Light From Within Demo

Bucket Mouse

Active member
Elarath said:
Also Bucket Mouse, is your name from Link's Awakening?

Yes. There actually is not a Bucket Mouse -- the line was a reference to a bait and tackle shop in Japan called The Bucketmouth. The error is still in the Switch version.
 

Mugi

Member
I also noticed that on my NES the hud gets cut off from the top. I was not on a CRT tv. Are these things something I need to compensate for? Would building the game around a smaller play area eliminate those problems?

the CRT thing is called overscan.
on a CRT enviroment, the edges of the screen can and will get cut off to a various degree depending on the TV used,
it is generally adviced to not use the top and bottom 8 pixels for gameplay critical information to avoid having it rendered invisible. (I.E., leave the top row of your hud empty)
 

Atarath

Member
Mugi said:
I also noticed that on my NES the hud gets cut off from the top. I was not on a CRT tv. Are these things something I need to compensate for? Would building the game around a smaller play area eliminate those problems?

the CRT thing is called overscan.
on a CRT enviroment, the edges of the screen can and will get cut off to a various degree depending on the TV used,
it is generally adviced to not use the top and bottom 8 pixels for gameplay critical information to avoid having it rendered invisible. (I.E., leave the top row of your hud empty)

The top row of the hud is just a border, so it is empty essentially. But I may shift the text or textbox around if there is a danger of it not being seen.

Does this same thing happen when hooked up with HDMI say with the AVS system?
 

Basty

Active member
While I understand aesthetic of the concept, using Ä as A and Ö as O is a terrible design choice especially considering european audience.
I can give you a voice clip why if you don't believe me. XD

And good lord I thought I was having a fricking stroke when I went to heal my character. Thanks for trolling me.

Bugs found
- A heart from bush will hurt you if you contact it before it appears on screen. This happens in a screen with a secret.
- Two hearts and a hole appears on leftmost side of the screen once in a while in dungeon. "It seems like it happens outside of the dungeon as well but with different sprites"
- Sword won't work on grass when facing up and being too close to it.
- Worm enemies move sometimes after they are being attacked.
 

Atarath

Member
Basty said:
And good lord I thought I was having a fricking stroke when I went to heal my character. Thanks for trolling me.

Bugs found
- A heart from bush will hurt you if you contact it before it appears on screen. This happens in a screen with a secret.
- Two hearts and a hole appears on leftmost side of the screen once in a while in dungeon. "It seems like it happens outside of the dungeon as well but with different sprites"
- Sword won't work on grass when facing up and being too close to it.
- Worm enemies move sometimes after they are being attacked.

I'm not sure I follow...

Also, those are known bugs, but are pretty low priority until I have the rest of the mechanics working. They aren't game breaking and are more minor inconveniences, but thank you for bringing them to my attention. If by worm enemies you are referring to the ones that dig and disappear, this was more of a choice to give the player an opportunity to see what direction they are moving.
 

Basty

Active member
Elarath said:
Basty said:
And good lord I thought I was having a fricking stroke when I went to heal my character. Thanks for trolling me.

I'm not sure I follow...

Sudden language change when I was reading the healing tomes.
I wasn't really expecting that 4am in the morning especially when it was already quite eye straining to read the text itself for Ä and Ö are
in alphabeth especially in scandinavian countries and has their own vocals.

Elarath said:
Basty said:
- Worm enemies move sometimes after they are being attacked.

If by worm enemies you are referring to the ones that dig and disappear, this was more of a choice to give the player an opportunity to see what direction they are moving.

Yes those. Personally I think that is pretty poor design choice especially if they're only intended to hurt player when they are on above the ground.
More than often I took damage from their moving than suddenly popping up.
 
Great game play and story, but that corridor with them three blades require precise movement. Maybe if blades were slighly slower giving a little more room for errors.
 

Slime Stack

New member
Wow, this game is very impressive. I got all the way to the spider boss before I stopped playing. I just couldn't beat him. I had a hard time telling which parts of the spider I could hit for damage. I had the same problem with the little spiders too. Maybe I'm missing something about their design or clues that indicate where to hit them. I'd have stood a better chance if the health refill respawned in the room before after each death.

The intro story scene was really touching. I was not expecting that when I booted it up. It got me invested right away. Well done.

The graphics are looking great. I love the skeleton sprites! And the colors that the NPCs wear having significance to the story is great world building!

Another thing I noticed was on the first screen you can see that little dude across the water but you can't get to him yet. Was that an homage to Dragon Quest? When you start the game you can see the Dragon Lord's Castle but can't get to it right away; I may be grasping at straws here, but that part made me smile.

