I played the demo and while a bit repetative it makes up for it in humor and style. I might get it.
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I played the demo and while a bit repetative it makes up for it in humor and style. I might get it.
That was weird. I downloaded the Nebulon demo, a Geometry Wars-looking thing that tried to be too cool for twin stick shooting and ended up sucking, and during my second play-through all limits were turned off. First game the time limit came up and it booted me, the second game I played for an hour just to see if maybe there was something redeemable in there. Sadly, the control scheme completely sucks, but for a short while I had the full game available. Weird.
James
James, can you go into detail on why it sucked? How did the controls suck? (Having the full game is a bug that I have heard about a few times now.)Quote:
Originally Posted by James
The same thing happened to me in another community game (Moron's Chellenge). Where the demo usually ends, it continued to the next level. I tried to replicate it, but I couldn't.
Sure, seeing as the controls were the only thing I didn't like that's not a problem.
Basically, Nebulon looks like a twin-stick shooter, plays like a twin-stick shooter, controls like a cow. The problem is that the reticle aiming is far better suited to a mouse than a controller. While I saw that there's a PC version of this in the works, for the Community Games (and when is the name changing to Indie Games, anyway?) version its implementation is a hindrance to aiming.
The reticle in Nebulon doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, but the way it's set up makes it very hard to control. The reticle keeps moving forever when pushed in one direction, and it moves at a constant pace, making adjustments in aiming very tough unless the player lets go of the right stick and sends it out from the center of the ship again. I was constantly stopping the ship and flicking the right stick at enemies to fire, rather than moving the stick in smooth arcs like I wanted to. It always felt like an argument. I'd like to see what would happen to the control if the reticle was limited in its movement to a set distance from the ship, giving the player a better idea of where the shot will go rather than having it off the screen somewhere and also meaning constant streams of fire would change direction quicker and more easily.
I can understand wanting to differentiate the game from the billions of twin-stick shooters out there, but one of the reasons they're so numerous is because it's a simple, intuitive control method that lets the player just play.
Loved the look, although the explosions can cover up enemies sometimes, and the way you could leave the dot enemies alone to generate more powerful enemies to milk them for powerups. There's some good stuff in there. I just can't stand the limitations of the control scheme.
Work post, so if there's any muddy thoughts in here it's because I don't have time to put them together right. :)
James
Thanks James. It sounds like they ruined a potentially great game. I wonder what it would be like if they just put in typical dual-stick shooter controls and re-released. Too many developers make mistakes like this. The controls are not the game. "The controller does not exist." It's a code we work by. Look at what Microsoft is doing with Natal. They are removing the controller. But here are developers putting the controller in the way (edit: effectively disconnecting you from the game experience). In a game there should be you, in the game, and you can do what to do easily. That's it. The puzzle aspect of the game should never been figuring out how to just play, it should be in the playing.
Hey guys. I'm the other guy developing Duality ZF. I'll take this opportunity to introduce myself and post a more recent video (April 2009), since the other one is a very, very old beta.
P.S. I'm trying to subscribe to this thread, but the forum will not allow me. I couldn't subscribe to the thread directly, and even after posting, I cannot. In fact, I cannot even access the 'subscribe threads' part of the website! :\ I've turned on the subscribe to threads when posting (which by default is off :wtf:), and immediate email notification for subscribed threads, so I am hoping this re-post will get me into the loop. This is kind of annoying guys... I am just trying to be a part of this community without the hassles. :)
You can say that again. Just give me the source code to that game, let me implement normal dual-stick controls, and the game would immediately become 10 times better. Who wants to move a mouse cursor around without a mouse, when you have a thumbstick that allows instant aiming? And the mouse cursor disappears when moving, forcing you to shoot in the direction of movement, which means you run into enemies. Then the game forces you to move to replenish your firing energy, so you can't use multi-directional aiming anyway. Ouch, ouch, and more ouch. The graphics are cool, but the control scheme just has to go. :bang:Quote:
Originally Posted by James
Most people tend to want to contribute to more than one or two threads when they register for a forum, is probably the reasoning there.Quote:
Originally Posted by JasonD
So what's the ETA on Duality? I swear the last time I visited your site it said it was coming in June.
The ETA for Duality ZF is end of summer. We're entering it into Dream Build Play 2009, for August 6th. So the game has to be done by then. :eep: At which point we'll enter it into play test, fix any issues, and then enter it into peer review, and fix any issues. After which it'll be available in the newly renamed Indie Games section. (We may time it for release when the name changes at end of summer.)
P.S. Posting after setting the notification properties worked! Although I still don't have access to my subscribed threads page. :lol: