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[Jimbob]

Hickory Download (1.2Mb)

This is a simple platformer. Hickory can run. Hickory can jump.

Unfortunately, Hickory can also get squished by the many moving platforms, the pointy screws that lying around, the switch blocks and the other inhabitants of the clock: the toy soldiers and the fine cuckoo.

Fortunately, however, it all works like clockwork, and there are various switches around that can change the direction the clock moves. Some jumps need to be timed with one eye on where the second hand lies.

This game was initially made for a 48 hour competition held by Warwick Game Design. We came first with some rather tasty feedback, with some employees from Rare, Freestyle Games and Microsoft doing the judging. I've since tidied it up a little, got a friend to add some music, and created two more levels to play.

Art and two levels (nos. 2 and 4) are by Adam from Crobasoft. Johan from there also did the music.

There is a possibility that you could get stuck in a moving platform (especially on the two new levels) but I have hopefully removed most occurrences in the code. Unless it's really game breaking there's nothing much I'd like to change. But I would definitely appreciate feedback because I'm developing a few more platformers of varying types at the moment (including remaking this one).

Enjoy!

[grzegorz.holdys]

Just two things for now.

1. It works on Linux :-) Although without sound  But this might an issue specific to the distro I'm using - Fedora 8.
2. The first level - "The grandfather's clock" - is quite challenging. Though on the other hand, I was never too good in playing platformers .

Cheers
Grzegorz

[Alex May]

I like it, like the graphics, the music, the platforming is great. I'd prefer not to see a shower of blood when the mouse dies - a simple falling animation off the bottom of the screen would do, or even falling and landing at the bottom of the clock. The difficulty was OK for me although I didn't play for long. Some nice little challenges. Great work especially for 48h!

[Jimbob]

Yes, all the levels are quite hard, but luckily you can try them all from the start.
'Open Plan' is probably the easiest, partially because if you find the right route, you don't have to do any timed switch block jumps...

Good to know that it works on Linux, I never really considered that 

haowan: They are stars! Hehe, I've had a few comments about the death animation. Maybe they should be a brighter colour...

EDIT: Found a few little bugs, so took the time to re-upload and make a little icon.

[Alex May]

Hehe ok, stars

One thing I liked a lot was the non-linear level layout. Really neat.

[deadeye]

Nice controls, nice graphics, nice animation, nice sound, a fair amount of polish, and it runs really well for a click game (which is rare on my crappy ass computer).  But yeah... too hard.  Also, it's not very action packed... it seems like I'm waiting around a lot.  Well, I guess that's because I'm waiting around a lot, for slow platforms.  It definitely takes patience, which isn't necessarily something I look for in a platformer.  Call me old-fashioned but I like my platformers to be more action-oriented.

So I guess what I'm saying is it's good, and I can appreciate the craftsmanship, but it's just not my thing?  Here I am telling you this as though you care about what my thing is.

[Jimbob]

Hehe, don't worry, I understand where you're coming from.

The reason it is not very action orientated is that I'm kinda working my way up to it. Essentially I made this to see if I could make a solid platform engine. My next game, Knights!, will essentially be Bubble Bobble with swords, giving you plenty of opportunity to get your action thing on with battering little goblins around the screen.

I was also just getting my head around level design. It's quite fun to figure out new challenges when you limit what elements you can work with.

[Guert]

Hey there!
I like the simplicity of the game but at the same time I echoe deadeye's comment. I feel like the game is a bit slow paced. This doesn't mean that I feel like there should be enemies or guns or whatever but rather add a bit more challenges where the player has to run quickly from one side to another or perform quick jumps from one block to another.

In general I liked it. I felt it was quite unforgiving (any small mistake will automaticaly kill you) and perhaps you could reward the player a bit more. The levels are well designed with multiple paths. Perhaps giving more motivational elements in both paths would help the player make a choice or motivate him to try both paths. It could be classic powerups but it could also be special enemies that the player will simply want to face out of curiosity and personal challenge.

Anyways, good job, specialy for a 48 hours game
Later!

[Ishi]

Ooh, by jove, tis finished!

The pixelling is most definitely awesome in this, and I like the idea too. The time thing seems quite original to me. Something that might have been good (shame I didn't think of this last time I played it ) would be some indication that something is about to happen before it does (like the platforms flashing white before disappearing or the cuckoo's door rattling). Plays solidly overall though, can't wait for Knights! and such

[moi]

looking tight.

[deadeye]

Essentially I made this to see if I could make a solid platform engine.

You've definitely succeeded there.  Like I said before, it runs really well for a click game.  On a similar note, it has way better controls and feels much more responsive than your average click game.

If this is a 100% custom platform engine, then kudos.  Hell, even if it's modified Default or Platform Movement Object, kudos.

[StephenAnthony]

This seems like something that could end up being a lot of fun... the level design is kind of frustrating, but the controls were perfect. Great job on that.

[Gazillion]

The game is very well done and I can see a lot of effort was put into it but it's just too hard. The game is too punishing when going through levels the first time.

-I didn't time my jump JUST right so when the platform came out it killed me.
-The cuckoo bird's door killed me when I was sure I was clear of it.
-The soldier man killed me when he wasn't out of the door yet (which to me felt like I should of been safe until he was completely out)

The game is beautiful, has great music, and the animations are top notch... it's just too punishing and I got too frustrated to keep going.

Hope the feedback helps ya

[StephenAnthony]

Additionally, the little mouse character was a great idea. It'd be cool if you gave him a few abilities... Sprinting, ducking/sliding, climbing... wall jumping, or clinging to edges to climb up even?

Just a few suggestions.

[deadeye]

Additionally, the little mouse character was a great idea.

Well, I'm assuming the mouse character was a given.  Hickory dickory doc, the mouse ran up the clock, and all that jazz.

[StephenAnthony]

Ahhh, right. God, it must have been like 15 years since I've heard that.

[Melly]

Personally, I think the game's completely fair, if on the difficult side. Though maybe you should make it a bit more obvious that every element in the game has a relation to the clock on top. It took me a while to figure that out by myself. Maybe have 4 different coloured spots on the clock that flash or something like it to make the player pay a bit more attention to it and make the relation between the clock and the game elements easier. When you do figure it out, though, the game is totally fair and enjoyable, if a bit frustrating (if you miss jumps you can fall a long way down). Maybe better balance the difficulty and make distinctly easy and hard levels.

Also, I love the music and the art. Really do.

[deadeye]

Okay, I went back to it again to see if I could hone my skillz.  No dice.  This game is just brutal.

I really would like to play this game, though.  I think it could be great, it's just the difficulty that's holding it back.  I'm going to give you the same advice I gave to SplinterOfChaos for his Orbital Wars game:

Make the difficulty ramp up as the player progresses.  Start off with some easy levels, and gradually build up the difficulty from there. 

The levels in this game seem like they'd belong at the end of the game rather than something you'd play right off the bat.  They're so full of fuck-you jumps that I'm about tearing my hair out.  I just tried getting through Stairway to Heaven, and I put in a lot of time and effort to get halfway up the damned clock, and bam- one missed jump and I was back at the beginning of the level.  I closed the game.  I don't think I'll open it again.  My sanity can't bear the strain.

Another thing that would be handy... CHECK POINTS.  Baby Jesus is weeping for check points.  You don't need a lot.  One or two per level after particularly difficult sequences would suffice.

Also, you die so often in this game that the death screen becomes annoying after a while.  You don't really need it.  It's just one more thing you have to wait for in a game that already has enough waiting.  Just have the level restart automatically upon dying, and have the ESC key ask the player if they'd like to quit or go back to the main menu.