Lighthouse Lunacy - platform/puzzle/comic strip story

[Coach]

My second self programmed game, Lighthouse Lunacy, is finally finished. *sigh of relief with a hint of sadness*

You may suggest changes or additions but as I have already spent more time on it than I can afford, I am not very likely to change things. At least not at the moment. For example, I did a small change today as suggested by a friend but by pure luck I later discovered that this very minor change wrecked havoc to the game in certain circumstances.

I am, however, very much interested in your opinion on the difficulty level. I should point out that the game is hardly made with the casual audience in mind. The early levels are basically very short tutorials but the difficulty then quickly rises and stays at a moderate - hard difficulty level.

The game

Lighthouse Lunacy mixes Sokoban style pushing puzzles with the jumping mechanics of platform games. There is some additional features but my aim was to keep the game as pure and simple as possible while still allowing the creation of varied levels.

The boxes are tile based but the player controlled character isn't. This makes the game very different from purely tile based puzzle games. As a platform game, some dexterity and timing is naturally required. This may put off puzzle fans who otherwise would have loved the puzzles. I am, of course, of the opposite opinion. The platform game dynamics makes the puzzles much less predictable and transparent and also allow for puzzles that would not have been possible otherwise.

Retro fans will recognize the graphical technique from Nebulus/Tower Toppler. I added lights and shadows by palette-shifting but besides that, I reckon it is basically done the same way as it was back then.

Then there is the story. This was actually added as an afterthought but quickly grew to something much more. I think I did a good job in integrating it with the game and its levels. The story is full of meta-references and there's is a twist at the end that, kind of, ties everything together. I value corrections in grammar & spelling and opinions on choice of words.

Requirements: It runs too slow on my 800 MHz laptop but it is still playable. DirectX 7.0

Screenshots:
http://www.athleticdesign.se/lighthouselunacy/images/lighthouse_lunacy_thumb_04.gif
(http://www.athleticdesign.se/lighthouselunacy/images/lighthouse_lunacy_screenshot_04.jpg)

http://www.athleticdesign.se/lighthouselunacy/images/indiegamerssthumb.gif
(http://www.athleticdesign.se/lighthouselunacy/images/indiegamerss.jpg)

Game page: http://www.lighthouselunacy.com

Demo download (9.6MB): http://www.athleticdesign.se/lighthouselunacy/Lighthouse_Lunacy_Setup.exe

[ChrisP]

Didn't like the way the (extremely bitchy and unpleasant) main character kept insulting the player, the game, the art style, etc. It doesn't really work as comedy except for in-jokes. If you want to sell copies, sell your game up, not down. :)

I didn't find the interplay between the character and the game designer amusing at all. It just wasted time and annoyed me.

The art wasn't very good either (though it didn't help that you admitted the fact via the main character). I thought the main character was throwing a tantrum when he won (eyes screwed up, mouth open and "wailing").

The learning curve was a bit steep. I might have stuck it out if I wasn't being continually denigrated, but as it stands the gameplay wasn't nearly appealing enough.

Most importantly: You should never insult the player (e.g. by telling them they've "screwed up") when they want to start again. I found the controls to be non-responsive (partly because of the non-fluid nature of pushing crates, and partly because you have to hold down the jump key before it would jump), so from my point of view when I missed a jump it wasn't my fault - it was the game's fault! So having it insult me when it was at fault (in my eyes at least) pissed me off quite a bit. Largely as a result of this, I quit after 16 minutes of my 60 minute demo and had absolutely zero desire to keep playing. I would have quit earlier if I was playing purely for enjoyment (instead of also wanting to give you more feedback).

I don't mean to be negative, because I know it's a bit crushing when you've worked on something for so long and people don't like it, but that's my honest opinion. Remove or tone down the annoying main character and improve the graphics and then I'd give it more of a chance.

[DanMarshall]

Didn't like the way the (extremely bitchy and unpleasant) main character kept insulting the player, the game, the art style, etc. It doesn't really work as comedy except for in-jokes. If you want to sell copies, sell your game up, not down.

I didn't find the interplay between the character and the game designer amusing at all. It just wasted time and annoyed me.

