2015-10-16 05:38:12

Crap, for some reason I can't even jump over the first pit, I just fall right in after jumping and holding the right arrow. Am I doing something wrong?

Take care, it's a desert out there.

2015-10-16 05:41:53 (edited by defender 2015-10-16 05:47:07)

I think complaining about the fact that people have an opinion at all is just a waste of time, and I can't understand why it's such a seemingly personal tragedy to some of you when a potential customer expresses doubts about a product.


People saying that sidescrollers are too common in the audio games community isn't going to ruin the industry, especially because it's just true, no matter which way you look at it, weather statistically or based on public thought on the subject.  It seems like almost all of the newest payed games for PC are just tired rehashes of the same type of game, accept with fancier music and acting that, to be honest, belongs in a much better format such as an RPG or open world adventure, instead of being wasted here.


I wish developers would start coding something else other than one of the easiest types of audio games to create, add bells and whistles to, and sell for more than it's worth, because this type of game seems to have a pretty hard limit on the quality of gameplay, which is exactly why the mainstream left it in the dust for the most part years ago, especially because I know that Blastbay and VG have the creativity, and I believe, coding skills to do it.


Adventure at C:\ was a success because it was free, challenged the player from the outset, and had a unique theme that jived well with the blind community, which, by necessity is relatively knowledgeable about technology as a hole.
In contrast, Psyko Strike was a flop because it was a disappointment after the hype about it, as well as the simple fact that two well respected developers both worked on it, but those same developers left the community completely hanging right after release and for weeks afterwards, on everything from bug reports, to questions about gameplay, to project life cycle queries and more, and the fact that the game was relatively simple, cost too much for what it offered, didn't give enough incentives to keep playing in terms of ingame rewards, extras, and unlockables based on how much repetative work had to be put in, and the easily hackable registration system all contributed to it's failure.


Basically, as far as I can tell, we as a hole are tired of sidescrollers, and no amount of money you throw at them to make them shiny and unique is going to make us care much, so either think of something better or fade into obscurity.  And to those who think I'm being too harsh on these guys, I just want to remind you that progress sometimes only comes with criticism, because with out it, no one's  even aware that something needs to change in the first place.
I also respect these developers for doing what they do day in  and day out to get that finished product out there, the talents and hard work of the composers, sound designers, and voice actors that assist them, and the art form it's self, but I'm not going to say nothing just because some people view any sort of negative action against these game devs, who are still just normal every day people, as a threat to the continued output of games for them to play.


Thumbs up though Aaron, for making a game that some people at least will enjoy this season, and I hope for your sake that time proves me wrong about your success, because you certainly deserve to at least break even on your investment in this project.

2015-10-16 05:46:31

drg wrote:

I'll just say this: I've bought the game even without trying the demo. why is that do you ask? because I want to support the development of future
projects. but if you don't have the money to buy it, or don't enjoy the game and want to compare it to bk 3, simple play bk 3 which is a more complex
and much bigger game. I've played bk 3 and know what I'm talking about. but I have to agree 100% with mr.brunete!! keep complaining to every new
release, soon enough we won't get more new games, and that will make you guys happy it seems. oh and excuse me. while you complain I'm off to play
the gates. I'm on level 6 and the game is fucking hard and good imo. there aren't any new concepts, but it's fun as it is. the game is not a button
masher, the enemies follow an attack pattern. if you ask me if there's way to improve, i'd definitely agree. but this attitude of constantly bashing
the dev based on the feature list itself is ridiculous.

Ridiculous? Then why is it that many devvs I talk to on the forum and on Skype tell me the same thing? There isn't any innovation these days in the audio gaming community. Strictly speaking, they would be correct. A well-respected dev told me this the other day as we were discussing the state of gaming and concluded that there are many half-hearted projects. Instead of focusing on voice acting so much, it would be better if the devs really improved on the game play and content. As I played through the demo, I realized that this is basically Psycho Strike pasted into a game with a horror theeme. So, it probably didn't take a whole lot of coding to really make this game different because the only thing that is different is the enemies, weapons, and most importantly, the voice acting. This is what jacks up the price. The game however, is sadly no different.
Again, if there was true innovation here, I would be happy to pay for this game. I think I will have to pass on this one though, considering there are better titles out there.

I attack with the savagery of a thousand piranhas.

2015-10-16 06:19:23

I actually agree with you Turtlepower. I happen to like side scrollers. The problem is that no dev has really made a sincere effort to showcase everything a side scroller represents. Ok so that's not quite true but we have yet to see a completed title that does this. But it's because everybody who makes side scrollers seems to want to make clones of Super Liam and Q9 that the genre has such a mixed rap in this comunity. True Adventure at C: did attempt to break out of that mold with some of the concepts it introduced (its brutally unforgiving difficulty not the least among those), but other than that nobody's really tried to push the envelope. I do agree that thirt bucks for ten levels may be a bit steep but I'll still buy it simply to support Aaron's future projects.
  Now as for people's difficulty with jumping, you actually want to get right up to the second squeaky floorboard. Most side scrollers you can get away with jumping from the first one but not here.

