[WIP] Tales of Lena - 2D (pixel art) platformer

Some more trigger stuff and an NPC (most graphics are obviously WIP)

 

Looking great!

 

Enjoying your progress so far DSSiege.
You may want to consider spelling out stuff to make sure all generations that may end up playing this understand what the dialogue means.
Example - most gamers know what an npc is, but younger generations, who may play this based on the visuals alone, may not have ever encountered "btw". If it's too wordy consider shortening the dialogue just to state specific points.
I know this is only an example - and a humorous one just thought Id point it out in case you overlooked.

 

Thanks

Yeah don't worry, I'd never write something like btw/lol/omg/... in a textbox for the final game

 

Lena is back to kick some more stuff! This time she finds a hidden treasure



The chest and treasure are obviously WIP The idea is that in every level you'll find one special treasure. I thought it would be cool to animate a 360 degrees turn around for these items to make them look extra special (I haven't decided on any specific objects yet so I tried it with a cube) The animation of how it appears definitely needs some more work too

I also just made a Facebook page for those who find that an easier way to keep up-to-date with development:
https://www.facebook.com/talesoflena

 

Super cool secret reveal.

 

Thanks

Last weekend I made a facebook page for Tales of Lena and for the first post I made a summary of the structure of the game. I wrote about it before but I'll just post it here anyway:

- Levels will be accessed from a top down world map on which you can walk around freely.
- You decide which world to play first.
- Every world has 3 levels (2 regular, 1 boss battle).
- Complete a level to make the next one appear on the map.
- Defeat the world's boss to acquire a key.
- Collect all keys to unlock the final world.
- Each level contains a specific amount of treasures to find.
- Collect all treasures to unlock additional content.

Currently working on more enemies and their behavior. Hope to show off some of that soon

 

Today I did some quick enemy graphics

For a while now there has been a basic beetle enemy in the game and I also already programmed the behavior for a wasp and frog. I already had a bunch of other enemies in mind so I did some pixel "sketching" to show you what they might look like. These are obviously not final, they lack proper shading and I'm sure I'll still tweak them some more (I might change the eyes a bit so they don't all have the same evil stare).



Here's a summary of the enemies and their behavior:

Crawler (Beetle):
Crawls from left to right and back again (direction changes randomly).

Slacker (Snail):
Crawls from left to right and back again (direction changes randomly). when killed, the shell is left behind for Lena to kick (not sure about this part yet).

Stinger (Wasp):
Flies from left to right and back again. Will start chasing Lena when she comes too close.

Tumbletula (Spider):
Hangs from the ceiling and comes down when Lena gets too close.

Longtongue (Frog):
Hops around from left to right and back again (direction changes randomly). Will attack with its tongue if Lena gets too close.

Birdile (Bird):
Stands still (direction changes randomly). Will jump up in the air and flies right at Lena if she gets too close.

Rockpitcher (Mole):
Appears and disappears into the ground (direction changes randomly). Will throw rocks at Lena if she gets too close.

 

I love these character designs! The have a lot of character to them already, can't wait to see them shaded. The only one that I have an issue with is the mole, it looks like the mole either has some sort of a mustache or is smiling at you because of the black area next to its mouth. I'm not entirely sure what that area is supposed to be.

As for the actual movement patterns of each enemy, I think that they are all pretty solid in terms of it "on paper", but I think I would need to see of the patterns in action. I guess it also depends on the combat actions the player has, all we have seen is hopping on enemies to take them out. I am assuming that you can also kick to attack as well? Do you have any plans on adding more combat options? Like maybe throwing a bomb or swing a sword?

Other than that I think the game is looking good so far!

 

Thank you very much The black part on the mole it supposed to be his nose, I'll definitely tweak that part some more
Yeah I still have to program most of them so I'll see if the behavior feels right and change it accordingly
The one way to kill enemies is to jump on them as you can only kick when in front of something. The idea is inspired by Duck Tales on NES where you could swing your cane only when in front of a block or wall. So for now I'm not planning on adding any other ways of combat.

 

Small update:

I'm currently working on a system that keeps track of your progress in the game. I programmed the basics of it a while ago and now adding some extra necessary features.

As stated before, you can find various treasures in each level. When you complete a level, the system will save which treasures you found. When you replay that level, the treasures you previously collected will appear see-through to let you know you've collected them earlier. The reason they should still be present and not just gone forever is for when you replay a level to get a better highscore

That part is already working, now I still need to add what happens when you die and return to a checkpoint. You will obviously lose everything you collected after the checkpoint, your score will be down to zero and I might add that you lose some gold (not sure about this one yet).

