I made a few things in Game Maker studio years ago, but I want to give Gdevelop a serious try, and so far I like it.
-Especially the sprite/asset library build into the game engine!
As my first game I am building a platformer where a pirate needs to get a lit bomb from the bottom of the ship through 10 levels up to deck and throw it into the sea.
controle: A, D and SPACE for jump.
The idea is for the player to get from level 1 to level 10 in one go or restart from level 1 each time they fail.
An overall completion of the game from level 1 to 10 should only take about 5 min.
The âreplayabilityâ is in the try and fail until you succed.
I have made the layout/difficulty of the three first levels.
It is not to difficult to get to end of level three but there is one thing I am thinking aboutâŠ
When the player is on the way down of an obsticle at the end of level 3, you already know if you dont have enough time left for the rest of the way to get to the end of the level. Is that irritating for the player or is that âokayâ?
That was fun, great game. Iâm not very good at time pressure games, haha, I panic and hit the wrong button.
My suggestions:
Make the timer button a bit nicer looking, maybe in a little clock box or something.
Maybe put in a level indicator? It could say level 3/10. Or even better, have a vertical progress bar with 10 sections and the sections change colour as you pass that level. I think the progress bar would be good actually, like a little elevator.
And could the end of life animation look more like an exploding bomb? I saw it plenty of times, haha, but wasnât really sure what it was.
I think I will try making the timer lock like a digital countdown timer you see on bombs in movies.
I thought of making something that measures how far the player has run in meters, but I am not sure how to do it when the player is also running backwards.
-Alternative I will do what you suggest so I at least have an indication of what level the player is at.
haha good observation. I think a problem is that there is a scene transition so your eyes needs a moment to focus on the player again before the bomb explodes.
I am a bit worried that the third level gets to unforgiving to make the game fun in the long run. If you are down to 7 seconds when you start the descent you already know yoi will not make it to the end of the level. -but it could also be the charm of the game.
I need to work on the Timer. I am not good with art but I want to make it look like a digital countdown timer you see on bombs in the movies
I just downloaded an lcd type font, put a text object into a blank project, changed the text to 13 seconds, made it red and put a black box behind it.
So you can do something simple like that without having to do any artwork.
I know that you want to make it so that the player has to start from level 1 each time they die, rather than to a saved level. With the first option, you of course, risk losing people who get frustrated that their level isnât saved, move on with their lives and close the tab.
One option would be to have a save item on one of the higher levels. But getting the save item would be a high cost of time and then you might not even finish that level and you lose the save anyway. So it would be a dilemma for players: just go for the win or risk it by getting the save item.
Also, as well as the countdown timer, you could have a time elapsed timer somewhere else on the screen. And for players that finish the game - a message saying their time and a well done line that changes depending on how fast they were. This could give some players an incentive to play again. A more complicated way to get them to want to play again would be to have a leaderboard.
Yes, hereâs the font, the reason why I didnât link to it in the first place was because there were so many variations of it. I randomly put one of them in the game folder which turned out to be an italic one.
I played again, thatâs good youâve slowed down the death scene but now that I can see the animation better I still have doubts about it, haha. It looks more like a nuclear attack than an up close and gory body explosion.
Thanks for your honesty. I will look to find a better explosion. I might have to go into the player sprite and edit it with Piskel to have him explode or turn black or something.
I have some ideas for extra goal trackers. âHow many times they dieâ, âHow long it took to complete the gameâŠâ I dont think I will make a leaderboard but I might have a text and link at the end of the game âCome share a screenshot of your stats on the Facebook pageâ
In regards to restarting. I agree that dying on level 7 and start all over again might not be fun. It would propably also be bad game design if they are 5 seconds short in level 7 becouse they spend 5 second extra in level 4.
If I make it into a mobile game I could have âWatch an ad to restart the levelâ. But that will not work very well on other platforms and I think the game should work regardless of ads.
At the moment the surplus time carries over from one level to the next. I am hoping to design the levels so a player have just about a few seconds left on the clock when finishing. But then it might be better to just give the player 23 second to complete level 3 instead of carrying time over.
Thanks all for inputs.
I added a level 4 but I then decided to start working on the last level so I know where it goes and how the game endsâŠ
The last level on top of the ship is no where near finished and is only there to have some kind of end -I also had to start making my own art for this level. That art I can reuse in the lower levels.
Before I go on making new levels I thinks I will work on start menu, game end statistics and making the excisting levels better.
@Bubble the explosion did not get better, but now there is a death animation :-p
Prévois-tu un espÚce de point de retour tous les X niveau par exemple ?