#platformer development

Eventually the initial version of my prototype is accomplished. Details of mechanics and gameplay will be illustrated in this post.

Adding Camera zoom and center on player

By adding camera zoom and centre, the player's progression will be focused while moving forward. This prevents potential distractions when the player moves out of the screen.

Adding Death count for player

Once the player collides with the enemies or falls into the abyss, the death animation will be triggered as the Player teleports back to the beginning scene, which results in the calculated integers behind the 'Death Count'.

Adding rectangular moving tracks to enemies

The enemies will move by the track of the rectangle attached at different speeds when assaulting the player. You are required to grasp the appropriate timing either jumping or dashing forward.

The assets in my prototype were wholly crafted by me, commencing with a blank canvas. The process was quite time-consuming as I had little prior knowledge of drawing pixel art. Thus, I discovered the inspiration for pixel art on Pinterest and dived into animation tutorials on YouTube, both of which significantly enhanced my work.

Player Sprite

For the player sprite animation, the large graphics like outfits were low-saturated based on black and white, implementing high-saturation colours for smaller details (accessories or hair). It also maintained appropriate value, leading to the character with a lively impression.

Enemies Sprite

The enemy's design came out with a random thought of my ideal opponents, the one-eyed spooky eggs blinking when assaulting the player.

Platform Sprite

In terms of platforms, tier-valued colour schemes were scaled into respective sizes being utilized to reinforce the scenes.

Greetings, fellow adventurers!

Just here with another update!, We have now entered week 4 of IGB120 and have started bringing our game ideas to life. This week has been around game culture, playstyle and the game development process. The initial Game idea proved to be more difficult then expected, however we are pushing forward! We have made success in conquering the challenges of random maze generation and now onto the interactives!

Mastering the Maze:

Repetition can become quite boring. We want to create a game that offers a fresh experience with every playthrough. We want to have the same goals in mind, but a different challenge each time the player runs through the game. To achieve this, we delved headfirst into the world of random generation, crafting algorithms that would breathe life into our ever-changing mazes. After countless iterations and a few hours reading up on GDevelop capabilities, we finally emerged victorious, with a system that creates a new and random maze for each playthrough. In the future we want to also include random enemies and interactable items.

Navigating Animation Hurdles:

As we basked in the glow of our maze generation triumph, a new obstacle loomed on the horizon: player animation. Even though it is supposed to be a simple task, and one of the first examples we learnt in class, despite our best efforts, we found ourselves struggling to make our player animation work. From idle stances to running and shooting, every movement needed to be pixel-perfect to ensure a seamless gaming experience and make the game a little more interesting. While we are stuck now, we are sure that we will be able to fix this issue, just maybe with some help in the next weeks workshops!

Enemies and Interactables:

With the groundwork laid for our random maze system and player animation underway, we set our sights on the next frontier: adding enemies and interactables to our ever-evolving world. Drawing upon our idea of a Maze Runner and Binding of Isaac crossover, we began populating our maze with formidable foes and tantalizing treasures. We aim to enable some form of difficulty setting and random item generation that can make each playthrough completely different.

Reflections on the Journey:

As we reflect on our progress thus far, we can't help but marvel at how far we've come. At first this seemed like just a fun idea, but as each day goes by and progress is made. It is growing to a reality, an actual game we can play and enjoy. A piece of work we are proud of. We are beginning to run some play-testing and fine tuning all the different aspects of the game. Get Out is only going to get better and better as time goes on!

Last week I began to learn how to develop a rudimentary platformer in class. This week I learned much about the process of Playtesting and receiving feedback. Unfortunately my platformer was in a very rudimentary form at the time, and so I got rudimentary feedback that nonetheless proved extremely helpful. Namely, that for the playtester, having snappy collision boxes and responsive controls was a must. Taking this into account, I dove into working. Given my elevator pitch - Starman - was also a platformer, I decided my prototype would try to hit the key parts of the elevator pitch - Space and Superheroes. To start off, I used a fantastic image created by X user @norma_2d in this post for my background:

Following that I downloaded a series of free pixel asset packs from CraftPixel to fit my theme - of which consisted of a punk sprite and a spacecraft pack. Teaching myself how to use SpriteSheets, I spliced them in Gdevelop and got to work, leading to the following;

The changes and additions I made consisted of: Setting the controls to WASD; Adding explosive death animations; Adding the ability to shoot a (deadly) bolt of light; Adding a glow effect; Adding punching, running and jumping animations.

As previously mentioned in my Platformer Game Elevator Pitch, I've spent time reading Tracy Fullerton's The Game Design Workshop for the past few weeks; Now having read chapters one to ten. Throughout the chapters, Fullerton discussed the basics of game design encompassing the structure of games, my role as a game designer and numerous elements and dynamics that I will be working with. Fullerton also discusses the process of designing a game through conceptualization, prototyping, playtesting and more.

If I had to design a game like this again, I would organize a development group to allow for concept discussion as well as extra hands on deck to aid in the development of the prototype's various components. This would enable more efficient development as well as better results. Having finished sprites ready from the start of production would also help flesh out the development and allow for a better feel of the game, which would furthermore benefit the dev team. Something I'd modify about the prototype's design is to include more relevant and finalized images and sprites to get a better sense of how I intended the prototype, and hence the game, to be. This would contain a pixelated jungle as an appropriate background for the games first zone.

Nebula Nexus propels players into an interstellar adventure, tasked with exploring the breathtaking beauty and perilous wonders of space nebulas. This space shooter draws inspiration from classics like Asteroids while infusing modern features and stunning graphics. It belongs to the arcade shooter genre, offering fast-paced action and thrilling encounters. With a target audience of ages 6+, Nebula Nexus aims to ignite the curiosity of young explorers and space enthusiasts alike. Players will be motivated by the challenge of navigating treacherous asteroid fields, uncovering cosmic secrets, and achieving interstellar greatness.

Nebula (Background Idea):

Stable Diffusion AI Generated Image.

Ship Inspiration:

Stable Diffusion AI Generated Image.

Control Diagram (Most sprites are placeholders):

In Nebula Nexus, players will have exact control over their spacecraft through the mouse. The ship will move with the mouse cursor across the screen. To engage in asteroid-blasting action, players only need to fire their ship's weaponry by clicking the left mouse button. The goal of the game is to travel through bright nebulas, skillfully eliminating asteroids to get points while avoiding collisions with asteroids to protect their spacecraft. As players compete for high scores and explore the brilliant intergalactic settings, it's a test of both targeting precision and quick maneuvering. The graphic above is of the game, and while it is incomplete, it provides a great foundation for comprehending the game. The placeholder ship is currently in the bottom left of the screen, with lives and points displayed in the top left.

Selling Points:

Exploration of Stunning Nebulas: Immerse yourself in mesmerising cosmic nebulas with amazing sights.

Intuitive Mouse Controls: Simple controls allow you to concentrate on precision shooting and maneuvering.

Monster Tamer's Ascent, my platformer, is currently in development. The graphic below depicts the game's early design, and it is clear that more work need to be done.

What Works Right Now: 

Player opponent interactions are in place, with them currently being able to reset you to the last checkpoint and the player being able to bounce off the top of enemies.

Coins, which will be converted into eggs later, add 1 to the score each time they are gathered.

Throughout the level, a score is displayed in the top left corner of the screen.

Spikes will cause the player to be reset.

Jump pads that will be transformed into mushrooms launch the player higher than they can normally jump.

What should be altered or added:

Changes must be made to the reset/life system.

A timer should be placed next to the score.

Many sprites are currently placeholders and need be changed.

More interactivity and opponents can be added.

The addition of powerups would improve the game.