The art wasn't very good either (though it didn't help that you admitted the fact via the main character). I thought the main character was throwing a tantrum when he won (eyes screwed up, mouth open and "wailing").

The learning curve was a bit steep. I might have stuck it out if I wasn't being continually denigrated, but as it stands the gameplay wasn't nearly appealing enough.

Most importantly: You should never insult the player (e.g. by telling them they've "screwed up") when they want to start again. I found the controls to be non-responsive (partly because of the non-fluid nature of pushing crates, and partly because you have to hold down the jump key before it would jump), so from my point of view when I missed a jump it wasn't my fault - it was the game's fault! So having it insult me when it was at fault (in my eyes at least) pissed me off quite a bit. Largely as a result of this, I quit after 16 minutes of my 60 minute demo and had absolutely zero desire to keep playing. I would have quit earlier if I was playing purely for enjoyment (instead of also wanting to give you more feedback).

I probably wouldn't have bothered trying the game out if it weren't for this.

As far as I'm concerned, he's completely and utterly wrong. The graphics are nice enough, especially the background and the main dude.

Most importantly, though, I love the fact I'm playing as a grumpy, cynical computer game character. It's interesting, and different to the plethora of cutesy-cutesy candy coated bland platformer avatars out there.

Good stuff. Well done.

[Agent 4125]

For some reason, I feel like the screenshots don't do it justice. The animation on the guy and the lighthouse graphics are actually quite good when you see them in action.

I recognize the Nebulous-style movement, but I think this is actually a better take on that, though I'm not a big fan of box-pushing puzzles. I got stuck on the 3rd and 4th levels, and I really liked the auto-solution. The sound, music, and text balloons... all good stuff.

My only real problem: I'd like to be able to hit Enter to select the current options, whether it's to restart the game or to select the level. That way I don't have to switch to the mouse every time I want to restart.

The ornery guy and the insults, I think it works. He's sort of a miserable guy, so it just comes across as part of his character. You might be making one too many references to your other games, but I guess maybe that's part of the plot.

Anyway, good luck with it,
Joe

[ChrisP]

As far as I'm concerned, he's completely and utterly wrong.

Heh. Well, fair enough. But honestly, for some reason it really got on my nerves. After that first 16 minutes I was so annoyed that you literally couldn't have paid me to keep going. I didn't mention it at the time because I was a bit uncomfortable about the quantity of criticism I was giving.

I guess you can't please everyone.

[Uesugi]

I didn't think it was too insulting to the player, but I did find the conversation between the main character and the designer to be dull and just a bit pretentious. I grew tired of it.

The puzzles sure got difficult quickly. (I suspect many gamers will give up at the level with the timer. I almost did.) I stopped at "Test 2" and may try again later. Many times I had to restart a level after accidentally pushing a crate that I was trying to jump onto. That was really frustrating. Maybe the character shouldn't push a crate until it's been moved against for a second or so.

I like the light and dark side of the lighthouse.

[Andy]

Game has arised such an opposite opinions and opened the discussion between the guys who has tried it. This is pretty good sign Coach!
I HAVE to try it now. ;)

[Coach]

Most importantly: You should never insult the player (e.g. by telling them they've "screwed up") when they want to start again.


I am aware of this philosophy but I honestly didn't expect anyone to feel insulted. The joke is obviously on the expense of game character, not on the expense of the player.


I found the controls to be non-responsive (partly because of the non-fluid nature of pushing crates, and partly because you have to hold down the jump key before it would jump)

Can you please elaborate? You should not have to hold to jump - a quick tap should do.


Most importantly, though, I love the fact I'm playing as a grumpy, cynical computer game character. It's interesting, and different to the plethora of cutesy-cutesy candy coated bland platformer avatars out there.


Good to hear!


My only real problem: I'd like to be able to hit Enter to select the current options, whether it's to restart the game or to select the level. That way I don't have to switch to the mouse every time I want to restart.


Yes, I meant to add that. Now that you mention it, I will definitely add it. You already can use the Ctrl (jump button) but this isn't mentioned in the game. Actually you don't have to use the mouse anywhere in the game (except for the "easter egg"...)


Maybe the character shouldn't push a crate until it's been moved against for a second or so.


