Yeah pretty much everything has been improved since the last demo in my opinion.
Good to hear that the boss is better as well, I will likely continue tweaking it later as it's not quite 100% where I want it yet, it's a bit too random still.
That homage to Metroid has actually been there since one of the first demos I released but I'm pretty sure most people miss it. ;)
Solid foundation but having energy and power on separate bars feels weird. maybe power could be renamed something else to make it clearer what it's supposed to do.
I LOVED the demo, it's amazing. It felt so smooth and nice to navigate and explore. The secrets, the exploration... truly amazing! The ambience is great too. The tutorial felt kinda sloppy, without telling you about using W or A to point down or up, but matches the metroidvania style of not telling you anything. Overall amazing demo, I can't wait for more content! I guess that there is no estimated release date? How many years would it take to be complete? I am really hyped up for this game! Will buy it on release, might even support it on patreon once I pay my taxes.
Well, regarding tutorial text, it was just too much text to display so I decided to tell the player to check the control options instead, which is the best way to check controls anyway.
I have no set release date and I don't know how long it will take to finish, all I can really say is:
It's done when it's done.
As for supporting me and/or the game, it's completely up to you and every little bit of support I get on Patreon is extremely appreciated.
I love this demo so much!! Lots of fun, and it really feels like Metroid. The bossfight and puzzles are a lot of fun to figure out. The only criticism I have is that the player animations are a little stiff. Great work so far, excited for the release!!
Instead of an early access, when a demo that you feel comfortable enough (Maybe near release) is ready, release a demo in steam with the page (No early access). That would be really cool.
Hey there, I'm liking the demo so far. I see you are close to releasing another demo, so this feedback may be irrelevant by now.
I haven't completed the demo, because I got stuck behind a pedestal that had my second missile pack on it. I cannot jump back out. I can provide a screenshot to show you where if you need it. I will need to quit and reload from a save.
I noticed many scaling artifacts in the intro sequence that look like textures are being stretched in a non-1-to-1 fashion, even though my graphics settings were set to not stretch.
The 'fit to screen' option leaves large black bars on all sides of the game area. I assume you are doing integer multiple scaling only - a 'keep aspect ratio' type scaling could eliminate the black bars on two sides of the screen (top and bottom in my case) and would be an improvement.
I tried running with vsync enabled. I usually prefer this to avoid tearing artifacts. However, the game ran very sluggishly. The built-in fps counter says 30fps, but it seemed like the game logic (rather than rendering) was executing perhaps somewhere in the 8-10 fps range.
Hey, thanks for trying the demo and yes, a new demo should be coming up very soon with a lot of changes. :)
That pedestal room issue has been fixed assuming you mean the room which is half submerged in water with spikes at the bottom.
There will always be some scaling artifacts since the game is actually rendered at 200% scale, this is done to be able to render the text as small as it is, it would be double the size if the game was rendered at 100%.
That being said, I'm looking into good ways of rendering the text separately to allow 100% game scale rendering, still have not found a good way though.
"Fit to Screen" will have black bars on any widescreen monitor as the game is not made for widescreen, and this is not possible to change either.
It does not use Integer Scaling and actually does Aspect Ratio Scaling unless Aspect Ratio Scaling means something else to you.
It should not have black bars on all sides of the screen though, just the sides or the top/bottom, a screenshot of this would be nice unless I'm misunderstanding here.
Technically the only reason V-Sync would make the game run at 30FPS would be if your monitor is running at 30Hz, unless something is broken.
Not sure about the 8-10FPS thing though, but one thing you could do regarding V-Sync is to turn on "Alternate Sync" which may or may not fix the issue.
Thanks for the feedback :)
If you're interested in providing more direct feedback or maybe knowing more about the game, feel free to join my Discord server, there's a link to it on this game page.
If not, then that's fine as well, I just respond faster on Discord. (+ there's a benefit or two for being there)
The game is very good, and has a great feel for it. The lighting, sound effects and music - all create a great atmosphere.
My only gripe is with the boss fight. He doesn't telegraph his attacks in an optimal way, and thus doesn't leave many options to learn his patterns and respond to them properly.
It all feels like a game of chance in regards to how I must position myself before his next attack, and whether or not I'll meet my impending doom. It all just feels like it's out of my control.
Also, the spike in the difficulty level, is too great for such an early phase of the game. It's a bit of a leap to move on from dealing with jumping suicide crabs to dealing with an over-powered water bender that shoots plasma balls out of his eyes.
Hey, thanks for trying the demo and I'm glad you like it.
So, this demo is quite old by now and I'm currently in the process of making a new demo with A LOT of changes including changes to the boss.
That being said, you are correct and I agree with pretty much everything you said, many of these things have been fixed / improved upon in the upcoming demo and will continue to be improved upon after that.
So if you find the time to test the new demo whenever it's out (hopefully "soon"), feel free to tell me if you think it's better or not.
Also just to comment on the difficulty spike:
The boss should be easier in the new demo as well and thus reducing this difficulty spike.
But it should still be challenging and dying on the boss now results in less of a penalty as there is a save station closer to the boss.
I would love to play the updated demo when it comes out(and also buy the game when it's finished).
And it's definitely a good thing that the boss will still be challenging. I don't mind dying often in a boss fight. I just want to feel like it's my fault for dying, instead of like it's the game's fault.
What a treat! I grew up with Metroid, and I can not wait for the game to be fully released one day. Instant buy! Love the atmosphere and all these little particle effects. Really bring things to life! Amazing work so far :)
love it, looks like an unreleased metroid game for the MS-Dos in the 90s! the atmosphere is certainly one of it's stronger aspects, the same thing that made metroid fusion my favourite Metroid game.
Hey great work! I'm not a big fan of metroidvania games myself but from gameplay I can see this is great.
