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[pehaa]

Hey everyone,

For a couple days, i've managed to get back into game design. I have some kind of addiction for all old fashionned side-scroller game and for puzzle  and while i was playing Ori and the Blind Forest i had an idea about a puzzle-platformer  game. To keep things organised and a dev trace (even if i end up to cancel the project).


What's  about ?
You are SuperDogMan and you are lost between dimensions. It's 2d puzzle-platformer game in which you will have to solve high-speed puzzle across levels.


What's the current state ?
So i've started this a few days ago. The first thing to choose was the engine and i've decided to pick Unreal Engine. I think it's a fun tool to learn and interesting because UE is primarly 3D oriented, so give me some interesting perspective to work with.

I've started a fresh BluePrint project, using some internet tutorials to handle 2D projects with UE.
The seconds step was to find some sprites resources to get started. I ended up to download some common resources that i will replace with my owns later.
After a few hours, i had a working bootstrap ! Unreal is really cool, no major pain to build a 2D game for now (except for collisions , because you have to be constrained by a capsule collider in which your sprite is contained)

Today, i've managed to start Pyxel editor again to make SuperDogMan. I've used some guides to get a good looking result.

So, i've a hero, a working blueprint project, so next step will be the first level design !


https://imgur.com/a/DkQsUCx

[pehaa]

Hey Everyone,

Here is the first update of SuperDogMan.

What's the current state ?
Last time, i said that i will begin to start level design but after a few hours, it was obvious that i had to rollback  some elements because i was lacking of knowledge of what is possible to be done and what is not. So i managed to work on something that i called "top engine", that will handle every aspect of game design. So let's talk about it because i pretty sure that when i talk about "puzzle nervous platformer game", it might sound a little bit blurry.

Actually, the game loop is pretty  simple. You will spawn at A point and you have to reach B point. To do this you will have to unlock to path : closed doors, lever, platforms etc. But you have to do it at high speed, because there is speedrun components. Every levels will have 3/4 paths and each paths will have ratings (A,B,C and S+). If you want to "complete" the game you will have to "S+" every level to get the "real" ending.

To complete each level, you will be offered some standard vanilla skills : double jump, dash, wall jump etc. Every time you will use a skill, it will consume some energy. So you have to be carefull of your skill usage to avoid energy depletion !

"Rocket Launch" Skill, energy usage !

Every time you will enter a level, skills are resetted and energy restored

See you next time !

[mobilelast]

An interesting and brave engine choice for a one-person(?) 2D game. But I’m sure it will be a rewarding (yet frustrating) journey.

Are you using UE4 or UE5? What I’ve understood (and I might be wrong), UE5 pretty much removed all the 2D templates as well as Paper2D support.

[pehaa]

An interesting and brave engine choice for a one-person(?) 2D game. But I’m sure it will be a rewarding (yet frustrating) journey.

Are you using UE4 or UE5? What I’ve understood (and I might be wrong), UE5 pretty much removed all the 2D templates as well as Paper2D support.

Hey,

Sorry for my late answer, i just came back from vacation.
I'm using UE 5 and yes they removed basic 2D template. But everything from Paper2D remain in the engine so there is no pain to follow some UE4 tutorials. To ease my journey across Unreal Engine, i've bought Pixel2D, an addon that give some cool features and ease a lot 2D platformer developpement.

[pehaa]

Hey Everyone,

I've made significant progress during august. I will try to make an summary of what have been done.

What's the current state ?

The first level is almost complete, it just needs some minor balancing, especially in the "hard path". It was a very fun time to design and imagine what a player could do to trick the game and put in place some elements to "punish" non-perfect moves, while giving the possibility to finish the level to those who want to take their time.

I was able to learn quite a few things about Unreal Engine and one of the most difficult was to understand how the particle system (Niagara) works. I lost a lot of time in my attempts to learn because I was missing a preliminary element: Materials. I spent about 10 hours learning how to make materials using custom textures, transparent and luminescent materials. Once done, I resumed my journey through Niagara and came up with some pretty interesting stuff.

Dash Effect : Before/After Niagara System

If you want more details, you can follow me on twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/schizo_). I regularly stream my game development sessions, I mainly speak french but english is ok.

See you next time !

[michaelplzno]

I've had a bunch of instances where there were conversations about unruly dogs around me that felt like people were actually talking about yours truly. Am I unruly? Its easy to sympathize with dogs though. As is often the case I find that the FG and the BG blend a bit too well in your gifs, those white blobs seemed like enemies and the wooden platforms seemed a bit like BG elements at times. Anyway, good luck.

[nathy after dark]

Looks cool!

[pehaa]

I've had a bunch of instances where there were conversations about unruly dogs around me that felt like people were actually talking about yours truly. Am I unruly? Its easy to sympathize with dogs though. As is often the case I find that the FG and the BG blend a bit too well in your gifs, those white blobs seemed like enemies and the wooden platforms seemed a bit like BG elements at times. Anyway, good luck.

Hey,

Thanks for your truly feedback
I agree, platforms and some elements does not fit with first level. I plan to do some assets rework, especially with (moving) platforms.

Looks cool!

Thank you