68 Responses to “Semi-Playable Solo Demo!”

1. fm33 Says:
   April 2nd, 2010 at 12:52 am

   Demo is fine but I think the “jetpack” could use some more work so it can be controlled easier oh, and that music is GOD AWFUL, thankfully you added a “Toggle music button”.

   Also about “THIRD PARTY API’s – ** Do you have any favorites, like Kongregate’s achievements, Mindjolt’s or Mochi’s high scores, or something on Facebook?”

   What? Please don’t tell me I’m going to need a facebook account to play this, this better be 100% optional.
2. Tim K Says:
   April 2nd, 2010 at 1:00 am

   Love love love love love love love love love it! Everything is really coming together!

   I did find one really odd glitch, and it’s going to be hard to describe. Upper left hand corner, there are three ladders. Get your jetman onto the third ladder down. There should be a gem, and above it a red-brick roof supported by the pillar. Have the jetman stand directly to the right of this roof, then press down + left at the same time. For some reason, the jetman goes into this ridiculously slow freefall. If you can’t figure out what I mean, I may have to FRAPS it.

   Didn’t notice any other glitches though (besides the “trip” one you described) which is awesome.

   Since you sink into the sludge, it might be nice to see some sort of residue… whether it’s a green stain on the clothing or dripping particles or a few footprints or something.

   Oh and I really like the thin tiles
3. Benjamin Says:
   April 2nd, 2010 at 1:01 am

   Great to finally see this demo, I love it! It looks and plays beautifully. Here is some feedback from about 5 minutes playing:

   * I like how drilling while flying only “snaps” the jetman to the grid if you there’s a block against him, but it seems odd that this only happens against drillable bricks and not the solid ones, this is especially unnatural to me on ice, as at the bottom he will stay stationary while drilling on the drillable ice block, but at the top he keeps sliding on the solid ice blocks.
   * Rounded corners feel very natural, though are slightly buggy when next to a ladder.
   * Most animations (collecting items, bricks fading) feel a little slow; in my experience making animations in games, I’m always tempted to make animaitons slow so people notice them and appreciate them, but if they happen often they become tiresome and look better being fast.
   * Drillable bricks with thin layer of solid brick are still drillable.
   * Placing the movable block behind a drilled block behaves oddly when the drilled block reappears (the movable block fades then snaps back).
   * I placed the movable block on a teleporter then teleported from the other side to see what would happen, jetman appeared next to the movable block. I think it would be nice and open up possibilities for interesting puzzles if teleporting form the other side onto where a block is causes the block to teleport to where you were (in a sense, making you and the block swap places).
   * It feels odd to me that it’s not possible to stand stationary on the circle block, if only in the middle few pixels.
   * The gems at the bottom don’t have a stand, I read you added this feature to only give them a stand if they’re on the ground, but isn’t the bottom row really on ground?
   * I really like the thin blocks near the top, I hope you decide to keep them.
   * Jetman stops walking if he is drilling, this could make drilling long tunnels through brick annoying, especially if you are trying to drill through a long tunnel of purple blocks which some levels do feature.
   * Some kind of visual fuel level (as the old one had) would be easier for me to keep track of than the number (even after testing a few times I was always suprised when my feul ran out).
4. Benjamin Says:
   April 2nd, 2010 at 1:16 am

   More points:

   * ‘Shift’ might not be a good choice for the jump/feul button. If I press it a few times while playing in quick succession I get an OS dialogue asking if I want to enable tap-shift-to-hold-shift mode (windows XP). I’m pretty sure many people will have this annoyance.
   * The movable blocks might be more fun if they are not as heavy, for instance it’s not possible to push them against the movement of the conveyor belt.
   * Key-down states are not being reset to not-down when the game is paused.
   * Overloading the drill and “use” buttons makes it not possible to run past an item and activate it without stopping, eg in the old one you could run past a button and press down as you passed it without having to stop which was nice especially if a robot was chasing you.
5. Dave Says:
   April 2nd, 2010 at 2:49 am

   Loved:

   *The implementation of thin walls, about time!
   *How the teleporter lights up when you are standing on corresponding one. Maybe the current teleporter that you’re standing on should light up too.
   *How snow and sludge etc… can now cover every surface.
   *The idea of having pushable blocks.
   *The long column.
   *The design of the new fuel drainer.

   Hated:

   *It’s hard to tell exactly when the phasable blocks have disappeared.
   *The font is horrible and unreadable.
   *Faaar too much smoke when you start jetpacking…
   *The music is very annoying. Why not also have a volume slider, instead of just on/off?
   *The elaborate fading animations for when you pick up statues or treasure.
   *The vines look very inorganic and tile poorly.
   *Not sure if I like the idea of sinking into the ground on sludge tiles. It also doesn’t ‘feel’ very sludgey.
   *The barriers when they disappear; it just looks like they are getting skinnier rather than disappearing.
   *Physics seem a bit messy in parts.
6. Benjamin Says:
   April 2nd, 2010 at 4:14 am

   Dave: I disagree about the smoke being excessive, I think it looks very good how it is.

   One more issue:
   * jumping on a ladder ‘detaches’ jetman from the ladder, however if you are at the top of the ladder and there is a block above your head then you cannot jump to detach.
7. Daniel Kalne Says:
   April 2nd, 2010 at 4:18 am

   WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH. Hold on.

   Lemme get this straight…

   Is this demo supposed to be the demo of Jetpack Retro, or Jetpack 2? Because if it’s the retro one, then my opinion is that I hate it. No offense, but I thought the whole point of doing a retro thing was for people to be able to play the same old jetpack that they could back in the day, maybe with some new effects, higher resolution, and better sound; but what I’m worried about is that the familiar, quick-response physics system will be a blurred memory. Don’t get me wrong, but I love the new phasing and animations and how you sink into the sludge a little bit, but I think those should be added to the *updated* version of jetpack, Jetpack 2. I think the Jetpack Retro should be just a flash version of the original. I think people would love that kind of thing, you know, get a bigger fanbase and stuff. I think all this new stuff should be in Jetpack 2. The line between Jetpack Retro and Jetpack 2 is becoming increasingly blurred.
   Think about it… If you release this thing as Jetpack Retro, then what kind of new tricks up your sleeve will be for Jetpack 2? The awesomeness and grandeur of Jetpack 2 will be diminished. And also, the new physics will just screw up a lot of levels designed with the physics and capabilites of Jetpack 1 in mind.

   Just to reiterate, I LOVE all the new features, but they should be saved for Jetpack 2. A good example of retro gaming would be Geometry Wars, for the Xbox Live Arcade. They came out with the “new” version with all the particle effects and camera movements and HD and all that, but they also included the original. Now, I didn’t play the original, and I like the newer one better because that’s all I know, I’m not accustomed to the retro game and stuff.

   Personally, I’d rather play the exact same Jetpack 1, but with advanced level-sharing features online and such stuff, and wait for Jetpack 2 to dive into a whole new gaming experience.

