Archive: 7 posts

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Just published chapter one of my War of Souls series. You start out as a soldier in the green army fighting against the sacklanders (you're a traitor/defector). Not too long into the level, your character dies and you spend the remainder of the level in the spectral realm (think Soul Reaver). It's pretty short 'cuz the thermometer hates me. I'll start work on chapter two soon, where you'll be able to shift back and forth between the physical and spectral realms. Psn: Sehven Level: War of Souls Chapter One

2010-01-15 02:15:00 Author: Sehven Posts: 2188

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This level was very exciting, and very cinematic, which I liked, I had however a few little quircks that need to be ironed out. For one, I liked the concept alot, of being in the level you just played, except with a completely perception, this to me was a wonderful idea, and should have been fleshed out more, perhaps still witnessing you comrades battle as you watch them fall, or win after you have died would have really added to the story. I thought it was great how you made so you could accidentally kill your wounded ally. I was going to help him, but accidentally killed him, which kind of hurt me on the inside, and then tried to make up for it by bringing him another soldier but, apparently he couldn't save him either, very nice touch. Another quirk I had was with the basic game play, it was just running and shooting the entire level, which was incredibly short by the way, which is fine for some levels, but here it felt stale, and lifeless (no pun intended). I liked the spirit enemy designs, but the use of the army toys and, the weird ugly enemy looking soldiers looked out of place. The visuals overall were lacking, there were parts, like at the end of the level with the sword, that were cool, but I never felt like I was in any definable location, I was just sort of in a weird, battlefield in the middle of nowhere, which seemed odd to me. The final thing I have to say on the level visually was that the camera angles were atrocious, I could not see what I was doing at all. Visuals: As I stated earlier, the level was lacking visually, I needed to feel like I had died, and I didn't, everything just seemed bluer. Cinematics were good. Gameplay: The basic Running and Gunning nothing really stood out to me, it was lacking alot on this end, it was pretty boring. Overall: The theme is really something that hasn't been explored, but should be, I am looking forward to your sequel, but I urge you, watch that thermo, the level was way too short, and just a suggestion for the second one, perhaps some interaction between the spectral realm and the real world could give you some interesting gameplay/ plot points in the level. I'm looking forward to it! Rating: 3 stars Be sure to give feedback to my level +x~Virus~x+, the URL is in my signature

2010-01-15 19:13:00 Author: optimafrogg Posts: 98

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I'm not that big of a fan of the green soldiers or the sackboy cutout shape, but what other options are there for human characters? I, personally, hate the Mm characters and how they look like they were cobbled together out of bits of cardboard and such. In fact, the chick that saves you at the end wasn't supposed to have a skull head, but I couldn't get a human looking face that I was happy with: it just looked like a flat piece of material with a sticker of a face on it. I also never like how "human" characters always tower over you. In my level, sackboy is just a person like anybody else, so they should all be roughly the same size (though, in the spectral realm, I obviously break that rule, but they're obviously not "human" at that point). I can understand the lack of appeal of just running around. How would you suggest I work on this? The idea is that, as a newly deceased person, you're basically helpless and easy prey for the harvesters. When you turn the tables on the harvester in the cave, it's supposed to be miraculous. Originally, I had planned for the spectral realm to be completely static like in the Soul Reaver games: meaning physical objects can't be moved. Unfortunately, the only way I could come up with to fight the harvester was to bring the roof down on him, so I had to make the spectral realm movable. How would I fix the wierd battlefield in the middle of nowhere thing. This isn't meant to be any real world place: it's a war between two made up countries. What exactly is wrong with a battlefield in the middle of nowhere and what would be prefferable? Camera angles? Could you be more specific? I thought they worked pretty well. The camera pulls back during the cave boss fight/maze to let you see all the ledges, and the chase cam at the end angles forward so you can see where you're running but still see the tentacles and bony hand of the guy chasing you. If you have any specific suggestions on camera angles, I would be happy to address them, since they wouldn't cost me any thermo at all. I'm sorry my level was only a 3 star experience for you, but I'm grateful for the feedback. I'll definately look into ways of touching this level up and using your suggestions in the rest of the series.

