FreeGameDev

Here is a long list of features that should be removed/not be part of stable 0.5.0 release:

Badguys:
Angry stone
Fluffly - already removed, use Snowball instead
Ghost tree
Kugelblitz - use Jumpy instead
Mole
Mr Rocket - already removed, use Kamikaze Snowball instead
Nolok - code already removed, use Yeti instead
Plant
Spider mite - use Flying Snowball instead
Totem

Levels:
All test levels
Incubator Island
Intro cutscene from Picnic with Penny along with speech and Penny and Nolok images
The Forest World and the passage leading to it (graphics, badguys, objects and tiles will be kept)

Powerups:
Ice flower (only remove ability to get it, graphics and code will be kept) - use Fire flower instead

Objects:
Hatch - already removed, use Door instead
Keys
Rusty Trampoline - use Trampoline instead
Skull tile (code and sprite only, graphics will be kept) - use Unstable Tile instead

Tiles:
Ghostforest tiles

Misc features:
Swimming - already disabled

Misc cleanups:
Castledoor images and sprites
Cherrybomb and Juicebox images and sprites
Dummyguy images and sprite
eat-me sprite
Old worldmap Fire Tux image
Flame fish images and sprite
firefly-7 file
Payphone Info Block image - already removed
gwater's nolok statue image (i mean the forest one)
kracker images and sprites
Milestone 2 image
Pink bell images and sprite
Test Tux animation - already removed
Tumbleweed images
Worldmap castle and casle door images
Unused music (bonuscave, darkforestkeep, fortress2, gameover_castle, gameover_forest, gameover_ghostforest, ghostforest, ghostforest2, leveldone-special, nolok, treeboss, wisphunt)
Unused worldmap images

This is an awful lot and i think we should remove all the never used junk in order to reduce the size of the distributive.

P.S. Don't worry, some of these features will be added back in 0.6.0 release as soon as they are completed and polished up.

Why should so much be removed? Some of these things are being used in user created levels, mine included.

Then we will have to fix the user created levels for release without changing the sense of the level as much as possible.

Savs {l Wrote}:This is an awful lot and i think we should remove all the never used junk in order to reduce the size of the repository.

Removing stuff isn't going to reduce the size of the repository. The repository always keeps everything that was ever there in its history.

I want Nolok back!

brmbrmcar {l Wrote}:I want Nolok back!

LMH likes to get Mr Rocket back too.

What would the point of removing all of this stuff do? Some of these unused stuff is used in levels, like Serano said, and it would break the levels, beyond fixing.

All of the above stuff was removed in 0.3.0 release so, why we do not remove them in 0.5.0 for compatibility with addon levels?

The stuff wasn't removed in 0.3.0, it was just added after 0.3.0. In any case: Only because badguys aren't being used in a certain level set / world doesn't mean they're never used or not intended to be used. In any case: Those few graphics don't hurt anyone.

Tobbi {l Wrote}:The stuff wasn't removed in 0.3.0, it was just added after 0.3.0. In any case: Only because badguys aren't being used in a certain level set / world doesn't mean they're never used or not intended to be used. In any case: Those few graphics don't hurt anyone.

Wrong, only in 0.2-svn they are there again.

I don't think the Iceflower should be removed. It is used and a useful powerup.
This really should be removed:

Cherrybomb and Juicebox images and sprites
Dummyguy images and sprite
eat-me sprite
Old worldmap Fire Tux image
Flame fish images and sprite
...
kracker images and sprites
Milestone 2 image
Pink bell images and sprite
...
Unused music (bonuscave, darkforestkeep, fortress2, gameover_castle, gameover_forest, gameover_ghostforest, ghostforest, ghostforest2, leveldone-special, nolok, treeboss, wisphunt)

The forest world should definitely not be removed, because it is the second world of the game and is useful and used.

Why removing the forest world? oO
And why would you remove the intro cutscene?

Savs {l Wrote}:The 0.5.0 release will only contain Icyisland, without Forest World. the forest world is postponed to 0.6.0.
The intro cutscene (the part with conversation and Tux rap) was removed in 0.3.0, so it will be removed in 0.5.0 too. It's postponed to 0.6.0.

Stop distributing this completely non-sense stuff. 0.5 will include Forest World. Mostly as it is right now. As of the 0.4 release, it's been in a development state and will continue to be until it's mostly finished (even after that point stuff might still be changed, though). The intro cutscene was either never removed, or if it was actually the case, it has since been re-added. It will be kept.

Here is the intro that will be made into 0.5.0, similar to the one that was in 0.3.0 release.

This is not true. The cutscene won't be changed for now. I have no idea why you think it will. Could you explain the community why you want to change this stuff? Being annoying won't get you anywhere except for being ignored or even banned.

Stop complaining that people are annoying for trying to help!

well... this was stupid in hindsight!

Busybody43 {l Wrote}:well... this was stupid in hindsight!

I think some aspects of it are too drastic, but I would agree that the game needs quite a heavy coat of polish. It'd be cool if some old, barely used things like the plant enemy could be improved, and if all the clutter of deprecated/barely used tiles, music and sprites could be either revamped and made useful or removed.

As for things like the forest world and intro cutscene, both could use a lot of polish and possibly even a revamp. The forest world's an interesting concept but the theming's so dull and the execution's pretty bad (has improved but still needs attention). It's a generic forest with lots of subpar sprites and janky enemies and even the tiny Halloween 2014 level pack is still infinitely more interesting and unique than the entirety of the forest world due to it at least having well drawn sprites, a good use of lighting and effects like fog and less janky enemies/gimmicks (to be fair it lacked any new gimmicks/enemies that weren't reskins but it still was much more polished).

The forest needs more interesting locales (gwater's trees and new tilesets look like a step in the right direction, something like trees and mountains and the sound of waterfalls crashing over rocks and all that jazz, just give it some fricking atmosphere), gimmicks that are actually fun to use and don't wear out their welcome (I suggest swinging vines and a torch item that tux automatically carries to light up dark caves) and maybe, just maybe, fix the Zeekling after over 13 years of it being an annoying nuisance to literally everybody and 3 years of a GitHub suggestion to improve the Zeekling already existing and being semi-feasible with a little effort.

As for the intro, Nolok and Penny are basically throwaway plot elements that are barely mentioned at all after the intro aside from in text boxes in passing, and their game appearance is basically as good as if Tux were interacting with cardboard boxes. Both Nolok and Penny don't animate and Nolok's "movement" out of the tree is equivalent to a Scratch glide script that I could make in under a second while being asleep. Nolok's design is also untrue to the statue sprite (and has been for 14 years and counting) and if you've been following my SuperTux messages over the years you would've seen me rant about it quite a lot of times, so I'll be succinct and just give you a comparison image of the "right" design versus a couple misinterpretations.



TL;DR: Someone needs to go over pretty much the entire game and iron it over a couple times, make the redundant stuff actually interesting and add some good ideas, although probably everyone knows that by now. I'm just repeating it for convenience's sake.

Not bad...
The forest could be kinda improved, with some sprite cleanup... and adding in Grumbel's little tree...
But I'm actually ok with both forest worlds (milestone 2 and 3 forest)
I'm also ok with the sprites, though the borders and styles could be kinda improved...
I'm not really angry about the forest themes...
The sprites are also VERY adaptable... When tinted differently...
Overall, I think the forest gimmicks could be kinda improved, (I hope the keys are restored) but the execution also works well after Antarctica...