[COMPLETE] BAKE SALE: Indiana Rodent

Started by Radiant, Fri 02/09/2011 10:53:42

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Radiant



Indiana Rodent and the Raiders of the Lost Cheese
Current one-level demo
Older MAGS version



A scrolling platform game in AGS. Your evil twin Rattoq has stolen the cheese! Can Indiana Rodent traverse the perilous platforms, bottomless pits, and lots of spikes to make it to the end? Of course he can, he's got infinite lives!

Made for this month's OROW and MAGS contests. This is the second version, which primarily should have better controls than the first. I'm planning on adding more levels (and enemies and stuff) later this year. Comments welcome.

Monsieur OUXX

The "key" sprite is still alive and kicking :-)
 

DoorKnobHandle

Dang, another game I would have loved to record my first impressions on but it's also made with an old version of AGS that doesn't support the Direct3D drivers that are necessary for recording with FRAPS. Never knew so many people were still using ancient 2.something versions :D

I'll just play it and write my thoughts down in this thread then. Looking forward to playing it!

Radiant

Quote from: dkh on Fri 02/09/2011 11:25:39Never knew so many people were still using ancient 2.something versions :D
To my best knowledge, AGS 2 works on Linux, whereas AGS 3 does not. That's the main reason.

DoorKnobHandle

Oh ok, well, it's your choice.

First impressions:

LEFT and RIGHT controls feel sluggish, have the rodent accelerate and decelerate faster. You know these ice-blocks in lots of similar games that reduce your traction? Right now it feels like you're constantly on these. I DID get used to that after a while but it isn't very precise.

Allow the rodent to jump through the top of the screen instead of bumping against it. Not only is that the cause for many frustrating deaths, it also doesn't feel 'right' to me. Hard to explain.

If possible, try and fix the problems with getting stuck on ramps when you're not jumping and being stuck in walls when jumping into these.

There are some questionable level design decisions such as death traps in there but with additional levels that can be rectified.

Re-design the vanishing blocks so it's more obvious when they'll appear and disappear. Right now, when there's only a lower part of the block visible, you fall through them - and in general it's hard to tell if a block is appearing or disappearing. Maybe there's another design that clearly shows when the block is solid and when it isn't.

For reference, this is how Keen did it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGIDVLls1Xc


Apart from that, it's a great jump'n'run game! Very impressive and fun!

m0ds

Is this using that tile system thingy that Dirk has shown me? Or have you built it from fresh? Either way, looks pretty cool.

CaptainD

Love the title!  ;D

Reminds me a little of an old Atari ST game called "Mousetrap".
 

Radiant

Quote from: Mods on Fri 02/09/2011 13:43:44
Is this using that tile system thingy that Dirk has shown me?
The what shown by who?  :P

Nope, I built it from scratch.

m0ds

Quote from: Radiant on Fri 02/09/2011 13:48:10
Quote from: Mods on Fri 02/09/2011 13:43:44
Is this using that tile system thingy that Dirk has shown me?
The what shown by who?  :P

Nope, I built it from scratch.

Cool - aye abstauber was recently showing me a tile system that he says he's had available for people to use for a long while but they haven't used it - I was wondering if you had. Using a map editor AGS can import the levels and stuff, it was quite impressive. But I can't remember its name precisely. Good luck with Indy Rat...

abstauber

#9
Does it even use tiles?

Anyway, my first impression was quite frustrating, because I thought it would be some kind of Mario-type platformer.

But now I understand the concept of this puzzlejumper and enjoy it. Although it crashed on "Don't give up" after being minimized to tray. Damn.

Still - a fun game :)

@Mods: it's called PlaTENG. Mappy is the tile editor I used.

edit: Yay.... Cheesetopia! Once you get used to its controls, it's pretty easy :D

Wonkyth

"But with a ninja on your face, you live longer!"

Eggie

So much death... death music... permanently stuck in...brain

Buckethead

#12
I didn't think the older controles were making the game too hard. But I guess I'm used to tricky platform games. Will be enjoying this I'm sure!

EDIT:

Well it was enjoyable again.

Will this get a real save function and more levels? The spawn points are nice but if you restart the game all progress is gone. It would be nice if you could save. Play to the next check point and quit. Then came back later to play some more.

DoorKnobHandle

This is very enjoyable. Kinda addicting actually. I want more levels!

I'm wondering, how did you go about implementing the slopes Radiant? I can see they aren't working 100% all the time but it works out okay. Do you have special 'end slope' tiles or something?

Radiant

Quote from: abstauber on Fri 02/09/2011 13:59:26
Does it even use tiles?
Yes, it's a tile engine.

Quote from: Buckethead on Fri 02/09/2011 18:15:01
Will this get a real save function and more levels?
That's the plan.

Quote from: dkh on Sat 03/09/2011 19:39:12
I'm wondering, how did you go about implementing the slopes Radiant?
That was the most difficult part, really. It still needs some tweaking. There are basically three tiles, one is a square block, one is an upslope, one is a downslope. It needs lots of pixel checking to prevent the mouse from entering a wall.

abstauber

Quote from: Radiant on Sun 04/09/2011 02:44:11
That was the most difficult part, really. It still needs some tweaking. There are basically three tiles, one is a square block, one is an upslope, one is a downslope. It needs lots of pixel checking to prevent the mouse from entering a wall.
Oh, you're using "real slopes" then? Impressive!

(I cheated in using 45° slopes and calculated my way out of this ;) )

One day you have to tell me how you did the meat grinder - I just love cluster foes!

Radiant

Quote from: dkh on Fri 02/09/2011 12:03:01
LEFT and RIGHT controls feel sluggish, have the rodent accelerate and decelerate faster.
Yep. This is the most important part to get right, it'll take some fiddling on my part (and I'm sure some more demos).

QuoteAllow the rodent to jump through the top of the screen instead of bumping against it.
I'll implement vertical scrolling, how's that? :)

QuoteRe-design the vanishing blocks so it's more obvious when they'll appear and disappear.
Yeah, these were the best graphics I could get in one week. I've found a site that has more, though.

QuoteFor reference, this is how Keen did it:
<3 Keen.

Quote from: abstauber on Sun 04/09/2011 11:27:30
Oh, you're using "real slopes" then? Impressive!
I've got 22° slopes, too, for the next demo.

Quote
One day you have to tell me how you did the meat grinder - I just love cluster foes!
Basic trigonometry :)

Radiant



Indiana Rodent portrait, courtesy of Snake.

Lumpupu

THAT'LL DEFINETELY BE MY NEW MSN AVATAR.

Gosh. Damn, the talent of these AGSers...
"The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain". Gosh... Gotta love musicals!

Tenacious Stu

Quote from: Radiant on Fri 30/09/2011 17:49:14


Indiana Rodent portrait, courtesy of Snake.

How ironic, I always thought Indiana hated Snakes  :P

Nice game, I like it when I play something and think AGS made THIS?  :)

Quote from: Radiant on Sun 04/09/2011 02:44:11
It needs lots of pixel checking to prevent the mouse from entering a wall.

I entered a wall when playing :(. It was after that first big jump where it says 'You can Make it!', I thought I had made it, but realized I was stuck in the wall.

Great game though, look forward to when it is tweaked and finished :)

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