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This has been posted in the batari Basic forum for a few months, but I thought I'd post a copy over here to for anyone that doesn't frequent that forum. It's a platform jumping game, inspiried by Jumpman. I think I'm done with this game, I'm just looking for any further comments or suggestions for improvement. Thanks!

 

Steve

jumper99rc1.bin

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This has been posted in the batari Basic forum for a few months, but I thought I'd post a copy over here to for anyone that doesn't frequent that forum. It's a platform jumping game, inspiried by Jumpman. I think I'm done with this game, I'm just looking for any further comments or suggestions for improvement. Thanks!

 

Steve

 

inspiried notting it IS Jumpman :D

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I've been secretly playing this game when you weren't looking. :ponder: :D

 

(Hey, I have to check out the other bBASIC games coming out, don't I? ;))

 

It's tons of fun, if I may say so. My only real complaint (besides the fact that the score is only visible on the title screen; I understand why that is) is that the controls seem kind of fincky at times. For example, it seems like I always auto-jump when I'm on the platform below the treasure. I don't know if this is intentional or not, but I always end up jumping to another platform and missing the treasure. In some cases, I fall down and lose a life. :(

 

Is there any chance you could add acceleration/deceleration to the character's movement? He sort of glides around at breakneck speeds right now, making precision movements difficult.

 

Just a few thoughts. Great game! :)

 

P.S. I almost forgot. I have to mute the sound to play. They just don't fit the game, sorry. :(

Edited by jbanes
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I've been secretly playing this game when you weren't looking.

 

(Hey, I have to check out the other bBASIC games coming out, don't I?

 

It's tons of fun, if I may say so. My only real complaint (besides the fact that the score is only visible on the title screen; I understand why that is) is that the controls seem kind of fincky at times. For example, it seems like I always auto-jump when I'm on the platform below the treasure. I don't know if this is intentional or not, but I always end up jumping to another platform and missing the treasure. In some cases, I fall down and lose a life.

 

Is there any chance you could add acceleration/deceleration to the character's movement? He sort of glides around at breakneck speeds right now, making precision movements difficult.

 

Just a few thoughts. Great game!

 

P.S. I almost forgot. I have to mute the sound to play. They just don't fit the game, sorry.

 

Thanks for all the comments, I appreciate the feedback.

 

Regarding the jumping, you do have to be rather precise when you're jumping diagonally up for a treasure, but I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'auto-jumping'. I may just play the game differently, I tend to come to a complete stop and try and make a 'perfect' jump. I'll check the code and see if there's anything that changes jumping behavior when you're on the top platform.

 

I could slow down the player a little more, but there are already two speeds (set with the color/bw switch), maybe you're playing on the faster speed? The fastest speed is really fast, I probably should slow both game speeds down a notch.

 

You're the first to comment on the sound effects in the game, but I know they're not great. Making sound effects sound good is difficult, I've struggled with it. I'll revisit them again and see what I can do to make some improvements.

 

You're right, the game is rather difficult...it's hard to strike a good balance. Without cheating, I've never made it past level 5. ;) There are some game options you can select to make the game a little easier, however:

:arrow: Left Difficulty: A - Double Speed Missiles, B - Normal Speed Missiles

:arrow: Right Difficulty: A- Missles are double speed, but do not shoot at you or change direction, B - Slower Missiles that shoot and change direction.

:arrow: Color/BW Switch: Color - Normal Speed player, BW- Double speed player.

:arrow: If you put both difficulty switches on A, the missiles are quad speed and do not change direction.

 

inspiried notting it IS Jumpman

Thanks for the compliment. It may be close, but it's still not as good as the real thing. ;)

 

Steve

Edited by Atarius Maximus
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Regarding the jumping, you do have to be rather precise when you're jumping diagonally up for a treasure, but I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'auto-jumping'.

What I'm referring to is that the character will immediately jump as soon as he hits the platform. It seemed to happen even when I wasn't holding the jump button, but I now believe that maybe I wasn't quite as fast letting go as I thought I was.

