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[Ishi]

Platform: PC
Cost: Free

What is it? An exploration platformer. Probably not involving combat, and maybe not even puzzles. It's focused on the agility of Trixie, so I'm trying to throw in as many core abilities as possible - running, wall jumping, crawling, rolling, sliding, vaulting over things, etc etc - so that traversing the world sort of becomes a puzzle in itself.

The name sounds familiar: It's a single-player sequel to Treasure Treasure (PC, Xbox 360. Trixie was one of the two playable characters in that game. The other character, Troy, will stay behind on the yacht in this game (there's a yacht!).

Features:
Lotsa platforming and exploring.
Some Metroidvania style upgrades.
Some small cutscenes, dialogue, and a bit of plot.
A yacht.
Treasure.

Tech:
Coded in C++, using the Pixie engine.


---- Original Post ----

So I don't do devlogs often, as I'm usually afraid of promising stuff and then never finishing it. Gonna try it this time though!

I played VVVVVV and Momodora 2 recently and got inspired to do some sort of explorey platformer. I'm ditching the Xbox, as releasing something on XBLIG just means that no-one plays it. Aiming for free and PC like the good old days.

I'm probably gonna use a ready-made engine to cut down on the work, but keep it in C++ so it's in my comfort zone.

So far I've just done some anims and a quick mockup.






---- Notable Posts ----

If you're new to the thread and don't want to go through it all, here's some stuff of interest.

Videos:
Very early wall-jump video.
Early video showcasing a wide variety of movements.
A video showing the level editor being used.
A video showing off ladders.

Tech-Tastic:
A written overview of the classes involved in the gameplay world and editor.
A bit of info about how XML is used to define the entities that can be placed in the editor.

[happymonster]

Yummie!

I'd like to see how the tiles look more saturated with more rounded organic edges and perhaps with only subtle shading? More like real world colours and shapes, but with the cutesy style.. if that makes sense!

[MaloEspada]

nice!
good luck on this. it seems like a pacific game similar to the ideas of knytt.

EDIT:  i'm glad my game inspired you somehow to make a metroidvania! power to the metroidvanias!!

EDIT 2: spiritual sequel to your treasure games?

[herror]

The sprites look very cool, and the animation very fluid.

Oh, and good luck! =)

[Cornelisjordaan]

That really does look charming! Looking forward to seeing more!

[Ishi]

Yummie!

I'd like to see how the tiles look more saturated with more rounded organic edges and perhaps with only subtle shading? More like real world colours and shapes, but with the cutesy style.. if that makes sense!

Do you mean less saturated, if it's real-world colours? I'm not sure what direction to take the scenery in yet. Certainly something that doesn't involve too much work, but it should also look nice of course. I'd quite like to try a day-night cycle, so I'd recolour everything for 4+ lighting states and fade between them. Maybe I should do a mockup of that next.

nice!
good luck on this. it seems like a pacific game similar to the ideas of knytt.

EDIT:  i'm glad my game inspired you somehow to make a metroidvania! power to the metroidvanias!!

EDIT 2: spiritual sequel to your treasure games?

Not sure on the pacific thing yet, though it's a possibility. I'm planning on making the basic running & jumping stuff deep enough to offer some interesting gameplay without enemies and suchlike. On the other hand, I don't want to go down the same puzzle route as Treasure Treasure (yeah, it's a single-player spinoff) with the block pushing and bombs and stuff, so it may need some enemies or some alternate puzzle elements to make it interesting. But the exploration could provide the interest, too.

[Terrorbuns]

I am eagerly watching this :D

Everything looks really cool and stuff. Good job with the pixels! <3

[happymonster]

Doh! Yes, I meant less saturated.. I was thinking of something like Cafe with the muted colour scheme with a few areas of strong colours.

[Ishi]

I did a pretty quick test of the day/night cycle thing:



Didn't put much thought into the colours, and I haven't improved the tileset or anything, but I think it shows promise as a proof of concept.

[happymonster]

Looks good! 

[BattleBeard]

 Stop being amazing, right now.

[eben_cs]

Looks sweet. Hopefully you finish this as planned, explorey platformers are my bread and butter. Kudos for using a "normal" looking female protagonist.

[Ishi]

Might do some storyboards for story bits. Would sketch them, then pixel over.

[Tumetsu]

Animations look very good and fluid. Also this:

Kudos for using a "normal" looking female protagonist.

Good luck with your project

[Ishi]

Making progress with the player movement. I'm going for a fairly weighty feel, which I haven't tried before. I think if the game is solely exploration based (which is likely at this point), the platforming mechanics should have some depth and require a bit of consideration to use. That doesn't mean it'll be unintuitive though. Wall jumping for example will be easy to pull off (not like a Super Metroid timing-fest), but it might require approaching the wall with enough speed, which I've seen done quite successfully before (Stargirl and the Thief from the Exploded Moon).



She probably shouldn't look that bored because she's got battenberg. Maybe she's only just got up. (Early planning meeting on the yacht).

[ptoing]

Like the pixel stuff. Tho I have to say not a fan of the head movement on the walk. I think left right movement only works for really exaggerated stuff most of the time, which this is not. And humans just don't do this.

[Ishi]

Good point cheers, I'll give it a go without the movement. Just added it without thinking about it really

While I'm on the topic, something else I'm trying towards the weighty feel is actually tying movement into the animation. So instead of playing the walk/run cycle and moving the sprite, the sprite moves the appropriate distance when the anim frame changes. This means the feet stay planted firmly on the floor without sliding around at all.

[ptoing]

That's a good thing to do, unless you decide mid-dev that you want her faster or slower :D

[Ishi]

Yep that's certainly a risk. Worth a go though!

[ptoing]

For sure. It's not like you have a really elaborate sprite that would be hard to make a new animation of.