A Gamer's Journey - Update 7-4-16 "Prerelease Build 1" (Abandoned project)

[TheGamerGuy500]

As a side project while I waited for the full results to see how well Anarchistificationator did, I started work on this game.
Anarchistificationator bombed. Horribly. Not even in the top 5 of the contest. Special thanks to ParagusRants for putting my game on his top 5 though. The project was abandoned on the contest judging days of this year.

It is a fangame that is kinda really story-based with a lot of dialog, while still maintaining fangame uh.... assets. Also, it's heavily inspired by the early prototypes of Wings of Vi, as well as Undertale, Shantae, Mega Man, and Mother 3.
Anyway, onto what it's all about.
This is the story of the 500th Gamer Guy of his kind. He wakes up in his house, right before his brother goes out to get the groceries this week when out of literal nowhere his brother disappears and so does lots of the landscape.

Anywho, to the good stuff.
First, the changelog.

(click to show/hide)

(click to show/hide)

Attempted to streamline most of the dialog, dunno if I succeeded or not.
Polished most of the areas visually.
Some fixes for masochist mode.
The cloud area now has a purpose, timing with moving hazards.
Decorated the hell outta the labyrinth. I didn't have any "cracked wall" tiles.
New tiles and look for the marsh, rainy field, and other areas.
Any areas with spikes now have their own themed spikes to reduce or eliminate monotony.
Platforms in most areas now have their own themed platforms.
Bug fixes for the partners, they should work again with gaps between the player and the partners.
Added a new partner: Gyro Redcliff (Press 1,2,3,4 in debug mode to spawn partners.)
Added just one new room: The dream area. It will be relevant to the plot later.
Added dev notes signs around to show you what was going through my head while making this.
Attempted to eliminate monotony.
Music now dies when you do, and plays one of 7 death themes.
Changed tag: Alpha Build 2.
Removed "IM SORRY PLAYER :c" because I really should have done that before AB1.
Various other minor changes.

(click to show/hide)

Added some new areas and decorated them.
Buffed an animation for the debug-partner Ana ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).
Added a new partner.
Added some EarthBound-ish effects for the bosses.
Also, added a new boss.
Battle backgrounds for each boss.
Health bars fade out when defeating a boss.
In rage mode, the bosses glow red.
Ey b0ss.
Added a cave, ocean, and second labyrinth.
Gone back to the retro physics (AKA yuutuu engine physics.) Tell me if you find any physics-related bugs.
Every form of stretched or morphed object now has a blur effect to make things look nicer. Also works for fullscreen.
Fixed the fullscreen.
Was going to take out a couple things from the first boss, but the changes I made to his attacks are more than compensation for what I was going to remove.
The first boss' slash attacks change size and speed with each difficulty. Newcomer mode has tiny and slow ones, PSYCHOPATH mode has large and fast ones.
Fixed the ambient wind music and boss room theme playing both at once.
More masochist mode fixes.
Changes to the spike graphics for the labyrinths. They should be easier to see.
Portals are now colored to show the dominant color of the room it leads to.
Some sand in the sand area overlaps the water. Whoops.
Decorated every area that wasn't decorated enough.
Added some debug functions. Press W to summon a Rush Jet to freefly. Jump to get rid of it. Press T to pull up a room switcher and teleport EarthBound style. Don't crash into anything!
Added 5 more death themes.
Changed tag: Alpha Build 3.
Other minor changes.

(click to show/hide)

Added a debug level select that is similar to the Sonic 2 beta.
Changed the title screen music.
Added level slots in the level select for upcoming zones. Check them out for previews at upcoming areas.
Debug mode is now a cheat instead of a button toggle in-game. Read the readme (A Good Read) for details.
Press L in debug mode to return to the level select.
Fixed the file selection area-names.
Fixed the blurry partners glitch.
Changed the message of the day and credits to reflect the "BETA" tag.
Changed tag - Beta Build 1.
Other minor tweaks.

(click to show/hide)

Added a story and gentle intro to the game.
Psychopath mode is now it's own dark storyline.
Brought back the cursor from Anarchistificationator.
Added a fade transition to the level select.
Added a sinewave effect to the save points.
Changed the first area's rain to actual particles instead of a static background.
Still haven't added that snow world.
Added the game-complete sequence and ending screen.
Removed the end-results with time and deaths.
Last update until I actually get off my chair and make some new levels.
Please enjoy the ending sequence. it's kind of like a recollection mode or a "hey this area looks so different now" or a "hey I kinda didn't want it to be over" thing.
Adjusted the credits speed and timing. Twice.
No wait, 3 times.
4.
Maybe 5?
Added NPC's in cabins as friendservice. Totally forgot to put some in the mines and ocean area.
Forgot to add the main cast of characters along with Klazen108 into the credits. Fix that later.
The psychopath mode and recollection sequence may be a bit shaky.
Changed the god mode aura.
Added new debug functions. They WILL crash the game if abused too much. So be gentle and keep that numLock on.
Lol, UnderTale references.
Other things...
Changed tag: Beta Build 2.

