WISHLIST ON STEAM ► s.team/a/2214460 MERCH ► patreon.com/raymondcripps Thank you so much for your patience these past years. As I continue ahead with development, I have found that it is not always the measure of technical skill that counts, but rather the ability to navigate the sum of all games one must play to be an indie game developer. Being a good programmer or level designer is helpful, but matters not if you cannot be decisive. I hope this episode has shed some light on that 'meta' level that this craft demands, and my personal struggles with it. While it took longer than it should have for me to decide on my game's structure, I made that decision knowing I had tried every available alternative. In retrospect, I feel I knew the right way from the beginning but had allowed fear and self-doubt to lead me astray. I hope not to make that mistake again.
i thought to tell you, go check sonic unleashed day levels and the mirror edge games, those look pretty similar to your new goals. i´ve been watching your progress a long time ago, i wish you the best all the way from argentina!!!
I get that it's an artistic choice, but her choppy movement actually hurts my brain I really want to play it when it releases, but I just can with that I'm not asking to change it fully and only make it smooth just give me a toggle in the settings where the animation can be changed.
Quick Idea you don't have to scrap your old levels entirely, you can retool them into open world / hub segments that you use to travel between levels like Sonic adventure 2 or the Lego star wars game. Remove some of the obstacles and open up some of the segments and your essentially set. Players can now practice between levels and enjoy the movement mechanics in a much more casual environment edit : sonic adventure 1 o7
This is a great idea!!! I was going to recommend an idea like this, like a hub area the player can run around in between missions and talk to other characters and practice movement and such (or even test themselves, if they discover a difficult maneuver or jump that they wanna practice). I think one or some of these more open-world areas would be perfect for that!!!
It could also have a PF version of Chao garden, or a couple of visual indicators of collectibles or memorabilia you get throughout the game indicated in different parts of the hub world, or npcs you can talk to and help out in some way, which would reveal more of the story
Honestly, i don't think you should scrap the open-world stages. They could serve as a hub of sorts, a place to calm down a bit after an exhilirating gauntlet of platforming, which are mostly optional to overall progress. This way theres no possibility of them ruining the pace. They could also provide you with a place to organically tell the story of this world, a place where all the characters could catch up to/meet each other. I kinda feel like Project Feline will be in the same niche as Neon White, just without the insufferable visual novel segments. I'm really hyped about PF and really wanna see where the game ends up. Best of luck to you and your team and, most importantly, take your time.
yeah seems like a waste of potential even with the clear goal of the liniar focus, why not mix missions up with different styles of levels, that serve a more narrative purpose and are not timed and more exploration based with these open areas
given this is pre-alpha and they're only just prototyping the dialogue system, we don't yet know how sufferable the story bits will be. Not that I have any reason to think it'd be bad just sayin' :P
The hub levels could go the collectathon route. Something that doesn't gate content to the next proper level for those that are there only for the linear levels, but does give you some basic goal while wandering around the map practicing low-speed movement tech in a casual environment. The main purpose of the collectables would be to help you keep track of your exploration%. If every nook and cranny had a thingy to find, you could know you were there for sure on the next pass through because the location has a transparant thingy there when you check that spot. You could even have a menu button to temporarily reset the level's collectathon or additionally put up a speedrun timer to race through the whole hub as fast as you can. Otherwise it's just a huge empty space that possibly looks neat to look at.
@@elfrangofrito Yeah, me too, it's just that visual novel and fast-paced gameplay don't really go that well with each other lol, i think that's where the problem lies, so for players who don't care about story / dialogue / plot they'd just want to skip it if they only care about the gameplay.
LOOK MA! I'm on TV! ☝ I'm happy to see one of my speedruns officially on the channel, and you chose that one of all runs XD With every update, I get more excited for the eventual release of Project Feline! I really wana get my hands on that Lab level 🥺
I am working on something like that. While the level stuff has been going on, I've been building what I call the 'modular mission framework', which allows me to create mission types with custom rules/objectives and easily make multiple missions using the same environment. The player also gets ranked on these missions. I haven't gotten to showing this in a devlog yet, but I've been working on it during my livestreams. In this stream, created a 'floor-is-lava' mission type in under 3 hours, where the player must reach the goal without touching the floor: ua-cam.com/users/live1lKGb-nRi2c.
I am so blown away by the realization you came to for play time. How everything flipped when you realized that finishing a level quickly should actually be rewarded. Really amazing video, thank you for making it.
If you haven't already, take a look at the game Neon White. With the new revelations mentioned in this video you might be able to draw quite a bit of inspiration from Neon White's game play designs as it's stages are meant to be replayed to get faster and faster completion times. There's even secret shortcuts and skips that you discover after multiple runs that net you faster times.
Hot take: Neon White's levels, individually, are shorter than the proposed levels for Project Feline, and Neon White is *still* too long as a game. I really loved the replayability of Neon White's levels, but I couldn't maintain that interest to replay every one of the hundred levels.
@@Maawaa I can understand how Neon White can feel too streched out, especially when certain stages aren't really bangers. But I personally loved going through the entire game, and the quest for getting all aces never felt old to me, especially when the game was constantly throwing new mechanics at me and exploring them from top to bottom.
I would like to add Spark the Electric Jester 3 to the suggestions. It has the "different goals to encourage replaying a level" thing with the medals per level
@@wydx120 I personally think Spark 3 did that quite poorly. The time medals are fine, but the score medals are just boring, slow and repetitive grinding, and they're not challenging to get at all.
You are not alone in this development. Not only do you have your team, you also have the feedback and engagement of the community that you need to pay attention to what works and what does not. Always expand your thoughts out of your own head, don't keep them in all the time or else your view will become skewed.
When you started this series thought the game was essentially going to focused on Sonic-style linear courses that focused on utilizing speed and environment to get to the end as fast as possible, (with maybe some open hub levels connecting them in between.) I'm really happy to hear you're finding your focus again, and I'm super excited to see development go forward!
Hey, going the Neon White route is pretty great. You should absolutely consider speedrunning more throughout your designs and encourage the player to move fast through levels, such as providing bonus / alt stages for finishing quickly.
I am genuinely so excited for this game. I first found your channel because of this video, and from there I went back and watched through your whole devlog journey. I've been part of a big, ambitious project like this myself, so I can very much relate to some of the fears and tradeoffs you've made over the years. And the realization you made here I think is the key to all of it. You've discovered what you're making, what this game is gonna be. And you've already proven with your years of work that you have the skill, drive, and care to execute it. You're gonna kill it, man.
9:36 On the issue with how to tie level design with the world I recommend analyzing levels from Titanfall 2, both singleplayer and mutiplayer. Titanfall also focuses on wall running and keeping your momentum up so all enviroments are designed with that in mind. At the same time the art direction is one of the best ones I know and they managed to pull off making the complicated level design feel natural with the enviroment.
The new levels are looking really nice! The laboratory aesthetic fits Gabby really well. Can't wait to know more about Gabby's backstory. Having played a lot of parkour games from Mirror's Edge to Neon White, I can confidently say that the amount of "content" in a game doesn't correlate with the actual size of the levels. Replayability is much more important. Neon White has a lot of extremely short, minimalistic and linear levels which manages to be extremely replayable with speedrun goals and secrets. Having a similar momentum-based movement system, I think Project Feline can definitely learn from Neon White and lean more towards repeating short levels rather than trying to provide gigantic maps.
I think you need to play Sonic Adventure 2 😀 You can make high-speed levels to give the players a rush, but too much rush is draining and people will look for something calm to play after. You do need to break up the momentum with the slower exploration levels to make people really appreciate the sense of speed you get in the faster levels. Plus there's a sense of skill in speedrunning the exploration levels. Again, see SA2 for how slow is too slow because the random locations for the treasurehunt levels were frustrating as heck and changed the pace drastically.
