next »

[gbelo]

Here's Centuple Trouble! As of the original date of this post, it's at v0.5, what I call the 'demo' release. (I hope to increment that number and get it all the way up to a cool lil' v1.0. At least.)

Play the latest, bleeding edge version!

or Play Centuple Trouble! v0.5


or Watch a video:

Ever played Donkey Kong '94? Jetpack? Lode Runner? Yeah, this is kinda similar. Grab some items, do some puzzles, play around in a somewhat slower-paced platformer, and so on. Bam. There's no attempt at genre-breaking here; just a fun experience.

The whole goal is to rescue your 100 baby cousins (centuplets), with one stranded in each level. There are 30 levels mashed into the game so far. Since you're just a five-year-old, you find various toys along the way (e.g. ABC block, balloon, pogo stick) to help you along. Get through a level collecting all the change (kids love pennies) and you'll earn yourself a gold star (kids love gold stars).

There are some reported issues with FPS drops. I suspect that a part of the problem is that (a) I chose Flash like a dummy, and (b) it's hosted on the web and not mashed into a downloadable executable.  Some who have playtested a web-based and executable have reported some improvement. My rationale is that it's simply easier to distribute on the 'net if I don't require anyone to download or install anything, though I may be better off also packaging the thing up as a downloadable.

Though, I'm still looking for feedback along the lines of FPS. I've made some optimizations as these (legit) complaints have rolled in, but I could stand some more optimizations.

This is v0.5. Well, v0.5.x.x.x.x.. as I continue to update the thing. Here's what I'm missing so far:

• (Perhaps a) neatly packaged, proper executable.
  
• An adequate amount of playtesting!
• An adequate amount of optimization!
• One single music track. Right now, the same music is used for the title, map screen, and "shrine" levels. That's kinda jarring. I'm gonna break that up.
  

Things that are missing from v1.0:

• Story slides.
• Proper executable package.
• Bosses. Every 10th level of the game is to have a boss.
• 70+ more levels (for a total of 100+).
• Resolution of the unknown unknowns.

So, that's it. Shoot some babies out of cannons.

[gbelo]

Been working diligently on this. Should update the OP at some point. Latest uploaded version is v0.5.9.25, but there are more improvements that I need to hammer in and upload.

Four worlds (40 levels) complete, aside from three of the bosses (2-x, 3-x, 4-x). Most of the world maps have alternate routes. For example, world 2 has a branching path, with each branch having three different levels each; and world 3 has one very tough level that, if completed, allows you to skip over seven whole levels.
Several other levels have been designed, but not yet placed in a world.

The fourth of these worlds gives you diabetes by staring at it.

There's a new map style, similar in style to how a kid would sketch out a map. I've been told, unprompted, "Hey, I used to draw maps of my neighborhood like this when I was a kid!" I consider that a success.

The rest has been mostly tweaks that would go unnoticed unless pointed out, but that enhance the overall experience. I've also been collecting feedback and implementing.

To do immediately: the three missing bosses, some more music.

[gbelo]

More:

~55 levels designed, 40 placed into worlds. Only 45 more to go..

More optimizations under the hood. Working on bosses that take up a full screen or so.


Would be nice to move away from Flash, since that's becoming a dead platform and all. I'm not interested in porting to mobile devices, but still..

[gbelo]

Latest can be found here: http://gbelo.org/ct.

It's too big for Kongregate. Also, I'm not a fan of Kongregate.

It's v0.6.something.11; it was compiled two days ago. This isn't a polished version, of course.

Press A+B+C on the map screen to access any level.

Some major-ish improvements:

• The player physics have been enhanced--greatly. Since Centuple is a puzzle-platformer along the lines of Solomon's Key or Lode Runner, the player moved slowly and jumped low to encourage stopping and thinking. While Centuple does have those elements, it works better with an emphasis on the platforming (but not too much). So, the player moves faster and jumps higher. It's simply more fun that way.
  
  All of the levels and items have been modified to take that into account, while also maintaining their spirit. That is, the physics aren't just shoved into the game in a hackneyed way; the puzzles in the game aren't 'broken' due to the revamped physics.
  
  I like the combination of 'puzzle-platforming' and 'Mario 1/2j-style obstacle navigation.' Feedback I've received tends to agree.
  
  
• Now using a 16:9 aspect ratio rather than 4:3. Levels had been modified to take that into account while also maintaining their etc etc etc
• Making the game even more colorful. The desert's all psychedelic, for example, and I'm gonna make it even more so.

