33 replies to this topic

[Ambient_Malice]

Very charming... A decent stab at 'chummy' plot.

Let's see... I got confused in cave because I was reading signs referring to a gun I didn't have yet. Plus I only discoved I was able to pass through the green blocks to the gun room on my second search of the cave. I think that you should try to make the way to go clearer at such an early point in the game.

The kitchen... needs a retexture. That harsh blue really hurts the eyes. But I can't complain about the cutscene, except that I suspect you missed a <NOD at a few points. (Could have been my keyboard causing skips, though.)

I'm still playing. More soonish.

[sjasogun1]

I got to the Pooh Black fight with 3 hp and gave up... I think I missed some life capsules since I didn't check out the destroyable blocks at the beginning of what I think is supposed to be the first cave and the door in the first cave Curly is unconscious in with all the Graveyard Guards.

Overall I think it's a really good mod! There is a small bug with the Frozen Core fight though: When you've defeated it it'll hover forwards a bit and continue to emit smoke but it won't disappear, it'll just continue to hover there. And if you've fixed that you may want to move the view to the place where the door opens up so the player knows he has to go there (it's a bit hard to spot, even if you go there)

I think the dialog could use some more work, as well as the first few scenes where Balrog takes Quote and Curly away (Essentially twice in three minutes with no explaination why Quote got transported to some random cave as well as why Curly was unconscious twice in a row.)

Overall I think it's a good mod, especially looking at the tiles you made yourself. Good job and continue working on this, I'd love to see more!

[HookDraw McGraw]

Can't wait to try it out!

[sjasogun1]

Okay, I got past the Puuh Black fight (Just get him to jump one time and keep firing upwards with the level 3 snake, the black balls shouldn't hit you) and finished the entire demo. There are a few bugs and other points though.

-When you beat the Space Dragons the victory music plays after the message, I think after Curly finishes talking to you and the screen fades out.

-When you do the second bonus you will have to enter the Space Corridor with all weapons at level 1. I managed to get through by leveling up my weapons first by killing the alien at the beginning of the area repeatedly though. You may want to put some Energy Capsules in the Space Station that appear after you've finished the bonus stage.

-The second bonus stage is impossible. You drown before you can kill all of the aliens. Perhaps you managed to do it once and I may be wrong, but since the jumping patterns of the Gaudi Aliens are unpredictable it is really luck-based.

-I think you're supposed to get more ammo for the Rocket Launcher in the second bonus stage but you don't get it.

-The Fuzz Core aliens are too hard. They featured as a boss in the beginning of the area so putting them in as regular enemies is really annoying. Especially if you somehow accidentally kill the core first so the small Fuzz thingies with 200 hp or so swarm you and kill you. You can just avoid them of course, but having a boss and a pretty tough one be a regular enemy when you just have the Rocket Launcher as a new weapon since that fight? It seems a bit imbalanced to me, especially since the Rocket Launcher only has 5 ammo.

-In the Dark Cloud area, right after defeating the damaged Giant Beetle it isn't very clear where you are supposed to go. Also, what is the wind above the entrance to the next map for? If anything, it confused me since it pointed to the bottom right rather than the bottom-center.

-There was a small bug with the computer in the Corridor not changing the wind correctly. It stayed upwards wind for me, but when I re-entered the map through the Space Station it did change. I don't know what caused it though, you might want to look into that.

-The boss fight with Balrog is way too easy. I almost killed him off-screen. It doesn't really fit in with the difficulty of the other fights and maps. You may want to make him harder or add some more enemies to the map.

-The entire Space part is incredibly hard. I spent more time than I liked beating that. Hard is okay, but it is really repetitive as well. Try and make it shorter, getting through one room with a certain enemy configuration (3 columns of 2 Whirrs, right above 3 Buoy Base at the bottom and one Buoy Base at the top in the center) is more than enough. Adding a second Buoy Base to the ceiling or making 4 columns of whirrs with 4 Buoy Base to go with it isn't varying it.

-Related to the above point, if you decide to keep it this hard more health or more save points would be nice so we can storm through the hordes of enemies instead of spending five minutes killing them while avoiding damage since a single hit will either kill you or reduce your health to 1.

Wow, that was a lot longer than I intended it to be. Don´t take all of these points as a sign I don´t like your mod: It's good, really really good and I enjoyed playing it. Continue developing it and I'll be anxiously waiting for the next demo!

[HaydenStudios]

So, here's what think so far.

Spoiler

Storyline: 8/10 Great. Not bad at all with continuing off the great ending.

Dialog: 6/10 Fair. This could really be improved upon. I just don't think you did the best job of capturing the characters' personalities.

Level Design: 6/10 Fair. It's pretty good throughout most of the levels. Near the beginning, the grass is too long, and it's difficult to see Quote.The kitchen, AAARGH! My eyes! You could have varied the tiles a bit more, and added a few more bells and whisltes, but I won't complain a ton. What really bring's this down is your guessing rom where you guess for traps. More detail later.

