I really liked this game, my only real gripe is the keyboard controls. Not having wasd be move and using my right hand to attack, jump, and dash felt really uncomfortable. I might get used to it after a while but I don't think I 'll stick with the weirdness long enough to get to that level.
Though simple in gameplay by itself. I loved this game. The difficulties seem to scale oddly IMO, but I also suck at the game haha. Even though it was simple black and white, every thing was very well animated. I would love to see more of this game with an expanded story ^^
I absolutely loved this video! Entertaining but also a good analysis. I did want to expand on this game a lot more, but time constraints required me to cut off a lot of features I originally wanted. However, due a few people's response to this game, and yours included, I think I'm gonna try and make a full game out of this in future. I'm gonna leave this one as it is for now, just a silly wave-based jam game, and create something a bit better later down the line. Full story and everything. In future.
Thanks for making this video, and glad you enjoyed the game, and I really appreciate your feedback too!
That is fantastic, for a game simply based with two colors I would love to see what kind of story develops. It does seem like "destroying the darkness" would be the central theme if you went off of this game as a base. I will definitely check it out when You post it.
Also, thank you for praising my drawing! I absolutely do not try to be an artist, I'm primarily a programmer too. And this, is a very very hard question to answer.
I have a lot of artist friends who give me great advice, but I guess the way to hack together good looking stuff, is:
Using refs? Like, check out games that do simple pixel art well. Some games like Cavestory and the Momodora series (all great games). Not copying them, or even following in their footsteps, but just see the way they fit their art onto the tiny canvas they have to work with. What features can be cut out etc. (mouths, noses) and how they simplify everything so much, yet make such definable characters. Check out something like spriters-resource and just, zoom right into cool stuff to see how it was put together.
Use colour palettes. (I know this is really ironic that I'm saying this in the comments section of an entirely black and white game, but please hear me out) If you're like me and haven't taken an art class and don't know much (if any) colour theory, it's hard to understand why something looks meh. A lot of the time, the colours you choose make a big difference. You can find tons of preset palettes online that look nice. Stick to a small colour range. Try and keep the same sort of "vibe" throughout the whole game, but feel free to switch up palettes
Get the shapes down first! Don't get jammed with drawing eyes or faces or anything, get just like, simple shapes together. The girl in this game, is literally a circle for the head, triangle for the body/dress and two triangles for the legs. That's the shape. Animate with just the shape, and add in detail later.
Just doodle a lot! Just practice fundamental stuff. Learn very basic stuff first and work your way up. A lot of people think "oh, I'm gonna start learning to draw, so I'll start by learning how to draw a face" like no that's pretty much endgame for drawing. Learn to draw circles and squares really well. Learn the very basic shape the body and head etc, and all the details are secondary. It's easy to overcomplicate stuff, but don't try and push yourself to a high standard, especially if you're just starting out. Just make something you'd be able to keep up with. Take it step-by-step and keep it nice and simple. Keeping it consistent is more important than making it pretty imo. Inconsistency is more offputting than good-looking-ness is attractive (if that makes sense).
Other than that, just, make games. Make tons of tiny, silly games. I used to make dozens of small games for me and close friends to enjoy, and when you start doing something often enough, you'll get pretty good at it. You end up drawing in a way that's comfortable for you, and it sticks with you and adapts with your games. That's your style. Make the games you want to see.
Sorry I don't have much good advice, but there isn't really a secret formula I can give you besides "practice a lot". Wish you luck in your future jams, i'll be sure to check them out. Hope that helped! Peace!
Thx a lot man, I still cant believe you wrote so much good advices. I know it's a loooong time science you replied me, I'm sorry. I had this tab open for 2 months :D
I wanted to try those tips but it appears i can't find time for that. I study and work on 4 different projects now, so no way to look into graphics :(
I will surely come back to that post after I finish my studies (about half a year from now on).
Hey V8, I used to have the jump set to the up button, but that conflicted with being able to hold up to attack upwards. The buttons are configurable, there is a file in appdata/local/white, the file is called (something like) controller_config.ini, and you can change the letters that the actions are bound to. Hope that helps, if all else fails, the best way to play is with a controller
THIS IS SICK!! You're genuinely faster than I am lmao, and awesome job getting this game onto speedrun.com I had no idea small things like this could be on there.
Great work, excellent sense of impact when hitting enemies which the sound effects really add to. Also manages to strike that balance where getting hit feels like it's your mistake rather than the game being unfair. Pretty sure this is one I'll come back to every so often to try and beat my best times.
