Mudtato
More Progress
So I’ve got saving and loading the game done, level backgrounds/foregrounds and parallax, camera movement and zoom in the editor, a swatch menu in the editor as well as several other improvements and additions. It’s really coming along!
I’ve also invested in more claymation supplies and tools, and will begin creating assets to get an MVP first level done asap!
The story, setting(s) and main character are also finally worked out and should be fun and different, yet still fit the platformer aesthetics established by the classics.
Loving this project!
Lives, cameras and more…
The player now starts with three lives, which are depleted when falling out of bounds or hitting an enemy/hazard. As I’ve mentioned before, I like classic platformers and want to stick with most of the mechanics they used, like lives. I see what they were going for in the latest Crash game, but I still prefer to play it in classic mode.
I’ve also spent a lot of time on the camera. Like jumping, getting the camera right in a platformer is one of the most critical components.
I still need to work on easing a bit, but it feels good so far. The player is kept at about 1/3 in from the side of the screen, with it switching sides depending on which direction they’re facing. The camera will also remain stationary on the Y axis until the player enters into certain upper or lower bounds, where it will re-center on the player.
I’ve also started on a level editor, and have just implemented a title screen and pause menu.
As for the setting/story… I think I’ve changed my mind again. Fortunately I can continue to build the game without having that figured out.
The clay arrived! It seems like quality stuff (Jovi Plastilina), and I can’t wait to get started with it!
Moving & Jumping
I’ve got the basics of moving and jumping done and it feels really nice. I’ve gone with a grounded feeling as opposed to the sliding around that happens in Mario, which I can’t stand. There’s also a nice bit of time after leaving a platform where jumping is still possible, and jumping and releasing the movement direction still keeps you moving slightly in the direction you were moving. All in all it just feels right. However, it will be tweaked significantly as levels are designed.
Clay is on the way! That’s right, clay. As ambitious as going with claymation is, I think it’s such a fun and interesting style.
I’ve also got a basic storyline, theme, settings etc all worked out, but I’m still refining it.
Fun times 
but is it… fun?
So in the previous posts I mentioned that most classic platformers are kind of nonsense, and that I wanted to go in a more logical direction. Well I think I’ve had a change of heart.
I want to make a fun game. I first played Donkey Kong, Mario, Skullmonkeys, Yoshi etc when I was a kid, and I remember them for their fun characters and environments. With wanting to go down a claymation route this would also suit a more fantastic setting.
It’d also be nice if I can share it with my young kids :)
I think there’s still definitely a place (and need) for a more realistic platformer, but this one doesn’t need to be.
Story Tweak
Actually, setting-wise I’d prefer to have the crash survivors be more primitive in their architecture and technology (taking inspiration from Riven), and to have had an ongoing and increasingly hostile struggle against the native life on the planet. Perhaps it’s this native life that wiped them out, and not themselves. This would tie in nicely with them being innately hostile and unsympathetic.
Maybe they’re still somewhat sympathetic due to the “aliens” crashing on their planet and possibly hunting and killing them, but still.
What’s the story?
I don’t want to go down the path of being “realistic” when designing a platformer. The gameplay for a platformer is inherently unrealistic. However, I find it hard to design something that’s incoherent or doesn’t tie into a logical narrative.
Take Mario for example. Why on earth would plumbers be jumping around on platforms, mushrooms and turtles and collecting coins? It’s just nonsense. It worked, though.
While I don’t think narrative is really important for a platformer to be great, I want to have a consistent theme in order to design environments, enemies, sounds etc that fit together.
How do you explain every creature and object in an environment being hazardous to the player in a platformer? It’s generally something that players just accept, but I’d like it to make sense within the world I’m creating.
Here’s what I have in mind…
At some point in our future a spaceship is sent off from Earth. It ends up far, far, far from where it was supposed to be going, and from where it will ever be found or be able to return from. It crash lands onto an alien world. A handful of survivors awake from stasis and manage to establish themselves on the planet. Over many, many years the humans end up covering the planet, with their origins being lost to time. Through the usual conflicts, exploitation of the environment etc the humans eventually destroy themselves/each other and the planet once again becomes uninhabited. The native flora and fauna, however, had slowly over time been evolving to defend the planet from the issues the people left behind any future “aliens” that might visit.
After some thousands or tens of thousands of years, through some geological upheaval, the wreckage of the originally crashed ship is unearthed and our protagonist is released from stasis. The protagonist (and player) initially have no idea about any of the events that have transpired and for all they know they’ve landed on an alien world with a seemingly long extinct humanoid alien race and hostile alien life. Not to mention hazards in the way of technology that remains from some ancient wars.
The player will set out to find other survivors from the crash and a way to call for help, gradually uncovering the story over the course of the game. Maybe in the end some future post-human species can turn up, or maybe the planet is irreversibly damaged and the player is the last survivor as the world collapses around them.
I think the mechanics of a platformer can work well within this narrative, so I’ll start with it and see where it goes.
In some ways the story is reminiscent of the original Planet of the Apes, which I love, but I’ve got some different ideas for it and there will be zero apes. Ok, maybe one ape.
Oh and another great platformer I missed in my last entry was Yoshi’s Island.