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[JulianImp]

See, I kinda like that contrast, with a normal looking dude gradually becoming more ridiculous as the game goes on.

*Whips out candy cane rocket launcher
"It's business time motherfuckers!"

Here are a few more variations. #3 is one I had made already, I was thinking of making him an unlockable character called Bram (Brother fRom Another Mother)

I like 8 the most, but still think you should add more contrast to the nose and remove the dithering because, if the screenshots you showed a page back are full resolution, the sprite is so small on-screen that it's hard to distinguish the nose and notice the 1-pixel dithering you used for the clothes.

The visible eyes and exposed hair could lead to richer animations, and I think giving him no mouth is okay, since you have so little space left for it that it'd probably make the sprite harder to read. Still, you could try that out as well.

@Ashodin: I think that wouldn't work, since the sprite has 4x4 glasses (with the inner glass being 2x2). That's too small of a space to fit cracks in and make them easily recognizable.

 

[Tashi]

Just started messing around with the free edition of Graphics Gale. What a cool program.

Is there like an auto sprite sheet builder with that program? That would be amazing. I'll probably buy the full version soon.

edit: Found this little guide. Haven't tried it yet. Will report back when I do.

http://dman2d.blogspot.com/p/graphicsgale-making-sprite-sheet.html

 

[razu]

I have ordered an OUYA devkit. Chopper Mike on the TV, using a controller.. Cool.

Should be fun!

 

[Ashodin]

I have ordered an OUYA devkit. Chopper Mike on the TV, using a controller.. Cool.

Should be fun!

How much?

 

[KNT-Zero]

I have ordered an OUYA devkit. Chopper Mike on the TV, using a controller.. Cool.

Should be fun!

Wow, you spent those $800?
More than fun, you should have the time of your life

 

[Ashodin]

MR. WAVE ALPHA 0.9.4 RELEASE

http://db.tt/Bt3yAnBe - Click here to play!

• Can move around and fall in pits, Mr. Wave has infinite lives currently
• Can eat enemies and spit them back out
• Enemy on the left respawns when you are on the right of the current layout
• Clouds move, trees move when you move
• Applejumpers changed from red to green to fit future power colors

Controls are on the page, but if you can't see them:

A = Left
D = Right
Shift = Suck in enemies / shoot cooked shot
Space = Jump

Enjoy! Leave feedback and let me know how I'm doing! Touch controls currently don't work as well as keyboard controls, but that is to be expected. I wanted to get this into your guys' hands as quick as possible!

 

[PhiLonius]

Anyone here ever use Construct 2 for Android development?

 

[Ashodin]

Anyone here ever use Construct 2 for Android development?

I'm doing it right now, actually. What's the question?

 

[PhiLonius]

I'm doing it right now, actually. What's the question?

I was thinking about downloading the free version and try a quick prototype of an idea I've had. I was wondering how easy it is to quickly test something out on a device when you don't have a license?

 

[Ashodin]

I was thinking about downloading the free version and try a quick prototype of an idea I've had. I was wondering how easy it is to quickly test something out on a device when you don't have a license?

You have a 100 event limit, but if you want to prototype ideas, go for it man. It's very easy and you can test over wifi on say a phone or a tablet.

 

[PhiLonius]

You have a 100 event limit, but if you want to prototype ideas, go for it man. It's very easy and you can test over wifi on say a phone or a tablet.

Thanks. Downloading and installing now.

 

[Ashodin]

Thanks. Downloading and installing now.

NP! Keep your progress here, I'm curious what you'd be working on

 

[missile]

See, I kinda like that contrast, with a normal looking dude gradually becoming more ridiculous as the game goes on. ...

Sounds good.

 

[missile]

I have ordered an OUYA devkit. Chopper Mike on the TV, using a controller.. Cool.

Am considering. Currently, it's not clear to me if one can access the hardware
on the rooted version of the console.

 

[razu]

How much?

Just under £500. But I bought it through my business, which got paid nearly £800 more than I was expecting this month.. The wonder of money!

I have hooked Chopper Mike up to a 360 pad on the PC version before, and it was cool. Combined with running on a massive TV with sound through the stereo.. Way excited..!!

