Thanks for your input friend, we've thought of forests before, in fact they're still on the table... what I was concerned with was the scale difference, I think the trees are a great idea but they only obstacle with that is scale, every tree we have so far is 1 Voxel thick, if we add 3 to 5 voxel thick trees it might affect the continuity. A tree can only be so tall with a trunk 1 voxel thick Johan also suggested the forest to place some of the other animals. The other issue might be that it'll look to much like the mountain biome, but that could simply be fixed by the color scheme I love the idea of perching a lot actually, but it might be a bit more trickier, if it comes down to pushing or pulling of thumbs there might be a considerable margin for error, specially if its activatible when you get close to the terrain, it's easy to pull/push fingers as you're flying. Maybe there's simple yet effective ways to get this done?
Yeah, I want to make a bird-customization screen like the color screen. The birds appearance would then control its physics. Either the achievemnts could unlock "points" for doing that, or it could be something else, or it could be completely open. Since the achievements can be given points, it could be a way to get a high-score and rule the scoreboard, something that some think of an incentive. Or just the joy of completing/mastering the game. On second thoughts, it can be automatic actually... There can be some special points that are considered the birds feet (somewhere below the lower end of the screen). If these points touch the ground first at a certain low speed, it can disable the normal collision detection and fold the wings automatically. Then one finger to look around and two fingers to take off again. Pretty simple... in theory. The sketch is based on the Halleluja mountains in China: This is the mountains that inspired the floating islands in "Avatar", so maybe we should have some floating islands as well in Fugl? I'm making the rainforest (jungle) now. It will have very big trees!
Hey! I played about 30 minutes of Fugl's latest version (0.6.3) and here are a few thoughts/issues. I haven't gone through the 70+ pages of feedback so apologies if these are known : - At one point I was in the "caves" biome that's mostly coveered tunnels, and after dying it was pretty hard to get back into a tunnel because there's so few openings, and you spawn on top of the world. I died multiple times just trying to get my bird floating at that height, since the "ground" is very close to the spawn point and I hit it before I could get afloat... - The twin stick controls (roll and yaw) is the most comfortable for me, however the roll stick always feels inverted. It would be great to have an option to invert X for the roll controls. - I hit the "edge of the world"? White biomes that had collision and killed me on contact, but could not see where the geometry is (on iPhone 6) https://imgur.com/a/AEBEk That's it for now! Will give more gameplay-focused impressions after spending more time with it.
Yeah I think gravity is a part of it, because I got stuck a lot trying to fly upwards without enough speed. Another part of it is how easy it is to turn too much and end up in a loop, which will crash inexperienced players most of the time. To be honest, I actually don't feel that much of a difference, other than it makes it even harder to fly upwards and harder to start above high ground, like at the caves. It reduced gliding time, and I like me some good gliding . I didn't notice the added acceleration very much, but I did notice that diving and then swooping upwards felt better. More variation would definitely help I think. And I agree with bp's and ramzarules' suggestions to make it darker with brighter crystals. And oh my god, daylight shafts sound awesome. I also like the idea of giving the fog a special color hue leading you towards the sun. Achievements sound good, especially if they encourage special things you wouldn't normally do. I think it'd be good if they were somehow gradually introduced though, so that you're not overwhelmed with just a giant GameCenter list that you have to check off. While still providing some choices as to what you want to go for. Main problem I see with them would be the UI interference. Right now, the flying is so nicely uninterrupted, and I just can't imagine that a huge GameCenter sign popping down once in a while would fit the mood of the game. Can you customize those maybe? I'm a fan of the perching idea, especially the automatic one! I think this would also make it much more accessible to new players, and create fewer interruptions to the flying. I wanted to see if I could get to that "edge of the world" that renaud bedard hit, so I deleted and reinstalled the app. When I then tried to launch it, it kept crashing (tried 5 times), even after shutting down all other apps, shutting down the fugl app and then trying again. I rebooted the phone, which worked. Loaded in first try after that. Then I tried to quickly fly the "wrong" way, towards my shadow. I didn't encounter the white geometry, but I did see this sharp transition and then an endless ocean when I got to the end/start of the biome: You probably know about that already though, right?
0.6.4 is out! 0.6.4 is out! New stuff: - Graceful first-time loading, should clear up all crash issues during launch - Reworked cave with nicer colors and crystals, also added some room when you start over it - Adjusted the camera so the bird is more centered, especially noticable on the iPhone - Better loading of biomes, should clear up the invisible terrain problem - Reduced gravity in experiemtnal flight model to 25 % more than normal model (previously 50 % more)
Hehe no problem, thanks for the feedback! Fixed it 0.6.4. Ok, I'll add it, but I would really recommend you give the default scheme another go... Fixed (i think) in 0.6.4. Looking forward to it!