Listening through this, I had an idea for a stage. A large, cylindrical stage that wrap around itself multiple times. It would allow for a small stage, some unique mechanics, and also a sense of tension as you progress, not from dying, but from the risk of going back to a previous area, almost like getting over it in a way. There's probably also some great ways you could incorporate Gabby's movement into a level designed that way, and you could definitely add some neat secrets and speed checks, basically making a soft requirement for a certain amount of speed to clear certain gaps. My brain goes to almost like a particle collider for a level like that, but it could be anything really. I just think the idea would be neat
Yeahh I feel like the game is more about traveling and having fun while discovering new things then grinding to collect things or do something. The game just feels so chill
As the game is focused on maintaining your momentum, i would advise adding a slide attack that keeps your momentum but has a smaller attack window. That way you can keep the fantastic flow of the gameplay intact. Don't remove the normal attacks though; those would still have their uses. You could also have the damage of the slide scale with your speed, alowing players to speedrun through areas and enemies if they can master your system. You're doing awesome man, keep up the great work!!!
You should check out the free-to-play game Warframe, for two reasons. One, it's got mid-mission dialog that I think would be a great point-of-reference for you when developing your story dialog, there's quite a few small implementation lessons you can glean from it. Two, Warframe has a lot of high-momentum gameplay, and capitalizes on it by having short procedural levels that the playerbase runs again and again and again, which sounds an awful lot like where your levels are headed.
I really like those new more open levels, the cliff face idea for the second level is really cool! It'd be really cool to see a large clean energy farm level, with solar panels, wind turbines and maybe some big computer buildings to run across, you could incorporate floating "drone" platforms to jump across and that would allow you to use the wind turbines as obstacles, those same drones could also have solar panels on to make floating walls to run across.
Theres definitely a reason that a lot of game companies will use outdated engines or even develop their own when theres much better alternatives. They've spent years developing competencies sure, but more importantly they have years worth of tools and the amount of work upgrading engines saves is minimal compared to the amount of work that creating or updating their tools will.
The game's description from the developer directly sounds exactly like Zineth (by Arcane Kids), except from the footage shown, it's got enemies that actively attack you, and won't just try to attack you in a mobile game. (and the player is running instead of skating)
The way you tackled this and sticking with the original approach you had for the game is very inspiring! Level design decisions are always so exciting to watch! Can’t wait for the next progress update on this
the way I view it this game has the same vibe that people wanted from 3d sonic games for so long, the same thrill of speeding through the classic 2d games in a 3d level that rewards skill with the ability to zoom through the world
Have you considered having some levels structured like graphs with linear segments that interconnect so the player has to go back and forth across each linear segment to get to different parts to complete the level, making the player essentially replay but still in one playthrough (maybe enemies/obstacles/platforms/walls/grindrails could be added or removed to shake things up when the player is traveling back through later in the level)
you don't know how exited i am after seeing "new video uploaded" also your graphics look like it's made by people who work for actual companies it just feels "official" see what you're looking for that "anime feeling" and for now, i enjoy it alot
what instantly came to mind when you said speedrunning; trackmania's community maps maps that are built by individuals playing the game for themselves and to share with friends and other over the internet this would ofc be quite the undertaking, but if possible, could be a huge asset for replayability, increasing playtime per player a lot
For both the V-slice Isle Delfino style area and the more Sonic Adventure style linear sections, I think having some sort of "holo-Gabi" performing actions just ahead of Gabi might be good to get players to try mechanics or see that certain routes exist- either automatically or via a 'hint' button, which has a holo-gabi run ahead of the player and perform a recommended route from the player's current and active position at a speed +5 to the player's current so they're always running ahead.
I've been following your progress for awhile. It's great to see you overcame the Tony Hawks game mechanics trauma. It's also 100% A+ what your level designer did for you. There are a massive amount of time saving tricks for build/level work that people pull out of the hat. I'm see people doing weekend level design builds in Unreal Slackers and it's amazing. Personally, I'd rather have more levels that take less time and be able to complete compared to a massively longer one. Many people will end up having their most favorite levels to play or replay from a game. It gives people more choices in what to do. You can keep your existing already created level work and just add new levels into game play. It's all about people having fun and feeling engaged. Keep up the Excellent work, everything just keeps getting better and better with the game.
Here is an idea in case case nobody pitched it yet. You could make some levels reversible in the sense that as soon as the player reaches his goal he then has to go the same route backwards. A good example is going into a facility to get to some secret documents and has soon as you found them, the security system activates. You then have to escape from the same route made more difficult with (more) enemies, lasers or even holes in closed off walls to thread through. Going through a level in reverse can still feel like a new stage and I believe mario kart has an option to drive stages in reverse for this purpose. Also, it will easily double the playtime in a stage with little effort.
I remember watching an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto who said him and Reggie would set up a blank white room with a few boxes exclusively to test Mario's movement. It's the first thing they develop; and the first level they make for every single Mario game. Good on you for focusing on continuing your current movement system. Save the idea of a skater style system for a possible sequel.
Now this, this is a good a good example of what development hell really is. Not just that it is a bad thing, but how it looks, feels, and comes to be (damn that skate board rabbit hole). Its good to hear that there is a way out, simply the fail faster approach, focusing on the players and getting out of your own head. I'll def need to keep this in mind if I ever get around to releasing one of my own projects, being willing to adapt the project as I learn how others see it.
If you need a trick to implement for your own project, write down the words "don't deviate" and hang it up somewhere. I would have saved a lot of time if I hadn't deviated from what was already working at the beginning.
Something a see with a lot of artforms like animation and game development is this sort of series of steps that happen 1. This sucks 2. Improvement 3. Over improvement 4. This sucks again 5. ah shit, we got it right the first time
I always like when games use hub levels to traverse between missions and wish more had them, instead of level selection. You can fill the hub with everything you want and even it can provide lots of playtime, add interaction to it, small little challenges to practice the skills, shops, hidden secrets and sub levels. This can break the repetiteveness and provide gameplay variety. But it does not need to stray away from the main gameplay. For example you can put a skin shop at a rooftop which you have to access by platforming. Maybe even keep the enemies in the stage, like fog of war kind of thing. As one of the comments said "You do need to break up the momentum with the slower exploration levels to make people really appreciate the sense of speed you get in the faster levels."
This game has a lot of similarities in design to one of my favorite games, Cyber Hook. I honestly was grinding one map just to get the best score, and had about 100 attempts at it. Most of the maps are these big open linear maps, but with enough speed you could find ways to skip parts to go even faster. Excited to see how things develop!
I understand this struggle all to well. Fist of the Forgotten is also a very momentum focused game, and it's possible to zip past months of work in seconds. Here's hoping we both pull off some successful projects! The world needs more fun, momentum-focused games!
Here's an update idea for your narrative. I'm no writer but maybe a couple alternate pathways in the level to gain bits and pieces of lore about her, where she is, maybe hinting at a previous life before all this, etc.
Hey! A good advise from a felow GameDesigner: try segmented gameplay. Describing it with words is kind of difficult, but i will try. Segmented gameplay means some kind of parts that consist of some mechanics, witch you have to complete like a bucket list from Tony Hawk, BUT it does not mean that it needs to be just like a task. So if we look at the big tunnel level in your game and some other lvl's. They are great, cause they have a wave feel, you have to go in some kind of rithm and in a path. And this leads to the core principal in your game: Your map will be good if it has some kind of race the player can complete. Having multiple paths is a great thing! So this leads to a new way for those bulky maps, like in this video. It has some kind of paths, but you can get lost. And here comes segmented gameplay, as soon as you come on first obstacle, you will have a text for what to do next, and a small dinamic bucket list, of some kind of small path. Like rail for 5 seconds, then go 5 wall rides and a big goal it collect all 5 gears. This will help players to know what they are supposed to do, and IF they complete it, you can paint the part in some kind of color or design it somehow, so the player can SEE what he/she is left to complete. This is an easy aproach to this great problem in designing maps for fast games, took me about a month to solve)
I think Ultrakill is an example of a game that in theory has a very short playtime, but in practice has insane replayability due to the high skill ceiling, and features like different difficulty levels and ranks being achievable, and the fact that getting perfect rankings unlocks new content.
