Go Nuts contest entry: Tommy Gunn

Started by Xerra, September 02, 2020, 00:12:10

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Xerra

Looks at date.
Blinks rapidly.
Looks at watch.
Tap, tap, tap ....
Game complete sequence finally finished. Hopefully now worth finishing the game so the comic page ending screens can be seen as well as the other bits. Qube is going to live to fight another day. Sneak preview below.

Also finished up gamepad controls as I wasn't allowing the use of the stick controls as I didn't think people would want to play it that way. Turns out I'm wrong so I set it up to use both of them as well.
Now the player can use "WASD", Cursor keys or game pad to play the game. Should cover all scenarios short of putting in redefine keys option.

Started working on stuff this morning and now my list has actually got bigger. Hoping to get done by this evening but not hugely optimistic at the moment so likely I'll be posting it online tomorrow at some point.



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iWasAdam

Well nice. I got the naughty Qube :)

Took me a while to work out what the fire key was I had to wait for the info to cycle round.

Along with the other suggestions how about some form of electricity - that would fit the new icon and also the tube level.

If I was going to step back look at it and make a suggestion it would be this:
The tube level really reminds me of an endless runner "Jetpack Joyride" which is a good thing :) ...


Xerra

Quote from: iWasAdam on October 19, 2020, 07:52:32
Well nice. I got the naughty Qube :)

Took me a while to work out what the fire key was I had to wait for the info to cycle round.

Along with the other suggestions how about some form of electricity - that would fit the new icon and also the tube level.

If I was going to step back look at it and make a suggestion it would be this:
The tube level really reminds me of an endless runner "Jetpack Joyride" which is a good thing :) ...

Did you fall through the platform and hit the rail in the tube level? There's your electricity right there :-)

Not the worst death in the game, however. Get a spike pop up under you and poor old Tommy is going to be cradling the Crown Jewels for a while after that.
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iWasAdam

Aha. I was that good I didn't fall into any pits.  8)

Xerra

Quote from: iWasAdam on October 20, 2020, 04:48:06
Aha. I was that good I didn't fall into any pits.  8)

Heroic. What's your opinion? Too easy? Playing through myself last night to see if I can pick up on anything that does need fixing in bug fix week and I think I've broken the difficulty scaling up after you complete the game and are sent back to level 1 again. Not sure if that counts as a bug and allowed to fix or not.
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iWasAdam

Hmmm. difficulty - that's a very personal thing.

Here's how I approached it in Axonite:
Everything was run and tested on brutal mode (difficulty 3) there is a further difficulty after that.

Going down in difficulty I started to lessen the aliens in an attack wave
Also a level is broken into sections and each section into 4
Each difficulty adds aliens from that section

so easy (1) only has aliens in section 1
(2) has aliens from 2&4
(3) brutal has all aliens

I Also have more bonus stuff on lower settings plus aliens will drop more on lower settings.

Plus bosses and other things that fire will do so more in higher settings

OK.
If I was going to suggest a way to add difficulties I would possibly go about it this way:
1. Enemies fire less on lower settings - I use a frame counter and a mod to track when to fire
2. The tank thing that doesn't fire - make it fire on higher settings
3. the higher the settings the more brutal you can be
4. a thought would be to have Qube as a character. You cant catch him, but he is always ahead of you dropping bombs or other such nasties - fires a rocket or removes a ledge if you don't get there in time. this would be harder to do as you would need some form of map tracking
5. Think about 'BASTARD' moments where you can see something and just about to do something and an enemy blocks you - kills you - nicks the power-up, etc.
6. similar to above have a timer, or let Qube activate an atomic bomb - that way you now have a timer counting down and a finite amount of time before before the screen explode or death rains from above or qube turns into a giant mutant qube, etc


Xerra

Quote from: iWasAdam on October 20, 2020, 14:47:43
Hmmm. difficulty - that's a very personal thing.

Here's how I approached it in Axonite:
Everything was run and tested on brutal mode (difficulty 3) there is a further difficulty after that.

Going down in difficulty I started to lessen the aliens in an attack wave
Also a level is broken into sections and each section into 4
Each difficulty adds aliens from that section

so easy (1) only has aliens in section 1
(2) has aliens from 2&4
(3) brutal has all aliens

I Also have more bonus stuff on lower settings plus aliens will drop more on lower settings.

Plus bosses and other things that fire will do so more in higher settings

OK.
If I was going to suggest a way to add difficulties I would possibly go about it this way:
1. Enemies fire less on lower settings - I use a frame counter and a mod to track when to fire
2. The tank thing that doesn't fire - make it fire on higher settings
3. the higher the settings the more brutal you can be
4. a thought would be to have Qube as a character. You cant catch him, but he is always ahead of you dropping bombs or other such nasties - fires a rocket or removes a ledge if you don't get there in time. this would be harder to do as you would need some form of map tracking
5. Think about 'BASTARD' moments where you can see something and just about to do something and an enemy blocks you - kills you - nicks the power-up, etc.
6. similar to above have a timer, or let Qube activate an atomic bomb - that way you now have a timer counting down and a finite amount of time before before the screen explode or death rains from above or qube turns into a giant mutant qube, etc

I have some simple changes to the chances of firing and enemies spawning in already which should be going down a bit once you go back to level one but it doesn't seem to be working right. I'm probably ok with changing that during this week but adding anything like your other suggestions would have to be outside the competition. I originally planned for Qube to be an end-game battle but ran out of time, hence just having him arrested. I do like the idea of him destroying his own base on a timer if you don't get to him quick enough. Something else to add in a revised version after the competition possibly.

Thanks for your input - much appreciated and useful.
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iWasAdam

#67
ignoring the competition and looking forward you could take this sort of direction:


What I have done is take the characters and doubled their size. then took the heads and made them bigger again - so sort of cute chibbi style

left top is you right top is qube

ok. the bottom looks a bit messy but bear with me.
Let's assume that the level are horizontal with not up/down movement of the screen - just one long level. You could also do some form of parallax background here too. each level is different but takes you on a trip - start in the open, maybe then water back to land in a factory, then tube and finally the bunker. each with qube in some kind of machine boss. with the final being a big tank thing...

You have layers/platforms so your charcater can go up down - Think Ghosts and Goblins:


You could use the bottom of the screen as a location or weapon choice. or as some form of mini map like in defender.

But the g&g basic gameplay would work well. and with the big head it's got cute written all over it :)

blinkok

#68
[youtube width=1024 height=768]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwXZ-TgBy7o[/youtube]

iWasAdam


Xerra

I finally bought some decent video recording software so did a complete play-through of Tommy Gunn on my You Tube page.

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GaborD

Looks great! The art style is nicely clean and has charm.
Very strong contender.

chalky

Video is great - I'm curious as to what video recording software you bought/used?

The game is also great - very well put together. Looking forward to the enhanced post-competition version you've promised us...  :D

Xerra

Quote from: chalky on October 23, 2020, 20:15:00
The game is also great - very well put together. Looking forward to the enhanced post-competition version you've promised us...  :D

Haha, no pressure then :-)

Video software I bought was Screenium 3. I've got a couple of other great apps from the developers of it and they sent me a 50% offer just at the time I was thinking about going to look for something. It's Mac only, to my knowledge, though.
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Qube

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Until the next time.