54 replies to this topic

[traylorpark]

tested on a wiz - not a caanoo

i've downloaded it yesterday and tried it for a few minutes. the art is nice, the engine runs fine. no crashes, either
FPS drop to around 25 FPS sometimes, though. fungp, you said yourself you need to have at least 30fps constantly?

[*]you can't see very much of the course at the moment, it's so beautiful, but i had to turn on the fly-mode to actually see something of it (like the bear at the backside of the (was it a?) tree)

That's great feedback, thank you! You are completely correct about the view and what you can't see ... such as the work I put into baking this ambient occlusion map, for the tree here!



Truthfully, this first map was designed pretty much in the dark, with little planning in terms of scale. Details such as the tree are lost at the moment. It's a great learning experience though!

Edited by traylorpark, 27 October 2010 - 02:31 PM.

[kurtkz]

That being said, per Peter's request I tested with a greater FOV (from 65 -> 75) and you can now see the tree I'll post a screenshot either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

[traylorpark]

Sorry for the quietness ... what's been happening is Kurt and I have been working daily to try and get the gameplay feeling better. We are certainly making progress. We changed camera angles, adjust gravity and a bunch of other stuff. I think the game is starting to feel much better then before.

Of course there are many glaring bugs we are addressing still. Thoughts on how the game feels to you are really helpful!
Nov 3rd Build

[Imerion]

I tried to test the Nov 3rd Build, but it locks up when I try to select the first level. Maybe I missed some info? I use the Wiz-version if that is of help.

[kurtkz]

@imerion: Thanks for testing, the Wiz version I sent Peter actually has a bug that prevents it from loading the level. I've emailed him a new version that fixes this and includes other improvements. He'll probably put up a link tomorrow sometime. Please check it out when he does, I think it's worth the wait

[traylorpark]

I tried to test the Nov 3rd Build, but it locks up when I try to select the first level. Maybe I missed some info? I use the Wiz-version if that is of help.

Hey Imerion, sorry about that, don't wanna leave out Wiz users. I just uploaded a new build that should fix the Wiz problem. In addition, the controls feel even better! Kurts doing a fantastic job ironing all this out.

[Imerion]

Hey Imerion, sorry about that, don't wanna leave out Wiz users. I just uploaded a new build that should fix the Wiz problem. In addition, the controls feel even better! Kurts doing a fantastic job ironing all this out.

Nice! Sorry for taking so long time to get back to you, but I have had much to do lately and simply forgot to check this forum. I just tried the new build and it works great! Very impressive stuff; the graphics are smooth and work well and the ball physics is great! And being able to control the camera at all times is a nice touch! It's hard to judge how far the ball will go when striking though and the club animation looks a bit odd, but I guess that is simply because its such an early version. An idea would be to add some kind of arrow that gets longer the further back the club goes, to show in more detail how much force is used.

Edited by Imerion, 14 November 2010 - 06:47 PM.

[traylorpark]

Hey Imerion, thanks very much coming back with your thoughts. Very helpful!
I agree that its difficult to judge the strength of the hit. Once the club animation/rotation oddness is worked out (it needs to swing back in a proper arc) and the whole hitting process is smoothed out, Ill be interested to hear what yall think and if more visual feedback is needed.

[traylorpark]

Sorry for the quietness ... working daily!
Here's an example of what's coming:

Can you spot the secret hole that takes you to places unknown?

And, I've also been working lotso on the next hole! It features a train, and more color

Edited by traylorpark, 16 November 2010 - 02:15 PM.

[Imerion]

Beautiful!

[Gruso]

So good looking.

[SiENcE]

Wow really nice art-style!! I love it.

[AJack]

Sorry for the quietness ... working daily!
Here's an example of what's coming:

Can you spot the secret hole that takes you to places unknown?

And, I've also been working lotso on the next hole! It features a train, and more color

I've just played the Nov 3 build and it seems you've made a lot of improvements! It all feels a lot sharper and neater now, though if I had one complaint it's that the putter still doesn't seem to really connect with the ball; rather it swings, then the ball goes. Small thing, but an important one I think.

Also, I'd really love to see you go a bit farther with the Origami feel - with all of the possible textures and patterns and beautiful pastel colours and whatnot it seems a pity to have so much teal/grey scenery! On that note, your train level is looking lovely

Keep it up guys!

[traylorpark]

Thanks for the compliments guys! Coming from community members who I really respect, it means a lot!

I've just played the Nov 3 build and it seems you've made a lot of improvements! It all feels a lot sharper and neater now, though if I had one complaint it's that the putter still doesn't seem to really connect with the ball; rather it swings, then the ball goes. Small thing, but an important one I think.

Also, I'd really love to see you go a bit farther with the Origami feel - with all of the possible textures and patterns and beautiful pastel colours and whatnot it seems a pity to have so much teal/grey scenery! On that note, your train level is looking lovely

Keep it up guys!

Ajack, the crits are very useful thanks. I agree that there are some issues still with the actual hitting of the ball. Ive recently learned just how difficult it is to make a club hit a ball in a convincing and enjoyable way. Ahhh, game design

Certinaly, the rotation of the club, speed, strange animation and camera `pop` while swinging and hitting need to get ironed out.

About your thoughts on the drab colors ... yup Ill tell you, initially the drab color was a design choice to make the targets `popping open` more rewarding. But the reward was not worth the sacrifice and the overall enjoyment of the level was compromised. Ive taken a couple steps to try and allieviate the drab colors (youll see in our next builds) but eventually I decided to take what I learned on this level, and move onto the next one.

One thing I learned is ... colors are nice.

Anways, thanks for checking the game out!

[AJack]

Ajack, the crits are very useful thanks. I agree that there are some issues still with the actual hitting of the ball. Ive recently learned just how difficult it is to make a club hit a ball in a convincing and enjoyable way. Ahhh, game design

Certinaly, the rotation of the club, speed, strange animation and camera `pop` while swinging and hitting need to get ironed out.

About your thoughts on the drab colors ... yup Ill tell you, initially the drab color was a design choice to make the targets `popping open` more rewarding. But the reward was not worth the sacrifice and the overall enjoyment of the level was compromised. Ive taken a couple steps to try and allieviate the drab colors (youll see in our next builds) but eventually I decided to take what I learned on this level, and move onto the next one.

One thing I learned is ... colors are nice.

Anways, thanks for checking the game out!

It's a pleasure to be part of the creative process! The other suggestion I forgot to make earlier was that a power bar during the swing animation would also be a great help, as the motion of the club doesn't give a very accurate impression of how hard you're swinging.

As for the art, I'm glad you're going with a more colourful approach as the project moves forward. When I see images like this:



...it really drives home what a beautiful and unique style this game could have