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[wademcgillis]

It's a platformer that loosely follows the story of the song "Oh My Darling, Clementine"

Download (Win32)
Download (OS X)
Play old Flash version

OS X version confirmed to work on 10.6 and 10.7. 10.5 I have no idea.

Old Screenshots

• Flash screenshot
• Original graphics

Current Screenshots

• Generic
• Ouch!
• Above screenshot
• Say hello to my little friend.
• Don't fall!

-- UPDATE : June 08, 2011 --

• Cave system has been expanded a bit.
• Old graphics have been replaced.
• Fixed the bug Paul J found.

-- UPDATE : June 20, 2011 --

• SOUND.
• Expanded the cave system.
• Added in game menu. (press escape)
• Added the first boss.
• Added a power up.
• Removed a feature that allowed the player to dismount minecarts.
• Lizard/turtle thing still exists.

-- UPDATE : July 06, 2011 --  Not much work has been done due to having a life.

• Expanded the cave system.
• Save codes!

-- UPDATE : August 24, 2011 --

• I don't even know what changed since the last time I posted here.
• Second boss, more powerups, ??

[Cosr]

As an alpha, I suppose, there's not a lot here yet.

The vast cave system makes me assume it's going to be some sort of exploratory game. Assuming this is the case, I'm hoping you make the cave more interesting to explore in the future...I'm not sure if collecting gems and lunchboxes(? toolkits?), while presumably trying to find Clementine, is enough incentive for me to want to explore everywhere when every part of the cave looks just like any other.

The monochrome graphics definitely give it a good 'old times' feel, like old film, appropriate for the time of the song.

The respawning is a little odd, in the sense that there was at least once where I respawned and had no idea where I was (I don't think I had been there).

I'm curious to see where you go with this.

[Rob Lach]

The level design thus far is done in a way which makes it very difficult to figure out where you are.

[jotapeh]

For what's there so far, the graphics are pretty nice - I especially like the death/ghost anim

[volando]

I had a game but seems to rough yet.
Would you add further mechanics to make it interesting?

I think it is simple so now might be perfect to start with.

I like the character animation. 

[Paul Jeffries]

I had a quick game, though there doesn't seem to be much to do yet.  I experienced a bug whereby I jumped down a fairly long fall (about a screen's depth) and then ended up stuck in the ground when I landed - I assume that's not meant to happen!

[Ichigo Jam]

Quite nice so far - I like the simple, clean art style.

Climbing by bouncing on jellyfish is nice. You should add a bit of animation to them though - maybe their tentacles wiggling while they move, and make them squash a bit when you jump on them.

More variety in the graphics would help a lot with recognising places. Or more variety of features would help with this a lot - then I could recognise that "Oh, it's that room with all the ghosts" rather than it being yet another room with brown rocky walls and a jellyfish or two.

Backtracking to a previous restart point (lamp post) didn't seem to work to change where I respawned, which made it feel like I wasn't expected to backtrack. Seemed a bit strange when the rest of the game felt quite exploration focussed. (Although I liked the way the lamp was still lit, making it obvious that I had been here before.)

[Cosr]

The new graphics certainly add some clarity, but it sacrifices the 'old time film' look. If you could manage to add some more clarity to the old graphics, I think I would go back to those (or at leastthe monochrome/sepia-tone colour palette), as the style seemed to fit pretty well. Though, when it comes time to add more variety to the cave, the new graphics would likely be far easier to work with. Monochrome colour palettes can be a challenge.

[Ichigo Jam]

I didn't actually see the old graphics, and now I'm curious what it looked like - is there a screenshot of the old version?

[Ichigo Jam]

I prefer the cleanness of the new one, but I don't understand the grey areas on the top edges of the platforms - the gameboy styled version makes more sense with the lighter shading on the top edges.