   I really appreciate the work that went into this, and I like the refreshing new features, but I think that Jetpack Retro is straying too far from the Jetpack we know and love.
8. Daniel Kalne Says:
   April 2nd, 2010 at 4:38 am

   Now that that’s out of the way, a few comments I have to say:

   >I think you should be able to phase and walk at the same time.
   >When you phase the pink barrier, it makes you stop for too long, this wouldn’t work in high-stress situations.
   >When you phase bricks, it should fade out just as fast as it did in the original
   >You can see yourself behind the column? Intentional?
   >Phasing down on ice blocks to stop yourself is an important strategy in the game, it should be reinstated.
   >I think the graphics are a little too overwhelming, the ladders themselves almost gave me a seizure. I think they should have 4 rungs or even 3.
   >The tiniest tap of phaser on the pink barrier won’t kill it
   >Like Dave said, I think the smoke is a little much. Not a very eco-friendly jetman i’d say.

   Also, why the no-phasing-while-walking? It makes you stop so much more when running through tight corridors with pink barriers while being chased by a trackbot…
   And why do you need a gender-neutral jetman sound? It’s clear that he’s a man. I mean, jetMAN. Either way, in case chicks are playing, you could add an option to change the voice much like in Halo 3, maybe even the graphic.

   Anyway, sorry for being so cynical and pessimistic. Maybe its because it’s 2:37 in the morning, maybe it’s because I really really wanna play the original, but anyway, that’s all. I appreciate all the hard work, it looks great, just in a different way… if that makes sense…
9. Adam Says:
   April 2nd, 2010 at 6:51 am

   Benjamin, do you work in QA? These finds are really fantastic – I’ll go over them all later but here are a couple:

   Benjamin> Overloading the drill and “use” buttons makes it not possible to run past an item and activate it without stopping.

   This is intentional, to make pushing a switch more of an investment. Maybe its too annoying?

   Benjamin> Shift’ might not be a good choice for the jump/feul button. If I press it a few times while playing in quick succession I get an OS dialogue asking if I want to enable tap-shift-to-hold-shift mode (windows XP).

   Oh that sucks. I really liked this key arrangement Frickin windows.
   Well it is pretty easy to disable right? Gamers, have you run into this in other games?

   fm33> What? Please don’t tell me I’m going to need a facebook account to play this

   Of course not, I’m asking if there are any social features games have there that could be integrated well into Jetpack. Something like that could make a huge difference in how the game spreads.

   TimK> I did find one really odd glitch, and it’s going to be hard to describe. Upper left hand corner, there are three ladders.

   Umm there are no ladders in the upper left?

   DanK>Is this demo supposed to be the demo of Jetpack Retro, or Jetpack 2? Because if it’s the retro one, then my opinion is that I hate it. No offense, but I thought the whole point of doing a retro thing was for people to be able to play the same old jetpack that they could back in the day, maybe with some new effects

   My intention is not to make an exact clone of the original Jetpack, but to add whatever enhancements I can in a short amount of time. Mainly those are cosmetic, but there are several changes to gameplay I’m trying too. Now none of these are set in stone, these are all more like a brainstorm. Most of the ideas here I’m testing out to see if they work, or could work when tweaked.

   For example, stopping while phasing: I thought it might add to the gameplay if phasing wasn’t so easy. However many existing levels have 10 bricks in a row to phase, so this could turn out to be too much work for the player. But even if the idea is rejected it could spawn other ideas that improve gameplay.

   The delay before the phase door opens was an attempt to reduce accidental triggering – it could also increase tension if you’re being chased. I could remove that based on feedback.

   (BTW there’s no Jetpack Retro any more, just Jetpack). My thoughts on Jetpack 2 are for it to focus more on realism and physics. Since this one has gotten more advanced, Jetpack 2 may introduce scrolling and let us increase the scale a bit (not too much, this isn’t turning into Sonic).

   I’ll address all the points raised later, but here are a few of the big ones:

   Smoke – yeah you should see it cranked up to x10, it fills the tunnels. I tried to find a balance that showed some of the coolness but wasn’t too excessive. It does seem like a little much, alas.

   Brick phasing – I put in a delay before the brick goes intangible, as part of a goal to increase the amount of offense in the game – it gives you time to get off it if you’re drilling down to trap an enemy. This could be tweaked to only happen when drilling down, I need more feedback.

   Graphics – I find the overall effect a little to intense too, maybe its all too high-contrast.

   Gender – “it’s clear that he’s a man” – because you’re a man! There’s no reason it couldn’t be a woman – but a real woman, not a barbie. Wow, non-barbie women don’t really exist in games do they?

   Font – The things on the bottom panel are placeholders, you won’t be forced to read the font constantly for status.

   Physics – They are definitely a bit messy, taming the physics is the hardest part of all this. It would be a lot easier to be in direct control of every movement like the original, but I think having a real physics engine behind things adds something, if it can be made to behave with our fake world.
10. Adam Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 6:56 am

    Oh another thing, the music really drowns out the walking sounds, don’t miss them.
11. Rasmus Ni Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 11:38 am

    If it is possible, I think you should do, so that the player can choose the controls. Like if the player want to use “Q” to jump and fly, then the player should be able to change the jump and fly-button to “Q” instead of Shift.
12. fm33 Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    @Adam:

    >Of course not, I’m asking if there are any social features games have there that could be integrated well into Jetpack. Something like that could make a huge difference in how the game spreads.

    Just make a forum or site with a share option, I personally don’t want to have to go on social sites to share my work. And I stress, this better be optional or I won’t plans to play/buy the final version and I’ll simply just go back to Jetpack 1.

    Seriously, you shouldn’t worry about spreading the game, that’s what fans are for, that’s how it was back in the 90s someone saw it and shared it, you weren’t forced to. This option you seem to want seems to want me to BE social about what I’m doing in my private life (Which I prefer to keep private unless I feel the need not too), when it should be left up to the user to spread to who they want (if at all).

    And @Dave, I agree the music is annoying.
13. fm33 Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    :S For some reason my comment isn’t showing up.
14. InsaneJetman Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    In general, I think things are coming together reasonably well. From the comments above and my short playing, it seems that there’s still a lot of tweaking that will need to be done. When I have more time I’ll come up with a more complete set of comments and will weigh in on the items mentioned above were you’re looking for feedback. First however, I’d like to raise a couple of different issues.

    “you can jump even if you have fuel”
    Although this is more realistic this breaks many of my level as well as at least some others’. I don’t know if that’s really reason enough for you to scrap the idea (it would fix your windows shift key problem too).

    One important thing which I used this for was to ensure that someone had no fuel in a certain area of a level. If an alternative method of doing this were possible I would probably be more receptive of this idea. Perhaps a square which empties your fuel tank or makes you ‘check it’. Like an airport security gate, you need to give up your jet fuel when you pass through here in one direction, and you can have it back as you leave. If you’re interested I could probably come up with a graphic for this.

    Level flying doesn’t seem to work quite the way I would expect it to. I’m not sure exactly how, but I’ll figure it out.
15. Jarett Sabirsh Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 7:10 pm

    Here’s a few issues that I found…

    I too would really prefer being able to walk and phase at the same time like in the original.