I had no idea where to make bug reports, so I'll just say here that if you dash repeatedly into the bottom right corner whilst spamming left and right, you can clip through the wall and end up outside of the playzone. This led me to being invulnerable, but also inable to complete the level. So far, it seems to give no advantage to the player.
Thanks a ton for the bug report, uh, FartSparkle. Love how detailed it is, this is really useful. For a jam game, there's bound to be a few things like this so I'm sure it'll be ok being left alone for now, unless there's a big bulk of bugs to fix and roll out all at once.
But, in future when I (maybe) update this game, I'll fix this! Thanks for the report, chief! And thank you for the kind words <3
Really good game with neat aesthetics. It would have been even more awesome if you make the game tad bit difficult (I finished the game not knowing that I can dash)
First off I must say, I absolutely loved the game. For such a short amount of time to make it, it is nothing short of brilliant. I would love to make similar games myself but... I have no idea where to start. So I thought I might ask you a few questions. (Sorry).
I would like to know which engine/program you used to create the game in first of all. The game is really impressive, and I am kind of stuck for deciding what to use.
Second of all, did you teach yourself how to create games? I would love to learn from home how to create games , and I was hoping if you did in fact learn from home if I could ask where you learnt from?
Thank you so much.
And again, you did an amazing job on this game, you should be really happy with the result.
Hey Waffle! Thanks so much for playing, I'm really glad you enjoyed it.
For this game, I used Gamemaker. I know it has a bad rep (because of the optional drag-and-drop interface, which nobody really uses), but out of the many engines I am good with, this is by far the most comfortable and intuitive to use for 2D games. Very powerful if you know how to use it! (see Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, one of my favourite games.)
I learned to make games from home, using the free time that I get after (UK) college. I personally think best way to learn is to pick up an engine that looks cool and play around with it, and try and figure stuff out for yourself. Get familiar with the interface and make many very very simple things until you get the hang of it. If you discover something yourself, you're way more likely to remember how to do it, and what the logic is behind it. It'll stick with you much longer than any info you'll get from a tutorial. But, tutorials are really good for very specific things where you have no idea where to start or hit a roadblock. My favourite online tutors are Shaun Spalding (for GMStudio 1/2) and Sebastian Lague (for Unity + Blender). Both of these guys have been super super helpful when stuck in specific situations.
But, there's no better way to learn than first-hand! If you enjoy and want to make 2D games, Gamemaker (or Love2D if you're super confident and also like things being free), if you want to get more serious and make 3D things, Unity is great, but that comes with the daunting challenge of learning C# and the Unity Scripting API.
Once you've got the hang of an engine, joining jams like this is fantastic. You'll learn a lot, have fun, and have an audience for your games. But, anyway, the best way to learn something, is to go and do it! So good luck! And thanks again!
This entire video is awesome, I loved this! Thanks so much for your thoughts and compliments about the game too. I really did want to add a boss, (the thumbnail was part of concept art for the boss) but I didn't have enough time to add it before the jam deadline. I'm gonna maybe revamp this game in future, add some levels and maybe a few bosses.
Awesome video, watched your other stuff and you're great, subbed. Thanks for playing!
True, I thought it was super easy after I updated it but I just thought that was because I've had tons of playtime in this game lmao. A lot of people thought it was much too hard (practically impossible) when I dished out the first version, so I made it easier. A bit too easy, lmao. I'm gonna do a post-jam update of this game some time, and hopefully have difficulty selection, cooler endings, better progression and maybe a boss fight. But hey, thanks a ton for playing and helping out!
I followed both your accounts after you commented, I saw it and I love it so freaking much you have no idea. (my acc is private, @bedstuck) Thank you bless you, this is so good!!!
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I really liked this game, my only real gripe is the keyboard controls. Not having wasd be move and using my right hand to attack, jump, and dash felt really uncomfortable. I might get used to it after a while but I don't think I 'll stick with the weirdness long enough to get to that level.
There's a bug where i would dash inside the wall.
Though simple in gameplay by itself. I loved this game. The difficulties seem to scale oddly IMO, but I also suck at the game haha. Even though it was simple black and white, every thing was very well animated. I would love to see more of this game with an expanded story ^^
I absolutely loved this video! Entertaining but also a good analysis. I did want to expand on this game a lot more, but time constraints required me to cut off a lot of features I originally wanted. However, due a few people's response to this game, and yours included, I think I'm gonna try and make a full game out of this in future. I'm gonna leave this one as it is for now, just a silly wave-based jam game, and create something a bit better later down the line. Full story and everything. In future.
