Tower of Babel Forum

Dr. · Administrator Beiträge: 310

Right. Yesterday I snaffled some stupid game from a friend of mine (some Vampire Masquerade Bloodline first-person stupid run around and slay em all piece of useless software) and installed the required version of DirectX so I could, finally, take a look at the remake.

The test version in question was the next to last one, i.e. the one you had linked in the other thread; I put the ini-file in the game's main directory before starting it and it seemed to work fine.
In fact, everything worked splendid - very smooth and really fast.
Remember I only use to play the original version.

I few remarks:
- Menu/Console
First, I hope you're going to implement an old-style menu for picking towers and the like. I suppose you just didn't get around to it yet. Being able to start each and every tower without having to solve the current group first is a bit of a spoiler. Plus you have to pick towers blind - no directory, no group menu - I guess it's all in the works.
The console is the only thing not running smooth - typing was real slow.
Oh yeah... the mouse pointer is moving veeery slow - is that just my computer?

- Editor
Editor is a separate piece of software?

- Playing Towers
Towers cannot be solved yet. Right? Once you implement finishing conditions, remember to put in an appropriate jingle. I recommend using the original one, because it's non-annoying... and it's hard to get that right.

The first-person-perspective with freely movable camera is GREAT. It makes life so much easier. Have you thought about implementing side-stepping ("strafing") as well? Like in Dungeon Master; you'd just need to more small buttons, and it would save a lot of work while playing.

- Graphics
Graphics are VERY nice. The background is cool (though I'd love to see some WATER background as well), effects look great, and I really love the way Pushers and Zappers are labelled so you can tell them apart. Hell, Zappers even got WARNING DECALS on them!

What really blew me was the fact you can see the CAMERAS!!!

(Here follow lots of small, useless, silly remarks)
Tiles look great, but the corners and edges are a bit too neat. It's very difficult to distinguish tiles when colours are close to each other.
http://www.archinoah.de/modules.php?name=Textures
has some nice tiles in "Fliesen".
Well, that's nitpickery.

I'd really love to see the spiders walk a bit less smooth. Camera perspective ought to wobble a bit (you could make it optional), and when seen from the outside that smooth look makes them appear artifical and unreal. Perhaps everything is a bit too fast...

If it was a bit slower, objects and spiders would appear heavier and more real.
This was the main difference in feeling when comparing between original and remake.
The Hoppers look a a bit too stiff - they should really compress when hitting the floor, so they look like springs being compressed.
It's hard to tell active Freezers from non-active ones from recharging ones. Make them flash, or have active freezers spin their spike (hey! good idea - they sound like a wind-up toy anyway. You should see them moving!)

- Sound
I noticed this very annoying tssp tssp sound pinging away all the time. Is this the modern version of the olde drone sounds?
I also noticed you went for mechanical sounding effects for Lifts, Forcers, Freezers... takes some getting used to, but the idea is nice. The Freezer sounds like something that has to be wound up with a huge key and then runs down... very funny.
The sound effect for picking up Klondikes is a bit disappointing. It should sound gratifying..

- Resumee:
My first impression: You did an excellent bit of work. Congratulations! The best are the freely movable cameras and the command keys for moving and programming. Now you can play it Dungeon Master style - great.

(Wish list: Just add some realistic thudding effects for the spiders' steps and make things move a bit more "heavily", more realistically, less artificially smooth. Plus add a group-oriented menu, and make the control panel opaque instead of transparent. The panel obscures too much of the field of view. Make it a bit smaller or make it opaque and shrink the camera display to a smaller window. You should always see EVERYTHING the spider can see; when in panel mode as it is, you can't even see wether you're standing on a lift or not.)

Thumbs up! Keep up the good work.
I realize I won't be able to help you in any way requiring computer skills. However, I'm pretty good at writing stuff. If you want to, I can lend a hand with the manual.
And I'll do my best at playtesting. Where's that editor?

--
Das Lemsche Gesetz:
Niemand liest etwas; wenn er etwas liest, versteht er es nicht; wenn er es versteht, vergißt er es sofort.