    The keyboard setup I find to be quite awkward. I’m amazed nobody else has mentioned this. Is everybody else using their left hand to control the jetman because I use my right hand on the awsd keys, and then my left hand (particularly my pointer finger) is actually UNDER my right hand in order to reach the spacebar. If the Windows Start menu key wasn’t between the ctrl and alt keys, like an oldschool keyboard, it wouldn’t be quite so bad, but as it is, this is quite uncomfortable and makes playing the game a lot more difficult, and less fun. Maybe make it so people can choose their keys?

    As somebody else above me already mentioned, it would also be really nice if there was a graphic fuel gauge instead of the numbers. The numbers have to be looked at closely, which makes you take your attention away from what’s going on, while a gauge bar can be seen much more easily with your peripheral vision and without having to look directly at it.
16. Adam Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 8:20 pm

    Does anyone like the music? Is the problem the volume, style, or you just prefer no music?

    BTW you can change the game speed with + / -

    fm33> Just make a forum or site with a share option, I personally don’t want to have to go on social sites to share my work

    Any API usage would be a value-added feature, not a requirement – and it wouldn’t require going to any site. For example, one way of socializing the game could be integrating a 3rd party’s high score API, so you could compare your score/time for completing a certain a level to all other players (or just ie your facebook friends) for that day/week/all time. When you get a high score, you could enter a name to be posted to a 3rd party site, but you have no need to go there. I personally don’t like the apps that constantly post crap to people’s fb walls, but maybe there’s a way of doing that, that is actually useful instead of obnoxious.

    I have to worry about spreading the game, because in the 90′s there wasn’t such a flood of information to fight through to try to get noticed. It’s very possible for a good game to go largely unnoticed these days.

    (BTW it flagged your comment as spam, probably because of the @ signs)

    InsaneJetman> Perhaps a square which empties your fuel tank

    I could do this, if the jump-while-you-have-fuel idea is kept.

    > Level flying doesn’t seem to work quite the way I would expect it to

    Yeah I didn’t tweak that much. I need to force it to level faster than I am.

    Jarett Sabirsh> I use my right hand on the awsd keys, and then my left hand (particularly my pointer finger) is actually UNDER

    Space is definitely bad in that configuration. Is there some reason you aren’t using the arrow keys?

    I’d rather avoid letting the player choose the controls. It’s a hassle, especially when someone else tries to use your computer, and its a lot easier all around to just preassign multiple key options.
17. Toby Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 11:52 pm

    I like the music, but I think the volume needs to be toned down a lot. I can hardly hear the sound effects over its current volume.

    I think Shift shouldn’t be used as a control, because of the StickyKeys issue.

    Also, I think down should be used to activate teleporters and switches like in the old Jetpack. This would make more sense to me. What would happen if you needed to phase a block while standing on a teleporter/switch?

    Switches should be able to be activated while you’re moving, as should teleporters, just like in the old game. I liked the idea of teleporters giving you a short burst of invincibility, say, while you’re on the run from a robot.

    The slime should slow you down a lot more – at the moment it just seems like it makes you a bit lower than normal and that’s all.

    I think the ice should be more slippery and using the phaser downwards should stop you from sliding (again, behaviour from the old game.)

    As people have said, purple blocks should phase more instantly. Also, I think phasing a brick should be more instant (rather than fading out). You should be able to walk/jump whilst phasing.

    Item collecting animations should be speedier.

    The physics engine does seem a little bit dodgy – for example, even if one of those movable blocks (or the Jetman) is stationery, I occasionally see it move a pixel out of place every so often.

    Now that I think about it, a lot of my suggestions (and other peoples’) are requesting things to go back to like they were in the old Jetpack. Maybe it’s just us being scared of change, or maybe Jetpack 1 was actually an incredibly-well designed game because of some of these little things. Personally, I think the latter!
18. Dave Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 2:37 am

    “Gender – “it’s clear that he’s a man” – because you’re a man! There’s no reason it couldn’t be a woman – but a real woman, not a barbie. Wow, non-barbie women don’t really exist in games do they?”

    There are plenty of “non-barbie” video game characters, of course depending on what your definition of “non-barbie” is. I can’t really see how ‘Jetman’ could be interpreted as being a female though.

    And sure, why not have a “non-barbie” female character for the new Jetpack – I’m sure people would complain, but I suppose it would make things a bit more interesting…I look forward to an average-weight, middle-aged woman in the next Jetpack demo
19. Adam Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 8:58 am

    > music volume

    Some of the sound volumes aren’t loud enough, I will try to balance that better. It’s hard to lower the music much more with an action song like this. Maybe the levels need slower music?

    > There are plenty of “non-barbie” video game characters

    Who are they? I can’t think of a single female character over 25, unless its the old lady role. I haven’t played a lot of games lately though.

    > And sure, why not have a “non-barbie” female character for the new Jetpack

    I wouldn’t mind having it, but the time to create a ui for choosing a character, creating all alternate jetman graphics and sounds, is time I don’t have, especially if I could just one set of neutral graphics & sounds from the beginning. Just creating the mute button (and having it communicate from the launcher to the game) took an entire day of work, and I can only work 2-3 days a week.

    Toby> What would happen if you needed to phase a block while standing on a teleporter/switch?

    You would press an arrow, then phase. You can test that on this level. In the old game, if you wanted to go down a ladder with a switch/teleporter above it, you can’t avoid triggering it. I could add a separate key for switches, but I’m not convinced of the need to do this while moving. It just takes a little more skill to do it quickly.

    Also I should mention, I didn’t have time to finish the teleporter behavior in this demo – it will freeze you in place for .5-1 second, then you’ll have a period of motion while invincible, like the old game.

    > using the phaser downwards should stop you from sliding

    It does if the brick is phaseable. But unlike the old game, it is possible to stop on ice now. So there’s no real need for this, what is the attraction? The new idea is that the phase shifter fails on invalid surfaces, so it wouldn’t make sense to let it latch on.

    > As somebody else above me already mentioned, it would also be really nice if there was a graphic fuel gauge instead of the numbers

    I can only say 8+ times, those are temporary!
20. Tim K Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 11:24 am

    Yeah so apparently I don’t know the difference between left and right.
    There are three ladders in the upper RIGHT part of the screen. Third ladder down, stand on the ladder directly beside the red-brick platform to your left, and hold down and left at the same time
21. ventuz Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 11:53 am

    Yes window has “StickyKeys” pop up when pressing Shift or Ctrl multiple times, causing game to become uncontrollable until you close that window, I had to disable that for other game as well.. it’s via Control Panel -> Accessibility Options. But I think it’s a hassle.