But wait, what's that? A transport! Saved am I! Hark, over here! Hey nonny non, please help!

2015-10-16 06:22:50

Hi
I'd like to say, just one thing. Why some peoples are buying an offline game? I'm sorry to say, and It is just my think, but I think buying an offline game is, Just, stupid, and really, really, really waste of money.
Reason? It is an example of that
You bought an offline game. You really enjoyed it. Passing hard and crazy, impossible levels, you somehow cleared the game. When you cleared the game, what do you think? I think... Um, it was good, but also it was a waste of time and money. When you cleared an offline game, you will see a message like this.
Thanks to xx xx, xx xx, xx xx, and xx xx. Sound design by xx xx, xx xx, and xx xx, This game has been coded by Aaron baker. Thanks for playing this game and Thanks for support my development.

I've saw like this message when I cleared the entombed. I didn't buy it, I've shared the id with someone, But when I cleared it, It was just nothing and waste of time. Isn't it?
An online game is lot different. Online game has constant server updates, play with other players, make friends, join into an event, share items, etc, etc, etc etc etc. It causes an endless fun, isn't it? Think about it. Also, there are lots of free on offline games. Buying a 10 level online game is, again I think really bad idea.
Anyway, I'm sorry if I've hurt someone's feelings
Thanks

2015-10-16 06:27:59

Buying a 10 level online game is=Buying a 10 level offline game is.
I'm sorry about my typing misstake, I would cause a serious confusion. For prevent that, I'm posting this message.

2015-10-16 06:53:12

1: Wait, we have other weapons? Where? How? When?
2: You move faster when jumping than running, which is enough to outrun the Grey Lady. ... I still haven't beaten her, but... ur.... I've only been using the knife. ...
3: If I can beat the Grey Lady without going insane, it'd be the sort of game I might be willing to pay for. But... ah... $30? That's the sort of money I would put into an installment in a series or franchise I really like, or possibly into a game that has been out for a while and received loads of positive attention. $32 is how much I paid for Mortal Kombat Trilogy for PS1, long after I already had MK4 for PC. ... Or was that Marvel Vs Capcom? I forget which was $32. I got them around the same time.

Also--and this is a rant I wrote *checks* last night, not in response to this game since it wasn't out then--audio games, and side scrollers in particular, have serious want of decoration. Even the original Super Mario Bros had hills and bushes and junk in the background. (... Yes, I did leave those out when I tried accessifying it. Why do you ask? ... sad ). This is one of the things that threw me with BK2 and 3--huge, hundred-or-more-tile rooms, with nothing at all in them. Palidin of hte Sky did a great job with decoration and extra details in many places, but other places were just so huge it didn't really matter.
This is kinda unfair, though. Visually, there's a nice space between "flat and desolate" and "cluttered and distracting", and anyone sighted will gravitate toward that range without even trying, excepting ADHD / OCD / George Lucas. It's to the point where the hardware level is nice to tiling things in patterns and such. (Partly because of ram limitations back in the 16bit era, and partly because yay patterns).
(Psst, Aprone! If you're reading this... have you considered a pattern system for ambiances? You have no idea how many times I've found myself running down Green Lane, thinking "this would be so much more immersive if there was a cricket or something every 20-ish square tiles of natury terrain. It'd be like being able to see the edges of the road".)

Now, The Gate does have random vases lying around, which is a nice start (much like BK2 started out with random dishes lying around).
I'm not sure what would spice things up much--taurches? occasional drafts coming through locked and barred doors? Grandfather clocks? I'd be worried about people thinking these were interactive, given the 1D nature of the soundscaping, but yeah, I'm just saying whatever comes to mind.
Mostly, I'm bringing it up because I wrote a disorganized ramblefest on the subject last night, found this game today, and ran into one of those vast stretches where I had only my footsteps to tell me that anything was happening at one point, and thought "Yep, just like I was saying".


(I don't think we have too many side scrollers. Not even this type. If a style is fun, then keep with it until the fun runs out. Also, this is such a tiny market that apparently 5 side scrollers somehow counts as too many. Bwahahaha, excuse me while I go count my Genesis cartrages by genre. Or just skip to the part where I tell you that I have like 6 2.5D beatups (SoR, SoR2, SoR3, Golden Axe, TMNT:The HyperStone Heist, MMPR:The Movie), and one of the Shinobi games that looked a lot more like an Audio Sidescroller the last time I played it (but I never got past the first level). I have no problem with this left-to-right, beat the enemies genre, when it's done well. Battle Zone / Super Liam / Q9 / Adventure at C: / Bokurano Daibouken 2 have not come anywhere close to exhausting the genre, IMO. Could they be better, though? On the one hand, yes! On the other hand, I still play Streets of Rage, and it doesn't even randomize the enemies. And it probably could have.)

看過來!
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2015-10-16 06:57:59 (edited by brad 2015-10-16 07:29:30)

Hello everyone.



