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[Oddball]

Initial Concept:
This will be a side project for me to work on in my spare time. I'm going to keep the game and control mechanics very basic and concentrate on getting the feeling of discovery and exploration just right. My aim is to get the player trying to discover new places and areas of the game, and to always feel like there is more to explore. There will be a single world/level to explore which will divided into individual screens. The world will be designed to be open ended, meaning content can technically be added indefinitely. Each screen will be linked to other screens on each of it's sides, but in such a way that they don't necessarily have to be set out in a grid formation. Each screen will also be named and the game will keep a record of all areas explored so far which I also hope to incorporate into the save game system.

08 Feb 2010:
Got the basic mechanics up and running. It's been a while since I last made a platformer so keeping it simple. Running and jumping are in and it feels about right. Running up hill slows you down. I'm not using a tile map for collision, or level graphics, as I want to break away from that grid based feel. Now time for a boring and totally uninspiring screen capture.

The orange rectangle represents the player for now, and the black area is the collision map.

More to come later.

[JMickle]

are you going to use oryx? 

[CiroContinisio]

Yours is a very big project... I mean, what are you planning to put in the game to keep the interest of the player up, and keep exploring?

[Oddball]

Yours is a very big project... I mean, what are you planning to put in the game to keep the interest of the player up, and keep exploring?

Wow! That's a very good question, and gets right to the crux of what this game will be about. I don't think I could fully cover the subject here, it probably would need a topic of it's own, but I'll touch on couple of techniques to wet your appetite.

The cheapest trick I'll be using is compulsion. Now compulsion doesn't work on everyone but on those it does it is very effective. Compulsion is achieved by quantifying some aspect of the game. In my game I will show the player how much of the world they have explored and how much is still left to visit. Those with a compulsive nature will find it hard to leave the game with areas left unvisited.

My favourite technique is foreshadowing or enticement. This entails giving the player a glimpse of some aspect of the game that is yet to come, and thus hopefully motivating them to get to that point in the game. When used properly foreshadowing can be very powerful and very rewarding for the player.

One method I will not be using is inducement, mainly because that technique doesn't really work on me personally. Inducement is that phenomenon in games where the player is drip fed rewards every step of the way. This usually manifests itself as the collectable, where there is always another coin just a little bit further on, and then another, and then another, etc. There is nothing wrong with this technique, and some might say compulsion is a worse method than this, but inducement just doesn't work on me as a player.

There are plenty of other things I'll be doing to keep the players interest levels high, but I'll save them for another day.

09 Feb 2010:
Screen loading is in. Content is now completely separated from the engine and can be added externally at anytime, even whilst the game is running. This allows content to be added without any need to amend the main program. Screen transitions are up and running. The player leaves one screen and appears in the next at the right place. Added a bit of colour to the test area so that the new screen capture is a little less uninspiring.

The platforms are rendered in the background and the vines are in the foreground. The player is still only an orange rectangle. Also the game is running at x2 zoom. Zoom can be altered to preference by the player at anytime.

[TheDustin]

If you want to have a few reference pieces, I'd recommend auntie pixelante's ludum dare entry for the 'cave' compo (the name eludes me right now, but should be on her site) along with the Game Boy title Trip World. Auntie's game also didn't use a tile map and had asymmetrical level design, and Trip World is a precursor to the exploration subgenre of platformer. I'm glad you aren't shackling yourself to collectibles, that's what killed Seiklus for me.

[Outcast Orange]

This sounds good.
 I look forward to more progress.

[iPope]

I really wish you luck on the project, I once did a similiar thing in python. It was vary fun to be aple to draw something in paint and it become a level.

[Oddball]

Thanks for the positive comments guys. They help to motivate me whilst working on side projects.

If you want to have a few reference pieces, I'd recommend auntie pixelante's ludum dare entry for the 'cave' compo (the name eludes me right now, but should be on her site) along with the Game Boy title Trip World. Auntie's game also didn't use a tile map and had asymmetrical level design, and Trip World is a precursor to the exploration subgenre of platformer. I'm glad you aren't shackling yourself to collectibles, that's what killed Seiklus for me.

Below the House by auntie pixelante is a good example of enticement. The text written on the walls both foreshadows and helps encourage the player onwards.

11 Feb 2010
Not been able to work on this much, but I did manage to get a quick half hour in today. I put in a placeholder character sprite so I could get player animation in. I'll most probably change the player sprite at a later date, but this'll do for now. I also changed the resolution slightly. It was 360x180 and I've changed it to 400x225. The game can actually have a different resolution for each screen, but I feel that might become a little annoying to the player after a while. The option is still there though, and it might be useful effect if used sparingly. Another screen capture. Still uninspiring but getting better.

For now the player is a parrot-man-thing I suppose!?

[Oddball]

20 Feb 2010
Finally got chance to work on this again. Decided to give it a working title of Wonder Lost, but I think that'll change before I've finished. I've added what I'm calling popups. These are primarily for dialogue, but are versatile enough to be used for various other things. I'm thinking signs, magnifying/examining objects, etc. They zoom into place when activated and they're looking pretty smooth at the moment. Todays screen capture features Rynen10k's assemblee font. I'll probably make my own for the final game, but this ones cool for now.

I think next up is animated scenery, and NPCs/peripheral characters.

[TheDustin]

Looks like it's coming along pretty well, keep it up man!

[george]

yes, it's looking good! Love the scale of the screens.

[Damian]

I must play 

[CiroContinisio]

I don't like the gradient hills in the back. The rest is really ok!

[Chman]

Looks promising, but I have to agree about the gradient hills in the back. I'd prefer solid ones with an atmospheric perspective.

[moi]

It's funny because the gradient hills are my favorite part of the pic, only problem is that colors don't really match up with forreground ground brown and green

[Golds]

This looks like it oculd be cool.  Some "roughing" texture on the foreground dirt/rocks and procedurally placed cracks or something could bring things out.

With the way you're representing ground, would it be easy to do modifiable terrain, from digging or dynamite or something?

[Oddball]

I'm no artist so the graphics are always going to be inferior no matter what I do. Also everything is basic placeholders for now. I'll try to improve everything as the game progresses, but for now this style will do. Although do feel free to offer up style suggestions as I'm taking all comments on board, and anything can be changed.

@Golds: Deformable terrain would be extremely easy to add, but it's not really the direction I want to take the game. I was thinking about a mining/exploration game using this engine, but for now that will have to wait.

[Golds]

What direction are you trying to take with it?  (in regards to interaction with the environment other than exploration via walking and jumping)

[CiroContinisio]

Yeah but mainly they have some antialising, which is CRAZY considering the style of the game in general!

[Bood_war]

BY THE POWERS OF NECROMANCY, I COMMAND THEE TO RISE