darkSpyro

Has anyone tried out Punk Shock on the 3DS version? I'd love to get a bit of feedback - she plays quite a bit differently than on the console. Definitely curious of what people think.

Thanks in advance.

Well from my experience, I think she is alright in the 3ds version. While I can't say she's better in 3ds than console, she still is strong and really does benefit from having her unique upgrades in the 3ds game.

Oh, wow, that made my day. Thank you. It's always a challenge to make a character fun with fewer abilities and less buttons, but we try to provide an experience that best fits the 3ds. Punk Shock's initially looked like she was going to end up very similar to Zap. That's what led to Punk Shock's puddles forming electric currents.

Her second upgrade initially gave additional bolts that fired off from the main one, but it didn't feel impactful enough. The piercing and increased rate of fire were random things I tried out and just felt good, and had the added benefit of being less memory-intensive.

Anyway, thank you again for that write-up. Glad someone enjoyed it.

Yep, that was me - I designed and scripted her behavior. She was my final character, and I spent close to a month on her.

I'm glad your summary caught a lot of small mechanic details people tend to miss, because it's those details that I take the most pride in. For example, each of her electric puddles have its own electric charge, and shooting them increases that charge up to a maximum value. As its charge grows, the damage dealt by a puddle grows as well. This also scales the particle effect on the puddle, and that effect grows and shrinks to match the current charge.

Meanwhile, the lines between the puddles do the exact same thing, except they use the average charge value between the two puddles. So if one puddle is charged at 10% and another is at 100%, you'll deal the base damage + 55% of the maximum bonus damage. The lines also shrink and grow over time, and when they fade away, the alpha blends out as well so that it doesn't look appear too jarring.

Implementing special abilities is usually pretty straightforward (though Punk Shock was somewhat unprecedented), but it's those small details that take a lot of time. They usually go unnoticed, but they add up to create a more polished feel to a game.

Well, BigNand, if you are the person who designed her, for the 3DS, congratulations from Me too!
First time I saw her I tought "Oh, great, an antropomorphic Zap...", but I was wrong.
She uses electricity like him, that's true, but she is a full ranged character, with water granades, instead of slime trails, and a pretty cool and powerful close up attack.
Her 3DS version sure adds a nice original touch to her, adding the lines between charged puddles, and the possibility to make them explode, when sprinting; but it still keeps her console playstyle, and that wasn't an easy thing to do.
Great work, man! Hope you'll work on Skylanders 4 3DS version too.

Punk Shock plays pretty well (better than most of the new guys). I like her Electric Slide upgrade. Also I have a few questions related to Skylanders 4 to ask you (If you know anything). If your not allowed to answer that's understandable.

1. Who is working on the 3DS version of Skylanders 4? I heard TfB is in charge of both the console and 3DS versions. Is this true?

2. When will we see a reveal of the game? Soon? E3?

3. Will we see major changes to the 3DS version (graphics for example)?

Also, while like Giants, I found the levels design kinda bland, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the Land of The Dead. Very creative idea. For Giants I liked the Tunnel of Love level. SSA still remains my favorite Skylander 3DS game. You still did a GREAT job! Riptide, Scorp Freeze Blade, Dune Bug and Boom Jet are my favorite new Skylanders in the 3DS version.

Arc, it was intentional.

As for other characters I did, you've got a good eye. I actually did Scorp as well, and I spent a lot of time getting his projectiles to arc naturally and feel fun as well as getting the ones on the ground to work properly. The projectiles are actually based on special code I wrote for Boom Jet's rockets, and they are the only two characters that use that system. Scorp's final upgrade was my own call, as well. I don't think we had any characters with a sudden boost like that, so there was concern that it wouldn't feel right or be overpowered or send the player flying off the cliffs a lot. But it turned out really well and, to me, makes him feel much more exciting. Scorp is actually my favorite character, because he proves that polished simplicity is often more fun than tons of complicated abilities. Scorp and Punk Shock were the last two characters I did, so I like to think I improved a bit throughout the project.