I'm really happy you've figured out the kind of level design that works for your game. I think I can agree as well. My favorite video games have always been the 3D Sonic games, and though the level design can be linear, at times, figuring out how to complete that linear level in optimal time was and still is incredibly enjoyable to me. A lot of the times people have complained about Sonic, in fact, seem to be whenever the developers try to find some way to extend the playtime of the game by adding stuff to it that the players don't really...want? It's always something along the lines of "the fast linear level part was fun, but the rest feels like padding. Just take the rest out, and let me play the otherwise shorter game." You may not be a speedrunner yourself, but In a way you essentially just speedran several decades of development of Sonic games. It may be annoying to develop long levels that can nevertheless be beaten in under a minute, but ultimately that's just...what the game works best as, and hopefully with the tools you're developing you can minimize the annoyingness of designing those levels. I think the more open kind of level can still work as hub worlds, like what Sonic Adventure does. You can explore the hub whenever you want, but all the big action is in those more linear stages you use the hub world to access. Ironically I just came to that same conclusion about my own game I'm developing, though I'm not nearly as far into it as you are with yours. Good luck with Project Feline dude! I haven't even played these new levels but they already look exciting!
Comgrats to the level dev for making that breakthrough! It's definitely super empowering to have easy-to-use art tools to ensure that you have the freedom to move fast and break things. Even if you're stuck designing levels in blender, the modifiers and geometry nodes are a godsend for automating art pipelines
Something else you can do with fast, linear levels is have alternate branching paths that eventually realign with one another. If speed is the reward, make falling from the high ground stick you with the slower route. If you want people to play the stages over and over, having a score system where points are rewarded based on how cool your maneuvers are, finding collectibles along the way, or clearing in under a certain amount of time could all be ways of incentivizing players to replay stages. Hell, reward them with unlockables for clearing enough objectives.
it's probably a bit early and all but funny achievement idea for the game The Floor is Nyava: "Don't touch the floor once during (some section name here)"
Bro really made sonic adventure and wondered why it was so fast, heheheh. Your dev log is really fascinating, I've seen it crop up a few times, and I'm SO GLAD you're embracing making a game that's fast paced. For context, some of my favorite games reward efficient and productive movement. Pizza Tower, Sonic Mania, Star Wars Episode I: Racer, those games are all built with one goal for the player: go as fast as you possibly can. I know that for someone on the outside to say "That should've been the obvious route given the mechanics you made" probably isn't great to hear, but it is so damn easy to miss the obvious solutions in pursuit of the ever changing and half baked concept of perfection that often results in "developer brain." Don't think too much about dragging the game out if your character goes fast. Instead think about making going fast more fun! Sonic games give you ranks, Pizza Tower has the combo system that rewards you for keeping your combo rolling, and racer is just an optimizer's dream game. As an onlooker, seeing you come to the conclusion that I'm sure people were expecting was the plan all along is gratifying, and for you I'm sure it's a major relief that you were heading the right way from minute one. Keep going, keep developing, and don't worry if your game is only an hour or two long. Replayability is what you want to focus on with speed games, and it sounds like the direction you're heading in has that in spades! Best of luck to project feline!
So, I had an idea that maybe you don’t have to scrap the open world aspect. Maybe by adding a couple acrobatic moves or tricks to Gabbie that could interact with her environment. For example, jumping off a street lamp, or swinging from a clothesline. Just little interactions that can be reused in different scenarios would be really cool, and wouldn’t require an entire rework of Gabbie’s move set.
As someone who's spent the last 4 days writing and rewriting my movement/momentum system in UE5, I feel this bro. Those blueprints can go from a few nodes to an entangled spider web on nonsense so fast. 😅
When I first started seeing gameplay for this game, I was like “yeah this is definitely a speedrun game.” Tasks like Pro Skater 3 could be cool down the line though.
So glad this video came across my feed, it's an excellent example of how playtesting and iteration is critical to making a good, fun game. Very well executed and the game looks super impressive, best of luck!
Ive been following your project since just before the first playable build was released and im loving the direction you are taking the project. Super excited for release
Can't wait to 100% your game :D If you are going to add achievementsto your game, please make some that you genuinely don't expect anyone to complete, those are the most fun :)
This is extremely relatable. I've been obsessed with playtime and how long my levels should be as well. It's like looking in a mirror, thanks for that ;)
I've been playing a lot of devil may cry recently, and one of the reasons it's so cool is that you can take down entire bosses, clear entire stages, and go crazy with your style, all without ever getting hit or slowing down. Watching the gameplay, it looks kind of unsatisfying when you sometimes gotta run at normal speed when you lose all your momentum. While I haven't played the demo myself, I'd like to say that, for the sake of coolness, you should theoretically never ever have to slow down. It's a game all about speed, right? Also, no game is complete without an emote button; if you did it in the same way pizza tower did it it wouldn't slow down gameplay but would make you look so much cooler doing stuff. My best wishes!
I'm really interesting exploring your thought process here. So cool that tools will allow you to create larger momentum-based levels than you have been able to in the past! You got darn lucky with that level designer. :)
This new direction in the level design is awesome! Plus, I don't think you have to completely give up on that idea of having different objectives in a level. I think you might just have to look to a different game aside from Tony Hawk for inspiration. For example, the levels in Sonic Adventure 2 have additional missions with a variety of objectives that you can go back to complete after the main story mission. Some of those missions even involve certain key items that you need to find in other levels to complete. Completing more missions also unlocked extra content, like a secret level. I always really liked that. The levels themselves were already really fun to replay solely to get better times, but the additional missions added some fun variety and gave me incentive to explore the levels at different speeds too.
In a way, Gabby reminds me a lot like Sonic, and specifically as he appears in Sonic Adventure 2 and the boost games. Anything to keep up that momentum seems like such a better choice than anything that slows down the pace!
It's always such an intersting time tuning back into these development updates. This video in particular hit soooooo close to home for me and the project I've been working on. I always get hung up on some aspect or other which grinds my progress to a halt on all of my game projects...no pun intended. I'm determined to see my latest one through which is a first person runner/platformer and found some level designers to work with me so here's to hoping we can finish up production on it in the next month or two!
Nice to see this Project grow, as always...Btw...I always tought a "Sonic like and something like that Truck jumping game" would be best for your game... Heck, I beat you can make a endless repeating level with a time limit, where you can exeed it with some pick ups and it would be a blast :3
The small stages although not optimal for Gabbys movement sound like a great means of adding a sense of constriction, as a contrast to the feeling of freedom, this could be good in minor applications to that could be tied to Gabby's main struggles and story beats, Although cleaner maps may be needed they could also be clean means of teaching speed running tech and interesting applications of chaining moves together ala Celeste's Farewell stage, Although getting to momentum in small spaces may be difficult to allow for these tricks this could be generated with something like Bounce Pads akin to Sonic
It'd be nice to see multiple attacks that take advantage of momentum instead of directly stopping it, things like dropkicking then springing back up or going from a slide into something like an overhead kick. You could also add a delay to the attack animation when hitting an enemy as that delay adds weight and gives the overexpressive feel that the style goes for.
