Coda's Not-So-Secret Project!
 

Crystal Caverns of Kalin is getting close to completion! The game itself is now fully playable, but it's not integrated into Trisphee itself yet.

So... I'm looking for feedback! Bug reports! And whatever else you want to say!

The "Games by Coda" thread is here so mosey on over.

link, maybe? i am not a follower so i have no idea where your game is

It can be found heeeeere.

I end up playing this a lot more than I should, really.

Coda, as far as any bugs go, I've noticed that on occasion that sometimes I can catch a platform just right and instead of being shoved one way or another, it will catch me and instantly kill me. I don't know if it's supposed to be that way or not, since I guess I would be technically getting smuckered by the scroll wall of doom.

Also, if anyone beats my high score I'll give you one of this month's DI's.

Er...unless I linked an old version or something, there are instructions on the title page. Keyboard list on the left hand side.

it's borderline unplayable for a newbie like me x_____x if i hold the space it does not jump, if i don't hit the space right it sometimes does not jump and the gravity thing is screwing me up something bad x_____x i thought i was falling and i was just flipping over and i ended up dying because i did not keep going(because i thought i fell)

the background speed also makes everything feel like it is going faster than it is and that is a bit disorientating

Just going to leave this here...

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...psqf6jsukb.jpg

It is intentional, but it shouldn't be INSTANTLY. It should be the side of the platform shoving you off the left side of the screen before you can slip past it.

Actually that's exactly the reason it REQUIRES a double-tap -- to make sure you don't accidentally flip gravity if you hit the jump button right before you land or right after you slip off the end of a platform.

Putting it on a separate button really, really sucks for people who are playing on mobile/console platforms. (This almost works on 3DS and WiiU, it just needs a bit of cleanup for performance.) Console browsers don't reliably broadcast any button but one, and mobile browsers have such unpredictable real estate space that I can't put the button somewhere that's consistently usable. (If it were a native app instead of a web game, things would be different.)

No need to apologize for not playing it. If it's not your cup of tea, that's why we're trying to get more games -- so that there's something for everyone. Perhaps you'll be more interested in the next one.

Hmm... What are your computer specs? I think I understand what you're describing, but that specific issue is something I've never seen before on any platform I've tested on. (Okay, that's not quite true, it was an issue right at the beginning of development two years ago, and I fixed it pretty quickly because it was annoying as crap, but I've not seen it since then.) Holding the space bar is absolutely supposed to jump and not flip gravity.

I'm not sure what to say about the background speed effect. :x

Hmm. That's curious. I wonder when I broke that. Thanks for the bug report; I can reproduce it.

For what?

This is definitely a challenging game.
My issues are sometimes it won't let me jump at all so I just keep dying right away
and I wish that at the start of the game, you'd start at the left most edge of the platform instead of the middle since some rounds I would just fall straight down x_x
(but then again that might just be me)

i don't know my specs actually, i do know that i can play emulator games without lags or hiccups and i can run both famicon emulation and the sims(granted it's only a 5gig game with 50k ish downloads XD )so my computer can handle a range without lag, misfires or errors

Well, that's why there's forgiveness for quick deaths -- it doesn't use up a life if you can't get a good start. (You should also consider using the left and right arrows to control your horizontal speed; this should help with making precision landings.)

The fact that it drops you onto a platform at all when you start is a LOT of math. @.@ The code for it is pretty short but I spent half an hour or so solving algebraic equations to figure out whether or not it's safe to turn gravity on.

Would a different button work better? It actually accepts Return/Enter as an alternative because this is what the WiiU's A button sends. I also wouldn't have a problem binding, say, Z to it. (The shift key is a "maybe.")

Also, you don't need to wait to land to press the jump button. If you're holding it when you touch down you immediately bounce. I added this feature specifically because of edge timing.

dude, if you have to implement death forgiveness then there is a serious problem with the core game >x>;;

I didn't even realize that you didn't lose a life haha
It seems slowing it down is the only way it'll let me jump more than once or any at all

But I do wish the reverse gravity was a different button though

Nothing more wrong with the core game than there is wrong with pinball -- I didn't come up with the idea on my own; there's a long history of pinball giving you free retries if the ball goes straight down the drain.

I almost didn't put it in -- it was an off-the-cuff "oh, huh, that would actually be really easy to implement" while I was putting in the life counter. The main reason I decided on it was to make it easier for new players to get the feel for how the controls work. A secondary reason was because the game is supposed to be roughly equivalent in fairness to the crane game, and so I don't want players to feel cheated by missing the first platform.

