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piCOLUMNS 1.02
by extar
Super Mumtaz Bros. 1.04
by extar
TOYROGUE 1.05
by extar
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Cart #run_run_rudolph-1 | 2022-12-19 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | No License
10

Satan has taken over Santa's house! Luckily, Rudolph (that's you) has escaped from the cage he found himself in. Rescue Santa! Rescue reindeer! Stop Satan! Collect Christmas things! Save Christmas!

I thought I'd try my hand at the proud, proud tradition of making a lazy asset swap Christmas game. Turns out this was vastly more work than I anticipated but also a lot more fun. Trying to make sense of my own code from two years ago was not fun though.

This started out life as Banana Chase, one of my first games. All the sprites needed Christmasing up, I heavily remixed the map and also jammed in some Christmas jingles. What was not fun was trying to make sense of the absolute nonsense that passed as the level sequence code, this is not a place of honour etc.

Happy Christmas :)

Version History

1.01
-Added saved best times using cartdata.
-Changed the layout on a couple of levels to open things up a bit more
-Fixed lots of weird behaviour when starting a new game
-Game logo now displays properly on the win screen.

Old versions

Cart #run_run_rudolph-0 | 2022-12-06 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | No License
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P#121955 2022-12-06 23:18 ( Edited 2022-12-19 16:31)

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Cart #thevisitor-0 | 2022-11-03 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | No License
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It has been many years since the end of the War. As you step off the small boat that carried you to this place you feel like a stranger. Is this home any more?

Uncover the secrets of the past in this short #horror adventure game for Pico8.

Enjoy! :)

Dev notes

This game was made over about three weeks for Horrorjam. We only had the idea for the jam a week into October you see. Briefly, Horrorjam is (ostensibly) ran 1st to 30th October, with the goal being to submit a vaguely horror/spooky-themed game in time for Halloween.

This is an adventure/horror game with multiple endings and (hopefully) lots of interesting things to discover and find out, I don't really want to give away any more than that for fear of spoiling things.

Making a horror game for the first time and having not played all that many horror games, this was a challenge to say the least. I've never made such a story-heavy game before, I tend to stick to arcadey games, so making something less action-packed and more slower-paced was fun/challenging too. I felt really unsure how to inject some Horror into proceedings. I didn't want to make a 'jumpscare monster chases you' game as I couldn't see that working in Pico-8, so I had to come up with a creepy story instead--intimidating!

My iceberg problem in this was thinking that once I had chat, an inventory system, and different entities (NPCs, scenery, items) that everything would just fall in place and I'd have a relaxed couple of weeks coming up with a really dense adventure game. That was absolutely not the case. Also proper y-sorting so things are displayed behind each other correctly was something I left to an hour before the deadline, so you can imagine how elegant and carefully designed that is.

I got inspiration for the fractal trees from this cart by @bjornkri: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=36014

Version history

1.02 - Lots of fixes: Several scenery quests were not working properly.
Added a page number style display to objects, npcs and scenery, so you know how many things a given object/character has to say.
Filled out the free space in the sprite sheet to improve the graphics
Made a proper death animation
A mistake in the tree code was severely affecting performance on runs with lots of large trees.
Reduced the possible amount of rain, for better performance.
Moved around several items in the swamp area to make exploration more rewarding
A few new sprites for items
Slight improvements to item description texts, shortened a couple of sentences that were too long for the text function.
Saved a whole bunch of tokens by changing entity coordinates to screen coordinates rather than map coordinates
Reduced the interaction range slightly
Made the end screen more descriptive regardless of ending.

1.01 - Lots of fixes: Increased the radius on item, scenery and NPC interaction.
You can now only go to sleep when you're tired.
A dead NPC could still hold a conversation.
Several NPC quests didn't work.
Talking to the scavenger could crash the game.
The meditation mat didn't work.
Debug messages removed.
Debug circles on the beast removed.
Messages display in different colours now to help differentiate between NPC dialogue, inner monologue and item descriptions.
Moved the Archaeologist's report to make it easier to pick up.
Entering/exiting the ruin shouldn't get you stuck in the wall now.

