Super Toaster X: Learn Japanese

Hey guys! This week i’ve been adding some new features and reimplementing old ones, I started off by adding damage markers provided by Etienne. The first attempt came out better than expected:

but still had some obvious flaws, after sorting them out I was left with a much nicer looking display.

After this I worked out reimplementing the taser so now the player can use the taser by holding down the whip button to deal extra damage at the cost of being vulnerable and unable to move.

As you can see these two updates flow quite nicely together.
Greg









Hey, everyone! This week was about finishing up the Main Theme, which you can hear by clicking over to my bandcamp: https://trevor-black.bandcamp.com/track/stg-main-theme-v16

Other than that, Etienne and I started talking about how best to create the kickstarter video. Music seems to be an important part whether or not something is funded - or at least a great trailer, in which music plays a big roll. It’ll likely be a medley of the STG music you’ve heard so far, only cranked up to 11!



-Trev






This week, I started showing some drafts for the title screen here and there. Nothing advanced enough that I’d want to share just yet though. The initial reaction wasn’t very good so I’ll need to work on it some more.

I created a page on RPGmaker.net in order to promote the game a bit more.
http://rpgmaker.net/games/7757/

Apart from that, I spent more time tweeting as Greg was busy with code and Goulven with level design. Greg told me today how not to have my pictures stretched out in twitter so that’ll definitely be a positive in the future. I will probably resubmit the tweets with the correct size because right now it sort looks like crap because of that automatic zoom.

After checking various builds and videos, I decided the hud was too small considering the size of the screen so I redid both. I not only change the sizes of both bars but I also changed the colors, here’s the new version (which is about twice as big). I think the new version will be more readable and won’t have the players squint as much to see what’s going on.


Believe it or not I’m also seriously considering changing the character design entirely! I thought to myself, “He’s SUPER toaster guy… so why not make him more look like a superhero!”

So I doodled this last night:


Would you guys prefer this new version or the older one?

I also redid the BNA flask. Well, not exactly “redid”, that’d be too strong a word. I changed the colors some and animated it.


Goulven has been testing the “game” (still early to call it that) to other people. The feedback regarding the main character, Pan, is very positive. I think this is our strongest asset at the moment.

The main complain came regarding the dynamism of the game (or lack thereof). I actually agree with this complain.
Goulven suggested adding a score or a combo system.

I’m not keen on the score, maybe it’s because I’ve never cared about that in games. I find scores sort of pointless myself unless reaching a certain score does something. I don’t really think it would do much. I’d rather stick with the medal system where the player is awarded one depending on how fast he finished the level, found secrets and killed enemies.

The combo system could work. I was thinking of something like Devil May Cry. Killing foes and grabbing loot could increase your combo meter which would slowly decay over time. This would encourage players to move forward faster. Getting hit would reset the combo to nothing (or reduce it). This would encourage the players to be on their toes and breeze forward.

I was thinking of using different letters for different combo levels. For example:

Awesomest! (still need a bread related pun which would start with the letter A so feel free to share).
Breaderific!
Crusty!
Doughtful


Is that something you would enjoy as players?

That’s about it really. I’m waiting for some trailer ideas from Trevor.

The title screen is a pain to work on. It’s really big if I mess up on the composition it takes a while to start over. I can draft it first, sure, but even then, it takes a while! I wish I could bypass this somehow or just do something really simple which wouldn’t be time consuming.





Not handed in.

- Goulven (Nev)




'Why do you want to get involved in the video game industry?'

Strange as it may seem I don't actually. I don't plan on making lot's of games although I'm sure I'll be making a few.

Programming for me is a hobby and game dev is a part of that; it gives unique challenges and tasks found nowhere else and it gives me something to do in order to practice and improve my programming knowledge.

As far as STG goes I undertook it mainly as a challenge but also as an accomplishment as not many people can say 'I made a game. You can find it online.'

Greg