ArrowHead - 2.5D Platform game

I noticed in Youtube that a lot of people continue watching this old video instead to watch the newest one, so please click "Last" to see the newest version, webplayer and its news

Hello guys, I am using Unity since December 2011, studying via the Lerpz 2.5D tutorial. Based on it I resolved to make a simple fast-paced 2D platform game as my first game.

The main character of this game is called ArrowHead because he is a "live arrow". He can walk normally or do a headbutt attack like a dash move. It can attack in this way only one time until touch the ground again or other things like ropes and springs. Also when he attacks the "reflector walls", this move is reflected with a 10% bonus of speed. After reflect you can change the headbutt direction.

There are some bugs, the graphic and sound is not very good , there are some animation glitches and a lot of things to improve, but I am posting this video of this alpha version just to show the main idea, what do you think about the game and mainly the gameplay ?

Newest video:

Tools used:
* Unity3D - Game programming;
* Blender - 3D modelling;
* LMMS - Linux MultiMedia Studio - Music;
* Inkscape - Graphics and textures;

Thanks for the attention

 

I think all your mechanics are awesome, and your game is basically done. I think what you should focus on now is getting yourself an artist, someone who can really polish your game and give it that pretty aesthetic

Great stuff
-Charlie

 

It's awesome to see a lot of work put in a game like that. Good job Kaze.

There's obviously room for improvement both visually, musically and design-wise, but hey, it's a game nonetheless. Probably SUPER HARD for anyone that's not the developer of the game since it's all about timing and knowing the level.

Brought me back in the ol' days of very obscure NES games made with very limited resources.

Keep it up.

MQ

 

Thank you for the feedback guys:

@charliesamways I am planing to fix some engine bugs, mainly because the character is pretty fast. After it I'll try to train my artistic skills, because I am doing this project alone as a hobby and I don't know if I'll have money to get some artist

@MoonQuake I am happy to make you remember the 8-bits games with this one

 

Very nice!

 

Oh SirenPro, sorry for the late reply, I didn't want to bump this post just to say this, well thank you. So I'll dedicate this new video for you

This is the version 0.02 from my game. The new features in this one are:

* A conveyor belt at the start of the video;
* Moving platforms improved, without parenting, so I don't get scale glitches anymore;
* Moving platforms that can push the player horizontally;
* Moving platforms that can kill the player crushed;
* Objects with synchronized movement ( for example: the crusher groups and the pin groups at the end );
* Multiple-layer parallax background without jittering ( 3 layers in this video );
* Little animations fixes;
* New dash test animation;

Well I think that is all for the moment, please say what do you think about this video and give a thumb up in the youtube if you like it. Thanks for attention.

 

Very nice, I enjoy the unique game mechanic. Only thing I can say beyond the obvious artistic flaws is that it seems the demo levels are being designed in such a way that only players who have died say, 15 times on a particular segment will actually know what they need to do to succeed.

Besides that I find this game intriguing! Do you think you may include surfaces that the arrow sticks to after a dash? It might be interesting to have to stick to a moving platform and then quickly switch to other surfaces as threats arise.

P.S. Any thoughts given yet to boss encounters?

 

@Muuski thank you for the feedback. I don't like leaps of faith too but when I recorded this movie I needed to reduce the resolution because my computer is weak After I am planning to fix this resolution problem. Also some tricks that I showed in that video I think that could be used only on the later levels because I don't think that a beginner can do that things.

About arrow stick, I once thought about some rubber surface where you can stick after dash, one day I'll try to implement this. And about the bosses I have a lot of ideas of bosses and level themes, for now I am starting to study how to create menus and save informations about the game to be possible to continue the game later. After this I'll start the first level design and one day I'll make the first boss who I am thinking that will be a Giant HammerHead like in the following sketch

 

Hohoho new video of a new version of the game. I started to make a menu and a system to save game using xml and an undestroyable object to store the level's data. But I didn't joined it with the levels yet, so the video shows only the visual idea of menu for now, also I need to cryptography this xml to do not let the player cheat

Watch in youtube plz, now I learnt how to make 720p videos

More news:

• I remade the enemies' scripts, before I was using the same player's script (laziness);
• First stage theme defined and a lot of new objects to test the game level feeling, layout and design;
• Fixes while applying extern forces at the player, now they are frame-independent I think
• Improved GUI displaying now time and score with a better format.

