You remind me of one 2-year-old project of one lady.
Fyi, this mod has been in development for 4.5 years now. With pauses of course.
I wanted to share a lengthy review from Arthas (who isn't on this forum, only on IRC):
Being a long-time and pretty die-hard fan of Aquaria, I went into this mod with quite some expectations, and I was happy to see that most of them were indeed met.
However, as of right now it is not without its flaws. To name the ones I noticed the most right from the tip of my tongue:
-The writing of both the opening and ending sequence are a bit cheesy, but the rest of it is pretty solid from what I can recall right now. I was a bit irritated to see them all just diving off in the end without a single word, where I would have considered some exchange of words essential at this point. If nothing else at least some baffled remark from Li's side, or him getting a bit angry about his son simply running after her like that or something, since he /is/ taking the role of the adult and caring father here.
-The mod doesn't give you the same feeling of freedom, the thrill of exploration and for that matter the need to engage in it as the main game did.
This might partially be because so far there are not enough items and secrets to find in the already fairly vast world, or new astounding areas that really set themselves apart from those in the main game, where each area did have its own distinctive mood and atmosphere.
On the other hand it might as well be me having played the game so many times that I am already too familiar with the different settings I've seen the game providing players with.
-Continuing this train of thought, precisely because it is lacking this sort of feeling at times - at least for me - it also lacks a certain sort of immersion that I was thrilled to experience again, since Aquaria always excelled in this in my opinion.
What I mean by this is simple: While I am not a big fan of massive amounts of backtracking or anything, I disliked the fact that it literally gives you no reason to come back to any place. Particularly areas like the new section beyond the Song Cave. The new kind of homes one can find here seemed very intriguing at first, but unlike in Mithalas for example, it did neither motivate nor reward you enough to linger or simply marvel at some of the effects shown off.
-I also felt as if the homes themselves were a bit... indecisive as to what they wanted to be, in terms of design. Aside from these houses though, one possible design flaw I noticed in this area was one of these homes standing in the far background at some point, visible through some sort of tunnel, that gave - just as the bottom of the sea in this area - a very nice 3D effect.
On widescreen however, the separate layers of this tunnel became very visible, and one could see that they simply ended after the width of just a single sprite placed in these sort of circles, after which there was only clear water again. Now, this may as well have been intentional, but I found it sort of quirky.
And for that matter, some of the what I think are new art assets in that area seemed rather low-resolution as well.
-The same thing about immersion goes for the tree which one has to acquire the glowing fruit from. The cave it stands in is very, very atmospheric indeed, and I would have liked to see something else done with it of sorts, even if it was a bit of platforming or an interesting NPC sitting around. But as soon as you shoot these bulbs down and collect a few, you are just completely done in that area.
-The anemone maze that now fills the song cave is also a bit of a hassle to navigate.
-Another major factor that hampered my sense of immersion was the fact that one gets funneled through a lot of areas, like the new (uninhabited) parts of the energy temple. Even if you're not in the steady current which already drags you down into the next area, off-track there is also nothing to do or to find, which can quickly become a bit dull.
Likewise, finding the way out of the energy temple upon returning took quite some effort, since I forgot the small passage which I came in from, and which also is not visible on the map. I would have never found out if it was not for the circles on the mini-map, in fact. But you can blame that on my memory.
-The fish/monster battle is pretty tough, to be honest. But it's not the mere challenge that bothered me, it's rather that this thing was waaay too agile and hyper-aggressive for its size, which made it more intimidating and frustrating than it maybe should have been.
-Last but not least, the ending for this first chapter was a bit of a letdown. Not /how/ it ended, just how it was executed. The build-up of having Li and his Son waking up to all these small lights, the sudden sense of threat there nearly had my jaw drop, but it resulting in just leading the Krotites to the door, having them open it, Li saying out of nowhere that he HAD to make this decision, to just leave it all behind in a heartbeat, and no chase, battle or anything happening after that, was one of the most anti-climatic things in that moment, and while it was not really disappointing, it bothered me, because I saw this nonexistent transition out of there to the ending sequence - which in itself was fair enough - as a big amount of wasted potential.
