DO YOU USE DEVIANT ART??? IF SO, I WANT YOUR ADVICE!!!

Here at MakeGamesHappen, we believe in the importance of marketing in addition to making a great game.
However, we want to be careful that, in our attempts to market our game, we do not violate the trust of our fans.

So, here is the question?
I've been thinking that we could release beta #7 four(4) times on Deviant Art.
The submissions would be identical. Except for the preview thumbnail used.

This would be to help us figure out what kind of thumbnails work the best for advertising our game.

However, I could see this not being appreciated by our watchers when they mistakenly click on 4 identical submissions.

Thoughts?

-MakeGamesHappen
(-John Mark)

I have gathered a lot of feedback over the weeks. And I am currently back logged. In order to focus on the changes that need to be made, I will stop answering my inbox after the 10th. Anyone who has: 1. Messaged me before the 10th. 2. Is a new tester. Will be given one reply from myself. For now, here is my list of things that need work:

1. A tips death screen instead of being insulting. 2. Help Text implimented as signs that will display text on screen    when you stand in front of them. Kind of like how super mario world for SNES has those    microphone blocks that help you if you hit them.    This will require some work with the prop engine. 3. Better level design. With much simpler levels in the beginning to help introduce people to all of the mechanics. 4. Be able to zoom the game in when you zoom the browser in. 5. WASD+JK support. 6. Buttons explode animation. 7. Player death explosion animation. 7.5. Light fixture explosion animation. 8. Enemies that kill you. 9. Maybe animated backgrounds? 10. Story elements. And some type of engine architecture to facilitate story. 11. Level Ranking system. 12. UI OVERHAUL 12.1: Do not do this until we have the game-resize controls in. As I anticipate we will have to adjust how UI is rendered as well. 12.2: UI needs a clear, but obviously not ripped out of MS Word font. Not an easy task. 12.3: Experiment with random UI generation using the auto-tile maker code. 13. Different collectable powers. Z to select. X to make it happen. Number keys as shortcuts. 13.1: Design the powers and make them work. 13.2: Design and implement HOW you aquire them. 13.3: Design and implement UI and controls for accessing powers. Thinking Z to switch to next power. X to use.       Thinking keys 1-9 are used as shortcuts to given powers. 14. Stop the bunny hopping down slopes. 15. Stop head from grabbing slopes. 16. Make jumping off slopes work correctly. 17. Cancel jumps when you hit a wall to avoid floatyness. 18. Consider only allowing you to bash through 1 block at a time for consistency. 19. Re-order the level design. Fix or scrap broken levels. 20. Possible intermission levels that display the current top score holder for the previous level. 21. Keep working on lighting, It is a bit extreme now.     Skull bombs are now hard to see because they are blown out by blast indicators. 22. 3D sound system that changes volume levels of explosions based on distance. 22.1: Sound system optimizations to keep game from lagging when too many sounds play. Right now flixel creates a new sound object each time sound plays. 22.2: Better sounds for everything. Talk to tyler on this. 22.3: Better sound balance between different SFX and Music.

23. When bricks fall on FlamePistons, the constant flashing and sound is too much.     Fix this. Plays one sound at the beginning, then stops sound and flashing after that.

24. Epilepsy warning screen that will NOT let you continue until you have checked [X] I understand the risks.

25. Possibly lock the game if your computer does not have the speed it needs to play the game. Gives you a button to "re-run" the speed test. Rather have you not play my game than have a horrible experience with it.

26. Code the time trial timer in the game. Make it smaller because: A: Smaller takes up less UI space. B: Smaller will take less CPU power to render. Also: Make sure the timer uses pre-rendered blitted graphics for the rendering of the text. It will be work. But we cannot afford to be rasterizing text tiles 30 times a second. Just too CPU expensive.

