Retrofit Contest – Week 4
March 6th, 2010 - filed under Input Requested, Status UpdatesThe contest is now over. See the winners here!
Working hard this week and I got a few more great submissions. I’ve done some tweaking to the tileset and there’s finally a game preview below!
Note: I’ve extended the contest to March 20th to give people more time to submit themes.
Game Preview
A level with the new tileset
New v2 – Demonstrating the faux-3D effect, tile enhancements, background, and various tiles in action
Themes
It recently occurred to me that I could swap out a few tiles and give the game a totally different look without much more work. I generate the curved & stone-wrapped tiles in code, so with only 5 tile swaps most levels can be completely rethemed:
A rough example of a castle/outdoor theme
It gives a level a whole new feel, doesn’t it?
If you want to make a theme, just redo the following 5 tiles:
background tile, ladder, brick, hard brick, stone
And optionally these 5 tiles:
steel panel, gold panel, column, vines, & fence
A few things will stay the same: gems, treasure, switches, barriers, and items.
There’s a 90×90 repeating background that will apply to the whole level. Other backgrounds are the standard 30×30 tile size and can be placed behind any other tile.
The theme could be anything: candyland, nature, castle, etc. In the editor I’ll have an option to preview different themes. This won’t be like jswitch, the theme will stay with the level. Then in the game we can group levels into missions by theme.
A candy world!
This week’s entries
Feb 27th
Some more sounds by Saga Musix
bell-life.mp3
freezer.mp3
New levels:
saga_6.zip
axem_3.zip
brienb_3.zip
robertr_2.zip
wolfgangs_1.zip
Feb 28th
New levels:
dough_1.zip
robertr_3.zip
adamd_2.zip
Mar 1st
Slow day…
Mar 2nd
Some vines from Tim K.:
Mar 3rd
A cool Flitzer from Tim K.:
New levels:
davidm_1.zip – some great ones
Mar 4th
Slow day…
Mar 5th
Some robot concepts from Eric F.:
Some new sounds from Saga Musix:
buzz2.mp3
buzz-cancel.mp3
cool.mp3
death3.mp3
death4.mp3
laser.mp3
steel.mp3
teleport5.mp3
New levels:
robertr_4.zip
The contest is now over. See the winners here!
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March 7th, 2010 at 5:06 am
I really like Tim’s flitzer, and i might try my hand at a theme. I’m not sure how to change things like the vines, though. Would they just be a completely different thing for a new theme (that is, not vines anymore)?
March 7th, 2010 at 9:01 am
The new tile set is looking great so far.
I have two main criticisms though:
* The dark bricks are far too large in my opinion, they make the scale of the image confusing, and will also look especially odd when being phased as the bricks are almost the size of jetman himself!
* The stone tile looks amazing, but has some subtle repeating artifacts (there are some ‘just’ noticeable lines where they join each other and the gradients don’t perfectly line up).
-Toodles
March 7th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
I like the new tileset in action. It looks promising. Will there be an option to choose just a different background? I’m thinking day/night scenarios where only the background tile is changed and the rest of the tileset stays the same.
I spent most of the week ill plus the magazine I was publishing in ran out of money, so I will have to change my plans for the rest of the contest period.
First, I’ll give up on reviewing every single level and just post the levels I’ve found best from those that I’ve already reviewed, and leave the rest.
Second, and this is a question to Adam, due to my inexperience with .mod music, I will have to give up on learning the tracker format and delivering my planned pieces of music within the next week since that’ll be impossible given the time frame. Would it be possible that I put together my planned music in mp3 format (keeping as close to what it would be like if it were made in a tracker), see how you like it, and if it becomes a contender for the game, rework it into .mod later or ask someone to help?
March 7th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
The tiles could be anything – I was thinking the fence would be good for crenelations on top of the castle.
Also feel free to replace any other tiles as well.
You’ll be able to use any background and any tiles, but with a strong caution not to mix themes too much.
It looks like it will be at least a month after the contest before I have anything close to release, so feel free to send it in after the contest. It won’t be eligible for any prizes, but everyone who contributes will still get a free copy of Jetpack.
March 7th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
I’ve been talking to some people who don’t like Jetpack, and there was one main concern, that the game seemed kind of meaningless. For some people the mechanics of each level aren’t enough, they want larger goal to be striving toward. This is tricky, because there’s not a lot of sense to a door opening after you get a bunch of gems, but can anyone come up with a plot device that gives a bigger meaning to getting all the gems in all the levels of a mission, or the whole game?
March 8th, 2010 at 3:31 am
The gems are part of a broken super gem that you need to escape this planet, because the super gem in your space ship broke?
No idea, I always liked Jetpack for what it is – A game without deeper meaning, but instead a whole lot of fun.