At the moment, I feel like toying around with what I have rather than expanding much further. The beauty of having no deadline is that you can do that. Stuff that's around the corner:

• Toying with porting from Flash to Haxe. We'll see. If I can get a very primitive 'port' of the game to do what I want, then I'll jump in.
• It's all hand drawn and scanned in, but I'm thinking about rescanning all of the graphics to enable a higher resolution. Each 'tile' is currently 32x32 pixels, and the base resolution is 853x480. As with Haxe, I may test out a higher resolution and jump into it if I think it's worth it. I seriously doubt that it will, but it's worth a try.

[gbelo]

Need a dose of crayon drawing, pogo sticks, angry fists, and a robotic dodgeball? You're in luck! Here's a video showing some recent stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5AfDnXz-Sg&feature=youtu.be

[Overman]

Please make the game smaller, it doesn't fit in my browser  And don't hide the mouse... me no like!! 

Cool game though, like Yoshi's Island meets Earthbound! 

[gbelo]

Hey, thanks for trying it out! Once I port the game from Flash to Haxe, I can compile it to, say, a full-blown Windows program where those issues don't even come into play.

You've given me more motivation to do it.

[gbelo]

This game has outgrown Flash, I think. But Haxe is great.

I'm not afraid of reimplementing the game in Haxe. With no deadline, this gives me a chance to learn Haxe, mobile development, and multi-platform deployment. Reimplementation forces you to think.

In the span of a few hours or so, I whipped up the the world map, mostly from scratch. Improvements so far include actual gamepad support and very simplified code.

[gbelo]

Parts of the Haxe port are making me wary. Compared to the Flash version, the Haxe (compiled to Flash) is ugly as sin. Perhaps the antialiasing is off. (Note that this isn't yet a one-to-one conversion, so some of the colors/text are different.)

Flash:


Haxe:


Time to throw up another thread asking a Flash deployment question.

[Tyro]

Ah man, I loved Donkey Kong 94' on the gameboy. And Loderunner: the Legend Returns for the PC was the bomb. So I was pretty interested in trying this out, and it didn't disappoint.

The intro sort of had a Yoshi's Island vibe with the crayon aesthetics. Then you start tugging at my heartstrings with that Pulitzer-worthy story.

So what about the gameplay? It's pretty solid. My favorite thing was the water physics. I felt sadly sorry for the enemies... and I'm still trying to determine what they are. Sandwiches? Stones?

I keep getting wrecked by the first world boss, but I'm sure I'll beat it eventually and have more to comment on. This is a really fun game all in all. Hope you're able to sort out those Haxe/Flash conversion issues, though I don't mind playing this in a browser by any means.

[gbelo]

Ah man, I loved Donkey Kong 94' on the gameboy. And Loderunner: the Legend Returns for the PC was the bomb. So I was pretty interested in trying this out, and it didn't disappoint.

The intro sort of had a Yoshi's Island vibe with the crayon aesthetics. Then you start tugging at my heartstrings with that Pulitzer-worthy story.

So what about the gameplay? It's pretty solid. My favorite thing was the water physics. I felt sadly sorry for the enemies... and I'm still trying to determine what they are. Sandwiches? Stones?

I keep getting wrecked by the first world boss, but I'm sure I'll beat it eventually and have more to comment on. This is a really fun game all in all. Hope you're able to sort out those Haxe/Flash conversion issues, though I don't mind playing this in a browser by any means.

Hey, thanks for checking it out! Means a lot.

That really common monster is a Ditton.. so named because there are lots of them. They're aliens.

I'm still mucking around with Haxe. Prospects are good. Compiling Haxe to Flash seems to look like hell, but not compiling it to Windows..



(This is with the sprites stretched, of course. And ignore the dimness.) If Haxe continues to be worth it, I'll just play some tricks with the graphics. I want to test out porting what I have to mobile soon.


Glad for the feedback on the gameplay. With respect to the boss, do you think his difficulty is relatively proportional to the difficulty of World 1 overall, or is he a total roadblock? I'd rather him not halt progress completely..

If you want to check out more, press A+B+C together on the map screen to unlock all of the levels.

[claybornp]

Looking good! the art is cool. did you scan colored pencil, or use computer magic?

[gbelo]

Looking good! the art is cool. did you scan colored pencil, or use computer magic?

Thanks! Yup, all scanned colored pencil. It's intended to add to the atmosphere of 'you are a five-year-old.'