It ended for me after we fell off the ravine, new scene loaded in caverns underneat, friend ran off ahead of me and went to black. Is that it so far?

I like it. I just played another dual control platformer like this. I ended up letting my daughter control one though, was fun.

Rain sound bugged. It's a close mic'd sample with very detailed concrete or flat surface splattering. I would opt for a rain loop with no reflective sounds, more of an open field quality ( at least for the duration where you are in that open field) which has air density, but none of the plik-plak'ing your in-game loop does. So the atmosphere was nice, good piano tracks. I would try either footstep sounds or getting your characters some living audio. A grunt for a landed jump, a "hup" for a jump, and a good "whoa!" for those moments that require it (the ground shifting, the big ravine jump, etc) all from randomized pools. Would love to hear some audio from your strange partner, even if it only mystifies his true nature even more.

Good job, would love to see more.

Hey, I like the presentation, good colors and placement.

I played it maybe 10 times and couldn't get past the first level, but I did learn more each time so I wanted to try again.

It's tricky to steer that thing, but I guess that's half the game right? mastering the controls? Sometimes however a manuever would correct me properly and sometimes it wouldn't.

I wasn't sure when I was getting restocked on gas or not. are there other platforms or do you get a bonus when rescue somebody?

sometimes Bombs won't deploy but they are still taken out of your ammo. I could never rescue the guy in the bottom right of the first level because I could never get a bomb to deploy down there.

Turrets seem to have too much health. I sat there firing for a while and eventually destroyed it, but had nearly run out of gas doing so so i had to restart. Either make them easier to kill, easier to dodge, a method of blocking or outrunning them maybe? Consider using the mouse as an aiming reticle, left click for primary fire, right click for bombs. Frees up the hand from getting to clustered in one little spot (even though you have alt keys mapped)

When I died it took me back to level select. Invariably the level 1 button wouldn't do anything. Maybe it was loading? but nothing told informed me whether it was a good selection or bad. I would put a little blip for yes, here we go to that level, and e little blip for sorry this level is locked as player feedback. I usually just went back to the title and restarted from there.

Maybe a number showing how many to be rescued vs a bar of completion would help players gauge just how many they need to rescue so as to help them decide how aggressively they may or may not want to play.

So I want to see the other levels. I dig these kind of skill games if it seems like I have enough control to eventually master or overcome surprise obstacles. But that bomb deploy "bug" is preventing me I think.

So the core game is a lot of fun, it's all about the player feedback and other polish items now IMO.

i'm supposed to keep the platform clear? It seems pushing them is the only safe option, as jumping will invariably shoot you off the ledge. Why not somehow alert the player when one is coming down to give them time to jump in the air and deflect like a goalie? That might be a spot more fun.

They move oddly. i hit some marbles but I'm not sure why they go the direction they do or why so many may move. It looks like you are trying to solve for physics but not able use the physics plug-in from an overhead view? After not being sure what i wanted my marbles to do (stay or be removed) I gave it another go and on the first turn the AI did one shot and removed all but one marble, theirs.

I see what's happening, but the cause and effect relationship isn't quite there enough to make people "try again' enough times I don't think.

Thanks for checking it out. Yeah, the economics of everything will shift the balance of luck and skill more than anything. How long do bees live? How many times do they hit the pegs to dislodge them? How many bees do you start with? How many pegs should there be on the board? Any one of these numbers contribute greatly to skill/luck.

My "base" model of this ratio is Peggle. It seems half is aiming and timing and the rest is watching math done up right purty. So I don't mind making a large part luck, that's where the physics come in. And I don't mind making a large part chaos, that's where the bee AI comes in. I figure if i always give the player "something" to do to try and steer chaos and luck in their direction than that could be enough. Balls bounce everywhere and bees keep hitting them? Use the puff to help steer them to safety. Bees keep wandering to places they don't need to be? Rein them in and relocate. Ants keep popping up and stealing balls? smack em dead with the puffer. Any one of these is a viable strategy, and allows players to hopefully play any style and pace they want. But for those that employ all of their skills and learn when to use what they will get the highest scores (which is a shame that mine are "under construction.")

