Platfomer Tweaks and Collectables

I've been continuing my work on my platformer game. I'm using some basic Box2D physics and my player object, which was a rectangle shape, kept getting caught on some tiny edges where my floor pieces were connecting. They were at the same height so really there shouldn't have even been anything to get hung up on, but apparently its something that other people have been having trouble with as well. I fixed it by making my character object a hexagon instead, with a point at the bottom so that now instead of getting hung up on those little pieces, the angled surface at the bottom causes the player to just bump over it. So, that's fixed up pretty good now and the game is playing like I want it to.

I've also been adding in some coins type objects for the player to collect. They are actually like diamond/gem type things that are scattered about the sectors and some are worth more than others. The value of the gem is randomly assigned when they are spawned, with the odds of being a low value gem being much higher than the other ones.

I've also added in a threat in the way of a wave of lava that is "chasing" the player. I'm not sure if I'll stick with the lava thing (although it does tend to freak me out in video games) but right now it serves as a reason for the player to be quick about navigating the various rooms and collecting gems.

The gems are pretty easy to collect, but since there is the constant threat of a lava wall that will make grabbing them harder to deal with. There are 3 type of gems: Green, Blue, and Red, which are worth 1, 3, and 7 points respectively. So, maybe the red gem is worth going out of your way for as you leave the green ones behind.

Here is a screenshot with some crazy place holder graphics. The player sprite I'm using is the character from Androidan Summer Games, and all the platform/wall/floor types are different colors so I can tell which piece is which type of object. There is a repeating star background within the "tunnel" the player is running through, and I plan on making the blue background behind the tunnel some sort of scrolling background. The gems are actually pretty good for programmer art, but they don't stand out super well against my carnival colors backgrounds.

Platforming

I've been trying to think of things I want to add to the scrolling shooter, but with the addition of the story type slides to the beginning and end of the levels I think its almost finished up. So, in the last couple day I've started playing around with a new game concept. This time, I'm working on a platformer. I'm going for a dynamic/psuedo-random level design. To do this, I'm making different level sections, which I call "Sectors" that have the same entrance and exit space size. Then I can chain several sectors together to make levels that are different every time. The sectors will remain the same, and the player will see them multiple times, but with enough different sector types the levels should be unique every time. I need some sort of monster or enemy chasing the player through the level, but I'm not sure what to go with yet. Initially I was thinking something like lava flooding the level, and then I was thinking some sort of giant spider, but really I need to focus on some additional level things first. I only have 2 sectors that are being randomly placed right now but that seems to be working pretty well. It still needs a few tweaks but it's definitely good enough to show this game idea has potential.

Sounds and Stories

Haven't done much that is noteworthy lately, but I have been tinkering with some stuff. In my puzzle game, I've been adding sound effects and getting that all ready. I already has some in place for a while, but they weren't quite playing in the right places. Now I've gotten it all set up and working properly. I'm thinking this game is all set up correctly now. I just need some music assets and such to throw in and it should be already for release.

I've also been adding in some story elements (or preparations for them) to the scrolling shooter. When a new level is started, before the player sprite enters the screen, a dialog type window will pop up on the screen that will eventually show some sort of story graphics. The player clicks on it, it shows the next one, they click the second one and it goes away and the player sprite enters. When the player beats the boss, another box pops up with the same kind of deal only when its over the player sprite leaves the screen. Each level will have 2 intro "slides" and 2 outro slides. When strung together in the order of the levels, this will hopefully create some sort of cohesive overarching storyline. I only have a vague and general idea of the direction of this story, but I don't think it will be too hard to figure out. I don't plan on making it anything complicated with plot twists or anything. I just want it to be pretty straight forward and maybe have some dialog between the player character and the enemy characters. I'm pretty happy with how its looking.