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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsBridges of the Mertynn
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Author Topic: Bridges of the Mertynn  (Read 18203 times)
Μarkham
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« on: April 10, 2009, 10:58:57 PM »

5/19/09 - Changed topic title since the first "working title" was too long and wouldn't let me add anything else.

Terrestrial-Based Game With Tiles That Fall When You Step On Them Too Much
(working title)
It's like this game I made back in 2003, Outer-Space Game With Tiles That Fall When You Step On Them Too Much, except it won't suck and I actually know how to program correctly.

This time there will be a story/puzzle mode, a randomized-level high score mode, and a level editor that lets you submit levels to an online database.  As the title suggests, it will take place on a planetary surface rather than the void of space.  I also plan to leave out the random chance boxes and the ability to walk right off the edge, since they caused a lot of accidental deaths.

The general premise is that the Mertynn defend their villages by building these ridiculously complicated bridges and you have to guide some random Mertynn trying to get home.

In-game video:
May 19:



Pictures I posted that aren't on the first page of this topic:

Slightly-related pictures:
Newer designs of the character species (Mertynn):

(These are from other projects that involve the same characters, and won't be the graphics used in this game)


Dev Log up until now:

March 22nd: Spent a few hours getting a testable level object set up.  Start and end tiles are added, but no path is intentionally made between the two.


March 28th: Levels now generate a path from start to stop and generate tiles next to paths and already generated tiles.


April 10th: Player object added, basic game functionality added.


The screen shots will get more interesting when I start replacing the programmer art.

And now I probably won't touch the project for another week as I deal with finals and other work I need to do.
« Last Edit: October 02, 2011, 10:00:15 PM by Μarkham » Logged

JLJac
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« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2009, 10:25:49 AM »

Looks good! The grafics looks a bit(too much?) like nifflas stuff, have you checked it out? Will be interesting with the generation engine, I always feel admiration for people who have the patience to write stuff like that. I love the title, you should keep it!
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Iamthejuggler
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« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2009, 11:09:21 AM »

Looks good man. The title made me burst out laughing. :D

Looking forward to watching the progress.
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Μarkham
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« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2009, 12:19:40 PM »

Looks good! The grafics looks a bit(too much?) like nifflas stuff, have you checked it out?

Yeah, the first two pics are just more recent designs of the character to show progress from the one from 5 years ago:

None of them will be used in the game.  Funny you should mention Nifflas, though, because that first one was made with a tileset that I made for Knytt Stories, and is one of about five tilesets I made that is included in Knytt Stories.  Wink
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Inanimate
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« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2009, 12:32:01 PM »

This sounds interesting! I assume it takes palce on the ground, and standing on the tiles makes them fall?  Wink
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Μarkham
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« Reply #5 on: May 03, 2009, 08:09:19 PM »

Finals are over, moved back to California, and finally got a "new" desk in my room.  Time to get working again! Grin


Started replacing some of the programmer art.  Tiles are started, but I think there needs to be more variation in the tiles.  I also need to shrink them a bit so that they aren't overlapping too much.

Also trying to come up with a name.  So far I've got:
Puzzle Bridges
The Mertynn Puzzle Bridge
Bridges of the Mertynn
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Frog
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« Reply #6 on: May 03, 2009, 10:57:32 PM »

How about "The Land of Architecturally Unsound Bridges"?
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Loren Schmidt
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« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2009, 11:29:43 PM »

Ah, this looks like fun. The tiles in the last screenshot look nice, by the way. I wonder if you shouldn't have more indication of type than just color. Color could be a bit confusing and result in a few unfair setbacks.
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Μarkham
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« Reply #8 on: May 08, 2009, 11:18:58 PM »

Since having a level editor would make making levels for the puzzle/story mode way easier, not to mention help me make any progress after putting in the main menu, I started the level editor.



Now I just need to write a toString method that will form the data that will be stored in the levels and also allow the game to send user-created levels to the database server.

I also added white and black pillar tiles, since the normal six didn't allow me to tile Quote.  I'll also need to figure out how to extend the tile pallet for people who want to make artistic levels like this, while not confusing people playing the levels.  One way would be to have the script detect for extra tiles and tag it for an art/"high score challenge" category while the others get tagged for a puzzle category.
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Μarkham
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« Reply #9 on: May 19, 2009, 04:00:11 PM »

Game engine/level editor demo video:




Editor now compiles level data into a string, which can be used to save user-made levels in an online database, or (right now) sent to be decoded by the level containing object and played by the user. (I think I've got five consecutively-nested "for" loops in the level encoder redundancy-prevention script.  Checkstyle would have thrown a fit if I were using it. :D)

Also, I programmed in some of the puzzle-element objects and the linking system to make them work.

Depending on how the user lays out the tiles, a 18x12 (maximum) sized level could take up between 20-113 bytes with no puzzle-object linking, up to 221 if the player covers the entire thing with special tiles.  The linking system has some redundancy checking to prevent possible malicious users from making huge space-wasting levels, but if they're careful, they can probably still get it close to 7kb, which would still take a while to make and is still an insignificant enough size.
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Inanimate
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« Reply #10 on: May 19, 2009, 09:03:04 PM »

The addition of a level editor makes this a lot cooler!
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Μarkham
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« Reply #11 on: June 09, 2009, 05:56:51 PM »



I spent a lot of time getting more of the visual stuff working.  I spent a week on the grass alone, or at least it felt like it did.  I don't like how the pillars are coming out.  I thought I could fake a sense of perspective, but it doesn't look like its working.

This is going a lot slower than I had thought it would.
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Lynx
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« Reply #12 on: June 10, 2009, 03:02:19 PM »

Coming along very well though, I like the clean, stylized art look you've got going on here.  Excellent use of tiling art to suggest 3d-ness.
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« Reply #13 on: June 10, 2009, 11:55:29 PM »

My name is Mert and I do not take kindly to you using my name for your petty project.








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Frog
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« Reply #14 on: June 11, 2009, 12:47:47 AM »

I think if you have the pillars fade into fog it would look much better.
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Μarkham
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« Reply #15 on: June 11, 2009, 04:39:05 PM »


Started walk cycle animations.
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JasonPickering
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« Reply #16 on: June 11, 2009, 08:33:30 PM »

I agree that having the pillars fade into fog would really help. As for the walk cycle I really like it but it's perspective does not match the perspective of the world you've created. I feel like it should be much more top down.
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Μarkham
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« Reply #17 on: June 25, 2009, 01:29:02 PM »

Haven't had much time to work on this for a couple weeks, but here's some sketches I made last Friday:

The upper left is an idea on how to make the pillars look better by widening the base a little and adding shadows at the bottom.

The rest of it are concept sketches of the Skeksis-influenced birdosaur villain that will show up later in the puzzle/story mode.
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Μarkham
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« Reply #18 on: June 25, 2009, 09:35:45 PM »

Redid the pillars, put in shadows, and it seems to look better already.  I think more improvement will come when I put in canyon details, like tiny forests and meadows, with little trees overlapping some of the pillar bases.  Here's the old and the new for comparison:




Also, I just love working with Flash CS4.  It was made by such competence.  You really outdid yourselves this time, Adobe.
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« Reply #19 on: June 25, 2009, 11:04:21 PM »

I like the progression! Looks nice.
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