Ynxa - a new platformer for the Lynx

[Fadest]

It's time to create this topic for Ynxa, my new game for the Atari Lynx.

It is by far the biggest game I have released on Lynx at this time.

It was made during the past 3 months, for the 30th birthday Programming Competition hosted by Atari Gamer.

 

You start as a powerless leaf, who can just move left and right, but you will soon gain new abilities and power : jump / double jump, ability to transform into fire and shoot ennemies or explode, into water and go in tunnels or flood to escape from pits.

At the end of the prologue, when you get all the power, you will have access to the main game, and more than 20 tricky levels, where you will have to use all the powers you got during the prologue.

 

This a game with exploration, puzzle, traps (die & retry style).

 

To give you an idea, here is the hub for the prologue, with 9 doors :

 

A level is in fact a grid of 3x3 lynx screens you have to explore.

And here is what you get on lynx screen :

 

Just to show you what to expect in higher levels, here is the map of the level 20, the first of of the Path of Discovery :

Tip : you need to destroy the 2 wood boxes in order to access the exit door. To do so, you have to explore the level in order to approach the box with your fire avatar (the only one who can explode box).

 

I included in this post the latest version of the manual, you will find more information in it.

 

The game is best played on a device with save feature (Bernd's Flashcard, PCD with 128b eeprom or emulator with save feature) because you will probably not manage to end the game in a single session. And without save feature, you will have to restart from the beginning.

 

I really enjoyed every moment of coding and nearly every moment of level designing (well, in fact mostly every moment, or probably some of the moments ). I hope you will also enjoy playing it.

This is also because the gaphics are really nice, I used freware Inca game assets from Kronbits and some free characters from Elthen collection (go check his works, there are many many more...).

Music is a placeholder given to me by Romu some month ago, so I hope final game will have a dedicated music, and sound effects.

 

 

Don't forget to also check the 10 (yes TEN) other games games sumitted for the contest, they are also great.

 

Albert and Atari Gamer have open a club on Atari Age to discuss about the game of the competition :

https://atariage.com/forums/forum/249-30th-birthday-programming-competition-games/

Ynxa manual.pdf

Edited September 2, 2019 by Fadest

[KevinMos3]

I spent quite a while on this the night it was released on the competition site.  I was very impressed with it's complexity, level design, and size.  It was WAY more than I was expecting with a name like YNXA.  I thought it would be another puzzle game, but was very pleasantly surprised and blown away.  I eventually had to quit playing and since I was using the Saint SD cart, I wasn't able to save, but I look forward to tackling this game later.  So well done.

[Igor]

I was playing this while on holiday, at least the early version, was quite impressed then. It's nice to see a game like this on the Lynx.

[+karri]

I love the leaf character and the spirit of the game. It is kind of cute.

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

Really looking forward to try this game properly, it seems to be the kind of game that I'd enjoy. It also looks very nice and cute! So many games to play now, yay!

[4ever2600]

This provides a good little challenge!  I like how the levels were created!  Thank you for creating a great game for the LYNXS BDAY!

[agradeneu]

Did not expect such a fleshed out puzzle platfomer, very nice game! Deserves a physical release, well done. ?

[Fadest]

Thanks.

For people who managed to go to the end. How long do you think you spent on the game ?

 

And whant do you think of some levels, like Path of Wisdom or Nihilism (did you succed them by luck or did you find the tricks ?) or Path of Reason and its somewhat different geometry ? Do they fit well in the game or do you think it's too much or not the spirit of the game ?

[Fadest]

Just to let you know that Ynxa (*) is not dead.

I just started working on new version, and this will include new levels.

 

Here is preliminary footage of the new prologue (music just as a placeholder, graphics from contest release, there may be changes on this) :

Atari Lynx - Leaf final adventures (Ynxa) - YouTube

 

As you can see, there will be also horizontal and vertical levels (there were only 1 of 2 of this kind in original game), and it takes a bit less than 3 minutes to get jump and double jump, with some puzzles, compared to the 30 seconds in contest release. 