1.0 - Shoddy 'jam version', nothing to see here, move along :)

P#120043 2022-11-03 14:08 ( Edited 2022-11-03 14:19)

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Cart #toyboxtroopers-1 | 2022-08-28 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Take command of a regiment of 18th Century line infantry in this short action strategy game.

•Train and manage your soldiers and then march them into battle.
•Fight in ten battles against Emperor Camembert and his cronies.
•Seven different tactics to use from co-ordinated volley fire, to a fierce bayonet charge, or a cowardly tactical retreat!
•Strike a balance between training your soldiers and giving them enough rest so they are fresh for the next battle.
Extremely historically accurate retelling of the Duke of Wensleydale's Parmesan Campaign against Emperor Camembert during the War of the 8 and Two-Thirds Coalition.
•Originally made for ToyBoxJam 3 2022 2nd - 22nd February 2022

v1.1


More hats.
Overhaul of the graphics, lots of new sprites added to the training screen.
More particle effects.
New music.
Major changes to how bayonet combat works. Bayonet combat is much riskier unless you are in a significantly stronger position than the enemy.

v1.01

Fixed a crash that could happen after completing the game, the change probably fixes a bunch of other potential showstoppers too.

P#109767 2022-04-05 22:47 ( Edited 2022-08-28 21:56)

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Cart #frozenhelm-2 | 2023-01-11 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
23

Journey into the Temple

Frozen Helm is a retro Metroidvania. It was made for RNDGAME JAM II from 16/07/2021 to 01/08/2021.

Guide Tulok through the Temple of the Ancestors, fighting malevolent skeletons and exploring the icy ruins.

Harness the power of ice

Tap Z to create a blast of frost that freezes nearby enemies

Hold Z to hurl ice spears

Master your powers

Experience Story Mode to learn the secrets of the temple and blast through the game in Speedrun mode.

Version History

1.1
-more enemies
-more pickups
-tweaked level layout and enemy placement in a couple of places
-fixed crash when player is killed by skeletons
-repeatedly pressing action buttons during fadeouts no longer resets the transition
-added coyote time
-added other trendy platformer mechanics
-added player/enemy collision
-particle movement is now smoother
-added a simple death animation
-fixed missing sound and particle effects on being hit
-added two secret items
-lots of other stuff I probably forgot

1.0 - Initial (jam) version

Old (jam) version


Cart #frozenhelm-0 | 2021-08-01 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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P#95566 2021-08-01 20:39 ( Edited 2023-01-11 23:23)

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I was playing around in the sound editor again, playing with the new filters, and found a pretty cool distorted guitar sound. So naturally, the metal soon followed.
The songs in order are Judas Priest - Painkiller, Slayer - Angel of Death, Megadeth - Holy Wars... The Punishment Due, Alice In Chains - Them Bones, Entombed - Left Hand Path, Metallica - Battery
[sfx]

P#94631 2021-07-09 16:16

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Cart #exasketch-0 | 2021-05-22 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
5

Here's my Etch-A-Sketch simulator. All the basics were set up very quickly in a couple of hours at most and all of the rest of the time was spent trying to get the shake-to-clear-the-screen effect to work without being really laggy.

Controls:

Arrow keys to move the cursor
X to shake/clear the screen
Z (hold) to move one pixel at a time (for great justice detail)

There's also a few options on the pause menu (P/Enter) if you want to make your art look really janky.

Please share your horrifying art. :)

P#92354 2021-05-22 16:27

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Cart #sububermarine-2 | 2023-01-30 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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I've finished the post-jam version of my LD48 entry, Sub-Uber-Marine. Pilot a submarine taxi and deliver deep-sea divers to their destinations. Drive quickly and smoothly to earn more money!

In Sub-Uber-Marine you are a sub-aquatic taxi driver. Deep-sea divers need your help getting around the ocean!

Standard Pico-8 controls: Arrow keys for movement, X key to read messages, Z key to check money/account information

•Deliver divers to various locations in the ocean

•Repair any damage to your sub at the dock

•Follow the sonar pings so you don’t get lost

•Three different game modes: Arcade, Day Shift and Night Shift. In Arcade mode, complete as many fares as you can, each fare adds more time, like a certain taxi-based game by a very litigious company. In Day Shift, complete as many fares as you can in 8 minutes. In Night Shift, there are 20 divers scattered about the ocean, complete the fares as fast as possible.