EDIT:

Obsidian, the height of the jump is totally controllable, just like Mario -- you let go of the button, you immediately zero your vertical velocity and start falling.

Hero, I'm wondering about your computer too, if the controls feel so insensitive that you can't jump when it's going the normal speed.

I'll... see about adding reverse-gravity on a different button. I really don't like the idea, but everyone is complaining about it.

um.. this isn't pinball... it's a platformer >x>;;;;; that is like saying 'well just using white sugar works in sugar cookies it'll do in chocolate chip ones too'. the chemistry is all wrong and gives it an off taste. don't give your game an off taste just because it is easier than putting in a little extra work to do it right. people will not want to play it and trisphee does /not/ need a misfire

It might just be my browser to be honest
I mainly use safari when I'm on Trisphee
(I know firefox is popular but it gave itself a virus before and I don't trust it)
I'll have to try it on chrome and see if it works better

I don't know what you're talking about "do it right." The alternative is that I remove the forgiveness and leave it otherwise as it is, because the fact of the matter is, the mechanics are correct. It's just HARD. The whole GAME is hard. It's SUPPOSED to be hard. That's why you get three lives and the item balls show up as frequently as they do.

I can land that first jump 100% of the time. I know not everyone can. I want to give a friendly way to ease the start of the game for a new player. This is the most straightforward way to do it.

I can't make the game easier. I mean, I COULD, it's not that particularly hard. I could make the ledges longer. I could make the speed start slower. But the game is balanced around giving an average player three meaningful shots at grabbing ONE item, just like the crane game, while still giving better players something fun to do. I CAN'T balance the game around people who can't get the hang of the mechanics, because then it's boring for the people who can.

EDIT: Safari OUGHT to work fine but I suppose there's a possibility there's an event handling difference. I should test it more in Safari myself.

I just tried a quick couple of games in chrome and it works so much better than it does in safari.
I guess if I ever want to play I'll just have to switch browsers c:

If Safari has performance problems, then I should switch to developing in Safari (I do most of my work on a Mac) to optimize around it.

Ironically, Internet Explorer performs surprisingly well.

I know safari isn't the most popular browser and switching browser doesn't hurt anybody either

oh my god I haven't used IE in forever o_o

Yeah, I haven't fixed the high score bug -- I didn't change any of it, actually, so I don't know why it's suddenly behaving better for you.

Wait... No, I did make one change, but I made it late last night; there was a bug causing mouse movements to trigger the buttons. If it had been since midday yesterday since you'd played before, that could explain it.

If you add a secondary button for gravity reversal, please keep the space bar double tap as well. It takes a second to get used to but I like it. If I miss a jump, my thumb is still on the space bar to quickly correct my screw up. Having a fourth button to worry about would be a detriment. For me, anyway.

coda. do not bullshit me >x> do not bullshit yourself, you see all of these people telling you the game is buggy and beyond the pale difficult and you are trying to tell me the game is fine? darling, you are either making the game intentionally garbage or else you are not listening. just because you, the developer, can play the game well does not mean anyone else can, there is feedback from others saying the game is insta-killing them and that the start of the game already puts them at a disadvantage(being in the middle of a ledge not the far left). you might consider listening



if you want my opinion, as someone who has been playing platformers since he was four, i suggest you either give the player a couple inches if non-moving space so they can decide when they are ready and can gauge that first jump or fix it so there is sufficient ledge room for the player's brain to get accustomed and the first play is no longer the 'have to die' play for the bulk of the people coming in. you -need- no make your game accessible to people who are new to the game otherwise when the ones already accustomed to it get bored there will no longer be players, and, if you mush make it even then lengthen the level or ad multi-levels or modify the game so the level gets progressively harder as you go through and not just stupid-hard throughout

you might consider pulling apart and looking at simplified platformers(and playing some of them in a clean state to see what they do to make their games accessible to people of varying degrees of skill

customizable config would be nice, though, would that work for an imbedded game?

Salone understands WHY gravity-reverse is on the same button as jump, but maybe it COULD have a toggle option. That would probably satisfy everyone. An options screen might be good for configuring touchscreen controls too. I could probably stand to improve the instructions rather than just a little table -- some play tips would be invaluable since I seem to have to explain the same things to everyone who plays.

