Toxic Bunny HD Greenlit (yay) also some help :)

tbulford

Hi Everyone,

We pretty stoked that Toxic Bunny HD has been greenlit. To be fair we never were confidant it would, but we super excited at the opportunity this represents. We putting a list of things we want to improve together and the highest priority if our tutorial. Its really not good enough and since its the very first thing players experience we want to make a lot of improvements (hopefully without rebuilding it from scratch).

So with that in mind I am asking you guys for any feedback (constructive if it can be, but feedback either way). We have put a walk though of the tutorial online to review. We have a list of improvements we plant to make but the more comprehensive the better.



Thanks for your time.

Crocopede

Are you charging $100 for 25 bullets? Real money?

Only comment is that the water isn't visible.

tbulford

Lol if that was real money think we would be giving EA dungeon keeper a run for its money. Nope that's just in game. The water is hard to see without a backdrop. We will be looking at how to improve that. Thanks for checking it out.

Crocopede

Cool. Glad you guys got greenlit.
Perhaps just add a little backdrop... greyish on the tutorial. Just a suggestion.

dislekcia

I think you need to make your messaging a lot more explicit. A lot of the instructions didn't make any sense to me, like switch to a picture of a snorkel "potion"... What? Tell people exactly which button to push and why. The beginning jumping part with the spikes also looks like it's probably too hard. All people should need to do is jump twice, don't put the spikes right after where they're going to be moving really fast. Does the water section need to be that long, couldn't it be obvious with half that length? Why isn't there a section of water before you get the potion that's just long enough for Toxic to start taking damage?

So my big question is what happens when someone dies?

tbulford

Thanks @dislekcia, you cant really die in the tutorial. Its a safe zone you just moved back to the point before. The water area is so long, so that you are forced to use a breathing potion or you can't make it. Will review the descriptions and make them more explicit as you sugest.

The bit with the jump in the start. The spikes are not really hard to get past the jumps just before are really are too hard. Its not clear watching Nico play that bit. I am considering redoing those jumps and perhaps pulling the spikes out entirely. Its not really meaningful the way its done now and we end up frustrating too many beginners right there.

Thanks for the feedback.

Gibbo

Well done man, great to hear you've been greenlit!

In terms of minor aesthetic suggestions, it might be worth considering changing your currency to something made up (e.g. Simoleons, Zennys, Buckazoids, Bottlecaps, Gil) since that would better suit a fictitious cartoony environment rather than dollars.

Also under the shop you've got Expresso - is that purposeful or did you mean Espresso? (Expresso being the early morning show on SABC 3)

tbulford

Gibbo said:

In terms of minor aesthetic suggestions, it might be worth considering changing your currency to something made up (e.g. Simoleons, Zennys, Buckazoids, Bottlecaps, Gil) since that would better suit a fictitious cartoony environment rather than dollars.

Thing is the $ symbol is pretty universal. People know its currency. If we change it then the on screen indicator might be hard to tie up to people. Will give a bit of though to that especially with the possible confusion of micro transactions people might draw.

Gibbo said:

Also under the shop you've got Expresso - is that purposeful or did you mean Espresso? (Expresso being the early morning show on SABC 3)

Whoa certainly meant Espresso will be find and replacing that through the full game. Thanks.

Rigormortis

Gibbo

@tbulford - Cool no prob man, and yeah it might be tricky to come up with an imaginary currency symbol but could be cool if you work something out, maybe just a variation on the dollar sign?

@Rigormortis - Hehe, love that show!

dislekcia

Another thing I'd like to highlight is how tutorials in platformers tend to let you see what you have to overcome right up front. That way players can formulate plans and then try different approaches to the obstacles that they can see. This is a very strong way to learn...

I'd also suggest putting in additional extras in the level that players can see beforehand, but only reach if they display a bit of mastery with the game's controls and/or systems. Spelunky does this really well in its tutorial. So I'd suggest leaving the water potion thing out of the official tutorial path and having your water area have an exit before players would start drowning, but have an obvious side passage that is so long it'd mean players drowning before they get to some sort of prize area that's visible from the before they even enter the water the first time.

pantsula

Congrats

I do apologize for never actually playing Toxic Bunny, despite being aware of it forever.

Anyways I feel the point where you get the guns needs to be more exclamated. Maybe putting the gun in a downlight to make it more of a moment.
Agree with the icons being confusing and it might be too rough to have to use a potion the first time you swim, maybe make an island you can breathe in between.

Following up on the mastery bit, maybe have a cave with something you need to use the potion to get.

Good luck

pantsula

Another thing.

Maybe just use the arrows for indicating where to jump and the Item icon when it is relevant.

Having pictures of toxic bunny on the hints makes it hard to distinquish, or is just these old eyes of mine.

tbulford

@dislekcia thanks for the suggestion on the water bit. Going to see how we might make that work.

@pantsula Will re-look at the graphics for the semi visible toxic bunny for the jumps. Not sure how a down lighter might work for the waepons perhaps we can put the quest arrow in.

Thanks for the feedback.

tbulford

We been quite but we have not been idle. We have been hard at work on the steam version of Toxic Bunny. Always more polish and of course integrating to Steam nicely.

We have a new promo video for Toxic Bunny HD. To be honest its a shame we didn't build one like this right at the start of our greenlight campaign.

Mexicanopiumdog

Okay so I watched the tutorial gameplay and promo video.
Immediately this game brought up nostalgic feelings as I reminisced about a very old/retro game called Jazz Jackrabbit.
I like the retro art style and the monsters look cool. I would definitely like to give it a try sometime.

