Proj: GL - A 2D Vore Platformer

[Turbotowns]

Oh, you changed it from being Samus... That's fine I suppose. There's a bit more security and originality there.

[Whisper92]

So, now it has a name. Nice. I’ll see if i can think of a way to smooth the acronym out.


HOLY JESUS THE ANIMATION! wow, no wonder it took you so long to push this out, the active digest had to have 100 frames in it. Good god! Yeah, everything seems smoother and much more fluid, especially the running animations.

Now, this has only happened once, but when I booted the game up... it was all kinds of fucky. I hit new game, and it spawned me next to the red dragon thing but at the bottom of the first level. Missile droids were stuck in the floor, lasers were hanging out of the wall, and dashers were stuck in the floor . Luckily, all I had to do was restart and it was fixed, but i though I should mention it.

The new swallow animation looks great. Really well done. Nice and smooth, that probably took a while to make. Also, i’m not sure if I was seeing things or if it was real, but do the dashers give an extra kick in their animation when being eaten? It looks like it does but when I focus on it, I don’t see it.

Next, i feel like the platforming is much better. Either the character moves faster or the hit boxes are tighter, it just feels like its easier to land jumps.


Oh, the new title screen looks really good. It kind of reminds me of the title screen for RE4’s Assignment Ada.


Suggestions and criticism:

I have a feeling some of these are growing pains (things present now to test but will be repurposed later) but i still want to state them to show how I feel.

I think the normal swallow is too long. I got stuck twice and had to run off once and wait for the enemies to separate to go get them. Maybe you could have the gun’s stun effect compound a few times with multiple hits to disable someone for longer if you’re in a jam. Otherwise, maybe the burp could be removed for normal enemies to make dealing with them quicker so you don’t get locked up.

Next, this is mainly just me, but I think the 1 person gut is too big. This sounds sacrilegious because I can see how much work was put into it all, but I’m not a fan of it looking like a elastic bag. I like the MIB 2 Serleena look, the big gut but smaller than it should be. The way I see it, its like a domination esque thing, her body is so powerful that a whole enemy inside of her stomach is only a minor convenience, and her muscles are tightly compacting the prey into a relatively small jut rather than being like a net. That’s just my opinion, and to use a reference, if I were to get my way, I think the new manual digest pre slap would be the perfect size for one guy.

Now, in a gameplay sense, i think the indigestion and consequences for a 1 person gut should be much less or removed entirely. This is a part of the growing pains, being that I think the next major step forward will be a lethal gun/ shot, but when that happens, I think that holding 1 guy should have little to no consequences to it besides speed and target size. It could make it a legitimate playstyle, medium/high speed, louder, floaty jumps, protected, and using the lethal combat more openly.

What i suggested above could be tied into the upgrade system, removing/ reducing consequences related to goons in your gut. But at the same time, it just makes more sense to me that, with all that Mia can down with up to 2 or even more guys in her stomach, one should be almost inconsequential.

With that being said, I actually am pretty happy overall with the double gut.


Random glitch? Not really sure what happened, but when i got caught and hit with an indigestion attack, i had a weird bit where I in the invincible frames, but it looked like mia was constantly doing the barf animation. It didn’t kill the game but it looked odd. Ill try to look into it.

Suggestion: someone above mentioned that they ran out of ammo. May i suggest that of you run below5-10 shots, that you can (very) slowly recharge bullets up to a set cap?

Also: this is just a minor stupid thing, but would you consider making her hair tie a different color? It may help by adding in some more color or something like that.


Now, maybe its because its so new, but while the new animations looks slick as hell, it feels like there’s less emotion or personality to some of them. Autodigest doesn’t seem to have the same visible feedback as before, and other things like the slight rub to her stomach and other small expressions that she used to do feel like theyre gone now. I hate to shit all over all of this hard work, but maybe at the same time some of these will return in the form of emotes?


Anyway, you deserve some time off to refresh yourself youve earned it, and the work looks incredible

[BrokenDoorknob]

Now, this has only happened once, but when I booted the game up... it was all kinds of fucky. I hit new game, and it spawned me next to the red dragon thing but at the bottom of the first level. Missile droids were stuck in the floor, lasers were hanging out of the wall, and dashers were stuck in the floor . Luckily, all I had to do was restart and it was fixed, but i though I should mention it.

Yep, that is... extremely bizarre. I imagine it's a rare runtime error, considering it fixed itself after a restart - my only other guess is you actually hit continue and had a corrupt save?

