Technical Quality
I think the game came out good enough, though a lot of improvement is still needed. What I mean is that there are basic elements like movement (jumps and climbing included), attacking (including 4 attacks), collecting gems, health, mana and stamina, room transitioning and of course enemies (some that attack, some that do not). There is quite a lot of features included having in mind that the game is basically still a tech demo.
The game however needs a lot of improvement especially with the technical aspects. The game still needs better collision checking, since the player can ledge grab platforms and from some spots you can go into the platform (and since you are neither above or below you don't fall). Also enemies don't walk up or down the slopes. Platform slopes don't work either.
For the HUD mana and stamina bars I managed to create a recharge rate that looks smooth. It is a little bit too fast but that's for the same of testing the game's attacks and dash. The fairies restore each of the stats when it's less than maximum. For hearts I wanted to include half (and maybe quarter) hearts but I couldn't manage to code it in.
What I'm really happy about is the number and variety of attacks I created. There is a melee attack with an unique animation and 3 magical attacks, one for each magic type. There are bubbles, leaf blade 'tornado' and a firebolt. In the future I'm thinking of adding several attacks for each magic type.
Enemies use a timeline with scripts, so they have a random movement: they walk either direction or rest and when the player approaches they start chasing and attacking. Unicorns are a bit buggy, since they don't stop for attacking, just jump constantly and I have no idea why.
I had boss in mind to be included but I really couldn't manage to make him move in the way I wanted; I wanted him to charge one way, then other several times and then start stomping on ground creating an earthquake. I also wanted him to create flower petals that launch after spawning. I couldn't even manage to make him move straight in one direction and since I didn't have enough time I decided to delete access to this room (though the code still remains).
I could have added particle effects for taking gems and fairies as well as a flash effect while someone gets hurt or dies. I could also make a small enemy health bars to show off their health.
Graphics-wise I am really happy on how the game looks like. I created a huge tileset with all sorts of connections with other tiles. I created animations for the player and the enemies. The player has 8 different animations (2 of which consist of a single frame), the bird and slimes have 2 animations each, the fairies animate and the unicorns have 6 animations.
The animations player has are: idle stance, running, climbing, ledge grab, jumping up and down and 2 attacks. The player aninations are a bit crude, especially running where you can see the dramatic leg snap since the animation only has 4 frames. Climbing looks like a crab walk. The animations I really like are the attacking ones, since they look very smooth. The bird has a nice flying animation too.
I am much more happy of the outcome of the unicorn animations. That's mostly because I took references from a animation frame tutorial since otherwise I wouldn't be able to make them run properly. The tutorial in on my pinterest board: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/147985537733664057/. Each animation has a lot of frames. I also really like the attacking animation (from which I was inspired by the unicorn attack from Heroes of Might and Magic). For some reason I didn't manage to include the attack animation within the game, because as I mentioned above, the unicorns don't stop for an attack and glitch by constantly jumping.
Apart for the tileset and the sky there is barely any more details for the environment (mostly caused by focusing more on the programming the game and trying to make everything good gameplay-wise, so I neglected the artwork until close to deadline). It does have vines that I roughly sketched with 3 colours just to replace the basic ladder. I do have some elements like stones or bushes but I didn't include them in maps (apart of the last one which I deleted access to).
I also created the boss sprite but since I couldn't make it work I haven't animated him yet.
Animations in motion can be seen on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sokyogokuarts/
I was going to include the sound but because I spent all the time coding or doing pixel art, I really didn't have time and I didn't want to include the music from my other game because I didn't like it really.
The game however needs a lot of improvement especially with the technical aspects. The game still needs better collision checking, since the player can ledge grab platforms and from some spots you can go into the platform (and since you are neither above or below you don't fall). Also enemies don't walk up or down the slopes. Platform slopes don't work either.
For the HUD mana and stamina bars I managed to create a recharge rate that looks smooth. It is a little bit too fast but that's for the same of testing the game's attacks and dash. The fairies restore each of the stats when it's less than maximum. For hearts I wanted to include half (and maybe quarter) hearts but I couldn't manage to code it in.
What I'm really happy about is the number and variety of attacks I created. There is a melee attack with an unique animation and 3 magical attacks, one for each magic type. There are bubbles, leaf blade 'tornado' and a firebolt. In the future I'm thinking of adding several attacks for each magic type.
Enemies use a timeline with scripts, so they have a random movement: they walk either direction or rest and when the player approaches they start chasing and attacking. Unicorns are a bit buggy, since they don't stop for attacking, just jump constantly and I have no idea why.
I had boss in mind to be included but I really couldn't manage to make him move in the way I wanted; I wanted him to charge one way, then other several times and then start stomping on ground creating an earthquake. I also wanted him to create flower petals that launch after spawning. I couldn't even manage to make him move straight in one direction and since I didn't have enough time I decided to delete access to this room (though the code still remains).
I could have added particle effects for taking gems and fairies as well as a flash effect while someone gets hurt or dies. I could also make a small enemy health bars to show off their health.
Graphics-wise I am really happy on how the game looks like. I created a huge tileset with all sorts of connections with other tiles. I created animations for the player and the enemies. The player has 8 different animations (2 of which consist of a single frame), the bird and slimes have 2 animations each, the fairies animate and the unicorns have 6 animations.
The animations player has are: idle stance, running, climbing, ledge grab, jumping up and down and 2 attacks. The player aninations are a bit crude, especially running where you can see the dramatic leg snap since the animation only has 4 frames. Climbing looks like a crab walk. The animations I really like are the attacking ones, since they look very smooth. The bird has a nice flying animation too.
I am much more happy of the outcome of the unicorn animations. That's mostly because I took references from a animation frame tutorial since otherwise I wouldn't be able to make them run properly. The tutorial in on my pinterest board: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/147985537733664057/. Each animation has a lot of frames. I also really like the attacking animation (from which I was inspired by the unicorn attack from Heroes of Might and Magic). For some reason I didn't manage to include the attack animation within the game, because as I mentioned above, the unicorns don't stop for an attack and glitch by constantly jumping.
Apart for the tileset and the sky there is barely any more details for the environment (mostly caused by focusing more on the programming the game and trying to make everything good gameplay-wise, so I neglected the artwork until close to deadline). It does have vines that I roughly sketched with 3 colours just to replace the basic ladder. I do have some elements like stones or bushes but I didn't include them in maps (apart of the last one which I deleted access to).
