Slimer - WIP

[Preppie]

After a few false starts I'm finally working on a game to completion.

 

This is an early look, nothing is set in stone yet (especially those horrible monsters, they're getting changed)

 

 

[Justin Payne]

That looks awesome! I also love the game mechanic.

[+Adam+]

On 11/25/2019 at 10:54 PM, Preppie said:

This is an early look, nothing is set in stone yet (especially those horrible monsters, they're getting changed)

Any news about this project? :)

[Preppie]

Christmas came along and I put it on hold, not got back to it

 

I'm not convinced it works as an arcade style game, the movement slows down the action - I guess there's a reason jumping is the predominant style in platformers.

 

I like the main character though (I'm not good at graphics, so I'm not dropping the best thing I've drawn) so if this actual game doesn't get done I'm sure to use it in something else, maybe a slower more puzzle based game.

 

I guess that 'working on this game to completion' line can be thrown away lol

[Rybags]

Needs something...

 

I assume the bad guys will sap energy or kill you?

Powerups needed.  Like elevate yourself in the fashion of SMB / Gianna Sisters.

Maybe let him crush enemies by hitting them from above/below while stretching.

And have some sort of goal per level.  Like grab keys to open doors that are vertical and block access.

[Schlortt]

Wow!  I hadn't seen this.  I absolutely love the play mechanic and animation of the protagonist.

 

I think the simplest way to make it more arcade style is what Rybags suggested: Hitting an enemy vertically during your transition destroys them.  SMB's mechanic is actually quite simple: if you are falling and hit an enemy, they get crushed.  If you are moving up or not moving vertically, Mario takes a hit.

 

As far as "arcade style" goes, I think this works if we think about arcade games like Marble Madness.

 

Another arcade concept that you may consider is from Bubbles by Williams where you had to be bigger than the drain before the water came on to make it to the next level.  I wouldn't relish trying to pull that off technically, though.

 

I really like what you have so far...

[Preppie]

Thanks guys, I'm feeling like I need to go back to this   Just have to get this 10-liner comp out the way.

[Justin Payne]

Well, if there is any best time to write a new game, I think NOW it is. ?

Edited March 20, 2020 by Justin Payne

[ivop]

When the blob went down through a tiny pipe, it also made me think of Oil's Well. Perhaps different pipe layouts could incorporate that a little, like a combination of SMB warp pipes and Oil's Well to get somewhere else (luckily you don't have to return, like with OW ).

 

Props for the animation of the blob. It looks good!

 

But like you said, enemies might need some more work

[Justin Payne]

You know, if you need some alpha testers, just ask. Obviously let us know where you think the game has issue so that we don't rub it in but it's possible we might be able to contribute gameplay ideas to help get over any writers block.

 

[Preppie]

57 minutes ago, Justin Payne said:

You know, if you need some alpha testers, just ask. Obviously let us know where you think the game has issue so that we don't rub it in but it's possible we might be able to contribute gameplay ideas to help get over any writers block.

 

Thanks, a little further along the line this might be helpfull but atm there's not a lot to test

 

I've just written a spinning tower demo (like nebulus) and I'm thinking that might be a better way to move forward with this as it makes the gameplay a little slower which works better for the main character.

 

[Justin Payne]

Maybe when I said alpha I ment pre-alpha testing.
BTW: You said, "I'm not good at graphics, so I'm not dropping the best thing I've drawn" and I'm in love with your slime animation. Top notch. If it sucked I'd just give you a thumbs up and move on. I don't feel like the movement slows down the action because I think it's more of a puzzle/platformer game. I love the pipe idea and I think you should expand upon that fluidity idea. Maybe you can turn the blob into a solid or a gas. Use the solid form to break through barriers or destroy enemies. Gas could get you through perforated areas or slip past enemies. From gas, you could go to a plasma state. This might be the invisibility mode. 
As far as a story...

Just spitballing here but because you're slime, maybe your some lifeform that found it's way onto a spaceship and you need to find your way to communicate with the humans. Every so often you could reach a point where you've send a portion of a message to the human but they can't quite figure out where it's coming from. By then end of the game you've given them enough info for them to greet you with open arms.