Overall, it could be said that this mod aims for the stars. And while this is not a bad thing by itself, it does imply that there still needs to be a lot more work done.
Because so far the scale it is aiming at does simply not match the amount of content it comes with. The story told and areas shown, all of the gameplay and new visual effects so far also feel a bit like a tease, a mere introduction of what's yet to come.
I get that showing everything that's still in store for the players off in the very first chapter is a very bad idea in foresight, but I can't help but feeling that through all this stuff - no matter how well or not it worked out - that was shown so far, I am a bit dissatisfied, or would have liked to see EVEN more. But again, this too might be something intentional.
But to name some more things I was very pleasantly surprised with:
-The animation transitions from water to land itself could still be a bit smoother, but once on land, it's actually very solid. Walking /can/ look a bit funny at times, but jumping and all the rest is really, really well done.
-The idea of having to traverse the energy temple on your way back while being guarded/observed is very well thought out and executed, although I don't think that it is exhausted yet, because the energy temple as well does not have enough going for it at this point, although it certainly shows potential.
-The short cut-scene in which Li brings back his son to the home cave in order to see him safe before continuing right where you left off seems very natural, fitting and thoughtful, and is kinda heart-warming actually.
-The new areas feel very big and for the most part not too artificial, although that is rather hard to explain. But again, through them not having enough going for themselves and through not being able to go everywhere (yet?), most of them are just a major tease, or you end up wondering if you did something wrong. Which for some reason worked out so well in the original game.
-The way the conversations with Erulians work is truly marvelous. Those mere silhouettes of black on clear blue background telling you so much, yet so little at the same time, REALLY have me looking forward to what's yet to come. Although I would have liked to see these visions? memories? scattered around the place, so that you cannot simply ask all of them from the very first Erulian you meet.
A few comments from me, to give some insight in our ideas and planning. We discussed most of this already, but i'm leaving these comments here for everyone to read.
This might partially be because so far there are not enough items and secrets to find in the already fairly vast world, or new astounding areas that really set themselves apart from those in the main game, where each area did have its own distinctive mood and atmosphere.
Yes. It is intentional that there are no real secrets for Li to find since he won't appear in the rest of the story. Giving him secrets to find there would be kinda counter-productive -- how would e.g. collectibles found by Li have an impact on the chapters to come? For the cape and suit (depending on how much you found) there are some ideas how they will re-appear in later chapters, but any sort of "home decoration"/standard collectibles or even upgrades would clearly be very useless since Li's part is so short.
At some point there was the idea to allow Li to upgrade his blaster, but since it will be taken away from him that would not have made any difference in the long run (aka "Why did they put an upgrade here if it gets stolen 20 minutes later" would be a thought here).
Him getting the thing stolen instead gives him much more reason to leave and drives the story far more in the intended direction.
I disliked the fact that it literally gives you no reason to come back to any place. Particularly areas like the new section beyond the Song Cave. The new kind of homes one can find here seemed very intriguing at first, but unlike in Mithalas for example, it did neither motivate nor reward you enough to linger or simply marvel at some of the effects shown off.
You will get back there later, just not as Li
On widescreen however, the separate layers of this tunnel became very visible, and one could see that they simply ended after the width of just a single sprite placed in these sort of circles, after which there was only clear water again. Now, this may as well have been intentional, but I found it sort of quirky.
Whoops, need to fix the map. Getting parallax layers right is really tricky, but we do everything in 16:9 at least (i even use 2:1 to be sure) so these things usually get caught.
-The same thing about immersion goes for the tree which one has to acquire the glowing fruit from. The cave it stands in is very, very atmospheric indeed, and I would have liked to see something else done with it of sorts, even if it was a bit of platforming or an interesting NPC sitting around. But as soon as you shoot these bulbs down and collect a few, you are just completely done in that area.
That area was added at a rather late stage so there were no big plans for it. And it's true, it shows.