Other guys I worked on were Night Shift (I just did a second pass and polished some of his abilities), Boom Jet (getting his jet working properly when it flies away was my most difficult task on the project), Spy Rise (it bugs me that we forget to hook in his assassination animation), and Slobber Tooth (he was extremely difficult to implement with our engine limitations, but he seems to work. I'm also very proud of refactoring his tail spin attack into one where he bats the enemy with his tail).

HeyitsHotDog, I'm glad to hear you like Scorp and Boom Jet as well. There are sooooo many little things that went into Boom Jet. Even the way the volume for his propellers slides up and down based on movement speed, and then the rocket SFX scales up when you sprint... just more of the small details I am proud of. One of my favorite things to do in the entire game is to load Boom Jet, turn on 3D mode and just fire rockets at the screen. As for levels, I like Undead Fiesta, as well, but my favorite level is Sheep Wreck island. With 3D mode on, some of the background visuals are pretty freaking cool.

Quote: BigNand

Arc, it was intentional.

As for other characters I did, you've got a good eye. I actually did Scorp as well, and I spent a lot of time getting his projectiles to arc naturally and feel fun as well as getting the ones on the ground to work properly. The projectiles are actually based on special code I wrote for Boom Jet's rockets, and they are the only two characters that use that system. Scorp's final upgrade was my own call, as well. I don't think we had any characters with a sudden boost like that, so there was concern that it wouldn't feel right or be overpowered or send the player flying off the cliffs a lot. But it turned out really well and, to me, makes him feel much more exciting. Scorp is actually my favorite character, because he proves that polished simplicity is often more fun than tons of complicated abilities. Scorp and Punk Shock were the last two characters I did, so I like to think I improved a bit throughout the project.

Other guys I worked on were Night Shift (I just did a second pass and polished some of his abilities), Boom Jet (getting his jet working properly when it flies away was my most difficult task on the project), Spy Rise (it bugs me that we forget to hook in his assassination animation), and Slobber Tooth (he was extremely difficult to implement with our engine limitations, but he seems to work. I'm also very proud of refactoring his tail spin attack into one where he bats the enemy with his tail).

HeyitsHotDog, I'm glad to hear you like Scorp and Boom Jet as well. There are sooooo many little things that went into Boom Jet. Even the way the volume for his propellers slides up and down based on movement speed, and then the rocket SFX scales up when you sprint... just more of the small details I am proud of. One of my favorite things to do in the entire game is to load Boom Jet, turn on 3D mode and just fire rockets at the screen. As for levels, I like Undead Fiesta, as well, but my favorite level is Sheep Wreck island. With 3D mode on, some of the background visuals are pretty freaking cool.

I noticed Slobbertooth moved a bit awkward in-game. It's awesome to know that someone who worked on the 3DS games visits here sometimes.

@HeyitsHotDog: I was the designer for the Undead levels, Shimmer Shard Shire, and Tunnel of Love on Giants 3DS. Thank you for digging those levels.

@BigNand: I'm trying to see if I can guess who this is by trying to remember who did second pass on Night Shift. This is either DLux or Tom. You mentioned Sheep Wreck so I'm guessing this is Tom. HI TOM!!

If this is Tom then everyone can thank him for coming up with the name 'Shimmer Shard Shire'. We were coming up with names for our levels and I was upset of how they cut my Space level and I had to turn it into the Crystal level. I wanted the name to be a tongue twister but couldn't think of anything on the spot. Tom smiled and said the name which I thought was great.

If anyone is interested, I'm starting to write a few posts on my website for my design choices and/or a look into why things were done the way they were in my levels. I've written about 2 of my levels so far but I will have more written in the next week or so. Check it out if you'd like at http://www.jonweber.com

If you have any questions you can fill out the Contact Form in the right column on my page. Thanks again!

