Freedom Planet (v. 1.4)

[AldenT]

I'm surprised dynamic loading isn't as common these days, but I guess it takes skillful coding to pull it off. Sure, 3D data is much heavier and most consoles don't have the memory to preload all that without slowing the gameplay down, but you'd think this would have taught developers to not overload on the goods.

Or maybe it's because they take the player's patience for granted? Loading times really can break the flow of the action, especially if gameplay mechanics work against this.

A recent example would be Kingdom Hearts 3D, where rooms are massive so players can get around with all the fancy movement they added. But as a result each room takes a while to load and if you need to go back or entered the wrong area, you can spend over 12 seconds just to return. With the confusing layouts of later worlds and all the rooms in each of them, this really adds up.

The newest Sonic games ( Unleashed engine) do tend to completely strip player control after hitting certain speeders (usually unavoidable) in order to avoid awkward collision errors and velocity gain that happened in SA1/2/Heroes when you held backwards on one of the crazy geometry loop sections. I think the reason these are more noticable is because unlike in SA1 or SA2, the amount of actual actions you can do with Sonic's moveset and physics (without the aid of specific gimmicks) are so much lower that it becomes instantly noticable when your analog stick stops working too.

This is exactly what I'm afraid of. Unleashed and Colors are enjoyable if you like linear experiences but that's about it. I still remember how Starlight Carnival Act 1 began with a 20-second cutscene you couldn't skip because you were "technically" playing. They actually have to tell you when it's okay to press buttons, so it's pretty silly.

[Strife]

So the latest build of Multimedia Fusion 2 (build 256) has an optimization for PC games that makes Freedom Planet run like greased lightning. Levels that ran at 40-50 FPS for me before now run at the full 60 FPS. Unfortunately, the build also breaks many of the enemies and bosses that have gravity/physics enabled, such that they only work when onscreen. (This is because the optimization has to do with streamlining the way collision detection works when there are multiple layers above the first one.) The issue is apparently being worked on, though, so until then I'll just keep using the previous build.

I've also come to realize that the Joypad object, for whatever reason, causes a tiny but noticeable lag spike when sound effects are played, so I've taken it out and I'm now using the Joypad 2 object exclusively (which is the one that can cause those "cannot find joystick2.mfx" errors).

Man, I really hate MMF2's limited options with controller input...

[AldenT]

Are you sure it's only the recent build that has the enemy issue? I don't know the build that the 1.2 demo was made on, but several enemies only work onscreen. One in particular can follow just about anywhere, too. But assuming you worked with the newer build, would that mean coding the enemies again or just how collisions work?

And if I remember correctly, joypad support is built naturally into MMF2 so they could update that. This joypad 2 thing might be part of Sonic Worlds rather than MMF2, so it shouldn't be just Freedom Planet having these errors. But on the off-chance that it is, wouldn't the lag spike be offset by the increase in FPS? Or maybe it has to do with how sounds are coded into the game. I have the 250 build but Sonic Worlds hasn't given me any sound errors.

[Shadow Hog]

Speaking of TVTropes, this game has its own page. Surprised me when I first found it, too, since I didn't think there was enough information about the game to write any article of decent value; evidently, I was wrong... Then again, there's no such thing as notability over there, so.

Actually, constantly stumbling on that article over there is what reminds me to pop back over here and take a peek at progress, so...

[SonicWind]

The game is that popular already?! I probably shouldn't be surprised.

And I see you added a few things as well, Strife. Wanting to make sure everything is correct about the game, eh?

[Strife]

As a matter of fact, I was the one who originally made the TVTropes page. Being an avid Troper myself I simply couldn't resist. xD; Now that it's up there, though, I'm going to leave it as-is and see how it ends up expanding once the game is released.

[Strife]

I wanted to wait on updating the demo until we were closer to a release, but I'd like to make a good first impression for our upcoming Kickstarter. Therefore, I've updated the demo to include our latest content for Dragon Valley, including Lilac and Carol's new abilities and the 16% increase in gravity I mentioned previously.

