Tuism : Thanks guy! I do love pixel art, the main reason why we went with this new style is because its better suited to the teams talents and has way more potential for awesome animation without breaking our backs in silly 1000000 frame long sprite sheets.
D3zmodos: Blood was jst a test for how it could look ingame :P Also thanks Ill work more on getting the floor easier to destinguish from the foilage. I think we will push the trees and stuff back a bit, make them a bit blue (which should dissolve the confusion)
Elyaradine: Thanks man! Yea I started last night doing some rediculous alien boss that takes up half the screen :)! I assume you are talking about the vents? Im not sure whether they will be interactable or not, there will be broken states I guess. Good point about the Rocky parts. Ingame there will never be grass on rocks, only on sand. There will be vines on the rocks which will make more sense (haven't done that yet! :D). And as far as the character goes they aren't final yet so we will be working on those a bit in the future. But you are right their values could be pushed a bit more to make them easier to read.
raxter: w00000000t!
Tuism: Yea man that is one of the main things I'm worrying about while doing this. In the pixel art the background black for the buildings had the same sort of values as the dark sand block which created the confusion you are talking about, we are on that though :P Thanks btw :D
Now all you have to do is keep the content flowing! I vote for moar youtube stuff next, before you get ready to do the new art style reveal.
Totally! Maybe do a series of 'meet the bros' videos? As the new art style reveal happens? That could give you some kind of sustained visibility without seeming contrived and adding little value?
Just wanted to chime in and say well done guys, this is looking great and word is spreading like mad!
My gears were turning re: bro names, and someone already hinted at Brobi Wan Kenobi, but I'll throw (bro?) some around if I can think of anything.
Also, yes, that new art style is looking phenomenal! I think it's definitely better in a higher res with that style, and the colour palette is so striking and vibront.
Still haven't been able to actually get to the Greenlight site. Is anyone else having this problem? Sometimes it loads a bit of text, but it's unstyled and incredibly slow.. Can't actually get to look around, let alone vote on anything :(
Same here, I eventually got it loaded but only because I left it online overnight. Now I'm too scared to try login to vote, in-case I loose my connection :(
I will never be able to watch Don Cheadle again without thinking of this! And yes that would make an amazing Bro. I think the alt fire needs to be regrow ground!
Thanks argh! Unity and photoshop and XSI for animation on the new guys... but it really doesnt matter what software you use. We dn't do anything special tech wise :)
Great brocasion last night broskis. Much love to the bros. The bros are growing exbronentially. Here's an awesome bro:broney stinson. Hey- broney the bronosaur. Don Broleone(the brofather), brohammed ali, mike broson, david brokham, broface(broni montana). Brorro(hint: he could slice opponent with a sword in b shape). Broverine. Brofessor bros and his x bros. Lol I tend to get carried away.
You guys have managed to create an amazingly fun game. My brother and I played it co-op for at least an hour yesterday after I heard about it at the meetup.
Actually I'm quite sad that I didn't see the four player bro-op last night cos I was outside checking out Lex's boardgame! Man but those explosions during the demo was LEGENDARY! Awesome! :D
The co-op camera work works a bit different now... and also it can be played with 4 players, and also the characters have some different attacks and also ladders are better and more:
This will be the last pixelart version of the game that is available before the new art style version is publicly playable (which is what we're all excited about right now).
Some things I thought would be worth mentioning though: The first issue, which you can see outlined in yellow in the images, is that (what I imagine is) the centre of the background plane has a funky bit of texturing, it isn't plain blue but instead has a checkered pattern on it.
Next is an issue which was present in the previous public version as well, and that is that the character's are too tall...they cannot walk under ledges (at least sometimes, I'm not sure if this happens all the time), such as the one shown in this picture:
(By the way, is it possible to make the images show as thumbnails?)
Third is something new to this release, which is that the indestructable adamantium metal blocks (which are awesome) only get revealed when the blocks they cover are destroyed, which to me seems kinda weird because why would there be rock/natural ground covering metal/man-made ground?
Finally, the AI seems to get a little confused sometimes in this version. For instance if you look at the following picture you can see that the enemy has destroyed the wall on the side of him opposite to the player. This happened to me at least twice and at least one of those times, I hadn't even moved (let alone fired a bullet...which isn't possible until you move :O, is it meant to be like that?)
