Kirbyzilla 2007-11-29 21:08:56

why not let people mini-custimize ( like bettween 3 types of armor sword ect...) so they can tell each other apart. and make the first couple weapons the same for the different colored guys, then make like 3 out of the 17 total weapons are unique to that color.
to bad i have no 360...yet...

zac439 2007-11-29 21:14:24

Hey there Tom, I think I may have a solution.

Make a global variable that is initially "0". We will call this variable "UNLOCKED".

Now when the user beats the game once, UNLOCKED = 1. This can be on any character color.

Now IF UNLOCKED = 1, then give the player full stats on every color with online mode only. If they are playing locally, you can just give them the full stats on the character they beat the game with.

in this example the color of the knights is only important for local play.

Or you could make a basic profile system, and when online play is enabled, ask for which profile name you would like to contribute experience to.

either way would work.

SeizureDog 2007-11-30 01:15:42

I wouldn't worry so much about the whole "experience of the game would be cheapened if new players skipped ahead" thing. I'm doubting that you're going to have any story spoilers for this kind of game ("OMG SEPHIROTH KILLS ORANGE KNIGHT! D:"), and I think few people feel let down by playing later missions early (think Super Mario Bros., people love to skip levels). You've already stated that the game isn't going to be AH hard, and skipping levels is only a let-down when normally getting to said level is a satisfying achievement.

That being said, skipping character levels and abilities is bullshit. Don't allow for none of that.

I'm assuming that CC is basically a Gauntlet homage, with the characters having quite different abilites, in which case having a shared player stats feature would be stupid. Gotta have it where it's knight specific.

Also, whatever you do, don't allow for knights of radically different levels to play together. Gauntlet Legends allowed this, and it was bullshit for me to have to be a lvl 1 when my friend was like a lvl 99. Kills the fun for the new guy.

I also like your "coming back as a ghost" idea for when players die. It's so annoying to die early and wait for your friend(s) to finish before playing again. It reminds me of in Super Mario Kart 64 battles where dying turned you into a bob-bomb that you could run into other players with.

In coming up for ideas for your problem though, there's some information that's needed:

1: How long is the game? How many levels? If it's planned to be beatable within a short amount of time (say on par with a Metal Slug game), you might as well just force multiplayer games to start from the begining.

2: How far up can knights level up? Would it take a week to get to the max level or months?

3: What are some of the things higher level characters can do that lower ones cannot? Are high level characters mostly just a difference in stats or do they gain abilities too?

4: How are skill points awarded? Killin' guys? Per level? Careful with any system where exp points aren't shared. A player that's able to get more experience than his teammates early starts being able to kill guys more easily, which just keeps making that level gap wider. Soon you're stuck with one lvl 20 when everyone else is a lvl 10.

PiGPEN 2007-11-30 04:23:39

Mmm....why not have the colors independant of the character for multiplayer?

So like if all 4 want to play as RED they all get to play as RED but RED will be 4 different colors.

Also....."The game isn't meant to be too difficult - nothing like Alien Hominid"
I dont remember Alien Hominid being that hard.....my little brothers have it for the PS2.....i played it with them from start to finish in a couple of hours.....im not even very good with a PS2 controller.

FIGMENTUM 2007-11-30 04:52:37

the first thing that popped into my head when trying to distinguish your blue knight from three others is HATS.

hatshatshatshatshatshatshatshatshats.

shat.

no wait hats.

you seem to have plenty of other ideas that'd work just as well if not better anyway (that glowing base you mentioned sounds awesome).

Mogly 2007-11-30 07:32:16

I liked the ghost zapping idea or anything along those lines.

An option for the character select (if the players cant decide who's who) is having a mini game to decide. It could burst into a game of All you can Eat or you have to have a fight quickly to decide. I can imagine people quitting angrily after this still..

Dks60 2007-11-30 08:16:06

What about chat ?

jimmynuto 2007-11-30 11:49:49

you could always have the stats for that character and if another player wants to be the same character have a diffrent colour trim like p1.white p2.black p3.silver p4.gold (just a basic idea) or a diffrent shade of the colour light-dark.

