[SA Game Jam 2018] Test Cube

Trian

(SA Game Jam 2018)
Members: me
Test Cube
Student, Diversity
72hr entry

Idea:
Exploring ideas of progression in movement and attack types. Currently designing puzzles too. Hopefully they mesh well and I don't over scope

Download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iIwHA6i03q5Jf9LB8Od6mF-SmHLCVm8G/view?usp=sharing

Trian

So I got some work done, and I have something playable. Might add one or two mechanics and base some puzzle levels on them.

Nandrew

Always love myself some Metroidvania approaches and it's a good fit for this competition! Hope you have time to implement all the mechanics you want and get some nicely polished puzzles. ;)

konman

I really like this. It's simple and if you don't get distracted with artwork and special effects too early you could really add some awesome puzzles and progression. The grappling hook seems very satisfying to use too. Also being on the "right" side of a hole where enemies fall in adds a great strategic timing aspect. Cannot wait to play it. :)

Trian

Here with the totally playable game, couldn't squeeze enough hours out of my weekend to implement everything but I'm going to try and give this game the justice it deserves after the jam. It's the minimum viable product right now

Enjoy! (what's there at least)

Download link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17Uxp3fdmdsy98U19j5pguW5yok5e6Ls9/view?usp=sharing

Trian

Also since I'm no composer I took my theme from https://ozzed.net/music/, credits go to this guy

Pierre

Aw. It was just starting to feel fun and then it was finished!

I agree with your approach. Getting a simple system nailed down tight, and then building the fancier mechanics on top of it.
Things that felt really good:
- spamming daggers
- high "floaty" jumps (usually doesn't work but it feels good in this game)
- helpful hints. they were VERY helpful and allowed me to enjoy the game without any prior instruction.

Things that didn't feel good:
- the grappling hook travels really slow.
- enemies die unceremoniously. need some impact FX
- not enough perilous jumps. There was no danger of falling to my death.

Things that didn't work.
- Shooting left only works while you press left. (Perhaps store the value of the last pressed direction, and apply that to your projectiles.)
- Shortcuts didn't work. I reached the end of the second room but there was nothing to explain that I needed to kill everybody first. It was just a minor inconvenience though)

Are you going to work more on this?

Trian

Hi @Pierre thanks for the response,

Pierre said:

Things that didn't feel good:
- the grappling hook travels really slow.
- enemies die unceremoniously. need some impact FX
- not enough perilous jumps. There was no danger of falling to my death.

Things that didn't work.
- Shooting left only works while you press left. (Perhaps store the value of the last pressed direction, and apply that to your projectiles.)
- Shortcuts didn't work. I reached the end of the second room but there was nothing to explain that I needed to kill everybody first. It was just a minor inconvenience though)

Are you going to work more on this?

I will be working more on this sometime soon (most probably next week),

Things that didn't feel good:
- I wasn't too sure about the grappling hook speed when making it, super glad to get another opinion on that
- I'm aware of the enemies dying an unsatisfying death, I just tried to add what I could due to time
- Never came across my mind, thanks!

Things that didn't work
- Forgot to fix that...
- I scrambled in the last hour adding hints and fixing game breaking bugs, will make sure to add that too

Again thanks for the reply, felt like I made something super unpolished and incomplete (which it is), it's great to get feedback on it.

Pierre

Yeah. It sucks when time is running out and you feel like there is still a ton of stuff you wanted to do. I know the feeling well. But on the other hand. you have this nifty idea to play around with now.

vfqd

Fun little platformer, I liked the enemy boss design a lot.

It was a real pity you didn't have a little more time to play around with this game, you had just introduced the wall climbing mechanic and then the game was over :(

I'd have really liked it if you could move in one direction and throw daggers in another. A suggestion: since you have the player aiming with the mouse for the grappling hook anyway, why no just use the relative cursor position to determine which side they're shooting? I.e. if the cursor is on the right have side of the player, they shoot right, and vice versa.

Anyway, well done on finishing, and as Pierre said before me, not you have a cool thing to mess around with.

Trian

Great idea @vfqd!

vfqd said:

I'd have really liked it if you could move in one direction and throw daggers in another. A suggestion: since you have the player aiming with the mouse for the grappling hook anyway, why no just use the relative cursor position to determine which side they're shooting? I.e. if the cursor is on the right have side of the player, they shoot right, and vice versa.

