Gaze [Prototype]

ridhwaan08

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[center]http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/21608
downloadable swf attached (requires adobe shockwave player) [/center]


[center]Intro[/center]
[center]Gaze is a puzzle platformer that pokes fun at itself and has a sort of atmospheric feel to it.[/center]

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[center]Story[/center]
[center]Gaze is about a blob who gets lost on his way home.On his journey back home he encounters many obstacles in his way.[/center]

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[center]Setting[/center]
[center]Gaze is set on a planet far away from earth.It has many similar features to earth such as trees and water etc.[/center]

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[center]Gameplay[/center]
[center]The game mechanics will be fairly similar to most puzzle platformers,due to the fact that this is my first game that I am really focusing on so I want to keep it simple.The only thing that might be a little different will be that there will be a lot of secrets to uncover.[/center]

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[center]Feedback is greatly appreciated!
The reason that there is no prototype is that I plan on getting this game sponsored and I am not sure if I am allow to release a prototype of the game until it gets sponsored[/center]

[center]btw.Are there any other devs from nelspruit on makegamessa.com?[/center]

Tuism

Nice looking prototype, I can appreciate starting a prototype from creating screenshots, but generally I say start with blocks and blobs and start exploring mechanics first!

Though today I read a cool article about Guacamelee, about how they started prototyping by mocking up first screens then a VIDEO of gameplay (completely scripted and non-interactive) to see the kind of gameplay they wanted to go for.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/200658/Postmortem_DrinkBox_Studios_Guacamelee.php

But overall I'd think more about WHAT the player does with the game rather than how it looks! :)

Oh and it's makegamesSA.com :)

ridhwaan08

Thnks for the kind words Tuism

I have a working prototype at the moment with all the game mechanics (forgot to state that in the post) :)

What Guacamelee did is really unique.I went that way with my previous projects and none of them got released thats why this time I changed it a bit and did the game mechanics first.

ridhwaan08

Play the game here : http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/21608
OR
Download it from the original post.

Tuism

Suggestion time!

It's pretty and polished, but rather start with some kind of mechanical experiment than a pretty tutorial, you know? :)

ridhwaan08

Oh yea I see your point,so do you suggest that I make the game like that and then afterwards add polish to it.

something like this


This had a lot of the basic mechanics in just this one level.

Tuism

yeah, cos if you make the polish upfront a lot may change and you waste a lot of time. I see you got it already :) So yeah let people play your mechanically focussed prototypes, you'll get much better feedback than "ooh nice images"... Cos that's all you'll get from what you were showing :P

ridhwaan08

Ahh...makes a great deal of sense.Let me get the old version up and running.

Thnx for the advice.

ridhwaan08

Here is the prototype of the movement mechanics - http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/21631

You can change the speed,walk acceleration,gravity and jump force to find the perfect platforming formula.

As always feedback is welcome :D

Next up on the list is Death.

Boysano

You probably know this already, but if you keep turning and move over a ledge the snail can float in air as if platform extends...also I do not really like the fact that the characters turn animation is displacing him...it feels like he should not be able to move when turning...its like he is slipping and jumping.

But I like the look, and keep it up.

ridhwaan08

@Boysano thanks for the feed back

You probably know this already, but if you keep turning and move over a ledge the snail can float in air as if platform extends

I think the collision box is too big.I'll fix that.

also I do not really like the fact that the characters turn animation is displacing him

It's something to do with the size of the .png I imported as his idle animation though fixing it brings different problems (makes him look shaky)


Will hopefully have both of those things fixed by tomorrow

Tuism

Well technically it has to do with the "anchor point" of the sprite - it shouldn't matter how big the image is, as long as your anchor point is the same it shouldn't matter.

If I remember correctly, Flash allows you to change the anchor point.

ridhwaan08

Yes Tuism you're right I think you can choose an origin/anchor point of a sprite in flash.I'll need to change that to correct the animation

ridhwaan08

http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/22027

I haven't yet been able to fix that displacement bug on the game though I've been working on some new game mechanics:

-enemies
-switch player system

which will allow me to create some neat little puzzles ;)

tell me what you think.

ridhwaan08

UPDATE:20/10/2013 -- http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/22027

Changes:
-blocks (that you can push)
-spikes.

Nandrew

Character-swapping is always fun. :) I'd recommend working on making them collide with one another as well, to open up other puzzle combinations and opportunities.

ridhwaan08

@Nandrew hmm I didn't think of that I'll put that in thanks man.

ridhwaan08

I changed it so that they'll collide with one another.
@Nandrew I see what you mean by making them collide they can use each other to get past obstacles(jump on the head of one to be able to pass a wall in front of them etc.)

I also changed the black block's friction because it was sliding too much.

-- http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/22027 --

ridhwaan08

Hey guys another update:

-Switches

-- http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/22027 --