I am a somewhat proficent linux user, and I have a suggestion. Rather than using a VM try using a usb stick with Ubuntu flashed onto it. It has a feature where you can run a trial version off a usb stick/CD/DVD etc. Just be warned that you will need a second (FAT32) usb stick/drive to download files onto as Windows disks use NTFS which cannot be read by linux without other drivers/apt packages.
Sorry for information overload ;) Hope you can properly test this!
PS: If you can compile it into a .deb package or the like that would be good
I've got Ubuntu 20.04 LTS installed alongside windows on my laptop now so I'll be testing on an actual install and not a VM for the newer versions.
The current demo was only tested in a VM, but once I update it I will update the description as well.
As for releasing it as a .deb, I can look into it, but I think Game Maker Studio v1.4 might be too old at this point to create functional .deb packages.
So that might not be possible unless I upgrade to Game Maker Studio 2, which will probably not happen for a while, if at all.
Thanks for the info though, even if I didn't really need it anymore. ^^
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event1
for object o_MenuController:
DoAdd :1: undefined value
at gml_Object_o_MenuController_Step_1
############################################################################################
yes, that was the whole bug report... i think. it occurred when i tried to set my left diagonal aim to the keybinding of 1. I presume it's an issue where the game doesn't know what number i'm pressing (aka. numpad 1 or key 1), but i have no clue apart from that, regarding that i don't have your code nor i know your game engine.
Steam achievements will very likely be added as that is the main reason the in-game achievements were added in the first place.
There are way too many factors for me to be able to predict an actual date so the only thing I can say about a release date is: It's done when it's done.
Sorry if that's not the answer you're looking for, it's just the truth.
You are free to do what you want of course, I was merely trying to tell people that this was an old version of the game. :)
As for playing the current demo version, it's up to you.
I have to say though, an even newer version is coming at some point which will change things up once again, I don't know when though, could be weeks / months, just giving you a heads up.
This is a great demo and I look forward to seeing the final product. For a game of this current era it is pleasantly pleasing to the eye with a great "retro" vibe and interesting gameplay. Make sure to poke me when the full version becomes available ;-)
hi there, very nice game indeed! controls feel fluent, the gameplay is fun. even my cheap generic controller was recognized - something steam fails to achieve. :D i just wanted to let you know that windows (win7 in my case) tends to "forget" border-less mode when window loses focus. i'm not sure if it can be fixed, i've run into same issue with game maker. also the game freezes when i enter the door on the left in this room:
i have to admit i failed at boss as well and i agree with Schnoerkel that save point is a bit too far away from the boss room. i'm more of the explorer than boss slayer, so it would be more convenient to respawn closer to boss for multiple attempts. apart from that i haven't come across anything what would really bother me (but i second a notion to be able to shoot straight up and down when hanging on the ledge).
overall, this is very promising so far. as a huge 2d metroid and AM2R fan i'm really looking forward to finished game.
Nice to hear that the controller seems to work, I test it all on a super cheap generic controller myself. (it had a price of around 3 dollars or so)
As for the borderless fullscreen issue, I'm not sure there's much I can do about that for at least two reasons:
1. I can't really test the game on windows 7 right now as windows 10 is the OS I use, but the game should work just fine on windows 7 which is why I put "windows 7 or higher" as system requirements.
If I get to a better living situation I could put windows 7 on my other computer but this will probably not happen for the foreseeable future.
2. The game is not actually running in borderless fullscreen, it just runs in a window that is the same size as your screen which in turn hides the borders.
No clue how other games do this but this was the only native way I found to do it with Game Maker.
For the room issue, this happens because you entered a room that does not exist in the demo.
The way you reached this room is a bug that has been fixed in the internal version.
As for save points, there will be a closer save point in the full game. ;)
And aiming straight up/down while ledge grabbing is on the to-do list but I'm still not sure when or if it will be added.
Based on the demo so far, this game is a great example of re-imagining super-metroid for the modern era. You've managed to improve on almost every single aspect of the game, and brought it into today. How great!
I got to the boss, died 3 or 4 times, then gave up -- It's so tough for a first boss! I could get it down to about 50% health on my best attempts.
I'll be sure to keep an eye on this game! Love it so far!
Hi, I just finished the Demo. It took me two hours, and well over half of that was owed to the boss.
What you made so far is looking great, I appreciate the many options such as custom sharpness to the pixels. All the particle effects (I hope that's what they are, I'm not really a dev myself) look really good, such as when you fire and when you vaporize small enemies. The sound effects are quite nice too, especially the enemy sounds. The ambient music is nice, but a bit of a short loop.
What I'm missing is the ability to shoot straight down and up when hanging from a ledge. It seemed to me that using the triggers might be used for that, like when you're in the air. Also, it's weird how you lose a tad of momentum when landing from a jump. Oh, and the screen tearing is unfortunate since V-sync does add a bit of input delay. But good on you that you put that warning on the option, since I would not have noticed it otherwise.
Now, the boss is a real killer. As I died a few times, I felt myself getting better at it and stuff that I thought I was going to complain about seems fine in retroperspective.
There are a couple of things though: I started crawling to avoid the super-quick overhead dive the Slither does, but I found myself getting hit three times by it anyway only when all of its eyes were gone. I might just have crawled a pixel too far to the edge, but I'm unsure so I mention it regardless.
And then there are the flies. Oh man, the flies. The varying distances they come out at sometimes meant that I would miss one because it barely ducked under my shot, and I'd get hit. Also the screen going all grey when you get to low health made me straight up not see them when I was looking out for the bright purple boss, resulting in the flies killing me. It's rough when you get hit by an unlucky fly and get ten energy or nothing at all in return. Or when you then jump in to collect the energy and immediatly get bodyslammed by the boss coming up the middle. By the way, do sometimes more flies spawn than normal? I think I was facing down ten one time.
But what gnawed on me more than the boss or the flies (pun sadly not intended, it was one of my better ones) was the way back to the boss room from the save point. Might there be a possibility for some sort of soft checkpoint outside of the room for when you die to the boss only?
