WALKING CASTLE [DEVLOG] 2D platformer

edited in Projects
Hi everyone

I've been trying to learn unity for a while now. I'm still pretty rough, but I'm at a point where I want to make a full game. Its not much at this point, but here is an early version of the game. Its a simple 2d platformer with three levels so far. My intention is make a story driven mobile platformer with simple controls.

I'm hoping to find out if anyone finds what I have so far fun. Any feedback would be really helpful.

Controls:
Move: WASD
Jump: spacebar

lesedi-mosadi.itch.io/working-title-walking-castle


Hope you enjoy checking it out.
Picture1.png
955 x 572 - 2M
Thanked by 2Kulu ZEFcookie

Comments

  • Hi. The link is not working for me.
    Thanked by 1ashashza
  • dark_seth said:
    Hi. The link is not working for me.
    Sorry about that. I thought I had everything up and running correctly. I'm trying to fix the link, might take a moment. Apologies.
  • dark_seth said:
    Hi. The link is not working for me.
    Okay the link above should be working now, but here it is again just in case:

    lesedi-mosadi.itch.io/working-title-walking-castle
  • That was cool. I found that engaging enough to complete all 3 levels.

    Here's a bunch of notes in no particular order:
    - Controls felt quite responsive. I felt quite in control of the character.
    - It felt like there was enough leniency on the platforms to make jumps reliably. This is great because it's a problem that plagues most platformer prototypes and you've addressed it early on.
    - It was cool to see a few different mechanics here, like the balls and booster platforms. That kept me intrigued to keep playing and see more.
    - Depending on what kind of platforming you're aiming for... it might be worth making the jump dependent on how long the input is held. Something like this.
    - When hitting the yellow platforms / red balls, the player does a bounce or two before dying / restarting. This felt a bit disappointing to me. I think I wanted to either visibly die earlier or be able to use the bounce to try get back into the level flow.
    - After hitting a pink booster platform, you get thrown upwards. The player goes up quite a long way and it feels a bit awkward to wait so long for it to come down. If I try move while up there, I often end up off the level.

    Overall this feels like a nice foundation. I'm curious to see how you build on this with mechanics, world building and story.
    Thanked by 2Lesedi_Mosadi Tuism
  • I saw the working title and it made me think of a recent Ludum Dare entry, Crumbling Home

    I got to the second level and the controls feel very good. Those long jumps really give you a chance to get the feel.
    Thanked by 1Lesedi_Mosadi
  • ashashza said:
    That was cool. I found that engaging enough to complete all 3 levels.

    Here's a bunch of notes in no particular order:
    - Controls felt quite responsive. I felt quite in control of the character.
    - It felt like there was enough leniency on the platforms to make jumps reliably. This is great because it's a problem that plagues most platformer prototypes and you've addressed it early on.
    - It was cool to see a few different mechanics here, like the balls and booster platforms. That kept me intrigued to keep playing and see more.
    - Depending on what kind of platforming you're aiming for... it might be worth making the jump dependent on how long the input is held. Something like this.
    - When hitting the yellow platforms / red balls, the player does a bounce or two before dying / restarting. This felt a bit disappointing to me. I think I wanted to either visibly die earlier or be able to use the bounce to try get back into the level flow.
    - After hitting a pink booster platform, you get thrown upwards. The player goes up quite a long way and it feels a bit awkward to wait so long for it to come down. If I try move while up there, I often end up off the level.

    Overall this feels like a nice foundation. I'm curious to see how you build on this with mechanics, world building and story.


    Thanks for the tutorial. I never really thought about adding weight to jump. I'll definitely add it in and see how it goes.
    When it comes to the character dying I was thinking of just having the character disappear for the time being, but ended up leaving it as it is. I'll play around with it for the next build.
    Thanked by 1ashashza
  • Fengol said:
    I saw the working title and it made me think of a recent Ludum Dare entry, Crumbling Home

    I got to the second level and the controls feel very good. Those long jumps really give you a chance to get the feel.

    I just played Crumbling Home. Its awesome. It actually gave me an idea of where I wanna take the story and art. Thanks for the recommendation and for playing.
  • Hello Everyone

    I just wanted to share the latest build of Walking Castle.

    Updates:
    -The number of levels are now at 7, which is the number I was aiming for from the start.
    -The player now disappears after having died.
    -The jump is now dependent on how long you hold the button.
    -You no longer stay in the air for an extremely long time.
    -The first 3 levels have all been tweaked in order to work with the updated player movement.

    And that's it so far.

    Any feedback on any of the a updates and the overall game would be greatly appreciated.

    https://lesedi-mosadi.itch.io/working-title-walking-castle
  • edited
    I have two issues. On level 2, there's a leap of faith where the player must jump and hope there's a platform off-screen. This isn't good design. And on level 3 the game goes from right-to-left but you've taught the player in the last two levels to go from left-to-right. If you want to change the direction you should make it clearer that the direction is reversed.

    Also, I know it's not important to game play but please fix the stretched images by using a split sprite or something :)
    Thanked by 1Lesedi_Mosadi
  • Fengol said:
    I have two issues. On level 2, there's a leap of faith where the player must jump and hope there's a platform off-screen. This isn't good design. And on level 3 the game goes from right-to-left but you've taught the player in the last two levels to go from left-to-right. If you want to change the direction you should make it clearer that the direction is reversed.