I'll let you guys test it first to make sure that nothing is horribly broken:

http://www.mediafire.com/?9te5yh8v86ycmq4

[AldenT]

Ah, so you wrote the TV Tropes page? That'd explain why the info is so straight-forward, with some bonus details. So nice to have accurate stuff from the author himself.

Wow, new demo? You have my word that I will dig everything I can out of this! I think I'll start by confirming the glitches I found are fixed.

[AldenT]

Okay, so 1.3's new gravity and moves definitely sped up the experience a lot. Even the menus are fast now, it almost threw me off with the new sound effects. Lilac's new voice clips sound pretty lively too! Having said that, I found quite a few glitches alright, especially involving the motorcycle and the new tunnel.

- You can get off Carol's motorcycle with the special button (though she does a Wild Kick if you have the energy for it). Parking it on a platform gets weird once it moves, but the bike doesn't.

- The new tunnel is much more automated, but it's still possible to jump out near the end of the first one. Taking the motorcycle to this point can let Carol stick around inside the tunnel. Dropping on top of the exit makes her roll and, though you can get out from the left, she doesn't react to anything else. Also, the sound starts to glitch up if she's left there.

- Leaving the first miniboss behind as it explodes doesn't open the barrier, so the player is stuck unless they can beat another enemy. This never happened in 1.2, so maybe this is that MMF2 collision glitch at work?

- Here's another game-breaker. In some lower sections of the stage (like this one before the first mini-boss), it's possible for Carol to drive the motorcycle into a stiff angle. Letting go of the controller makes her drop straight down, but when she lands she can't move to the sides anymore, bike or not. Not even the air pounce worked, so there's no choice but to quit.

- And for some reason, the player can't pause once they land the first hit on the end boss. I don't know why that happens, but I ran into this by sheer accident.

This is just the beginning, but I'll have to rush the next few posts. After all, it's for that Kickstarter gig. This could make or break the deal, so excuse me for taking it seriously.

[Serephim]

You'd think Alden was getting paid for this. Very thorough, nice job.

I guess this is a glitch..If i try to set the game up for Joypad, then i get an MMF2 Application Crash error everytime i try to run the game.

The gravity increase was a good move. Makes the characters feel a bit more solid.

[AldenT]

Thanks, I'm glad you think so! It might seem silly to do all this for free but I just do what I can. So what about those fixed glitches? Well, so far I can confirm this:

- Shang Mu Academy's start glitch is fixed, but it's still possible to destroy the steel ball in stage 10 before the countdown finishes. For that matter, it's now possible to die AFTER the final target is hit, which causes the music to stop until the player returns to the main menu.

- The first mini-boss still shoots right in front of the player rather than at them, but at least it fires a lot more often. Maybe it's because I was playing Hard mode, but the difference is clear from 1.2 so it's good to know.

- Mahjong doesn't glitch anymore! That's quite a relief for an unlockable mini-game that had the potential to lock the entire program. Now there's no problem with going fast, but I'll keep an eye out just in case.

- Carol still tries to climb up steep slopes and still can't pounce up slopes of any kind. Air pouncing helps to deal with it but it's still troublesome to run back up. Lilac doesn't snag with this at all either, even less so with her cyclone.

- The green spiked enemy doesn't clip through the ground anymore, but the death glitch he causes is worse. Now the girls play their death voices with EVERY hit, so it's more annoying until you quit.

- Attacks are properly rotated now, the only weird case is Lilac's uppercut since it still tries to launch her upward even though the animation is rotated now. If she gets away from a slope the attack continues just fine, though.

Oh yeah, I really should test joypads too! I've been playing all this with keyboard controls and the only real app issue I ever ran into was having to Alt-F4 out of the Mahjong glitch. Then again, MMF2 in general seems to choke on joypads so it might be a programming oversight on their end.

[Serephim]

Thanks, I'm glad you think so! It might seem silly to do all this for free but I just do what I can.

I actually think it's quite respectable.

[Strife]

The platform glitch, ceiling glitch and miniboss glitches have been squished. Also the spikeball glitch in the academy. I've also attempted a fix for the Cacteon glitch (the spikey green enemies) which should hopefully stop them from inflicting damage if the player is dead. Thanks bud! =D

I have no clue why the game would crash when setting up joypads... The only thing that might be causing it is the fact that I exclusively use the Joypad 2 object now rather than both Joypad and Joypad 2 interchangeably, since the former was causing lag with the sound effects in the non-demo stages.

[AldenT]

The platform glitch, ceiling glitch and miniboss glitches have been squished. Also the spikeball glitch in the academy. I've also attempted a fix for the Cacteon glitch (the spikey green enemies) which should hopefully stop them from inflicting damage if the player is dead. Thanks bud! =D

No problem! It's great to hear they've been fixed already. As for the Cacteon glitch, I think the issue isn't with the enemy. It's with the death of the player and how it's triggered: AFTER they land from the deadly hit. In this particular case, the player keeps bouncing off the springs so they never "land" and death never triggers. Would it be possible to change the trigger so that it's, say, 2~3 seconds after the hit? That way you don't have to tweak Cacteon or any enemies that could cause this, just the condition itself.

I have no clue why the game would crash when setting up joypads... The only thing that might be causing it is the fact that I exclusively use the Joypad 2 object now rather than both Joypad and Joypad 2 interchangeably, since the former was causing lag with the sound effects in the non-demo stages.

This one has me confused too. I tested it with both USB joypads I got and the program just crashes right after it starts. However, plugging them in didn't seem to cause anything. It's only when I set them as the controller with Settings.exe that things go wrong. How was this program compiled? Would it need to be remade to consider Joypad 2?

I actually think it's quite respectable.

Respectable, huh? That's... a nice way of looking at it. I'm seriously not used to people respecting me for what I do. It feels great to know someone does.

[AldenT]

In any case, I got some more stuff to bring up. Yes, it's still a lot of info to just dump like this, but between this Kickstarter stuff happening a week from now AND said week looking to be a busy one for me, I'd like to do this while I have the chance. So here we go:

- Now I understand what happened to that Shang Mu Academy glitch with the records being saved in the wrong spots. It's got to do with the "clear" script and how it's part of the saving process. For instance, here's a record for stage 1 with Carol.

The "clear" message plays again if you unpause as the character celebrates, but BEFORE the "new record" message plays. Yes, you CAN pause during this time... and as you unpause, the record scrolls one stage ahead! So in this case, unpausing 14 times saves the record on stage 15 AND unlocks everything else up to that point.

- In other news, I just realized it's possible to trigger power-ups while dying, like getting the 5th orb but dying before the shield forms. This makes the player respawn with the shield as if they'd started with it. This is Hard mode, by the way.

- And speaking of starts, it's possible to jump near the end of the second tunnel. It's hard to wriggle around in there, but not impossible for the player to crawl to the top-right section of the tunnel, where they suddenly get shot to the top of the screen. But, since you're clipping through the ground, you can't move! Lilac's comet dash was the only way to escape and it makes a TON of noise as she bounces out. I know a picture can't capture the moment, but this definitely shouldn't happen.

That should be it for now. I know it was a ton to post for one day but I hope Kickstarter goes well for the project.

[Strife]

I disabled pausing in the Academy for when the stage is cleared, which should hopefully eliminate that glitch. I'm still working on the others.

The Dragon Cyclone may need a key reassignment, since I've gotten a couple of complaints so far about it being activated on accident. A couple of ideas:

- Up + Jump while in midair. Given that some people don't even know her uppercut exists, I may have no choice but to spell it out for the player at some point.

- Press Attack twice while in midair. This might come more naturally, but begs the issue of whether or not it will still be used accidentally.

[AldenT]

Yes, I think that will do the trick for this. You may also want to look into players dying after the stage is cleared, since that's got two glitches tied to it: dying shortly after hitting the final target counts as failure, while dying a bit later (long enough for a "new record" message to appear) causes the music to stop until they leave Shang Mu Academy. Players couldn't die like this in 1.2 so there was nothing of that sort there.

