Vilya's Work-blog! (aka Pixel Ferrets behind the scenes)

[Vilya]

A group meeting is held. Only this time, not at a burger joint? People must be skimping on the developer hat. Lamentations of lost burgers aside, lots of info here. Be sure to read this one!

Don't worry, we went to the burger joint first! We just had to continue the meeting at home because they were closing for the night...

The Ancient Castle?
The Underwater Caverns / Reef Forests?
The Volcano?
The Tropical Island?
The Obligatory Sewer Level (pls no)?
The One Where You're Shrunken And Everything Around You Looks Super Huge?
The Sunken Ship?
The Carnival of Horrors?
The Distorted Realm - where everything looks really bizarre, or possibly glitchy like old games?
The One That Takes Place Entirely Inside An Enormous Monster's Body As A Dungeon?

The next places in the game are already decided (one or two of your suggestions aren't too far off actually!), what I meant was ideas for puzzles using the time mechanic We'll save those ideas for the next game, though! ......Or maybe an optional dungeon or two?! You never know

 

[Own]

The next places in the game are already decided (one or two of your suggestions aren't too far off actually!), what I meant was ideas for puzzles using the time mechanic

Ah, I misread 'next zones'. That'll learn me for skimming quick. As for puzzles using time travel mechanics... that largely depends on how many years pass between Past and Future. Assuming it's like, 25 years...

The Hundred Year Flower: A flower that takes a hundred years to bloom from it's first planting as a seed. You must take the seed and find locations to plant it where it won't be disturbed across each 25 year skip, designated by fresh soil patches. Examples,

A) Plant flower on a high cliff. Flower Age: 0.
B) Time travel forward. Dig flower up. Flower Age: 25.
C) Time travel backwards. Plant flower within a sacred shrine. Flower Age: 25.
D) Time travel forward. Dig flower up. Flower Age:50.
E) etc, etc, etc

Trade it for something precious to someone in the past, or so one person can propose to another with it.

The Sunken Treasure: A relic was lost and dropped deep within a pond. Find a way to slowly drain it across the years. Make a crack beneath it to gradually drain into and flood a tunnel? Plant things around it that guzzle up water like nobody's business? Or just throw Bag in the bottom and have him 'loot' water for 25 years. In the future, find the treasure glinting in a small pool of water where the pond once was.

The Cowardly Monk: In the past, the elderly monk passed before he could finish training his successor. Now the successor is too cowardly to deal a ghost haunting a shrine on his own. In the future the entire shrine is infested with evil spirits preventing passage. In the past, protect the Cowardly Monk from the invincible spirit so they have time to finish chanting and strengthening the seal. In the future, no more evil spirits.

The Penniless Potter: The town is filled with beautiful pots in many strange, hard to reach places. So many so that they have no use for the potter, they're practically infested with the things! The potter lives in a pretty run down little shack. However, if you hunt down and smash every single pot in town, he'll be able to make a living making his own by replacing them. Charitable vandalism! In the future the potter's home will become larger, allowing you to reach previously inaccessible areas. Pots only respawn in the past once this is complete.

 

[The G-Meister]

The Penniless Potter: The town is filled with beautiful pots in many strange, hard to reach places. So many so that they have no use for the potter, they're practically infested with the things! The potter lives in a pretty run down little shack. However, if you hunt down and smash every single pot in town, he'll be able to make a living making his own by replacing them. Charitable vandalism! In the future the potter's home will become larger, allowing you to reach previously inaccessible areas. Pots only respawn in the past once this is complete.

I thought the whole point of pots is that they were self regenerating. I never see anyone put them back after I re-enter an area, and I've never seen anyone who can craft with my thousands upon thousands of jar shards. Maybe there's a pot-ninja who can replace pots lightning fast, and he gets paid by the pot maker? Heh, I guess it's all speculation.

 

[KoBeWi]

We'll save those ideas for the next game, though! ......Or maybe an optional dungeon or two?! You never know

How about an official dungeon suggestion topic (for optional dungeons), maybe when the game is finished? I bet many of us have some interesting ideas to share ...

 

[The G-Meister]

I'm sure we all do, but the sidequests are already sold out, so I doubt they're going to add many more fan-based storylines

 

[Own]

I thought the whole point of pots is that they were self regenerating.

