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[IndieEmma]

Me gusta.

[i-kari]

I added some loot to the game. It comes in the form of cute, delicious fruits and sweets: cakes, ice creams, bananas, watermelons, cherries. More are coming. They spawn randomly and add to the player's score when collected. Bubble Bobble was an inspiration, as I wrote in the original post.

Originally the requirement for completing a level was to kill all enemies, and the last one killed would drop a level exit key. I changed this so that now you only have to kill a certain number of enemies on each level after which the key is dropped. This way you'll have the choice to either collect the key and go to the exit, or keep killing enemies until all waves are cleared for bonus rewards. I'm currently playtesting this to see how it feels.

Also worked a bit on the level summary screen. For now it's just white text on black screen showing enemies killed and coins collected. Tap continues to the next level.

Well that's it for today I think!

[eobet]

Anything Bubble Bobble related makes me weak in the knees...

[tchassin]

I like the idea of the bonus rewards : I think rewarding the player for doing more than required is always a good thing to do.
As for the summary screen, maybe you could show the victorious hero posing, or simply on his way to the next level ?

[Charybdis]

I love the look of this! Soooo cute!
However, I too am dubious about the control scheme. I hope you will release a demo so that we can try it out. I love most nitrome games but I hated the foot one.

[i-kari]

Next up:
- Finalize shop GUI
- Add items
- Enable item use
- Enable purchases in shops

Apparently my plans about next steps in development don't hold up, so I will not be making them anymore.

Lately parts of the code have seen a complete overhaul (I'm learning Objective C as I go along), I have fine-tuned the controls, improved character graphics (added 1 extra frame for smoother animations), added a sword hit animation for our hero and a death animation for enemies. Polishing here and there. Made a mockup of the title / main menu screen. The game is still missing a name but on the other hand that hasn't been very high on my list of things to do.

Score/reward/power-up system, and how that is tied to the whole game world, is on the design table at the moment. This is a very important aspect and should give the player a sense of progression which hopefully results in a reaction of "just-one-more-game".

There's still quite a bit of things to do, but I'm taking my time with the game and making it the best I can.

[i-kari]

Another month has passed and I thought I'll make a post on the progress.

The special skill for knight works now. For now it's just a smart bomb that kills all enemies on the screen and is overly powerful. This skill depends on the selected character class and is upgradeable in the store.

I tested a different kind of enemy: a blatant ripoff of the turtle from Super Mario. Hitting it once costs 1 power coin and turns the turtle into a shell. Hitting the shell sends it off killing everything on its path. Destroying the moving shell costs another power coin. Not sure if I like it.

New enemy idea: ghost. It takes 3 hits to kill, after each hit it teleports to a random location.

Another new enemy idea: fireball. It could be an environmental hazard of sorts, but you could alter its move direction by hitting it (direct it at your enemies).

Implemented a score multiplier which increases after each subsequent kill. The multiplier resets after set time if no kills are made.

There is a 3-star rating after each area.

I'm currently putting the menu system in so that power-up/character upgrades can be done.

Visual effects: clouds passing by during "summer" and snowfall during "winter" areas.

I set up the sprites differently and achieved a performance boost.

Added more map tiles, especially to the dungeon tile set.

I have this idea of an endless runner / rpg hybrid (an 'endless quest'?) and I think I like it.

Still holding on to this idea. I've studied a couple of endless runners and picked up a few things from them.

[i-kari]

It's been a while since last update, but the game is still coming along nicely considering I'm working on this part-time.

Here's a screen shot of the upgrade menu of the game (still WIP). You have your power-ups, items and character specific upgrades on the left, and then you will have a description of a selected item on the right. The exclamation mark on an item indicates that there is an upgrade available that you can afford. As you can see, I haven't decided on all power-ups and items yet.

Here's what I have planned now:

Power-ups:

Power Coin - Increase multiplier
Mushroom - Invincibility for a short period of time
Feather - Warp ahead X areas

Items:

Heart - Start the game with an additional heart
The character with the white outline - To be honest I don't remember what this was. Probably a resurrect?

All these are still likely to change.

Levels now support floor spikes that hurt the player:



Levels also support cannons that shoot fireballs:





My concern is that the game might be too easy. The only factor affecting difficulty is the number of enemies on screen. One way to vary this is with different type of enemies. Like the fireball there, killing it will cost 1 power coin, but the fireball won't drop any items once killed. Another enemy that I have is a ghost that, once hit, will respawn randomly on the level, and permanently die after 3 hits.

Also the upgrades need some thought. As all combat is resolved in one hit there is no need for more powerful weapons, so that limits the upgrade paths.

Oh, and another game that has been my inspiration recently: Power Stone.

[jctwood]

Hmmm, the control scheme actually sounds very interesting, like a super hexagon RPG haha.

[Trystin]

Very nice small size constraints, this looks cool!

[i-kari]

Hmm, now I see a potential problem with that upgrade menu: you can't get a quick overview of upgrade levels nor upgrade prices of all the items, because in order to see this data you have to select an item first. I can't think of a way to display levels and costs in the current layout as there simply is not enough space. Blah. I hate UI design. Of course I could redesign the menu completely and put the items on a scrollable list, but that's not as good looking in my opinion.

[i-kari]

Ok, here's a quick mockup of the new menu layout. Item categories are now split into tabs and the right page that was previously for item details is now available for more items. Actual upgrade/purchase will be confirmed on a separate popup screen once an item is selected.

As an added bonus I can now easily have multiple pages if needed.

[eobet]

I think you really, really should think hard about if you absolutely need to abandon double pixels for the descriptions. Is there no other way you can represent the information with? Play with the layout and I'm sure you will find a way to keep everything double sized, for consistency's sake.

[Connor]

add this to the app store soon man, id pay a dollar to get my hands on this gem :O
 

[i-kari]

I think you really, really should think hard about if you absolutely need to abandon double pixels for the descriptions. Is there no other way you can represent the information with? Play with the layout and I'm sure you will find a way to keep everything double sized, for consistency's sake.

I totally understand what you are saying, and believe it or not the perfectionist in me doesn't like mixing resolutions either. I thought that it didn't look too bad here, but I'll see if I can improve it further.

In other news I think I've figured out how to add a bit more depth to the combat mechanism. More on that later...

Thanks for the kind words you guys!

[happymonster]

It looks really good, but I agree that keeping everything the same pixel resolution would be better. Can you not use more icons and abbreviations to convey the same information. Why can't units or upgrades take two pages of the book in your screenshot and not made to fit into one?
 
Love the art..

[Quarry]

Why is the thief black, you racist or something!?

[happymonster]

I thought he was a Final Fantasy style Red Mage at first..

[i-kari]

I'm working on a new layout of the book in one resolution and it's looking better already.

Why is the thief black, you racist or something!?

Absolutely not. I like black thiefs.

On a more serious note his face is shadowed by his hood.

[Quarry]

I'm working on a new layout of the book in one resolution and it's looking better already.

Why is the thief black, you racist or something!?

Absolutely not. I like black thiefs.

On a more serious note his face is shadowed by his hood.

I know lol, just joking