Suggestions

[Mike]

Throw your ideas in here!

[CoatRack]

A small thing that has been bugging me for a long time, is the fact everytime I go back to the titlescreen I am greeted with an assault of loud popping sounds on my ears. Having it do this once on load is fine, but when working with a level and loading the game up over and over again reminded me how much of a ear grind it was. This was first made known to me on the iOS version when I kept reloading the title screen to trya level again, and it stays true with the PC build.

AJ Edit: DONE!

[Kitokofox]

I think it would be nice if we could:

Pick another hole or course from the pause menu, when playing Pick-a-hole, instead of having to finish the hole just to pick a new hole.

Have a set direction to face Roly at, in case facing in a specific direction is substantial to the course.

Maybe some more on-course power-ups. Like a super-jump, or a weightless, or being able to tear through certain objects, or ignore slowness pudding.

Breakable object that bust when Roly touches them?

Little enemies that run to Roly and 'bite' him, making a cactus effect.

[BlueZero4]

Alright, a whole bunch of suggestions as I'm thinking about them:

• I'd like to have "jump" and "ball launch" on the same button. I keep thinking about launching the ball and jumping as both primary actions. I acclimate to using the jump key and then try to launch with the same key. I guess that the biggest worry would be firing off a jump just barely too late and getting an accidental launch; you could probably put in a small buffer between when the ball stops and when the key accepts a launch input, but I don't know if that would make the game feel too unresponsive.
• The title screen elements could come on screen a little more quickly.
• Some acceleration on the rate of the arrow keys turning the ball when aiming would be nice. Basically, the ball would start turning slowly when you first tap the key, but as you hold the key down the turning speed would increase. That would give a little more precision with digital keys.
• The power gauge could display the speed of the ball, and the speed of the ball at each point on the gauge would roughly match with the launch speed at each point. I've been wondering what speeds the spring pushes me at, and also as to whether the bouncy blocks increase my speed too. It would also be a visual indicator of the ball approaching the end of the stroke.
• The score card could show all your previous numbers for the course immediately when you open it, and only pop in the most recent score.
• Also, could the score-card show up while Roly is dancing in-level, rather than afterward in a completely new screen?
• The pause screen is just the title screen. When I hit pause, I feel like I've quit the level entirely, rather than just paused the game. Apparently I can still hit escape and get back in-game. A simple pause screen instead would help.

[Kitokofox]

Combining the launch and jump key, I was thinking about for a little while, but then I found an instance where I had to jump nearly immediately after launching Roly, so.. I regretted that thought. Because it would be extremely tedious to press the button twice quickly in rapid succession. Not to mention that if I recall, the launch button is already also the ability key, which is used for various abilities of Roly, like power-ups, hanging on ropes, etc.

Secondly, there is a pause screen, and a pause button. It just doesn't have many options at all, and I suggested that earlier.

I also agree with everything else that BZ4 said.

I also liked, how in the pause menu, you can click the retry button as it was appearing, not when it was done appearing. It makes the menus quicker to navigate but still have the nice visuals.

[BlueZero4]

(01-18-2015 09:21 PM)Kitokofox Wrote:  Not to mention that if I recall, the launch button is already also the ability key, which is used for various abilities of Roly, like power-ups, hanging on ropes, etc.

I think that you'd still end up with two buttons, but the second button would be exclusively for things like brake, drop down from ropes, etc.

[Mike]

(01-18-2015 09:04 PM)BlueZero4 Wrote:  I'd like to have "jump" and "ball launch" on the same button. I keep thinking about launching the ball and jumping as both primary actions. I acclimate to using the jump key and then try to launch with the same key. I guess that the biggest worry would be firing off a jump just barely too late and getting an accidental launch; you could probably put in a small buffer between when the ball stops and when the key accepts a launch input, but I don't know if that would make the game feel too unresponsive.

I think this idea has some merit...the other button would just be for instabrake, I guess.

Quote:The title screen elements could come on screen a little more quickly.

