next »

[Razz]

more to come!

[Razz]

ah, the first post. fresh beginnings.

first some background (feel free to skip ahead) this game sparked from an idea I had about two months ago, that kept snowballing and snowballing in my head until I couldn't handle it any more. I wanted to make a long-term project like pixel did. it's a really stupid thought but I guess my fascination arrived from the creative rut I was in. I realized that I hadn't discovered my reason for making games, all my projects were short-term ideas that didn't have much depth or value put into them. so I guess this project is more of a soul-search if anything, I want to find my style and really try to make something I'm proud of, not just excited about (like pixel did).

tl;dr im a butt


anyway, onto what I have so far of the actual game. the game will be a 2d platformer with combat elements. as far as what elements the combat will have, I am not certain as I've mostly been working on making standard platforming feel good.

(early screenshot)


I realized early on that I needed some kind of way to make moving platforms despite not knowing how, so I did some research and came across this fantastic article by matt thorson: http://mattmakesgames.tumblr.com/post/127890619821/towerfall-physics -- it really clicked because his method for collision detection is similar to my own.

as for narrative, I have lots of story and world-design concepts in my head right now but I don't want to force them onto my early design so I haven't fleshed them out yet. one thing I know for a fact is that the game will take place on floating islands in the sky as a result of some cataclysm. mixture of modern / fantasy elements may be a thing.

art-design wise I haven't set anything in stone yet, but I find myself gravitating towards the art style of Majora's Mask concept art as I work on this project and mull over the setting in my head.



the straight black shadows with very intense colors used for highlights is something I don't think I've seen used much in pixel art. I will post my attempts at this as they come.

[Razz]

some updates! if you can't tell I like to keep things wordy
e: also im apparently level 4 now 

jumping

I spent quite some time making sure the jumping felt good. typically what I do for jumping is make the jumping speed a static value, and if the player let goes of the jump button when in midair the vertical speed is decreased by a certain factor (usually half). this is something I've lately been trying to forgo for a few reasons. reason one is because, if the player taps the jump button really quickly then the jump will feel completely random due to the 60fps nature of the game, some taps might go much higher than others. reason two extends reason one -- if the player taps the jump button and barely gets any air then short hops become much less intuitive to pull off and emphasis is instead placed on the maximum jump height. and reason three is because it simply doesn't feel good.


in a search to remedy this I played a game known entirely for it's jumping, the mario series ... and I noticed a few things. first, is that when holding the jump button, the gravity seems to be reduced; secondly when the player releases the jump button, gravity seems to return to it's default state which is much stronger than when jumping. this feels nice because it presents an elasticity to jumping, almost like you are defying the gravity rules already established, and it also allows much more control in the air.


so what I did after this research was make it so that the player has two gravity states: a normal gravity state, and a gravity state while jumping that is drastically lower. when the player is holding the a button in the air and moving upwards, apply the jump gravity and when not apply standard gravity. this is really nice and intuitive because it allows me to keep the initial jump speed static, and it also solves the problem of before with tapping the jump button -- now when the player taps the jump button they jump one tile in height and the differences in taps are completely unnoticeable.

camera control


I implemented a smooth camera! the camera is a controller object that during gameplay should be the only instance controlling the view. it has 3 variables for each axes: view_x, target_x and factor_x. view_x is the center point of where the view should be -- in game maker the view's position is determined from the top-left, so this variable is important for framing the action effectively. target_x is where view_x should actually be, this is the variable that is accessed when other objects want to move the view. finally factor_x, this is the speed at which view_x moves towards target_x. then all I do is use the following equation:

view_x += (target_x - view_x) * factor_x

and viola! there is much more going on behind the scenes of how the player object influences target_x, such as separate focus points depending on orientation, but I'm rambling a bit too much at this point so I'll probably save that for another post.