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Work in progress Alone in Hell
JenniferOrange Offline
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#21
RE: Alone in Hell

Loving the screenshots! Big Grin And the wavy bridge is my favorite~

Ba-da bing, ba-da boom.
08-14-2011, 10:36 PM
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NadTheBat Offline
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#22
RE: Alone in Hell

(08-14-2011, 10:36 PM)JenniferOrange Wrote: Loving the screenshots! Big Grin And the wavy bridge is my favorite~

I think the bridge is my favorite part as well Big Grin Glad you're liking it!!
08-14-2011, 10:50 PM
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NadTheBat Offline
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#23
RE: Alone in Hell

UPDATE 4: Not a major update, but I did fix some rather
important things. In what used to be the maze, I added
a regular mansion door that the key will unlock that
leads to a small hallway where you can use the door to
take you to the next level. In the Solitary Confinement area,
I fixed a bug where the doors would not open, and I also
adjusted the placement of a small... "surprise".
08-15-2011, 12:53 AM
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Phoroneus Offline
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#24
RE: Alone in Hell

First thing I noticed: It's possible to get stuck behind the piano in one of the first rooms. It's never a good idea to let a player get stuck in a mundane spot like that, I'd suggest either placing the piano closer to the wall (so the player can't fit behind it) or putting something back there to let the player escape.

[Image: at_9365860.png]

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08-15-2011, 06:05 AM
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NadTheBat Offline
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#25
RE: Alone in Hell

(08-15-2011, 06:05 AM)Phoroneus Wrote: First thing I noticed: It's possible to get stuck behind the piano in one of the first rooms. It's never a good idea to let a player get stuck in a mundane spot like that, I'd suggest either placing the piano closer to the wall (so the player can't fit behind it) or putting something back there to let the player escape.

Alright then, I'll do that. But... why were you back there in the first place? Tongue
08-15-2011, 06:10 AM
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Phoroneus Offline
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#26
RE: Alone in Hell

Ok, to finish out the review:

Your last monster (the one before the note that mentions his mind being taken over by something) has too few path nodes. I made a sound outside in the room with the trap door and he couldn't find me, because he kept walking into the wall.

Inside the same room (with the trap door), there are invisible obstacles that bar the player's movement. They appear to be arranged around the corners of the trap door. They're very frustrating for players, so they either need to be textured/arranged/aligned/whatever properly, or they need to be removed.

If the player pulls the monster I mentioned before (the last one you encounter in the demo) into the hallway between his room and the room with the trap door, there is no way to get him out without running right by him. Hallucination or not, it is rare that a player will run at a monster head-on, so ideally he should be able to be moved out of that hallway. Pathnodes (as I mentioned before) will solve this.

There are far too many tinderboxes and not enough things to use them on. I couldn't light any of the hanging lanterns, and the only thing I could light was a candle that had been tipped over and buried in debris.

The voice acting... well, let's just say that people ask for voice actors for a reason. It wasn't bad, actually, but the later notes sounded more like someone boredly reading a letter from someone they didn't particularly like and less like someone desperately scratching out what might be their epitaph. Voiceovers on letters are meant to demonstrate the writer's words, not the reader's. It might be worthwhile to have people voice them for you (friends or family work fine), especially the female one (which was rather cringe-worthy).

One of the lanterns in the last room (which has no exit once you drop down the trap door) is jiggling. This is clearly an error. It looks like it's a force applied to keep it swinging, but the time between applications is too low. I'd increase the timer by about 10x to get it to swing continuously without jerking around.

Ignoring the lack of filler details, this looks pretty good otherwise. The wavy bridge is cool (obviously a use of the chancel bridge) in that it doesn't appear to have any obvious clipping issues, so hats off to that. That you have voiceovers on all your letters in what appears to be your first map is also impressive - keep it up! If you need any custom models or any other doodads, give me a shout. I'll be glad to do what I can while not working on my own project.

Cheers! Smile
(08-15-2011, 06:10 AM)NadTheBat Wrote:
(08-15-2011, 06:05 AM)Phoroneus Wrote: First thing I noticed: It's possible to get stuck behind the piano in one of the first rooms. It's never a good idea to let a player get stuck in a mundane spot like that, I'd suggest either placing the piano closer to the wall (so the player can't fit behind it) or putting something back there to let the player escape.

Alright then, I'll do that. But... why were you back there in the first place? Tongue

I thought we were meant to be testers. Ask any professional game tester, their job is more than half "find ways to break stuff so we can fix it so players don't inadvertently (or deliberately) get themselves stuck".

Consider it a bug report more than anything. Wink
Oh, that and I'm a bit... "impaired" at the moment, which is in my opinion the best state of mind in which to test games because you're inspired to acts of genius (and/or idiocy) you'd never have considered while sober.

[Image: at_9365860.png]

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(This post was last modified: 08-15-2011, 06:48 AM by Phoroneus.)
08-15-2011, 06:46 AM
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NadTheBat Offline
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#27
RE: Alone in Hell

Quote:Your last monster (the one before the note that mentions his mind being taken over by something) has too few path nodes. I made a sound outside in the room with the trap door and he couldn't find me, because he kept walking into the wall.

I actually adjusted his placement before you posted this, I played through it again myself and noticed his movement was shall we say... a bit off.
Quote:Inside the same room (with the trap door), there are invisible obstacles that bar the player's movement. They appear to be arranged around the corners of the trap door. They're very frustrating for players, so they either need to be textured/arranged/aligned/whatever properly, or they need to be removed.