2010-01-15 19:49:00 Author: Sehven Posts: 2188

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Hey! It seems like everyone has thermo worries, including myself! I'm busy for most of the day, but your level sounds really interesting and I will be sure to play it tonight or tomorrow, and then leave feedback on here. When someone wants really good feedback and suggestions, I usually take notes (if possible) while I play, so I'll do my best for ya. I'll edit this post when I give you feedback, so check back in a day or so Edit: Well I tried your level twice now .. I still need to try it again tomorrow because unfortunately I haven't been able to finish. I think my biggest piece of advice (if I may) so far is that sometimes I know where to go, and sometimes I don't. I am the last person who should complain about not knowing where to go because if you've played my levels, you know that I like the player to explore. But with this level, it seems to me like there is a definite progression of the story, and I felt like I was messing up the progression by going the wrong way. The first play through I had to restart because a check point was just above the enemy which would drop me into gas. However, I realized that this happened because I triggered an event that shouldn't have happened yet. Basically, because of the MGS tea bags I was able to get up to where the race starting gate is, which triggered that and it opened. I then went left, which triggered an event, and not long after I had to restart. Granted it's obvious that I'm not intended to climb that wall, but because I can I thought there might be secrets up there. The second play through I completely skipped the beginning part and ran past the guys who were getting shot. There was definitely some nice detailed work in the buildings. It wasn't long before I realized that I died, which is a cool idea (I noticed the trees moving slightly when I died, very nice touch)! But I wasn't sure if I was supposed to go right or left.. so I went left. I found an opening that wasn't there before and guessed that's where I was supposed to go. I think I got to a boss section which is where I died a few times and then had to turn it off due to running out of time. The demon looking things are awesome! And I love some of the visual effects. So again, maybe give the player a bit more direction as to where they should be at certain points in the level. I'm the type of player that will explore everywhere, so if there is somewhere I should not be, it should be impossible for me to get there. You could give hints, but I always like when there are subtle hints in the level design which point you in the right direction. I gave it 5 stars only because I had to rate it even though I didn't finish it. I'll give it another go tomorrow and let you know what happens. PS - very cool machine gun

2010-01-15 20:33:00 Author: Powershifter Posts: 668

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I've made some changes. The lighting at the beginning is a bit moodier, and I changed the battlefield from rocky ground to a forest with some trees. The trees even move subtly when you die (the spectral realm is slightly different from the physical realm: I plan on using this for puzzles in the later chapters). I changed the cameras a little, too: the two harvesters that you don't actually fight had kind of obnoxious cameras with a pretty low player tracking, so I shrunk their zones a bit and turned up the player tracking. I was able to add all the trees with only the slightest budge out of the thermo, so I probably could've gotten away with more level. The problem was more that adding enemies made the thermo jump up, so even if I added more level, I wouldn't be able to give the player anything to do in it.

2010-01-16 13:06:00 Author: Sehven Posts: 2188

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In terms of what you could have done to make so you don't always run around, is to add more challenges, puzzles and obstacles, that's what I really meant in terms of what I didn't like about it, it wasn't quite as engaging as I would have liked. At the begging with the battlefield perhaps if you were to have added some buildings, trees, rocks, other foliage, vehicles, and such, it would have made the battle more believable. As for the camera angles, I was sort of unhappy with the camera angle at the beginning when you're shooting the grunts on the cliff, and when you're running away in the cave from the harvester, I would have preferred it to have been closer to sackboy. And 3 stars is by no means bad in my book, it was just the few things wrong with it that I had problems with, the level was still very enjoyable. I'm sorry I didn't make these recommendations in my earlier post, I very much apologize. Please feel free to ask any other questions you had about my post.

2010-01-16 18:08:00 Author: optimafrogg Posts: 98

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Ah. Yeah, I regretted that I wasn't able to work in more puzzles. I was shocked at how much thermo those soldiers used even after I simplified them, so they might not be making an appearance in the next level. I wanted the camera to give you a clear view of who was shooting at you at the beginning. I'll have to take another look at that and see if I can make it better. Also, the camera zooms out in the cave so you can see as much of the "maze" as possible, and you can see the harvester. Without being able to see the harvester, you'd just be walking along and die suddenly with no idea how it happened. In addition to adding trees and changing half of the rocky ground at the beginning to woodland, I also put more plant decorations in the maze/cave to make the ledges stand out (I was told by a friend that he had a hard time seeing what were actually ledges and what was just scenery). The plants kind of outline the ledges and give them some contrast to the surrounding walls. I also material changed some of the ledges. Hopefully that helps with people who have a hard time finding their way through (lots of people have said that it's difficult to know where to go and I'm like "It's a maze!")

2010-01-16 19:25:00 Author: Sehven Posts: 2188

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