To be honest, yeah, it happened to me on accident too, since it IS pretty natural there. But I think the complaints have more to do with the cyclone disrupting Lilac's other moves. I mean, wouldn't people give the same complaints about Carol's air pounce? But that move costs no energy and doesn't affect anything else she does, while an accidental cyclone means half of Lilac's energy is gone like that. So maybe it should be possible to cancel the cyclone early by pressing Jump again?

As for the uppercut, the problem might be with conveying directional and double-press inputs without changing the stance of the player, like with the crouching moves. I saw it done in Castlevania games where Up + Attack uses subweapons, later games gave the characters a second stance to point this out. Characters in Freedom Planet already look up, but not in a way that shows they're ready to attack. There might be other options, though.

[AldenT]

Alright, so here's an update on some things that, while glitchy, might not be entirely bad when handled right. These could have been found earlier on joypads, so it's a shame MMF2's bad support may hurt Freedom Planet in this aspect. In any case, here:

- Lilac's uppercut can go higher if you do it with Attack AND Jump at the same time. You know you got it right when Lilac jumps then immediately does the uppercut, carrying her upward momentum. I spliced a screenshot to show you the difference, though it makes more sense in motion.

- In that same way, pressing Attack and Jump at the same time in mid-air with full energy gets silly. Lilac does her cyclone, then immediately cancels into her aerial kick, bumping up a little bit and losing no energy. I think free glide kicks should be patched, but the ability to cancel the cyclone early would make it easier to handle. Just not immediately, and it should be good.

- Going to Shang Mu Academy then to Dragon Valley starts you off with 2 shield orbs. No way this will stick in the final game, but I don't get why the academy offers such a boost when there are no shield orbs in those stages to begin with.

That's it for glitches at the moment. I know that's not much proof but you can test this yourselves by opening Settings.exe and mapping Attack and Jump to the same button. It makes regular play odd (Lilac can't attack on the ground anymore) but you'll see what I mean.

Last but not least, some thoughts I really should have posted a while ago.

- Carol's bike drains energy but nothing happens when it's empty. Is there a catch to this, or is the bike not complete?

- The new title theme and menu sounds aren't as vibrant or catchy as the originals, but sound more professionally made. Trying to set a good impression, right?

- Shang Mu Academy's "Ready? Go!" cue has a voice now. Is that Milla? It's too cute to be either of the other girls.

- I like how well the new tunnels blend into the old scenery, but the girls still roll within them. Since they don't rotate, it's like they're sliding rather than rolling along. Would this need new frames?

- Speaking of frames, I'm glad Lilac has her full-speed run animation again! Carol's hanging animation with the bike is just too funny. X3

- Testing that shield bug got me thinking, is it just me or do they overlap too much? Orbs will get you the leaf shield most of the time, so chests and hidden crystals feel less rewarding due to replacing them so easily. Do the shields have some sort of priority? If so, why not make it so shield orbs stack up at 5 but don't actually form a shield if the player already has one? That way, if they get hit, the orb shield would form right away. Of course, that may cause its own problems but I think it's better to make the player's decisions matter.

Wow, that was long. Anyway, I hope all this helps!

[Strife]

- The original plan with the bike was to have it cease moving when the energy was fully depleted, but this would require me to add physics to the bike, so I haven't done it yet.

- Aye, I'm trying to set a good impression. While I liked the old title screen theme, it may come across as too "ear-raping" for some people depending on what speaker setup they have. The new title screen jingle also matches the full theme song quite nicely (which begins roughly the same way but then continues into a 3-minute long track with a few lyrical bits).

- It's the same voice actress as Lilac, actually. She auditioned for an unrelated project and didn't get chosen, so I decided to use her audition clips for the dojo. Perhaps it's some kind of unknown trainer in the background. :3

- I'm not looking forward to drawing a "run while rotating" animation for each of the characters. xD For now, it's just rolling.