Good stuff as always! Here are some feedback, just minor bugs :)
1) When prisoners fell off from having the ground shot out under them, their appearance turned to BroGuyver during the fall
2) On level... Dunno which, right at the start, I jumped up and there was a bro in a cage, I rescued him, turned into Bro Dredd, jumped off the platform and the game froze, music still went on. Had to task manager close it. OK just had another one of those crashes, dunno why. It was pretty random.
3) I would like to know when my bro is invincible - when you first rescue them they are for a little bit, but they don't flash or anything. There should be some kinda indication?
As for the too tall part, I noticed that Brambo does crouch to 1x block height when the hole is too tall.
Those crashes worry me. It shouldn't be crashing at any point (it was running for whole days at AMAZE). So if it's just a some-computers-crash thing it's going to be really hard for us to fix that.
I also got a freeze similar to the one @Tuism described, was in the middle of a jump towards the end of what used to be the last level :'(
Speaking of being invincible, enemies are also sometimes invulnerable it seems. Sometimes right at the beginning of a level, I shoot them and they don't die...I think it only happens (dont know but I seem to only remember it happening) with the sniper bro.
EDIT (For fear of double-posting): Sometimes when tunnelling, when my character crouches to be smaller, if I stop and theres no block above me it doesn't seem to stand up again by itself, I have to move back first, or not move and destroy the block in front of me (so that I am not standing against a wall).
Also on the first of the new levels, the first flag seems to "acquire" itself without me running over it. I just run over the bridge above it and the flag is raised by itself.
If you play the game, finish a few levels, and then quit to the menu/re-enter the game (without exiting the application) it doesn't start from the first level, it starts from the level you left off at.
Finally, on the fourth level you start on a ladder, not the ground :D
EDIT 2: (For fear of triple posting?): 2 things I noticed about the ladders: 1) Would it be possible to make jumping take precedence over climbing a ladder (when you're standing on the ground at the base of the ladder) because a number of times I have tried to jump to dodge bullets, only to die because people climb ladders slower than they jump...which I found somewhat frustrating. 2) If you climb a ladder and keep holding the the up key down (that makes sense right? :o) then the character kinda bobs up and down at the top of the ladder (instead of just stopping) and as a result (seemingly if you let go of up and a certain point on the up-and-down cycle) your character will sometimes fall down the ladder again.
Also 2 more bugs, which I think are fairly self-explanatory from the pictures:
Comments
D3zmodos: Blood was jst a test for how it could look ingame :P Also thanks Ill work more on getting the floor easier to destinguish from the foilage. I think we will push the trees and stuff back a bit, make them a bit blue (which should dissolve the confusion)
Elyaradine: Thanks man! Yea I started last night doing some rediculous alien boss that takes up half the screen :)! I assume you are talking about the vents? Im not sure whether they will be interactable or not, there will be broken states I guess. Good point about the Rocky parts. Ingame there will never be grass on rocks, only on sand. There will be vines on the rocks which will make more sense (haven't done that yet! :D). And as far as the character goes they aren't final yet so we will be working on those a bit in the future. But you are right their values could be pushed a bit more to make them easier to read.
raxter: w00000000t!
Tuism: Yea man that is one of the main things I'm worrying about while doing this. In the pixel art the background black for the buildings had the same sort of values as the dark sand block which created the confusion you are talking about, we are on that though :P Thanks btw :D
mikegeyser : KOOOTAKKUUUUUUUU! Winning!
Either way, so awesome. Congratulations!
That gave me a 5 minute brain-fart session :)
Brock Bronnis (hmmmm)
Bropley (cos Ripley was TOTALLY a bro)
Brolight (even if he's totally not a bro)
Bronan (remember hearing this)
Brozio
Brorio (cos Mario Bros needs to enshrined)
Brockley
Bro Runner
Ninja Brotles
Biker Bros from Uranus
Brokachu
Batbro
Solid Bro
Liquid Bro
Broden
Brocelot
Brodo Baggins
Brobama (lol)
Bro Lee
Broruto?
Brotamari
Doraebro (if you know this I salute you)
O' Broyan
Captain Sparbro
BROSTAR!
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/09/05/steam-greenlight-15-ace-games-from-the-pc-gamer-collection
ROCK!
@bevis the original had quite amazing appeal, and now the new style is equally epic, loving the big heads :)
I don't mean to tout our own horn, but this does bode really well for the development of BROFORCE.