I won't be buying this game myself since I'm not that into side scrolers.

Hear is how I jump over the wholes. I don't find jumping and holding the right arrow on the second floorboard helps. Instead, you need to take a running jump. So hold down the right arrow and as you approach the whole, listen out for the second squeaky floorboard; when you hear it tap the up arrow and keep holding the right one down.

So the steps are:
1. hold down the right arrow to run to the whole.
2. Listen out for the second squeaky floorboard.
3. Tap the up arrow whilst holding down the right arrow.

@kae

Yep. we have a bow in this game. Press the number 2, hear bow sound, press r, load the bow and fiiiiiiire!

@Everyone else.

Isn't the character kind of a bit of a bastard? Lets not help out a ghost woman who clearly just wanted to be free of this place. Instead lets fight her. For... No... reason... smile


Sometimes I think the bad guys have the right idea. Hero's are such idiots. Killing them is doing the world a great service, really it is...

Oh sure, you might be held in a horrible dark and smelly place, full of bats, rats, and horrible cats... No? okay. Point is, deep deep deep down, the bad guys aren't bad they're just... Ya know, trying to help?

It's all about that fitness guys. Could you imagine some of the top bag guys running a gym?

I'm gone for real :)

2015-10-16 07:34:48 (edited by brad 2015-10-16 07:35:46)

Hello everyone.

I think that if this game gets updates; you should be able to skip the game over music.

I'm gone for real :)

2015-10-16 08:27:37

@mr.brunete:

Come down. smile

Everyone CAN say what he thinks about something, this is called a opinion and it's just okay.

In my opinion, if I CAN ofcourse, because it will get wrong for you:
Pretty typical game without anything what will suprise me and give me a feeling it's something I want to play and play over and over. Interesting what Two game modes means? is it the difference like, with the tutorial or without? okay, if this is  MODE... uhm, no matter.
Voice acting is good mostly, besides the low quality microphones sounding like some kind of headphones mics with occassional poppings.
Sound design? well, I heart these sounds mostly before, as for the dark and horror game, well... these are sounds light and without really big effect.
Music, yes, I loved it really! it's just great but still I don't know why the elias is there as it's not doijng anything special during gameplay. When I played a game like Gauntlet, with elias also, it was clear it's there, the music changed depending what was happened, here? it's for nothing.

Overally, I feel like I played a lot like this one and it can be a small timekiller, too expensive timekiller.

Still, nothing can beat games like BK3 in terms of sidescrolling and complexity, and for free what is fun. Don't get me wrong, I love to support the developers. I have a lot of purchased games in my steam library and it's great I can support something good. As an player I just can choose, what I want and what i wont so...
Oh back to the microphones, avoid clippings when recording because some things are clipping, like the logo for example.

Everytime when I can see there's something new I hope so it will crush everything before and kick out the doors to the next level... sadly, everytime it seems like I can hope only and it's more or les, a copy of something I've seen before.Cheers,

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2015-10-16 10:08:23

Hi.
Here is my feedback on the game:
I wanna give you a big thumbs up, Aaron, for releasing a new game. great sounds, awesome voice acting and it's clear that a lot of work has been put into making this game.
But, this game is not for me, and I wanna tell you why, so you might improve this in future games.
First, I agree with Defender. It would be nice to see other games than sidescrollers. However, I do like sidescrollers. There are a number of things which I don't like in The gate, which makes me give up after a lot of deaths in the first level of the game:
1: The pits which are so close to each other that you'll fall into the next pit if you hold down the right arrow too long after a successful jump.
2: Getting chased by enemies which you can't kill at all and which kills you in just one single touch. I don't find this fair. Especially not when trying to run for your life and you then have to deal with pits which are that close to each other so you only have two options: 1: Get killed by the ghost or 2: Jump into the pit.
3: Constantly respawning enemies: This is waist of time and totally unrealistic in my opinion, especially when you don't get anything at all for killing them. Not directed at this game, but in generel. I mean, what is the point of respawning enemies other than forcing the player to either 1: Keep fighting for the life and only get new enemies to deal with in reward or 2: Run for the life in a hurry to beat the level? For me, beating a level with a time limit for a reason would be better, because I see no point in fighting against one single enemy, because it makes no difference if I choose to fight or if I run away rather than some lost hitpoints. In The gate, we don't even get XP or anything at all for beating the crap out of enemies, unless if this is what makes the items spawn randomly.
To rap this up: It seems as the gameplay is only a matter of running for your life, fight the enemies which comes in your way, jump the pits, pick up the items and flee towards the next level. Nothing more, and I really hope I'm wrong regarding this. The sound design is awesome, the voice acting is super, the music is great, the story is wow, but it seems the gameplay totally lags compared to Psycho strike and even compared to Adventure at C: which is free.
This is not the price which matters for me. I would gladly pay the 30 dollars for the game, if I found the gameplay worth it. I would pay 30 dollars for the story, for the sound design, the music, the great manual, the build in tutorial and every single thing which has been put in this game and even the shortness of 10 levels, but not the gameplay.
1: If enemies didn't spawned randomly
2: If pits weren't that close to each other
3: If ghosts were more fair, then I would give the game a fair chance, because I really think this is an awesome game, and I would even keep playing just to get the story...
Here is how you could improve the game regarding to pits:
Make a scanner so you could scan in front of you and hear how many steps you can take to the pit. For me, the close pits feels like a game for sighted where I fail, because I can't see how close I'm standing towards the next pit. I'm pretty much visually orientated, which means I'm trying to get a picture of how far I'm standing to the next pit. For this reason, it's very difficult for me to get a picture of the distance by the volume of the sound and nothing more. My issue is to know by the volume of the sound if I'm standing directly towards the pit so one more step will kill me, or if I can go one more step towards the pit. I find it impossible to hear how far I can jump to land safely at the other side, without falling towards the next pit. If I could scan the area and get a visually orientation, it would make much more sense to me.
I hope you and others will take this critisism positive, sinse my point of writing all this is to explain why I don't like the game in a good way, which hopefully can improve either this game, or other games in the future. I'm not the kind of person who says: "This is just bad. I don't like this" without having either something good to say, or without mentioning ways to make things better in my opinion. If I didn't had any positive things to say or if I didn't wanted to give some feedback on how to improve the game, I wouldn't had said anything at all. So therefore, I hope you and others will take my feedback in the good way.
I'll keep following this topic because I'm interested to hear whatever kind of comments I'll get on this.
Have an awesome weekend.