Jam version made in Pico-8 in 48 hours for LD-48 Compo. Full version made in considerably more hours :)

I uploaded the jam version back in April.

Changelog:

v1.02
Fixed a crash presumably introduced by some change in the API in v0.2.5.

v1.01
I made some changes and increased the version number but never uploaded it and can't remember what changes or fixes were included.

V1.0: Many additions:


Here's v1.0 for Sub-Uber Marine. Lots of changes and tweaks to the game. Hopefully I can remember everything that's been added:

•Fancy camera that pans to give a better view ahead.

•Colour-coded divers. Green divers only want to go a short distance. Yellow are medium distance fares. Red are the longest.

•Lots of tweaks and adjustments to the map

•Three game modes: Arcade is the classic Crazy-Taxi-esque gameplay. Day shift gives you 8 minutes to deliver as many fares as possible. In Night Shift there are 20 fares that you need to complete as quickly as possible.

•Added a high score screen for each game mode.

•Added an info screen and a 'how to play' screen in lieu of a proper tutorial.

•The game now runs at 60fps.

•Sonar pings are much clearer than in the jam version

•Destinations have rings to show you where to drop off customers

•Kelp is now better animated.

•Parallax scrolling background added to the deep sea.

•Lots of particle work. Fancy clouds, submarine damage fragments. Bubbles were a major source of performance problems in earlier versions.

•Night shift has a fancy night palette and a starry night sky.

•Three new music tracks added. One for each game mode and the high score screen

•Options added to the Pico-8 menu to disable music, change music tracks, turn off the fancy camera, and reset high scores.

Rev 1: Fixed typo on title screen, fixed a bug that made the Evil Base location inaccessible.

Jam version: Initial version

Old versions:

Cart #sububermarine-1 | 2021-12-16 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Cart #sububermarine-0 | 2021-04-27 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Here is my Compo entry for Ludum Dare 48. The theme was 'Deeper and deeper' so naturally, here's a submarine taxi game. :D

In Sub-Uber-Marine you are the captain of a submarine taxi. Sail around the ocean looking for fares and deliver the passengers to their destinations.

In Sub-Uber-Marine you are a sub-aquatic taxi driver. Deep-sea divers need your help getting around the ocean!

Standard Pico-8 controls: Arrow keys for movement, X key to read messages, Z key to check money

-Deliver divers to various locations in the ocean!

-Repair any damage to your sub at the dock!

-Follow the sonar pings so you don’t get lost!

-Earn as much as you can in five minutes!

-Profit?

This was made for the Compo, so was made completely from scratch in 48 hours from 25/04/2021 to 26/04/2021.

Once the dust has settled on the jam I'm hoping to get a post-jam version together with a few bug fixes/tweaks and some of the extra features I didn't have time to include.

Here's a link to the Ludum Dare game page: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/sub-uber-marine

P#91209 2021-04-27 22:03 ( Edited 2023-01-30 20:58)

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How do you edit the space on your user profile underneath your name and social links? I obviously managed to change this when I first signed up to the forum, but I can't find how to edit it now.

P#89446 2021-03-24 14:42

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Cart #picolumns-9 | 2021-04-20 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Here's my demake/port/adaptation/whatever of Columns!

I wanted to make a falling-block puzzle game, but seemingly every gamedev and their dog has made Tetris so instead I went to my favourite Megadrive/Genesis puzzle game: Columns.

  • Line up three or more jewels of the same colour, chain together combos for massive points
  • Multi-gems, wildcards and obstacle blocks to spice up the game
  • Remix of the classic Megadrive/Genesis music
  • Customisable game options
  • 5 tilesets including colour-blind-friendly 'Symbols' mode

1.02

  • Made fall speed increase more smoothly
  • Music: Off actually disables all the music in the game now

Old versions/development:

Cart #picolumns-8 | 2021-04-18 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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1.01

  • Added jewel fragments (MOAR PARTICLES)
  • Added a 'current trio' display underneath 'next trio' (useful when things are getting hectic)
  • Classic level progression increases speed slightly faster
  • Added a different border sprite around the play area

Cart #picolumns-7 | 2021-04-14 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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1.0

  • Re-jigged the title screen once more
  • Added obstacle blocks option
  • More tweaks and adjustments to the menu system
  • Tidied up some bugs related to dropping/quick dropping jewels.