Well, more details at the video, your feedback about this new video and its new music is welcome

 

Nice work!

How about some destructible environments? Makes sense to break stuff (maybe secret passages?) with the arrowhead.

 

Secret passages I'm thinking to do using that platforms that you can pass through or a object without colliders.

About the destructible objects I'm thinking to add more tokens that you can earn by destroying a bull's eye object, but I need to do more brainstorms and the university is draining my time and my life at the present*moment

 

Playable demo download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?jzf3xx9bdbyarfp (16mbs)

Manual txt on Evernote

Youtube video:

Hello guys, I think that in this end of year I will be very busy with university, job and looking for a new place to live, soo I think that I won't have many time to use in this project. Then I decided to release a alpha demo version and get the feedback until I have time to use in this one again. I am planning to get this feedback, fix the artistic part and then start to make new levels and finish this game or try other projects that I have in my head depending from the feedback.

This demo version is playable but contains some animation bugs, also the menus are temporary, so take easy with the art area. It only contains the first level from the first stage and its 3 challanges are enabled when you beat it in the normal level. I think that you can beat this level in 1 minute. It's a pretty little and simple level because it's the first level

I got some problems with IO functions that I use to save the game so, for while there is no webplayer build

Also as a test version, this version does not have game over, when you lost all your lifes you just go back to the menu.

The new features in this one are:

* Maximum movement speed reduced by 25% to avoid collision bugs;
* 3 new modes of game created: time attack, token challange and score challange;
* Pigeon enemy fixed;
* New object: Arrow Thrower, works like a spring, but without colliders, only triggers;
* New screen of the end of the level.

More pics to call attention:





Any feedback is welcome, thanks for the attention

 

This looks awesome! I love the mechanics.

 

While most people have pointed out that it's not quite aesthetically top notch just yet, I must say that I really like this! The controls seem tight, and the gameplay in general just makes me think it would fit great as a SNES or Sega Genesis game. I'm a big fan of retro games, so I'll be keeping an eye on this. Keep it up!

 

Oh thank for the feedback guys, I'm happy that you liked it, especially because of the mechanics and controls part, for me they are the most important part of this game

Also I forgot to ask one question, for the people that downloaded the game, how heavy is it in your computer? For example in my computer it used 90mbs of RAM and less than 10% of CPU usage.

 

Hmmm I think that I fixed the file read problem, I changed all for PlayerPrefs and now the webplayer seems to be working. I think that I choose the wrong option for "Streamed" and my game does not have loading screens, so wait until the game load everything to play (it's only 9mbs)

So now there is no excuse, please give a try in this game and leave your feedback

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6591973/Unity/ArrowHeadBuilds/v0.04/WebPlayer.html



Ah, the Quit game button does not work on webplayer because it can't close your browser

 

Have you seen the movie Indie Game: the movie? very inspirational for games like this. Look's very nice. Better flow with the graphics and a little lighter would be the only things i woul recomend.



Also it reminds me alot of the game Super Meat Boy.

 

Hey, I really like the work so far on the game! Currently, pressing D or A while pressing CTRL doesn't do the piercing attack. Is it intended to only allow directional key for attacking? I'd prefer being able to use ASD personally.

 

More feedback

I didn't watch this movie yet but I am planning to watch it on my Summer Vacation. Well about the light, the first level is planned to be at 0:00am, so I let it a bit darker, if you guys don't like it I can make it brighter, so you guys choose
The graphic flow I'll fix it, I need to learn better how to manage animations in Unity. And I need to play super meat boy, time is always a problem

Hmmm when I started to make this project I was thinking about release it for windows, in the splash screen you can change the input keys to up,right,etc so you could change the keys to use WASD. Well in the next version I'll include the WASD in the code for the case of the webplayer.

