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[Tumetsu]

Game is restarted and engine is quickly coming along this time in Flash instead of GM. Read more from my recent posts.


Overview
Bodiless is a platformer game where player controls a weird human shaped being who doesn't have any limbs but has palms, feet and head. The twist is that the player can basically walk or hang from platforms with his head, feet and hands. I think that pictures explain the game better:




Gameplay video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eae0A0a-VqE
Thanks for Ortoslon for recording and uploading it to the Youtube!

Design
Levels are rather difficult but there is lots of checkpoints and infinite lives. Trick is to try get through the level as fast as possible with least amount of deaths. I have also tried to avoid long distances between checkpoints so that player can focus on mastering the next barrier rather than walk long distances to die again at the same place.

Feedback?
I thought about sharing the game here to get some comments and feedback of the idea to know what pucblic thinks of the game Right now I'm having a bit problems with the visual style for the game so suggestions are welcome! Also, design tips and possible ideas for level objects and ways to exploit the body are appreciated  

Game instructions
Red objects are deadly, bluish ones solid and greens somehow interactable. Yellow ones act as checkpoints. Game consists currently 4 fully playable levels.

Regular buttons:
Movement: Arrows
Exit: Esc

Cheat/testing buttons:
Space: Skip to next level
R: Restart level
F: Max fps
K,L: Activate and deactivate lighting engine
Y: Reverse gravitation
F5: Save game
F6: Load game
F9: Screenshot

Download
Size: 2.06 MB
OS: Windows
Engine: Game Maker


Last update 13.7.2011

Thanks.

[ortoslon]

very good but i think you shouldn't surprise-kill the player at the start of level 1 (i'm talking about the long fall with window in the left wall and spikes at the bottom). and/or checkpoints should be twice as frequent

[Tumetsu]

Thanks ortoslon! Yeah, you may be right as leaps of faith are often considered as a bad design (though personally I think that sometimes they represent intriguing situations for fast reflexes). I will fix that from the beginning. I might also look into putting some more checkpoints into game.

Btw, did you get further than first level or have any thoughs of the game?

[ortoslon]

now i played through the whole preview, loved it. a gameplay video would help to attract attention to this project, i could try to record one if you wish

[Tumetsu]

@ortoslon
Actually that is very good idea and I would appreciate it lot if you could record small video as I don't have programs or experience to do that well And I'm glad you liked it

Oh and for everyone, if you get tired in game, you can save and load with F5 and F6 anytime and take screenshot with F9.

[Cymon]

A tweet from ortoslon brought me out of lurk mode here so i can give my 2 cents on this game. Go all the way through it... At least I think I did. Hit a level with a laser switch and couldn't go any further, so I assume that was a soft end. Spelling out "End of Demo" with blocks would have helped.

So it's interesting, and I like the mechanic a lot. There are a lot of interesting puzzle opportunities with the tools you've built. Good job.

I find it interesting how crap graphics can look professional with a glow filter on them. However, the <<<>>> on the moving platforms looks way out of place. It's just too crappy to live. And that boulder also looks out of place. Too flat. Maybe just a circular hue gradient. It needs depth.

The first time you run into a boulder I was impressed at how that forced you to keep moving but frustrated at how it didn't let me find what I needed to move on. Turns out what I was looking for was a gap in the ceiling that either wasn't visible from the ground or covered up by the HUD. That gap should have been just a little lower or something so that my next step was clear. And when you're designing the levels that should not be your first boulder puzzle. You need to left folks feel satisfaction at finding the safe spot and getting past the boulder before you make them have to play the mole in a whack-a-mole with the next boulder.

Now the feature requests.

There were a couple of times where the next step was hidden from view off the top or bottom of the screen and I screamed for the ability to "peek" with the up and down arrow keys. Or some sort of whole level zoom out function, Everything on the screen tends to be too big so, like with the boulder, you don't see it until it's killing you, and you can't run fast enough to do anything but die at that point.

I think you need to work on a level editor and let folks create levels for this game for you. I think you'd be way surprised at what folks can come up with. Make the level editor, then make the next X levels with that level editor so you can be sure it's ready for prime time and has all the features anyone would want, and this game will be as fun to you when folks start making levels for it as it is for them the first time they played it.... Did that make sense?

Alright, back into lurk mode.