Thanks for making this video, and glad you enjoyed the game, and I really appreciate your feedback too!
That is fantastic, for a game simply based with two colors I would love to see what kind of story develops. It does seem like "destroying the darkness" would be the central theme if you went off of this game as a base. I will definitely check it out when You post it.
Hey, man! I loved the experience! Felt like mini NieR-Automata :D
Keyboard is unplayable at that pace. Controller is lovely. Could be better if dash was on Bumper.
I would like to draw like you. I'm a programmer, but I'd like to do some simple art for prototypes and game jams! How did you learn?
Thanks so much dude! Heh I actually came up with the concept for this while watching Halfcoordinated's run of NieR during SGDQ, so ya got me lmao.
Also, thank you for praising my drawing! I absolutely do not try to be an artist, I'm primarily a programmer too. And this, is a very very hard question to answer.
I have a lot of artist friends who give me great advice, but I guess the way to hack together good looking stuff, is:
Other than that, just, make games. Make tons of tiny, silly games. I used to make dozens of small games for me and close friends to enjoy, and when you start doing something often enough, you'll get pretty good at it. You end up drawing in a way that's comfortable for you, and it sticks with you and adapts with your games. That's your style. Make the games you want to see.
Sorry I don't have much good advice, but there isn't really a secret formula I can give you besides "practice a lot". Wish you luck in your future jams, i'll be sure to check them out. Hope that helped! Peace!
Thx a lot man, I still cant believe you wrote so much good advices. I know it's a loooong time science you replied me, I'm sorry. I had this tab open for 2 months :D
I wanted to try those tips but it appears i can't find time for that. I study and work on 4 different projects now, so no way to look into graphics :(
I will surely come back to that post after I finish my studies (about half a year from now on).
Cheers, Bedstuck!
Hey thanks! And I'm the same now except with my studies.
Took on double the amount of work I had last year so I dont have much free time for game development (^～^;)ゞ
Trying my best to make progress on my upcoming game, progress is slow.. I wish you luck with your studies pal! Education comes first
Isn't it love that comes first? :D
good game man
Thank u brother
oh my god.. the control is too confusing.. can you make the player jump by tapping up button ? attack using A button and dash using D/S button
Hey V8, I used to have the jump set to the up button, but that conflicted with being able to hold up to attack upwards. The buttons are configurable, there is a file in appdata/local/white, the file is called (something like) controller_config.ini, and you can change the letters that the actions are bound to. Hope that helps, if all else fails, the best way to play is with a controller
I love this game
Also, I'm waiting for Speedrun.com to reply to me so we can get this game a page on there.
I don't mean to brag, but cough my time is pretty fast.
Edit: The game has been accepted!
Here's the link
Forgot to put a video. Not much commentary, just me playing decently fast.
THIS IS SICK!! You're genuinely faster than I am lmao, and awesome job getting this game onto speedrun.com I had no idea small things like this could be on there.
Awesome job dude!
Great work, excellent sense of impact when hitting enemies which the sound effects really add to. Also manages to strike that balance where getting hit feels like it's your mistake rather than the game being unfair. Pretty sure this is one I'll come back to every so often to try and beat my best times.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BUG REPORT~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OS: Windows 10 64 bit
Ver: v2
Priority: Minor
I had no idea where to make bug reports, so I'll just say here that if you dash repeatedly into the bottom right corner whilst spamming left and right, you can clip through the wall and end up outside of the playzone. This led me to being invulnerable, but also inable to complete the level. So far, it seems to give no advantage to the player.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
P.S Your game is absolutely beautiful and awesome.
WELP.
Thanks a ton for the bug report, uh, FartSparkle. Love how detailed it is, this is really useful. For a jam game, there's bound to be a few things like this so I'm sure it'll be ok being left alone for now, unless there's a big bulk of bugs to fix and roll out all at once.
But, in future when I (maybe) update this game, I'll fix this! Thanks for the report, chief! And thank you for the kind words <3
had played v1 - not bad
playing v2 - better
wait for v3 - hope so
Hey devs, what's the current state of the game? (Specifically: Pre-alpha, alpha, pre-beta or beta?)
Hey, it's uh, just me! And I'm not sure? I guess beta? Like this is it for now, but I may add more stuff in future.
Really good game with neat aesthetics. It would have been even more awesome if you make the game tad bit difficult (I finished the game not knowing that I can dash)
Hey Bedstuck!
