Oliver

PowerCat

Hey Guys,

This is my very first game - I showed it once at the Game Dev Community evening. (Wasn't working 100% as I had a memory leak)



The game isn't completed yet, but I've managed to iron out the game mechanic.
There are 3 random rooms, I'm hoping to have more unique enemies, backgrounds, etc. for each one very soon.
I'm hoping to have the Clouds move along the screen and to have the Sun rise and Set and have the Moon follow

There are some Dev keys if you want
Press R - to reset to main menu
Press F - for fullscreen (press F again to exit)

Without further ado

Here is Oliver

NickCuthbert

Nice, and addictive. Is the highscore screen meant to be working yet? How are you doing timing? When I switch to full screen, the game appreciably speeds up.

PowerCat

NickCuthbert said:

Nice, and addictive.

Thanks! :D

PowerCat

So I was just playing the game and I found that one of my elements was out by a few pixels and it broke an enemy!
I've just fixed it and re-uploaded to dropbox.

If anyone did download Oliver - if you could just download Oliver again and overwrite the file please that would be great, your Top Score should not be effected at all!

PowerCat

@NickCuthbert sorry I only saw "Nice, and addictive" the first time I looked. Very odd.

The Highscore screen, I'm guessing you mean the button that takes you to a leader board? No that isn't working as of yet.

In what sense do you mean by timing? Timing of the game or timing of the enemies? I haven't considered playing time as I didn't want people to rush the game, wanted them to take there time and enjoy the elements in the game. I'll consider adding a timer if it would add to game play value.

Regarding the full screen element, I've tested it my side and it's the same speed respectively - it might be a trick of the eye though cause of the size of the sprites maybe?

NickCuthbert

What I'm referring to is how your physics is linked to your game? Does it advance a discrete time step every frame, or is it independent of rendering, and instead uses delta time? If it is the former, you may want to visit http://gafferongames.com/game-physics/fix-your-timestep/. If it is the latter however, I'd like to apologise, and blame it on lack of sleep.

PowerCat

@NickCuthbert Phew, going way over my head here, Lol - I have set my games Frame Rate to 60FPS. Looks like a good article, I'll look into implementing it in a later stage.

retroFuture

Nice touch having the level types start randomly. How are you planning on increasing the difficulty curve?

PowerCat

@retroFuture well each level starts easy and gets harder.

Tuism

I think @retroFuture was asking *how* it gets harder - is it faster? Are there more types of obstacles? Are there bits you can't see? Reduced visibility? Drug-induced visual effects? Are you going to arrange obstacles in some bizarre way? Etc :)

PowerCat

@retroFuture @Tuism Going back and looking at my answer, it was....very vague.

When creating the levels I broke the level into 3 groups - Green, Yellow and Red. When starting out in Green it will just be 1 floor enemy & then 1 pounding/jumping enemy. From there I just increase the amount in each area. 2-3 Jumping & 1 floor, then lastly 2-3 jumping & 2 floor.

I'm constantly trying think up new enemies that might challenge the player, Plus each level will have it's own unique type of enemy to try & throw the player off. As for the difficulty curve - watching people play the game it seems to be at a good difficulty level already I think.

I'm thinking of putting a timed and scary type game play in. So in the menu your can select what type of game play you want.

Timed would be you start out with 5 seconds on the clock, you have to get over obstacles to earn 1 second.

Scary would be something chasing you.

retroFuture

The 2 game modes sound good. I also like the idea of each point being a second added to the timer.

Tuism

From last night's chatter about Oliver:

> The game would benefit from a rhythm aspect - so 1) Add music 2) Time the obstacles so that the player's optimal moves would coincide rhythmically with the music - look at Super Hexagon, Bit-trip runner for examples :)

> Some kind of urgency - something chasing, but you could maybe "gain time" by performing well but "lose time" if you delayed too much. So the space between you and the thing chasing would be like a lifebar.

> Longer/shorter obstacles

> Some more modes of movement - like shooting Oliver into the air (jumping) or falling or something else.

Cool cool :)

Gazza_N

I'll second... er... third the addition of urgency to the game. The time-attack and chase modes you've proposed will do that nicely. :D

Assuming you want to keep the one-button input, perhaps Tuism's suggestion of movement modes can be integrated into the environment via jump pads, or slippery slides, or something to that effect? If timed movement is the core mechanic, things that alter that movement in interesting ways are how you'll add a bit more dynamism. Extra points if you keep specific modifiers themed to each environment! Quicksand that slows Oliver down in the desert, for example.

PowerCat

Thanks for the feedback!
I'll definitely give this some thought - in fact I think I might have an idea on how to implement it the jump pads.

