megatronx, I might try a hold to toggle type of thing with weapon selection, but I think mouse support will be the direction I go.

Anyway, here's a test build of my game. The keyboard controls are very messed up, so if you have a gamepad, it's for the best.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/305 ... index.html

It's been a busy summer, but I managed to get some more stuff done; not much compared to how many months it's been, but I have a new build up at least.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/30500491/8-26/index.html

As always, let me know what you think.

Lol, personally i think the bullet size can be bigger .

For folks who aren't accustom to difficult games, perhaps you can subtlety lower the difficulty a bit without even letting the player know it too. For example after like the 5th retry or so (there will be plenty of this), and also depending on the level, you can slow down some of the moving obstacles, slow down the chasing enemies, increase drag slightly, gravitate bullets towards the target.....etc. But do it all behind the scenes so that a player isn't "forever stuck" on a certain level and will be more enticed to continue playing. This technique was actually done in Resident Evil 4 - not a lot folks know this though .

The problem with this method is it ruins the flow and timing. If an enemy/obstacle behaves a certain way or moves a specific speed, you expect them to always move in that way, which is fundamental to how you would react.

In a game like this, where timing is everything, if you start adjusting the seed of objects after the player dies, the player will have to adjust their tactics. That might become frustrating after repeated attempts when objects don't move like they once did and you have to relearn the level all over again.

jayderyu, that sounds pretty much what I was thinking. I"ll have to make some design changes to accommodate the mouse, like crosshairs and some small changes to the vehicle movements, but it might work.

megatronx, context sensitive controls is a good idea, but just about everything can be used at any time. There really is no situation where one thing is relevant, while something else isn't.

I'll post my current build in the WIP forums tonight and link it here as it's probably easier to play than to describe how it plays.

That is so true —, and it's something that I was struggling with... Do I make a game feel great to play using a peripheral that only a few people have, severely limiting my audience, or do I support everything, even if I feel it doesn't have an ideal control scheme?

I think I will come up with something for keyboard after all is said and done. I know it's the right choice but it feels like a compromise between what I think the game should play like, and player expectations for a PC game.

Thanks for the feedback Colludium and jayderyu!

You guys are probably right that it's a bad idea. I'll probably have to bite the bullet and incorporate the mouse as well, which should work but I just wanted to have more traditional platformer controls.

Gamepad controls are currently:

Analog/d-pad - Cannon rotation/movement

X - Shoot/Action (hold for charged shot)

A - Jump

Y - Enter/Exit vehicle

B - Shield (also pulls in item drops)

Left trigger - Speed boost powerup

Right trigger - Brake

Left shoulder - Weapon select (multiple selections)

Right shoulder - Weapon cancel

Start - Pause/map

What I can do is have have cannon rotation and shooting mapped to the mouse, and the movement mapped to the keyboard; more like an FPS. It would play quite different compared to the gamepad, but I may just have to suck it up and do it anyway.

You know whats sad about this... your game kit looks a lot more polished and feature complete than the game I've been working on for the last year and a half.

Looking amazing by the way!

Hi everyone!

I have a slight dilemma. I'm getting quite far into developing my game and have decided that the keyboard may not be the best, or even viable option for controlling the characters. First off, there's just too many buttons used in my game. Every button on a 360 gamepad is being used and up to 4 or 5 buttons will need to be pressed at a time (that includes 2 buttons you need to press the d-pad at an angle). A lot of keyboards don't even support that many simultaneous key presses.

For me, the game feels comfortable to play on a gamepad, but on the keyboard it just gets very cumbersome and hard to accommodate for.

So I have a question... Is dropping keyboard support for my game a dumb idea?

...or is it perfectly okay for a PC game to have gamepad support only?

Brute got a mention on RPS today!

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/08 ... ore-309753

I just came to mention this. Everyone seems super excited for it, including myself. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile">

You could always use an instance variable.

On jump, set variable to 1. On jump, if variable =1 - play second jump animation and double jump.

When you land set the variable back to 0.

Something like that should work.

It's not just about collisions, it's also to do with fillrate and overdraw. Transparent pixels still need to be drawn and take up memory which will kill performance a mobile device, or even a desktop in severe cases.

I would agree with LittleStain, that your method is highly inefficient. You will definitely run into memory issues especially on mobile.

The best way would be to use individual sprites. Tilemaps would be another good option, although the irregularity in your level design would make tilemaps a little more difficult to use.