I also created the boss sprite but since I couldn't make it work I haven't animated him yet.
Animations in motion can be seen on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sokyogokuarts/
I was going to include the sound but because I spent all the time coding or doing pixel art, I really didn't have time and I didn't want to include the music from my other game because I didn't like it really.
Production Skills
I think I have definitely improved in both pixel art and programming. The difference between these improvements are that while making pixel art I barely used references except for the wing positioning, unicorn animations and the slime shading. For the programming I was using the code from tutorials most of the time with slight variations so I can break it into scripts and make it work all-together.
With pixel art I improved by practicing making it. The hardest part was to make the body parts look good in such a tiny resolution (bird is less than 32 pixels, witch is 50 pixels high and unicorns fit in 60x70 resolution). It was all about the shape and shading by using colours only from my colour palette and add contours for my characters so they can be differentiated from the background. Each character took me different amount of time, from a couple of hours or less (eg. slimes, bird or parts of witch's animations) to up to two days (each of unicorn animations).
As for the programming I used many tutorials including the shaun Spalding's old platformer game tutorials (that's how I managed to program menu as well as slopes and platforms and solids, though I noticed that his solids code is almost the same as the one I used from HeartBeast's Game Maker book). I also used few of Heart Beast's RPG tutorials (that's how I made dashing and melee attack) as well as his Zelda heart tutorial and platformer enemy artificial intelligence from book (that's how I managed to make enemies chase the player and jump). From MakingGames101 I took bits from his tutorial series to be able to create all different spells in an easy way and shuffle through them as well as room transitions.
Apart of that I was manipulating the code or trying to make my own and that's how I managed to make the player go down the platforms even when climbing (but enemies and bird can't yet), make the bird fly (but I haven't made anything else for the bird, though I started the picking up items code though it didn't work properly), make the bubble and leaf attack movements, apply the animations, make the mana and stamina recharge rate and make the gemstones spread (the movement they make towards the player is from another tutorial).
I definitely improved in programming but I still need much more experience in order to be able to code things by myself and without annoying glitches.
With pixel art I improved by practicing making it. The hardest part was to make the body parts look good in such a tiny resolution (bird is less than 32 pixels, witch is 50 pixels high and unicorns fit in 60x70 resolution). It was all about the shape and shading by using colours only from my colour palette and add contours for my characters so they can be differentiated from the background. Each character took me different amount of time, from a couple of hours or less (eg. slimes, bird or parts of witch's animations) to up to two days (each of unicorn animations).
As for the programming I used many tutorials including the shaun Spalding's old platformer game tutorials (that's how I managed to program menu as well as slopes and platforms and solids, though I noticed that his solids code is almost the same as the one I used from HeartBeast's Game Maker book). I also used few of Heart Beast's RPG tutorials (that's how I made dashing and melee attack) as well as his Zelda heart tutorial and platformer enemy artificial intelligence from book (that's how I managed to make enemies chase the player and jump). From MakingGames101 I took bits from his tutorial series to be able to create all different spells in an easy way and shuffle through them as well as room transitions.
Apart of that I was manipulating the code or trying to make my own and that's how I managed to make the player go down the platforms even when climbing (but enemies and bird can't yet), make the bird fly (but I haven't made anything else for the bird, though I started the picking up items code though it didn't work properly), make the bubble and leaf attack movements, apply the animations, make the mana and stamina recharge rate and make the gemstones spread (the movement they make towards the player is from another tutorial).
I definitely improved in programming but I still need much more experience in order to be able to code things by myself and without annoying glitches.
Does it Match Intentions?
Partially. It does have pretty visuals though lacking in detail, especially when it comes to background. It doesn't have any parallax (such as clouds or trees) and no day-to-night transition. Animations are very pretty and there is an animation for everything (except the unicorn's attack and bird walk qnq), but many of them is still pretty crude or would require changes (like the ladder climbing or witch's running). I was hurrying with making the animations so that's why I couldn't make them perfect but honestly if not for the project I would still be in a 'coding sprites' stage. And also since all time I was struggling with coding this kind of impacted the lack of details in the environment.
I really think I could have achieved more and better if I would work all the time including the half terms and weekends, but this year I was extremely demotivated and unenthusiastic which stopped me from working at home in my free time... I'm also not very good at coding, I'm like a little bit experienced beginner but still not pass that stage. This restricted me while coding and caused all those glitches to appear such as unicorns' weird hopping behaviour or enemies clutching onto me or not being able to code in platform slopes or even the final boss enemy.
At the beginning I wanted to include examples of everything including a couple of items, an NPC as well as text boxes and a comic cutscene that would present the beginning of the story. I knew I won't achieve more advanced things such as inventory or skill trees but I hoped that I'll be able to include more things than 2 players (witch and bird), few enemies, platformer actions (ledge grab), variety of attacks, part of HUD and gems. Though to be honest this is still quite a lot and many other would assume way more than enough for a project that took 5 months (though considering I worked maybe once or twice each week it would be like a month of work really).
The game is still better than it's old version that was a 'birth' to the entire idea and this platformer. In the 2D shooter all there was, was the player shooting, 2 different enemies (charging and a turret), health and points as well as 2 maps. This new one has much more.
Also the more I was working on it the more ideas I've got. Near the end of the project I got an idea for more advanced storyline in addition to what I already mentioned in the previous tasks and a continuation to the story started in the sound design unit. Basically in the future updates I'll give player the option of deciding the fate of each enemy in the final moment of the fight by killing them peacefully (or sparing) or murdering them. But that's not important to talk about right now.
I really think I could have achieved more and better if I would work all the time including the half terms and weekends, but this year I was extremely demotivated and unenthusiastic which stopped me from working at home in my free time... I'm also not very good at coding, I'm like a little bit experienced beginner but still not pass that stage. This restricted me while coding and caused all those glitches to appear such as unicorns' weird hopping behaviour or enemies clutching onto me or not being able to code in platform slopes or even the final boss enemy.
