The Adventures of Box Guy

Currently there's no up-to-date test release available. More news on that coming soon.

OP: Yes, my titles are about as good as my art.

So, I'm working on a small platformer during my spare time. I started off with the 2D Platformer tutorial available from this very site (which is awesome I might add), cut out what I didn't need, and made some changes so it's now even more basic. That's to say that I'm now using an orthographic camera to avoid any perspective distortion and the character, despite still using the Lerpz rig from the 2D tutorial, is composed of cubes. This rig and its animations will be updated once I get my head around rigging again. The game also uses an incredibly simple login system to authorise players and get an MotD in the menu, but I still don't know where I'm going with online functionality.

My latest addition is a Mario-esque scrolling enemy, need to plan these more however so consider the current one as just a placeholder. There's currently no overarching goal, just get through the three short stages. I hesitate to say levels because it shouldn't take more than a few minutes, if that.

Anyways, I'll shut up now, here's a webplayer link: removed

 

Looks good, I had this same idea the other day but I couldn't even manage to make a box character.

 

Wow this is actually very nice! The animations on the box character are excellent! The funny comments in the game are cool, and the website design is nice. A very well done prototype.

 

This is a good prototype. Anyways smooth follow camera u have there.

 

love it!

 

"Unknown error"... why do i have to log in? :/

 

It's just a test of the system really, if the full error message is "An unknown login error occured." then it means that it's none of the following issues: non-existent username, incorrect password or an inactive account. As you can reach returnstring.com in the first place that's quite odd; in the future I'll try and improve the system and also possibly publish builds without it if problems like this persist.

The kind words are much appreciated guys, cheers.

 

I've just added a few quick fixes to some reported issues and a rough draft of some physics stuff in level 4. I may have to endure two weeks sans internet access so might as well publish what I've got now.

As always: http://www.returnstring.com/latest-build/

PS: Don't trust green bridges.

 

Stupendous! The simplicity of the game is what really stands out, smooth game play and the flow of each level, you're doing very well, keep up the great work! Can't wait for more!

 

Hmmm, very intersting. I like 'minature' games with small characters.

 

Agreed, so simple but engaging, plus little box guy looks cute. Please don't get carried away and change him!

Reminded me a little bit of Rick Dangerous (only 99.9% less frustrating!).

 

I like game play. Waiting for art.

 

This is loking so awesome. Good work.

 

Some questions....

1: you say you are using the Lerpz rig from the 2D tutorial.
How do you use the animations from one thing on your own things.

2. To get the size of gameplay did you make small gameobjects or is it how the camera is setup.

3. What do you do to get the character to stand on the elevators but not get squashed by then and be able to walk past them


Thanks.

 

cool little demo. I'd recommend a bit smooth velocity control for mid-air direction change, ala super mario bros. I found that pretty frustrating.

 

A mesh collider on a plane will give you the one way collider effect.

 

Woah, I'm actually going to play this! I commented. :]

 

Ah wait, I already completed it so far. >:/

 

Looks cool

 

Now that is cool. I love the little box guy.

 

Thanks earl for the answer to Q3, I should have realised this as I am already using this method to create a '1 way' portal in a FPS scene.

 

Wow the character actually moves very well
what script did you use
and is it ok if i use it i have been haveing probnlems with character movement

 

Hey I loved this, you should make a full game out of it

 

the box guy looks sooo good! awesome job

 

As I've said, it's from the Unity 2D Platformer tutorial, my character is currently just a few boxes attached to the hidden Lerpz rig, nothing special.

@Everyone else, thanks for the comments and feedback! I've just returned from holiday and landed in a pile of work and exams (don't ever get a job whilst you're a student) but hopefully I can start pushing out some more updates soon.

 

great stuff, keep it coming!

 

Box-Man! 2.0! Out with the old box and in with the new!

Smosh : BoxMan 2.0.

 

http://www.returnstring.com/latest-build/

The next update is out, now in 3D (the common XYZ kind, not the rarer stereoscopic-my-head-hurts variety). I've also added a 5th level featuring a nice surprise! Please spread the link about with the social sharing options at the top of the page, the more players the better.

Also started work on some more behind-the-scenes stuff such as an award system but that's just barebones for the moment and not in the published build.

 

One word:
AWESOME.
I love the simplicity of the game, and the sarcastic remarks posted all over

 

I just found something strange, when jumping on one of the moving platforms (where there are red squares in the background) I suddenly started to hover up to the ceiling and stayed there Happened twice Just keep jumping on the elevator and it should happen again

Love it by the way!

 

Ah yes, just repro'd this easily. Will look at changing how the platforms do their physics stuff.