Hopefully get it out for launch!

 

[Tash]

We ordered a OUYA devkit too. Really curious as to how strong it is and what it can run.

 

[Tash]

I like 8 the most, but still think you should add more contrast to the nose and remove the dithering because, if the screenshots you showed a page back are full resolution, the sprite is so small on-screen that it's hard to distinguish the nose and notice the 1-pixel dithering you used for the clothes.

The visible eyes and exposed hair could lead to richer animations, and I think giving him no mouth is okay, since you have so little space left for it that it'd probably make the sprite harder to read. Still, you could try that out as well.

@Ashodin: I think that wouldn't work, since the sprite has 4x4 glasses (with the inner glass being 2x2). That's too small of a space to fit cracks in and make them easily recognizable.

I very much agree with that and was going to mention the same things.
Like the last one the best, increase saturation for the nose and the glasses will be too small to use for animations (unless he is going to lose them or they get knocked off half ways).

 

[razu]

We ordered a OUYA devkit too. Really curious as to how strong it is and what it can run.

Well I have a TF300 which supposedly has a 1.2GHz Tegra 3, and the OUYA is rumoured to have a 1.6GHz...? 60 frames a second helicopter games for every living room..!!

 

[Ihateyouchris]

I very much agree with that and was going to mention the same things.
Like the last one the best, increase saturation for the nose and the glasses will be too small to use for animations (unless he is going to lose them or they get knocked off half ways).

I think my current stun frame does good job even without showing the eyes, by putting the glasses on a diagonal and having the whole body react:

Regarding animations, I have to be very careful because it can get exponentially out of control. I currently have an idle, walk, jump, fall, climb, stun and death animation, and these have to be mixed with melee, gun, and yoyo actions, which creates a surprisingly large number of frames to make. On top of that, I have to make animations for all of the clothing and weapons to exactly line up with the character. And I want to have a lot of weapon and clothing items.

I personally don't really like the one with eyes, and I like the bouncy glasses in the animations, so I think I'm going to keep the glasses. I'm leaning towards #4 right now, might try some color variations and without the beard.

 

[Monroeski]

See, I kinda like that contrast, with a normal looking dude gradually becoming more ridiculous as the game goes on.

*Whips out candy cane rocket launcher
"It's business time motherfuckers!"

Here are a few more variations. #3 is one I had made already, I was thinking of making him an unlockable character called Bram (Brother fRom Another Mother)

As long as you're throwing in at least one "no glasses" option I'd like to see 2 and 4 without glasses.

 

[Ranger X]

See, I kinda like that contrast, with a normal looking dude gradually becoming more ridiculous as the game goes on.

*Whips out candy cane rocket launcher
"It's business time motherfuckers!"

Here are a few more variations. #3 is one I had made already, I was thinking of making him an unlockable character called Bram (Brother fRom Another Mother)

I prefer 6 and 8.
6 because it's like the original one but with better glasses. I like how colorful is the character and its generic in a good way. It does fit the colorfulness of the game and that's more important than what people can say about your hero itself imo.
8 is another good one, generic in a good way, fits the game.


As for the other characters, will there be any friendly NPCs in your game? It could be nice to see them. I would like to have a talk with 5 "the vacation dude". 7 "the slow guy". 2 "The Corporate President" would be a nice boss. Throwing money at you as a weapon. lol

 

[JulianImp]

A new game build is out (alpha v5.1)! This time, I've exported everything but the web player executable from Unity 4, so it should run a bit better than before due to the engine's improved GUI rendering code.

There's a minor change in level 1-2, and a more catchy hint text to explain the brake command, but other than that I've mostly fixed menus to make them easier to understand and made all the spheres use the new shader, which is a lot cheaper to render than the old one.

Since I'm releasing the standalone builds, I'd appreciate it if anyone who has played the game could give me his or her device's specs, so I can build a list of compatible systems and settle on the game's minimum requirements. The simple graphics should run on just about anything, but who knows...

If you spot any bugs, framerate drops or laggy input recognition, please let me know so I can fix them on later releases.

