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[Nition]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions everyone. I've implemented some of them this time. Just put up version 0.75 in the OP. Can you beat my score of 4276?

Gameplay trailer:



Major changes in this version:

• Added pausing and pause screen (press Esc, P, or Pause/Break)
• Added ability to restart the same level instead of generating a new one every time (actually it still does, because it's way easier than trying to reset every little thing manually, but it uses an identical seed)
• Added basic implementation of score
• Added a proper ending (nothing too fancy)

Back-end changes:

• I can now generate a level of any specified length easily and the light and gravity parameters will adjust themselves to match. Previously they'd just reduce at some fixed ratio of the y value.
• Everything was actually scaled a little too big, so it's been adjusted to more real-world dimensions. You might notice a change in the physics and controls as there have been some adjustments.

The score still needs a lot of work, but it's there. Eventually it'll show on-screen what points you just got and some idea why, and there might be weighted scoring as you go higher (it's much easier to skip a platform at the start than it is later on). It also needs to save the high score.

I've been thinking about adding a level length option to the menu - just short/medium/long. But I have to think about whether short should also be easier (less dark & bigger platforms at the end) for example, or just scaled down, and whether score should be scaled as well. The other thing is that although generating levels of arbitrary length is really easy, currently it generates the level before you even see the menu, and I kind of like how you can just drop straight in to the game without a loading screen between the game and the menu.

I've also fixed the mouse not locking.

Major TODOs:
- Platforms to take damage; some start damaged
- Finish score system and high score screen. Save previous high score
- Something to indicate your progress


Here's my actual internal list of notes, for a little extra insight:
- Platforms crack after one jump, break after two. Some are already cracked. Generate extra that are already broken.
- Custom banner for resolution dialog
- Add gamepad support?
- Pause when losing focus? If it doesn't already. Test what happens when web player loses focus.
- Finish high score screen. Save highest score
- Don't cut off win audio when going to high score screen
- Turn off noisy blocks when player gets > 400 away
- Turn off noisy blocks also when user wins or loses
- Keyboard support in menus
- Add website link on main menu
- Distance meter
- Custom web player screen?
- Put another trigger on top of the final platform house
- BUG: Occasionally you get to the end and you can still move. Seems to happen when you land on your house or something first.
- Option to choose level length in the menu?
- Hide quit button in web player?
- BUG: Pause menu should be in front of the fade out
- Vertical progress bar. Put house or something at top?
- Score height bonus - at least give more points for skipping platforms higher up
- Animate a "bounce" or particle effect when hitting a platform
- Don't need to calcuate environment stuff until user presses play
- Check all import settings when finished - occlusion, model imports etc. Reduce file size where possible.
- Make sure lighting/shadows are all OK. Re-bake stuff.

[Nition]

Hmm, the physics and sound is really nice. Would be nice to see some more interesting things in the sky, weather maybe? I also thought the controls were a little bit floaty, but that might just be personal preference. Have you thought about having different paths like doodle jump?

Regarding this as well: Some fancy things like weather I probably won't have time for, but different paths is a good idea. Once I've added damage properties to platforms, some will start damaged. A few you'll fall through as soon as you hit them (and they need to be clearly marked as such). Those ones I plan to add as extras, so I know the game will always have at least one "good" path, but sometimes you might have to choose correctly when you jump. That's probably the extent of multiple paths for now.

Some moving obstacles would be nice I think, but would also take some time to implement.

[TacoBell_Lord]

Looks awesome. (Not sure if we're planning) but it be cool to make the sounds more interactive wheras the player can align chords & melodies which can play well with the environment, interactive narrative & BGM. Hitting the right platforms in consecutively could bring about many dynamics in those areas.

[Nition]

The audio could definitely be integrated with the gameplay better. I sort of started experimenting with that but then things worked out a different way.

At the moment the sounds do go together in a rudimentary sort of way. All the notes on the main platforms follow the C major scale, and when you hit a "note block", they all play something that uses a C chord (a random loop out of 10 options), so they somewhat go together. I extended the audible range of the note blocks compared to the normal blocks, so the sounds can mingle together.