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
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2015-10-16 10:27:19

While I myself personally haven't tried the game, i've red almost every post on here and can say that I agree with defender on this one. Not on the we have way too menny side scrollers aspect, I believe that so long as you do gameplay right? Who cairs what stile it is, side scroller, 2d, 3d, if its fun, if its enjoyable, then so be it. However, I do agree on the hole expressing the opinions thing. The players are players, and normal human beings, just like the devs. Even the other devs, weather playing their own games or someone elses, are players themselves, and are normal human beings. Players have just as much write to expressing their opinions to us devs about our games, it is our sol responcibility as game devs how we handle what they say, just as we have the right to express our opinion about our fello devs games. OK now I just confused myself with that their, but ahem, getting back to the point. Its fine as long as its constructive. And from what i've red here, their's been no trollish comments, no orders to lower the price, and no outlandishly childish things like Dude! Your game stinks and the price is too high so lower it! Everyone here has made a well constructive and justified opinion on what they think about the price, so I don't see what all the fuss is. As a player, not a game dev, but as a normal, perfectly civilized audio gamer like the rest of you, my viewpoint is if a dev is that baddly inflewenced by neggitive comments, that they actually quit developing and left meerly because a few people stated their opinions, then its likely I wouldn't want to play their games anyways. Now, on my viewpoint about the price. When I was a kid, mainstreem games cost you around 35 to 38 dollars, maybe more though I can't remember much of the prices. These were for simpple games. Ssx 3, tony hawks pro skater, cool boarders, you name it. People baught them though because they enjoyed the games. These games didn't go over the top with voice acting or sound design. They were simpple games, providing fun to players. Of course, this was around the time when the gameplay mattered and not the sound effects or voice acters, or the number of features. So my viewpoint is so long as the effert was put in, so long as the storyline itself, and the over all gameplay is fun and its not just a remake of another game with more professional voice acters and sound effects, then i'll happily buy it. But again, that's just me. I'm just a player, and a normal audio gamer. And since this post is getting rather long, i'd just like to finish off with this. Sometimes, and this is my own opinion, its better to have quality over quantaty. Don't take devs for granted and treat them as if their supermen, treat them as if they were a normal gamer, just like you, but also look at how they react to crittisism and look at your current list of audio games. We may not have what mainstreem games have, but what we do have is enjoyable and fun, and if the developer chooses to continue on despite the crittisism's, then the more the marryer, in otherwords. I'd rather have a smaller game list, and a smaller game with more, well developed features and enjoyibility, as aposed to a large gigantic game list full of the same thing, and not being able to speak opinions about it.

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2015-10-16 11:08:38 (edited by musicalman 2015-10-16 11:42:32)