I think what I'll do is make it a changeable option in a settings menu so that both can be available.

konman

@Trian Montezuma's Revenge, that is what your game reminds me of. It focuses on exploration and new abilities and as a plat-former your game is a fun little entry. Obviously art is not the main focus, but you've exploring mechanics and trying to be true to the jam theme.

I am curious, how did you design/develop your levels? Do you mind sharing? They work very well. 2 -dim array? Are you using any tools to help you? I'm thinking Tiled-editor?

The grappling hook is a fun little tool and feels good to use in the game. As a whole the game feels energetic and it is a pleasure to dodge enemies while exploring your levels.

There is so much more you can do with this given enough time. I hope you carry on and add new mechanics to it and push it to all it can be in the future...

If fun alone was a criteria, you would definitely succeeded in achieving that goal...

Asriele

I love the cute design of your player character, its so simple yet so cute and the music choice is perfect too.
Like @Pierre said, good job on mechanics and level design. I liked how I had to use the grappling hook reoccurring to save me in the boss fight, feels like a spider flying away out of danger, so much fun. I don't know platformer games all that well so I don't have any criticism.

Trian

konman said:

I am curious, how did you design/develop your levels? Do you mind sharing? They work very well. 2 -dim array? Are you using any tools to help you? I'm thinking Tiled-editor?

@konman Nothing of that sort, just used Game Maker Studio's built in room editor, placed wall objects in the room and had the player and enemies run collision scripts. The layout is just made up of a bunch of static wall objects.

Trian

Well, found a bug that would be useful for a speedrun. It's a shame that I'll have to patch this out.

SpaceDassie

Love it

I really enjoy the flow and responsiveness, although I did glitch through the wall a couple times. Other than that it runs smoothly and I enjoy the grappling mechanic

Keep it Up

Asriele

It's a shame that I'll have to patch this out.

Why? No one has to know, we wont tell anyone.

Trian

SpaceDassie said:

I really enjoy the flow and responsiveness, although I did glitch through the wall a couple times.

The moving through walls while going to where you shot your grappling hook was purposeful, super annoying to add collisions and path finding for it.

I am aware of where you can glitch yourself into and through a wall by repeatedly shooting your hookshot in and i'll fix that

Thanks for the response @SpaceDassie!

Trian

Asriele said:

It's a shame that I'll have to patch this out.

Why? No one has to know, we wont tell anyone.

@Asriele
Well I found it by accident and the player kind of fell out of the room... Which makes it a game breaking bug, the fact that I found it by accident means someone else can find it too

Elyaradine

This was neat! I was really impressed with how this felt as a full package, where the simple visuals matched the 8-bit audio, and the controls overall felt decent to me. I had fun, and the experience left me wanting more.

A small thing: with the knife throwing, I'd expect it to shoot in the direction my character's facing. If I press left, release left, and right-click, I expect to shoot to the left, but the character defaults to shooting right when left isn't pressed.

The grappling hook felt to me as if it had a lot of potential for interesting puzzles. It shoots quite slowly, allowing you to re-position yourself before it starts pulling you toward it -- and allows you to move through walls and floors. I can imagine some dexterity puzzles where you shoot the grappling hook out, run inside somewhere to trigger something, and then get pulled back out toward the hook as something closes in on you to trap you... if that makes any sense at all. :P

Congrats!

Trian

It's been a while but I finally got around to updating this! I gave the game a better look, toyed around with some ideas, fixed the issues that were presented to me and a whole lot of under the hood stuff too.

I've tested this thing over and over and I need some fresh eyes to help me. I know I need to work on some game feel and I have some other things planned too.

Personally my my issue with this short demo is pacing, due to the nature of the jam I couldn't drag out gameplay because that would increase development time, so I feel like I'm drowning the player with new mechanics in a short period of time but just let me know what you think.

Thanks again!

(EDIT)
Will make some gameplay gifs later, just wanted to upload the file for now
Forgot the download link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iIwHA6i03q5Jf9LB8Od6mF-SmHLCVm8G/view?usp=sharing

Trian

Here are some screen caps from the latest build!

Weapon direction can now be configured in options


Healthbars!


Changed those boulder like things into smaller blocks and fixed the awful collision they had


Trapdoors!