Circuitron

The theme for the Weekly Game Jam this week is "Electricty".

Circuitron is a circuit making game similar to the pipe connecting games of the 80s and 90s. The goal is to light up a light bulb or bulbs from the power supply.

Simple stuff, mostly. Things are complicated by 'T' and 'X' pieces that split the power into multiple streams and latter levels contain bombs which will go off if connected to the power source.

10 levels to complete - that's probably enough, else it would just be more of the same.

Development has been mostly straight forward. The code for path tracing was the only thing of real challenge.

Link to HTML5 build on itcho.io

Cave Runner

Another week, another game jam! This time the 2-buttons jam hosted in itch.

Cave Runner is a modern take on "Roland in the Caves", a 1983 game written by a Spanish duo for the Amstrad CPC464.

As the jam name suggests, only 2 buttons are allow as the input for the whole game. In this case, Z and M jump left and right respectively.

The game feels somewhat like the original Roland game, that is, quite difficult, annoying and frustrating to play. Some perseverance will reward to player in seeing his little character jump to freedom.

Link to HTML5 build in itch.io

Ice Runner - Ludum Dare #43

This is the first successful game jam for me.

The theme was fairly good this time, which makes all the difference. I found that it’s worth spending more time at the beginning brainstorming ideas rather than just going with the first thought that comes to mind.

Defold is really ideal for this sort of project. It allowed me to focus on the game itself and get stuff working very quickly indeed. This is the first time I’ve attempted a platform type game and there were no issues to speak of apart from a bug where the player can ‘stick’ to walls. If anyone asks, it’s an unused game mechanic.

Link to HTML5 build

X-Type

X-Type (working title) is a multi-directional shoot-em-up in the style of R-Type and Super Metroid.

The level generation is fairly unique in that each level is contructed from pre-made rooms or 'blocks' each time it is played. So, the experience will be somewhat different each time through, though the overall path of the level is constant.

The graphical style is minimalist pixel art with a 4-colour palette. This is to give the game a bit of extra retro feel and also makes my job a bit easier as graphic 'artist' as well as everything else.

A working prototype is up and running with a single three-way weapon attached to the player's craft. There are also a few enemies to deal with, just as a way of testing the overall idea of the game.

Right now I'm not yet convinced this will make a good game, or one worth completing but I may fiddle with it further in the future.

Heli-Rescue - Update

A few minor additions this update!

• Choice of 3 different helicopters, each with different characteristics
• 4 completed levels to play through
• Added a shadow to the player to give the impression of height
• Mini-radar added for navigation
• A few graphical and sound additions and improvments

Plus the usual tweaks and bug fixes.

HTML5 build has been updated on the Defold Community Page.

Heli-Rescue

One week of development on Heli-Rescue has elapsed and I’m very happy with the amount of progress so far.

Most of the core game mechanics are in and working well. One tileset is nearly complete as are most of the sound effects.

I’m posting up a demo on the commity page (link below) so anyone can have a go. The aim of the game is search and rescue. A number of hostages are located throughout each island, either out in the open or within buildings. Once said buildings have been destroyed the hostage can then be picked. The rescued hostages will then need returning to base - the little red arrow around your helicopter always points back to base. You may also need to return to base during a mission to refuel and rearm. Note that your armour is only replenished between levels.

Further plans for this game include.

• New environment tileset
• Different helicopters
• Ability to choose armourments
• Enemy soliders on the ground

No plans for multi-player - sorry! It’s a bit late in the day to be trying to implement that.

Play HTML5 demo in browser

untitled helicopter game

One of my favourite budget games on the Amstrad CPC is Operation Gunship - written by The Oliver Twins and published by Codemasters in 1989.

As with most 8-bit budget games the premise is quite simple: control a heavily armed helicopter gunship and you blast your way through an army of enemies in a bid to rescue the hostages.

<untitled helicopter game> will follow the same design with the benefits of modern hardware.

After just two days of development a test level is up and running with a helicopter flying around and able to shoot rockets.

Targetting HTML5 initially though native versions and possibly Android are on the cards if the game turn out well.

Birdies and Bogeys

Had a very productive week working on 8-Bit Golf with Defold. There are now 12 playable levels - all one-screen-wonders so far; the harder set of levels will be larger and scroll around with the ball position.

No major technical hurdles apart from some tricky behavior with the ball sometimes bouncing strangely on flat surfaces of the tilemaps. To fix this, I’ve created some flat collision objects and added them manually to each level - not ideal but it works.

Next week, I’ll be working on the harder levels. Some of these will have objects that interact with the ball in different ways - wind generators, sand traps etc.

Early demo is up on the Defold community page here.

8-Bit Golf

8-Bit Golf is a side-on golf type game using Defold's built-in physics to move the ball around. The graphics are simple 8-bit style pixel art with a limited colour palette.

The aim of the game, unsurprisingly, is to chip the ball around each level and drop it in the hole. Not as easy as it sounds though as the levels are like simple mazes with obstacles (and gravity) hampering your efforts.

Lots of potential for variety with this sort of game - different types of ball charateristics, various hazards, wind etc.

All simple stuff though from a technical point of view.

Targetting Android and browser.