I make the eagles chase you just as a test and see what that brings... I'm more and more against the whole energy system as I think it will alienate new players. It won't be a problem for seasoned players as they will have no problem getting energy, but new players will find it frustrating hard....
The structure of "Fugl" is so that this is not possible, the playable area is always moving forward, so if you go to far, you won't be able to return (hello fog!). Yes, it's a possibility, but I would like a more simple concept that you can be scored on and where you don't have to save progress. If you quit Fugl, I cannot reproduce the place where you left of, so it needs to be more pick up and play, and not a big story mode to go though... Also I like the concept of something simple to be scored on, like distance for instance... Yes, excactly this! "Fugl" and "Fractalis" are the same, technically. Like i said earlier, I will definitively reskin the game after completion to make a shooting game set in space. I'm thining a similar set-up. Shoot baddies, save the humans. Each level is a new planet. Maybe even upgradeable ships and weaponry as you progress. Pretty standard stuff, but It will be super easy to do when Fugl is done.
I forgot to say: Thanks for all the input guys, it was real helpful! It's always a let down when game mechanics doesn't turn out like excpected, but I still feel very optimistic about the game. I think the basis is so good that it doesn't need a lot of gameplay mechanics. It's going to be a beautiful voyage anyways!
Thanks for letting us take part in that voyage. It is already a beautiful experience and i'm impressed how quick you put out new versions. Can't wait to see how it evolves further.
Agree on all accounts. I consider it an honor to help in the making of a beautiful game in a way that i can. And yes, i admit my rpg-self got the better of me, but the egg-collecting idea in a procedurally generated world is great too. As you said, it will be a beautiful experience just flying around, everything else will be a bonus!
I am pleased to hear you repeatedly keep priority nailed on the experience of flight and am also pleased to hear you use the word "wonder" as part of your goal. That's how the game hits me now and I can't wait to see the final product. To me the hunting aspect feels very much a secondary part of the experience, and I'm not sure hunting birds is even an enhancement to the overall experience, in and of itself. I've noticed that with the addition of the purple birds, it is now easier to hunt them, but the effect I more come away with is "absorb them" or just "burst them." And I wonder if it even need be birds. It reminds me of the feeling of waking the flowers in the beautiful Flower for PS3/4/Vita. I could perhaps see it more satisfying or perhaps more natural somehow if these were sort of bubbles - bubble creatures - floating in the wind and you burst them to experience the bursting of them -- maybe an explosion of voxel color with auditory reward. Maybe there are different kinds of things in the air that draw you down towards the water and back up to the heights. Perhaps some of the more eclectic landscapes could have flora that sends spores into the air and birds or other creatures that are doing their own formation flying and kind of get out of your way when you fly through them, but aren't running away from you. These are all things that verge the experience to wards less "realism" and more fantasy, and it seems appealing. Just thinking out loud here, and very happy with things so far. I'm having a very stressful week at work and have been using Fugl to find real relaxation amid all of it. I think the game's ability to have that effect on us will only increase as things evolve further. Thanks for all of this. bp
It really means a lot for me to have your support, so thank you all for those kind words! I think maybe I've been overthinking a bit. It was the same with Melodive, constantly trying to add new features, but in the end I scraped it pretty bare. In "Fugl" I really want to cling to my original concept and that is the joy of flight and exploring the biomes. With that in mind, I think the gameplay is pretty solid as it is now. I don't think it needs a lot of other stuff. I'm working on a wind model, but it's going slowly. I think that can add something to this sense of flying, but I'm not sure yet. It might not be needed. I want to spend my time on making beautiful biomes with Marco and filling them with a lot of different flocking animals, and hidden places you maybe only see once or twice. I think Blake kind of captures very good what I'm trying to achieve, it's going to be an relaxing experience for sure. But in addition to the "free flight" mode, I also wanted to make a scoring system. I always imagined it to be based on distance traveled, so therefore I was thinking about obstacles to this progress, like an energy-system. But, in rethinking this, I've come up with a new system that might work more according to what I want the player to be doing: Flying really close to the terrain. My idea is this: Imagine there is a sphere of voxels around the bird. Each frame I check this sphere and if the voxel is filled (terrain) you are given a point divided by the distance to the bird. So voxels closer to the bird would give more points. So you collect points by flying close to the terrain. The closer you fly, the more points. BUT, if you don't fly close enough to score any points, your score decreases by a fraction of a percent. This means that to keep scoring, you need to stay close to terrain. This might not be a very elegant solution, but it fits very well with what I want to score the player on, namely the abilty to fly close to the terrain. What do you think?
This is why I love iOS games. Such unique creations! Almost like Interactive Art! The environments look beautiful and the gameplay seems very tranquil and explorative
Bug maybe? I've encountered a bug, perhaps, and wanted to report. While flying away from the sun, I encountered the "world wall" of sorts and I could see it - it was not encoded in fog completely. I feel like this wasn't possible earlier, but maybe it was and I just didn't hit it. Pic attached. I then flew on the other side of it (pic also) and then when I went to ground the bird sort of went below it and got smaller and smaller and I could still flap and turn the bird, but it was not effecting its motion - it stayed centered on the screen (attached). Not sure if this is helpful. Fugl v0.4.2 in iPad (first two pics) and iPhone 6 bp
It's just my very ungraceful start of world generation. I should fix that soon, including a title screen. It just feels like work doing it, so I'm always putting it off!
Ah, I thought something had changed since the last version maybe. Also - I now have a feel for the layout of the world to a degree. On the axis perpendicular to the "wall," you can go for great length (it seems) towards the sun. Left or right of that - parallel to the wall - you're looping. I tried for a while but could not seem to get "past" the sun. This makes me ask, does the terrain go on and on, being procedurally generated, or is the biome a large, pre-structured system (fixed, not randomish) that was modeled? Thanks. bp
That sounds exceptional. What I do in the game right now more than chase eagles or purples, is to buzz the terrain closely, and I find myself doing that more to the sides of the structures, the tops, and the caves than the water. Flying close to everything is what I do and what feels fun. The sphere you propose would reward you for flying through a tight hole, as you would have terrain on all sides of you, and that's great. Harder moves, bigger rewards. That sounds perfect. bp
Also...what are your thoughts in us sharing images of the game at present. It occurred to me to make a little flickr gallery of screens from the game to show friends, etc. But, I totally understand if you don't want early images out in the wild. What is your feeling here? I 100% understand if you want to keep things under wraps. bp
You are correct about the layout, the world is only 256 voxels across. Hopefully it won't be too obvious, or I might have to double it to 512, but that might not be possible... The terrain is procedurally generated on the fly, so there is no end it no...
Nice. And as for only 256 voxels across, I have probably spent 12-15 hours in the game and it was only when I discovered the beginning of world wall, and started to fly along it looking for a "corner" that I noticed it repeated, and then flew out to verify that the world repeats along with. And I am fairly observant. So, I think in the final product there is no concern that it is too obvious -- it seems fine be limitless in one direction and not the other. bp
It's hard to take a screenshot and not auger in. https://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157651051669400 bp
Sure, like Blake said, - and from what you gather from my posts- i do the same: test myself on how i can go through holes, touch the water with my wingtips, fly upside down close to the tops of the canyons, and stuff like that. So i'd agree, even though to me scoring in any game is secondary by far.