And it is intended to only allow attack if you hold some directional key. You can't just press ctrl to attack.

 

I was just thinking this as well. Each frame seems a bit cramped and difficult to see the obstacles and platforms ahead. There should be a mechanic where you can tilt the camera slightly in any direction so that you can see more of the level and plan your movements ahead of time. Interesting idea and design so far. I would definitely look into better aesthetics though.

 

Hmm when you said "Each frame seems a bit cramped", did you have some fps or jittering issues while playing the demo?

Anyway since you aren't the first person that said that it's difficult to see the obstacles ahead I'll make the screen bigger to make it easier to see. Personally I don't like camera tilts in fast-paced games because it makes me dizzy

Thanks for the feedback

 

great! needs a bit bettr art, and it's ready to go to appStore, good luck

 

Thank you @hellcaller


Hey guys, I need a little help. I think that sometimes the arrow thrower's throwing distance is varying a bit. So I made a new demo with some little changes:

Webplayer link

VERSION 0.041
* [FIX] There is one ground where the piercing attack wasn't working;
* [CHANGE] I put one original music mine in the Title Screen instead of use that Twinkle twinkle Little star, I am planning to use this one as the first boss's theme;
* [CHANGE] I increased the field of view to make easy to predict the obstacles that are on the way;

In this demo, if you go to the place over the starting place there is a arrow thrower, press left and touch it walking in the ground, it'll throw you up in the direction of 3 feathers, if you can't reach these feathers this way please let me know

 

The feathers are reachable, atleast in the latest build ! must say im impressed by you´re work ! did you learn everything from scratch when starting with unity or had a background with coding in other languages ?

 

My god this is one weird, eerie and psychedelic game. I love it! Specially the music from the first video, why did you discard it? D:

Question: is there anything stopping you from using the same button for jump and headbutt? I don't think there is (not entirely certain though) and it would simplify the controls. I kept trying to do the dash like it was a double jump, instinctively.

There's definitely improvement in the artistic department, but the visual design is still a little messy. In the first video it had very little models and textures, it looks prettier now, but also messier. It needs more value variation, the platforms could be lighter and the background/foreground objects (the ones that don't block the player) could be darker. The hazardous objects could be more distinguishable, specially the spike ball! I never see those things until I tun into them.

The level design is quite unforgiving lol But that's a whole other subject. After you're get the game in a stage of polishing you'll need people to play test the levels and fine tune the whole thing.

All in all, great job! keep it up.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys

Ehh which first video? If you were talking from the version 0.01, that music is a random work that I did before to know something about music theory. I think that I'll remake that music someday but I'm not planning to use in this game.

Well I think that the headbutt attack and the jump aren't activated by the same button, in the computers that I tested I use space to jump and ctrl to attack. Can you use the space button to attack and jump there?

I think that this game will be pretty unforgiving hohohoho but I am planning to make easier to get extra lifes.

And I'll try to make the traps more distinguible from the rest

I have background in some languages like C, Java and Haskell, but only for academic uses. Anyway it helped me a lot when I started to study to program with Unity

 

I may have expressed myself poorly. They are not activated by the same buttons, what I'm asking is why not make them activate with the same button? I'm asking that because I don't see the need for two buttons, you can only headbutt when in air (right? I don't remember. If you can headbutt on the ground as well my theory goes down the drain hehe)

 

This definetly reminds me of some oldies, which definitely isn't a bad thing. Great work, keep it up!

 

Yeah your theory is wrong You can attack while walking in the ground, in the videos I am used to attack after jump because it's easier to get more speed jumping than walking, so I think that the same button to attack and jump is not a good idea.

And thanks for the feedback @dtg108

 

Sweet game there Kaze Senshi, nice work.

 

Ehh soo, now I am on my university vacation, I am starting to convert my game animations to the new Mecanim system, it'll help me to fix some animation loop errors, also I am studying more music, but for now I have nothing new to show, just bumping to say that I am alive

And I am glad that you liked it Microbex

 

Is that track a electronic base drum focused version of "twinkle, twinkle, little star"? Disturbed me a bit to be honest.