(click to show/hide)

Added a snow area. Merry Christmas.
The game music now is affected by how fast your computer runs relative to the game's natural speed. It'll decrease the music speed/pitch if your computer runs slower than 50 FPS.
Got a new logo and title screen.
Added about 8 more death themes.
Added the 4th partner: Ana from MTHER.
Switched GameMaker versions I think, right before release (got new comp for christmas with a version of GMStudio preinstalled. PLEASE TELL ME IF THE PHYSICS ARE BROKE.)
Tried to add "merry christmas and happy new year" to the message of the day, but see the above note. I don't have that font on this thing yet.
Made the masochist snow area not impossible-ish.
Added some more NPC huts.
Fixes for psychopath mode.
Renamed psychopath mode to lunatic mode, then changed it back.
Fixed the player running animation. It was offcenter by 1 pixel.
Added more sounds to the sound test in the level select.
The Kid makes an appearance and completely calls out every fangame maker ever.
Added more information to the debug mode info list.
Kinda fixed the spam-shift-to-break-the-game-from-the-logo-screen glitch.
Fixed the save-zero glitch kinda?
Moved the title, options, difficulty, file select, and controls to one single room. They function as before, but with more efficiency now.
Changed the rain particles again.
Removed the option to change music speeds since that's overridden by the new music speed updater.
Fixed some dialog.
Clicking the blood, GAME OVER screen, save points, etc, now display the correct key to press to interact with them respectively.
The cursor lights up when selecting my logo or the reset controls option on the main menu.
Other small, minute differences.
Changed tag: Beta Build 3.

(click to show/hide)

Added a pause menu, so you can change options and view progress in-game.
Added cloaks, that allow you to play as AGJ-art-styled video game characters. You can find these sitting around in levels, but you'll have to remember it's location usually after seeing it the first time since it has to do with screen transitions.
Made each difficulty more different. You get different ending screen musics, as well as different rewards for beating higher difficulty modes.
Still didn't make that ice area.
Changed the debug-partner Diane's hair.
Changed the credits area to look a lot nicer.
Updated Ira's design so she doesn't have a massive head compared to anyone else.
Changed areas to have secret chests.
Fixed the backtracking somewhat.
Updated how the partners move. Now they only move when you do, or when you aren't on the same y-level.
Added more stuff to the sound test.
Fixed the lightning shocking the water in LubLub's boss room so when you die, your blood shows up in the correct place.
LubLub's intro has the mask guy behind him, when the battle starts he'll do a kinda "ATTAAAACK!" sort of gesture.
Changed the dialog in most if not all places so you can read names easier.
Made my title screen logo less intrusive.
Fixed some spots where you could spawn a dialog box and unfreeze yourself when you shouldn't.
Added 2 new buttons: MENU and ACTION. ACTION does nothing right now...
If you complete psychopath mode, something bad happens to future playthroughs...
Added the chests not normally found in the normal game to the areas which they will be found. Debug mode required for those.
Added Ana's extra dialog at the ending house.
Other small details.
Changed tag: Beta Build 4.

(click to show/hide)

Fixed many bugs with BB4.
Added modifiers that can change up the game, and new ones are unlocked by beating certain difficulty modes.
Added the last boss and a way to get to it without debugging.
Added the last 2 partners though they kinda randomly teleport in at one point.
Added the entire ending sequence.
Fixed a bug with the modifiers menu not indicating when a mod is enabled if you switch out of that menu.
Took wayyyy longer than it should have.
Added an ice area complete with ice physics that persist in mid air!
Added a few chests in the post-game if you go into the computer room you can get cloaks of some of the partners depending on the difficulty played on.
Changed the message of the day.
Tweaked the save placement, a lot. Like a lot a lot.
The game should be much easier even on wayfarer now.
Added an effect to saving for that added "SAVED!!!"
The save points float instead of just stand there.
Realistic mode has a few more dialog spots.
Changed the spike blocks for the first boss so there's only one.
The debug info in the top left in debug mode can be shortened with the D key.
Changed up the psychopath mode boss.
Nerfed it, even though psychopathics wouldn't deserve that.
Justified the psychopath realistic combo endings.
Added more stuff to the sound test.
Changed a few of the ending texts.
Adjusted platform speed in the cave area.
Adjusted a few chest placements.
Allowed for skipping more dialog scenes due to a fix in my event runner's code.
Changed the title screen music.
Entered a modified version of this one into the contest.
Other minor things.
Changed tag: Beta Build 4.5.
Changed tag again: Prerelease Build 1.