The new swallow animation looks great. Really well done. Nice and smooth, that probably took a while to make. Also, i’m not sure if I was seeing things or if it was real, but do the dashers give an extra kick in their animation when being eaten? It looks like it does but when I focus on it, I don’t see it.

Next, i feel like the platforming is much better. Either the character moves faster or the hit boxes are tighter, it just feels like its easier to land jumps.

No extra kick to the dasher animation, though you give me ideas to include animations like that. And I actually changed absolutely nothing about the platforming! My guess is that it's due to the sprites holding more consistent size between all of them.

I think the normal swallow is too long. I got stuck twice and had to run off once and wait for the enemies to separate to go get them. Maybe you could have the gun’s stun effect compound a few times with multiple hits to disable someone for longer if you’re in a jam. Otherwise, maybe the burp could be removed for normal enemies to make dealing with them quicker so you don’t get locked up.

Yeah, the plan is for both that animation and several others to be exited early by inputting any movement or button, that's part of the numerous mechanic changes coming up.

Next, this is mainly just me, but I think the 1 person gut is too big. This sounds sacrilegious because I can see how much work was put into it all, but I’m not a fan of it looking like a elastic bag. I like the MIB 2 Serleena look, the big gut but smaller than it should be. The way I see it, its like a domination esque thing, her body is so powerful that a whole enemy inside of her stomach is only a minor convenience, and her muscles are tightly compacting the prey into a relatively small jut rather than being like a net. That’s just my opinion, and to use a reference, if I were to get my way, I think the new manual digest pre slap would be the perfect size for one guy.

That was my original mode of thinking with the old sprites and their belly size when I thought that full size bellies would run out of sprite room too quickly. However, they are gonna keep the full size belly for now in favor of a more realistic look - however, you'll be pleased to hear I've already planned a "hammerspace" perk that will effectively make it so that the first prey you swallow gives you about that pre-slap belly instead, before the following belly sizes are used for consecutive prey. Effectively this will allow the player to have an entire extra prey slot without having to battle the conflicts of a massively large belly sprite, and you'll get that tightly packed belly for the first prey (if you choose to take the perk!).

Now, in a gameplay sense, i think the indigestion and consequences for a 1 person gut should be much less or removed entirely. This is a part of the growing pains, being that I think the next major step forward will be a lethal gun/ shot, but when that happens, I think that holding 1 guy should have little to no consequences to it besides speed and target size. It could make it a legitimate playstyle, medium/high speed, louder, floaty jumps, protected, and using the lethal combat more openly.

What i suggested above could be tied into the upgrade system, removing/ reducing consequences related to goons in your gut. But at the same time, it just makes more sense to me that, with all that Mia can down with up to 2 or even more guys in her stomach, one should be almost inconsequential.

All stuff that's going to be changed with the vore system update - indigestion will no longer be a random event, rather you will have an indigestion bar on the UI that fills when you do things like swallow struggling prey or missiles. At 75%, the shorter indigestion will trigger, and at 100% the indigestion burp will trigger, creating much more noise and dropping the indigestion bar to 25% (or lower). Meanwhile, the indigestion bar can be manually lowered through a burping ability (which itself costs a part of the indigestion bar to be used), which will also be that AOE knockback ability the player gets.

Random glitch? Not really sure what happened, but when i got caught and hit with an indigestion attack, i had a weird bit where I in the invincible frames, but it looked like mia was constantly doing the barf animation. It didn’t kill the game but it looked odd. Ill try to look into it.

Interesting - I'll need to check it out to see if I didn't accidentally cause it to loop.

Suggestion: someone above mentioned that they ran out of ammo. May i suggest that of you run below5-10 shots, that you can (very) slowly recharge bullets up to a set cap?

The ability to replenish ammo by swallowing incoming projectiles was meant to be the failsafe for running out of ammo (especially against the one enemy that requires ammo to beat) - however, with the coming melee attacks that will be able to deal lethal damage that should help as well! Though I may make recharging ammunition an upgrade for the gun.

Also: this is just a minor stupid thing, but would you consider making her hair tie a different color? It may help by adding in some more color or something like that.

Originally I considered it more one of those bun ponytails, but I'm thinking it might look better as that bit just being the hair tie and coloring it differently too. Once I can muster the will to pick up my tablet again I'll look into it!