 

(*) I know, this seems to be unpronounceable in english, so there will be a new name also, probably something like Aychannak (spirit in ancient maya or inca language :D)

 

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by Fadest

[SlidellMan]

I have to say that your game has nice pixel work.

[Igor]

That's great @Fadest! Will you be adding walking animations too?

[Fadest]

Yes probably. I made some changes in order to gain some RAM.

Did you notice that there are new animations for jumping & falling ?

[Igor]

Ahhh I noticed the animations for the falling but it didn't quite register in my mind that it was new! That's great, I quite enjoyed this game so I'm glad you're working on it again ?

[+jgkspsx]

This is one of my favorite homebrew games and I am really excited about the expansion!

[Fadest]

In the new version, the game will start outside, so the game needs some new decors

 

In fact, even inside the pyramid, there will be new (optional) backgrounds.

Right now, I have 6 of them. What do you think  ?

Please be honest, I quite like most of them, but I'm a bit double-biased as I am not a graphist and I made them myself

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Fadest

[LX.NET]

Wonderful graphics and nice backgrounds. I would reconsider the third from the top. It seems to be noise and more difficult to distinguish real tiles from background. Second one seems out of place in terms of color. 

Keep up the good work. Greatню to see the progress. 

[+sramirez2008]

Wow. This looks great! Love the tile work and the leaf's animation. Will the cart contain a save feature? Looking forward to this being sold on cart.?

[Fadest]

I was thing of using the 2nd (mostly blue) one for The path of Humility/Humidity, where you have to use a lot power of Water. I wanted a kind of blue background, but yes, it a is bit different from others.

And yes, I may change colors from the colorful camaieu, but I wanted to make something that looks a bit like sud-americans poncho/carpet (I mean, seen by a french guy).

 

10 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

Wow. This looks great! Love the tile work and the leaf's animation. Will the cart contain a save feature? Looking forward to this being sold on cart.?

The contest ROM already has a save feature (it saves automatically each time you use a door) if you flash a cart, or if you use it with LynxGD/ElCheapo I guess, as they emulate EEProm.

 

Just to be clear, I intend to keep maybe 2/3 of existing levels (mainly the second part of the game, with the "Path of..."), and add as many as I can (new prologue, add some intermediaite levels to the "Path of..." and other levels for the gem collection. So if you already played and completed the contest ROM, there will be new levels and familiar ones.

[KevinMos3]

I really like all your backgrounds. Nice addition.  :-)

[+jgkspsx]

I like all of those backgrounds a lot. My only suggestion would be to rebalance the color temperature of the mostly brown backgrounds (the poncho and the boulders) a little to make it easier to distinguish on an original screen between the walls and the background.

[LynxHandyCaster]

On 2/4/2021 at 1:41 PM, Fadest said:

Just to let you know that Ynxa (*) is not dead.

I just started working on new version, and this will include new levels.

 

Here is preliminary footage of the new prologue (music just as a placeholder, graphics from contest release, there may be changes on this) :

Atari Lynx - Leaf final adventures (Ynxa) - YouTube

 

As you can see, there will be also horizontal and vertical levels (there were only 1 of 2 of this kind in original game), and it takes a bit less than 3 minutes to get jump and double jump, with some puzzles, compared to the 30 seconds in contest release. 

 

(*) I know, this seems to be unpronounceable in english, so there will be a new name also, probably something like Aychannak (spirit in ancient maya or inca language :D)

 

 

I would say that Ynxa is no more difficult to pronounce in English than QiX...or Aychannak, for that matter. I vote to keep it the same. I assume it's pronounced INK-sah?

[+jgkspsx]

I've been pronouncing it the same way. I like Aychannak too, but Ynxa just seems like a good title.

[TrekMD]

That looks awesome!  Yink-SAH!

[PFG 9000]

All of those backgrounds look great!  I actually like the third one the best, but I do see the point about colors not standing out.  Maybe use it in a place where your foreground is a different shade, or as a background on a text screen, or something?  It's too pretty to ditch altogether.

[Igor]

I agree with Alex, the 3rd background looks more like noise so I'd can that one. Also about the name, keep YNXA, it's nice and short and stands out! Not a fan of the new proposed name.

Great to see the game being expanded so much!