Thanks to Players with Uber Reflexes!

[KYnetiK]

The Gauntlet is a mysterious device that will test your agility and reflexes. Dash through the network at break-neck speeds to become champion of cyberspace!

Compete for the highest score at HERE !!!

After stumbling upon an intriguing device, the player is thrust into a virtual reality. To discover the true function of the program, you must make your way through cyberspace in the ultimate test of your agility and reflexes.

Features :

- Challenging puzzle based on simple rules and player skill.
- Simple Controls : Arrow Keys, Spacebar + Shift. Press Q to quick-restart during gameplay.
- Realtime Tutorial included.
- Unique interface navigation.
- Integrated anti-cheat system.
- Online Score & Achievement Tracking.
- Bonus Stage: Get a combo of 50 or more during your game to execute.
- Unlockable Stealth Mode: get a Stealth Bonus on all 10 stages to unlock this mode.
- Beat Stealth Mode for unstoppable Bit Power!!!



Homepage ++ Highscores
Arcadebomb Mirror -- Highscores
Newgrounds Mirror 1 -- Highscores
Newgrounds Mirror 2 ++ Highscores


_______________________
www.arcadebomb.com
www.kynetik-art.com

[freestyler]

Whoa, this is pretty good! I love the menu navigation.

It's perfect except for the font size in tutorial. It should be twice as big.

edit: there should be a little halt of spawning obstacles (or short invulnerability) right after you finish the power dash. The power happens to run off with me right on an obstacle. And the button for accepting the nickname should be bigger.

[KYnetiK]

Thanks dude =D

I suspected the font was too small in the Tutorial, I think doubling it might be a bit too big but Ill fiddle around with that.

Oh and the power dash - This problem happened to me very rarely, and usually only on higher levels (where Im usually concentrating too much to worry about the dash) so I forgot to add the cooloff time, thanks!


By the way, what Level and Combos were you reaching so I can gauge the difficulty curve in browsers?

[freestyler]

I played only three or four times, I'll test it more thoroughly later. The last score I got was about 25k.
Blocks' color should reflect the level. They seem to be generated randomly from time to time.

Add an ESC menu or something, including 'leave tutorial' and 'restart' button. And maybe 'intro: on/off' in options, as it's annoying to watch every time (the animation is great though).

edit: man, it's addictive. got to level 7. I find myself not using dash at all, as it doesn't give me any points and confuses me. And i hit the small ones on the floor the most...

[KYnetiK]

The blocks colour does reflect the level, but at this point (apart from tutorial+level1) the colours are chosen randomly. Since sometimes it chooses colours that are too alike in a row, I will make each level a particular colour, just havent yet decided on the colours nor the number of levels Hence why I need to see what Level people can get up to. In a browser its a lot slower than playing it locally so yeah - testing!

[Monsteri]

This is great. What needed to be done, are: on/off for music.

I played only three or four times, I'll test it more thoroughly later. The last score I got was about 25k.
Blocks' color should reflect the level. They seem to be generated randomly from time to time.

Add an ESC menu or something, including 'leave tutorial' and 'restart' button. And maybe 'intro: on/off' in options, as it's annoying to watch every time (the animation is great though).

I played to level 9, and I say that it should come more difficulty a way faster. Btw, is that highscore menu for all? Then mine results are there for all people

[STM1993]

Played it half-asleep, got to about level 7 or so.

Its addictive and fun. Would be nice if tutorial can be skipped, even though I know it is like a warm-up, because there are times where I just want to be able to play immediately without going through tutorial again.

[KYnetiK]

Guys, did you look in the options? The only things there are

Music on/off
Tutorial on/off

Both on by default for obvious reasons...



On the idea of an escape/restart menu -
Firstly the idea of this game was to see a game that has NO seams. I do not want any hard cuts. I want the illusion that the game is a game you are playing within a game.This is why the menu system is tied in with the game concept itself. Thus the animation sequences will not be skipped. I tried to make the 'user upload' intro as short as I could because I know it gets a bit samey ( trust me Ive been staring at this for almost a month!)

If I put in a restart key, I would still make a cut scene so that it 'made sense'.

Second, a menu would mean you could Pause - which is a wicked exploit in this type of game.


