Bit Blot Forum

Aquaria => Gameplay => Topic started by: theruler on March 19, 2008, 04:26:02 pm

Title: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: theruler on March 19, 2008, 04:26:02 pm
I've found an interesting Diary around the net.

Have a good read.

http://burningfestival.blogspot.com/search/label/diary

(it is a blog... read from bottom)

Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: Xiagan on March 19, 2008, 07:41:18 pm
neatly written, but he stopped over a month ago and hasn't finished, hope he isn't too frustrated...
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: Alphasoldier on March 19, 2008, 08:51:02 pm
Hah, very awesome, nice to see someone's experience step by step.
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: Alec on March 20, 2008, 12:12:54 pm
Hmm yeah! The Beast Form shot saving sounds like an annoying bug. I'll keep that in mind for 1.1.0.
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: Glamador on March 20, 2008, 04:49:32 pm
Well I found it a jolly good read, but it feels like he (or she?  The posts had a distinctive girliness to them) isn't quite persistent enough.  The player seems predisposed to think that nothing could be completed when you first encounter it...leading to needless exploration (which, really, he would have gotten to anyway, but with more stuff) of other areas.  It seems that Mithala gives players alot of trouble...which, idk, I can't figure out.  I guess since he only sucks when you push him back...maybe a few changes for 1.1.0 could be as follows:

Make a distinctive sound when shots push him back, but don't harm him, and maybe make them richochet slightly (I'm trying to think of a way to make it obvious they push him...but nothing is coming to mind, really I think the only solution is added narration...)

The player's comments about the neat little "wow" moments in the game were fun, and his/her writing was engaging enough to keep reading.  It's too bad the diaries stop short of the end though, because for some reason I'm interested to see this person's reaction to the final areas (Though the writer seems to be missing Li at this point...a hinderance to be sure).
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: kite on March 24, 2008, 12:08:05 am
Make a distinctive sound when shots push him back, but don't harm him, and maybe make them richochet slightly (I'm trying to think of a way to make it obvious they push him...but nothing is coming to mind, really I think the only solution is added narration...)

Personally, I'm fond of what they did in the Metroid games... hitting a boss in a meaningful manner but not actually damaging them life-wise would make them flash yellow, while actual damage would make them flash red.
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: Xiagan on March 24, 2008, 12:13:31 am
Make a distinctive sound when shots push him back, but don't harm him, and maybe make them richochet slightly (I'm trying to think of a way to make it obvious they push him...but nothing is coming to mind, really I think the only solution is added narration...)

Personally, I'm fond of what they did in the Metroid games... hitting a boss in a meaningful manner but not actually damaging them life-wise would make them flash yellow, while actual damage would make them flash red.

Well, if you haven't noticed, but that is how it is handled in Aquaria already .
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: kite on March 24, 2008, 01:02:30 am
Sorry, been a while since I played, and since the diary complained about the boss flashing red when he wasn't being damaged, I thought it was like that. My bad if I'm wrong, though.
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: Glamador on March 24, 2008, 02:51:31 am
No you see, he didn't make that connection, because he thought he STILL wasn't doing damage when he was.  You'll notice that he comments on thinking that Nature form shots were the key.  It was all one big messy misunderstanding that I'm sure he'd realize if he read the correct strategy.
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: delve on March 24, 2008, 11:01:10 am
Once I looked really close I could tell Mithalas was flashing yellow, but it was hard to see. Perhaps adding a flinch animation would do the trick, or making his entire body (instead of just his head as I recall it) flash would help.

I think a flinch animation would be a better solution since you could incorporate the backwards movement into it which would reinforce the connection without being jarringly obvious.
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: Alphasoldier on March 24, 2008, 03:01:23 pm
How about just NOT making it flash, that would be way more obvious, or like they said, make some sort of invincible sound.
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: delve on March 24, 2008, 03:36:14 pm
If it didn't flash then it wouldn't give me the feedback that the entity is reacting to me. It would be like shooting a wall (or Nautilus Prime's shell for instance) and I'd start looking for a 'weak point.' Just my reactions, of course.
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: Glamador on March 24, 2008, 05:09:47 pm
I agree with Delve's original suggestion.  Adding a flinching animation, and perhaps making the Yellow more distinct.  The thing is, you don't make the connection that yellow =/= red because frankly, there arn't many times when you even NOTICE things flash red when they're damaged.  Maybe if you added some sort of barrier before the boss room where if you hit it somewhere it flashes yellow and jiggles, but if you hit it in a core of some sort, it flashes red and roars.  I think that would be a great training method.
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: Alphasoldier on March 25, 2008, 09:25:40 am
Making it flinch every time you hit him would be very hard to do, And making him having the hurt animation when damaging him... Well, he will never get to attack you cause he's busy with that animation. I still think, nothing happening when not damaging would be THE best idea.
Title: Re: Aquaria Playthrough Diary
Post by: Glamador on March 25, 2008, 05:17:14 pm
Well I too thought that an overabundance of pain animations would limit his ability to attack, and thus make him jokingly simple.  So I again suggest you look at my...er...suggestion.  Just have some sort of pre-boss training sequence for it.