[Prototype] Colour me impressed - Week 1 of OGAW

Bensonance

Okay!

So I decided it was time to stop making excuses (in one form or another) and start making games... a lot of them! I decided to do this after reading Rami Ismail's article challenging people to make one game a week - and so I shall for the rest of the year! I'll post them here each week and I'll write up a post-mortem somewhere about what went right/wrong each week.

They'll probably be crap. They'll probably be terrible. They might be obvious clones. But I'll learn a lot, so I'm doing it :). I aim to work at least 3 hours a week on each game (that's the time Vlambeer's JW used to make games in during his Poppenkast Collective days), but I'll work on them more if I have time.

Play them and give feedback if you'd be so kind! :)

Here's the first one:

Colour me impressed, a generic juicy platformer where you bring colour back to the world! Worked on this for around 12 hours this week. This is probably on the higher end of quality for the games I'll be able to make.



I tried to focus on implementing the core mechanics to feel really good. The jump is pressure sensitive, there is inertia to the movement, and lots of juice. It's a bit buggy in places, so sorry if you run into something game breaking. I added the world colour changing thing at the last moment to give players a small reward for collected the rainbow boxes.

Arrow keys to move around. Up to jump. 'R' to restart a level. Ctrl to go to the next level.

Windows Build (I should have GM Html5 soon, until then, sorry for the hassle of a download :) )







First music piece I lost the link for, the second is Night Owl by Broke For Free.

Tuism

Looks so interesting :) Except... The colour thing was the most interesting, and it's not a mechanic? XD Commme onnnnnnnn make it mean something :P

Elyaradine

What I love about this kind of thing is that it's so great for taking lessons learnt one week and applying them directly in the following week. It's, like, the perfect example of success through rapid prototyping, fast failure, fast iteration, and fast learning.

If colour's the most interesting, then yay for next week! If platforming is done this week, sweet, hijack it and have a completely different platformer the next week with stolen code from previous implementations! So much of potential! :D

Keep it up!

Tuism

Like game mechanics speed dating :D

SUGBOERIE

Cool. From just the trailer reminds me a lot of Thomas Was Alone.

I like the idea. I might just join this challenge.

Colors and the particles are awesome. :D

Bensonance

@Tuism Yeah as I said in the post, the colour thing was a last minute addition :). I was simply aiming to make a generic -if juicy- platformer for the first week, just to get myself into it :). The colour thing is really cool, if quite random at the moment :). I just didn't have time to make it into a proper mechanic :).

@Elyaradine Yeah exactly! I'm going to try avoid doing similar games in consecutive weeks, but I'm definitely going to be reusing all the elements and lessons in future week games :).

@SUGBOERIE Yeah it's pretty hard to avoid that comparison if you're doing an abstract platformer :P. YES! Join me! Yeah I'm a little addicted to particles :P.

SUGBOERIE

@Bensonance Is the unlimited jumping thing a bug or feature? I say feature! Happens after you've gotten the rainbow boxes. Oh, are you going to stick to one technology or switch it up from time to time?

Bensonance

@SUGBOERIE I've never encountered that bug so... must be a feature or emergent gameplay :P.

I'll change technolog y(presume not meaning engines here?) based on the game idea each week, but I'll mostly stick to PC to encompass the largest number of potential players.

EDIT: Although, I'd love to experiment with lots of tech. I've been dying to make something in the vein of Johann Sebastian van Joust for quite some time :). Also, Sifteo cubes, Occulus Rift, and mobile are all things I've had ideas for before :).

Engine wise, I'm quite quick in Gamemaker so I'll probably stick with it unless a task is obviously easier in Unity :).

MrWolf

I started this as well, on my second one currently working on a two button plateformer

SUGBOERIE

@Bensonance I did actually mean engine. I guess for quick prototypes those two would be the best, no need for any learning curve.

Asbestos

Nice work @Bensonance

Here are my thoughts after playing:

General Feelings:
I like the rain and the steam pipes a lot.
Pretty good platforming besides a few killer bugs :P
I found that the colour picker chose some pretty horrible shades at times, but the effect of things being coloured was great.
Good choice of music as well!

Concerning the level progression:
I enjoyed the level that teaches you that you can wall jump, that was great, and it fit the progression well.
Concerning the three levels with spikes, the first level should be the last. It combines wall-jumping and spikes and is much, much harder than the other two. In fact based on the level design it looks like that's the order you intended.
All the other levels seem to be ordered for a good progression of challenge.


One other thing that I thought was interesting is that the death animation and fade-out is extremely long and unskippable, why did you reject the "no time for tears" philosophy?
Interestingly, I found dying extremely frustrating the first time I played it, but by the fourth playthrough, when I was analysing the game, it didn't bother me at all. I think this is probably because I was considering the many facets of the game while analysing it and so had much to think about, but when just playing it, and trying to beat it, the delay gives me nothing but wasted time before I can attempt the level again.

dislekcia

@Asbestos: Nice feedback! That's a really good point about the level order.

Bensonance

@Asbestos Thanks for the great feedback! Been bedridden the past week, so only responding now :).

What killer bugs did you find? People keep mentioning them, but I can't recreate them :(.

Your feedback on the level order is immaculate :). The delay is also good feedback, not sure why I left it so long in the end :).

Thanks for taking the time to play it :D.

konman

Wow @Besonance, that was really inspirational. There is a hell of a lot happening in that video, I can see about 10 game influences (for me at least) and you picking their mechanics apart. Super Meat Boy etc... there's particle things happening and wall jumps and physics etc, it looks basic to begin with, but as a dev I can appreciate all the little effects that you have added and your various tech experiments are evident.

What I do like about your approach is you seem to focus on mechanics a lot. I can really tell you're exploring what we all know is important and you dig for that fun mechanic that is so elusive.

Also thanks for the article from the burning teddy dude (vlambeer)... he makes a lot of sense! For me this is an important post. I realize again what a novice I am and the road that still needs travelling.... its going to be fun and MGSA is going to have to tolerate a lot of failed prototypes for a while yet, from me at least. Thanks for posting! :)

dislekcia

konman said:

MGSA is going to have to tolerate a lot of failed prototypes

No such thing!

Bensonance

@Konman Sorry I took so long to reply!

Thanks for the kind words! I am glad my frequent failed attempts at making games, inspire you :P.

Yeah there are plenty of game influences in this game. I tried to make the game really juicy. There were ways I could have done it even more so, but I ran out of time :).

I'm also glad you percieve I focus on the mechanics mainly. This is something I've been lucky to be able to do because I learnt to make games while working with the stupidly talented @TasticLuc, so I rarely have to worry about the art. It's also a problem though: when I have to make games by myself, because I'm used to art just appearing :P.

I realize again what a novice I am and the road that still needs travelling

I just can't help but laugh at this sentence, here's why:

I've been making games for 2 and a half years now pretty much non-stop. Doing every game jam I can; studying game design as a degree; reading everything I can about games and game design; and I've had my game curated for the Games for Change Festival in New York.

And yet... I still feel like a complete novice. I still have barely any idea what I'm doing. I struggle with my game design process every time I sit down and try make something. I'm about to hit 1000 hours of Gamemaker Studio on Steam and I'm still learning basic stuff about Gamemaker. Game making still hasn't *clicked* in my head yet - I don't have a consistent and clear process.

I have the feeling I'll still be a novice for quite a while to come - that's just how long it takes. Making games is hard :).

Keep making games!

P.S. Prototypes are prototypes. They're only a failure if you didn't learn anything from doing it. I recommend doing a post-mortem for all your prototypes so you have a written record of what you learnt :).