Rob Burrito
New member
Hey guys wanted to give beta feedback, and post the notes i took for suggestions in ease of use. if any have already been brought up/worked out that's awesome. love the tool so far, and being able to get a playable game even running on an emulator knowing it could be a cart is awesome. the tutorials are informed and easy to understand, and the tool was rather easy to pickup/navigate overall. i'm sure it will get even better!
Tutorial videos:
--the youtube autoplay from the linked videos on the new8bit site don't always play in order. i was missing a huge part while building the beta asset game, and was like where did i miss that? later found autoplay skipped a video. happened to me twice till i searched youtube and found the playlist. possibly link directly to the playlist instead which will play in order automatically.
--in tutorial 14 (player win) @5:30 it would be helpful for some clarification this animation is particularly in "player death" and not in the regular 'hero" animations under game object. jumping between screens i mistook 'go down to that game object' then the graphic showing the player idle, i assumed to add the win animation to the game object/hero. after a test had to figure out where i went wrong, took a bit to realize it was game object/player death for that specific animation
Overworld screen editor:
--add a hotkey to automatically place the previously placed (or still selected tile) in a line starting with the tile immediately to the right of the last placed tile. (without having to click each tile when doing a line of the same tile)
Pixel editor:
--(when using a custom palette to draw/assign the image) add the functionality to click the color of the custom palette in the left palette list to change the RGB assignment (instead of having to click the one on top in the toolbar?) i keep going to the left palettes and trying to chose the color to draw with. with global selected i have had to restart a few times forgetting to have to click the color on top.
--pixel editor/line tool: if the line starts and stop on the same pixel, a 'unhandled exception has occured' in which if you accidentally hit quit, it closes the application completely without saving, and all progress is lost. could be devastating/severely demotivating for that to happen after working large win/start screens or after adding animations and functionality and not manually saving.
--preload a dummy palatte or always assume palette 0 in a premade default palette group upon starting a new project out of the box. i know it is good for the tutorial to force folks into making a group, but seemed palette 1 will always be your first, and no matter the game there is at least one palette involved. you have to add a palette group for the dungeon anyways so the first one can be already loaded in the game to rip right to assetts without setting up an always-necessary first step
Path info/path/edit:
--when saving edits seems to have a double pop up (one of them 9x), and then reload to continue editing. i feel the 'save successful' and 'would you like to reload' popups unnecessary. i can't think of a time when i would not want to reload an edited and saved tile or image, and if it automatically reloads the image, the edited image would be what you expect/is saved and displayed.
--if you draw outside the box it will draw in the middle of the tile, sure you can not be sloppy haha but it's annoying to fix if you accidentally go outside. having it not have an input outside the box would fix that.
--would like to use that editor without closing to continue editing other tiles. having to close and reopen the editor got to be an annoyance with so many tiles to edit.
Pop ups in general: if keeping any pop ups (they're typically annoying haha), is there a way to have enter = "ok" or enter as the default action for those? noted lots of back and forth with hands on the mouse due to pop ups that were typically unexpected, unnecessary or redundant, specifically with labeling and text entry confirmation pop ups.
Game objects/manage animations:
--found the add/rename cycle un-intuitive. functional of course, but hitting enter to confirm a rename, and if renaming a list, the next name automatically selected after hitting enter. was a lot of back and forth from the keyboard to the mouse. this would also apply to monsters/manage animation as well. add however many you need, click one to rename, start typing, hit enter to save the name and automatically start naming the next one.
wishlist:
-autosave feature
-8x8 or odd number tile metatile size (1 tile, 3 tiles, 5 tiles instead of just 4/metatiles) i understand the palettes are still the 16x16, and how as-is is an efficiency. resizing some things within the same palette selections would be fun, but may not be efficient.
-pixel editor zoom, show only selected, or show only ____ tiles
-autoupdate emulator address if the project file is moved within windows to a new folder or location
Tutorial videos:
--the youtube autoplay from the linked videos on the new8bit site don't always play in order. i was missing a huge part while building the beta asset game, and was like where did i miss that? later found autoplay skipped a video. happened to me twice till i searched youtube and found the playlist. possibly link directly to the playlist instead which will play in order automatically.
--in tutorial 14 (player win) @5:30 it would be helpful for some clarification this animation is particularly in "player death" and not in the regular 'hero" animations under game object. jumping between screens i mistook 'go down to that game object' then the graphic showing the player idle, i assumed to add the win animation to the game object/hero. after a test had to figure out where i went wrong, took a bit to realize it was game object/player death for that specific animation
Overworld screen editor:
--add a hotkey to automatically place the previously placed (or still selected tile) in a line starting with the tile immediately to the right of the last placed tile. (without having to click each tile when doing a line of the same tile)
Pixel editor:
--(when using a custom palette to draw/assign the image) add the functionality to click the color of the custom palette in the left palette list to change the RGB assignment (instead of having to click the one on top in the toolbar?) i keep going to the left palettes and trying to chose the color to draw with. with global selected i have had to restart a few times forgetting to have to click the color on top.
--pixel editor/line tool: if the line starts and stop on the same pixel, a 'unhandled exception has occured' in which if you accidentally hit quit, it closes the application completely without saving, and all progress is lost. could be devastating/severely demotivating for that to happen after working large win/start screens or after adding animations and functionality and not manually saving.
--preload a dummy palatte or always assume palette 0 in a premade default palette group upon starting a new project out of the box. i know it is good for the tutorial to force folks into making a group, but seemed palette 1 will always be your first, and no matter the game there is at least one palette involved. you have to add a palette group for the dungeon anyways so the first one can be already loaded in the game to rip right to assetts without setting up an always-necessary first step
Path info/path/edit:
--when saving edits seems to have a double pop up (one of them 9x), and then reload to continue editing. i feel the 'save successful' and 'would you like to reload' popups unnecessary. i can't think of a time when i would not want to reload an edited and saved tile or image, and if it automatically reloads the image, the edited image would be what you expect/is saved and displayed.
--if you draw outside the box it will draw in the middle of the tile, sure you can not be sloppy haha but it's annoying to fix if you accidentally go outside. having it not have an input outside the box would fix that.
--would like to use that editor without closing to continue editing other tiles. having to close and reopen the editor got to be an annoyance with so many tiles to edit.
Pop ups in general: if keeping any pop ups (they're typically annoying haha), is there a way to have enter = "ok" or enter as the default action for those? noted lots of back and forth with hands on the mouse due to pop ups that were typically unexpected, unnecessary or redundant, specifically with labeling and text entry confirmation pop ups.
Game objects/manage animations:
--found the add/rename cycle un-intuitive. functional of course, but hitting enter to confirm a rename, and if renaming a list, the next name automatically selected after hitting enter. was a lot of back and forth from the keyboard to the mouse. this would also apply to monsters/manage animation as well. add however many you need, click one to rename, start typing, hit enter to save the name and automatically start naming the next one.
wishlist:
-autosave feature
-8x8 or odd number tile metatile size (1 tile, 3 tiles, 5 tiles instead of just 4/metatiles) i understand the palettes are still the 16x16, and how as-is is an efficiency. resizing some things within the same palette selections would be fun, but may not be efficient.
-pixel editor zoom, show only selected, or show only ____ tiles
-autoupdate emulator address if the project file is moved within windows to a new folder or location