The Daily Click

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Project Started:	4th May, 2009	Last Update:	17th July, 2009
Project Owner:	Petter	Project Members:
Project Type:	Platform game	Project Progress:

Project Overview
Ninja Party Panic!! is an ambitious 2D action platformer. The core focus is to create a fun, dynamic and original experience.

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Cutting down on features, making the gameplay more focused

Posted 17th Jul 09, by Petter

1 Comment

It's hard to face the fact that your running out of time when you are working on a project you really want to turn out well. With the initial feature set I had planned the game was never going to be finished before my studies begin and thus I have to remove some of the planned features. Basically the game won't have the RPG/Perks system any more, and I'm combining all of the weapons into one. It was really hard to make these decisions, considering that I already have spent a lot of time making them. BUT, it also makes the whole level making process a lot easier, and I can now focus a lot more things like enemy design and set pieces situations so it ain't all bad.

I will have a lot of time to work on the game in the coming week, and I think that I will make some really good process. I feel that the development is a LOT more focused now and I'm really looking forward to showing you guys some of the cool ideas I have come up with the last days to compensate for these feature cuts

More changes!

Posted 10th Jul 09, by Petter

1 Comment

So there was this comment on another forum I posted the feedback demo on that really got me thinking. I remember back when I decided to include the RPG system one of my thoughts was that it would make people take the time to kill most of the enemies they encountered instead of just running past them. This held true of course, but some of the point this guy was making brought up the fact that the character feels kind of weak for a Ninja and that the enemies feel more like annoyances that are in the way rather than fun obstacles for the player to tackle. This will ruin the flow of what is supposed to be a fast paced action platformer, especially in the long haul, and I have been (and am still) thinking of ways to eliminate this problem. The first I have decided to do is to make it so that the game won't measure your attack power. This will make how many strikes an enemy needs to be killed constant throughout the whole game which makes it much easier to pace the experience. It will also remove a great deal of possible balancing issues that might occur if for example someone arrived at boss with too low attack power. Making the player have to go back and GRIND in a friggin' platform game is kind of a bad idea

So yeah, no more attack power statistics for this game! Easier-to-kill enemies all around! To balance this out the health bar will be made more accurate to read. More like, say, the hearts from any Zelda game. This will show you exactly how many hits you can take before dying, and it will have a more visible effect when upgraded (the game still has RPG-elements

)

There are a couple of more things I'm thinking about doing to ensure a steady flow and a more fun experience, but it all needs some trying out before I go blabbering about it

More on those changes when I actually decide to include them

Changes are acomin'

Posted 8th Jul 09, by Petter

1 Comment

Yeah, so them perks. Pretty insignificant in the big picture, don't you think? Based on some of the feedback I have gotten from the last demo, I have decided to redo the whole Perks system. It will be more RPG-like: Every perk is it's own category, and you will be able to upgrade each category/perk several times. This means that you will have several perks activated at the same time and I think you will feel a stronger sense of progression as you level up.

Yeah, so them weapons. You only used the katana, didn't you? This must not be the case, of course, thus every weapon will receive an overhaul to make them more interesting to use:

-Every weapon will get the "strike downwards" attack previously exclusive for the long sword
-The scythe will get a special attack that launches the player upwards, essentially giving the player a triple jump
-The Long sword will... I don't know yet. It might be switched out for a different weapon all together. Whatever I decide to do, the weapon that ends up being in the game will give the player much increased mobility compared to how the long sword is now

Thanks to everyone that commented on the demo! Really appreciate all the constructive criticism

Also, pleas do say what you think about these coming changes!

The demo is out!

Posted 2nd Jul 09, by Petter