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[slhomme]

Hi there,

Karate Dino is a super simple "one hand / one-tap" game for ios and  android.  The game mechanics couldn't be simpler, you're a Karateka and you have to jump over dinos that run into you. The low res gif below will give you a precise idea of how this works. Again, the game mechanic in itself is super simple, and the goal is to compensate with a fun retro pixel kind of style with a hint of 80s spirit and smooth animations.





Karate Dino is now released and can be downloaded here:

App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/karate-dino/id946758778?ls=1&mt=8
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thinkmojo.karatedino

Download, share, rate at will!!

And more importantly, looking forward to your feedback... this first version is really simple, but we have many ideas to update the game (extra dinos, extra levels, extra mechanics etc)... we're very open on how to make the game evolve, so any ideas.comments are super welcome!

Cheers.

[HopelessComposer]

Very simple, but very slick. The way you have the menus fade in and out, along with the way the backgrounds move and such all come together for what looks like a very satisfying experience. I'm not sure how long I could jump over dinos before getting bored...that'd depend on what you're doing to keep the player on their toes, but what you have here looks very well made. It looks like you spent a lot of time tweaking everything to make sure everything "clicks" just right.

A lot of games out there have huge amounts of content, but are sloppy, so I can appreciate a simple, tightly made game, especially on mobile. Good work. 

[theotheoderich]

I love the pixel art 

It is possible to duck under flying dinos or can the Player only jump over them?

[slhomme]

Thanks for the feedback

A lot of games out there have huge amounts of content, but are sloppy, so I can appreciate a simple, tightly made game, especially on mobile.

This is exactly the vision of this tiny game. Right now this game is more a kind of a test than anything else, an opportunity to learn how to write and design a game, and distribute it on the app store/google play. Honestly so far it took almost as much time actually building the game than learning and setting everything up for the app store/google play (especially ios, xcode etc...). So once this first game is our of the door, we'll spend more time working on more engaging and content heavy games. But for now, this game needs to be seen more as a small non-pretentious piece of art than anything else. The pleasure of this games should come from looking at it rather than actually "playing"it 

It is possible to duck under flying dinos or can the Player only jump over them?

Thought about that a lot but couldn't find any good way to implement it effectively.  Just can't find good reasons to make the karateka duck to avoid jumping dinos, low-flying birds...etc, while he could easily jump over them... that would visually look awkward. But if I ever find "good" reasons that's something to consider.

 

[NinthPower]

I really like this, looks super simple and slick. Following

[HopelessComposer]

Thought about that a lot but couldn't find any good way to implement it effectively.  Just can't find good reasons to make the karateka duck to avoid jumping dinos, low-flying birds...etc, while he could easily jump over them... that would visually look awkward. But if I ever find "good" reasons that's something to consider.

Just a quick thought, but you coul introduce patterns of enemies that would make jumping end in death for the player, because he can't reach the before another dino gets into his area. Ducking wouldn't work on all dinosaurs, but it would be faster and leave the karateka "open" for a smaller period of time.

Not sure how well it'd work in your game, but that's the easiest scenario I can think of...

[crusty]

what if there's a big bronto that he slides down the back of and can jump off of again

big brontoooooooo

[Eldan_Knight]

Cool concept and style! :D

[Voltz.Supreme]

Nice!
I agree that ducking would be cool! Slide down to duck?

[WildFactor]

I just love the concept of a karateka jumping over dinosaurs, this is genius the animation looks very polished, can't wait to play the game !

[zunkie]

Your first game looks cool. I like your attention to detail and polish. I think the little things make the biggest difference! Nice smooth animations, art looks great and also cool theme. Looking forward to seeing the final product

[slhomme]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. We'll put more thoughts into the ducking move and see if we could implement it in a nice way.

Here are some gifs of some of the dinos... more coming soon. All the designs and animation are made in After Effects. The pixel art is actually "faked" with a simple "mosaic" effect, it's a lazy way of doing things...but it get the job done pretty nicely. Some of the dinos were directly inspired by the game Dino Run 2, the sprites on this game are just so amazing. Hopefully we managed to come up with our own unique and  distinctive style.

 





 

[Jad]

I personally don't see the need of the mosaic. To me it looks like naught but vector art with a mosaic filter on top. I think it looks like good vector art, so I wouldn't mind just that.

Maybe introduce another sort of roughness, such as paper textures or something like that. Regardless, those are my thoughts on the graphics.

The animations are very smooth and not too over worked, well done on that!

[arrebeat]

I loved the mosaic effect. It reminds me of handheld minigames from the 80's (also, Flashback ). I also think that simplicity is best in this case, so I don't really see a good reason to make the karateka duck. To me, it's better to come up with interesting different ways of using a single mechanic than trying to create depth with new mechanics. Start throwing things like ducking and soon you'll have a karate chop, then blocking, then a special move, then a special move gauge, and there goes your non-pretentious, simple work of art. Of course I overexaggerated, but hopefully you get my point! You got a nice little gem here! Keep it simple!  

[slhomme]

It reminds me of handheld minigames from the 80's (also, Flashback Kiss).

Flashback was definitely part of the inspiration here, especially for the level design and the music. I looooooved this game so much (still do actually!).

 

[slhomme]

Mooooar dinos:

      

[Savick]

That's some solid animation. Also, is that triceratops smiling? Because that's pretty cute :D.

[Paul]

what if there's a big bronto that he slides down the back of and can jump off of again

big brontoooooooo

Please do this!

[SafetySnail]

I personally don't see the need of the mosaic. To me it looks like naught but vector art with a mosaic filter on top. I think it looks like good vector art, so I wouldn't mind just that.

Maybe introduce another sort of roughness, such as paper textures or something like that. Regardless, those are my thoughts on the graphics.

The animations are very smooth and not too over worked, well done on that!

Totally agree with this, the mosaic effect really seems to detract from the quality of these animations. I would really love to see a few without filter, I think the clean vector look would really suit this well!

[crusty]

the run cycle for four legs is so good!