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Unity First Timer Video Blogs on making a Unity2D, top-down adventure crafting game

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by RikuKat, Sep 16, 2014.

  1. SiegfriedCroes

    SiegfriedCroes

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    Nice progress RikuKat :) I was thinking of writing you some detailed feedback but I might wait till your demo is more complete (assuming there will actually be some demo release). Keep up the good work ;)
     
  2. RikuKat

    RikuKat

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    Detailed feedback right now would be great! I'm trying to improve the UI and other things ASAP, so all feedback is appreciated (even if I may have changed/fixed the item already).
     
  3. SiegfriedCroes

    SiegfriedCroes

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    Alright :) I'll just write down everything that comes to mind ;)

    • Nice title logo though background is the same as your house, I think it would be better to have some cool original art instead. A custom cursor would also be nice
    • For the dialogue it would be cool to have a letter by letter effect (unless you want voice acting in the future) Would also be cool to have some animation/different expressions in the character closeups
    • The music is nice in the house and I think it would be even cooler to have a variation of the song for each location (think of the different sections in the shop in Skyloft ;))
    • In the scene with the book the right arrow is a little bit hard to see compared to the left arrow, maybe place them on the book for better visibility
    • When crafting, a drag and drop system would be very useful, then you could also have a panel to the side which shows the info on mouse-over
    • Chair with potion belt doesn't have a close up view, I assume this background is still in the works?
    • I think it would be better to have your own health somewhere at the top/bottom of the screen, it's kind of in the way when trying to take items "above" you
    • A highlight effect and/or change of cursor would be nice when your mouse is over an item so it's clear you can interact with it. Would also be nice to show some info of this highlighted object (a little window could popup at the bottom right)
    • The player character should have more walking graphics than only left and right. You could add graphics of seeing her from the back which you can then also flip for walking left and right (This worked quite well in Paper Mario 64)
    • Maybe you could add some delay to the camera so the character isn't right in the middle of the screen all the time. This way it will be more like she's actually walking around in the area instead of being stuck to the camera and the world moving around under her feet
    • It would be nice to have an extra animation when moving on your broom, so you really feel like flying around, not just floating
    • Maybe make the shadow of the character semi-transparent
    • You could add some clouds of fog slowly floating by and some other animated details to make the level feel more alive
    • Something is up with the potion throwing, when close by a monster it happens so fast you can't actually see what happened. Should be more visible in some way
    I hope this didn't sound to negative, there's definitely a lot of good stuff already, just need some more work here and there to make it great :)
     
    Last edited: May 13, 2015
  4. RikuKat

    RikuKat

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    No worries! Great feedback overall.

    Some of these items we've already fixed/added (custom cursor with highlighting, position of arrows on the recipe book), some are ones to come (environment particles, drag and drop system), some I haven't thought about (potion throwing when monsters are close, camera lag on movement) and some I don't like myself (letter by letter dialog).

    Super great feedback, though. I'll definitely see how most people feel about letter by letter dialog, it's something I turn off at the start of any game, but that doesn't meant it wouldn't be appreciated by others! Thanks for taking the time to write it out!
     
  5. SiegfriedCroes

    SiegfriedCroes

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    You're very welcome :) Good to hear a lot of what I mentioned is already fixed/implemented. I like letter by letter texts because it kind of visualizes someone speaking. Of course it shouldn't go to slow and there should be a skip button to make all text appear right away. Personally I don't like reading a lot of text all that much so with letter by letter by the time there is a lot of text on screen I've read most of it already. Most of the adventure/rpgs I play have it though a while ago I played a bit of Divinity: Original Sin which doesn't have it and I felt like something was missing and I reading the dialogs seemed more tiring to me ^^'

    I guess it's a good idea to have both options :)
     
  6. RikuKat

    RikuKat

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    After getting tons of amazing feedback at Power of Play, I busted my buns to make Potions a more enjoyable experience.

    The first thing that almost everyone noted was that they cannot drag and drop in the crafting and equipment scenes and that they dislikes the current UX for selecting ingredients and potions (including DSSiege11 here!).

    First, I made the item view window permanent, then I implemented double-clicking (rather, if you click the item that you are viewing again, it adds/uses it). Dragging and dropping was a much harder beast to tackle, but, after getting the hang of event systems, I was able to implement it!

    Right away, those changes got a lot of positive feedback, which is great!

    However, I noticed that many people were still having issues with controls, even if we told them specifically what the controls were. Thus, I made a tutorial!

    I do not want a tutorial in the final version of the game, but it is necessary for getting people acquainted with the controls in order to play the demo build.

    I very much dislike tutorials that don't allow you to move forward without explicitly following their actions which seems arbitrary to the game and story. Thus, I created obstacles that you could only pass by using different controls: A gap you have to fly/sprint over, shrubs you had to loot to get them out of your way, bushes you needed to throw a fire potion at to burn, etc. Next to these obstacles I included simple signs of the controls: a highlighted shift key, a highlighted right-click, etc. This has been amazingly effective. I even sent this build to my parents and they were able to figure out the controls without my help!

    I also implemented new potions, better effects, better art and some more UI improvements.

    The biggest UI/UX improvement isn't the crafting/equipping, but the action bar and use of potions. You no longer have to pull each potion out to throw it, the active potion appears next to your action bar and a single click will throw it (and you don't have to re-equip to throw another unless you run out of that potion type).

