TANGLEWOOD: Official thread (+Tech Demo 0.1.04 RELEASED!)

[BigEvilCorporation]

Hello friends!


I've started a new thread so I can edit the OP with updated links and images as they come in. Speaking of which:

KICKSTARTER EDITIONS NOW SHIPPING!

Click here for an update. Around 600 Kickstarter editions have now shipped and are starting to arrive in peoples' homes!



TANGLEWOOD Tech Demo 0.1.04

Tech Demo 0.1.04 marks a significant milestone in Tanglewood's development. We've now completed considerable work upgrading the engine, editor and toolchain, which will boost our productivity and enable us to realise some big features on our wishlist. We've used the updated tools to re-implement most of the existing work to a far higher standard than the original demo, and we hope it shows!

TANGLEWOOD Pre-Release Demo 0.9.37

Pre-release demo 0.9.37 is out now!

The demo is still only a small slice of the game - chapter 1 of 8!

Download the demo ROM here: https://bigevilcorporation.itch.io/tanglewood-demo-0937

The ROM has been tested with all major emulators, but naturally, we recommend you play on a genuine SEGA console











TANGLEWOOD Website

More info, screenshots, and pre-orders on our website: http://www.tanglewoodgame.com



As usual I'm open to feedback of any variety. Hit me.

Matt

[EPSYLON EAGLE]

I am fully aware that it is a prototypel, the world created is fascinating, hope provide constructive feedack!

I like much the music (specially the percussion) and sfx.

The player character and the enemy are very well animated, but there is still room for improvements, the transitions between the two-legged to the four-legged walk needs more smooth animation, as well the jumps mechanics is not accurate enought and needs adjustments.

The background A is really great, the moss in tree branchs, leafs in the air and another fine details ensure the game atmosphere. The trampolines mushrooms can use a color that makes them easier to identify. The day night transition is too cool.

In contrast, the background B is so monotonous and need much more work, look to Pocahontas, one game with similar art style, the backgrounds are wonderful.

You seem reach the right way in collision detection, certainly one of the big challenges in games like this, Nymm reacts very well when interacts with rocks, enemies and that furr things.

I don't know if it is intentional, but the enemies does not cause sound when step on the water (6:13), perhaps adding the appropriate sfx would add more depth for the gameplay.


Nymm is an arboreal being, okay? So why your footsteps sound like an elephant, even when it's on tree branches? A smooth walk sfx, will fit much better with the character.

That's all, forgive me my bad english, if i was rude in any way, good luck!

[Flygon]

My own thoughts with background B more reside with having it not stand out too hard.

It works well with the Cyan background, all calm and ambient. But when it stands out with the other palettes, it really stands out.

[BigEvilCorporation]

All noted!

The background is limited on VRAM space and it doesn't do any streaming so it's fixed at 32 height. In the previous demo I cheated a bit and let it over-scroll since the bottom was always covered up by foreground art, which made it less static, but that's no longer the case so I had to fix its scroll again.

It needs some tile optimisation to try and find more space for a varied background. It's something we'll do soon.

Enemies will have water footsteps and their own VFX to go with it, they're just unfinished. There's also going to be slight screen shake when they run, too!

I guess I can calm Nymn's footsteps down a bit, they were really quiet on older (1-speaker) CRT TVs so I bumped them up a little, maybe I went too far. I can also add flags to the terrain to determine floor type, and play different SFX (would even help to simply VFX too) for different surfaces.

[Bramsworth]

I need to play more and will maybe give better impression when I have more time. I'll just point out the music. Is Knytt by Nifflas an inspiration at all? I got that impression since Knytt did a similar thing where different areas would trigger small music pieces that don't last the entirety of the scene. I only heard one track so far in Tanglewood, but I'd say if it's possible the game really needs more ambiance/efx that go with the scenery. That's something Knytt did so that after a music piece has finished you aren't just listening to total silence, i.e. caves would have what sounds like wind in the background coming in, or breezy areas would have a breeze, rainy areas would be the sound of rain, etc. I know the Genesis is limited with sound on that front though, but maybe something could be done? The one track that did play set a nice mood, but it was a little odd hearing the pad fade out and then total silence until the next chord played.

In short, more audio ambiance would benefit the atmosphere a lot.

[Arm]

I think there could be different kinds of wind sfx to accompany the changing moods of the scene. Strong winds during certain period of time. A slight breeze during the night. And different type of insect/animal sounds in the bg, so that it's never really silent. Looks pretty nice overall imo.

