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[Conchobhar]

Hey guys, Connorses here, with a dev long for the project I started this Tuesday. I've been putting off homework for this but it's coming along very nicely.

Chounce is an idea that was kicking around my head for a while. It's largely inspired by my game JellyBall, but it's a whole new physics game on it's own.

Chounce is the purple ball guy. He can launch himself off any surface he is touching. He also retains any momentum he had. He is slippery and non-bouncy. The result is a weird one-button platformer where you push off available surfaces to progress.

The gameplay was coded in a couple hours, and then refined the next day. The bulk of the programming was me building menus, saving/loading data and making sure it all works. There are way too many moving parts. This is why programming UI is a pain.

BUT I DID IT! The game keeps track of your best completion time for each level you play. Next on the To Do List is programming in a Par Time. (If you beat the Par Time of a level you get a star).

SCREEN SHOTS

[Conchobhar]

Log Date 4/9/2019

Fixed some bugs. Made some progress on level designs today. Still got some ideas I need to make for the early game (tutorial style/easy levels). Sometimes I'll work on one of those and it will turn into a harder level, which basically means I'll be making an easier one later.

The stairs level is weird, and not necessarily in the good way. I'm not quite satisfied with the solution.

I think levels that allow you to jump farther will be fun. I have some ideas for additional mechanics that could allow this (areas that have different gravity, powerups, cannons etc).

I'm discovering more good sounding instruments in Beepbox, I wish you could copy-paste the instrument settings from one song into another... This song needs one or two more verses but it's coming along nicely so I'll post the WIP version.

https://www.beepbox.co/#6n41sbk7l00e0ft5m0a3g0fj7i0r2o21120T0w5f1d1c0h0v0T1d1c0A0F1B0V1Q2590Pf720E00ccT1d1c0A0F0B3V1Q2000Pf900E0221T1d1c0A0F9B4V1Q0000Pf860E0111T2w4d1v3b000h4h4i4h5M4zcPg500ly8zhkl5hkl50000018QllkPci8y8y8h4gp252FzO2k110Gc617ge07gcnceC1zsNMRC844McbcfL3rPcI0wpzH3XKxFBCxF3Y92ccwh1Ai4dtxHIcyg1HIdKxFBIkgQyAEyC4lcsxj3hOYAei1cKkRtbyltQ4CzwUb1rrHWEa3AqJJBqr5VjfId0o4d0tMq0QxE3jo2yRCR-3hcMRKjD35OXOXOXOXbQOWkMVZXajhQs-0wdlJaoqio_q345eTJZy6FFHIFFSTkQRRQQSrnSg4KCzwRkRt5cd2LpIFJvlcKGWqtO5FEv0E18wE0bc3X8kOgFAdcxFAdcxGsoBuCh5Z8GaquVx2Ci5cAap80

I might incorporate rigidbody objects into some levels, but I think scripted, predictable motions are better for the environmental objects in Chounce. It's meant to be a somewhat precise platformer, I don't need more chaos in there.

[Conchobhar]

So I've been posting on Twitter, but I'll summarize here as well. For record keeping.
I'll link a couple videos.
https://twitter.com/Onronc/status/1123226174254018561
https://twitter.com/Onronc/status/1117326451559161856

Also posted a Beepbox song which are super fun because you can view it in browser (The URL contains all the data needed to play it):
Beepbox Song

I've been adding some simple physics driven objects to spice up gameplay. Chounce is just a rigidbody circle, so they inherit momentum when jumping off a moving object. This means that the trajectory you go on depends on the timing of your jumps.

Making levels for this game is interesting, because it's momentum based platforming. Long horizontal sections allow the player to build up momentum, but sharp direction changes kill your momentum, for instance a walljump. I've taken this into consideration and made a mostly horizontal level, but I broke it up into sections with little gates that flip you into the next section like a revolving door. They are sticky so you basically reset your momentum in each section. Speedrunning this is fun, but you can't build up ridiculous speeds because of the gates. This keeps the level from getting out of hand.

Here's a Unity editor overview of some of the levels I made the last couple days:

[meshpotato]

Looks cool!
Reminds a little of MineRalph

[EberKain]

Looking great, that is a lot of progress for a short time.

[Conchobhar]

Thanks guys! MineRalph does look interesting...

SO today I reworked how Chounce detects surfaces. I was doing raycasts and taking an average to angle Chounce perpendicular to the surface Chounce is touching. I'm now using GetCollisions which doesn't result in the same noticeable errors. I had to work out an annoying bug but it's much better now.

For Unity programmers:
Today I learned that if you're using Unity's 2D rigidbodies, you should usually set the angle of the object by setting the rigidbody "rotation" property. DON'T set the rotation of the transform of the gameobject; it doesn't carry over to the Box2D rigidbody itself until the next Update or so. I was setting transform.eulerAngles and then trying to add a fixedJoint2D to lock Chounce to the new rotation, but the rigidbody.rotation wasn't updated yet so the character would LOOK rotated for a frame and then the fixedJoint2D would snap them back to the old rotation. Very frustrating. (I hope that made some amount of sense lol)

SCREENSHOT (New zero-g space themed area)

[Conchobhar]

Alright, so this hasn't been updated in a WHILE. I am posting now as I am in the process of getting the game approved by the Goole Play store, and I'm getting into the Apple App Store for the first time so who knows when that will be ready.... But I feel the game is ready to release!

I found a great tool in Unity for making the game look nice, it's called SpriteShapes. I wound up using it because it allows me to draw shapes using bezier curves, and can fill them with a pattern. I didn't wind up using it's feature which places a sprite around the edge of those shapes, and instead wrote a script that matches up a LineRenderer to the outline. The SpriteShape generates edge colliders, and I'm using the points from those.

I've been hard at work making new levels for the game, and experimenting with some new mechanics, including bouncy walls and cannons which aren't actually in the game yet! I thought I might generate a bit of extra buzz by releasing packs of levels after the initial release, so that people who have the game will get notified of an update and I can make multiple announcements. The cannon-based levels are nearly done, and the bouncy levels which introduce some neat puzzles.

I have posted a "Release Trailer" on Youtube, although the app isn't up for download just yet. Getting it approved has been an impressive amount of busywork, I already got turned down once because of my privacy policy. Wish me luck!

Here's that trailer, by the way.

[Conchobhar]

UPDATE: The game is out on Google Play!!
You can check it out here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.LoneshipGames.Chounce

iOS port is on the way, it's only out for Android so far.

I also intend to update it with that extra set of levels. More may be coming, especially if the game starts drawing attention.