The Temple of Unusuals

Nov 29, 2015 at 3:51 AM
The "C" in "college" is for "crippling debt".
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Maybe you should just leave him alone?

I'm not assaulting him for being multi-lingual, I'm just not going to all of a sudden say, "Oh, English is not your native language? Well then that makes the grammar and dialog perfect!" Because that's not how people learn. If I have the time I'll post a rewording of the intro to be grammatically correct and flow better.
 
Nov 29, 2015 at 5:33 AM
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I... think I get the picture on what you say...

But that will be nice if the rewording was posted (but in a spoiler) and I will take careful consideration and replace what is necessary for Demo 2.

Currently started to work on Level 3. Obviously progress will be exceptionally slow. Depending on how much free time I have in my hands, I cannot guarantee the next Demo release.
 
Nov 29, 2015 at 5:35 AM
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I don't know, maybe it's because of SuperJaws' apparent "pain", but I wasn't really bothered by the grammar. It just seemed like the word choice in the intro (which is about as far as I got) was kind of awkward and a bit too wordy, but the spelling was fine. While I do like reading up on intros, this one did seem a tad excessive, even when consent to read it is given.

I quite enjoyed the opening sequence when you first open up the game, and the cursor though.


So I spent like more time than I should have looking through the intro sequence from when Curly falls to when the "Temple Base" destination is reached.

I'm no grammar expert, but here are a few suggestions:

(Your text, as presented in the mod, is in italics. The suggested sentence rewrite will be in quotes. Just general commentary will be in normal text.)

Enjoy the MOD while you can!

Consider simply "Enjoy the demo!" or "I hope you enjoy the mod in its current state!", as "while you can" comes off as being a bit...threatening? hehehe

Near their dwelling place, under the surface, lies another one of Jenka's buildings.
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This underground building is known as the "Temple of Unusuals," a horrible, torturous place.


"Temple of Unusuals" encompasses the entire name of the building, thus any punctuation should be placed outside the quotations - ie. "Temple of Unusuals", a horrible, torturous place.

Personally I would replace the comma between "horrible" and "torturous" with "and", but it does give it a bit more of a legend-y feel I guess.

This underground building is known as the "Temple of Unusuals", a horrible, torturous place.

The entrance emits a strange suctioning wind straight up from the center,
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allowing to seemingly catch anyone who happen to fly across it, pulling them right into it.


It was a trap devised by Jenka to catch an individual and pit them in a field of unusual things.
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As Balrog, having no clue on what has happening when they had felt turbulence while flying...
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The suctioning wind began to become fierce as if it were really trying to pull him in. Now...


In the first above section, consider changing "pit" to "put" - "pit" in its verb form means "oppose" or "fight". When swapping out "pit" with "fight", the sentence no longer makes sense - is Jenka going to fight the individual?

As for the second portion - from what I gather, you're trying to say that Balrog doesn't know that Curly has fallen, yet he is able to feel the force of the wind? "Suctioning" isn't a word, and not one I've typically seen people use to describe wind. We already get the sense that Balrog is being drawn in by the wind, but I think that being able to state what is actually happening rather than what seems like is happening will make the statement more effective. It's okay to make a general statement in the introduction (imo); if there's more to what actually happens, then that will (or should be) explained to the player as they continue along in the mod.

The verb tense suddenly changes in the third section - it's quite easy to slip up, so be wary. Since the majority of your narrative is in present tense, we could make these two sections separate sentences, so something like

Balrog, unaware of (Quote and) Curly's current situation, begins to feel the wind's force as though it is trying to pull him in.

- or "draw him close" maybe. :/ I put (Quote and) because I'm not sure if Quote was also part of the falling scene. Also, consider putting "Now..." as the start of the next dialogue box sequence.

Quote and Curly Brace who were riding him encouraged him to flap his wings rapidly, but to no avail.

Wait, what? Quote was also with Curly? Oops, I almost missed that detail. The opening sequence, while very pretty to look at, also happens quite quickly. Additionally, with only Curly falling down the chasm, I assumed it was just Curly on Balrog. My bad.

I'm not certain on why this sentence makes sense at this point, but I can suggest making the verbs present tense (and place it in the order of when the events actually occur).

Quote and Curly Brace, riding on Balrog, encourage him to flap his wings rapidly, but to no avail.

The wind had surrounded everyone, and they were still trying to break free from the grip.

The wind surrounds everyone, still trying to break free from the wind's grip.

They both held on tight, but unfortunately the wind was too powerful for them to escape. Then...

Both, as in Quote and Curly? I thought Balrog was also part of the wind storm. "Both" implies there are only two individuals involved.