I agree the font is hard to read. Some of the characters have seriffs while others don't, because of this they don't read easily next to each other. It seems like you're going for an elegant italicized text. I haven't come across any nes fonts like this that I can remember off the top of my head, but the font in Link's Awakening on Gameboy might be a good place to start. (attached below)

The difficulty spike was high as soon as I got in the basement. I had trouble with those super fast blades too. I'm playing on the AVS so there is probably some input lag, but it felt too fast. It required such precise inputs, it felt like maybe those obstacles would be better later in the game when the player is a bit better at the game.

Also, I went through the top right path before I got the shield so there is that to consider. Do you want the player to find the shield before they get to those fast death blades? Even with the shield they felt too fast imo.

Those stationary spinning blades slow down when you hit them, can you stop them completely, or are you meant to use the shield on those?

The shield was a cool new gameplay mechanic. Very cool how it will make you invincible for a few seconds, hence blocking the attacks. The sound effect that plays when using the shield is jarring at first, it sounds like the player is being hurt. I would choose a different sound effect that lets the player know straight up that they aren't being hurt.

Also, having the enemies get some invincible frames is neat. It makes the combat feel more important. It kind of reminds me of the combat system in the Secret of Mana, where you have to wait to strike your enemies. Oh yeah, I killed that super strong bat. I was hoping for a bunch of acorns but all I got was a spirit drop and I didn't even have the shield yet :(

I found one graphic glitch part in the dungeon. I walked to a screen on the right and got hit by a rat and got knocked back to the other screen. When I immediately went back to the rat screen there were some missing sprites on the left side of the floor. I also saw a grey heart Sprite in a wall in the dungeon, I'm not sure if that was intentional or a glitch?

The music is wonderful. Well done there also.

Good luck on the next part of your game! I'm looking forward to it!
 

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Atarath

Member
Hey, thanks for the thoughtful review Slime Stack! A lot of the specific issues you mentioned will be addressed in an updated demo I will post soon. I will list the patch notes when that happens, but the biggest update is the ability to save and load your game!

Slime Stack said:
Another thing I noticed was on the first screen you can see that little dude across the water but you can't get to him yet. Was that an homage to Dragon Quest? When you start the game you can see the Dragon Lord's Castle but can't get to it right away; I may be grasping at straws here, but that part made me smile.

I wasn't trying to reference Dragon Quest specifically, but I do know what you are referring to! Placing the old man across the water gives the player an immediate objective instead of having to wander aimlessly, and that's more what I was going for.

Slime Stack said:
The difficulty spike was high as soon as I got in the basement. I had trouble with those super fast blades too. I'm playing on the AVS so there is probably some input lag, but it felt too fast. It required such precise inputs, it felt like maybe those obstacles would be better later in the game when the player is a bit better at the game.

A few people have had problems with this part. I have tested it repeatedly and can make it through without taking damage. Every blade trap can be navigated without damage. It's meant to be hard but not impossible. That said, it is more difficult with a controller. The next update will feature a sprite hud that allows half heart damage, so this should make it easier to get through.

Slime Stack said:
Those stationary spinning blades slow down when you hit them, can you stop them completely, or are you meant to use the shield on those?

This is a simple matter of slowdown. I have changed the size of those blades. Less sprites means it runs a bit faster.

Slime Stack said:
The shield was a cool new gameplay mechanic. Very cool how it will make you invincible for a few seconds, hence blocking the attacks. The sound effect that plays when using the shield is jarring at first, it sounds like the player is being hurt. I would choose a different sound effect that lets the player know straight up that they aren't being hurt.

The shield sound effect is different in the update.


Slime Stack said:
Also, having the enemies get some invincible frames is neat. It makes the combat feel more important. It kind of reminds me of the combat system in the Secret of Mana, where you have to wait to strike your enemies. Oh yeah, I killed that super strong bat. I was hoping for a bunch of acorns but all I got was a spirit drop and I didn't even have the shield yet :(

Lol I didn't mean for those bats to be quite so strong. I think I set it really high at some point to test something and forgot to set it back. A few other enemy issues have been addressed as well


Slime Stack said:
I found one graphic glitch part in the dungeon. I walked to a screen on the right and got hit by a rat and got knocked back to the other screen. When I immediately went back to the rat screen there were some missing sprites on the left side of the floor. I also saw a grey heart Sprite in a wall in the dungeon, I'm not sure if that was intentional or a glitch?