Except in this area. Where the gimmick is that they don't respawn. Because there's no need for a potter to make new pots, because all the villages pots never get broken, because it's a peaceful, isolated village devoid of strange people running around smashing their pots. That's why the resident potter lives in poverty. That's the idea, anyhow.

Other time travel puzzles/gimmicks:

The Time Capsule: Buried and sealed under something in the past, with only hints to go by where it was buried. But in the future, the thing covering it up is gone. So look for major differences between Past / Future to figure out where it may be buried, a statue or boulder that's no longer covering a spot up. Essentially a story-based / sidequest-based treasure map?

The Split MacGuffin: Something important was broken straight down the middle, the right half of it lost or destroyed. One of the townspeople in the past have the left half of it. Go to the future, find the same left half laying around in the ruins of the village, bring it back and fuse the two together. Probably works best as something that can be flipped around and stuck together easily enough.

The Time Traveler: Someone in the past is being exiled from the village that night, never to return. But they don't want to leave their village. In a cave near the village is a phaseplate and four (or many more) mirrors. In the future, in that same cave is a One-Use Phase Imprinting Device. Go into the past, infuse him with phasing ability, take him to the cave and organize the puzzle so that he's stuck bouncing around in phase-stasis. Time travel forward, move a mirror and awaken him on the phaseplate. He gets to stay in his village, ruined as it may be, and he can help you bypass some obstacle.

 

[Thalldor]

Hey there! Before I give you suggestions I have some questions I should ask... If you want to answer them of course.

Are you limited to X amount of items you can place or can you have any amount of items you can place or create. (Example is could have like 30 different types of pots in a single dungeon if it fits with the stuff?) {Yes, 30 is a bit over the top but this is an example. : ) }


So, because I want to be in more touch with the developers I think I'll start to give them my feed back regarding stuff they do because why not.

March 5th feedback

Simply looking at this picture I believe it fits the normal art style of the dungeon (At least from what I have seen)

Looking at the large purple gems and reading what you said there are 8 barriers that a player (lets say they're soloing because they have no friends) will have to bash through on their own to reach this chest. Looking at this there is also a section that is a double barrier so we can say there are 9 sections that a player has to destroy. Because I haven't encountered these gems yet (I don't think I got this far I guess in Story) I am going to assume that each gem will take 3 or 4 hits since a normal crate is 2 and a bunch of times makes me think is 4 so I'll stick with 4. For a player soloing to get through these crystals and depending on weapon can take quite awhile and may be even marked as slightly tedious if there is nothing else in this room. (I would kinda like to see some sort of monsters in here to make things slightly more interesting) Although because it is not marked that there is a monster in the room I have no idea on that regarding these monsters but I believe there should be something in here so you will pass section 1, fight some monster, enter section 2 fight some monster etc etc since I believe there is enough room to place encounters possibly. Regarding the (From what Villa said it would be a single chest) loot being 1 chest I am hoping to go through this would be worth getting it so hopefully it would be an upgrade that would be suitable to the players.

Now to talk about what I said in the beginning. While I believe this area is a suitable area in this dungeon I believe that the 6 BLUE crystals don't match too well and perhaps they could be 6 SMALL PURPLE crystals as every crystal in here is purple so why are these crystals blue?

Too lazy didn't read: may be too tedious but probably suitable room, should have some monster in each section, possibly change blue crystal to small purple crystal. design of the room is suitable.

Update: I just noticed a random blue crystal just sitting in the group of purple crystals, not sure if that was intentional but due the the large amount of purple crystals perhaps all the crystals in each barrier should just stay purple... (Its in section 6 but you probably have no idea what I mean by that, its right near the chest area though.)

Summery

I believe the March 5th room is good and the idea of it is fair but possibly too tedious but that can easily be overlooked just by how the game design is, perhaps the blue crystals should change and possible monsters.

Thank you for reading if you did and if I should change my feed back in any way (Possibly to not be so bloody long. xD) but hopefully this helped in anyway and keep up the great work Villa! I'll give you more feedback on the next update. Good luck!!


Update: Perhaps in the future to help player feedback you could mark where monsters would be... Unless you're not suppose to or it is not your place to set the monsters down in X section. That or you could have the map without the emonsters and a map with the monsters and then have like a red square where you think the monsters would be.