 

Hey DSSiege - I really love the enemy designs. They are individually unique, read well, and are cleanly drawn.

One minor critique - the enemies are unique as a group, but they look a little 'common' compared to other games enemies. This might be on purpose - and if so - excellent job. If not - I think adding some small visual flair to each of them might be a consideration if you haven't already started finalizing them.

My first thought was adding a couple nodules on the snails shell, bumps just to give it a little more detail to play with.
The frog could have some small horns or something, and the mole a monocle or glasses or a something else that isn't stereotypically associated with mole characters.
Maybe the beetle could have a unique visual quality, and the wasp have two stingers or triple sets of wings.

Just something that pushes them beyond the 'common' designs you've created. I like the direction you are going with this entire creation - just thought I'd suggest a visual enhancement I noticed.

 

Thanks for the extensive reply

I haven't started finalizing them yet so all is still possible I already thought of giving the mole some sunglasses to make him more "Rock" (as in the music genre) besides the rocks he throws

I think I'll make the frog a little more crazy with bigger eyes and his tongue hanging out
I might drop the idea of the snail shell being left behind to kick and make the design more interesting as you said
Maybe I'll give the bird a headband, he has kind of a kamikaze attack after all
In general I'll make sure they don't all have that same deadly stare

I decided to stick with really recognizable enemies but it's definitely a good idea to add a twist to each of them

Thanks again!

 

Here's some footage of the progress system I've been working on

• Overview map with level marker (graphics are placeholders).
• Marker is red when the level has not been played yet. It will turn green when you've played is and gold when you collected all the treasures within. When you've played a level before it will also show which treasures you already got and which you still need to collect.
• Test level including all collectibles.
• Check point that saves your progress (position and already collected treasures).
• When you replay a level or respawn after you die, previously collected treasures will appear see-through to indicate you already collected them.

 

I've been a bit ill these past few weeks so wasn't able to work on the game that much... I did make some new graphics this weekend and also tried composing a song for the Ekster Woods ^^; I'm not really a musician or composer but I did my best so I hope it sounds alright! I'm sure I'll still tweak it here and there:

 

He's punching hot isn't she?!

 

I really like the look of your art style, the way everything moves onscreen is really nice, something of a lost art today for these kind of 2D games, the main character never idles anymore in todays 2D platformers. It'd be cool if you added little idle wait poses in the idle cycle, you could really give this character even more personality with a little touch like that. But clearly thats not a priority at the moment

You can clearly see some Kirby influences in this, something about the art style, the flow of the levels, the transition animations, even the movement of the character really feels like the original Kirby's Dreamland for Gameboy. Clearly the mechanics are much simpler, but

That all being said, what does this bring to the table that games like that didn't have?

I mean, you have these collectables, that remind me a lot of Donkey Kong Country, but what do they do? What do they unlock? To me, score isn't all that great of a reward mechanism by itself anymore. With a game like this, theres gotta be some sort of tangable reward for these things, something that enhances the character or generally helps the player

Also, and this is a criticism that really applies to far too many platforming games anymore, but whats the point of a double jump if you start with it? The whole idea when that mechanic started showing up was that it was an enhancement for the player, that allowed the player to reach new things the couldn't reach previously, and allowed them to complete new challenges or go back and find secrets they couldn't find previously once they unlocked it. Plus, you learn to appreciate how small your regular jump is once you get the double, so it really feels like a huge reward. To give something like that away right at the start feels like spoiling the player, and wasting a reward that could be given to the player when you want them to have it.

I'm not sure if maybe it's just there for testing at this early stage, or if you intend for it to be there from the start, but that is just a design quirk that always gets me when I see it.

I'm hoping that this score you have interacts some how with this gold or treasure mechanic you seem to have, and that leads to some sort of system that allows you to buy enhancements or perks of some kind, like perhaps buying the double jump, or perhaps the ability to kick harder and harder blocks to unlock more treasures in those different blocks and boxes that she kicks.

Overall, it's a very well put together idea, but I feel like it could just be a platform for building something greater if it builds upon what those great games that influenced it did and makes something new and original thats fun. But this game is definitely visually very impressive, and having a good female protagonist is refreshing, as usually these types of games always have you play as a male protagonist so often

Sorry if this post is too long

 

This is really coming along! Looking superb with a lot of action going on in the scenes. Quite lively. Well done!