    Also, I know it's not important to game play but please fix the stretched images by using a split sprite or something :)

    Thanks for the feedback. I'll definitely address the issues in the next build. I might have trouble with the split sprite, I've never heard of that before. Do you know where I can look it up?

    Thanked by 1Fengol
  • Sup Everyone

    Just finished the latest build, There still quite a few problems that I'm still trying to figure out, but this is what i have so far.

    Updates:
    -The leap of faith problem in level 2 is gone.
    -Level 3 now starts from left to right.
    -I've animated a character, although the jump animation is still a mess(sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't.
    -There's music and pixel-art(Didn't make them, they're free assets).
    -For the time being we're back to just three levels, because the others don't have art yet.
    -I'm still working on animating the obstacles so they are still using default sprites.

    And that's it.

    Any feedback would be really useful.


    LINK:
    https://lesedi-mosadi.itch.io/working-title-walking-castle

    Here's a look at protagonist:
    image

  • Oh wow, this has come a looong way since I last played.

    Here's some notes I jotted down in no particular order:
    • The text grouping on the first screen instructions could be clearer. If the space between "wasd = move" was tigher, and other spacing was larger, it would be clearer. Uhm, I hope that makes sense?
    • Up to jump? Randomly I was eating a pear while playing this and wanted to use my right hand to play. I wish jump was also bound to Up then I could play with arrows and up :)
    • It's so cool that holding jump goes higher!
    • It's a really nice touch that music smoothly persisits scene changes.
    • I found myself wanting more variation in the platforming puzzles. Level 2 has a bunch of red-single-bouncy's in a row. Level 3 felt more interesting because the platforming varied a lot more.
    At this point I'm most drawn to learning about Walking Castle's story. While playing I found myself asking a bunch of questions:
    • Who is this girl? Does she have a name?
    • Are they wearing a school uniform?
    • How did they get up into the clouds?! Can they fly?
    • What are they running from? What are they heading towards?
    I sense that adding story (if that's a something you're interested in doing) would add a lot. Giving players a reason to continue exploring and doing their best to help the character get through the levels.
    Thanked by 1Lesedi_Mosadi
  • Thanks, I'm really glad you liked it.
    ashashza said:
    Oh wow, this has come a looong way since I last played.

    Here's some notes I jotted down in no particular order:
    • The text grouping on the first screen instructions could be clearer. If the space between "wasd = move" was tigher, and other spacing was larger, it would be clearer. Uhm, I hope that makes sense?
    • Up to jump? Randomly I was eating a pear while playing this and wanted to use my right hand to play. I wish jump was also bound to Up then I could play with arrows and up :)
    • It's so cool that holding jump goes higher!
    • It's a really nice touch that music smoothly persisits scene changes.
    • I found myself wanting more variation in the platforming puzzles. Level 2 has a bunch of red-single-bouncy's in a row. Level 3 felt more interesting because the platforming varied a lot more.

    I'll take a look at the text grouping and using up for jump, and I'll play around a bit with level 02. Yeah, level 02 did worry me a bit. Its meant ease you in, but it is kinda uninteresting.
    ashashza said:
    At this point I'm most drawn to learning about Walking Castle's story. While playing I found myself asking a bunch of questions:
    • Who is this girl? Does she have a name?
    • Are they wearing a school uniform?
    • How did they get up into the clouds?! Can they fly?
    • What are they running from? What are they heading towards?
    I sense that adding story (if that's a something you're interested in doing) would add a lot. Giving players a reason to continue exploring and doing their best to help the character get through the levels.



    I was hoping to have the story finalized by this point, but I'm still working on it. Her goal keeps changing, so settling on a direction has been frustrating. With that said I should know where I'm going by the time the next build is up.
    Thanked by 1ashashza
  • What an incredible difference from the last update, well done! Level 3 was a joy to play
    Thanked by 1Lesedi_Mosadi
  • Fengol said:
    What an incredible difference from the last update, well done! Level 3 was a joy to play
    Thanks, I really appreciate you checking it out and enjoying it.
  • Hi everyone,

    It's been a while since updating, but it's finally done.

    I released Walking Castle(I decided to keep the name)in December last year on google play. I then worked on bugs and ASO up till now.
    It's not perfect; it doesn't have everything I wanted to put in, but it's done.

    The biggest mistake I made was underestimating how much I still had left to do. After the last update, I honestly thought I was a month away from wrapping up. 5 months later I was still busy. I'm pretty sure there was a solid 3 months when it felt like nothing was getting done.

    So learning to be more efficient is definitely at the top of my list for the next project. I made a ton of unnecessary mistakes throughout development, so I have a lot to do if I want to do this again.

    As for Walking Castle it does have a story now:

    A little schoolgirl must journey up her broken castle in order to retrieve the key that will rebuild said castle.

    Unfortunately since I have been focused on the mobile release, the latest build is only available on Android.

    PLAY STORE:
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ToyMakerGalaxy.WalkingCastle

    Since the Last update I added
    -25 levels
    -added a few cutscenes
    -post processing and menus
    - mobile controls
    - trailer

    I hope you enjoy checking it out.
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