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Entry 2015: Tramp


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This year I have had very little time or energy for programming.

BUT, I just can't let this cool basic programming contest past me by, so, here I am at the last minute trying to put together an entry.

 

How can I put together an entry with almost no time left?

 

"Holy Recycling, Batman!" - yes by reusing old code that I already wrote...

 

I thought it was fun bouncing on the stretchers in "Clowns and Balloons", so I took that code and hacked it to create it a world consisting only of trampolines! It may be the first endless trampolining game ever. I call it TRAMP, which of course stands for:

 

Trampoline

Running

Awesome

Mobile

Platformer

 

As trampoline ace "Nobaudi Holmes", your mission is to see how far you can go....

 

It needs tons of tuning, and some gimmicks for variety, but at least it kind of looks like a game.....

 

post-14916-0-74822800-1450372459_thumb.gif < - click to animate.

 

 

Hopefully it will look better in a few weeks....

 

 

Catsfolly

 

 

 

 

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Looks good. A few suggestions :-

 

- How about having some collectable objects? Balloons/stars that kind of thing.

- Collectable objects could randomly turn into a power-up e.g. winged boots to go faster/further, parachute to slow decent.

- Maybe a periodic boss to give the sense of levels/advancement.

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Looks interesting. The way it looks when you jump up and it looks like you slow down a little at the top. Cool.

 

How much control do you have? Do you have to sort of guide the player down and aim for the next trampoline or is it auto?

 

As groovy said, adding something to jump up and get would be cool. Maybe gold coins! Mario!

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Looks very good, catsfolly! I think it's very cool that you joined the contest. I know that you are putting together the game in a rush, but I think it has great potential for a nice and polished game. :)

 

Are you planning on sharing the ROM of the work-in-progress? We could provide additional criticism and feedback to help you. :)

 

Here are a few comments I have, based on the animated GIF:

  • If you are not scrolling the screen, perhaps you could mask the left-most column to hide the transition of the platforms as they go off the screen. Right now, they just disappear when they reach the left-edge of the screen, and looks a bit awkward.
  • I love the name "Nobaudi Holmes," did you make that up yourself? I must use it sometime. :)
  • I also love the "Mr. Potato" look of the guy, and how his top hat detaches from the head as he falls. Very nice touch with the animations.
  • It's not clear from the video, but I suppose that the different shapes of platforms provide different physical properties, such as propelling you when they are angled forward, arresting your momentum a bit if they are angled backwards, and giving you additional height if they are just flat. If this is not the case right now, then I offer it as a suggestion.
  • Like GroovyBee mentioned, you should add some power-ups (coins, fruits, balloons, presents, whatever) for the player to try to catch. This not only adds an additional dimension to game-play, it serves as a challenge too, since the player needs to balance getting the rewards against surviving.
  • How about adding the occasional "catwalk platform" in the sky, so that Nobaudi must aim to either jump over it, onto it (to run, then jump off), or under it.
  • A game like this screams for progression levels: perhaps you could have a specific distance that Nobaudi must travel in order to complete a level and move on to the next one. You could add "check-points" in between, so that the player does not have to re-start from the very beginning of a level if he falls off. Once a level is complete, you advance to the next one, which can be faster or offer new challenges, e.g., birds or bats that harm you in some way or affect your trajectory. This way, rather than a simple single-screen mini-game, you turn it into a full fledge game. Each level can have a different setting.

Good showing so far! :) :thumbsup:

 

-dZ.

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Thanks everyone for all the nice and detailed comments. I just wish I had more free time to work on this.

 

1. I definitely want to have things for the player to collect (coins, balloons, etc). I hadn't thought about power-ups, but that's a good idea too!

 

2. Currently I am not scrolling the screen - all the platforms are motion objects. They are double-wide (2x wide), so the disappear when they are half off the screen.

I could mask this by turning on the border, but if the game gets more complex it might be better to use real scrolling - after making the player and the platforms I don't have many objects left for anything else...

 

3. I decided to use 2 8 by 16 objects to make the main character. After creating the hat animation and the fancy head, I didn't have enough pixels left to draw a body (just some simple legs) , so - he is "Nobaudi Holmes".

