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Messages - jfrisby

#1
Mage's Initiation Forum / Re: Thoughts on the demo
March 17, 2013, 01:13:19 PM
Quote from: GameDevChris on March 17, 2013, 07:03:27 AM

QuoteIn the settings (etc) panel, why isn't the close button [X] in the top right corner?

Originally, it was. But it turned out that moving the mouse to the top-right of the screen constantly was pretty frustrating. You ended up having to use up more energy to move the mouse up there each time you wanted to close the GUI. Since most GUI actions take place in the mid to lower area of the GUI, it's a shorter distance/more convenient to place the "close" button where it is. It was also done because the button needs to be perpetually visible on a part of the GUI that doesn't animate (eventually those book page animations will turn).

GUI open/close is also wired up to the TAB key... which seemed more natural after I started to use the wasd/123. 
#2
Mage's Initiation Forum / Re: Thoughts on the demo
March 16, 2013, 12:20:07 AM
Hey MI!  Nice tunes!

I added a bit to my combat thoughts when I saw everyone was posting in the Kickstarter comments...
I sort of like that there isn't a difficulty slider, since it seems like the combat is a bit more central an idea to MI...  Seems worth working over and perfecting somehow, it could really shine -- I totally didn't realize there was WASD movement, even though I thought to myself "man, I wish I could use the WASD keys" I never tried :P

The best non-turn based suggestions seem to be the speed slider...  But it'd be interesting if you could borrow some aspect of the pause-mechanic from FTL.. or slow-time, or magic-up, potions that involved a quest, or work, to get (if you want easier combat you have to do this instead...)..  I haven't the faintest idea about balancing anything, really - I think I edited my QFG savegame last time around to give myself extra health, and I was a healer in WOW.  So I'm pretty bad at this fighting stuff. 

That's all the rambling thoughts I've got :D

Edit:  Just breezed thru the demo combat with WASD keys.  Can't say I felt particularly strategic about it, but it worked pretty quickly with one mana potion drop.  I thought it was nicely challenging for a demo, but understand peoples concerns..  This is probably where an army of playtesters, to watch playing, would come in handy - http://www.twitch.tv/jonathanfrisby/b/378348651 (that's my 3rd successful combat run, might not be helpful for what people are trying the first time thru -- maybe make a combat only looping thing to test with?).
:D
#3
Mage's Initiation Forum / Re: Thoughts on the demo
March 15, 2013, 11:05:53 PM
Hey folks :)

Just played around with, and beat, the demo!  Really crazy awesome -- I was kind of shocked to see the 640x480 high-res, love it.  Takes a little bit of getting used to the olde sierra-like interface with that resolution - the labeling of things when hovered over is a helpful touch.  Great music, great look, interface worked well & made sense (despite being rather a lot of windows of stuff!).

The combat made sense, I did find myself mixing up the left/right as well, but that might go away with a bit more practice.  Got surrounded a couple times, and it felt a bit odd to find the right direction to run away.  I liked the mechanics though, maybe the ability to change key assignments, or a setup where spells always activate on keypress (so the mouse could just be used for movement and targeting)?  It was a bit difficult for my generally-non-combat-class self (two tries, only probably won because an enemy got stuck behind the bush while my mana regen'd).

Some other notes:
- Kinda miss the old Sierra speed-setting bar, the walk is a bit slow and "always run" kind of breaks the mood.
- On the icon bar, I kept miss-clicking... feels like the Inventory and Character buttons maybe should be swapped?
- "I shall pour the entire flask of water over the gem" sounded weird to me.  Non-narrator action text must be weird to write.
- Backgrounds felt just a tad evenly lit, hope there's some dark shadowy places around :)
(These are my trying-to-be-helpful-notes, sorry if they sound nitpicky.)

Don't know much about the story, but love what you did with KQ3 Redux - I think it hit a perfect balance between keeping the original stuff and wanting to polish and expand..  my only thought from the demo was "don't let it get too dense" -- whatever that would be  :D

So cheers and thanks for making this, hopefully I'll be able to up my pledge before the end!