(thanks Tuism! Those are great suggestions)
My gears were turning re: bro names, and someone already hinted at Brobi Wan Kenobi, but I'll throw (bro?) some around if I can think of anything.
Also, yes, that new art style is looking phenomenal! I think it's definitely better in a higher res with that style, and the colour palette is so striking and vibront.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-06-broforce-is-what-the-expendables-game-should-have-been
also on NAG:
http://www.nag.co.za/2012/09/07/indie-showcase-broforce/
Have you considered adding "Snake" Plissken, from Escape from New York?
Also, @Cyberninja he's already in. ;)
Thanks argh!
Unity and photoshop and XSI for animation on the new guys... but it really doesnt matter what software you use. We dn't do anything special tech wise :)
Hey- broney the bronosaur. Don Broleone(the brofather), brohammed ali, mike broson, david brokham, broface(broni montana). Brorro(hint: he could slice opponent with a sword in b shape). Broverine. Brofessor bros and his x bros. Lol I tend to get carried away.
Bro-op - Starbreeze reveals fantasy romp brothers
It's catching :)
I kinda dig it.
http://www.freelives.net/BROFORCE/BROFORCE_Brototype_Windows_05_Oct_2012.zip
This will be the last pixelart version of the game that is available before the new art style version is publicly playable (which is what we're all excited about right now).
Some things I thought would be worth mentioning though:
The first issue, which you can see outlined in yellow in the images, is that (what I imagine is) the centre of the background plane has a funky bit of texturing, it isn't plain blue but instead has a checkered pattern on it.
Next is an issue which was present in the previous public version as well, and that is that the character's are too tall...they cannot walk under ledges (at least sometimes, I'm not sure if this happens all the time), such as the one shown in this picture:
(By the way, is it possible to make the images show as thumbnails?)
Third is something new to this release, which is that the indestructable adamantium metal blocks (which are awesome) only get revealed when the blocks they cover are destroyed, which to me seems kinda weird because why would there be rock/natural ground covering metal/man-made ground?
Finally, the AI seems to get a little confused sometimes in this version. For instance if you look at the following picture you can see that the enemy has destroyed the wall on the side of him opposite to the player. This happened to me at least twice and at least one of those times, I hadn't even moved (let alone fired a bullet...which isn't possible until you move :O, is it meant to be like that?)
1) When prisoners fell off from having the ground shot out under them, their appearance turned to BroGuyver during the fall
2) On level... Dunno which, right at the start, I jumped up and there was a bro in a cage, I rescued him, turned into Bro Dredd, jumped off the platform and the game froze, music still went on. Had to task manager close it. OK just had another one of those crashes, dunno why. It was pretty random.
3) I would like to know when my bro is invincible - when you first rescue them they are for a little bit, but they don't flash or anything. There should be some kinda indication?
As for the too tall part, I noticed that Brambo does crouch to 1x block height when the hole is too tall.
Cooooool getting cooler and cooler :D
Speaking of being invincible, enemies are also sometimes invulnerable it seems. Sometimes right at the beginning of a level, I shoot them and they don't die...I think it only happens (dont know but I seem to only remember it happening) with the sniper bro.
EDIT (For fear of double-posting):
Sometimes when tunnelling, when my character crouches to be smaller, if I stop and theres no block above me it doesn't seem to stand up again by itself, I have to move back first, or not move and destroy the block in front of me (so that I am not standing against a wall).
Also on the first of the new levels, the first flag seems to "acquire" itself without me running over it. I just run over the bridge above it and the flag is raised by itself.
If you play the game, finish a few levels, and then quit to the menu/re-enter the game (without exiting the application) it doesn't start from the first level, it starts from the level you left off at.
Finally, on the fourth level you start on a ladder, not the ground :D
EDIT 2: (For fear of triple posting?):
2 things I noticed about the ladders:
1) Would it be possible to make jumping take precedence over climbing a ladder (when you're standing on the ground at the base of the ladder) because a number of times I have tried to jump to dodge bullets, only to die because people climb ladders slower than they jump...which I found somewhat frustrating.
2) If you climb a ladder and keep holding the the up key down (that makes sense right? :o) then the character kinda bobs up and down at the top of the ladder (instead of just stopping) and as a result (seemingly if you let go of up and a certain point on the up-and-down cycle) your character will sometimes fall down the ladder again.
Also 2 more bugs, which I think are fairly self-explanatory from the pictures:
Gordon Freebro stole that surname already, I think...