This is a glitch. It's related to the hud and only happens occasionally on screen load. Now that I have changed part of the hud to use sprites, it appears a bit differently, but it's still the same error. I'm hoping to fix it, but it doesn't break the game and the hud variables are not affected.
 

Atarath

Member
Hello everyone!

I have updated my demo and it can be downloaded in the first post of this thread! The main update is the ability to save and load your game on cartridge and with certain emulators. I tried to add as much polish as I could to go along with that! Please let me know what you think.

Patch Notes:

-Save/Load game
-New save/death screen can be accessed by books found around the world
-Changed text so that it is easier to read/let me know if this works
-New monster types
-Monsters turn toward you when blocking
-Changed certain monster details
-Changed how attacking works/feels more fluid
-Changed how chest objects are handled, allowing for more chests in more places
-Added gems that can be found in chests
-Added potions/Unequip with Select
-Added arrows for crossbow
-New shield sound effect
-Added a jingle when obtaining an item/defeating a boss
-Added cycling through different items by pressing Select
-Added sprite hud that allows half heart and half spirit damage
-Added cool down timer on spin attack
-Added new paths/updated tiles
-Added swimming in water with specific water movement physics
-New movement speed on stairs
-Added pause by pressing start
-New demo ending screen

I believe I have fixed:

-Bug the zeroed out hud vars/missing tiles
-Bug that hurt player when cutting grass
-Bug that grass wouldn't cut at certain positions

And here is the new save/death screen!
Cheers!
 

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dale_coop

Moderator
Staff member
Oh wow! This is an excting list of updates.
Save/Continue <3 when playing on a real NES, this feature is really appreciated, nowadays!

Small first feedbacks...
The "new / cont" on the title screen is not really easy to see/find (maybe a black background for them could help)
I think the font for texts is still difficult to read. But it's just my personal opinion.
 

Atarath

Member
dale_coop said:
Oh wow! This is an excting list of updates.
Save/Continue <3 when playing on a real NES, this feature is really appreciated, nowadays!

Small first feedbacks...
The "new / cont" on the title screen is not really easy to see/find (maybe a black background for them could help)
I think the font for texts is still difficult to read. But it's just my personal opinion.

The title card will eventually be tweaked. I want to put my name on there. My discord screen name "Atarath" just had lots of repeat letters. I am literally out of 8x8 tiles and had to squeeze "new / cont" in there.

I may try to rework the text. I had dropped the shadow hoping that would help. It's tricky to draw an 8x8 letter and balance the style you want with readability.
 

TakuikaNinja

Active member
I've actually never played this prior to the update, but man I was missing out! Good job on implementing the save feature!
I'm having a blast with it so far, but I'll have to agree with Dale regarding the font. I'd recommend using the CRT filter in Mesen/FCEUX to test the readability.
 

TakuikaNinja

Active member
Ok, I've finished the demo and found some bugs. A simple reset -> continue will mitigate these, but they should be fixed:
- The player can sometimes be hurt when cutting grass. I've only gotten it once and I haven't been able to replicate it.
- Some tiles in the player sprite become corrupted. I've only gotten it once and I haven't been able to replicate it.
- Death -> continue after saving in this cave respawns the player in the wrong place.
lN92ojU.png

bCUq7Mz.png
 

Atarath

Member
TakuikaNinja said:
Ok, I've finished the demo and found some bugs. A simple reset -> continue will mitigate these, but they should be fixed:
- The player can sometimes be hurt when cutting grass. I've only gotten it once and I haven't been able to replicate it.
- Some tiles in the player sprite become corrupted. I've only gotten it once and I haven't been able to replicate it.
- Death -> continue after saving in this cave respawns the player in the wrong place.
lN92ojU.png

bCUq7Mz.png

I've not had that happen before. Let me see if I can replicate it. What emulator are you using?
 

Atarath

Member
Okay, so this happens when you save, RESET, load your game, then die and continue without hitting another checkpoint. When you load your game it places the player so that it's not triggering the checkpoint tile, and the checkpoint info isn't being saved. This is a great catch and definitely fixable! I had three people test this besides myself and they didn't catch it. Thanks so much!
 

TakuikaNinja

Active member
Elarath said:
Okay, so this happens when you save, RESET, load your game, then die and continue without hitting another checkpoint. When you load your game it places the player so that it's not triggering the checkpoint tile, and the checkpoint info isn't being saved. This is a great catch and definitely fixable! I had three people test this besides myself and they didn't catch it. Thanks so much!

No problem! Sometimes you just need a fresh set of eyes to notice that kind of stuff lol.
 
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