Please note: It is not my intention to make your work look bad as I am simply criticizing your work if a critical eye you could say. If you do not want me to review your stuff like this or if you want me to do it in another way I can probably do so. If you are unable to take constructive criticism regarding your work or you simply don't take it well then I can some publishing these reviews.

(Please note I never said it is too many but possibly as with the amount of barriers may be perfect but at the same time may not without being in the game.)


7.6 / 10 Executed well, possibly too many sections, random blue crystal placed?
--Green Slime

 

[Vilya]

There won't be any enemies in that map actually! And the crystals will take even more than 4 hits to mash, so it's more than tedious - it's actually impossible (should be, at least)! XD

The idea is that you're not supposed to be able to get through the map at all, unless you have ... something special (don't wanna spoil)

 

[Thalldor]

There won't be any enemies in that map actually! And the crystals will take even more than 4 hits to mash, so it's more than tedious - it's actually impossible (should be, at least)! XD

The idea is that you're not supposed to be able to get through the map at all, unless you have ... something special (don't wanna spoil)

Ah, I understand so apologies for failing to understand the full concept of this room.(Although all I have is that picture so that is what I more or less see) So its more or less just an item check for players to come back to once they get the special dungeon item (What ever that it may be) and return there.

I kinda of want to take on your challenge and destroy those crystals now without that "special item"...

Thank you for your response and your time!

--Green Slime

 

[The G-Meister]

something special (don't wanna spoil)

Does it start with

Spoiler

gas

and end in

Spoiler

mask

? If so, Teddy's already spoiled it on the forum

 

[TsReaper]

The idea is that you're not supposed to be able to get through the map at all, unless you have ... something special (don't wanna spoil)

Maybe with the "Shadow Clone" skill we can get through the map without the special something?

 

[GarlicJelly]

Does it start with

Spoiler

gas

and end in

Spoiler

mask

? If so, Teddy's already spoiled it on the forum

It's a face sucker giving us french kisses while you wear it. This will prevent any inhalation of bad gasses. Obviously.... -.-

 

[Thalldor]

21

It's a face sucker giving us french kisses while you wear it. This will prevent any inhalation of bad gasses. Obviously.... -.-

The best I can think of is a type of HAMMER or PICKAXE or DRILL or X ITEM THAT Destroys SPECIAL STUFF. If its not one of those I might be slightly surprised. That or a type of thing that upgrades your weapon possibly that is able to deal extra damage and deal more damage to the crystals as well more damage to environmental items as that would make the most amount of sense to me!

 

[Thalldor]

MARCH 07, 2016 FEED BACK / REVIEW

Okay, so regarding this update, like normal I shall review this with a critical eye and so on so here we go!

These are fish sprites so there isn't much to say so I'll go through the fish in order from right to left and so on...

Starting with the first two fish they look just about the same and almost just a remake of the smaller fish just in a larger veresion. Larger version has minor tweaks but not too much from there. Perhaps some special glow effect on the bigger guys lure might prove more interesting.
(After reading: I was correct on what I thought the fish was. This fish perhaps could use something else instead of a resize and minor tweak but I believe it is suitable. )

Regarding the blue fish and predicting that this is in the cave of course it looks kinda like a ice fish more than a cave or normal fish. I'm also unsure if this fish follows the normal proper water camouflage coloring. (After making this one I noticed that this may be the "guppy" of this fishing pond and so if that is the case this review for this fish would be invalid.)


Blue fish: After reading I noted that it isn't for the caves... Interesting look for salmon but its suppose to be a rock fish?? HAving slight misunderstanding regarding this fish currently after reading.
(After RE READING: Okay, I think I understand the blue fish now. Its suppose to be a salmon. I believe salmon is suppose to be gray but regarding environment I believe that the color of the fish is accurate but it could be noted that the fish could be used for the snow environment as well. I think this fish is suitable but gave a lot of confusion. xD


Purple fish, I'm guessing its mostly referring to the purple crystal as the purple fish doesn't look like a normal organism at all having a strange structure of the purple crystals which may be intentional though.
(After reading I was indeed correct, I believe the purple fish is suitable )

Yellow fish.... This look more like a gold bar that a fish. It seems like you took a gold bar, put fins on that with a black eye and said DONE! Although regarding for the cave scenario I believe it can be suitable as one of the more rare type of fish as if the purple fish is some sort of crystal fish then this golden bar fish would make a bit more sense but it still looks like a golden bar more than a fish to me really.
(After reading my issue still stands on the point that it still looks more like a gold bar)

Green fish?: This fish looks like a a type of fungus or possibly a green jellyfish. This is an odd one and I don't think I can properly rate this one without simply guessing what it is first. Just looking at it
(After reading: Moss fish got its point across as my first thinking for this fish was correct. I believe this is suitable )

Bottle?: This is a bottle with a letter in it. I think it got its point across unless its magically a bottle fish that swims and looks like a bottle but... That's highly unlikely.
(After reading: I was correct, is suitable of course. )

Summery:

Biggest complaint is the golden fish but I am only one person saying negative to this fish so do not take it to heart at least yet.

