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[bornander]

My Christmas-holiday is over and I am back to commuting to work which means I am back to working on Grapple.
Not much progress to report but it's now possible to find new outfits in chests. New outfits provide better ability to absorb damage.

[bornander]

Some thoughts on level editing;

In my previous game (which also used a tile-map, kind of) I used a level editor that I built myself to create the levels. The advantage of this was that anything that needed to exist in the game was "native" to the editor and was easy to add and manipulate.

The massive disadvantage was that I didn't have time (and couldn't be asked) to build a complete editor, so things like copy-paste, undo, and modification of already created levels was very poorly implemented. This meant that creating the basic terrain for a level was tedious and somewhat error prone and because of this I decided to use a third-party tool for this project.

I am using TileD to create my levels and for the terrain (i.e. the static tiles and collision geometry) it works great and it's allowing me to be so much more efficient that what I was with my custom made editor.
The disadvantage is things that are closely tied to my game, such as the way the obstacles (saw-blades, fire, etc) and way-point paths for platforms and saw-blades, are much harder to model. Currently I use an object layer and place either rectangles or circles that I then assign a type and an id, it works but it's not convenient and for complex levels it becomes hard to manage (as shown in the gif below).

What I am considering doing to fix this is to build an editor that uses files created by TileD and then adds game specific things to those files in the format supported by TileD. That seems like the sanest approach, now I'll just need to figure out the pivot-point where the cost of creating levels is higher than creating a level editor first.

[bornander]

Updates are coming in slowly, the bulk of the work right now is creating levels. I think I've gotten about a third of the levels done but I got bored and added snakes to the game instead today.

The levels felt a bit static, the saw blades and fires are worthy opponents but too predictable, so I wanted something more dynamic and organic. I added a type of snake that patrols an area an he will lunge (if that's what snakes do) at you when you're in range. The snakes carry a peculiar poison that makes you bleed profusely through the eyes 

I also made it so that the camera zooms in on the door when the player enters a door, I think it adds to the feel of moving from one place to another.

[bornander]

This is progressing at a very slow speed, I am losing interest because I am now doing mundane tasks such as the splash, menu and settings screens. I am also finishing up saving and loading. I find it hard to stay motivated and am spending more time prototyping other games than I do working on this.

I hope I can get past this and get the game to state where it's stable enough to let people look at it so that I can get feed back on the levels created so far.

[bornander]

Finished off a first draft of the splash and menu screens. Option-wise it's pretty much standard for a mobile-game with Play, Settings, Achievements and Leaderboards. Settings screen allows the user to set a few things, such as size of the on-screen control (complete with pre-view, yeay!), and I'll add an option for turning off the excessive blood I use in the game as well I think.

This is what the first draft looks like, any comments appreciated;

[oahda]

Looking good!

[bornander]

I've got a (very) pre-alpha desktop version available for download here; https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0B38R323dMc0oWWtheDU0WjEzd28&export=download

Controls are W, A, S, D and clicking with the mouse in the direction you want to fire the grappling hook (when you find that, you start without it). The game is not really intended for desktop play so things like changing window size isn't handled properly. Further, most levels aren't finished and the game is missing most levels.

If anyone is willing to try it I would be interested to know if this is a game you would want play to completion (considering it will be an Android game with just 32 levels and be free and free from ads), any feedback is greatly appreciated.

[bornander]

In order to finish this game I decided to cut the scope and reduce the number of levels, the game will have 25 levels instead of the 32 I initially thought.
By doing that I get to work on other things than level design and that help me stay motivated, right now I am working on the boss fight.

The portal world where the player enters the different levels is finished and looks like this;

[bornander]

I spent a little time re-doing the particle effects, partly because previously the blood looked like slices of peperoni flying but mainly because I wanted a more consistent graphical feel to them. Now all particle effects are based on squares.
I also added a glow effect (sort of) to un-opened chest, the glow dissapates when the player opens a chest. I feel it emphasizes the importance of the chests.

New blood:


New smoke:


Chest glow:


Work on the boss-fight is progressing well but it's currently far from perfect.

[bornander]

In order to explain why the player starts the game naked in the middle of a weird forrest, I've added a narrative screen (skippable, of course):



I am fairly sure my game will win some sort of award, possibly a Nobel prize, for most awesome backstory ever.

[oahda]

You're still going!

That's a weird key.

[zilluss]

I played the pre-alpha, it felt sluggish. Is this intentional or are the physics still WIP?

[bornander]

You're still going!

I am! Slowly though, most of the code is done and I am left with tasks I'm not interested in, so motivation is a problem. That and trying to do pixel graphics with a touch-pad mouse whilst going to work on a bus.

That's a weird key.

I know, it's because it I split it into a 4x6 grid, and each slot needs a part of the key. There's no good reason for it, it's like that out of convenience and laziness.

[bornander]

I played the pre-alpha, it felt sluggish. Is this intentional or are the physics still WIP?

It's not intentional for it to feel sluggish, it is intentional that it is a little slower than most games. It's to make it easier when the game is played on a mobile device with the screen as controller.

But, if by sluggish you mean it reacts slowly rather than move slowly then that's something I need to address.
Thanks for the feedback.

[zilluss]

I see that makes sense. Sluggish was the wrong word, floaty is probably more what I meant.
By the way the grapple physics are cool. Remind me of the way the whip works in some Castlevania games

[bornander]

By the way the grapple physics are cool. Remind me of the way the whip works in some Castlevania games

If my game even in the slightest can remind someone of a Castlevania game then I consider that a huge success.

_{Unless it was Simon's Quest of course. That was rubbish.}

[bornander]

Grapple will use Google Play Services to track Leaderboards and Achievements, and the game will have 12 Achievements for the player to aquire, although a few of them are really rewards for doing something bad (like getting hurt by a spinning saw-blade).

The achievements and their name, icon and description are as follows.

NAKED BUT NOT SCARED

Completed a level.


FINDER'S KEEPER'S

Found and opened a chest.


NO HEEL SPRINGS

Taken damage from a fall.


THE DEEPEST

Gotten cut by a saw-blade.

GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN

Gotten burned by fire.


BEER AND CIDER

Gotten a snake bite.


SPEED RUNNER

Replayed a level and gotten a better time.


BRINGS OUT YOUR EYES

Found the woodsman's outfit, and completed the level.

HOOK ME UP

Found the grappling-hook, and completed the level.


GET BACK HERE

Almost caught the Impostor.


VINCE CLORTHO

Found all key fragments.


THE KING

Destroyed the Impostor and won the game.

I am not a big fan of games that nag me to connect to Google Play so the achievements will be aquired but only pushed to Google Play if the user initiates a connection. No nagging is good nagging.

[bornander]

I am getting ever closer to finally releasing this little game that I started as a libGDX learning project.

I have created the video that will go with the Google Play store listing, it looks like this;



If anyone has any comments or suggestions on how I could improve the video, I'd very much like to hear them.

[bornander]

To highlight the fact that the way too static water is actually water, I've added a splash effect and splash sound.

[bornander]

I've made yet another attempt at a launch trailer for this as it's getting very close to being relased now;

If you have any comments on it, I'd love to hear.