Yes, this is a matter of taste. There is, of course, already a delay and I am personally happy with the current value but I understand that some people prefer a longer delay.

[ChrisP]

I am aware of this philosophy but I honestly didn't expect anyone to feel insulted. The joke is obviously on the expense of game character, not on the expense of the player.
Sometimes it was, but sometimes it wasn't. For example, when you want to restart a level, the game character says "So you messed up?". And when you start one of the levels where it starts getting quite difficult (Test 1 I think) he says something along the lines of "This level requires some thought, so it's obviously not your cup of tea!"

The way the game designer made light of winning a level annoyed me a bit as well. Maybe making it a bit more neutral would be better.

These all sound like minor things, but that combined with the steep learning curve really turned me off.

I was afraid I might have been too harsh with my first impression, so I just went back and played it again. By skipping all the dialogue and concentrating on the gameplay, I had a much better experience, though the learning curve was still too steep.

Can you please elaborate? You should not have to hold to jump - a quick tap should do.
That was my initial impression. On going back to it, I realised it's not that you have to hold the button down - it's that there's a delay between pressing the button and the response of rising into the air, because he squats down before jumping. Of course this is realistically correct (you have to squat down before you jump in real life), but I prefer the behaviour in games like Commander Keen (in 4/5/6 at least - not so much the original trilogy) where you rise into the air as soon as you press the button. It just feels more responsive.

You're not the only modern platform game I've seen that does this (for example, Pizza Panic does, though the excellent freeware game Cave Story / Doukutsu Monogatari doesn't), so maybe I'm in the minority here.

As for graphics; looking at it more closely, the background graphics are good. The bit I disliked the most was probably the lighthouse. It's nice how it's light on one side and dark on the other, but it gets washed out on the light side, and I don't like the two-colour dither on the bottom of the bricks (try using more colours perhaps). I'm not quite sure about the purple platforms either; something seems odd about them. Have you experimented with different colour schemes?

The main character is OK except for a couple of things. The shine on his forehead looks washed out and badly dithered, and the inside of his mouth (when he opens it during the victory animation) is bright red whereas I think it should be black (since there's no light in there).

I hope that's more constructive. :)

[ZeHa]

I had a speed issue on the laptop I'm currently working with. It's slow on all games, but your game revealed that it has got problems with time-based stuff. Everything was completely snail-like, even the screen transition. When I tried it on another computer, I was in fact impressed by the speed, I imagined it was supposed to be a lot slower.

I think the character is cool, and I have no problems with the insults, but he just talks too much, and sometimes it gets on your nerves, which means you just skip the bubbles and might miss important game information.

I don't like the graphics too much. I like the character's basic looks but the red outlines in his face are not very pretty in my opinion, but what I dislike the most are the color gradients. While there's nothing wrong with gradients in general, I mostly hate those "gradients which are only there for the sake of a gradient". It could have been designed much better, with some structures or something else that's cool, but those gradients are way too basic, they look like "WordArt style" :D

And the menu is not fully keyboard-driven, I can go up and down but can't invoke. But that's of course not too dramatic. I would fix those graphics and shorten at least some of the texts.


EDIT: Okay the menu IS accessable, but only with control. Perhaps you could add return and space to the keyboard scheme?

And I think you could make the displayed keys better. It's dark grey with red letters, I think a lighter grey with black letters would be better (especially for someone who has red/green blindness, which I haven't, but I heard there are quite a lot people who have it).

And as a last thing, I didn't like the "level complete" animation and music. It's way to exaggerated and doesn't really fit to the main character, in my opinion. But that's personal taste ;)

[Karja]

Just had to test the game after these different opinions. I liked it - the humour works, and it looks fine to me. I like the music as well. But since I'm hung over I won't linger on the good points. Here are some things that I didn't like:

It crashed twice. The first time in the middle of the third level, and the second time in the fourth. Nothing in particular happened in the game at the time of the crash. (The first time I got an IM so I thought that was what triggered it, but nothing similar occurred the second time.) I think the first crash happened when I was about to jump, and the second while there was a dialogue. Soo, I didn't really feel like playing any more after that.

Also, I'll chip in with the why-can't-I-press-enter-in-the-menu crowd.