Consider:
They hold on tight, but, unfortunately, the wind is too powerful for them to escape.
They hold on tight, but the wind is unfortunately too powerful for them to escape.
or specifying "Quote and Curly" in the place of "They" if you are simply referring to the two of them and not Balrog (who are holding on tight).

Curly lost the will to hang on, and had fallen inside the Temple, which apparently closed off itself!

For better flow, try rearranging around the order of the clauses, like
Losing the will to hang on, Curly has fallen into the temple, which apparently closes off itself!

Now, at the very bottom of this dark place, she tries to find answers and her way out of here.

I feel like this would be more "punchline" worthy if it was just kept to "finding answers" or "finding her way out of here. And perhaps something more descriptive than "tries", like "seeks" or "struggles".

I think, overall, the whole awkwardness of the introduction mostly comes from the order of the sentences and how they don't really seem to flow. Try listing out the main points of sequence of events and maybe devising the introduction like that? Right now it seems to talk about the temple, then jump back to what happened with Curly falling, and it came across as being way too abrupt.

I've just caught grammar mistakes in my own corrections. My bad, heh. Also it doesn't help that I've been calling a "temple" a "template". So if "template" is seen, I most likely meant to say "temple". :p
 
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Dec 10, 2015 at 9:49 AM
Catz R cool
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I must admit, those levels are really difficult, and 90% of that difficulty comes from no save points.

Here are a few points:
  1. The death animation and the auto-scroll maps are really good ideas!
  2. A few dodgy flat walls along levels 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-5, 1-6, 1-7, 1-8... Basically a bit on every level
  3. What's the point of the inaccessible area with loads of spikes in levels like 2-1?
  4. The auto-guns are a pretty good idea, I had similar ones in my mod too! But if you stay within the H/V triggers, they will be able to shoot you, but can't damage you due to the event thing.
  5. Level 2-5, My OCD is not really taking your tiling in the water current area (Lower left part of the map) well.
  6. Level 2-5 secret path thingy. The tileset looks like it could do with a lot of work, as it looks extremely dodgy. Also the flea boss is a bit too hard because you have to take over half your health in damage to enter the fight. I ended up removing the two spikes that he pushes you into in order to survive!
  7. Level 2-6 Yes, I can see that! (Curly Brace, she's a beaut pretty girl *giggle*), also it is extremely brutal to force players to restart all that after they go down the wrong passage just because it isn't revealed to them previously and the map doesn't work.
  8. 2-7, not much to say here besides the flat rock
  9. 2-8, more flat rock, and yes, I forgot to mention, the critters that spawn from the rocks really just look so awkward.
  10. Basically, to conclude, this is a mod with creative ideas, but could still do with some work.
 
Dec 11, 2015 at 7:53 AM
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Thank you for your input.

Secret areas where you can get upgrades can be very tricky, make sure there is enough health. Like the first post says.

Number 2, the first autogun in the very first stage is entirely functional by "moving" a lot of blank NPCs in the line of fire, set to call event if touched. (This resets the mercy-invincibility... :( ) The rest of the guns are just merely 2-pointed H/V triggers. You CAN destroy them by just getting closer enough to the line of fire. Your Machine Gun bullets do angle to hit. Guns had shootable shutter stuck NPCs, set to call an event on death, deleting all the H/Vs and SNPing the EXP or a Heart.

Welp, about number 7. It was intentional. You cannot see that "Easter Egg" in-game and Map System cannot work due to it being auto-scroll. ... Hmm, I think I will have to update the demo because it seems you have discovered the wait-frame in the script was too long. Either I reduce it or replace <END with an event jump to the "Never Seen Again" event. The demo update will now actually have the edited introduction Random-storykeeper had suggested.

I already began construction on Level 3 for Demo 2. (After receiving all the critiques, once I get all 8 levels and ending done, I will actually make private release candidates available only via PM requests for play-testing after I first test.)

Auto scrolling-were made possible by many lift-block NPCs and for the fast-move, had them change to modified Santa and Chaco running NPCs. (They have no gravity when they move, you don't see the characters, camera focuses on the Chaco one, and the Santas are Solid.)

EDIT 12/11/2015 1:59 AM PST: Demo 1 updated to 0.0.5.2, wait-frames for taking the wrong path in 2-6 have been halved. Intro and Jenka's Note revised. Boss fight in 2-8 tweaked. EDIT: If you downloaded before 2:40 AM PST, please re-download it. This fixes the CMP issue after beating the 2-8 boss.
 
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Dec 12, 2015 at 4:51 AM
Catz R cool
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Yes, I realised how those mechanics worked, thank you very much. I was just saying that they were good ideas, that's all.
 
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