[Prototype] Blockboy
[url = http://dl.dropbox.com/u/88407778/blockBoy_v01_webBuild.html]BlockBoy WebBuild[/url]
throw blocks, jump and wall jump to get to the flag, not sure if I put the right tips in all the tomes when I copy pasted the prefabs from one level to the next, but there you go :)
I'm having fun :) got carried away with RagePixel plugin, animating random stuff.
Arrow keys or WASD - move/jump
left Shift - speed
left ctrl or J - shoot/set block
R - restart
Here's a run through I did, encase the earliness of the prototype is too much to bare.
throw blocks, jump and wall jump to get to the flag, not sure if I put the right tips in all the tomes when I copy pasted the prefabs from one level to the next, but there you go :)
I'm having fun :) got carried away with RagePixel plugin, animating random stuff.
Arrow keys or WASD - move/jump
left Shift - speed
left ctrl or J - shoot/set block
R - restart
Here's a run through I did, encase the earliness of the prototype is too much to bare.
bbicon.png
128 x 128 - 4K
Comments
The animation is awesome, love that :)
The controls I found to be really really difficult - not the game is difficult but the control is difficult, too much momentum, so the dude doesn't do what I want him to do... In the air, by the time he turns around I've pressed it for a while. I'm also trying to build aerial momentum into my own game and found that the more I do it the less I like it. Depends on the nature of the game, I think.
But it looks like it has GREAT potential :D The block mechanic is interesting, I found that I could push the blue blocks mid-air sometimes if I hit it right?
Looking forward to more :)
Blocks also change their state if you jump into them from the bottom, Mario style.
I agree about the controls being hard, I remember the first few times I was playing and it was hard and then my fingers were like: "oh cool, no...., okay we got it" then I just forgot about it and lived with it. If you got some suggestions for new controls I'd love to hear them.
Controls are tricky - solid platformer controls take months to get right. But I think there are couple of things you can do - firstly give the player a chance to learn one thing at time. I know its a prototype - but it's pretty easy to have a wall that extends down to the ground so you can practice wall jumping before you have to start doing tricky - high jumps onto said wall in the first place. Would help a lot. Secondly i'm not sure about the run and jump thing. Means your jump/edge detection has to be super solid for the player to feel like falling off the edge was actually fair.
Also the blocks, they are a cool idea, but could do more with them I think. Once I realised this mechanic existed, my thoughts were: "aha! I need to build platforms to make the ensuing jumps easier". But I failed miserably to build a platform, due the bugs in some cases i think, but also reactivating blocks tended to destroy my work. Also I think it could be cool to have blocks spawn below you and almost use them as some kind of double jump mechanic.
Hope it helps...
- Air acceleration is quite a lot stronger in the air than on the ground, encouraging jumping
- When you press in the opposite horizontal direction to what you're moving in the air, your horizontal velocity is immediately set to zero.
- Holding jump for longer results in a higher jump
Then, it was actually super twitchy and somewhat easy to miss one-block platforms, but having stuff like ledge-hanging (for when you just-just miss) and wall jumping (for when you miss by a bit more) helped to make that more forgiving I think.Just throwing those out there, in case you want to try any of them. :)
My additional concern is the fact that you have quite a variety of possible interactions with the environment which can all take place at the same time. Combined with the control quirkiness mentioned, it's very easy to attempt one behaviour and end up performing another: for example, pushing a block when you mean to shift-jump off it, or toggling its state because you're fiddling about underneath on an unrelated mission.
I would consider a few things to alleviate this:
(1) What @Elyaradine said about jumping, definitely.
(2) Design the game to focus around one creative block at a time instead of many. Instead of hopping up and toggling them Mario-style, your controls can be simplified to: hit key to create a block, hit key again to lock it in position, hit key a third time to destroy it. It'll make the lives of players easier (and make the challenge of good level design later on a bit simpler).
(3) A common platformer push/pull rule is to only allow such behaviour when the character is firmly grounded. This is important for various puzzle constraints, but it also has the bonus of being pretty much sure that the player is concentrating on the push (and only the push) when the time comes to shove. :)
Control of your character would still need to be refined according to the rest of the motor-oriented feedback here, but I feel these measures would go a long way towards removing the problem of different interactions "spilling into" each other at the wrong time. :)
Lovely art style, though. :)
So I tried a few ideas, and eventually figured the best thing to do would be to push a block off the side and freeze it just below the side walls. That way I'd be able to build a bridge underneath the shell and work my upwards.