 

4. Yes the platforms have different physical characteristics, but at the moment the differences are pretty subtle.

 

5. Currently pressing the disc causes the player to fall faster - that is all the control there is (like a smartphone runner game). Maybe this is not enough if the game gets more elaborate.

 

6. I am torn between making a simple runner game with dynamically generated endless courses, and a game with fixed courses that the player can learn and must complete within a limited amount of time (like a racing game).

 

Thanks for watching the video. I'll have a downloadable version when I get to the point where the game is more fun.

 

Catsfolly

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So, if I understand this correctly, youre simply using MOBs for all onscreen graphics? That is interesting. :)

 

Would be difficult to do a whole lot in the way of items and powerups with the 8 MOB limit unless you change the trampolines to scrolling tiles. I agree with DZ that leveling would be awesome on this game, but even a progressive increase in speed/difficulty WITHOUT levels could be cool.

 

My opinion, but if you DID NOT implement leveling, a neat way to score this game would be a "Distance Traveled" score as opposed to scoring based on successful jumps and item collection. If your difficulty ramps well, this could prove to be very doable and would make the game fun.

 

There are many games that do the 'distance' scoring... One of my favorites is the vertical jumper, "Doodle Jump" on mobile platforms.

 

One of the things I like about that game is the varying distances between platforms and the degree of difficulty increase as higher 'heights' are reached.

 

Perhaps in your game, smaller trampolines at varying proximity with increased MOB speed could be one way to ramp difficulty.

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2. Currently I am not scrolling the screen - all the platforms are motion objects. They are double-wide (2x wide), so the disappear when they are half off the screen.

I could mask this by turning on the border, but if the game gets more complex it might be better to use real scrolling - after making the player and the platforms I don't have many objects left for anything else...

Real scrolling is a whole can of worms with the player's HUD etc. I would approach this by having right halves of all the trampolines in GRAM already at 2x magnification in X because there doesn't seem to be many GRAM cards in use. Then when the MOB is at pixel 0 in X change it to only be the right half (and no magnification in X) and then scroll it off screen. That way its a smooth slide off on the left side.

 

For collectables I'd use pre-shifted GRAM cards then you can make patterns and use them freely without worrying about MOB resources.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Happy New Year!!!!!!

 

Okay, I admit it, I started too late.

 

This is the version I submitted to the contest. I submitted it at the last minute, so I probably got something wrong and it will be rejected...

 

Changes since the last version -

 

1. Now uses real scrolling.

 

2. the course is preprogrammed (not generated).

 

3. There is a score and a distance.

 

post-14916-0-81163300-1451606560_thumb.gif <- click to animate.

 

 

It's completely untuned, but you can try it if you are brave....

 

tramps.rom

 

Catsfolly

 

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Happy New Year!!!!!!

 

Okay, I admit it, I started too late.

 

This is the version I submitted to the contest. I submitted it at the last minute, so I probably got something wrong and it will be rejected...

 

Changes since the last version -

 

1. Now uses real scrolling.

 

2. the course is preprogrammed (not generated).

 

3. There is a score and a distance.

 

attachicon.gifmvi_0050.gif <- click to animate.

 

 

It's completely untuned, but you can try it if you are brave....

 

attachicon.giftramps.rom

 

Catsfolly

 

 

 

I'm not very brave and I tried it... :o :O :o What's going to happen to me now??

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There are no easter eggs in the game, but if you let the title animation run for a long time, it gets stranger and stranger...

 

( this is because bits from the positions of the letters are overflowing into the bits that control the size and other characteristics of the sprites, doncha know...)

 

 

Edit - I just tried this and it takes a ridiculously long time to get interesting results - in the past I started the animation, walked away and then came back in an hour or so and found the letters flying around like crazy - but it looks like before that happens the letters slowly creep across this screen many many times in a very boring way...

Edited by catsfolly
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Looks promising. Please finish it. :)

 

Any quickie instructions? I'm dying all the time after the third bounce. :(

 

That happened to me also. The instructions say to press the disc to change the velocity of descent, and that seems to work. Pressing "down" on the disc makes you fall faster, which can allow you to shorten some jumps. If you aim carefully, you can fall on a trampoline like that and avoid death.

