[Prototype] French Ship - Week 2 of OGAW

Bensonance

Yay! It's week two!

Didn't spend that much time on this project this week, unfortunately. This week is a terribly bad cloning attempt of the seminal endless runner, Cannabalt. Had a few ideas for how to build on the basic concept, but wasn't able to implement them.

Big lesson learned this week (even though I'd begun to grasp it already): minimalist or simple game may look easier to implement, but often there is a lot of hidden depth in the mechanics, which is what makes the simplicity so engaging. My version is only slightly close to Cannabalt, and it certainly left out the best bits. Art was scavenged from the talented @TasticLuc (Tweets over here).

Unfortunately, it's got a bug that hangs the game that I wasn't able to fix before my time was up. I haven't posted a link, just to save your PC's [FIXED] :). Can't even get a reliable gameplay video out either :/. But, I still consider this week a success! Was happy with what I got done in such a short time and got plenty valuable design insights out of analyzing and trying to replicate Cannabalt.

Might post a video later if I can get everything working.

Windows (4.27 MB)

FrenchShip





Onto the next week!

Bensonance

Took 15 minutes to fix the bug quickly, so this is now playable for those interested!

Rigormortis

Cool, so I gave this a play just now. I think it was a good attempt, but here are some of the things that I did think were a problem.

1) The sounds were very annoying. I'm not talking about how it sounded though...there were these very specific crack/pop noises at the end of the landing sound that became almost unbearable towards the end. I'm not sure if it's just me though.
2) It felt like some of the jumps were impossible. I assume that slowing down can make you miss a jump, but there was one run were I was doing quite well and I still missed a jump by a mile. I think I could have made the jump slightly better, but if I look at by how much I missed the jump, it didn't feel like I jumped that much sooner than the edge.
3)There wasn't a lot of reason not to do a full jump. I was using my maximum jump height almost all the time.
4)I'm not sure why but the game feels very slow. It might just be that it takes too long to ramp up the speed after a start.

I did however see the little Cannabalt effects you implemented like the birds and stuff. So that was cool. :) I also liked the music. I'm not sure if it fits the theme that well, but I liked it anyways.

Good job. :)

konman

@Bensonance Feedback! The art is very VERY cool. I did find the music irritating however, sorry. It was like a black and white Chaplin mime movie music score. You know, too back in the day?

I also didn't understand why some buildings would start crumbling, making me FAIL when it wasn't my fault? I have to go buy a new monitor now, thanks! ;P

Perhaps adding a double jump (jump in air) option and a speed-up / power-up would make me feel better about myself and make the game more interesting? AKA make me feel better about me, the player? :) okay, its a difficult game...

I like the protagonist... she's cute in a cartoon-ish kinda way. Is that weird? Anyhow, LOL! Great job guys. I like the parallax scroll as well.

There's definate effort in mechanics here, a good start. Hope you update and let us know...?

gontsekekana

This game is actually cool. jumping on the roof tops of Paris. who wouldn't want to do that. I cant get past 45m :( the space between the two buildings at that distance is crazy. Konman is right, a double jump button would be pretty awesome.

The game is cool and runs smooth. I like the attention you payed to little details concerning game physics and animation.

Bensonance

Sorry it took me so long to respond!

@Rigormortis, I think the sounds are a tad too jarring perhaps. They're very loud and obvious. They probably need to be subtler.

Some of the jumps are definitely impossible. The platform generation needs a bit of tweaking to ensure that the jumps are always possible, but the short leeway after you fall that allows you to jump, makes it slightly easier to makes jumps.

There are times when the generation creates a collection of benches that forces you to use only a tad of the full jump, but these are quite rare (which is where needing to have more obstacles comes in). Apart from those rare moments, you're right that it's rare that the full jump isn't required :).

Yeah the game is slow. It does ramp up quite slowly, but I also think the slow feeling is due to the lack of scaling challenge. Basically, the game just becomes boring.

Thanks for playing :D.

@konman

Yeah, I'm lucky to work with @TasticLuc so much, he's pretty incredible :).

Lol - the crumbling buildings is supposed to be an extra challenge, rather than an insta-fail. The generation needs to be tweaked a bit more so that jumps are easier off a crumbling building.

I think the power up/double jump idea is more a problem with the generation and lack of variety of obstacles is the problem. If I did a double jump or powerup, I think it would take away from the minimalism of Cannabalt, which was the main goal of this week.

Thanks for playing :D.

@gontsekekana

Thanks! Yeah, I'd like to tweak the generation a bit more before adding a double jump, but I'd definitely consider it :). Thanks for playing and giving feedback! :)