 

After playing for a bit more, I think the problem is that you're testing for the jump button combined with touching a platform, with no regard to the player having just jumped. As a result, the character bounces around like he's on a pogo stick until the jump button is released. The reason why the behavior appears different for the upper platforms is that you don't allow jumping straight up while the character is on a ladder. (Which is most of the time.)

 

The "solution" (assuming that your level design doesn't already rely on this feature) is to set a flag after every successful jump, then clear it as soon as the fire button is released. If the flag is set, the fire button should be ignore. This would require that the fire button be pressed for every jump rather than allowing the player to continuously jump by holding down fire. :)

 

I could slow down the player a little more, but there are already two speeds (set with the color/bw switch), maybe you're playing on the faster speed? The fastest speed is really fast, I probably should slow both game speeds down a notch.

The speed isn't the problem. I like the fact that he moves fast. In fact, it would be problematic to make him slower, as he would be unable to outrun the missiles.

 

What I'm asking for is acceleartion. For example, try playing Super Mario Bros. and pay attention to Mario's movement. Notice how you can lightly tap the controller without falling off the edge of a cliff? Or how you can powerslide under a set of bricks by ducking? The reason why this works is that Mario doesn't run off at full speed, nor does he stop immediately. Subpixel movement was used to build up Mario's momentum over several frames, then slow him down in the same manner when the D-Pad was released.

 

Besides looking smoother and more realistic than just rocketing off at full speed (and stopping immediately!), it allowed players to nudge Mario to the very edge of platforms by tapping the D-Pad. Without that game mechanic, Mario would have simply run off those edges, making many common moves nearly impossible.

 

You're the first to comment on the sound effects in the game, but I know they're not great. Making sound effects sound good is difficult, I've struggled with it. I'll revisit them again and see what I can do to make some improvements.

On the bright side, the jumping sound would make a great horn for a semi! :D

 

Try varying the frequency with the height of the jump. That should help make the sound better match the movement.

 

One other suggestion that comes to mind. Can you have the missile nearest to the player always start on the opposite side of the screen? It's REALLY hard to avoid the missile when you're going for the treasures at the edges.

 

You're right, the game is rather difficult...it's hard to strike a good balance. Without cheating, I've never made it past level 5. ;)

Difficult is good, IMHO. It gives games character. Just make sure that someone can get farther than level 5, otherwise you may have created an impossible game. ;)

 

BTW, my current highest:

post-8100-1152722548_thumb.png

(Disclaimer: I composited two screenshots to show the proper value.)

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The "solution" (assuming that your level design doesn't already rely on this feature) is to set a flag after every successful jump, then clear it as soon as the fire button is released. If the flag is set, the fire button should be ignore. This would require that the fire button be pressed for every jump rather than allowing the player to continuously jump by holding down fire.

Yeah, the jumping problem has been plaguing me since the beginning. I’ve made many attempts to fix that problem, and my fixes always introduce other problems into the game. It seems like that would be a simple thing to correct, but it just hasn’t been. I'll look at it again, but the current issue with holding down the button may have to stay.

 

What I'm asking for is acceleration

That’s a really good suggestion, I agree. I’ve had a difficult time getting fractional math to work in the current build of bB, it causes compilation errors. Even if I could figure out how to work around that, I’m out of variables, so adding that now would require removing something else from the game.

 

Try varying the frequency with the height of the jump. That should help make the sound better match the movement.

Good Idea, that should be easy to implement. Any other suggestions on sound? Is the jumping sound the main reason you have to mute the game when you play? :)

 

One other suggestion that comes to mind. Can you have the missile nearest to the player always start on the opposite side of the screen? It's REALLY hard to avoid the missile when you're going for the treasures at the edges.

You’re right, it is pretty difficult to avoid that, it’s mostly luck. I should be able to make that change, that’s a very good idea.

 

Difficult is good, IMHO. It gives games character. Just make sure that someone can get farther than level 5, otherwise you may have created an impossible game.

I think your suggestion of making the missile always appear on the opposite side would tip the scales perfectly, I’m going to try and make that work. I don’t usually use myself as a gauge for difficulty, because I’m not very good at most games. I bet there’s someone out there that’s advanced past level 5 on this game. :)

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