A Valley Without Wind Alpha #12 -- Side View, Undergrounds, and Other New Mechan

[Ozymandiaz]

Any new videos coming soon?

[x4000]

Any new videos coming soon?

Not imminently, but in a couple of weeks, yeah!

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Any new videos coming soon?

Not imminently, but in a couple of weeks, yeah!

Is it BETA yet? 

King

[x4000]

Don't make me stop this car! 

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Don't make me stop this car! 

  heee hee hee hee

King

[Teal_Blue]

I watched the video and haven't commented, because wanted to sort it all out before I said anything.

I sorta miss the old style, but only in a 'i'm familiar with this' way, not a 'the old way was better' kind of way.

But I really, really like the new LOOK. In a 'I like the flow and it looks smoother' way.
But the nostalgia and the new were going back and forth and i wasn't sure about which i liked more.
I kept flip-flopping.

So I looked back at AI War, just to like remember where it was all starting from.

And thought that the AVWW art is really a big leap over the AIW art, not the game play mechanics, but just in the art presentation. ( Just my opinion, OK?)

Then thought, if i was you, and i was coding my heart out, and drawing my best and people were 'still' giving me grief?

Then i would put up a sign that said:

COMING SOON, NEW STUFF!!

and then i would disappear for a couple weeks and not even look at the boards. And do my best...

AND THEN in TWO OR THREE OR FOUR OR FIVE OR SIX OR SEVEN OR EIGHT WEEKS when the game was playable and the beta was ready I'd come back and show what I had!

It might be the only way to keep the sanity and keep from just wanting to groan and cry for all the nay-saying out there and people second guessing every step and every part you post.


Don't want to tell you what to do or think, or how to do this, but emotionally i was starting to feel all the 'negativity' coming down and was thinking,

'How can they even deal with this? I'm falling apart. If i was them I would be crying my eyes out.'

Anyway, Hang in there!
I'm hoping to see the game when its ready, though, you seriously might want to not listen to the boards for awhile, just to, you know... keep some positivity going.

Just a thought,

-Teal

[x4000]

Thanks for the post and the kind words, Teal.

It definitely can be frustrating with each video and post about what's in there, since people expect to see videos of a finished game for some reason, but we've done the "hide our heads in a hole until we're done" thing before, and that hasn't worked out.  Fortunately, overall there has been really positive commentary on this #12 batch compared to prior batches, so that's been heartening despite some negativity.

And some negativity is inevitable, you have to develop some fairly thick skin to stay in this business.  You wouldn't believe the terrible things people say about... every game ever made.

But, we do tend to only do videos only every 3ish weeks now due to our desire to keep both our schedule and our sanity.  Too much time talking about the game and not enough time making it would be a bad thing.

Anyway, we're in good shape at the moment, and I'm still feeling better than ever about the project.  A lot of the stuff that's been put in since even #12 have me really excited.  The old keyboard/gamepad controls are still there, but we have new keyboard+mouse controls that are the new default and are just wicked fun to use.  The new crafting interfaces are incredibly good (thanks to Keith), and we've figured out how to streamline some other interface things as well.  So that the game feels more like a modern professional game, not just like a game full of menus, while still retaining all the functionality of the menus.

So in a lot of respects the work is an end unto itself, really.  If I can't look at it and be happy about it for its own sake, then I've done something wrong.  And if I look at it and am happy about it, then it's a fair bit some other folks will be, too.  In the end you can't chase the market, or you wind up only with bland copies of stuff that everyone has seen before.  If you do things differently and take risks, you get naysayers until they try it and love it (and sometimes after, naturally).

In short, I really think people will be pleased when we hit beta, and that's sustaining enough for now.

[Echo35]

I'm hoping to see the game when its ready, though, you seriously might want to not listen to the boards for awhile, just to, you know... keep some positivity going.

There is stuff in AVWW i like and a lot I don't like too, but it is very Alpha right now, and I'm not passing judgement until I can play it at least Interested to see what the game turns into for sure.

[realcoolguy]

It definitely can be frustrating with each video and post about what's in there, since people expect to see videos of a finished game for some reason, but we've done the "hide our heads in a hole until we're done" thing before, and that hasn't worked out.  Fortunately, overall there has been really positive commentary on this #12 batch compared to prior batches, so that's been heartening despite some negativity.

Have you received good feedback from releasing some of your ideas and videos showing and telling what you're making?  What I mean by good feedback is, have you improved the game more than you would have by people making critiques?

As for the negativity - I think there are some people who have no idea how hard it is to get even a simple game together.  I only have a limited background in C++ and am only a semi-competent user of Blender (the 3d program) so I can certainly appreciate some of the incredible work that gets poured into these sorts of projects to make a working game.  I do wish people would be a little more respectful, but some people feel the need to tear other people down because it's not the fancy shooter that some 12 year old wants.

I'll be waiting for the finished product before I make any sort of final judgements but everything here is looking absolutely fantastic. 

[x4000]

Have you received good feedback from releasing some of your ideas and videos showing and telling what you're making?  What I mean by good feedback is, have you improved the game more than you would have by people making critiques?

Yup, so in that regard it's been extremely productive and positive.  The actual game has benefited from this process immensely.  It's the emotional toll that it takes on the developers that is usually the trouble with this sort of thing.

As for the negativity - I think there are some people who have no idea how hard it is to get even a simple game together.  I only have a limited background in C++ and am only a semi-competent user of Blender (the 3d program) so I can certainly appreciate some of the incredible work that gets poured into these sorts of projects to make a working game.  I do wish people would be a little more respectful, but some people feel the need to tear other people down because it's not the fancy shooter that some 12 year old wants.

I'll be waiting for the finished product before I make any sort of final judgements but everything here is looking absolutely fantastic. 

Thanks for that!

[tootboot]

Wow, I went away for a month or two and you addressed most of my major complaints in the interim!

1. Keyboard/gamepad only
2. Female character looked topless
3. Graphics looking bad because of perspective issues
4. Skelebots looking bad

The game looks much better as a side scroller and as a side effect skelebot movement looks 100% better too.

I'm still iffy on the gameplay but that's probably going to be the case until I can at least read people's impressions of it.

Very nice!

[realcoolguy]

Wow, I went away for a month or two and you addressed most of my major complaints in the interim!

2. Female character looked topless

Now that we lost a feature we'll have to make up for it in terms of game play somehow.