On the difficulty -
well if you played locally its a LOT LOT faster! Which is why Im doing this trial test online. I normally can get to level 9 with a bit of luck, but online I could get past 10 on my first go with a 200+ combo. So I tweaked some things and am testing them out atm. You could download the file from there, but unfortunately you cannot run it locally because I have encrypted it for specific domains.

This game runs at 72 fps, however in a browser Flash cuts this down to about 30 fps, but only during the game portion itself. This is extremely annoying!


On the highscores -
At this point they are entirely local scores. Scores are saved to your computer essentially as a cookie. Clearing your cache may remove your scores. The game will only find your savefile if you are viewing the flash from the same url. Im in the process of organising an online scoreboard, it may or may not happen, it depends who sponsors the game and what the contract is. If you wish to find your savefile for backup purposes, search C: for "Gauntlet_SaveFile001.sol" (you may need to enable hidden folders)

[Monsteri]

HAR HAR HAR

[KYnetiK]

man, it's addictive. got to level 7. I find myself not using dash at all, as it doesn't give me any points and confuses me. And i hit the small ones on the floor the most...

Heh yeah I tend not to use the dash much at all.

The purpose of the dash is actually defensive, and for increasing your style bonus. Basically, you use it to preserve your combo score when you think youre going to get hit. It will cost you 10 combo points in return for allowing you to have a quick rest and regain your bearings, and continue increasing your combo. If you want a better style bonus, get the biggest combo you can, and get hit as few times as possible.

Now this would be great if you didnt get hit immediately after ending the dash Im coding this fix at the moment.

I almost always get hit by the small ones too. The speed of the game gets to the point where your judgement cant match your reflexes, and you eventually start moving into obstacles instead of avoiding them ie you jump into a high one or roll into a low one. Its a neurological issue thats fun to exploit with this game




Oh and I should mention some things about the controls.

- This isnt in the tutorial, but if you press Down when in the air you will Dive to the ground. Use this when you Jump, but need to get to the ground in time for the next obstacle. You cannot do anything whilst Diving, but the moment you touch the ground you can do anything. This is a VITAL skill if you want to succeed in higher levels. (This game goes up to Level 20 btw)

- You should be able to perform any other action whilst in the middle of another animation. The exceptions to this are Jumping and Diving. ie You cannot Attack if you are already attacking; you cannot Roll whilst in the air, but you can Jump in the middle of a Roll.

- If you hold down a button, you will repeat that action accordingly without messing up the animation.

- Dont forget you can Spin and Attack in midair! A midair Spin is not only stylish, it will save you from bruising your butt. Use this and your Doublejump and Dive to your advantage!

- I need to fix the Attack so that you can attack each time you press it, rather than wait for the animation to finish. This bug may cost you a game or two.



Have fun!


UPDATE

- Added cool off time for obstacles when ending the Dash.
- Made the Tutorial text bigger.
- Fixed the bug of a tutorial block sometimes sneaking into Level 1 as the first block.
- Each Level now has a specific unique colour. Still not decided on exact colours or ordering yet though.
- Fixed some text fields appearing on first frame of game start.
- Added a quick restart by pressing Q.
- Removed domain locking so that you can save and test locally.

[10th_account]

Cool idea. Reminds me of Bit.Trip Runner. What put me off though was the low frame rate and lack of "flow" between the animations, and how slow and easy it is. And the hit box is way off for the feet when you're jumping, as you'll be colliding with obstacles you should have cleared.

[{LAW} Gamer_2k4]

Got to level 7.  Very fun.

[FliesLikeABrick]

How can I skip the tutorial?

edit: I think the difficulty range is fine as it is, I suck at it.  If it was harder like some of you are recommending I wouldn't play it at all.

[DarkCrusade]

Very cool game, though I wished it'd get harder sooner. I just got bored at lvl 8 and started posting here First of all, I absolutly love the interface and the animations you used! Conceptwise, it's nothing new, but it still feels like something with potential to me. I like the fact that the combo can stack, but I think that reaching a combo of 20 should just double the running speed, 30 triple and so on. The tutorial was a bit too long I think, if you'd only check twice for correct use of commands it'd be shorter. And since the controls are rather intuitive and easy, that'd not harm the game in any way.