Without further ado, here're the new releases:

Web version

PC (32 bits)
PC (64 bits)

Mac OSX (32 bits)

Linux (32 bits)
Linux (64 bits)

Android (OpenGL 1)
Android (OpenGL 2)

By the way, I think you'll need to enable "Unknown Sources" to install the Android version on your smartphones and tablets.

 

[qwerty2k]

Anyone recommend any good resources for a 'programmer' to learn how to do some required art (2d stuff) either in illustrator or pixel art i wouldn't mind learning either, just finding it difficult to know how to start (also how to animate would be good)

 

[Dali]

MR. WAVE ALPHA 0.9.4 RELEASE

http://db.tt/Bt3yAnBe - Click here to play!

• Can move around and fall in pits, Mr. Wave has infinite lives currently
• Can eat enemies and spit them back out
• Enemy on the left respawns when you are on the right of the current layout
• Clouds move, trees move when you move
• Applejumpers changed from red to green to fit future power colors

Controls are on the page, but if you can't see them:

A = Left
D = Right
Shift = Suck in enemies / shoot cooked shot
Space = Jump

Enjoy! Leave feedback and let me know how I'm doing! Touch controls currently don't work as well as keyboard controls, but that is to be expected. I wanted to get this into your guys' hands as quick as possible!

I just disappeared and the game kept running. Jumped over the pit and it just happened. Still heard jump sfx and whatever.

Nice alpha though. Keep up the good work. Congrats.

 

[Ashodin]

I just disappeared and the game kept running. Jumped over the pit and it just happened. Still heard jump sfx and whatever.

Nice alpha though. Keep up the good work. Congrats.

Can you give me deeper feedback? Can you recreate the bug? What buttons were you pressing? And thanks! Power will be available very soon. You will be able to press down and eat the enemies.

 

[razu]

A new game build is out (alpha v5.1)! This time, I've exported everything but the web player executable from Unity 4, so it should run a bit better than before due to the engine's improved GUI rendering code.

There's a minor change in level 1-2, and a more catchy hint text to explain the brake command, but other than that I've mostly fixed menus to make them easier to understand and made all the spheres use the new shader, which is a lot cheaper to render than the old one.

Since I'm releasing the standalone builds, I'd appreciate it if anyone who has played the game could give me his or her device's specs, so I can build a list of compatible systems and settle on the game's minimum requirements. The simple graphics should run on just about anything, but who knows...

If you spot any bugs, framerate drops or laggy input recognition, please let me know so I can fix them on later releases.

Without further ado, here're the new releases:

Web version

PC (32 bits)
PC (64 bits)

Mac OSX (32 bits)

Linux (32 bits)
Linux (64 bits)

Android (OpenGL 1)
Android (OpenGL 2)

By the way, I think you'll need to enable "Unknown Sources" to install the Android version on your smartphones and tablets.

Cool man. Works well on the mac track pad - I played the web build.

Main menu was cool too! Nice work!

 

[JulianImp]

Cool man. Works well on the mac track pad - I played the web build.

Main menu was cool too! Nice work!

Grat, thanks for the data!

I only recently realized I didn't upload the latest fix to my web, but it's ready now. It's just a revision of the alpha version 5.0 with a few small tweaks, so playing it or v5.0 doesn't make that much of a difference.

I've also contacted RockPaperShotgun just in case they're interested in the game, since I guess I lose nothing by trying to reach them. Here's to hoping they get to take a peek at the game, even if they can't (or won't) feature it or get back to me.

Oh, and there's an extra tip for those playing the Android version: Remember you have to touch the screen with two fingers at once to brake since, strangely, that's what Unity recognizes as a right mouse button click. It also maps the Escape key to the back command, so you can use that to navigate menus as well.

EDIT: By the way, is there a Chopper Mike demo for Android? I remember playing the browser version but am not sure if you ever released an APK file.

 

[razu]

Grat, thanks for the data!

I only recently realized I didn't upload the latest fix to my web, but it's ready now. It's just a revision of the alpha version 5.0 with a few small tweaks, so playing it or v5.0 doesn't make that much of a difference.

