Homebrew Jewel Warehouse: New Puzzle/Platform WIP

[EgoTrip]

Heres a new puzzle/platform game WIP, the follow up to Subtera Puzlo. The idea is to collect all the jewels on each screen then head to the exit. This WIP version contains 15 levels.

There are various obstacles such as spikes, fires, acid drops, and puzzles to be solved such as pushing crates to make a path, and conveyor belts.

Controls: Press A to shoot water once you have the water drop. Press B to toggle the switch when in contact with it. Press Y to retry a level from the beginning. Press R if you get stuck and want to progress, or in the unlikely event a level is bust.

Version 0.5 contains various fixes and 35 levels. See my latest post for more info.

Version 0.55 uploaded.

Version 0.6 uploaded.

 

[Another World]

there are some neat ideas incorporated into this. i like the speed of the game, like how the blocks move so quickly. but at times it causes you to make mistakes that force you to eventually move 1 d-pad click at a time. this really hurts the flow of the game. it feels like we have to play to the faults of the engine to get the most out of the experience.

definitely consider adding a pause button, save/load features. have you given any thought to a level editor? i think that might really make this homebrew shine.

on level 3 i noticed that you can walk in mid-air. this is actually how i beat level 3 by dropping from the top right ledge and pressing left before the 3rd block. is this normal or a bug?

on level 5 i pushed a block on the second set the wrong way which blocked me from moving on. so i climbed the ladder and walked in mid-air to get past the spike that should have killed me.

i tested up until level 9 and everything was working great. i got stuck on 9, i can't figure out how to get the last gem just under the exit portal.

-another world

 

[locolol]

This game looks fun , will try it right now

 

[EgoTrip]

Thanks for the replies.

Yes you can walk/float in mid-air by holding the direction (I forgot to add this in the blurb but it is mentioned on the title screen in game). This is the only way to finish some levels.

These levels are mainly just placeholders to test the game. Some of them I am happy with and will stay, others will be changed or omitted from the final release. Thanks for the feedback on them, this helps me with the design. Level 9 is bust sorry. I will fix that with the next release, in the meantime hit R to progress past it.

The Pause function is definitely in the to-do list, as is level selection and progress saving. As for the speed thing, its a trade off really between speed and control. If I change it to 1 px movement then it will be easier to control but a lot slower. I'm not entirely sure how to rectify it otherwise. Level editor is way down the bottom of the priority list, I just want to get the game finished first.

 

[Boy12]

It's alway's good to see that there is still interest in the good old DS

 

[ferret7463]

it kinda reminds me a little of bomber man. It's a fun game... but at times the character seems to move a little fast. A definite down load in my book.

 

[Another World]

As for the speed thing, its a trade off really between speed and control. If I change it to 1 px movement then it will be easier to control but a lot slower. I'm not entirely sure how to rectify it otherwise.

the problem i was having was that i would hold left/right for a split-second to long and end up going where i didn't want to. this was the major factor that caused me to reset the test levels. it got frustrating sometimes when i knew exactly what i needed/wanted to do but would have to start over from the beginning because i ended up trapping myself due to the controls. it isn't a reason not to play the demo, you just need to adapt to the controls. but it may get your more complaints down the line.

anyways, keep it up. its really fun and i'm looking forward to the next release.

-another world

 

[ipwndeveloper]

Yea agreed, good to see some life in the ol DS Homebrew scene. The game is really enjoyable. Keep up the good work!

 

[Flurry]

I love to see these little homebrew games!

If you would like some help with the sprites, I could lend a hand!

 

[EgoTrip]

I love to see these little homebrew games!

If you would like some help with the sprites, I could lend a hand!

Yes please, your edit looks loads better. I'm not really that good at spriting, so any improvements on the existing graphics would be appreciated. Thanks. Do you want me to send over the sprite sheet?

I have been playing around with the speed, and theres nothing I can really do to slow it down without slowing it down to about half its current speed, it plays too slow if I insert wait for VBL's, and just as slow by moving 1 px at a time.

I have implemented a pause feature which works great, and a few other tweaks here and there. Just working on more front end stuff, which I hope to have working over the weekend. I'll also try and get some new levels done for next release along with any new mechanics I might think of.

 

[Flurry]

Yes, the sprite sheet would be nice

 

[cdoty]

I have been playing around with the speed, and theres nothing I can really do to slow it down without slowing it down to about half its current speed, it plays too slow if I insert wait for VBL's, and just as slow by moving 1 px at a time.

Here's a couple of articles on framerate independent movement:
http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/9515/frame-independent-movement
https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/67/delta-time-and-framerate-independence
http://forum.starling-framework.org/topic/smooth-movement-independent-from-frame-rate
http://lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials/lesson32/index.php

Basically, instead of moving 1 pixel per frame, you move a certain number of pixels based on elapsed time. This means changing your position from integer to floating point.