At the beginning I wanted to include examples of everything including a couple of items, an NPC as well as text boxes and a comic cutscene that would present the beginning of the story. I knew I won't achieve more advanced things such as inventory or skill trees but I hoped that I'll be able to include more things than 2 players (witch and bird), few enemies, platformer actions (ledge grab), variety of attacks, part of HUD and gems. Though to be honest this is still quite a lot and many other would assume way more than enough for a project that took 5 months (though considering I worked maybe once or twice each week it would be like a month of work really).
The game is still better than it's old version that was a 'birth' to the entire idea and this platformer. In the 2D shooter all there was, was the player shooting, 2 different enemies (charging and a turret), health and points as well as 2 maps. This new one has much more.
Also the more I was working on it the more ideas I've got. Near the end of the project I got an idea for more advanced storyline in addition to what I already mentioned in the previous tasks and a continuation to the story started in the sound design unit. Basically in the future updates I'll give player the option of deciding the fate of each enemy in the final moment of the fight by killing them peacefully (or sparing) or murdering them. But that's not important to talk about right now.
Time Management and Problem Solving
Honestly, I think I have been terrible with managing my time and this didn't improve significantly over these 3 years I have spent in the college... I also still tend to raise the difficulty level of each project and try to overachieve (which didn't work this year because I've been unmotivated).
At the beginning I wasn't hurrying at all since I had a mentality like: wow, 5 long months to do this work, it's way more than enough so I don't have to do much. It proved me wrong on the second half of the project. Schedule did work actually, because it made me realise how much time I am wasting and that I really need to hurry. When marking the squares and weeks I also remembered what I have to talk about in the production log and what things I still have to do (or can't do because I'm lacking time).
Because of the poor time management and because I didn't work (most of the time) in my free time I couldn't achieve more than I supposed I will (just as I said above).
During the project I encountered multiple problems, most of them were about coding (as you could guess). At first as I was just typing the most basic code just for the movement I didn't have problems because it was a code already tested and presented in a tutorial. Then as I was merging the codes and making ladder climb and platforms the problems appeared: I had problems making the player climb onto ladders so later on I decided to make a separate script that doesn't include gravity.
At first I only found the tutorial about making the platforms that work based on their mask. A mask is the collision field for the sprite (not necessarily the exact same sprite as the object) in the non physics world. When the object has no mask then it doesn't create collisions, so basically this code switched off the collisions depending on the player's position. It was good until I included enemies so then it stopped working and I had to look for another tutorial. Then I have done some mistake in coding them so when player got stuck in the middle she got launched on the upper other edge of the map which definitely couldn't stay in the game. Then I found out that the problem was with the code colliding with some bits of ledge grabbing (don't remember exactly what).
Slopes also didn't work because they were seen as full rectangles. I then again looked for a tutorial and found the old platformer tutorial videos by Shaun Spalding which not only helped me make them diagonal but also made the player go up them. I still got the problem with enemies noticing slopes as ledges (so they don't go up or down them unless they chase me) as well as making the slopes for platforms. I tried making the diagonal platforms but they only worked when the plater was going down them not up. But I didn't have enough time to fix those plus they weren't really that important in this stage.
I also had a problem when coding enemies' states. I was following the platform enemy instructions in Heart Beast's Game Maker book on the chapter about AI. But he was only showing the most basic way for them to move: from wall to wall or from ledge to ledge, which wasn't what I wanted since I wanted them to move randomly just like enemies in platformer sandboxes (eg. Terraria or Starbound) and not like in puzzle platformers. At first I tried to make alarm and choose the direction but it didn't work at all, so I kept the code from this basic movement tutorial.
Then I made a post on Reddit asking how I can move them randomly and someone suggested to use timelines and read on how they work (Game Maker has it's own 'book' with explanations for each piece of code - '?' icon). So I have read it and then experimented until I just created random moments on the timeline and in each I put the state to choose idle, left or right movement. This made the slimes to move randomly with use of the simple enemy movement coding. Also since each of these states had included distance check for chase (if the enemy can chase) they immediately sterted to chase and attack the player within the right distance. The chase was also from that AI chapter but the attack I think was taken from MakingGames101 basic enemy tutorial which I merged with Heart Beast's damage creation (in one of the early beginner RPG making series).
When implementing the heart system I used for loops from the Zelda hearts tutorial (I could have used my old heart system from previous game but I wanted for them to be dynamic and not just 3). I tried to manipulate the code in multiple ways to make each heart worth 2 health points but I couldn't manage to do it so I left it as full hearts for now. I then tried to make the stamina and mana gauges and at first when they replenished their movement was very very blocky but I quickly solved it by making them go up by 0.1 every time and created the recharge rate so later on I can lower it and then have boosts or skills for it.
I easily implemented shuffling between magic types (but not sure yet how to make it so only melee is at first and she finds the other types later on) but the real difficulty was to make a separate attack for each of them. I then found the weapon select tutorial by Making Games101 which taught about using 2D arrays and not only for guns but anything else. I had to rewatch it several times - 40 minutes long video - because it was extremely hard to understand on how to swap them. At last I understood how it's done and then it was only matter of quickly inventing some different attacks for each of them. I still have a problem for 2 magic spells because their direction depends on the direction the player is facing, but I couldn't fix it.
Later I wanted to include room transitions also from the tutorial (but they all had almost the same exact code in their examples) but with use of an arrow key or enter. For a reason I don't understand at all, whatsoever, when the code included being triggered by a button and not automatically, the player glitched by many times spawning to the exact same location, but when I made it just on touch everything was okay. Also earlier when I applied room transitioning the player 'lost' her x and y positioning causing enemies and platforms to bug but I really don't know what caused it and on my second try everything was okay.
Somewhere inbetween I tried to make the bird move and I managed to create a flying motion but right now that's all; it can just fly and nothing else at this moment. I tried to make him pick up genstones and I partially managed it - they did get picked up. The problem was that I wanted him to only be able to pick up one thing at once and most importantly - to put them back on the ground so the witch can pick them up herself. It didn't work so I removed the code though it still remains.
Lastly, I wanted to code the boss in the fashion that he'll be charging full way in one way then another and so on and occasionally stop and stomp/jump to create an earthquake on ground which will damage the player. Then maybe also to make the petals (from the flower Camellias) and shoot, though that's more advanced. Even with the timelines I didn't manage it at all and since I got little time I decided to remove access to his room.
