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IMake-Games

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A member registered Oct 24, 2016

Creator of

Recent community posts

Thanks for playing! :)

Thanks a lot for your feedback! Very good points, I will try to improve the game. :)

Thanks a lot for playing! :)

Sorry you're having this issue! What do you mean by resolution is "f****d up"? Does it happen right after you start the game or after you change something in the options? Which  windows version are you using? 

Awesome! Thanks for trying it out and making a video! :)

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Alright, I think I can work with that! Again, thanks a lot for trying out an unfinished game and offering your feedback, I don't take it for granted.

Great feedback! Challenges are definitely still a work-in-progress and not well balanced. I have some ideas for rewards for completing them though! ;)

Thanks for the fullscreen bug-report! Could you tell me your PC specs? Do you use an Intel graphics card by any chance? And I assume you playing with mouse+keyboard (not gamepad)?

You've reached the end of what is currently playable. The rest of the game is still in development or not polished yet. But if you enjoyed the game so far, I'd really appreciate it if you wishlist it on Steam (if you're using it): http://store.steampowered.com/app/625740/Rifter/

Do you have any (negative) feedback for me that I could improve on? Thanks for playing! :)

Jumping is an upgrade... :D You unlock it by collecting green shards and then upgrading (you'll see).

This was a bug that happened on some Windows machines. I just uploaded a new version that should fix the issue. Could you try again? Thanks! :)

Sorry you're having problems! Are you using Windows? And what do you mean with "glitch"? Where exactly does this happen?

Wow, thanks for playing again!!!! :) :) :)

You're really good at finding the not-so polished and added-later things. :D But this is exactly the feedback I'm looking for!

There are a few levels that branch out a bit but you're right, this is not very prevalent yet and could be improved.

About the upgrades: you can actually re-distribute the upgrade points at any time. Looks like that's badly (or not at all) communicated. Some of the upgrades are rather gradual like the movement and jump speed. I understand you felt underwhelmed by their effect. These are more meant for doing high-speed re-runs to beat challenges and such. Just handing all these upgrade options to the player is probably a bad design decision. I'm currently thinking about only unlocking upgrades bit by bit as well as grouping them into categories (speed/survivability/etc.). Maybe hiding them behind optional paths would make them even more meaningful as well. And requiring a number of shards for unlocking these optional paths on the world map. You gave me lots of inspiration! :) 

Unskippable cutscene: yeah, that's just bad! Sorry, I didn't have the time yet to implement a proper fast-lane if you've already seen the cutscene.

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Here's the shader for the glitched font:

Vertex shader: https://gist.github.com/maximi...

Fragment shader: https://gist.github.com/maximi...

Its not particularly optimized (I should replace the "if" in the fragment shader) or documented but you probably get the gist. :)


Not sure about the level editor. It would take a lot of time to polish it to a state where its usable by anybody but me :D I have basically no GUI and rely almost solely on keyboard shortcuts. Not exactly intuitive ;)

If you're looking for fast(er) challenges, I think you will enjoy the later levels more once traps and enemies are introduced. I'd be glad if you give it another go :)

Alright! A big thanks for playing (again). :)

Good job on defeating the giant, I don't think that's easy! And that at the end is indeed a bug. But that was basically the end of the demo anyway, so you could say you beat it. :D

As to your technical questions:

  • The trail behind the player character (and enemy projectiles and other stuff) is a dynamic triangle mesh that is constantly updated. I use a VBO and write to its float buffer on each render, updating position and color of each vertex. It's probably not the most efficient technique, but it works. :) I can share my (very crude) code if you're interested.
  • Yes, that's a fragment shader effect that separates the color channels into red, green and blue and shifts them a bit based on some randomness and time. It also shifts every second pixel line to get that scanline effect. I use these effects very often in the game, for example when you get hit or things explode. Heck, the whole screen gets shifted more the faster you get :D
  • I wrote my own level editor (which I already initially developed for my last game "Nubs Adventure" and upgraded for Rifter). I've already developed a few platformers and realized that it is crucial to have a quick iteration workflow between play-testing the game and changing stuff within the level as well as building it. That's why the level editor is right in the game, just hidden away with a config flag. If you're interested in the level file format, its plain text JSON files you can find in the game folder/archive (assets/maps/). The editor just parses these files, modifies them and writes them back to disk (I cache them in-game though).
  • I'm using a few, some of which I bought. I think the one you mean is this one: http://signalnoise.bigcartel.com/product/neo-noire...

I'm happy to answer further question if you have any! :)

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Hey! Thanks for your comments! Quick info: you can move to the second region/area by right clicking to zoom out and then rotating the planet by dragging the left mouse button. But you are right, it should be explained better!

edit: now a proper response!

Really interesting that you found the game better without chasing the white "shards" (they are the upgrade currency btw). I specifically put them in certain places to encourage players to experiment more with the hook controls and get more practice in using the grappling hook. In earlier playtests some players never properly swung, but only pulled themselves or tried other things. My plan was to put shards in places that are easy to reach if you swing, but hard otherwise. Maybe I did a bad job at that... but I totally understand where you're coming from! Some players (like you apparently) almost immediately grasp the whole mechanic and could dart through the levels fast if they wouldn't also want to collect all these shards... tough choice, I gotta think about that! But awesome feedback, thanks! :)

The first "encounter" with the giant is apparently STILL a major point of confusion. Yes what you saw was correct. It's actually a cutscene and should show that you are basically undying (and time rewinds when you die). The giant realizes this when he wants to stomp you the second time and hence doesn't do it anymore. You're not the only one to not "get" this so I should definitely change that! Probably way to convoluted for a short cutscene with no text whatsoever.

I posted my answers to Bartek's questions below. :) And I'd LOVE to write articles for /r/gamedev again and will definitely do so after the release, maybe earlier. The game itself it priority #1 though.

You're probably a good quake/FPS player then if you're always on the move :)

What are you playing that requires you to hold W all the time? The only kind of game I could think of are racing games :D

I see! Because that makes the game play pretty differently (and worse IMHO). Thanks for clarifying, I maybe need to work on making that clearer :)

Thanks for playing! :) Just one question: why did you almost always shorten the hook (holding W)? Its not criticism, I just want to understand why you did it that way.

Yeah, the final game will have a Linux version! :)

WOW! I wasn't even aware of that. Thanks for checking it out and making a video about it! :)

Hey! :)

This is some really great feedback, thank you!

Regarding the rope shortening: yes, that was a conscious decision. I prototyped a lot of different things, including what you mentioned, but I found that playtesters moved much slower when the rope was not shortening automatically. They were often just dangling on a long rope and didn't really do much. This didn't feel good to me, so after countless iterations, I settled on this. The current system (hopefully) encourages players to keep moving from hook point to hook point and allows them to go even faster by hitting W.

Regenerating health is definitely planned and will highly influence the game's difficulty. Dying should be an essential part of the experience :)

Variance and Giant level are not very well made yet, you are totally right! Gotte improve those! :)

... and your English is totally fine! But I'm not a native speaker either :D