    Maybe use double space to become “Fly”?
22. Lordnikolas Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 3:18 pm

    Hello, I am of Argentine.
    Which is the direction(address) of E-mail to send my Jetman’s drawing?
    The demo this very well.
    I wait for his response.
    Thank you from already…
23. Illari Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    I think the music is awesome! As are the new sound effects. Most players will propably turn off the sound after a while anyways, so no need to worry about repetition.
24. Doug Howell Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 5:05 pm

    Lordnikolas,….try sending drawing via http://www.adeptsoftware.com/contact/

    I don’t have much to say about the demo since all glitches have been noticed by all you hard-core Jetpackers! Wow you guys are good! Just a few minor things I’ll put my 2 cents on:

    * It would also be really nice that instead of the numbers there was a graphic fuel gauge. j/k Sorry, Adam, just had to do that!

    * I like how when you stand on a teleporter the light starts blinking on the matching one. The thing I don’t like is the sharp-like stand graphic that holds the light. I always see that sharp-like light stand when I approach the teleporter and think it’s a spear. Maybe the sharp-like could be a different color, or just not be there? I’ll probably get used to it,…like I said a minor thing.

    * I also miss being able to run and use the phaser. Just doesn’t seem natural not being able to run and turn it on.

    * I like your idea Adam of having a delay when drilling down but no delay otherwise.

    * I like the amount of smoke from the jetpack myself,..very cool! Would there be a possibility for Jetpack 2 to be able to adjust the amount of smoke so you could increase it and temporarily hide from some of the enemies like the Trackbot, Batbot, or Homer. Of course, the more smoke you use the faster your fuel would drain. Just a thought.

    * The idea of trying to spread this using social networks or anything using the Internet is a good one. Nowadays you have to get noticed some way because of all the games out there. Here is an example of a bunch of them…http://db.tigsource.com/ The more ways you can get Jetpack noticed, the better.

    * The music is fine. I think it’s all a matter of user preference. When I get tired of music, I always like the option of turning it off (or lower) and keeping the sounds.

    That’s all for now. Can’t wait to see a demo with some of the monsters!
25. fm33 Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 5:41 pm

    Adam, just to make sure I understand you right regarding:

    >and it wouldn’t require going to any site. For example, one way of socializing the game could be integrating a 3rd party’s high score API, so you could compare your score/time for completing a certain a level to all other players (or just ie your facebook friends) for that day/week/all time. When you get a high score, you could enter a name to be posted to a 3rd party site

    Now hold on, you said it WOULDN’T require going to any site, but later on you mention that it would goto a 3rd party site that I would not have to go. I’m confused, will it be posted regardless of settings? I just want to be clear on this because I don’t own an FB account and don’t plan to own EVER (Or have data leave my computer that I didn’t say it could). I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m whining, but I don’t A) Want to have a FB/any kind of social networking account and B) Don’t want results posted about my playing habits posted anywhere I don’t specifically grant permission to.
26. Robert Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    Well I played the demo a bit, and then I played it a bit more. I glanced at the comments some, but there were just too many for me to really want to look through.

    I found a couple of funky bugs, like when I first played it I found myself being magically drawn to the left after i ran into the spear closest to the door (which made me get stuck for a few seconds). I tried to jump over it but i hit the spear again, and then I somehow managed to get away from it instead of getting stuck again, but I was forced to the left side of the screen for maybe 20 seconds no matter where I went in the level.

    I’ll admit, the music is kinda sucky, and the physics aren’t really that fun, either. The acceleration sometimes annoys me. The graphics are okay, but there’s something about some of them that I just don’t like…

    I really think 90% of the changes to how things work that have been made so far, or that have been planned to be made are not good. A lot of jetpack levels were designed with things in mind like “spacebar = fly/jump” and “you can run while phasing” and “you can’t see barriers when they’re down” and plenty of other things.

    I’m not sure why you don’t continuously slide on ice, or why the “sinking” into slime is retarded, or why it looks like there are two kinds of barriers. But one of the biggest things I don’t like and one thing that’s puzzling me is why do you have to use the up (or down) arrow key when you jump (or fall) onto a ladder?

    I don’t really see the point of centering the jetman while phasing, and I think it’s annoying that you have to remember to press an arrow key while holding ctrl to phase.

    Will there still be switches that can only be activated by the jetman which are activated “manually?”

    And I don’t see the big deal with just making jetman a real man and being done with it. I think being gender neutral is a bad way to go and with either kill jetman’s graphics or his identity (or both – and with games, isn’t it more fun to actually have an identity in the game? I’d rather be a guy than an “it,” and I’d rather be a person than just a gray blob or something – not that the hero of jetpack would end up as a blob). Most great games have heroes with definite and distinct genders. I think jetman should be 100% man. This shouldn’t even be an issue.

    Personally (because I’m all about what I like), I liked the original jetpack just the way it was, as far as how things worked. I liked the randomness with teleporters and the hidden spears the killed you instantly on impact and the bricks and whatnot that didn’t just “vanish” or “fade” when they were phased.

    I don’t think changes that are being made should be made. Maybe for jetpack 2, if by then people will accept them for that game, but I think some of these changes would really take the fun out of the game, and, besides ending up with a game that isn’t fun, might kill business and diminish your reputation for making a fantastic game.

    One last point; the movable tile/brick/block thing might cause problems with some of the gameplay by screwing people over if it winds up in the wrong place, and I think the increased duration that the purple door thing stays open almost kills the entire purpose of it.

    Just a few of my thoughts after a quick glance at the demo.
27. Adam Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 10:49 pm

    I’ve created another release, see Release 2 with notes above! This addresses most of the issues raised. I’ve kept the old release here for comparison.

    Thanks everyone for your awesome feedback!

    Use this comment as a marker to separate comments on release 1 from release 2 (I didn’t want to do a full blog post for it).

    ======================================================================================
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28. Daniel Kalne Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 11:01 pm

    I’m starting to agree with Robert. I think all the new stuff should be reserved for Jetpack 2. The main reason I’m saying this is because we’re recycling tons of levels designed with the original in mind. Some levels, including my “Running From the Popo”, are created with such exacting standards that a slight change in physics will greatly alter certain obstacles…

    I think this online release should be an exact replica of the original, physics-wise. As for graphics, I think they can be changed, but there should be a “retro” option to see the original awesome graphics. Maybe add some sort of level-sharing functionality, heck even keep the music, and you’ve got yourself a bomb flash game. I could see it on Onemorelevel.com. I appreciate the improvements, and newbies will probably like it, but you might be alienating your hardcore original fans…
29. Robert Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 11:05 pm

    wait…so now both shift and ctrl make you fly/jump, and space makes you phase?
30. Adam Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 11:10 pm

    Yeah so SHIFT has issues on windows, and CTRL has issues on macs, so I figured what the hell, make em do the same thing, both problems solved. Personally I can’t go back to CTRL – SHIFT feels perfect for flying, and SPACE feels good for use. Z is a little awkward but that’s a seldom-use, and may even be removed.

    As I’ve stated, many of these new features are experimental, but there will not be a new version with 100% old behavior.
31. Daniel Kalne Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 11:27 pm

    I like the animation of the stunner, how it fades bigger, rather than the fade of the little gold vases…
32. fm33 Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 11:39 pm

    Adam, I think WordPress Flagged my comment as Spam again, either that or it didn’t send, can you confirm/deny?
33. fm33 Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 11:50 pm

    And sorry for the double post (I didn’t see more people posted), I have to agree with the physics. I started thinking about how that would effect certain maps and I have to agree, if not for the sake of those levels, then for the reason that the game feels too floaty and the physics feel like I’m stuck in molasses constantly, it makes it hard to move.