Imagine a tool that let the players create levels and share them similar to a game called geometry dash Or a tool that generates random level from a presets of assets similar to a game called DRG
Take a look at the leaderboards in Splitgate for their race levels. Could give you some inspiration. Or perhaps the leaderboards in any racing game. Ghost images of your best run and other things like that could compliment this direction.
i like this new level direction and i think it's better suited for project feline; you can have a lot inspiration by looking itno neon white level replayability with the time trial, the secret skip and the platform like hidden collectable
You really should check out neon white, it has an excellent gameloop where you first wanna finish a level, then get a faster time, then the game shows you a shortcut, you get a better time, you unlock the friends leaderboard, try to beat their time and so on with each level! Most levels are under a minute but you can easily spend half an hour or more optimizing your routing. I think your game and apeedrunning go hand in hand!
The Tony Hawk approach could still be used for an arcade mode for additional content. Keep it up, always excited to see updates for this game. Gabby is so cute!!!
Games you should harvest for their history, successes and failures regarding their design traits are the Sonic series and the two Mirror's Edge games. Being able to complete the whole game quickly is definitely a feature.
Man, this is fascinating to watch as you progress from linear levels game developers made in 90s to explorable hubs from games in 00s and then go back as you noticed why first one is better
I just subscribed really good project. Here are some advices to improve the movement gameplay, but take it just as suggestions and ideas: -Ive noticed you have done something similar but I can't stress enough how important it's the camera placement on a high speed game, make sure to allow the player to watch as much as possible to allow they to decide what's the next step, The Pathless did a great work with the camera, lowering it the most faster you go, that way the most faster it is the more obstacles and possible routes you'll see. This apply to all the moveset, wall runs should show you the front and the opposite side if there's a way all to jump on,, highs jumps should show you the floor to know where you're landing etc -This is far more complex but if you end up adding or modifying the move set consider adding some moves that conserve momentum but are a little slower, like jumps that are really vertical but not wide, with this kind of transitional movement you allow the player to think what's the next step without noticing it -This one seems on touch already but always have in mind, visual language it's key, think Mirror Edge, interesting areas must be highlighted via color, lights or any sort of level design, and if you keep it consistent the player will learn that language without noticing it
Looks like a really fun cross between Tony Hawk games and Sonic the Hedgehog games with a cool parkour spin. Open world spaces can be great for testing out new combos and additional mechanics to improve a persons playstyle if you end up with some sort of advanced movement system. You can also utilize small spaces by making horizontal movement part of level progression. Like a level where you are spiraling up a cylinder by wall running and stuff to get to the top could be great.
nice to see you realising whats really important about what you love its not about keeping people around, its about getting them to love your game and make them want to be around
One important thing to remember is that most people won't naturally replay and try to speed run levels. Even if they would have a great time doing it. You need to design replay mechanics to encourage and reward the intended behaviour. Things like different speed run challenges and unlocks. Definitely play neon white if you've not already because it's the current flag bearer for this type of design
One thing that i think might benefit the levels (take this with a grain of salt) is multiple options, same outcome. If you have two smaller paths that diverge, then converge you are able to make unique paths with one main objective. Using these alternate paths, it might also be possible to make one slightly harder than the other to also add in the missions if that is something you still want. There is a main route designated for speed, and a second route designated for completion. Should allow some replayability to the maps other than just speedrunning
The tony hawks inspirations doesn't mean you need skateboard etc to achieve a similar or greater level of gameplay. What you need a failure conditions and rewards. The increased momentum is the reward but there is no failure to encourage the use of momentum. Have you thought about the character being chased? It fits the theme of escape. I also imagine many things chasing the MC dogs/crocodiles on the floor ready to bite the character's heels whenever they touch the ground, flying bots an a villain like Prowler for spiderverse. Secondly you need something to do during all actions ie can the main character pounce on air to perform a momentum based double jump. Think about it when you are in a wall run the player does nothing during that animation - a cheap way to fill the time is a quick time event or button mashing to increase speed, I'm struggling to think of something intuitive and not cheap. Collecting gears is one way you have used to fill the animation down time as a wall run isn't just a wall run if you are also collecting gears. However I will say that just collecting gear is boring, I think we've all had enough of game levels where you have to kill x minions to unlock door. You could use the gears in a much more creative way ie image each gear collected is used to strengthen the characters legs increasing player speed and any time you need to perform a trick or action that requires the use of her legs is ends up damaging them. There are many places where you have to kick something, imagine every time this action is performed it damages the characters legs and reduces your momentum, which would create a constant trade of between kicking enemies and levers for momentum. Another way to think about it is : instead of collecting 10 gears which somehow unlocks the next part of a level you could be collection gear to strengthen your legs and once you have 10 your legs are now strong enough to kick down an entire wall revealing the next part of the level. There is also level design opportunities here (granted now it will cost a lot of time to implement) ie all walls can be broken down revealing more of the map granted your feline legs are strong enough.
I think that tighter/more open world stage could be used for level/menu selection. Take Portal 2's multiplayer campaign for example where in order to reach the next set of levels, P1 and P2 has to do a small puzzle just to be able to get to that next set.
I feel like this game could be pretty fun multiplayer, take one of those long linear hallway levels and have it wrap around into a race circut similar to DoubleDutch Games' SpeedRunners
As a suggestion, why not try making a mission system like Sonic Frontiers' Cyberspace stages! In Frontiers there are four missions per stage! Collect X amount of Rings, Collect all Red Star Rings, Get the S Rank time and the final being to Reach the Goal. The Missions are revealed after beating the stage. Maybe something like that could work?
The game is looking great. The new levels look really really nice. I like the gameplay direction as well. You could probably end up working the 2 or 3 different kinds of levels you have into the game and just use them both. Maybe the open areas are hubs and give you quests that are essentially the linear levels. Maybe some linear levels lead you to other hubs. If you haven't seen the game Haste I'd recommend checking that out too. It's procedural ( I think anyway), but it does a really good job of having a pretty environment while also having really long levels and really fast gameplay.
With absolutely no background about your game, I was just struck about how the new level seemed entirely dedicated to breaking momentum in a momentum based platformer. I mean really those switches... Glad your back on track.
WISHLIST ON STEAM ► s.team/a/2214460
MERCH ► patreon.com/raymondcripps
Thank you so much for your patience these past years. As I continue ahead with development, I have found that it is not always the measure of technical skill that counts, but rather the ability to navigate the sum of all games one must play to be an indie game developer. Being a good programmer or level designer is helpful, but matters not if you cannot be decisive. I hope this episode has shed some light on that 'meta' level that this craft demands, and my personal struggles with it. While it took longer than it should have for me to decide on my game's structure, I made that decision knowing I had tried every available alternative. In retrospect, I feel I knew the right way from the beginning but had allowed fear and self-doubt to lead me astray. I hope not to make that mistake again.
Hey man been watching since the start of this project take your time better late then never
i thought to tell you, go check sonic unleashed day levels and the mirror edge games, those look pretty similar to your new goals. i´ve been watching your progress a long time ago, i wish you the best all the way from argentina!!!
Dude, Tony Hawk ... seriously? just look at Jet Set Radio, like wtf are you doing?
I get that it's an artistic choice, but her choppy movement actually hurts my brain I really want to play it when it releases, but I just can with that I'm not asking to change it fully and only make it smooth just give me a toggle in the settings where the animation can be changed.
So to summarize you found out why sonic games are so difficult to make significantly longer while maintaining quality and uniqueness
Quick Idea you don't have to scrap your old levels entirely, you can retool them into open world / hub segments that you use to travel between levels like Sonic adventure 2 or the Lego star wars game. Remove some of the obstacles and open up some of the segments and your essentially set. Players can now practice between levels and enjoy the movement mechanics in a much more casual environment
edit : sonic adventure 1 o7
Oh yeah this sounds like a really cool idea
Love this idea!
