next »

[Hangedman]

AS3/Flashpunk in Flashdevelop, GIMP, Ogmo Editor


Vision is be a short game, a story-oriented platformer with GB specifications, based on a short story I wrote.
I'd love to homebrew it in the end, but I'll likely run this motivation onto other projects first.
I have no set deadline for the final project, but I have submitted it to the IGF for 2011.
The project will consist of three connected stories of people's lives in the not-too-distant future.

Code and Arts by Me, Music by KomradeJack
TRY THE LAST TEST VERSION <AUGUST 27>
D-Pad: Arrows or WASD  *  B-Button: X or K  *  A-Button:Z or L

[Hangedman]

Vision is a game I've been planning for a little while. In fact, it's helped me regain my work ethic. I have worked on it and enjoyed the work daily without fail for the last 22 days, and intend to continue, and I'm going to update this devlog daily because I think the feedback loop will further help me. Anyone in tigirc will have already seen snippets of it, and now that the engine is functionally complete I will move on to content.

Day 23:
I've finished planning the area map, and I have a better idea where I'm going with it. Currently thinking about environments and backgrounds and objects. I'm likely going to go the easy route and make everything backdrops with invisible bricks, so to speak.

Considering adding enemies, but wondering if it would actually add to the game, which is kind of what this project is about. I've added some details for flavour and some for mechanics, and I'm not sure if there's an upper limit on what I should add or concessions I should make. Feature creep could screw me over or add a lot of detail. Or both.

Here's the original mockup and current title screen (which can be viewed bigger).



More current screenshots will be arriving soon, as art assets are developed, but the engine is rather bare-bones at the moment.


Thanks for the input! I'm still working on refining the gravity and jump feel, and I appreciate any suggestions that anyone might give. I do want a sense of weight though, want to avoid it being too floaty, so I'll make some subtle changes for the next iteration.

In the meantime, here's a simple game map I mocked up for planning out the story sequences.
Kept to the 160x144 to keep it small, and had an interesting side effect. If the game had a mapping system (which it now might, seeing how well it all fits in, if I decide it'll add to the experience), it would look a bit like this.

[increpare]

heheheh I fell from a height and died :D

Not a big fan of the wall hanging graphic - the first time it happened I thought collision had glitched because I didn't see the hand.

[Hangedman]

Totally realized that I have a newer iteration that I haven't uploaded.
Have fixed several small bugs, limited hanging somewhat, tweaked jumping a bit.
Shows off my text system's complete lack of Word wrap, which I spent 4 hours coding yesterday only to have it utterly blow up in my face.
May fix it, may just do it manually.

Anyway, it's now in the first post.

[Hangedman]

Changed it so he looks up and the hand is also more obvious, link updated. Thoughts?

[riverman_jacob]

This is looking great! I have three observations:

1. The jump feels more linear than parabolic to me, like there isn't any hang time. For me, this looks a little bit unnatural.

2. The horizontal collision of the character is pixel-perfect. However, this sometimes makes it hard to jump up through a 1-tile gap. I might suggest nudging in the collision box by one pixel.

3. (Related to 2) Right now there is little to no reaction when the player is directly under a block and tries to jump. Since there is a one pixel gap between the character's head and the block, I'd suggest letting the player jump up that 1 pixel in order to provide more feedback that they're bumping into something.

Thanks!
Jacob

[Hangedman]

Thanks for the input!

1. Actually, it's parabolic, just very subtly so. With the help of Stargoat I added air accel and control, although I did it at 2 am and it does need tweaking. Again, the main reason why he falls so fast and the jump is so limited is because I don't want him jumping three times his height etc. Still, work to be done. 

2 and 3. I do understand what you mean. I just don't want him overlapping the wall while hanging/running. However, I may have a solution for it. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
As for the vert jumping, good idea.

I may not get up to too much devving tonight, as I have prior commitments but maybe I'll tweak the build in various ways and upload the newest version as a mea culpa 

[riverman_jacob]

I may not get up to too much devving tonight, as I have prior commitments but maybe I'll tweak the build in various ways and upload the newest version as a mea culpa

Working on a game means re-working a game! You're doing a fantastic job and I can't wait to see what you come up with!

[sugarbeard]

Hey this is cool! I like the roll the dude does when you jump from a decent height. Keeo it up!

[Hangedman]

Day 24/25:
Math was doing my head in last night and is again.
It turns out the jump is both linear and parabolic. It's also a nightmare.