    Robert pretty much hits the nail on the head in my opinion about this and my further comments.

    And to answer your question Adam about “Does anyone like the music? Is the problem the volume, style, or you just prefer no music?”. At this point, yeah no Music is better then the horrid song in there now, the guy who made this got 50$? A dog hitting a trash can with it’s tail is better then this screech fest of delayed drums and annoying “Siren” style sounds through out the song.

    IMO use one of Coda’s tunes, Coda’s are ALOT better and alot more “Game” sounding then the horrible, HORRIBLE song that is in there now.
34. InsaneJetman Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 1:21 am

    If you phase the blocks below the moveable block, it doesn’t fall down.
35. InsaneJetman Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 2:05 am

    Nevermind, that was release one. You seemed to have fixed it.

    Anyway I have to say I HATE the new control layout. Maybe I’ve just to much experience playing original Jetpack, but I get mixed up all the time now. Release 1 was much better in that regard. In fact my choice for keys (probably) would be:

    Use: Ctrl
    Fly/Jump: Space
    Jump: Shift
    Move: Arrows

    This would be the fairly consistant with the original with an added jump with fuel key (shift). Honestly I think that custimizable controls would be the best way to go. Your reasons to avoid it just didn’t convince me.

    P.S. Personally, I don’t care about stickey keys, I turned those of years ago.
36. CaptSnaz Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 2:13 am

    The key is not to overwork a winner too much. Jetpack was simple, and it worked: 4 directional buttons,
    Jet-throttle/Jump and Phase-gun. That was it. How easy and perfect! You can modernize it, but if you overwork it, you’ll ruin it. I already hate the Music. The original didn’t have music. It didn’t need it. It only distracts you, unless the volume is low. I don’t like the way you’ve toned-down the color on the Blue&White Pearly blocks. They were beautiful. Daniel is right: too much smoke coming from the tanks. FM33 is right: The Jetpack is a little too slippery to control, like he’s out-of-balance. I also agree with having old and new versions. I like the idea of new and retro. I’m having a hard time trying to figure out DOSbox for my Win Vista anyway. I’d like to have both versions to play. I still have a lot of old levels I made that you guys might like to enjoy at some point in future. — Keep it simple! –You had a winner with the original. Stick with the winning formula!
37. CaptSnaz Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 2:36 am

    The little Nubs on the Spikes are too small. They need to be a little larger, so you know that they’re there, and you’re not surprised by them. They shouldn’t suddenly pop up out of nowhere & kill you.
38. Dave Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 3:11 am

    *I keep get stuck when teleporting =|
    *Smoke is indeed better
    *I’m thinking maybe ditch the physics on the pushable blocks – a block jammed between two walls because it’s on an angle is annoying. Remember gameplay > accurate physics. I’d rather have the game plays well than see the fanciest physics you can muster in Flash.
    *Sludge still seems a bit too fast, it’s like he’s just taking a stroll, but 10 pixels lower.
    *Maybe reconsideration on your stance on customisable keys. As InsaneJetman says “Your reasons to avoid it just didn’t convince me.” To me the advantages really outweigh the disadvantages that you mention. If the keys are customisable, then no one should have an issue with the controls, as they have the possibility of being changed.
39. Adam Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 7:32 am

    fm33> I think WordPress Flagged my comment as Spam again, either that or it didn’t send, can you confirm/deny?

    Yeah it seems to be flagging several of your comments as spam. I can’t see any good reason why … ? It’s Akismet. When I approve them it sticks them in at the time they were posted, so they’re easy to miss. WordPress kinda sucks.

    fm33> I don’t A) Want to have a FB/any kind of social networking account and B) Don’t want results posted about my playing habits posted anywhere I don’t specifically grant permission to.

    I don’t know exactly how it will work yet, but if you CHOOSE to submit a high score it will either go to some high score service, be it JetpackHQ or Kongregate or Facebook. You won’t need an account on any site for that. Just because high scores are aggregated on another site doesn’t mean you need a membership there.

    If I create a separate, special Facebook version of Jetpack, that one will be playable only on FB and will require an account there. It would probably have an interface to access levels from JetpackHQ. The reason for a separate version would be so people don’t have to “leave” facebook to play, don’t have to signup on JetpackHQ to save levels, and it can be integrated into Facebook.

    fm33> [feels like] I’m stuck in molasses constantly, it makes it hard to move.

    This is tuneable, by increasing the acceleration used. I find it hard to tune these things without playing in a real level. Once enemies are added it will be easier to get this right. Don’t forget, this is not a beta or even an alpha!

    CaptSnaz> The Jetpack is a little too slippery to control, like he’s out-of-balance

    I can tune this, can you give me an example of something you’re trying to do that’s difficult?
    BTW I’m glad you liked my pearly blue+white blocks! I’ll try to make the new ones match better.

    Dave> pushable blocks – a block jammed between two walls because it’s on an angle is annoying.

    I can disable rotation on them, but that would look really odd when one is hanging off a rounded corner. Generally if you put these blocks in a level, you’re going to design it so they work well.. this level with the rounded corners is a bad example.

    Dave> Maybe reconsideration on your stance on customizable keys

    Well I could have a couple switchable key profiles, any suggestions for what the other 1 or 2 would be? Keep in mind that shift is bad on windows for most people, and ctrl is bad on mac for some.
    InsaneJetman already offered:
    fly:SPACE, use:CTRL, jump:SHIFT

    InsaneJetman, I had space as fly for a while, maybe its just microsoft keyboards but space is so loud to hit it constantly was getting annoying. It also makes working in the morning when my wife is sleeping very hard. Ah, microsoft.

    Robert> why do you have to use the up (or down) arrow key when you jump (or fall) onto a ladder?

    You have to press up or down to “grab” ladders. There haven’t been any other comments on this, how does everyone like the ladders being in the background, and non “sticky”?

    Doug Howell> It would also be really nice that instead of the numbers there was a graphic fuel gauge

    Khaaaaan! /shatner
40. Amorphous Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 7:34 am

    Hey, great to see the project moving on. Pushable blocks seem like a good idea, as well as the teleport beacons.
    But honestly, pillow shading makes everything look so plastic and amateurish. I might also try redoing some of the tiles, since being done by several artists, there’s quite a conflict between styles. Joseph S. and Eric F. submitted the cleanest graphics in my opinion, the sharp and metallic pixel art style fits Jetpack.
    And those round corner physics are way off, just one careful step on the round stone throws you off like a spring. Actually, physics are the biggest annoyance here, particularly the “slipping” effect is exaggerated. The gameplay needs to be responsive and tasteful, while dying can lead to over-the-top ragdoll animations.

    I’m not going to get overly cynical about this, making this a worthy successor to the original is just a matter of vision and attention to detail. 17 years warrants more improvements than new graphics, but there’s no need to reinvent the wheel – its all about balance.
41. Adam Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 8:49 am

    I just realized running is way too slow in this demo – doh! Slipping off the rounded tiles will be fixed – I can either reduce the amount of rounding, or override the physics engine to make you stick better.