Now, maybe its because its so new, but while the new animations looks slick as hell, it feels like there’s less emotion or personality to some of them. Autodigest doesn’t seem to have the same visible feedback as before, and other things like the slight rub to her stomach and other small expressions that she used to do feel like theyre gone now. I hate to shit all over all of this hard work, but maybe at the same time some of these will return in the form of emotes?

Though it may be a while, the player animations are something I plan to regularly go back and enhance bits at a time. I also plan on changing the struggle animation cycle to instead have a large library of idle/rubbing/struggle animations to choose randomly from.

Though, in the case of the autodigest, that's in part because I made the animations with the upcoming changes to the vore system in mind. It's a lot to explain atm, but essentially the autodigest will become the absorbtion phase, so it will be much shorter and the player will rapidly regen health and stamina during this. Prior to absorption though, as long as the prey has health left this phase won't be triggerable, and the various struggle animations will be playing.

Anyway, you deserve some time off to refresh yourself youve earned it, and the work looks incredible

Thank you!! I first plan to sleep for 40 hours.

[VirtuosoViking]

Wow, the new player sprites are really great. As someone who wants to try spriting eventually, this is a real nice showcase on what can be done with it, so really nice job on that. Though I'm excited to see what other enemy preds you'll put in, it sounds like it took a notable amount of time and effort, so I hope you enjoy your deserved rest time.

[Manchura]

oh man, this game has me excited on the potential. I have not seen a game that had the potential to rival a classical triple A title like this since FUBN, if this is able to be at a level where it is just Metroid with vore I would be amazed and impressed, but all things take time and for sure this may be dropped but know that you are doing a great job so far!

[Whisper92]

So, i am kind of curious, are there going to be any other aspects to the “Hammerspace” Perk, or is it essentially going to be the 3 person vore ability?


Also, the indigestion meter and burp functions sounds like a good idea. As a part of the hypothetical upgrades system, do you think it could be upgraded as well, be it first its a no lethal spacemaker, then it can do damage as different colors of flame as it does more damage?

[YHL6965]

Do you plan to turn the current humanoid enemies into preds? Although I like the ability to play as a pred, I have a preference for playing as prey. Do you also plan to add other vore methods too like unbirthing for example? Maybe different vore methods could have different returns like oral for health, unbirth for ammo or things like that, possibly influenced by perks.

[Nomad_Zeke]

If you get over 1000 ammo it runs off the screen..I just parked in a spot where the missile bot could only hit with one, put a little weight on the control key, and left it alone to go do other stuff...eating 1000 missiles takes a while..though if you pick up ammo after it reverts to 999.

I can see why you changed the sprite to be less-samus-y, though I like redheads too.

[Egads]

If you get over 1000 ammo it runs off the screen..I just parked in a spot where the missile bot could only hit with one, put a little weight on the control key, and left it alone to go do other stuff...eating 1000 missiles takes a while..though if you pick up ammo after it reverts to 999.

I'm surprised you went and did that

[Tsuuuruya]

Yo!
Nicely done, Syntax-san!

The animations are beautiful and very impressively put together - the old ones were good, but this is even better than that.
You've truly outdone yourself, I must say!

I've got a bug to report, I apologize if somehow I missed someone else's post highlighting it.
If you make no saves and you select 'Continue' on the main menu screen you are spawned in the wall at the beginning of the first stage.
Not sure what exactly causes it, but I've tried it multiple times and it is 100% tied to a no-save Continue button start.

As always, keep up the good work!

P.S. Have you considered starting a Patreon or a Ko-fi for additional support in this?

[BrokenDoorknob]

First, thank you all again for your compliments! I'm really glad that you're all enjoying the animations so much, very much makes the work feel worth it.

So, i am kind of curious, are there going to be any other aspects to the “Hammerspace” Perk, or is it essentially going to be the 3 person vore ability?


Also, the indigestion meter and burp functions sounds like a good idea. As a part of the hypothetical upgrades system, do you think it could be upgraded as well, be it first its a no lethal spacemaker, then it can do damage as different colors of flame as it does more damage?

Yep, it'll definitely be a part of the upgrade system. Most of the upgrade system will be perks relating to pred and prey abilities, with experience for each gained by being each. Meanwhile, I'm thinking some other currency can be earned by dispatching enemies or through other various methods (I've really been toying with the drone webcam pickup idea you mentioned a while back for earning extra currency as a temp powerup), which is used for the purposes of upgrading your gun (or perhaps getting new ones entirely).