 

Haha, she sure is good looking isn't she

How dare you write posts that are longer than mine!!! Haha, obviously joking here

I'm really glad you appreciate the time I put into the graphics and little animations I just love making everything move and look interesting even when you're not touching any buttons. I'd sure like to add some fun idle animations but as you said yourself, that shouldn't be a priority right now

I was definitely inspired by Kirby but also a lot of other games including Mario Land 2, Wario Land 2, Commander Keen, Rayman (the original), Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure,...

There is more to the collectibles than just score. I have a bunch of ideas that I'm not 100% sure about but I'll write them down here anyway. So you have a few types of collectibles:

• Coins: This is the currency in the game, you can buy stuff with it in town.
• Fruit (or other edible things, the type depends on the level): For now these are just for score, I might do more with it but I'm not sure yet.
• Rubies, sapphires and emeralds: will (probably) be used to unlock stuff in the Hall of Doors.
• LENA letters: These are just for score.
• Vinyl record: Contains the music of the level and can be played in town.
• Treasure: A special non usable artifact, kind of functions as an achievement.

Collecting everything in a level will make the marker on the map gold, to show it is 100% completed.

Apart from level markers there will also be some other places to visit on the map.

Town: Here you'll have a potion brewer that sells health potions to increase your maximum health by 1, a house (that looks like a big jukebox) to go listen to the records you've collected, a game corner where you can win more Treasures/records,...

Hall of Doors: Some kind of temple. Within you have a bunch of locked doors, each door has some markings above it that tells you how much of every gem you need for it to open (this works like in Super Mario 64, so you don't actually lose gems when opening a door, the door just opens when you reach a certain amount of gems). I'm not sure yet what to put behind the door, maybe some challenge levels. There will probably also be a golden door that only opens when all levels are 100% complete. What's behind that door is a mystery

I definitely have lots of ideas but I have to be careful not to go too far because originally Tales of Lena was supposed to be a simple game as I'm working on it all on my own ^^' That's mainly the reason why I try not to add special abilities or weapons or some other RPG like elements. It would be cool though to have some kind of shoe maker in the town that can make your shoes more powerful. I could make the certain blocks harder to break (like the barrels and crates) unless your shoes are upgraded. I'll think about this one some more

The double jump is there instead of the press-and-hold to get higher Without that second jump you wouldn't be able to get anywhere! The main reason I made it this way is because it was easy to program but later I tried changing it to the press-and-hold way but I didn't like it that much, maybe I'm just used to the double jump ability. It's also very forgiving, you're actually allowed to always jump twice, even when you just fell off a platform.

Thanks for the nice words and the extensive feedback I'll do my best to make Tales of Lena as good as possible!

Thank you very much Really nice to get some comments here again Hope to work on the game some more this weekend (now)!

 

She's cute and those are my usual type of responses I give. Good luck on this project, I'm visualizing it finished because you got some good support backing you up.

 

Yeah, it drives me crazy when new 2D games come out, and so few things move, when you look at old games like Mario, Sonic, Kirby and so on, and the worlds felt alive

Yeah, I can see a little Rayman in there too

One thing I noticed and was just thinking about was that your checkpoints don't have any special animations, like Sonic had that great lantern post thing that spun around and lit up and made a great noise, or the checkpoint crates in Crash Bandicoot. I feel like with how visually interesting everything else is, thats something that stands out a little as being very static. Perhaps the sign could be blank, then spin around and have a check on it when she kicks it or something, and have there be some sort of florish like a particle effect and sound or something, it's one of those little reward feedbacks that people don't think about as a reward.

Well, if you remember Super Mario Bros 2 for NES (The American/Doki Doki version), every time you collected 5 cherries in a level, a power star would spawn, and every time you killed a certain amount of enemies, a little heart that would heal you one HP would spawn. So perhaps the fruit could do something like that, like collect a certain amount of fruit, and something happens, like the player recovers a hit point if they've been injured.

As far as the score element goes, I feel like something that would be cool, and something else that is noticibly lacking at the end of the level, is some sort of level complete type "fanfare" and a wrap up screen. In the old games, collected stuff at the end of the level would increase your score, I feel like in this game it would be cool if instead, your score at the end of the level would be transferred in some way into more coins, which have a practical value to the player, which gives your player insentive to get a high score, since we don't have leaderboards at the arcade anymore. I feel like at the end of the level it could be like how the amount of rings you had at the end of a Sonic level would be transferred to your score, except in reverse, where instead of rings x 10 = Ring Bonus, it could be like Score / 10 = Coin Bonus. So you pass the end of the level, you get a little victory fanfare (I am a nerd for these, victory fanfares are such a lost art), then a little victory screen shows up and shows you how many coins you get and anything else

I feel like one of the places you could put into the town would be like a treasure hoard, that way these Treasures that currently serve no purpose suddenly do, because then you can have somewhere for all that treasure to be held up and you have something of a visable way of seeing all the treasures you've found.

