Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game
nice project you have there buddy. im a game designer as well and i love seing projects from the very beginning.
reading through ALL the thread and checking the demo i found some points that may be of interest.
-strife is a necessary adittion if the enemies are though, especially if they can surround you, since its better to focus fire on one side, and given the range of the gun, you may not be able to kill every enemy before you have to run backwards and turn again. IF the enemies come in large groups (check HOUNDS OF THE BLADE) not being able to strafe becomes a nuissance design rather than a challenging design. also if you have a large static boss, it opens more rewarding options for the player to defeat it.
EDIT:metal slug has strafe in most of their games(when in vehicles), tarma has it as a unique skill in 7 and XX
also can be a good mechanic if a boss consists of it chasing you and you have to shoot back at it while jumping obstacles and whatnot
-an aim option may not be a good adition, since it forces you to stay still, unlike strafing with can be used for dodging. besides, unless enemies try to flank you, or you want to add obvius puzzles (don't) there is no need for an aim system at all
-extra maneuvers may take away the challenge of the game, if the characther can slide,roll, jump, jump roll, or double jump, and the enemy attacks can all be avoided by jumping backwards, the character will never lose (and in a h-game you want to get caught, but dont want to feel like you're letting yourself lose, some grade of difficulty should be a standard) the easy way is to add only a slide maneuver for dodging mid height projectiles and whatnot, anything more than that and the enemies shuld have harder patterns of attack
and some suggestions i have not seen:
-an ammo system is a good idea for this game concept, not only because it adds fidelity to your universe, but interactions like reloading when surrounded, preventing mash of buttons in tough spots and differentiating weapons not only by shootting pattern can be very satisfying to overcome, and could also add to the gameplay itself.
-a melee weapon: a melee weapon, also adds to gameplay, if its in a different hotkey than the firegun, can open options when changing guns(if there are different guns) (or reloading if there is ammo) and maybe some interaction with lesser enemy projectiles (with a decent cooldown in-between so you cant spam it to win) it also adds to bad-assery of the character to hold a saber/rapier/laserblade whatever.
-getting knocked down before getting raped is a BAD idea gameplay wise if you are gonna go for that way (like kurovadis). most of the time you can escape from the knocked down state with ease(unless hp=0), and when you get caught its most likely because you felt like not getting up, THIS IS HORRIBLE, you should not choose who rapes you XD, the point of rape is that you dont want it, enemies should have a sex attack, different from its normal attacks, that is hard to avoid on its own, so you can't do as any other h-game "oh!! new enemy, i'll let him come close then knock me then wait till it comes to me" it actually has intercourse with you without consent ¡¿HOW DARE THEY!?
the desing of the character is good (animation wise its better than a good part of the h-games out there), and i'd love to see some of the inner monologue she has if she has any during the game, just to get a feel for the character (if she is prude, proud, curios etc...)
for fuck's sake... HOW MANY TIMES do i have to say no to strafing?! quit fucking telling me it's a 'necessary' design choice! i don't care if you're a game designer. if you tell me it's literally necessary, then you must not be a very good one. there are very few things in game design that are absolutely necessary no matter what, and strafing sure as hell isn't one of them.
you specifically say you read through "all the thread," and yet you seem to have no idea what my design plans are here. you say "you may not be able to kill an enemy before you have to run away and turn around again." is that what you're assuming the gameplay is going to be? shoot it until it gets too close, then turn around and run until you're far enough away to shoot it again? how terrible of a game designer would i be if that is what the gameplay focused on? that is the single most boring design in the history of gaming. there's no fun or excitement whatsoever in that. if that was all i was doing, sure - strafing would be a great addition. but it's not. enemy encounter design is a LIMITLESS field.
picture a combat scenario where you have a big, muscly guy coming at you while a creature lobs projectiles at you from behind him and a massive insect buzzes around above you. if you do not have strafing, the ideal solution here would be to bait the big guy into an attack to immobilize him, roll through him while he's busy doing that, take down the projectile thrower as quickly as you can, jump over the big guy and shoot down the insect, then put your focus on the big guy to take him down solo. THAT IS GOOD GAME DESIGN. enemy encounters that make you THINK. that ENTIRE fight would be absolutely trivialized by including fucking strafing. literally all it would take is "put on strafe, run backwards while shooting big guy until he's dead. shoot insect. shoot projectile-user unhindered."
look. i appreciate your feedback, but for the love of GOD, stop telling me what is necessary in my design, because you're wrong. i
love suggestions. even if i don't use them directly, they often get me thinking about different aspects of design that i wouldn't normally think of. but i will NOT tolerate demands.
THERE WILL BE NO STRAFING. END OF STORY.
i don't want to hear any more shit about it. any posts telling me to add it from now on will be ignored entirely. are we clear? good.
now... on to the rest of your suggestions.
i already said i wasn't going to add an aiming mode. same reason as strafing. it's unnecessary and my design doesn't revolve around it.
adding in more mobility doesn't mean the game will be less challenging. it just means it will be different than it would be without it. that's the entire point of game design, working around the abilities you give your player to make things stay interesting and challenging the entire time they play, while, in this case, simultaneously making them feel like they're growing more powerful.
the main weapon will not have limited ammunition. in a fast-paced action game on a 2D plane, as i have planned, there's not a lot of room for reloading, and her alternate weapons will have limited (but upgradeable) ammo to begin with.
i've already considered a melee weapon, but i haven't decided if i want to yet. it'll depend on how my design ends up and if it would make any meaningful changes to the gameplay. if it's there just so she has a melee option, and it serves no real purpose, there's no point to it.
i already said, SEVERAL times, that i hate the way h-games are designed in regards to this. making the player lose to see porn is a stupid idea and i've already thoroughly established my position on that. however, i disagree with you on the "you should not choose who rapes you" point. in real life, that's a duh. but this is a porn game. seeing the sex scenes IS a player goal and it should be something that's easily attainable without interfering with the gameplay. i'm going to have a button for Alicia that immobilizes her for a long period of time, triggering any enemies in the area to come at her for sex. it won't change the scenes, but it's a non-threatening way to see the scenes as often as you please with no danger. the tradeoff to this is the alternate (read: ALTERNATE, not BAD) ending you get if you get "raped" often. if the player wants to challenge themselves to avoid rape, they'll get a different ending than someone who enjoys the rape scenes fully. this design will not change as it is integral to defining the two different sides of play - the person who wants to enjoy H-scenes, and the person who wants to challenge themselves with the gameplay.
@romerskie - thanks, glad you like the project.
@shadow_hazuki - i might do that. we'll see. it will still take time to add in the recolors, and i don't want people expecting me to add in a dozen of them. IF i add recolors, i only want one or two of them.
as for reaching out to others for cum buildup sprites, no. that would only work if they were a static sprite. they're going to have to be animated to fit onto every single sprite Alicia has, including sex scenes and basic movement animations. no offense to anyone here, but i don't trust anyone else to animate them to my standards.
@Zodiark - thanks. i'm mostly feeling better today, was just very lethargic yesterday.
EDIT: to whoever neg-repped me for this post, you should realize i asked for FEEDBACK. not to be told to add the same thing by several different people, each of whom refused to listen to me when i said i wasn't going to add it, and consistently told me i was straight up wrong and that it was a necessary addition. there's a difference between feedback and being ignorant.
