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[moonmagic]

Using aueft's tiny animals, I am making a Zelda-like, starring my erstwhile pet rabbit, Mulder.

The game begins in rabbit heaven, where you can do things that all rabbits want to do (namely, Move Quickly and Eat As Much As You Want).

After awhile, you descend into rabbit limbo, where you will rescue lost rabbits and (eventually) collect parts to build a psychic computer so that you may contact Scully (your rabbit friend you left behind).

--EDIT--

Uploaded a new build. Limbo completely finished; lots of new levels. Four rabbits total. Broken psychic computer with all-new crypto-talk! Also a boss. There is one shortcut if you want to skip to the end.

DOWNLOAD ASSEMBLEE VERSION

DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION

[Melly]

After awhile, you will descend into rabbit limbo, where you will collect parts to build a psychic computer.

Color me intrigued.

[moonmagic]

I made a little mockup. I'm going to predominately use aueft's sprites with easyname's tiles. I know they are platform tiles, but they are quite nice and when they are forced to be top-down tiles they have the ghetto bad-Gameboy-port-of-Toejam-&-Earl look that I am going for.

I'll upload a demo when I've made a level or two. I have thought of some particular rabbit-y abilities I want Mulder to have. I have also decided on NPCs / enemies and feel happy that there is a game inside my idea.

[SirNiko]

When I look at this, I see Quirk the Tomato: the Adventure, and I get really excited.

-SirNiko

[dspencer]

I'm so glad these assets are being used!

[moonmagic]

Added a little test level. It will eventually become the Heaven stage, where you start the game. Movement is working, as well as the rabbit escape. You can go down the stairs to start the level over. If you are feeling morbid, you can press enter to kill yourself.

There's a readme with more details. Not many more, but more. Plus, a ridiculous ASCII logo.

[moonmagic]

Uploaded a demo. Let me know if there are any weird bugs.

--EDIT--

Found lots of bugs caused by setting the level title variables from the stage exits. Weird how they don't seem to show up until the thing is in the wild. Fixed them; added one-way tunnels and fixed tunnel graphics to make caves easier to find.

[moonmagic]

Added sounds. I'm going to try and make some more levels tomorrow, and maybe a new sort of enemy. However, this very well might be the final build before Assemblee.

[moonmagic]

Ok, done for now. Added another level (archipelago) with some teleporters, and another secret room with another bunny. Also added a new enemy (the fly!!) and fixed up some dialogue so that hopefully it makes more sense. Not much more, but more.

No psychic computer. There wasn't time. But I'm basically in the level design phase now, and the game should be finished-finished in another week or so.

[The Greenest Banana]

Pretty interesting. I like how it takes a moment to dig a hole for the enemies to fall into. It requires the player to plan ahead to move forward in the level. The fake out ability is a great way to keep it from being utterly frustrating if you fail at defending yourself, too.

Sadly I could only find one of the other rabbits (the most obvious one). I'll get the other ones eventually!

I hope you'll keep developing it, because I want to see this psychic computer.

[Melly]

Couldn't rescue any of the rabbits. But it's an interesting game. Fairly challenging if you're not careful. I like how you used the sprites and sounds.

[feeblethemighty]

I couldn't rescue a rabbit either.  It's got a good style though.  I thought i trolled through part one ad nauseum but i'm glad to see that there are still some surprises.  Especially with the music.  There's still lots of good music i haven't heard that was made last month.

[moonmagic]

Thanks everyone for your comments! I wanted to make rescuing the rabbits a secondary goal, so that it would be possible to complete the game without finding them, but rewarding and purposeful if you do. At this point, completing the game just takes you back to the beginning, but I do have an ending planned. In addition to populating rabbit heaven, the rabbits act as npcs that (somewhat cryptically) guide the player toward the ending.

I'm excited to continue developing this game. I'd like to have a mix of single-screen challenges and larger, emptier areas, with a halfway point where the player can rest. Soon!

[TheDustin]

I dug the game mechanics, it was a nice change-up having to trap the enemies. It's interesting to be a devious weakling instead of some uber-macho dude. If you wanted to have an item half-way through that upgrades you in true Zelda-fashion that would be cool, and would add a nice sense of progression to it. If you could sneak in a couple more hidden rabbits it would be awesome because the exploration motif really fits the aesthetics.

