next »

[VitaliusSch]

Hello there! 
Your game looks very good. The animation is so beautiful.
Keep it up!

[RizeoftheSummonds]

So basically, this is a combination of mario and sonic? Loving it, when does your team plan on launching kickstarter and releasing this game? Too early to ask?

[JobLeonard]

I think the destruction needs more "Vlambeer"

The style of the game is intentionally nowhere near as intense as that Vlambeer video about juice. But, yeah maybe a little more punch in the factory destruction effects would be good.

Oh no worries, that is pretty clear from the gifs, and it's great (for this game) because it gives the whole thing a very chilled out feeling that fits the tropical paradise theme.

But that's all the more reason to violently destroy those ugly factories!

Also, add me to the reclaimed-by-nature crowd!

[Neo-Dragon]

I randomly saw this game pop up on my twitter feed today and I just wanted to say it looks awesome. I love the pixel style and all the little touches you added to it are great.

[chrilley]

I keep dropping in on this thread now and then and the progress is very impressive! I am digging the Super Mario Style Over World a lot by the way

[EJlol]

Here another vote for reclaiming by nature. Or have maybe some parts of the world map poluted (purple ground?), and when you destroy the factory it will turn back to healthy grass.

EDIT: And if you really want to spend time on it, you could have each factory focus on different kind of polutions. For instance one factory puffs out lots of smoke covering the path to the next part of the island. Another one keeps throwing out plastic garbage blocking the way. etc.

[Ishi]

Thanks for all the nice comments <3

So basically, this is a combination of mario and sonic? Loving it, when does your team plan on launching kickstarter and releasing this game? Too early to ask?

Yep it's inspired by Mario, also Wario Land and the Donkey Kong Country games a bit. There's not as much Sonic in there as it doesn't have the speed and physics-y feeling. My current plan is to just keep working on the game in my free time, not sure what the future holds yet!

EDIT: And if you really want to spend time on it, you could have each factory focus on different kind of polutions. For instance one factory puffs out lots of smoke covering the path to the next part of the island. Another one keeps throwing out plastic garbage blocking the way. etc.

Nice idea, I have something like this in one area already with a polluted river: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=46289.msg1370023#msg1370023

Reclaimed by nature

I did a mockup of this actually when I first drew the factory sprites, so yeah it might make its way into the game...

[Louard]

The factory is meant to be a bit ugly, it gives good incentive to destroy it! But yeah the smoke is too fast, thanks.

Good point!  Maybe have the factory turn into something more natural when it's destroyed too, or have it covered in vines and flowers or something

Ooh! Yes, this! Maybe a big ol' tree grows out of the wreckage!

[Quicksand-T]

It would be cool if going back to an area you've already beaten opened up new paths or secrets, as the pollution was replaced by nature.

[Ishi]

We're into April now, which is Theming Month. It's all about tilesets, backgrounds and foliage / decoration.

Cliff makeover

First up is this cliff level, I liked the orange foreground tiles but hadn't got around to any other aspect of the level.

Before:


After:


The orange cliffs are inspired by the red cliffs of Waimea Canyon which I'd love to visit someday!

My method here was to begin with a screenshot of the game, then build up a rough idea of how I'd like the screen to look in Paint Shop Pro. Below is a timelapse of this work. After this point I move all the assets into the game, make the background sprites loop properly, and then further adjust colours etc.

[JobLeonard]

Wow, that's quite an upgrade! And it's not like the first version looked bad either...

[Ishi]

Wow, that's quite an upgrade! And it's not like the first version looked bad either...

Thanks! I did really like the bright blue background before, but it was just placeholder and I wanted something less empty-feeling.

Factory Backdrop

I'm back with another new backdrop, this time for the Factory levels which are the boss "castle" levels.

This background didn't even have a placeholder version before, so it's been put together from scratch. I followed the same method of drawing over a screenshot until I got something I was happy with, and then moved it into the game for extra polish. Here's the development timelapse:



And here's the background in-game. The most major changes from the mockup were adjusting the size and spacing of the ceiling lights so that they look like they're lined up in 3D space.



This background has a special feature, lighting effects! I've been planning this little atmospheric moment in the game ever since I got the first batch of music done over 3 years ago, so it's great to finally get it in! The first time entering the factory, it's dark and moody, and the lights turn on in time with the music.

The lighting effect itself is very simple, everything on screen is multiplied by the same colour to make it darker, with the exception of certain sprites (e.g. the windows) which keep their original colour. I wanted to give the impression that it could have been done with palette swapping, I didn't want it to look too flashy.

The music is kinda important for the effect, so here's a quick video of the sequence with audio. Please excuse the placeholder sound effects, especially the huge door opening/closing which sounds rubbish.





Thanks for reading

[JobLeonard]

Very cool! I think it would actually be kind of nice to keep last slightly-shadowy overlay.

[Josh Bossie]

You are mimicking all my favorite little details from SMW. I am so ready for this game

[Quicksand-T]

The factory background looks really good in general, but something about the texture of that big door doesn't fit to my eyes.

[Louard]

Oh, man! That factory entrance bit! I'm dying!

[Ishi]

Hi all. More background work this week!

Backdrop Colour tweaks

The clifftop backdrop is another good example of improvements, this one on the left being from way back in 2014:

As much as I really like the new clifftop background, I kinda prefer the old color motif. Could different levels with the same environment have different palettes, maybe?

This comment from last October stuck with me, and I finally got around to addressing it! I made an alternate colour version of this backdrop, to give variety between different levels. Thanks for the inspiration!



I also made the sky orange outside the factory level, to match the colour seen through the windows once inside the factory.



Jungle Revamp

The bulk of my work this week was revamping the jungle's tileset and giving it a bit more life.

(Before... -> ... After)


I made the pattern on the tiles more chunky, and gave the tiles proper edges to add a bit of depth. I added a tileset for bushes. Added a couple of new types of foliage (hibiscus flower and a simple hanging vine).

Finally I animated everything to make it a bit more lively. The foreground bush tiles have a simple three-frame ping pong animation. The animation timing is offset differently for neighbouring tiles so it doesn't look too uniform (they don't all sway back and forth in time with each other).

The bushes in the background is a hand-animated four frame animation, it took a while but I'm quite happy how it turned out.

The tree canopy in the background is animated automatically using the same code as the clouds in the cliff level above which wave up and down. I just gave it different parameters so it's a much more subtle single-pixel wiggle. It looks a bit rough if you examine it too closely, but I think the extra life and movement it introduces is worth it, and I'm not going to animate all those trees by hand, so it's a good compromise.

[coah]

That is just gorgeous.

They are all great improvements, nice work.

[MondayHopscotch]

I just signed up to say grats on the game progress so far! This is (almost) exactly what I want out of a dev blog -- and on a style of game I love.

I do wish you'd go a little deeper into the technical weeds (the programmer in me wants to know some stuff ).

The style you've got going is 

What's been your favorite part to work on / or your favorite feature you have so far?

[qMopey]

I’d love to hear more about the tech too