Braids NEON

[axcho]

I was just watching the video of Matthew Wegner's IGS talk, and decided to come join the forums.

I thought those of you who like Ragdoll Masters might like to try my game Braids NEON. It's really more of a prototype, but I'm curious what you all think of it. You can play it on deviantART, or on Kongregate if you want to help me get ad money. You can also play it in the original style.

You can read about it more here. I have a list of things I would like to add to Braids NEON in order to awesome-ize the game, though I'm not sure when I'd actually get the time to work on it further. I can post it here if you'd like.

So how can I get access to the private developer forum here? I would love to be able to talk with other physics game developers about my projects.

[Muntu]

The controls were bit weird (good though, after getting used to them about 20 seconds). But... Hmm, how can I say this... That art was f*ucking beautiful/awesome/r0x0r/great!!!!!
You should make more games with art like that. It looked like one of those great stickfigure vs. another stickfigure (like sloppyfight for example) flash animations.
Keep up the great work!

[AJJeko]

Awesome game, but I got stuck on the part where it tells you to move the cursor off the screen slowly.. but 20 seconds after it appeared, I already owned the other ragdoll :P

[Maltor124]

The simulated lighting/shadows and the physics were amazing! I really loved the feel of it, although the 2 player controls could really use a little tweaking, as using the mouse is kind of hard when the other player is cramping you.

Aside from that, it was very fun, and I thought it was an incredible equivalent to Ragdoll Masters/Teenage Mutant Ninja Puppets, especially since it was flash.

I hope you continue to work on this, it has a lot of potential.

[juju02]

amazing, love it, i remember seeing it on the stickpage forums,(not registered) i liked it then 2, but no one else did. oh well. LOVE IT!

[edthefirst]

Wow that was excellent for a flash game. The controls were rather hard to get used to but I they dont really deteriorate the game. You should definetly keep developing it further.

[Amynue]

I was waiting for this game! Not so good as Ragdoll Masters, but still cool

[Relys]

Yep, still really cool.

[Ryuraga]

personally, i liked the original, non-neon version better. I think the neon was too hard to see/too much going on. Great game though!

[kuhfi]

the art was f*cking great.

liked the game though, but the controls suck :[

[looseskrewz]

I love the graphics style alot, but I'm not really down with that sorta game.

Fighting games are ancient to me, they've been around for 27 years...blah


...but great programming skills.


Karateka was the last fighting game I really loved.

[TheSloth]

This was impressive. Axcho, you need to teach the guy who made that ragdoll stairs game in Flash to code physics properly, the frame rates on that are awful hehe.

[Pret.Sal]

yeah sweeeet game!!

[axcho]

Originally Posted by Muntu

That art was f*ucking beautiful/awesome/r0x0r/great!!!!!
You should make more games with art like that. It looked like one of those great stickfigure vs. another stickfigure (like sloppyfight for example) flash animations.
Keep up the great work!

Yayyy, I'm cool!

It seems that the consensus here is that the art = good, and the controls = bad. If anyone has some specific critiques about the controls that would be great.

Here's the list of stuff I want to add in order to fully awesome-ize Braids NEON:

• a main game with a progression of enemies to beat with unlockable colors
• orbiting colored particles that deal damage, and can be used for ranged attacks against defensive players
• scoring system with awards for long combos, high-damaging combos, fast combos, high-damaging wall kicks, high-damaging counter attacks, etc.
• a more nuanced AI that can provide a challenge to more experienced players without doing annoying stuff like hiding in corners
• a more ergonomic/cool/understandable in-game UI, with a menu that comes up when you mouse over the bar on bottom with health bars, messages for announcing combos, hits, etc.
• a selectable music playlist
• a better menu system overall, inspired by that of Plasma Pong, that looks cooler, is like a typical Flash game menu that people can understand, and has a lot more options and stuff, for game modes and settings like music volume, sound volume, toggling different effects
• in particular, the character select screen will allow you to choose and customize your controls, the color, etc. with your character floating above and you can test out the controls and stuff before you start playing
• a versus mode with selectable victory conditions, like based on points within time limit, certain number of wins, and maybe other stuff
• a survival mode where you try and defeat as many consecutive enemies as you can without regaining health
• maybe other modes or challenges or minigames, like dodging or dancing
• a replay feature, with hopefully the ability to share recorded games with other players
• most importantly, a set of tutorial levels designed to familiarize a new player with the necessary skills to appreciate a ragdoll fight, maybe structured as a series of minigames or puzzles isolating different aspects like dodging or doing a flip or blocking

Comments welcome. And of course there are way too many things on that list, which means I don't know when I'll ever get around to actually doing them. But it would be pretty awesome.

[Muntu]

Originally Posted by axcho

Yayyy, I'm cool!

Don't be too confident yet, we have to see the final awesome-ized version first ;D

[Maltor124]

Sounds like some awesome ideas, so I wish you luck with everything you're working on!

[axcho]

Originally Posted by Muntu

Don't be too confident yet, we have to see the final awesome-ized version first ;D

The art won't really change in the awesome-ized version - I thought you liked it how it was already.

Originally Posted by Maltor124

Sounds like some awesome ideas, so I wish you luck with everything you're working on!

Heh, don't get too excited yet, the awesome version is still hypothetical at this point. But thanks.

[Sheezy]

fucking pretty man
Cant get the controls down though D:

[Tayg0]

Hey Your from stickpage arent you? i saw Braids: Neon there welcome to the Forums
Yea the controls are screwy but the Graphics..... GREAT!
I Think its better than ragdollmasters

[axcho]

I hear a lot of people saying that the controls need to be improved.

It would really help me if people could describe what the game might be like if it had better controls - what would better controls feel like? What would make the controls better? Even a vague impression of what good controls might be like would help.

Thanks a lot!

[AquaGeneral]

Some of the collisions don't feel right but aprt from that its a fun game.

[Ryu Hinote]

Wow, that game was amazing. The graphics and the gameplay were outstanding. Kudos to you!