Next, screenshots for viewing pleasure.

(click to show/hide)

Kinda out of date but still relevant.












This level select is supposed to resemble the Sonic 2 Beta level selection screen. Blue BG, level names in white, overlapping the logo, complete with a sound test at the bottom.

I'd like you to to test this, and tell me how I did. All feedback is appreciated and will shape the game in due time.
Now for the actual testing part. Click this here text to download it. Tell me what you think.

Don't let one review make you think you shouldn't post your feedback. ALL feedback is welcome.
Oh by the way, extract the files to a folder first, this was made using Klazen's GM:S engine, so saves are pretty fragile.

[Derf]

Finished the alpha.

I thought the game had a lot of charm and I admire the scope of the project you're trying to create.

However I found some things off-putting about this alpha:

- While I thought the menu & gui was was really slick and well done, I disliked the graphics of most of the game after that for a few reasons: The tiles while fitting were monotonous, there was no variation. You often used a tileset with 3 different tiles, a floor, a wall and a platform. It would go a long way if you created a few variations of each tile, e.g. in the labyrinth you could add some other objects in the walls, some broken pieces of wall etc & for the earthy section some rocks in the wall or some vegetation inside the wall tiles. The monotony of colour especially didn't help in places like the labyrinth where everything was just a different variation on mid-grey. Another thing which I strongly disliked was how instead of creating new graphics for specially sized items, you just stretched objects which looks incredibly ugly. I mean I get it when you're just stretching a platform that's 32 pixels wide to 48 or 64 pixels wide, it's not worth the time to create a new sprite, but sometimes you were stretching things that had dimensions of 32 pixels to 400+ pixels. It just came off a lazy tbh. Same goes for reusing assets in different areas. It's cool you're trying to cover so many different level archetypes (grass, lake, temple, sky etc) but if you want to do that you can't use the same wooden platforms and the same hollowed out metal spikes. Maybe create some stone spikes for the temple etc. The other thing I disliked about the graphics was the mix of styles. Like with the long grass in the first area, it's way too detailed to be cohesive next to the floor tiles. I mostly like the graphic direction you seem to be going in but it's really unpolished to me. Small things like actually spriting taller spikes instead of stretching them in the room editor which leads to them looking ugly and creating some variation in tiles would go a long way.

- My second problem was the gameplay/level design. I really felt it was monotonous. There's only so long I can stare at screens of stretched spike objects before it gets boring. The areas that broke this up were the most enjoyable for me: the water area also had level design I didn't really like but I enjoyed your unique take on the water gimmick, it was very fresh and required me to think differently & I liked the general design of the labyrinth area, I liked snaking back on myself as I reclimbed the tower. The area where this monotony is most apparent is the cloud area. Honestly it seemed so rushed.

- The story was paced badly imo. Every screen for the first few biomes you seem to get like 5 pages of dialogue at least once, sometimes more than once. The problem here is, there was too much exposition to take in when I just wanted to play the game. I like fangames with stories but the problem is that making a game with a story, let alone a fangame, is a very hard thing to do right. Because not only do you have to be a good game designer, you have to be a good storyteller and on top of that you have to understand how to make them work together and strengthen each other rather than detract from each other. Putting a good story into the wrong game can hinder your ability to tell said story and vice versa, putting a bad/wrong story into a tight game can destroy the flow of the game and make it tedious. I'm not saying the story is bad, but I'm saying it's presented in a very heavy-handed way. I understand that a story will need exposition at the start but it kinda felt like I was bombarded, until I got to the labyrinth, with text that admittedly I began skipping because it was so voluminous.  Keep the story, it's intriguing, but work out a way to make the telling of it more streamlined. I liked some of the one liners between characters even if I didn't always find them funny, and the whole thing was very charming. It's just at the moment I feel like the story leans more on the side of detracting from the game than adding to it.

- These are a few minor things: the companions will often just stand in midair when you're on platforms which looks really odd. The game over screen lagged my computer (especially so when there were more companions). The music was really loud, even when I had it on 5%, though I'm not sure if this is just my computer.


If I were to isolate what I believe to be the main thing you're doing wrong here is that you're going for quantity over quality. That's not to say this game is without quality, it's not and it's extremely promising. But there are so many different level archetypes before the first boss that all use similar assets/stretched sprites which came off like you were cutting corners immensely. On top of that the level design in places such as the cloud area just seemed uninspired and like you weren't really thinking of a way to make it interesting when you made it. The boss could be killed in about 2 seconds provided RNG meant his first two attacks weren't the blade slice etc. I admire the scope of your fangame and how daring you're being with story and gimmicks (well just the water, but I really did like what you'd done with it) but I dislike your lack of attention to detail. The pyramids of Giza weren't built with a few big bricks clumped together, they were built with thousands of smaller bricks laid in the precise positions: a fangame of this scope is no different, you must create each small area with care if you want the entire project to be as successful as your vision.