You wrote that you unlocked all doors after the boss, but I found myself unable to go anywhere new except for the charge beam in the adjacent room. All the colorless doors are still locked. I thought I might be able to return to the starting area with the green door, but I couldn't jump up at the point where you get the Geo Suit. Did I miss something newly explorable?
And here's something that just happened as I'm writing this: when I tried to start up the .exe a second time, it didn't work. I opened task manager and found it just running as a background process, loafing around at 0% CPU usage. Killing it and trying again sadly does nothing different. I'm currently playing on Windows 10, if you want to know.
The characterization of our protagonist so far is minimal, and that is quite alright. Not that I'm saying I don't want her to have any character, but in this regard one can overdo it.
The environments are great and quite detailed. I like the glowing green spikes in subterra, and all the havoc caused in the facility. Of course the purple slime is a highlight in being so dynamic and truly looks goopy. It's good to see that the underwater stuff doesn't slow you to a slugs pace and make it a chore that way.
I think that's finally everything I wanted to say. I'm stoked to see what further things you'll do with Zordak. And thank you for what you've made and shared with us so far.
The music will be reworked at some point so this will be improved upon, likely when the game is closer to being finished.
I'll add aiming straight up / down while ledge grabbing to the list and we'll see when or if this will be added.
The speed loss when landing is just another way of trying to make the character feel more heavy as I want it to feel a tiny bit clunky but not too much.
As for vertical sync, I don't get any tearing without it on but this differs from monitor and graphics card I would imagine so there's not much else I can about this.
So.. there are many things still wrong with the boss which I'll be trying to improve upon at some point.
The main thing right now being randomness, I'll be looking into making it less random.
Right now it's pretty much purely random in what pattern it chooses, this is why you sometimes get no flies and other times 10 flies for example.
And yes, the overhead dive does not work as good as I want it to, it's probably too quick with little to no warning before it uses this attack and the avoiding it is probably a bit too hard when it does the low dive.
So yeah.. as mentioned, will be looking into improving this at some point.
As for the screen going gray etc, I actually agree and will add this to the list, I'll be looking to make it less intense or maybe even completely rework it.
A checkpoint system will very likely not be added, but this is not to say that I won't add more save stations. So we'll see what I do about this, I do however, want there to be a bit of a "punishment" when dying, but this particular one might be too much.
The "doors unlocked" message just means the doors in this current boss room and exploration means collecting secrets you missed that are available in the demo. Maybe I should have worded this better, some people miss the entire text as well so yeah..
Never had that issue before where the game doesn't start up so not sure what is happening here, the only thing I can really suggest is going to "C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Local\Zordak" and deleting the "settings.ini" file.
Or maybe editing the "options.ini" file located in the .exe folder:
I do not have control over this file since it is included by Game Maker Studio so I don't know what value ranges are correct or if all of them even do anything, so the numbers within the parentheses are just my guesses.
SleepMargin does affect cpu usage and performance however, higher value = more cpu usage, so this is probably the one you should try changing.
I'll add this to the list but if I can't reproduce it there's not much I can do unfortunately.
As for the protagonist having character, I'm trying to keep this very vague and not super "special" since you are supposed to be something like an ordinary person, I don't know how else to describe it.
I'm glad you like the environment and detail since this and atmosphere is somewhat of a main focus.
Thanks a lot for the extensive feedback, very much appreciated. :)
Alright, I just tried to start the game again and it worked. Seems a PC restart fixed whatever was going on.
And actually I was thinking being able to aim straight down could be useful even when standing normally. I found myself trying that when standing on ledges. It could also be used when you're hit by a little bug, so you don't have to run away to shoot them. I know it's just a little thing, but it would be nice to be able to do it.
I do enjoy the "character weight" thing, it makes actions more deliberate. And it really isn't too much. Cheers!
hey boy, look at that.I just jump in the fish and i get stuck there :< its a future secret? And this game is show, im trying get all itens of the game, you make a good job :)
Played the Windows version on 64-bit Linux with Wine (didn't want to install all those i386 dependencies) and it worked flawlessly.
Really fun to play and looks pretty. Surprisingly the difficulty was just right for me. Often games like these require too much split-second timing in jumping and shooting. Controls felt good.
Since I'm using GMS 1.4 to make the game, the "runner" for the native linux version is 32bit only and quite old, so there's not much I can do about the dependencies.
But I guess it doesn't matter much since it works with Wine anyway, just wanted to try and give you an explanation. ;)
Glad to hear that the difficulty and controls were fine, and don't worry about split-second timing, there should not be much of that in the game, if any at all.
Looking great, after I got bored with the demo I gave myself all the upgrades(sorry cound't resist) It showed me some decent differences with Super Metroid and some real good effort in making back tracking worth it, I have als met Glob.
Can't wait for the full game good metroidvania games are rare and far apart, and this heading to become a classic.
So.. yeah, you're not supposed to have those kinds of upgrades when fighting that one so it won't be like that in the final game.
And yep, that fight is definitely supposed to be unexpected and you already know those event triggers are a thing in this game now so there you go. ;)
I'm not gonna lie here, as this is a 100% single player game, I kinda was planning to use this save system (+- some tweaks like actually checking demo upgrades...) but I'm probably going to rewrite it a bit.
Originally, the reasons for this system were:
Very easy for me to handle and a low risk for breaking any previous saves when patching the game. (very important)
Also it's somewhat easy for anyone else to try and fix themselves if something has gone wrong. (with some guidance)
In any case, changes will be made to the system and thanks for bringing light to this issue, you're the first one who has said anything about this. ;)
I really enjoyed this demo. The aesthetic stands out for me because it is familiar to a Metroid lover, but also feels famliar to a human who lives on Earth. It's a delightful balance and I am eager to see what else you come up with.
If I may ask, what program/s are you using to make this and how hellishly difficult is it to learn to produce a playable game with it/them, art design aside?
