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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsApple and Worm: Patching Holes In Spacetime
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Author Topic: Apple and Worm: Patching Holes In Spacetime  (Read 68620 times)
diegzumillo
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« Reply #640 on: June 01, 2020, 05:21:11 PM »

Day 27

Finished yesterday's level. I could not find a way to patch all dead ends elegantly. The effort required might be beyond my limit, I am considering just adding a "restart" button in the menu and remind the player to use it whenever it feels like it's stuck.



I like this level nonetheless. And I appreciate that it is quite easy to expand even more. I could add an extra step to the solution that requires jumping off the box while it's sliding off a wall and apple is on top of it but rotated. Use friction and relative rotation to turn the box into a platform.
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oahda
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« Reply #641 on: June 02, 2020, 01:18:46 AM »

Looks great! Looking in from the outside I have to say I don't understand at all what it is that makes Apple suddenly jump a lot higher at the end of that, especially with the box that I'd expect to increase weight and decrease jump height. What's going on there? Is it possible to make clearer?
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RealScaniX
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« Reply #642 on: June 02, 2020, 01:31:03 AM »

Looks great! Looking in from the outside I have to say I don't understand at all what it is that makes Apple suddenly jump a lot higher at the end of that, especially with the box that I'd expect to increase weight and decrease jump height. What's going on there? Is it possible to make clearer?

I think the crate is "falling to the top", so that force gets applied to the apple? What if you eat something heavier than yourself that is currently falling upwards? Will you fly? Smiley
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diegzumillo
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« Reply #643 on: June 02, 2020, 08:17:18 AM »


I think the crate is "falling to the top", so that force gets applied to the apple? What if you eat something heavier than yourself that is currently falling upwards? Will you fly? Smiley

Yes and yes.  Beer!
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diegzumillo
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« Reply #644 on: June 04, 2020, 05:35:47 PM »

Day 28 and 29 were skipped for reasons of baby. I work on this game at night, while also on the lookout for the baby cry. Usually he just needs a change and mom needs to feed him. But last two days his colic was terrible and I'm awake all night soothing him.

Day 30. Today I'm exhausted and very afraid he's going to start crying any moment now. So I made a super quick level just to be able to say I accomplished something. It's a double circle level. A loop inside another loop, disconnected to each other, you need to use the teleporter. Nothing to it. Just wanted to open up the editor and feel like I did something. The idea was to make a level that is at least pretty, since my brain can't come up with clever puzzles right now. It's not that pretty either lol I might revisit this to make an infinite loop that scales too, so maybe you have to "wind" and "unwind" to be able to use teleporter or swallow the teleporter.

Anyway, day 30 is a big milestone. I wish I wasn't as tired as I am right now. But I will have to take a break before starting the next 30 days. So I will take a one week break and come back to round 2 reinvigorated.  Coffee

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« Reply #645 on: June 04, 2020, 06:14:51 PM »

Congrats on making it to the mid way point! I've been really enjoying the regular updates, I hope you have a good week off. Coffee
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« Reply #646 on: June 04, 2020, 08:04:36 PM »

 Coffee

Hope you'll manage to have some well-earned rest despite baby
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diegzumillo
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« Reply #647 on: June 05, 2020, 11:44:09 AM »

Thanks for following my progress and general encouragement, guys :D

I'll do some fun work on side projects to cleanse my palate during this week. MegaDrive game or flight sim game? Maybe something new entirely!
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diegzumillo
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« Reply #648 on: August 20, 2020, 10:55:41 PM »

All right, vacation is over. I return here with a refreshed perspective on this project. All those things that were cooking at the back of my mind finally found their voice.

Here is the situation with apple and worm, if anyone cares to read another giant wall of text.

I am an adept of iterative game design. You implement some basic mechanics without worrying about how they will work with each other and start playing around until something new emerges. Here you stray from the planned path if you find something interesting along the way. The problem is that this project took way too long to implement the ground-level mechanics before I could start playing around with it. Years! Sure, it's a hobby project and I was a grad student etc, but still, the main time sink is the complex implementation required to bring the basic idea to life. The first incarnation was not intuitive to most people who played it, and the second implementation stretched my programming skills down to a transparently thin string and took way too long. What I'm saying is, I am finally at the stage where one would ideally be after a week working on a prototype. This is a little demoralizing because, as I wrote before, the base mechanic is insufficient and more is required. A lot of people disagree but I disagree back.

I remember Tom Francis describing a similar experience with Heat Signature. He implemented procedural ships, galaxy generation, factions. He spent years getting all this stuff together expecting something interesting to emerge. And it did eventually, but it took quite some time. And when it did, it almost rendered most of those features irrelevant; it was one of the simplest things: the fighting mechanic stood out.

This is not a (project) suicide note though! But I do think I need to stop making levels and start experimenting more. I instinctively realized that during the levelthon and prioritized implementing new things over making levels. The buttportals was a nice start; it proved to be not fun or interesting but this is the way to go now. This project needs to find its thing(s). The thing that I play and go "aah this is fun!", not just "ah... this has potential".

The best thing to come out of the levelthon, by far, was swallowing objects. This made the game objectively more fun to play! I find myself playing that big arena level with a single box and some curves just for fun. I keep trying to find new ways to swallow the box that will take me to new places. So I need more of this.

