Coder Corner

A tribute to…

I am so (not) funny. Didn’t even remember I wrote that piece of dialog in KP….

Funny... not

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2012 at 5:30 am and is filed under Oni / Konoko Payne. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “A tribute to…”

1. Rares Enache Says:
   
   June 1st, 2012 at 6:33 am

   I don’t seem to remember this (part of) level in any of you W.I.Ps..

2. admin Says:
   
   June 7th, 2012 at 10:07 am

   Oh yeah it’s in there. This is the “Xeno Lab”. Granted, you need to find a way to get in…

3. zer0nix Says:
   
   August 3rd, 2012 at 1:26 am

   sir, i am in absolute awe of you. that you have done so much in your career, from procedural terrain generation to a reworking of oni… i’m almost speechless.

   almost. i’ve a few things to say.

   first of all, although your project is probably highly illegal, have you considered contacting bungee and offering konoko payne as a 3rd party update to make the old game playable on newer computers? it’s not unheard of for independent programmers to do such a thing; for instance, there’s a transcription program that was ported from android to palm os by an independent programmer who actually personally suggested the idea and was given permission not only to do it but to make money off of the result. of course, the company made money off of the actual transcribing, which was done serverside -but still this is a beloved title which is currently generating zero income for bungee. if you do the coding and if it is sold through direct downloading ala good old games/steam/baulders gate, i don’t know how they could refuse.

   now, i haven’t actually played your game yet,,, -my gaming pc is on the fritz and i just discovered the existence of your game through youtube- but with that said, i have a few suggestions to improve the playing experience.

   first of all, i think it would feel a lot more natural if the camera were adjusted so that more of the environment could be seen around konoko; currently, she takes up about 1/6 of the screen, which imo doesn’t leave much room to look around and really get a good sense of what’s going on. i think it would be a lot more fun, and give a more ‘tactical’ feel, if we could see more of the environment. of course, imo it would be even better if the camera could be adjusted by the player.

   secondly, regarding the issue of performing specials with ease, i think the action rpg ’severance blade of darkness’ (another game that deserves a modern update imo) offers a really great way of triggering special moves in a ’street fighter’ fashion. furthermore, i also suggest the use of ‘charge specials’ with ‘negative edge’ and ‘charge partitioning’ to trigger such moves ‘in a flash,’ yet still requiring some sense of awareness and timing.

   regarding the issue of getting mobbed, i have 3 suggestions (possibly bad ones, but here goes). first, perhaps it would be easier to fight off numerous opponents if each blow could do a bit of knockback and if opponents entering ‘combat range’ -that is, within the range that they can hit the player- would hesitate for a bit (ideally a random amount of time between 0 and .7 seconds) before directly engaging in combat. secondly, i think blocking would be easier if a slightly larger angle of attacks could be blocked and if there were a block button. to compensate, perhaps konoko can take a reduced amount of damage if she is hit while blocking or throwing. idunno. just spitting out ideas here. i wish i had your coding ability so that i could test these ideas myself!

   regarding the graphics, i have three suggestions. first of all, although i’m not a technical guy, i think the method of rendering a high res texture on top of a low res texture when the camera is up close, such as in unreal tournament (the first one; i wish i could remember what this technique is called) is still one of the most convincing ways of rendering a hyperreal ‘high res’ effect. i think such a technique can offer superior appearance without necessitating complete texture replacement. next, to illuminate dark areas, i suggest grafting a shoulder mounted flashlight onto konoko; i think it would look cool and also make the game world seem more vibrant and alive. finally, i wonder if making normal maps out of the existing textures would have a good effect. i got this idea from looking at the deep black creases on various oni models’ hand textures.

   actually, i have one more suggestion; could you consider incorporating some of the updated textures from the oni forums? there’s really only one i’m keen on; the reskin of barabus with black and white in the red areas really looks cool imo!

   anyways, i hope this hasn’t been too grating. i really appreciate your work and quite frankly, i am astounded by your skill. i appreciate what you’ve done and i am in awe of your abilities. i am so much in awe that i am almost too humbled to ask where one can learn such abilities. almost. seriously, this might speak to my naivete but i’m astonished that a team of 1 has accomplished what you’ve accomplished over the years. bravo!

4. zer0nix Says:
   
   August 3rd, 2012 at 1:56 am

   ouch. i probably should have done some proofreading on that post… and i don’t know why the formatting was lost. regardless, i just found out that more than 1 person worked on konoko payne and wanted to correct myself. to everyone who worked on that awesome bit of tech, thank you very much! i wish you all continued success and i hope the project goes even further in the future!