At the beginning I wasn't hurrying at all since I had a mentality like: wow, 5 long months to do this work, it's way more than enough so I don't have to do much. It proved me wrong on the second half of the project. Schedule did work actually, because it made me realise how much time I am wasting and that I really need to hurry. When marking the squares and weeks I also remembered what I have to talk about in the production log and what things I still have to do (or can't do because I'm lacking time).
Because of the poor time management and because I didn't work (most of the time) in my free time I couldn't achieve more than I supposed I will (just as I said above).
During the project I encountered multiple problems, most of them were about coding (as you could guess). At first as I was just typing the most basic code just for the movement I didn't have problems because it was a code already tested and presented in a tutorial. Then as I was merging the codes and making ladder climb and platforms the problems appeared: I had problems making the player climb onto ladders so later on I decided to make a separate script that doesn't include gravity.
At first I only found the tutorial about making the platforms that work based on their mask. A mask is the collision field for the sprite (not necessarily the exact same sprite as the object) in the non physics world. When the object has no mask then it doesn't create collisions, so basically this code switched off the collisions depending on the player's position. It was good until I included enemies so then it stopped working and I had to look for another tutorial. Then I have done some mistake in coding them so when player got stuck in the middle she got launched on the upper other edge of the map which definitely couldn't stay in the game. Then I found out that the problem was with the code colliding with some bits of ledge grabbing (don't remember exactly what).
Slopes also didn't work because they were seen as full rectangles. I then again looked for a tutorial and found the old platformer tutorial videos by Shaun Spalding which not only helped me make them diagonal but also made the player go up them. I still got the problem with enemies noticing slopes as ledges (so they don't go up or down them unless they chase me) as well as making the slopes for platforms. I tried making the diagonal platforms but they only worked when the plater was going down them not up. But I didn't have enough time to fix those plus they weren't really that important in this stage.
I also had a problem when coding enemies' states. I was following the platform enemy instructions in Heart Beast's Game Maker book on the chapter about AI. But he was only showing the most basic way for them to move: from wall to wall or from ledge to ledge, which wasn't what I wanted since I wanted them to move randomly just like enemies in platformer sandboxes (eg. Terraria or Starbound) and not like in puzzle platformers. At first I tried to make alarm and choose the direction but it didn't work at all, so I kept the code from this basic movement tutorial.
Then I made a post on Reddit asking how I can move them randomly and someone suggested to use timelines and read on how they work (Game Maker has it's own 'book' with explanations for each piece of code - '?' icon). So I have read it and then experimented until I just created random moments on the timeline and in each I put the state to choose idle, left or right movement. This made the slimes to move randomly with use of the simple enemy movement coding. Also since each of these states had included distance check for chase (if the enemy can chase) they immediately sterted to chase and attack the player within the right distance. The chase was also from that AI chapter but the attack I think was taken from MakingGames101 basic enemy tutorial which I merged with Heart Beast's damage creation (in one of the early beginner RPG making series).
When implementing the heart system I used for loops from the Zelda hearts tutorial (I could have used my old heart system from previous game but I wanted for them to be dynamic and not just 3). I tried to manipulate the code in multiple ways to make each heart worth 2 health points but I couldn't manage to do it so I left it as full hearts for now. I then tried to make the stamina and mana gauges and at first when they replenished their movement was very very blocky but I quickly solved it by making them go up by 0.1 every time and created the recharge rate so later on I can lower it and then have boosts or skills for it.
I easily implemented shuffling between magic types (but not sure yet how to make it so only melee is at first and she finds the other types later on) but the real difficulty was to make a separate attack for each of them. I then found the weapon select tutorial by Making Games101 which taught about using 2D arrays and not only for guns but anything else. I had to rewatch it several times - 40 minutes long video - because it was extremely hard to understand on how to swap them. At last I understood how it's done and then it was only matter of quickly inventing some different attacks for each of them. I still have a problem for 2 magic spells because their direction depends on the direction the player is facing, but I couldn't fix it.
Later I wanted to include room transitions also from the tutorial (but they all had almost the same exact code in their examples) but with use of an arrow key or enter. For a reason I don't understand at all, whatsoever, when the code included being triggered by a button and not automatically, the player glitched by many times spawning to the exact same location, but when I made it just on touch everything was okay. Also earlier when I applied room transitioning the player 'lost' her x and y positioning causing enemies and platforms to bug but I really don't know what caused it and on my second try everything was okay.
Somewhere inbetween I tried to make the bird move and I managed to create a flying motion but right now that's all; it can just fly and nothing else at this moment. I tried to make him pick up genstones and I partially managed it - they did get picked up. The problem was that I wanted him to only be able to pick up one thing at once and most importantly - to put them back on the ground so the witch can pick them up herself. It didn't work so I removed the code though it still remains.
Lastly, I wanted to code the boss in the fashion that he'll be charging full way in one way then another and so on and occasionally stop and stomp/jump to create an earthquake on ground which will damage the player. Then maybe also to make the petals (from the flower Camellias) and shoot, though that's more advanced. Even with the timelines I didn't manage it at all and since I got little time I decided to remove access to his room.
Target Audience
After the game was executed I have created this survey and posted it on Facebook as well as in the game's description on GameJolt. At the moment of writing this I have received 13 responses, but I haven't closed the survey. I also got some short opinions on Facebook. In the survey I haven't asked for casual info like gender or age, because it didn't really matter. All the questions were game-oriented with two multiple-choice questions and rest were comment boxes.
In short they asked how they found the game (pleasant/unpleasant, what did they like in it, their opinions/critique about the game's graphics and playability, what do they think about the story (that'll get added) and lastly if they want to say anything else.
In short they asked how they found the game (pleasant/unpleasant, what did they like in it, their opinions/critique about the game's graphics and playability, what do they think about the story (that'll get added) and lastly if they want to say anything else.
Survey Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-D3XHD2YT/
Surprisingly, 3 days after the game's release I got my first let's play!
Let's Play video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy2HU0upzsc
Summary:
Most people (who answered the survey) have enjoyed playing my tech demo.
Translation:
"2 postacie?" - 2 characters?
Summary:
Nearly everyone loved the graphics, followed by main characters, unicorns and different attacks. Nearly nobody liked other enemies or the controls, which I'm not massively surprised by.