Cart #picolumns-6 | 2021-03-28 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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0.9 changes/additions

  • Made a proper high score system that uses cartdata (had to learn how cartdata worked, first!)
  • More adjustments to the menus
  • Added some more music for title and high score screens
  • Made a game over transition before going to the high score screen.
  • Added particles! (probably more to come, particles are fun)
  • Added screen shake! (I'm not a massive fan of screen shake, I think it's often overused, however it seems to work here)
  • Added options to disable particles or screen shake
  • Squashed a few miscellaneous bugs

Known issues

  • The game won't end if you are holding insta-drop and constantly dropping blocks
  • Some interaction with multi-blocks and holding quick/insta drop can get the game stuck in a loop

It is with disappointment, but also relief that I've kicked two player mode into 'stretch' (i.e. not likely-to-see-the-light-of-day) goals. It would be a ridiculous amount of work to include, and probably rarely ever get used. My goal to create a two-player game still seems far off.

The goal now is to iron out bugs and hopefully add some more polish (i.e. particles) before going 1.0.

I love the idea of having fragments of gems along with the current particles but it might get a bit too busy. Particles are like seasoning in cooking.

Cart #picolumns-5 | 2021-03-13 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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0.5 changes/additions

  • Overhauled the title screen menu.
  • Different game mode presets, e.g. Classic, Modern, Arcade. You can still adjust the options manually, this will change the game mode to Custom. When I finally implement a highscore screen, there'll probably need to be different tables for different modes, since some presets are harder than others.
  • Graphics swaps. Like the Game Gear version of the game, the player can choose which tileset to use. This might help make the game more colourblind-friendly.

Cart #picolumns-4 | 2021-03-01 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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0.4 changes/additions

  • Completely rewrote gem removal code to cover a couple of edge cases with wildcards, saved 400 tokens in the process :)
  • Added pause menu options for muting music or all sound
  • Added a combo display to show your biggest combo
  • Until I put in a proper menu system, removed option for shuffle/reverse on the Z key and instead let players toggle multi-gems
  • Added a basic level/speed increase mechanic, called this 'classic' mode. There isn't much difference between the levels at the moment and it can mess up the animation sometimes, so this will need more work.

Cart #picolumns-3 | 2021-02-27 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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0.3 changes/additions

  • Remixed in-game music so it cuts out less.
  • Added 'wildcard' gems
  • Add 'multi' gems
  • Made score display clearer
  • Tidied up the game screen
  • Minor tweaks to gem graphics
  • Fixed a bug with quick drop

Cart #picolumns-2 | 2021-02-24 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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0.21 changes/additions

  • Game didn't reset properly
  • Fixed collision issue when quick dropping

Cart #picolumns-1 | 2021-02-24 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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0.2 changes/additions

  • Added a simple title screen
  • Added the song 'Clotho' from the Megadrive/Genesis version of Columns.
  • Added quick drop and insta-drop when you press up.
  • Added shuffle and reverse when you press Z
  • Added a 'next trio' display
  • Attempted to get around the music cutting out randomly by making a new sfx function, this did not really work all that well.

Cart #picolumns-0 | 2021-02-17 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Here's my demake/adaptation/whatever of Columns.

I wanted to make a falling-block puzzle game, but seemingly every gamedev and their dog has made Tetris so I went to my favourite Megadrive/Genesis puzzle game: Columns.

I realised afterwards that Columns probably has much more complex rules than Tetris. Oh well. :)

There's a list of things I want to add on the game over screen. v0.1 represents about three days/sessions of work. It's basically playable at this point so I thought I'd put it on here as a WIP to hopefully keep me motivated to get it finished.

So it's playable, and being that Columns is a great game, it's already pretty fun. :)

P#87817 2021-02-17 22:12 ( Edited 2021-04-20 18:35)

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Cart #toyrogue-5 | 2021-03-20 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Welcome to TOYROGUE. Fight your way through an endless dungeon of horrors in this turn-based rogue-like.