27. Create a level ranking tool for testers that is wired to a database. Following things will be in it: 1. Puzzle Hard Rank: 0-10 2. Twitch Hard Rank: 0-10 3. How much fun: 0-10 4. Rage Inducing? 0-10 5. Is the level broken? 0-10 6. Comments

28. Learn the newgrounds API. Possibly we can use this for all database related activity.

29. Work with auto-generated background code and get into game.

30. Get the props system working in the game so we can add visual interest to the game.

Internal Todo List: 1. Level Sorting Utility for level design pipeline. 2. Auto-Tile Maker to facilitate faster production of artwork.

If I missed anything: Feel free to post on this thread and suggest changes. Expect me to be back within a month, with many changes from this list added to the game.

-MakeGamesHappen (-John mark)

Additions: 1: The lighting has been enhanced. There may be some lag issues that happen during the breaking of light fixtures. Depends on how fast your computer is. I will be working on fixing this. There are, in general, just a lot of optimizations I need to make. 2: Lights have been added to a majority of JoshicusLD's levels to show off the changes to the lighting. There is nothing new about the levels besides this. 3: "FlatFoot" from TylerWood's discography added. We are still trying to find musical direction. Let us know what you think about this song.

Fixes: 1. Pause during other menus works. 2. Flares do not come out of bricks when bashing them. 3. Do not go back to starting menu when dying on level#1 4. Weird Focus Glitch on start of game fixed. You will need to enter the password: NewGroundsBeta In order to access the update. If the lighting does not look like this, you will have to clear your internet history, or delete your cache. For whatever reason, F5 refresh does not work for me. I mainly use firefox. Though I think this is true of chrome as well. Maybe because flash is somehow connected to Internet Explorer on windows. (Even if you don't use internet explorer)

My current rough TODO: 1. Fix lighting up more. The lighting is clearer. But still a bit busy. Also my level designer (artist at zombie for 3 years) is not a fan of the lighting. I think the colors could be pulled together better... It looks shiny and cool. But still a bit unprofessional. 2. Make optimizations to the game. Right now we have to major sources of optimization that need to be addressed: A. Chaining explosions. SFX & Rendering. B. Breaking Light Fixtures. AKA: Lighting Map Re-Rendering. 3. Make randomly generated backgrounds to give the game a bit more visual interest. 4. Stop the bunny hopping down the platforms.

5. Think about how story will be implemented in the engine. 6. Re-do credits UI and add all tester user names to credits UI.

7. One of my testers mentioned wanting WASD support because their keyboard was broken. Still wondering if I should symultaniously support WASD and ARROW-KEYS, or if their should be a remapping ui. A:Supporting both at same time: There will be a lower cost of entry to game. Which will effect it going viral. However, it will involve a refactor of code that will take some time. B:Have remap ui: Will not involve refactor of how the keyboard input works. However will require coding another ui. I hate coding UIs... Juding on this... I think the best way to go for keyboard support is to support both Arrow Keys and WASD. My only concern is WASD is very close to "R" for "RESTART". Visual issues will take first priority. As we want something nice looking for the kickstarter. We will not be launching a kickstarter until we a have 1000+ testers, and all of the tile art finished. Also, before launching a kickstarter, we will be asking our testers (that's you) for feedback on the video.

I shall now be taking the next.... 12 hours to read through my inbox and reply to everyone I have ignored over the past week. Sorry. I really wanted to get this change in before started replying!

-MakeGamesHappen (-John Mark)

Because Red,Green,and Blue buttons behave differently when in contact with explosions, many levels have become broken. Please add any levels you are suspicious of being broken in the comments.  

By Using: THIS We can leverage the existing tile-set artwork to create the UI. This will guarantee that the UI of the game fits the art style of the levels.

NOTE#1: Sorry, the new lighting has not been put into the beta compile mode yet. It is in our development mode, but I haven't made all of the JSON loading code I need to get it into the beta.

NOTE#2: Level order is not yet... A thing. Sorry. No difficulty curves. We are amassing content first. Then we will sort through it and [scrap, modify, and sort] levels into perfection. Right now this is being put off because I do not want anyone on my team to spend their time HAND-RENAMING files. I am going to make a level sorting tool in AS3 that will make the process of re-ordering levels and jumping levels from one level set to another easier. When that tool is done, I will be handing it off to our level designer, who will start going about the process of sorting and refining the levels.

