Published on May 29, 2019 By ScottTykoski In

Hey Everyone,

Now that Alpha 1 is out in the wild, it's time to start collecting feedback & bugs. Let us know how things are going and we'll keep you posted as issues are resolved for Alpha 1a.

Thanks!


Comments
on May 29, 2019

In Adventure, the UI seems to think players have a health capacity of 3 HP, whereas the underlying health system appears to actually give players 5 HP (https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1HGv6buDAvxY3sNjoW3J01v4IS0PKce_1). Players may be confused when it appears they have one heart left, but do not die on their next hit.

on May 29, 2019

In adventure, the collider for the bat enemy appears to be off. The collider is at the very top of the bat sprite, and not instead where the shadow is (ala the player's collider). As a result, this positioning causes damage : https://i.imgur.com/lfMthJB.png, while this positioning does not : https://i.imgur.com/3m2MFEN.png. I believe the collider for the bats should be moved to where the bat's shadow is, instead of where the bat's actual visuals are.

 

The lives system appears to stop docking lives on death after several rounds. https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1EvHC95XlkTRx-eZDGDWDTgIMgv4Ext8I

 

The game over screen seems to disappear as soon as a player presses any button. While players should probably be allowed to expedite things if they become impatient, failing to implement a "minimum waiting time" for certain screens may lead to situations where players with nervous habits (such as tapping buttons) cause them to skip past something before understanding what it is (especially if it appears suddenly with no transition). With the game over screen, younger players might not have time to read what is being displayed before their interest in pressing buttons causes them to accidentally skip it. As an example, I tend to rapidly press the arrow keys in a circle while waiting for something, since arrow keys by-and-large never cause a menu or cutscene to disappear in other games.

 

In adventure, the giant worm's sprite falls below its shadow, which doesn't make physical sense. https://i.imgur.com/2FFqdYN.png

 

In adventure, the Pathway object looks more like a hedge sticking out of the ground (that would block movement), rather than a path that should be walked on. Making the object brown may reflect its purpose better, as most players will be familiar with pathways being dirt paths, instead of differently-colored grass. Rollercoaster Tycoon took this approach (https://i.imgur.com/czH3Ge9.png).

 

Stardock gets credit for the game I made in the "Play a Game" menu. https://i.imgur.com/Rcu8jzI.png

 

I believe there is a typo in the sidescroller game type description (https://i.imgur.com/6euGbEs.png). I believe there should be a possessive apostrophe after "players" to make "players'".

on May 29, 2019

Bought this for myself and my 12 year old.  On both machines it crashed when exiting the first time but not after that.  Just FYI

on May 29, 2019

Same frozen screen when quitting DrFugue13. Also only the first time quitting.

on May 29, 2019

Going to crosspost from my my impressions thread so people know about the ones I found: 

 

Silver-Streak

  • Sprite collision/transparency issues (see examples below). These tend to flicker/disappear if the sprites move, but reappear depending on their location.

    • weird lines on sprites


 

  • Ladders don't seem to work as intended in all games (in Aliens 'N cats, you get stuck at the top of ladders unless you jump)

Scott mentioned in the other thread that this is currently expected Ladder behavior. Hopefully that changes.

on May 29, 2019

Something else I ran across: Sometimes while messing around in edit mode (and switching back and forth to play mode), the character sprite can get frozen in the attack animation. 

Currently I've experienced it in the adventure genre, using the Abe hero, with the Axe weapon.

on May 30, 2019

RagerX_

Same frozen screen when quitting DrFugue13. Also only the first time quitting.

We are aware of this bug with first-time activation and it's going to be patched.

on May 30, 2019

Bug: Using <color></color> in adventure doesn't seem to work until all the characters are rendered. I didn't even know you could do this until I saw it used in the Adventure Tutorial, but the one usage (<color=red></color>) doesn't change the text color until after it gets past </color> Which means you see the HTML style code in the dialogue box.

on May 30, 2019

A few things from my first hours yesterday. I only tried out Side Scroller mode, so these only apply to that. 

 

Jump sound effect plays when pressing space when entering the name of your game during the create new game menu.

Player can jump while touching any part of the pass-thru blocks, does not need to be standing on top of it. 

 

Weapons

Toy Wand - Origin\Anchor of item appears to be incorrect. Offset half a block left when placed in game or on character 

Wizard Staff - Fires downward when facing left. Best guess, vertical component is being inversed with horizontal when sprite is mirrored. 

Water Hose - Same issue as Wizard Staff.

Bomb - Very strange behavior. Just sort of slides along the floor. Occasionally just flies straight up off the screen. 

 

on May 30, 2019

Thanks for the feedback guys. We're trying to bang out as many fixes as possible, so keep an eye on...

https://forums.stardock.net/495238/vgm-alpha-1a-change-log

...to see what issues have already been resolved. Should be useful - especially going into the weekend.