Hungry Harry is back! Help Harry as he travels around the world putting a stop to the mushroom gang!
HOW TO PLAY:
Walk - arrow keys
Jump - Z or C
Lick things - X
High Jump - jump while licking
Long Jump - jump while licking AND holding a direction.
GOAL: Find the portal at the end of each level. Harry will get hungry over time, so make sure to eat enemy mushrooms as well as berries you find sitting around the levels.
TIPS:
Blue mushrooms are tough and can't be licked normally. If you eat a spicy pepper, Harry will turn red-hot for a few seconds. Use this time to eat the blue mushrooms.
If you lick while in the air, Harry can get a little extra boost. By licking on the ground and then jumping soon after, Harry can jump extra high or extra far, depending on whether or not you are holding a direction key down.
See if you can find every present in the game! You can get lots of berries from presents by licking them.
PROTIP!!!
Is Harry too easy for you? Pause the game with ENTER and choose hard mode!
Fixes:
v1.1 - fixed possible softlock in level 2.
v1.2 - made hard mode accessible from menu instead of a weird code noone can do. Fixed some trouble areas.
v1.3 - fixed present count.
Hey! Stop right there! Didn't someone tell you you're not supposed to make games this advanced for Pico-8!?
Really, this is very impressive, and more importantly, fun. You don't see a lot of fully 3D games on Pico-8, and this one runs relatively smoothly. I dig the concept of platforming and licking enemies to death. I like how the lick also serves as a Mario Galaxy spin-jump analogue. Going straight to my favorites!
I enjoy this game. The graphics are really cool and remind me of an Atari Lynx game called "ElectroCop", which is a good thing because I used to play that game all the time.
Now for the 'critique' stuff.. :)
So, I will admit, I haven't completed your game just yet, but these are some things that stuck out to me..
1.) The levels don't seem to be in order of difficulty....some extremely short levels would follow very complex and long levels. This 'feels' weird to me.
2.) How do you actually die? It didn't seem there was any danger to worry about other than having to spend time getting back up to a platform you missed or were knocked off of. I generally like my games to have 'fear of death' and while I do like the puzzle elements of this game's levels layouts, I didn't really feel like I was accomplishing anything from one level to the next. There were few parts where I did feel accomplished, mostly regarding getting the chili pepper to proceed, otherwise, I didn't feel like I earned anything by progressing.
3.) I'd like to see more optimization of level designing or possibly the engine, though the engine seems just fine. The changes in frame rate are a tad abbraisive. Some would happen in the middle of a jump and although the movement itself wasn't affected or the timing, it did throw me off here and there.
Otherwise, this game is super fantastic! Even with the points I made, I still found myself wanting to play more and will definitely do so on my designated pico8 machine (I normally don't play it on my work computer which I'm using right now!)
Peace and great job!
Couldn't wait for Voxatron, eh? Just had to make a 3D game in PICO-8? Well, excellently done. There are a few issues with depth perception being more than a little misleading (especially near the end of Lost City GRRRR), but it's almost to be expected under the circumstances.
My sole gripe is (to me, anyway) big enough that I feel compelled to point out that this comment almost took a very different tone indeed. I'd honestly thought I'd softlocked the game on Level 2 after (accidentally) finding a hidden present at the bottom of a shaft with no apparent way out. Even licking in mid-air to get a boost didn't suffice. It wasn't until I'd already started typing a complaint here that I noticed you had a crucial control instruction (the super jump) listed under the "TIPS" section of your game description. TIPS! Necessary controls to play the game under TIPS! Some people intentionally SKIP "tips" sections, you ought to know. But here's the worst part of it: I finished the game, and I didn't need the super jump ANYWHERE ELSE to do so. Heck, I didn't have to do the mid-air lick until Level 6. So you've coded something into the game needed to get out of one secret area (easily found accidentally) and NOTHING ELSE. VERY strong suggestion: fix that one secret area to remove that need, and then remove the super jump entirely from the game. I'm sure you spent a good amount of time coding it, but the game's better off without it, and culling it is certainly an easier solution than adding more in-game tooltips and redesigning multiple levels to require the move's use. In other words: save it for the sequel!
[And before anyone asks: yes, it IS intuitive to try to lick in mid-air, as there are plenty of places where enemies are at edges of ledges you need to jump to. The player has ample reason to try it and to see that it provides an extra boost to the jump. There is NOTHING to encourage a player to try jumping mid-lick. It's as arbitrary as anything. They are NOT comparable. I am not Dean Takahashi.]
With THAT out of the way: great little game here! I like how the hunger gauge basically becomes a score, combining clearance time, damage taken, and exploration thoroughness into one value. The level layouts are well thought out (well, save that one secret area) and provide a good challenge without any real risk of a game over. It certainly pushes the PICO-8 to its limits (and even a little beyond, given the frame rate drop in one later level, but that's quite minor). Good work.
One last comment, as I clearly find the base game too easy: how do I know I'm in challenge mode? I can't seem to discern a difference.
Thanks for the feedback all!