As for the hammerspace perk, technically it'll be allowing you a 5th prey at that point (plan to add regular abilities to eventually unlock 3 and 4 prey), and may make it so you're immune or less prone to indigestion/struggle contests with fewer (or just the first) prey in you.

Do you plan to turn the current humanoid enemies into preds? Although I like the ability to play as a pred, I have a preference for playing as prey. Do you also plan to add other vore methods too like unbirthing for example? Maybe different vore methods could have different returns like oral for health, unbirth for ammo or things like that, possibly influenced by perks.

Different vore methods mayy be a stretch (or really at least just a while off) but definitely possible - there will definitely be plenty of humanoid enemy preds coming as well, don't worry!

If you get over 1000 ammo it runs off the screen..I just parked in a spot where the missile bot could only hit with one, put a little weight on the control key, and left it alone to go do other stuff...eating 1000 missiles takes a while..though if you pick up ammo after it reverts to 999.

Ah, bit of a bug there! The ammo is supposed to cap at 999, I'll make a note of it.

Yo!
Nicely done, Syntax-san!

The animations are beautiful and very impressively put together - the old ones were good, but this is even better than that.
You've truly outdone yourself, I must say!

I've got a bug to report, I apologize if somehow I missed someone else's post highlighting it.
If you make no saves and you select 'Continue' on the main menu screen you are spawned in the wall at the beginning of the first stage.
Not sure what exactly causes it, but I've tried it multiple times and it is 100% tied to a no-save Continue button start.

As always, keep up the good work!

P.S. Have you considered starting a Patreon or a Ko-fi for additional support in this?

Thank you again! Yes, that's a bit of a known bug, really that's just the kinda craziness that happens when you try to load an old old or nonexistant save file - I need to add a preventative that won't allow players to select continue if they don't have a save!

As for a Patreon, I've been considering it, especially as I've been getting several questions about one lately. I was thinking of putting a poll up to see what people thought of me making one - it would likely afford me more time to work on the game at least while I'm not in uni (still gotta be a student first, especially as my major IS game design), and possibly actually hire more artists instead of relying on the generosity of volunteers (though it has been greatly appreciated!!)

[daeway]

DraconicSyntax

"I'm also thinking of having an alternate/faster swallow animation for if you manage to eat an enemy without breaking stealth."

You stated once that the rocket launchers might have tinies for Mia to snatch up and eat. My thought is the tinies are RIDICULOUDLY slow (no need to make catching them a hassle), and when crouched she can swipe at the tiny to grab them. That same animation could be used to grab enemies by the legs and scarf them down feet first!

Also, if we really want to go the full stealth with the game, you could use a tactical burp to lure an enemy to an advantage position (like the Drake) when full of prey, and when empty, it is a hungry stomach grumble. To keep from belching unprompted, simply don't open Mia's mouth and she swallows it back down. When the burp is ready, open her mouth and let loose a guttural belch!

Lastly, I want to see this game succeed. A metroidvania starring a young and badass girl like Mia gobbling up bad guys and besting any challenge she encounters sounds incredible! However, I REALLY want to eat the Drake. Even if in the final game we can't eat the Drake right away, that would be an amazing way to end the demo.

[lurker474]

Wow, I love the new animations! I also think that changing the player to an original character is a good move. You continue to impress with each update, very well done!

[Whisper92]

Goddamnit, i just types a huge thing and the site times out. Im going to retype it.

“ I'm thinking some other currency can be earned by dispatching enemies or through other various methods”


Ok, I have an idea that may help you. Lets say theres two currencies in the game, money and genetic material or DNA.

Money is simple enough, you use it to buy things from the kiosk like health, ammo, suit/ gun upgrades and “genetic modification”(hold onto the last one).

You earn a small or no money from eating enemies, and normal amounts from shooting /vaporizing them (an incentive for not eating them). Money is also only carried by enemies that would realistically carry it( guards, dashers, xcom Viper snake mercs have money. Robots, missile, dragon drakes, and wild animals do not).

Genetic material is harvested from the enemies that are eaten. It acts as an experience point system that caps how much Mia can be modified until her body is ready to buy and install a perk from a kiosk. Robots and nuisance enemies don’t give DNA, Normal enemies give little DNA, and large and dangerous enemies give large amounts of DNA. When you get past a threshold for DNA, you go to a kiosk and buy upgrades with money.


