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[xenonii]

Hi all,
I'd like to do a playtest to get some feedback from the community on a 2d roguelike platformer which I've been working on the last couple months.



Pyramid Plunge is a roguelike 2d platformer with a ton of humor.

Meet George and Felicie. She likes reading and visiting museums and old temples. He likes beer and farting.

One day they were on a tour in Egypt visiting the Great Pyramid, and while they were taking one last picture of a majestic statue, they got separated from the rest of the tour. When Felicie realised they were alone, she started panicking, as usual. George, calm as ever, told her "As Confucius said, all that goes up needs to go down... we came all the way up here and now we just need to go down this pyramid and find the exit". Little did he know that the pyramid is cursed and infested with creatures. Will they ever find the exit?

• Help scaredy-cat Felicie through the levels by carrying her, throwing her and pulling her up. (There will be a reversed mode where Felicie throws George around in the near future)
• Find interesting powerups in crates littering the pyramids from past explorers
• Infinite procedurally generated levels
• Collect coins and gems to buy items from the bazaar
• Enjoy local multiplayer mode where you win a round by exiting the level safely and collecting more coins than your opponent. Whoever enters first, triggers the flood and can hunt down the opponent as a jellyfish!  

Build v0.3.4 - Original build posted here
Build v0.3.5 - Patch for High-Res monitors
Build v0.3.6 - Fix for water shader used in Flood
Build v0.4.0 - New lighting system with normal maps
Build v0.4.1 - Added online leaderboards
Build v0.4.2 - Re-added Local Multiplayer
Build v0.4.3 - Minor improvements
Build v0.4.4 - Minor fixes for local multiplayer
Download from itch.io: https://polycrunch.itch.io/pyramidplunge

The build is a vertical slice which has 1 world with 4 levels getting harder every time. On the fourth level you have an infestation of some type of monster/creature. Then you also have a boss to beat. In the future it will have 4 different worlds each with its own boss.

Requirements: Nothing special as it plays fine on a 2012 Macbook Air.
But a gamepad is highly recommended. I hook a PS4 controller to my laptop and it works fine.  

I'm looking for feedback on gameplay and controls. Suggestions on how to improve are always welcome.
The art is my pixel art. If the game gets to a point were it gets funded, it would be redone by a professional pixel artist. In the meantime, it will be my pixel art.  
Music, voice overs and sfx are currently placeholders, but they should give an idea to musicians and sound designers of the sound scape I'm looking for in the near future. So I don't need to hear about copyright infringement blablabla, because those are just placeholders.  

[RealScaniX]

Mmh... it insta-crashes for me:
(But the music in the background is kinda nice ^^)
 
 
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Create Event
for object obj_LevelEnd:

global variable name 'isLevelWithKey' index (100153) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_LevelEnd_Create_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_LevelEnd_Create_0 (line -1)

[xenonii]

Mmh... it insta-crashes for me:
(But the music in the background is kinda nice ^^)
 
 
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Create Event
for object obj_LevelEnd:

global variable name 'isLevelWithKey' index (100153) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_obj_LevelEnd_Create_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_obj_LevelEnd_Create_0 (line -1)

@RealScaniX, oops. It seems I broke the tutorial code with my last fixes! I will fix the bug and post here. Sorry about that. 

[xenonii]

@RealScaniX I fixed the issue and refreshed the download files. Kindly redownload using the links in the original post.

Let me know if that fixes the issue.

[Ordnas]

I like the protagonist, he reminds me of The Flinstones 

[RealScaniX]

@RealScaniX I fixed the issue and refreshed the download files. Kindly redownload using the links in the original post.

Let me know if that fixes the issue.

Thanks. Will try later after work.

[xenonii]

I like the protagonist, he reminds me of The Flinstones 

@Ordnas
Haha... thanks. That cartoony style will give a lot where we can play with animations in the polishing stage.

Do you have any feedback on the controls and gameplay?

[RealScaniX]

I had a quick play. Here is my unfiltered feedback:
- I like the style. The characters are funny.
- Not a super big fan of the sounds, especially the whistling and the voices ("Let's go" or something like that)
- The game keeps running in the background when the tutorial popup about the explosives is displayed, so I can keep running around in the dark.
- F1 instead of SPACE to continue to avoid the player to accidentally skip it?
- after level 1 it said that I collected 0/16, but I did collect stuff
- the light effects are nice, although the woman was killed in level 2 after I picked her up by a spider that I could not see
- the jump height with and without her is too similar. probably make him jump a little bit higher without her?
- the water thing (flood) is a cool idea. the shader seems to have a little problem though.
- I did not expect him to take damage from falling from a great height. and I have no indicator for what is too high (yet).
- wall jumping is a bit tricky. I expected to be allowed to press the destination direction when jumping, but dropped down instead. when I still need to press against the wall when jumping, it will reduce the distance of the jump as I'm still steering back towards it right after jumping. probably "stick" to the wall for a tiny timeframe before dropping off?
- The flood started pretty early in the beginning of level 2, so I am unsure if I would be able to reach everything at the bottom of the level. Also: Do I drown eventually? I haven't seen an indicator for my breath.
- Swimming: I like the look of it with the bubbles and everything. I would prefer it if he would not just jump when reaching the surface, but swim on the surface until I press jump.

