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[BestFriendStudio]

"Kamikaze Lawnmower in the Salad Kingdom" is a 2D pixel art dodge 'em up game.







Theme

To save the Salad Kingdom from fiery disaster, our hero wields a unique surfing power to extinguish flames and ensure the kingdom's survival.

Idea was to create a small manageable game which I can finish in some reasonable period of time, purely to to through complete development process start to finish.





Gameplay

- Player needs to dodge falling lawnmowers and avoid colliding with them while they are horizontally driving/mowing.
Next to that, when two lawnmowers collide explosion occurs which can also hurt the player.




- As time progress fire in the kingdom, caused by the exploding lawnmowers, is catching more buildings which is shown in the kingdom bar in middle top area of the screen. Buildings in the background will also reflect this progress of the fire with each new segment of the bar being affected by fire.

- In order to save the Salad Kingdom from the blazing fire character needs to use his "special surfing power". :D

 

- When character is surfing on the top of the lawnmower he's creating a small waves which fill up the bar on the left side of the screen. Once the water bar is full a splash will extinguish fire in one part of the city.



- Goal of the game is to save the kingdom by putting down all the fires, while game is lost when character looses all his hearts or if Salad Kingdom burns down.

- Player will have a chance to collect coins which are dropped by destroyed golden lawnmowers, and in between the plays in the store menu he will have a chance to use them to unlock some pickups and powerups. This part of the game is still work in progress.


Plans

I'm doing everything on my own, including sound, graphics and code, so progress is slow but also enjoyable.

There's a lot more to be done here:
- Background graphics is mostly placeholder
- UI is at 10% progress or less
- Pickups should be implemented in next steps
- Simple one screen store where you can spent collected coins, probably to unlock some of the pickups
- Main menu requires update
- And of course ton of small things related to UX.

I was considering adding more levels and characters, but considering that it will probably be a free game, I don't think it's worth time investment in this case.

These days it's very hard to get any kind of feedback, so commends and suggestions are appreciated.

[nathy after dark]

Art looks really good!

[BestFriendStudio]

Art looks really good!

Thank you, a lot of it is still quite rough. I hope I'll add more animations especially for the effects.

What do you think about gameplay overall, would the preview interest you to try it out, especially having in mind that it will probably be a free game.

[nathy after dark]

I hadn't watched the video, just looked at the screenshots, because I'm usually skimming (most gamers in your audience are probably doing the same).

I'm a fan of games where you dodge falling objects, so I would definitely try this--my favorite one is The Incident and my second-favorite one is one I made myself several years ago.

The video makes it look like you have a fun base idea, surfing on the objects is something I haven't seen before.

[BestFriendStudio]

I hadn't watched the video, just looked at the screenshots, because I'm usually skimming (most gamers in your audience are probably doing the same).

That's very true. These days it's all about grabbing attention instantly and hoping they will take a closer look. Too much content and too little time and attention. 

Thank you for the comments. 

[Alain]

Looking good! Your protagonist has a ton of character and I love the animations. Keep us posted!

[BestFriendStudio]

Looking good! Your protagonist has a ton of character and I love the animations. Keep us posted!

Thank you, over the time character became quite dear to me.

I'll hopefully have some update soon. Everything is progressing slowly due to lack of time, but it's still progressing.

[BestFriendStudio]

Hi everyone,

unfortunately for some time progress is slow, and I'm mostly handling some non-visual elements in a little spare time I have, so I don't have much to share.

I'm planning to play with 2.5D perspective in the Store scene. I've initially assembled a test mockup directly in Unity (by positioning images directly), and had to play with layering order to make it work, but I was not quite satisfied because in corners some troubles occur.



The second solution will be to create the scene in the Blockbench software (it's free and quite suitable for these kinds of simple things).



A new problem is now related to planes with transparent areas once they are imported in Unity, for some reason they are visible only from one side. I think I've figured out how to solve it (at least good enough), but didn't have time to progress further.

Everything will be of course properly designed and textured, once I confirm the best approach. 

[nathy after dark]

I've never seen Blockbench before! Looks like a cool program.

[BestFriendStudio]

I've never seen Blockbench before! Looks like a cool program.

Based on a short time I was using it, I can say it's quite simple and intuitive, some say light version of Maya with more friendly interface. And by developers it's mostly recommended for Low poly 3d.

In any case, it's more than what I need for a simple room with fixed textures on the walls. Only those transparent hanging elements which are there for atmosphere are causing some problems on Unity side. But I'll handle it. 

[Ramos]

Cute visuals and the combo of pixelart + 3D make it very attractive.


 

[BestFriendStudio]

Thank you, I appreciate it.

In the meantime, I've made small progress regarding visuals and mostly quality of life improvements.

Here's the small update, mostly on some foreground elements.


I've decided to make a pause and handle a smaller game (currently in the making) so I can complete and publish something in a reasonable period of time, before I get back to this one. 

I'll create a post for it soon.