[ortoslon]

playthrough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eae0A0a-VqE

i agree with cymon in everything. one more thing: "wall jumps" like those at 2:45 are physically diffucult to perform (even i have trouble consistenly hitting up+direction with right timing)

[Tumetsu]

@Ortoslon
Thank you for video! It was interesting to see someone else playing it. It's some time when my friends tested the game. Yes, I have actually noticed walljumping being a bit hard for other people than me I have though about either removing them or replacing them with small ledges or something.

@Cymon
First, thank you very much for your lenghty post and insights!

Yes, laser switch level was indeed final level currently. You are right that I should notify to player about demo ending. I didn't remember to do that when I impulsively whipped this to be published after some time it being laying around on my HD. I will probably fix it soon.

Haha yes, glow effects and lighting seem to make graphics look better and it was one of the reason I put them there However, graphics are pretty strange mix of placeholders and leftovers from different projects of mine. For example the platform you mentioned is just placeholder, I just haven't got around to make it feasible. Pretty much same with boulder(or rolling demons like I call them).

Thanks for this insight, I remember been thinking that place in the past but seems like I didn't do antyhing to it. I guess I could lower the ceiling a bit or make somekind graphical hint pointing to the gap. Right now it's  indeed pretty hard to notice. You are probably right about the puzzle with boulders and rewarding the player, but I'm not sure if I will change it now, since it would require modifying the whole level which is pretty too much work for now :S Point taken though

I will put that "peek" feature on my list. Definitely good idea since level design has required some "leap of faiths". I'm not sure about too things being too big on the screen. Guess, I could try to expand the view and window size or expand view and scale it to the current window (results porablby some ugly graphic distortions though...).

I have actually though about level editor but somehow dismissed it as pretty hard to code as I have never done that before. However, after reading your suggestion I sketched some mechanics of it on paper and it seems like it isn't really that hard after all So maybe there will be one

[mokesmoe]

Personally, I found the wall jumps easy.

There were many places where you can get stuck and have to restart the level. If a moving platform pins you against the wall just right, it's impossible to escape, and if you get caught in the middle of some one-way blocks while they respawn, you are stuck too. (Happened to me at 3:28 in the video)

[Tumetsu]

There were many places where you can get stuck and have to restart the level. If a moving platform pins you against the wall just right, it's impossible to escape, and if you get caught in the middle of some one-way blocks while they respawn, you are stuck too. (Happened to me at 3:28 in the video)

Strange, I haven't noticed this and neither any of my friends who have playtested the game. Yes, I know that platforms may be little "sticky" but I haven't succeeded to get actually stuck in them. Also one-way blocks shouldn't respawn if player is positioned where they should respawn. Did you stuck by block respawning over your body part or did they respawn for example between your feet and hands (still allowing you to move horizontally)? I'll take a look to polish those collisions.

[ortoslon]

blocks can respawn between head and hands or hands and feet (don't remember which case exactly), i got stuck this way

[Tumetsu]

Ok thanks. I though that I had programmed to check the player's position so that block can't overlap any body parts but it seems like I hadn't thought out that possibility. Well, it should be quickly fixed.

EDIT: Game updated.

Polished moving platform's collision code. Now it stops 4 pixels before touching the player and therefore should minimize stucking problems.

Minor adjustments with oneway - block collisions. Level 3 (3:28 in the video) got some adjustments so that player is able to get up in case he hangs with his head or hands when all blocks have respawned.

Demo ending text added.

Please test and point out possible problems with platforms and oneway blocks as adjustments I did may have created bugs elsewhere in the game. Thanks

Edit2: If you happened to download a new version just a few minutes before this edit, please download again. I hassled a bit with my files   Fixed now though

[allen]

I get this error when I start it up, and it won't play.

FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Alarm Event for alarm 0
for object obj_fallingblock_fall:

COMPILATION ERROR in code action
Error in code at line 3:
   if !collision_rectangle(xstart-16,ystart-,xstart+16,ystart+16,obj_player,true,true)
                                            ^
at position 43: Unexpected symbol in expression.

[Tumetsu]

Seems like you downloaded it just before I updated it yesterday or I shouldn't work at midnight   Anyways, it should work now so please download again

[Tumetsu]

Just thought to announce that I'm currently developing a level editor for the game as suggested It's coming together quite nicely though there has been some problems too as software programming is bit different than game programming which I have mostly done before. Anyways, here is a screenshot from current editor:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I have only coded the basic interface and three basic tools, Pen, Rectangle tool and Zoom/quick jump which shows whole editing area and allows jumping to any location with single click. Soon I will probably start coding the selection tool, which will probably be pretty big feat compared to Pen and Rectangle tool. After basic tools I'll probably code the saving and loading level core which should be big, but fun part