[BigEvilCorporation]

I need to play more and will maybe give better impression when I have more time. I'll just point out the music. Is Knytt by Nifflas an inspiration at all? I got that impression since Knytt did a similar thing where different areas would trigger small music pieces that don't last the entirety of the scene. I only heard one track so far in Tanglewood, but I'd say if it's possible the game really needs more ambiance/efx that go with the scenery. That's something Knytt did so that after a music piece has finished you aren't just listening to total silence, i.e. caves would have what sounds like wind in the background coming in, or breezy areas would have a breeze, rainy areas would be the sound of rain, etc. I know the Genesis is limited with sound on that front though, but maybe something could be done? The one track that did play set a nice mood, but it was a little odd hearing the pad fade out and then total silence until the next chord played.

In short, more audio ambiance would benefit the atmosphere a lot.

Yep, more ambience has been on the list for a while, we'll be adding more. The current loop was a test track to see if we wanted something slightly musical over environmental effects, we're still playing around with the various options. The Genesis isn't very good at wind-style effects (no EQ sweep or alternatives) which isn't helping us very much (especially since one of the levels takes place in a blizzard) but we'll see what we can do.

I'd not heard of Knytt before, I'll give it a play this evening. Most of the inspiration comes from Limbo and Abe's Oddysee.

[Vetea]

Very impressive demo !
I've test it on my Nomad, it's running very well.



I really like the artistic direction and the sound ambiance.
When you start a game, the Big Sound is really Loud !! Hehe ! "WAKE UP FOX !"
Great work so far !
Keep up the good work.
Vetea

[BigEvilCorporation]

Very impressive demo !
I've test it on my Nomad, it's running very well.



I really like the artistic direction and the sound ambiance.
When you start a game, the Big Sound is really Loud !! Hehe ! "WAKE UP FOX !"
Great work so far !
Keep up the good work.
Vetea

Nice to see it running on Nomad! I was tempted to buy one from my local retro shop for testing, but £270 was a bit much I'll keep my eye out for a bargain.

PSG volume seems to differ between board revisions, which is annoying, so yeah that Press Start sound might be a bit loud on some models!

[Mad Moham]

I was starting to wonder if people experienced sound differently depending on board revision. The game sounds just about perfect on my console, I'm running a very early model 1 (I can't remember the exact revision).

Anyway, feedback: I don't know if this is intentional, but if you jump into a boulder, then the boulder gets launched across the screen pretty quickly. The boulder launch is especially obvious if you jump on top of it while pressing C.
One minor point I have is that maybe the glide could do with an extra frame or two of animation when changing direction.
Finally, I think that the background looks good, but possibly could do with an extra layer of scrolling.

Overall though, it seems to run really well and I think the art style and general direction are very good.

[LinkueiBR]

OMG the physics, graphics and sound ambience in this demo is SO good that is a pleasure to play!
Keep it up!!!

[QuickSciFi]

This is the sort of thing why I need to get myself an Everdrive. Is there some footage of this gameplay besides the initial vids I can look at?

[Arm]

This is the sort of thing why I need to get myself an Everdrive. Is there some footage of this gameplay besides the initial vids I can look at?

Matt has recorded a gameplay video of the demo. You can watch it here:
https://youtu.be/59KW8xT74eo

[QuickSciFi]

^Thanks. Rep given.

I'll embed it here in case anyone else wants to see it directly:

[BigEvilCorporation]

I don't know if this is intentional, but if you jump into a boulder, then the boulder gets launched across the screen pretty quickly. The boulder launch is especially obvious if you jump on top of it while pressing C. .

Yep, known issue, it was triaged for the demo since smashed boulders will respawn when off screen - you shouldn't be able to get yourself stuck if you throw one past a blocking stone.

Originally the "shove" behaviour was a bug, but we promoted it to a feature, cleaned up the code, and provided some variables to control it, so that you can get Fuzzls to their nests quicker once you master how to do it.
Unfortunately it had a knock-on effect with boulders! It'll be fixed in the final version.

You can also do the final puzzle quicker if you get it just right: fling the Fuzzl off the edge of the branch and it'll fly right into the nest without needing to go via the flue on the ground.

Some of these tricks also spawned the idea of a speed run mode, we'll add an option to show a timer on screen, and add level time to the "Fireflies collected" screen.

One minor point I have is that maybe the glide could do with an extra frame or two of animation when changing direction.

Our character artist raised this, too. We reckon the Djakk could do with the same treatment, he's quite large so turning around just by flipping the sprites is a bit jarring. We'll see what we can do within the budget, animations aren't cheap.

Finally, I think that the background looks good, but possibly could do with an extra layer of scrolling

Noted. We'll start by increasing the plane size to 64x64 so that there's some leeway to scroll it vertically, it looks really static right now with just the 16 pixel room for manoeuvre. The older demo did this and it was cheap and effective.

We'd love to add more detail to it but VRAM is limited, we'll see what we can save elsewhere.