Frogcloset 2007-11-30 14:54:35

Oh the problems you face that no one will even think about when playing the game.

AAAAAA 2007-11-30 19:53:18

That banner is from Aero Fighters 2, amirite?

Graeme 2007-11-30 23:25:40

I think the perfect example to look at for some of these issues is Diablo 1 and 2. If you have never played them, my faith in Newgrounds just died a little. haha

I think you should have to progress through the game over and over to explore each character. Each character is unique enough that it withholds interest in the game. Everything you do on one character should remain with that individual.

I also think that the same character should be available in the same game as many times as they want. If they are balanced enough, then it will have a variety, and not just all on character.
This is were SSB games come in handy. Have about 4 or 5 different tones or allterations of each character incase there is more than 1 of each. Perhaps where it is usually white, make it grey or black.

I also feel that character shouldn't be bound to fight with one another. I'm not sure on the game mechanics, and how this would work. But in Diablo characters are all over, some will be in the first Act while others are working together in the third.
Maybe even have game modes. One is for characters who want to work together, and the other is for the cheaters how just tag along with better players.

I tried to tackle the issues best i could, and on a general front where it will not only pertain to my views.
Now i have a question that i have always wondered about Castle Crashers, and if you reply, i would appreciate a response. This is not a personal attack, or asking you to change your game. I always wondered why you focused only on Xbox 360 live arcade? It could have been for any console really, and it could have been a counter game, not an online bought game.
Is it because the 360 was the only next generation console available at the time work started? that would be reasonable.

Anyways, thanks for you time. Hope i could help atleast a little. hope to hear back

Krishan360 2007-12-01 00:21:48

tom how do you change your aura im new at this
:(

dancingweasels 2007-12-01 10:55:25

well this has nothing to do with it but uh if you wrote the "Tom Fulp's Biography" in the Lit. section, then it should be "autobiography".

ZombieswithJetpacks 2007-12-01 11:38:10

Hows about custom lvls for online play? Yeah thats a lot of work, but hell, it would be cool. And for weapon sharing, how about all weapons are available, but weapons have lvls as well, and the more you use them the higher the power becomes, but then that would suck for a noob, so maybe the lvl. stats are distributed evenly? And as for people wanting to both play as the same character, how about you can, but when 2 or more people are the same color, they get to choose a hat to were. You know in super smash bros. whenever you play as pikachu he gets party hats and all that crap, well why not have that for your other characters. Do you know what would be really cool, an angry face hat! Or a pico mask, and a Alien Homid mask, and even an SBC mask if you could! Also, when I watched that preview for castle crashers a while back, and saw the giant kittens in the arena, I thought it would be really cool if balls of yarn fell from the sky and the cats chased the yarn through the arena. Well good luck tom, I just wish I had a 360. Good luck dude, and sorry for the really long comment.

latin4life 2007-12-01 14:42:55

are u gonna be able to download this on the wii

PicoZX 2007-12-01 16:54:47

Why did you have to change your banner?

supertoria12 2007-12-01 20:42:35

Tom, remember my apology PM, you said something about the post getting deleted, M-Bot just deleted it. Oh, and do you personally tolerate the KittyKrew, or do you not like them?

sinjx25 2007-12-01 20:45:23

For more than one player chosing the same color knight what about this: 2 people select the blue knight, each one gets to pick a different shade of blue like: blue,light blue, tuqious, dark blue. How about that?

sinjx25 2007-12-01 20:52:02

Oh yea forgot to say something in my last post. For veterans vs people who haven't played, I don't think the person who hasn't played should get a handycap because I think you should never go to multiplayer before getting any of the story mode done. For saving I think each character should have different levels, like you have a level 5 blue knight and you haven't played the as green knight before, he should be level 1. Thanks for reading ^^

donuts1 2007-12-01 22:29:46

i had some horrible problems, the game caste cat 3, every time it saves, it fails :-( and >:-(