[-Ludum Dare #35.]

I'm terrible at updating! But a lot has happened.

First things first

-Ludum Dare #35.
I participated for the second time and I'm pretty happy with my submission. Play and rate if you can!
The Night Shift



-I've updated the demo and the OP
It includes a cave/underwater themed level and I'd say 1/3 more content than before. Try it out! Feedback is as always very much appreciated!

Download(Itch.io)
Download(gamejolt.com)



-Switched from 30 to 60 fps
I've never really cared about fps that much but after trying it out, I just couldn't go back. There was no excuse to keep going with 30. It was kind of a pain to make the switch but it looks so much better.

-Started work on a teaser trailer 
Well, started thinking about it at least.

That's all for now!

Submitted! Very happy with it! I wish I always could be as productive as I am during Ludum Dare. Too tired to play anything at the moment though. Good luck everyone!

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=47199

Last LD was my first. Definitely in again!

Crab boss!

[magical 8-bit]

Hey, very cool project! Listened to the OST, and you've definitely got some nice stuff on there. Curious what programs/vsts you used to create the sounds? Some of them are very reminiscent of the 16-bit era. Children of God was probably my favorite all around, but lots of nice tracks

Thanks! My setup is actually very consistent and pretty limited. It is a conscious decision I've made.

Cubase is my DAW.

For the 8-bit sounds I mostly use magical 8-bit which is a nice little freeware vst (I also use one called ymVST). I put some delay on there to make it less dry since I don't think pure 8-bit really fits the game.

My most used lead instrument is the triangle wave from that vst, most often doubled (or in counterpoint) with a pan flute (KORG M1).

One of my biggest inspirations for the sound is probably Seiken densetsu 3 for the SNES. 16-bit era J-RPG music in general are a big inspiration since I loved those soundtracks when I was younger.





Bass and rock organ are HALionOne. Rock organ is another instrument you hear a lot in stuff like the FF-series and Chrono trigger.





Lastly, for the orchestral stuff I use Miroslav Philharmonik. If you're going for realism there is definitely better sounding stuff out there. But I like to use miroslav because it's not very performance heavy and doesn't require a huge sample library. I don't mind a less realistic sound for this anyway.

In other news, I've got bats swoopin', fish chompin', frogs swimmin' and squids squirtin'. I have one more enemy type in mind for the caves and some work on the background but after that I'm set to begin with the level design.

Looking good!

I like the overall composition and color contrast of the first one more, personally (with her looking out). The other one looks a bit too dark and gloomy to me although I do realize there might be a point to that. The de-saturation and re-saturation of color seems to be a theme in the game so I played around with that a bit to see if it would look more interesting.
 


I dunno, maybe it's just distracting. Not sure if the image can even be animated?

Looks beautiful! The screentone effect is really cool!

Cave/underwater level

[MUSIC: Dank Passage]

Made some good progress this week. Been working on assets for the second level which will be cave/water themed. Still need some more enemies and I want to add a bit more depth to the background.
 

MUSIC: Dank Passage

Implemented some water physics but it probably needs some tweaking.


I've also decided I want a special companion to team up with at some point in each level (in addition to charm). It's just fun to have some support and it gives me an excuse to add some more characters. I'll try to make them all different from each other though, some might help you fight, some might help with other things.



Companion AI in action.


And finally, so here's this giant enemy crab. I have some big plans for it and I hope I'll figure out how to do it all. The sprite is pretty huge so I have to split it up for one thing. And yes, I realize that the design looks kinda.. Freudian . I didn't when I drew it, I swear. I kinda like it though. Will it have a weak point to attack for massive damage? Probably.

Definitely see touches of Space funeral in the aesthetics and you really brought it to life with the animation. Looks awesome!

[Pools of Creation Demo (Windows only)Link: DropboxMirror:Mediafire]

Hello my neglected thread! Demo has been done for a while. I've been doing some local testing which has gone over pretty well. I've gotten some good feedback and made some changes (nothing big though). Had another testing session planned but it got postponed and I don't want to delay posting it here any longer. So here you go!

Pools of Creation Demo (Windows only)
Link: Dropbox
Mirror:Mediafire

I'm pretty happy with it. Play time is about 45-60 minutes usually.

Feedback is very much appreciated. Also, please tell me if it runs ok or if you have any performance issues as well as if you encounter any bugs or spelling errors.

[(failed)]

This is the weirdest character ever. But cute!

Thanks !

It's definitely a case of character design coming first and then trying to build a game around it and I've had my fair share of headache around that, mostly because of how wide it is. I wouldn't really recommend a shape like that for a platform game but eh, it works now I think and I like that it is a bit different. The basis for it was an old doodle I did years ago and I made it an enemy in my first ever (failed) attempt to make a game. Might talk about that project at some point since I still have the assets and some of the designs have carried over to this game.



The idea to shoot parts of yourself came heavily inspired by the SNES game Plok! My original idea was that you only had those two shots and then had to pick up the pieces before you could shot again but I realized I wanted to do something more fast-paced so I just added the "grow" mechanic.

Plok! also has arguably one of the best 16-bit soundtracks out there, but then again, I'm a huge Tim Follin fan and am definitely musically inspired by his stuff.

Anyway, quick update on the demo. First draft is done, from beginning to end! There is some work left on the aesthetics and there is still the audio to look over (which I'm doing tomorrow). After that I'm letting some friends test it locally to snap up any glaring problems there might be before I let it loose on you guys. But it's getting there!

