The first VVVVVV prototype

[Terry]

Now that the game's out, I thought it might be fun to share the first prototype publically I started this near the end of May last year, so it represents about two weeks work. Obviously an awful lot has changed since then - the controls got a lot better, a lot of game elements are different, but a lot of the basic ideas were there already. Based on how this worked out I decided to make it something a little bigger, but I didn't actually decide to turn this into something really big until I'd finished the second prototype, which I might post later.



I wouldn't recommend playing this unless you've actually finished the game.

The prototype uses placeholder music by C64 musician Matt Gray.

[joniho]

Let's see those whiners say VVVVVV is "slippery" after playing the prototype. 

[William]

Hey, seems like you change the speed when the character flips. Great things, cause the prototype is much harder with this little acceleration.
You have made the good choice by deleting coins, it wasn't really interesting.
I've got some questions now :
- did someone play this prototype so you had feedbacks and decided to make another one ?
- from where do these "words enemies" come from ? (in term of intentions)

[StephenM3]

Niiice...  Thanks for showing us this!  I always love to see "behind the scenes" stuff like this.

[scarybug]

In the proto the moving platforms don't carry you. Crazy!

I liked collecting the coins. I can see why you removed them but it was kind of fun.

[allen]

Yeah the coin collecting is pretty cool, but I really don't see the need for them. Trinkets are much more desirable.

Nice to see how drastic it's changed, especially in terms of level design.

[Applekid]

Trinkets are much more desirable.

Maybe, but I just spent more time than I'd like to admit trying to get all 78 of them. 

[eyf]

Damn those controls are twitchy! And I much prefer up/down for flipping than a singular action button.. (yes I do realize the arrow keys flip the gravity regardless of what way it is currently, it's just much easier in terms of committing sequences of actions to muscle memory)

I see you kind of had the idea for Doing it the Hard Way there with Driller, Nearly There and The Ground Floor, but made the latter three a little easier in the beta (no spikes at the bottom, which is a little more forgiving).

BTW, I managed to perch myself on one of those spiky blocks in The Ground Floor without dying ;-)



P.S. Deliverance and Driller ;-)

[casper]

Hi Terry!

Thanks a lot for posting this prototype, it's really interesting to see the changes you've made, and how 'little' changes in the rooms affect the players' learning process.
If it's not too much trouble, I would definitely appreciate seeing the second prototype!

Cheers, Casper

[Terry]

The second prototype is actually not that interesting - it's just the lab level with placeholder tiles, and it's almost identical to what ended up in the final game.

P.S. Deliverance and Driller ;-)

Heh, well spotted. I love Matt Gray's music.

You have made the good choice by deleting coins, it wasn't really interesting.

Yeah, I think so too - one thing they do, though, is provide you with a reason to explore beyond the main "path". Whenever the game started to develop, though, it became pretty clear that the game wasn't going to be structured that way. I considered having the coins limited to just one area for a while before scrapping them completely.

- did someone play this prototype so you had feedbacks and decided to make another one ?

I sent it to a few friends to get some feedback on it - I tend to get pretty attached to whatever it is I'm currently working on, so it helps me a lot to get some objective opinions on whether or not it's really any good. Pretty much everyone I showed it to really seemed to like it.

- from where do these "words enemies" come from ? (in term of intentions)

I kept a dream journal - the yes men were one of the first ideas to come out of that, and influenced the rest of the enemy designs quite a lot.

In the proto the moving platforms don't carry you. Crazy!

Everyone I showed it to gave out about this, heh. I was a bit stubborn about it for a while. Then I realised that I was really just being lazy, and it worked far better if the platforms moved you.

[Applekid]

I found the non-carrying platforms pretty interesting. It would never have worked for this game but I can see it being a unique dynamic.
 
It's basically a regular walking surface where the player has to move and maintain position on it despite a moving target on the surface. Could be instanced by "walk forward but stay in the spotlight while you're on this platform." The twist is that the punishment is falling instead of something different from the core platforming mechanic, and, you can avoid hitting your head jumping though the inactive spots.
 
I'm imagining a moving platform with those free-rolling cylinders on them, like at the base of a conveyor belt.

[axel]

Cool thing about the prototype. I have only yet tried a version i found on a forum.
That version was a flash (vvvvvv_beta1_....swf) which post ~8th of january stops the game from running and links me to thelettervsixtim.es
I played through the game and it was was awesome but i didn't know untill then that the game was in fact not released and was going to cost money. I just forgot about it and replayed don't look back instead, which also is a fantastic game.

That brings me to my question, what language was the game programmed in? 

[Terry]

That version was a flash (vvvvvv_beta1_....swf) which post ~8th of january stops the game from running and links me to thelettervsixtim.es

Huh? I didn't have anything like that in the beta... I wonder if one of the 4channers added it?

What language was the game programmed in?  

Actionscript - I use Flex with FlashDevelop on windows.

[StephenM3]

Man, playing this is kind of a surreal experience.  I don't know how to describe it...

I'm pretty familiar with the first level by now.  The way all these levels are slightly different from those, make them feel like what I'd see in a dream after playing too much VVVVVV.  In fact, that's exactly it!  The places I am in dreams always seem to be pieced together from modified versions of places I've been.  In this prototype, the room "four way bridge" feels like a dream's corruption of "exhaust chute."  "Solutide" has an extra little path leading from it.  Everything I experience, I recognize, but it's different in subtle but important ways, from the moving platform's odd behavior to the different sad-face on Veridian.

Even though obviously the prototype actually came first.  It's... a weird feeling.  I can't shake it when I play this.

[nathanel]

I think it's the music. It's awesome, but also it gives me strange, uncanny feeling.