This is my first game on the Pico-8, and, to be honest, the first game that I have "polished" to this level.
Goal:
Explore a hazard-filled cave, collect all of the treasure, and then escape through the elevator hidden in the depths.
Controls:
Left and Right to move.
Up to jump.
Game:
As befits a normal human going against skeletons, slime creatures, and demonic bats, you are completely defenseless and can only shrug off damage that comes your way. Luckily, the intelligence of said critters is meager at best, so it is possible to avoid coming into contact with them.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks,
ElectricGryphon
Notes:
Bat flying behavior has some bugs.
Camera movement shows occasional jerkiness.
Needs play-testing and probably more variety in regards to room / trap types.
Very nice and not too hard. Great fun @ playing! :)
Needs music!
I dunno, it was pretty "deep"!
I agree, it needs some music!
Oh man, tough game! It could use some checkpoints but it's still fun. I especially like the thought that went into the camera. It gets a little frustrating on left-right movement because I can't look ahead and get myself into trouble but the vertical buffer works like a dream.
Great game! It feels really complete (except for the lack of music right now). The camera works pretty good, with the "box" offset around the character to make it move only when the player hits the sides. I hope I can help a bit with some things that struck me as weird.
You have variable jump implemented, but I felt it too slow to increment the maximum height speed. That seemed a little unnatural in most jumps, except little hops, that were pretty easy.
The character slides for a long time after moving, and when that slide distance falls lower than a certain amount, it may look like he has stopped... only to suddenly jerk forward for a pixel or two that may result in your lava-flavored death. That could be fixed by snapping the character earlier in that position, or clamping the velocity before it goes under that value.
I'm not sure in this aspect, but the "jerkyness" of the camera that you talk about can be caused by the same thing. You are lerping the camera position, and the camera velocity (when its close to a stop) falls also under that value of "subpixel" velocity. Maybe it can be fixed the same way.
My last concern comes with the graphics. I'm not a fan of using this much dithering, but your game feels really solid, as it is present everywhere and well implemented. Even though, I didn't know I could step onto those bricks!! They looked like part of the background to me. And I have the exactly same problem in my game, ReaperJr, so this is kind of ironic coming from me.
Nevertheless is an awesome job. I'm glad to see more games using the whole map as a big ass stage, and you implemented some really cool stuff, like var. jumping and camera movement.
Great game, well done! I really liked the big map and all the different enemy types.
Sometimes, I couldn't differenciate background elements with solid blocks and some spikes that didn't seem harmful were actually deadly -- but I guess that's because I'm comparing your game with Spelunky :^) Gimme some ropes and bombs!
Thanks everyone for the advice and feedback.
Maikel, your tips are spot on and this gives me some areas to work on.
I'm not even sure how to begin to write something resembling background music that will not destroy hearts, minds, and ears...but it could be a good challenge.
-ElectricGryphon
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