Now I need to get to bed.


 

 

Heart shaped boost platforms

[fun]

My take on level design is that, be ready to do alot of different layouts and scrap them again, then redo it.

You are right. I've really wanted to get this demo out but I should probably not rush what is arguably the most important. Good design is not only making the game intuitive but actually fun as well. I'm really happy to finally be working with the actual level design but in doing that I've already noticed quite a few things I'd like to change in how the game plays. 

Or like, do alot of different scenarios, and by scenario i mean; some levels might be jump "themed", or some might have alot of straight running, or some might have alot of hazards, and some might have alot of enemies in them.

And then when you're done with designing all those different levels, kinda mix them together, so they have elements from each scenario / theme. But then again, you dont want to start too hard out or punishing out, you wanna slowly ramp up the difficulty, so the player get a feeling of being "safe" in your game, and then slowly throw them out in more dangerous areas.

That's an interesting approach actually. And yes you really have to think about the difficulty. I think the game is easy now but I know you can never rely on yourself for these things . I also try to introduce every new element under pretty safe conditions before they're used in challenging way. 
 
Some stuff I've re-thought after starting with the level-design:

Player health - You no longer get only one size smaller when you get hit. You always go to the smallest size. The reason is I don't want the player to be able to just tank hits and run past enemies during the invincibility frames and just regrow. I rather make this change instead of adding tons and tons of enemies in the way as an alternative solution.

Enemies - I don't want them to just be fodder you can take care of from a safe distance. I might change the range of the main attack/weapon which right now is almost unlimited but I'm thinking of different approaches too.

The owl for example used to just oscillate up and down and I thought that was fine for an early enemy but when you have a ranged attack it kinda just becomes a glorified breakable wall, and that's boring to me. So instead, now it chases you if disturbed. I also made a version that flies above you and drops a bone.



You no longer damage the mushrooms with your shots, but rather push them to a spikey death.



I also made these boost-platforms which are pretty fun. They brake if you're the biggest size and boost you otherwise.

   

[audio_sound_get_track_position]

Yeah I've not had a proper in depth chat with Patrick about it yet but I'm pretty confident we'll come up with a good solution (which I'll obviously share with all of you good people!)

You're using gamemaker right? As far as coding, it shouldn't be too complicated at least. As long as you have several music tracks with different moods you could play one at full volume and another at 0. Then you just switch the volume of the tracks or fade them into each other like you were thinking.

There is also audio_sound_get_track_position and audio_sound_set_track_position to play a track at a given time position if you want to avoid several tracks playing at the same time.

Music sounds great by the way!

   

[protip]

Hey guys! Thanks for the tips! Yes, Mario games are always relevant when it comes to platforming. I've been playing Shovel Knight too which has some really great design. I'm also looking at shooters since having a range attack does change the design approach a bit.

Regarding platformer design, you probably already know about these but I'd suggest:
In fact I'd recommend reading everything you can find by Anna Anthropy that discusses level design. I found it extremely insightful and helpful, so you may do too.

Pixel prospector has some good articles on platformer design too, so I'd recommend visiting there.

Will definitely check this out!

Anyway I'm back home and working on the demo. Been dealing with some annoying bugs and trying to keep some event triggers in check. Also protip, never use characters like "Ö" in anything .

The name change is now official and I reworked the title screen and did away with the standard menu.

Tutorial area is pretty much done. I went with simple button prompts for the basic controls. At least it doesn't stop the gameplay. There is also some narrative in there to make it feel like there is a reason to do stuff other than just for the sake of learning the controls.

Next up is designing an actual level with some challenge, but after that all that's left is looking over the audio, some play testing and hopefully just some minor polish .

If you'd like to play test before official release just contact me and I'll send you a build when everything is put together.

There actually is! It's good to see you couldn't get past this part. This way we can improve the level design. What you had to do is trigger a certain combination and use the product to help you jump higher! ;-)

I just noticed the gif in the opening post where a timed jump is used with the t.bomb . Is that still the solution? Although that's just a single powerup isn't it, not a combination? I kept trying to jump on the bomb bubble combination thing but that didn't seem to work. 

This is main;y a bug catching exercise before I start finalising levels for the prologue I want to release during the campaign, so would you have more time in a couple of week perhaps as it'd be good to get your impressions then?

Yeah, I can wait!

Is there any more after the robot boss? I seemed to have no way to go after that and no way back. To the right was a ladder up where there was a bomb enemy and an unreachable platform to the left (with normal jump at least). Maybe I completely managed to miss a path or skipped a line about a higher jump or something?

Other than that, it was really enjoyable. The power up system is really fun and intuitive. I'm also loving the music! Good job!

Yes! Leitmotifs are a great, even for games that doesn't necessarily have a strong focus on narrative. Like how the boss themes in Shovel Knight are kind of a remix of the stage theme. It also doesn't have to be obvious. You can rework and twist a motif to have a completely different feel to it, sometimes so subtle you have to know what you're looking for to recognize it. I love to use them.

La mulana uses them pretty well, here's an example.






   

Think the most interesting example right now is Undertale, given how cleverly the creator used it.

Agreed! Undertale's soundtrack is great and almost every track shares motifs with like 5 or more other tracks. It also does so many styles and references so well.