The Daily Click

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Pixelthief Platform Demo V0.10

Author:

Pixelthief

Submitted:

23rd January, 2009

Favourites:

Genre:

Platformer

Downloads:

465

Rated:

103rd Place

(4.25 / 5)

Edited By Pixelthief on 1/23/2009

This is an Engine Playtest of my upcoming Platform game that I decided to post. It has some funky effects in it

Its my further work along my 360 degree platforming engines, and I hope to turn it into a game eventually. I am posting this for 2 reasons:

A) To get feedback
I want to hear how it runs on other peoples computers, is it 50 FPS? How are the controls? Notice any bugs?

B) To get a Graphics Artist

I'm hoping to partner up with someone eventually, someone who can draw better than me (the whole site)!

I am very much trying to catch the eye of someone who is very good at drawing, so that my very-good-at-programming-but-horrible-at-drawing can work in tandem to create some supergame. I'm very open to ideas, I haven't set anything in stone. Really I was just thinking it would be a Metroidvania genre game, and with the mechanics I've already done (the time travel/360 degrees/chain weapon).

So please do post or PM me or email me or hug me or caress me or... lost my train of thought.

360 Degree Movement/Gravity Engine!
Time Reversal Mechanic!
Multiple Background/Parallax!
Verlet Chain Whip!
Dizzy Rotation!
Level Editor!

Controls:
Arrow Keys - Move
CTRL - Attack
SHIFT - Jump
ENTER - Reverse Time? :~)

For the level editor, I won't explain much, as it can be esoteric for all I want, but just load the Main.INI file in your gamedata/levels/tutorial/ folder, and to create new backdrops/gravity zones, right click. Rest will require you to explore it a bit. Feel free to mess around. You can edit the tilesets and watch the results

Review This Download

http://claniraq.googlepages.com/PlatformerThingy.zip (1.866 mkb )

Posted by Pixelthief

23rd January, 2009

Oh yeah the graphics are obviously not meant for a real game, they're just stuff I pilfered from old projects of mine so I could test the engine. Notice what I meant about "I can't draw"?

Posted by Dr. James MD

23rd January, 2009

The download link doesn't work for me, just says "Download Attachment" with no links to do so.

Posted by Pixelthief

23rd January, 2009

Hrmm try now. Google sites is acting up and google pages is shutting down.

Posted by Sketchy

23rd January, 2009

Says it can't find viewport.mfx

Since when did .exes need extensions anyway?
I tried copying it from my MMF2 folder but it didn't help.

Posted by Pixelthief

23rd January, 2009

what the crap. I'm going to have to look into that

Posted by Chris Vermilya

23rd January, 2009

everything worked for me, and i must say i liked it a lot. the only problem is that i couldnt figure out how to use the level editor. i think there may be a problem with it

Posted by Pixelthief

23rd January, 2009

well you need to use the "Load file" and find your Main.INI file under GameData/Levels/Tutorial/Main.INI in order to use it. Then its just as simple as selecting areas with the Tiles Toolbar and pasting them into the main editor.

Hey I had the wrong version of the Viewport object in my Data folder for compiling .exe files, so it would malfunction if you didn't already have viewport on your computer. The game is supposed to rotate the view to always be 'right side up', so for the dozen people that downloaded and didn't have this, I'd suggest downloading again (I'm updating the file)
Comment edited by Pixelthief on 1/23/2009

Posted by Jon C-B

23rd January, 2009

Rated :

This has the makings of a really good game! Here's what happens when you change everything to the same picture...

I would love to see another RPG game of yours

Posted by Sketchy

23rd January, 2009

New version worked fine, apart from my pc only managing 8fps. It seems really good though, and it would be very interesting to see this turned into a full game. Good luck with finding an artist etc.

Posted by Pixelthief

23rd January, 2009

see theres a problem, the 8 FPS thing. I've gotten 50 FPS on all the computers I've tried it with. What were you running it on? :X

Posted by Sketchy

24th January, 2009

It's 700mhz + XP, so 8fps is not that surprising.

Only other thing I can think of, is it *might* be a directx thing - my graphics card only supports dx8, so if you've set it to use dx9, then maybe it switches to non-HWA if dx9 is not available? You could always try and set it to dx8, and I'll let you know if there's any improvement.

