~Screenshot Central!

[Donut]

Not yet. I've been implementing chess-like movements which now work. I am left with (maybe?) a battle system. But I'm not sure if I'll make one or if I make a game based on puzzles. If I make a battle-system, it'll be very basic I think. I'm still undecided. Then I just have to design the levels. So basically I'm left with adding content really.

This is where I lack motivation. Once I've done a really nice system that works and I'm just left with adding content, I just can't be bothered. Hence why I have about 10 prototypes like that xD

[Moosetroop11]

Well I was thinking of nethack etc where the dungeon levels are generated somewhat randomly, so every game is different. That might alleviate the game design misery somewhat?

[Donut]

I don't know really. The problems I have with random generation is that most of the games using it have a terribly bad level design, and I'd like to avoid that. I could do it semi-randomly  (create rooms by hand but the links between the rooms would be different), but that might actually be more work. I have to look into that.

[zuhane]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqk5Zf0tw3o

A good watch if you wanna take that approach

[Donut]

Interesting video, thanks. Spelunky is not good for levels per say precisely because the patterns themselves are subject to randomisation. It's a problem with most of the same type of games. I love dungeon crawlers, but god how much I hate how badly designed they are in levels.I think creating all rooms without any randomisation and only randomise the way they connect might be a good compromise, but I'm not sure it's doable with RM2k3 without using tons of teleportations.
The way they choose the path in spelunky is very interesting tho. Might use that.
And with that I end the off topic sorry xD will create a topic for the game later so we can discuss that there.

[zuhane]

It's a real toss-up between the two, to be honest. I'd say if you want to give your levels a bit of "zing", it's not just about the layout, but also
about mixing up the interactive content available.

A really simple hypothetical approach, for example, which makes little sense and has to be taken with a pinch of salt:

Imagine you have a "fun" factor in your game. Each weapon in the game adds 1 to the factor, same with enemies, props, traps, etc.
A game with 10 weapons and 1 enemy is, like, (10 * 1 = 10) fun factor. But having 5 weapons and 5 enemies is, like, (5 * 5 = 25). So it's
generally better to have a few props, enemies, weapons, etc, than have a game with hundreds of weapons and one enemy type, or millions of
traps and no redeeming gadgets to help you out. A good mixture of bouncy pads, spikes, traps, baddies, puzzles, etc, keeps each room fresh.

Also, it might seem incredibly obvious, but by increasing the size of each handmade "chunk", you therefore exhibit less randomness and can create
something with more of a levelly feel.

I use a pie chart for my game, which essentially includes Combat, Platforming, Secret, Atmosphere, Lateral Thinking, Narrative, etc, which are all different aspects of what
makes a game "fun" and what I want my game to embody. Too much of one of these quickly breaks the novelty, so I always try and litter every game area with all of these factors,
or if one area is heavy on combat, for example, have the next area be heavy on platforming or atmosphere. A strange but effective way of doing semi-random generation could be to
label each chunk with each factor with a value of 0 to 5, (0 being not present and 5 being over abundant), then as the level is generated, tally up the collective medium of the chunks
and swap a few out to help get that nice "middle ground"

[Momeka]

Made a small platformer thing in rm2k3

[Prpl_Mage]

That wizard gots swag

[Moosetroop11]

Man, I can see the temptation to doing stuff like that in rm2k3... Veeery tempting. Though it does require a good level of chipset fu I guess.

[Momeka]

That wizard gots swag

It's all the magical powers trying to escape from his head.

Man, I can see the temptation to doing stuff like that in rm2k3... Veeery tempting. Though it does require a good level of chipset fu I guess.

Yeah, it's pretty fun. Fun and frustrating.

Continued working a little bit on it and made a couple of spells. Can't be a wizard without spells.

Magic Orb

Will mainly be used to activate switches and temporally stun some enemies.

Magic Jump(?)

You jump. Like, really high.

[Zoltar]

Magic Jump(?)

You jump. Like, really high.

This weakly wizard makes Mario look bad.

[zuhane]

Love the style, man that super jump is looking spiffy, too.

[Momeka]

Thanks, guys.

I really should just get around to making a thread about the game. But meh, I'll do it once I'll figure out a name.

In the meanwhile here's a merchant and his wagon.



Probably going to change the merchant art to something more interesting later.

[Donut]

It all looks very good, can't wait to try that! I've only tried one plateformer on RM2k3 (In French, called MegaMike) and it was just so bad on so many levels...

[Momeka]

Thanks, Donut. Yeah, rm2k3 really isn't the optimal tool to do a platformer in. All the ones I've tried so far has been picture based and pixel movements, don't really want to take things that far. Going with tile based movement, since it's main focus is puzzles and not action jump around shoot everything. But it got it's own flaws, right now the movement feels kinda slow and sluggish, but if I increase the movement speed one step it becomes way too fast and imprecise.
Trying to work around it with level design and not having long straight stretches of just walking or a bunch of backtracking. But we'll see how well it works out.