Rilem's Forum Posts

  • A few days ago me, Ziryf and Pongball released Cuckoo Castle, a mini-metroidvania for the annual gameboy jam.

    The gamejam ran for a week and we poured our souls into it. We took some days off from work so we could spend as much time on it as possible.

    In Cuckoo Castle you take control of a lonely knight seeking to defeat the evil force that resides in the Cuckoo Castle, an enormous castle that appeared out of nowhere.

    A quick summary of the game:

      A small metroidvania. 2 unlockable characters 2 bosses loads of enemies epic soundtrack a hit in the childhood

    the game can be played here:

    http://gamejolt.com/games/cuckoo-castle/87063

    In this gamejam Construct 2 proved it's value more then ever. Super fast development speed, tiled integration(nice!), shader effects, sound just works, the list goes on. I tip my hat to you Ashley What a great product!

    Insights

    I hope you enjoyed our game. Here's some love for the community.

    Shader effect stack.

    One of the requirements of a gameboy jam is to make your game actually look like it runs on a gameboy.

    A gameboy can display 4 colors, wikipedia: Color Palette: 2-bit (4 shades of "gray" {light to very dark olive green})

    But we wanted a special 4 color palette, something that we thought was prettier:

    Almost all art assets were made in those colors, some weren't though. So to make the whole game consistant with the palette we used a shader stack.

    Shader stack on the game Layout :

    monitor effect by @Somebody - dynamic range set to 70
    // this flattens everything on the layout to 4 shades of grey
    
    4x replace color by @Scirra 
    // this takes the 4 shades of grey and converts them to the custom palette
    [/code:3vvwuovd]
    
    With this applied we could basically throw anything in to the game, and it would still look like something that a gameboy would be able to display. So now we could get crazy with [i]soft brushes[/i] (which we used for the flames and lights) and achieve effects we couldn't otherwise.
    
    [b]Metroidvania rooms[/b]
    Most of the game takes place in one big layout. That layout contains special [i]cameraArea[/i] sprite objects that indicate the boundaries of the [i]rooms[/i] in the castle.
    One of the nice things about a gameboy jam is that you know that the screen size is always going to be 160x144. 
    So a room that doesn't scroll is just that, 160x144 pixels:
    [img="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5573960/forum%20stuff/roomsc2.PNG"]
    
    Rooms that [b]do[/b] scroll are bigger then that.
    
    For the camera I clamp the positional values to the current active room. This way I create the illusion of different rooms, but actually it's just a really big layout.
    [code:3vvwuovd]
    every tick
    clamp(playerMask.X+camera.xoffset, cameraArea.X+80, cameraArea.X+cameraArea.Width-80)[/code:3vvwuovd]
    One of the best things about this approach is that once you have the rooms, you can easily generate a minimap.
    
    If anyone has any questions don't hesitate to ask.
  • Dunno, the game doesn't run too well on my phone (galaxyS3). It's not optimized at all, the tilemaps are huge and shaders are used. I might be able to get it to run at reasonable speed if I chop the level up into pieces and remove the shaders.

    A quick and dirty port might be made, but I've no further plans with the bear.

    I haven't started that one big C2 project yet, but I have to at some point. The itch is there.

  • SecondDimension:

    No tricks used except preloading the music files on the first layout of the game. Then I start them all at the start of the level layout, 2 of them with a very low negative decibel value. Then it's just playing with the volumes to switch them.

  • Thanks guys!

    ScubaBear won the Jam!

  • Yes he has infinite lives!

    Otherwise you'd have to get all of the treasures again. To add to the spirit of this thread, that would be un-bear-able. O:

  • Last weekend was Ludum Dare time once again!

    I teamed up with Ziryf and Pongball to create an epic adventure beneath the surface.

    In 3 days we made.. Scubabear!

    http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=18340

    Using Construct 2's tile map object we we're able to do programming and level design simultaneously. The game features a killer soundtrack from Pongball. We did a Banjo Kazooie style music layering system. So when you enter the water for example, the music switches to an overlapping track with different instruments to better fit the underwater mood.

    Playing using a controller is also supported. Because, why not?

    There's certain details that didn't make it into the game and the ending is very rushed. But all in all it's a big and polished game for 3 days of work. It wouldn't be possible without the extreme power and development speed that comes with Construct 2. So for me this is yet another case in which C2 proves it's worth.

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  • youtube.com/watch :D

  • Just finished my game, YOGO RocketFist!

    <img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5573960/forum%20stuff/ld28ojo.gif" border="0">

    There's a slomotion upgrade in the game that actually uses the low-pass music filter from the audio object. I was simply amazed when I discovered how cool that was during development.

    Construct 2 ftw!

    http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2013/12/16/finished-my-jam-entry/

  • I have a Business license for C2 and I used to be able to download it from the store.

    Now it no longer shows up. :/

    when I go to "-my downloads(2)", it shows only 1 item (the sheeky sound collection).

    So the subcategory shows 2 items but when I go there, only 1 of them is shown.

    Some administrator help would be most welcome. :)

  • Yo guys, here's our entry Potato Dungeon!

    here

    <img src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ojo7.gif" border="0">

    I'm to rate and play all of your games first guys. Because with your entries I know I can just play it in the browser. Construct 2 ftw!

  • Thanks guys. :)

    Here's another gif:

    <img src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ojo2.gif" border="0" />

    The pig soldier is one of the more skilled enemies in the dungeon.

    He keeps his guard up, and you�ll need to keep poking him with your sword in order to get through his defense.

  • Hey guys, I'm actually entering as well :P

    <img src="http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ojo.gif" border="0" />

  • Thanks guys.

    Luck was not with me on this contest, I made a mistake and I couldn't enter because of it.

    I might put in on the scirra arcade so you guys can play it.

    But for now, a video:

    youtu.be/-7aqCJ-MwRs

  • So, Just finished my game.

    But I don't have a developer certificate yet because I accidently registered as a business instead of a 'Doing Business As' individual.

    So I can't submit and I have to wait until next week with a reply from symantec. :(

  • To my knowledge, it makes no difference.