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[Ishi]

Loving everything about this project. Simply fantastic.

On a note: I don't really think you need to worry too much about button overlays for other gamepads. As far as I know, most people use Xbox 360 controllers on their PC, and those that don't have a controller with the same button layout. All games I've played on PC either use keyboard overlay or xbox, so I'd say you're safe with either one of those.

Thank you.

I still like the idea of indicating non-xbox joypad support to the player - the PC has so many options that I prefer to be clear to the player about how they can interact with the game. It's not a lot of work on top of what is/will be already done for keyboard support.

Hey, this looks neat--also, you should have a lava/volcano level please. Okay, thank you. That is all.

Thanks! Don't worry, the game will definitely feature a volcano level. The clue is on the title screen

The tube mechanic looks really cool, but I find it a little strange that the enemy keeps rolling after hitting the block. I think it would be more satisfying if it would be 'defeated' after that, bouncing off the screen.

Yeah I thought about that when I made the gif - I think the enemy should be either be squashed against the ceiling to be match what happens when rolling into walls, or at least be stunned and fall back down. It doesn't make much sense that it would keep rolling. Cheers.

[Schoq]

I wanna point out that the tubes don't read much as tubes to me by the vertical openings, and also that it's bothering me that duckie goes behind the opening rather than in it, but I guess that's temporary, haha.

Looking so great otherwise though keep going!

[phyerboss]

Will levels be "linear" like in most platformers? Or will you go the same method of the Mario games were there's a top-down map with points that are the levels that you can go to?

Personally Im more a fan of that approach as it could open up all sorts of ideas for secret areas, levels & bosses.

[ENDESGA]

I absolutely love the art

The tube mechanics are stellar, and the game looks fluid and fun! I really can't wait to play it.

[Bubel]

It`s sad that you ditched grown up sprite version, the tubby girl remind Adventure Island sprite a lot
Maybe she could grow into that big state like Mario do?

[Ishi]

I wanna point out that the tubes don't read much as tubes to me by the vertical openings, and also that it's bothering me that duckie goes behind the opening rather than in it, but I guess that's temporary, haha.

I'll work on the way the tubes look! And yeah I need to fix the draw order so the enemies go inside the tubes properly. It works ok for Leilani already.

Will levels be "linear" like in most platformers? Or will you go the same method of the Mario games were there's a top-down map with points that are the levels that you can go to?

Personally Im more a fan of that approach as it could open up all sorts of ideas for secret areas, levels & bosses.

I'm hoping to do a proper map screen, as I think it adds so much to the game. I'm being realistic about what I can achieve and for now I'm not aiming to make a huge sprawling game like Mario World - but would still like to make use of a map screen with some sort of choice of routes. It all depends on what ideas I come up with at the time and how the level design goes once I really get stuck into that.

The map is probably the main thing I can leave out of the one-level demo I'm aiming for so it'll probably come later.

It`s sad that you ditched grown up sprite version, the tubby girl remind Adventure Island sprite a lot
Maybe she could grow into that big state like Mario do?

She already has two sizes and one is already grown up. Leilani may not take kindly to being called tubby though.

[metlslime]

Setting and character are colorful and fun. 

Following.

[Ishi]

Hello!

Just a quick update this week as I've had a really busy weekend.

This week I made some more progress on the UI system and frontend. Didn't get quite as far as I wanted with it, but I'm happy with the overall direction. Here's a work-in-progress version of the File Select screen:



I'm itching to get back to gameplay stuff now so will work on that this week! I think I'll work on the end-of-level gameplay and some other related stuff, so hopefully will be writing about that next weekend.

[Ishi]

Aloha!

I've got another busy weekend coming up so I'm posting a bit earlier than usual. Development has been a little slower than I'd like recently, but still keeping things moving at least.

New this week is.. ugh, who put that here?

Machines



The goal in each level is to destroy one of these machines! Someone has built them all over the island, along with other metal contraptions and defences. Whatever they're for, they don't look like they're doing Leilani's island much good.

The end-of-level machine towers are modular so I can construct them out of different bits, some of which are more than just passive blocks. Each tower will have a couple of weak spots, with some sort of bonus for destroying the higher one, which is harder to reach. (The higher weak point in the image above is actually impossible to reach.. it's just a test level. )

So once again it's inspired by Mario (the flag post) but with a little twist, and of course you have to roll into it to destroy it. The explosive effects should be a good punctuation mark for each level.

