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[ScaryPotato]

I'm not really sure how this will work, but thought it was worth the try...I just put a post up on reddit in the hopes of maybe generating some interest with some other people. It would be super awesome if anyone who reads this would take the time to go and take a look at it. If you like it, vote it up and we'll see what happens!


Adventure Apes on Reddit


Hopefully this isn't breaking any sort of rules with TIGsource. If it is though, let me know and I'll remove it.

Thanks!

[ScaryPotato]

Some more changes have been made, woo hoo!

-The piranhas have been tweaked so they circle around properly after you move out of range

-Screen resolution has been embiggened to be played at 300% rather than 200% in the previous releases.

-I got rid of the doors leaving the boss rooms, simply to make things more challenging.

-The second boss (Arachnomax) now shoots an array of exploding egg-bombs at you!

-Arachnomax's spiderlings now occasionally drop powerups when you shoot 'em.

-The Time and Score HUD elements are gone now. As was pointed out a while back, they really served no purpose.

-A bunch of other things I can't remember, hmm, plants and weeds can no longer be blown up (t looked kind of like a glitch whenever it happened, so it's gone).



If you could try out the latest version of the game and let me know what you think, that would be awesome! Just click on the picture and have fun:)

[FK in the Coffee]

Hopefully this isn't breaking any sort of rules with TIGsource. If it is though, let me know and I'll remove it.

Hey, bro, it's your game.  You have the right to promote it wherever you want to promote it.

[ScaryPotato]

Thanks ThePortalGuru, I'm still kind of new here, so want to make sure that I'm not stepping on any toes by blatantly mentioning content on other sites 



Anyhow, here's a quick checklist for things that I still need to work on for the game:

-Get around to finishing the songs, and add a couple more sound effects

-Draw the rest of the intro story images (4)

-Fix a bug found with rolling

If anyone finds some glaring issues with the game, please let me know!

[ScaryPotato]

Here is a quick little teaser video I whipped up to show one of the additional levels (to be added once the demo is all polished off)...

[ScaryPotato]

It's been a while, but not for lack of progress...I have a new (final?) demo version of the game ready with lots of updates:

-The story/poem intro illustrations are finished! <---This was a big hurdle for me
-Pleasing muzac added to the illustrations
-Funky reggae song for the first level (far superior to the previous song!)
-Level 2(Skull Demon's temple) is full of decorative skulls!
-Correct messages appear when trying to get into a treasure chest
-Smoother transitions from room to room
-Game is played at 200% scale (rather than 300%) since it seems to be a nicer visual fit for the game
-and lastly, but not leastly....

The view 'lags' slightly behind the player's movement, so all the sudden jumping/falling actions aren't quite so jarring as before.

There might be a couple adjustments made in the next few days, but this is basically the finished project, unless there are some glaring errors that make themselves known...

Anyhow, here's a link, now go try it out, or you'll make Mitch angry!




Click here to get one, or all of the different iterations of the game

[ScaryPotato]

Bah! All the little details drive me crazy...here is another update, adding to the last batch of awesomeness:

-You can't die if you venture too far into the ocean in the first room (you are blocked, but the school of vicious salt water piranhas should help steer you clear)

-There was originally a little Angel-Mitch vs. Devil-Horatio mini-game when you lost all your lives. I've replaced it with this:




Try my game, I bet you'll like it:)

Download link

Older versions are to be had here. Contrast and compare!

[Schrompf]

I just gave it a try, and here's what I have to tell you:

- A single executable, can be run right from the archive. Great.
- windowed mode, usually on top of bright desktop. Bad. Make it fullscreen
- really cool graphics, and I really liked the rhymes in the intro
- It's good that you always tell which keys do what - they're are plenty, and I hate to test every key just to advance
- The game started. Looks cool.
- Throwing things destroys them? Why?
- Everything moves blocky... is the framerate artificially kept low? Please don't do this.
- I saw the chest down below, jumped into the water to the left, and noticed, that there's NOTHING you can do to get away from the fish. Under water it's just as fast as me, leading to a permanent "ouch" sound and quick demise.
- I restarted and walked to the right instead, missed the middle platform a few times because the controls felt so blocky, fell into the water and had to visit the fishes over and over again. That's where I decided to end the game.
- "Escape" doesn't work, no "Close" button on the window, Alt+F4 doesn't work, and even no reaction to WM_QUIT when I tried to kill it from the task manager... Srsly? No game is allowed to do this, not even overhyped 50€ triple-A productions, and even less so indie games.

I think you've already got an impressive piece of gaming there, but please improve the usability.

[ScaryPotato]

Thanks Schrompf, for taking the time to write all that out! I've made some changes that I hope will make the game a little more enjoyable...

-You can resize the window to whatever you want, rather than being a fixed scale
-The Minimize/Maximize/Close buttons are back in the border (hitting Esc should always let you quit the game though, not sure if that was a glitch you experienced, or if I messed up somewhere, it's not something I've experienced at all)
-The underwater chest/fish issue is remedied, by only having one fish, and keeping it further away  from where you need to go.
-Framerate is set to 24fps, which I know is unorthodox in the digital world, but I've used that timing for any animations. It shouldn't be noticeably clunky unless the game lags though?
-The tossed blocks are destroyed because they're meant to be crusty little dilapidated  chunks left over from construction of the temple, and don't have much structural integrity left:)

I think most of the stuff is fixed, except the blocky actions, which I'm assuming are a factor of the 24fps. My hope is that the average game player won't find it too troublesome...hmm, I may try to add a little slide when you come to a stop, maybe that would smooth it out a little?