One thing I tried was having the normal platform notes loop you hit a C, E or G, so you'd be making nice C triads as you went, but it didn't sound that great.

Lots of possibilities though. One simple thing I might try is just adding some ambient background tones.

[Nition]

Just put up a new version. Platforms now have damage. Some tweaks to the level generation. Score shows as you get it at the top left (although it doesn't look so great. I'm not the best at design).

Platform damage works like so:
- No damage - Jump normally
- Cracked, and slightly darker tint - Still jump normally
- Very cracked, dark tint - Platform breaks when hit. Only a small jump is applied

[EssentialNutrients]

This is incredibly addictive, so I'm gonna keep my  's on this.  I'm really terrible at this. . . .

[Nition]

I'm not sure of the best way to do the fall-death-and-end-level sequence.

I added a "press R to restart" originally because falling and dying takes a while - especially if you were high up, since the y position where you "die" stays the same. This isn't meant to show the menu like it does right now either, it should restart right away.

Now that there's score involved though, you probably want to keep your score, but I don't want to make people wait ages. So, I could...

• ...show the high score screen if they get a high score, even if they press to restart the level. But that kind of a weird behaviour. People won't expect that.
• ...try to make the "fall death" come faster. I can skip to the high scores earlier after the music starts. Actually raising the y value that triggers a game over is a lot more complicated. The easiest thing would be setting it to just below the last platform they landed on. But it'd suck if you backtracked a little bit (through the air) and suddenly died for no reason.
• ...add another key and menu option to just "end level". But then there's end level, restart level, and new level/menu, plus quit. That's just going to be confusing. What I could do to get rid of one, is remove the option to restart the same level, and restart just becomes a new random level.

I really don't like it when a game makes you wait just so you can see their cool animation or whatever, but I'm not sure what the best solution is to this one, I'm treading on untested ground. Any opinions?

[Nition]

New version up - 0.8!

I stripped out a lot of GUI code and rewrote it in a unified system governed by a state machine. I removed the high score screen and added it as a different GUI state for the main game screen (like how the main menu works). I've also updated the "look" of everything so it's a bit nicer.

I changed around the way the restart and so on works, per my previous post. There's no "restart" anymore, but hopefully it's pretty quick to go through the high score screen and start a new game.

Also, the high score now saves.

[Nition]

Another small update(0.81). I've just tweaked the scoring system and the environment a bit.

Maybe you want to post your score? Can you beat mine?

[seandanger]

I think it's a great little game   My $.02:

The first time I landed on an already broken platform, I couldn't tell beforehand, and so when I didn't bounce and fell after landing, I felt cheated.  Perhaps you should make those more noticeable, or at least teach the player earlier on about them.  I encountered one for the first time while I was gaining my high score and it bummed me out because I could have easily avoided it had I known it was a bad platform.

It would be nice if I could see my robot legs at a shallower angle rather than straight down, otherwise it's hard to judge some landings.  That, or you could show the arms while moving forward so there's a somewhat better sense of where exactly your character is.

I really like the musical aspect, I think it would be even better if it were somehow more melodic or had multi layered tracks, or something.  Perhaps you could land on a drum tile to add a drum loop into the soundtrack, and maybe you could get a score multiplier by having the whole band playing, or something to that effect.

[Nition]

The first time I landed on an already broken platform, I couldn't tell beforehand, and so when I didn't bounce and fell after landing, I felt cheated.  Perhaps you should make those more noticeable, or at least teach the player earlier on about them.  I encountered one for the first time while I was gaining my high score and it bummed me out because I could have easily avoided it had I known it was a bad platform.

I wasn't sure if they were obvious enough so this is great feedback. You will sometimes encounter them early on, but the chance increases as you go. What I'll do is as well as having the darker tint and cracked texture they have now, I'll also give them a different mesh that's a little bit "broken" looking.

It would be nice if I could see my robot legs at a shallower angle rather than straight down, otherwise it's hard to judge some landings.  That, or you could show the arms while moving forward so there's a somewhat better sense of where exactly your character is.