What I missed the most was a pause button, and lives, but I'm pretty sure you'll add them soon. I noticed that not every level has a unique colour, as lvl 5 or 6 was white again.

Gosh, time's running out. I might add more later

[KYnetiK]

Thanks heaps for the feedback guys, its very very much appreciated! ^_^

the hit box is way off for the feet when you're jumping, as you'll be colliding with obstacles you should have cleared.

This is indeed true, I will go through and adjust a lot of hitboxes.

How can I skip the tutorial?

Go to the Options and switch Tutorial Off

I wished it'd get harder sooner. I just got bored at lvl 8

The fact is, the game itself runs at HALF the speed it should when played in a browser. If you save the swf file onto your computer and play it from there, you will notice this immediately.

If you think this is too easy, then I should point out this game goes up to Level 20. I myself have not gotten past Level 14! And I needed the browser version to do this! Whenever you do the Power Dash, you are actually moving at the same speed of Level 20.

I think that reaching a combo of 20 should just double the running speed, 30 triple and so on.

Sounds good in theory, but doesnt actually work in practice. A large increase in speed is not playable because objects cover too much distance in a single frame, resulting in all sorts of problems. What happens now is every 100 frames the speed will increase by 5%. When it reaches the nearest whole integer, you reach the next Level.

Combos are for the purpose of RADICALLY increasing your score - using the Dash ability, string combos to survive longer in order to  maximise your score.

The tutorial was a bit too long I think, if you'd only check twice for correct use of commands it'd be shorter.

See, you only say this because its running at half the speed its supposed to. Play it locally and youll know what I mean.

What I missed the most was a pause button, and lives

Pausing any game is cheating, or at the very least - invites exploitation. The only way I would do a pause would mask the entire screen, which would in turn make the game a lot harder when you unpause. This is why you have the Power Dash! This gives you some moments to relax and refocus while preserving your health and combo.


Why have lives when you have a health meter? Your 'health' is essentially your distance from the left of screen. For each dodge you gain a little bit of 'health'. You get more points per dodge if you have more health, as its harder to dodge from the middle of screen. When you get hurt, you lose a third of your max health. Get hurt 3 times without dodging in between, and you get downloaded from the Gauntlet.

I noticed that not every level has a unique colour, as lvl 5 or 6 was white again.

There are only a couple that are near-white, which are clearly not white, so I dont know what to say =/
Level 2 is 0xccffff - a light blue which is clearly blue.
Level 4 is 0xccccff - a light purple which is clearly purple.
Level 9 is 0xffff99 - a light yellow which is clearly yellow.

Perhaps this is more to do with the additive blending and the contrast ratio of your monitor?




Oh one more thing - could you guys let me know what browser you are using? Not every browser handles Flash the same, and Firefox has memory leaks, so I need to make sure whats trimming the framerate. Thanks!

[freestyler]

I'm using Opera and it looks pretty fast for me; what should I use to play it locally? I'd suggest adding optional box which shows actual FPS.

[KYnetiK]

If its at the correct speed, Level 1 should give you a bit of a workout (due to crampness of bits). Levels 7-9 should be around the point your fingers and brain fall out of sync. By the sounds of it though, Opera may be playing it correctly.

There should be a Save File link there, although it might just appear for me Im not too sure about Opera, but most browsers have a way of browsing the media on a page and saving it. Save the swf file, and if you have flash player installed (which you should since you can view flash) you should just be able to double click it.

I did have a FPS display, but I found it wasnt very accurate for some reason so I removed it. Visually I can see that everything but the gameplay is at 60 fps (the streamed sounds ensure that the video matches the audio). I might have to use a similar method to sync the gameplay at the right framerate.

[freestyler]

And what is the difference between playing it locally (downloaded swf file) and on that website, if in both cases I use Opera to play it? There aren't any other flash ads or anything that would slow it down.

[DarkCrusade]

Using Chrome. Didn't know it was supposed to be faster. I made a few flash games before ('spose it's AS3.0 you used) and never noticed they're running slower in browsers Well, my bad then

[STM1993]

I run flash slower locally. Using Mozilla Firefox for both. I have no other way to open the .swf file.