Re: friend #1: Starting standing still wouldn't work very well. Either you'd take off like a bullet the moment you touch a button, or you'd be moving too slowly to make a meaningful jump at the beginning. And while putting the player farther to the right would look nicer, it would be way harder to play because you'd have less time to react to stuff. (I actually DID have it farther right early on in development.)

Sound effects are an interesting idea. I'll think about it.

Upon reflection, I'm willing to consider adding a button press to start each life because I agree some breathing room might be beneficial and the pause function isn't the friendliest way to address it; the rapid-fire die-and-retry was good when the game was nothing but a high-score challenge but now that there's a life counter that's not so appealing.

Finally: Choco... If you don't like it, then give up and stop complaining. The only one complaining about the actual MECHANICS is you. I acknowledge there's a control issue and I AM looking for a good way to address it.

Your appeal to authority falls flat, too. I've also been playing platformers longer than you have and this isn't my first time writing one. I've read through detailed decompilation of how Sonic 3's physics work. I've fixed bugs in Unity3D's platformer template. I've reverse-engineered Robot Unicorn Attack (which this game resembles more than any other game out there) and Cave Story.

So if you want to compare and criticize, go play Robot Unicorn Attack (especially Heavy Metal Edition) for a while and then come back, because 1980s-1990s platformers are totally NOT going to be good inspirations for endless-runner controls.

*reads Coda's post*

Snap crackle pop rice crispys.

Hmm... I'm trying the game in Safari 7.1.5 (admittedly old) on OSX Yosemite on a 2012 MacBook Pro. It has a little bit of hesitation (definitely not pulling a consistent 60fps) but it's not enough to give me any significant trouble with the controls. Could you try again, maybe make sure you clear your cache first in case you've got an old version?

Meanwhile, I'm installing Safari 9.0.1 to see if maybe it's a regression. I don't have any older Mac hardware to test on.

Edit: Erf. 81MB. Maybe this will need to wait until later today.

I just tried again on safari and I don't know if I'm just used to the controls now but it seems to be working better.
I kind of had the same problem with choco where the background seemed to move quicker making the game seem to be faster than it is but it's not doing that for me now o:

(I didn't clear my cache but its still ??)
Some things I did notice. When I first pressed start it was pretty much a blank screen until I clicked pause and unpause. I closed the tab and opened it again and the lack of response from the space bar became a problem again. I'll try again with my cache cleared

I see you added the space bar drop thing.
I cleared my cache now and tried again but it seems like I'm having more trouble getting the space bar to jump? The switch gravity though seems to be working fine.

Strange. It either auto pauses and my space bar jump works fine or it doesn't auto pause and it barely works at all.

I mean it really isn't too much trouble to switch browsers to make it work p:

Okay, I've made the change to add the between-lives breathing room: Each life won't start until you press the jump button. Kyun will still stay flashing for a moment and not start falling if the game thinks that starting the game right away would dump you straight into the abyss.

I've also switched to using an optimized version of the Javascript code on the non-development copy of the game, which might help eke out a few more FPS on marginal computers. (It does make my life a little bit harder should you guys ever have to send me a crash report, but I can manage it.)

EDIT: It turns out I was wrong about mentioning the cache at all. I've got it set up to never cache, so that wouldn't have been the problem.

EDIT 2: You mentioning that it auto-pauses a lot is actually very informative. The game does that intentionally if your computer lags too much; it's MOSTLY intended to handle a burst of slowdown when you're first loading the game, but it's an informative diagnostic for this case. It sounds like the problem is simply that your computer is too slow to run the game in Safari (which, apparently, is currently behind Chrome in performance). That's not the answer I would have liked, but I DO have a low-performance variant halfway implemented for use on less-powerful systems (such as WiiU) that might be of some assistance later.

Once upon a time, games slapped your hand instead of holding it. They stopped doing that and we got soft and needy. The game is accessible and while it is not forgiving, it is easy and quick to jump back in to. I went from barely getting over 100 to just nearly 1000 by trial and error, like any game. It just takes time. Being amazing out of the gate with lots of points is a feature for Facebook games looking to draw you in. Mechanic wise, I think the game is great at what it is trying to accomplish. You're supposed to fail so you can get better. Anything less than that is a self congratulatory circle-jerk that is going to be quickly forgotten after it is easily trounced. Challenges are just that, challenges.

Should there be some breathe time between lives? Probably. Breaks are fun.

I would also heavily suggest some people cool their jets and, like Kyun, come down maybe a little bit.