I'll adjust it forward a little, I just didn't want the robot body to fill up too much off the screen. The game is also fairly forgiving with the hitbox - you can slam into the side of the platform for instance and still get bounced up. Also, if you hit a broken platform from below you smash it with your head and keep going.

I really like the musical aspect, I think it would be even better if it were somehow more melodic or had multi layered tracks, or something.  Perhaps you could land on a drum tile to add a drum loop into the soundtrack, and maybe you could get a score multiplier by having the whole band playing, or something to that effect.

See my earlier reply about music. I'm not going to go that complex but I am thinking of doing more.

[Nition]

I've put up version 0.83.

- New design for high score screen, also shows your progress towards the end
- Changed high scores to save the top 5 instead of only one
- High scores actually save (did they do that in the  previous release?)
- Added high score view screen accessible from the main menu. You can also clear the scores there
- Added progress bar to the main HUD (are you still following this yuotta? I finally added your distance meter!)
- Some tweaks to level generation and environment (this is ongoing)

Seandanger, I've made a couple fo changes per your comments.
- Moved the robot model slightly forward, so your legs more accurately represent where you'll land. This also reminds me that the model could do with better texturing
- Replaced the mesh when platforms get damaged with progressively damaged meshes, so it's easier to see when a platform is damaged. This might not help the player to know what will happen when they land on a damaged platform, but at least they'll be able to easily recognise them.

You'll also notice that I've slowed down the version numbering. I've decided to do a bit more work on this than I was origially going to - mostly to the sound and making the world a bit more interesting. Then I'm going to see if I can actually sell this little game for, say, $2.50US. Is that a crazy idea?

[Nition]

No new version just yet, but here's a preview of what's coming:

[Nition]

Right, so, update.

The big update here is the Music Engine, which still needs a few minor tweaks. Instead of hitting platforms generating simple piano notes in ascending order, it now produces some sort of music (check out the video above). I'm going to make a video explaining how it works in more detail, but basically it has a pool of samples to choose from, and it selects ones that will harmonise with whatever chord is active. That and a whole lot of Random.range().

The High Score screen is also improved and level load times are improved a little as well. Feedback is very welcome as always. I also can't test on Mac - I'd be grateful if someone could confirm that the Mac version works correctly.

[Nition]

I made a video going into the details of how the music generator works:



It covers some music theory and how it's used in the Music Engine. Might be useful/interesting to someone.

[Jammo]

Yo, I'm back and I played the new version. Lots better. Again I have to emphasise how much I love the sound design. I didn't realise it got better the further you went because I kept dying haha. Those broken tiles are pretty unforgiving! Not that that's a bad thing. I can't really think of much else to critique so I'll just throw some ideas out there. I kind of don't like that you constantly have to be looking down to see where you're landing. I guess a remedy to this would be a third person view? I realise that's not easy and it might be personal opinion, just thinking out loud. Also liked the idea of different sounds. Maybe different coloured tiles play different instruments? I also thought it would be kind of cool if the broken tiles were slightly out of tune, and the really broken tiles were completely non-melodic or in a different key. Other than that it's pretty relaxing to just chill out and listen to the music. Would be cool if it eventually got to using a controller too. This is also going to be way too hard to implement but I kind of pictured it as an audiosurf type deal where paths are generated by the player's song. More interesting than any other music based game in my opinion. And I still think multiple paths would make this game so so much better (sorry to hassle).

edit: And I just realised we're both from New Zealand! Don't see too many exciting games coming out of New Zealand, I wish you the best of luck. If you need help with anything I would be glad to help, I don't know how much help I can be as I am more into the music side of things but all the same.

[Nition]

Nice to get a post that isn't me! Some responses:

Those broken tiles are pretty unforgiving! Not that that's a bad thing.

Yeah, I can't really even finish it myself anymore (although I can reliably get to about 50%). I think it may have moved a little into the too-hard basket and the next update will have single-use continue platforms every x number of platforms (probably 50). So you die, and you go back to the last continue platform you landed on, but unless you reach the NEXT continue platform you'll die for real next time. Tiles in front of the continue point will get reset to how they were so you won't have gaping holes or anything.

