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[Jamo]

Yeah I agree 100%, at the minute they just generate randomly, I haven't had time to build the proper algorithm for them yet. Later on they will generate to match the terrain, so it should fit in a lot better! They will also have different styles depending on the zone, so they should be less generic looking.

Maybe they could be a super common treasure instead of a coin, or sit them on the floor instead of them floating, something to make them more part of the scene.

[Graham-]

yeah.

[JobLeonard]

Yeah, the game is pretty fast paced and arcadey, very much a high score chaser, as the temple starts crumbling as soon as you get take the first treasure, so the goal is to get as far as you can before you get pulled off the screen or hit something that kills you.

Like in Warioland 4?

In general it sounds more like the Warioland games than Super Mario Bros/Land/World/Galaxy to me...

[Bandreus]

Coins might or not work for you, depending on the kind of gameplay you want to deliver.

You see, it's not only a matter of "let's put coins into the game cause the game is about score".

In Super Mario games, for instance, Coins serve many purposes in those games: they give a clue about where the player needs to go, or where a secret may be hidden, or they can be a mean through which teaching the player how to use specific mechanics (trail of coins going up into the sky right after a raccoon suit is found in SMB3).

That's something achieved with great level design and can be an incredibly powerful thing to use.

Use trail of coins to guide the player through a level (maybe in the "escamping from collapsing temple" segments of the game only?).

If you on the other hand want to instead convey more on mystery and exploration, use a slightly different approach (since collecting coins doesn't really feel that special if they can be found around every corner). Make coins harder to find. Maybe place chests in hidden places of the level and, if the player can track those down, make a gazillion coins erupt from then when they're opened.

Just a few tips.

You might be interested in this excellent article by Radek Koncewicz about how level design is used in SMB3 in order to achieve many great things: http://www.significant-bits.com/super-mario-bros-3-level-design-lessons

[Graham-]

good tips, link.

[Jamo]

Yeah I guess it is more like warioland, especially with the focus on treasure.

Bandreus, thanks for the link, and I agree with what you are saying. I think this will come into play later on when I have the proper placement in the game. As it is at the minute it places them randomly, just so that I could get them working, but later they will be placed for things like leading the player and showing the path to secrets, similar to SMB.

There is also an area that is a burial ground discovered under stonehenge. In this zone there will be chests, that are either full of coins or a rare treasure, which you have to get a key firsts to open. It's a bigger risk as you can only carry one treasure at a time and the key takes your treasure slot up, but the reward is much greater. I could put this onto the other levels, but I'm not sure yet.

EDIT
I just got my IndieDB profile for the game up and running, come join in on there!
http://www.indiedb.com/games/dr-bones-and-the-mystery-somethingorother

[Bandreus]

I'm now following Dr. Bones on IndieDB.

Also, since we tossing Wario Land around, you might also be interested in this astonishing series of article about almost every design element in Wario Land 4: http://danielprimed.com/wario-land-4-project/

Lots of stuff in there, but I hope you can find something useful.

[Jamo]

Thanks for following it, and thanks for the link, it looks great! I'll give it a read over lunch.

[Jamo]

Hi everyone,
to help fund the development of Dr. Bones, our first game Amp, Watts & Circuit for PC and Mac has gone Pay What you like!
Support Jamo Games and pick up our first title at a bargain price!
http://indievania.com/games/amp-watts-circuit

Also a quick update showing a boss monster -

[Jamo]

Meant to do this a bit more often than I have been, so I'll try to remedy that, but for now, here is the Dr. Bones update!


Look Out!

There are now a bunch of traps in the Tibet and Egypt zones that weren't there before. The idea is to make each zone as different as possible, with mechanics that differentiate them from each other. I don't want to give away every new mechanic in the game, as that would spoil the fun of playing them for yourself, but I can share some of them with you now.


Child Yeti

I'm sure that by now you have seen a yeti that will run after you if you are too close. You may have been wondering where yetis come from, or why there are only adult yetis. Most likely you haven't, but I think about these things. Now you can lay your worries to rest, as children yetis are now here to pelt you to death with snowballs! Much better..

This is the sprite sheet for the yeti. A snowball is created when he is on frame 14, which kills Dr. Bones if it hits him.




Flame Pillar

The flame pillar is featured in the Egypt zone, and acts like the normal pillar, except that it will kill the player if you touch it, so it requires a bit more precise control to get past compared to the normal pillar. Fire is a tricky thing to animated, and I was pretty happy with how this turned out. I took a look at games that really know how to do pixelated fire and explosions, like Metal Slug. Here is the animated fire.



You might notice that the animations looks cut off along the top. This is because it needs to fit within the space between the two platforms, I didn't want the flame to spill over into the upper level. I might put some pixel art or animations tutorials together when I get some time if someone requests it, or a study of pixel animation from other games, as it is something that I am pretty much doing anyway, but without the write up!

There is also a bunch of other new stuff that I will post over the coming week, but for now its back to work! I hope you like what you see, please drop me some comments with what you like, what you don't and what you would like to see Dr. Bones up against!

[KingSlizzard]

Love the art and general theme!
You can do a lot of crazy cool puzzles

[Jamo]

Love the art and general theme!
You can do a lot of crazy cool puzzles

Thanks! It's been a while since I came on the forums, so sorry for the late reply!

I have an update to the game on my blog that you can get to here - http://blog.jamogames.com/2012/10/dr-bones-update.html

[aftslash]

This looks super cool!

[Jamo]

This looks super cool!

You are too kind! If you want to keep up to date and share your opinion on the game so far then I'd love you to come and start posting on my blog! I have a cool new posting system now to help conversation between good people like yourself! There is also a ton of advice and articles of interest to indies that you might like to read.

http://blog.jamogames.com/2012/10/dr-bones-update.html

[Jamo]

A Royal Invitation -

----------------------------------------------
Dr Bones' Gentlemanly Retreat, a members only club in SlideDB. Come check it out to sit around the fireplace trading tall tales about what you swear you saw in Egypt that one time.

I totally believe you.

http://www.slidedb.com/games/dr-bones-and-the-mystery-somethingorother/forum
------------------------------------------------

[Jamo]

I really don't update this do I...

The project was put on the backburner for quite a while because of other work commitments, but I'm finishing it off now.

This is a shot of the revised menu screen, much easier to use than the old one, especially on smaller screens.

[Jamo]

Another bit of menu update for Dr. Bones. You can now flick through the pages of his passport to decide what leve you want to visit!

There is a different page for each level, that is unlocked when you get the relevant treasure map.

Most of the menu has been updated now, just the inventory screen where you can decide what costume to wear, so Ill move on to that next.

[Jamo]

These are some app icons for the game. I zoomed in the image at lower resolutions so that you can still make out the details.