Yet Again
Yes, it's another An Untitled Story update. I'm putting these together while taking breaks from homework (it's that time of the year). This time it's up to v1.14 and I've done some difficulty re-balancing and added one new feature.
The random ghost appearances was something that came to me the other day for no apparent reason. I like the idea of a random event that can suddenly change the player's short-term goals completely. In this case, there is a very small chance that a ghost or two will appear and force you to flee from the room. The frequency is pretty low, and it can only occur in about half the game's rooms, but it should add a bit more variety to exploring the game world.
Note that the ghosts can only appear once you've encountered them in the story (which can be quite late in the game for some players), and they'll never chase you on Simple mode. The formula for the odds of the ghosts appearing in a room is:
P(ghosts) = 0.015 + (diff * 0.005) + (gold * 0.005)
So if you're playing on Regular (diff = 1) and you have 5 gold orbs (gold = 5), the chance of a ghost ambushing you in a room is 0.045, or 4.5%.
The other major change is the addition of a delay after bouncing on something (an enemy, energy cluster, etc) where you can't double jump. When observing people playing (particularly those not good at platformers), I noticed that they'd always tap jump just as they bounced on something, expecting to get a higher bounce because of it. The correct method for maximum air is to hold the jump button as you bounce - so the "noobs" got mixed results. If they happened to press the button the moment before the bounce they'd get full lift, but more commonly they'd tap it the moment after the collision. In this case, they would bounce off the enemy and then immediately use their double jump, resulting in a tiny hop rather than a huge bounce. This was definitely the single biggest source of frustration for my less-skilled play-testers. The delay allows pressing and holding the button just after a bounce to give full vertical momentum.
- Added random ghosts. After encountering the ghosts in the story, they will occasionally chase you in your travels. The frequency of them appearing will increase with difficulty and gold orbs collected.
- Added a very slight delay after bouncing on something where you can't double jump (should make jump timing more forgiving).
- Made the secret passage in DeepTower more obvious.
- Made the first room of MountSide much easier on all difficulties.
- Made the second and third rooms of MountSide easier on Simple and Regular.
- Made the fourth room of MountSide easier on Simple.
- Removed one crusher enemy from a room in FireCage on Regular, two on Simple.
- Replaced blue energies with red in a room in CloudRun on Regular and Simple.
The random ghost appearances was something that came to me the other day for no apparent reason. I like the idea of a random event that can suddenly change the player's short-term goals completely. In this case, there is a very small chance that a ghost or two will appear and force you to flee from the room. The frequency is pretty low, and it can only occur in about half the game's rooms, but it should add a bit more variety to exploring the game world.
Note that the ghosts can only appear once you've encountered them in the story (which can be quite late in the game for some players), and they'll never chase you on Simple mode. The formula for the odds of the ghosts appearing in a room is:
P(ghosts) = 0.015 + (diff * 0.005) + (gold * 0.005)
So if you're playing on Regular (diff = 1) and you have 5 gold orbs (gold = 5), the chance of a ghost ambushing you in a room is 0.045, or 4.5%.
The other major change is the addition of a delay after bouncing on something (an enemy, energy cluster, etc) where you can't double jump. When observing people playing (particularly those not good at platformers), I noticed that they'd always tap jump just as they bounced on something, expecting to get a higher bounce because of it. The correct method for maximum air is to hold the jump button as you bounce - so the "noobs" got mixed results. If they happened to press the button the moment before the bounce they'd get full lift, but more commonly they'd tap it the moment after the collision. In this case, they would bounce off the enemy and then immediately use their double jump, resulting in a tiny hop rather than a huge bounce. This was definitely the single biggest source of frustration for my less-skilled play-testers. The delay allows pressing and holding the button just after a bounce to give full vertical momentum.
Labels: An Untitled Story, updates
posted by Matt Thorson at
12:26 AM
10 Comments:
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This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sweet, I just heard about this game two days ago, ITS AWESOME!!
And good to see that it keeps on getting better and better~!
=D
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You know, what bugs me is on nightwalk and up in the sky, where you have to cross a lot of stuff to get to a health gate. I hate the crushers because it feels like you get very close to them and they don't do anything until you get right under them. Is it possible to maybe slightly increase the range you can be from them to make them go down? It feels like I have to be about 2-3 pixels from them to even make them come down.
Those ghost guys are gonna scare me...I'm gonna hesitate to walk to the next room now...
Anyways, I've been watching Helix Games when it was that very very old black backgrounded website (like when Jumper 2 came out).
I'm glad I'm still watching.
btw Thorson, if you keep updating AUS like this...then you made my dream come true (I seriously wanted this when I got halfway through the game in V1.0)
Keep up the work Thorson, and keep your eye on school too. XD
Oh snaps, I said Helix...sorry about that, Matt Makes Games now... My apologies...
I've come back to this game after playing it through once on regular in the first version. I like the new areas and the tweaks you've made, Mountside was what truely made me love to hate it, and I feel kind of disappointed at it now that is was nerfed from an afternoon of smacking the bottom and swearing to being successful the first time though. The arrows moving slower instead would have made the rooms much more enjoyable, and kept the whole spirit of the rooms.
Also, Did you move toughness 1? It's no longer at the end of that obstacle course for me.
I found a bug. Get injured, and then jump on the huge bouncy eye from the guard of the water. when you hit the ceiling, you get bleached, but not healed.
I'm paranoid of the random ghost encounters :(. When there's one in the first boat area, it goes through some of the boat where it doesn't look right.
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