Someone elsewhere suggested I add metrics reporting - would be smart to add something that tells me how far each person is getting.

I kind of don't like that you constantly have to be looking down to see where you're landing. I guess a remedy to this would be a third person view?

Yeah. Although, I can judge well enough now that I hardly have to look down, but that's not really a good excuse. I'd like to try adding 3rd-person but it won't be till I've got the rest sorted at least.

Also liked the idea of different sounds. Maybe different coloured tiles play different instruments? I also thought it would be kind of cool if the broken tiles were slightly out of tune, and the really broken tiles were completely non-melodic or in a different key. Other than that it's pretty relaxing to just chill out and listen to the music.

Have thought about some of this. The way the sound works is just kind of evolving organically from simple beginnings. I think adding slightly discordant sounds would negatively affect that last part though - it might break the relaxing flow of the music too much.

Would be cool if it eventually got to using a controller too. This is also going to be way too hard to implement but I kind of pictured it as an audiosurf type deal where paths are generated by the player's song. More interesting than any other music based game in my opinion. And I still think multiple paths would make this game so so much better (sorry to hassle).

edit: And I just realised we're both from New Zealand! Don't see too many exciting games coming out of New Zealand, I wish you the best of luck. If you need help with anything I would be glad to help, I don't know how much help I can be as I am more into the music side of things but all the same.

It's just time constraints. All of that is good ideas. I'm at least managing to implement some of the good suggestions I'm getting.

The thing I'm worst at is 3D modelling, followed by graphic design. I know just enough to recognize what's bad, but not enough to fix it! But I'm getting by in Skylight by making everything simple and cel-shaded (the robot model still needs a revamp), so I think I'm pretty well set. If you are interested in interesting music by the way, I did also release an album recently, but it's nothing like what's in Skylight, it's piano folk-rock type stuff.

[Jammo]

The thing I'm worst at is 3D modelling, followed by graphic design. I know just enough to recognize what's bad, but not enough to fix it! But I'm getting by in Skylight by making everything simple and cel-shaded (the robot model still needs a revamp), so I think I'm pretty well set. If you are interested in interesting music by the way, I did also release an album recently, but it's nothing like what's in Skylight, it's piano folk-rock type stuff.

I'm not going to keep talking about my critiques, I feel like I've done it to death now. Wish I could help out with the 3D stuff, but I mostly do 2D pixelly stuff because I don't have the time or motivation to learn about Unity or anything like that. I am actually really enjoying your album and intend to purchase it, it's the kind of genre that I'm only just moving into.

I will say that you've inspired me in both game developing and music, so thank you for that. I wish you the best of luck and encourage you to finish this project. I'll be keeping an eye on it for sure.

[Nition]

Unity is pretty awesome. It's like they actually took the time to work out the best way of doing everything - for the interface and the scripting - and then actually spent the time to implement it properly. That's the best thing about it really: When you do something, it does what you expect. If you know basic object-oriented coding and you want to try some 3D stuff it's not hard to get into.

Also, musician game developers represent! Everyone says "I designed and coded this game myself - except the sound and music."

[Nition]

Update! Version 0.87 is now in the OP.



Main thing is, I added continue points to make things slightly easier. However, there are only three continue points and they're single use only, so it's not much easier. They work like this:
- Hit a continue platform (they glow). Don't skip it! It stops glowing.
- Later on, you fall
- You automatically go back to the continue platform! Your score is reset to what it was when you hit the platform. All the platforms you hit after hitting the continue platform are reset to their original damage level (destroyed platforms are restored)
- If you fall again before you get to another continue platform, this time you lose.

I got a bit disheartened with this update because I had to implement a whole system for remembering the game state so I could reset it when you went back to a continue point, and I didn't know how to do it. In the end it didn't end up so hard.

I also fixed fall deaths so you don't have to fall alllll the way down to the cloud layer before you die. It's now really good at detecting when you've fallen too far to recover; so good that I've removed the R key to reset because it's no longer needed.