Pico Panda
The Adventures of Pico Panda is my 2nd "completed" project(it's still missing some sfx, music, and polishing.) It's a small adventure game inspired by my wife. She wanted a game that lets you plays as a panda who eats bamboo and rolls. So, I had my own little mini game jam lol. I hope you all enjoy, and as always, any advice is welcome.
Game Overview
The Adventures of Pico Panda is a turn-based adventure game. Each movement the player makes increases the amount of hunger accrued(a little for walking, more for rolling) and takes one turn. Any enemies onscreen will move one tile per player turn. Eat to restore your strength, solve puzzles, and set out to save your true love.
Story
While enjoying a lovely picnic of the best bamboo, Pico Panda and his true love, Amanda Panda are suddenly surrounded by nefarious poachers. After a heroic struggle, Pico wakes up with a splitting headache to find Amanda is gone! With steely determination, he sets out to rescue her before it's too late.
Controls
Movement - Arrow keys move up, down, left, and right
Rolling - Press X to roll into enemies and some obstacles (if you're not too hungry)
HUD
Pico Panda's health is represented by his heart icon. As he takes damage, his despair at saving Amanda grows and his heart breaks. Pico can take 3 points of damage before it's game over.
Optimistic
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[8x8] |
Sad
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[8x8] |
Heartbroken
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[8x8] |
Pico's hunger bar will change from green to red as he becomes hungry. Eating bamboo will fill Pico's belly and give him the energy he needs to save Amanda.
The number of panda cubs Pico has rescued (there are 99 total) and the keys he's collected are both listed as well.
Pico's status icon is in the top right of the HUD, and each of three icons show how he's feeling.
Healthy
Pico Panda's base state.
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[8x8] |
Poisoned
Pico moves slower and each action generates more hunger when he's poisoned.
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[8x8] |
Energized
When Pico is energized he speeds up and his walk becomes like his roll (without the extra hunger loss). Squash those beetles and boulders by walking into them.
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[8x8] |
Gameplay
Bamboo
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[8x8] |
Blackberries
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[8x8] |
Ramen
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[8x8] |
Keys
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[8x8] |
Panda Cubs
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[8x8] |
Shrines
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[16x16] |
More to be added
Hints
Nice. Combat is a bit confusing, especially when you have enough hunger to roll, but not enough to defeat an enemy and you end up on the same square. Saved Amanda, despite the warning sign, and ended the game with only 80/99 cubs.
Took me some time to figure out that you need to purposefully get damaged to regrow bamboo at a shrine, or that you have 3HP.
Missed one screen (row 1 column 7), probably a secret like R4C5, maybe a hidden tunnel or a tornado destination. Also wonder if there's a way to reach the island on the starting screen.
Rock n Roll, Mister Panda
Roll in Rock, Save Amanda.
Thank you. I added some more instructions on the post to better clarify some things. More work is needed there lol.
My friend mentioned the same thing about the island on the starting screen. Unfortunately, it's just decorative, but maybe the screen should be redesigned to better take advantage of the screen space.
Any tips on improving the combat? I'm trying to go for more of a puzzle solving aspect for it, treating enemies more as obstacles to be avoided or eliminated. Positioning should matter most as it's turn based. Right now, when the player rolls, the enemies don't move (creating resource management somewhat dealing with hunger) to help the player set up. I'm thinking maybe a wait button to let the enemies take a turn without the player moving could help.
Tried the game again, and couldn't get every cub, probably because of a warp related bug.
When I go in the hole in the 1st screenshot, 3-4 different screens as quickly show, ono with the pandas I'm missing, and then I land in the bottom right of the map (2nd screen shot).
This is not where that hole lead me to last time I played. (It lead to a screen with pandas, a shrine, and a key, probably R4C5 in the map).
I also have no idea how I reached R1C7, couldn't find the hole that lead to it again.
I had tried every possible wall in the three screens around it to no avail, with some buggy obstacles on the top sprite row of R2C7.
Because of the warp bug, I didn't open the double gated river crossing (screenshot 3), but am missing the last key from the unreachable R4C5. Still, I can return to the other side of the map via tornado.
About battle, I had missed 1st playthru that you could roll more than once in a row. Bumping into obstacles to pass your turn and change tile parity with the enemies was much harder. This time, i just started fights on a full stomach and easily rolled over every enemy. Taking distance with a series of rolls if needed. The different speed the panda moves is an illusion, your real speed is always one square per move regardless of hunger. I think speed determines who moves first maybe ? Still haven't figured the game battle rules, but I have a multi-roll cheese strategy that wins everything.
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