I thought that would be challenging enough, involving a couple leaps of faith and some tricky block placement. I thought my solution quite clever in fact.
So I pushed a block off the edge. Filled with hope as I was that I'd figured out the trick to the level. And when it had fallen for what I estimated was the perfect distance (I had to guess because the block had passed the bottom of the screen) I froze it in place, and then delicately descended to meet it.
It had turned into a red spiked block and impaled me immediately.
Check out this article on the Super Meat Boy Physics. Maybe it will help you :)
http://mpolney.galineer.com/index.php/Super_Meat_Boy_Physics?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=feed
I really like the animations, especially when you die on the spikes :)
@punkweazel thanks for that link! I haven't played SMB but from what I've seen it's definitely what I'm going for in terms of physics/control, I'll spend my time figuring out that one, haven't been totally happy with the controls, more learning required! :)
@theFuntastic Noted. Let players learn controls easier. Thanks for playing.
@BlackShipsFilltheSky Bwhahahahha yeah the spikes, tricky ones! I'm impressed you got to that level. When I watched people play at work, I immediately noticed what @theFuntastic is talking about making it easier in the beginning for people to learn that they can actually wall jump. People got fed up quickly because it was difficult, combined with the "slippery" controls, made it a happy time, Not.
@Elyaradine thanks for that dude, your prototype combined with broforce is what inspired me to try make a platformer, along with @Nandrews talk mentioning broforces design of destructible environment, thought I'd try make one where you constructed part of the level as the player. Thanks for the ideas.
@Nandrew those are cool suggestions. I'm not sure about not forcing the blocks to explode because I think it adds tension to the game, I also enjoy the level design in level 3 and 4 where you forced to jump on blocks that will explode. Jump or Die! I fully plan on adding more states to the blocks, and will definitely add in the restrictions you mentioned about limiting the actions that can be preformed, pushing only when grounded. Thanks for your input.
@Denzil thanks for playing. I also noticed that, wasn't sure how to fix it though. Read somewhere about the "bunny hopping phenomenon" which sounds like the problem it's got. Maybe adding in a delay after each jump?
One thing I've noticed is while developing I play test too often and get sucked into "playing" instead of "testing" then build muscle memory for the bad controls which I then don't think are that bad anymore, then see someone else play and remember how bad they were in the beginning.
Thanks again for playing guys, off for more dev, more learning!
But there was some criticism last night. Just a recap of what I remember in case the feedback gets lost:
[quote = Cape Town Meetup]The platforming mechanics (the jumping onto blocks) are very tricky. And making jumping a big challenge in the game doesn't seem like the most appropriate focus, as the block creating and tactical puzzle solving is more interesting (and a lot of games, like VVVVV and Super Meat Boy, cover platformer jumping very well already).
The controls for making and placing blocks are a bit counter-intuitive as they stand. Pressing CTRL to create a block, waiting, bouncing a flying block off of your head and then pressing a key to stop it moving, is quite a procedure to place a block. (At the same time being able to place blocks wherever one wants would be too easy and make the game trivial). Maybe something can be done to make the block creation and placement a bit more natural, but keep some interesting/challenging limitations on the player.
Focus on the block placing gameplay and get that fun before you continue developing this.[/quote]
The other thing I like about BlockBoy is that there is the beginnings of what appears to be a very interesting theme. All the almost organic moving panels, and the robotic wall prompts, seem to suggest advanced technology that's been designed to shepherd humans/robots, but yet it has fallen into disuse. The world looks very robotic/mechanical/industrial, but also devoid of life. Kind of post-apocalyptic Walmart-punk. It's really cool.
You mentioned that you were thinking about BlockBoy as the reverse of Broforce...
In Broforce the player starts on a mission set in tropical paradise and proceeds to lay waste to the terrain and the natives. Whereas in BlockBoy you start in a strange robotic cavern with interactive signage and proceed to build things in order to reach a destination.
If you wanted to, I'd think you could take this "Restoration" theme a lot further. Repairing machines, or reactivating systems, or interfering with them by building things to reach your goal. I think that would be super cool.
Of course, I don't know what your ambitions are. If you want to make a smallish manageable game then keeping it more abstract and puzzlely is probably a better path. If you are planning on working on this for a while then maybe exploring designing an complicated world/theme might be appealing.
In any case working on the block building and finding interesting uses for it should be your focus now (if you take this further).