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[Glauco]

Evening, gentlemen!

I'm writing this thread to show you my first game... It's called PickMeUp! It contains no alcoholic beverage references, though.

The road I took to develop this game was indeed bumpy, since I was taking it as a pure programmer's practice in it's early days. I simply wanted to make a platformer game, where you had to collect as much crystals (which fall from the sky) as possible in 30 seconds. I was able to make it work but... well, it was boring. There were absolutely no challenges in it.

But about a month ago I had an idea that would make the game way funnier, without changing it's core mechanics. It's an arcade platformer, and you score by collecting crate boxes that fall from the sky. Obstacles will also be in your way (spikes, guided spikes and bouncing balls), and they'll appear more frequently as you keep scoring.

I've learned a lot. Not just game programming, which is the area I want to work on, but general development. I started to worry if the levels were nicely designed, if the music fitted the scenario, and a lot more. From that moment I've been showing my game to friends, and their opinion has been vital to make a relatively acceptable gameplay experience.

Well, all can I say is that I'm absolutely happy to have passed through this initial experience, and I have conscience that this is absolutely what I want to do in my life! I hope this is the beginning of a great share of information and experiences, and I'm truly hoping you guys like my work

I'd love to receive comments about it, if it is looking good in general, if it is addictive, frustrating, bad, good... anything! Even if you don't like it, your comment is absolutely important to me, so I can improve my work day after day

Pics:









Ok, enough chit-chat! Here you go, PickMeUp's page link:

• http://grpires.com/en/games/pickmeup
• http://cin.ufpe.br/~grps/en/games/pickmeup (if the previous doesn't work)

Installation instructions:
• Extract the contents of the ZIP file to any folder
• Open "game" directory and execute PickMeUp.exe

System requirements:
• Operational System: Windows XP/Vista/7 (people reported PickMeUp works on Linux if emulated through WINE, but sound doesn't work properly)
• 6MB of free HDD space
• 256MB RAM

Thank you for your support!

Glauco

[baconman]

Another fan of the chumbucket, huh? 

Cool, I'll give 'er a play.

[Glauco]

Thank you! Let me know what you think of it

I've also updated the game - it's difficulty increases a bit slower now, as some people asked.

[baconman]

I'll have to check out the updated version once I get moved. Far as I'm concerned, it's pretty righteous; about all I would change is to adjust the frequency of the newer introduced obstacles to take into account the level they began on. For instance, the ones with diagonal movement (as opposed to strictly vertical) began around L30 (IIRC), but still appeared with just about as much frequency as the vertical things. Maybe by making those instances appear at a rate that = "level - (20 to 25)" could be all the difficulty-adjusting you might need.

I'd also suggest (in the Medium Difficulty) some kind of underground path that the boxes wouldn't land on, but that the obstacles could still hit you through. This presents a tactical decision to the player, when moving from the right to the left - take the upper route where you can jump and collect boxes, but at the risk of controlling your jump timing/momentum, or take the cave below where you don't have room to jump, you just dodge back and forth; but you can't collect the boxes until you get across and exit first. Not essential, but may be worth considering. And besides, you might get "pinned in" down there and hit, anyways.

[Falmil]

I wasn't really feeling some parts of the game. Having to do certain jumps over and over because they were the only way to get back onto a certain side of the screen was kinda disappointing, so I agree with baconman's underground path suggestion.
In terms of all the damage particles, it seems like the game got less interesting as it went on. After you've collected so many crates it becomes impossible to move (or at least there's no reason to) until you've found a decent opening. It just becomes a waiting game every few steps toward the next crate. I wonder if a timer (even if only on a different game mode) would make things more interesting, by requiring you to take more risks to get crates before some kind of timer ran out so you're pressured to move instead of waiting for the perfect hole between particles.

[Glauco]

Hey guys, thank you very much for the quick reply.

The way people reacted with the game's difficulty has always been a concern to me, which made me try to soften its increase a little bit. About being impossible to dodge from some spikes, it is intentional - I try to motivate the player to develop new sensibilities, like trying to balance his reflexes and planning. By that, I mean you sometimes need to think the amount of damage the paths you take deal, and take the one that does you less harm.

I'll spend more days doing a bit of research to fine-tune the difficulty settings.

Once again, thank you for the feedback! This is absolutely important to me. I'm already making the concept of a new project, which will deal with reflexes and thinking. I'll do my best to make it as polished as possible, so everyone can enjoy it as much as possible