Feedback on AI difficulty.

Looking for feedback on the difficulty for the new AI. Is it…

A) Too Easy

B) Too Hard

C) Just Right

Test here: http://hbgame-alpha.appspot.com/

Abby Williams-Falk

I tend to think it's too hard. To be fair, I don't think I'm very good, but I'm only winning like 10-15% of the time.

If I have a complaint, I think it's not really due to AI though. For a game about jumping, jumping really doesn't feel satisfying. Sometimes I'll jump higher and sometimes I won't, without any clear reason why (no, I didn't pick up a blue negative powerup). Often times it seems like I will attempt to jump and there will be a very minor collision with an AI character next to me and the jump gets cancelled without anything actually being above me. This makes the game hard to play and the controls don't feel very responsive.

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Axel E. Rivera Author

Thanks for the feedback :)

I think the AI could be too hard at the moment as well. My playtesters have been solid gamers who kept crushing the AI so I kept improving it until the AI stood a chance against them. Maybe I can randomize simpler AI opponents with the more difficult AIs throughout the play sessions.

Whenever you get squished by an opponent you jump lower for a brief period of time. There is a squish animation which should indicate you are squished. Maybe I should make this more pronounced?

What would you improve from the jumping mechanic? Do you find it is too slow? the jump is too low? Floaty or Weighty?

Lastly, as far as responsiveness of controls is concerned Are you playing on mobile or desktop? I'm not 100% satisfied with how I implemented the mobile controls, stil trying to figure out what controls would work best for mobile. But the desktop controls should feel responsive if they don't let me know, I've had a ton of browser issues.

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Axel E. Rivera Author

Tweaked some movement values and discovered a bug that wasn't resetting the jump speed values properly when hitting certain conditions. Would like to know if this movement feels better.

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Abby Williams-Falk

@axel Movement feels is a little better, maybe?

I think I'm not seeing a squish animation (at all?), which may be partly the confusion.

One other thing to consider… Maybe the hitboxes for determining where the characters are shouldn't include the ears? The ears really are't solid, so having the rear of a character bounce off the very tops of the ears of the other doesn't really make sense.

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Axel E. Rivera Author

@falkencreative Good suggestions. Having them bounce from the ears is weird. I will make the hitboxes smaller than the actual. Thanks for the feedback I appreciate it tons :)

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