In general the game is fun to play. I bet it is even more fun with a controller (played with keyboard).
It's a cool game. I think it can become awesome. Keep up the good work!

[xenonii]

@RealScaniX
Thanks for the feedback 

- Not a super big fan of the sounds, especially the whistling and the voices ("Let's go" or something like that)

All sounds are placeholders. I'm hoping to get some funding in the near future to be able to pay proper musicians/sound designers.
Re: voices - I'm a fan of Wario, and when I added those sounds (placeholders) it gave the atmosphere a funnier vibe. They kind of grow on you as that was my first reaction when I remember playing some Wario game for the first time. At first I was like "how annoying!!", but then you expect him to say something in that obnoxious voice.

- The game keeps running in the background when the tutorial popup about the explosives is displayed, so I can keep running around in the dark.
- F1 instead of SPACE to continue to avoid the player to accidentally skip it?
- after level 1 it said that I collected 0/16, but I did collect stuff

Added to my todo list. Thanks

- the light effects are nice, although the woman was killed in level 2 after I picked her up by a spider that I could not see

I'm currently working on improving the lighting and atmosphere. See WIP video below. Re: spider I will try to improve the "readability" of the enemies.

- the jump height with and without her is too similar. probably make him jump a little bit higher without her?

I'll have a play with your suggestion. I'm assuming you have found out about the farts allowing you to double jump when not carrying her right?

- the water thing (flood) is a cool idea. the shader seems to have a little problem though.

Hmmmm... this is worrying. The shader looks fine on my old macbook air. If you have some time could you post a screenshot?

- I did not expect him to take damage from falling from a great height. and I have no indicator for what is too high (yet).

It's typically slightly bigger than a screen height, and after a few play throughs you start getting good at preventing getting hurt. I saw my kids learning about it pretty fast.

- wall jumping is a bit tricky. I expected to be allowed to press the destination direction when jumping, but dropped down instead. when I still need to press against the wall when jumping, it will reduce the distance of the jump as I'm still steering back towards it right after jumping. probably "stick" to the wall for a tiny timeframe before dropping off?

Noted. I will make it more easier. I have already added input buffering, but since I'm used to it now it's difficult to judge when it's "good enough".

- The flood started pretty early in the beginning of level 2, so I am unsure if I would be able to reach everything at the bottom of the level. Also: Do I drown eventually? I haven't seen an indicator for my breath.

There's a breath indicator at the bottom (green bar for you, orange bar for her) when you/her are under water.
The timer is 60 seconds for the flood and so the more you play it the more you start devising how to go around your randomly generated level. E.g. you will start thinking if you should take Felicie with you or not and come back for her later. If you should waste time picking gems or not. If you should get her to open the chest or not. If it's worth your time to open the crates. It becomes a balance of risk/reward and the more you play it, the more you'll be able to judge better, including if you have enough breath to get to the exit or go back up for air.

- Swimming: I like the look of it with the bubbles and everything. I would prefer it if he would not just jump when reaching the surface, but swim on the surface until I press jump.

Noted. I will see if it's better as you're suggesting. I opted for quick actions in the design of the controls to not waste time. E.g. in the ladder I had implemented a platform for the start of the ladder, but that slowed down the player because he would need to press down to start climbing down rather than just fall through the ladder. If he wants to actually go down the ladder, he would need to press down while falling through the ladder.

In general the game is fun to play. I bet it is even more fun with a controller (played with keyboard).
It's a cool game. I think it can become awesome. Keep up the good work!

Thanks a lot for the kind words and appreciated a lot your feedback  . If you would like to follow the progress I have a devlog here: https://pyramidplungedev.blogspot.com/  and also set up a discord server, but of course it's still at its infancy: https://discord.gg/2EHN4Fd

If you have a PS4 controller lying around, you can easily hook it up using http://ds4windows.com (on mac you don't need any driver, just hook it up).

Btw, what's your Pyramid of the Day score? That option in the menu will give you the same level for the rest of the day.
Have a nice day!

[RealScaniX]

Double jump:
Hehe, he farted once while playing, but I thought it was a random effect. I wasn't able to double jump. Probably only tried while carrying her? Cannot say. ^^

Shader:
The lower right quarter of it seems to have invalid UVs or something and only showed lines if I remember correctly. Can take a screenshot later.

