Lava Joe is a fun game to play to kill time. Its simple gameplay loop allows you to play it while putting most of your focus on something else, and that's exactly why it's my go-to game to play on the side while doing stuff such as watching YouTube and things like that. However, over time, certain things in the game started to bug me, and while it was fully understandable that the game wasn't the most polished thing in the world as it was made for a game jam, I still had a little voice in me telling me to change it to my likings. And so, recently, I did just that.
The main issue that bothered me was the fact that all enemy types give the same amount of points(50). To me, this makes no sense as the later enemies prove to be quite a pain to deal with before the lava flood gets you. As such, I have modified the system so that starting with the snake, each new enemy would give an extra 25 points for its defeat. So, the little blue guy is still 50 points, the snake is 75, etc.
Next, I added something completely unnecessary, that being a slam. Pressing the down button on the DPad will now immediately turn your vertical velocity to the minimum it can be, sending you straight down. This can be useful when you've just jumped to get an item and the lava flood is very close to you. In such a scenario you can slam and quickly get to the ground, saving you some time to jump to the next platform.
Expanding on the slam, I also added a stomp. A stomp will occur when you slam into an enemy. A stomp will immediately kill any enemy, but will give you significantly less points. Jumping within 5 frames of a succesful stomp will double the jump height, allowing you to skip a platform. This mechanic is especially useful if the lava is about to catch up to you and you need a quick boost to survive.
I've also made the camera shift slightly with the player's horizontal position to make the camera feel a bit more dynamic.
This is the version I've been using for the last week or so, and personally, the scoring fix and the added mobility have made the game a lot more fun for me. You may prefer the original, and that's fine, but I hope you still enjoy this version of the game. Cheers!
Nice game, please do update maybe make use of the up arrow key?
Yeah, but a double jump would make more sense if bound to the normal jump key.
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