Bless You, Rip

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O6CCmFAWIs[/media]

Bless You, Rip is an action adventure game starring a rabbit boy named Rip, who must find his missing brother. Along with his friends, he sets off to explore unfamiliar parts of the city while fending off an invasion of strange creatures.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

You can download the demo here.

More about development:
Nighth and I have been working on this game for nearly a year now, and we finally have enough content to put together a demo.
It's being coded in java, and the music is made in psycle for the most part. Nighth uses SAI for drawing most of the background scenery.

I hope you enjoy the demo.

 

I played this demo and it was good.

'-')b

 

Oh, Rip! I think I've seen this on your Tumblr before. :3

It's nice that you've only made a thread here now that you have a demo ready. I'll try playing it whenever I can (read:a few years from now, probably) and tell you what I think, but I can already see that the art style is glorious. It's nighth, after all. -w-

 

This is really polished, its a pretty good mod.

 

This is really polished, its a pretty good mod.

This isn't a mod.

Also, I just played the demo and I absolutely LOVED it!

 

Mod, demo same thing in my world; if it has content it considered a mod, like my demo/mod (you don't see me call my mod a demo do I?).

 

Mod, demo same thing in my world; if it has content it considered a mod, like my demo/mod (you don't see me call my mod a demo do I?).

This isn't a fucking Cave Story mod or fangame.

 

Mod, demo same thing in my world; if it has content it considered a mod, like my demo/mod (you don't see me call my mod a demo do I?).

Dude, check out this new mod, you could even call it a demo if you feel like:

http://youtu.be/8hP9D6kZseM

 

Just finished it and it's great so far, and I especially love the music, but I found some things which might want to be looked into.

Spoiler

One, whenever the music changes it takes a few seconds for sounds and music to start playing. I know it happens whenever the music changes because of the boss fight, both while fighting the boss and after, the music and sounds took some time before playing.
Two, I can clip through the slide that's in the playground right onto the enemy below. If it's intentional, then that's... weird level design, but I don't think it is intentional. (Specifically, it's where the ramp and the sandbox connect that I clip through.)

 

Just finished it and it's great so far, and I especially love the music, but I found some things which might want to be looked into.

Spoiler

One, whenever the music changes it takes a few seconds for sounds and music to start playing. I know it happens whenever the music changes because of the boss fight, both while fighting the boss and after, the music and sounds took some time before playing.
Two, I can clip through the slide that's in the playground right onto the enemy below. If it's intentional, then that's... weird level design, but I don't think it is intentional. (Specifically, it's where the ramp and the sandbox connect that I clip through.)

Thanks! And:

Spoiler

1) Yeah not sure what to do about the music loading slow. On my computer it only takes like half a second, so it is dependent on the user's system.
2) That's intentional so that you don't have to walk all the way to the left just to go to the right. It's not really "clipping through".

Also, I just played the demo and I absolutely LOVED it!

Thank you!

 

Hey guys, I'm gonna be streaming this right now.
http://livestream.com/dunc2403
http://www.livestream.com/dunc2403/video?clipId=pla_86a3d1d2-82ea-483e-b9df-1a3d3b42cac0

Stream over, thank you all for watching.

 

Spoiler

I replayed; tried to unlock an alternate route by ignoring Risa as much as possible, attempted to not wreck the sand castle, and have Jay pick the lock... alas...

Review :

Spoiler

I wasn't sure if the game was going to run well enough to play on this PC, but after struggling for a bit; I wised up and ran the game with only default system processes and it ran well in windowed mode.

Windows 7, Home Premium 64-bit; 6 GB RAM; Pentium Dual-Core E5400 @ 2.70GHz; Intel G33/G31 Express (Chipset Display Adapter); Realtek High Definition Audio
Java Version 7 Update 55

It looked like task manager was showing that the CPU was the culprit. The game only used around 44% average CPU for the java process, but adding in system processes it somehow reached 74 to 90% when running smoothly.
Any higher and performance in the game begins to suffer as follows :
All sounds took a long time to load (up to 30 seconds) with each new song in this state. On the larger forest levels, the input cache also overloaded, resulting in glitch input : walking into things/swinging wildly at the air/parasite to the knee aka R.I.P.

But, as long as you keep CPU max around 90% there should be no issues.
Just thought you might be interested in system feedback.
.
.
.

With that out of the way!
The art was wonderful. Ever since I first saw the tutorial video on youtube, I've been anticipating this game; and the art surpassed expectations ;D A lot of variety, and some memorable scenes.

On the other hand the story, dialogue and characters didn't resonate deeply with me after the tutorial; well at least until towards the end. I suppose it was the mostly casual nature of the danger. I was more concerned with finding Zip, than of the strange parasite (evil ikachan-ish?) invasion that except for Chloe, didn't seem to be too concerned (Risa on the other hand has been waiting for this glorious day, to show the world what she's made of xD)

But, I am curious to see where things lead. To see what has become of Zip... And I do admit they seem like a good group of friends. Given time I could warm up to their group...


Gameplay wise, I find the battles a bit frustrating. With the mostly random nature of their movements, I have to keep on guard to whack 'em as soon as they twitch into range. Slow and careful, or risk piling on damage and dying in a scenic park where kids are playing... urgh, the floaters!
But, the boss... now that was very sweet. Too awesome for a first boss. I was hoping for a slight change in behavior when his health was low, but <3

Oh on the subject of gameplay, my initial impression of turning was that the screen jolted a bit too quickly to the other side. But, I got used to it, and plus I started when the CPU was maxing out, resulting in an overly laggy experience. So, with that bias, I missed my chance to objectively make a good decision...