I don't mean to dishearten you, I hope you found there were a lot of compliments throughout that critique. You're going in a good direction but I think before moving onto newer sections you should go back and polish up what's already in the game. I'm looking forward to being able to play another build of this because there is a lot of potential here.

(P.S. Didn't you stream HB2 once a few years ago lol?)

[TheGamerGuy500]

Thanks for the review, it is an alpha and all 12 of my playtesters didn't really have many complaints about the design, most of them are casuals hence the newcomer mode and its blocks.
I meant for the story to go towards how the mask guy was placing all these spikes along the way hence why they're all mostly the same.
I'll go back and re-tell the storyline a bit.
Honestly, I actually kinda rushed the cloud area because my playtesters were nagging me. I see that it's kinda repetitive, and I will revisit it in due time.
Most of the tileset is from Everybody Edits, which the owners don't mind if it's used for the game, which is why some of the tiles might not go together simply because the tilesets were just kinda made as the game progressed, for example, the background grass in the first area was added much after the grass that I was using for the floor.
I might incorporate the cloud area to be more platform puzzle-ish, I have almost no other ideas for it.
So I need to revisit the cloud area, decorate the labyrinth and make the story short-and-sweet in a nutshell. I think I could do that.
I stream developing this game often, so maybe you could stop by and see like just what I was thinking while making this to maybe get a better understanding as to why everything is in its place perhaps.
I'll add signs throughout the game that will be kinda dev commentary-ish things that should give users a better understanding of why things are in their place.
Also yes I did stream HB2 a while back.

[Derf]

Ok, so I played it through again.

This version was a big step up from the first. A lot of those little changes made it a lot more enjoyable for me. Especially the pacing of the story and level presentation, those were both much better.

Though I still have some criticisms:

-The boss isn't enjoyable. It has cheap unavoidable attacks if you're too close to it, that have no forewarning. The issue is, you have to get close to the boss to hit it due to the spiky things on the floor. To balance this, it's been given a puny amount of hit points which means all the boss is is waiting for good RNG and spamming the shot button at it. The sword slashes that he just shoots with no warning completely ruin the boss as if you're within a half of the screen of the boss they're extremely hard to avoid (see: mostly impossible). Honestly give him 4 times the health, another new attack that isn't the sword slashes again, and get rid of the things that stop you shooting him from far away and he could be decent. Also it's essential you get this boss right as often the first boss in a fangame is the first hurdle, before people a properly invested, and if you make it aggravating people can just quit. (It's doubly essential for you as I guess this character is going to be a recurring boss + in a mother 3-style twist, your brother. So if you want to bring him back he better be fun, not Protoman levels of annoying).

-While you've made the graphics a lot neater and less clunky, there's still the issue of them being bland. Now you can mostly pass this off as a subjective disagreement, but where this really goes from aesthetic dislike to damaging is in the ruins, where everything is so grey items like the keys and the smaller spikes don't stand out against the backdrop and are hard to spot. I didn't have much trouble since I knew where they were from last time, but this is something you need to consider changing.

Overall though this game is heading in a solid direction. I'd suggest being a bit more original and daring with your traps as the level design is a bit stale at the moment, but honestly I look forward to the future of this game :~)

[TheGamerGuy500]

Thanks again for the feedback mate.

I added a slash attack to the lightning-only attack to make it less spam-to-win so you'd have to still be on the lookout for the slash thingy.
I will remove the boss' sword slash attacks that give you no time to react, as well as the second moving spike block.
As for the graphics, I will revise them again for the areas where the spikes are hard to see.
As for the health he has, well... the equation for that is 7 - (difficultylevel times 2) on psychopath mode he has 100 health, on wayfarer, it's like 30, and newcomer it's like 23? He starts with 100 health and you deal kinda large chunks of it unless you're on a high difficulty. I think all the bosses will be like this but some will have shot cooldown timers like Wings Of Vi's Myougi 2 where you can't hurt them for a bit.
The mask guy will have completely different attack patterns + some new things the second time you fight him ala Black Knight rematch style.

I do thank you for being a loyal tester and hope for more of your feedback as well as other people's feedbacks.

[Derf]

No worries man, feel free to PM me with new builds here and there, I know how stressful it is not having anyone to test stuff. :~)

That change sounds good.

Ah I played on the lowest difficulty this time just to observe changes so that might be why he had such low health.

That's a good idea too!

Gl!

[TheGamerGuy500]

New version is out, I already know about the sand area's improperly layered sand. Whoops.
Also tell me if the new physics are bugged. New GM-Studio meant new physics.

[TheGamerGuy500]

Damn I've been gone for a bit but rest assured this thread is still supported. (Since game development is still going for this.)
EDIT: not anymore it ain't.