Thank you for the work you've already put into this project and I hope it exceeds your expectations in every way.
I use GameMaker Studio and using this is probably one of the easiest ways to get a game into a playable state.
But I'm going to be honest here, unless you're already familiar with some type of programming then it's probably going to take a long time before you make something good, as with all things, it takes a lot of learning and practice.
Hello! I played through the demo and really liked it! So much so that I didn't see the "Thanks for playing message" until after wandering the whole map for like 20 minutes. haha!
Some feedback:
I think the boss is in a good place right now in terms of challenge. Though I'm sure any future speedrunners would perfer less randomness.
The enemies in the ceiling that fly directly at the player could use more of a tell. Maybe their spikes could glow before they attack?
When hanging on a ledge and pressing away from it, your character releases from it. This feels kinda awkward and unintuative. For most games this would aim away.
The font can be a little hard to read at times.
Regardless, I'm excited to see where how this game develops. It's really promising so far!
Hey, thanks for trying the demo, glad you like it. :)
Maybe I should have made the end of demo text a bit easier to see. ;)
So, the boss has gone through some big changes since the demo was released so I can't really comment much on that right now since it's not exactly the same anymore.
I do however agree with the randomness, some of this has been improved upon in this new version of the boss with more opportunities to actually hit it.
More on that subject should exist in some of my recent devlogs.
As for the enemies in the ceiling, they have also already been changed to be more noticeable.
And everything ledge grab related have been improved and the issue you were having basically doesn't exist anymore. Left/right no longer lets go off ledge grabbing by default, there is now a horizontal momentum boost when ledge grab jumping to allow you to jump further, you can now aim diagonally with the d-pad if you enable a setting and likely some more changes.
There is also a new accessibility setting called "large font" which is self explanatory.
Hopefully I can get a new demo update out soon so new people won't have to experience these issues anymore.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback, even though pretty much everything has supposedly already been fixed. ;)
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The new Demo blows the old one out of the water!
Better graphics and lighting. I love the new jumpsuit and power armor.
And the Boss Slither is so much improved. Good telegraphing on attacks, more time to react, and the bugs that you can kill for supplies is wonderful.
Now I'm even more excited for the full release. Definitely gonna try and buy this day 1.
Also I laughed at the lil metroid easter egg after you get the jump suit. Very cute :)
Hey, thanks for trying the new demo.
Yeah pretty much everything has been improved since the last demo in my opinion.
Good to hear that the boss is better as well, I will likely continue tweaking it later as it's not quite 100% where I want it yet, it's a bit too random still.
That homage to Metroid has actually been there since one of the first demos I released but I'm pretty sure most people miss it. ;)
Thanks for the feedback. ^^
Solid foundation but having energy and power on separate bars feels weird. maybe power could be renamed something else to make it clearer what it's supposed to do.
Power does pretty much nothing in the demo, it is used in the full game though.
That being said, Energy and Power does kind of mean the same thing in a sense so maybe one of them will be renamed, we'll see.
Thanks for the feedback. :)
Aux power might work depending on what its used for.
I LOVED the demo, it's amazing. It felt so smooth and nice to navigate and explore. The secrets, the exploration... truly amazing! The ambience is great too. The tutorial felt kinda sloppy, without telling you about using W or A to point down or up, but matches the metroidvania style of not telling you anything. Overall amazing demo, I can't wait for more content! I guess that there is no estimated release date? How many years would it take to be complete? I am really hyped up for this game! Will buy it on release, might even support it on patreon once I pay my taxes.
Glad you like the demo, thanks for playing. :)
Well, regarding tutorial text, it was just too much text to display so I decided to tell the player to check the control options instead, which is the best way to check controls anyway.
I have no set release date and I don't know how long it will take to finish, all I can really say is:
It's done when it's done.
As for supporting me and/or the game, it's completely up to you and every little bit of support I get on Patreon is extremely appreciated.
Thanks for the feedback. ^^
I love this demo so much!! Lots of fun, and it really feels like Metroid. The bossfight and puzzles are a lot of fun to figure out. The only criticism I have is that the player animations are a little stiff. Great work so far, excited for the release!!
Hey, thanks for trying the demo, I'm glad you like it. :)
I'm sure the animations will be improved upon over time but it will not be something I focus on for quite a while.
Thanks for the feedback.
When i launch the game there is 2 diff exe files,which one do i use?
Either of them should work, the Zordak_YYC one just has better performance but might have new bugs I don't know about.
More information in the README file included with the game.
my man why dont you do an early release on steam...this game got me hooked!!! kudos for releasing this to linux my man!!!!!
It's not quite ready for any sort of early access release just yet and won't be for quite some time.
I'm not sure I want to do one either but we'll see.
I'll be trying my best to keep supporting linux. :)
Instead of an early access, when a demo that you feel comfortable enough (Maybe near release) is ready, release a demo in steam with the page (No early access). That would be really cool.
I will be making a Steam page at some point and likely putting a demo there as well.
And this naturally answers the other potential question, yes, the game will be on Steam at some point. :)
I love the look of this. I will definitely be looking on with great interest, not enough of this flavor of game around.
Hey, thanks, glad you like it. :)
Hey there, I'm liking the demo so far. I see you are close to releasing another demo, so this feedback may be irrelevant by now.
I haven't completed the demo, because I got stuck behind a pedestal that had my second missile pack on it. I cannot jump back out. I can provide a screenshot to show you where if you need it. I will need to quit and reload from a save.
I noticed many scaling artifacts in the intro sequence that look like textures are being stretched in a non-1-to-1 fashion, even though my graphics settings were set to not stretch.
The 'fit to screen' option leaves large black bars on all sides of the game area. I assume you are doing integer multiple scaling only - a 'keep aspect ratio' type scaling could eliminate the black bars on two sides of the screen (top and bottom in my case) and would be an improvement.