Better post this before I fall asleep! Thanks again Shrompf for the thorough summary:)



Download Link

[Dugan]

Heya - had a quick play and here are some notes that may be of use.


1. Piranha near the start, it moves at your speed so you can die very easily - maybe make it pause after bites or something similar so its motion is broken up.

2. The treasure chest wasn't that obvious to me under the start position, perhaps add a sparkle particle to it to draw attention, or make it so you have to pass by it (as it teaches you to look out for keys with its help text).

3. Laser gun - once the gun runs out of ammo I could see a way to get more ammo, would be nice if there were ammo pickups lying about, or if it recharged.

4. I found I got lost easily, anyway to add a map as the levels feel pretty huge?


Its a cute looking game though, just feels like it has a few rough edges that need smoothing out 

[ScaryPotato]

Thanks Dugan for giving my game a try!

I've actually had a few complaints about the piranha. My intention for it being there was originally to keep people away from the far left of the screen...the piranhas are slower now, and for that first part, you only have to deal with a slow pinchy-crab (much more managable!)

Your idea to force the player into walking by the treasure chest is something I hadn't thought of, and is better than the setup I had. It's been updated

This latest version doesn't have a map, but it does have a Tip system implemented, where you can ask Dr. A or Otis for help on where you need to go to next. I'm planning on making a new version of the instruction booklet, and will be putting some little drawings of each level in there. In the meantime, I do have compiled screenshots that form each level hidden away here: Maps and things

Download Link

[ScaryPotato]

Also Dugan, I should note your astute observation about the lack of powerups for the laser weapon! The whole powerup system has been revamped now. I may go in and modify it down the road to make it a little less likely to get something from enemies, but it doesn't seem too bad at this point 

[ScaryPotato]

A couple final tweaks were made to the game recently, and now I'm calling the demo version done!

-The powerup system has been modified a little, so that your odds of getting ammo for your current weapon are a bit higher than anything else.

-There are two kinds of powerups: large and small. Large ones are scattered through levels, and are also dropped randomly by bosses when you defeat one

-The second boss (Arachnomax) now has spiderlings that move at variable speeds, and her eyes flash red before she spits her bombs at you (so you actually have a chance of dodging for cover!)



And with that, I'm going to start working on  the full version of the game:)

Some interesting news is that the game had a video review done recently by RockLeeSmile. He went really in depth with it, and played the game through past the first boss while doing his commentary. Very cool stuff!

Here is a direct link to the latest game file if you'd like to try it out!

Download link

[ScaryPotato]

So I've been offline for a while, doing a little instruction manual that you will be able to download off the website soon. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the weekend, and should be a nice little addition to the game. Right now, all the items, enemies, and bosses are drawn, so it's just a matter of adding a few other illustrations, adding text, and formatting it to be read off screen or printed out...here's the cartoony goodness so far, hope you like it

Items



Enemies



Bosses

[Windybeard]

The Artwork is awesome! this game looks amazing! Congrats! (Lots of !, its a good thing!)

[shao]

Hello, I've been playing, these Are My impressions:

I like:
- The sound (except for damage).
- The animations and the graphics in general.
- The controls Also seem correct.

Yet there is something That in my opinion it pales to the game and I have gone Many Levels-through doing something relevant to the story or character, all I did WAS coins and kill enemies take. Perhaps injecting some important event more often may increase the interest.

Encouragement and greetings!.

Edit: One moment, the game is finished? Ouch!.

[Hima]

Downloading the game right now. Is this finished or you mean demo is finished?

[ScaryPotato]

Windybeard - Thanks, now the hard part of promotion begins!

shao - Yeah, the damage sound can get a little irritating, maybe I'll go in and make it a little more low key. I think the reason the game lacked any strong purpose for you is because there was no real description of the different items in the game. I've addressed that by making an instruction booklet full of pictures and information on the game:)

Hima - It's just the demo that's finished at this point. But perhaps I should knock the status back down to 90%, I was super excited about actually finishing the demo! Sorry for any confusion


Like I mentioned to shao, I've done up a little instruction manual that explains the basics of the game (items/enemies/bosses), and even has maps for each level in case you get lost, or want to see how fast you can run through the game!
If you right-click on the pics below, you can download a copy

[ScaryPotato]

Well, this sucks.

Last week, I sent an application for submittal to Desura to put my demo on their site. Reading through their requirements, I felt confident that my game would be accepted.

Unfortunately though, that wasn't the case. Lack of quality and gameplay were cited as reasons for it not being accepted, along with the fact that there are already lots of platform/exploration games to be found there.

Definitely a bummer! I'm still working away on the game and hope to have the 'game' portion of it done this week, finishing up the illustrations etc by the end of July.

I'll be looking around for other sites that wouldn't mind hosting my game in the meantime...if you have any suggestions, PLEASE let me know! 

[poe]

They said no to me because of the name not being marketable / not good enough graphics.
Sorta a catch 22 since I wanted to sell the game to get money to buy graphics

So don't beat yourself up, this only means you have to make your game better which won't hurt anyone