The dialogue was amusing, but I really would have wanted a "start immediately" button rather than having to press next all the time. Not that I needed it now, but I imagined that the bickering would get dull after a while. (And, just as a thought, that would skip the need for just showing the last "page" the second time you try a level.)

And finally, the scrolling just seemed a bit off to me. In the first level with the steps, it seemed much too jerky vertically for my taste, and in the other levels I found the side scrolling strange. I concentrated on the main character, but I constantly had a feeling that my eyes couldn't decide whether the lighthouse was 2d or 3d, and that felt a bit irritating. Or maybe I'm still drunk or something. Better disregard this last paragraph - it sounds way too vague to be of any use.

[Coach]

I have now made the following changes:

-'Enter' is enabled for menu navigation.

-The Fred character is now in 24-bit color. Someone thought he looked "dithered" before when he was in 8-bit color. I can hardly see any differences but I guess it depends on the monitor.

-I have substituted the "push around and around" animation on the menu screens with a proper attract mode of specially made up levels to give a better understanding on how the game is played and what to expect at later levels.

The 60 minutes demo can be downloaded as before at http://www.athleticdesign.se/lighthouselunacy/Lighthouse_Lunacy_Setup.exe

Some individual responses follow:

That was my initial impression. On going back to it, I realised it's not that you have to hold the button down - it's that there's a delay between pressing the button and the response of rising into the air, because he squats down before jumping. Of course this is realistically correct (you have to squat down before you jump in real life), but I prefer the behaviour in games like Commander Keen (in 4/5/6 at least - not so much the original trilogy) where you rise into the air as soon as you press the button. It just feels more responsive.

Yeah, I suspected that it was the countermovement that played a trick on you. I have some good reasons to include it though: 1.) It looks neat! 2.) As there are no enemies/dangers, instant response is not necessary. 3.) On the contrary the delay gives the player time to replace his finger for sideway movements (this is important as the jumps are much lower / short timed than what is normal in platform games). 4.) There is also the running jump with an instant upward response (sideway movement is then, of course, already initiated). An experienced player will use the running jump all the time.

I had a speed issue on the laptop I'm currently working with. It's slow on all games, but your game revealed that it has got problems with time-based stuff. Everything was completely snail-like, even the screen transition. When I tried it on another computer, I was in fact impressed by the speed, I imagined it was supposed to be a lot slower.


Unfortunately your laptop (as well as my old laptop) is too slow. I use a fix-timed game loop.

And as a last thing, I didn't like the "level complete" animation and music. It's way to exaggerated and doesn't really fit to the main character, in my opinion. But that's personal taste


Well, I expect most people to see it your way :D. Rather it is his true personality cracked loose - everything else is just an act. HAHA!

It crashed twice. The first time in the middle of the third level, and the second time in the fourth. Nothing in particular happened in the game at the time of the crash. (The first time I got an IM so I thought that was what triggered it, but nothing similar occurred the second time.) I think the first crash happened when I was about to jump, and the second while there was a dialogue. Soo, I didn't really feel like playing any more after that.

Too bad... I haven't heard of this from anyone else and I have no idea what may have caused it.

And finally, the scrolling just seemed a bit off to me. In the first level with the steps, it seemed much too jerky vertically for my taste

Yep, the steps are partly to blame so I removed them (kept a few though). They are actually hardly used elsewhere in the game.

Thanks.

[ZeHa]

Rather it is his true personality cracked loose - everything else is just an act. HAHA!

:D

Does that mean, you aren't a black phantom, either? :eek:

[Coach]

Rather it is his true personality cracked loose - everything else is just an act. HAHA!

:D

Does that mean, you aren't a black phantom, either? :eek:

I'm not telling... You have to play the game to the end to find out;)

[zwiTTeR]

I love the game. Very nice colours, very nice animations, very nice graphs, very good 3d effect, very original game!!!!

Good work! Conglaturations!!

[Coach]

I love the game. Very nice colours, very nice animations, very nice graphs, very good 3d effect, very original game!!!!

Good work! Conglaturations!!

Thank you! Considering the quality of your own work, I value your kind remarks on the graphics even more.