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FANTASIA: Next Direction

  • XBuster
  • 07/08/2012 11:32 PM
  • 2909 views
Recently, I have received so many different kinds of feedback for Fantasia. Some are positive, others negative. However, both help me fix what's wrong with the game.

I am going to read off my "TO FIX" list I wrote on paper before I released the 1.2 demo. This is to let you know what I have planned ahead of time. IF SOMETHING IS CROSSED OUT, IT IS DONE!!

1) Add hitbox detection- Can someone explain in detail what this is? (maybe I should look up a tutorial or ask people on RMN).

2) No more levels or any other content until gameplay is finished- since the update of the game, I've made a test room full of platforms and things that have to be tested. I decided to do this because this is how the most popular game companies develop their games.

3)HUD has to be refined- The HUD is boxy, and has to be redone in some areas. I plan on removing some parts, but they are all necessary. I believe I should remove the score. There isn't a point of this.

4)Add new items or power ups. This could be invincibility, shield, or making the attacks more powerful.

5)Add more platforms- I have the basics, but now I should add more types of them.

6) Attack Engine- I have to wait to get up. I should remove this so the players won't get irritated.

7) Change Sound Effects- some of them need to be removed. Also, people may recognize some of them, so I'm going to be more original.

8) Improve the gameplay engine. I played MegaMan ZX advent and compared the two. This game feels kind of funny compared to it. I'll have to make it play similar to this to make it more fun.

9) Remove extremely familiar music. Some people have never played the games I have. Perhaps I should take from some games they won't recognize. Especially the Final Fantasy III boss theme.


10) The time up was in this game forever. It's about time I make it better than just a message.

11) Add status effects such as Poison, Paralysis, and MP sap.

12) Make a combo engine- One slash is OK, but more would be fun.

13) Fix animation. The animation is good, but some sprites are funny, fix this ASAP.

14) Get rid of any unused material.

15) Finalize controls- Double tap to dash maybe.

16) Add the user's characters. This process is going to be fun! I plan on adding Bai, Ferkin, and Kiki First.

17) Make a way to shake the screen- this is used to make the game effects better. This should be like an earthquake.

18) Fix collision engine. Some of the collisions are weird and may cause bugs.

19) Add more missions. This includes
  • Get all gems

  • Destroy(x)enemies

  • Find(x)item

  • Reach the goal, etc.


20) This game may be too hard for some players. Not many people are as good as I am when it comes to action games(cleared MegaMan ZX advent on Expert). Decreasing this could be great for me and the players. I should start off easier, then go hard. Redoing levels could fix this. However, they have to understand that this is meant to be challenging like MegaMan, not easy like Mario. I love Mario, but his difficulty level isn't what I'm aiming for. But, if that's what they want, I'll give it to them.

21) The music is all Midi and can't loop from a certain point. The media player restarts the song with a certain pause. I can't fix that, but it's not a big problem.

22) There are several glitches such as the health going to -1. I'll have to fix that. Somebody is bound to notice that in the 1.2 demo. But, nothing is final.

23) Due to the change in controls and moving speed for Lydia, some jumps have become harder. Fix this immediately.

24) There is no use for bonus either. Games of this type are about the story and gameplay. Who cares about score if there's no use for it?


25) The gameplay could use more fluidness. Thanks to playing games on my Wii's homebrew channel, I can compare them to my game.

26) Play as many 2D action games and compare them while making this game. Having them by my side should let me compare easily.

27) Test out gameplay. It is good to combine different gameplay elements. Some of them work while others don't. Try out the test room as much as possible.

28) Look up more game maker tutorials and make this game better. People are going to make comments about the good and bad, but I'm ready for them.

29) Fix coding, bugs and finalize Lydia's gameplay elements before moving on to others characters.

30) Add custom controls- this is a high demand right now(although they aren't' that hard to get used to.)

31) Make a damage percentage bar so that (similar to Lufia II and FF VII). The Special attack will be available at 100%

32)Fix the timer, it doesn't stop when you reach the goal.