 

It is certainly not the way I would expect the final game to be, but it's better than just watching your potato man drop on every third trampoline. :lol:

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That happened to me also. The instructions say to press the disc to change the velocity of descent, and that seems to work. Pressing "down" on the disc makes you fall faster, which can allow you to shorten some jumps. If you aim carefully, you can fall on a trampoline like that and avoid death.

 

I figure the judging panel was privvy to certain instructions that we didn't have. And, yeah, I now see this game is more sophisticated than I thought. And it's also quite challenging.

 

It is certainly not the way I would expect the final game to be, but it's better than just watching your potato man drop on every third trampoline. :lol:

 

Well, I made it past the third bounce this time. Not much further, but getting somewhere. :)

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Looks promising. Please finish it. :)

 

Any quickie instructions? I'm dying all the time after the third bounce. :(

If you immediately hold down the disc most of the time, you can hit the two green trampolines, which will give you some decent forward speed.

 

After hitting those two trampolines, keep the disc released most of the time, but press it down to tune your arc of motion to target the trampoline you want to hit.

 

You get one point for each bounce off of a trampoline. I consider a score of 13 a good run, but I occasionally get up into the 20's.

 

post-14916-0-72711500-1451943360_thumb.gif

 

Every time the screen scrolls 8 pixels, you get one point for distance.

 

Currently the game doesn't limit the player's forward speed, so the player quickly builds up more speed than they can handle. Aiming for the blue trampolines helps keep your speed down, and the rare red trampoline slows down your forward speed.

 

I am planning to have speed limiting and friction and a more noticeable effect when the disc is pressed, so the game will hopefully be less puzzle-like in the future...

 

Thanks for playing!

 

Catsfolly

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If you immediately hold down the disc most of the time, you can hit the two green trampolines, which will give you some decent forward speed.

 

After hitting those two trampolines, keep the disc released most of the time, but press it down to tune your arc of motion to target the trampoline you want to hit.

 

You get one point for each bounce off of a trampoline. I consider a score of 13 a good run, but I occasionally get up into the 20's.

 

attachicon.gifshot0073.gif

 

Every time the screen scrolls 8 pixels, you get one point for distance.

 

Currently the game doesn't limit the player's forward speed, so the player quickly builds up more speed than they can handle. Aiming for the blue trampolines helps keep your speed down, and the rare red trampoline slows down your forward speed.

 

I am planning to have speed limiting and friction and a more noticeable effect when the disc is pressed, so the game will hopefully be less puzzle-like in the future...

 

Thanks for playing!

 

Catsfolly

Any plans for collectable mid air objects like coins, money bags, happy faces etc? or solid obstacles like brick walls to jump over or under?

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Any plans for collectable mid air objects like coins, money bags, happy faces etc? or solid obstacles like brick walls to jump over or under?

There definitely will be collectable objects (the pictures for the exploding balloons from "Clowns and Balloons" are already being loading in graphics memory, but not used yet...)

 

I hadn't thought about brick walls. Having some objects that slow down the player would be good, but hitting a brick wall sounds painful... I guess it depends on how easy it is to avoid....

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

Edited by catsfolly
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If you immediately hold down the disc most of the time, you can hit the two green trampolines, which will give you some decent forward speed.

 

After hitting those two trampolines, keep the disc released most of the time, but press it down to tune your arc of motion to target the trampoline you want to hit.

 

You get one point for each bounce off of a trampoline. I consider a score of 13 a good run, but I occasionally get up into the 20's.

 

attachicon.gifshot0073.gif

 

Every time the screen scrolls 8 pixels, you get one point for distance.

 

Currently the game doesn't limit the player's forward speed, so the player quickly builds up more speed than they can handle. Aiming for the blue trampolines helps keep your speed down, and the rare red trampoline slows down your forward speed.

 

I am planning to have speed limiting and friction and a more noticeable effect when the disc is pressed, so the game will hopefully be less puzzle-like in the future...

 

Thanks for playing!

 

Catsfolly

 

Love your effectiveness with physics.

 

Higher speed, or more distance covered per leap, should be rewarded as well per unit distance, otherwise we'd all be bopping one at a time. Kind of like a cliche of sorts, giving the gamer something to dare lunge forward for.

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  • 2 years later...

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