But about the platforming, i disagree. Li's jump is intentionally rather awkward/useless and you wouldn't want to do platforming with it.
Might change some things there if we get ideas, but no promises.
-The anemone maze that now fills the song cave is also a bit of a hassle to navigate.
That's intentional.
The density is a bit less in critical spots when the difficulty is set to easy, though (in the updated version).
-Another major factor that hampered my sense of immersion was the fact that one gets funneled through a lot of areas, like the new (uninhabited) parts of the energy temple. Even if you're not in the steady current which already drags you down into the next area, off-track there is also nothing to do or to find, which can quickly become a bit dull.
There are things to find. There's just no way to get there yet or pick most of them up. Right off the bat i remember at least 3 health eggs on the way. But Li can't open them, and one of them can't be seen since it's off limits, but trust me, it's there and you will get there later. Just not with Li, for reasons explained above.
Li's part is designed to be fairly linear, but I heard from others that they already managed to get lost. (The most overlooked thing so far that gets people stuck are the glowfruit in the erulian area.)
-Last but not least, the ending for this first chapter was a bit of a letdown. [...] was one of the most anti-climatic things in that moment, and while it was not really disappointing, it bothered me, because I saw this nonexistent transition out of there to the ending sequence - which in itself was fair enough - as a big amount of wasted potential.
Very true. We did not realize this at the time...
After a bit of discussion there's now a good plan what to add to make this part more interesting and EVIL.
Won't be in the updated version (that is still not yet done), since there's too much not yet functional and some additional AI modules are required, but it'll be done eventually. For a spoiler, look at the animated GIF in my prev. post
but I can't help but feeling that through all this stuff - no matter how well or not it worked out - that was shown so far, I am a bit dissatisfied, or would have liked to see EVEN more. But again, this too might be something intentional.
Intentional. We had to end this somewhere to have something to play, if we just add content we get never done. Fixing bugs and polishing everything took far too long regardless.
And in the end, it would be a waste to show off everything in the first chapter. There should still be surprises and new features not seen before that come later. And there are
But we did add a few "unnecessary" things just to show off, e.g. Li's walking in the top of the erulian area. That's exactly the reason why there is air there (there is also an in-lore explanation too, dw).
In the end, this release was supposed to be a teaser, and nothing else. Imho it did quite well for that, but it does have its weaknesses, and those will be addressed if possible/necessary/feasible.
-The idea of having to traverse the energy temple on your way back while being guarded/observed is very well thought out and executed, although I don't think that it is exhausted yet, because the energy temple as well does not have enough going for it at this point, although it certainly shows potential.
There is the idea of making a "stealth mission" part, possibly for Lucien, that is similar. But again, not for Li, and doing it this early without any preparation or explanation would be unfun.
The temple interior isn't exactly finished, we need to pin down Krotite culture a bit more first.
Although I would have liked to see these visions? memories? scattered around the place, so that you cannot simply ask all of them from the very first Erulian you meet.
Will see what we can do. The initial idea was that having as many erulians as memories, and each of them gives one, but that would have involved chasing each of them down. Which isn't fun since they all move around at will, and it's impossible to remember which one you have asked already (not that one could distinguish them that well, anyway). So we did it this way, which isn't optimal either...
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I'd like to point out something that nobody has really brought up yet: The "Naija's costume collectibles".
- Ever wondered why they are scattered around everywhere? (The gamplay reason is to assure you that you are on the right track. If you haven't noticed, they lead directly to the huge fish. But there is an in-lore explanation for this as well.)
- Why the cape is where it is (there are 2 possibilitites to pick it up, in case you miss it the first time, and it's required to progress. So you could only avoid it for a time, even if you tried hard.)
--> Apparently Naija lost her cape, but how/why/wtf?
- And why the huge fish spits out the main part of the suit, undamaged.
Ideas? Did anyone figure out yet what happened there?
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Lastly, something in very early development:
^ Dialogs! (Slightly inspired by NITW, *cough*)
Actually, i got that to work yesterday at 5 am. Wheeee.
Still ugly and WIP, but it'll get better
