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TIGSource ForumsCommunityJams & EventsCompetitionsOld CompetitionsGAMMA (Moderator: fish)Sunset runner [FINISHED]
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Author Topic: Sunset runner [FINISHED]  (Read 32717 times)
Guert
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« on: October 29, 2007, 06:49:34 PM »

Completed!
So here's my entry.
Sunset runner or the suspiciously long train


Basicaly a classic game, where you get to save your "best friend" before he gets run over by a train. The original size is 200x50, blew up to 800x200 to make sure players see something during the competition. Wink

If anyone spots some bugs, tell me, I'll fix it before I send it officialy to the competition.

There's two versions: one with controller, the other with keyboard. The original verison is controller only.
Sunset Runner

Enjoy!
« Last Edit: November 26, 2007, 01:09:37 AM by Derek » Logged

Zaphos
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« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2007, 07:06:55 PM »

Cute (er, violent deaths aside) game!  I like little character ... and the sinister quotes around Best Friend make me want to beat it to see if there's a twist.  The sunset aesthetic is swell.

Is it winnable?  What does the little counter mean?  I got to where it gets really fast a couple times, but then always died and found playing back up to that point wasn't fun anymore ...

I didn't spot any bugs per se, although I was confused about the hit box on the obstacles you have to jump over, since I always hit the top part of them but it's apparently not the deadly part.
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Guert
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« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2007, 07:21:46 PM »

Thanks!
Yes, it is winnable Wink Hmmm, the little counter are the meters you have before your best friend get's squished. I think I'll have to make it clearer. As for the part that goes real fast, I made it easier in "easy" mode but I guess I'll have to tone it down a bit.

As for the hit box, I wanted the feeling that you just barely jumped over them, going for a "close call" effect to rise the stress of the player. I'll try to make the objects a bit smaller to avoid confusion.

Thanks alot for trying it out!
Guert
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Melly
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« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2007, 08:17:52 PM »

Well, I played it, and beat it (in easy). Loved the ending.
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Zaphos
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« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2007, 09:08:05 PM »

I went back and finished it -- helps to know there's an ending I'm making progress toward!  Liked the text at the end  :D

I'm not too sure about the difficulty; I'm pretty bad at these games, and it only took me a couple more tries ...
I think if I were sure there was an ending, I would have stuck with it longer.  I'm not sure how to make the existence of an ending clear, though -- especially since it seems like un-ending high score games ("stay alive as long as you can!") are pretty common.  One way to approach it is to make the "easy" mode really really easy and use it primarily just to communicate to the player that there is an ending.  Alternatively it might help a lot just to make the meaning of the distance count down a bit more clear.
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Radnom
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« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2007, 11:26:35 PM »

Some things I noticed:

Some more things happening in the foreground would make the illusion of a speeding train a little better, because at the moment, when there are no lamp posts or tunnels, it does not really look like the train is moving. Some little plants in front of the train and some clouds scrolling in the background very slowly with a parallax effect would look really awesome. Even the occasional bird flying past would add a lot.

Jumping feels very weird, because you sort of hit the ceiling, which feels a little unnatural.

When you press Quit it says 'Yes' and 'No' but it really means 'Enter' and 'Esc', in that order. This is confusing. I was pressing N, then I typed NO then I typed NO and pressed Enter, and it quit.

The scores pop up after a few seconds of inactivity on the menu, but they also pop up even if you've just changed the difficulty. This is a very minor issue though.

When you die, if you were holding down Right when you died, it seems to change the difficulty to hard when you are returned to the menu automatically, and you have to change back.

I liked the gameplay, though I found it quite hard. When I died, it was because I jumped too early for the low lamps. I played on easy because I'm a sissy Tongue
I really want to know how it ends, so like Zaphos suggested, the easy mode could be easier. Not sure if you've already done this, but to counter the easy mode being easier, you could make the harder difficulty have a 'better' alternate ending or something. I can't really comment on the ending having not finished the game though Tongue

I like the wide feel of the game, and the graphics, especially of the man running.
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Gainsworthy
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« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2007, 11:40:14 PM »

Yay, I won. what an exhilarating ending.

I like the pattern of these 256 games- well animated and with awesome names. And, uh, "best friends."

It's Fun! Though: A little difficult to dodge the low-slug signs, didn't recognise that the tunnel was a tunnel the first time until I hit it (not a problem, more just stating my folly) and yeah, improved sensation of speed would be nice.

ALSO:



!MASSIVE SPOILERS!
When you reach the end of the train, the guy just stands there, signs whizzing past and noticeably NOT killing you. Maybe you could clamber into the driver's compartment?
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Guert
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« Reply #7 on: October 30, 2007, 03:46:00 AM »

Thanks alot everyone!

Melly: Thanks! Smiley

Zaphos: I'm really thinking that displaying meters instead of M would help. And I'll tone down he easy mode too.

Radnom: Ah yes, the speed issue. I originaly planned some background and foreground elements but took them out because I felt they altered the experience. The idea of plants next to the track could be interesting to add. I'll experiment a bit more with the scrolling.

The quitting box isn't clear enough? Check. I'll make it either clearer to press the esc or enter key OR simply make it react with the Y and N key.

Ah yes, the score screen popping up... I forgot to check for the difficulty changes. It's a pretty new feature and I haven't tested it as much as the others. Thanks for pointing those bugs out! Wink

I thought of an alternate ending for Hard mode but haven't done it yet. I'll probably add it tonight.

