Miromina 1.11

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Miromina 1.11

by katiusza

Cart #miromina-3 | 2022-02-25 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA

11

Update 220224

• Minor bugfix on two items
• Added 1 pixel movement buffer. It didn't feel too stiff on analogue stick, but I noticed the cornering was stiff on d-pad.

Update 220109

• Fix: All items were part of the background map tiles in the original version, which gave them somewhat wonky collision when picking up and dropping them, and they showed the background when on the floor. Now they're treated as objects on top of the background, giving a much cleaner look.
• Fix: A side effect of the above was that sometimes the chests will duplicate when you open them. This shouldn't happen anymore, as chests are also objects with box collision now.
• Fix: Another side effect of the above, you could place an item and replace a tile that triggers events essential to complete the game, making the game unwinnable (like in front of the statue above). Since dropping items doesn't alter the map, this shouldn't happen anymore.
• Fix: Some items had light green and it blended into background when carrying them over the grass area. They're now darker.

• New: "About" page added to the main menu explaining the basic gameflow. Combined with the in-game text hints, I hope this should give enough information to the player now.
• New: Game B added where the item locations are randomized. Some items always spawn in the same place (like a key shouldn't spawn behind the door that requires a key). I might want to revise this later so that the key items will be randomized, but still spawn within reach.

I played this for an unhealthy amount of time after the first release and I could see the shortcomings (especially about the tile-swap). I feel a little better about this game now than before. My only gripe against the game now is that the two of the three stage hazard items are honestly quite useless and there's rarely any reason to pick them up.

About

I accidentally came across PICO-8 last week and felt like I could do this, despite the last coding experience was two semesters of college Java back in 07/08 from which I remember very, very little.

So, here I present my first project: Miromina. The name is a portmanteau of miro meaning "maze" in Korean, and Mina which is the heroine's name. The game is basically a derivative of Adventure for Atari 2600. Some of the similarities are:

• The protagonist is defenseless without a weapon item
• You can only carry one item at a time
• Find this and bring it there type of gameplay

But there are a few additions. Like the model this is based on, there are three enemies who guard the essential items, but they can only be killed with a specific item for them. The Moth can only be killed with a spray, the Frog can only be killed with a donut, etc. And these items do not spawn by default, they need to be crafted. There are four crafting stations in the game, and the craftable items are:

Sugar + Milk > Donut
Pepper + Can > Spray
Branch + Herb > Incense

Another addition is the stage hazards. Some rooms go completely dark making it hard to navigate; a lipstick will make her lips glow and she'll shine in the darkness. Dropping the lipstick will make the room dark again, but there's a switch to turn the light back on.

The map is somewhat larger than that of Adventure, so I placed two sets of the same crafting ingredients to help increase the chance of encountering them but there's still only one copy of the three stage hazard items (lipstick, earmuff and heels) and other items. The items chosen are... well, rather unorthodox for a self-claimed action adventure game but I didn't really want to use swords, crystals and other cliche items as they make more forgettable experiences. If you remember it as that one game that had anti-earthquake high heels I'd call it a success.

The old-timers (or the retro gamers in general) might remember the annoying bat from Adventure. This is recreated as a blue ghost that roams around the map until it comes in close vicinity with the player, but it won't steal any items and replace it with a random item like in the Atari game. It's because the map is bigger and there are more items that could be randomly swapped about, and it'd be too annoying to search the entire map for that one item. Instead, you will just lose a life.

As a little QoL, game shows the room coordinates to help you make a memo if you want to remember where you dropped an item to be picked up again, and there are scattered signs that should hint what needs to be done. I can't really tell if the game gives enough hints, but the intention was to make it on the easier, pick up and play side.

Code-wise, this is a Frankenstein of two different video tutorials and my bad coding. Mina essentially picks up the tile and replaces it with a tile appropriate for the room. Interacting directly with the tiles using if mget(tile) == such and such helped me create as many objects as I wanted -- I was initially trying to cook up a way to work with the different tile flags, and felt pretty smart about myself at first. Now I look back, I should have handled them with proper collision boxes at least.

But instead of refactoring this messy code I'll just leave it aside and move onto a next game. But hey, it doesn't crash and it can be played all the way to the end.

I am and always will enjoy little adventure games like this. This is interesting in that you can only carry one item at a time, much like Atari 2600 Adventure, and need to find where they go to continue in the game.

Superb work, @katiusza ! Gold star for you.

cute! nice 1st game!

Thanks!!

Your first game looks very promising, and I'm confident you'll go far. Just remember not to stop.Your mention of your 'Frankenstein' style briefly transported me back to my past as a student. I vividly recall the moment when my teacher assigned me to write a composition, and I knew nothing about Victor Frankenstein until I turned to https://papersowl.com/examples/frankenstein/ that's how I first encountered him. Now, I think it's a shame not to know anything about him...

Had fun solving this one. Room numbers definitely helped. A mini map would have been even better. Having the last door

High heels of stability is my new favorite game item, next to the anvil of swiftness and the dagger of healing.