Polyko's Super Jellybean Quest in the Sketchbook of Illusion

[rikfuzz]

Hi all,

I don't normally get to post here too much as most of my work of late's been commercial stuff (which I can't really post till it's out, ages after completion).    But I recently worked on something more fun, so I'm here to share. 

A friend of mine really loves whimsical nostalgic platform games, hosepipe animation, happy faces on inanimate objects, cute hats etc.  I really love looking through his sketchbooks, they really make me feel like a kid again.  So for his birthday I worked on a little project to bring his sketchbooks to life into a sort of faux 80s platform game. (My girlfriend even helped me make bad US box art. )

You can play the game here:  http://hotpengu.in/polyko.html

Here's the main character:



Here's some screens:



I was pretty strict to stick with a 16 colour palette on the 'ingame' parts (girlfriend did the intro illustrations and completion illustration which is NPA) just for a sort of authentic feel, and for fun!  It's pretty satisfying working with a small palette.  And of course a lot of the tiles and world pieces are based off my friend's art work.  (here's one example, but I hope you might enjoy looking through more  )

Palette was based on DB's 16 colour palette http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/64505.htm which was super useful (not sure how different if ended up, but doubt there's much departure).

If you have any crits I'm very interested to hear, even though the project's completed, or any discussion really. Seems like the smaller palettes look great with small bits, but needs some more skill to use well on larger areas (luckily I was working to a tiny resolution). 
The entire map's here, which shows almost all of the graphics (besides characters etc) without the scanlines and stuff. 

Thanks for reading!

[Ashbad]

I don't have any crits, but may I point out what I really like about what you have?

- The main sprite's animations are goofy -- they perfectly match the silly style of everything else.
- Love the color use -- nice and soft shades, with interesting neutralization hues (for example, the grass' purple neutralizer really works well)
- Also related to the color use, very tight use of only 16 colors.  At least, smart palette choices -- it could pass for having 32 colors if one wasn't looking at it in close detail (which most gamers won't, only we really will)

[AlexHW]

I enjoyed it.. The part where there was only one way to go(near the bottom towards the left) got a bit annoying, but wasn't that big of a deal..
Found all the beans without look at the map.
I want more levels!

[PypeBros]

Great art and great game engine.

If anything, I'd say that the "hero bop" when a bean is collected doesn't make much sense. Agreed, you need some sort of feedback, but this one is just odd.

I think I've easily "lost" 1 minute at the first hat trying to figure out "how do I use this" ...

[rikfuzz]

Wow thanks for the great feedback guys - some of it was niggling at my subconscious (bottom left level design, jellybean feedback etc) so it was kind of cathartic to have it confirmed! 

Many thanks for taking the time to play it!

[Zizka]

I really liked the box art, it brings back memories when I'd go and rent a game for the weekend at the video store.

This really is a great present, well done.

[Bissle]

I love the colors, the character, and the environment--very whimsical and cute. One crit would be that the "arms" on the big red blocks are uneven and it does bother me a tiny bit as the yellow ones' arms are fine, but it's a very petty concern of mine.

Loving the ubiquitous bad US cover, too! XD

As far as the game itself, it's quite fun. 17 jellybeans down, 14 to go. I'm sure your friend appreciates it a lot!

Argh, got stuck at 26! On to the map...

[Grimsane]

great stuff super whimsical, love the care free retro vibe, just played it start to finish, and was relatively fun (mostly due to exploring the creative and lovely sketch art style imbued into the level), but yeah funnelling down that one way route quite frequently was kinda annoying. and momentarily struggling with my input due to that jelly bean bounce knocked me down there on atleast one occasion 

he's lucky to have you as an esteemed friend, tis a wonderful gift

OT sidenote: found your site through his blog, nice low poly witch and all the art on show and nice heavy beat track too

[Seiseki]

Awesome!
Love the palette!

[PixelPiledriver]

Found all the beans!
They are well placed and for the most part I was able to exclude places I had been before.

2 small gameplay crits:
Can't go in the tube with a mouth!?
No run button!?

Great job!