@hseiken - With regard to the order of levels - to be completely honest, I sort of ran out of steam working on this game and just said "eh, looks good." It wasn't maybe QUITE that drastic... but it turned out to be VERY exhausting designing 3D levels, especially the bigger ones. Also, I only had enough map memore for 5 or so big levels, so the smaller ones are really just filling in empty spots on my map.
For the difficulty... I deliberately made the game easy. I really didn't want to do death pits, but I also didn't want you to have a small health bar. It's kind of tough to visually discern if you will hit something or not, and I believe that if something is hard to see in a game you shouldn't challenge the player hard on it. Since the whole game looks so rough, I decided it would be more of a "walk in the park" sort of thing.
For the engine... see my point 1 above. I got really torn between having enough going on in some areas vs having the frame rate be smooth. there are probably less than 5 spots where it dips below 15... i decided to live with that.
Thanks for playing!
@Zotmeister - heyo, good catch on the softlock! That was, like, the first hidden item i put in the game. Can't believe I missed that.
The high jump and long jump are not needed anywhere by design. They're kind of a bonus, speed-runners thing.
For hard mode, you must be holding down, right and lick as SOON as the game boots. Harry will fly into the air after a second or two of doing this. If he doesnt fly away after a few seconds you did it wrong - press enter, reset, and try it again.
I can understand the burnout affecting the final game. I think the game is great and admittedly my points are very personal and the code is in there so I can make adjustments to the game if I want more difficulty. For instance, I think to make the game more fun for me, I'll probably make it so the hunger counter runs faster, so that finding food is much more important to survive...or I'll do something like have a maximum so that it's not possible to build up 2000+ seconds on the timer.
Obviously I'll have to playtest it after I 'hack' it for my own personal use, but yeah, it's just personal taste. I kinda see it good as a speed running game with the game mechanics working toward practice more efficient. The end of the game showed final stats and so I can see it working like that.
Anyway, if I end up doing hacks or anything, if you like, I can pass the cart to you via private message to see if you like the changes. I agree that death pits aren't essential to making a tougher game and it's not something I would even think works here. Fall damage, though...hmmmm...
Anyway, thanks for the response. I really enjoyed playing this and totally forgot about it being a pico8 game while playing, it felt like a no BS full release game for an old handheld (probably cause I was playing on a handheld computer), but that's a pretty high achievement, I think so I am trying to make sure you don't think I'm being a drag by pointing these things out that I did. :)
I'll definitely play this again and again.
@hseiken you may want to try challenge mode, which I snuck in there.
When you boot the game, hold down, right and lick. Harry should fly into the air. It starts a kind of endless challenge where the timer gets crazy fast.
I made another edit so that hard mode is accessible from the pause menu. I kind of liked the idea of a hidden hard mode, but the game doesn't have a title screen where it would make sense to put one. If it's not clear already, I reeeally struggled with token count on this cart.
@tesselode Generally, the map data are a height map. sprites 0-15 will mean that a block is x blocks high at that xy location. 16-31 are the same thing, but will use an alternate texture on the ground, so you can highlight paths.
It gets tricky with placing objects. For actors like the player or enemies, the actor generates at the given xy location, and the block under them inherits the height of the block y-1 units away (one unit away from the camera, up on the map data).
For bridges or doorways... hoo boy :). If you try to place a bridge, during map generation, it will look up (y-1) and left (x-1) and see which block is higher. the bridge will generate at that height - this means you need to "anchor" bridges from above or the left. consecutive bridge blocks will inherit the height of any bridges above or to the left. doorways act the same way, the only difference is that a wall generates under them but will leave a small space under it.
It is possible (but glitchy) to have a bridge or door that goes over elevated blocks - when placing a bridge that anchors to the left, it will then look at the block at y-1 and inherit that height below it. Thus, you can have criss-crossing paths.
Lastly, in the code, map boundaries are defined as tables, as well as level themes. These are in the final tab. If you look at the crawl code in the second tab, you can see a lookup table for which sprites will generate which actors in the map.
Whew! I need to do a full writeup of all of this.
One of the most technically mindblowing things I've seen on Pico-8. I made a video for it here:
@inphanta Thanks! I liked it.
It's really helpful to watch people play through, since I don't really do any playtesting beyond myself. Especially with a game like this, which has a unique point of view, some things that seem obvious to me are definitely not obvious to a new player. For instance, I need to communicate better that you can eat the small enemies without a pepper.
I've been thinking a lot about this game lately. I really want to revisit the idea of lo-fi 3D platformers. Stay tuned!
will you make a sequel with a proper bossfight at the end and maybe make it more difficult for SUPER PLAYERS out there! and im also working on a mod of the game which features a feminine harry, much more colorful tilesets and harder level design
@Dogerizer I would love to see your mod! If you run into issues with the code let me know and I can try to help out. It's horrible.
Sequel? I keep waffling on this lately. My engine for my newer game, Myrtle Takes the City, is waaaaay cleaner, and I intended to use that for a sequel. Myrtle's engine makes wide-open spaces easier, and I should be able to fit more data in.
