Aha [0.1.1]

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You are a purple-haired girl who wakes up in an abandoned laboratory with no memory of who or where you are.

Please refrain from looking through the data files. I understand the temptation, but you're only hurting yourself. This mod relies heavily on images and the like to enhance the story, and this can be easily ruined by looking in the game's files.
So please try not to do it, and if you do, please don't spoil it for others.

 

Advice. See how the game is without dialogue. It might be more interesting. Also are you gonna do custom tiles?

 

Ooh, looks interesting, I'll have to try it out when I get on the computer again.

 

I like what you did with the Napalm.
The first boss was easy enough to beat without taking damage.
Do you plan on making the first boss harder?

The title screen song is amazing. I didn't expect a song from The Way to be in this mod.

 

Minor feedback/criticisms:
-The door in the first area disappears into nothing after you go through it (no doorframe) and it looks a bit strange.
-I find the design so far to be a bit plain. A bunch of square rooms with not much going on. This is fine if you plan to improve them, but for now it makes the intro a touch underwhelming.
-Weapons that travel the entire length of the screen at high speed tend to make it difficult to place enemies meaningfully, because the player doesn't have to put themselves at any risk.

tl;dr Like it, want to see more

 

@Hy
Remove the dialogue? I suppose I could remove a few events, like the one when you enter the "Abandoned Area" and maybe the one just before reading the computers, but I think most of the dialogue is important to the plot - which will be discovered later. Oh and I probably won't have custom tiles, but I guess it depends on what direction I pull this mod in. It might be interesting to have a hellish type of tileset (like actual pit of fire and death hell not sacred grounds hell).

The first boss was easy enough to beat without taking damage.
Do you plan on making the first boss harder?

I do. I wanted to put something in there quick to finish the demo because it was like almost 2 am.

The title screen song is amazing. I didn't expect a song from The Way to be in this mod.

Thank you! I worked hard on it for this mod, and I'm very proud of it.

@DT
-Will fix.
-Any suggestions on how to improve them? I've never been really good at making maps (but I guess that's because I've made so few). Should it be longer? Should I add more variety to the tiles (so it looks more broken or something)?
-Will do.

 

You know I could create some custom Titlesets. I think i have a Mario Tileset somewhere on my new laptop.

 

@Hy
Remove the dialogue? I suppose I could remove a few events, like the one when you enter the "Abandoned Area" and maybe the one just before reading the computers, but I think most of the dialogue is important to the plot - which will be discovered later. Oh and I probably won't have custom tiles, but I guess it depends on what direction I pull this mod in. It might be interesting to have a hellish type of tileset (like actual pit of fire and death hell not sacred grounds hell).

No character dialogue as an experimentation. Alot of games have gone without. It lets the player ask what's going on, instead of having the game tell you everything. Body language is even a tool you can try in that field. Not every game needs a textbox, and I've played enough CS mods that this one is less than impressive. Try something new. Cause even custom enemies and bosses and weapons won't change the fact that you're setting up a game with a mystery based story, and a run and gun side scroller.

 

I think that with the story that I'm coming up with she needs her own dialogue, it won't be as effective without it. I know that most games have non-speaking protagonists, but unless you have some way of controlling their emotions and portraying them to the audience then it's hard to make a moody story about the protagonist if s/he doesn't speak. She needs character development, and I just can't do that very well if she doesn't talk.

 

i wish my AlienWare Didnt Broke Even Cave Story Lags In This Stupid old computer

 

-Any suggestions on how to improve them? I've never been really good at making maps (but I guess that's because I've made so few). Should it be longer? Should I add more variety to the tiles (so it looks more broken or something)?

It's more that most of what's there at the moment is empty space. There could be more things to look at or interact with (e.g. more evidence of what happened before the game started), or multiple floors/height levels to explore. If you're game enough, you could even try adding in some exploration after the intro but before reaching the lab.

 

Sorry for late response.
I can probably conjure something up. I really do like that exploration idea. I haven't really done anything else for this mod since the demo, since my friends got me hooked on some game. Also being an above-average student is difficult, and I have a job now too.

 

New update. I've added in a bunch more stuff including some cool assembly stuffs and a few more rooms.

 

I got a weird message after completing the demo on the easy mode thing, something similar to this:

•s–¾,Ì∫R[∫h:<BIT

Anyway, I don't know about anything else that is glitch-like or out of the ordinary at the moment yet, I was in a bit of a hurry.