Then if you really wanted to be cheeky, just put a pawn shop next door, so if you just want a crapload of coins, you could sell your treasures, ha ha ha

I like the sound of the Hall of Doors, it's just a cool name. Well, I feel like each door could have some sort of special purpose, so it always feels like a mystery, so you are excited to see whats behind each door. Like for example, since you have that little overworld element, perhaps some of them could lead to shortcuts on that world map, or even previously inaccessable parts of the map. Or if you remember Crash Bandicoot, some of their secret portals would take you to special parts of levels you previously played where there would be some sort of hidden treasure you couldn't access to 100% the level, like additional Gems or Colored Gems. You'd be able to see these little treasures from parts of the main level so you would know they were there, you'd just have no idea how to get to them. So you'd have to run through the level from that entrance if you wanted to get everything. Additionally, it could just be straight up secret levels that just get you a crapload of coins

Yeah, I feel you on that, I learned a hard lesson about keeping scope in control in college, but at the same time, you can't get so cautious that it makes your idea less good, it's something of a balancing act. Stuff like this lets you control the pace of the game, and gives your game natural replayability, so maybe you need to visit a level more than once before you can get that gold 100%. It lets you stay within the comfort of your core design, where you don't have to change the way the character plays, you just modify an already existing idea

Yeah, I guess, it gets tricky to make that perfect jump, I forget how long I heard it took the lead designer of Mega Man to get that jump to be so perfect, but I remember it was like weeks or months before they finally got it to be just right. I feel your pain when it comes to that, I worked on a 3D platformer for my college graduation project, and I worked for months to try to get it right, and I never quite got it to be where I wanted it to be.

Yeah, I like giving a lot of feedback because I know when I'm looking for feedback on my own games when I'm testing or something, it always drives me crazy when you get that "It's pretty good" from whoever is testing, when I'm looking at it and it's a wreck in my mind and I'm like "Yeah, but do you think could be better?" and they just give you the classic "I dunno...", and In my mind I'm just boiling over like "Ahhhhhhh! Thats not useful data!"

 

Hehe, glad you think so And thank you very much Still A LOT of work to do but I'll sure keep going :3

The main thing I'm trying to achieve with my game is to make the levels more than just mazes with a theme. I want interesting places and NPCs like a lumberjack cutting wood near his cabin, and you can go inside to break some crates and steal his coins Or maybe the door of the cabin is locked but you can get instead through an underground passageway

Oh yeah don't worry that checkpoint is a placeholder and I still have to think about what to turn it into, I could keep it a sign or make it something completely different, maybe something magical.

I had an idea for the fruits that would be fun but it's not original ^^' Another game I really like is Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and when you collect a lot of fruit/candy/icecream/... you get a sugar rush that makes you invincible for a few seconds.

The ending of a level will also definitely be more than just a transition back to the map I'm sure I'll go for something like in Sonic I don't know if turning score to coins would work that well but I'll see what I do

Oh yeah there'll sure be a place where you can view your treasures, just don't know yet if I make it a place ingame or something in a collection menu or maybe both.

I don't think it would work to make the doors link to places in existing levels, also they can't work as shortcut either cause the map works like in Super Mario Land 2 where you can access all worlds freely, it's not linear

I'm sure I'm not too cautious, I already slipped in a lot more ideas than I started with, I'll try to find the balance

I'll keep the jump like it is now, it works imo, I'll see what others think when I got a demo ready

The feedback sure is helpful and I totally agree that "It's cool!" is kind of useless especially when it comes from a friend. It's nice to hear it from strangers though

These coming days I might make some mockup/sketches of some other levels I have in mind just to be able to show off something different than the same forest all the time

 

Yeah, working in stuff like that does give the world a lot of character. The only game I've seen that do what it looks like you are trying to do well with the indoor and outdoor locations are Kirby Dreamland and Super Mario 2. Though, just a thought about that Lumberjack scenario, if you are gonna steal from him, make him a jerk so you don't feel bad about it.