Still confused on the salmon that was created for piller mountains.

All other fish is suitable.

Purple fish is good.

Overall: 8/10 {Overall is my opinion of all of them combined}

Thank you for your time

-Green slime

 

[Vilya]

Just wanna say I really appreciate the feedback, thanks for taking the time to write such thoughtful posts! Keep 'em coming (as long as you have the stamina for it), I try to read & consider all feedback thrown at me

 

[TsReaper]

About March 08

1) Maybe it's properer for a village to be neat and have few mushrooms, even though it's a Caveling village?

2) I...uh...can't tell the difference between the two pictures of the time travel zone. The grass...just looks the same for me T_T

 

[Vilya]

1) Maybe it's properer for a village to be neat and have few mushrooms, even though it's a Caveling village?

Yes, you may be right. I'm actually thinking that sometime in the future when I have time I'll rework the Caveling village and make it a little more interesting - I'm really not happy with the way it looks right now to be honest, the paths look kinda weird and it's very random looking overall! Maybe I should add a few more tents and more village-y things? We'll see

 

[Thalldor]

Just wanna say I really appreciate the feedback, thanks for taking the time to write such thoughtful posts! Keep 'em coming (as long as you have the stamina for it), I try to read & consider all feedback thrown at me

I probably spend too much time into these post xD. I'm glad that you're considering the feed back that is given to you.

Also, regarding the golden fish I have some ideas that "may" work. Could make it look kinda more like the purple fish structure although with that said the structure of the purple fish is VERY cleverly thought out (As it is in a crystal shape) so it may just be a unique thing. The golden fish ....

Wow, I understand now why the golden fish looks the way it does now... I can't even think of anything more clever so I GIVE UP TRYING TO FIX GOLD FISH!


MARCH 08, 2016 Feed Back / Suggestion



Okay, I'm starting from top to bottom....

This is a minor change and it seems suitable

Second thing:... Again... A minor fix which of course I can't complain about. xD

And the third... a minor fix...



Dang, you didn't give me a lot to give feed back on this time around but of course this stuff is necessary to keep the game looking smooth.

Edit: AHA! I thought of something after analyzing the pictures! Our friend ROCK is slightly cut out and there is actually a fair amount of space for the text to go to the right some so possibly could it be possible to move to text to the right some and then move our friend Rock's portrait back over to where it originally was? Just looking at how the text is it shouldn't need to go to the right that much at all as it is only slightly overlapping. But what do I know... I'm just some Green Slime giving a suggestion as I have no idea how difficult that task is and if the text would be able to fit in the right entirely...


Also, another thing that I am not sure if it is intentional but there are a few pixels next to our friend Rock's ear that are on his hat that seem (UN)naturally white. Not sure if its me over analyzing but looks like it to me at least.

Minor complaint regarding the time travel land but there are 2 of the same tree used on the same map which is made fairly obvious.

That is all for now I guess

Can't properly give this an overall rating so I give this 4/2 apples out of 9 books.

Thank you for your time and I hope what I said was useful.

--Green Slime



I look at your work again and see you have 2000hp... Hmm... I think some one is a cheater... ; )

 

[Thalldor]

Hey there Vila! No review today as not much to say this time around as the new statue is good and that is all I can basically say today. xD

With that said, on your blog you made a mistake with the video as where you were to create the statue or show how you made it instead is mount bloom fishies for some reason... Unless my browser is broken...

Thank you for your time and I shall wait for your next update!

-Green Slime

 

[Vilya]

With that said, on your blog you made a mistake with the video as where you were to create the statue or show how you made it instead is mount bloom fishies for some reason... Unless my browser is broken...

That's strange! For me it plays the correct video, what a strange error/bug :O