NOTE#3: Internal Key: DEFAULT == Default level set. Right now. All of JoshicusLD ' s levels are here. E = Easy. My easy levels are here. H = Hell Hard. My hard levels are here. T = Twitch/Reflex Hard. P = Puzzle Hard. Only the DEFAULT is JoshicusLD ' s. So don't blame him for anything wrong with my levels. :P You are free to message him feedback on any level set or level though. :)

-MakeGamesHappen (-John Mark)

<pre>

///--/// Embedd Tags: ///--/// //Auto-Generated Embedd Tags Start: //tags for level pack: [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap00.PNG')]private static var levelMap00:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap01.PNG')]private static var levelMap01:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap02.PNG')]private static var levelMap02:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap03.PNG')]private static var levelMap03:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap04.PNG')]private static var levelMap04:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap05.PNG')]private static var levelMap05:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap06.PNG')]private static var levelMap06:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap07.PNG')]private static var levelMap07:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap08.PNG')]private static var levelMap08:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap09.PNG')]private static var levelMap09:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap10.PNG')]private static var levelMap10:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap11.PNG')]private static var levelMap11:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap12.PNG')]private static var levelMap12:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap13.PNG')]private static var levelMap13:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap14.PNG')]private static var levelMap14:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap15.PNG')]private static var levelMap15:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap16.PNG')]private static var levelMap16:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap17.PNG')]private static var levelMap17:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap19.PNG')]private static var levelMap19:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap20.PNG')]private static var levelMap20:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap21.PNG')]private static var levelMap21:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap22.PNG')]private static var levelMap22:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap23.PNG')]private static var levelMap23:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap24.PNG')]private static var levelMap24:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap25.PNG')]private static var levelMap25:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap26.PNG')]private static var levelMap26:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap41.PNG')]private static var levelMap41:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap45.PNG')]private static var levelMap45:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap46.PNG')]private static var levelMap46:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap47.PNG')]private static var levelMap47:Class; [Embed(source = 'DEFAULT/levelMap48.PNG')]private static var levelMap48:Class; //tags for level pack: E [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap00E.PNG')]private static var levelMap00E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap01E.PNG')]private static var levelMap01E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap02E.PNG')]private static var levelMap02E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap03E.PNG')]private static var levelMap03E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap04E.PNG')]private static var levelMap04E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap05E.PNG')]private static var levelMap05E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap08E.PNG')]private static var levelMap08E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap09E.PNG')]private static var levelMap09E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap10E.PNG')]private static var levelMap10E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap11E.PNG')]private static var levelMap11E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap14E.PNG')]private static var levelMap14E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap15E.PNG')]private static var levelMap15E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap17E.PNG')]private static var levelMap17E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap18E.PNG')]private static var levelMap18E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap19E.PNG')]private static var levelMap19E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap20E.PNG')]private static var levelMap20E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap21E.PNG')]private static var levelMap21E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap22E.PNG')]private static var levelMap22E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap23E.PNG')]private static var levelMap23E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap24E.PNG')]private static var levelMap24E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap25E.PNG')]private static var levelMap25E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap26E.PNG')]private static var levelMap26E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap27E.PNG')]private static var levelMap27E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap28E.PNG')]private static var levelMap28E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap29E.PNG')]private static var levelMap29E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap30E.PNG')]private static var levelMap30E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap31E.PNG')]private static var levelMap31E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap32E.PNG')]private static var levelMap32E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap33E.PNG')]private static var levelMap33E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap34E.PNG')]private static var