I could't figure out the controls, how do you do that dash thing?

 

Lol sorry about the twinkle twinkle little star music, but this music is from an old version, there is already a new webplayer version with a different music here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6591973/Unity/ArrowHeadBuilds/v0.041/WebPlayer.html

And about the dash, just hold some directional key and press CTRL to dash, more details please read this manual:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s58/...32455c22173b/f7584489611ab150cc09b4112d56bbee

 

I converted all the enemies and main character animation to the new Mecanim system, also I made the second and third levels from the first stage. Now I am coding the boss stage, this one can take sometime since I am trying to do something different, also I modeled the HammerHead version 1, if you have some suggestion for its design please let me know. It is pretty simple because I am a newbie artist and after all, the camera will be a little far away

 

Hmmm I think that I finished the boss system, I made this system based on a bullet hell game (Touhou). Now I need more some days to put more effects, like sounds and I'll post a web player demo here for tests. I'll try to create a checkpoint system for bosses to be able to create longer boss fights without kill the player with an amazing difficult, also I need to fix the sound that became too much low because I moved the camera away

 

And here is one more version with some news and a boss battle :

[NEW] New Boss system, based on Touhou's spellcard system, using a sequence of moves where each one can have a time/health limit. However a "move" isn't a specific attack like in Touhou, it can be anything like a simple jump, a provocation or just fall to the ground dead.
[NEW] Bonus Score Indicator when killing an enemy, it varies from 100 until 300, and its color varies too, it gets more yellow when you hit harder.
[NEW] Second and Third Levels from the First stage (or something like, I always mix the names "Stage"/"Level").
[NEW] Checkpoint Token.
[FIX] Animation problems in the challange result screen.
[FIX] Problems in the parallax background when going too high.
[FIX] Problems to save data.
[CHANGE] The number of lives isn't reduced when you die to help the tests.

As always here is one webplayer link, please play it and give me feedback
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6591973/Unity/ArrowHeadBuilds/v0.05/WebBuild.html

PS: If you played any older version of this game in your browse please CLEAR THE GAME DATA IN OPTIONS->CLEAR DATA before playing it, otherwise you may not be able to access the new levels.

 

Yeah, I am alive, working on the Stage 2, now I started to make its assets, like the background and cia. The stage’s theme will be about Sunflowers, purple tubes and a tyrant Ferret that makes its hamster nation fatter to eat the fattest ones later



Also I created a tumblr to post some random creations mine, including this game assets, so if you want, please take a look
http://www.tumblr.com/blog/myglasswindchimes

 

Demo webbuild with the first level of the second stage. Plz gimme feedbacks before I finish the other levels from this stage

WebBuild Link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6591973/Unity/ArrowHeadBuilds/v0.06/WebBuild.html

[NEW] Second stage and second stage music
[FIX] You become invincible while you don't press any key after doing a piercing attack.
[CHANGE] All enemies and traps use trigger collider to avoid collision bugs with the player.

 

Trying to use Mobile/Bumped Specular Shaders to make the game look less like a Atari Jaguar game
I think that it stills kinda light, it's using 120mbs of RAM when playing on Fantastic settings and it is having 40-70 draw calls.

 

More pictures with shaders to change its look, I am using the Mobile Bumped Specular shader almost in every object. Do you have any suggestion to make it look better.

 

Hohoho I am alive, here is one more version with 6 stages and 2 bosses.

If you have played some older version, please go to Option -> Clear Saved Data to avoid bugs.
WebBuild Link: http://db.tt/33hHB3az

[NEW] Checkpoints in boss fights
[NEW] More 2 Stages and a boss fight
[FIX] Some bullets were created in wrong direction when they were generated using a bullet buffer.
[CHANGE] Adding outline to GUI texts
[CHANGE] Making second stage background darker

 

Sir can you share the code for the headbutt like one that your avatar using. or can you share a code of head but for unity3d.