Re: Blocks of Persia
Posted: February 23rd, 2019, 11:36 pm
You've made a lot of improvements in a very short time, nicely done.
Did you increase the time gates stay open though?
Here are two requests/suggestions:
1. I think the thing that's currently most unlike the original as far as gameplay is concerned, is the following. If I press and hold down left or right, and then press and hold down the up arrow key, the prince never initiates a running jump. I think the game only accepts up after the prince has already entered the running animation. What I'm used to - and I'm sure everyone else here - is being able to press and hold down left or right, and then almost immediately, namely right after the standing jump up would've triggered, press up, to make the prince do a running jump after a small amount of running. The original game knows: we're not yet doing the running animation, so I'll start that first and then as soon as possible initiate the requested running jump.
More generally: a lot of animations do not yet queue. Another example is if you turn around from a standing position and simply keep the left or right key down. For instance, start facing left, then press and keep down the right arrow key. The prince will just turn around, while in the original he will also start running. Right and then down to hop, also doesn't queue. I could give more examples, but basically nothing queues. It's not bad necessarily, but not like the original, and makes it feel like the prince is bit of a noob that can't think of more than one thing at a time. You know what I mean. If necessary, you could experiment with the original.
2. One other thing I've noticed during this (short) test-run and the Feb. 18th (longer) test-run, is that a forward jump from a standing position sometimes makes the prince jump instead, because I didn't get the timing exactly right. This is a problem near edges/abysses. The original game is very smart here, and helps the player. If you press just up, the prince jumps up. If you press just forward (left or right), the prince runs forward. If you press up and forward, the prince makes a forward jump. But, and this is what I'm getting at, if you press up and then within about 1/2 second press forward, the prince will first jump up - but then cut from that animation to a forward jump. Similarly, if you press forward and then within about 1/2 second press up, the prince will first run forward - but then cut from that animation to a forward jump. This means there is a much bigger window for the player to get the forward jump right. With your remaster, the keys must be pressed much more simultaneously. There are even tricks that (ab)use this help mechanism from the original. Not quite the same, but similar/related is trick 79:
This video shows two attempts to quickly pass two spiked tiles. The first (deliberately, to show the difference) fails, the second succeeds. The difference is the first jump during the successful attempt. You can see that, during the second attempt, the prince briefly looks up. This is because the player pressed just up, but during the start of the climb animation also presses left. That first bit of the climbing animation gave the prince just that little extra horizontal movement/realignment to later pass the second spiked tile.
When making a non-painful landing, basically the crouching, it would be nice if the prince would get up faster.
Did you increase the time gates stay open though?
Here are two requests/suggestions:
1. I think the thing that's currently most unlike the original as far as gameplay is concerned, is the following. If I press and hold down left or right, and then press and hold down the up arrow key, the prince never initiates a running jump. I think the game only accepts up after the prince has already entered the running animation. What I'm used to - and I'm sure everyone else here - is being able to press and hold down left or right, and then almost immediately, namely right after the standing jump up would've triggered, press up, to make the prince do a running jump after a small amount of running. The original game knows: we're not yet doing the running animation, so I'll start that first and then as soon as possible initiate the requested running jump.
More generally: a lot of animations do not yet queue. Another example is if you turn around from a standing position and simply keep the left or right key down. For instance, start facing left, then press and keep down the right arrow key. The prince will just turn around, while in the original he will also start running. Right and then down to hop, also doesn't queue. I could give more examples, but basically nothing queues. It's not bad necessarily, but not like the original, and makes it feel like the prince is bit of a noob that can't think of more than one thing at a time. You know what I mean. If necessary, you could experiment with the original.
2. One other thing I've noticed during this (short) test-run and the Feb. 18th (longer) test-run, is that a forward jump from a standing position sometimes makes the prince jump instead, because I didn't get the timing exactly right. This is a problem near edges/abysses. The original game is very smart here, and helps the player. If you press just up, the prince jumps up. If you press just forward (left or right), the prince runs forward. If you press up and forward, the prince makes a forward jump. But, and this is what I'm getting at, if you press up and then within about 1/2 second press forward, the prince will first jump up - but then cut from that animation to a forward jump. Similarly, if you press forward and then within about 1/2 second press up, the prince will first run forward - but then cut from that animation to a forward jump. This means there is a much bigger window for the player to get the forward jump right. With your remaster, the keys must be pressed much more simultaneously. There are even tricks that (ab)use this help mechanism from the original. Not quite the same, but similar/related is trick 79:
This video shows two attempts to quickly pass two spiked tiles. The first (deliberately, to show the difference) fails, the second succeeds. The difference is the first jump during the successful attempt. You can see that, during the second attempt, the prince briefly looks up. This is because the player pressed just up, but during the start of the climb animation also presses left. That first bit of the climbing animation gave the prince just that little extra horizontal movement/realignment to later pass the second spiked tile.
When making a non-painful landing, basically the crouching, it would be nice if the prince would get up faster.