LittleSoldiers HD - Latest Comments

Re: Level concepts complete :)

Guest — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:04:10 -0000

That sounds like Z alright... Congrats! Progress marches forward!

Re: What is LittleSoldiers HD

Zoggles — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:10:50 -0000

hehe woot!

Re: Problems with level design…

Zoggles — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:38:17 -0000

Have you added any new actions over the original? Dig, Shoot,...?

Re: What is LittleSoldiers HD

Dan MacDonald — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:34:21 -0000

P.S. (I'll get you a PC build at some point so you can check it out)

Re: What is LittleSoldiers HD

Dan MacDonald — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:28:48 -0000

I can always count on you for some comments :) We are wrapping up a cool teaser trailer for the game. I think it will help a lot with building excitement.

Re: Progress is happening

Zoggles — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:34:17 -0000

Sounds good :) With a full map, everything has a sense of place and progression feels more 'real' than an abstract 'zone-jump' (where you can't see previous levels in clear relation to where you are now)

The smart-cam or camera snapping to the centre of each area sounds cool (presuming I understand that bit correctly)

Re: Progress is happening

Alex Keefe — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:07:15 -0000

We went back and forth a little about the map scrolling. For now the map is one map that you can scroll around with touches but still with a little bit of a smart cam to aide the user in points of interest. atleast thats the idea atm.

and nice catch with the mispelling =D

Re: What is LittleSoldiers HD

Zoggles — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:54:32 -0000

Well... I dunno... I suppose if I owned an iPhone there might be a glimmer of temptation. Something to 'check out' well.. I am sort of doing that here, so that's a yes, and wish youtube etc were accessible for when some kind of videos of it are up ;)

Re: Problems with level design…

Dan MacDonald — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:29:56 -0000

Yes! that attribute of letting the player feel like they've outfoxed the designer a little bit, it's an elusive and intangible quality to try and achieve. When you have it though, you know your dealing with a well designed game.

Re: Progress is happening

Zoggles — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:31:25 -0000

Hehe I still say that map screen is looking great so far :) I kind of want to see more of that.. does the whole level map scroll around in a connected way? or is each zone its own small map?

Reminds me in some ways of the maps in the Indiana Jones travel scenes.

I would have imagined some kind of motorbike/sidecar as a low travel reward, but whatever.. it's definitely a nice extra touch :)

oh.. and btw it's Kinetic not Kenetic. (I know that's only on your 1337 programmers art screenshot - but just in case that got carried through from there...)

-Z-

Re: Problems with level design…

Zoggles — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:08:17 -0000

Couldn't agree more. Levels that are clean and allow you to 'look for the solution' before even trying anything are far more entertaining. Those that you have to randomly try some stuff so that the level is emptier and you have a rough idea of what's going on are less entertaining.

What's really nice is when you can use something in various ways. You have the 'standard' (taught) use, and then perhaps alternative things you can do with it that almost make it feel like you are breaking the game's rules in how you use it. It gives the player a feeling of one-up-manship on the game maker even though it was intended. Of course.. repeated use of this 'trick' destroys its worth, but every so often, it can be thrown back in to make sure they remember it and perhaps combine it with something else.

As for 'teaching' the player how to play.. half the fun is (strangely) through trial and error instead of being taught. However, levels should be designed such that what you want the player to learn is required to complete the level. But telling them directly destroys part of the fun of the 'breaking the puzzle' or 'cracking the code'.

One small game that I fairly recently found lovely in this respect was 'Applicate' from 'On'. (http://www.eyezmaze.com/eye...

This goes to the extreme of not actually telling the player anything... the object, the controls... but it works very well given the games simple rule set.

-Z-

Re: Textures, Memory, and Footprints.. oh my…

Dan MacDonald — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:59:03 -0000

Thats them, they just have more polys then an entire level. We've been using pre-rendered soldiers from the get go :)

Re: Textures, Memory, and Footprints.. oh my…

iopred — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:23:54 -0000

Wait, what happened to the 3d soldiers!?

Re: Rules for Touch Interfaces

Dan MacDonald — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:47:27 -0000

The level map is really starting to look good :) I'll post about it today.

Re: Rules for Touch Interfaces

Zoggles — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:10:39 -0000

I'm really liking the look of the level map (from what's visible there) though the perspective on the little soldier makes it look a little weird.

As for hold v tap.. think I would have immediately tapped too.

-Z-

Re: cafe latté?

Alex Keefe — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:31:54 -0000

I could go with the star trekky answer to this.. "How can I condense the essence of who am I am into a single sentence... I... am... me.." but that would be a bit nerdy, even by my standards =D

Re: cafe latté?

Alex Keefe — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:23:51 -0000

My name is Alex Keefe, as well. I'm a reporter working in Washington, D.C. Who are you?

Re: http://fruht.com/LittleSoldiers/?p=162

Guest — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:51:35 -0000

Clearly, all wrinkled napkins must be scanned and digitaly archived...

Re: http://fruht.com/LittleSoldiers/?p=162

Dan MacDonald — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:50:13 -0000

That menu option is supposed to return the player to the start menu for the game. I may change it to something like "Quit to Main", "Exit Game" or maybe "Save & Quit"

Re: http://fruht.com/LittleSoldiers/?p=162

Zoggles — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:43:09 -0000

Hehe good catch and good point. "Quit this level" or "Return to Map" perhaps as off-the-cuff suggestions.

As for wrinkled pieces of paper... Hmm I've lost my fair share of them in the past. And in fact anything of mine that wasn't digitally stored has been lost forever since being out here in. There are good points to digital design docs other than simply pleasing bureaucrats and office pedants or informing a larger team. Still it is nice on a smaller scale project which isn't bogged down with lots of skill trees/items/stats etc to forgo the need for a full-on doc and just jiggy with it.

Re: http://fruht.com/LittleSoldiers/?p=162

Dan MacDonald — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:22:15 -0000

Ha! that's a very solid point. Let it be said that short planning cycles and wrinkled design docs are a nice part of small teams, however usability testing, and QA should be a part of everyones process large or small. ;)

Re: http://fruht.com/LittleSoldiers/?p=162

Guest — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:34:46 -0000

Ah, 3 cheers for small team efficiency and wrinkled design docs.

Art is subject to change, is the wording also up for grabs? The phrase "quit to menu" is slightly confusing when this is the "menu." You just pushed a button titled "menu" after all.

Re: What makes great games:

Zoggles — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:26:51 -0000

I couldn't agree more - as both an artist having worked on other games, and as the lead dev :)

Providing some easy means for an artist or artists to quickly test their art or ideas in the latest working build (or a tool which resembles it) is not only a huge time-saver, but also allows them to easily throw in ideas that can be quickly seen in game - even if only as a rough idea because any current framework doesn't fully support it.

On top of that, it is a huge motivator for the all involved as everyone can immediately see things coming into place instead of being 'put on hold' waiting for the next build with the new art etc added in.

-Z-

Re: Unlocking the World Map

Dan MacDonald — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:17:46 -0000

Love that, great ideas. I may just lift those directly :)

Re: Unlocking the World Map

Zoggles — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:12:54 -0000

In a zone with 5 levels for instance, you could award the totem (but only as a silver totem) after completing 4 of them. Enough to unlock the next door, but clicking on the totem still shows the missing unfinished level. Complete all levels in the zone and it turns gold.

You could even take that one stage further, awarding a bronze 'totem' for 80%, silver for 100% completion and a gold completing all levels with a high level of efficiency.

This then adds an extra bit of O.C.D. replayability for those that crave it, in order to get gold for each zone. Whether that is a good or bad thing is another issue though ;)

-Z-