I'm still working on a more clear "goal' to present to players. I've gone back and forth about this, but that sentiment you had...not knowing how good you are doing" is a problem for sure. I'll probably have a score quota in place soon so players can have a target to gauge performance. That might help.

That and a tutorial could go a long way! :)

Again, thanks for checking it out.

facebook video, showing off new swarm mechanic

Thanks for anyone who has played it. hard to get feedback. Plus everytime I think I'm nearing a good plateau I suddenly want to revisit things and streamline this and that. Don't worry, I know about the dangers of gamedev without proper documentation. For me this project is to learn both how I work and how I want things to work from start to finish before I tackle larger scoped ideas.

I have a facebook page for the game where I'll be chronicling the games development. Was gonna do that here, but haven't had much response so I'll keep it all on the FB page for now save major announcements.

facebook.com/TheWrongBees

At any rate, I've still got a ways before all this tech and art settle into one cohesive game, but I'm getting there. I was hoping for some feedback from THIS community simply because they know the tool I'm using. FB community will be ooh and aah but this forum would take one look at my game and have half of it figured out how I did this and why I did that and I was hoping for that perspective, eh maybe my next project. No hard feelings, I'll still be around learning.

-Tony

Well maybe no one likes Bee-Chinko... Still! I have a first pass at a dynamic music system in play for anyone who wants to check that out.

Basically I wrote a short 30-40 second music loop with three elements, bass, drums, guitar. I edited them to be sample accurate across the board (I'm an audio engineer by trade!) One track has bass, one track has bass and drum kit, and the final track has bass, drums, and guitar. On beginning of layout I play all 3, and mute everything but the bass. So I tell the system

On layout start - mute everything except bass track

If Bees > 0 - mute bass track, unmute bass/drum track

If Bees > 25 - mute bass/drum track, unmute bass/drum/guitar track

If Bees < 25 - mute bass/drum/guitar track, unmute bass/drum track

If Bees = 0 - mute bass/drum track, unmute bass track

You can check it out with the version I have online right now. I start you with 100 bees so you can play with these numbers.

Things to address

• Muting and unmuting is too harsh. Next iteration will be fading in and out volumes vs the hard mute.

• The tracks stay in sync but for a few successive loops, so I will probably end the loop at game end with a nice stinger/outro and restart it when a new level is seleted.

• Other sfx have been silenced temporarily, but I like having the music in the forefront so I will keep the rest of the sfx to a minimum, probably no collisions sounds (too crazy) but definitely for scoring and other game elements of note.

• High scores are even wonkier so don't bother with it quite yet. Getting some extra help on that...phew!

• Someone asked, are there more than just the one level? Yes, three currently. At level end a 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3 appear. Click on them to try other levels. Need to delay bee spray at beginning of levels. Clicking on the triggers to start level starts you on-click and you waste a bee or two unknowingly.

-Webfonts are mixed right now. I used to get security errors when trying to load them but I may have said yes to them all so I don't get that anymore. Is that common with webfonts?

The game may be a harder sell than I thought without seeing it, and most importantly the bee swarm in action so I'll work on getting a small vid up just to show some action. Otherwise, thanks for those who have tried it and look forward to any public feedback or suggestions!

I'm in love with the audio really. the music fits, the sound effects are perfect 8-bit fare. I would love gamepad support and let my kids wander around in it! Full screen is best, but anyone who has to play it smaller than that lose a lot of detail in the characters, mostly their faces which I think is important in this game, right? :)

-Tony

Fun test. What elements of music are you trying to sync? Starting specific phrases at beginning of waves?

It's like Peggle but with bees!

...

8/15

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/41449088/index.html

<img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/65931997/wsob_promopic_01_062012.png" border="0">

The Wrong Sort Of Bees

v.085

Left Click - Spawn Bees

Right Click - Puff

Hold Right Click - Attract/Bees

-Spawn Bees on Pegs to Dislodge Pollen

-Help Guide Pollen to Collectors By Puffing

-Redirect Wayward Bees By Attracting

Anyway...