    The jetpack controls feel pretty tight to me, maybe I’ve been using them for too long?
    No one has commented on the super-sideways thrust, keep it or kill it?

    I do miss pushing down to use. Maybe I’ll bring that back.
42. Tim K Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 10:37 am

    Here’s a video for a bug I found…
    http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb225/WCIagora/?action=view&current=capture-1.flv
43. Tim K Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 11:33 am

    Did you disable the phaser for the second demo deliberately?
44. Tim K Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 11:38 am

    nevermind. lol
45. Amorphous Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 12:26 pm

    A potentially silly new idea: what if items lying on the floor (gems, coins, crates, floor switches, teleports, spikes…) were affected by gravity, like trackbots and marbles already are? It’d add a whole new puzzle element to phasing.

    Also, I don’t see any use in having the pushable blocks rotate, it adds too much randomness when levels are tile-based.
46. aff Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 2:13 pm

    When phasing square tiles its possible to stand on air. This should be a bug.
    I have waited for a remake for years, truly amazing so far. Great work!
47. userblank Says:
    April 5th, 2010 at 12:24 am

    Hey, not sure if this is possible anymore, but maybe you could spread Jetpack like you did the with the old version, a newly bought computer comes with a demo of jetpack. This is how I came across Jetpack, and many other cool games.
48. Benjamin Says:
    April 5th, 2010 at 5:35 am

    Hi Adam,
    No I don’t work in QA, though as a developer I have to do a lot of my own QA so often know what to look for.
    Two more bugs:
    * Sometimes after teleporting I am no longer able to move.
    * Jetman is able to jump over a 1 space gap simply by walking fast (any gap unless there are rounded corners on the block around it). This is easy to test on the top row when the box is removed. (I’m guessing this is not a feature, quite a difference to the old jetpack if it is).
49. Benjamin Says:
    April 5th, 2010 at 5:42 am

    Btw. the running speed alters the physics of the game, or at least the rate of feul consumption. This is easily demonstrated by standing on the fuel charger and holding down only one butten, the fly button. Jetman will eventually reach an equilibrium where he flies up, runs out, lands, then flies up again. Depending on the speed, the height he reaches when he runs out differs.
50. Adam Dobay Says:
    April 5th, 2010 at 4:23 pm

    Hi guys, I have limited time to post, so here are the two most important considerations:

    1. Keys
    The layout is spread over keys (Z, Tilde, and Slash) that are moved around pretty frequently on non-US keyboards. For example, on the Central & Eastern European keyboard set Z and Y are in switched positions, slash is Shift+6, and tilde is AltGr+1. So basically I can jump only by reaching the middle of the keyboard or for some reason by pushing the key “ü” which is two steps left from Backspace. I don’t remember the exact layout but some of these problems would apply to Cyrillic keyboards (Greece, Turkey, etc).
    If you want more than just US & Western European people to be able to play the game (and I suppose you do), there are two solutions to this. Some games I’ve seen having the same consideration would connect actions to keys that are standard on every keyboard, like A, S and D, or X, C and V. The other solution is customizable keyboard settings.
    (A sidenote: I’m also a fan of not using more than two keys for actions. For me Jetpack’s jump/fly button was the way the game worked, not a limitation. It required some skill to master how to spare fuel and to do tasks you’d do by jumping. But I’m digressing, I’ll try to write up my physics and engine feedback later.)

    2. Game resolution.
    I wouldn’t have noticed this if we weren’t visiting family over the Easter weekend, where I tested the preview on a 1024×768 display under Firefox, and where I could not scroll to fit the game to fit into the browser window without something being cut off from the top or bottom. This was simply because browsers now all have tab bars which take off quite a number of vertical pixels — in this case, it took off enough for the game not to fit in the window.
    I then remembered that most places I see computers in, including offices, internet cafés, libraries and other places where I’ve seen people play casual games over the internet, they all had 1024×768. Curious, I’ve checked some statistics (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp ) which use a pretty large base data (not meaning it’s entirely accurate but it’s a place to start) to show that around 20% of people are still using 1024×768, and from the 76% of users using bigger resolutions, a further 20% has a vertical resolution <=800, mostly the resolutions used on laptop computers. (This may be why Kongregate uses something like 700×500 for its games so they fit all resolutions.)
    Specifics. The tab bar in Firefox, Chrome and IE8 all take off 25 pixels, and the situation gets even worse if things like the Bookmark bar are not turned off (they are turned on by default on most browser installs and for some odd reason I rarely seen people turn them off at all!), another 25 pixels. Since Chrome has no status bar, that leaves around 670 pixels which is okay, but on Firefox the window is pretty thin, now as I'm testing on my Windows 7 I have 605 pixels so the Jetpack screen fits only tightly in (the other machine has XP). This is only with the tab bar open, no bookmarks bar or any other bar.
    I don't know if Jetpack's current resolution is tied to some reason because of which it cannot be changed, but if you're not obliged to stick to 800×600, I would recommend lowering the vertical resolution of the game so it could universally fit every screen resolution. This probably would also cancel out some previous problems like having to add two rows to every level or the game border issue you said earlier.
    I'm sure other people can chip in with feedback from their own resolutions.
51. Jojo Says:
    April 5th, 2010 at 4:33 pm

    The music seems to be quite distorted sometimes – is there a way to lower the preamp/mixing volume/whatever in the player?

    The new controls with an additional key suddenly make gameplay a lot more complicated – or at least it feelt like that to me.

    > Gamers, have you run into this in other games?
    Actually, this happens with most keyboard-driven games (esp. jump&runs and stuff like that) on Windows.
52. Daniel Kalne Says:
    April 5th, 2010 at 7:10 pm

    I think your guy should grab a ladder whenever you’re not jumping or flying (as in the original) because some levels only have 1 block of ladders stuck to the ceiling every other tile, and those require skill to maneuver across anyway, and I think having to press a key would be harder.

    Bug: When you jump and then immediately fly, you go WAY to fast.

    To be honest, I like the original jetman. He’s iconic so to speak. I even made a level dedicated to his likeness!

    I like the physics, but they seem too “slippery”. I really like the instant physics of the original. I think that, again, a lot of this stuff should be saved for Jetpack 2, with more gameplay enhancements. I don’t think people will like the same old levels and stuff with weird physics.

    Just a question, with this current build, can you load any existing levels, or did you just recreate Complex for this level and then it’s stuck in the demo. I would like to try various levels with this build to fully get a feel for the new stuff.

    Like other people, I dislike the moving blocks, I don’t think they have much use. They should be lighter at least so that when it’s stuck in a hole above you, you can jetpack up into it and move it out the way.

    The graphics are starting to grow on me, the physics are not.
53. Adam Says:
    April 5th, 2010 at 8:32 pm

    Amorphous> what if items lying on the floor (gems, coins, crates, floor switches, teleports, spikes…) were affected by gravity

    I thought of that, but its not going to work in this one.. definitely in Jetpack 2 though!

    aff> When phasing square tiles its possible to stand on air. This should be a bug.

