platformopolis

Engine Test 03

2009-10-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, you can try out the new version here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?zuiyq1zm1nn

Most people who tried it agreed that it was too slow and slippery, so I upped the speed and deceleration. I still think part of the perception of slowness is the weird walking animation. Also, later I might lower the jump strength a little bit since he's faster.

I fixed a bug where you couldn't duck on the moving platforms and added a drop down so in game if you duck and press the jump button while on a jump-through platform that's on the ground you fall through. You can try it on the first stripy platform.

Mainly, I added a few new gimmicks for use in-level.

There are SMB style trampolines that bounce you higher the longer you stay on them, rider platforms that follow an automated path when you step on them, tunnels to crawl through, and conveyor belts.

I think a few more gimmicks will give me a good basis for pre-enemy level design, but I'm making good progress.

Making the Platforms

2009-10-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

Okay new engine test. Still using placeholder graphics. The background is from Disney's Home on the Range

Now that I have the main engine in a decently playable state, I've added some different kinds of regular platforms:

Auto Movers:
Horizontal: moves from side to side
Vertical: moves up and down
Diamond: moves in a diamond pattern
Square: moves in a square pattern

Reactors:
Sinkers: sinks when you stand on them and respawn when hitting a background or bottomless pit
Sinker/Risers: sinks when you stand on them, rise when you step off
Pressure Sinker: sinks when you stand on them, stops when you don't
Crumbler: is destroyed when you step on it
Scale: when you step on one side, the other goes up

I might add some more but these are a good basis for any other kind I might make.

Here is a kind of stuttery video of it in action:

You can play it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?l2yoya5y32i

Tell me if you find any bugs or if you don't like the feel.

I've got some new ideas for the design as well. What if you had to push around giant buildings or stomp them into the ground to get to the right area. I also am thinking about maybe making some state change platforms with fire/ice balls. For instance you could turn ice into water to get to new locations (or vice versa). You could also cool lava and turn it into stone. I haven't really decided on any kinds of weapons yet though so I dunno.

Next I have a few basic level gimmicks planned.

Creating the engine

2009-10-20T05:57:00.000-07:00

So I'd made a soundtrack for a concept I had rolling around in my head for a Sonic the Hedgehog parody called Jasper Jackalope. I really liked the sound (even though I still need to do some work on it), so I'm building a real game to go with it. It is not Jasper Jackalope but it will probably use similar level names from the songs.
I want this to be a fun, colorful 8 and 16 bit platformer pastiche, taking a cue from my favorites and remixing them into something new while adding in some original ideas.

So step one was to create a basic movement engine which you can download here (for Windows):

http://www.mediafire.com/?zozm45twhng

You can walk around and jump and butt stomp and wall jump and slide down slopes. I'm probably going to take out double jump (except maybe as a bonus) simply because it's easier to design a level around a regular jump. The shirt being asymmetrically reversed like a bad sprite is on purpose.

I have some ideas about the physics, but tell me what you think and if you find any weird bugs.

Meanwhile, I'm going to whip up some different kinds of platforms...

the mission

2009-10-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

There is an argument to be made that Super Mario Bros. is an elaborate mental training sequence for the controls of a theoretical fleet of spaceships. So ingrained into the muscle memory of children of the 80s and 90s are the nooks and crannies of this game, one could believe that Shigeru Miyamoto, with his superhuman design talent and odd perma-smile, is an alien or a time traveler sent back to indoctrinate a generation of pilots to be at the ready to escape our doomed planet when the moment is right. Every invisible block, every warp zone, every Koopa’s Castle maze, part of a secret stellar map to a new homeworld that can only be navigated by a small, rectangular, two button controller.

A great 2D platform game infects me. Somewhere subcutaneously lurks the ability to avoid spike traps in Sonic the Hedgehog or the exact pattern of doors to get through a Super Mario Bros 3 fortress maze. In all truthfulness, a lot of this is a product of the limits of 8 and 16-bit technology multiplied by the expense of cartridges (leading to only getting a couple of games per year at most unless you were that kid) multiplied by copious amounts of free time. But there’s something more…

Even before they burned themselves into my brain, even when they were brand new, the very best platform games had a crackling energy, a masterful flow, something beyond the aesthetic, beckoning me to explore every new world with the same enthusiasm I had for the first.

What are the invisible ingredients that transform a computer program, a rule set, into a wonderful old neighborhood to visit, or a challenge from a great sparring partner, or a perfect song that never gets stale? What can I learn by studying the component parts of my favorite 2D platformers? Are there differences in design philosophy between American, European, and Japanese developers? What do these games tell us about the personalities of their designers? What do my favorite kinds of platformers have to say about me?

To try and answer some of these questions, and to feed my endless hunger To Try To Make Fun And Cool Things, I'm going to build my own side-scroller. Despite my love for the genre and it's wonderful new resurgence due to easy to use creation tools like XNA, Game Maker, Multimedia Fusion, and Construct, I still feel a void for the kind of game I want to play. Plus, I've always loved making games as a hobby and I think I'm ready to tackle something more substantial. In fact, as you're reading this, I've already started! But, I think keeping a log of it here will help me to keep focused and moving in the right direction. And maybe I'll get some more folks to bounce ideas off of.

Here we go...