 

Damn it I forgot to take out easy mode
It was something I was just testing for later when I actually have some larger maps and puzzles to show for my mod.
Thanks for playing :3

 

need to
- add skipflags
- remove invisible walls (especially the ceiling in computer room)
- make it possible not to do easy mode
- don't have a walk-through-able block maze in the computer room (personally I find these irritating)
- if you die and return to the savepoint which is directly after igor, the sparkly thing is still there and the tiles haven't changed yet
- you exit the evil labyrinth thing to the right, but enter the outer wall heading to the left. my sense of geometry feels slighted

hmmmm otherwise pretty good!
(the other suggestions may be helpful as well. a lot of what purple girl said seemed redundant and or obvious and thus annoyed me a bit I guess? so either be supra clevar in monologueing or try hy's suggestion)

e: also the environment changes ridiculously quickly (e.g. lab to thingy to outerwall), which leaves me fairly disoriented. try to keep the same environmental motif a bit longer?

e2: woo no caps.

 

- add skipflags

Will do

- remove invisible walls (especially the ceiling in computer room)

Fine I'll add ceilings.

- make it possible not to do easy mode

I did? It sets a flag if you say yes and doesn't if you say no. Also as I said before easy mode wasn't supposed to be there.

- don't have a walk-through-able block maze in the computer room (personally I find these irritating)

Alright, I'll see if I can think of something better.

- if you die and return to the savepoint which is directly after igor, the sparkly thing is still there and the tiles haven't changed yet

Oh right I forgot about that

- you exit the evil labyrinth thing to the right, but enter the outer wall heading to the left. my sense of geometry feels slighted

Good point.

hmmmm otherwise pretty good!
(the other suggestions may be helpful as well. a lot of what purple girl said seemed redundant and or obvious and thus annoyed me a bit I guess? so either be supra clevar in monologueing or try hy's suggestion)

Hey thanks, I appreciate it :3
And I still firmly stand by the idea that Purple should have a voice. I can trim down the dialogue, though.

e: also the environment changes ridiculously quickly (e.g. lab to thingy to outerwall), which leaves me fairly disoriented. try to keep the same environmental motif a bit longer?

I can fix that.

 

Play'd

Feedback: Loop 2

-The intro area is definitely improved from what I remember. Nice trick with the statue too, I wasn't expecting that
-Doors, the door going from the Restricted Area to the Storage first lets you move and then doesn't open. Shane on you Might have been a couple of others as well, there usually is.
-There's a heal + save terminal in the boss room, followed immediately by a healing pod?
-The amount of HP available is rather high compared to the damage enemies do, although this may be to do with being stuck in easy mode.

Not a lot to add since the last update obvs. What's here so far is solid enough, although I question the tone a little. I can't tell if the mod is meant to be overtly serious (e.g. everyone dead) or humourous (e.g. booster text; it looks like some of these could be placeholders). It's still a bit early to comment on the plot, but if you haven't already I'd advise making sure you've got all the basics ironed out before continuing, so you can start looking for places to add extra content in. If you can't think of much, it might be better to keep things short and sweet instead of trying to string them out over something CS's length (see: too many other mods ).

 

What's here so far is solid enough, although I question the tone a little. I can't tell if the mod is meant to be overtly serious (e.g. everyone dead) or humourous (e.g. booster text; it looks like some of these could be placeholders). It's still a bit early to comment on the plot, but if you haven't already I'd advise making sure you've got all the basics ironed out before continuing, so you can start looking for places to add extra content in. If you can't think of much, it might be better to keep things short and sweet instead of trying to string them out over something CS's length (see: too many other mods ).

I was kind of thinking the same thing. I think I was trying to stuff too much plot into the beginning area, and it was really hard trying to figure out what to take out and what to keep.
So, I decided to start over. I kept the start point and part of the second map, but everything else is going to be new. Purple won't talk anymore, either.
Oh, and the best part: the game is now purely story and exploration. There isn't even a PC anymore.

Also thanks for the feedback. I'll be sure to double-check everything as I go along next time.

New version, OP.
Man that was a lot of work. I really feel like I achieved something with this version. Please tell me what you think and how I can improve.

 

Woot. I am enthralled, despite my avatar's expression. Oddly enough, many mods don't let you explore. Weird. Oh, something to keep in mind as I just learned this and it's awesome. Sequence breaking is amazing and you should make it possible. Super Metroid does it by hiding abilities from you that can be used to overcome certain obstacles, eg the wall jump, which is totally hidden until 3/4s of the game are over. It makes the player feel like they have a direct influence on the game, and man oh man is it fun. "Matt got a chance to replay Super Metroid".

So is the setting going to changeat all from this? Will we get to see the outside of the science place? Underground stuff maybe? I really want to see what happens.