Nope, not Tom. Patrick.

Great to see actual developers on the site.

How was it for the n-space employees to suddenly have 50+ characters sheets dumped at you and somebody say what main character? these are all the main character. They all attack different, have different animations, I want them done yesterday.

Just to say hi to the Devs that are reading

It's always nice to get a chance to say a personal thanks for the work put in. I've liked all three of the 3DS versions and it's fun to play on the way to work, sometimes I even let the kids play too

Was interesting to hear just how long it takes to get one character working just right, as somebody who has done game development on their own I appreciate how hard things like this are.

I like the 3D effect and how the characters and levels look, so much so that I still play SSA on my PC in 3D mode (special monitor and 3D drivers).

Thanks for your hard work guys.

@BigNand: Doh! That was my third choice but I thought you had moved on to another game by the time the second pass of Night Shift came around.

Quote: JonWeber

@HeyitsHotDog: I was the designer for the Undead levels, Shimmer Shard Shire, and Tunnel of Love on Giants 3DS. Thank you for digging those levels.

@BigNand: I'm trying to see if I can guess who this is by trying to remember who did second pass on Night Shift. This is either DLux or Tom. You mentioned Sheep Wreck so I'm guessing this is Tom. HI TOM!!

If this is Tom then everyone can thank him for coming up with the name 'Shimmer Shard Shire'. We were coming up with names for our levels and I was upset of how they cut my Space level and I had to turn it into the Crystal level. I wanted the name to be a tongue twister but couldn't think of anything on the spot. Tom smiled and said the name which I thought was great.

If anyone is interested, I'm starting to write a few posts on my website for my design choices and/or a look into why things were done the way they were in my levels. I've written about 2 of my levels so far but I will have more written in the next week or so. Check it out if you'd like at http://www.jonweber.com

If you have any questions you can fill out the Contact Form in the right column on my page. Thanks again!

SPACE LEVEL? C'mon, that would have been awesome! Any concept art?

@HeyitsHotDog: Shimmer Shard Shire was originally a playable Space level but after we were told that we couldn't do a space level (You can read my thoughts on that on my webpage) we changed it to what you see now. I didn't have any concept art for it, just notes that I wrote down on what I wanted to do. Man oh man do I wish people could have played through those levels. You can see some traces of the original level if you look at Shimmer Shard Shire. The Earth Elemental area has a moon/asteroid in it.

Quote: JonWeber

@HeyitsHotDog: Shimmer Shard Shire was originally a playable Space level but after we were told that we couldn't do a space level (You can read my thoughts on that on my webpage) we changed it to what you see now. I didn't have any concept art for it, just notes that I wrote down on what I wanted to do. Man oh man do I wish people could have played through those levels. You can see some traces of the original level if you look at Shimmer Shard Shire. The Earth Elemental area has a moon/asteroid in it.

I read it. Sounded VERY creative. If there is not space in Skylands, then how do you explain the UFO hat or the Space Helmet? Same with Star Strike!

Quote: HeyitsHotDog

If there is not space in Skylands, then how do you explain the UFO hat or the Space Helmet? Same with Star Strike!

Yup. Trust me. We mentioned all aspects of what was already in the previous games. :-)

Was it N-Space that told you no Space levels or TfB? If it was N-Space, then I'n not surprised that they're not making the 4th Skylanders 3DS. game.

No it was not n-Space that said it. n-Space was all for it.

Activision is the publisher and they have say in anything that goes into the game.

Activision! DAMN YOU! TfB would be all for it as well!

Space level? What would be different? Black sky with stars and gravity maniulator a la Angry Birds?

I can see the teleporter trick done via Sheep Wreck do something more sophisticated to send you to other islands, or have a Sci Fi inspired theme level (a ka Kaos' Fortress)...they kinda are doing it now in sparse terms anyway imo...it could get more sophisticated but again we are locked into their "target market" so I wouldn't expect much.