Hello all,
I just had to try out this game, and give my thoughts on it. What I am about to say will sound harsh to some, but I am only expressing my opinions.
I did not expect too much from this game from the outset, because I knew what a bad rap these developers got from Psychostrike. I had nothing personal against Psychostrike. I did have my disappointments with it, and I ultimately did not purchase it after hearing the additional content. While I was moderately impressed, I was not sold. Had the game's price been knocked down, I would have had no problem buying it instantly. But I instead decided to make an informed decision. It's only a game, if you really can't wait to make an informed decision before you purchase a game, then that is a risk you have to take. And even if I had taken that risk and been disappointed, I would still feel good about my decision, because I did what I felt was right at the time. I would still be supporting an awesome Audiogame development team, even if I thought their games were somewhat overpriced. And I may still purchase it at some point out of respect. I have no problem with that idea, I just have other things which are more important at the moment needing cash. After all, audio game development is hard, and it needs all the funding it can get. Also, you cannot compare these games to the free BK series, for example. Free VS. Paid stuff happens like that in the mainstream world all the time, and most people, when they see a free gem, will appreciate it for what it is, and from what I've seen, won't start comparing it to other products that are paid and using the freebies as the ultimate benchmark. I find it frankly a little silly to start assuming that just because we have a bunch of free games, that the paid ones should be even better. Those free games were scrapped together from a bunch of resources, by people who are in it just for the fun. They are not under any commercial obligation. They know that when they make something free they're not getting anything back and are willing to take that chance. Therefore they want to make it worth the effort. But paid products need to get money back, there are no two ways about it. I personally feel a lot of commercial products have more shiny stuff on the outside than on the inside, but that's what sells it. Why are there so many music artists that you don't like, for example? Because they're still selling music, so some crowd likes them. Maybe you don't. The only way a commercial product can be declared as no good is when it doesn't sell. Bottom line. A lot of people feel that these games focus too much on sound design and not on gameplay, for example. But if that's gonna make it sell, then it needs to be paid attention to. If we feel that is not enough, it is our responsibility to say so in a constructive way. Besides, whether the sound design is good enough to make a game sell is a personal choice which we all have to make individually. Since I am one of the most obsessive people I know when it comes to sound, I'd pay a higher price for a game with awesome sound even if the gameplay is not so good. But other people may just turn their nose up in disgust at the whole thing. It's just a personal choice we all have to make, and I wish we could keep this kind of nonsense about whether it's overpriced or not off the forum. If you want to pay for it, pay for it. If you don't, don't. If you pay for something and want a refund or don't think it was worth it, I'm sorry but you just made a mistake. I've been there and I know what it feels like. It's not pleasant, but life isn't perfect. There are ways to tell the developers what you want to say in a constructive way, and I am quite sick and tired of every single paid audio game that's more than $xx getting publicly bashed because of what we think we're paying for. What we're paying for is different to every person, I pay more for good sound, other people pay for good gameplay, for example. And while the criticisms on The Gate seem to be under control now, I'd just like to read about the game and nothing else for a while...
Now back on topic.
Firstly, the game's presentation. While the sounds are certainly a lot crisper than Adventure at C: I still don't like them as much as I did Psycho Strike, probably because Philip may not have contributed his sound talent and resources here. Also the voice acting and overall characters did not feel genuine to me. Even though the game was advertised as a horror game, I could not get myself scared, though I will admit some of the sounds moderately immersed me, but only for the first few seconds. I found the game lacking when it comes to atmosphere and presentation. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Super Liam felt the same way, or at least had that vibe in it, and look how successful that game was. I am still able to enjoy The Gate because I am able to play along with its style, which, while not what I expected, is something I can enjoy. I felt the demo was minimal, and only showed a small fraction of what the game had to offer. I wasn't really sold until the third level to be honest, and then that's when I started to think it may be a cool game.
I do really enjoy the game even though I am probably being way too harsh on it. The music I think is really awesome, and some of the sound effects are really quite good in their own way. I like the way the game plays, even if it feels a bit unfair at times, but not so much so as to turn me away. I could see myself enjoying the game quite a bit, even with the problems I have with it. My advice would be to just try it and see what you think. Personally I find that it could be improved but is  not bad where it is.
Beating the demo on easy was not a difficult task for me, which is yet another reason why I like the demo, I had very little frustrations while playing it and was through it in about a half hour. I could, if I chose, scale up the difficulty and get myself frustrated on purpose to see how much harder the game could potentially be. I am more excited to hear the new enemies and traps that are introduced, and I am actually alittle worried that I'll keep reading this topic and will have spoilers thrown around left and right. I want to be surprised. Ah well, I might as well just buy the thing while the sale is still on. I am tempted to do that anyway, and at least contribute to VGStorm development.
The rest of this post contains spoilers!
To those having trouble jumping over pits. You can do what Brad suggested and take a running jump, or you can walk up to the second squeaky floorboard and press up and right arrow at *exactly* the same time. I find that will clear pits, but if you press them too far apart or if for some reason your keyboard processing is hindered, you may have trouble doing it that way. Do not tap the arrows rapidly, press and hold.
You can also jump rapidly by holding up and a direction, then repeatedly tapping up. For example, to continuously jump to the right, press up and hold right while continuously tapping up. You'll cover ground much faster that way, just watch where your jumps land!
With the grey lady, it took a few attempts, but I finally beat her by jumping from one side of the board to the other and not letting her get too far away from me. It just takes practice in timing. I think the ghosts she spawns move at the same speed as her, since I eventually had her and one or two ghosts chasing me and they were consistently right on top of each other.
The procedure goes like this: immediately shoot her with an arrow when she first appears and start jumping, trying to avoid her. To play it safe, jump from side to side of the board, shooting once every pass until she's dead. I haven't dared to take multiple shots per pass yet since she''s just too fast for my comfort.