Also, to ensure players are at the recommended levels when going to new stages, the final boss for the stage, once eaten, will give a large bonus of DNA that will boost the player to the level they should be at if they are lagging behind.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. IDK if they work or not.I had another idea, but I don’t want to retype it again right now unless you're interested.

[anema_sesuna]

Looks great so far

[BrokenDoorknob]

DraconicSyntax

"I'm also thinking of having an alternate/faster swallow animation for if you manage to eat an enemy without breaking stealth."

You stated once that the rocket launchers might have tinies for Mia to snatch up and eat. My thought is the tinies are RIDICULOUDLY slow (no need to make catching them a hassle), and when crouched she can swipe at the tiny to grab them. That same animation could be used to grab enemies by the legs and scarf them down feet first!

Also, if we really want to go the full stealth with the game, you could use a tactical burp to lure an enemy to an advantage position (like the Drake) when full of prey, and when empty, it is a hungry stomach grumble. To keep from belching unprompted, simply don't open Mia's mouth and she swallows it back down. When the burp is ready, open her mouth and let loose a guttural belch!

Lastly, I want to see this game succeed. A metroidvania starring a young and badass girl like Mia gobbling up bad guys and besting any challenge she encounters sounds incredible! However, I REALLY want to eat the Drake. Even if in the final game we can't eat the Drake right away, that would be an amazing way to end the demo.

Don't worry, tinies won't take much effort to catch once their bot is destroyed! And the drake WILL be edible, EventuallyTM!

Ok, I have an idea that may help you. Lets say theres two currencies in the game, money and genetic material or DNA.

Money is simple enough, you use it to buy things from the kiosk like health, ammo, suit/ gun upgrades and “genetic modification”(hold onto the last one).

You earn a small or no money from eating enemies, and normal amounts from shooting /vaporizing them (an incentive for not eating them). Money is also only carried by enemies that would realistically carry it( guards, dashers, xcom Viper snake mercs have money. Robots, missile, dragon drakes, and wild animals do not).

Genetic material is harvested from the enemies that are eaten. It acts as an experience point system that caps how much Mia can be modified until her body is ready to buy and install a perk from a kiosk. Robots and nuisance enemies don’t give DNA, Normal enemies give little DNA, and large and dangerous enemies give large amounts of DNA. When you get past a threshold for DNA, you go to a kiosk and buy upgrades with money.


Also, to ensure players are at the recommended levels when going to new stages, the final boss for the stage, once eaten, will give a large bonus of DNA that will boost the player to the level they should be at if they are lagging behind.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. IDK if they work or not.I had another idea, but I don’t want to retype it again right now unless you're interested.

The nuance of how it's earned and spent is still a ways off, but that'll about be the general idea with earning and going to kiosks to spend money/upgrade points. Trying to focus on macro development at the moment!

[Frost67]

So I only have one issue It's probably only my computer, but my F8 key is my volume and when I press it will not save. But, other then that I'm having a lot of fun playing and just testing to see how quickly I can get through without any retries since one death leads to a restart.

[ladre]

ohhh i love that dragon

any chance to share the sprite sheet?

[MintyFrawg]

can I make a spriteset for an enemy?

[CoinToast]

Can I make some suggestions? I have very little experience making platform games, but I think these could be relatively easy fixes that should make the game nicer to play.

First, I think the exit key should lead to the main menu, or at the very least to a confirmation screen instead of closing the window completely. That just seems a bit jarring if all you want to do is to go to the main menu.

Second, I think the physics of the game are already pretty well polished. I mean, they alone make playing this game a joy.

Third (I'm going to stop counting now), does the delay when jump-shooting really serve any purpose? In theory it makes timing shots more challenging, but in practice it's just annoying and breaks the flow a bit.

I also think that crawling tunnels should be more distinctive, even if they are rare ATM. They should definitively not look indistinguishable from background walls or uncrossable walls, barring secret rooms. Even a subtle difference is better than none.

There are certain rules that should be better explained by the tutorial level, I think. For example, nowhere in the game anything suggest that stamina is necessary to eat foes until you fail to do it, or what the sound bars even are.

I think the bullets should dissapear shortly after leaving the visible screen, it's a bit unfair to the enemies that they do not.

Lastly, some ideas for power ups and upgrades that could be brough at the store: double jump, crawling speed, rapid fire, charged shot, wall jump, stun grenade, knockback protection, more hearts, faster swallow, stealth improvement, hazard protection (if you ever intend to use lava or acid) and maybe a shield or parry skill?