Pendulum (PLEASE READ FIRST POST EDIT)

[cheshireCat]

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BLOG, DEMO DOWNLOAD, PURCHASE PAGE

Pendulum is a casual retro tower platformer--you get the idea if you ever played something like Icy Tower. The game's hentai content consists of just sprite sex (monster girls, human, other), because I don't like still images. It also involves subtle comedy, and an obnoxious narrator that is constantly trying to distract you. The game is not what you typically see in the eroge industry, so make sure you first try out the demo before you consider purchasing the full game. So anyway--I hope you like it!

Criticism, praise, pointless babbling--let me hear it.

EDIT: I don't have anyone to turn to, so with nothing to lose I'm posting here.

For the past year I was having some personal issues, and by the end of it all, I actually went homeless.

In an effort to change my situation, I'm dropping the price for Pendulum down to a single dollar. I've been also working on a new game whenever I could get my hands on a pc, but it's nowhere near ready for me to be able to sell it just yet. You can read all about it on my blog (link below). If you've already read it and know of my situation, please at least mention it somewhere you frequent--getting the word out will help out a ton, I think.

[BlueLight]

any chance for source code.
Any chance for a pixel art tutorial.
Any chance this was done in java?

Sorry, can demo this yet. I just recentally install Xcom... and that game is huge. Anyways, i have barely any to no hard drive space.

[NoContest]

just a bug report, i dont know if you are worried about bugs yet. but i have windows 8 computer and when i play your game it layers on top of itself until i cant see anymore. other than that i like the concept! keep it up!

[cheshireCat]

For everyone getting graphical glitches--your system doesn't support gm's surface system, which this game takes heavy advantage of. I'm in the process of changing my drawing engine so it doesn't rely on surfaces at all--will post an updated demo asap.

edit: Fixed. If you experienced the glitch, please download the updated one (see first post for links).

[Eumel2]

things i like:
good idea
well programmed
things i dont like:
the rapes aren´t dodgeable
lava doesnt stop during rapetime
pls fix either of those dont have to be both
show rapes from sideview pls or save the trouble and make a black block^^

[cheshireCat]

The rapes are easily dodgeable, actually--the hitboxes are pretty small (you can check it under the F1 debug menu). The lava slows down during rape sequences, and it wouldn't pose a threat at all if it would stop completely, since you can outrun it easily on every difficulty setting, but the last one.

edit: Now the game has a blog! http://dreamingofcheshirecat.blogspot.com/

[QuizmasterBos]

I played it a bit and I enjoyed it a little. Not too much because there's not much there, but I think the concept has been proven.
Here's a couple of things I wish to note:
- Text at the bottom of the screen can be difficult to read. I don't know if you do that on purpose, it's mostly just garbage anyway, but the large pixels and small field of text makes some letters unrecognizable.

- Physics are a bit odd. Once you've played with it a bit the control works, but it feels weird. It's very floaty, you don't expect to jump that far when you do. You might want to tweak it a little bit.

- Speaking of physics, making a jump from the smallest platform on the right, to the smallest platform on the left (or from left to right) is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Since the lay-out is random, I've had it happen only a few times, but i didn't make it at all.

- Difficulty overall is good, you can dodge well enough, though the random nature of the game can make some parts really difficult, such as a far jump from one platform to the next and with a monster on the other side.

- Signs can be hard to read (pixel problem again) and making it far doesn't do anything right now. I'd like to see a higshscore once you die as soon as possible.

- There's one scene right now, correct?

- Sex scene was okay, but I doubt anyone will jerk off to the game anytime soon. (the pixels are so big that everything is pretty abstract). It seems the game is more a tower climbing game that just so happens to have a few sex scenes in it, right?

- Does the title of the game have anything to do with anything and is the title finalized?

[cheshireCat]

Thanks for the input.

That font works with this particular art style, for one, and I don't want the dialogs to be of any importance (that has to do with with the premise of the game, though I didn't have any story elements implemented in the demo). At first I wanted to make the dialogs in a completely made up language, but as a last minute change I switched to english, because the voice does that already. And are complete nonsense for a reason (again, has to do with the story).