[moonmagic]

I've been throwing around some ideas for items, but it's been difficult because of the current relationship between Mulder and the monsters. I figure, either I include a health upgrade (or temporary invincibility) to build off of the rabbit escape, or I upgrade the digging to include multiple pits in a row at once (ala

, that PC-Engine Bomberman-alike). Maybe both, at appropriate intervals. I'm open to ideas, at this point. Obviously new enemies would need to be introduced that keep the vulnerability of the game intact, because I want it to feel appropriately rabbit-y.

My original intent has always been to have eight rabbits in the game, with each rabbit being a sort of mini-dungeon in itself.

I've finished another enemy type, to introduce some tension to hiding. I'll try to have some levels worked up with the new guy (sort of a hovering, teleporting squid-bat?) by next week, and maybe the last rabbit for limbo.

[SirNiko]

I just played through this. The engine is good, although it's clear there's not much game yet.

In true gamer fashion, I started without reading the readme, so I had no clue why I was picking up the green and red pellets. The rabbit seemed happy to get them, though. I later realized the red pellets were some sort of decoy, although I never needed to use them.

I went through the cave in the bottom left, and navigated the second screen easily. The second screen was a little tougher, as it wasn't clear that there are spikes after the bridge. They really don't stand out much. It took me a minute to realize it was them, no poor hit detection on the monster, that killed me.

The question mark stage was the hardest, since that was the first time I had to use my digging ability. It took a few tries to get the hang of digging a hole and luring a monster into it. I feel like the game would be improved if there were more visual clues to indicate when a monster can see you and want to chase you. A cone of vision would be ideal.

The last two screens were simple. Then I looped back to the start, and began to wonder what I'd done wrong.

I swam in the water on the start screen, and got pulled down the waterfall. Unlike the falls on the second screen, this one took me to a new area. However, my rabbit got stuck against a wall and became unable to move, with the current preventing him from moving back, and the wall preventing him from swimming forward. I was forced to close the game at that point.

No rabbits rescued.

This could be fun, though the hide mechanism is hard to use. It'd be nice if the rabbit's animation would clue the player in to how close you are to cloaking, so you can confirm the timing. A lot of times I'd back off what I thought was far enough, but the monster would eat me before cloaking kicks in. If I'd known my cloak wasn't going to trigger, I could have run and survived.

You should keep working. It's a good start, and has potential.

-SirNiko

[moonmagic]

Thanks for the feedback, SirNiko. The hide ability is actually active as soon as Mulder crouches; I added the fade as a visual cue that the rabbit was not visible. Monsters should stop and look around as soon as he is hiding, but perhaps I should make the cloak instantaneous.

Vision cones are a good idea. It would be simpler to implement than what I have been using, as well.

Now that the contest is over, I might black out the spikes, or do something else to make them easier to see. All of the modifications to the sprites were achieved using draw_sprite_part() up until now. I'm assuming that you walked through the spikes on The Bridge, rather than trapping the monster? I had meant that level to be impassable without trapping, but oh well.

I'll look into the pools on the second screen; rivers should always push you into a pool to allow you to swim out of them.

[SirNiko]

I did complete the level without trapping the monster. It wasn't until the question mark level that I got stuck and checked the readme to figure out the keys. That's when I discovered the dig command.

I understand the moment he crouches is when he hides, but it's not clear how long it takes from stopping and then the hide activating. I'd envision something like a little bar that pops up over mulder's head, and when the bar is full hide activates. If I'm being chased by a monster and stop to hide, I can do a quick calculation in my head based on the speed of the monster and the speed of the bar to see which will get there first, and then choose to commit to the hide or run and try again.

-SirNiko

[moonmagic]

Posted a build with vision cones for the monsters; also, a hide meter. Let me know how it goes.

[Oddball]

Liked: Cute feel to the game. Interesting pacifistic gameplay.

Disliked: Some gameplay elements made little sense, hey pills, decoys, etc. Spikes are hard to see. The question mark level made no sense, and there was no indication how to progress. I only got past it through trail and error. I could only rescue one bunny!? I went through what I assumed was all the levels and arrived back at the beginning without meeting any bunnies. So I did all the levels again this time searching them all thoroughly and still nothing. It was only by chance that discovered you can surf the rivers, and that's when I found the bunny. Are there any more bunnies?

Conclusion: Likeable, but a little confusing and frustrating.