Translation:
"Grafika jest bardzo dobra, idealnie dobrana kolorystycznie. Pasujący do siebie klimacik. Animacje są przyjemne dla oka, ale jest ich zdecydowanie za mało. I myślę, że przy kucaniu nie powinna trzymać wtedy kapelusza, a tym bardziej, gdy kucam i poruszam się - to naprawdę dziwnie wygląda." - The graphics is really good, perfectly selected colours. Climate fits to itself. Animations are pleasant for eye, but it's definitelly not enough of them. I think that when kneeling [there's no kneeling yet but she doesn't know that] she shouldn't hold her hat, especially when I kneel and move - it looks really strange.
"Grafika ogólnie jest dobra, chociaż brakuje wyraźnych animacji ataku od strony przeciwników. Podoba mi się paleta kolorów i animacja łapania za krawędź." - The graphics is good overall, though lacking of clear attack animations from enemies. I like the colour palette and the ledge grabbing animation.
"W dobie obecnej technologii graficznej gra jest bardzo przestarzała graficznie. Gra się jednak przyjemnie i płynnie. Jeżeli ktoś lubi gatunek tego typu,na pewno będzie zadowolony." - In the age of modern graphics technology the game is very obsolete graphically. However playing it is pleasant and fluent. If someone likes this genre, he/she will definitely be pleased.
"Wszystko jest świetnie!" - Everything's great!
"Całość pasuje do siebie, ładnie się ze sobą komponuje. Brakuje mi tylko reakcji na uderzenia. Nie byłam w stanie zgadnąć, czy zadaje jakiekolwiek obrażenia, ponieważ przeciwnicy nie reagowali jakąś animacją jak to w grach, tak samo postać i nagle spojrzałam a tu 3 serduszka." - The entirety fits to itself and composes very nicely. It only lacks the reaction on hits. I wasn't able to guess if I deal any damage, because the enemies didn't react with any animation like in other games, same with the character - I looked and had only 3 hearts left.
"Grafika jest bardzo przyjemna, podoba mi się animacja biegu głównej bohaterki, uroczo podnosi ręce. Aczkolwiek brakuje detalu w tle, jakiejś paralaksy z krajobrazem albo zamkiem, jest tam strasznie pusto w porównaniu do 1 planu w którym dużo się dzieje. Dodatkowo przydałby się animacje dostawania obrażeń przez mobki, bo na razie uderzamy je i nie wiemy, czy ma to na nie jakikolwiek wpływ." - The graphics is very pleasant, I like the running animation of the main character, she raises her arms in a cute fashion. However I'm missing details in the background, any parallax with the landscape or a castle, it's all very empty in comparison to the foreground in which a lot is happening. Additionally It would come in handy to have animations of taking damage by mobs, because right now we hit them and don't know if it has any impact on them.
Summary:
People enjoyed the graphics and colours overall, but some complained at lack of animations (eg. bird walking or attacking). They said it's a huge issue that nobody in game shows reactions to being hit, which I should definitely change. Some also suggested to add more to the landscape, such as plants and the parallax background. Overall most of them thinks that the graphics were the best aspect of this game so far.
Translation:
"Nie grałam we wcześniejszą wersję." - I haven't played in the earlier version. [I think she misunderstood the question because I used the world 'again']
"Przede wszystkim brakowało mi instrukcji, nie było ich ani na stronie z linkiem do pobrania gry, ani w zakładkach samej gry. W związku z tym nie bardzo wiedziałam co mam robić i jak to robić. Przeklikałam pół klawiatury, za trzecim podejściem dopiero znalazłam atak i jego warianty. Myślę, że powinno to być gdzieś wyjaśnione (albo atak mógłby być pod bardziej intuicyjnym klawiszem, typu enter). Glitche były akceptowalne, tylko w niektórych wypadkach denerwujące jest spadanie przy poruszaniu się po górnym poziomie (przy wchodzeniu pod górę - moim zdaniem albo niech idzie normalnie i nie spada, albo niech stoi jak pod ścianą i czeka na skakanie) Mimo wszystko czuję lekki niedosyt, bo mam wrażenie, że nie rozgryzłam tej gry do końca i wiele funkcji mnie zwyczajnie ominęło." - First of all the game was missing any sort of instructions, there was none in the description or with the game file, not even in the tabs of the game itself [she's wrong, there were controls, maybe she just skimmed through not knowing they actually are]. Therefore I didn't really know what I have to do and how to do it. I clicked through half of my keyboard, with third attempt I have found the attack and its types. I think that it [controls] should have been explained somewhere (or the attack could be under some more intuitive button, eg. enter). Glitches were acceptable, but in some cases annoying like falling when walking on the higher level [I think she means that hill at the beginning] (when going uphill - in my opinion she should either walk normally and not fall or stand next to a wall and wait for jumping). After all I feel a slight insufficiency because I get the feeling that I didn't figured the game to the end and bypassed a lot of features.
"Grywalność jest zadowalająca,usterki niespecjalnie problematyczne,pomysł z interaktywnością postaci z otoczeniem jest świetny." - The playability is satisfactory, the flaws aren't particularly problematic, the idea with the interactivity with the character and world [eg. ledge grabbing] is great.
"Nie rozumiem działania niebieskiego skilla, przeszkadza animacja ataku podczas atakowania niskich wrogów." - I don't understand the effect of the blue skill, the attack animation bothers while attacking short [as in height] enemies.
"Usterek mało zauważyłam. Sam koncept kilku ataków jest przyjemny i daje fajne urozmaicenie. Tylko może najpierw zacząć od jednej umiejętności i z kolejnymi poziomami dodawać następne, z małym ich opisem? Jest to pewna motywacja do rozwoju postaci. :)" - I noticed little malfunctions. The concept of several attacks itself is nice and gives cool diversity. Maybe it would be better to start from one skill and with next levels add more with a small description? It will be some motivation to character development :)
"Nie były zbyt irytujące aczkolwiek zauważalne. Skok głównej postaci jest chyba troszeczkę zbyt szybki. Przydałby się jakiś poziom tutorialowy tłumaczący do czego są wszystkie ataki, jak działają na mobki i tak dalej. Dodatkowo przydałoby się jakoś wyjaśnić obecność 2 grywalnych postaci - sowa może dolecieć wszędzie bez podchodzenia do przeciwnika, to trochę zbyt OP, tak samo główna postać może bez problemu dojść na koniec gry. We wszystkich grach w których jest kilka postaci jakieś części są niedostępne dla jednej z nich lub zagadki wymagają współpracy." - [Glitches] Weren't too iritating though noticeable. The main character's jump is a little bit too fast I think. It would be useful to have some tutorial level explaining what each of the attacks does, how mobs act, etcetera. Additionally it would come in handy to somehow explain the presence of 2 playable characters - the owl can fly to everywhere without approaching the enemy, that's a bit OP [over powered], same with the main character who can go to the end of the game without any problems. In all the games in which there are several characters some parts are unavailable for one of them or the puzzles require teamwork.