Physics are optimized so that you're able to cross a 8 block gap (from a two block platform on one absolute side, to a two block on the other side) and that you can jump only as high as you can jump in the demo. I've literally spent a whole day trying to optimize the jumping motion, changing the values by decimals, and that's the best formula I could come up with.

The default difficulty in the demo is set to 3, which means that platforms range in size from 2, to 3 blocks. If you raised the difficulty through the F1 menu, then platforms can/do (depending on how much you raised it) become single blocks. To remedy the increase in possible gap size, given the physics, you'll get the ability to double jump for higher difficulty levels (4+) that can spawn single-block platforms.

As for the sometimes-unfair enemy spawns--the arachne is natively bound to spawn on low difficulty levels (which means huge-ass platforms), and as the platforms get smaller, you'll be getting other enemies balanced out with platform size in mind (eg. only flying enemies for the single-block-platforms difficulty). I put the arachne in the demo because that's the only enemy I've implemented up to this point, and I wanted to show the game to the public asap.

The main game will consist of five intervals, each with fixed height, and something like an infinite mode (like the demo)--only the latter will have some kind of highscore, and it's not my priority at the moment.

Correct--there's only one scene atm. And you're correct once more--it will be a game with hentai elements, not the other way around, so you won't have H being shoved in your face every button press. It's a love it or hate it kind of thing, I guess.

The title is how I'd summarize the story in a single allegory, and it is final.

[cheshireCat]

New build is up! Check out the first post to see what was added/changed and all. You can fetch download links on my blog: http://dreamingofcheshirecat.blogspot.com

Criticism and bug reports are much appreciated.

[cheshireCat]

V3 is up!

http://dreamingofcheshirecat.blogspot.com/2013/06/concept-demo-v3.html

As there's not much new 'real' content, this update is directed mostly towards the few people which experienced problems with the previous two releases. It will mean a whole lot to me if you're one of those people and you could just try out this version and drop me a line whether it works for you (if you're just a lurker here, you can comment anonymously on my blog).

[Zeus Kabob]

Cheshire, you'll want to get 10 posts. Your edits require approval, and while pending approval the topic disappears.

Once you've gotten 10 posts, this requirement will lift, so making 4 more posts will be helpful.

The project looks great! Good luck!

[cheshireCat]

The game is now up for sale! The full version is only $3.50 and is available through my blog (see signature or first post of this thread).

Also, I'll be submitting the game to curiousfactory (dlsite) later today, for those of you that prefer that over paypal and you don't mind waiting a week for dlsite to finish its verification process.

So anyway, let me know what you think!

[BlueLight]

Be careful. DLsite is a rip off with exchange rates.

[cheshireCat]

Thanks for the heads up. Doesn't change the fact that other h devs can make a living only because dlsite exists, even with its drawbacks.

[azurezero]

speak for yaself kajio, i've made nowhere near enough to support myself yet

[cheshireCat]

speak for yaself kajio, i've made nowhere near enough to support myself yet

Can't quite find kajio here.

[Zeus Kabob]

speak for yaself kajio, i've made nowhere near enough to support myself yet

Ya ever think of getting a job then?

Really, this is a place for hobbyists, not professionals. Don't expect to make a living off of our site.

[azurezero]

I lie in the gap between hobbyist and proffessional! I've never enjoyed doing something more

[Zeus Kabob]

I lie in the gap between hobbyist and proffessional! I've never enjoyed doing something more

I understand that and I'm happy about it. Still makes you a driven and compelled amateur.

[azurezero]

I have my laptop at my bedside and my tablet at the opposite corner of my bed,I NEVER HAVE TO LEAVE THE BED TO WORK...but...back at uni next week

because of the funds of game released last friday, i can afford to pay my artist in advance so i can release the shmup at a lower price :3


also, what do you guys think of wolfenstahl? i love them