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Cart #37383 | 2017-02-12 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
6

Concept:

This is my first real project on the Pico-8, it is a pretty simple game (kind of a 1 input game), based off rotation mechanics, it's pretty rudimentary yet I tried (and probably failed ^^'') to have a clean code, it has 31 one screen levels and uses the full tilemap space availiable on the cartridge, the code contains multiple functions, categorized under "level status", "drawing functions", "motion functions", "collision functions", and "game loop" (_init, _update and _draw). Even though the difficulty curve is kind of a fail I consider this game to be finished.

Commands:

Use (X) or (O) to change the rotation, and try to get to the end of the level (green square).

Rules:

-The arrows tiles will move the squid/ball if the ball is in contact with them (square collision check);
-If the lower part of the squid touches a green square, the level is won;
-If the lower part of the squid is over a pit, you lose, there are however unlimited lives.

Levels

The levels are drawn in the tilemap area, however the player and ball initial positions, as well as the rotation speed and the attraction speed of the arrows and the level title are defined in the initiatelevels function (level 0 is the informations of the titlescreen and does not count as a real level), there are 31 levels, I'll introduce the first seven ones (I may edit this post if someone wants me to do a description of the other levels):

1.go to the green area: this level is quite simple, even though the ball rotates quite fast, pretty straightforward.
2.purple tiles affect the ball: this level introduces the arrows tile, the attract value is high enough to show the power they can have.
3.the tentacles are what count: in this one, which is pretty easy, the title gives you the info that it is not the full sprite of Squiddy that interacts with the holes and the green area, but the tentacles/lower part.
4.keep focus: pretty easy level, nothing much to say.
5.spooky scary skull: the first "not so easy" level, it is also a reference to "scary spooky skeletons".
6.is it a s or a 5, who knows?: another easy level, that shows that you can be helped by the arrows too.
7.do not move: an automatic level, because why not ^^.

As you will see, there are some references to other games thrown in there, and sometimes just random things I thought of.

Why this game as a first game?

Because I liked this mechanic when I first did it but could never actually do it in a full game, I thought "why not do it in pico?"

Can I borrow the graphics, sound effects, mechanics, and other things?

Of course you can, even though the licence implies that you must not use this game for commercial purpose and that you need to credit me, I accept gladly that you can utilise it for those purposes without credits if you do enough changes for it to not be the same exact game (I should say don't just reskin it for exemple, but in the end just don't be a idiot and I will be fine).

Have fun playing/modifying the source ^-^.

Licensing precision:

Squiddy’s cartridge itself at the time of posting of pico-8 is under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

However, this was meant to be applied to the actual cartridge itself so nobody would simply wrap it up and sell it directly, the squiddy game concept (known as an unreleased work named under Rolly, made also by myself) ( http://rolly.netlify.com/ ) had no license attached to it, same goes for the squiddy character, I consider that anyone can use the squiddy character and game mechanics for their purpose as long as it’s not basically reselling the pico-8 cartridge itself, also the squiddy character belongs to me but may be used by others.

Sorry for the unclearness of the licensing, it is also tricky for me to understand those things clearly to be honest as I am not a lawyer, if you need more informations you can contact me, tbh if I wasn’t worried people would be able to take the cartridge itself, wrap it up and resell it one way or another, it would be as public domain as it could be.

P#37386 2017-02-12 12:20 ( Edited 2018-08-22 16:41)

i like this concept! it's novel and i can't think of much i'd want to add or take away from it. there could be more terrain types but the arrows by themselves are surprisingly versatile.

"4.keep focus: pretty easy level, nothing much to say."
says you, i've failed it 10+ times XD

oh actually there was one thing, i keep misguessing where i'm supposed to hit the goal. there were times when my eye said i mostly overlapped it but i went past it and died :[

P#37425 2017-02-13 14:29 ( Edited 2017-02-13 19:29)

Glad you enjoyed it ^^, in fact in the first idea I had of the game I planned to have more things (like obstacles that would kill if the ball touched them) but if I did I would never have finished it. And yes the tentacles are what counts to touch the goal, not the eye, I guess that point isn't that clear, if I ever do another version I'll try to make it clearer.

More terrain types? I guess I could have done it, I had still quite a lot of room for tiles.

Thanks for the feedback.

P#37427 2017-02-13 17:03 ( Edited 2017-02-13 22:03)

re: more terrain types, i was thinking that, for many games, one of the ways they ramp up is by introducing more types of elements. you could increase the game's ability to ramp up by adding more types, but actually, having completed the game, i felt the difficulty ramp was pretty good.

P#37428 2017-02-13 17:18 ( Edited 2017-02-13 22:18)

Great game, I beat it and really enjoyed it.
That last level was brutal, but still fun. :)

P#37433 2017-02-13 20:31 ( Edited 2017-02-14 01:31)

Thanks for the kind words you two ^^.

Yeah the level 30 is quite unforgiving, I wouldn't say it is the one I have the most trouble with though, but I am happy that you had a fun time in the end.

to be honest the basic mechanic was imagined in 2013 in another engine, I just implemented it in the pico-8, what gave me trouble was the level design, simple games are actually quite hard to balance right.

P#37445 2017-02-14 04:16 ( Edited 2017-02-14 09:16)

This is really fun. Simple, but challenging. Nice work!

P#40698 2017-05-17 11:31 ( Edited 2017-05-17 15:31)

Good rotation, a bit speedy. Reminds me of LUCLE.

https://youtu.be/YtFudFycucY

P#55507 2018-08-22 12:41 ( Edited 2018-08-22 16:41)

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