I tried running with vsync enabled. I usually prefer this to avoid tearing artifacts. However, the game ran very sluggishly. The built-in fps counter says 30fps, but it seemed like the game logic (rather than rendering) was executing perhaps somewhere in the 8-10 fps range.
Looking forward to trying the next demo!
Hey, thanks for trying the demo and yes, a new demo should be coming up very soon with a lot of changes. :)
That pedestal room issue has been fixed assuming you mean the room which is half submerged in water with spikes at the bottom.
There will always be some scaling artifacts since the game is actually rendered at 200% scale, this is done to be able to render the text as small as it is, it would be double the size if the game was rendered at 100%.
That being said, I'm looking into good ways of rendering the text separately to allow 100% game scale rendering, still have not found a good way though.
"Fit to Screen" will have black bars on any widescreen monitor as the game is not made for widescreen, and this is not possible to change either.
It does not use Integer Scaling and actually does Aspect Ratio Scaling unless Aspect Ratio Scaling means something else to you.
It should not have black bars on all sides of the screen though, just the sides or the top/bottom, a screenshot of this would be nice unless I'm misunderstanding here.
Technically the only reason V-Sync would make the game run at 30FPS would be if your monitor is running at 30Hz, unless something is broken.
Not sure about the 8-10FPS thing though, but one thing you could do regarding V-Sync is to turn on "Alternate Sync" which may or may not fix the issue.
Thanks for the feedback :)
If you're interested in providing more direct feedback or maybe knowing more about the game, feel free to join my Discord server, there's a link to it on this game page.
If not, then that's fine as well, I just respond faster on Discord. (+ there's a benefit or two for being there)
The game is very good, and has a great feel for it.
The lighting, sound effects and music - all create a great atmosphere.
My only gripe is with the boss fight. He doesn't telegraph his attacks in an optimal way, and thus doesn't leave many options to learn his patterns and respond to them properly.
It all feels like a game of chance in regards to how I must position myself before his next attack, and whether or not I'll meet my impending doom. It all just feels like it's out of my control.
Also, the spike in the difficulty level, is too great for such an early phase of the game. It's a bit of a leap to move on from dealing with jumping suicide crabs to dealing with an over-powered water bender that shoots plasma balls out of his eyes.
Hey, thanks for trying the demo and I'm glad you like it.
So, this demo is quite old by now and I'm currently in the process of making a new demo with A LOT of changes including changes to the boss.
That being said, you are correct and I agree with pretty much everything you said, many of these things have been fixed / improved upon in the upcoming demo and will continue to be improved upon after that.
So if you find the time to test the new demo whenever it's out (hopefully "soon"), feel free to tell me if you think it's better or not.
Also just to comment on the difficulty spike:
The boss should be easier in the new demo as well and thus reducing this difficulty spike.
But it should still be challenging and dying on the boss now results in less of a penalty as there is a save station closer to the boss.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback. :)
I would love to play the updated demo when it comes out(and also buy the game when it's finished).
And it's definitely a good thing that the boss will still be challenging.
I don't mind dying often in a boss fight.
I just want to feel like it's my fault for dying, instead of like it's the game's fault.
Israeli?
Yep, I assume you are too?
Indeed.
Know bibi?
I agree completely that it shouldn't feel like it's the game's fault and I've tried to fix some of this for the new demo.
The boss will definitely not be perfect in the new demo but hopefully it's better than the old one.
In any case, we'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.
Played on Linux and I can say this game is amazing, you did a really good job on basically upgrading Super Metroid. I love it!
Hey, thanks for playing, glad you like it. :)
Good to hear the Linux version works, unless you played with Wine or something, but good to hear either way.
I used native linux to run it :)
Okay, good to know that works then, thanks. ^^
This looks really cool. What engine are you using to make this? Unity?
Hey, thanks.
I'm using GameMaker Studio 1.4. :)
What a treat! I grew up with Metroid, and I can not wait for the game to be fully released one day. Instant buy! Love the atmosphere and all these little particle effects. Really bring things to life! Amazing work so far :)
Hey, thanks for trying the demo.
It's a bit old by now and I'm working on getting it updated, glad you like it though. ^^
Atmosphere is one of my main focuses so I'm glad you like that as well. ;)
love it, looks like an unreleased metroid game for the MS-Dos in the 90s! the atmosphere is certainly one of it's stronger aspects, the same thing that made metroid fusion my favourite Metroid game.
Thanks, atmosphere is one of main my focuses so I'm glad you like it. :)
Hey great work! I'm not a big fan of metroidvania games myself but from gameplay I can see this is great.
I am a somewhat proficent linux user, and I have a suggestion. Rather than using a VM try using a usb stick with Ubuntu flashed onto it. It has a feature where you can run a trial version off a usb stick/CD/DVD etc. Just be warned that you will need a second (FAT32) usb stick/drive to download files onto as Windows disks use NTFS which cannot be read by linux without other drivers/apt packages.
Sorry for information overload ;) Hope you can properly test this!
PS: If you can compile it into a .deb package or the like that would be good
Hey, thanks, glad you like the game. :)
I've got Ubuntu 20.04 LTS installed alongside windows on my laptop now so I'll be testing on an actual install and not a VM for the newer versions.
The current demo was only tested in a VM, but once I update it I will update the description as well.
As for releasing it as a .deb, I can look into it, but I think Game Maker Studio v1.4 might be too old at this point to create functional .deb packages.
So that might not be possible unless I upgrade to Game Maker Studio 2, which will probably not happen for a while, if at all.
Thanks for the info though, even if I didn't really need it anymore. ^^
I am loving this game so far, great work
Thanks, glad you like it. :)
___________________________________________ ############################################################################################ FATAL ERROR in action number 1 of Step Event1 for object o_MenuController:
DoAdd :1: undefined value at gml_Object_o_MenuController_Step_1 ############################################################################################
Sorry for the ugly bug report, i didn't know where to put it.
No problem. :)
Never seen this one before, what were you doing when this happened?