    Oops, thanks!

    Benjamin> Sometimes after teleporting I am no longer able to move.

    Yes this is a bug in box2d, I think an update will fix it.

    Benjamin> Jetman is able to jump over a 1 space gap simply by walking fast

    Ahh, side effect of having lowered gravity to get rid of jitter :/

    DanK> Like other people, I dislike the moving blocks, I don’t think they have much use. They should be lighter at least so that when it’s stuck in a hole above you, you can jetpack up into it and move it out the way.

    I haven’t seen anyone say they dislike them, just that they need adjusting. Are you playing V2? You can do exactly that, push it from underneath.

    Jojo> The music seems to be quite distorted sometimes – is there a way to lower the preamp/mixing volume/whatever in the player?

    Ahh good catch, I was setting the volume the wrong way Those hard bass notes aren’t bottoming out now. Maybe I’ll post a V3 in a few days with this.

    > The new controls with an additional key suddenly make gameplay a lot more complicated – or at least it feelt like that to me.

    There’s no obligation to use the separate jump key. If everyone finds it more distracting than useful I can remove it – there are tradeoffs for every design decision. It does add some new tricks – like jump-thrust which propels you up faster than normal. (its not a bug its a feature!)

    AdamD> The layout is spread over keys (Z, Tilde, and Slash) that are moved around pretty frequently on non-US keyboards.

    Ahh I didn’t know that. Do you know what the most common non-us keyboard layouts are?

    > on a 1024×768 display under Firefox, and where I could not scroll to fit the game to fit into the browser window

    Good points, Adam. The 800×600 choice, and resulting 30×30 tile choice, are to allow full screen play in 800×600 mode. Full screen will only be available in the downloadable version, because in-browser flash sadly does not allow keypresses, for security. You may have noticed, all full screen flash brower games are mouse-based. I’m torn between better supporting full screen or in-browser. I would personally never want to play in a browser if I had a full screen version, especially since the downloadable will also be faster and less jerky.

    It looks like these are our options:

    * give instructions to press F11 to take the toolbars out of the way (Firefox)
    * shave about 40px off the GUI in-browser
    * allow a smaller game window, and scroll
    * Lose 60px by taking out the 2 extra rows / full screen gets black bars at the top & bottom, or a giant gui
54. Adam Dobay Says:
    April 6th, 2010 at 5:22 am

    Adam> Ahh I didn’t know that. Do you know what the most common non-us keyboard layouts are?

    Not offhand, but I’ll look into this once I get through my current deadlines.

    > I would personally never want to play in a browser if I had a
    > full screen version, especially since the downloadable will also be faster and less jerky.

    I see that, but most people today play games in browsers. Largely thanks to Facebook and the online flash game depositories. But mostly Facebook. Also, casual gamers tend to spend less time with a game at one time, even during work or any other activity (one reason why Farmville has 80 million people playing it), and being able to play in-browser helps this want or need.

    > It looks like these are our options:
    > * give instructions to press F11 to take the toolbars out of the way (Firefox)
    I don’t think people would do that.

    > * shave about 40px off the GUI in-browser
    How much would that leave in from the GUI?

    > * allow a smaller game window, and scroll
    That would break the game concept.

    > * Lose 60px by taking out the 2 extra rows / full screen gets black bars at the top & bottom, or a giant gui
    I’m really strongly against adding the two extra rows so I would go for this one and add the black bars in full screen.
55. Jojo Says:
    April 6th, 2010 at 8:44 am

    Adam: Instead of relying on “common” keyboard layouts, it would probably better to make the keys redefinable.
56. aff Says:
    April 6th, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    Hey, found another bug.
    While jumping release left/right movement key and then jumping again can let you do a double-jump.
57. Jojo Says:
    April 7th, 2010 at 3:14 pm

    not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but there’s another interesting bug with jumping: if you jump towards a brick that’s “in the air” and try to phase it, you won’t fall down, but “freeze” in front of the brick! If the description is too vague, let me know.
58. Doug Howell Says:
    April 7th, 2010 at 10:08 pm

    FWIW, I haven’t commented much on keyboard layout since with the demos I’ve been using mostly my Logitech Rumblepad 2 game controller (with the Pinnacle Game Profiler so that it works on this non-joystick game with easy remapping of the controls). I’ve been playing Jetpack from day 1 with a joystick or game controller and have just grown used to it. Of course at work I do revert to the keyboard if I want a quick game during lunch.
59. Adam Dobay Says:
    April 9th, 2010 at 4:32 pm

    Hey Adam,

    It is so Murphy’s Law that the first time Chrome crashed on me ever had to be when I was almost done assembling the information about keyboards from a number of sources. Well, here I go again.

    1. The most widespread keyboard layout is the QWERTY standard, the basic layout of which is used with some variations in the US, Canada, many Western European countries and East Asian countries (in the latter case, QWERTY-based ‘hybrid’ keyboard sets are used that combine the use of the Latin alphabet with the native one). The basic layout for the set is:
    QWERTY
    ASDF
    ZXCV
    Note that almost every country differs in what is left of the number 1 in the top row. It may be a tilde, it may be a slash or backslash, it may be a 1/2 symbol, it’s one of the most replaced keys on the board, so it is not advised to map anything to it. There’s also a variation in whether there’s an extra key insterted between Z and Shift in the bottom left corner, and if so, what it is.

    2. The second most widespread keyboard layout is the QWERTZ layout. It is German-based and was created to suit the many languages of the region that use umlauted characters like ä, ö, or ü. So QWERTZ keyboards are highly varied to fit the different umlauts of different languages, but are generally the same, covering most of the countries of Central Europe (excluding Poland which uses a QWERTY variation), Southeastern Europe and the Latin alphabet-based countries of Eastern Europe. The basic layout of the set is:
    QWERTZ
    ASDF
    YXCV
    Again, many variations in what is in the bottom left and top left corners (left of 1 and Y). Aside from that, most of the keys are the same in QWERTY and QWERTZ keyboard, with one notable area: the right hand side of the keyboard usually has all the umlauted characters you would use an AltGr combination to reach on a US keyboard, so things like – = [ ] ; ‘ and / are frequently moved around either within this area or elsewhere entirely. For example, on a Hungarian keyboard, which I think has the most umlauted characters out of any languages in the region (ö, ü, ó, ő, ú, í, é, á and ű), every character in this region on a QWERTY keyboard is moved to a Shift+ or an AltGr+ combination.
    Fun fact: you can’t create a proper Hungarian ű or ő character with any AltGr code, so if you ever need to type the expression “árvíztűrő tükörfúrógép”, you can copy and paste it from here. (The expression is a made-up phrase used for displaying Hungarian fonts, with the meaning “mirror-drilling machine capable of withstanding floods”.)

    3. The third place goes to the AZERTY keyboard which is used in France in Belgium, and has the most variation in the basic layout:
    AZERTY
    QSDFGHJKLM
    WXCVBN
    Again, the right side of the keyboard is different.

