next »

[godsavant]

This thread is for the development of a stage based off of Death Worm; this was conceived way back when Indie Brawl was still in the Art & Design forum, and I think that it should be pretty easy to realize.

Death Worm Desert (Death Worm)- A flat stage. Periodically, the death worm will attack or planes/aliens will drop bombs.

Basically, I was thinking that, as the battle begins, the players will see the Death Worm jumping in and out of the sand in the background, getting closer each time. After about half a minute, the worm will burst out of the ground on one side of the screen (screen-shake for maximum effect), make a flying arc over the stage, and tunnel back in the other, severely damaging any character in its path. Planes off-screen will also drop bombs onto the players, which explode upon ground impact.

STAGE-
DEATH WORM/ PASSIVE -
DEATH WORM/ACTIVE (JLJac & Oracle, respectively) -

MISSILE -
GULL (White) -
GULL (Green) -

[JLJac]

That idea of seeing the worm moving in the background is plain awsome.

But I still think the hovering platforms should be changed to wrecks and rocks, making it more death wormly. Is editing it no more complicated than drawing edits on this picture? What jump height is standard?

[Widget]

As mentioned by Soulliard, 128 pixels is the minimum height for a single jump (allowing for low-jumping characters such as the Dwarf and Liero)

[godsavant]

Yes; measured from the top of the lower platform to that of the upper one, the vertical distance is exactly 128 pixels.

Which is strange, considering I estimated the distance with no knowledge of that requirement.

I was considering something along JLJac's suggestion, but there's really nothing in Death Worm that floated, or could allow for platforms.

[Soulliard]

I think the platforms look good to me. I can't think of any way to change their appearance without making the stage look cluttered.

The 128 pixel jump height isn't a strict maximum. Some individual jumps could be larger than that. But there should always be a way for a character with a 128 pixel jump height to reach every platform, even if they have to take an alternate path.

There should be some sort of indication of where the Death Worm will surface before it jumps (sort of like those warning arrows that appear in Noitu Love 2 right before a projectile is fired from outside the screen). Otherwise, it would be too random and there wouldn't be any skill involved.

The only other thing I'd like to add is that the Death Worm's arc should be high enough to reach the middle platform, but not high enough that it reaches the middle platform with every jump (it could be randomized a bit). The middle platform would be the safest place to be when the death worm attacks. However, during the periodic air raids (there need to be air raids every so often), the ground would be the only safe place. That would make for an interesting dynamic.

[Rory]

Verily.

I think there needs to be a very definite "ground line", something to distinguish the ground from the background.

Oh, and I'm loving the crashed plane and Sputnik-thingy

[shig]

There should be some sort of indication of where the Death Worm will surface before it jumps (sort of like those warning arrows that appear in Noitu Love 2 right before a projectile is fired from outside the screen

You`ll see it approaching on the background, and the ground will shake moments before it jumps.
Plus, since it`s an arc, it won`t make a lot of difference wich side it comes out first.

 But anyway, maybe she could jump in a zigzag pattern when coming closer to where the characters are, meaning that if the worm`s last jump before entering the arena was  from left to right, then she will show up from right to left in the stage.


I don`t really have anything against warning signs, tho. But if there are any other ways of telling when/where the worm will come from, they`d be sort of unnecessary.

[Soulliard]

You`ll see it approaching on the background, and the ground will shake moments before it jumps.
Plus, since it`s an arc, it won`t make a lot of difference wich side it comes out first.

It's important because you have much less time to dodge if you're right above it. And there should be multiple arcs the worm can jump in.

This is a reasonable alternative:

But anyway, maybe she could jump in a zigzag pattern when coming closer to where the characters are, meaning that if the worm`s last jump before entering the arena was  from left to right, then she will show up from right to left in the stage.

[mokesmoe]

You could have the ground bulge were the death worm is going to come out.

[godsavant]

Mid-distance background death worm:



Isolated version:



No fuckin' way I'm doing the full-scale worm myself, though...

[Soulliard]

mokesmoe: That's basically what I'm suggesting.

godsavant: It would probably be easier to animate the death worm in a manner similar to the original game. Make one sprite for the head, and another sprite for each body segment. The segments would just follow behind the head.

[godsavant]

It would probably be easier to animate the death worm in a manner similar to the original game. Make one sprite for the head, and another sprite for each body segment. The segments would just follow behind the head.

I considered that somewhere down the line, but I didn't know if it was going to be a hassle to program.

[shig]

If anything just make a sprite by copypasting the rotated segments right behind the head.

Wouldn`t that work, too?

[Plasticware]

Suggestion: For the whole segmented thing, make a complete outline for each part, but make that separate from the colored-in part. When in-game, put the colored-in parts in front of the outlines, so there's one continuous outline around the whole thing, rather than having each segment outlined separately.

...Does what I just typed make sense to anyone else?

[Soulliard]

Yep. That's a sensible way to do things if we take the segmented approach (which I would really recommend).

[JLJac]

I think I'm gonna give the worm a go. Will report back on my progress.

[JLJac]

 

[Fuzz]

 

YES. Will there be some way that it could be shorter and longer, though?

[JLJac]

Actually I don't think we need to animate it very much. If game maker supports the rotation of sprites we can do something like this:

[huge gif]


With a combination of rotating it and letting it move in a neat path of trajectory I think it'll look good. The earth and rocks that burst up can be added as a separate sprite in front of it.

[Fuzz]

Actually I don't think we need to animate it very much. If game maker supports the rotation of sprites we can do something like this:

[huge gif]


With a combination of rotating it and letting it move in a neat path of trajectory I think it'll look good. The earth and rocks that burst up can be added as a separate sprite in front of it.

Okay, that looks really good.