mudmask's Forum Posts

  • TKesse —

    First of all... thanks for saying Geemer. I was starting to wonder if anyone out here was a former 80's gamer or not.

    Honestly, for how simple of an enemy that guy was, he was pretty difficult to figure out. Essentially though I have it move 16 pixels in it's current direction, trigger a check which looks for barriers in front and below him using overlapping at offset, which will set the flags for 'front' and 'below' either on or off. at that point, depending on which flags are on or off (a combination of them), they will move in the appropriate direction. I also have them averaging out to the nearest 16x16 grid so that they never really move out of bounds.

    I originally had separate objects for checking those collisions, but when I converted this guy over to the crawler family (so I could reproduce the behaviors more efficiently) I ran into problems. checking at offset made things much smoother, and it also cut down on some processing power since each Geemer didn't have it's own forward and bottom checker following them around all the time.

    Also I really appreciate the interest you guys have in this project. Here's a new build with some new simple features:

    1. Some simple 8bit sounds I made

    2. 4 directional aiming

    3. A new enemy

    4. Teleporters

    5. Super basic level select, mostly for my own debugging at this point

    6. Addressed the level design issue mentioned by regisRquoi by making it more obvious where jump points were

    Everything is still way rough and I haven't spent much time on sprucing up the third level, (I took out level 2 because it was really rough) but enjoy!

    http://threesevenhosting.com/builds/11-19-2014/

  • Just played your demo,

    The main problem I noticed would be when I played is that when you pass from a screen to another by jumping, you have no idea where you're going.

    I know it might be because it's a 80's style game but, this mechanic was really a thing that annoying and that still is.

    (I attached a screen if you don't understand what I mean)

    Maybe you could add a plateform that makes the player not falling when he's in the next screen?

    I don't know if it's supposed to be a real feature in the full game, but I kinda like the fact that the lvl design makes a loop (you're just doing the level again and again until you find the artefact, in that way you don't have to go back like in some games.)

    Not so much other things to say, it runs fine, the art is already fine too by the way (the decor feels a bit uniformly blue though^^)

    Keep working on this

    Good call man - that's something I've been thinking about addressing. It could come down to something as simple as better level design, but it also could come down to some more complicated level scrolling engine.

    And thanks so much - art and everything was built by myself. The blue is sort of my test pallette - maybe I should try some more metal looking colors?

  • alvarop thanks for the feedback! Definitely trying to take some notes from that late 80's aesthetic.

    http://threesevenhosting.com/builds/11-17-2014/

    here's a simple demo build... see if you can find all the artifacts! Try out the map too from the pause menu.

    arrows keys and zx. some basic and ugly touch controls should show up on tablets/mobiles too, and some hotspots and keyframes will need to be reworked for the running animation.

  • UPDATE 1/28/2015 - more progress can be seen here: metroid-inspired-project-progress-journey-galactia_t123701

    Trying to implement some gameplay elements inspired by those found throughout the Metroid series into more of a casual game. So far I've managed to complete a number of them in a way that would allow for rapid production of levels, puzzles, creation of new enemies, weapons, etc. Most recently I've implemented a seamless scrolling 'effect' and an auto mini map generation feature using arrays and the tilemap.

    Graphics style inspired by 'true' 8bit graphics.

    No name on the project as of yet - but I would love some feedback! Thanks guys!

    (super basic pause screen, with a draggable map showing where level objectives and exfil point would be)

    11-23-2014 Updated build can be accessed here:

    http://threesevenhosting.com/builds/11-23-2014/

    A couple of notable updates

    1. New enemies

    2. New terrain elements

    3. Gravity and Physics modifying zones

    4. Some map UI updates

    5. New mission objective (Search and Destroy)

    Be sure to check the map for your objectives.

    UPDATE: 11-26-2014

    OK - I've added a quick build update, which primarily includes crawling, using bombs, and trap platforms (which were surprisingly more complex to make than I had anticipated)!

    Also includes a simple title screen, with a name that's subject to change:

    http://threesevenhosting.com/builds/11-26-2014/

    (I haven't implemented crawling into touch controls quite yet - sorry guys!)

    Some screens:

    Thank you everyone for all the encouraging and constructive feedback. Please keep it coming.

    A quick update - didn't upload a new build, but here are some screenshots. New additions include:

      Several New Enemies and Behaviors (see screen shots)
      Zone scrolling camera movement for specific rooms (see screen shots) - which addresses the issue of not being able to see where to jump vertically in certain situations
      Improved game-play elements, such as marking enemies that need to be eliminated
      New tilesheets

    UPDATE 12-15-2014:

    It's been a while, but here's a brand new build:

    http://threesevenhosting.com/builds/12-15-2014/

    It has a lot of new things kind of under the hood, but I also spent some time refining and creating some more complex enemy behaviors and mission objectives. There's a few new area tilesets, as well as a new objective.

    Let me know what you guys think or if you run into any bugs. Thanks for all the encouraging feedback!

  • looks like this could be a good simple platformer

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  • Looks great - good luck with the new direction

  • CrudeMik - reminds me of the Rosetta mission that happened today

  • A little something I've been working on. Trying to stick to a more true 8-bit palette. Pulling some inspiration from early NES era games (in this case, Metroid).

  • Not sure if you solved this - I was stalking the forums looking for different tilemap techniques and I came across this tutorial. It seems like it could be helpful. This is the method I would use, at least:

  • I was actually giving this some thought based on what Magistross mentioned. You could actually load the entire layout itself at the beginning including all NPC's/Monsters/etc then have them all destroyed unless the player is on the corresponding layout.

    So, basically, you could keep your map in one big layout and your transition effect wouldn't have to be changed at all. The only thing you'd have to add is a Destroy Objects when player leaves area and a Spawn Objects when a player enters an area. Which should be easy to do. Just add triggers at each doorway.

    Thanks Tekniko

  • Thanks Magistross

    Just to clarify, only 1 screen is populated at a time. When you move around, all of the elements of that original level are destroyed.

  • Well, if there are things you want to save... like if a door has been unlocked or locations of moved items, or something along those lines, you could make them Global items or give your objects the Persistent behaviour.

    As for the memory issue. Think of the Alphabet. Currently you need to load A, B, C, D, E, all the way to Z. But, if you make smaller layouts, as I suggested, you only need to load A, B and C. Then when you go to another layout you load E, F, G and so on.

    I know it might sound a little confusing, but if your target device is mobile, then this will really help in the performance area and the sooner you use this method the less work you will have later in development.

    Thanks Tekniko! I appreciate the input and feedback. I also appreciate your tutorials. Good stuff.

  • Tekniko - sorry for the double post, but I was thinking about what you mentioned. It only loads one level at a time, and destroys everything from previous levels. I don't know if that would effect the memory issue, or if that's what you were referring to.

  • Tekniko - thanks man, that's really good input.

  • Bump - would love some constructive input.