Author Topic: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion  (Read 218127 times)

bigosaur

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #240 on: May 29, 2017, 01:48:01 PM »
Here are some elements for the Dungeon levels:

http://imgur.com/a/Btdb0

Soon everything will be prepared, and then I'll start designing the rooms.

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #241 on: May 30, 2017, 12:06:19 AM »
Looks excellent, well done! :)
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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #242 on: June 02, 2017, 08:24:00 AM »
The 4th level is ready. You descend into the dungeon where all the prisoners have been set free from their cells. Three new enemy types await you: a thief, a bandit and an assassin.



The thief tries to jump on your back. If he succeeds, he starts stealing away all the items from your inventory. If he finds a bomb, he will immediately use it. You can knock him off if you use a rage attack, or find some way to hit him - including meteors, bouncing orbs or via a voodoo doll. Also, if anything knocks you down, he will fall off as well. The thieves use a curved dagger, which is a new weapon with a throwing attack and backstab damage bonus that you can also use yourself.



The bandit is quick and uses a Morning Star that does a lot of damage. You also use this weapon if they drop it. The bandits will try to surround you from two sides, so watch them carefully.



Assassins have a short poisonous sword and a shield. They move and attack similar to the castle Guard Captains, but poison attack makes them really dangerous.

To counter all the shielded enemies, there's a new weapon in the game: The Excalibur. You can sometimes find this legendary sword in a forest, stuck in a rock. Once you retrieve it, you can cut through enemy shields as if they weren't holding any.



The dungeon features a new level style, with a couple of new trap types, a new treasure chest type and new music theme as well.

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #243 on: June 05, 2017, 01:00:35 AM »
I like the new stuff, good work :) I've only got as far as the new boss once, though I did beat it that time. I'll do a proper front page about this tomorrow - I'm knackered at the moment, have been at a big boardgame convention promoting Exilian this weekend.
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Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #244 on: June 13, 2017, 01:30:42 PM »
I've been playing really badly recently, I'm too tired and keep dying early from loss of concentration so I'm rarely getting to the fourth level. :/ Anyhow, some recent bug reports:
  • I once had a thief try to jump me near a doorway and manage to jump outside the main play area box, he was running round the top wall section and I couldn't get to him or get him to jump down again.
  • When you kill the violet knights, shortly after the battle ends one of them suddenly, briefly reappears and does the death animation again.
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bigosaur

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #245 on: June 14, 2017, 09:56:36 AM »
I've been playing really badly recently, I'm too tired and keep dying early from loss of concentration so I'm rarely getting to the fourth level. :/

That's strange. I have had the same problem since I added the 4th level. I feel like I'm distracted thinking about surviving the Dungeon and it changes the way I play. I have to admit I win maybe 1 in 8 runs in the Dungeon.

Quote
I once had a thief try to jump me near a doorway and manage to jump outside the main play area box

Yeah, I know exactly how that might happen. Will have a fix in the next version.

Quote
When you kill the violet knights...does the death animation again.

I have seen that one too. Thought it was a glitch, but if it happened to you as well then there must be some permanent problem. Will investigate. Fixed.

Thanks.
« Last Edit: June 14, 2017, 10:11:16 AM by bigosaur »

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #246 on: June 15, 2017, 11:56:42 PM »
Beat the Butcher with the archer for the first time today - done by plugging it with ice arrows repeatedly, which is never a very exciting way to do a boss battle but if it works it works I guess!

Also found the new hippo/rock breaking pet - the descr said it'd break three rocks per room but it only broke one in practice...
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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #247 on: June 16, 2017, 11:12:24 AM »
Also found the new hippo/rock breaking pet - the descr said it'd break three rocks per room but it only broke one in practice...

Whoops. It was 3 while testing, but it turned out to be OP, so I reduced it to one. Looks like I forgot to update the description. Thanks.

Although, after some playing, I see the problem that sometimes you cannot reach the item. I'll change it so that he jumps once, but breaks all the rocks he touches when he lands.

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #248 on: June 16, 2017, 12:25:25 PM »
One didn't feel very powerful, I swapped him out for another pet before I changed level because it felt really quite underwhelming - I guess if it's "one stomp, breaks all the rocks it touches" that might be better.
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bigosaur

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #249 on: June 21, 2017, 09:49:01 PM »
The game has had a big influx of new players recently. One of the popular Twitch streamers played it live, so many people got the game. Some of them recorded live streams on Twitch and some on YouTube. I watched all of those and see that many players coming from simple brawler games often miss the subtle clues about weapons. They just run and gun and don't want to experiment, so they have a sub-par experience as they miss out on fun. On the other hand, as more levels are added the loading times are getting longer (esp. when you first start the game) so I'm planning to add some tips/hints to the loading screen. There will be about 30-40 of those, each showing some interesting mechanics or just explaining how stuff works. The game will pick one randomly for every "loading" screen. Here's an idea what it might look like:



What do you think? Is it clear or did I try to cram too much information in?

Any ideas how to make it even better?

Thanks.

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #250 on: June 21, 2017, 11:06:14 PM »
I like the idea, and having it as a quote from the sage/mage guy I think is a great idea :) Mainly I'd make the text much bigger/bolder and the illustrations less so. Right now it feels very busy and my eyes would be all over the place: people need to see & read the text first and then look at the illustration.
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bigosaur

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #251 on: June 22, 2017, 10:11:13 PM »
I like the idea, and having it as a quote from the sage/mage guy I think is a great idea :) Mainly I'd make the text much bigger/bolder and the illustrations less so. Right now it feels very busy and my eyes would be all over the place: people need to see & read the text first and then look at the illustration.

Thanks.

Perhaps this screenshot isn't the most representative because there's text (weapon description, etc.) in the images. Other tips where images are pure images and the only text is below work much better. Also, everything looks huge here because it was made on 1280x720 screen. On regular 1920x1080 everything is much smaller.

I'll implement it like this and see how it feels in-game with different combinations of images and text.

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #252 on: June 23, 2017, 11:50:46 PM »
Hm, sure. I'd still strongly consider making the text bigger, I think - you could give a very slight fade to the game image too, the aim should definitely be to draw the eye to the text first and then the illustration I think. See what the feedback from others is like though, this may just be me :)
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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #253 on: June 25, 2017, 10:10:38 PM »
Hm, sure. I'd still strongly consider making the text bigger, I think - you could give a very slight fade to the game image too, the aim should definitely be to draw the eye to the text first and then the illustration I think. See what the feedback from others is like though, this may just be me :)

I added a short animation. The text shows up first and pops a little bit (gets bigger for a split-second) and then the images slide in from the top of the screen. As far as I can feel it, the player would start to read the text before images show up.

I have a question. I want to use the following text for one of the tips: "Mages can use the quick attack button to stomp fallen enemies". Does it sound right? I have two doubts:

1. should it be "stomp enemies" or "stomp on enemies"? I prefer the shorter one because this text is already long.

2. Is the "fallen enemies" phrase always used for dead enemies? Should I remove the word "fallen"?

Thanks.

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #254 on: June 25, 2017, 11:58:27 PM »
1. "stomp on enemies" is better grammar, but "stomp enemies" still makes perfect sense.

2. "fallen enemies" is fine and works well for this purpose I think.

EDIT: minor bug report, on the room with the rectangular pits on the battlements I just had a pig poop its coins into the void where I couldn't get them. Very frustrating :/
« Last Edit: June 27, 2017, 12:22:07 AM by Jubal »
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...