Summary:
People noticed the bugs but most of them said that they aren't as huge an issue while playing the game. They said that the game is really good as for the early state of it. They really enjoyed the switching between attacks and said there were a lot of nice features for the game. Some of them said that rather than adding more features I should first try to solve the previous bugs (like with collisions). There were also complaints about missing animations just like above. Some other person on Facebook said that the interface should be invisible (or changed) when you swap to the bird which is a good idea.
Translation:
"Jeśli będzie motyw z wybieraniem czy dany jednorożec ma być pokonany czy oszczędzony to jak najbardziej mi się taka opcja podoba. Byłabym niezmiernie miło zaskoczona jeśli nasze wybory decydowałyby o dalszej rozgrywce z różnymi zakończeniami." - If there will be a motive if the given unicorn is going to be defeated or spared then of course I'll like this option. I would be pleasantly surprised if our choices would decide on the further gameplay with several endings.
"Pomysł jest dobry, w tym momencie nie bardzo wiadomo co i czemu chcemy osiągnąć w grze :)" - The idea is good, at this point we don't really know what and why we want to achieve in the game :)
"Moim zdaniem lepiej poprowadzić przygodę głównej postaci w tle fabularnym jako czarodziejkę która zaczyna swoją przygodę i próbuje zmienić zepsuty z jakiegoś powodu świat." - In my opinion it's better to lead the adventure of the main character as a sorcerer who starts her journey and tries to change the world spoiled for some reason.
"Uważam, że to dobry pomysł, złe stworzenia powinny różnić się wyglądem od tych dobrych (powinny nbyć ciemniejsze, lub w zupełnie innych kolotrach)" - I think that it's a good idea, evil creatures should differ from the good ones with looks (they should be darker or in completely different colours).
"Chętnie. Brakuje mi takich pikselowych gier. Zwłaszcza, że całość wygląda przyjemnie i jest to gra, w którą będzie można na spokojnie pograć, bez strachu o FPSy, lagi, czy po prostu wymagania systemowe. No i sam pomysł na fabułe mnie zaciekawił. :)" - Sure. I'm missing pixel games like this one. Especially that the whole looks pleasant and it's a game in which you could calmly play without a fear for FPSs, lags or simply system requirements. And the story idea itself got me interested. :)
"Jak miałoby wyglądać oszczędzenie? Jak w wypadku oszczędzania mobków miałaby uratować świat? Jak kończyłaby levele? Jeśli dasz radę znaleźć na te pytania satysfakcjonujące odpowiedzi, które nie będą pójściem na łatwiznę i czymś nieciekawym do grania, to tak, to spoko pomysł, jeśli nie, to zostałabym przy prostej platformówce." - How the sparing would work? How in case of sparing the mobs she could save the world? How would she finish levels? If you could be able to find a satisfactory answers on these questions, which wouldn't be going the easy way or something dull to play, then yes it's a good idea, if not then I would stay with the simple platformer.
Summary:
Many people liked the idea for the story, some said it sounds like Undertale while others said it's an original idea. Some people wanted to know more and either suggested their own concepts or made me ask myself questions in order to develop the story well.
Translation:
"Myślę, że nie." - I don't think so.
"Co robi żółty pasek? Nigdy mi go nie ubyło, do niczego mi nie służył. Ogólnie wrażenie dobre, szczególnie graficznie. Czuję się tylko trochę zostawiona sama sobie, bo nie dostałam wprowadzenia do fabuły i instrukcji obsługi :)" - What the yellow [stamina] bar does? It never has decreased, it was of no use [the same person who didn't read controls]. Overall the experience is good, especially the graphics. I only feel left on my own, because I didn't get any introduction to the story and the manual :)
"Wystarczy trochę nad tą grą popracować i będzie świetna :)" - I think you only need to work on this game and it will be great :)
"Nie" - Nope
"Dobra robota, oby tak dalej! Czekam na dalsze postępy. :)" - Good job, keep it up! I'm waiting for the further progress. :)
"Ekran startowy mógłby być fajniejszy, brakuje w nim detalu." - The start screen could have been cooler, it lacks detail.
Summary:
There people have just been saying that it's a good game with a good potential and some of them are looking forward to play it in the future. There was some more advice like with not rushing or perfecting the start screen.
Surprisingly, 3 days after the game's release I got my first let's play!
Let's Play video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy2HU0upzsc
Kieran Dixon's special response:
Posting it here so you can see which responses were from him.
Normal People responses summary:
Question 1 - Overall game experience
Summary:
Most people (who answered the survey) have enjoyed playing my tech demo.
Question 2 - What do you like about it
"2 postacie?" - 2 characters?
Summary:
Nearly everyone loved the graphics, followed by main characters, unicorns and different attacks. Nearly nobody liked other enemies or the controls, which I'm not massively surprised by.
Question 3 - Game's artwork opinion
"Grafika jest bardzo dobra, idealnie dobrana kolorystycznie. Pasujący do siebie klimacik. Animacje są przyjemne dla oka, ale jest ich zdecydowanie za mało. I myślę, że przy kucaniu nie powinna trzymać wtedy kapelusza, a tym bardziej, gdy kucam i poruszam się - to naprawdę dziwnie wygląda." - The graphics is really good, perfectly selected colours. Climate fits to itself. Animations are pleasant for eye, but it's definitelly not enough of them. I think that when kneeling [there's no kneeling yet but she doesn't know that] she shouldn't hold her hat, especially when I kneel and move - it looks really strange.
"Grafika ogólnie jest dobra, chociaż brakuje wyraźnych animacji ataku od strony przeciwników. Podoba mi się paleta kolorów i animacja łapania za krawędź." - The graphics is good overall, though lacking of clear attack animations from enemies. I like the colour palette and the ledge grabbing animation.
