Dinocide - Demo Version

[Lurler]

If anyone would like to playtest the demo version of Dinocide please let me know here in this thread. I will contact you by PM or E-mail (the one in your profile) and send you the link to the game.

Currently the demo has 3 full levels and a good number of things to try, such as riding a dino, blasting your enemies with a few different weapons and such. I'd say it has a solid 10 minutes of gameplay if you are good at platformers or up to 20 minutes if you end up dying a few times
Also there is only a Windows version currently, Linux and Mac will be available with the release.

This test will be private, so if you do intent to participate please do not share the game yet.

But if everything is well we hope to release the demo, trailer and launch a Greenlight campaign relatively soon.

And when we pass the Greenlight then release the game to Steam ASAP

[Tchey]

I'm surely volunteer to test your demo ! Does it run on Linux ? I can try to run it with WINE if it's Windows only.

[kyokei]

ahem ahem, I'd love to! - and tbh when the demo is done you need it ported to Mac and Linux

[Lurler]

Sure, I will send you guys the link to the last version in PM!

Does it run on Linux ? I can try to run it with WINE if it's Windows only.

Right, good that you mentioned it, because I forgot to include that information in my original post.
No, currently it is only Windows. Linux and Mac will be available with the release.

[kyokei]

Does not run in wine since I think you guys are using d3d11

[Tchey]

Bad news for Linux.

Still i tried the demo. I can launch the game with WINE, access the options, go full screen, change volume etc. Then i can see the world map, and the windows with i think Eggs and Tools to pick from. There, i'm stuck, i can't go ingame it seems.  Also, Save&Quit doesn't quit. I need to use Alt+F4 to stop the program.

[kyokei]

Bad news Lurler, GF's PC got buggy, she didn't want to use Windows anymore so she's on Linux too... no more Windows here so can't help you test anymore

[Lurler]

Bad news for Linux.
...

Hm, what exactly happens? Have you selected "start" and pressed "ok"? If so - what happens?
Could you please upload log files? They are in the same place as for VoidExpanse.
If you have any crash dumps - please upload these as well. It would really help us to figure out what's wrong.
On the other hand - well, it's WINE we are talking about. It doesn't always work.

Bad news Lurler, GF's PC got buggy, she didn't want to use Windows anymore so she's on Linux too... no more Windows here so can't help you test anymore

That's sad
But oh, well. We will have the Linux build eventually, that's for sure.

[kyokei]

And I may have a solution.... I will build a Windows VM (/shivers) - not sure how the performance will be.
Keep you updated - hate the fact I can't test for you guys

[kyokei]

Got it working in a VM without graphical issues or slowness let the testing continue - tested the latest version, it's a lot more difficult.
Thing that I still see is when you move something the screen moves a bit and I find the jumping still very odd

[Lurler]

let the testing continue - tested the latest version, it's a lot more difficult.

Can you please elaborate on that?

Thing that I still see is when you move something the screen moves a bit and I find the jumping still very odd

Jumping IS a bit odd compared to some of the NES or even current games, but after some time I actually find it quite pleasing to use. It's quite predictable, IMO.
But is there anything specifically wrong with the jumping in your opinion?

I also invited some people to try the game in the office and it seems to follow the same general pattern.
1. They will always die a few times on the first level. Then complete it no problem.
2. Die a few times on the second level, especially in the middle where there are two purple spiders. Then complete it without any problems.
3. And complete the third level with no problems at all.
4. Playing the demo for the second time most players don't die at all.

This lead me to conclusion that the difficulty is spot on! Since each level is about 2 minutes max it is an ideal iteration time to try again even if the player died.
However for the demo I would prefer it to be a bit easier. So, I think I will make the first two levels a bit easier in the demo. However in the full game I will leave the difficulty as is. Because we want players to die once in a while when going through the game to make the completion of each level more rewarding and an accomplishment in itself.

[kyokei]

I think maybe the issue that I have with the jumping is that it's too riggid  - maybe some small added animation and a slight curve once you reach you max jumping height will make it feel less (can't find the word) and a bit more flowing. Maybe check how they did it with the first Mario. It's quite similar to the jumping in Dinocide but less riggid. Then again - this is my opinion

For the levels, I would leave them as they are in the demo, the demo needs to represent the full games difficulty else people won't buy it because it's too easy, or faceroll as they call it.

As for the weapons go, I think you changed something there? The little chugs the arrow as if he is superman creating a nice difficulty curve btw.
I also saw you fixed the sky at the part where you get the arrow, that seemed to work fine now.

[Lurler]

I think maybe the issue that I have with the jumping is that it's too riggid  - maybe some small added animation and a slight curve once you reach you max jumping height will make it feel less (can't find the word) and a bit more flowing. Maybe check how they did it with the first Mario. It's quite similar to the jumping in Dinocide but less riggid. Then again - this is my opinion

I see. We will try to improve on that if possible.
But yeah, we use other games as example for jumping mechanics.
My personal favorite when it comes to jumping physics is the "Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia". I think it has the best jumping of all games ever created by men

For the levels, I would leave them as they are in the demo, the demo needs to represent the full games difficulty else people won't buy it because it's too easy, or faceroll as they call it.

Too late, I already made the first two levels slightly easier
But I think it only made it better.

As for the weapons go, I think you changed something there? The little chugs the arrow as if he is superman creating a nice difficulty curve btw.
I also saw you fixed the sky at the part where you get the arrow, that seemed to work fine now.

Not sure what you mean, but if it's fixed then it's all good
As for arrows - we will change them later, make the character shoot two arrows instead of one.

[Tchey]

Hello,

I've sent you a PM with a link to the logs. I've also copied my Terminal output.

What i'm doing :

I start the game with a right click, launch with WINE.
Game starts.
Play the game.
I select a save slot (same result with 1, 2 or 3).
I can see a world map with a red circle. I hit Enter.
I can see a screen with a kind of inventory, empty but with 1 item to the left, and 1 item to the right, both without counter. All others are grey, with "0" counter.
Then i hit Start.
... and nothing. I get a small sound "bip" with one second delay after i hit Start. From this screen, i can only hit Return to go back to world map. If i hit Esc to Save and Quit, it does nothing, i'm stuck on the screen.
To exit the game, i must use Alt+F4.

Hm, what exactly happens? Have you selected "start" and pressed "ok"? If so - what happens?
Could you please upload log files? They are in the same place as for VoidExpanse.
If you have any crash dumps - please upload these as well. It would really help us to figure out what's wrong.
On the other hand - well, it's WINE we are talking about. It doesn't always work.
That's sad
But oh, well. We will have the Linux build eventually, that's for sure.

[Lurler]

Thank you for detailed explanation!
We will see what can be done now with the logs.

We've also just updated the demo.
You can now download it publicly here: http://dinocide.com/Pages/Dinocide-Download-Demo-Version however the official release will be in a few days.