And was this the whole error message?
I'm going to need more specifics for this one.
yes, that was the whole bug report... i think. it occurred when i tried to set my left diagonal aim to the keybinding of 1. I presume it's an issue where the game doesn't know what number i'm pressing (aka. numpad 1 or key 1), but i have no clue apart from that, regarding that i don't have your code nor i know your game engine.
Okay thanks, and just to be 100% clear here:
You were trying to bind it to the key "1" and not "numpad 1"?
In any case, I'll be testing both, just making sure. :)
i was pressing key 1 (the one that's ! if you hold shift)
When you finally release this on Steam, please include Steam achievements!
Also, any idea on the state of development? Do we have months or years left until product finished and I can buy it?
Steam achievements will very likely be added as that is the main reason the in-game achievements were added in the first place.
There are way too many factors for me to be able to predict an actual date so the only thing I can say about a release date is: It's done when it's done.
Sorry if that's not the answer you're looking for, it's just the truth.
It's great to see this gem of a game advertised again. I did a gameplpay (kinda) a while back enjoy.
All the best.wobbly
Well thanks. :)
A LOT has changed since you last played it so I'll have to comment and say this for anyone new reading it:
This is a playthrough of the demo from 2 years ago so don't expect the game to look like this in it's current state.
I'm not bashing the video or anything though, the video is just fine, I'm just saying it's very old and A LOT has changed since then. ^^
I will update the description to reflect this AND play the new version if that's ok with the DEVs?
Regards
Wobbly
You are free to do what you want of course, I was merely trying to tell people that this was an old version of the game. :)
As for playing the current demo version, it's up to you.
I have to say though, an even newer version is coming at some point which will change things up once again, I don't know when though, could be weeks / months, just giving you a heads up.
This is a great demo and I look forward to seeing the final product. For a game of this current era it is pleasantly pleasing to the eye with a great "retro" vibe and interesting gameplay. Make sure to poke me when the full version becomes available ;-)
Hey, thanks, glad you like it! :)
I can't exactly promise that I will be able to remember that.
But if you use Discord I have a server up where you will get pinged whenever I post an update.
Server Link: https://discord.gg/fTTEUNZ
Anyway, thanks for the feedback. ^^
Did you make this in gamemaker studio 2 or 1? Really cool game btw!
Hey, thanks.
I'm using GameMaker Studio v1.4. :)
Cool!
hi there, very nice game indeed! controls feel fluent, the gameplay is fun. even my cheap generic controller was recognized - something steam fails to achieve. :D
i just wanted to let you know that windows (win7 in my case) tends to "forget" border-less mode when window loses focus. i'm not sure if it can be fixed, i've run into same issue with game maker.
also the game freezes when i enter the door on the left in this room:
i have to admit i failed at boss as well and i agree with Schnoerkel that save point is a bit too far away from the boss room. i'm more of the explorer than boss slayer, so it would be more convenient to respawn closer to boss for multiple attempts.
apart from that i haven't come across anything what would really bother me (but i second a notion to be able to shoot straight up and down when hanging on the ledge).
overall, this is very promising so far. as a huge 2d metroid and AM2R fan i'm really looking forward to finished game.
Hey, thanks, glad you like the game! :)
Nice to hear that the controller seems to work, I test it all on a super cheap generic controller myself. (it had a price of around 3 dollars or so)
As for the borderless fullscreen issue, I'm not sure there's much I can do about that for at least two reasons:
1. I can't really test the game on windows 7 right now as windows 10 is the OS I use, but the game should work just fine on windows 7 which is why I put "windows 7 or higher" as system requirements.
If I get to a better living situation I could put windows 7 on my other computer but this will probably not happen for the foreseeable future.
2. The game is not actually running in borderless fullscreen, it just runs in a window that is the same size as your screen which in turn hides the borders.
No clue how other games do this but this was the only native way I found to do it with Game Maker.
For the room issue, this happens because you entered a room that does not exist in the demo.
The way you reached this room is a bug that has been fixed in the internal version.
As for save points, there will be a closer save point in the full game. ;)
And aiming straight up/down while ledge grabbing is on the to-do list but I'm still not sure when or if it will be added.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback! :)
Really nice game, only some suggestions.
Please change the text font, for one who be more clear, I have myopia, I have to make an effort to be able to read the text fluently.
And (isn't essential) but i want in Spanish hahaha
Thank you very much for your demo and good luck with the project.
Best regards
Hey, thanks, glad you like it. ^^
Try going into the "Accessibility" options and turning on "Large Font".
Let me know if that helps.
In any case, I'm working on minimizing text usage as text is not really going to be a big focus in the game.
As for Spanish language, I'll be looking into translating the game to multiple languages after all text has been finalized in the game.
Can't guarantee anything though but I'll be trying to get as many languages in there as possible.
Thanks for the feedback. :)
Solved with large font, the another before it was so minimalist. Thankkyou
One more thing. Sorry i buged de game in this point xDDDDD
Glad to hear that the large font setting worked better.
As for the room issue, it's technically not a bug, you just entered a room that does not exist in the demo and therefore causing this.
The way you reached the door is a bug though and this has already been fixed in the internal version.
Thanks for letting me know though. ;)
Congratulations! Very polished game!
Thanks. ;)
Game is great so far. Good luck!
Thanks. ^^
your game is great !!!
Thanks! ;)
Based on the demo so far, this game is a great example of re-imagining super-metroid for the modern era. You've managed to improve on almost every single aspect of the game, and brought it into today. How great!
I got to the boss, died 3 or 4 times, then gave up -- It's so tough for a first boss! I could get it down to about 50% health on my best attempts.
I'll be sure to keep an eye on this game! Love it so far!
Hey, thanks trying the demo, glad you like it. :)
The boss still has some tweaks planned, mainly reducing randomness and improving visibility for attack patterns.