I've also contacted RockPaperShotgun just in case they're interested in the game, since I guess I lose nothing by trying to reach them. Here's to hoping they get to take a peek at the game, even if they can't (or won't) feature it or get back to me.

Oh, and there's an extra tip for those playing the Android version: Remember you have to touch the screen with two fingers at once to brake since, strangely, that's what Unity recognizes as a right mouse button click. It also maps the Escape key to the back command, so you can use that to navigate menus as well.

EDIT: By the way, is there a Chopper Mike demo for Android? I remember playing the browser version but am not sure if you ever released an APK file.

Not distributing an Android demo at the moment. Getting feedback from iOS builds..

Test Flight seems to be gearing up to support android by the looks of it... so I'll be using that in future!

 

[Roquentin]

Sometimes I regret going with my own engine, especially now that I got a job and it's hard to find time and energy for my game project.

Either way, I finally implemented that text rendering I was asking about. I don't have anything fancy to show off, so this will have to do

With text rendering and input system out of the way I can start working on some GUI stuff.

 

[Ashodin]

Awesome job man!

 

[Dali]

Can you give me deeper feedback? Can you recreate the bug? What buttons were you pressing? And thanks! Power will be available very soon. You will be able to press down and eat the enemies.

Don't really remember what I was doing exactly. I went to the end of the level then went back to the beginning. Noticed the clouds moving in the background the second time around. I jumped over the pit while I was looking at the clouds. When my eyes went back to the where the character sprite should have been it wasn't there. I messed around for a moment thinking I was just invisible, but when an enemy walked where I thought I was nothing happened and when I tried to fall in the pit to restart nothing happened. So the character was either not where he was supposed to be or in a state other than playable but jut invisible.

 

[Ashodin]

Don't really remember what I was doing exactly. I went to the end of the level then went back to the beginning. Noticed the clouds moving in the background the second time around. I jumped over the pit while I was looking at the clouds. When my eyes went back to the where the character sprite should have been it wasn't there. I messed around for a moment thinking I was just invisible, but when an enemy walked where I thought I was nothing happened and when I tried to fall in the pit to restart nothing happened. So the character was either not where he was supposed to be or in a state other than playable but jut invisible.

Hmm.... sounds incredibly random. The sprite for the character disappeared when he should be always drawn over the movement square (which is what you were using to walk around). I'll take a look to see if I can add something that makes sure to redraw the sprite even if that happens.

 

[Blizzard]

Sometimes I regret going with my own engine, especially now that I got a job and it's hard to find time and energy for my game project.

Either way, I finally implemented that text rendering I was asking about. I don't have anything fancy to show off, so this will have to do

With text rendering and input system out of the way I can start working on some GUI stuff.

What system did you use to render the font? And what font did you use? Did you have to find a public-domain font site or did your system let you use a standard always-available Windows font?

 

[Platy]

Anyone have any experience with http://flashpunk.net/ ?

 

[Ashodin]

Anyone have any experience with http://flashpunk.net/ ?

Looks pretty standard. Couldn't tell you how to work it though.

 

[Blizzard]

Sometimes I regret going with my own engine, especially now that I got a job and it's hard to find time and energy for my game project.

Either way, I finally implemented that text rendering I was asking about. I don't have anything fancy to show off, so this will have to do

With text rendering and input system out of the way I can start working on some GUI stuff.

Darnit, after experimenting (I still haven't figured out what font you're using since most 32-point fonts seem slightly larger than your image) I discovered an annoying problem...I had set my engine up to require a font texture atlas to be a single image, which went over my texture limit of 1024x1024 if I got over 28 points or so. I had to increase it back to 2048x2048, which is hopefully reasonable for low-end machines. I can't do a 64-point font since that would require a 4096x4096 texture though (and though my graphics card can probably support that, I don't know how generally supported that is, or how often I would need 64-point font rendering).

Also, my rendering doesn't have exactly the same smooth anti-aliased edges yours does, so I'd love to learn from the details you did if you have time.

*edit* After a bit of studying stuff I probably didn't want to revisit, it seems like I am calculating huuuuge max glyph bounding boxes. I need to find out a new way to calculate them since the FreeType bounding box calculation I am doing is not working for me. Does anyone know the maximum glyph bounding box pixel dimensions for (for example) the Windows arial.ttf font at 100 points? I'm using 96x96 dpi.