Thoughts to tutorial video:
The neon blue borders and black didnt really work in my opinion and kind of made it look a bit "cheap"/old school (Gave the impression that the developers didn't bother designing a "real" level for the tutorial run...)
The water wasn't clear at all...maybe it was just the video or the laptop i watched it on but I think it could "stand out" more.
The present exercise felt a bit weird as well...I was confused as to why you would give a monster a present..Maybe explain why you do these things..
In the throwing part I would recommend using a bigger monster as a target (For the dummies out there)
*OVERALL* Certain actions need more explaining and could have their own separate level (Jumping level, Present/Shooting/Throwing level, Potion level, Shopping+Everything together level?)

Thoughts to the promo video:
I like the narrative in the beginning but why does it stop at 20sec!? I think either use it throughout the whole video (Coffee, MORE COFFEE, EVEN MORE COFFEE! or leave it out completely and have the music carry the promo.
Also, I think there are a few too many headings: Focus on the important aspects that make the game look awesome (The 3x coffee heading is funny but maybe a bit too much)
And one last thing: The cuts in the video are way too quick.
-> this game has a lot of little details and generally there is a lot on the screen to take in so either have the cuts longer so the viewer can completely soak in whats happening (surroundings/monsters/actions/weapons) or maybe have less stuff happening/in the frame...there were so many frames were I was a bit confused what was going on...

It still looks crazy fun but tutorial and promo are the 2 first impressions that people get of the game and they should be simple to grasp and portrait the coolest features of the game!

EvanGreenwood

@tbulford Nice work on that video. It communicates the strong points of the game.

Kobusvdwalt9

@Mexicanopiumdog

The neon blue borders and black didnt really work in my opinion and kind of made it look a bit "cheap"/old school (Gave the impression that the developers didn't bother designing a "real" level for the tutorial run...)

I said exactly the same thing. I was told that the level is in a blue print style. Though I think that the tutorial really does a good job at not overloading new players with too much information. Super Crate Box does this as well. ()

I think that it is important to realize that with a game so close to release like this one, you should always try and put into perspective the changes that is possible to make in a short time.

tbulford

BlackShipsFilltheSky said:

@tbulford Nice work on that video. It definitely communicates the strong points of the game.

Thank you @BlackShipsFilltheSky we happy with the end result.

Mexicanopiumdog said:

Okay so I watched the tutorial gameplay and promo video.
Immediately this game brought up nostalgic feelings as I reminisced about a very old/retro game called Jazz Jackrabbit.
I like the retro art style and the monsters look cool. I would definitely like to give it a try sometime.

Thanks glad you felt the nostalgia, the game is 17 years old came out between the 1st and 2nd Jazz although it was not inspired by Jazz but rather games like Earth Worm Jim.

Mexicanopiumdog said:

Thoughts to tutorial video:
The neon blue borders and black didnt really work in my opinion and kind of made it look a bit "cheap"/old school (Gave the impression that the developers didn't bother designing a "real" level for the tutorial run...)
The water wasn't clear at all...maybe it was just the video or the laptop i watched it on but I think it could "stand out" more.
The present exercise felt a bit weird as well...I was confused as to why you would give a monster a present..Maybe explain why you do these things..
In the throwing part I would recommend using a bigger monster as a target (For the dummies out there)
*OVERALL* Certain actions need more explaining and could have their own separate level (Jumping level, Present/Shooting/Throwing level, Potion level, Shopping+Everything together level?)

Water not been clear is a definite issue. Regarding the blue border. The game has the full tutorial repeated in game via speech bubble from the character. We found some people (i.e. most) don't read much in game. So we created an additional tutorial that's more focused on exactly what it is rather then distracted with in game elements. People can skip the tutorial completely. If we were not working hard to be true to the original game we would have build a more comprehensive in game tutorial driven off plot points to teach each thing. We making sure newer projects do this too.

With regard to giving a monster an exploding present, just watch many many Warner Brothers cartoons to see the references we pulling from. We know some jokes are missed by some people but explaining jokes ruins them for the people that would enjoy them.

Here we see Bugs giving Tazz an exploding meal for example.

Mexicanopiumdog said:

Thoughts to the promo video:
I like the narrative in the beginning but why does it stop at 20sec!? I think either use it throughout the whole video (Coffee, MORE COFFEE, EVEN MORE COFFEE! or leave it out completely and have the music carry the promo.
Also, I think there are a few too many headings: Focus on the important aspects that make the game look awesome (The 3x coffee heading is funny but maybe a bit too much)
And one last thing: The cuts in the video are way too quick.
-> this game has a lot of little details and generally there is a lot on the screen to take in so either have the cuts longer so the viewer can completely soak in whats happening (surroundings/monsters/actions/weapons) or maybe have less stuff happening/in the frame...there were so many frames were I was a bit confused what was going on...

Thanks for the feedback. We decided to drop the voice right after the first bit as a tribute to most action promo's form the 80's. We took influences from the overdone action tailors from the 80's like this one



Dropping the talking early on letting the story tell itself. Of course since Toxic Bunny doesn't talk we dropped in the text. As for the repeated comedy on the Coffee thing I think getting a giggle is worth the risk. In hindsight we might have added an outro of dialog. Not sure what we would say yet might rework it if something comes to mind.

Thanks for your feedback.

Wes_Matthews

Ah, so it was YOU I was working on a competition entry for.

Sadly I got hit in the face with a deadline shortly after starting. Still, very glad to see TB has been greenlit.

tbulford

Love the composition. Very nice.

quintond

Man ... I think I still have my original Toxic Bunny CD somewhere ... need to find it. Loved this game and although a little late, glad you got "Greenlighted".

Damn fine job guys ... keep it up. 8-}

tbulford

Thanks @quintond, glad you enjoyed our game.

Kobusvdwalt9

Ahem, guys this is on STEAM : http://store.steampowered.com/app/305010/