Oh Tiny Knights

Forgot to post these before - I basically just want them on here for the little thumbnail image on the gallery. They are Chain Knights icons- and thumbnails-in-progress. Yes. Good.

New Suggested Controls:

When inside Necrocarriage:

Left-click and drag to reposition cannon, spotlight, plow, and vacuum.
While repositioning:
Right-click and hold to use vacuum/charge up cannon shot. Release to fire cannon.
'A' to move carriage left.
'D' to move carriage right.
'R' to exit carriage.

When outside Necrocarriage:

Mouse aims weapon and light.
Left-click to fire weapon.
Right-click to switch weapons(?). (Are we letting players have more than one weapon at once?)
'R' to use "switches"/talk to characters/pick up object/drop current object/enter carriage (while near carriage entrance).
'A' to move left.
'D' to move right.
Hold direction towards climbable object to begin climbing.
While climbing:
'W' to climb up.
'S' to climb down.

And a Bit About Climbing

I continue to hold that climbing over debris is cooler and scarier than being able to jump over it.

So how, from a design, art, and programming viewpoint, do we make this happen?

I suggest some sort of "attach" key (be it a separate key, mapped onto whatever key "uses" or "picks stuff up," or simply something that happens when you run your character into debris he can't walk over). While "attached," the character can only climb up and down (so we'll need the 'W' and 'S' keys free for this- pick up/use should be remapped to 'R,' and to enter or exit the carriage, the player should just press 'R' as well).

Also while attached, the character's sprite needs to change from two linked sprites (mouse-movable torso and keyboard-controlled legs) to a climbing animation that can be cycled forwards and backwards.

We'll need to figure out what button works best for climbing (I think the 'automatically changes to climbing when the character runs into a climbable obstacle' idea is best, so that the player will be able to carry objects up debris when necessary) as well as how to tell when the character should stop climbing and return to a normal character state.

Controls Once More

So I've been thinking about how to activate the vacuum. If 'left click and drag' is how you position it, 'right click and hold' could be the suck button.

This would work for the cannon, as well. Instead of having three extra keys to rotate the cannon left and right and fire, or mapping the cannon rotation and firing to the mouse, we can just re-use the cursor idea:

'Left click and drag' repositions the cannon, 'right click and hold' builds up firing power, and 'releasing the right mouse button' fires it.

Then we'll just need three additional keys, while in the carriage: move left, move right, and exit.

However, there are couple of things to consider:
If we do this, it won't make any sense to keep the keyboard rotation for the character outside of the carriage. We'd have to use mouse aim. I guess it wouldn't be so bad: We can attach the flashlight to the end of the player's gun, and try to make it really dark outside of its range.
We can keep the player's facing and movement (torso and legs) separate, so that the player can retreat from zombies while firing (good idea from Chandon).

It'll make the game outside the carriage a lot like Abuse (which is something Chandon's been driving for)... Might not be as scary, but might be more fun to play with while it's in the development stages. Which is important.

Arguing about controls some more

Chandon:

There are more things than the cannon and light to control. I've mentioned the other things quite a bit. (First link is what the carriage will look like when it's done. Kind of.)


"Taking freedom of movement away from the player doesn't make the game scarier, just more frustrating."
-- What about the Resident Evil series? Alone in the Dark? Out of This World? That is exactly what they do to the controls to make the game scarier... and not being able to mouse aim is nowhere near as limiting or clunky as having to steer your dude like a car. Heh

Anyway, I'm off to do some more parts or something.

And Here's the Thing About Powerups:

I was thinking they'd be one-shots that you could suck up and activate (as bonuses). Having them as "collectibles" requires that there be an Inventory, which requires that there be a Heads-Up Display (which is what we're trying to avoid with the fuel-tank icon system).

Also, being able to collect multiple parts and powerups is more confusing (muddying the simple Bust-a-Move-ish mechanic).

I do think that holding a button down to charge the cannon is a good idea. I also think that repositioning the cannon with the cursor might work- instead of 'cannon left' and 'cannon right' controls, I mean. I don't think the mouse should be locked to any one part at any time.

Also:

I was thinking the 'S' button for enter/exit might get in the way, but then again, a lot of platformers use a mechanic like that... We'll just have to see, I suppose. Having the controls in one familiar area is a benefit to the player (who, we must assume, does not want to spend time learning our specific control scheme).

My reasoning for 'Spacebar' as fire (when walking around) was this:
Depending on what Tom wants to do, we may or may not have a mouse-aiming mechanism for the walking character. Having 'Spacebar' as fire when walking makes sense if there is no mouse aim, as it'd be the cannon's fire button and the fewer the controls (and the less they change) the better.

Not having mouse aim, I feel, would make the walking character feel more vulnerable... Which is what we want. We want the player to be wary of exiting the vehicle. If they can fire all over the place all the time, jump over obstacles, and have their own light source while walking, there aren't nearly as many reasons to stay in the clunky carriage- In fact, some areas might be easier without it (which is something we desperately want to avoid).

So yeah: I think the player, while walking, should only be able to fire in front of them. I think climbing is a better idea than jumping (much creepier, more physical, and time-consuming- making the player feel more vulnerable), though it may be much more difficult to implement. So we'll get what we can out of that.

Um

Again, I like the idea of having one button for "suck up and shoot," but having to hold down the mouse button for so long is annoying and makes it easy for the player to make mistakes.

As for the simplification... Adding "toggles" and having to switch between parts in order to control them makes the game way, way more difficult to control- not simpler. I don't think the cool Kirby feel is worth the sacrifice. Because there are so many parts to manage- which is partially what this game is about, having to manage a rickety 'steampunk' machine- the player needs to be able to access any of them at any time, without having to cycle through.

Buttons (And the Things They Do)

Okay, we have to start thinking about how the player is going to control everything.

Right now, we have two buttons- left and right. These control the carriage's movement (and most likely the player's when they exit the vessel as well).

We are planning, so far, on having a few "positionable" parts- ones that the player can move with the cursor. These include the vacuum (used to suck up body parts/powerups, which then appear as icons in the fuel tank), the plow (which is the player's "hand," used to push shit around that needs pushing), and the spotlight (used to show machine gunners where to shoot).

[quick aside: powerups would be a good way to get screen-clearing explosions in the game]

[another quick aside: can we make it so the machine gunners can tell what is lit up and what isn't, Tom?]

What do we still need to have controls for?

1. The cannon. We could have it controlled by the mouse as well (repositioned by dragging with the cursor) and work in Chandon's "hold and release" idea, too: Hold down the mouse button (or another button, I suppose, like spacebar) to build up launching power, then release. Then we could do tricky stuff like using arcs of fire to shoot at bosses (so we could have the player aim at legs and other weak points).

However, because the cannon is a central control element, we should consider mapping it to the keyboard. It's unlikely the player would have to move the carriage and aim and fire the cannon both at once, so we could do something like use 'A' and 'D' to move the carriage, 'Q' and 'E' to turn the cannon, 'Spacebar' to fire the cannon, 'W' to jump (when the appropriate upgrade is unlocked), and 'S' to exit the carriage (unless you guys think this would get in the way too much). Then the player's free hand could be used to manipulate the other parts with the mouse.

2. The character (outside of the carriage). He needs to have big, big titties. Wait- I mean a control scheme. It should be as similar as possible to the carriage's. I suggest:
'A' and 'D' to move, 'W' to pick something up, 'S' to drop something, and 'Spacebar' to fire/interact (when near a character). The mouse could be used to reposition your tiny flashlight, perhaps.