 

[Roquentin]

What system did you use to render the font? And what font did you use? Did you have to find a public-domain font site or did your system let you use a standard always-available Windows font?

BMFont to generate the texture (with Font Smoothing and Super Sampling set to 4, 32px height), DX9 Sprite to render. The font is standard Windows Arial.

Darnit, after experimenting (I still haven't figured out what font you're using since most 32-point fonts seem slightly larger than your image)

32pt font != 32px font, the generated font has line height of 32px.

 

[Tash]

I think my current stun frame does good job even without showing the eyes, by putting the glasses on a diagonal and having the whole body react:

Regarding animations, I have to be very careful because it can get exponentially out of control. I currently have an idle, walk, jump, fall, climb, stun and death animation, and these have to be mixed with melee, gun, and yoyo actions, which creates a surprisingly large number of frames to make. On top of that, I have to make animations for all of the clothing and weapons to exactly line up with the character. And I want to have a lot of weapon and clothing items.

I personally don't really like the one with eyes, and I like the bouncy glasses in the animations, so I think I'm going to keep the glasses. I'm leaning towards #4 right now, might try some color variations and without the beard.

Ah yeah, good point. That certainly works
The fun thing with #4 is it reminds me of Phil Fish who I met in Malmö earlier this year. That's not a bad thing btw, just mentioning it Even though, he doesn't have a beard and I am not sure why it does..

 

[chubigans]

Wrapped up my first iOS game and released it. Man, I LOVE the iPad platform. I really hope the game does well for the simple fact that I just wanna make iPad games forever.

Here it is- https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cook-serve-delicious!/id582153229?mt=8

 

[Blizzard]

BMFont to generate the texture (with Font Smoothing and Super Sampling set to 4, 32px height), DX9 Sprite to render. The font is standard Windows Arial.

32pt font != 32px font, the generated font has line height of 32px.

Thanks for the information. My font stuff was operating by points, so I'll have to see if I can calculate a pixel height to point height mapping.

 

[Ranger X]

Wrapped up my first iOS game and released it. Man, I LOVE the iPad platform. I really hope the game does well for the simple fact that I just wanna make iPad games forever.

Here it is- https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cook-serve-delicious!/id582153229?mt=8

Good luck buddy

 

[Ihateyouchris]

As long as you're throwing in at least one "no glasses" option I'd like to see 2 and 4 without glasses.

Although I'm pretty sure I want to keep the glasses, here's a comparison with and without:

I prefer 6 and 8.
6 because it's like the original one but with better glasses. I like how colorful is the character and its generic in a good way. It does fit the colorfulness of the game and that's more important than what people can say about your hero itself imo.
8 is another good one, generic in a good way, fits the game.


As for the other characters, will there be any friendly NPCs in your game? It could be nice to see them. I would like to have a talk with 5 "the vacation dude". 7 "the slow guy". 2 "The Corporate President" would be a nice boss. Throwing money at you as a weapon. lol

I don't think I'm going to have friendly NPCs, but I am considering having unlockable player characters, and possibly a character creator. It's funny that you mention "The Corporate President", because one of my ideas is for "The Lizard President" which would be the suit with a raptors head. Because you know... Lizard People.

Ah yeah, good point. That certainly works
The fun thing with #4 is it reminds me of Phil Fish who I met in Malmö earlier this year. That's not a bad thing btw, just mentioning it Even though, he doesn't have a beard and I am not sure why it does..

Wow thats funny, I can kind of see it I just did a quick google image search and in some of them he's got a beard too.

Surprisingly theres doesn't seem to be a clear preference over the characters from the feedback I've gotten here and elsewhere, except that no one seems to prefer #1, #3, or #5

 

[snoopeasystreet]

Hey GAF,

I've spent most of today programming a little platformer that feels precise and fun to play. I'm really trying to get the feel right. So to start, I'm heavily basing it on meat boy because i think that game has a level of chaotic precision that makes movement really fun.