Good, it's always the best when you can clealry tell when a checkpoint is active or not, or even when you can skip a checkpoint and strategically activate it later if you want to back track

Well that would possibly make sense if you intend to make enemy combat an important part of the game. But from what I've read, it seems like that isn't your focus. The game seems to be more about simple platforming than it is tearing up enemies. Healing is a more passive thing, while invincibility is a bit more aggressive. Just a thought

The reason I say convert end of level score to coins is that it represents a direct benefit to the player. Score just for score's sake doesn't really insentivize the player to do anything, because there isn't much in it for them. Like in the original Castlevania, did you really care about collecting the money bags? I mean in Castlevania 4 getting a lot of points would net you extra lives, which made it a little more worth it, but at the end of the day, you were much more interested in the chicken powerups that increased your health or getting that cross boomerang thing, because there was an obvious direct reward for your effort. In this case, it doesn't seem like you have a system for lives, and the most obvious boon for the player is coins, because that is a tangable reward that can in turn enhance the character. Plus, since you don't have a life system, and you lose all your points when you die, it gives you insentive not to die if your score is high, because dying now effectively gives you an opportunity cost, the coins you could have had if you didn't die. It's simple economics really.

Oh, I thought it was gonna be like Zelda 2 where not everything was immediately accessable from the overworld and you had to complete certain stuff in the levels you do have access to (In whatever order you like), before you could advance to other parts of the map and get even more levels to choose from

Yeah, it is a good looking jump. the move speeds on screen feel really nice just from what I've seen, nothing feels too fast or too slow. Plus so many players have been spoiled by starting with a double jump that sadly younger kids just come to expect it as a feature anymore

Yeah, it's a weird feeling, because you can't be mad at your friend for liking your game, but that doesn't make it helpful, ha ha

 

I was thinking the exact same thing (making the lumberjack a jerk so you don't feel bad) Though in Zelda you often break people's pots and take there rupees and they rarely care

I like what they did in Shovel Knight where you can destroy a checkpoint in exchange for coins/treasure. Maybe I can do something like that too.

Yeah I also thought that you might get the sugar rush in a place without a lot of enemies (there won't be any near NPCs)... I'll think some more about the idea to regain health by collecting some fruits

The problem I see with score to points is that is almost makes collecting coins in the level itself unnecessary cause in the end you get some coins for everything, even collecting the coins give you score so they give you even more coins... I might do that when you die you lose all score and some coins. The last big Mario game, Super Mario 3D world still had a score element that didn't really matter much so I think there are still people who like trying to get a high score.

You will have access to every first level of every world. Every world has 3 levels, 2 normal ones and a boss battle. so when you complete level 1 you unlock level 2 and completing that one unlocks the boss battle of that specific world.

Glad you think it looks fine, hope it also feels right when you play it

 

Yeah, but it's like if they are a jerk like that guy who is always blocking your way in the Kokiri forest, then your like "Oh good, screw this guy, gimmie ALL yo money" ha ha ha

The only problem I could see with that is, what if you destroy it by accident? That would suck, ha ha

Yeah, that was sort of the problem with collecting cherries to get Power Stars in Super Mario 2, you'd be like in the middle of a cave after you already killed all the enemies in that area, then collect one last cherry, then boom, power star, and you're like "Oh! Gee thanks! Perfect timing!" And then you just run the rest of the level with it with no enemies to use it on. Meanwhile you took a few hits while fighting all those enemies manually, and you have like 1 hit left, but hey, power star, am I right? Ha ha

Lemme give you a scenario here. Say you have a regular job, and you get a pay check every two weeks. When you see a bag of money magically floating in the street, that magically belongs to no one, are you just gonna leave it there? I mean, you're just gonna get a paycheck at the end of the week anyway. No one is going to avoid a prize if it means they can have even more coins. If people aren't bothering to collect money, raise prices, it's worked for Central Banking institutions across the western world for over a century, ha ha ha. Basically you raise the prices of things you buy with coins if you want people to collect more coins.

And making the player lose coins would be unfair. It would be like if in Dark Souls if you lose all of your Souls AND like, a random weapon or something every time you died, it would just be overwhelming and unfair. An opportunity cost is a much more fair punishment in this situation. Going back to the job analogy, your score should be like your paycheck, if you aren't doing a good job in the level, you get paid less. Your current coin count should be like your bank account, so once you have coins, they're safe. It's not like your boss can take money from you once he's paid you. Resetting your score to zero for dying isn't really taking something away from the player, because score isn't really something they really "have" until the level is complete anyway. It's just a little psychology thing, taking something away that already belongs to someone is a much more negative interaction than giving them less of something than you were going to. I.E. getting mugged on the street is a much more negative experience than getting a crappy birthday present, ha ha ha

Oh god, don't even get me started on Super Mario 3D World. That game was an insult to Nintendo. They made a TON of arbitrary design decisions that I felt were not at all well thought out. Probably the least offensive decision they made in that game was having score just for score's sake. I could write an entire dissertation about why that game was a steaming pile of dog crap in a flaming bag. I wrote an article about it at one point on my website just to vent once where I go into much more detail

Oh, right. Well, my question is what makes it feel like you are making progress? Well I guess if you implement the boot upgrade thing, you'd have to gather money from completing levels in order to go back and get hidden treasures in previously played levels, so that could work. Are some levels harder than others?