 

[EgoTrip]

Original post updated with a download to version 0.3

New features:

Tweaked graphics (thanks to Flurry)
Game Saving
Pause
New enemies
5 new levels

Any bugs/issues let me know please.

 

[Another World]

on level 13 i found that if a conveyor belt moves a block next to a block that the 2nd block simply replaces the 1st. this is not the behavior i was expecting. i expected the 2nd block to stay to the right of the 1st block. it just feels odd that the blocks have no boundaries when on a conveyor belt. if you release a level editor at some point you may want to consider altering this behavior. i can already foresee a puzzle where you line up blocks using the conveyor belt.

on level 14 i can fall through the floor when trying to get a gem. it happens every time.

level 18 is the first introduction of the guardian that moves left to right. i think that this level is a bit too challenging for their first introduction. between them and the acid that drips perfectly onto the ladder, this level can get frustrating the first few times.

when you selecting level 1 and push left, or level 20 and push right, the selection arrow makes a sound and indicates there could be more. if you are on the first or last level then the arrows shouldn't light up or do anything. that way the user knows they can not select anything further to the left/right.

-another world

 

[EgoTrip]

Thanks again for the feedback.

The crate issue is fixed. It works a treat now exactly (hopefully) how it should.
Level 14 there was an errant pixel on the collision map (dunno how that got there) but that is fixed.
I will address the level select arrow issue now.

New version with the fixes to be uploaded soon.

Bear in mind this is a WIP, the levels are really only to test mechanics and ideas, and there will be more levels in the final release. The order will change too. But the feedback is definitely appreciated.

 

[EgoTrip]

Version 0.4 uploaded to original post, nothing really major in this release except the music, just a few tidy ups and fixes.

Fixes:
Crate behaviour
Level 14 bug
Arrows only make a sound if a different level can be selected.

New features:
Turn sound effects on/off
Music, can be turned on/off independently of sfx.

Heres a video:

 

[Another World]

sometimes i feel like... who would be writing bug reports if i wasn't here. *sigh*.

i still very much enjoy ds homebrew and this little puzzle platformer is really fun. a perfect pick-up-and-play time waster. i'll put the update on my card now and play through the levels again.

how many levels are you considering having in the final game?

-another world

 

[Another World]

it would be nice if we could toggle the sound/music via the pause menu as well.

on level 6, 8, and 16, you can clear it without putting out one (or more) of the flames. any thoughts to providing bonus points for extra water shots that are still in the inventory when this unique situation happens?

have you considered pausing the game, ending the music, and killing the screens when the ds-lid is closed? i'm assuming there is some function that can do this, a ds-sleep mode function? it would be awesome if when you opened the lid again that the game automatically resumed and/or there was a way to toggle "automatic resume when ds-lid is opened" in the options.

it seems that after a power-cycle that the records are not saved.

the pulsating exit graphic is not centered. it looks like it could be moved 1 pix to the left and 1 pix down.

on level 18 you can drop on the same path as the acid and land on top of a ladder, but you are unable to climb down. i also noticed on another level that you can not climb all the way up. while this works well for some puzzles it doesn't feel natural. i expect to be able to use the ladder fully. i'm not saying that this game mechanic needs to be addressed, but adjusting it could be considered.

when a block goes over the same space as some items, like the switch, the switch is hidden behind the block. when a block goes over a gem, the gem is displayed in front of the block.

-another world

 

[EgoTrip]

Thanks again for the feedback.

I fixed it so you can go down if you land on top of a ladder. However I want it to remain how it is otherwise.

I'm not sure about bonuses, I was just going to use the time as the score. I will probably change it so instead of adding 5 it adds a specific amount of water shots, level dependent.

I will look into the other issues (save, lid, etc)

 

[EgoTrip]

Save = fixed
Lid = fixed
The issue on Level 6 (and the others) where you can exit without pushing a crate on the spikes below it has been fixed. This would mean you would need to extinguish all 5 flames. The whole point of the exit there was you needed to push the block onto the spikes to make it accessible, I guess I didn't test it fully but now it works how I want it to.

I don't know how to fix the order the objects are displayed. Its on my list though, I've been avoiding it really cos its one of those things I had issues with in another project and it kind of all went tits up. (DSGM can be very temperamental, for example, it corrupts the graphics if I try to pause the animation of all instances when paused)

I'm not sure how many levels there will be. I hope to do about 50. The level editor will unfortunately not be possible without a complete engine re-write. A lot of the graphics are just backgrounds, as I found when coding Subtera Puzlo, I used objects and kept maxing out instances in each room which kind of limited things.

If you have any level ideas then feel free to mock them up and send them over to me, you'll get full credit for anything you contribute and I use. Level sizes are 256x192 or 512x192. It can go up to 768x192 if you want to (I intend on creating levels this size) but any larger will be too large I think.

New version to come shortly.