They were originally static, actually! AJ animated them when we upgraded our menuing system, and the speed they're at is naturally catered towards mobile devices. Totally doable.

Quote:Some acceleration on the rate of the arrow keys turning the ball when aiming would be nice. Basically, the ball would start turning slowly when you first tap the key, but as you hold the key down the turning speed would increase. That would give a little more precision with digital keys.

If you're looking for more precision, I'd recommend a gamepad...changing how Roly behaves to keyboard input might make some levels more difficult than they were designed to be, or others too simple. Then again, this game was designed with analog steering in mind, so this is something to consider.

Quote:The power gauge could display the speed of the ball, and the speed of the ball at each point on the gauge would roughly match with the launch speed at each point. I've been wondering what speeds the spring pushes me at, and also as to whether the bouncy blocks increase my speed too. It would also be visual indicator of the ball approaching the end of the stroke.

This would be better as a seperate meter IMO, but I can't think of very many golfing titles that show you your ball's current speed during play.

Quote:The score card could show all your previous numbers for the course immediately when you open it, and only pop in the most recent score.

..b-b-b-ut the cute popping sound effects! :(

Quote:Also, could the score-card show up while Roly is dancing in-level, rather than afterward in a completely new screen?

Yeah, maybe as an option, perhaps.

Quote:The pause screen is just the title screen. When I hit pause, I feel like I've quit the level entirely, rather than just paused the game. Apparently I can still hit escape and get back in-game. A simple pause screen instead would help.

We have no dedicated 'pause' key yet - you click on the button with the mouse. That's the actual pause menu. Pressing escape just takes you back a step, although I agree that it should pause the game instead.

[BlueZero4]

(01-19-2015 12:54 AM)Mike Wrote:  I think this idea has some merit...the other button would just be for instabrake, I guess.

After putting some more time into the game, I'm more comfortable with the two-button system. I guess the decision would impact the learning curve for new players more than anything else. I haven't bought any upgrades at the moment, so I haven't used the second button for anything other than dropping from a rope yet.

(01-19-2015 12:54 AM)Mike Wrote:  If you're looking for more precision, I'd recommend a gamepad...changing how Roly behaves to keyboard input might make some levels more difficult than they were designed to be, or others too simple. Then again, this game was designed with analog steering in mind, so this is something to consider.

Well, I'm totally fine with always steering at max on keyboard when you're actually driving Roly through a level. I really only want more sensitive turning for when you're lining up your shot. Again, as I'm playing more, I'm learning to get by with the features I have. Namely, Roly turns slower when revving up the shot, so I can get higher sensitivity with that, and I'm also learning to correct my shot by turning Roly mid-stroke.

Also, don't have any controllers on hand at the moment, sorry.

(01-19-2015 12:54 AM)Mike Wrote:  This would be better as a seperate meter IMO, but I can't think of very many golfing titles that show you your ball's current speed during play.

Yeah, I think that showing Roly's speed mid-stroke wouldn't do a whole lot for the gameplay; it probably wouldn't even be anything other than just a bit of visual polish. If you think that you'd want to implement it in a separate meter to have it make sense, it might just be best to leave it out for the sake of not cluttering up the UI.

[Kitokofox]

(01-19-2015 03:27 PM)BlueZero4 Wrote:  

(01-19-2015 12:54 AM)Mike Wrote:  I think this idea has some merit...the other button would just be for instabrake, I guess.

After putting some more time into the game, I'm more comfortable with the two-button system. I guess the decision would impact the learning curve for new players more than anything else. I haven't bought any upgrades at the moment, so I haven't used the second button for anything other than dropping from a rope yet.

Yeah, this is exactly what happened to me, in terms of the two button control. A button solely for jump, an the other to to what Roly loves most, launching himself across the stage and collecting yummy sugar cubes. I'm happy with the way it is!

Then again.. we could also have a control menu where we could choose what each action's button is. ;)

[A.J.]

These are all AWESOME ideas, and stuff that's pretty easy to do, too. Look for changes soon. :)