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[heitorburger]

Hey everyone,

So... I think this is my 4th topic here on the forum. I've been making some small arcade games for mobile, but now I wanted to tackle a project just a little bigger. It's an idea that's been on my mind for a year or so, and I'm calling it "Super Portal Storm" for the time being. I'm using XNA since it's the technology I'm most familiar with.

The game I want to make consists of mixing up Super Crate Box + Portal + Bulletstorm. Basically, what I want to do is a 2D platformer, just like Super Crate Box, except that the player can shoot portals, and kick, and there's a bunch of traps spread around for you to kill enemies in your most creative/visceral/awesome way.  

I'm still thinking about the overall Game Design, but for now I'm going to try to work on it little by little every day to get the movement/kick/portal part of it right. This devlog is obviously to share the development process, but also to give me a boost to keep working on it.

I haven't recruited an artist yet because I want to make a prototype first, so I'll be using art from all around, or trying my hand at it... So, no pretty art/screenshots for the time being.

That's it for now, crossing my fingers that I can do this.

Videos:
Week 1:



Builds:
Week 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/le18e46h4z8v6t4/SPSWeek1.zip

[Houndninja]

This sounds fucking awesome dude! I'm a massive fan of Super Crate Box and Portal!

[Scottapotamas]

Looking forward to it. Im practically sold on any games with super in them... and portal storm just sounds epic

[Franklin's Ghost]

Liking the sound of this. More Portal is always a good thing. Looking forward to seeing the prototype.

[ShinnyMetal]

mm this sounds good. Like Franklins Ghost said, More Portal is always a good thing! Using Bulletstorm concepts in a 2D game never crossed my mind but could be fun.  If ya need need audio stuffs this sounds like a blast! (already have a "visualization" on what the sound and audio would be just from reading haha)

[heitorburger]

Hey guys, thanks a lot for the support! I totally agree that more games should have portals in it.

Day 1:

First day and I almost didn't work on it. Hopefully it gets better as it turns into a habit.

Did some basic work using Microsoft's Platformer project as a starting point. I can already see that I'll have to mess a lot with the code, especially tweaking the movement, but it's something to begin with.

Basic portal system in place, working on all 4 directions. Will have to work on it a lot more too, since I want it to be similar to Portal, not just change the player position as soon as he touches one of the portals.

I'm thinking of making a video of the prototype once a week, so I'll have something to show on March 30th.

[Pixelulsar]

Sounds cool, have you decided on an art style yet?

[heitorburger]

Sounds cool, have you decided on an art style yet?

Not really... I love pixel art, but these past few months I've been avoiding playing games with it, so that probably won't be my first choice. And it depends on who I can find that would like to work with me on this project.

Day 2:

Just did a little more work with the portals, I realized there were some bugs after messing around with some other combinations. I think it's good enough for now, so next stop will be shooting them at the walls.

[ShinnyMetal]

I love pixel art, but these past few months I've been avoiding playing games with it, so that probably won't be my first choice.

What I'm imagining is something more along the lines of 32bit if it were going to be pixel. even though I  love me some 16bit (and also 8bit) the more detail the better with some of these ideas that I am getting in my head. Or maybe the look of Shadow Complex would also be cool, a 3D world on a 2D plain

[heitorburger]

What I'm imagining is something more along the lines of 32bit if it were going to be pixel. even though I  love me some 16bit (and also 8bit) the more detail the better with some of these ideas that I am getting in my head. Or maybe the look of Shadow Complex would also be cool, a 3D world on a 2D plain

I was trying to imagine the game if it had 3D models and such, but I can't get a clear picture in my mind... And I wonder if it would end up as too much work, especially if the numbers of levels/traps/combos became big. Which is what I'm hoping for. 

Day 3
Drunk programming! 

Worked on the shooting part, going on all 4 directions. I was pondering on whether I should let the player shoot freely with the mouse (Mario Portal), or just 4/8 directions, decided to stick with 4 directions for now.

Next step is improving it a bit, and creating portals when the bullets touch the walls.

[heitorburger]

Day 4:

Nothing really interesting, just more work on the shooting system, colliding with the walls.

[heitorburger]

Day 5:

Just a liiittle bit more work on the shooting part, creating portals now where bullets hit the walls. I was pondering on doing a simpler control scheme, with just one button to shoot that would change the position of the second-last portal you created, but I decided to just go with two buttons, one for the blue and another for the yellow portal. Shouldn't be too hard to change to one button if I decide so in the future.

Two more days and it's video time! Altough it won't be anything fancy... maybe I should add some particles.

[ShinnyMetal]

So it's purely portals? Instead of having guns and the abillity to create portal also?

[heitorburger]

So it's purely portals? Instead of having guns and the abillity to create portal also?

Good question. My idea was to only have the player shoot portals, and instead of having multiple guns I would make multiple ways to kill the enemy with different traps. I think I'm going to stick with that and see how it goes, but the idea of making a rocket launcher is really tempting. 

Day 6:

-Rework on some classes. It's a prototype, but I felt the need to tidy up things a bit.

[heitorburger]

Day 7:

-Added 2 different bullet textures, to differentiate between the blue and yellow portals.

Week 1 video:



I also made a .zip of the Debug folder of the project, if anyone wants to give it a try. Since it's just the executable and not an installer, you probably need to have another game installed that uses XNA to run it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/le18e46h4z8v6t4/SPSWeek1.zip

Controls:
-Arrow keys: move
-Z: shoot blue portal
-X: shoot yellow portal
-Space: jump

Hold the arrow keys up/down/left/right and shoot to direct the portals.

[heitorburger]

Day 8:

Started looking into the movement of other 2d platform games. Found these two articles on Super Meat Boy and Super Mario Bros 3 jump:

Meat: http://meyermike.com/wp/?p=160
Mario: http://meyermike.com/wp/?p=175

Tried messing with what I have, but didn't work out to well... I need to be more awake for this.

[peous]

Meat: http://meyermike.com/wp/?p=160
Mario: http://meyermike.com/wp/?p=175

Nice articles!

[heitorburger]

Meat: http://meyermike.com/wp/?p=160
Mario: http://meyermike.com/wp/?p=175

Nice articles!

Even more awesome is this Jumping Control Tester: http://excitemike.com/JumpingControlTester :D

Day 9:

Played with the movement physics. Player moves much faster, jumps higher, and if you let go of the jump button in mid-air, while still going up, it completely stops like Super Meat Boy. Also, the player moves faster sideways while jumping... I don't know why, and it's not much but it feels right to me.

I should start thinking about the art style that I want. I was looking into Dungeonland, and the concept art is great: http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/dungeonland
I definitely like the idea of having these kind of cute monsters, but with a lot of blood involved in killing them.

[Houndninja]

Have you played mari0? that might help you focus on gameplay mechanics and such..
good luck with the dev work for now though!