Gainsworthy: For the train thing... Yeah, I have the animation for that ready but my lazyness told me no one would notice this bug. Next time I see him, I'll punch him in the groin. Smiley

Thanks alot everyone! I'll update the game pretty soon! Smiley
Thanks again!
Later!
Guert
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mjau
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« Reply #8 on: October 30, 2007, 02:40:38 PM »

I liked it, though one thing really bothered me:  Obstacles come at you at the same speed whether you're standing still or running.  So, you're running at the top of a speeding train, but the train is slowing down whenever you run to compensate for the speed difference!  At the start it even seems like the train is standing still when you run.  Kinda destroys the sense of speed.
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Guert
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« Reply #9 on: October 30, 2007, 03:12:42 PM »

!!!!!

That's it! Something's been bugging me since the beginning but couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Thanks alot! :D

BLAST! Only few days before the deadline...
Thnaks again!
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Melly
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« Reply #10 on: October 30, 2007, 03:55:44 PM »

My "best friend" and I are very happy together, thank you very much.

We adopted. We named our child Cornball.
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Guert
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« Reply #11 on: October 30, 2007, 06:17:07 PM »

Melly: Then you'll like the "Hard" ending Wink

I updated the game, for those interested. Same link, new files. Tell me whatya think! Smiley
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mjau
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« Reply #12 on: October 30, 2007, 11:50:34 PM »

Excellent Smiley.  Something seems to have happened with the difficulty though; I had more difficulty beating it on easy with this new version than beating the old one on hard.  I haven't managed to beat the new one on hard yet.  The train builds up to crazy speeds and I keep flying into posts from across the screen Shocked

Also, a small indicator of some kind of how much train is left might be nice.  And more stones/bushes maybe.  Perhaps even some clouds and mountains and such in the background Smiley.  Some sfx would be great too, but I guess that doesn't matter for this contest..

Also also, a way to exit to the menu from in-game without having to quit the game first wouldn't hurt.

Btw, a bug:  When playing on easy, if you get killed, the game apparently thinks you deserve more punishment and sets the difficulty selection thing to hard.  If you win, it stays on easy.  Perhaps you intended it the other way round Smiley  (personally I'd prefer it to stay on whatever it was set to in any case though)
« Last Edit: October 31, 2007, 12:06:38 AM by mjau » Logged
Guert
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« Reply #13 on: October 31, 2007, 03:51:14 AM »

Changing the way the track scrolls influenced the gameplay alot. Now the player has more control but at the same time, it changed the difficulty.

I usualy don't have much trouble with difficulty level but this one is starting to give me a headache Wink I don't think i'm gonna chnage the hard mode much because I kinda want a very hard, very fast challenge but the easy mode supposed to be easy Wink Out of curiosity, how much time did you take to finish it at the easy mode?

I'll see what I can do for the graphical details with the time I got.

Being able to return to the main menu would be the best ergonomical choice. Good point.

For the bug, I know what causes it, I just found how to get rid of it Wink
Thanks!
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Guert
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« Reply #14 on: October 31, 2007, 07:23:10 PM »

So there you go, that's all I can do with the time left. I hope it's good!
Once again, same url, new files!

Thanks to all who posted! Your comments are truly appreciated! Smiley
Later!
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gummikana
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« Reply #15 on: November 01, 2007, 05:23:02 PM »

It's a simple mechanic, but it works. I played through it on the easy, which is more than I can say for most games. Even though it was a bit too tough for my taste.

I'll have to point out that it took me couple of tries to figure out should I jump or duck during the tunnels. But when I realized they where tunnels it made the whole a lot easier to grasp. (They are tunnels, aren't they?)

While it's logical that everything you can safely walk through is shaded gray, I think gray is bad color choice for the tunnels. I think the reason is that people tend to think that brightly colored objects are on the foreground and darker objects are in the background. This implies that there is some kind of platform there that you have to jump over.
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Petri Purho
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« Reply #16 on: November 01, 2007, 05:26:48 PM »

Yay! Just finished easy. A great game for a short amount of time! I assumed the counter was time left until the train hit your friend. Is that correct? I first thought it was how close to him I was, but then it kept ticking down even when I was standing still. The parallax scrolling is still a tad confusing, but it's not that big of a deal. Great job, Guert!
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Guert
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« Reply #17 on: November 01, 2007, 05:46:19 PM »

Gummikana:
Thanks for playing alot! Yes, it's indeed very simple... When I looked at how the event is presented, it reminded me of this arcade where I use to spend my time (and money). Lotsa game, music and players going from one game to another spending only few minutes per games. So I thought that I would create a very simple arcade game. There it is Wink

Good point about the color and the tunnels. I'm gonna experiment a bit just to see if I can find a cleaner way to express this element... Thanks again for playing!

Spincut:
Yes, the time left is the distance between your firend's head and the train. Thanks alot for the kind words!

I really liked creating this game. I made it in about a week and a half. Very fast compared to the time I usualy spend on design (at least a month). It's a very fun exercise!

Thanks to all who played! I hope I get picked for the event Wink
Later!
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Alec
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« Reply #18 on: November 04, 2007, 01:25:30 AM »

One small technical question/suggestion:

Haven't been able to play the latest version because my widescreen resolution sometimes throws a fit over 2D fullscreen games. What happens is it kicks back to the desktop and the window can be seen minimized in the task bar. Same thing happens if you try to get into the game again.

Is there a way to run the game windowed?
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Guert
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« Reply #19 on: November 04, 2007, 04:09:51 AM »

Yes but not with that version. I'll make one with a windowed mode.
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