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[davidp]

Infinite Dreams 2 is a sequel to my first publicly released game.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/dpuc/infinite-dreams

The main idea behind the game is to keep it simple and straightforward. It's all about platforming and beating the level and its obstacles - falling spikes, ground spikes, crushers, flying blades, running away from moving spikes wall, etc.

The first one was going on in dreams, where player simply had to reach the end of the levels and eventually game, realizing it was nothing but a nightmare.

The second one is going to have a real storyline (something simple, really, nothing fancy) and the player will have to escape from the dungeon, before being executed (when waking up from the first one, you realize you're actually a captive in some fort or whatever, something along these lines).

The first one was quite simple, gameplay and graphics wise, so I really try to spice things up a bit.

For starters, I updated the original graphics to this:


But I wasn't really happy with it, so I changed it again, to what seems to be the final art direction I'll go with:


Second one kinda fits my art skills, as I'm really sucky when it comes to graphics, so I can't go into details like I tried on first screenshot.

This is what it looks like in motion:




So I'll try update this topic as I go with development.

***

Currently I'm still in a transition mode from tile based levels to more of a "organic" level structure. I've built levels from tiles in previous versions of the engine, but now I more or less place objects for collision and cosmetic stuff and then draw the level in image editing tools, which looks a lot better in my opinion. This also means I'll have to abandon level editor and level sharing idea (increased replayability) I had, but hey, can't have everything.

I'm also trying to implement some sorts of jumping that would support longer and shorter jumps (but not HIGHER), explained here:


It would be like in Prince of Persia where you can jump from standing position or jump longer after running, but not change the height of the jump too much. I'm trying to go for a realistic approach here, so jumping higher, thus making jumps longer, doesn't really apply here.

[JigxorAndy]

I really love the art style! Simple and effective. I'll be following this project for sure

[davidp]

Hey thanks, I really appreciate it, I'm glad you like the style 

***

Day 1

I've been working on 1st level of the game, which will simply feature player waking up from the nightmare of ID1, just to find out you've been locked in a dungeon of some sorts.

1st level will only feature two spikes holes, player will have to jump over, just for introduction.

So this is how I create a level:


1. frame: level editor objects
2. frame: background
3. frame: foreground

4., 5., 6. frame: putting all three layers together - background, objects and foreground.

And then the final product looks like this:



Both levels so far (mockup one in the opening post and the actual one) have fully opaque backgrounds but I'm planning to implement 3 layers of parallax scrolling backgrounds(actually I have, I just need to draw them). I'll try to post those in near future.

[hectorletberg]

Hey there Pucko,

I registered on your forum to follow the process with everyone else and to save you the time of personalizing a response for me

So about the total change in the design of the game. I have to be honest with you, it's a great setback for me, as there is an obvious stylistic regression from the original installment. Thinking about it, I think this kind of design could have worked with the 'prequel' scenario we discussed about earlier. Since it would have been episode zero, a, mh, sketchier approach could have made sense.

I'd really like to know what was wrong with the original design in order to make you redesign the whole thing. Because, I mean, you know it looks way more like doodles now, it's way harder to create something immersive here. If you wanna go down that path, you're gonna need more that 16 colors imo! With what do you draw, btw? What's your drawing process for that new design? I don't know, maybe I could give you a hand with that. I mean, I know you wanna go as simple as possible, this seems to be the motto here, but couldn't the columns have darker/black lines on them to give a minimum of details and pseudo-3d? It's not because you wanna go simple that you can't add a minimum of textures, be it those lines in the columns or some waves in the blues banners, for example.

I thought the original design paid its respect to PoP's simple but effective layout. I guess what I would suggest is that, at least, you try to draw straight lines. Is it me or so much curves make it harder to pinpoint jumps and stuff, the basic difficulty of a platformer like the one you intend to create? A player needs to know the real end of a platform to evaluate his moves, etc. No?

Even though I have no voice per se, I vote for continuity with the original design. I'll keep following this thread, hope you surprise me later on

Keep up the brainstorm! I'm trying to be constructive, here, you know I love your project. Don't forget that

[Franklin's Ghost]

Like seeing the mechanics of how you go about building your stages