Game sketch - Running Free

[davidn]

After a huge lull, I seem to be entering a new era of enthusiasm and productivity! It'll probably last another day or two. But at least I got another Flash sketch out of it:


Running Free - a mini gravity-switching platform/puzzle game

Almost uniquely among my experiments, this one actually has a title, so hopes are high for it actually becoming something. The idea is that gravity is the only thing you have any control over at all - use the arrow keys to switch its direction and guide the stick figure into collecting the red stars (to be rewarded with nothing happening just now). He'll turn when he hits a wall, but after a gravity change, he'll always continue in the same direction he was going - play about with it for a bit, you'll get the hang of it.

This could turn into a game limited by your number of lives, to collect stars within a time limit, complete levels with a limited number of shifts available - or a variety of all three of those and more. Already I find it quite satisfying to just zoom around, which feels like a good sign.

You can drive yourself mad working out where the sound effects are from if you choose to. (I've just downloaded a new sound package.)

Comments

[dr-dos.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of VVVVVV. Also that gravity is really slow!

Lastly I would suggest just making space toggle gravity unless you were going to do something more out there like 4 dimensional gravity.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Either I arrived late or he already did! (Assuming you meant to say four-directional?)

[davidn]

Four-dimensional gravity - being sucked into time! I was sort of afraid of the VVVVVV comparison for the gravity-switching (I think I might have to change the spikes too, which are visually identical to it) - though this one does indeed allow you to change gravity in all four directions, and what I'm aiming to do is make it more than a puzzle than a platformer, getting the player where you want him to go with nothing except changing the gravity.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

If you want to make it seem more distinct, you could always have the entire level spin around the player instead, like a snap-into-place version of On The Ball (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHS00nAgdk4#t=0m13s)..

[davidn]

You know, I actually considered that (though it's a bit of a mathematical challenge the way I've set it up just now)... though actually looking at it done there, well, I've never had any sort of 3D-sickness from any game before but I'm not sure that I could cope with that!

[davidn]

I've got it on the iPhone now! By fixing the game in portrait mode but still getting the orientation of the device, you can always make gravity act towards the physical bottom of the screen. It's quite fun to play around with, though I think the 0.5-1 second reaction time for changing orientations would make it just a little too unwieldy to build a game out of it...

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Oooh... I hadn't even thought of that!

Do you have an iPhone 4? They actually have a gyroscope to help with the problem of distinguishing gravity from momentum, i.e. it should be faster if you use the right method... though, I haven't tried it myself, so I can't say for sure...

Heck, even just imagining changing the gravity by flick sounds fun! Like flicking waves into a pool of water or something...

[davidn]

Ah, you're right... using the accelerometer values gives an absolutely instant response. And they weren't even all that difficult to use, either - X and Y go from -1 to +1 depending on the orientation... in fact, it's a little too quick, as you now can't turn directly from top to bottom or left to right without it picking up as a 90 degree turn first. Some experimentation might be needed :)

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Wait, using the accelerometer? The accelerometer is the one that's imprecise, the gyroscope is the more accurate one... then again, for something as simple as tilt without momentum, I guess it would be good enough... I guess the orientation settings have a deliberate timeout to prevent the 'flicking' you're experiencing happening to the entire screen ;) But hey,that just means it'll even work for shmoes like me who don't have iPhone 4s! Glad to be of help ;)

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Dude! I like :D And the particles are fun!

[davidn]

Minimalism and particles are always my first solution to disguise my lack of graphical talent :) They're a very quick way to make something look more alive and appealing... the ones in the very background that indicate the direction of gravity came last, and I hope they look as subtle to everyone else as they do to me, but they really made the level look a lot less static.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how much of a difference the things that people will almost never pick up on consciously can make. :)

The one suggestion I was tempted to make about the particles was, they should take just slightly longer to change direction, especially given how 'light' the gravity feels..

[davidn]

I always find it amazing just how much... more there is of anything at all - music or games or anything - if you stop and look at each piece individually. Normally, we just take in the entire thing as a whole, only actively noticing the most obvious features, but it takes much longer to isolate each part mentally and follow it as a separate component.

One thing that I can recall is my brother talking about "the bubbles" in Final Fantasy 8, and my having no idea what he meant - but if you pay attention during the fights, you'll see that the characters leave a trail of bubbles behind them as they run across the ground when taking their turn. It sounds ridiculous as I write it out, but I promise they're there!

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

"I always find it amazing just how much... more there is of anything at all - music or games or anything - if you stop and look at each piece individually. Normally, we just take in the entire thing as a whole, only actively noticing the most obvious features, but it takes much longer to isolate each part mentally and follow it as a separate component."

I know exactly what you mean... though I'm always so afraid that people won't believe me when I try and talk about it! It's such a crucial thing in everything that touches human lives, but it's always so ineffable (and seemingly inconsequential) until you learn distinguish between the things that have it and the things that don't.... I guess I'm speaking of "polish" in general, but the presence of seemingly inconsequential details that bring "texture" to an experience if they're done right is surely one of the most common examples of that quality.

I feel like there's a lot more to say about this, but I'm tired and I can't think of what and I already feel like this reply is getting self-indulgent, so, anyway ;)

"One thing that I can recall is my brother talking about "the bubbles" in Final Fantasy 8, and my having no idea what he meant - but if you pay attention during the fights, you'll see that the characters leave a trail of bubbles behind them as they run across the ground when taking their turn. It sounds ridiculous as I write it out, but I promise they're there!"

I know the ones you mean! I had a similar experience; FF8 was the first time I put my finger on the fact that additive blending is what makes their effects (especially their particles) look so good... until then, it had just been a mushy soup of "man that's cool", but once I figured out that that's what I was seeing, I started being able to tease it apart into its component pieces....

It's funny, because the moment you do that with something, you burst the bubble of magical 'wow' around it, and at first it always seems like such a shame to deprive yourself of that sense of wonder... but then, the joy of truly appreciating, consciously, how much effort and artistry went into it, it's...... different, but at least as wonderful, in its distinct way. (And, in my experience, I've usually been able to will myself back into the 'wow' zone if I decide I would rather go back to appreciating it on those terms...)

[crassadon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is a lot of fun. I like it.

It reminds me a lot of VVVVVV. Oh, it's different??!??!

[davidn]

Hopefully different :) I'm going to try to make it more distinct, with four directions and a different sort of aim (working out how to get places, rather than getting past platform-level obstacles).

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

The sound package sounds distinctly... Japanese. I would almost think Trauma Center but every sword-slash in Japanese anime sounds like that noise.

It took me a few moments to realize that I didn't have to drop the little guy just perfectly to get him to collect the one star right beside the spikes in the middle of the stage, but rather, use the right-hand gravity side.

I like puzzles like this, because aside from appreciating feeling smart in solving it, I have to give props to those who created the puzzles in the first place :)

[davidn]

You're very close to being correct! The ZIP I downloaded was a collection of sound effects from Phoenix Wright. The meaty "bish" hurt sound effect is one I'm noticing everywhere now as well, even though I'm not sure what it actually sounds like - when it appeared in Trauma Center, it took me a while to realize that the place that I recognized the sound from was Soul Blade, where it appeared as the standard "hit" noise.

I'm glad that an element of this took you a moment to work out! Designing puzzle games is a difficult task, because you have no concept of difficulty at all - once you've laid out a level, you already know exactly how to solve it. Though in this case, judging the reflexes to make a turn is a part of the difficulty too.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Is it wrong that I amused myself with that more by seeing how many times in a row I could go straight from the respawn door into the spikes right above it without landing safely (current record: 13) than by actually collecting the stars?