    In essence, the most significant places where the most variations are on keyboards are:
    - the top left key next to 1
    - the position of Z/Y
    - the entire right side of the keyboard, horizontally between 9 and Backspace, P and Enter, L and Enter, and M and Right Shift.
    There are also certain regional variations to every standard based on language-specific criteria. For example, Q and W is removed from the Greek alphabet, and the Turkish layout modifies QWERTY in a number of ways. However, there are many little variations like this and they cannot all be accounted for in a keyboard map.

    Possible solutions:
    1. Assign keys that behave the same in all or most keyboard sets: arrow keys, Ctrl, Shift, Space, E R T O I P and possibly W in the top row, S D F G H J K L and possibly A in the middle row, and X C V B N and possibly M in the bottom row.
    2. Customizable keyboard mapping.
    3. Keyboard map selection based on the most used two or three options. A number of old DOS games have not included keyboard mapping but instead had a selection between QWERTY and QWERTZ keyboard maps, or (most often in French games) between QWERTY, QWERTZ and AZERTY sets.
60. Robert Says:
    April 19th, 2010 at 7:22 pm

    It looks like you fall more slowly through phased slime covered tiles than through the corresponding plain brick tiles.
61. Doug Howell Says:
    April 22nd, 2010 at 7:59 pm

    Adam, I hope all this quietness here means you’re hard at work with some magical goodness!
62. Adam Says:
    April 24th, 2010 at 9:48 pm

    Sadly no, I’ve invested a massive amount of time into the website over the last 3 weeks, mainly account handling. Half the time has been spent trying to get Facebook connect working, which turns out to be a very picky beast. I would leave it out if I knew 2 weeks ago what I know now, but the work is mostly done. I’ll be switching to the new site soon then it will be back to the game. I wanted to have a real registration system in place before releasing a few playable levels, which I’ve scheduled for 3 weeks out, but we all know how my schedules tend to go…
63. Robert Says:
    April 30th, 2010 at 5:18 pm

    weellllll…the pre-alpha actually seems REALLY buggy to me. I sometimes find myself falling down ladders, and then not being able to climb back up them unless i press one of the jump buttons. I can’t remember if you said that it was going to be like that now, but frankly, I think all falling down ladder should go (it seems like there’s another thing that happens which doesn’t look like a bug where you just fall down ladders after jumping, and then upon landing you are still able to climb back up, which might seem more realistic to some, but to others, it really changes the dynamics of the game, which I think is something that should be reserved for Jetpack 2, where changes in dynamics will be expected and easier to accept, since it will be an entirely different game).

    I encountered another bug that just seemed like a normal bug when I went to the bottom right corner of the level to pick up the gem…and then magically got stuck completely in that corner. The jetman is still in the level – he isn’t in a wall or anything – but I can only make him look left and right. I purposefully ran out of fuel before I got the gem, so I’m not sure yet if I could get out by flying, but I don’t think I could anyway (and it doesn’t seem like it matters much, anyway, if I can get out of the corner by flying or not).

    That’s all for now, but I’m sure I’ll find more very soon. They whole thing just seems like one big insect right now :/
64. Robert Says:
    April 30th, 2010 at 5:23 pm

    They*

    Also, I can phase up, down, left, and right while stuck in that corner, in addition to facing left and right.

    And I think you should be able to phase without having to press an arrow key (and you’ll just phase in the direction you’re facing or however it worked exactly in the original jetpack. I’m not on my own computer right now so I can’t check to see exactly how it worked in the original – I just know it’s not the same in the pre-alpha).
65. Robert Says:
    April 30th, 2010 at 5:39 pm

    Oh, and I almost forgot: I HATE that when I press alt I just keep flying up. I might warm up to it, eventually, because it MIGHT have its uses, but I press alt a lot and then I try to turn it off by pressing alt again, but I keep forgetting that I have to press ctrl or shift to stop it.

    And I think that it’s pretty pointless that you should have to press up/down to go up/down an up/down moving ladder, or that you can just fall down one. The whole point of moving ladders in the original game, it seemed, was (a) to make it more fun to go up and down ladders, (b) to allow/force certain monsters to go up or down when they go to a moving ladder, and (c) to “force” you to go up or down a ladder, and/or (d) to make it harder for you or a monster to go up/down (a ladder). The way the moving ladders are right now in the pre-alpha pretty much defeats all of these purposes, except (perhaps) (a), and it adds the purpose “to be lazy when climbing” to the list. You could just fall down an up ladder if the ladder was the only way to get down. Also, falling down ladders makes every down moving ladder pretty much pointless and obsolete, other than adding a little variety to what your ladder transportation looks like, and in the end, when something is meant to be used in a game, its use is far more important than its appearance (though I’m not saying that appearance isn’t still very important).

    Always a pleasure,…hehe…
    …………
66. Robert Says:
    April 30th, 2010 at 6:00 pm

    “I might warm up to it, eventually” I don’t think I was clear on what I meant here…I meant I might warm up to the idea of having a button that makes you fly up “automatically” like alt does in the pre-alpha eventually.

    But I think it’s another pointless change…

    In fact, since everything that was done by everyone who contributed to jetpack in the contest was done with the original game in mind, and all of the levels were made specifically to work flawlessly with the original jetpack exactly as the original game was…I think really ANY changes to ANY aspect of gameplay AT ALL should be reserved for jetpack 2 (because I think we were all just expecting a modern version of the original game that had new levels and graphics and sound, etc., but not anything that would actually affect gameplay). Something that DOESN’T affect gameplay (or, if it turns out that it does affect gameplay, then it should be changed), is like sinking into slime. It looks different, and it has a real effect, but it doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, affect how one has to play.

    Changes like sinking into slime, if they can be integrated into the game well, which don’t affect gameplay, are perfectly fine. But it occurred to me just now that the original jetpack fans, if they actually ARE real original jetpack fans, simple wanted a technologically up-to-date version of jetpack with new levels (that’s what graphics and sound and themes, etc boiled down to).

    The only change in gameplay that I can really accept as being okay is the concept of unlimited lives, although the whole idea of having lives is a pretty classic video/computer game concept that usually adds/added an/another fun aspect to the games that use/used “life” systems.

    Just my two dollars, haha. I’ll stop clogging the blog with posts for a while, now.
67. Adam Says:
    April 30th, 2010 at 8:38 pm

    Please comment in the right place. I don’t what you mean about ALT, because that doesn’t trigger the jetpack. Also there are going to be bugs, that’s why its called a pre-alpha.
68. Robert Says:
    May 22nd, 2010 at 3:26 pm

    It looks like if you start phasing a brick (sideways, not up or down), even if you’re off the ground when you’re doing it, you’ll stay in mid air while you phase. I phased my way through the level of bricks right below the giant white column and didn’t fall down, just by holding space and the right arrow key, and with no fuel. I’ve also phased through other bricks like that.

    Also, if you start phasing a brick, you can let go of the arrow keys and continue phasing. The problem though, is that you can do that with bricks that have already been phased through, too.

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