Yes this exactly
This is a great idea!!! I was going to recommend an idea like this, like a hub area the player can run around in between missions and talk to other characters and practice movement and such (or even test themselves, if they discover a difficult maneuver or jump that they wanna practice). I think one or some of these more open-world areas would be perfect for that!!!
It could also have a PF version of Chao garden, or a couple of visual indicators of collectibles or memorabilia you get throughout the game indicated in different parts of the hub world, or npcs you can talk to and help out in some way, which would reveal more of the story
Honestly, i don't think you should scrap the open-world stages. They could serve as a hub of sorts, a place to calm down a bit after an exhilirating gauntlet of platforming, which are mostly optional to overall progress. This way theres no possibility of them ruining the pace. They could also provide you with a place to organically tell the story of this world, a place where all the characters could catch up to/meet each other. I kinda feel like Project Feline will be in the same niche as Neon White, just without the insufferable visual novel segments. I'm really hyped about PF and really wanna see where the game ends up. Best of luck to you and your team and, most importantly, take your time.
yeah seems like a waste of potential even with the clear goal of the liniar focus, why not mix missions up with different styles of levels, that serve a more narrative purpose and are not timed and more exploration based with these open areas
given this is pre-alpha and they're only just prototyping the dialogue system, we don't yet know how sufferable the story bits will be. Not that I have any reason to think it'd be bad just sayin' :P
I loved the visual novel segments of Neon White but to each one their own
The hub levels could go the collectathon route. Something that doesn't gate content to the next proper level for those that are there only for the linear levels, but does give you some basic goal while wandering around the map practicing low-speed movement tech in a casual environment.
The main purpose of the collectables would be to help you keep track of your exploration%. If every nook and cranny had a thingy to find, you could know you were there for sure on the next pass through because the location has a transparant thingy there when you check that spot. You could even have a menu button to temporarily reset the level's collectathon or additionally put up a speedrun timer to race through the whole hub as fast as you can.
Otherwise it's just a huge empty space that possibly looks neat to look at.
@@elfrangofrito Yeah, me too, it's just that visual novel and fast-paced gameplay don't really go that well with each other lol, i think that's where the problem lies, so for players who don't care about story / dialogue / plot they'd just want to skip it if they only care about the gameplay.
LOOK MA! I'm on TV! ☝
I'm happy to see one of my speedruns officially on the channel, and you chose that one of all runs XD
With every update, I get more excited for the eventual release of Project Feline! I really wana get my hands on that Lab level 🥺
yuh yuh
biggg pog
get this man an early access build with the lab right now!
I still like the idea of tasks, aside from replaying for a shorter time, why not have different sets of goals that can be achieved in more than 1 run
I am working on something like that. While the level stuff has been going on, I've been building what I call the 'modular mission framework', which allows me to create mission types with custom rules/objectives and easily make multiple missions using the same environment. The player also gets ranked on these missions. I haven't gotten to showing this in a devlog yet, but I've been working on it during my livestreams. In this stream, created a 'floor-is-lava' mission type in under 3 hours, where the player must reach the goal without touching the floor: ua-cam.com/users/live1lKGb-nRi2c.
Socre3 for your overall and top speed perhaps?
I am so blown away by the realization you came to for play time. How everything flipped when you realized that finishing a level quickly should actually be rewarded. Really amazing video, thank you for making it.
If you haven't already, take a look at the game Neon White. With the new revelations mentioned in this video you might be able to draw quite a bit of inspiration from Neon White's game play designs as it's stages are meant to be replayed to get faster and faster completion times. There's even secret shortcuts and skips that you discover after multiple runs that net you faster times.
I second this!
Hot take: Neon White's levels, individually, are shorter than the proposed levels for Project Feline, and Neon White is *still* too long as a game. I really loved the replayability of Neon White's levels, but I couldn't maintain that interest to replay every one of the hundred levels.
@@Maawaa I can understand how Neon White can feel too streched out, especially when certain stages aren't really bangers. But I personally loved going through the entire game, and the quest for getting all aces never felt old to me, especially when the game was constantly throwing new mechanics at me and exploring them from top to bottom.
I would like to add Spark the Electric Jester 3 to the suggestions. It has the "different goals to encourage replaying a level" thing with the medals per level
@@wydx120 I personally think Spark 3 did that quite poorly. The time medals are fine, but the score medals are just boring, slow and repetitive grinding, and they're not challenging to get at all.
“threatened to closely monitor your communications”
Australia moment
I feel like it would be cool if gabby would gain momentum when hitting/killing enemies, like that she doesnt completly stop when she faces an ennemy
maybe a precision timing attack to just blow through enemies with speed loss being based on accuracy to keep the skill challenge?
I'm glad you remembered the reason why we love the game
just because a map isn't that long doesn't mean it's bad
agree, just look at other based movement games that is linear and sometimes shorter. example would be mirror's edge
You are not alone in this development. Not only do you have your team, you also have the feedback and engagement of the community that you need to pay attention to what works and what does not. Always expand your thoughts out of your own head, don't keep them in all the time or else your view will become skewed.
When you started this series thought the game was essentially going to focused on Sonic-style linear courses that focused on utilizing speed and environment to get to the end as fast as possible, (with maybe some open hub levels connecting them in between.) I'm really happy to hear you're finding your focus again, and I'm super excited to see development go forward!
Hey, going the Neon White route is pretty great. You should absolutely consider speedrunning more throughout your designs and encourage the player to move fast through levels, such as providing bonus / alt stages for finishing quickly.
I am genuinely so excited for this game. I first found your channel because of this video, and from there I went back and watched through your whole devlog journey. I've been part of a big, ambitious project like this myself, so I can very much relate to some of the fears and tradeoffs you've made over the years. And the realization you made here I think is the key to all of it. You've discovered what you're making, what this game is gonna be. And you've already proven with your years of work that you have the skill, drive, and care to execute it.
You're gonna kill it, man.
Man discovers he wasn't making a Tony Hawk game, he was making a Sonic game
9:36 On the issue with how to tie level design with the world I recommend analyzing levels from Titanfall 2, both singleplayer and mutiplayer. Titanfall also focuses on wall running and keeping your momentum up so all enviroments are designed with that in mind. At the same time the art direction is one of the best ones I know and they managed to pull off making the complicated level design feel natural with the enviroment.
Following this since early development and seeing how far it's gotten really feels good tbh!
The new levels are looking really nice! The laboratory aesthetic fits Gabby really well. Can't wait to know more about Gabby's backstory.
Having played a lot of parkour games from Mirror's Edge to Neon White, I can confidently say that the amount of "content" in a game doesn't correlate with the actual size of the levels. Replayability is much more important. Neon White has a lot of extremely short, minimalistic and linear levels which manages to be extremely replayable with speedrun goals and secrets. Having a similar momentum-based movement system, I think Project Feline can definitely learn from Neon White and lean more towards repeating short levels rather than trying to provide gigantic maps.
I think you need to play Sonic Adventure 2 😀
You can make high-speed levels to give the players a rush, but too much rush is draining and people will look for something calm to play after. You do need to break up the momentum with the slower exploration levels to make people really appreciate the sense of speed you get in the faster levels.
Plus there's a sense of skill in speedrunning the exploration levels. Again, see SA2 for how slow is too slow because the random locations for the treasurehunt levels were frustrating as heck and changed the pace drastically.