You can see at the apex that it's linear, and no matter how I tinker with the variables it won't work.
I think it's because the air movement is so fast it only has a chance to update three times before he hits the ground, as falling a long distance does show the arc bend, but slowly. Changing the air accel/initial speed just makes him fall faster or slower but it's still clunky and angular.
I tried moving the code about, changing the FPS, the timestep, but nothing seems to help.

Here is the newest version, with a trailing line.
And here is (really) the entire jumping code, with unrelated bits removed:

Code:

public var jump:Number = 1.8;    //initial jump velocity
public var airaccel:Number = -0.13;    //air accel/decel

if (Input.pressed("jump") && collide("Wall", x, y + 1)) { jumping = true; speed.y -= jump; }
if (jumping) { speed.y -= airaccel; }
if (collide("Wall", x, y + 1)) { jumping = false; }

If anyone could point me in the right direction, it would be amazing.
Speed.y updates the speed every tick without fail, as long as you are not colliding with an object directly beneath your feet.

EDIT: It's not the update rate. No matter how high i make the jump, it still bends only at the exact same times. 60 degree angle from ground as he rises, 45 from ground near apex, and then the reverse back down. This is some weeird stuff.



EDIT EDIT: Something is seriously wrong. After a few hours of tinkering, I have determined that the jump just looks parabolic, no matter what I change the variables to or how granulated the variable changes are. Time to start from scratch on this, I feel. I may just have a solution.

[Hangedman]

Agahhghahhh i finally slayed the beast but it only erupted into 6 smaller beasts and I just ran the last one down.

I now politely request anyone with a free moment to do everything you can to break this movement system.
  |
  |
  V
Much appreciated.

EDIT: by the way, I'm still tweaking the actual jump values and etc. I just want to see if there are any esoteric bugs left behind.

[HDSanctum]

Seems really solid so far! Very interested to see where you take this.

[riverman_jacob]

I didn't read the code closely, but from the image it looks like velocities may be being converted to integers somewhere. You always have a 1:1 or 2:1 slope. Maybe an oversimplified theory, but that's what it looks like to me!

Jacob

[Hangedman]

Yup, that was the problem, and it has since been fixed.

New build to be tested is up, as more new bugs may be hidden in there.

[mokesmoe]

If you fall a distance and then grab onto a block, you will hold on to the block halfway down the side. Since this distance increases with fall distance, I assume it has to do with moving an extra frame before stopping.

Edit: You pause for a second after letting go with the down button, and I can't seem to grab ledges when jumping between level blocks.

[HDSanctum]

Bah, beaten.

[riverman_jacob]

Yup, that was the problem, and it has since been fixed.

New build to be tested is up, as more new bugs may be hidden in there.

Cool, feeling lots better!
Jacob

[Hangedman]

Day 26/27:

This ~40 degree heat is running me into the ground facefirst. But still I persevere.

I think (THINK) the hanging problem has been fixed, and the graphical alignment of hanging should be fixed.
Here's the trick. If you drop with the DOWN or S keys, you can't catch another wall.
I originally removed the ability to jump from wall to wall, but I put it back in as it gives better leeway for puzzles and large jumps.
If you have a moment, please jump around a bit and tell me what you think.

Latest build, also in first post.

Idle dreamin'...

[HDSanctum]

Smooth as butter, great work!

Edit:

One kind of bug / cool effect:
Jump to the top of the tower at the start. Jump to the left and land on the block 5 tiles down, quickly move right so you roll off the edge and hang on. Jump up and you do an awesome flip up.

[Hangedman]

Haha! Awesome find! Totally not going to fix that.

Here's the last build for today, and possibly tomorrow, depending on how I do. Got a lot to do tomorrow, my grad ceremony is Friday and I have to make plans for PEGJam.

Fixes and additions:
Textboxes now time out if open too long (would like feedback on the time length)
Fixed a rare error where textboxes would disappear leaving letters behind
Hanging now fixed all round (I hope)
Dying removes textbox and letters
Rolling and dead height adjusted
If you drop from an edge you can't hang again (intentional)
The dead can't talk

Notes:
You can move while talking. That's because it's actually thinking. This is intentional.
You can't recheck text nodes, even if you die. This is also intentional.
The game will mostly be spent exploring the small areas for nodes and in some cases running and jumping like a madman, so time will be of the essence and I want to discourage backtracking through the mechanics.