Instead of levelthon I will do a month-long prototyping marathon. My only ground rule now is to make use of curved space, otherwise what's the point? Other than that nothing is sacred, not even the main character. I am so attached to smiley apple but I want to try other things, like  controlling a physics rolling ball, or a commando-like dude running and gunning. Always wondered how shooting would work here.

But I want to save the more drastic experimentation for later. For now I am going try mirroring Mario gameplay and design philosophy; they get so much mileage from simple mechanics by introducing a gimmick every x levels. I might have to ditch that peaceful philosophy out the window for now too. Let's murder some goombas, I guess! No danger at all is too strong a constraint, I noticed.

I should make a list of things I want to try.

Further exploration of swallowing and spitting:
- Magnetic objects. Swallow metallic thing, giant magnets that turn on/off periodically will affect player. Or swallow magnetic thing and metallic objects follow you. Or swallow magnet in one orientation (+ up and - down) and other magnets will push/repel you accordingly.
- Swallow something that makes creatures follow you, like birds after seeds.
Non-swallow/spit related:
- Water. I thought about water before but the prospect of implementing it puts me off every time. Still, it warrants consideration.
- Two things I already implemented and forgot about: the logical trapdoor and the rotating platform. The rotating platform is in the original demo with spikes. I might try with spikes or springs or just different shapes.
- The big scary idea: ditch the level structure and make the game a giant metroidvania! this is the scariest idea I ever had and it's been with the project since inception. But I have to admit, it might be the winning idea. Instead of acquiring a new skill at the end of a long exploration, you acquire a different orientation, allowing you to backtrack to where you were and explore new places. I ditched this idea a long time ago for the very obvious scope explosion (also, large maps will probably perform terribly with my shitty engine)

For 30 days this might be enough (probably too many). If not, I can think of more things. Suggestions are welcome, of course Smiley

Since implementing these things is harder than making a level I will not update this every day. But at least one new mechanic must be implemented, tested, and judged every week. So there will be a weekly report. Today is friday, so next friday is the first out of four reports.

Thanks for reading  Coffee
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JobLeonard
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« Reply #649 on: August 20, 2020, 11:14:21 PM »

You know that World of Goo came out of a year-long "one game a week" project where a bunch of students said "whatever we got at the end of the week, we'll ship it"?

So yeah, experimentation pays off Wink
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oahda
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« Reply #650 on: August 22, 2020, 03:59:31 AM »

Hope you enjoyed your vacation. Smiley

Didn't Mark Brown just make a video about this that also mentioned Heat Signature? Cheesy

Sounds like a good thing to try, good luck with it! Coffee Many good ideas on your list.

And hey, even if you do go with rolling ball, an apple is still the perfect shape for that!
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diegzumillo
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« Reply #651 on: August 22, 2020, 07:16:35 AM »


Didn't Mark Brown just make a video about this that also mentioned Heat Signature? Cheesy

Yes! I watched that like 15 minutes ago. If I had watched this a little earlier this post would have been so much more articulated. lol Basically I should have failed faster. There, shorter than that wall of text. Tom Francis' video logs over the years have been a great source of insights into his creative process.
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diegzumillo
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« Reply #652 on: August 22, 2020, 10:58:33 AM »

HAH! I have a much better idea!

This whole time I have been treating this like a game. I mean, it is, but considering how long I worked on the tech itself this devlog has been more about tech than game.

So, I will put "apple and worm" effectively on hold but not really. I will treat this like an engine and do some rapid prototyping with it. I know this is essentially the same thing I said earlier with different words but I mean make actual quick games. It has been a long time since I did game jams because I thought my time would be better invested in my active projects, but I do love rapid prototyping.

Under normal circumstances I could do a game in a weekend, but I don't have much time lately and this will all be done on top of my engine, which comes with exclusive deluxe bugs and quirks.

So here is the plan: I will make a mario clone by friday. And I mean an actual game, a simple one with a handful of levels. I wanted to call it Super Möbious Bros but I don't think it deserves this name if I don't actually put at least one Mobius strip on the game.

I need a name for my 'tech'. Powered by Loopidyloop: do you want curved 2d space with bugs? because this is how you get curved 2d space with bugs.
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nova++
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« Reply #653 on: August 22, 2020, 11:39:24 AM »

Pretzel Engine
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diegzumillo
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« Reply #654 on: August 23, 2020, 08:44:05 PM »

Maybe something appley too. AppleTech. Tepple. Applech.

This is the second or third day into my self imposed quick game and I have done absolutely nothing. Maybe I should cancel or postpone this; I have zero energy right now. I came back to this project because I thought I was burnt from working on the stealth game but it seems I'm just burnt in general. Really, really tired all the time  Tired

For now I'll forget about my commitment and just try to find anything that can bring me some joy and motivation. Take care, peoples  Coffee
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RealScaniX
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« Reply #655 on: August 24, 2020, 12:34:42 AM »

Loopple, Fruit Loops. XD
 
Take care, it's important to have fun while working on those projects. I try to swap between important "dry" tasks and fun stuff, like adding new mechanics or making something visual. Otherwise I would burn out and start to hate the project and finally drop it. It worked ok-ish for the recent ones. Smiley
 
Your ideas sound great. I love the "swallow an electric can opener and attract cats when pressing your belly button" (do apples have belly buttons?) or something like that.
Maybe just pick the things most fun of the current game and try to remix it into something new? (Maybe you have written this already, but I cannot remember. I've read the whole wall, I swear!) Smiley
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