Strange, I managed to open it and jump through it just fine, I'll have to take a look at it a little better. Thank you for pointing this out for me.
Quote:If the player pulls the monster I mentioned before (the last one you encounter in the demo) into the hallway between his room and the room with the trap door, there is no way to get him out without running right by him. Hallucination or not, it is rare that a player will run at a monster head-on, so ideally he should be able to be moved out of that hallway. Pathnodes (as I mentioned before) will solve this.

Again, adjusted the placement of the enemy, so no more worries (I should hope not, anyway.)

Quote:There are far too many tinderboxes and not enough things to use them on. I couldn't light any of the hanging lanterns, and the only thing I could light was a candle that had been tipped over and buried in debris.

Couldn't light the hanging lanterns? That's really weird, I have no problem lighting them.

Quote:The voice acting... well, let's just say that people ask for voice actors for a reason. It wasn't bad, actually, but the later notes sounded more like someone boredly reading a letter from someone they didn't particularly like and less like someone desperately scratching out what might be their epitaph. Voiceovers on letters are meant to demonstrate the writer's words, not the reader's. It might be worthwhile to have people voice them for you (friends or family work fine), especially the female one (which was rather cringe-worthy).

The notes in the prison are supposed to be sort of mundane sounding, the person reading them is supposed to be the warden for the prison, and imagine that they've processed thousands of prisoners and he's had to write and read thousands of reports. And yes, I am DEFINITELY having someone else do the female voice, I'm not too proud to say it, but I did the voice for that. Tongue ( I did the Russian/warden guy as well, but I think that sounds pretty decent.)
Quote:One of the lanterns in the last room (which has no exit once you drop down the trap door) is jiggling. This is clearly an error. It looks like it's a force applied to keep it swinging, but the time between applications is too low. I'd increase the timer by about 10x to get it to swing continuously without jerking around.

I noticed that myself actually, and believe it or not, it's not supposed to be swinging at all, so what I've done to counteract this is move it over a little bit Big Grin

Quote:Ignoring the lack of filler details, this looks pretty good otherwise. The wavy bridge is cool (obviously a use of the chancel bridge) in that it doesn't appear to have any obvious clipping issues, so hats off to that. That you have voiceovers on all your letters in what appears to be your first map is also impressive - keep it up! If you need any custom models or any other doodads, give me a shout. I'll be glad to do what I can while not working on my own project.

I'm glad you're liking it so far, and any feedback I can get really helps me out. And thanks for offering your help on the models and what-not, I might have to hit you up on that offer sometime Wink
08-15-2011, 07:44 AM
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Phoroneus Offline
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#28
RE: Alone in Hell

(08-15-2011, 07:44 AM)NadTheBat Wrote: I actually adjusted his placement before you posted this, I played through it again myself and noticed his movement was shall we say... a bit off.

His position is ok, it's more that he has no pathnodes to find his way around. He's really easy to get stuck just by running around a corner.

Quote:Strange, I managed to open it and jump through it just fine, I'll have to take a look at it a little better. Thank you for pointing this out for me.

They don't keep you from jumping down the hatch, they're just in the way of general movement (like if you're running from the monster or trying to sneak around). Either that, or the hatch itself is raised up enough to impede the player.

Quote:Again, adjusted the placement of the enemy, so no more worries (I should hope not, anyway.)

His placement was fine. It's just that he has no nodes to find his way around, as I mentioned above.

Quote:Couldn't light the hanging lanterns? That's really weird, I have no problem lighting them.

Most of them don't appear to be interactable at all. I may have missed some that were working, though.

Quote:The notes in the prison are supposed to be sort of mundane sounding, the person reading them is supposed to be the warden for the prison, and imagine that they've processed thousands of prisoners and he's had to write and read thousands of reports. And yes, I am DEFINITELY having someone else do the female voice, I'm not too proud to say it, but I did the voice for that. Tongue ( I did the Russian/warden guy as well, but I think that sounds pretty decent.)

Knowing that about the reader of the notes makes sense, but why have someone else voice the female note if the warden is the one reading it? Be consistent across all of them (i.e. the warden reads them all in his own voice or the writers "read" them all in their own voices) to avoid confusion.

Quote:I noticed that myself actually, and believe it or not, it's not supposed to be swinging at all, so what I've done to counteract this is move it over a little bit Big Grin

Weird. I suppose if it was bumping into something that'd also make it go haywire. Good catch.

Quote:I'm glad you're liking it so far, and any feedback I can get really helps me out. And thanks for offering your help on the models and what-not, I might have to hit you up on that offer sometime Wink

Your cubemap should be done early tomorrow. I'll be doing it manually since the GIMP plugin doesn't appear to actually work, so it'll take a bit longer than it would with an automatic program.

[Image: at_9365860.png]

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08-15-2011, 09:24 AM
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NadTheBat Offline
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#29
RE: Alone in Hell

The female voice in the note is there because she's the one saying that she didn't murder her husband.
08-15-2011, 10:00 AM
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NadTheBat Offline
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#30
RE: Alone in Hell

UPDATE 5: Added in a level before the first area. There
will be more levels in between to smooth out the drastic
transition, this is just a little taste of what's to come.
Other minor things were adjusted, such as the hps files
being cleaned up to make scripting a bit easier, some items
were moved around to avoid weird glitches. Major props to
Phoroneus for doing the skybox for me Big Grin
(This post was last modified: 08-16-2011, 03:50 AM by NadTheBat.)
08-16-2011, 03:38 AM
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