Listening through this, I had an idea for a stage. A large, cylindrical stage that wrap around itself multiple times. It would allow for a small stage, some unique mechanics, and also a sense of tension as you progress, not from dying, but from the risk of going back to a previous area, almost like getting over it in a way. There's probably also some great ways you could incorporate Gabby's movement into a level designed that way, and you could definitely add some neat secrets and speed checks, basically making a soft requirement for a certain amount of speed to clear certain gaps. My brain goes to almost like a particle collider for a level like that, but it could be anything really. I just think the idea would be neat
Yeahh I feel like the game is more about traveling and having fun while discovering new things then grinding to collect things or do something. The game just feels so chill
As the game is focused on maintaining your momentum, i would advise adding a slide attack that keeps your momentum but has a smaller attack window. That way you can keep the fantastic flow of the gameplay intact. Don't remove the normal attacks though; those would still have their uses. You could also have the damage of the slide scale with your speed, alowing players to speedrun through areas and enemies if they can master your system. You're doing awesome man, keep up the great work!!!
You should check out the free-to-play game Warframe, for two reasons.
One, it's got mid-mission dialog that I think would be a great point-of-reference for you when developing your story dialog, there's quite a few small implementation lessons you can glean from it.
Two, Warframe has a lot of high-momentum gameplay, and capitalizes on it by having short procedural levels that the playerbase runs again and again and again, which sounds an awful lot like where your levels are headed.
I really like those new more open levels, the cliff face idea for the second level is really cool! It'd be really cool to see a large clean energy farm level, with solar panels, wind turbines and maybe some big computer buildings to run across, you could incorporate floating "drone" platforms to jump across and that would allow you to use the wind turbines as obstacles, those same drones could also have solar panels on to make floating walls to run across.
Theres definitely a reason that a lot of game companies will use outdated engines or even develop their own when theres much better alternatives. They've spent years developing competencies sure, but more importantly they have years worth of tools and the amount of work upgrading engines saves is minimal compared to the amount of work that creating or updating their tools will.
The game's description from the developer directly sounds exactly like Zineth (by Arcane Kids), except from the footage shown, it's got enemies that actively attack you, and won't just try to attack you in a mobile game. (and the player is running instead of skating)
The way you tackled this and sticking with the original approach you had for the game is very inspiring! Level design decisions are always so exciting to watch! Can’t wait for the next progress update on this
wow, it’s been so long since i watched the devlogs for this game, cant believe how far it’s come
the way I view it this game has the same vibe that people wanted from 3d sonic games for so long, the same thrill of speeding through the classic 2d games in a 3d level that rewards skill with the ability to zoom through the world
Have you considered having some levels structured like graphs with linear segments that interconnect so the player has to go back and forth across each linear segment to get to different parts to complete the level, making the player essentially replay but still in one playthrough (maybe enemies/obstacles/platforms/walls/grindrails could be added or removed to shake things up when the player is traveling back through later in the level)
you don't know how exited i am after seeing "new video uploaded"
also your graphics look like it's made by people who work for actual companies
it just feels "official" see what you're looking for that "anime feeling" and
for now, i enjoy it alot
what instantly came to mind when you said speedrunning; trackmania's community maps
maps that are built by individuals playing the game for themselves and to share with friends and other over the internet
this would ofc be quite the undertaking, but if possible, could be a huge asset for replayability, increasing playtime per player a lot
The process you're making with the game is really inspiring ngl
For both the V-slice Isle Delfino style area and the more Sonic Adventure style linear sections, I think having some sort of "holo-Gabi" performing actions just ahead of Gabi might be good to get players to try mechanics or see that certain routes exist- either automatically or via a 'hint' button, which has a holo-gabi run ahead of the player and perform a recommended route from the player's current and active position at a speed +5 to the player's current so they're always running ahead.
I've been following your progress for awhile. It's great to see you overcame the Tony Hawks game mechanics trauma. It's also 100% A+ what your level designer did for you. There are a massive amount of time saving tricks for build/level work that people pull out of the hat. I'm see people doing weekend level design builds in Unreal Slackers and it's amazing. Personally, I'd rather have more levels that take less time and be able to complete compared to a massively longer one.
Many people will end up having their most favorite levels to play or replay from a game. It gives people more choices in what to do. You can keep your existing already created level work and just add new levels into game play. It's all about people having fun and feeling engaged. Keep up the Excellent work, everything just keeps getting better and better with the game.
I just got done watching the devlog playlist.. thank you for this treat!!
Short linear levels was always the way. Praised be the corridor, and may the lord bring you many replays of the two minute stage
Here is an idea in case case nobody pitched it yet. You could make some levels reversible in the sense that as soon as the player reaches his goal he then has to go the same route backwards. A good example is going into a facility to get to some secret documents and has soon as you found them, the security system activates. You then have to escape from the same route made more difficult with (more) enemies, lasers or even holes in closed off walls to thread through.
Going through a level in reverse can still feel like a new stage and I believe mario kart has an option to drive stages in reverse for this purpose. Also, it will easily double the playtime in a stage with little effort.
Nice, as someone that wants to speedrun the game, i'm happy it is going back to shorter linear levels.
Can't wait for when it releases on steam.
YOOOO THERE IT ISS!!! MAH FANART :DDD
im really happy with the new (i think) direction, i hope that we get a updated demo sometime before release.
Yea, Project Feline seemed from your first description like the game ment for speedruns, so am happy you reevaliuates it on that axis.
I remember watching an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto who said him and Reggie would set up a blank white room with a few boxes exclusively to test Mario's movement. It's the first thing they develop; and the first level they make for every single Mario game.
Good on you for focusing on continuing your current movement system. Save the idea of a skater style system for a possible sequel.
Now this, this is a good a good example of what development hell really is. Not just that it is a bad thing, but how it looks, feels, and comes to be (damn that skate board rabbit hole). Its good to hear that there is a way out, simply the fail faster approach, focusing on the players and getting out of your own head. I'll def need to keep this in mind if I ever get around to releasing one of my own projects, being willing to adapt the project as I learn how others see it.
If you need a trick to implement for your own project, write down the words "don't deviate" and hang it up somewhere. I would have saved a lot of time if I hadn't deviated from what was already working at the beginning.
Something a see with a lot of artforms like animation and game development is this sort of series of steps that happen
1. This sucks
2. Improvement
3. Over improvement
4. This sucks again
5. ah shit, we got it right the first time
I always like when games use hub levels to traverse between missions and wish more had them, instead of level selection. You can fill the hub with everything you want and even it can provide lots of playtime, add interaction to it, small little challenges to practice the skills, shops, hidden secrets and sub levels. This can break the repetiteveness and provide gameplay variety. But it does not need to stray away from the main gameplay. For example you can put a skin shop at a rooftop which you have to access by platforming. Maybe even keep the enemies in the stage, like fog of war kind of thing. As one of the comments said "You do need to break up the momentum with the slower exploration levels to make people really appreciate the sense of speed you get in the faster levels."
This game has a lot of similarities in design to one of my favorite games, Cyber Hook. I honestly was grinding one map just to get the best score, and had about 100 attempts at it. Most of the maps are these big open linear maps, but with enough speed you could find ways to skip parts to go even faster. Excited to see how things develop!
I understand this struggle all to well. Fist of the Forgotten is also a very momentum focused game, and it's possible to zip past months of work in seconds. Here's hoping we both pull off some successful projects! The world needs more fun, momentum-focused games!
Here's an update idea for your narrative. I'm no writer but maybe a couple alternate pathways in the level to gain bits and pieces of lore about her, where she is, maybe hinting at a previous life before all this, etc.
Hey!
A good advise from a felow GameDesigner: try segmented gameplay. Describing it with words is kind of difficult, but i will try. Segmented gameplay means some kind of parts that consist of some mechanics, witch you have to complete like a bucket list from Tony Hawk, BUT it does not mean that it needs to be just like a task.