levelMap34E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap35E.PNG')]private static var levelMap35E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap36E.PNG')]private static var levelMap36E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap37E.PNG')]private static var levelMap37E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap38E.PNG')]private static var levelMap38E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap39E.PNG')]private static var levelMap39E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap40E.PNG')]private static var levelMap40E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap41E.PNG')]private static var levelMap41E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap42E.PNG')]private static var levelMap42E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap43E.PNG')]private static var levelMap43E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap44E.PNG')]private static var levelMap44E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap45E.PNG')]private static var levelMap45E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap46E.PNG')]private static var levelMap46E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap47E.PNG')]private static var levelMap47E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap48E.PNG')]private static var levelMap48E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap49E.PNG')]private static var levelMap49E:Class; [Embed(source = 'E/levelMap50E.PNG')]private static var levelMap50E:Class; //tags for level pack: P [Embed(source = 'P/levelMap00P.PNG')]private static var levelMap00P:Class; [Embed(source = 'P/levelMap01P.PNG')]private static var levelMap01P:Class; [Embed(source = 'P/levelMap02P.PNG')]private static var levelMap02P:Class; [Embed(source = 'P/levelMap03P.PNG')]private static var levelMap03P:Class; [Embed(source = 'P/levelMap04P.PNG')]private static var levelMap04P:Class; [Embed(source = 'P/levelMap05P.PNG')]private static var levelMap05P:Class; [Embed(source = 'P/levelMap06P.PNG')]private static var levelMap06P:Class; [Embed(source = 'P/levelMap07P.PNG')]private static var levelMap07P:Class; [Embed(source = 'P/levelMap11P.PNG')]private static var levelMap11P:Class; [Embed(source = 'P/levelMap12P.PNG')]private static var levelMap12P:Class; [Embed(source = 'P/levelMap13P.PNG')]private static var levelMap13P:Class; //tags for level pack: H [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap00H.PNG')]private static var levelMap00H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap01H.PNG')]private static var levelMap01H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap02H.PNG')]private static var levelMap02H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap04H.PNG')]private static var levelMap04H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap05H.PNG')]private static var levelMap05H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap06H.PNG')]private static var levelMap06H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap08H.PNG')]private static var levelMap08H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap09H.PNG')]private static var levelMap09H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap10H.PNG')]private static var levelMap10H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap11H.PNG')]private static var levelMap11H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap12H.PNG')]private static var levelMap12H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap13H.PNG')]private static var levelMap13H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap14H.PNG')]private static var levelMap14H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap15H.PNG')]private static var levelMap15H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap17H.PNG')]private static var levelMap17H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap18H.PNG')]private static var levelMap18H:Class; [Embed(source = 'H/levelMap19H.PNG')]private static var levelMap19H:Class; //tags for level pack: T [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap00T.PNG')]private static var levelMap00T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap01T.PNG')]private static var levelMap01T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap02T.PNG')]private static var levelMap02T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap03T.PNG')]private static var levelMap03T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap04T.PNG')]private static var levelMap04T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap05T.PNG')]private static var levelMap05T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap06T.PNG')]private static var levelMap06T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap07T.PNG')]private static var levelMap07T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap08T.PNG')]private static var levelMap08T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap09T.PNG')]private static var levelMap09T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap10T.PNG')]private static var levelMap10T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap11T.PNG')]private static var levelMap11T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap12T.PNG')]private static var levelMap12T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap13T.PNG')]private static var levelMap13T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap14T.PNG')]private static var levelMap14T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap16T.PNG')]private static var levelMap16T:Class; [Embed(source = 'T/levelMap17T.PNG')]private static var levelMap17T:Class;

</pre>

I doubt "Angry Birds" would have been so popular if it was called "Catapult". We need a new name, one with brand identity. If you've beta tested our game, feel free to give us some ideas!!  

If a game was to make fun of you when you lose a level, what would it say?  

Fathom by Adam Atomic is a short little game that I really like. If you are one of my testers, could you play it, and let me know what you think about it? I feel that, fathom is better polished an more exciting than MakeChoice at the moment. I would like tester opinions on this. Obviously it isn't quite comparing apples to apples. But I am thinking in terms of... How this game hooks you right away. http://adamatomic.com/fathom/