Make more of less, that way you won't make less of more!
If you like what you're reading, please give a thumbs-up.

2015-10-16 11:13:51 (edited by keyIsFull 2015-10-16 11:19:44)

@ slj listen for the squeaky floorboards, and jump at the second one. I agree with defender here, thumbs up! @seal, apparently there's an infinite mode if you beat the game, or something. I guess that just means that you have to fight enemies forever. Or something?
The Elias engine actually does work here. If an enemy is close to you, the music does get a bit more exciting, and if you've just defeated it, it goes back down. There only really seem to be 2 levels of excitement though, at least in the demo. So you just hear a few extra horns and strings when you are about to fight, and then it goes back to a soothing piano/etherial pad thing. The change is kind of abrupt to me and I know there is a way for the dev to change the subtlety of it, so that might be something to think about. Maybe leave the music high for longer in case another enemy appears, so that it doesn't go up and down and up and down like a tremolo. And fade it slower. Hit the page up key to max out the music to hear the elias effects better, but still, the volume doesn't go very high. I always allow players to turn the music up higher than they should, in case they just want to hear the music and not play the game.

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2015-10-16 11:23:17

Infinite mode? hmm, sounds bad recompensation for beating the game. Why noone is putting more complex ideas like new game PLUS or something?
Well, I'll not buy the game in the near future so... don't for now.

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2015-10-16 11:27:25

Hey Aaron. The game must be great. I will buy it when I'll finish the demo.

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2015-10-16 11:48:52

I just  completed the demo on easy. That second boss seems easier than the gray lady, because you don't instantly die in a hit, though the damage is pretty high.
Spoiler
And the dog ambush just before was kind of crazy also. I hate that you can't switch weapons during firing/reload lag, but I just have to get used to it, I guess.

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2015-10-16 11:57:41 (edited by Sightless Kombat 2015-10-16 12:48:35)

update:

Not long after posting this originally, I had beaten the demo.  I managed to beat the main boss fight of the demo with the aid of strategies posted on this forum.  I could, theoretically, upload a walkthrough of the battle, but I feel that would spoil the sense of achievement if the strategy of how to overcome it was shown clearly

Original post

Just thought I'd come and put my thoughts here after playing the demo for a little while.


sound, voice acting and presentation:

The Sound design is almost arcade-like, using small elements from Q9/Perilous Hearts.  It's a shame that these elements are there as having different hit sounds for each foe, whilst a time consuming effort, would've added a more mainstream feel - rather than just having grunts for the various creatures, have something that represents them as well as they come into contact with the weapon.

The voice acting, whilst good, isn't all quite there as far as delivery goes.  The parallel I'm about to make might be an odd one, but please hear me out on this.  When I first faced The Grey Lady (TGL), her words brought two characters from mainstream video games to mind.  Zasalamel from the Soul Calibur series, notably his incarnation in SC III and Hisako from Killer Instinct.  Both are bound by time, Zasalamel is cursed and Hisako is brought back by Ultra Tech.  Both, if you watch clips, deliver their lines with emotion when angered - Hisako in particular, whilst she speaks in Japanese, is prone to this.

I just wish we could've seen TGL's distress as she realises the hero of this particular game won't help her - she's been shunned by so many others and believed she had to kill them and this hero's apparent selfishness pushes her one step too far.

As I haven't managed to defeat her yet, in spite of all the tips, I can't comment on any of the other voice acting segments for the boss characters.  Over all though, good job thus far.


Difficulty:

Having played mainstream games for a number of years, I had hoped for difficulty in this game and what I got kind of reminded me of bloodborne and Dark Souls, at least what I've watched of them - difficulty spikes, enemies being extremely difficult to kill at times due to two of the weapons in the manual not being even available to the player (I'll come on to that).  The difficulty of the main levels is relatively well-scaled for the most part however, meaning that this is only a minor annoyance.  I like the introduction of different attack patterns, but the lack of weapons doesn't exactly make things easy - maybe have a mode where you only have the two weapons you get currently and expand the list for the standard game?  Hopefully what I've said makes sense here.  Other than that, I can see why the difficulty is what it is.


Music:

I agree with those saying that there are only two or so levels of excitement and that the volume is too low for you to be able to appreciate the music that you do have, which fits the atmosphere well.  Whilst I understand that you don't want the game to be overpowered, in moments where it might be, the ability to hold the page up/down keys instead of tapping them to turn music down quickly might solve that for you.


Price:

I'm not entirely sure where I stand on this one, though once I defeat TGL I might be able to make a better informed decision.  At first glance (and this is only my opinion), It seemed like you would be charging a little over what I would've expected.  I would've said $30 as a full price after the sail and maybe $24.99 as the sale price might've been closer to home for a lot of people, though I understand that you will want to break even and charging that little extra will help you accomplish that goal at greater speed.

