Entry 2015: Alligator Swamp

[carlsson]

After some previous not-published testing the waters of IntyBASIC, I came up with a concept that I believe I can turn into a playable game.

 

The game is called Alligator Swamp, and is to a great deal based on the Commodore PET game Alligator Moeras which also exists in a coloured version for the C64. You play a small monkey jumping in the tree collecting coconuts. You will move up and down automatically, and steer the monkey to the left and right, so on each lap you will hit the water. In the original game, you have a limited numer of pieces of the water line to touch. One you go through the water, the alligator comes to eat you!

 

My variation will include turtles a'la Turtle Bridge. Those may dive/disappear all of a sudden, but on the other hand are not in limited supply. The exact design of the game display is not yet finished, and if anyone likes, I'd gladly accept help with the graphics.

 

[+cmart604]

Excellent to see entries coming to light already. I'm not familiar with the game it's based on but I look forward to seeing it develop. I'm sure lots of helpful folks will chime in with their technical thoughts. As for graphics, maybe see if you can get Groovy to let Nonner out of his cage to help. ?

[+Tarzilla]

The turtle idea is a better and more fair play mechanic than the PET version. I wouldn't have them actually disappear, but dive under the water sometimes. I can see the tree graphics looking better than the C64 version and be slightly random from level to level (sometimes 1, sometimes 2 or 3 even, also different heights)

 

You might even change the coconuts to other things like pineapples, apples, candy canes etc.as levels go on.

 

On some levels have the number of turtles change as well.

[freewheel]

That alligator graphic is very, very nice. You certainly don't need help on that front. I wish I could draw that well.

[carlsson]

I must admit the alligator is courtesy of an image I found online, resized in Photoshop and touched up by hand. I was also considering diving turtles, I need to consider room on the screen.

 

I realize that IntyBASIC has rather easy to use scroll functions, so I might consider making the tree taller than what fits on screen, and involve a bit of vertical scrolling up and down, at least on later levels with bigger trees.

 

By the way, the Commodore PET games library contains a number of unusual games that I can't recall ever seeing before, despite 30+ years of gaming experience. Not all of them are super fun to play, but many are interesting enough to be further developed if people are going for mild originality.

[+Rev]

Pretty cool.

[GroovyBee]

As for graphics, maybe see if you can get Groovy to let Nonner out of his cage to help.

Unfortunately nonner242 is pretty maxed out doing team stuff. I'm sure somebody from the scene could help out tho.

[carlsson]

I'm not requesting assistance, just that if someone thinks "cool idea, but the graphics look like something a 3 year old would draw", I would not object suggestions.

[+DZ-Jay]

It is a cool concept. I've never played the original in the Pet or C=64, so can't really understand the full extent of the game play. It does sound like a fun game, though.

 

 

I'm not a pixel artist, but I'd be willing to assist with the look of the game.

 

-dZ.

[GroovyBee]

carlsson, do you need any help creating animated gifs so you can tease us with game play?

[carlsson]

I haven't tried imvtogif yet, I'll let you know if I have any issues. As far as I managed last night, it is only a static screen.

 

To some part, it will resemble this, but with possible vertical scrolling:

 

[GroovyBee]

After watching the video it makes more sense now. It has a kind of "circus" feel except you control the player in the air.

[+DZ-Jay]

Oh! I see it now. The video helped.

 

I can see how the turtles would add some more challenge than landing on the disappearing water. The player must guide the monkey to land on top of a turtle or die. Cool.

 

The graphics and action can be a lot smoother in the Intellivision.

 

-dZ.

[+Tarzilla]

Oh! I see it now. The video helped.

 

I can see how the turtles would add some more challenge than landing on the disappearing water. The player must guide the monkey to land on top of a turtle or die. Cool.

 

The graphics and action can be a lot smoother in the Intellivision.

 

-dZ.

Plus, disappearing water? what is up with that? Ice that cracks, then breaks and disappears would make more sense...oh no, I've just designed a snow level... The coconuts can be change to Christmas tree lights or ornaments for the level also...

[GroovyBee]

Just thinking out loud but if you made the top of the water from blue solid blocks (and not a blue background) you could get the turtles to dive by setting their sprite priorities and moving them downwards.

[+Tarzilla]

I haven't tried imvtogif yet, I'll let you know if I have any issues. As far as I managed last night, it is only a static screen.

 

To some part, it will resemble this, but with possible vertical scrolling:

 

From the video it looks like the gator only comes out when you actually fall thru so that would be easier to do than having him wander around...but not as interesting...maybe he could be seen wandering around at the bottom, just his eyes.

[+Tarzilla]

This is a valid Inty background. The gator eyes at the bottom could be a single 8x8 sprite, doubled in size horizontally and vertically, kind of skulking back and forth.

