next »

[deadeye]

Premise:
In Vert, you take control of Vern, an employee at the General Power & Gravity plant.  One day the gravity generator goes haywire, causing gravitational anomalies to appear all over the plant.  It's up to Vern to make his way to the generator room to fix the problem before it gets out of hand.

Screens:


Demo:
http://www.box.net/shared/9vex55g4pz
(Windows only, latest DirectX)

This is a two-level demo.  The game returns to level one after level two is completed.

Gameplay:
Move: Left/Right Arrow Keys (relative to the view angle)
Jump: Shift
Look: Hold Control + Arrow Keys (you must be standing on ground to use Look controls)

Touching a gravity field will change Vern's gravity to the direction indicated.  Blue fields will rotate the screen to compensate for gravity direction.  Green fields will change the gravity direction without rotating the screen.

Touching an electrified cable or junction box will result in Vern's electrocution, and the level will restart.

Collect keys to open doors.  Some doors require more than one key to open... keep an eye on the total keys needed in the upper-left of the HUD.


To do list:

• Title/menu/game over screens
• Game save/continue
• Internalize map files in the .exe
• Enemies to avoid (something simple... no combat)
• A nicer HUD
• Checkpoints
• New traps/puzzle elements (I've got quite a few ideas for this)
• Sound and music
• Hint system (toggleable)
• New jumping/falling animations for Vern
• Eye candy/background elements

Crits and feedback welcome

[Fuzz]

Oh, cool. I played an earlier version in the What Are You Working On? thread, and it was awesome.

[Glyph]

This is really fun, and I like thinking of all the secrets and mazes you could have.
...(level editor?)

[deadeye]

Thanks, guys

...(level editor?)

I haven't ruled it out yet, but honestly it would be pretty low on my list of priorities.  Making a user-friendly level editor would be a lot of work, and right now I just want to concentrate on making a solid game

[Powergloved Andy]

Pretty neat! I really love the main character sprite. The puzzles give you a "holy crap" panic at first until you look at them(specially once the controls start mixing up). I will look forward to this game!

[Fuzz]

One thing that's been nagging me: what does this have to do with the colour green?

[deadeye]

Yeah, I know it means green but "vert" is also Latin for "to turn" :p

The puzzles give you a "holy crap" panic at first until you look at them(specially once the controls start mixing up).

The controls actually don't change... relatively speaking.  It might help to think of left as "clockwise" and right as "counter-clockwise."

[Powergloved Andy]

Yeah, I know it means green but "vert" is also Latin for "to turn" :p

The puzzles give you a "holy crap" panic at first until you look at them(specially once the controls start mixing up).

The controls actually don't change... relatively speaking.  It might help to think of left as "clockwise" and right as "counter-clockwise."

I know I was meaning that once you're in a sideways view left is still left instead of being up. I'm sorry I did not explain.

[deadeye]

To do list:

• Internalize map files in the .exe

I can't believe how easy this was to do.  It took me all of five minutes.  I added two new lines of code and altered one old line... and it worked the first time .  I love it when that happens.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/529356/Vert%20demo%20v0.2.1.exe

No more map files!  It's pretty much the exact same demo as above, though, so not much has actually changed.

[Iamthejuggler]

That was great. Really polished so far, and i love the little dude. I can only imagine how complicated these puzzles are going to get!

[deadeye]

To do list:

• Checkpoints

Checking one more thing off the list

This one didn't go nearly as smoothly as getting rid of the map files did, due to some poor planning.  When you hit a checkpoint, all keys you have collected since the last checkpoint remember they've been picked up.  If you collect a key and then die before hitting a checkpoint, you'll have to collect it again.  Sounds easy enough, but because of the planning issue I had to revamp my level loading, and inadvertently created about five new bugs for myself to squish .  It all seems to be working fine now, though.  I just have to figure out what I want my checkpoints to actually look like (somehow I don't think a purple square with a scribbly letter "c" on it will suffice).

That was great. Really polished so far, and i love the little dude. I can only imagine how complicated these puzzles are going to get!

Thanks .  I have some ideas for tricky maps, and some plans for new puzzle elements.  I also want to have a "token" system for unlocking hard bonus maps.  In some levels there will be an optional token tucked away in a very difficult to reach spot, and if you collect a few then you unlock a new set of maps.  Well, that's the plan, anyway.  The framework to add the content in is already there, I just have to make maps

[alspal]

Awesome project!
One thing I think could be improved is the background bricks. So far you've darkened them to make them appear as if they're further in the distance, however I think it might be good if you also made them a smaller size to make the distance more apparent.