Messing around with Pixelformer

[Scavenger]

Recently I've been hankering to do some programming, and Calin Leafshade's Pixelformer piqued my interest. A platforming sub-engine that uses AGS' built in tools to create levels. I was interested! It looked promising, so I've spent the last couple of days hashing out some more stuff in it. So far I've got objects acting as blocks, wall-jumping, wall-clinging and non-wall-jumpable walls, platforms that rotate and bring you along with them, and both vertical and horizontal floating platforms. All of these are just objects in the room controlled by the room script. Green platforms can be jumped through and jumped down from with down+Z. The scrolling room can be accessed from the left of the room you start in.

Download it here!

I'm not really very good at making platformers, so I'm not sure if the physics are right on or if it's tight enough. I just messed around with the numbers until it 'felt' right. What do you all think? Is it too slippery, or too stiff?

[DoorKnobHandle]

Link appears broken!

[Scavenger]

It was just slow to upload, it should be up now.

[bicilotti]

Not bad at all. I have tried it for a few minutes and it really "plays slick" (especially that rotating thing on left screen ). Well done!

Things I am not sure of:

1. jump is quite "jumpy", a la ZX spectrum game (high, quite slow in both reaching the top and descending). This isn't bad per se, but calls for a specific level design.

2. I don't think you should be able to 'climb' a wall by holding to it and jumping repeatedly. It feels unintuitive and would probably render the classic jump-from-left-wall-to-right-wall-and-back-to-avoid-overhead-obstacle pattern (typical in many games, such as Knytt) difficult to implement in most cases.

Keep us updated, this looks promising!

[DoorKnobHandle]

Gave it a try, runs nicely but I personally don't like the physics yet. These things are hard to describe and tricky to get right but here's my two cents:

• I don't mind being able to wall-climb by repeatedly jumping against it, of course your level design needs to take into account that this is possible but it can work well (see Super Meat Boy).
• I think the running top speed is too high for the resolution.
• There seems to be acceleration in the game (which I feel is too low, it should be faster to reach top speed) but there doesn't appear to be any deceleration, which feels weird. When you run one direction and turn around, that's instant in your game, it should not be. Display a 'turn-around frame' while the player is still sliding the old way but already holding down the new direction key.
• Jumping... is okay, but could indeed be a bit faster as bicilotti says.
• If you're turning this into a game, I highly suggest to implement some additional cool moves, be it double jumps, dashes, slides, anything fun you can think of!

[Calin Leafshade]

Cool to see someone using stuff i made!

However, I did this a *long* time ago before I knew the "correct" way to do the collision detection and I kinda just guessed so I apologise if it's a little.. broken.

EDIT: This is the definitive guide on how to do it: http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/game-programming/the-guide-to-implementing-2d-platformers-r2936

[abstauber]

For me it depends on what kind of game you're intending to create. If the challenge is on platforming, that I'd say I would enjoy those delayed physics. But if you're aiming for a "run and gun" Contra style game, then I agree with dkh - the deceleration feels somehow unnatural.

From a coding aspect, the gear is very impressive. Still I didn't enjoy them much in Castevania

[Scavenger]

I'm trying to make a kind of parkourey/spelunking platformer kind of feel. Emphasis on platforming, no weapons, enemies are a threat to be avoided rather than killed, etc.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bedz5g8yohpot2i/Platformer_Test2.zip

Lowered the jump, made it faster, lowered the running speed, and fixed collision detection for slopes (I was adjusting the y in the last build, this time I just keep the animation running if the distance to the ground isn't too great).

[DoorKnobHandle]

Works much better! There is a problem, however, when I start jumping off of the slope, I can't double jump.

EDIT: Also, I don't like how much the movement controls are weakened while mid-air personally. I prefer it when you can turn around while jumping just like you could on the ground.