Posted by Pixelthief

24th January, 2009

Its not compiled with the HWA version, so that shouldn't be a problem. The only 'slow' thing could be the Viewports rotation, which isn't accelerated anyway. Yves hinted something about HWA frame shaders in the next version that could do the same thing, so Viewport might not always be the only way

thanks though

Posted by RedEnchilada

24th January, 2009

I could get up to 45 when the camera was straight up, and about 33-38 when it was rotated. This seems like the kind of thing that could be cool at 30 FPS.

Posted by Mr G

24th January, 2009

Rated :

I had 50fps but the camera movement is too rough/fast and makes me want to vomit

You should soften of it changes :S

Posted by Pixelthief

24th January, 2009

Thanks! good suggestion. I'll try to smooth out the camera and the way it follows the player. The whole 'It follows the player' instead of 'Its always on top of the player' thing.

I'm going to test it extensively on every computer I have access too

Posted by Peblo

25th January, 2009

Rated :

Works mostly at 50fps except during the rewind (40fps). Very nice work, getting the individual components of the engine must've been hard work!

Posted by dndfreak

25th January, 2009

Rated :

Pixelthief- let me help you fix the web link. First you gotta go to sites.google.com and transfer your account. Then someone else (just let me know) has to go there and copy their link- it's always different for the owner.

Edit: I found claniraq- heres the dl link
http://sites.google.com/site/claniraq/stuff/PlatformerThingy.zip
Comment edited by dndfreak on 1/25/2009

Posted by dndfreak

25th January, 2009

Rated :

Not bad, but may I suggest making the curves much more gradual to fix the headache-inducing camera transition? And maybe have some terrain sections rotate or float around...

Posted by lembi2001

25th January, 2009

Rated :

I got 50fps throughout until i used the rewind feature. It seemed to lose 1 fps per second it was running. after that it jumped back to 50fps

Fantastic engine btw

Posted by UrbanMonk

25th January, 2009

Rated :

Just plain awesome, the engine as a whole I could never do, Its got many concepts rolled into one great engine, I love it!

Posted by Peblo

25th January, 2009

Rated :

When I jump and land on a slope while holding shift I stop moving. More prominent if you land on an hill angled upward.

Posted by Peblo

25th January, 2009

Rated :

Also when you're on the ledge with two smiley faces, if you walk to the side without grass, it fudges up gravity.

Posted by Pixelthief

25th January, 2009

Aye thanks for the feedback everyone! It looks like we might have put together a team now for a serious project, so you'll see where this goes!.

The rewind feature *should* run a bit slowly, since it is operating in a psuedo "100 frames per second", since it is calculating each frame and only drawing every other.

@Peblo
Good observation on the movement, I'll have to solve that problem, thanks. And if you want to know why the gravity is messed up right there, open up the level in the Level Editor (load Main.INI in the tutorial folder), and click the 'gravity zones' button.

Posted by Cecilectomy

26th January, 2009

how many times are you gonna post the gravity engine?

it does have quite a few new features though i see. and its one of the most inventive although unoriginal engine made in mmf.

Posted by Skelux

26th January, 2009

Rated :

This is amazing! Its just like what i always wanted to be able to do, but i never had the skill:
http://www.create-games.com/project.asp?id=1379

Posted by Zezard

27th January, 2009

Awesome! You really are a master at clicking!
The levels become very confusing though, when there isn't any given up or down. Shouldn't be a problem if you added a minimap though.
Kowl stuff!

Posted by AndyUK

30th January, 2009

I see potential for some good level design where you run off a 45 degree ledge in order to launch yourself into the sky.
It's a wonderful engine and TGF1 too haha.

Posted by Pixelthief

30th January, 2009

O_O
The icons the only thing in TGF, the rest is MMF2

Posted by Solgryn

30th January, 2009

Rated :

Hey Pixelthief, I can draw?

Well, what do u need in your game?

Posted by AndyUK

31st January, 2009

oh you fooled me then.

Posted by Neuro

7th February, 2009

Extremely impressive o.o I hope it goes somewhere. I'd offer to help but my graphical skills aren't the best out there - you deserve some top-notch art for an engine this good. Sure would love to design the game, though

Average 28 fps, dual core 1.66ghz, 1gb ram, GeForce Go 7800... though there may be something wrong with my laptop. I've noticed some things working a lot better on the other computer I have.

Posted by Pixelthief

7th February, 2009

We've switched it over to HWA so it will run at 50 FPS on pretty much everything, as well as tons of new nifty features. The actual game itself though, we haven't figured out