Gameplay: 5/10 Mediocre. Really, that death trap room is so hard, I gave up, and will not progress through this mod until you make it easier. It's completely unreasonable that you get not life capsules before that, making you die at one hit, needing to hit those "bats" about six times before they die, and them jumping out if you so much as jump is really frustrating. One problem common among mods is not having enough life capsules, and having too many enemies with too much hp. And that room is pretty much trial and error. Nice what you did with those shootable tiles. Did you use assembly for that?

Custom Music: 6/10 fair. The fastforwarded Cave Story and Safety were unnecessary, and felt like they were there just to be different. I would be better to just keep the original counterparts. But the fastforwarded mimiga town and pulse were good. That music in the death trap room could use some work. Adding more tracks to your song helps.

Glitches: I can't really find any, since I've not progressed that far.

Improvements:
1) Improve the dialog.
2) Redesign the background for the kitchen.
3) I see, Quote talks in this one. You know, that face picture for Quote is not that great. Here, use this face picture, courtesy of Jay City for making a 1x res version of the Quote facepic from CS+:

Spoiler

If you like, you can download the complete face .bmp with the face picture applied to it here: http://www.mediafire...qm4bn36d69qy99s
4) The level design with extra bells and whistles and varying the tile types could use a bit of work, as well as shortening the grass out side of your house.
5) During the cutscene where balrog drops down, he lands in front of you. It would be best if he landed behind you.
6) Not bad with the polar star 2.0, but it would be nice if the bullet sprites for all three of the levels had a new sprite, and if the did more damage than their 1.0 counterparts.
7) Either: Take the death trap level out, or include more life capsules along the way, increase the damage of the polar star 2.0, and lower the enemies hp in that room.

Overall Score: 5/10 Mediocre. Don't let this low score get you down, because I see great potential in this. The storyline gives me a hunch that you have something planned out, and it looks like you made a few assembly hacks. What really holds this mod back is its less than ideal dialog, and difficult gameplay. There are no life capsules leading up to the deathtrap room, and the enemies jump out and surprise you there, and kill you in one hit while you have to use six shots to kill them, and that whole level is a matter of trial and error, and extreme caution. Not really elements of gameplay that are ideal. Again, you might have something better beyond this, but that's as far as I care to get due to how hard this mod is. The music could use a bit of work too.

[sjasogun1]

Gameplay: 5/10 Mediocre. Really, that death trap room is so hard, I gave up, and will not progress through this mod until you make it easier. It's completely unreasonable that you get not life capsules before that, making you die at one hit, needing to hit those "bats" about six times before they die, and them jumping out if you so much as jump is really frustrating. One problem common among mods is not having enough life capsules, and having too many enemies with too much hp. And that room is pretty much trial and error. Nice what you did with those shootable tiles. Did you use assembly for that?

I think you're referring to the first bonus stage, right below the sign that says some blocks can be shot in the fist cave like area. That room is completely optional and I didn't have any problems beating it. Level up the Polar Star first by shooting the blocks above you to make critters come out and go into the bonus stage with your polar star at max level. It shouldn't be hard to get through there and you get a life capsule as a reward.

If you're referring to the room with all of the death spikes, the sign states you need the map system. You can use it to see where the traps in that room are hidden. Again, I made it in a single try, it isn't that hard.

EDIT: While I was replaying the game the boss room in the space station part was already closed before I entered. I think you forgot to remove the flag that closed it after you defeat the boss.

Edited by sjasogun1, 11 February 2012 - 10:05 AM.

[Randolf]

Well, it is my first mod, and I am surprised it got 6 5/10! Sorry for my mistakes, I'll fix them soon. And the Core is floating because it is not destroyed but defeated.

Edited by Mixer8421, 13 February 2012 - 02:24 PM.

[sjasogun1]

Well, it is my first mod, and I am surprised it got 6/10! Sorry for my mistakes, I'll fix them soon. And the Core is floating because it is not destroyed but defeated.

Actually, Hayden gave you 5/10, but since he hasn't gotten past the first bonus room yet I think that number is subject to change.

As for the core, a "Deafeated the Frozen Core!" message is more or less complementary, as well as changing the music back to normal and showing the new passage open up.

As for another bug I forgot to mention, in the Puuh Black fight he'll jump up through the top of the screen but land on the top of the area you're supposed to fight him in instead of inside. That's just his behavior, I don't think you can do much to change that except for making the ceiling of the room non-solid. You are also able to leave the room once the fight has begun, only the top block of the 2-block high entrance closes.

You may also want to fix the door right before the Puuh Black fight, the exiting part of it doesn't have the correct bottom sprite. You can put a door entity without any flags or event # there to get a door to appear there instead of placing the tile of the top half.

Also, I'd give your mod a 6/10 right now, disregarding some of the bugs and the not-so-great dialogue. Improve the story, making it clearer what's going on and fix all of the bugs mentioned and you'll probably get an even better rating for your mod!

[DoubleThink]

Where do I go in the Dark Sky area after beating the boss? The room with the wind in it that opens up appears to be a dead end.

[sjasogun1]

Where do I go in the Dark Sky area after beating the boss? The room with the wind in it that opens up appears to be a dead end.

There's an opening right under the air flows, on the middle of the 3 elevated blocks. I already suggested Mixer to change it to make it more visible.