

1 Like
#68

My notes on the recent update

  • Movement got improved a lot. Now it’s a pleasure to run around :slight_smile:

Some changes I think should take place:

  • When you display a dialogue, would be better to pause the game until player decides on whether he wants to pick up weapons or armor? (Not sure about this one)
  • What kind of confuses me is that the gameplay itself so far does not require a mouse inputs, so I find it a bit annoying to use mouse every time when there is a dialogue box appears. Would you consider changing UI so that mouse inputs could be avoided?
  • Taking out and putting back weapons/shield takes time, and I would prefer this action to take place on request only, and not to do this on timer if you are not in fight. I’ve got into a trouble when i had to take out my weapons, and there were few archers nearby. So while hero was playing this animation, arrows reached him. Also, sometimes hero can start putting his weapons away while there are enemies still around (There are no really in game actions that can be performed only if you are not holding weapons?)
2 Likes
#69

Thanks @Maxim_Inozemtsev that’s some interesting feedback…

1- The reason I did that is to avoid pausing the game during combat, I thought it could be annoying if you were in combat and were weapons around, the game would be paused each time and you had to equip or disregard the message. What I did is, the enemies get paused when the message pops up but the main game still goes on. Like that you can think about picking the weapon or not, or just keep walking and the message goes away without having to click cancel. I feel there is a lot of room here to improve the functionality, I will think about it…

2- The game is meant to be for IOS, I just added some keyboard/mouse inputs to be able to play on the browser. However you will still need to click on the buttons. I know it’s a little bit annoying, but that gives me more control than automated messages and I saw that functionality in other games, so I don’t really know how to avoid clicks in an efficient way :slight_smile:

3- This is something to consider. The reason behind that is the player’s movement looks better with the weapons stored. The animations I’m using have some issues with my characters, as you can see they are cartoony with big heads, any “general” animation is for more realistic/proportionated figure, so the weapons get into his head in the movement animations and that doesn’t look good…
I have a routine that checks if there is any enemy in a radius, sometimes you can see enemies but they are still far from that radius, that’s why he stores his weapons.
By the other hand, I got some feedback suggesting an opposite functionality, where the player gets equipped automatically and stores under request, do you think that would work better?

Thanks for your time and your valuable feedback!!

1 Like
#70

Then it makes sense :slight_smile:

To me sounds like a workaround. Add a feature to the game just to hide some imperfections is not the way to go in my opinion. Features should be added to enhance game play, but in this case it is just redundant feature that is not being used at all. This feature doesn’t work with me is because i have to stop to take out weapons, and while i do this, archers hit me. So may be if you made it possible to run around while taking out weapons?
There is a bug also related to it. While you are running with the axe in your hand and you pick up a sword, the sword appears on your back, and the shield is still in your hand

Desing related note:
I don’t know if it was your intention, but it seems like you can finish the first level without killing anyone, just by grabbing the stone and run to the end door

2 Likes
#71

Well, that’s an interesting discussion.
I added that feature because it brings personality to the character and to the game, and at the same time it helps to fix an aesthetic issue with weapons hitting the player’s head. As a solo developer I don’t have the resources to be creating custom animations for my characters (unfortunately I don’t have the expertise or the time to do them myself), and I didn’t want to make my characters to look more proportionate because then I lose the style I’m going for, so I thought that was a good solution. I saw it in other games and I think it’s cool, brings more diversity to the player’s behavior. I’m going definitely work on that to make it more efficient.

Thanks for reporting that bug, I’m going to investigate it.

About your note, yes, that’s possible, that’s totally up to the player. The game is designed in a way were you can be a “runner” or a “fighter”. If you don’t fight you won’t grow up as player though, because the only way to rise your level is by killing enemies. Perhaps I should add some kind of rewards for mini-missions where you can get more experience, so you don’t need to be killing enemies, that can be a good idea… hahaha… thanks for making me think :slight_smile:
By the other hand, I designed a system where after x minutes, the enemies revive in waves, each wave happens in a shorter time and spawning more enemies, so the longer you stay in the level bigger are the chances for you to die. That will be more noticeable in farther levels when you encounter more enemies and need to spend more time in the level.

Thanks!!

2 Likes
#72

@CreativebytheSea
Thank a lot for your response.
You are doing a great job. I am waiting already for the next demo to play, or at least when unity bug will be fixed, because right now I can not even finish first level :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#73

Would you prefer to play it as desktop version? I’m thinking if that issue persists maybe it’s better to deliver an installable. I just don’t really like to be installing things in my computer, that’s why I thought probably people wouldn’t like to install the demo. Thanks a lot to you for all your feedback! It’s helping me to make a great game :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#74

Yes please, the desktop version would be nice.
You could just zip it, without the need to make installable

1 Like
#75

i was walking down from the start, where the house is, fought off the skeletons and turned right. Then i was walking towards one of the fire archers, who stood close to the trees, after i killed theat archer, i stuck there. The animations were playing, but i wasn’t able to move. i’ll try to recreate it and screen capture it.