If there were more insentives to buy the game (the soundtrack, a mode where you get harder enemies that you haven't seen before, the ability to change the music/sounds with the game looking in separate folders whilst still keeping the originals encrypted, additional levels as free or nominal fee DLC for registered users etc) I think it would give more people a reason to pay up.


Genre:

The question of side scrollers as a genre in audiogaming history and whether it has been oversaturated or not is not one that I can attempt to answer.  However, I believe the more arcade/90s vibe this game puts forward suits the side scroller format and if the game was, in its current form, converted into a 3d port, it is my opinion that it wouldn't work half as well.  I think that developers should just develope what they want to develope in terms of genre - side scrollers, FPS games, Space Invaders clones etc and if gamers have a problem with that it's not something to worry about as much as is the case at the moment (it might be if 5 side scrollers released in the same week or maybe even a month or so, but that's a question of timing).

I'll add/edit my thoughts in as and when I decide to carry on playing and if I have further information to share about the game.  Hopefully updates come down the line to add new content and address any issues that come up, but other than that, it's an interesting game to say the least.

Regards,
Sightless Kombat.
***If you wish to refer to me in @replies, use Sightless***

2015-10-16 12:55:22

momo7807 wrote:

Hi
I'd like to say, just one thing. Why some peoples are buying an offline game? I'm sorry to say, and It is just my think, but I think buying an offline game is, Just, stupid, and really, really, really waste of money.
Reason? It is an example of that
You bought an offline game. You really enjoyed it. Passing hard and crazy, impossible levels, you somehow cleared the game. When you cleared the game, what do you think? I think... Um, it was good, but also it was a waste of time and money. When you cleared an offline game, you will see a message like this.
Thanks to xx xx, xx xx, xx xx, and xx xx. Sound design by xx xx, xx xx, and xx xx, This game has been coded by Aaron baker. Thanks for playing this game and Thanks for support my development.

I've saw like this message when I cleared the entombed. I didn't buy it, I've shared the id with someone, But when I cleared it, It was just nothing and waste of time. Isn't it?
An online game is lot different. Online game has constant server updates, play with other players, make friends, join into an event, share items, etc, etc, etc etc etc. It causes an endless fun, isn't it? Think about it. Also, there are lots of free on offline games. Buying a 10 level online game is, again I think really bad idea.
Anyway, I'm sorry if I've hurt someone's feelings
Thanks

No, sorry if this is what you think, there are a lot of awesome offline games, which contains an awesome gameplay (and this is an important thing), an epic story, an effective game environment etc, online games always depend on your connection speed, Ping etc etc etc, which doesn't give the required interaction. Do the online games contain a storyline to play? No. Do the online games contain an adventures? I don't think so. They're just playing with other players in a certain server by what the game offers. And there's much much more things that make the offline games better will take a long time to type, and lots of lines to explain. IN addition, I didn't see any strong online audio game until now, probably except swamp and rtr. Each one of the offline games and the online games has its advantages, but I see that the offline games is much much better even in the main stream games. Sorry it may seem an off topic, but I just wanted to explain it to him since I had a long career with the games from ps1 to ps4 in addition to my access to the audio games world. But in the end, they're just an opinions.
All the best.

Kind regards!

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2015-10-16 13:20:55

Sightless, you are right but... comparing this one to the dark souls series, or blood borne? oh no LOL
These two games are, just freakin difficult and require really heavy skills not comparable with a easy game like this one. I beaten the demo without any problem and it was in the first run. Ofcourse, played on easy but it didn't got me any problems with difficulty. Maybe I'm playing too much mainstream games and games like this one is just... hmm, something to kill the time, eventually.

I feel the games like ninja gaiden 3: razor's edge are much much harder and complex. I beaten this one in the last time after playing the standard version and I must say... There are a lot of situations where the only one option is to crash the gamepad haha.
I remember how I played the adventure at C:. It's really nice game with cool concept but after a while I used a script, easy one to write in autohotkey just to hold a button and attack as fast as it's possible.
Sadly, most of audio games aren't using any kind of timers, mostly and this is soooo bad. Forget about good beat em up / slasher or other genres where you can put crazy combos, chain the attacks with differend weapons which you can change in the fly like in devil may cry, shank and many other games. Forget about enchancing your character with new attacks, differend tactics, weapons etc etc.
This is where the audio gaming is moving so slowly forward without any derastic changes and important changes. Sound design, voice acting and music is only a cosmetic thing, if the gameplay value fails, everything will.

Aaron and others, Don't want to be offensive and attack someone. I'm just saying what I feel like. I'm a gamer from like hmm, 20 years now and When someone is selling the commercial product, here are my requirements as a player. You can agree or disagree, it's up to you. smile

The gate potentially is nice concept if it can be made in other way, with other gameplay elements. It is side scroller but only a side scroller. It's not a horror, it's not adventure game, seriously if I can use the right terminology [Pretty the same was with Psychostrike calling it FPS]
Bokurano daiboukenn series, shadow line, these games showed me the atmosphere, gameplay as never before on our scene without using any superp extra crazy sound design. Ofcourse, it's just avesome if the game sounds amazing, but it will be never a success if the gameplay will be nothing more than a small boring timekiller.
BTW, When I played SL or BK series, I felt like I'm playing first serious AUDIO game comparable to games like zelda or medroidvania style where I spend a LOT of hours, seriously and it was never bored. A lot of secrets, hidden things, mass of unlockables and tons of content with really decent sound design it's just perfect and.. it's free. Well, don't get me wrong at this point, if SL or BK series will be paid i'll buy these immediately and will be so happy I spend my money on something like that!