March 8th, 2010 at 6:24 am
Adam, I have started to put together an original backstory and plot variations. I will be either be sending it over to you or posting it here when I’m done.
March 8th, 2010 at 7:42 am
I agree with Jojo, Jetpack really should just remain a game without deeper meaning. The brief premise of the game is silly enough as it is, but I think people are willing to suspend disbelief in the absurdity of it and accept it as something that needn’t have a proper explanation – why does the door open when I collect the gems? Who the f**k cares!
Unfortunately for those people you talked to, it is not a game to play if you want a deep narrative experience; quite the opposite, it’s a game heavily focused on the gameplay side of things – pretty much a pure ludic experience. I would even go as far as saying that it would hamper the game if there was some kind of contrived tacked on story.
Mario makes no sense. At all.
Lemmings – Green haired rodents with blue smocks fall out of trap doors in the sky; guide them to a door.
Tetris – Colourful blocks fall from the sky which magically disappear when lined up.
etc…
March 8th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Query: Is anybody submitting art for the Xmas version? I always liked it better because there is a weight variable with Santa that makes it just a bit trickier. Also, I like the ‘Giving’ aspect more than the ‘Taking’. Just which paint programs are submitters using?
March 9th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
I added a candy world above!
There’s not going to be an Xmas version, but there was no physics difference due to the weight of Santa
March 9th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Adam, candy world looks good enough to eat!
These new tile sets change the look of the game in a very good way. Nice stuff!
March 10th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Thanks Doug! I just added a v2 screenshot showing a faux-3d look I just added, and some tile improvements. I think it looks a lot cleaner.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Wow the faux-3d tile look great as well! Now I’m itching to see how this all looks with the new graphics of Jetpack man flying around and the monsters in action. Can’t wait!
March 11th, 2010 at 1:00 am
It’s looking good there. The pillar looks good, but not when it’s only one tile high. Perhaps a different version should be used in that case.
The faux-3D looks good on the bricks and stone, but I’m not sure about the boxes or the purple block.
I hope we get some better spikes too.
March 11th, 2010 at 7:42 am
Wow, the faux-3d looks great, I do like the box but I also don’t like the purple block. The fact that it’s purple is no problem (although renaming my ‘Pink is my favourite colour’ level will lose the song reference), but the pink block was my favourite of all the tiles in the original game so I hope there comes an entry that preserves it’s original charm.
Also, the background resonates greatly with the tiles and is a superb addition, together with the faux-3d it makes the whole thing look much more professional.
March 11th, 2010 at 9:49 am
Yeah those spikes are not the greatest.
March 11th, 2010 at 10:29 am
One comment on the 3D’ness. I think it looks a lot nicer to have the “light source” coming from directly above, otherwise you have an arbitrary feeling that there’s a sun in the upper left, which may not suit all levels, and will partially ruin some symmetric levels, also light source in the upper left is a bit outdated, for example look at Windows 2000 and before, they had upper left, but XP+ and OS X now have a light source directly above. It’s not just OS’s but all kinds of graphic design in websites etc.
Though just cause other people aren’t using that style doesn’t make a very good case not to use it…
March 11th, 2010 at 10:32 am
I really like the use of brick blocks that have thin layers of stone on one or more sides, it would be really nice if it’s possible to have a single block with all sides having this thin layer applied, I would usually redesign my old levels to avoid single floating blocks simply because it would break the visual style of the level if I had to make it completely stone or gold etc.
March 11th, 2010 at 10:33 am
I think the moss and ice would look better if they didn’t have a shadows (makes them appear floating on the brick instead of covering it).
March 11th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Some thoughts:
- Maybe it’s not a good idea to have such a big border around the purple block.
- “Also, the background resonates greatly with the tiles and is a superb addition” – I hope you don’t mean that blue background with clouds, it looks like a temporary image to me, and I hope it really is one, because it looks cheap and especially combined with the tiles, it makes the level faaaaaaaar too colourful.
- faux 3d, hell yes!
- candy! <3
March 12th, 2010 at 7:27 am
Jojo, I do like the red on blue, and it’s refreshing to see a proper background picture. I think it’s nice.
March 13th, 2010 at 10:27 am
I’ll experiment with a light source from above, and I’ll add a brick surrounded in stone.
I’ll also try out the slime/ice without shadows and a thinner border on the purple block (phase door).
I’m going to try applying some artistic filters to the background to make it match the game graphics. However, the game is going to have some bright cheerful areas to appeal to more players, as well as the standard cave/industrial.
March 14th, 2010 at 3:32 am
I have my doubts about a light source from above. However, I do agree that the slime/ice shadows don’t seem right. Also, bright cheerful areas sound great. I didn’t mind the cloud graphic.
March 22nd, 2010 at 5:56 pm
You’ve left out the Pearly White&Blue Block. That was always my favorite. It was a beautiful, hard & glossy immovable thing.