2 Likes
#76

Hey Dani,

Sorry I’ve missed out on some of the updates above, have been a little busy myself. Hope you had a nice Christmas and are looking forward to 2018 - looks like you are in a great position here for a very successful year :slight_smile:

I’m thinking if that issue persists maybe it’s better to deliver an installable

On this note, I think a downloadable could be beneficial, however, a couple of things to consider…

  • PC / Mac installs
  • Publisher information
  • Digital signatures

I mention the last two items primarily because I downloaded and ran someone else’s game recently and both Windows Defender and Norton Internet Security got a little concerned about the source of the files and what they may be doing. Not perhaps a huge issue, but certainly something to consider, otherwise if you are asking for feedback and people start seeing security alerts all over their desktop they may become concerned :wink:

My personal preference would be an installable, it does take a little while to appear in the browser and obviously it’s not entirely obviously whether it is still progressing or has died (not of your doing obviously), where-as a file download is more obvious and then just installed, also, should any game-killing-bugs occur, we can just restart the game nice and quickly to continue playing/testing to offer feedback.

Obvious downside is giving out perhaps a little more of your game than you might via the browser, but for the sake of feedback and if you are only offering a first level I’m sure it’s worth it :slight_smile:

Updated Thu Dec 28 2017 20:00

Feedback

Firstly, what a delight to actually play your game having seen it in development for a little while and seeing it progress and evolve. Well done Dani, this is a significant step sharing it with others and opening your project up for criticism etc.

  • I missed the weapon at the beginning and found that I couldn’t harm enemies in anyway at all when holding no weapon - some form of non-weaponised attack may be nice, even if it’s just a “slap” that doesn’t do much damage, but for the really weak enemies would allow a kill or two. You could use this within your little tutorial to determine whether the player has actually picked up a weapon, and if not, perhaps give them a gentle reminder via the dialogue boxes. The same could be said for armour if they are damaged more than they would be with armour. Equally, you could use the existing “thoughts” that the player shows when stepping too close to the edge, for example, “If only I had a weapon”, “Armour would be handy” etc etc

  • Lighting on the first building and the streeth lamp seems (at least to me) a bit too bright.

  • Our hero produces a speech bubble when stepping close to the edge, but makes no sound. Perhaps changing the speech bubble to more of a thought bubble for thoughts, where the hero doesn’t speak;

    75855-200

    Equally, a little sound effect could be good here too, like “woah” or “erk!” or something like that.

  • I concur with regards to the mention of the delay in attacking due to the animation of getting the weapon from the heroes back, I wouldn’t want to lose the animation personally as it really does add character. One approach could be to “detect” enemies and pull the weapon ready, effectively long before they are going to be engaged in hand to hand, and perhaps whilst still out of archer range?

  • Sometimes the “near the edge” message appears again when the hero moves away from the edge, perhaps a little delay before making it appear again after the character has moved could cure this, e.g. by the end of the delay the hero wouldn’t be near the edge again.

  • Really like the footsteps in the water effect, both sound and visual :slight_smile:

  • Enemy arrows always seem to hit, despite any hero movement, intentional?

  • Rope bridge - would be fantastic if this bent a little when walked over and could do with its own sound effect also (creaky kinda thing)

  • Gem Key - the game crashed on me here sadly, but I saw the little hero popup in the bottom left and the text across the screen - that looks really good.

If you can put the downloadable version together I would happily run through again :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#77

Hope you had nice Christmas as well :slight_smile:
No worries, I understand those are busy dates to be doing other things instead of being in front of the computer hehehe…

As usual very helpful feedback and ideas! I’m going to integrate some of those right away!

About the arrows, yes, they always hit, if they they reach you, you take damage. I had some feedback suggesting to use the shield for blocking attacks or some kind of movement to avoid arrows, but by the moment, unless I have a really brilliant idea, hehehe… I want to keep the controls very simple and wouldn’t like to add more buttons, as they will go on the screen… but I will think about it :slight_smile:

#78

Yeah, good thanks, too much of it in the car but there we go, same as always! :slight_smile:

The shield suggestion is a nice one but I think it may slow down your gameplay a little bit perhaps.

The arrows always hitting isn’t a big problem, it was more of an observation, and obviously if this is the case then the minor issue of being hit when grabbing your weapon is perhaps more relevant. If you could duck / cover then obviously you could prepare for battle.

On a slightly related note - I like the new profile avatar you have :wink:

1 Like
#79

Hi Guys, Happy New Year!! Hope you had great holidays!
I made some updates in my game. I put together a PC version for you guys to be able to play my demo. I’m a Mac guy, so I couldn’t try the PC version, please let me know if you have any issue. If you need a Mac version, please let me know as well and I upload a Mac version :slight_smile:

Here is the link for download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p17z3oaterxu2xs/TheFivePC.zip?dl=0

#80

Hey Dani,

I’ve downloaded and tried this, but;

  • Windows Defender prevents execution initially because of the untrusted publisher issue

  • After telling Windows Defender to jog on, I am presented with this error;

    image

At this stage I’m not certain whether that is caused by the build or, whether it relates to Windows Defender, however, deleting and re-extracting from the zip file and trying it again didn’t get me any further.

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