Falling height:
Ok, but needing to try out stuff at least in the case of deadly / not deadly can probably be avoided here and there. How about making him flip upside down and start to shout at the point the falling gets deadly? Does he do that already? Sorry, it was pretty late.

Flood / breath:
Might have missed the indicator. Will check when doing the screenshot later.

Swimming:
Quick is fine, but here you lose control in a way. I need to hold up to keep him at the surface, so he can breathe, right? But what if there are obstacles above and I don't want to jump?

You're welcome!
I've seen that you already took a bloody revenge. Will comment that stuff now. ^^

[xenonii]

Double jump:
Hehe, he farted once while playing, but I thought it was a random effect. I wasn't able to double jump. Probably only tried while carrying her? Cannot say. ^^

Yeah if you're carrying her, you cannot fart or you get a hernia 

Shader:
The lower right quarter of it seems to have invalid UVs or something and only showed lines if I remember correctly. Can take a screenshot later.

Hmmm I only saw that once and could not reproduce it. Let me know if you can reproduce it.

Falling height:
Ok, but needing to try out stuff at least in the case of deadly / not deadly can probably be avoided here and there. How about making him flip upside down and start to shout at the point the falling gets deadly? Does he do that already? Sorry, it was pretty late.

He says "oh boy" when the vertical speed gets high, but probably a panicked animation makes more sense although it would be too fast.

Thanks again for the followup

[RealScaniX]

Here is a screenshot of the shader bug.
 
Ah, I know why I thought that double jump does not work. It only works while you are still ascending from the first jump. This feels kinda wrong. I also fail to double jump too easily, because I normally try to optimize it and jump at the highest possible point.

[xenonii]

@RealScaniX
Hmmmm I see you're in a super high resolution. What resolution are you on by any chance? I'm assuming you're on Windows, correct?

There is a bit of input buffering for the double jump, but it seems to not be enough. I'll tweak it further. 

[RealScaniX]

@RealScaniX
Hmmmm I see you're in a super high resolution. What resolution are you on by any chance? I'm assuming you're on Windows, correct?

Well, the resolution is the same as the screenshot. =P
3840 × 2160
 
Yes, Win 10.
 
Are you using pixel coordinates for the shader? I'd use a relative coordinate 0-1 independent of screen resolution. Will also make the waves and distortion etc. the same size in all resolutions. That is always a good thing.

[xenonii]

Yeah AFAIK it's using 0-1 UV coordinates. So not sure what's happening yet. I'll check on the shader later.

I was asking for the resolution more because the camera on your resolution is showing too much of the level (making the game easier). I will need to find a better way how to scale the pixel ratio. I'm trying to avoid having fraction pixel ratios as that introduces "non-uniformly scaled" pixels.

[RealScaniX]

Yeah AFAIK it's using 0-1 UV coordinates. So not sure what's happening yet. I'll check on the shader later.

I was asking for the resolution more because the camera on your resolution is showing too much of the level (making the game easier). I will need to find a better way how to scale the pixel ratio. I'm trying to avoid having fraction pixel ratios as that introduces "non-uniformly scaled" pixels.

Lol. Story of my life. I fought so long and hard to keep Spaß Taxi pixel perfect. I will never do that again. Xd
I'm using a pixel perfect camera in unity. The actual rendered resolution is always the same. You get black borders in the resolutions between and fullscreen at multiples of 1920x1080. It also starts scrolling in case someone actually uses something smaller than full HD. I still have an option to stretch the graphics if people prefer slightly blurry fullscreen graphics over black borders. I actually automatically stretch if the black borders are larger than 20% (or something like that).
This produced too many problems and I have seen games that just ignore the effect and although I notice it, I end up thinking: The player probably does not care about it that much.

[xenonii]

Yeah, all games should be played at 320x200 @ 256 colors 

[xenonii]

I posted an update of the build (v0.3.5). Links updated in the first post.
Fixed issue with High-Res monitors.

@RealScaniX, can you post a screenshot when you have time. Also can you check if the Flood water shader is fixed with this patch?
Thanks

[RealScaniX]

In case you haven't noticed: I've sent you a message today.
Also nice to see you in the highscores. Didn't expect it to be the veteran mode, though. :D

[xenonii]

@RealScaniX Yes I saw the message, thanks. Just fixed it now. It was a bug from my part where I had local 2 player code running in single player mode, causing that glitch.

You can download the next build with the fix (v0.3.6) in the original post.

Are you playing Pyramid of the Day? It gives you the same levels for 24 hours. (I need some high-score system for that but I will look into that later. Need to get this iteration on visuals out of the way first.)