This is a pure score attack type game. Shoot Bees to dislodge pegs, pegs will spawn pollen. If pollen land in cups in bottom of screen you get their score. Keep Bees alive as long as possible!

Bees swarm, sometimes they flit, sometimes they flutter, sometimes they hone in on things, sometimes they steer clear of them. It took a lot of tweaking and even more fun accidents with the physics system to create their behavior. They die after enough collisions with objects. You get a bonus for how big your swarm gets as well as how long the swarm persists.

<img src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/65931997/wsob_promopic_02_062012.png" border="0">

The more pollen bounce off objects, the more valuable they become once harvested and can even earn you more bees, so combining bees swarming and proper puff usage you can really boost your scores.

Puffs started out as a way of dislodging stuck balls, which it does. But it has since been upgraded to do a lot of things. Puffs, blow eggs and honeydrops useful for juggling and saves, attract all bees momentarily, drug bees who come in contact momentarily, and kill ants.

High SCores have been disabled for now because they breakeded things!

Haven't tested Touch Controls yet but I've been mindful of them. An amber partially transparent circle in the top left is a toggle to use the left mouse/touch as either the bees or the puffs. I've also made the toggle button drag droppable so the user can adjust it to whereever they see fit or on the other edge of the screen for lefties :).

Once I get enough statistics for scores I will probably be setting score "goals" in order to pass the levels. I have an upgrade system I want to implement that will produce hardier bees, and modifications to your puffer (will probably start the puffer to only juggle balls, then allow user to upgrade to bee attraction, etc.)

So far made with just the free version, it's at this point that in order for me to get the rest in shape and add more content and features I'll need the full license. It's also at that point where I'll either find the time to do the HUD and replace some art assets properly or pay someone with time.

I would love for any feedback anyone has in any department. Here are my release notes:

-All audio is temporary. At first I started with a pinball sounding set, but then had a great idea to make everything more musical. Have the swarm size change the music to be more dense and varied as time progresses. A basic implementation of this is in place with a bass loop playing while bees are on screen and stopping when there is zero.

-HUD is temporary. I like the font, but I need to streamline the presentation of this. This includes final placement of the scores, and other feedback text throughout (especially post game/high score! yech).

-I will probably keep the background artwork but I'd like to upgrade the pegs, their fonts, the shooter, the eggs and honeyballs, and possibly tweak the obstacle appearances. I like the simple silhouette quality to them, fits the font and the theme.

-Will definitely have a tutorial level that shows off the basic mechanics.

A bit about myself. I'm a professional audio engineer who works for a commercial game developer. (http://tony-porter.weebly.com, to see my credits) I picked up construct because it seemed a quick way of prototyping ideas, but I'm really liking what I see here and plan on sticking with it for final deployment. It's really addictive, and I like its speed of use. It tends to keep up with all the crazy things in my head fairly well so I give it credit for that. I mean, who says I want to make a patchinko game with bees and goes for it?

Anyway, thanks for any time you spend with my game. I'll be updating this thread as I make notable upgrades. Thank you!

So far, pretty nice. Like the animations on the player, but he seems to skate instead of walk. Is that the case? He should have a rocket thrust behind him (or in front when he's thrusting backwards) and a sound for it. If that's the case, otherwise he seems to be skating around. I only played it for a few minutes, but its certainly a start.

my player character currently has a speed boost/dash using the space bar. I just have it set for

player default max speed at 100

Space bar is pressed (not held), set player max speed at 150

Space bar is released, set player max speed at 100

then throw in appropriate animation changes on each event. The space bar will still register as "being pressed" and continue to have him dash at 150 while holding it down. But with it on pressed (not held) you can interrupt the dash with collisions and other events, making the player retrigger the dash manually as they see fit, vs being able to just hold dash down which will basically tell the character to constantly dash forever regardless of what is happening or whatever rules you set in place.