Bowmen

a silly little game about shooting arrows at murlocs

latest v0.2.0

bowmen

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bowmen

by pomb

Cart #bowmen-1 | 2024-06-08 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | No License

18

Basics

Become a bow-wielding hero in this game, battling pesky murlocs to reclaim the land!
Jump around, shooting arrows and setting fire to their tents. Collecting pickups as you go until everything's back to normal, oh and there's a blood moon every now and then...

edit v0.2.0

• aim assisted arrows
• flame shot (get close to fire to shoot fire arrows)
• flamespeakers behaviour revised
• hp regen when moving to a new zone
• removed help and torch lock mechanics

edit v0.1.1

The first release version

Very surprised to have been able to fit more in after having run out of tokens. Split2d was a major help in saving many a token, obviously no where near what others are doing with pico8 but I'm happy with where this is at for now.

• config editor to help generate the zone level data
• better mob spawning (bag)
• screen shake
• lifesteal arrow pickup
• ladder / chains climbing
• fixed tent smoke in the air bug
• custom cart label

edit v0.1.0

• summoner murloc
• graphic polish
• token saving

v0.0.1

• basic game loop
• torches, locks
• basic murloc enemy

There are lots of token-reducing tricks in Pico-8, but I think a good place to start would be storing your tables as strings and converting them to tables at runtime using split()
http://pico8wiki.com/index.php?title=Split

excellent premises - fun & unique visuals 👌

This is really good.

@JadeLombax Thanks I'm going to try it out, hadn't done much digging but the split seems like a good way to save a few.

@freds72 thanks man

@Steven()#6 thanks Steven, glad you liked it

couple of code remarks:
print(a,b,c) -> ?a,b,c
see "split2d" in Krystman YT series
localize your "inner" functions (see: wiggle) for less debugging fun :/

also I would avoid using mixed case for poke values...

Thanks @freds72 I saved so many tokens using the split function, didn't manage to use split2d so I'm sure there's more saving to be had.
I saved over 200 tokens in encoding my animation data

I've updated the cart to include the summoner mechanic
and general art polish

Taking some inspiration from the lazy devs yt series for custom tools I've made a config editor to help generate the zone data, which has saved lots of tokens!

My progress zone data now looks like this:
configs_progress=split2d("0,0,0,1,0;1,360,2,1,1;1,360,5,2,2;1,340,3,2,1,2;2,350,4,2,3;1,300,5,2,1,1,2,3;2,290,6,2,2,2,3;3,290,7,2,2,3")

I've got a bunch of new mechanics in with all the extra tokens, which i'll upload soon.

Instant hit! Absolutely amazing game!

@pomb - I can see how much effort and time you have put into this cart and it is beautiful. The scenes look great and the characters are wonderful, but something is stopping me getting into it. I think it's my inability to play it properly, so can you offer some advice?

For a game called "bowmen" I really struggle to actually hit anything I want to. This would be less of a problem if I could just fire all the time, but only starting with 2 and then having to collect the arrows, which are really difficult to see when landed, makes the whole process less fun. When I am standing on the ground and a monster is also there it seems impossible for me to hit it. I have to face away and be some distance in order to do this. Am I doing something wrong?

Likewise the torches. Sometimes I can touch them to light them and sometimes I have to fire an arrow at them - is this intentional? Once a torch is lit I can somehow make a burning arrow to burn a hut, but the process feels so random. I just jump and fire as much as I can and then walk round and collect the arrows.

I am sure there seem to be ways of firing that I am unable to do. Once I realised that I could climb, that helped a bit, but it sort of took away the point of level 1, again since this game is called "bowmen".

Like I said the game looks gorgeous. Its great fun, jumping and zipping about the screen. Its just the arrows part that I am not getting to grips with.

Actually, a couple more minor gripes: the enemies can just appear on top of you which feels unfair and it also feels like I can go from full health to dying in a couple of seconds.

But like I said, I think its me, rather than you. If you could offer some advice that would be great.

Hey @phil thanks for taking the time to play I appreciate the kind words.

	[8x8]

You right, the ability to aim intentionally is worrisome, something I can address in an update if I can manage to token it... One of the things that didn't make it was an aim assist, effectively a slight homing effect, so arrows would be more likely to hit targets.

	[8x8]

The progression of the arrows is interesting, because if you start with more arrows, getting more arrows doesn't feel as good to me. The logic here being that a high can only feel high relative to a low. The joy of getting 2 or 3 more arrows feels better after the 'pain' of only starting with 2.

	[8x8]

There is a 'mighty shot' d-r-x or d-l-x but it's not really as useful as one might hope.. it can probably either be removed in favor of something else or made more useful, like shoot straight or something similar.

	[8x9]

The torches are intentional: you can light torches in two ways, fire an arrow into the locks, or climb a ladder with arrow in hand to unlock.

The point of zone 1 is teach the unlocking mechanic, without pressure of combat.

	[8x8]

Good point about the enemies, it's happened to me a couple times too. I added i-frames when you get damaged so you can't get damaged too quickly. I'll look at extending the duration in the next version to make it a little more forgiving.

Nah could be the game... I'm suffering from dev bias/familiarity so some of these things are not as obvious as one might think.
Thanks for taking the time to give me feedback, I appreciate it.

Thanks for your detailed response @pomb

I think your point about progression of arrows is spot-on. I played around with the source to give myself more arrows and it was fun at first but took away the incentive to try to build up a good supply. The way the arrows whizz about and bounce around is absolutely delightful. A single bonus stage with infinite arrows would be great (yeah... tokens...) so I do agree that a low start is necessary.

Ah you have to have an arrow in your quiver to stick it in the torches to light them! Makes sense know you've explained it.

The strange thing about your game, is as frustrating (to me) as it is, I do keep coming back to it, to try and get further each time! I think you have made something really good here, maybe not 100% my cup of tea, but an amazing Pico cart

Updated the op with the new v0.2.0 [#1] build and changes. I think it's playing better than before, thanks again for the feedback everyone.

One of the best games on pico! The graphics, arrow movement, just fabulous! I can't seem to get passed level 2 though, it just won't let me through even after I've lit both torches

Hi @Tatery1 thank you for that complement it's high praise, but there really some incredible games on pico.

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