So it may or may not get a little bit easier when I have improved on those two things, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Thanks for the feedback. ^^
Hi, I just finished the Demo. It took me two hours, and well over half of that was owed to the boss.
What you made so far is looking great, I appreciate the many options such as custom sharpness to the pixels. All the particle effects (I hope that's what they are, I'm not really a dev myself) look really good, such as when you fire and when you vaporize small enemies. The sound effects are quite nice too, especially the enemy sounds. The ambient music is nice, but a bit of a short loop.
What I'm missing is the ability to shoot straight down and up when hanging from a ledge. It seemed to me that using the triggers might be used for that, like when you're in the air. Also, it's weird how you lose a tad of momentum when landing from a jump. Oh, and the screen tearing is unfortunate since V-sync does add a bit of input delay. But good on you that you put that warning on the option, since I would not have noticed it otherwise.
Now, the boss is a real killer. As I died a few times, I felt myself getting better at it and stuff that I thought I was going to complain about seems fine in retroperspective.
There are a couple of things though: I started crawling to avoid the super-quick overhead dive the Slither does, but I found myself getting hit three times by it anyway only when all of its eyes were gone. I might just have crawled a pixel too far to the edge, but I'm unsure so I mention it regardless.
And then there are the flies. Oh man, the flies. The varying distances they come out at sometimes meant that I would miss one because it barely ducked under my shot, and I'd get hit. Also the screen going all grey when you get to low health made me straight up not see them when I was looking out for the bright purple boss, resulting in the flies killing me. It's rough when you get hit by an unlucky fly and get ten energy or nothing at all in return. Or when you then jump in to collect the energy and immediatly get bodyslammed by the boss coming up the middle. By the way, do sometimes more flies spawn than normal? I think I was facing down ten one time.
But what gnawed on me more than the boss or the flies (pun sadly not intended, it was one of my better ones) was the way back to the boss room from the save point. Might there be a possibility for some sort of soft checkpoint outside of the room for when you die to the boss only?
You wrote that you unlocked all doors after the boss, but I found myself unable to go anywhere new except for the charge beam in the adjacent room. All the colorless doors are still locked. I thought I might be able to return to the starting area with the green door, but I couldn't jump up at the point where you get the Geo Suit. Did I miss something newly explorable?
And here's something that just happened as I'm writing this: when I tried to start up the .exe a second time, it didn't work. I opened task manager and found it just running as a background process, loafing around at 0% CPU usage. Killing it and trying again sadly does nothing different. I'm currently playing on Windows 10, if you want to know.
The characterization of our protagonist so far is minimal, and that is quite alright. Not that I'm saying I don't want her to have any character, but in this regard one can overdo it.
The environments are great and quite detailed. I like the glowing green spikes in subterra, and all the havoc caused in the facility. Of course the purple slime is a highlight in being so dynamic and truly looks goopy. It's good to see that the underwater stuff doesn't slow you to a slugs pace and make it a chore that way.I think that's finally everything I wanted to say. I'm stoked to see what further things you'll do with Zordak. And thank you for what you've made and shared with us so far.
Hey, thanks for trying the demo.
The music will be reworked at some point so this will be improved upon, likely when the game is closer to being finished.
I'll add aiming straight up / down while ledge grabbing to the list and we'll see when or if this will be added.
The speed loss when landing is just another way of trying to make the character feel more heavy as I want it to feel a tiny bit clunky but not too much.
As for vertical sync, I don't get any tearing without it on but this differs from monitor and graphics card I would imagine so there's not much else I can about this.
So.. there are many things still wrong with the boss which I'll be trying to improve upon at some point.
The main thing right now being randomness, I'll be looking into making it less random.
Right now it's pretty much purely random in what pattern it chooses, this is why you sometimes get no flies and other times 10 flies for example.
And yes, the overhead dive does not work as good as I want it to, it's probably too quick with little to no warning before it uses this attack and the avoiding it is probably a bit too hard when it does the low dive.
So yeah.. as mentioned, will be looking into improving this at some point.
As for the screen going gray etc, I actually agree and will add this to the list, I'll be looking to make it less intense or maybe even completely rework it.
A checkpoint system will very likely not be added, but this is not to say that I won't add more save stations. So we'll see what I do about this, I do however, want there to be a bit of a "punishment" when dying, but this particular one might be too much.
The "doors unlocked" message just means the doors in this current boss room and exploration means collecting secrets you missed that are available in the demo. Maybe I should have worded this better, some people miss the entire text as well so yeah..
Never had that issue before where the game doesn't start up so not sure what is happening here, the only thing I can really suggest is going to "C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Local\Zordak" and deleting the "settings.ini" file.
Or maybe editing the "options.ini" file located in the .exe folder:
CreateTexturesOnDemand=0 (0-1)
AlternateSyncMethod=0 (0-1)
VertexBufferMethod=1 (0-3)
SleepMargin=15 (1-30)
I do not have control over this file since it is included by Game Maker Studio so I don't know what value ranges are correct or if all of them even do anything, so the numbers within the parentheses are just my guesses.
SleepMargin does affect cpu usage and performance however, higher value = more cpu usage, so this is probably the one you should try changing.
I'll add this to the list but if I can't reproduce it there's not much I can do unfortunately.
As for the protagonist having character, I'm trying to keep this very vague and not super "special" since you are supposed to be something like an ordinary person, I don't know how else to describe it.
I'm glad you like the environment and detail since this and atmosphere is somewhat of a main focus.
Thanks a lot for the extensive feedback, very much appreciated. :)
Alright, I just tried to start the game again and it worked. Seems a PC restart fixed whatever was going on.
And actually I was thinking being able to aim straight down could be useful even when standing normally. I found myself trying that when standing on ledges. It could also be used when you're hit by a little bug, so you don't have to run away to shoot them. I know it's just a little thing, but it would be nice to be able to do it.
I do enjoy the "character weight" thing, it makes actions more deliberate. And it really isn't too much. Cheers!
