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[BomberTREE]

How would that water look if it matched the sprites resolution?
Nice devlog, keep it up  

[alwex]

@Kitheif, the water normalmaps (for the river only, I need to rework the waterfalls) have the quite same resolution as the sprite (one pixel on the sprite is barely the same size as on pixel on the heighmap) I think I can tune this a little more. The sparkles did not have the same resolution.

Today I worked on adding some PNJ on Tikotep's camp, it feel more alive this way!

[gunswordfist]

great news, Tikotep have been added to the website playfield.io

http://playfield.io/

Tikotep's adventure is on the top games of the week!  

Ah sweet:coffee:

[alwex]

I worked a little bit on the item system to create a little Zelda style animation when Tikotep find an important item

[BomberTREE]

  ok I see you little adventurer

the water normalmaps (for the river only, I need to rework the waterfalls) have the quite same resolution as the sprite (one pixel on the sprite is barely the same size as on pixel on the heighmap) I think I can tune this a little more. The sparkles did not have the same resolution.

Ah, it definitely was the sparkles that threw me off. Looking good!

[alwex]

I keep working on the sacred cavern level



If you guys know some good resources/receips/suggestions to create good platformer levels, it will be very helpful, it is quite hard to have the good ideas and to keep being creative.

I use to look at some platformers map on http://vgmaps.com/ but it did not show the interactive stuff.

[lobstersteve]

I also tend to be very insecure about my own level design, mostly because making levels takes a lot of time and while you are making them you lose focus about their pacing and how the player will actually perceive them.
For example when you are slightly repetetive in your level design, like if you make 2 similar jumps with moving platforms, you as a developer might think that this stuff is boring when you look at it for 2 hours, while the player didn't even bother when he played it for 20 seconds, he might even like it, because he gets more confident in this kind of jumps.
What i do now, is sketch out as much as possible on paper, so that the actual programming is almost just mindless work. Of course there will still be the need to polish it here and there...something like putting a platform down more, so that the player can reach it more easy, but i find it easier to have the basic idea sketched out on paper first.
As for ressources, probably watch interviews with developers, analytic game videos (RockLeeSmile on youtube is a good one for example), let's plays of platformers..

[alwex]

Thank you @lobstersteve for the advises. I had a little try with papper, but I made a real mess.
So I decided to use Tiled with basic tile/color to illustrate objects and triggers. I think it fit well with my needs.
Keeping the sketch simple is a good way not to loose myself trying unusable stuffs and beeing more creative. It is also easyier to modify if needed.

Here is what I came with using Tiled and very degraded tilset



now I need to create the real map!

[and]

The water and light looks really great in this! I'd have the background move a little more though, it looks like it's really far away on here because it doesn't move at all.

I can't help with level design at all. I've been finding it pretty overwhelming with Mable and I've only got 3 levels in there so far so if you get some good advice, let me know!

[BomberTREE]

I'd have the background move a little more though, it looks like it's really far away on here because it doesn't move at all.

That or have it only move a little bit (as in compared to the wall tiles)

When it comes to level design, I feel it's really about understanding your mechanics and developing enjoyable challenges for the player in a fair order. You're responsible for teaching the player how to use the character fully! This means that you as the level developer should know all the strange ins and outs for all the entities and should come up with interesting schemes to use them for that take precision and skill to best. A common practice is to start with only a few basic obstacles (gumba, breakable blocks, gaps, killer pipes) and allow the player to interact and understand them with a few different levels, then add more shit until they don't know what to do. (water, moving room, hammer throwing jerks, fireballs, lava, turtles)

 

(Also when designing the map, really focus on packing more gameplay into less space. How fun is it to just run around and look at stuff? You have 6 consecutive falling areas on that Tiled example btw)

[alwex]

@and, yes, I have removed this background, it was rendered on the "layer 0" wich is the layer for the sky and for background that does not move. As soon as I will feel ok with level design, I will give you my tricks and tips! Working with a simple map to get the global shape of the level seems to work quite well for the moment.

@Kitheif thank you for the advises, I will try to keep my first level simple and with time and testing I think I will be able be more confortable with level design. Do you mean that 6 consecutive falling area are too much ? The player may be bored about that ?

One more really important question, I have choose to create a 16/9 viewport at the begining, so my rooms dimensions are 16x9 tiles, the main character is 1x1 tile (mario is 1/8 of the screen height that's why I decided to keep that aspect ratio).
The problem is that in certain room/landscape, I feel that the camera seems to close to the player, and for boss fight it became quite hard to appreciate the patterns.

I made some tests with a viewport of 20x12 and I think it feel better, and the environments feel largers.

Here are some comparative screenshots:

plain in 16x9


plain in 20x12


Boss fight in 16x9


Boss fight in 20x12


Any feedback on this will be greately appreciated as I will need to rework my entire levels to match with this new aspect ratio.

In my opinion the 20x12 is better, what do you guys think about that ?

[alwex]

Today i worked on the fish boss, here is a little preview video the music is not from me but it give the idea, (I hope I won't have legal problems with this little video).



enjoy

[Zorg]

I think 256 x 144 px is a pretty small viewport for a 16 px protagonist, so i'd prefer the 20x12 viewport.

[alwex]

@Zorg, thank you for the advise, it is not a viewport in px but in tiles, so 16/9 = (16*16) * (9*16) px.
I have reworked the full levels with the bigger viewport and it feel really better, the player can see what will happend to him easier.

[alwex]

Added new enemies, the 2D classical spider. Simple and very anoying

[ernanir]

I worked a little bit on the item system to create a little Zelda style animation when Tikotep find an important item

Love the light source and the picking up animation.

[alwex]

@ernanir, thank you, I am glad you find it cool.
I have worked on a new baddie today, here it is:

[ernanir]

@ernanir, thank you, I am glad you find it cool.
I have worked on a new baddie today, here it is:

Pretty cool, was terraria the inspiration for the spiders?

[alwex]

I have never played terraria. It is fun you mention that because I just planned to give it a try today.

[ernanir]

Great source of inspiration, no doubt about it