The one is more avant-garde, but still potentially very interesting, the other is safe, and isn't going to ruffle any feathers. Is that a benefit?
I think it is. Like I said, people get freaking strange about this. "It looks like a ship/plane but it doesnt zoom around like one! WHAT A RIP OFF I WANT MY MONEY BACK". You know people think that way, and it seems damn silly to me to lose sales to that. I wish they WOULDNT think that way, but they often do. A small detail like that, creating a conflict between appearance and player control, is enough to throw some people off (who WOULDNT be thrown off by problems that actually made SENSE, sigh...).
This. So very very very much this. I love the control scheme in Valley 1, for instance, but since it feels very gravity-less (aka, like classic games), but looks more like characters from more modern games where people expect the "realistic" (ha) physics of Havok or whatever, and the ability to grab onto ledges and whatnot, people complained that the controls felt wrong. Versus something like super meat boy or gunpoint or various others which use the gravity-less systems but have the visuals to match.
Same deal with SHMUPs: put in momentum = death. So we have space ships and giant insects and so on that move with incredible precision that would make Mario jealous. No problem, though, because it's understood "that's how the genre is, and has to be." But if a game is in space, it had better have some sort of momentum, right? Right??
Personally I disagree, but I do like that in some circumstances. The problem is that people will complain and moan about it.
Grand Theft Auto is another interesting example. The controls in GTA5 are freaking amazing for cars, although it's more arcadey. But the main thing is they are so precise I can dodge through thick traffic, make cool turns, and generally feel awesome and have great fun with it. GTA IV I never played much, but the controls were more "realistic" and so people griped a lot about that change. Now, I like somewhat-realistic racers as well, and the handling of cars in Burnout: Paradise are fun to master. However, just making turns in that game can be a challenge depending on the car you have. Not to mention the speed you move at makes it so that the turns come up so bloody fast that you have very little reaction time. So there's almost no traffic. If there was significant traffic and I was trying to use a GTA5-style minimap and run from the cops and whatever else, it would be a freaking nightmare.
So we have the problem of expectations of people, and smaller games can only absorb so much flak before going down in flames. I need this game to be a success. I'll have taken a loss of something like $40k this year when all is said is done. We'll basically be out of money when this is done. So am I playing it safe? You bet.
But also, I'm playing it
fun. I want this to feel how I want it to feel. Period. I'm not opposed to other ship models or mods or options or whatever else that make it feel how someone else wants it to feel, so long as it doesn't then make the game unplayable for them and they complain (aka, if they put in Burnout physics and then complain about the near-constant wrecked cars they create in heavy traffic -- errr, yeah, that's why the physics weren't like that to start with).
Having a bit of momentum to the character makes the game feel surprisingly better, so I'm really pleased that was able to be added. But too much just felt... wrong. It doesn't feel like the game I was hoping to make. And people still felt like it wasn't space-ship-y enough in feel. It was already coming through in the youtube comments a bit, with very little exposure. And that sort of lack of proper feel makes the game feel "cheap," which is the last thing we can afford with impressions. Well, "bad" is the last thing, but "cheap" is up there.
Oh: and not to mention the people going "why are you a ship flying around in a larger ship?" It's hard to convey scale of that sort, and art-wise that was proving to be a big challenge in 2D. So the shift to a smaller scale (of assumed character size) was good as well.
Anyhow! So I want it to control how I want it to control. And having it control that way doesn't match up with it being a spaceship without people griping. But it does match up with the feel of walking around. But I don't want to make non-mechanical characters. So, add that up and the solution is mechs. I don't care about being avant-garde. I just want to make a good game, and I want to do it without bankrupting myself or laying off staff or not seeing my family over the holidays.
So this is my last comment on this discussion, and hopefully it's comprehensive enough. I understand the other point of view, but the thing to understand is that there are a variety of luxuries I don't have. I understand that this choice won't sit right with everyone, but it's so blindingly obviously right from the company's point of view that it's not something I can really discuss with any productivity at this point. If that makes sense?
As for how far along the art is already beyond what's already been used, that one I have no answer to. All I know is that recent new enemies have no new art associated with them, which to me says that there might not be any ready yet. I just assign them temporary sprites taken from older enemies when I add them to the game; Chris gives them new ones later on when they're ready to be used.
There's actually like another 90 enemies of art done, but I just have had NO TIME, blah. I will get to integrating more of those today I hope. In terms of new enemies, it takes about 2 days for another set of 30ish. We won't be using them all, because in each set of 30 we have a lot of variants in shape and size but one central theme, and then three color schemes for them. But anyhow, having some with legs is no big deal.
And the idea that if all the enemies are flying that's a problem I find kind of questionable. It's a lot easier to accept than a spaceship in a spaceship, I think. A huge number of enemies in the original Metroid are flying, for instance.