However, in my heart of hearts, I really want to make 3D platformers, but not necessarily pico-8 3D platformers. I think Harry's simple camera is fine, but I wouldn't mind using a proper 3D engine so I can have better performance and make things easier to see. I would also like to make something I can play on my phone, and I am just not happy with pico-8's mobile support and I don't know if it's going anywhere anytime soon.
I would like to see your tilesets! Watch out with the colors - I purposely limited the colors of geometry in Harry to make it easier for the player to see, especially for stuff that is downstream from Harry.
In terms of difficulty, I don't know that I would make something harder. I'm very good at 3D platformers, and I suspect you are too, but the few "Let's Plays" I have seen of Harry and Myrtle show that a lot of people have trouble navigating in 3D space. When I look at stuff like Mario 3D land, I think the easier levels are actually more interesting for experts, since they usually have lots of options for speed running. If anything, I want to make 3D platformers with more options, rather than just higher difficulty. I WOULD like to experiment with different modes of play, like a game of "tag" or some reason to navigate a level quickly.
Let me know how the mod goes!
Right now I'm still working on other tilesets but here is a photo of the 1st level
EDIT:most tilesets are finished so I will post more photos when I'll have time
Also limiting hunger to 100 would make it more challenging so that would be really cool
And also could you help me with changing the base ground to different colors
@Dogerizer The game supports 4 themes (right now they are snow, ruins, grass, and dungeon). These are defined in the last tab, under the header "zones"
-- zones
zonenow=1
themes={{
7,12,7,--highlight c
15,-- x pix start
0,6, --sky and sun
},{
1,3,5,--highlight c
0,--14,-- x pix start
9,15, --sky and sun
},{
0,5,0,--highlight c
14,-- x pix start
6,6, --sky and sun
},{
2,3,5,--highlight c
1,--14,-- x pix start
12,10, --sky and sun
}} |
in the themes area, where I have marked it "highlight c," these will effect ground color, ground color highlights, and outline color around level geometry. You can alter these to change these colors.
Note that if you want to make any new levels, you will need to modify the "zone" table, which defines the boundaries and the theme for each level.
If it would be easier for you to show me results, upload your cart to the in-progress forum and I can look at your code.
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This game is awesome! It's so original for Pico-8 and I can't even imagine how you pulled it off technically.
One part of it got me totally stuck though... on the "Castle" level, if you fall off the staircase leading to a buttload of baddies, where there are two gifts, I can't find any way to get back to the main level. I scoured the walls for a while and couldn't find any openings. Maybe there's just something I'm missing though.
wow. this would be really cool in Voxatron!
just saying...
this is A M A Z I N G
@SandwichBlam thanks! I have thought about voxatron a bit. I would love to be able to drop the camera in to the voxatron diorama and have a similar camera angle to this, but I have not seen any good demos of this being done. I am always thinking about a sequel to this...
I love how good this little dude looks and moves. and the look of the levels is nice too. i only played to level two as i'm just hamering as many pico games as poss to find some favs, and this is defo up there. in fact the the controls work that smooth and the levels actually look so good that i could defo see a god of war demake work on pico 8
This game looks amazing, and i like the artstyle, and really fun! 10/10
And i think it could work great as an srb2 mod
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This is one of my favorite pico 8 games. The 3D isn't just a gimmick, it works perfectly with the layout of the world, which retains it's mystery throughout the game. Finding small areas full of enemies out of nowhere is a real joy. And the way the "towers" are structured, specially in the 9th level (my favorite). I wonder, though... are enemies necessary? They do provide the only obstacle, and force you to evade them to get to certain parts but maybe that could be achieved without these enemies which don't do much otherwise. If the game was about discovering the intricate levels, progressing through the blue guys and connecting areas it would just as fun and would let you focus on the world and the way it looks. The use of perspective is beautiful.
Thanks for the comments everyone! Nice to see that Harry is still entertaining.
@dantedl really good points regarding enemies, to which I have two responses:
-
You may like the spiritual sequel to this, Myrtle Takes the City, which is more of an open-world approach. No enemies here, just collecting and exploring: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=71637#p
- I think about a true sequel to this all the time, and I do wonder if it needs enemies. I do think you need SOME adversity, or else it just becomes a tech demo. This is one of my earlier games, and it is VERY light on mechanics - theres basically your movement, a single enemy type, and locked doors (peppers), and thats it. It still ended up being fun to walk around with this perspective. If I get rid of enemies, or at least their threat to you, I need to come up with some other mechanics to keep you engaged, otherwise it just sort of becomes a 3D demo that you find buried on the gamemaker forums or something like that.
Thanks for the detailed feedback! One of these days, Harry will run again.
every game on the bbs can be downloaded by clicking the little link cart on the bottom-left of the game player. this gives you a PNG file that has all the game data secretly stored inside the pixels of the image! you can then load that cartridge using your copy of pico-8, or with the edu edition on the web.
some games are also published on itch, and sometimes also have native windows/max/linux executables that lets them run without the pico-8 program.
This was so surprisingly fun, and I really admire the technical excellence on display. Thanks for sharing!
I had no idea you could make a 3D collect-athon on the Pico-8! Impressive!
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