 

AWESOME UPDATES. Can you help me with some scripts? I cannot script. :[ I'LL BE YOUR TESTED.

 

If you have any particular questions about the scripts in Box Guy feel free to post them in this thread, otherwise I'm sure the Unity community at large is far better than me at scripting; you'd be better off posting your questions in the appropriate forums here.

 

Cute little boxman you got there, looking forward for some new levels!

 

I realise that a forum thread is not how everyone prefers to stay up-to-date with everything that's happening, so you can now follow the game's progress on ModDB/IndieDB (almost interchangeable) if that's how you prefer to do things: http://www.moddb.com/games/the-adventures-of-box-guy

However as news tends to take a while to become authorised there, you'll still hear it here first!

The build has also been updated today with a small change to the menu, it's now a proper scene. In fact that was only created originally to serve as a logo, but I liked it so much... :')

 

Nice new surprises in the build.

Just out of curiosity, how are you doing the "hazard" in the last level?

 

It's the default Unity water mesh with a very basic script attached:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.  
3. var movingSpeed : float;
4. var isMovingX : boolean;
5. var isMovingZ : boolean;
6. var isMovingY : boolean;
7. var activateOnStart : boolean;
8.  
9. // TODO: Implement start/end positions rather than continuous movement
10. //var startPosition : Transform;
11. //var endPosition : Transform;
12.  
13. private var isMoving = false;
14.  
15. function Start()
16. {
17.     if(activateOnStart)
18.         isMoving = true;
19. }
20.  
21. // External access
22. function Activate()
23. {
24.     isMoving = true;
25. }
26.  
27. // External access
28. function Deactivate()
29. {
30.     isMoving = false;
31. }
32.  
33. function Update()
34. {
35.     var tempVec = Vector3(0,0,0);
36.     // Make sure that framerate doesn't affect movement speed
37.     var tempSpeed = movingSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
38.    
39.     // Set up the translation
40.     if(isMovingZ)
41.         tempVec.z += tempSpeed;
42.     if(isMovingX)
43.         tempVec.x += tempSpeed;
44.     if(isMovingY)
45.         tempVec.y += tempSpeed;
46.    
47.     // And finally, translate it
48.     if(isMoving)
49.         transform.Translate(tempVec);
50. }
51.  
52. function OnTriggerEnter(entree : Collider)
53. {
54.     // If the collision is with the player, reload the level
55.     if(entree.CompareTag("Player"))
56.         Application.LoadLevel(Application.loadedLevel);
57. }
58.  

 

It's a good start but it runs slowly on my mac book pro. Are you using baked lighting?

 

Yeah all the levels were set to 10 texel bakes the last time I ran them, but most lights are also set to provide dynamic light for the player and other moving objects. Interestingly enough I'm getting 250-300FPS in the editor and my dev machine, if you can call it that, is a white 13" Macbook, so it seems odd that your performance is choppy. Perhaps I'll get some basic performance reporting included in the next build for situations like this,

 

Nice game! Mind if I ask, how did you get the camera to stop following the player when it reaches the bound of the leve?

 

That's not something I've coded myself, that comes from the 2D Gameplay Tutorial.

 

Any more updates? I want more, more, more!

 

Very good i love the box guy!

 

Games cool. Just a few things - Last level made me go a bit trippy, try lower the colors on it

 

Hey - more levels dude.. NOW!

 

http://www.returnstring.com/latest-build/

Well, I hesitate to release an update with bugs, but they're mostly minor. So, I've ported the original character controller setup to a new and improved physics-based setup. At the same time, due to a lack of checks in the code, a sort of WIP walljump system magically appeared.

You will notice animation errors as my FSMs are still all lacking a few checks. In exchange, I've added a level based around this new system! As always I hope you have fun; if you enjoy this little techdemo, hit the social sharing buttons conveniently located above the game window to help spread the game a little, or leave a comment.

 

LOL that's an awesome character

 

Bah, trust me to release a new build and then think of a cool feature. In any case, proper jump-pads will be available in the next release now, all thanks to the new physics-based controller system!

On a related note if anyone would like to help me out on a more regular basis with testing, let me know either here, in a PM or via ruan@returnstring.com and I'll get you set up.

 

Love the idea and the gameplay, you should make a full game out of this.

 

I've recently published the second ModDB update, and updated the game build with a revised version (including the new jump pads).

http://www.moddb.com/games/the-adventures-of-box-guy/news/box-guy-moddb-update-2

In other news, we've just hit 1000 unique players, of which around 70% were from this website! Thanks a lot, and enjoy