Oh, I'm definitely down to test this once you have a playable beta

 

Haha true

Alright I might not make the checkpoints destructible ^^'

Ok I thought a bit more about it and it could work. I just have to make sure the amount of coins you get in exchange for score feels right, like it shouldn't be too little or too much compared to what you can find in the level. I also still have to think about what happens when you die, now the level resets completely. When you've passed a checkpoint it remembers which collectibles you've collected earlier but after dying they will appear again but transparent to show you collected them before. But what about the coins? Do they appear again so you can collect them again and again after dying? Or maybe I'll have to keep track of what you collected. Also I think I wont let the player keep collected coins when they quit the level, they could just play levels and keep collecting some coins near the start and then quit and play again and repeat that for easy money.

Super Mario 3D World wasn't that bad at all. Ok it wasn't a game like 64/Sunshine/Galaxy I wished for but it was still an enjoyable game with good presentation.

I don't think I'll do that you have to go back to previously played levels to get stuff you couldn't get before. I feel like you should be able to get everything in one go if you are good enough. I wrote it down in a previous post but defeating a boss gives you a key and if you collect all of them you unlock the final world (very similar to Super Mario Land 2).

I think for now I have enough feedback to work with hope to work some more on the game these coming days

 

Yeah, you're like "YES! Made it through the hard part of the level! Now I won't have to do that part agai-- *accidently press kick button*...................dammit.... -_-" Ha ha ha

Yeah, but this stuff prolly would have come up eventually either way, because these concerns are inherent in having an economy in your game. Probably better that you took notice of these things now while you are still this early (reletively) in the design process. Thats why games like ACII's economy's feel a little silly, because it's like about a quarter of the way through the game you have so much money that you don't even know what to do with it, and you just buy weapons just for the sake of owning them after a while, because why not? you've got like half a million florins anyway, why not just buy out that entire store you own where you get a massive discount and it's so ridiculously cheap that you won't even notice the money missing after like, 20 minutes. Ha ha ha

You are aware to keep an eye out for these pitfalls now, so it's probably a good thing I wandered in here with my ridiculous idea, ha ha ha

My problem with that game is that it mixes mechanics that don't mix. Without going into too much detail, it falls into all of the pitfalls Super Mario 64 was careful not to fall into regarding camera angle, including a game clock, and using the 2D powerup paradigm, all of which just don't make sense in 3D platformer design. I just felt they made a lot of thoughtless mistakes that whenever I notice one, it enrages me because one of my favorite platformer franchises made such amatur mistakes.

Oh, I must have missed that post. Super Mario Land was the one on Gameboy, right?

I hope I didn't overload you with my crazyness, ha ha, I can't wait to see this game

 

If I'd ever make the checkpoint destructible I'd make sure you have to kick it 3 times before it breaks

Oh yeah I see that in a lot of games that you have way too much money and not much to do with it. I'll try to make sure you can do stuff with the coins you find

True, thanks again for the feedback

I think it has more to do with opinion here cause I really enjoyed the game and for me it worked. You have to remember a big focus of the game was multiplayer so they had to go for that specific camera angle to keep all players in view properly. The score system might also have to do with the multiplayer mode so you can see who "won". The time limit was a stupid idea though, I mean in general it's stupid to have a time limit in a game that is not on arcade. I do hope they'll go back to a single player open level design of the previous games.

Yeah, but specifically the second one In that game you had to complete 6 worlds to collect 6 golden coins so you could enter Wario's castle.

Haha you sure have a lot to talk about which is fine but for now I have enough to work with

 

Yeah, that would make sense

Yeah, you probably just need to play through the whole game and figure out when the point is when all the good stuff is gone from the stores. If that point is too early in the story, raise prices, if it's too late, lower them. That's probably something you'd balance late in development. Also just make sure theres always at least something to buy in the stores, that is always available so theres always something you can spend your money on if you want

No problem, I am just an opinionated wandering designer who knows a good idea when he sees one, ha ha

Ahh, I only played the first one, with that one pig boss who drove me crazy, ha ha

Like I said, I'm a wandering, opinionated designer, thats mostly what designers do, just talk about ideas and their implementation.