ATTACK randomised enemies in turn-based combat

EQUIP randomised items to power-up your murder hobo

THROW bad items at the enemies to lower their stats!

EAT fortune cookies

CHOOSE to be a dragnet of death and entropy or skillfully navigate your way through the dungeon

Made in Pico-8 for ToyBoxJam2020

Known issues

The game can sometimes crash after the victory/defeat screen. (Thanks @maskedluka for spotting this!)

Version history

1.05 - Fixed a bug where an infinite combat loop could start when running away from enemies into a wall. (Thanks @Mumuko!)
1.04 - Added enemy scaling, the more game hours pass, the stronger the enemies get.
1.03 - Fixed a bug where HP wasn't being reset after game over
1.02 - Squashed lots of text display bugs
1.01 - Fixed a crash when trying to sell items when inventory is empty
1.0 - Initial release

Tips and Tricks

Stuck? This might help:


Throwing is a really powerful ability. Even if a thrown item doesn't do any damage, it can change the stats of the enemy it hits. Hang onto all those otherwise-useless items with -3 to defence etc. and hurl them at the enemy. This will be the only way you can defeat the more powerful enemies.

If you run from a fight you will start back on the map on top of the enemy, and you can move in any direction. You can do this if an enemy you can't beat is blocking a narrow corridor.

You can rest as many times as you want at the tent. Each rest takes two hours. You will have a quicker one hour rest each time you leave a level.

To start, you might need to equip a bad item so you can at least attack.

You can sell items in the inventory by pressing right.

You can re-arrange your stats when you start, try different builds.

The game is highly randomised. Some play-throughs are going to be much harder than others.

Development:


This is my second submission to the jam, as the jam was extended a whole month I had enough time to rewind after my first submission, get together some ideas and knock this one out. This game was a lot of hard work, despite having given up on a turn-based combat game before because it was too hard I still somehow managed to underestimate how hard I would find this. The game also needed a lot of UI stuff, and UI stuff is hard.

The hardest part was the (extremely limited) animation in combat. I avoided adding animation until very late, and it's clear I should have had it in mind from the start.

There were a lot more features I wanted to add but ran out of time/tokens. The one I'm most bothered about is not being able to get palette-swapped enemies into the game, increasing the randomness even more.

Old versions


Cart #toyrogue-0 | 2021-02-01 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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P#87052 2021-02-01 01:31 ( Edited 2021-03-20 16:38)

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Cart #super_mumtaz_bros-4 | 2021-02-15 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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In Super Mumtaz Bros. you join the titular plumbing brothers on their mission to rescue Princess Sana from... chickens?

•Hunt down radioactive chickens by using the Geiger counter!

•Break pipes!

•Repair pipes!

•Run around!

•Climb!

•Platform action!

•Discover secrets!

•Collect trophies!

•No jumping!*

Super Mumtaz Bros. is a highly realistic plumbing simulator that was made in Pico-8 for Toy Box Jam 2 from 18th December 2020 to 3rd January 2020.

Tips

Ali can find chickens stuck in pipes using his Geiger counter. He can then stomp on pipes to get the chickens out.

Bilal can spend money to place new pipes. You'll need to find money to pay for pipes.

The Geiger counter clicks more the closer you are to a chicken. The rings turn orange when you're really close. Stomp the pipe when you're in the right spot!

You can't jump*. So use the terrain to your advantage!

Development

I worked on this steadily over the (initial) two weeks of the jam. Sticking to daily updates on Twitter forced me to stick to developing it on time. The initial mechanics and mechanics were based on Nerdy Teachers' excellent platformer tutorial series on YouTube.

My airy fairy arty farty Peter-Molydeux-style idea/gimmick for this game was 'a platformer game where you can't jump'. Well, turns out you can (sort of) jump, but it's about as useful as jumping is in real life. Also, I thought it would be funny to make a Mario game where you actually have to do some plumbing.

Trivia

Mumtaz Brother is a real shop in the town where I grew up. The shop owners are a little eccentric; besides plumbing and D.I.Y. supplies they have at various times also sold groceries, rented out Bollywood videos, you name it. They expanded their business by opening a second plumbers merchants... next door to their original shop. If you can't find something in one shop, 'try next next door.'