The music was good. It didn't stand out to me, but it fit very well. Reminded me of some indie games I've played at some point... Can't remember names...

And, SFX gets a thumbs up. Nice.

Summary :
The game just blends well. Art + Music = transitive floaty happiness, kinda like a dandelion
There might be a possibility for a darker twist to the story (RIP), but it could also be a thematic fable that many kids could enjoy.
Anyway, seems original; and I approve ;D

Question : Will the final release be free? With a donate button? Or do you have other plans in mind?

 

I haven't finished the demo yet, but I like it :3
It's a bit laggy on my laptop though, which sucks.
Also, were the parasites based off viruses? I realized they very closely resemble the structure of envelope and complex viruses..

Anyways, Rip seems like a good game so far, so I'll be looking forward to its completion. ^^

 

Updated the download link.

ver 0.1.0.1
-camera made to be less jumpy when turning left or right
-save added at the beginning of the park
-less lag on swinging of axe
-less lag on jumping
-enemies behave more "predictably"
-health drop rate slightly increased
-fixed a scripting bug (found by randompebble)

Play it and uh tell me if it fixes some of the issues you guys were having with combat.

 

Nitpick time.

A nitpick of course but it annoys me every time, because I always try to jump at the edge of platforms, and because of the small fall, you're not able to jump and end up falling off the platform.

Other then that, I like the changes you've made.

 

Some technical issues. (And it's probably on my end, because no one else is having these problems)
I'm getting a permanent white screen when I boot up the demo.

I wouldn't doubt that it's OS problems, but I dunno, really.

 

This demo is actually decently long, as I haven't finished it yet, but I like it. I do have a couple criticisms.

Spoiler

The jumping for one thing, works pretty well. I do want to point out that the running jump feels a bit stiff and not as impactful as I would expect from it. I like the delay on the jump but I think that the running jump could do with less of or no delay on it.
Speaking of the running, it doesn't seem all that responsive, as I would often try to run and jump but instead just jump.
Another thing is that the attacking also doesn't seem as responsive as it could be, this could easily be due to the charge up mechanic or just intended, I like a more fluent attack, that is just a personal thing.
One more thing, and I think it's my biggest annoyance, is that the little enemies move really randomly and there's no real way to predict them and I find myself getting hit by the constantly. Perhaps an actual pattern could help, or just have them drop more health when killed.
As for everything else, the graphics are stunning and are extremely nice to look at. The character designs are also pretty neat. Not to mention the illustrations that I very frequently find while playing.
The music, while not the most catchy stuff on the planet, is really awesome and is particularly calming and suits the atmosphere. I remember that program Psycle, nice use of it!
The story, since I haven't finished the demo, I can't really say is particularly great as I haven't witnessed a whole lot of it. I will say I really like Risa as a character, and the others look great and everything.
Overall I see a lot of potential despite the gripes I had with it. I can see a clear influence from Cave Story, but that's definitely not a bad thing. It's unique enough that it really doesn't matter. I would probably buy the finished product if it was sold. Keep up the nice work GIR, and good luck in the future with this game!

 

Looking great so far, Gir. The music is awesome, the graphics are cool, and the art is adorable. Keep up the good work.

 

Found a random bug.
While talking to Chloe with 1 HP left, a virus-flier flew through the ground and attacked me right after the cutscene ended, killing me instantly. I didn't expect it either, when Chloe was talking about Jay it just flew through the platform and started pushing me, and immediately killed me when I was vulnerable.
...I must say, this game over music is relaxing.

 

This demo is actually decently long, as I haven't finished it yet, but I like it. I do have a couple criticisms.

Spoiler

The jumping for one thing, works pretty well. I do want to point out that the running jump feels a bit stiff and not as impactful as I would expect from it. I like the delay on the jump but I think that the running jump could do with less of or no delay on it.
Speaking of the running, it doesn't seem all that responsive, as I would often try to run and jump but instead just jump.
Another thing is that the attacking also doesn't seem as responsive as it could be, this could easily be due to the charge up mechanic or just intended, I like a more fluent attack, that is just a personal thing.
One more thing, and I think it's my biggest annoyance, is that the little enemies move really randomly and there's no real way to predict them and I find myself getting hit by the constantly. Perhaps an actual pattern could help, or just have them drop more health when killed.
As for everything else, the graphics are stunning and are extremely nice to look at. The character designs are also pretty neat. Not to mention the illustrations that I very frequently find while playing.
The music, while not the most catchy stuff on the planet, is really awesome and is particularly calming and suits the atmosphere. I remember that program Psycle, nice use of it!
The story, since I haven't finished the demo, I can't really say is particularly great as I haven't witnessed a whole lot of it. I will say I really like Risa as a character, and the others look great and everything.
Overall I see a lot of potential despite the gripes I had with it. I can see a clear influence from Cave Story, but that's definitely not a bad thing. It's unique enough that it really doesn't matter. I would probably buy the finished product if it was sold. Keep up the nice work GIR, and good luck in the future with this game!

I'd recommend you download v0.1.0.1, since I think it addresses some of the issues you were having with combat and jumping.

Thanks for the feedback!

Found a random bug.
While talking to Chloe with 1 HP left, a virus-flier flew through the ground and attacked me right after the cutscene ended, killing me instantly. I didn't expect it either, when Chloe was talking about Jay it just flew through the platform and started pushing me, and immediately killed me when I was vulnerable.
...I must say, this game over music is relaxing.

I'll see if I can fix that for next release.

Some technical issues. (And it's probably on my end, because no one else is having these problems)
I'm getting a permanent white screen when I boot up the demo.

I wouldn't doubt that it's OS problems, but I dunno, really.

What version of java do you have installed, and where is it (what directory did you install it in?)