So if we look at the big tunnel level in your game and some other lvl's. They are great, cause they have a wave feel, you have to go in some kind of rithm and in a path. And this leads to the core principal in your game: Your map will be good if it has some kind of race the player can complete. Having multiple paths is a great thing!
So this leads to a new way for those bulky maps, like in this video. It has some kind of paths, but you can get lost. And here comes segmented gameplay, as soon as you come on first obstacle, you will have a text for what to do next, and a small dinamic bucket list, of some kind of small path. Like rail for 5 seconds, then go 5 wall rides and a big goal it collect all 5 gears.
This will help players to know what they are supposed to do, and IF they complete it, you can paint the part in some kind of color or design it somehow, so the player can SEE what he/she is left to complete. This is an easy aproach to this great problem in designing maps for fast games, took me about a month to solve)
I think Ultrakill is an example of a game that in theory has a very short playtime, but in practice has insane replayability due to the high skill ceiling, and features like different difficulty levels and ranks being achievable, and the fact that getting perfect rankings unlocks new content.
I'm really happy you've figured out the kind of level design that works for your game. I think I can agree as well. My favorite video games have always been the 3D Sonic games, and though the level design can be linear, at times, figuring out how to complete that linear level in optimal time was and still is incredibly enjoyable to me.
A lot of the times people have complained about Sonic, in fact, seem to be whenever the developers try to find some way to extend the playtime of the game by adding stuff to it that the players don't really...want? It's always something along the lines of "the fast linear level part was fun, but the rest feels like padding. Just take the rest out, and let me play the otherwise shorter game."
You may not be a speedrunner yourself, but In a way you essentially just speedran several decades of development of Sonic games. It may be annoying to develop long levels that can nevertheless be beaten in under a minute, but ultimately that's just...what the game works best as, and hopefully with the tools you're developing you can minimize the annoyingness of designing those levels.
I think the more open kind of level can still work as hub worlds, like what Sonic Adventure does. You can explore the hub whenever you want, but all the big action is in those more linear stages you use the hub world to access. Ironically I just came to that same conclusion about my own game I'm developing, though I'm not nearly as far into it as you are with yours.
Good luck with Project Feline dude! I haven't even played these new levels but they already look exciting!
Comgrats to the level dev for making that breakthrough! It's definitely super empowering to have easy-to-use art tools to ensure that you have the freedom to move fast and break things. Even if you're stuck designing levels in blender, the modifiers and geometry nodes are a godsend for automating art pipelines
Something else you can do with fast, linear levels is have alternate branching paths that eventually realign with one another. If speed is the reward, make falling from the high ground stick you with the slower route. If you want people to play the stages over and over, having a score system where points are rewarded based on how cool your maneuvers are, finding collectibles along the way, or clearing in under a certain amount of time could all be ways of incentivizing players to replay stages. Hell, reward them with unlockables for clearing enough objectives.
it's probably a bit early and all but funny achievement idea for the game
The Floor is Nyava: "Don't touch the floor once during (some section name here)"
Bro really made sonic adventure and wondered why it was so fast, heheheh. Your dev log is really fascinating, I've seen it crop up a few times, and I'm SO GLAD you're embracing making a game that's fast paced.
For context, some of my favorite games reward efficient and productive movement. Pizza Tower, Sonic Mania, Star Wars Episode I: Racer, those games are all built with one goal for the player: go as fast as you possibly can. I know that for someone on the outside to say "That should've been the obvious route given the mechanics you made" probably isn't great to hear, but it is so damn easy to miss the obvious solutions in pursuit of the ever changing and half baked concept of perfection that often results in "developer brain." Don't think too much about dragging the game out if your character goes fast. Instead think about making going fast more fun! Sonic games give you ranks, Pizza Tower has the combo system that rewards you for keeping your combo rolling, and racer is just an optimizer's dream game.
As an onlooker, seeing you come to the conclusion that I'm sure people were expecting was the plan all along is gratifying, and for you I'm sure it's a major relief that you were heading the right way from minute one. Keep going, keep developing, and don't worry if your game is only an hour or two long. Replayability is what you want to focus on with speed games, and it sounds like the direction you're heading in has that in spades!
Best of luck to project feline!
So, I had an idea that maybe you don’t have to scrap the open world aspect. Maybe by adding a couple acrobatic moves or tricks to Gabbie that could interact with her environment. For example, jumping off a street lamp, or swinging from a clothesline. Just little interactions that can be reused in different scenarios would be really cool, and wouldn’t require an entire rework of Gabbie’s move set.
As someone who's spent the last 4 days writing and rewriting my movement/momentum system in UE5, I feel this bro. Those blueprints can go from a few nodes to an entangled spider web on nonsense so fast. 😅
When I first started seeing gameplay for this game, I was like “yeah this is definitely a speedrun game.” Tasks like Pro Skater 3 could be cool down the line though.
So glad this video came across my feed, it's an excellent example of how playtesting and iteration is critical to making a good, fun game. Very well executed and the game looks super impressive, best of luck!
Ive been following your project since just before the first playable build was released and im loving the direction you are taking the project. Super excited for release
Can't wait to 100% your game :D
If you are going to add achievementsto your game, please make some that you genuinely don't expect anyone to complete, those are the most fun :)
please absolutely do not do that i dont want another half-life 2 episode 2 on my hands fucking gnome
This game is like trackmania, but with a speedy catgirl
This is extremely relatable. I've been obsessed with playtime and how long my levels should be as well. It's like looking in a mirror, thanks for that ;)
I've been playing a lot of devil may cry recently, and one of the reasons it's so cool is that you can take down entire bosses, clear entire stages, and go crazy with your style, all without ever getting hit or slowing down. Watching the gameplay, it looks kind of unsatisfying when you sometimes gotta run at normal speed when you lose all your momentum. While I haven't played the demo myself, I'd like to say that, for the sake of coolness, you should theoretically never ever have to slow down. It's a game all about speed, right?
Also, no game is complete without an emote button; if you did it in the same way pizza tower did it it wouldn't slow down gameplay but would make you look so much cooler doing stuff.
My best wishes!
I'm really interesting exploring your thought process here. So cool that tools will allow you to create larger momentum-based levels than you have been able to in the past! You got darn lucky with that level designer. :)
This is so amazing! I'm glad I discovered your channel!
This new direction in the level design is awesome! Plus, I don't think you have to completely give up on that idea of having different objectives in a level. I think you might just have to look to a different game aside from Tony Hawk for inspiration. For example, the levels in Sonic Adventure 2 have additional missions with a variety of objectives that you can go back to complete after the main story mission. Some of those missions even involve certain key items that you need to find in other levels to complete. Completing more missions also unlocked extra content, like a secret level. I always really liked that. The levels themselves were already really fun to replay solely to get better times, but the additional missions added some fun variety and gave me incentive to explore the levels at different speeds too.
Great video. It's cool to see how you've explored all the ideas and landed on the best for your game.
In a way, Gabby reminds me a lot like Sonic, and specifically as he appears in Sonic Adventure 2 and the boost games. Anything to keep up that momentum seems like such a better choice than anything that slows down the pace!
It's always such an intersting time tuning back into these development updates. This video in particular hit soooooo close to home for me and the project I've been working on. I always get hung up on some aspect or other which grinds my progress to a halt on all of my game projects...no pun intended. I'm determined to see my latest one through which is a first person runner/platformer and found some level designers to work with me so here's to hoping we can finish up production on it in the next month or two!
Nice to see this Project grow, as always...Btw...I always tought a "Sonic like and something like that Truck jumping game" would be best for your game...