Version history

1.04 Fixed another version of the character swap/wall collision bug from 1.03, added sound effects to tutorial objectives, changed the size of tutorial objective boxes and changed the size of Bilal's target box
1.03 Fixed a bug that let players move through walls by holding the character swap button
1.02 Fixed a bug when climbing, improved the tutorial
1.01 Fixed a typo, adjusted ending requirements
1.0 Initial release

P#86116 2021-01-04 00:39 ( Edited 2021-02-15 16:54)

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Cart #olatannenbaum-3 | 2020-12-15 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Hola! I thought it would be cool try making a Christmas-themed game, so here it is. Ola! Tannenbaum is a quick arcade game where you're going to need good timing, lightning reflexes, and absolutely no sense of colour-coordination to create the most chaotically decorated Christmas tree ever. Start by placing baubles, tinsel and fairy lights and top everything off with a star on top. Will you be a bauble boffin or a yuletide liability?

Ola! Tannenbaum is an accurate simulation of what it is like to decorate a tree after too many glasses of sherry and with your eyes closed.

I tried to make an in-game tutorial that explains everything reasonably well but here's what you need to do in more detail if you're planning on min-maxing this.

  • The closer you are to a target the more points you will get. Miss the target and you drop the decoration.
  • Baubles only need one target. Accurately place two in a row and you'll gain a bonus bauble that's worth double points.
  • Tinsel needs to be draped across two targets, one at a time. The longer and closer to horizontal it is, the more points you'll get.
  • Fairy lights are similar to tinsel but don't need to be placed horizontally.
  • Once all your decorations are gone or you have filled up the tree, you can place the star on top.

Top tips for a truly terrific tree:

  • If two targets are next to each other, place a bauble so one target will move somewhere else (hopefully further away so you can place a long piece of tinsel)
  • The longer you take to aim a decoration, the faster it will move, making it much harder to place accurately.
  • The star is worth the most points, don't drop it!

  • A well-placed decoration is worth double points, a well-placed bonus bauble is worth quadruple points.

Patch Notes

1.03 - Fixed a couple of bugs during the tutorial and made the start of the game much easier.
1.02 - Fixed a different crash when placing tinsel/fairy lights on the last three targets. You no longer get bonus points when you miss the second stage of tinsel/fairy lights. Also removed some debug crap I'd left visible.
1.01 - Fixed a crash when placing tinsel/fairy lights on the last three targets (Thanks @2bitchuck for spotting this!)
1.0 - Initial release

Development


I started this a couple of weeks ago but really set my mind to it on 26th November. I tried to treat it like a game jam and work towards the deadline of getting the game finished for the 1st December. I went sailing past this deadline as it's now 4th December, but still I'm counting my self-imposed deadline as a success as usually my Christmas-themed creations are getting thrown together on the 24th.

There was a lot of surprisingly tricky parts in coding this, which I wasn't expecting seeing as I envisioned the game being fairly simple (it's 5,728 tokens which is pretty small for one of my 'finished' games.) I quickly realised I didn't have the maths ability to create nice-looking curved/draped pieces of tinsel or fairy lights. This was pretty disappointing but I'm glad I didn't waste a day trying to get this in.

I was initially thinking of making a sleigh-based present bombing kind of side-scrolling shooter game. However, I saw a couple of similar projects on Twitter so thought I needed something more original. I was delighted to discover a few days into development that someone else was also making a Christmas tree-based game on Pico-8. So much for being original! Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, are there really that many different ways to make a Christmas game?

The two most fun things were composing the music and coming up with absolutely awful Christmas-based puns.

I'll probably add to this or write it up into a full blog update later.

Cheats

You can enter a famous cheat code before the title screen

P#85029 2020-12-04 01:26 ( Edited 2020-12-15 23:24)

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Cart #fabidatado-1 | 2020-11-24 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Take control of a single pixel and venture into a strange , abstract world to rescue all the pixels. Brave Pixel is an action-puzzle game where you must collect all the pixels in each zone to advance across the world. Battle the greedy red worms and unlock new powers.