The trees take up around 25 cards and should have enough variety to make different layouts and taller and shorter trees on different levels.

In this scenario you would have

1 sprite for monkey

1 for gator eyes

6 left over for turtles (6 blocky ones) or 3 bigger, maybe more detailed by using 2 side by side.

Rememember that a sprite can be 8x8 (costs 1 card) or 8x16 (costs two sequential cards)

 

The fruit would be single cards. You could do things like have different collectables on the same tree, maybe random letters can appear to spell EXTRA over the course of several levels. Or a bonus level every 5 where you have to special EXTRA in order.

 

There is sample code somewhere in the forum that shows how to figure out what is card under a sprite. It begins around here:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/232063-intybasic-compiler-v10-crunchy-tasty/page-7?do=findComment&comment=3162109

 

 

[Click to enlarge]

 

original

Turtleswamp.bmp

 

[carlsson]

Thanks, looking very nice!

[carlsson]

Ok, I haven't had time to incorporate any of your valuable input & graphics yet (but sure will do it later on), so here is a very crude demo version using the first set of graphics. No score display, no sound, no diving turtles, no scrolling. Collision detection might be possible to improve, but it is functional.

alligator.bin

[mthompson]

Cool so far! I know nothing about programming these things, but it strikes me that if the physics of the bouncing and falling could be more realistic, this would be a challenging and fun game. Clowns and Balloons that catsfolly put together comes to mind as an example. Hitting different parts of the turtle could affect the angle and height of the bounce. For example, land on the top of the turtle's shell and get a high, straight bounce. Land on his head or tail and you get a low, angled bounce. Add another type of bounce in-between and you're all set.

[GroovyBee]

Good start. I think the monkey needs to be a bit less transparent and the turtles a bit darker too. Perhaps go for a sunset type effect and then night time to add more to the game as well.

[pimpmaul69]

you can also make the turtles smaller if you want more of challenge.

 

Turtleswamp.bmp

 

Edited July 8, 2015 by pimpmaul69

[carlsson]

Crude demo version 2, using most of Tarzilla's graphics (I haven't implement the alligator eyes yet). The physics now are a tiny bit better, more gravity like. I ponder about the small bit of land beneath the palms, I'm thinking it can work like the water front in the original version, i.e. it is possible to bounce against it once, and it disappears (and in this demo version, never will refill until you restart the game). Eventually the turtles will dive and things too, so both difficulty and variation will increase. I will also try the variant to fit two palms.

 

alligator.bin

 

(I noticed from earlier threads that people prefer if each uploaded binary is given a version number, but as this is nowhere near finished yet, I'll leave it as an exercise who any collector of unfinished ROMs to number them)

[pimpmaul69]

Crude demo version 2, using most of Tarzilla's graphics (I haven't implement the alligator eyes yet). The physics now are a tiny bit better, more gravity like. I ponder about the small bit of land beneath the palms, I'm thinking it can work like the water front in the original version, i.e. it is possible to bounce against it once, and it disappears (and in this demo version, never will refill until you restart the game). Eventually the turtles will dive and things too, so both difficulty and variation will increase. I will also try the variant to fit two palms.

 

alligator.bin

 

(I noticed from earlier threads that people prefer if each uploaded binary is given a version number, but as this is nowhere near finished yet, I'll leave it as an exercise who any collector of unfinished ROMs to number them)

as long as they are in seperate posts and not rewriting over the same post i have no problems going through them and numbering them

[catsfolly]

Crude demo version 2, using most of Tarzilla's graphics (I haven't implement the alligator eyes yet). The physics now are a tiny bit better, more gravity like. I ponder about the small bit of land beneath the palms, I'm thinking it can work like the water front in the original version, i.e. it is possible to bounce against it once, and it disappears (and in this demo version, never will refill until you restart the game). Eventually the turtles will dive and things too, so both difficulty and variation will increase. I will also try the variant to fit two palms.

 

alligator.bin

 

(I noticed from earlier threads that people prefer if each uploaded binary is given a version number, but as this is nowhere near finished yet, I'll leave it as an exercise who any collector of unfinished ROMs to number them)

It's getting better. The game has a better feel to it now. The Alligator is very big and scary looking.

 

Here are a couple of suggestions. Remember, it's YOUR game, so feel free to ignore them all.

 

1. I get dizzy watching the monkey spin all the time. Maybe the monkey could NOT spin when jumping straight up and down, and then spin clockwise when going to the right, and counterclockwise when going to the left? If nothing else, it would provide more variety to the animation...

 

2. The turtles should definitely sink into the water a bit when the monkey bounces off them.

 

Something like this:

 

 

So far, so good...

 

Catsfolly