 

Yeah I'm sure it'll just be a matter of testing and balancing later on

That about the camera is definitely true though it actually never really happened to me ^^' All I hope for is that the next 3D Mario game will be a true "sequel" to Mario 64/Sunshine/Galaxy

I never played the first one

I just worked some more on the Longtongue (frog) enemy in my game. It's more or less done although I'll sure still tweak it a bit and I'll definitely make a better dying sprite

 

This is looking very nice both play-wise and visually (very nice parallax scroll and the area looks very "alive").

 

Yeah, I miss Galaxy already, I played it with a friend of mine, and really enjoyed it. He's blind now though, so now we can't play it anymore

I really enjoy your art, I love how the frogs tongue swings around. How do you do your art?

It looks like he's trying to jump for that fly when when he's out of range of the character, ha ha

 

Thanks a lot I definitely put some time in adding little details to make the forest feel alive

I hope when they make a new one they'll go back to something like Mario 64 where they are free to make any world they want without a theme like space or tropical island. Sorry to hear about your friend!

Thanks a lot In case you mean what software I use to make my art: Aseprite!

Haha yeah, though the Longtongues don't eat flies, they eat humans!

 

Nice to see your still working on this very charming game : D

 

Yeah, I think thats what really made SM64 work, the fact that the settings weren't tied to some overarching gimmick, it was just pure gameplay, no gimmicks. And yeah, thanks, I'm making a game that he can play right now, so he can at least play something.

Oh! Aesprite! I know that program! Nice! Do you use a pen tablet or are you just truely a beast and do it with the mouse pixel by pixel?

Ahh! I see! They lure you in because you think he's after the fly, but then boom, you find out the hard way that a frog that big needs way more calories than a fly can give him.

 

can you give me link to download this project

 

Thanks Yep still working on it

Yeah Super Mario Sunshine was also cool because of the big open worlds but the problem I had with that one are the controls, Mario just felt so slippery, I often used the water hovering to land on platforms properly! Super Mario Galaxy fixed that in my opinion That's really nice of you!

I'm a beast! Haha yeah I just use my mouse cause I'm used to it, I've been doing pixel art since I was a kid (used MSPaint back then). I do have drawing tablet (and recently got a Surface Pro) so I might try that for when I want to make artwork like for the title screen

Exactly!

No I won't, why would I do that?

 

He has posted the same thing on several pages already : /

 

Because @DSSiege11 is taking their time trying to create something very cool. If they gave out the project then another person would already have it out there on mobile.

 

Just wondering where the download link?? LOL!! great project!!
cheers!

 

You know, now that I think about it, that probably was my problem above all else with that game, I knew something was off! I kinda forgive it because it had Yoshis, but still, overall, not as good as Galaxy. Yeah, he was a big fan of Mario games, he sat for 2 hours teaching himself the Delfino plaza theme on guitar while watching me play one night, ha ha

That is a feat of spacial intelegence sir. And patience. I dabbled with spriting a tiny bit when I was a kid with Game Maker and while I had the spacial intelegence for it, I found it to be a bit tedius for my tastes, especially the animation part. And my stuff never looked even a tenth as good as yours does. And if thats what you can do with a mouse, I'm betting your stuff with a pen must be just as impressive.

And personally, the only thing I want to download is the demo when it comes out, the paracites can go flip someone elses assets, I just want to play this game, and tell my friends to play it

 

Yeah I saw it too! He also posted a link to his blog where you could download paid Unity assets for free That post is gone now

Thanks Yeah I can already imagine someone using the few assets in my game to make a cheap endless runner... That's not going to happen!

Haha Thanks a lot

I never played it much back in the day but I did a while ago and at moments it's really enjoyable, some graphical effects were really nice for that time (like the water) but then you have those annoying abstract levels where your F.L.U.D.D. get stolen by Shadow Mario and you have to rely on the slippery controls... Hehe that's cool, I liked trying to play simple game tunes on this toy keyboard (piano) I had, that's where my basic musical skills come from :3

Oh yeah, the animations are definitely the hardest part to get right! I'm definitely getting better at it now with Tales of Lena, Lena's walk cycle is probably the first one I ever made that looks decent ^^' I'm sure it helps that I have been drawing all my life, did artistic studies and even weekly animation lessons. I only started programming when I was 18, that's already 7 years ago now!