Feel free to hit me up for further level ideas.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Justin Payne

[_The Doctor__]

How's slimey doing?

[Preppie]

Work has prevented me from doing much coding recently

 

I have another smaller project that I want to do, just to prove to myself that I can get a game to completion   Then I'll start working on this again, I'm thinking I'll use it as an entry to ABBUC, so that's the timeframe I'm looking at.

 

[ac.tomo]

Yes, that's awesome, nice mechanics, perhaps have tubes/shafts taking you to different areas, perhaps see it as a birds-eye-view style., or is that intended (lol).

Edited April 29, 2020 by ac.tomo

[+RSA]

Love the slimey character.

 

The video made me think of Frogger. Maybe that could give some ideas on game goals, such as avoiding monsters just fill up a slime well.

[Preppie]

7 hours ago, Raul said:

Love the slimey character.

 

The video made me think of Frogger. Maybe that could give some ideas on game goals, such as avoiding monsters just fill up a slime well.

You've got a keen eye   The enemies are not sprites but are on a scrolling background (like frogger), and the speed of the scroll is adjusted depending upon the player movement - animation of enemies is done by cycling through character sets.

 

Although the dli/vbi are in assembler the bulk of the code is in FastBasic.

[Preppie]

Ok, that other small project turned out to be bigger than expected.  Instead of doing a quick FastBasic version of space invaders I ended up learning assembler properly and doing a decent conversion.  There's still some work to do on invaders but once finished I'm going to get back to this.

 

Given that I now have a good grasp of assembler I'm going to turn this into a major platformer project in assember instead of quicker arcade style game in FastBasic.  This means it's going to take some time, if it's done for next years ABBUC i'll be surprised.

 

I've had to adjust the graphics of the main character a bit to facilitate verticle movement, here's a little gif I worked on this morning.

 

 

[jefffulton]

On 11/25/2019 at 1:54 PM, Preppie said:

After a few false starts I'm finally working on a game to completion.

 

This is an early look, nothing is set in stone yet (especially those horrible monsters, they're getting changed)

 

 

really cool! 

[_The Doctor__]

Buuuump!

We need our Blob, Glob games!

Edited September 13, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[+x=usr(1536)]

Hmm, missed the news of this when it first cropped up.  Pity, because it looks really fun.

 

This reminds me a bit of one of my favourite arcade games: The Glob.

 

 

Shame there was never a home port, because it gets really fun (read: hard) after the first couple of levels.  Slimer looks like it could fill the blob-defies-gravity gaming niche on the A8 quite nicely

[Justin Payne]

44 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Hmm, missed the news of this when it first cropped up.  Pity, because it looks really fun.

 

This reminds me a bit of one of my favourite arcade games: The Glob.

 

 

Shame there was never a home port, because it gets really fun (read: hard) after the first couple of levels.  Slimer looks like it could fill the blob-defies-gravity gaming niche on the A8 quite nicely

I've never seen this arcade game before. There is also a Super Glob.

[+x=usr(1536)]

20 minutes ago, Justin Payne said:

I've never seen this arcade game before. There is also a Super Glob.

The two games are basically the same.  Super Glob is essentially The Glob but with some graphics and gameplay tweaks.  Frankly, I think it plays better than the original, and is the one that I actually used to play - well, the version that ran on Pac-Man hardware, anyway.  The video above was just me being lazy with the search results and posting the first one that fit

 

There's another variant called 'Beastie Feastie'.  Only ever played it in MAME, however.

 

[Preppie]

I've never seen The Glob, looks interesting I'll have to see if it's on MAME.

 

Slimer has pretty much bitten the dust (as with most the things I start) but the character is one of the few nice gfx I've ever managed to draw, so I'm sure I'll use it somewhere.

[+x=usr(1536)]

13 minutes ago, Preppie said:

I've never seen The Glob, looks interesting I'll have to see if it's on MAME.

It definitely is

13 minutes ago, Preppie said:

Slimer has pretty much bitten the dust (as with most the things I start) but the character is one of the few nice gfx I've ever managed to draw, so I'm sure I'll use it somewhere.

Sorry it's a goner, but good to hear that it'll see life again.  It really did look very nice, so glad it won't be going to waste.