Heck, I beat you can make a endless repeating level with a time limit, where you can exeed it with some pick ups and it would be a blast :3
The small stages although not optimal for Gabbys movement sound like a great means of adding a sense of constriction, as a contrast to the feeling of freedom, this could be good in minor applications to that could be tied to Gabby's main struggles and story beats, Although cleaner maps may be needed they could also be clean means of teaching speed running tech and interesting applications of chaining moves together ala Celeste's Farewell stage, Although getting to momentum in small spaces may be difficult to allow for these tricks this could be generated with something like Bounce Pads akin to Sonic
So you made Sonic Adventure-style platformer and invented Sonic Adventure level design. Great work! It only took you 25 years
im liking the direction this game is going, its as if were witnessing its character building in real time
Nice to see a work-in-progress video like this about a game. Just one question, why does the art popup of Gabby only have one ear?
It'd be nice to see multiple attacks that take advantage of momentum instead of directly stopping it, things like dropkicking then springing back up or going from a slide into something like an overhead kick. You could also add a delay to the attack animation when hitting an enemy as that delay adds weight and gives the overexpressive feel that the style goes for.
Imagine a tool that let the players create levels and share them similar to a game called geometry dash
Or a tool that generates random level from a presets of assets similar to a game called DRG
Great Devlog. I think you came to the right conclusion about your game direction! Good luck in finishing your game!
Take a look at the leaderboards in Splitgate for their race levels. Could give you some inspiration. Or perhaps the leaderboards in any racing game. Ghost images of your best run and other things like that could compliment this direction.
i like this new level direction and i think it's better suited for project feline;
you can have a lot inspiration by looking itno neon white level replayability with the time trial, the secret skip and the platform like hidden collectable
You really should check out neon white, it has an excellent gameloop where you first wanna finish a level, then get a faster time, then the game shows you a shortcut, you get a better time, you unlock the friends leaderboard, try to beat their time and so on with each level!
Most levels are under a minute but you can easily spend half an hour or more optimizing your routing. I think your game and apeedrunning go hand in hand!
One idea as well if you like the speedrun idea, is adding how fast Gabi is as well
The Tony Hawk approach could still be used for an arcade mode for additional content. Keep it up, always excited to see updates for this game. Gabby is so cute!!!
Hey, I have been following since the start and I must say that this version looks the most fun and satisfying.
Games you should harvest for their history, successes and failures regarding their design traits are the Sonic series and the two Mirror's Edge games. Being able to complete the whole game quickly is definitely a feature.
Man, this is fascinating to watch as you progress from linear levels game developers made in 90s to explorable hubs from games in 00s and then go back as you noticed why first one is better
by this ,this game become favorite of speed runner community
Dev when learns about Sonic Level design, glad to see you grow!
I think a longer level wouldn’t be bad. Maybe even a long rail that leads you to focus on a beautiful scene for a moment.
I just subscribed really good project.
Here are some advices to improve the movement gameplay, but take it just as suggestions and ideas:
-Ive noticed you have done something similar but I can't stress enough how important it's the camera placement on a high speed game, make sure to allow the player to watch as much as possible to allow they to decide what's the next step, The Pathless did a great work with the camera, lowering it the most faster you go, that way the most faster it is the more obstacles and possible routes you'll see. This apply to all the moveset, wall runs should show you the front and the opposite side if there's a way all to jump on,, highs jumps should show you the floor to know where you're landing etc
-This is far more complex but if you end up adding or modifying the move set consider adding some moves that conserve momentum but are a little slower, like jumps that are really vertical but not wide, with this kind of transitional movement you allow the player to think what's the next step without noticing it
-This one seems on touch already but always have in mind, visual language it's key, think Mirror Edge, interesting areas must be highlighted via color, lights or any sort of level design, and if you keep it consistent the player will learn that language without noticing it
0:26 That's metal. _Fight the machine!_
Looks like a really fun cross between Tony Hawk games and Sonic the Hedgehog games with a cool parkour spin. Open world spaces can be great for testing out new combos and additional mechanics to improve a persons playstyle if you end up with some sort of advanced movement system. You can also utilize small spaces by making horizontal movement part of level progression. Like a level where you are spiraling up a cylinder by wall running and stuff to get to the top could be great.
nice to see you realising whats really important about what you love
its not about keeping people around, its about getting them to love your game and make them want to be around
One important thing to remember is that most people won't naturally replay and try to speed run levels. Even if they would have a great time doing it.
You need to design replay mechanics to encourage and reward the intended behaviour.
Things like different speed run challenges and unlocks.
Definitely play neon white if you've not already because it's the current flag bearer for this type of design
One thing that i think might benefit the levels (take this with a grain of salt) is multiple options, same outcome. If you have two smaller paths that diverge, then converge you are able to make unique paths with one main objective. Using these alternate paths, it might also be possible to make one slightly harder than the other to also add in the missions if that is something you still want. There is a main route designated for speed, and a second route designated for completion. Should allow some replayability to the maps other than just speedrunning
The tony hawks inspirations doesn't mean you need skateboard etc to achieve a similar or greater level of gameplay. What you need a failure conditions and rewards. The increased momentum is the reward but there is no failure to encourage the use of momentum. Have you thought about the character being chased? It fits the theme of escape. I also imagine many things chasing the MC dogs/crocodiles on the floor ready to bite the character's heels whenever they touch the ground, flying bots an a villain like Prowler for spiderverse. Secondly you need something to do during all actions ie can the main character pounce on air to perform a momentum based double jump. Think about it when you are in a wall run the player does nothing during that animation - a cheap way to fill the time is a quick time event or button mashing to increase speed, I'm struggling to think of something intuitive and not cheap. Collecting gears is one way you have used to fill the animation down time as a wall run isn't just a wall run if you are also collecting gears. However I will say that just collecting gear is boring, I think we've all had enough of game levels where you have to kill x minions to unlock door. You could use the gears in a much more creative way ie image each gear collected is used to strengthen the characters legs increasing player speed and any time you need to perform a trick or action that requires the use of her legs is ends up damaging them. There are many places where you have to kick something, imagine every time this action is performed it damages the characters legs and reduces your momentum, which would create a constant trade of between kicking enemies and levers for momentum. Another way to think about it is : instead of collecting 10 gears which somehow unlocks the next part of a level you could be collection gear to strengthen your legs and once you have 10 your legs are now strong enough to kick down an entire wall revealing the next part of the level. There is also level design opportunities here (granted now it will cost a lot of time to implement) ie all walls can be broken down revealing more of the map granted your feline legs are strong enough.
I think that tighter/more open world stage could be used for level/menu selection. Take Portal 2's multiplayer campaign for example where in order to reach the next set of levels, P1 and P2 has to do a small puzzle just to be able to get to that next set.
I feel like this game could be pretty fun multiplayer, take one of those long linear hallway levels and have it wrap around into a race circut similar to DoubleDutch Games' SpeedRunners
As a suggestion, why not try making a mission system like Sonic Frontiers' Cyberspace stages! In Frontiers there are four missions per stage! Collect X amount of Rings, Collect all Red Star Rings, Get the S Rank time and the final being to Reach the Goal. The Missions are revealed after beating the stage. Maybe something like that could work?
The game is looking great. The new levels look really really nice. I like the gameplay direction as well.
You could probably end up working the 2 or 3 different kinds of levels you have into the game and just use them both. Maybe the open areas are hubs and give you quests that are essentially the linear levels. Maybe some linear levels lead you to other hubs.
If you haven't seen the game Haste I'd recommend checking that out too. It's procedural ( I think anyway), but it does a really good job of having a pretty environment while also having really long levels and really fast gameplay.
With absolutely no background about your game, I was just struck about how the new level seemed entirely dedicated to breaking momentum in a momentum based platformer. I mean really those switches... Glad your back on track.