I programmed everything myself in xna and didn't really look at any tutorials because I wanted to go in raw and just see what i could come up with. At the moment, i think it feels pretty decent but I'd love if you guys could just run around for a bit and tell me where it feels off.

Here's the link to download it

It works with 360 controllers and the keyboard.

360 controls are left stick and space to run and jump.

keyboard is A and D for left/right and space to jump.

Holding jump makes you jump higher/further.

Any feedback would be great thanks

edit - I left the trail in so you could see the jump arc.

 

[Ashodin]

Coming soon...

 

[OccamsBlender]

Wrapped up my first iOS game and released it. Man, I LOVE the iPad platform. I really hope the game does well for the simple fact that I just wanna make iPad games forever.

Here it is- https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cook-serve-delicious!/id582153229?mt=8

Congrats! I hope you increased the size of the interactive areas; I had a hard time playing with my mouse. Is it iPad only?

 

[shaowebb]

Right now I'm beginning to get far enough in my planning stages for an indie title to start testing out art styles. I currently have Construct 2 and since its cheap, and requires no major coding experience it seems perfect for me. However, I worry another sprite game is just going to be ignored right now as its getting a lot of people doing it.

I can do CG, but switching to it leaves me with longer dev times and the need to likely use engines that require real coding experience. Theres always the option of doing CG and rendering out JPEG frames of the animations and using those in a 2D game, but then it seems like there is a better way. I can do HD sprites as Im already doing similar for animating stuff for my portfolio so I could go Skullgirls with my art.

Right now how do you guys feel about these options?

-Should I go sprite?
-Should I go hand animated HD frames to stand out?
-Should I render 3D into frames for my 2D engine and deal with longer dev time?
-Should I go full 3D and find a new 3D engine and learn to code greatly lengthening dev time?

The idea is to simply make a game that is feasible to finish by myself and fun enough to get some notice. Im using very cartoonish and highly stylized characters who will need to show a lot of comedy and personality to enhance the impact of my game.

Currently I'm leaning toward HD hand animated in Construct 2. What are your thoughts?

 

[MikeHaggar]

Although I'm pretty sure I want to keep the glasses, here's a comparison with and without:

I don't think I'm going to have friendly NPCs, but I am considering having unlockable player characters, and possibly a character creator. It's funny that you mention "The Corporate President", because one of my ideas is for "The Lizard President" which would be the suit with a raptors head. Because you know... Lizard People.



Wow thats funny, I can kind of see it I just did a quick google image search and in some of them he's got a beard too.

Surprisingly theres doesn't seem to be a clear preference over the characters from the feedback I've gotten here and elsewhere, except that no one seems to prefer #1, #3, or #5

just wanted to throw in my two cents and let you know that any of the guys in a suit immediately made me think of braid. i know someone else mentioned that too so... yeah. if you're cool with it that's fine. personally, with as abundant as platformers are on the indie scene i'd do everything i can to make sure my platformer didn't remind people of another one.

as a side note, i really like your pixel art. the colors are great and there's a certain "chunkiness" to it that i really dig. hopefully, i'll one day get to make a game with really, really kick-ass pixel art

 

[Tash]

Coming soon...

haha, I totally love the title.

And I agree with Mike in the characters. There are so many indie 2D platformers that you really want your character to stand out.

 

[JulianImp]

haha, I totally love the title.

And I agree with Mike in the characters. There are so many indie 2D platformers that you really want your character to stand out.

Talking about other characters, I the glass-less version somehow reminds me of Spelunky's main character. I think it's the combination of thos small pixel-y eyes and the bulbous nose. It probably isn't that problematic, though.

Nitpicking a bit, I think you should try to add a little more contrast between the nose and the rest of the face and between the beard and the shirt (dark brown on dark grey). That way they'd be easier to read when shown at 1x zoom.

 

[Ashodin]

haha, I totally love the title.

And I agree with Mike in the characters. There are so many indie 2D platformers that you really want your character to stand out.

It's one of the reasons why I went with the quite angular design of Mr. Wave. There's no mistaking what he looks like and what he is when you see him.

And thanks man, that's the first power to be added to the game.