Controls

X (hold) - Creep (i.e. move one pixel at a time)
Z - Special Power

Development:

I started making this in July and I brought lots of ideas for it into my game Clever Pixel, which was my submission to LOWREZJAM2020. I've always loved the idea of a game where you start off with just a single pixel however, whilst Clever Pixel was a sort of dungeon-crawler/Metroidvania, Brave Pixel is much more... erm... arcadey? I had a hard time picking a genre for this game as you can probably guess.

Seriously, any suggestions for what would be a more helpful genre tag would be greatly appreciated.

It's quite a fast-paced game, most levels can easily be cleared in a couple of minutes; the level select screen ended up working like a very simple overworld with multiple routes and a couple of unlockables--which is not something I've attempted before. Turns out I find coding menus really difficult.

The game started off as an exercise in making some good collision code and just practising that skill a bit more but pretty soon I realised I wasn't making any use of the sprite sheet so I thought, 'hey, I'll make this a 'no-sprite-sheet' game'--this in particular forced me to get more creative to try and make the graphics as appealing as possible.

When I added some music I thought I'd try and come up with something that didn't rely so heavily on percussion--so 'no drums' became another restriction I placed on myself. As things went on, more of these kinds of restrictions were imposed, and this was even before I even hit the token limit, which I spent about a week scraping up against.

Anyway, well done for making it this far, I hope you enjoy my game! :)

As usual, you can use a famous cheat code to unlock all levels.

Patch Notes

1.1 - Fixed a couple of couple of display errors on the level select screen as well as an issue with calculating complete times for some levels.

P#84494 2020-11-19 23:29 ( Edited 2020-11-24 19:38)

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Cart #jugidamaya-0 | 2020-10-04 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Here's my submission to LD47. I'll add more to this later. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

The game had absolutely no balancing prior to submission (I was ten minutes away from the deadline and had yet to implement enemy projectile collision) so if things are horribly broken, there is a boss skip:

hold up, x and z

P#82569 2020-10-04 22:12 ( Edited 2020-10-04 22:47)

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Cart #yeduwirofu-4 | 2020-11-22 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Here is my entry to LOWREZJAM 2020. There's the version I submitted onto Itch to meet the deadline yesterday, but I found a couple more bugs that really needed addressing, so here's 1.1 for your consideration.

Clever Pixel is an abstract dungeon crawler with Metroidvania elements. You start off in control of a single pixel and explore a large maze-like world battling other creatures. Collect red pixels to unlock new areas, search for the Mega Key, collect upgrades, and uncover secrets.

Controls:
Arrow keys, X - drop/shoot pixels, Z- upgrade menu.

The only requirements of the jam were for the game to run at 64x64, so I used Pico's mode 3 so everything would be rendered at the lower resolution. It was interesting working at this resolution, it gave much more space for a sprawling game world, 16x8 screens rather than the usual 8x4 on the map. I was able to recycle a little bit of code from some of my previous projects and some bits of code for what's probably going to end up as some sequel/prequel to the game with some similar mechanics, which helped move things along. Other than that, it was 16 days of pretty frantic work. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, it was a lot of fun to code :)

1.0 - The version submitted to the game jam
1.1 - Fixed some bugs. I d wish I'd wrote down which ones
1.2 - Fixed some other bugs/issues: boss/player-projectile collision, widened some areas of the game world, added a few more power-ups and collectibles to make the East side of the world map less empty/frustrating.
1.3 - Fixed a few more missing map tiles that were screwing up the camera, added a respawn option on the pause menu in case you still manage to get stuck or just want to go back to the last checkpoint for... reasons ;)

The game features a famous cheat code

P#80899 2020-08-17 23:28 ( Edited 2020-11-22 13:13)

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Cart #sekibufega-1 | 2020-08-31 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Here is the game 'Dragon's Playground' made for Tom Hall's #RNDGAME2020. I had so much fun coding this, it was good to work under the requirements of a game jam, it really tested my programming ability--working to a deadline. Anyway, great fun, Dragon's Playground is a top-down, free-roaming shoot'em-up where you control Azron, scourge of the realms. You must incinerate the realm, defeat wizards, elves and knights to assert true dominance over the kingdom.
There are still a few lingering bugs that I would like to fix, but I am happy to share this game as part of a game jam, my first. Great fun!