If you want the retro vibe of the old one (I don't know if you do), you could perhaps try something like this (I tried reducing your newer graphics to a 4 colour sepia palette) here

[bkane]

Neat demo. Here are some random thoughts I had while playing:

- The SFX are pretty grating. I assume you're using something like sfxr? Some variation in the pitch/volume of sounds would help, but ultimately I think the sounds need re-working.
- Nothing in the level really stands out, so it's hard to navigate your way around. I ended up essentially just falling to the bottom. If I hadn't seen your comment about a boss and a minecart, I would have assumed it was randomly generated and that there was nothing else to see.
- The jellyfish movement is a bit too simplistic. They seem to follow your movements exactly, which means they move up as you try to jump on them. I you added some damping/momentum to them, they'd feel easier to manage.
- You can use the jellyfish to basically fly around by jumping on them repeatedly. Not sure if this breaks any of your level design. Maybe they should be stunned and fall once you jump on them.
- It was cool to finally get a weapon to use against the dastardly jellyfish in the end. It'll be neat to see where you go with this!

[st33d]

I'm working on a similar concept, but giving the player a minimap.

You could make a minimap by creating a big bitmap (1 pixel per tile) and showing a small square of it. It would help players from getting lost.

[wademcgillis]

You could make a minimap by creating a big bitmap (1 pixel per tile) and showing a small square of it.

At the moment, that would be a 1226px * 150px bitmap. And it's only going to get bigger.

It would help players from getting lost.

The NES Metroid needed a minimap for that reason.

[st33d]

So?

What's so bad about a big bitmap? If it get's too big then you can just write some code to split the map across several bitmaps.

Currently I have the massive map BitmapData and I copyPixel only the small section needed to show the minimap. People who pause can then see the whole thing.

[wademcgillis]

The only problem is that I'm porting this to C++. 

Yesterday, I sent a PM to a mod asking this topic to be deleted or moved to DevLogs, but alas, nothing yet.

[wademcgillis]

I finally got around to putting the C++ version up!

Second boss, more frames, cooler graphical effects and more areas to explore!

Download (Win32)

(Linux and Mac OS X coming soon. I haven't tested the updater on those operating systems yet.)

[jotapeh]

Guess I'll wait for the Mac version. Any particular reason you switched from Flash?

[wademcgillis]

Guess I'll wait for the Mac version. Any particular reason you switched from Flash?

Performance? Notice how the far background scrolls and there is a semi-background tile layer beneath the normal terrain. I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that in flash.

There's going to be a fourth layer once I add foreground translucent lava and poisonous air.

Also, I figured porting it to C++ would allow me to easily port it to some of the mobile operating systems.

[jotapeh]

Guess I'll wait for the Mac version. Any particular reason you switched from Flash?

Performance? Notice how the far background scrolls and there is a semi-background tile layer beneath the normal terrain. I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that in flash.

There's going to be a fourth layer once I add foreground translucent lava and poisonous air.

Also, I figured porting it to C++ would allow me to easily port it to some of the mobile operating systems.

Can't check it out - as I said, I'll need the Mac version when you get around to it - but cool.

I don't know if you're necessarily truly pushing Flash's limits though. Everything you've mentioned including the translucent layers can be done without too much strain. For an example, I made a game during Assemblee which has these effects, though the game itself is not super fun:

http://mushroomer.wegetsignal.ca/

But without seeing what's going on maybe I'm just underestimating the awesomeness that is the C++ version of Clementine

[wademcgillis]

Guess I'll wait for the Mac version. Any particular reason you switched from Flash?

Performance? Notice how the far background scrolls and there is a semi-background tile layer beneath the normal terrain. I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that in flash.

There's going to be a fourth layer once I add foreground translucent lava and poisonous air.

Also, I figured porting it to C++ would allow me to easily port it to some of the mobile operating systems.

Can't check it out - as I said, I'll need the Mac version when you get around to it - but cool.

I don't know if you're necessarily truly pushing Flash's limits though. Everything you've mentioned including the translucent layers can be done without too much strain. For an example, I made a game during Assemblee which has these effects, though the game itself is not super fun:

http://mushroomer.wegetsignal.ca/

But without seeing what's going on maybe I'm just underestimating the awesomeness that is the C++ version of Clementine

Not much has changed. Performance isn't that much of an issue. I'm mainly doing it because non-flash games are considered more professional, and for the ease of porting to iOS/putting on the mac app store/shaders.

But fine. I'll port some of the new features backwards to flash, and see how it goes.