PowerCat

So I'm trying to get a chase scene together. What do you think?
(Hope the GIF works)

Karuji

For creepy tentacles they are awfully cute :3

Though saying that I think it fits the visual aesthetic of the game, but it would be nice if it's wobble tolerance allowed the end to go in the other direction so it would have a wave like motion.

PowerCat

@ Karuji - Thanks for your input, I think I see what you mean, like starts at the top and motions down, ie: like a Mexican wave?

dislekcia

I'm kinda not sure if I should post this, seeing as it's one of those "can't be unseen" things...

But...

Run from the wall of wangs!

(Maybe make the tips of the tentacles pointy?)

konman

@dislekcia hahaha! and somewhere I read we should all be better at posting more responsibly. Keen observation though and very funny. @PowerCat not laughing at you, but with you. I think they should be red. Dnager!

Tuism

Mmmmmmm.

But everything else's pixelly, and those are perfectly vector rounded-end wangs. That feels like a disturbance in the force.

Don't feel it fits, stylistically... Conceptually, it's a "why not" I guess :)

Pomb

I don't care for wangs off the wall too much, but what does hit me in the face is the different movement styles. One being the smooth arcs for your wang character and the other being stepped (sprite swapping) in your player character. I'd say choose one style, it will keep your game feeling coherent.

konman

@PowerCat I tried to download the game, but it seems to have moved?

PowerCat

@dislekcia Haha, Thanks for that, now all I can see is wangs :P (I'll update)

@konman I'm gonna play around with colours and stuff, will see what I come up with - regarding game, sorry I moved my dropbox around, will upload in a moment.

@Tuism Yea, I just have to see how I can make them more pixely.

@Pomb Have you managed to play the game at all? You'll see that the enemies actually move fluidly too. I wasn't to concerned about the moment I thought it added something interesting. I'd love to get others opinions?

PowerCat

Here is the new link OLIVER

konman

@PowerCat Downloading now :-P I like the green pixelated title banner... it grabs ones attention.

konman

@PowerCat It's nice and retro - Strangely addictive... The sound fits in well. I can see why you need to add a chase scenario as suggested here, I agree. It will add urgency... if only Flappy bird had that mechanic, maybe a pterydactyl chasing it or something... it would have been a much better game. Let us learn from his mistake ;)

Tuism

Flappy's urgency comes from when you don't do anything you die within a second :P

PowerCat

So I updated the artwork a bit on the Tentacles what do you think?

Tuism

Feels like the pixels should be bigger compared to other stuff on the screen, right? If you look at the current "convention" you have going - the closer the image, the bigger the pixels (compare Oliver and the tree to the stuff further in the background, like the clouds for example).

So in that case the tentacles being "over" the foreground (oliver, tree, ground), means they should have bigger pixels :)

Also, I think they're a bit distracting - the white stuff that is. A black silhouette I thought worked better, and also the solid colour worked better for the illusion of a field of black stuff rather than a bunch of sprites.

PowerCat

@Tuism Cool, thanks for your thoughts! :D - I'm also thinking of other ideas like fire or a rolling bolder.

PowerCat

Ok here is a new Build for my game - have a look!
Oliver

Denzil

I'm getting errors unfortunately

PowerCat

@Denzil - What errors are you getting?

Denzil

Sorry for not posting it immediately. Was a bit lazy. I tried re-downloading it but when I try to play I still get this:

PowerCat

Weird, not sure why - it's working everywhere here.
Might just be your computer. Try running it as Administrator or Ignoring the problem.

FanieG

I had to turn off my Malware protector of my browser to download and play. That could be @Denzil's problem?

Denzil

Possibly. I don't understand it though. It's so annoying. I try to download then Chrome asks me to "discard" nothing else. Not option to keep. So I try again, then it said dismiss or something, and finally it said keep and it looks as though it finished, but maybe it still didn't. I think I have the same issue with Grave Days. Back when I released CubeZ, I sent it to some journos, and only later realized this was an issue. Chrome telling them there's a virus in the zip. F*ing retarded. Sorry for the rage.

Anyway, I'll see if I can completely turn it off when I get home, and then I'll try again. I'm switching to Google drive though in the hopes that maybe it will work better.

EDIT: I tried it from my work PC and I get the exact same error.
EDIT2: Turning off malware protection didn't seem to work

PowerCat

Maybe try downloding it through a different client like IE or FireFox.

EDIT: Actually wait let me Rar it rather.

PowerCat

Ok, I've uploaded the file again and Rared it this time.
Olive <---- Download

Denzil

Ok so the issue was that I right-clicked the link and said save as. This does not work with dropbox.

About the game, looks nice. I'd like to suggest for the timed mode, only start the count-down after the user has moved for the first time. Maybe also the same for the monster. Not a major suggestion really :P

Also I got a few frame rate drops now and then. What did you code it in? Also, how big are the levels? Do you generate them on the fly?

I think some nice background music could suit this type of game!