"W dobie obecnej technologii graficznej gra jest bardzo przestarzała graficznie. Gra się jednak przyjemnie i płynnie. Jeżeli ktoś lubi gatunek tego typu,na pewno będzie zadowolony." - In the age of modern graphics technology the game is very obsolete graphically. However playing it is pleasant and fluent. If someone likes this genre, he/she will definitely be pleased.
"Wszystko jest świetnie!" - Everything's great!
"Całość pasuje do siebie, ładnie się ze sobą komponuje. Brakuje mi tylko reakcji na uderzenia. Nie byłam w stanie zgadnąć, czy zadaje jakiekolwiek obrażenia, ponieważ przeciwnicy nie reagowali jakąś animacją jak to w grach, tak samo postać i nagle spojrzałam a tu 3 serduszka." - The entirety fits to itself and composes very nicely. It only lacks the reaction on hits. I wasn't able to guess if I deal any damage, because the enemies didn't react with any animation like in other games, same with the character - I looked and had only 3 hearts left.
"Grafika jest bardzo przyjemna, podoba mi się animacja biegu głównej bohaterki, uroczo podnosi ręce. Aczkolwiek brakuje detalu w tle, jakiejś paralaksy z krajobrazem albo zamkiem, jest tam strasznie pusto w porównaniu do 1 planu w którym dużo się dzieje. Dodatkowo przydałby się animacje dostawania obrażeń przez mobki, bo na razie uderzamy je i nie wiemy, czy ma to na nie jakikolwiek wpływ." - The graphics is very pleasant, I like the running animation of the main character, she raises her arms in a cute fashion. However I'm missing details in the background, any parallax with the landscape or a castle, it's all very empty in comparison to the foreground in which a lot is happening. Additionally It would come in handy to have animations of taking damage by mobs, because right now we hit them and don't know if it has any impact on them.
Summary:
People enjoyed the graphics and colours overall, but some complained at lack of animations (eg. bird walking or attacking). They said it's a huge issue that nobody in game shows reactions to being hit, which I should definitely change. Some also suggested to add more to the landscape, such as plants and the parallax background. Overall most of them thinks that the graphics were the best aspect of this game so far.
Question 4 - Playability opinion
"Nie grałam we wcześniejszą wersję." - I haven't played in the earlier version. [I think she misunderstood the question because I used the world 'again']
"Przede wszystkim brakowało mi instrukcji, nie było ich ani na stronie z linkiem do pobrania gry, ani w zakładkach samej gry. W związku z tym nie bardzo wiedziałam co mam robić i jak to robić. Przeklikałam pół klawiatury, za trzecim podejściem dopiero znalazłam atak i jego warianty. Myślę, że powinno to być gdzieś wyjaśnione (albo atak mógłby być pod bardziej intuicyjnym klawiszem, typu enter). Glitche były akceptowalne, tylko w niektórych wypadkach denerwujące jest spadanie przy poruszaniu się po górnym poziomie (przy wchodzeniu pod górę - moim zdaniem albo niech idzie normalnie i nie spada, albo niech stoi jak pod ścianą i czeka na skakanie) Mimo wszystko czuję lekki niedosyt, bo mam wrażenie, że nie rozgryzłam tej gry do końca i wiele funkcji mnie zwyczajnie ominęło." - First of all the game was missing any sort of instructions, there was none in the description or with the game file, not even in the tabs of the game itself [she's wrong, there were controls, maybe she just skimmed through not knowing they actually are]. Therefore I didn't really know what I have to do and how to do it. I clicked through half of my keyboard, with third attempt I have found the attack and its types. I think that it [controls] should have been explained somewhere (or the attack could be under some more intuitive button, eg. enter). Glitches were acceptable, but in some cases annoying like falling when walking on the higher level [I think she means that hill at the beginning] (when going uphill - in my opinion she should either walk normally and not fall or stand next to a wall and wait for jumping). After all I feel a slight insufficiency because I get the feeling that I didn't figured the game to the end and bypassed a lot of features.
"Grywalność jest zadowalająca,usterki niespecjalnie problematyczne,pomysł z interaktywnością postaci z otoczeniem jest świetny." - The playability is satisfactory, the flaws aren't particularly problematic, the idea with the interactivity with the character and world [eg. ledge grabbing] is great.
"Nie rozumiem działania niebieskiego skilla, przeszkadza animacja ataku podczas atakowania niskich wrogów." - I don't understand the effect of the blue skill, the attack animation bothers while attacking short [as in height] enemies.
"Usterek mało zauważyłam. Sam koncept kilku ataków jest przyjemny i daje fajne urozmaicenie. Tylko może najpierw zacząć od jednej umiejętności i z kolejnymi poziomami dodawać następne, z małym ich opisem? Jest to pewna motywacja do rozwoju postaci. :)" - I noticed little malfunctions. The concept of several attacks itself is nice and gives cool diversity. Maybe it would be better to start from one skill and with next levels add more with a small description? It will be some motivation to character development :)
"Nie były zbyt irytujące aczkolwiek zauważalne. Skok głównej postaci jest chyba troszeczkę zbyt szybki. Przydałby się jakiś poziom tutorialowy tłumaczący do czego są wszystkie ataki, jak działają na mobki i tak dalej. Dodatkowo przydałoby się jakoś wyjaśnić obecność 2 grywalnych postaci - sowa może dolecieć wszędzie bez podchodzenia do przeciwnika, to trochę zbyt OP, tak samo główna postać może bez problemu dojść na koniec gry. We wszystkich grach w których jest kilka postaci jakieś części są niedostępne dla jednej z nich lub zagadki wymagają współpracy." - [Glitches] Weren't too iritating though noticeable. The main character's jump is a little bit too fast I think. It would be useful to have some tutorial level explaining what each of the attacks does, how mobs act, etcetera. Additionally it would come in handy to somehow explain the presence of 2 playable characters - the owl can fly to everywhere without approaching the enemy, that's a bit OP [over powered], same with the main character who can go to the end of the game without any problems. In all the games in which there are several characters some parts are unavailable for one of them or the puzzles require teamwork.