Have you tried reducing sensitivity? I don't quite understand what you mean? You make some good points, I will need to think about it, we don't want ui clutter. Regardless I've decided to add a story and some real gameplay in addition to the free roam mode. It's going to be a bit journey/lord of the rings I think. How would this help new players? Perching will probably be an advanced skill, it hard to land! Fixed it! Fixed that too!
I'm getting the endless ocean too, how can I update to the new version? EDIT: Never mind I just reinstalled through the link in the email.
After playing with this wonderful game for a day or two, it's absolutely stunning. Due to the steep learning curve for the controls, in my opinion, you may (and probably have) considered creating an in-depth, interactive tutorial on it. However, I do understand that this project is in the alpha stages, so a feature like this will probably come far down the road. The only (small) issue I am having with the game right now, is the fact that buttons during a transition are not in the correct position, making it common for the user to mis-tap items. Along with that, when the bird "dies", the camera sometimes drifts inside the terrain, creating rendering issues of the mesh being rendered from the wrong side. Other than that, I've had no crashes, frame performance issues, or odd bugs. Thanks, Nathan
I'm happy you like it! Some kind of tutorial is coming, don't know what yet. I would like it to be flying down from a tree like real birds do it, haha. You mean transitions between menu screens, right? I can't replicate the bug on neither my iphone 6 or ipad air. When does this happen exactly? Yes, I will have to fix that soon, it's no collision detection on the camera yet! Good to hear, keep me posted on your progress!
0.6.5 is out! 0.6.5 is out, new stuff: 1) Reworked water, nicer and longer transitions 2) Colored fog, each biome has it's own sky color and horizon color (fog). 3) Reworked death cam to stay clear of terrain (no more "bug reports" on that, haha) 4) Reworked experimental flight model, very very happy with it. It still got more gravity than normal model, but I can adjust that. I think this new model has a lot more feeling to it, also it's much easier to recover from a stall. 5) Tweeked cave biome colors. 6) Fixed bug regarding roll direction with dual stick controls 7) Doesn't quit on device sleep any longer 8) Reduced roll senitivity I've had a busy week with other work (paid), so I didn't have time to work on Fugl as much as liked, hopefully I'll have more time the next few days, I hope to make the jungle biome next also add more particles. I'm pretty sure some sound will make it into the game by the next release! Looking forward to your feedback as always!
I like the floating islands Marco! And i gave 0.65 a spin, so For the experimental model, i don't know how you did it, but yes, now you can avoid the stall, and coming out after a dive feels PERFECT! You nailed that. However, i find that you fall much much faster than before when not flapping, so it is much more difficult in tight spaces where you can't flap. ie., inside the cave it was almost impossible Finally, i'm playing with dual sticks (left yaw and right roll) and whenever i hold both thumbs to flap, *as still as possible*, my fugl keeps rolling while flapping at the same time. Maybe it's because i have the sensitivity high (around80%)? The sensitivity for yawing to me is perfect, if only i wouldnt roll every time i want to flap forward.. Ok finally finally, i flew through all the biomes before writing, and i want to say i can't believe how far Fugl has come from 0.1, and its beauty keeps increasing with every new version! Keep it up guys!
I've been hearing a lot about the experimental fought mode and I just want to know how it differs from normal.
Thanks so much Ramzarules! We appreciate you sticking with us on this journey, glad you liked the floating islands... I plan on having some more of these fantasy twists in the future ;D
New 0.6.5b build I've uploaded a new build of 0.6.5 with a few adjustments (mainly based on Ramzarules' feedback): 1) Reduced roll sensitivity for the dual stick control schemes 2) Reduced the falloff when soaring 3) Added option for turning screenshot hot corners on/off 4) Reduced the flapping power a bit in the experimental model So if you downloaded 0.6.5, please re-download!
The experimental model is just me trying to evolve the flight model to be more what I feel it should be like. I keep a normal model so the testers can switch back and forth to see if it's better or not. When everybody agrees that I've found something better, I make the experimental model the normal model and start making new experimental models. This new experimental model makes you fall much faster when stalling, but it has much easier recovery from the stall state. It also has a bit more gravity (25 %) to accellerate the bird faster when diving. A dive is supoosed to give you a special feeling in your stomach, like riding a rollercoaster. I think we're getting there now!