Good to hear that it works again, no idea what would cause it to not start up. :/
I'll add aim straight down while standing/running to the list as well, same deal here: we'll see if it gets added or not.
Thanks again for the feedback. :)
Hey, I check all relevant places. ;)
So, I left a comment on youtube. ^^
Whoa. Excessively endowed protagonist notwithstanding, this looks amazing so far.
Thanks. ;)
I wish for an OSX build, looks like an amazing metrodivania :)
Thanks, but I'm afraid this is not possible right now as I don't have access to a Mac computer.
I am, however, open to the idea if I ever get hold of one.
But for now, I can't do it, sorry. :(
Great game! Atmospheric and exploration is entertaining, keep going! ;) (Works with integrated graphics card! ;)
Hey, thanks. Glad you like it. :)
Good to know that it works on other integrated graphics cards and not just mine. ^^
Hey, I guess you found a shortcut. ;)
Since that is not the intended way to get over there the room does not exist in the demo, that's why you get stuck there.
I don't know what I will be doing about this, if anything at all, since things like these can actually make the game better.
Thanks for letting me know though and I'm glad you like the game. :)
Played the Windows version on 64-bit Linux with Wine (didn't want to install all those i386 dependencies) and it worked flawlessly.
Really fun to play and looks pretty. Surprisingly the difficulty was just right for me. Often games like these require too much split-second timing in jumping and shooting. Controls felt good.
Hey, thanks for trying the demo.
Good to know that it seems to work with Wine.
Since I'm using GMS 1.4 to make the game, the "runner" for the native linux version is 32bit only and quite old, so there's not much I can do about the dependencies.
But I guess it doesn't matter much since it works with Wine anyway, just wanted to try and give you an explanation. ;)
Glad to hear that the difficulty and controls were fine, and don't worry about split-second timing, there should not be much of that in the game, if any at all.
Thanks for the feedback! :)
Looking great, after I got bored with the demo I gave myself all the upgrades(sorry cound't resist) It showed me some decent differences with Super Metroid and some real good effort in making back tracking worth it, I have als met Glob.
Can't wait for the full game good metroidvania games are rare and far apart, and this heading to become a classic.
Well, thanks for commenting on giving yourself all the upgrades, this now made me realize I've made a huge oversight.
But it doesn't really matter that much anyway since most of what you saw is of subject to change, some is placeholder stuff as well.
And also, many things aren't even implemented at all yet either.
I honestly didn't know if that boss even worked still, haven't tested it in months.
Thanks for trying the game though, I'm glad you like it, and that sneaky upgrade cheat will be going away in the future. ;)
I think the trigger for Glob was pretty cool, can't say anything about the fight as wave ruines it.
Events triggered by progress or some upgrades can be pretty cool, especially if they are bound to an area and feel unexpected first time.
Oversight? you weren't planing to use this save system for the final game where you?
So.. yeah, you're not supposed to have those kinds of upgrades when fighting that one so it won't be like that in the final game.
And yep, that fight is definitely supposed to be unexpected and you already know those event triggers are a thing in this game now so there you go. ;)
I'm not gonna lie here, as this is a 100% single player game, I kinda was planning to use this save system (+- some tweaks like actually checking demo upgrades...) but I'm probably going to rewrite it a bit.
Originally, the reasons for this system were:
Very easy for me to handle and a low risk for breaking any previous saves when patching the game. (very important)
Also it's somewhat easy for anyone else to try and fix themselves if something has gone wrong. (with some guidance)
In any case, changes will be made to the system and thanks for bringing light to this issue, you're the first one who has said anything about this. ;)
Fantastic looking lights.
Thanks. ;)
The game looks really polished and well-made.
Digging the gameplay feel and the effects.
Thanks, I'm glad you like the game. :)
Cool metroid, very nice picture! I hope you finish it.
Thanks, glad you like it. :)
I really enjoyed this demo. The aesthetic stands out for me because it is familiar to a Metroid lover, but also feels famliar to a human who lives on Earth. It's a delightful balance and I am eager to see what else you come up with.
If I may ask, what program/s are you using to make this and how hellishly difficult is it to learn to produce a playable game with it/them, art design aside?
Thank you for the work you've already put into this project and I hope it exceeds your expectations in every way.
Hey, thanks, glad you liked it.
I use GameMaker Studio and using this is probably one of the easiest ways to get a game into a playable state.
But I'm going to be honest here, unless you're already familiar with some type of programming then it's probably going to take a long time before you make something good, as with all things, it takes a lot of learning and practice.
And thanks, I hope so too.
Hello! I played through the demo and really liked it! So much so that I didn't see the "Thanks for playing message" until after wandering the whole map for like 20 minutes. haha!
Some feedback:
Regardless, I'm excited to see where how this game develops. It's really promising so far!
Hey, thanks for trying the demo, glad you like it. :)
Maybe I should have made the end of demo text a bit easier to see. ;)
So, the boss has gone through some big changes since the demo was released so I can't really comment much on that right now since it's not exactly the same anymore.
I do however agree with the randomness, some of this has been improved upon in this new version of the boss with more opportunities to actually hit it.
More on that subject should exist in some of my recent devlogs.
As for the enemies in the ceiling, they have also already been changed to be more noticeable.
And everything ledge grab related have been improved and the issue you were having basically doesn't exist anymore. Left/right no longer lets go off ledge grabbing by default, there is now a horizontal momentum boost when ledge grab jumping to allow you to jump further, you can now aim diagonally with the d-pad if you enable a setting and likely some more changes.
There is also a new accessibility setting called "large font" which is self explanatory.
Hopefully I can get a new demo update out soon so new people won't have to experience these issues anymore.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback, even though pretty much everything has supposedly already been fixed. ;)
Awesome!!
Dude I loved your game. Looking forward for the full version. Keep up the good work!
Hey, sorry for the late reply, I'm glad you liked it!
Will do and hopefully I'll get a new update out soon.