- Funny story - Bike!Carol couldn't grab handlebars at first, but I figured hey, why not, as long as it's visible that she's struggling really hard to do it? xD

- That seems like an okay workaround for the shields. Of course, if the player is really good and collects 5 keystones with a shield, keystones cease being important.

Someone on Retro recommended that collecting 5 keystones with a shield would strengthen the current shield so that it can take more hits, but that the extra hits would deplete more rapidly than getting hit normally. So, for example, collecting 10 keystones after getting a shield would increase its strength to Level 3, which would protect the player for 1.5 seconds of overlapping a hazard.

[AldenT]

- That makes sense but considering that Carol's energy already regenerates, why not just have her gain no energy on the bike? Crystals would be more important that way and it might open up possibilities in the future, like a boost or something like that.

- I never found the theme song to be an ear rape, to be honest. But using the title screen as the intro for the full theme is a great way to set up a surprise around the end. Looking forward to those lyrical bits, too!

- So she gave you unused clips? That's pretty resourceful of you guys. :3 It'd be funny if the unknown trainer was in the game and Lilac talked to her, though this technically means she's telling herself (or Carol) to get ready.

- Oh, well, it still looks good as is. X3; I just hope the animation shows up at some point. Those rotating runs could be useful for more than just the tunnels.

- Great call on your part, Strife. It's pretty hilarious to see her like that, not enough games these days have such details. All the more reason why Freedom Planet is so good. 83

- You know, that sounds even better. I'm guessing that this invincibility you mention would happen so the shield doesn't disappear from any hit, right? Multi-level shields would help to keep the momentum going, but hopefully those stocked keystones will still matter. After all, a player that's good enough to keep a level 3 shield AND 5 keystones doesn't need much more.

By the way, thanks for mentioning the bug reports in Retro.

[Strife]

The file should be updated now with fixes for some of the mentioned bugs:

http://www.mediafire.com/?j5650qe4jzm7o14

Haven't gotten around to fixing the spiral slide yet, but hopefully it's not something most players will run into on their first run.

In addition, collecting 5 keystones with a shield will not replace your current shield but allow it to endure an additional attack.

[Daniel]

Hey Strife, question, for the full game, are you going to make some sort of online updater for FP, or are you just going to redirect people to new builds?

Just curious, I don't mean to bash your game, the game is really good, it plays really good, and it's really polished as well.

[Strife]

If I can figure it out, I would love to include an updater so that I make sure everyone has the latest build. It's possible, but would require a plethora of extensions that aren't compatible with the exporters, so I don't know how it's gonna work yet.

What I could do, possibly, is hire someone else to program a "launcher" for the game that automatically checks for updates. That would be ideal.

Anyway, thanks!

[Serephim]

to be honest (and this is only my opinion), i don't think the shield is a very good idea. Not the idea in itself, but the idea of finding the gems to obtain it.

It just seems like too much of a hassle for something that doesn't really seem to matter. Unlike in Sonic, where a single hit relieves you of your main source of score and then immediately leaves you vulnerable for death, Freedom Planet has a health bar. But in Sonic the only thing you have to do to find a shield is find the box.

Freedom Planet is alot more forgiving in getting hit. I never worry about the gems or shields because i never really feel like its necessary. Finding health petals are not only easier, but just as effective in staying alive.

What I would personally look into though is giving it some sort of attack to complement the trouble of obtaining one.

[Strife]

Yeah, I get what you're saying - which, actually, would be further justification for the new system of increasing a shield's durability the more keystones you collect. But it does seem like they serve a limited purpose depending on the current stage. (Fire shields are infinitely useful in a fire stage since they render you immune to most enemies, for example.)

I just thought of another possibility - What if all the shields acted like the invincibility powerup, in that they render the player immune to damage but only lasted for a set period of time? This being the case, being attacked with the same element would net you either a crystal or petal bonus, while being attacked with the opposing element would destroy the shield instantly. Meanwhile, the actual invincibility power would grant total immunity and crystal bonuses across the board.