[CYON4D]

Looks pretty good. The art style, smooth animations and game mechanics look really solid.

[Ishi]

Hiya!

Time for this week's update.

Collisions

I spent part of the week making improvements to the way that objects collide with each other.

Normally when colliding with two objects at the same time, both objects register the collision. This allows you to hit two blocks at once.

But this was annoying when trying to utilise this multi-direction block, which bumps all neighbouring blocks when hit. Since Leilani already hit the neighbouring block, the multi-direction block can't chain the bumps sideways through to the other blocks.

The new feature is that objects can have a priority value for the collision. In this case the multi-direction block has a higher priority, so when Leilani hits it, other collisions in the same frame are ignored.

I can now use this system to tweak another couple of collision situations to make them behave in a nicer way.

Also while I'm talking about collisions, here's another feature borrowed from Mario, that I call soft collision. When colliding with the very edge of something, Leilani is shifted sideway slightly rather than treating it as a ceiling collision which would look awkward. This really helps the player out when jumping through tight gaps.

Cannons

Here's another example of the mysterious machines that someone has built on the island. Well actually, these ones aren't so mysterious. They're cannons.



(I tend to keep the gameplay camera static during gifs just to reduce filesize).

Break

I'm taking a break from development for a couple of weeks, so apologies for the lack of updates in the coming weeks.

Take it easy!

[Join Indies]

Really nice job with the animation. It pairs well with chaining item blocks and killing enemies shown before. Reminds me of Sonic and DK, but the look is closer to Bonk's Adventure. I really like the limited color palette that was chosen per sprite and tile.

[Fayer]

As everybody's said I would love to play this on a GameBoy, it looks amazing. Why did you chose to use that framework over other more "common"?

[Ishi]

Why did you chose to use that framework over other more "common"?

A few years ago I was going to Midlands Indies meetups and met Mattias who made the Pixie framework. I was mainly using XNA/C# at the time so liked the idea of going back to C++ using something really light, with limitations (limited transparency* effects, no sprite scaling or rotation) that would force me to keep things simple. I used it for a few Ludum Dare entries, so when I started making Leilani the quickest way to get going was to use one of those LD games as a starting point.

(*in Leilani I'm not actually using any transparency effects, but that's just a stylistic choice).

[Paul]

Such a great world you've built! I love it! Platforming looks really nice and tight too

[Fayer]

Why did you chose to use that framework over other more "common"?

A few years ago I was going to Midlands Indies meetups and met Mattias who made the Pixie framework. I was mainly using XNA/C# at the time so liked the idea of going back to C++ using something really light, with limitations (limited transparency* effects, no sprite scaling or rotation) that would force me to keep things simple. I used it for a few Ludum Dare entries, so when I started making Leilani the quickest way to get going was to use one of those LD games as a starting point.

(*in Leilani I'm not actually using any transparency effects, but that's just a stylistic choice).

Interesting, thanks for the answer. The game looks amazing, keep up the good work.

[SolarLune]

Yeah, great art, this looks really great so far. Nice, bright, colorful game! It's inspiring to see a platformer with so much detail, and one that's just aiming to be a solid platformer instead of "trying anything crazy". Although, maybe you have a gimmick planned, and if so, that could be also be a lot of fun. I saw the fire power is kinda like a whole transformation apart from a single attack, kind of like Kirby's. Seems like there's a lot of gameplay power in that transformation!

[Fervir]

Lots of cool things going on here.
I'm interested in seeing what you can do with the blocks and enemies that can interact with the blocks.
The rolling and kicking seem pretty cool too

[beetleking22]

Animation are Super B, Graphic are Super B..New improvement mario Mechanic looks Super B... but there is one thing that I dont personally like.. Is that game mechanics are too mario like and there are tons of mario games already... I would like to see new mechanics that arent tied to one wonder gimmick like other  Indie platformer games...This just me so dont take this as fact... and keep u hard work..

[Pitxardo]

Love this project!

Love the art, love the animations, love the gameplay... love the magic of this game!