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2015-10-16 13:38:57 (edited by musicalman 2015-10-16 13:42:42)

I definitely see your points Sightless, especially on the game's arcade feel, price and content. I have no problem with the too many side scrollers thing, though the first two levels of this game had me wondering just how simple this game really was going to be. Level 3 as I said earlier is what made me start to take the game more seriously, especially once I started playing on a higher difficulty. Which brings me to my next thought.
I am also having trouble with the Grey Lady as well, I tried to beat her on medium and am finding it impossible, but when I did it on easy, I only lost a few lives and only had to reload my game once. After about 30 lives lost on medium and reloading over and over, I cannot manage to stay alive long enough to kill her. I wonder if her health resets when you lose a life. If so, then that is brutal! I don't want to be sitting there trying to knock out all her health in one life. I almost feel like there should be some way to defend yourself from the instant death caused by the normal ghosts.
I wish the normal ghosts didn't kill you in one hit. It works during normal gameplay but for that boss battle I think it's just too much for me anyway. Sometimes I swear I shot in the right direction with my bow and arrow and my shots don't hit her. I hope I soon figure out why, as I have more than once wasted half my arrows trying to hit her and they end up missing. Any gameplay tips are welcome at this point, since I want to get as good at this thing as I can, so that I'm prepared for higher levels.
small
spoiler
alert!
You get the sword after defeating the Grey Lady, so you have three weapons. It's a decent weapon but don't rely on it in a bind, it will not save you at all in my experience. As for the fourth weapon, I suspect you get it after one of the bosses as well.
spoiler
ends
here
For the record, I have decided to purchase the game, though when I will do it I do not know. I'm mainly doing it because I'm tired of thinking about what the rest of the game could be. It's a compulsory purchase but I think I will be okay with it in the end. In any case, I'll likely make the purchase over the weekend if it's convenient for me. If not, I will definitely get it before the introductory sale is over. I will try to record a gameplay when time permits, but am in the process of doing A blind legend gameplay first.

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2015-10-16 13:45:08

It's just psycho strike with different sounds, music, and voices, but I still bought it to support future development...

2015-10-16 13:56:38 (edited by threeblacknoises 2015-10-16 14:24:53)

Hay all.
I'm really liking this game, but I can't seem to figure out just what does and doesn't work.
I'm stuck on the gray lady boss fight, but I've noticed that the bow doesn't seem to work at all.
I've tried on other monsters besides her, and either I'm doing something wrong, or the bow is just broken.
Oh wait wait, I might have just had the worst brain fart in history.
I didn't reload the bow, but I guess I just assumed that once you got arrows for it, they were auto loaded; at least the first five.
I have twelve arrow pouches, so let's see if my idea works...
Okay, my bad. I was right.
I've finished the demo, and will hopefully buy this game soon.
To Aaron baker, does the same person that voices the gray lady also do the ghosts?
It would kind of make sence, seeing as they work for her.

2015-10-16 15:25:57

@Seal
I can't stress enough that I was only using those comparisons to demonstrate the idea of spiking difficulty at times, along with tricky situations that theoretically, shouldn't happen.  It wasn't meant to make The Gate seem like a truely mainstream game.  I have now, as I stated in my updated post, beaten the demo myself on easy and I might even go so far as to try it on normal to see how much more difficult the game is. I have been playing mainstream games for many years as well and understand your points about the audiogaming scene not having anywhere near as much innovation as in mainstream titles.  The discussion of why this is, as well as what can be done to prevent what might turn into potential stagnation of the scene itself and how audio games can catch up to their mainstream contenders is a whole other topic though.

Below I have information for anyone who is having trouble with TGL
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A few points to keep in mind.

  • The bow is an  interesting weapon, in the fact that it only has a certain range of effectiveness.  If you shoot and the enemy is too close, your arrows will miss their mark.

  • You can make at least 2 shots per pass if you're far enough away.  TGL will react when hit and you can jump mere moments after you've fired.  Keep bouncing around the stage and killing ghosts when they appear - the bow will harm them as well.

Hope that helps
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Regards,
Sightless Kombat.
***If you wish to refer to me in @replies, use Sightless***

2015-10-16 15:43:06

I think the ghosts are voiced by jemma hadfield. They kind of sound like the elf in kringle crash that she voiced.

I like to sleep, Sleep is good,
This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world!
Follow @TheGreatAthlon5 on twitter for humorous facts and game updates!
If you like my posts, thumb me up!