Summary:
People noticed the bugs but most of them said that they aren't as huge an issue while playing the game. They said that the game is really good as for the early state of it. They really enjoyed the switching between attacks and said there were a lot of nice features for the game. Some of them said that rather than adding more features I should first try to solve the previous bugs (like with collisions). There were also complaints about missing animations just like above. Some other person on Facebook said that the interface should be invisible (or changed) when you swap to the bird which is a good idea.
Question 5 - Story brief
"Jeśli będzie motyw z wybieraniem czy dany jednorożec ma być pokonany czy oszczędzony to jak najbardziej mi się taka opcja podoba. Byłabym niezmiernie miło zaskoczona jeśli nasze wybory decydowałyby o dalszej rozgrywce z różnymi zakończeniami." - If there will be a motive if the given unicorn is going to be defeated or spared then of course I'll like this option. I would be pleasantly surprised if our choices would decide on the further gameplay with several endings.
"Pomysł jest dobry, w tym momencie nie bardzo wiadomo co i czemu chcemy osiągnąć w grze :)" - The idea is good, at this point we don't really know what and why we want to achieve in the game :)
"Moim zdaniem lepiej poprowadzić przygodę głównej postaci w tle fabularnym jako czarodziejkę która zaczyna swoją przygodę i próbuje zmienić zepsuty z jakiegoś powodu świat." - In my opinion it's better to lead the adventure of the main character as a sorcerer who starts her journey and tries to change the world spoiled for some reason.
"Uważam, że to dobry pomysł, złe stworzenia powinny różnić się wyglądem od tych dobrych (powinny nbyć ciemniejsze, lub w zupełnie innych kolotrach)" - I think that it's a good idea, evil creatures should differ from the good ones with looks (they should be darker or in completely different colours).
"Chętnie. Brakuje mi takich pikselowych gier. Zwłaszcza, że całość wygląda przyjemnie i jest to gra, w którą będzie można na spokojnie pograć, bez strachu o FPSy, lagi, czy po prostu wymagania systemowe. No i sam pomysł na fabułe mnie zaciekawił. :)" - Sure. I'm missing pixel games like this one. Especially that the whole looks pleasant and it's a game in which you could calmly play without a fear for FPSs, lags or simply system requirements. And the story idea itself got me interested. :)
"Jak miałoby wyglądać oszczędzenie? Jak w wypadku oszczędzania mobków miałaby uratować świat? Jak kończyłaby levele? Jeśli dasz radę znaleźć na te pytania satysfakcjonujące odpowiedzi, które nie będą pójściem na łatwiznę i czymś nieciekawym do grania, to tak, to spoko pomysł, jeśli nie, to zostałabym przy prostej platformówce." - How the sparing would work? How in case of sparing the mobs she could save the world? How would she finish levels? If you could be able to find a satisfactory answers on these questions, which wouldn't be going the easy way or something dull to play, then yes it's a good idea, if not then I would stay with the simple platformer.
Summary:
Many people liked the idea for the story, some said it sounds like Undertale while others said it's an original idea. Some people wanted to know more and either suggested their own concepts or made me ask myself questions in order to develop the story well.
Question 6 - Additional thoughts
"Myślę, że nie." - I don't think so.
"Co robi żółty pasek? Nigdy mi go nie ubyło, do niczego mi nie służył. Ogólnie wrażenie dobre, szczególnie graficznie. Czuję się tylko trochę zostawiona sama sobie, bo nie dostałam wprowadzenia do fabuły i instrukcji obsługi :)" - What the yellow [stamina] bar does? It never has decreased, it was of no use [the same person who didn't read controls]. Overall the experience is good, especially the graphics. I only feel left on my own, because I didn't get any introduction to the story and the manual :)
"Wystarczy trochę nad tą grą popracować i będzie świetna :)" - I think you only need to work on this game and it will be great :)
"Nie" - Nope
"Dobra robota, oby tak dalej! Czekam na dalsze postępy. :)" - Good job, keep it up! I'm waiting for the further progress. :)
"Ekran startowy mógłby być fajniejszy, brakuje w nim detalu." - The start screen could have been cooler, it lacks detail.
Summary:
There people have just been saying that it's a good game with a good potential and some of them are looking forward to play it in the future. There was some more advice like with not rushing or perfecting the start screen.
Conclusion
Overall I'm content with the outcome, because I know I'm going to continue on the game during summer and next year to make it better and to the standard close to what I wanted it to be. My teacher from the beginning suggested to use Construct 2 because this way I would get more help and everything would be easier and I would do it if it wasn't for the thought of continuing the game and improving it. I personally don't think Construct 2 can make polished games, but Game Maker can, it's just way more difficult. That's why I stuck to Game Maker (Game Maker: Studio actually), because I want to continue on this game and not just have it as the college project.
Another main reason I chose this game and not the other is because at the current state I'm in I wouldn't even start it by now and making it the requirement to pass helped me to make it. Also I like the idea a lot and I prepared some of the artwork last year (the one you can see in the pitch) as well as the concept itself and the story from 2 previous units. This sped up the process and if not my laziness and demotivation I would have achieved more by the end of the project. Because right not it's a tech demo with missing features basically.
In the future I should have more time to improve with coding or at least find someone who'll be likely to help me. I'm also hoping that I'll continue the game to the point where I'll be able to make it a kickstarter or put it on Steam Greenlight. I really want the game to be finished and seem full of features and story and... secrets. My progress will be seen in the GameJolt (and can be followed btw.) but I may also make a game website but that's when I'll have a considerable amount of content and longer gameplay (right not it takes less time than filling a survey).
Another main reason I chose this game and not the other is because at the current state I'm in I wouldn't even start it by now and making it the requirement to pass helped me to make it. Also I like the idea a lot and I prepared some of the artwork last year (the one you can see in the pitch) as well as the concept itself and the story from 2 previous units. This sped up the process and if not my laziness and demotivation I would have achieved more by the end of the project. Because right not it's a tech demo with missing features basically.
In the future I should have more time to improve with coding or at least find someone who'll be likely to help me. I'm also hoping that I'll continue the game to the point where I'll be able to make it a kickstarter or put it on Steam Greenlight. I really want the game to be finished and seem full of features and story and... secrets. My progress will be seen in the GameJolt (and can be followed btw.) but I may also make a game website but that's when I'll have a considerable amount of content and longer gameplay (right not it takes less time than filling a survey).