I'm currently working on implementing the enemies from the mockup (doing the final art and behavior scripting). After that I should try and design a level

 

Yeah, I pretty much played all the Mario games after Mario 64 at my friends house, so no extended practice, ha ha. And yeah, people forget that even though it was the smallest of the 4 systems in that generation, it was actually graphically the most powerful, so it was capable of some pretty cool effects. And actually...Those abstract challenge levels were my favorites, ha ha ha. It was no gimmicks, just pure gameplay, even though those slippery physics did kill me countless times. Plus, that Mario Accapella, ha ha ha.

Well you've definitely nailed it here, You got that disney level pixel art. Everything feels alive. And animation lessons!? Nice! I had a single class on 3D animation in college, and I was terrible at it, and we never practiced it again. I'd practice my 3D skills more if I could afford Maya. And it's not often that you find someone with your unique set of skills, in both programming and art.You seem to be one of those rare Eric Chahis of the world.

Oh definitely, I can't wait until you have something playable, I am totally down to test this game

 

Xbox was most powerful I think but the Gamecube was definitely better than the PS2 in terms of hardward I absolutely hate those levels hahaha! The music was fun though

Haha, wish I liked my own pixel art as much as you do ^^; Sometimes I'm like "Uggh.... this looks horrible, why am I so bad at making pixel art" I learned 3DSMax but that's also from Autodesk and really overpriced in my opinion... I just really love doing everything myself :3

Here's another enemy: the Slacker! For now it's a really basic enemy that doesn't do much but I might add that it leaves a trail of deadly slime behind that you shouldn't touch

 

He does not look very happy with his life as a snail : ) He looks great though.
Looking forward to a demo ; p

 

I love all the little animations and details. This makes it really lively.

 

Well I mean, Power/Weight ratio, GC definitely wins, ha ha ha Xbox was a little stronger, but weighed more than some small cars

Man, you artists, always hating your work, all my artist friends who are good hate their own work, and I'm like "Are you kidding me!? Did you SEE what you made!? Ha ha

And yeah, we had pleanty of discussion about Autodesk's business practices in another thread, ha ha.

Well, you always need your basic grunt enemy. With an enemy like that, you worry less about special attacks and more about placement and timing of patrol routes, like having them patrol a dangerous edge or something to add a timing component to a jump. Look at the way Mario 1 used Goombas, or how the old school Sonic games LOVED having their enemies patrol ledges that were above you, so you were often literally fighting an uphill battle. The enemies wouldn't have particularly impressive skills, but they had the enviornmental advantage.

 

Haha I might change the eyes a bit, I think these eyes will fit the Beetle enemy more and then I'll give this snail very small eyes, maybe just 1 pixel for each eye.

Thanks That's exactly what I was going for, making the forest look alive

Gamecube was definitely a great console, actually it was my first console Before that I only had a GB and GBA.

Hahaha yeah we're just never happy, we just know all the little mistakes about what we make, stuff that someone else can't see. Also when you work on something for a long time, you're so used to it that it's nothing special anymore.

If I ever do something in 3D I'd check out Blender

The basic enemy will be the beetle I decided instead of a smile trail it will drop a pile of slime from time to time, that will be easier to make and will also be easier to see.

 

Really? Wow, I guess I'm a geezer then, because my first console was a Sega Genesis., quickly followed by someone's spare NES, ha ha

Yeah, thats true. I just feel it's important to be able to step back from your own work and look at it objectively through the lens of others, comparing it to other things. You look at it in the mindset of what a random stranger would thing and figure out what things your art as better than and what it's on the same level as. Like, your game right now is definitely better artistically than say, Bigfoot for NES, or Asterix and the Great Rescue for Sega Genesis, and so on, and those games were professional productions by real companies with real money. So in that sense, your work is better than some games made by professional companies. It's all a matter of perspective.

If someone could make Blender work like Maya, I'd be open to it, ha ha ha

Well....the only thing to be concerned about is that it might look like your snail is taking a toxic dump...Ha ha

What if you have to kick them to kill them, because their shell protects them from being jumped on, like the turtles in Crash Bandicoot 2

 

Well the GameCube was the first console I bought new myself Before that my bro bought lots of Sega consoles like the Master System, Mega Drive and Dreamcast. My other brother also got an N64

Oh yeah sometimes I do look at other old games and I'm like "wait a minute, my graphics aren't that bad compared to this!" haha But then there are other people who are soooo good at pixel art that I feel like I suck at it ^^' Oh well it helps to show off what I make and get good reactions :3

Haha, yeah I wish it was more like 3DS Max ^^'

You can't kick them, you can only kick when you're in front of an object like a wall or block I have something in mind to make that clear I'll add it later.