First off I must say, I absolutely loved the game. For such a short amount of time to make it, it is nothing short of brilliant. I would love to make similar games myself but... I have no idea where to start. So I thought I might ask you a few questions. (Sorry).
I would like to know which engine/program you used to create the game in first of all. The game is really impressive, and I am kind of stuck for deciding what to use.
Second of all, did you teach yourself how to create games? I would love to learn from home how to create games , and I was hoping if you did in fact learn from home if I could ask where you learnt from?
Thank you so much.
And again, you did an amazing job on this game, you should be really happy with the result.
Hey Waffle! Thanks so much for playing, I'm really glad you enjoyed it.
For this game, I used Gamemaker. I know it has a bad rep (because of the optional drag-and-drop interface, which nobody really uses), but out of the many engines I am good with, this is by far the most comfortable and intuitive to use for 2D games. Very powerful if you know how to use it! (see Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, one of my favourite games.)
I learned to make games from home, using the free time that I get after (UK) college. I personally think best way to learn is to pick up an engine that looks cool and play around with it, and try and figure stuff out for yourself. Get familiar with the interface and make many very very simple things until you get the hang of it. If you discover something yourself, you're way more likely to remember how to do it, and what the logic is behind it. It'll stick with you much longer than any info you'll get from a tutorial. But, tutorials are really good for very specific things where you have no idea where to start or hit a roadblock. My favourite online tutors are Shaun Spalding (for GMStudio 1/2) and Sebastian Lague (for Unity + Blender). Both of these guys have been super super helpful when stuck in specific situations.
But, there's no better way to learn than first-hand! If you enjoy and want to make 2D games, Gamemaker (or Love2D if you're super confident and also like things being free), if you want to get more serious and make 3D things, Unity is great, but that comes with the daunting challenge of learning C# and the Unity Scripting API.
Once you've got the hang of an engine, joining jams like this is fantastic. You'll learn a lot, have fun, and have an audience for your games.
But, anyway, the best way to learn something, is to go and do it! So good luck! And thanks again!
Thank you so much for the quick response. I really appreciate it.
I hope to join you in a Game Jam one day.
-Waffle
that all makes sense. Recently reset my SSD so that musta been what caused it. Will test when I get home!
hey, whenever i try to run it a "how do you want to open this .rar file" pops up, and i am unable to run it with anything
solution?
Edit: trying to unpack the .rar file using rarOpener and it isnt working
Hey Alpha! Sorry for the late reply, but I'd suggest try using 7-Zip to unpackage the rar, since that's what I used to package it.
Here's a link, it's free. If problems continue, please let me know, I'll try and find a way around it. Thanks!
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: turnWhite
D3DXCompile failed - result
at gml_Object_player_Draw_0
############################################################################################
Not really sure if this is the place for a bug report but every time I run it this happens almost immediately after stuff spawns and I get near it :s
Hey! really sorry that I forgot to mention this, the game uses a few simple shaders and needs directx runtime.
If you're on Windows, try installing this -> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=35
Hope that helps, tell me if there are any other problems! If errors continue, I'd happily make a fix! Thank you
Gave it a go...
This entire video is awesome, I loved this! Thanks so much for your thoughts and compliments about the game too. I really did want to add a boss, (the thumbnail was part of concept art for the boss) but I didn't have enough time to add it before the jam deadline. I'm gonna maybe revamp this game in future, add some levels and maybe a few bosses.
Awesome video, watched your other stuff and you're great, subbed. Thanks for playing!
Very much glad you enjoyed the video! And be sure to hit me up whenever you update the game, I would love to get back into it. Bless!
Oh shyt, and thanks for the sub as well.
Game should be a bit more difficult (maybe health only slightly regenerates at the end of a wave)
True, I thought it was super easy after I updated it but I just thought that was because I've had tons of playtime in this game lmao. A lot of people thought it was much too hard (practically impossible) when I dished out the first version, so I made it easier. A bit too easy, lmao. I'm gonna do a post-jam update of this game some time, and hopefully have difficulty selection, cooler endings, better progression and maybe a boss fight. But hey, thanks a ton for playing and helping out!
Is it alright to draw fanart for this game? The dash and animation was sooo good
Thank you so much! Glad you liked it, and hell yeah you can oh my god yes
Here it is! Hope you like
I followed both your accounts after you commented, I saw it and I love it so freaking much you have no idea. (my acc is private, @bedstuck) Thank you bless you, this is so good!!!
Holy cow what a good time! I'm excited to see what else you can do.