Opening Note.
For some background, this cart was one of my very first experiences with pico-8 and coding. I started this shortly after @TRASEVOL_DOG 's Tiny Tv Jam. And by god I knew nothing! I had the idea in my mind, but not the skills to produce it. So taking Zep's Collision demo, I set out on my 3 and a half year journey. I can tell you one thing, coding without even knowing how the language works is a frustrating experience. I was, and still am in some ways, a total noob. But I brute forced my way through it, learning from reading through other people's carts, and literally spending days reading the Pico-8 API. I'm proud of what I've achieved, and even though I wanted to complete this before I moved on, I must know when to call it a day.
What's Complete?
Firstly, the big point, the map. I used every single tile available in pico8's map data, creating an intricate city, with varying levels, snaking streets, and lots to get lost in. This is fully complete, and free for you to use in a game if you'd like to. There is also extensive use of sprite flags. One for collision, one for stairs, one for shadows, and then the rest went into making a bridge you could walk under and over (must admit, quite proud of that) Water is animated, and there is also randomly placed items to collect throughout the map.
What didn't get done?
My grand plan for this game was a plethora of side-quests. Ranging from collectathons, to races etc. Something to incentivise exploration and give satisfaction of discovery. However my code was far too headwrecking, and having left it for so long, it was basically foreign work that was not worth the effort.
Footnote.
Many thanks for checking this out, hopefully you enjoy. And hopefully you can look forward to seeing some actual games from me in the future.
-Dook.
I'm currently working on a game where you collect items from different areas in a map. I have around 10 spots on the map where I want items to be, but I feel like only 6 or so should actually have items in them when playing as so to create some mediocre replay value. I'm currently detecting the spots using map flags, and sending that data to a function in which I'll create an entity spawner. However I dont know how I can create these exceptions in the code when generating where the items go, does anyone have any hints or ideas for solutions to this problem?
Previous Version: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=31728
What's New
-Player Moves Slower on Stairs.
-Player Sprite Darkens when in Shadows.
-Bridge that can be walked Under and Over.
-An Arrow above the player to distinguish Direction.
-Map has been fleshed out further.
What's to do
-Finish the Map
-Make Sprites for when walking upwards.
-Make actual the actual Game element, a Collectathon.
-Title Screen.
-Audio.
Overall, I've made a load of progress on this recently. Considering how little coding skill and knowledge I have, I'm amazed that this works as well as it does. (Must admit I'm fairly proud of the Bridge) The Arrow was added after the inability to distinguish direction was pointed out by someone in a previous upload I did. As for the Game element, I plan to have collectable items scattered across the map, however they will be in different places each time to make it less predictable. Current, these positions are marked by the Map Pin, however in the final version they'll be items of some kind. Once again, I'd love to hear any criticism and advice you have! Till the next update!
To Do List:
- Reverse Engineer collision system and rework into a detection system for character shadows and slower speeds on stairs.
- Overall world design.
- Objectives/Collectibles?
- Fine tuning of 'animated' water.
- Character shadows need to be separated and overlayed on top of the character sprite to prevent flipping.
-
Polishing of Character animation or control. Animation needed for facing upwards, unsure if character should run diagonally automatically.
Any other tips or opinions would be really helpful!
I'm working on a game using a large map, though it's made using about 6 sprites that make 3D buildings. I'm wondering if there's a way of using the Sprite Flags in the sprite editor to only Hitbox my 6 sprites instead of having to hitbox the entire map manually. Thanks in advance!
Le Dook.