    More recently, I have also switched the sprint to a toggle. While I am used to holding shift to sprint, a lot of people complained that it felt like it should be a toggle and that it was tiring to hold the shift key down. After changing it, I must admit, it does feel a lot better being a toggle.

    At Power of Play, I knew my build wasn't fully ready yet and I had to resist the urge to apologize whenever I saw someone struggling with something on my to-do list. While my to-do list is still huge, I no longer feel that urge and the people I get to test the game don't ever seem bogged down by the controls anymore!

    I am becoming quite proud of it!

    Now that I'm out of crunch-land, however, I need to refocus on marketing and PR. Talk about a change of gear!
     
    chelnok and NomadKing like this.
  7. RikuKat

    RikuKat

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    I haven't been doing the greatest job of ramping up PR. However, I have been working on additional polishing touches that are really making the game feel nicer. As well as fixing bugs!

    I improved my quickly created tutorial by adjusting the helping signs to be in more visible locations. I very much like the flow of the tutorial as players really figure out the format before it gets to the more complicated and harder to explain areas, so they are not confused by them. The tutorial alone has made a huge difference in how new players approach the game. There no longer is very much confusion about the controls, though the left-click to interact, right-click to attack can still be confusing to some.

    To help with the ease of learning new recipes, I have added a few special scrolls in game that, upon finding, will unlock a certain recipe for the player. I hope this will encourage exploration and limit frustrations when recipes are hard to discover.

    My team and I have been talking about recording all of the previous crafting attempts that the player has tried, so they don't find themselves making the same "mistakes", or providing them with some kind of item from failures that might be helpful for other crafting. I've played with the idea of every mistake creating a failure item, then turning in some number of those unlocks a new recipe. However, I can see such a system being abused by players looking to unlock the more rare/powerful potions.

    For additional polish, I have made use of the movement sounds for monsters and the main character that my wonderful audio magician has created. For the monsters, I have set up 3D audio, so that their noises fade to 0 as the player moves away from them. These sounds and fading really help immerse the player in the game. (NOTE: You have to set Spatial Blend to 3D for this to work!)

    I've also started on the first boss fight. It will be a dodge-heavy fight where the boss switches between ranged and close attacks, as well as slows and spawning minions. I want there to be two ways to defeat the boss: a highly technical way and a strategic way. It is easy to make the fight hard enough to require high technical skill, but a strategic fight I am finding harder to design. Using the boss against her own minions is certainly a compelling stragetic component, but I also want a kind of "drop the chandelier on her head" part, which I have yet to be able to figure out.

    Additionally, I really enjoy multi-phase fights, so I have been thinking about what would be best for that.
     
    NomadKing likes this.
  8. SiegfriedCroes

    SiegfriedCroes

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    Great progress, Riku :D The game looks a lot better each time you show something new :) The falling leaves are nice (Silly maybe how of all thing this is what I point out ^^' but I just love little details like that ;)).

    I'm really looking forward to trying it, any plans for some kind of demo soon? I saw the beta tester sign-up on your site and wondered if I could sign up or if it's for press only :)
     
  9. RikuKat

    RikuKat

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    Oh, don't worry about that. I'll make sure you get in the beta as soon as I open it!

    Since my last update, I've completely reworked the demo, making the tutorial PART of the actual story. It required a lot of custom scripting, but it was worth it. It's had a way better reception and demoing it went wonderfully at PAX Prime, Seattle Indies Expo, Geek Girl Con and IndieCade!

    I've been squashing bugs left and right, while adding in additional functionality, like a system that rewards you for experimentation, even if you fail! You have a "crafting level" and you are rewarded with a new, undiscovered recipe every time you level up!

    I've also been working heavily on the story and designing out the other environments for the game!
     
  10. virror

    virror

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    Looking great! What happend to the awesome dev blogs?
    I was really enjoying following those.
     
  11. RikuKat

    RikuKat

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    NomadKing and SiegfriedCroes like this.
  12. virror

    virror

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    Nice, i really like your blogs : )
    Good luck with your Kickstarter, i think its very well made and looks great!
     
    RikuKat likes this.
  13. RikuKat

    RikuKat

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    Kellyrayj likes this.
  14. RikuKat

    RikuKat

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    One great improvement we've made recently is switching from our old square tiles to hex tiles and improvements to the out of bounds trees.

    Here you can see the contrast between the old and new tile sets:



    And here are what the new tile sets look like in game:



     
  15. virror

    virror

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    That looks amazingly better than the old one : )
    Last two images seems broken.
     
  16. RikuKat

    RikuKat

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  17. virror

    virror

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    Damn, the visuals really have come a long way since your first blog post : D
     
  18. PhilippG

    PhilippG

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    The images probably don't work because the links aren't https.

    Just played few of the Vlogs while working, cool stuff. Keep going and good luck :)
     
  19. Schneider21

    Schneider21

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    This is the first I'm seeing of this project, and I just wanted to comment on how impressed I am.

    For one, the game is looking great! Not just the art, but how cohesive the design seems to be. Well done!

    I have a very young daughter, and my profound hope is that she grows up to be a talented game developer. Please continue to be a rock star and release quality games / dev logs so I have a steady supply of material to subtly inspire her with as she gets older!