33) Add Game pad support. This isn't important right now, but It will be added in the final stages of the next demo release. It is also, sort of complex. Hopefully somebody has an easy tutorial. If not, the players will just have to get used to the controls. If they have played with an emulator before, this should be a cake walk.

34) Fix wall jump- the character slides up the wall.

35) Play test. See how long it takes to clear the demo, and watch closely for any bugs. Get some testers to test it before I release it.

36) Fix Ladder movement- I keep getting stuck when I'm too close to a wall.

37)Finally, Release the 1.3 Demo Update

Posts

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This is going in an excellent direction.

Though as for the dash thing, I still highly suggest a button that toggles between running and walking.
author=Gourd_Clae
This is going in an excellent direction.

Though as for the dash thing, I still highly suggest a button that toggles between running and walking.

I forgot to mention that. I'll consider that instead of the tap to dash. Maybe it was better when I had the running button.
Also, one more itty bitty thing:
It would be nice if you could turn around while using your shield. It would get rid of a lot of headache during the bear boss battle.
author=Gourd_Clae
Also, one more itty bitty thing:
It would be nice if you could turn around while using your shield. It would get rid of a lot of headache during the bear boss battle.

Yes, that is in the plan. Recently, I played Monster World IV where you could do this. That game is one of the games I was talking about when it comes to improving the gameplay.

I already knew what most of the flaws were before some people told me about them. But now, I'm pumped up on fixing them. Expect to see a lot of changes when the next demo comes out.
author=Jparker1984
is there a way to add gamepad use.


Yes, that is also in the plan. I'll have to look up a tutorial for that though.
Paralyse!!! I hope it doesn't stops your character for too much time... Being unable to act is bad and frustrating. At least I hate at FFI when all my characters get paralysed by hordes of undeads (which, by the way, are too common!).

17) Make a way to shake the screen- this is used to make the game effects better. This should be like an earthquake.
For this, at least for what I know, you need to control the screen (the active viewport) sepparately. GameMaker has a default "camera" functionality, which makes the screen to follow an object. You can make then 1.a script that controls the camera (changes its X-Y, leaving you to use an "offset value"), or you can add a "camera object", and leave the real camera following it, then moving the camera object to the player position and "unlocking it" at certain times.

And comparing objectively with other existing games is good too. Sometimes one finds that one desired gameplay wasn't that good idea, comparing it to other that does, and finding some minor (or even major) changes that may cause you to enjoy much more you own game! Or at least is what I think...

Anyway, hope you get to do all this list. Cheers!
That's what I'm trying to do right now. The screen shake is actually going great! And, I already made a "Camera Parent object" That is used to follow all the characters.

And yes, comparing is good. I play certain games while making this one.

EDIT: I found out how to do the screen shake! And it works perfectly! So far 5 things are off of the list!

As I cross of things, This blog will change as well. Once they're all gone, I will delete this blog and release the new demo. Check it often for updates.
author=xbuster
1) Add hitbox detection- Can someone explain in detail what this is? (maybe I should look up a tutorial or ask people on RMN).


im probably late but it's basically when you just have the graphics follow a bunch of blocks. In any game really, characters and collisions are just defined by boxes. When you make say... the hero, you don't start off by adding his graphic in, you define how big his vital or collision point is by just making a solid color box. You just add the animations and graphics on top of the box and just make the box invisible while still colliding with other boxes. Basically games are just made up of squares when you think about it.



Chances are you're defining the collisions via the graphics themselves. But if your character is swinging the sword, you need this method in order to tell where she can get hit, and where the sword hits. Otherwise your character sprite's collisions become wonky because it's constantly changing size during animations.
Exactly. I read online how this works and i found out what i was doing wrong. I forgot to uncheck the precise collision marks. Now the game feels much better. I Was using sprites just like you said. Nice catch. Thanks for your support darken:)
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