Controls:
X - Breathe fire
Z - Charge breath

v1.0 - Jam version
v1.1 - Added a fillp effect to make smoke less overwhelming, fixed a bug that ended game prematurely after first game was over.

P#77201 2020-05-26 00:51 ( Edited 2020-08-31 14:47)

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Cart #difamwet-4 | 2022-12-24 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Banana Chase is a fast-paced arcade maze game or 'collect'em up' where you are Monty, a very hungry monkey. Eat your way through 28 levels of fruit-based action as you uncover the mystery of the magical forest.

•Chain together combos of fruit to get the most points.
•Don't eat mushrooms!
•Two difficulties, Easy and Hard.
•Five different types of fruit to eat.
•Three different enemies, learn the tricks and tactics to circumvent them.
•28 levels, explore the magic forest and complete the wizard's quest.
•Complete the game in the fastest time.

X - Advance chat, hide UI
Z - Level skip

This started off life as a very simple demo, and my first attempt at making a Pico-8 game. I didn't like leaving it unfinished, so I've been steadily adding to it on and off over the last few months.

I really admire speedrunning, so I tried to make this game as speedrun friendly as possible.

I didn't really have any particular inspiration in mind when making the game. I teach programming in schools with Scratch and it was kind of based on one of the games I make in that. It ended up kind of Pac-Man-esque, in that you collect things and are in a kind of maze, but that's a bit of a stretch.

[0x0]

Old Versions

Version 3

Cart #difamwet-3 | 2022-12-01 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Version 2

Cart #difamwet-2 | 2020-05-19 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Version History

v3.01 - Fixed an issue with best times not being carried between games, added cartdata functionality to save best times between sessions.
v3.0 - It's four years later and I'm still fiddling around with this: Added a tutorial to explain how the hell scoring works; a sprite outline effect to make objects stand out better; particle effects because particle effects. This was all made possible by streamlining much of the code, no more tables as containers for variables. Probably some other changes I forgot about.
v2.1 - After some great feedback (thanks @jeb!) I've made some changes I was kicking myself for not thinking of.
•Added a walking animation for the monkey
•Added a third difficulty, so now there's Easy - 125pts per level, Normal - 250pts and Hard - 500pts. You can easily get through easy (pun intended) in under fifteen minutes.
•Made a bunch of minor adjustments to map layouts, there shouldn't be such a big difficulty spike in the mid-game now.
•Fruit should no longer appear directly adjacent to or on top of the monkey. Less broken streaks!

If you're a cheat, there is a famous cheat code you can enter at the title screen.

P#76571 2020-05-14 17:50 ( Edited 2022-12-24 17:29)

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Cart #dominion_ex-4 | 2021-10-05 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
115

Dominion Ex is a vertical-scrolling shoot'em up. Fight 14 different enemies with 4 weapons over 3 levels of space action. (That's 168 pieces of fun!)

It features two difficulties and a ship upgrade system to allow for different play-styles and strategies.

Tips

Some enemies are immune to certain weapons. Look out for blue forcefields!

Collect coins to pay for ship upgrades.

If things are getting too intense you can use the FTL drive to escape to the hangar and make some upgrades to your ship.

This was a lot of fun to code and a big learning experience. So let me know how you find the game!

Version history

v1.11 - Fixed an issue where game would hang in the hangar (haha.) Particles now clear properly when visiting the hangar. Added a hint for how to get to the hangar for people who don't read the description on Newgrounds.
1.1 - Added many particle effects. Overhauled and simplified title screen menu. Added more feedback and info on the HUD. Added level names. Brightened up blue enemy projectiles. Adjust orange enemy projectile spread. Added overheat sound. Added some simple tutorial text. Added a highlight effect to life and coin power-ups.
1.01 (unreleased) - Fixed a bug where high scores were not recorded properly. Fixed a music bug after fighting a boss.
1.0 - Initial version

Old versions


Cart #dominion_ex-2 | 2021-09-22 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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Cart #dominion_ex-0 | 2020-02-19 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
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P#73231 2020-02-19 16:25 ( Edited 2021-10-05 18:56)

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