CommandBro: GoGoGo - A 'gigi' challenge [12 weeks remaining]

its been so long since I released a game, that I'm forcing myself to release something.

I've decided to do a Gigi Challenge.

My timeline is much more aggressive than the 12 weeks, I hope to be done in less than 4 weeks, but the 12 weeks will be a hard date.

The Game

An endless jumper with guns, LeapDay meets BroForce. Target is mobile although it should be playable on PC too.

Approach

I'll be leveraging as much existing stuff as I can, PlatformerPro, any graphics I already have, any sound aI already have, etc. I don't specifically have a budget but I might ocassionally buy stuff. I'll track how much I have spent.

Progress







[Video coming shortly]

 

Awesome project. Good luck with it! You are already off to a tremendous start considered you seem to have just started and already have that much done.

 

Well Platformer PRO has a sample using the same main character, and already has some leapday like runner movements and a menu system. So its mainly been tweaking some settings and drawing levels.

 

Would be interested in hearing more about this. Have you struggled with development and/or motivation, procrastination or just been taking it easy?

I like this character - from the sprite sheet you showed in the other thread.
Are you planning to re-skin this sprite for the enemy sprites?

 

WIP 1​

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All platforming controlled by one button:

• Press button to jump
• You automatically cling and slide down wall if you don't press, when you press it does wall jump (leap day style)
• Hold button to climb ladder
• Hold button after jump to do roll attack (not shown)

Shoot is a separate button, basically anywhere low on screen does jump, anywhere higher does shoot.

 

I have a few enemies already (some re-skins, some larger variations):
Basic Enemy, patrol back and forth, ocassionally shoot when he sees player.

Psycho, charges at player when player gets near, explodes on touch. Also shoots.

Big Dude. Stand still and shoots heavy fire, with a gap between for 'reload'). Can take a lot of damage.


Big Helmet Dude. Like above but a bit more gung-ho. He charges player, but has less bullets. Shooting doesn't cause him to stop his charge.


Some terminator variations. Immune to basic weapon, can still shoot while being hit (other enemies all stop shooting when hit).

I think 1-2 more enemies should be enough for the complexity I imagine. I'll either hire someone or do myself pending time.

 

• Some of it is time spent on asset store (particualrly a few years ago when Platformer PRO was done).
• Some of it is the starting games but not finishing. A few promising demos were 'almost' funded, so I put a lot of effort in to demos which I subsequently lost motivation for (too big to finish without funding).
• Some of it is just being busy periods at day job.
• Recently my wife has also been very sick, so between hospital, work and managing the kids/household I've had no free time.

 

Yeah! Characters are cool.
I was expecting the gameplay to be faster, though I didn't consider the auto run that is needed. Have you tested faster speeds - for quicker flow, more challenge?
It's already looking fun, even with the minimum gameplay.

 

Auto run required for one button game play which seems to be mandatory for non-serious platformers on mobile.

Speed may need tweaking but its already quite difficult (in fact historically all of my games have been too hard, so I need to make it easier not harder). Still I might up speed and balance with easier levels and more power-ups. Too early to say at the moment.

 

Pretty cool! +1

 

Added some switches and video ads, need to find some CC0 pixel art buttons for video/purchase/etc.

 

Any updates?

 

Same ^^^
Been a couple of weeks. Are you alive & well? Still working on the game?

 

Had some other things come up so not a lot of free time.

But still pushing it forward. Mainly been tweaking mechanics and (slowly) adding levels.

Will post a video at some stage

 

Good luck!

 

8 weeks to go ... and little progress ... paying work is getting in the way :s

 

If you stopped for a week or two and did nothing on the game because you had/wanted to do paying work instead... I see no reason to count that time in your 12 weeks. I'd look at the 12 weeks as meaning 12 weeks actually spent to some degree on your game. Doesn't make sense to count a week where you did nothing or almost nothing due to having no time.

 

Well, I can't speak for Johnny, but now I feel marginally better about my own project stalling out due to Real Life getting in there and making me waste all my time Adulting.

 

Ha ha. I understand. Life always has things going on. Things that have to be done.

The way I interpret it is the 12 Week Challenge has to be molded to a person's life. Some people might be able to truly work on a game for 12 consecutive weeks. Others might be able to only do 1 week per month. And maybe the idea is in such a case is to only go after a 3 week scope in such a case but I wouldn't agree with that unless it is a person's very first game. Then absolutely would agree with it.

And the original idea IIRC was to spend 1/6 of the time making the game (the core gameplay should all be finished in this time) and the other 5/6 of the time is spent polishing & play-testing (with a purpose!) to otherwise improve the game.

Basically it's more about... scope small, get the core gameplay done quickly (and small scope) then spend the majority of the dev time on polishing it.

Ironically... I've been focusing on tiny games for the past 3 years. So this time I am taking a different path. Focusing on a bigger game and although I want to get it done as quickly as I can (while working no more than 5 hours per week on it)... I don't have any deadline for it. Haven't approached it this way in a long time.

 

I'm okay with the 8 weeks as a hard date. If I added some more SFX it would be releasable in its current state. It functions and its fun.

The other things I want to add:

- Another weapon or two
- More base levels (its psuedo procedural, base templates are populated with various items, enemies, etc)
- More bad guy variations (currently only three of the above are in)
- Pushing scores to remote leaderboard
- Just generally tweaking levels and generation parameters to ensure its fun

Its becoming more like flappy birds, with high difficulty and short games (although not so extremely short), I think it works.

 

I'm also thinking about making an explosion constantly rising form below. This would make it a LOT harder and more frenetic... but maybe taking it too far.