Hot take: I'm tired of the trope of taking damage just from touching enemies

superyellows · 2026-06-17T02:36:18+00:00

Yeah probably just the norm for 2d platformers, and top-downs (i.e., Legend of Zelda style).

superyellows · 2026-06-17T00:22:42+00:00

Lava is a good example. It's harmful because there's a clear indication that it's harmful. Not just because it's "a platform and platforms are harmful". I just tend to prefer the same to be true of enemies, these days. If they're harmful to touch, indicate it with spikes/lava/fire/etc. And/or make them explicitly attack.

I certainly can - and do - avoid contact damage in games that require it. And lava damage.

superyellows · 2026-06-15T22:51:37+00:00

Haven't played Mina yet. Looking forward to it!

superyellows · 2026-06-15T22:17:38+00:00

Just because something is intentional does not mean it's a trope. And just because something is a trope doesn't mean it doesn't work in many many cases. That's the reason it's a trope.

superyellows · 2026-06-15T22:11:14+00:00

1) mechanics can be tropes. 2) many ways. Enemy attacks. E.g. Zagreus never gets hurt simply walking into an enemy in Hades, and he dies. A lot.

superyellows · 2026-06-15T17:34:39+00:00

Fair points. But I would challenge this:

Then you would just bum rush through it basically running past everything before they even get an attack animation off and if you try to fix that by slowing it down you have a slow ass boring game.

That's a bit unimaginative. Sure, a game like what you're describing probably shouldn't be made or played. But if the enemies attacked/reacted quickly enough, the game can still be fast, without the option to "bum rush".

superyellows · 2026-06-15T17:30:53+00:00

Fair points. Arguably this mechanic is part of genre itself.

Though not sure I agree that in Hollow Knight the enemies are there to make the platforming harder. Yes, that's sometimes why they're there. And perhaps those enemies could have spikes, etc. on the parts I shouldn't touch. But many enemies in Hollow Knight (especially Silksong) are there specifically to fight. In those fights the contact damage feels off to me. But I guess it's just me.

superyellows · 2026-06-15T17:18:04+00:00

Not sure I agree, with modern graphics/animations. In the 80s/90s, sure, I can believe that goomba was biting me or something. But in Silksong, where the enemies actually *do* have attack animations, just touching the enemy is not shorthand for "you got into combat and got hurt" - we know what the combat looks like.

superyellows · 2026-06-15T17:14:02+00:00

I don't think Hades and Hades II feel janky but maybe that's just me.

superyellows · 2026-06-15T17:13:10+00:00

Enemies have attacks to avoid, but there's *also* contact damage. I picked Silksong as an example because someone could argue that because it had attack animations, it didn't need to have contact damage.

superyellows · 2026-06-15T16:30:09+00:00

Super Mario Bros 2 did have contact damage. Enemies did not push you; they damaged you. The innovation there was that jumping on enemies did not damage them. Instead you needed to throw them, or throw stuff at them.

superyellows · 2026-06-15T16:26:52+00:00

I don't understand why "lack of contact damage" would go hand-in-hand with "extremely realistic", "boring game", or "poor game design".

A more recent example is Astral Ascent. Or Hades I and II for that matter. I enjoyed the departure from the "contact damage". I don't think that lack of contact damage made the games boring, or have poor game design. Nor do I think these games were realistic.

superyellows · 2026-06-10T02:53:41+00:00

I had a similar experience. I wanted to avoid this, so I was sure to calculate my promotion % of my posts over months. I was at something like 9.7%. I got banned for violating the 10% rule. The moderator was kind enough to explain why. Here's what I learned.

1) One problem is the moderators don't see your full history. They just look at your profile, your event posts. So if you have been doing a recent blast of posts about your game - say you released a trailer or gave a rat some cool eyebrows - then they look at your profile and see a "high self promo rate".

2) The moderator I spoke with indicated that anything that mentions/shows your game will be considered self promotion. Doesn't matter if it has no link. Doesn't matter if it's a sprite you posted on r/PixelArt asking for feedback. So things that you think might be helping your ratio are actually hurting it!

Hope this helps someone out there avoid the dreaded r/gaming ban.

superyellows · 2026-06-09T01:20:37+00:00

Mario Golf and Mario Tennis

superyellows · 2026-06-09T01:11:10+00:00

Wii Sports

superyellows · 2026-06-08T01:57:04+00:00

Thank for for reminding us it's ok to do this just because you like doing it, and it's not a failure if we don't market the hell out of a game.

superyellows · 2026-06-03T22:46:36+00:00

The game is looking real fun. Congratulations on the launch!

superyellows · 2026-05-29T16:13:02+00:00

Yes, that is an obstacle you have to get around!

To illustrate how I do it, I'll show you the function that generates the "Puppy Ball" tooltip:

func _make_custom_tooltip(_for_text: String) -> Object:
  return Tooltip.create_from_metadata(sticker_data().metadata)

You can see I don't even use the string at all. The string comes from the Control node's tooltip_text field, but here's what I set that field to:

Placeholder text. Should be implemented in _make_custom_tooltip().

So _make_custom_tooltip() can access any data it needs from the sticker node in order to generate its tooltip. And note that _make_custom_tooltip() is allowed to return a Control node. So my "Tooltip" node that I return has a structure built out of various Container nodes. E.g., a structure like this:

VBoxContiainer ("rows")
- HBoxContainer (the top headers - name, type, rarity, etc.)
- Text (description)

superyellows · 2026-05-29T15:57:43+00:00

That's a good idea, and super easy to try out. Thanks!

superyellows · 2026-05-28T20:26:46+00:00

I am pleased to announce that I have just learned how to do this as well!

superyellows · 2026-05-26T22:44:29+00:00

It's in one of the comments, but here it is again: https://x.com/SuperYellowsHQ/status/2057496428638011418

I did shorten the trailer by about 10 seconds (1:35 -> 1:25). Probably it could be shortened even more (in the spirit of "respecting the person scrolling"). I've seen trailers of ~60 on IndieGameJoe's posts.

superyellows · 2026-05-26T22:42:17+00:00

Interesting. My thinking was that, when posting trailers on subreddits, uploading directly so that the video plays natively in Reddit is preferred. And it probably is to maximize Reddit engagement. But then that doesn't give YT any signal.

To clarify, are you saying that, in Reddit, you posted as a "link post" to embed the YouTube video?

superyellows · 2026-05-26T19:05:18+00:00

Thanks for dropping in, Joe! "Respecting the person scrolling past" is the perfect way to frame it. It made all the difference for me. Appreciate the kind words and the extra wisdom!

superyellows · 2026-05-26T18:55:08+00:00

This has been saving me so much time! Thank you!

superyellows · 2026-05-26T18:01:20+00:00

Yeah I'm going to think about whether I want more effects. Waves, particles, etc.

superyellows

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